All language subtitles for Incident at Vichy (1973)

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- A cup of coffee would be nice.

Even a cig.

Wouldn't have any idea
what's going on would you?

- I was walking down the street--

- Me too.

Something told me don't go outside today,

so I went out.

Weeks go by, I don't even open my door,

today I go out, and I had no reason,

I wasn't even going anywhere.

They get picked up the same way?

- I've only been here a
couple of minutes myself,

just before they brought you in.

- Does anybody know anything?

This isn't a police station is it?

- Doesn't seem so.

It's just some building
they're using I guess.

- It's painted like a
police station though.

It must be an international police paint.

They're always the same color everywhere.

Like dead clams and a
little yellow mixed in.

That--

begin wishing you committed
a crime, you know?

I need something definite.

- Try to take it easy.

We'll find out soon.

- Listen I haven't eaten since

three o'clock yesterday afternoon

and everything gets more
vivid when you're hungry,

you ever notice that?

- I'd give you something,

but I forgot my lunch this morning.

As a matter of fact I was
just turning back to get it

when they came up along side me.

Hey, why don't you try
to sit down and relax?

- No, no, I'm nervous, thank you.

I mean I'm nervous anyway.

I was even nervous before the war.

Sir, is that the way they picked you up?

I was talking to him.

You.

You.

Yeah, they pick you up the same?

Sir?

Well Jesus, pardon me for living.

- It's perfectly obvious,

it's a routine identity check.

Well with all the strangers
pouring into Vichy

this past year there are
probably a lot of spies

and God knows what.

Just a document check, that's all.

- What about you, do you think so?

- I don't know.

- Why, there are thousands of people

running around with false papers,

we all know that.

You just can't let that
happen at war time.

Besides, now the Germans
have started to take over.

About to be more strict.

It's inevitable.

- You don't get any special flavor, huh?

- What flavor?

- Some racial implication?

- I think you have nothing to fear

if you're papers are all right.

- Listen, you're Peruvian, aren't you?

- What's the matter with you
asking questions like that

in a place like this?

- What am I supposed to do,

just sit here like a dumb beast?

- Hey, friend, it's no
good getting hysterical.

- I think we've had it.

I think all the Peruvians
have had it in Vichy.

In 1939 I had an American Visa,

a month before the
invasion I actually had it

right in my hand.

- Calm down, this may all be routine.

- That man right there,
I think he's Jewish.

- I don't know, maybe he
is, and maybe he's not.

What about you?

Would you stop asking idiotic questions?

You're making yourself ridiculous.

- I am ridiculous, aren't you?

In 1939 we were packed for America.

Suddenly my mother wouldn't
leave the furniture.

You know why I'm here?

I'm here because of a brass bed,

some fourth rate crockery
and stubborn, ignorant woman.

- Yeah, but it's not all that simple,

you should try to think
of why things happen.

It helps to know the meaning--

- Meaning, meaning.

If my mother would have
left the furniture--

- If your mother?

The monopoly's got control of Germany.

Big businesses out to
make slaves of everyone,

that's why you're here.

- Yeah well I'm not a philosopher,

but I know my mother
and that's why I'm here.

You know what you're like?

You're like people who
look at my paintings

and they say what does this mean?

What does that mean?

Look at it, don't ask me what it means.

You're not God, you can't
tell me what anything means.

I'm walking down the street before,

a car pulls up, a man gets out of the car,

he walks up to me, he measures my nose,

my mouth my ears, and
the next thing I know,

I'm sitting in a police station.

Whatever the hell this is here.

In the middle of Europe, the
highest peak of civilization,

you know what it means?

And after the Greeks, the Romans,

and the Renaissance, do
you know what it means?

- You've got it confused.

- It's because I'm utterly confused.

Ah damn it, I want some coffee.

- Excuse me, could one use the telephone?

It's very urgent, I have an
appointment at 11 o'clock.

It's very urgent.

- Isn't it wonderful?

The man is probably on his way to work

in a German coal mine and he's worried

about breaking an appointment.

And people want realistic painting,

do you see what I mean?

Did they measure your nose,
could you at least tell me that?

- No, they just stopped me
and asked me for my papers,

I showed them and they,
and they took me in.

- I agree with you, sir.

Vichy must be full of counterfeit papers.

I think as soon as they get started,

it shouldn't take long,
try to settle down.

- Did they measure your nose?

- I think it'd be best
if we all kept quiet.

- What is it, my clothes?

How the hell do you know,

I might be the greatest painter in France.

- For your sake, I hope you are.

- What a crew, I mean the animosity.

- You, with the man power shortage,

you'd think they'd economize
on their personnel.

The car that stopped me there were,

there was a driver, and there
were two French detectives

and there was German
official of some kind.

Well, they could have put a newspaper ad

and everyone would have come here

to present their documents.

This way, you waste a whole morning,

aside from the embarrasment

- I'm not embarrassed,
I'm scared to death.

You embarrassed?

- Look if you can't be
serious just leave me alone.

- Gypsy.

Why'd they pick him up?

Gypsies never have papers.

- Well in his case, it
might be some other reason.

He probably stole that pot.

- No.

On the sidewalk

with this

and make noise.

Sit down to fix, come police.

- But of course, they'll
tell you anything right?

- That's a hell of a thing to say to him.

Would you say that to a
man with pressed pants?

- Oh they don't mind, they're
proud of they're stealing,

aren't you?

I have a place in the country

and they come there every summer.

I like them personally,

especially their music.

(singing)

Oh we often listen to them
sitting around their campfires.

But they'll steal the eyes
right out of your head, right?

- [Painter] Why shouldn't he steal?

How'd you get your money?

- I happened to be in business.

- So what have you got against stealing?

- Are you trying to provoke someone?

Is that it?

- Another businessman.

- I happen to be an electrician.

But a certain amount of solidarity

wouldn't hurt right now.

- How about some solidarity
with gypsies, huh?

Just because they don't work nine to five?

- I know that one.

I made him go away about a hundred times.

He and his wife, they
stand outside the cafe

with a baby and they beg.

Not even their baby.

- So what?

At least that means they
have a little imagination.

- But they stand outside
whining at the customers

all the time through the shrubbery.

People don't like it.

- You know something, you
all remind me of my father.

Always worship the hard working Germans.

Now you hear it all over France,

we have to learn how to
work like the Germans.

Good God, don't any of
you ever read history?

Whenever a people starts to work hard,

watch out, they're going to kill somebody.

- That depends on how a
production is organized.

If it's for private profit of course.

- [Painter] What are you talking about?

What are you talking about?

When did the Russians
start getting dangerous?

When they learned how to work, right?

Look at the Germans, the
Germans for a thousand years,

a peaceful, disorganized people.

They started to work,
they're on everybody's back.

Nobody's afraid of the Africans are they?

You know why?

Because they don't work.

Read the Bible, work is a curse.

You're not supposed to worship work.

- And how do you propose
to produce anything?

- Uh-huh, uh-huh, that's the problem.

What are you laughing at?

That is the problem, yes.

To work without making work of God.

What kind of a crew is this?

- Good morning, Major.

- Good morning.

- Do you know him?

- I serve him breakfast every morning.

He's not a bad fellow, truly.

He's regular army, see,
not one of those S.S. Bums.

Got wounded somewhere, so
they stuck him back here.

He's only been here about a month or so,

but he and I though,
we've had conversations--

- Excuse me, I wonder if you'd oblige me

by allowing me to use the telephone.

You see I'm the manager
of a food supply company--

- I am not in charge of this procedure.

You will have to wait for
the Captain of Police.

- Beg your pardon.

- He's not a bad fellow, really.

He comes to the cafe at
night sometimes, too.

He plays a beautiful piano

and he's giving himself lessons
in French out of a book.

Always has a few nice words to say too.

- Does he know that you're a Peruvian?

- Don't discuss that here for God's sake.

What's the matter with you?

- Can I try to find out
what I'm in here for?

If it's a routine identity
check that's one thing,

but if they're rounding up Peruvians--

- You sit there and you wait.

- Bet you give me any
more trouble now, huh?

- Sir, I must ask the reason for this.

I'm a combat officer,
Captain in the French army.

There's no authority to
arrest me in French territory.

The occupation does not revoke French law

in southern France.

- Peacemaker.

- I think you two can handle it now.

- Oh we've got the idea professor.

There's certain
neighborhoods they head for

when they run away from Paris

or wherever it is they come from.

I can get you as many as you can handle.

- It's a question of knowing
the neighborhoods you see.

In my opinion there are
several thousand in Vichy

with false papers.

- You go ahead then.

- Jean-Pierre,
- Yes sir?

- Try to avoid taking
anybody out of a crowd.

Just cruise around the way we did before,

and pick them up one at a time.

There are all kinds of rumors,

we don't want to alarm people.

- I'll set it right.

- Now, I'm just about to order coffee.

Will you gentlemen have some?
- Yes please.

- And a croissant for the Major.

- Sir.

I believe I'm the first.

- This way.

- Thank you, I'm in a very great hurry,

you see my appointment with
the Minister of Supplies.

- Amiens.

- And what about Amiens?

- June ninth, '40,

I was in the 16th Artillery facing you.

I recognize your insignia which of course

I could hardly forget.

- Well that was a bad day for you fellas.

- And evidently for you.

- Can't complain.

- What's this all about?

- It seems they're checking
our identification papers.

- What's the procedure?

- Well they just started, that
businessman was the first.

- Did they measure your nose, sir?

- Measure my nose?

- Yeah they measured my
nose right on the street.

- Now listen, I don't
want anybody quoting me,

is that understood?

I work in the railway yards.

A 30 car freight train
pulled in yesterday.

The engineer was Polish so
I couldn't talk with him

- But one of the switchmen
says he heard people inside.

- Inside a car?

- Ye, it came from Toulouse.

I heard there's been a
quiet round up of Jews

in Toulouse the last couple of weeks.

And what's a Polish
engineer doing on a train

in southern France?

Do you understand?

- Concentration camp.

- Why,

a lot of people are volunteering

for work in Germany, that's no secret.

They're doubling the rations
for anyone who does--

- The cars are locked on
the outside and they stink.

You can smell the stench
a hundred yards away,

babies are crying inside,
you can hear them,

and women.

They don't lock volunteers in that way.

I never heard of that.

- Yeah, but I never heard of them a

applying the racial laws down here.

It's still French Territory

regardless of the occupation.

They've made a big point of that.

The gypsy bothers me.

- Gypsy, why?

- They're in the same category
of the racial laws in theory.

- Not if he really stole that pot.

- Yes, I man if he stole
the pot, listen, Gypsy.

Gypsie, yous steal that pot?

You did, didn't you, huh?

- No steal, no.

- I got nothing against stealing.

Look at me gypsie.

I'm not on of these types.

I slept that on the bridges
and parked cars everywhere,

for me all property is theft anyway

so I've got no prejudice against you.

- No steal.

- Look at me, you're a gypsie right?

So how else can you live?

- He steals everything.

- You hear?

He's probably in here
for stealing, that's all.

- Excuse me, have you all been
arrested for being Jewish?

I am terribly sorry, I had no idea.

- I said nothing about being Jewish.

As far as I know, nobody here is Jewish.

- I'm terribly sorry.

It's just that I,

I was buying a newspaper and this man

got out of a car and told me

I had to have my documents checked.

I had no idea.

- What'd they grab him for?

- [Electrician] I don't understand it,

but take my advice, if
anything like that happens

and you find yourself on that train,

there are four bolts half way up the doors

on the inside, try to take a bar,

a nail, or a screwdriver,
even a sharp stone.

You can chisel the wood out
from around those bolts,

and the doors will open.

I warn you, don't listen
to anything they tell you.

I hear they're working Jews
to death in the Polish camps.

- I happen to have a cousin,
they sent him to Auschwitz,

that's in Poland, you know.

I have several letters
from him saying he's fine.

They even taught him brick laying.

- Look friend, I'm
telling you what I heard

from people who know.

People who make it their
business to know, you understand?

- I've heard the same thing.

- This is so typical.

We're in the French zone,
nobody has said a word to us,

and we're already on a train
for a concentration camp

where we'll be dead in a year.

- If the engineer is a Pole,

- So, he's a Pole,

- What I'm saying is that if
you find yourself on that train

get out before it gets where it's going.

- I think what this man says
should be taken seriously.

- In my opinion, you're hysterical.

After all, they were picking
up Jews in Germany for years

before the war, they've
been doing in in Paris

since we came in.

Are you telling me all
those people are dead?

Is that really conceivable to you?

War is war, but you have to keep

a certain sense of proportion.

I mean, the Germans ar still people.

- I don't speak this way
because they're Germans.

- It's that they're fascists.

- Excuse me, no.

It's exactly because they're
people that I speak this way.

- Well I don't agree with that.

- Well you must have had a peculiar life

is all I can say.

I happen to have played in Germany,

I know German people.

- I studied in Germany for
five years and in Austria

and I'll tell you--

- In Austria, where?

- Psychoanalytic Institute in Vienna.

- You're a psychiatrist.

No wonder you're so pessimistic.

- Where did you live?

I'm Vienese.

- Excuse me, but perhaps it would be wiser

not to speak in detain.

- Oh I am terrible sorry, yes of course.

I was only curious if
you know Baron Kessler.

He was very interested
in the medical school.

- No I was never in that circle.

- Oh, but he is extremely democratic.

- He is my cousin you see.

- You're a nobleman?

- Yes.

- What's your name?

- Wilhelm Johann Vanberg.

- The prince.

- Yes.

Oh forgive me, have we met?

- No, naturally I've heard your name.

I believe it's one of the
oldest houses in Austria.

- Oh, that's of no importance anymore.

- Now what the hell would they want

with an Austrian prince?

I mean, you're Catholic right, prince?

- Yes.

- Is your title on your papers?

- Yes, on my passport.

- Where you are political or something.

- No, no I never had any
interest in that direction.

Of course there is this
resentment towards the nobility,

that might have something to do with it.

- The Nazis, resentment?

- Certainly.

- Really, I've never been aware of that.

- Oh, I assure you.

- And on what ground?

- You're not asking that seriously?

- Yes, don't be offended,

I'm simply ignorant to that situation.

I supposed I always assumed
that the aristocracy

is behind a reactionary regime.

- There are some, certainly,
but for the most part

they never took
responsibility in any case.

- Oh I see and by responsibility,
you mean I suppose--

- I don't know.

Whatever that means.

- Forgive me, I'm sorry.

I didn't mean to pry into your affair.

I never thought about it,
but I suppose it's obvious

that they would want to destroy

whatever power you had.

- No, no, I have no power.

And if I did it would be a day's work

for them to destroy it.

That's not the issue.

- What is it then?

Believe me, I'm not being
critical, quite the contrary.

- But these are obvious answers.

I have a certain standing, my
name is a thousand years old

and they know the danger
of someone like me

is perhaps not vulgar enough.

- And by vulgar you mean?

- Well don't you think Nazism,
whatever else it may be is

an outburst of vulgarity,
an ocean of vulgarity.

- You make it sound like they have

bad table manners, that's all.

- They certainly do, yes.

Nothing angers them more
than any sign of refinement.

It is decadent you see.

- What kind of a statement is that?

You mean you left Austria
because of their table manners?

- Table manners, yes.

And their adoration of dreadful art

and grocery clerks in uniform

telling the orchestra
what music may not play.

Vulgarity can be enough to send a man

out of his country, I think so yes.

- In other words, if they
had elegant table manners,

and good taste in art,
and the the orchestra

play whatever it liked,
they'd be all right with you.

- But how would that be possible?

The kind of people with respect for art

go about hounding Jews.

Is that possible for an artistic people?

- [Actor] I'd like to agree with you

Prince Vanberg, but I have to say

the German audience is,

I've played there, no
audience is as sensitive

to the smallest nuance of a performance.

They sit in the theater with respect

like in a church, and
nobody listens to music

like a German, don't you agree?

It's a passion with them.

- I'm afraid that is true, yes.

I don't know what to say.

- I understand perfectly,
that's perfectly all right.

Thank you very much.

I show the pass at the door?

- Yes, yes.

- What did they ask you, sir?

- Could have sworn he was a Jew.

Didn't you think so?

- You have papers don't you?

- Sure, sure, I have good papers.

- Well just insist that they're valid.

Maybe that's what he did.

- I wish you'd take a look at them though.

- Well I'm no expert.

- But I'd like your opinion though.

You seem to have a good
idea what's going on,

how do they look to you?

- Well they look good
as far as I can tell.

- Next.

You, come inside.

You can leave that.

- Fix, no steal.

- I said leave that.

- That's mine.

- That man did seem Jewish to me.

Didn't he to you, doctor?

- I have no idea.

Jews are not a race you,
they can look like anybody.

- That's true though.

My father looks like an Englishman.

Trouble is I took after my mother.

- Could you take a look at mine, sir?

- I'm no expert, kid.

Anyway don't sit there
looking at it like that.

- I think it's a question of credibility.

That businessman did carry himself

with a certain confidence.

- Are you all right, sir?

- Come inside.

Inside.

Come, come.

Well at last.

- Oh sorry, Captain, but for you

I had to make some fresh.

- Put it inside on my desk.

- Would you mind if I made a suggestion.

You seemed terribly uncertain
when you stood up just now.

- Me, uncertain?

You've got the wrong man.

- Please, I'm not criticizing.

- Well actually I'm a little nervous.

I'm facing a room full
of fascists like this.

- But that's when one must
seem especially self confident.

I'm sure it's what got that
business man out so quickly.

The important thing is
not to look like a victim

or even to feel like one.

They can be very stupid,

but they do have a sense for victims.

- Well how does one avoid
feeling like a victim

when one is a victim?

- One must create one's
own reality in this world.

I'm an actor, we do this all the time.

Certain audiences, you
see are very sadistic,

the slightest mistake and
they'll tear you apart.

You must think of yourself as valuable.

The man your papers say you are.

A forward looking, unworried,
Christian Frenchman.

Not a frightened, defensive--

- Peruvian.
- Exactly.

- The whole thing is an illusion anyway,

you might as well create your own.

- If you can act your way
out of this one, mister,

I take my hat off.

I've had experience with these types

and I warn you whatever viewpoint
you take in there with you

it had better be real or
they'll break you in half.

- Real, how?

- He makes it all sound
so personal, it isn't.

- We have to go in there personally.

- That doesn't mean we're alone.

- We are members of history.

- You mean we are symbols.

- All right, yes, symbols, yes.

Do I mean anything to them personally?

- No, but you mean something
to yourself, surely.

You can't be a symbol to yourself.

- Yes I can, and I am.

I'm a Marxist.

- But the thought of torture--

- It frightens me of course.

But they can torture the future,

and I am also of the future
and out of their hands.

- So then, in a sense, you aren't here.

You personally.

- In a sense.

Why, what's wrong with that?

- Nothing.

May be the best way to
hold on to one's self.

It's just that ordinarily
one tries to experience life.

To be in spirit while one's body is.

- But who can ever be
themself in this society?

I mean really and truly.

I put 10 hours a day for a few Franks.

I see people that never bend their backs

and they own the planet.

How can my spirit be where my body is?

I have to be an ape.

- Then where is your spirit?

- In the future.

In the day when the working
class is master of the word.

That's my confidence, and that's

what I take in there with me.

Not some borrowed personality.

- But don't you think, excuse me,

are not most of the Nazis
of the working class?

- Well naturally, but
with enough propaganda,

you don't confuse anybody.

- But then how can one have
such confidence in them?

- What do you have confidence in?

The aristocracy?

- Very little.

But in certain aristocrats yes,

and in certain common people.

- Are you telling me,
that history is a question

of certain people?

Are we sitting here because
we are certain people?

Is any of us an individual to them?

Class interest makes
history, not individuals.

- But 99 percent of the Nazis
are working class people.

- I concede.

It's possible to propagandize, but--

- What cannot be propagandized?

Isn't that the point?

A few individuals, don't you think so?

- You're an intelligent man, prince.

Now are you seriously telling me

that five, ten, a thousand, 10 thousand,

decent people of integrity
are all that stand between us

and the end of everything?

You mean, this world is
gonna hang on that thread?

- I admit, it does sound impossible.

- If thought that I

I wouldn't have the strength
to walk through that door.

I wouldn't know how to put one
foot in front of the other.

- You really think the working class--

- They will destroy fascism because

it is against their interests.

- But in the case, isn't
it even more of a mystery?

- I see no mystery.

- But they adore Hitler.

- My own cook, my gardeners,

the people who work in my forests,

my chauffer, my game
keeper, they are all Nazis.

I saw it coming over them,
their love for this creature.

I saw this adoration in my own house.

I admire your faith, all faith
is to some degree beautiful,

but when I see that yours is based

on something so untrue it's
really terribly disturbing.

(whispering)

- What can I do?

I told you 50 times to get
out of the city, didn't I?

- What?

Talk, come on, I'm next.

What did he say?

- We're to work.

- Work?

- They have furnaces.

- What furnaces.

Talk.

- You heard the detectives before.

They're getting coffee.

They burn people in furnaces.

It's back to work.

They burn you up in Poland.

- That is most fantastic
idiocy I ever heard in my life.

- But if your papers are good,

there's nothing about Jew on my papers.

- They are going to look at your face.

- You can come now.

- I'm a master electrician
on the railway, Captain.

You may have seen there.

I'm classified first priority war worker.

- Inside.

- You can check with
transport minister Ducaine.

- Are you telling me my business?

- No, but we can all use
advice from time to time.

- Inside.

- Right.

(accordion plays)

- That's Maurice, the boss's son.

They're starting to serve lunch next door.

- There's only one guard at the door.

Three men can take him.

- I'm afraid I'll only get in your way,

I have no strength in my hands.

- You actually believe that, doctor?

About the furnaces?

- I believe it's possible, yes.

But, we can do something.

- But what good are dead Jews to them?

They want free labor, it's senseless.

You can say whatever you like,

but the Germans are not illogical.

There's no conceivable advantage
for them in such a thing.

- You can be sitting here and
still speak of advantages?

Is there any rational explanation
for your sitting here?

But you are sitting here aren't you?

- But an atrocity like that

it's beyond any belief.

- That is exactly the point.

- You don't believe it, prince.

You can't tell me you
believe such a thing.

- I find it the most believable
atrocity I have heard.

- But why?

- Because it is so inconceivable vile.

That is their power, to
do the inconceivable.

It paralyzes the rest of us.

Many times I used to ask my friends,

if you love your country,
why is it necessary

to hate other countries.

To be a good German, why must you despise

everything that is not German?

Until I realize, they do these things

not because they are German,
but because they are nothing.

It is a hallmark of the age.

The less you exist, the
more important it is

to make a clear impression.

I can even see them discussing it

as a kind of truthfulness.

After all, what is self
restraint, but hypocrisy?

If you really despise
Jews, the most honest thing

is to burn them up.

And the fact that it costs money,

and uses up trains and personnel,

only guarantees the purity, the integrity,

the existence of their feelings.

They would even tell you that only a Jew

would think of the cost.

They are poets, and they are
striving for a new nobility,

the nobility of the totally vulgar.

You must not calculate
these people with some

19th century arithmetic of loss and gain,

their motives are musical.

People are merely sounds they play.

And in my opinion, win or lose this war

they have pointed the way to the future.

What one used to consider
a human being to be,

will have no room on this Earth.

I will do anything to get out.

- But they arrested you, there's
nothing Jewish about you.

- I have an accent.

I notice he reacted
when I started to speak.

It is an Austrian inflection,

he probably thinks I'm some refugee.

- Next.

You, inside.

Don't be alarmed, I want
to check your papers.

Come on.

Guard!

Take him inside the office.

- Felix, you know me.

- All right, get in here
you Jewish son of a bitch.

- Major! Major!

- Professor, wouldn't it be much simpler

if they were simply asked?

- Will any of you admit right now

that you're carrying forged
identification papers?

- In short, you are
all bonafide Frenchman.

Are there any Jews among you?

There's the problem, Major.

I'd rather go house to house

investigating everyone's biography

or we make this examination.

- And that electrician
fellow just now though,

I thought he made a quite fit.

In fact, only this morning in the hospital

while I was waiting my turn for x-ray,

another officer, a German officer,

a Captain in fact, his
bathrobe happened to fall open.

- It's entirely possible.

- It was unmistakable professor.

- Should we make it clear, Major,

the race institute does not claim

that circumcision is conclusive
proof of Jewish blood.

The race institute recognizes

that a small proportion of gentiles--

- I see no reason not to say it Professor.

- I happen to be so, myself.

- Well, I will certainly
never mistake you for a Jew.

Anymore than I would
mistake a pig for a horse.

Science is not capricious, Major.

My degree is in racial anthropology.

Anyway, we can separate the
gentiles with this examination.

- Excuse me, I'll be
back in a few minutes.

You can carry on without me.

- Major.

You have your orders.

You are in charge of this operation,

I insist that you take
your place beside me.

- I think some mistake has been made here.

I'm a line officer, I have no experience

with things of this kind.

My training is engineering and artillery.

- Let me be candid, Major, are
you refusing your assignment?

- I'm in pain today professor.

They are still removing fragments.

In fact, I understood that I
was only to hold this desk down

until an S.S. officer took over,

I'm more or less on loan you
see, from the regular army.

- The regular army is not exempt

from carrying out the racial program.

- My orders come from the top,

my report goes to the top,
you understand me, Major?

- I do, yeah.

- Well if you wish to be relieved,

I can easily telephone--

- No no, it's all right.

I'll be back in a few minutes.

- This is bizarre, Major.

How long am I supposed to wait for you?

- I need a book.

I am not used to sitting in an office.

I find nothing bizarre in it.

I am a line officer and this business

takes a little getting used to.

And what do you find
bizarre in it professor?

- [Professor] Very well.

- I'll be back in 10 minutes.

You can carry on.

- [Professor] I will not
continue without you, Major.

The army's responsibility is
quite as great as mine here.

- I won't be long.

- [Psychiatrist] Major.

- Mister, I'll try it with you.

- What about you two?

- Whatever you say, but I'm so hungry

I wouldn't do you much good.

- You could walk up to
him, start an argument.

Distract his attention.

- [Actor] You're both crazy,
they'll shoot you down.

- [Psychiatrist] Some of us might make it.

There's only one guard at the door.

This neighborhood is full of alleyways,

you could disappear in 20 yards.

- Well how long would
you be free, an hour?

And when they catch you,
they'll really tear you apart.

- Please.

I have to get out.

I was on my way to the pawn shop.

It's my mother's wedding ring.

She has no money, they have
nothing in the house to eat.

- You take my advice
boy, don't do anything.

They'll let you go home.

- Like the electrician?

- He was obviously a Communist.

And the waiter irritated the Captain.

- Look I'll try it with you, doctor.

But don't expect too much, please.

I haven't eaten since yesterday,

I'm weak as a chicken.

- Be better with another man.

The boy is very light, if
you and the boy rush him

I can get his gun away.

- I am not going to risk
my life for nothing.

That business man had a Jewish face,

you said so yourself.

- I did?

I did, maybe that's it.

Maybe if you're papers are
right, maybe that's it.

- You know yourself, the Germans have been

moving into the southern zone.

You see they're picking up Jews,

a man has just told you that
you are marked for destruction.

- They took him in, nobody's explained it.

- My accent.

- Oh my dear prince, only
an idiot could mistake you

for anything but an
Austrian of the upper class.

I took you for nobility
the minute you walked in.

- If it's a general check up,

why would they be looking at penises?

- Now there is no evidence of that?

- The waiter's walls.

- He overheard two French detectives

who couldn't possibly know anything

about what happens in Poland.

And if they do that sort of thing,

it's the end either.

I had Jew stamped in my passport in Paris

and I was playing Cyrano at the same time.

- Cyrano, really?

- Why did you leave Paris?

- It was an absolutely idiotic accident.

I was rooming with another actor,

a gentile.

He kept warning me to get out.

But naturally one doesn't
just give up a role like that,

but one night I let myself
be influenced by him.

He pointed out that I
had a number of books

on the forbidden list
of Communist literature.

I mean things like Sinclaire
Lewis, Thomas Mann,

even a few Friedrich Engles,

which everybody was reading at one time.

And I decided I might
as well get rid of some.

We made bundles.

I lived on the fifth floor of a walk up.

We took turns going down to the street,

leaving them on benches and
doorways, anywhere at all.

It was after midnight,

I was just dropping a bundle
in the gutter near the opera

when I noticed a man standing
in a doorway watching me.

At that moment I realized
I had stamped my name

and address in every one of those books.

- What did you do?

- I started walking and
kept right on down here

to the unoccupied zone.

But in my opinion, if I
had done nothing at all,

I might still be working.

- Listen to me for one moment, I beg you.

There is only guard at the door,

we may never have a
chance like this again.

- That's another thing.

If we're all that serious,

wouldn't they be guarding us more heavily?

I mean that's the point.

- That is exactly the point,
they are relying on us.

- They're not relying on us.

- Yes, to project our own reasonable ideas

into their heads.

It is reasonable that a light guard

means the thing is not important.

They rely on our own logic
to immobilize ourselves.

You have just told us how
you walked all through Paris

advertising the fact that
you own forbidden books.

- I didn't do it purposely.

- May I suggest that
you could no longer bear

the tension of remaining in Paris,

but you wanted to keep your role in Cyrano

and had to find some absolute compulsion

in order to save your own life.

It is your unconscious
mind that saved you,

do you understand?

You cannot wager your life
on a purely rational analysis

of this situation.

Listen to your feelings.

You must certainly feel the danger here.

- I played in Germany,
that audience could not

burn up actors in a furnace.

Prince, you cannot tell me
you believe such a thing.

- I supported a small orchestra.

When the Germans came into Austria,

three of the players prepared to escape.

I had convinced them no
harm would come to them.

I took them to my castle,
we all lived together.

The oboist was 20, 21.

The heart stopped when
he played certain tones.

They came for him in the garden,

they took him out of his chair,

the instrument lay on the
lawn like a dead bone.

I made certain inquiries, he's dead now.

What was worse was they came and sat down

and listened until the rehearsal was over,

and then they took him.

It was almost as if they

wished to take him at exactly the moment

when he was most beautiful.

I know how you feel, but I must tell you

that nothing anymore is forbidden.

Nothing.

I must ask you to forgive me, doctor.

- Will they let you go?

- I suppose if all this is to catch Jews,

they will let me go, yes.

- Would you take this ring and
bring it back to my mother?

Number nine Rue de Challonge.

Top floor, Hersh, Sarah Hersh.

She's got long brown
hair, be sure it's her.

She's got a beauty mark on this cheek.

There are two other
families in the apartment,

please, be sure it's her.

- You tell me what to
do, I'll try to help.

- I'm afraid it's hopeless.

- Why?

- He's weak with hunger and
the boy's light as a feather,

I want to get away, not slaughtered.

- If you're trying to bait
me, doctor, forget it.

- Would you mind telling
me, are you religious?

- Not at all.

- Then why do you feel this
desire to be sacrificed?

- I ask you to stop talking.

- But you are making a gift of yourself.

You're the only able bodied man here,

aside from me him, yet you've
no impulse to do something.

I don't understand your air of confidence.

- I refuse to play a part I do not fit.

Everyone's playing the victim these days.

Hopeless, hysterical, they
always assume the worst.

I have papers.

I will present them with the single idea

that they must be honored.

I think that's exactly what
saved that business man.

You accuse us of playing the part

the Germans created for us.

I think you're the one whose doing that

by acting so desperate.

- And despite your acting,
throw you into a freight car.

- [Actor] I don't think they will.

- But if they do, you
certainly have enough

imagination to visualize that.

- Then I will have done my best.

- How you will create yourself

and the world will believe it.

- Every actor creates himself every day.

- And when they tell you to open your fly?

How do you regard that moment?

Oh please, don't stop
now, I'm very interested.

I believe I'm going to be murdered.

What do you believe will happen

when they point to that
spot between your legs?

- I have nothing more to say to you.

- I'll tell you what I'll feel.

I wish I was him.

- To be someone else?

- Yes, to have been arrested by mistake.

God, just to see their faces
when they realize I'm innocent.

- You're guilty then?

- A little, I guess, yes.

Not for anything I've
done, but I don't know why.

- For being a Jew perhaps?

- I'm not ashamed of being a Jew.

- Then why feel guilty.

- [Painter] I don't know.

I don't know it's,

maybe it's that they keep saying

such terrible things about us.

Then you can't answer.

Then after years and years of it,

I wouldn't say you believe
it, but you do a little.

It's a funny thing,

I used to say to my mother and father

just what you're saying.

We were packed for America
a month before the invasion.

Suddenly, they wouldn't leave Paris.

She had this brass bed,

carpets, draperies, all kinds of junk.

Like him with his Cyrano.

And I used to tell them Mama, Papa,

you're doing just what
they want you to do.

But you see people won't
believe that they can be killed.

- Do you believe it?

- It seems to me you
don't believe it yourself.

- I believe it.

I haven't gone outside my room in weeks.

The danger outside was always clear to me,

but you can get so tired of
seeing things clearly, doctor.

I just had to get out
today, I had to walk around,

see something real, the
streets, some store keepers,

anything.

Anything, but the truth inside my head.

And I had hardly turned the corner

when that scientist, that
motherless son of a bitch,

he got out of his car with
his fingers going for my nose.

So I believe I can die, doctor.

It's just that you get so
tired of knowing the truth.

- So if one way or the other
we're being trained to die.

Jew and the gentile both.

- If you want to commit
suicide doctor, do it alone,

don't involve others.

The fact is there are laws

and every government enforces it's laws.

And I want it understood,

I have nothing to do with any of this.

- The government does not have laws

condemning people in front of their race.

- I beg your pardon, the Russians
condemn the middle class,

the English condemn the Indians,

the Africans, and anybody else
they can lay their hands on.

The French, the Italians,
every nation condemns someone

because of his race,
including the Americans

and what they do to the negros.

The vast majority of mankind is condemned

because of his race.

And what do you advise
all these people, suicide?

- What do you advise?

- I go on the assumption,

that if I obey the law with
dignity, I will live in peace.

Now I may not like the law,

but evidently the majority does
or they would overthrow it.

And I'm speaking now
of the French majority

who outnumber the Germans
in this town 50 to one.

These are French police,
don't forget that.

Not German, and if by some miracle

you should knock out that guard,

you would find yourself in a city

where not one person in a
thousand would help you.

And it's got nothing
to do with being Jewish

or not Jewish, it's what the world is.

So why don't you stop insulting others

with your romantic challenges.

- So in short, because
the world is indifferent,

you will wait calmly
and with great dignity

to open your fly.

- I'll tell you what I think.

I think it's people like
you that brought this on us.

People that give Jews a
reputation for subversion.

And this Talmudic analysis

and this everlasting niggling discontent.

- [Psychiatrist] Who told
you that I was wrong before.

You didn't advertise your
name on those forbidden books

in order to find a way to leave Paris

and save your life, it was in
order to get yourself caught

and put out of your misery.

Your heart is conquered territory mister.

- If we meet again,

you will pay for that remark.

- Unconquered territory.

- Will you do it?

Number nine, Rue de Challonge, please?

- I will try.

- Wait a minute, where are you going?

- To get out.

- You can't.

- But I can try.

Please.

- All right.

- That's impossible, don't try it.

There are centuries on both corners.

Captain.

Captain.

I would like to say that this is all

as inconceivable to me as it is to you.

Can you believe that?

- I'd believe it better
if you shot yourself.

And if you took a few of them with you.

- They would all be replaced
by tomorrow morning.

- Some of us might get away, though.

You could see to that.

- They'd find you very soon.

- Not me.

- Why do you deserve
to live more than I do?

- Because I'm incapable of
doing what you're doing.

So I'm better for the world than you.

- It means nothing to you that
I have feelings about this.

- Nothing whatsoever, unless
you get us out of here.

- And then what?

Then what?

- I'll love you as long as I live.

Will anyone do that now?

- That means so much to you,

that someone love you?

- Would I be worthy of someone's love?

Yes.

And respect.

- It's amazing, you don't
understand anything.

Nothing of that kind is left.

Don't you understand that yet?

- It is left in me.

- There are no persons anymore?

Don't you see that?

There will never be persons again.

So what do I care if you love me?

Are you out of your mind?

And what am I, huh?

A dog that I must be loved?

You god damn, Jews.

Like dogs, Jew dogs.

Look at him, with his paws folded,

look what happens when
I yell at him you dog.

He doesn't move does he?

Do you see him move.

I don't see him move.

But we move, don't we.

Oh yeah, we measure your
noses, don't we professor?

And we look at your cocks, and
we keep moving continually.

- Major.

- Take your hand off me
you civilian bastard.

- You're drunk.

- Not a word.

Everything stops now.

Now it is all stopped.

Now you tell me,

you tell me, now nothing is moving.

You tell me.

- What shall I tell you?

- [Major] You tell me how,

you tell me how there can be persons left.

I have you at the end of this pistol

and he has me, and somebody has him,

and somebody has somebody else.

Tell me now.

- I told you.

- I won't repeat it.

What do you think of that?

I'm a man of honor.

I won't tell him what you
advised me to do, huh.

Now listen, it's god damn
decent of me isn't it,

not to repeat your advice?

You're a combat veteran.

- Yes.

- No record of subversive activity

against the German authority.

- No.

- If you were released
and the others were kept,

would you refuse?

Would you refuse?

- No.

- And walk out that
door with a light heart?

- I don't know.

- Why are you hiding your hands, huh?

I'm trying to understand why you are

better for this world than I am

so stop hiding your hands.

Now would you go out that
door with a light heart,

run your woman and drink
a toast to your skin?

Why are you better than anybody else?

- I have no duty to make a gift of myself

to your sadism.

- And I do?

To other sadism of myself?

I have that duty and you do not?

To make a gift of myself?

- I have nothing to say.

- That's better.

Next.

- You, inside.

Come on.

- You happy now.

You got him furious.

You happy?

- Next.

- Good afternoon, captain.

- Number nine, Rue de Challonge, please.

- I will give it to her.

- I'm a minor, I'm not even
15, does it apply to mine?

- Boy.

- I'm a minor.

I'm not 15 until February.

- Inside.

- I could get my birth
certificate for you.

- Inside.

(accordion plays)

(clapping)

- He seems to be watching
it all from the stars.

I wish he had met under
other circumstances.

There are a great many things

I would like to have asked you.

- Listen, I would appreciate it

if you would do me a favor.

- Certainly.

- Will you go and tell my wife?

- Where is she?

- Take the main highway
north, two kilometers.

You'll see a small forest on the left

with a dirt road leading into it.

Go about about a kilometer
until you see the river

then follow the river to a small mill.

They're in the tool shed behind the wheel.

- [Prince] And what shall I say?

- Well just say that I was arrested

and there may be a possibility that I

no.

Tell her the truth.

- What do you mean?

- The furnaces, tell her that.

- But actually, that's
only a rumor isn't it?

- Oh I don't regard it as a rumor.

And it should be known.

I never heard about it
before, but it must be known.

But there's no need to
let the children hear it.

Take her aside, but tell her.

- It's just that that
will be very difficult--

- [Psychiatrist] I know,
but if it's happening

you can find a way to say it can't you?

- All right, I'll tell her.

They are taking longer with the boy.

Maybe he is too young, you suppose?

I mean, they would stick to the rules.

In fact, with the shortage of physicians,

you suppose that they'd.

Would you like to talk
about something else?

Are you interested perhaps in

in music?

Doctor, I can promise you,

it will not be easy for
me to walk out of here.

- I'm afraid it won't be
difficult because it is so easy.

- Now see, that's not fair.

- That doesn't matter.

- It does to me.

I was very close to suicide in Austria.

When they murdered my musicians,

well not that alone, but

when I told the story
to many of my friends

there was hardly any reaction.

That was almost worse.

Do you understand such indifference?

- Yes, I do understand such indifference.

Listen,

about the furnaces, don't
mention that to my wife.

- I'm glad you say that,
there's really no point.

- There is a point.

She had an exposed nerve in one tooth,

and I went out to get some codine.

There is definitely a point.

Just say I was arrested.

- Does she have sufficient money?

- Well you could help her that way,

if you would like, thank you.

- Well the children are small, huh?

- Two and three.

(laughing)

- Do you suppose if I
offered him something,

I can get ahold of a good deal of money.

- Why try, if we feel
the feeling out that way,

I really don't know what to tell you.

We had a perfect hide out, you see?

But they found us.

And I knew it was senseless the minute

I walked out on the road.

To risk my life for a god damn tooth ache.

- But, if one loves someone.

- Oh but we're not in love anymore.

It was just that it's
difficult to separate

at times like this.

But don't mention the furnaces.

I'd say that's a little
viciousness of mine.

- There is nothing that it?

For you there is nothing?

- Next.

You, inside.

You hear me, why do you sit there?

Inside.

You can leave that.

I said leave that.

Can't you hear me, give me that.

- Come on.

- I would like to be able to
part with your friendship.

Is that possible?

- I owe you the truth, prince.

You won't believe believe this now,

but you're a decent
man and you should take

something away from this atrocity.

Each man has his Jew, it is the other.

And the Jews have their Jews.

And, and now, now above all,

you must see that you have yours.

The man whose death leaves you relieved

that you are not him despite your decency.

And that is why there is nothing

and will be nothing until you accept

your own complicity in this.

Your own humanity.

- I deny that.

I deny that absolutely.

I have never spoken one
word against your people.

Is that your implication?

That I have something to
do with this monstrousness?

- You asked me before
if I knew your cousin,

Baron Kessler?

Baron Kessler is a Nazi.

He helped to remove all the Jewish doctors

from the medical school.

You were aware of that weren't you?

You must have heard that at
some time or other didn't you?

- Yes, I heard it.

But I have forgotten it.

You see, he was--

- Your cousin.

I understand.

In any case, it's only a small
part of Baron Kessler to you,

but it is all of Baron Kessler to me.

And when you said his
name it was with love

and I'm sure he must
be a man of some kind,

yes with whom you can see
eye to eye in many things,

but when I hear that name,

I see a knife.

You see now why there is
nothing and will be nothing?

When even you cannot put
yourself in my place.

Even you, and that's why
your thoughts of suicide

don't move me 'cause it's
not your guilt I want,

it's your responsibility
that might have helped.

If you had understood that
Baron Kessler was a part,

some small but frightful
part doing your will,

you might have done something then.

With your name and your
standing and your decency

aside from shooting yourself.

- What can ever save us?

- Next.

Come inside.

- Take it.

Number nine, Rue de Chollonge.

- What will happen to you?

- Go.

- You don't owe me this.

I didn't ask you for this.

- Go, go.

- Next.

Prince Vonberg, where's your pass?

- Guard!

One has escaped!

A man has escaped!

(alarm blaring)
(soldiers yelling)

(accordion plays)

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