Original subtitles

[Voice-Over] [Charlie Cohn, Goldman's secretary] Happy birthday, Mr. Goldman.

[Arthur Goldman]

How is momma ?

[VO] - Heh, never better, thank you Mr. Goldman.

- That woman ought to go on a diet.

- Heh...

- You say it's my birthday ? - Yes Mr. Goldman

(closes patio door)

- Friday, the twentieth of September.

How old am I, Charlie ?

- You're timeless, Mr. Goldman

- That old ? Thank you, Charlie, thank you.

What's the temperature outside, Jack?

[VO Jack, Goldman's driver]

Fahrenheit or Centigrade?

- You know my preference.

- Sixty-Eight and one half Fahrenheit.

Sixty Eight and a half... it's cold in here.

If I wasn't so old, I don my vicuna.

Matilda always adored me in my vicuna.

It's a house without a woman, Charlie.

I ought to get a new wife.

Yes, Mr. Goldman.

It's all these empty closets that are getting me down.

All those coat hangers with no dresses on them.

A man without a woman...(repeats quietly) a man without a woman

When are we due at the banks ?

[Charlie] - 11:07, the National Bank of North America; - 11:22, Royal Bank of Canada;

- 11:47, the Security National and 12:40, the Sterling.

When do I see Dewitt?

He's coming from Boston this afternoon, Mr. Goldman

- Call Schwab. Tell him I'm in.

For how much, Mr. Goldman?

All the way, all the way Charlie,

he's my blood brother.

You know the thing about the woman, Charlie...

Where do I go tonight ?

The opera tonight Mr. Goldman.

You are escorting the Duchess.

There are, ah... twenty-two begging letters this morning.

Ah, give them something, but not too much.

Listen, when you call Schwab tell him my limit is a hundred thousand.

I think you're right there. I think you made a substantial point.

Hey, I don't like that Carter, do you ?

No I don't, Mr. Goldman.

No, no, I don't like that Carter.

I don't trust him.

I don't trust him either.

Did you find the MacTavish lease ?

- Yes, sir here it is. - What's the date on it?

- Nineteenth of March Nineteen Forty Seven - Ah, You see? Alright, make copies.

You'll have this photostatted, eh, Jack.

[Goldman] Xeroxed, Charlie.

Xeroxed. Credit where credit is due. It's a Jewish invention.

- Can I have that old newspaper.

(newspapers crunching)

Mr. Goldman, there's currency in here...

...maybe... maybe a million dollars in baggies.

Two million, Charlie. Two million.

What's the date on that newspaper ?

November 20th, 1964.

- Mr. Goldman forgive me but, ah, ...

Two million dollars in cash just sitting here ?

- The New York Herald Tribune. Alav ha-shalom

Couldn't cut the mustard against the New York Times.

Credit where credit is due.

Alav ha-shalom means "rest in peace", Jack, in case you didn't know it. A Hebrew patois.

There must be a poem, somewhere Charlie, in the box, an original. Look for it.

Jack,

- did you know the Pope forgave the Jews?

Ah, forgave the Jews for what, Mr. Goldman ?

For Christ's killing.

In the movies the Romans always took the rap for that.

Well, maybe the Pope never went to the movies.

Listen to this:

(reads) The Jewish people should never be presented as one, rejected, cursed or guilty of deicide.

The council deplores and condemns the hatred and persecutions of Jews...

whether their roles in former or in our own times.

How do you like them apples Charlie?

Oh, well that was, that was very generous of them, Mr. Goldman.

- You never disappoint me, my boy.

November 20th, 1964.

What do you suppose they suddenly wanted after two thousand years ?

It couldn't be money ?

Ah, you have found the poem. Read it to me.

"I am old, I am old, I have bought and I have sold.

Friday the twentieth, nineteen hundred and sixty-four.

The Pope has absolved the Jews.

I am old. I am old. I have been bought and I have been sold.

Tear it up, Charlie.

Mr. Goldman, what about the money?

- Leave it for a rainy day.

Charlie!

Can we continue now with the MacTavish brochure ?

Yes, right away, Mr. Goldman.

(street noise from below, horns honking)

[Charlie] Ah, It was in the golden spring of 1947.

[Goldman] Cut that "golden".

[Charlie] (continues) It was in the spring of 1947.

at about the time that Mr. Goldman's Pelican building was about to rise... -

- Charlie, you've got two 'abouts'.

(repeats angrily) - You've got two "abouts" !

Oh yeah. (sighs)

ahh... It was in the spring of 1947. At the time, without the "about" then ...

that Mr. Goldman's Pelican building was about to rise into the skies...

that the beginnings of the lease to the MacTavish Publishing Company were planted.

[Goldman] - It's a house without a woman, Charlie.

I must have a new wife.

- Yes, Mr. Goldman.

I've gotta have somebody pretty to look at.

Miss America, Miss America, that's what I need.

I'd knock her up in no time forthwith, you know what I mean ?

Still, maybe I should go for intelligence,

one of those reporters

one of those Time magazine long-leg Washington Post ...

an articulate somebody

with a face, for Christsake,

someone with bones.. somebody aristocratic.

Is Miss America in town ?

I could find out.

Nevermind.

Babies. I ought to have babies.

Go on, go on...

Ah ... that the beginnings of the lease to the MacTavish Publishing Company were planted."

[Goldman] You don't plant beginnings, you plant seeds.

Mr. Goldman walked into the lobby of the 400 Lexington Avenue building (Goldman hears "Achtung !")

He crossed the lobby to the cigar counter.... where he purchased.... (Goldman hears a German order) Raus !

Jack! Jack ! JACK !

[VO] (Charlie) What is it, Mr. Goldman?

Cognac, Jack. No, bourbon.

Make it Jack Daniel's !

In my great dream do I know what I am doing ?

What was it, Mr. Goldman?

My father... pushing a pretzel cart.

(only traffic sounds)

Nobody's going to say:

"Mr. Goldman, your father was murdered in a shower in Auschwitz...

in 1943, at the age of seventy,

so he couldn't be pushing pretzel cart on 5th Avenue" ?

Well, what could I expect ?

Even He was denied thrice before the cock crowed.

Shall I go on with the brochure, Mr. Goldman ?

- No. I have to think this out.

'You a Panther, Jack ?

You a Muslim ?

- No ....?

It don't matter you know.

No sweat, even better.

More protection for me that way.

But Nobody is after you, Mr. Goldman.

[VO] Are you sure?

Where will you be on that day ?

I'm white and rich.

That's the name of the game, ain't it ?

Well, the money comes from the Arabs anyway doesn't it ?

- I heard it comes from playing the numbers.

(German language is heard briefly, Fatherland... then indistinct

(Goldman collapses)

[Charlie] Jack !

Jack... ! - (Charlie asks for help with him) - Help me...

(Goldman gasping for breath)

(sounds of jackboots marching)

(only Goldman hears a scream)

Mea culpa, dans mann

(striking his chest)

Mea maxima culpa.

(weeping) God, Why do I live ?

(Charlie enters with Goldman's doctor, Kessel)

[Goldman VO] I have built a city of rock.

A juiceless city

fabricated of the bleached skulls of pterodactyls.

Send me a testimonial, God of the Hebrews.

Was I right ?

Was I wrong ?

Say something !

[Dr. Kessel] What's the matter today Mr. Goldman ?

- Nothing, doctor. I never felt better.

The Pope's put me right on, y'know-what-I-mean ?

Have you taking the medicine I prescribed ?

Don't patronize me, doc.

Patients you can do it to on the examining table.

[Kessel] (chuckling) - I'm not a gynecologist.

[Goldman] Super Block, I salute you.

Isn't that a gorgeous city ? Look at all my palaces, ! My temples.

Which of my palaces do you prefer, doc?

The one that appeals to me the most is the one at 85th and Lincoln .....

You know I remember them all. All my children.

I shared Scott Fitzgerald's bed.

I sat naked with him in the Astor bar.

I, who enjoy the enviable and austere reputation of a long-established builder,

was the friend of Scotty and Zelda, the hedonists.

Scotty and I swam in Zelda's panties...

in the Pulitzer Fountain in front of the Plaza Hotel.

I had the pink, he had the purple.

[Charlie] - I didn't know you knew the Fitzgeralds

Oh yes, indeedie. We drove on the roofs of our landaus...

from Broadway down to Washington Square.

Call me a liar, Charlie...

Then up through Harlem, where they all threw tickertape.

And we finished at Childs' at 55th and 57th for breakfast.

Will you take your medicine now, Mr. Goldman ?

Of course, anytime.

Why didn't you suggest it before ? Go right ahead.

- That was my brochure you were quoting from before, Mr. Goldman.

Thank you for remembering it.

- I think we should send your brochure to the Pope, Charlie.

I mean it. It is really a piece of art. Now, sing for me.

Move me, render me, rape my senses. Sing my favorite song.

(They sing in German)

♫ Es war ein edelweiss ♫

♫ Eine kleine edelweiss ♫

♫ Hola-hidi Hollala ♫ ♫ Hollahi-diho ♫

(they repeat) ♫ Es war eine edelweiss ♫ ♫ Eine kleine edelweiss ♫ ♫ Hollahido holala ♫

(Charlie by himself)

♫ hollahi-diho... ♫

♫ Ganz einsam und verlassen ♫ ♫ an steiller Felsenwand ♫

♫ Stoltz unter blauen Himmel... ♫ ♫ Ein kleines Blumlien stand ♫

[Goldman] The last time I saw Dorff...

(Charlie continues singing) Ich konnt' nicht widerstehen...

The last time I saw Dorff...

he was going from bed to bed, from litter to litter, place to place with his pistol

He was tapping them on their domes with the barrel,

he was testing their brains out,

he was listening to see what was hollow. One, two, three...

There was not another sound but an echo:

Bang, bang, bang... (to Charlie) Bang !

[Charlie] - Is it alright if I stop singing Mr. Goldman ?

- Even preferable. You've got a horrible voice, Charlie.

Read more from that brochure.

What's this?

[Kessel] Valium. - You take it.

It's good for you.

Continue, Charlie. Continue

-- Ah, The, the intervening years have witnessed an accelerated pace in the Goldman construction program. Such prominent structures as the ... (he's cut off again)

[Goldman] - We are being surveilled.

[Kessel] - I , uh, I beg your pardon ?

We are being watched... by a blue Mercedes.

(a siren wails from the street)

[Goldman] None of those conspiratorial glances.

Jack, monitor conspiratorial glances.

(warily) Yes, sir.

Continue, Charlie.

... Such prominent structures as

as the fifty story 1003 Cedar Street..." Number Two Maple Street

May I ask who is watching you, Mr. Goldman ?

Of course. Tell him, Charlie.

Is it Colonel Dorff or...

Mr. Goldman Senior ?

Neither one, imbecile.

May I ask who is Colonel Dorff ?

You may certainly not.

We are missing the game !

(play by play chatter from the television)

(Kessel scoffs) Yeah, Y. A. Tittle, there was a pro.

[Goldman] Y. A. Tittle...

(begins a German accent in full ranting) "And the Fuehrer said in the Berliner Sportpalast:

Es darf nunmehr fur die Welt kein Zweifel mehrubrigbleinben. Jetzt spricht nicht mehr ein Fuehrer oder ein Mann, jetzt spricht das deutsche volk. !

[trans: No longer speaks one man but the German People.]

(Then abruptly quits and says in English) God bless America.

Let's drink to Y.A. Tittle !

[Kessel] Y.A. Tittle ! [Charlie follows] Y.A Tittle.

(they laugh)

Seven months average, you know, a Jew worked in the factories.

They had an equation; the food they fed him,

plus a fifteen hour day, minus his age and his health... on a scale of four.

They got optimal use out of him and then he went to the gas chamber,

unless he was strong. Very strong.

I was strong. I was a veritable shtarker. [trans.] thug or tough guy

[Kessel] And your father ?

Hymie... ?

Hymie Goldman...

... was your average middle-aged Jew.

so he only lasted five months.

(with a bitter laugh) You know the irony was he really never believed it was happening.

Jesus!

Oh no, for Jesus it was only three days and three nights.

You're not drinking, Charlie.

- I don't feel much like it, Mr. Goldman

- Drink. You too, doctor.

When an American talks football he drinks.

Come on, let's show them we don't have a separate culture.

[Goldman continues] And the Fuehrer said:

"In order to carry on his existence as a parasite of other people,

(he slips into German accent again) the Jew is forced to deny the essential evil of his inner nature."

The more intelligent the individual Jew is, the more he will succeed in this deception."

Drink ! Act like Gentiles !

Assimilate ! (Kessel laughs to himself)

The last day he played I remember it was raining.

He must have already been working out mud plays when he reached for his orange juice in bed.

I never could quite figure out how he could keep his glasses on that broken nose.

[Kessel] Two-edged adhesive.

I went to my box early....

I thought of him sitting there

getting his shot of cortisone for the pain for those broken ribs.

[Only Goldman hears Nazi chants of "Sieg Heil " in the background ]

Thousands died prior to their employment in the factories because of the hazards of the weather.

'alle' "uneconomical"

The labor ministry was furious.

[Kessel] Would you care for some coffee, Mr. Goldman ?...

Tittle hit Joe Morrison on the Brown's 49.

He called Gifford on the square-out to the sidelines in front of Parish.

He got the ball on a two count, he went straight back, he was covered by three ...

He got ball and threw it to the sidelines and Gifford faked...

All his life was in that pass, that I know, boys.

And Parish got the ball and that was the end of Tittle. (he laughs)

"E cosi passa la gloria di questo mondo". [ Sic transit Gloria]

Du weisst ist, da kann man nichts machen. [There's nothing you can do about it]

What is it, Charlie ?

I, I was just admiring your knowledge of languages, Mr. Goldman.

Were you?

I would trade all my etymological talent for fluent Yiddish, I tell you.

Oh I can speak Yiddish, Mr. Goldman.

- Yes, but you are ashamed of it.

What kind of a Jew are you, anyway ?

I guess you might say I'm an American Jew.

An American Jew ? Is there such a thing ?

It takes light years to breed a new kind of Jew, the genes are titanium.

Where did your folks come from ?

Lithuania.

[Goldman laughs] A Litvak ! Hah hah.

[Kessel joins the laugh]

A Litvak:

a sub-species of the Ashkenazi,

number three on the Semitic scale.

(angry) I don't think the Jewish people should be graded Mr. Goldman.

- In the beginning was the Sephardic Jew.

He looks down on a German Jew and Ashkenazi.

He looks down on the Eastern, the Romanians, Polish, Russian Jews.

He looks down on the North African Arab-contaminated Jew

And he positively pisses on a Yemenite Jew.

[Kessel laughs an unsober laugh]

That's very interesting Mr. Goldman.

Yiddish, my boy, is the way these diverse Hebrews communicate, and brilliantly !

The United Nations should adopt Yiddish as their language,

the language of hostility... and the language of love.

- Who was Dorff ?

Very clever.

You ask by surprise, I answer by surprise...

Dorff...

Karl Adolf Dorff,

Colonel Dorff was the commandant of the camp I honored with my presence for five years.

Colonel Dorff...

killed my father.

- And you think he now wants to kill you from a blue Mercedes ?

It should only be that simple

... and so to bed. (he sighs getting up)

(as in disbelief) The Pope forgave the Jews.

Jesus Christ....

it has been widely accepted that JC took care of that himself two thousand years ago

What chutzpah. "Audacity"

(more play by play from the television to scene end)

(Goldman is singing German) ♫ Guten Morgen, meine schone blonde Arierin. ♫ Good morning my sweet blond Aryan

Schlaff in pace, my darling. ("Sleep in peace")

[Jack] Phone, Mr. Goldman.

(impatient) Who is it ?

- It's Horowitz from the floor of the Exchange.

Do you think us saviors of 'the way of life,' could invade Bolivia, Jack ? Maybe Haiti?

... some defenseless little place with pygmies we could bomb ?

- That number we've already done.

Oh we have ?

Well, a breather between genocides is in order.

Without an adequate corpse flow, the market withers.

Tell Horowitz, whatever it is... sell it.

- Right...

Matilda.

My Matilda.

- Mr. Goldman. - What is it ?

A person cannot even communicate with the dead in peace.

I'm sorry sir I, I just wanted to make sure that, that Jack got your instruction straight.

(... still in reverie) Outstanding woman, Matilda.

Very passionate, made a lot of noise.

That's why she has such a classy urn.

Beautiful, brilliant...

... anti-Semitic.

- Mr. Goldman ? - What is it, my son ?

- If you are being watched you should call the police.

- Police ? No. That would be cheating.

Besides you don't tell the police anything,

that's a great way to get blackmailed.

I had the the Bosch mounted, Mr. Goldman.

Good, Charlie, good.

Incredible isn't it ?

And five hundred years before Freud.

- He was very, um.... imaginative.

Hm, no Charlie -imaginative- he was a draftsman a photographer.

That's reality, Charlie.

That's 'imaginative.'

Move me to face the Bosch.

It comforts me.

(sounds of a heavy lock)

(door closes firmly)

[Jack] What does he have going on in there, d'ya know?

- I dunno, I've never been in there.

Valuables I suppose. Maybe, maybe some things of his late wife ?

I don't know and I don't wanna know.

My will gentlemen will be found in there.

The keys will be in the pocket of my last suit.

[Charlie] - Your last suit Mr. Goldman ?

- The one I'm wearing... when.

Play your cards right and you will be both remembered.

(Phone rings)

[Goldman] (singsong) ♪ Nobody in here but us Jews ! ♪

(Phone rings a second time.) [Charlie] Hello. What? No.

No.

No, no there's no Mr. Bechett here.

I'm afraid you've got the wrong number. This is Mr. Arthur Goldman's residence.

What did you tell him that for ?

Put the phone down.

(Goldman very angry) You don't tell anybody anything !

I'm sorry, Mr. Goldman.

I want my coffee. And I want tea too.

... A foreign accent ?

(dismissive) No, sir.

That was a foreign accent and there was no wrong number.

Bechett ? Bechett... ?

What kind of a name is that ?

Sit down.

Take notes.

Here, telephone these numbers.

The one is a dentist in Munich...

and the other one is an orthopoedist in Buenos Aires.

Tell each of them to replace the X-ray plates as instructed.

Make the call from a pay-phone...

with this credit card number.

Well that's not your number, Mr. Goldman.

I know that my son, I'm devious.

(playful) You're supposed to say: "I am Cohn, Hello, Mr. Devious."

- Heh.

My God, am I the last one in the world who remembers Smith and Dale ?

Who, Mr Goldman ?

- Smith and ... Dale:

an ethnic comedy team that lightened my early years

... in this humorless country. (Charlie laughs)

(doorbell rings)

Who is that?

That ? That's Rudin, the tailor, Mr. Goldman.

- Who ? - You said it was alright for me to call him.

He's my cousin.

- Is he kosher?

Oh a hundred percent, Mr. Goldman.

- Nobody's a hundred percent.

Let him in, Jack.

I wonder how many Bechetts are there in the telephone book.

- I'll look it up.

This way, please.

- Humpf, yes, you're right. It is Rudin. Rudin the tailor !

Forgive us our paranoia. For we know what we do.

Coffee? Drink ? [Rudin] Coffee, please, black.

Smile when you say that, pardner.

Sit, sit. Sit, sit...

So... you are making clothes for Charlie.

- No, Mr. Goldman he's just my cousin.

How much do I pay you, Charlie ?

Eight hundred dollars a week, Mr. Goldman

- Eight hundred dollars a week ?!

- Yes sir.

I'm generous. Very generous.

You certainly are, Mr Goldman.

And you can't afford a suit from your own cousin ?

His suits are eight hundred dollars.

Well, that's one a week. Stop complaining.

Does that make you feel better?

Who needs it?

Cousin Charlie does.

He was grateful.

Some of us are over eager for acceptance, you know?

No, I was pleased, Mr. Goldman. It was a nice ecumenical gesture.

You belong to any club, Charlie ?

- Just the health club in the building.

They know you're Jewish ?

They're Jewish, Mr. Goldman.

Just try to get in The Brook, Rudin.

Maybe through charities or you marry in

Two in a hundred years. Or The Athletic.

I know a Hebrew who never got past his soup.

... always had to have his entre' at The Plaza, and his cheesecake at The Russian Tea Room.

That's a beautiful robe, Mr. Goldman.

Take it. It's yours.

Wear it in good health.

I'm changing my image.

Could you make something humble for me,

in canvas, maybe,

to fool Jack's friends ?

You've got it all wrong ,Mr. Goldman.

Do it for me in terrycloth. Same style.

And for Charlie, make a vicuna jacket.

Certainly.

I discovered the secret of America twenty five years ago:

A silk suit and a vicuna.

What a young man needs to make it.

In the winter you wear the coat...

and when you get into the steam heat, you take the coat off.

In the summer you carry the vicuna over your arm...

and when you get into the air conditioning you put the vicuna on.

Only way to stay alive in America.

(Charlie laughs)

Many died because of the hazards of the weather.

You take his measurements, Rudin.

- That's uh, that's enormously kind of you Mr. Goldman.

You'll pay for it someday.

You know the Arabs didn't like it: the thing about the Pope, I mean.

(reads) An imperialist political plot contemplated by countries which,

after supporting Israel politically,

want to consolidate its expansionist policies

... through religious backing.

Do you care comment Mr. Rudin ?

Chickenshit.

Incidentally, add Cairo to your list, Charlie

The Hilton suite five hundred and eight.

Phone them.

- What should I say ? - Nothing.

I just want the phone call to appear on my phone bill.

Thank you Mr. Rudin. It was very kind of you to come.

- You have the royal pattern now. - Thank you.

I accompany you.

- Do you drive a blue Mercedes? - A Pinto.

Got any clients named Bechett ?

- No, sir.

If you get any, call me.

[Charlie] - So long, Rudin.

Do you get healthy in that health club, Charlie ?

[Charlie laughs] No I, uh just, I just try to keep trim, Mr. Goldman, y'know ?

- Do you think they would accept me?

- Oh, I think they'd be honored Mr. Goldman.

(he slaps Charlie hard.)

Why did you do that, Mr. Goldman ?

(under his breath) - Because I couldn't resist it.

You are loyal, Charlie Jew,

As a reward you have my word you will never be involved again.

It was kind of an experiment.

I was out of practice.

In any case,

the situation becomes clearer now.

Don't ask any questions, it's pointless.

A passion play is a passion play.

(Charlie rings a door buzzer)

- Good morning, gentlemen. - Good morning Johnson

- Johnson, this is my guest, Mr. Goldman.

Mr. Goldman would you like to get into a sweatshirt and a pair of shorts ?

- Why not, anything, anything. - Mr. Goldman, right this way.

[Goldman] Keep an eye on that Johnson.

A resident agent if I ever saw one.

On D-Day, White Friday they'll call it,

a shoeshine cloth would go into our mouths a whisk broom up our rectum.

Remember I said it

(gym equipment noises)

You're in very good shape for a man of your age, Mr. Goldman

Not from exercising, Charlie.

The surest way to the grave.

(chuckles) Oh yeah? What's your secret then ?

The key my boy is the prostate gland. {charlie chuckles}

Does a dog have prostate trouble and get sick ? No, why not?

Because he walks on all fours. He drains by gravity.

A man, now... walking upright...

it stays there and putrefies unless it's expelled.

A man who wants to stay healthy

should have at least have one orgasm a day

or else walk on all fours.

preferably ... both.

- The key to good health then is daily sexual intercourse ?

- With different ladies....

... Much better for you than jogging.

- Not everyone can arrange that Mr. Goldman.

Well you see I used to tell my ladies

since it prolonged my life, they had to help me out for my family's sake.

Women are sentimental.

You have to be inventive. (Charlie chuckles again)

Arbeit macht frei.

[Charlie] I beg your pardon ?

Arbeit macht frei. (repeats) Arbeit macht frei (and again)

[Charlie] I beg your pardon. Mr. Goldman.

(sighs) That's a big joke of the Germans.

"Arbeit macht frei" means "work makes free".

The only freedom of course was up the chimney.

The faster you worked, the sooner you got to the ovens.

There's that car again.

What car?

That blue Mercedes.

I really think you only thought you saw a blue Mercedes, Mr. Goldman.

If a Mercedes is not after me...

... I'm doing something wrong.

Anyway, sooner or later... When I was Don Ameche,

I told Betty Grable someday all this would be hers.

I've decided to give a dinner party for princesses only.

from all walks of life. The best !

Take note.

- Heh, I don't have my notebook and pen Mr. Goldman.

(very angry)

THEN MEMORIZE !

(pause)

Yes, sir.

There will be five ladies,

each, on entering, will be forcibly immersed in a mikvah

so we know who is in charge here.

- You're going to ask these ladies to clean themselves in a real ritual bath ?

Are you serious Mr. Goldman ?

- I am deadly serious, my boy.

The food...

will be served on a black table, to the sound of funeral marches...

and the waitresses to be...

naked black girls.

The plates edged in black,

the menu to include dark bread and liquorice sauce...

and the liqueurs to make their entrance in ebony glasses.

However, on second thought, even for a farewell party it seems ostentatious.

When are you going away Mr. Goldman ?

The leave-taking for which this admittedly imitative event is the occasion ...

... will take place somewhat precipitously.

therefore I cannot set the date.

Anyway, just get the party going, wire the girls and...

.... bring me two million dollars in cash.

In cash !?

... from the vault.....

It's now a rainy day.

(musicians play traditional music on concertina and bass)

(music continues)

(Goldman signals with a spoon on glass twice)

When a man bids farewell to his life....

(Ladies interrupt all at once)

- Of your life? Why sir ? - For God's sake, Arthur.

Money, my dear, makes many things possible,

but money does not make it feasible to interrupt someone with more money.

(a small laugh from the ladies)

I speak of my impending departure, ladies...

not in the biological sense for that is so common as to merit no special note.

I speak of it to all five of you collectively because I cannot organize

individual leave-taking of sufficient variety

to sustain five such episodes...

(some ooh-ing and ahh-ing from the ladies)

Moreover.... together you project a concept:

The mystique femina.

Bull...shit.

How can you ...?

You open your mouth and form the sound.. "bull'.

[Goldman] We digress... As I was saying...

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

And although I am, these days, full of meaningless jokes...

... metaphors,

... images...

... and obscure allusions,

my heart is in the right place.

I put myself to sleep with my eyes open...

And because you are the abitrators of the night...

and all thoughts pass through the scrotum on their way to immortality, (ladies make sounds of surprise)

your grace envelopes my departure and gives it purpose.

To what this purpose amounts to,

I'm adroitly concealing... from myself.

[Lady interrupts] - You make it sound like the Last Supper.

(Goldman exclaims) Heh!

You know you are the meshugena don't you?

Who, Arthur ?

[Goldman] JC ! You know the schtick don't you ? -- Mm-hmm

theologically speaking I mean

As a Jewess I'm not sure I do.

Look, a Jew lives his life as best as he can, right?

A person tries...

Then on the day of Judgment he comes before God and... ZAP!

If he sinned, he gets it.

All the way from from eternal damnation

to a ten dollar fine.

A little over-simplified.

Not as much as He over-simplified.

He said: All you have to do is to believe that I am the Son of God wandering around in the flesh

and you will automatically be saved.

' Believe in me and you can bugger owls and you won't be damned."

You just have to believe in Him?

Well that's what he told them.

He told them he would die and get resurrected so they could believe and get saved.

And by God he did ! At least he died.

The Resurrection: they don't have exactly a Polaroid.

(laughter from the group)

Believe me: A Christian is a just nervous Jew...

who thinks he bought himself an A-Number One insurance policy.

You should have been rabbi or priest, Arthur

I should have been... JC, my dear !

(nervous laughter)

[Goldman] in plain chant]

♫ What bells will ring for those who died like sheep ? ♫

Dies irae, dies illa solvet saeculum in favilla. (trans.) "The day of wrath, that day will dissolve the world in ashes."

♫ What bells will ring for those who died defiled ♫

♫ For those who died in excrement ? ♫

♪ Rest eternal grant them ♪

♪ Light eternal shine upon them. ♪

♫ Ave...

♫ Ave...

♫ Ave

♫ Ave

♫ Ave...

♫ Ave

Goldman continues humming the hymn to himself on the balcony

(resumes singing the Ave (which becomes "arbeit macht frei" )

(in his dance he begins repeating arbeit macht frei)

(repeats again and and again as he wounds his foot)

arbeit macht frei

arbeit macht frei

arbeit macht frei

(audible cries of pain and weeping)

(lifts lid of burial urn)

(Goldman weeping)

(Goldman is heard singing Ein Kleine Edelweiss from the bed)

♫... Hodihee da hollalla♫ Hoda Hi da Ho ♫

Are you all waiting... breathlessly subserviently for my return to consciousness ?

[Jack] It would kinda help if you got back here, Mr. Goldman

In that case,

I shall return.

Why did you do this ?

I was drunk.

[Charlie] I've never seen you drunk, Mr. Goldman

Alright I wasn't drunk.

[Kessel] Well, then, why ?

I was mugged...

(whispers) ... by Dorff.

[Kessel] On your own terrace ?

[Jack] How come he took your shoes ?

He got tired of those jackboots, Jack ...

... wanted to try decadent Jewish dancing pumps.

[Charlie] - I'm going to call the police.

[Goldman] No, not the police.

The police... are an obsession with you Charlie.

[Charlie] Look, Mr. Goldman, this man obviously wants to injure you.

No, he has my pumps.

All he wants now is my jacket and my pants.

But why?

Because he wants to be me, of course.

You're being sucked into the logic of the mad, doctor.

[Kessel] I think he'll sleep now.

[Goldman] Thank you for attending me.... ... one and all

Go home now.

I dissolve this episode in... sleep...

I want no lurking about to watch over me.

Dis.....missed...

(doors opening footsteps leaving)

(a light switched off)

(door closes audibly)

(drawer opens, closes)

(a key in the lock)

... and again

(door closes firmly behind him)

(chest opening)

(sounds in the distance heard only by Goldman off screen)

(some children playing)

(a German band plays,)

(jackboots marching) (drum banging to keep time)

(Sound of Hitler rally speech)

(Sieg Heil in the distance with cheering crowd)

Sieg Heil continues, Siren sounds

(Rifles used to break through doors)

(screams heard)

(police whistle)

(screams)

(Goldman strikes his chest audibly)

(a locomotive whistle)

rally sounds continue (a train whistle is heard like a tea kettle)

(various sounds of screaming) (attack dogs barking) (women screaming)

(A ready to fire command ) Achtung

(Goldman cries out in pain)

FIRE !

( burst of MACHINE GUN FIRE very loud)

(Goldman screams in pain)

(street sounds as before)

Keep driving Jack. We'll let you know.

- Yes, Mr. Goldman.

[Charlie] There it is again.

[Goldman] There's what again ?

- The Mercedes.

- Ah, Now there is a Mercedes huh ?

- Yes, sir.

- The one I didn't see from the window of the health club?

- Yes sir.

- Jack.... - Yes sir

Next time around, park in front,

go over to the car and tell them to come upstairs.

Keep your hands out of your pockets when you approach, got that ?

- Yes sir.

Then go to a movie or something.

I'm sending Charlie down to bring them up.

- All right Mr. Goldman. - Good luck.

- I can't, Mr. Goldman.

- Why not? - I can't. I'm too frightened.

Oh, come on, Charlie.

- What do they want, anyway ?

Me.

They want me, not you.

Maybe money. I've got the cash.

They should fold like everyone else.

What do I say them ?

Well just tell them I'm doing this...

I should set an example for youth or... paying my dues or ...

... making peace as the grave yawns before me. They'll buy that.

- Who are they, Mr. Goldman ?

Centurions sent to arrest me in the garden.

Charlie !

The same orders for you:

Don't give them any cause to think you are armed.

That's right.

Are they Germans, Mr. Goldman ?

They are trying.

(Goldman hears more jackboots marching and band box music playing)

(A male chorus sings "Edelweiss" as heard earlier)

♫ Hodahi da Holala ♫ ♫ Hodahi da Ho

(repeats)

(Door is forced open by surprise)

( intruders, Rami, Uri, Moshe to Charlie)

Move it, Move it !

(music continues from the phonograph)

(The captors checking the premises) [Uri] -- Clear.

[Moshe] Kitchen clear.

(music is turned off)

Dining room clear.

[Uri] The door's locked.

[Rami] On your feet.

[Goldman] Willkommen, Herr Ubermensch.

(brief sounds of a frisk)

[Uri] - He's unarmed.

[Rami] - Get your clothes off.

[Charlie] Why are you doing this to Mr Goldman?

- This Charlie Cohn ?

- So he claims.

- Your boss may have a cyanide capsule up his ass....

... Goering did.

[Goldman] (admiringly) Ahh!

(attache clicks open)

Everything....

Now, bend over.

[Goldman] If you're going to check my mouth too,

I would appreciate you reversing the order of examination.

I used to keep my mezuzah there in the old days. * small parchment scroll

- Raise your left arm.

(bandage ripped off)

Mr. Goldman, what happened to you ?

- He tried to burn out his insignia and blood type tattoo.

- Insignia ? - S.S.

I beg your pardon ?

He ran a little concentration camp.

That's crazy. Mr. Goldman builds buildings.

- With showers and ovens.

Open your mouth.

Identical...

(Rami flapping x-ray films)

Turn around.

Laminectomy: The fourth and fifth vertebra.

Checks.

Fracture...

here...

- Ditto.

Mr. Goldman, are those the X-rays you asked me to call Munich.... ?

- Not Goldman's ... Mr. Cohn.

Karl Adolf Dorff.

'Teach you never to trust anybody, Charlie boy.

[Charlie] He's sick.

He's a sick man don't you see that ?

[Moshe] Oh, he's not sick enough.

What are you going to do to him ?

- Nothing.

If he cooperates he will be given a scrupulously fair trial in Israel.

and free legal counsel.

What are you charging him with ?

Crimes against the Jewish people.

You don't have jurisdiction here, do you ?

- That's certainly true.

[Charlie] He's an American citizen.

- We have discussed that.

[Charlie] The United States will not permit a violation of its sovereignty.

[Goldman] There is a precedent, Charlie.

- You mean Eichmann?

[Charlie] For Christsake, that was in Argentina.

[Goldman] (dismissive) Well, it will cost just a little bit more to buy it here Charlie.

Incidentally, I do offer two million....

[Rami] For what ?

For me.

Stop it.

[Goldman] - In cash.

Four.... Up to ten if you give me a couple of days.

Imagine what the United Jewish Appeal could do with that !

[Moshe] (to Charlie] Roll up your sleeve.

Do not worry Mr. Cohn, we only are borrowing you.

We'll leave you on the ground at Kennedy.

[Charlie] I'm frightened, Mr. Goldman.

Lie down. You will have a little hangover, that's all.

[Goldman] (as he's going under) Charlie, when you wake up,

first thing, go by St. Patrick's, schlep up to the front ....

... and ask JC if I'm getting the hang of it.

(Military marching band music is heard for the scene end.)

(Intermission lasts just 90 seconds)

(Footsteps approaching )

(a cell being unlocked)

Oh, my God, a princess.

Don't tell me I'm being granted connubial privileges ?

I am Miriam Rosen,

I'm the public prosecutor assigned to your case.

Then lie down and prosecute me.

I'm told you do not want an attorney. You wish to defend yourself ?

Who is better qualified?

Someone who knows the law.

Which law, the Israeli law? It's very simple:

' An eye for an eye ' Exodus XXI, 24.

(some tinkling into the toilet)

How can you plead not guilty

when you already accept our proof ?

You charged me with genocide which is not correct. (zips up)

I killed criminals under the laws of Germany. (flushes)

What was their crime ?

Being Jewish.

- You need a lawyer.

My dear lady you need one more than I do, I assure you.

I see you couldn't bribe the Americans.... or at least you bribed the wrong ones

They want me back.

"An American citizen kidnapped."

- We won't give you back.

- That will cost you at least five Phantom 4's.

Am I worth it ? - No....

(hand washing, water splashing)

I would have shot you in New York and kept the Phantoms,

but then I am not an idealist.

(Laughs)

Bravo!

Then we can do business.

I have a proposition for you.

- Let's hear it.

Under the American law I entered the United States illegally because I gave false information.

I said I was Arthur Goldman, a Jew, and I wasn't.

If I admit it, that invalidates my citizenship

and gets you and the Americans off the hook.

What do you want in return ?

Suspend your court procedures,

let me question your witnesses in turn , out of turn ... any time,

call me "Colonel" and let me wear my uniform.

I will consult my superiors.

(he chuckles) That's something I never did, you know....

I'm no clerk like old Eichmann.

I plotted my own plots. I had a ball !

You know, Dorff, you may have been the only Nazi in Germany,

(he chuckles) (she knocks to be let out)

.... certainly the only one that admits it.

In that department you will have no legal problems with me, I assure you.

- In my heart, Dorff,

I don't consider you a legal problem,

you're a sanitation problem.

But I have my duty.

(righteously overly loud)

So did I, sweetheart, so did I !

(metal cell door closing)

- So how is my Rorschach, doc ?

- I don't know. I'll examine it later.

- Only a Jew could conceive of reading the human soul from ink blots.

- How do you substantiate that, Colonel ?

I don't have to. It's true.

That's exactly the response I had in my clinic from a man who claimed he was Moses.

You don't seem to understand the authority of folklore, doc.

If you repeat it often enough,

it becomes the truth and people act on it.

Hunter and hunted. Victor and victim.

Until it becomes the truth.

And law becomes law.

Heh, humor ! A shrink with humor !

'Churchill' ? Is that a name for a Jew?

That's my name.

Are you a relative ?

Not unless the Duke of Marlborough was a Hebrew...

It's possible.

If affirmative only on Winston's mother: Jennie Jerome?

Possible.

But then most of us do have Jewish ancestors....

... you, for instance ? Even the Fuehrer.

- HEY! I have question:

- If you find me insane, you can't try me. You blow the whole thing.

So what's the point of it ?

You are clinically psychotic: then and now.

We're going to try you anyway.

- On what ground?

- You were a colonel in the Einzatzgruppen,

the mobile killing units of the SS were you not? - Sure!

You killed at their orders frequently obeying those orders out of moral conviction...

- Absolutely.

- And your conviction was that all Jews had to exterminated for the good of society...

- Right on !

You believed that ?

- Of course.

- Why?

- Well it's obvious.

The degree of psychosis can be measured in the disparity

between the patient's fantasies and realities around him.

- It won't work doc. - What won't work ?

- If I am psychotic, then eighty million Germans were psychotic...

and half the Gentiles, and all the Muslims, and the black activists...

and the Protestant members in New York in gold cuffs in the good old United States are psychotic !

And even you won't say that.

No I won't say it because I can't prove it medically, but I believe it.

Look, you have to get it through your head doc ....

To segregate you, restrict you, persecute you and exterminate you....

Remember ? We called it the "final solution".

These were and are socially approved acts.

And socially approved acts

particularly when they are committed by a whole nation

are not psychotic.

You people just ain't popular, doc

- Sojer ! trans: Jailer!

- Hey!

- What are you going to tell them now about me?

(keys jingling, door unlocking)

I'll say that given the time and the place and the mores of Germany in the 1940's

that your behavior was within normal limits.

You are a fool.

- But I'm also going to say... that the ability to adjust to a psychotic society...

is psychotic.

- You know what?

I think all you Hebrews are paranoid.

- And knowing what I know,

- having been where I have been

you should be !

Shalom, Miriam.

Shalom.

Mimi, sweetheart....

- Here is your agreement.

Good.

(more jail noises)

[Goldman reading] "...Uniform, addressed by rank... "

" cross-examination by me at will, "

" I confess lying in U.S. citizenship application..."

Sounds kosher

I want this published.

- Where?

Everywhere.

The New York Times, the Pravda, Der Spiegel,

... Playboy magazine.

Open covenants openly arrived at.

Incidentally, why am I not being recorded ?

You are.

Did your wife know that you were not Arthur Goldman?

Matilda? No.

You see Matilda was an American.

All she knew was I was not poor and not impotent...

and whatever else I was not, did not interest her.

- It didn't trouble her that she knew you to be Jewish?

No, it excited her.

It made her feel like a free spirit, Liberal.

... even a little daring.

Her parents, they came from Rutherford, New Jersey...

... spoke to her as though she had been to the moon or lived with cannibals.

You never communicated to her in any way you're not Jewish ?

Mimi, sweetheart....

The first time I saw Matilda she and I walked my long legged wolfhound

down by my gray terraces and marble corridors.

She had legs that began at her throat.

When I opened my Ceres door she stood so awed before my Pompeian frescoes...

that I could pick her up and hurl her unprotestingly on my Luis XIV bed...

I entered her immediately. It was cold. My eyes bled.

" What ,no foreplay ? " She said.

She came seventy two times that night and cried like an angel...

We never did communicate, sweetheart.

Forgive me. A moment of sentimentality.

Did you kill Arthur Goldman ?

(whispers)

Goldman?

I have dedicated my life to it.

This isn't the police court,

you're are not accused of individual homicide.

Did you ?

Well... it's hard to say.

I did... in a sense... kill Arthur Goldman,

but there was nothing personal to it.

- Why did you take his name ? - I was always farsighted.

The Fuehrer ...God bless his soul.. was never good with military maps

he kept misjudging distances.

Why Arthur Goldman ?

Alright. Let me explain the logistics to you.

We had a certain camp procedure...

We governed the camp through kapos, straw bosses, finks,

usually Poles, occasionally Jews.

A Jew now, who was on the death list could sometimes stay alive a week longer...

if he could bribe a kapo.

What could he bribe him with in a camp ?

Well, em, privilege to eat the scrapings from the SS garbage cans...

... sexual favors... ... a rat to eat.

Alright so he bribes the kapo, then what?

Well, our bribing Jew now, let's say ' Schwartz, '

takes the name and the number of a healthy Jew who is not on the death list,

let's say Arthur Goldman.

And this Arthur Goldman is being executed

and the Schwartz's name and number, you follow ?

Hmmmm.

- Now, when the Russians came through...

and killed all the German soldiers they could find....

- They did that? - Yes, of course.

- You know the Russians have a somewhat black and white view of things.

When the Russians came,

I avoided their machine pistols

by taking the name of the last of a long line of Arthur Goldmans ...

and tattooing his number on my forearm.

I stuffed him into my uniform so naturally they shot him !

So, You see...

Your question is difficult to answer.

Definitely. The man I killed was only Arthur Goldman ten times removed...

And the Russians pulled the trigger for me.

Why are you making it so easy for us ?

I assure you, I'm not.

You really do need a lawyer.

You do not understand.

I'm going to win this case.

- You're going to die.

- Of course, OF COURSE !

But before I do,

those who hear me will feel such contempt

for the easy quivering victims of Colonel Dorff

and will have such guilt for what they feel that they'll say:

"End this. Blank it out, send them all to the showers."

so they stop pointing their fingers at me at me for being what I am ! "

Surviving. And attest that !

Who are these people who will say all this, Colonel ?

You, Jews ...

With the dark side surfacing.

You people want peace ? The hell you do !

You want war as everyone else does,

otherwise you get neurotic and sleep with your mothers !

Murder keeps a man fit ... Mimi !

Believe me. Condemned and dead,

I will be your hero and you will love me...

because I have done what all men feel most alive doing: KILLING !

And in the end, you will hate my Jews

because they are victims and admire me....

Everyone loves a winner, sweetheart !

See you in court, Colonel.

(door unlocks to let her out)

(to his guard) You know, for a public prosecutor, she's got great tits.

Hey ! What's this, your honor?

[Goldman] Nah, nah nah, none of that, fellas.

A deal is a deal.

A swinging free form court by agreement.

[Miriam] The defendant is correct, your honor.

[Presiding Judge] Within the limits of propriety... yes.

There were no limits set in the agreement.

[Judge] I'm setting them.

By what right, your honor ?

Because I sit here. You of all people should understand that, Colonel.

[Goldman] "Because I sit here?"

You know that was a prejudicial remark.

I do not sit without prejudice.

However, since I must determine your guilt or innocence

on the basis of the evidence about to be presented in this court,

it doesn't matter.

Your Honor...

You seem to be an honest Jew.

Now for Christ's sake what's this 'humidor' ?

[Judge] That is a glass booth replacing the dock,

bulletproof for your protection.

It contains a loudspeaker, microphone, earphones.

I control the switch should your testimony or response become irrelevant.

Very clever.

Lead the defendant into the booth.

Gee, your honor,

We never hand anything like that in the Third Reich....

It would have saved us a lot of embarrassment

at the Reichstag's fire trial.

(guard locks him in)

(he blows into the microphone) Testing one, two, three, four ... testing one, two, three, four...

Am I live ?

Yes, thank you.

Not at all.

[Judge] Mrs. Rosen...

As the prosecutor in this case for the State of Israel...

I have been asked by my government to make a public statement...

concerning the extraordinary measures we took

to obtain custody of Karl Adolf Dorff...

and the reasons behind this very expensive and time-consuming court procedure.

Thirty years after the alleged crimes were committed.

My statement is addressed to the non-Jewish world.

Certainly, no Jew requires an explanation.

(Goldman chuckles from the booth)

So...

Our legal precedent,

if one were to be needed,

is the Nuremberg trials.

There, Germans were tried...

and executed

by an Allied court, on the basis of crimes committed...

before the court or the body of law it quoted as precedent existed.

So we have that precedent as precedent...

... If the non-Jewish world demands it.

In the canons of the Roman Catholic Church,

there is repeated reference to the "moral law",

sometimes described in the canonical statutes as...

"The Law of God".

It is held to be superior to human law and overrides it.

When called upon by the, divinely inspired conscience:

of individual or corporate Man.

Israel is, in effect, a theocracy.

... neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.

But the State was founded under the laws of God,

that is to say the moral law.

That law...

and Elohim,

the Hebrew word for the name of God that must not be spoken

... is the core the of the survival... of the Jewish people.

It is in the service of that law and that Name, alone

that Karl Adolf Dorff was arrested and brought here for trial.

[Goldman] (applauds from the booth)

[Goldman] May I say something, your honor ?

If it is relevant...

- It is relevant....

Well, first may I congratulate the lady on her presentation.

Masterful !

Masterful: to bypass the niceties of International Law -- shaky at best...

(bemused) ... the Nuremberg trials ?

And put everything under the umbrella of The Big Jew In the Sky...

... Brilliant.

Absolutely brilliant... and safe !

That is in fact irrelevant, Colonel.

[Goldman] Well then just one more comment, your honor...

"Relevant."

The word is...

"abducted", not "arrested".

Madam Prosecutor ?

One was not possible without the other, your honor..

The moral law supersedes the laws of the governments of men.

Mimi, you would be perfectly at home in the Vatican.

The only problem is the Pope has no Phantom Fours to make it stick.

I suggest you call your first witness.

Mrs. Carlotta Levi.

[Judge] I remind the witness that she and all subsequent witnesses are under oath.

Mrs. Levi,

Do you know the prisoner?

[Levi] I knew him as Lieutenant Dorff.

When and where was that ?

In 1941, in the concentration camp

at Mauthausen in Austria.

[Miriam] You saw him at his work ?

Many times.

[Miriam] Will you describe it to us ?

At the bottom of Mauthausen there was a rock quarry.

It was a kilometer almost straight up to the camp.

Every morning a hundred of us ...

would report barefoot to two other officers.

They would supervise

while we would pile rocks on each other's backs.

Then we would have to walk up to the camp.

If you fell down, they'd've shot you on the spot.

If you did not...

... each day they would pile more rocks until you did.

I remember you. You did great. Marvelous constitution.

How did you survive ?

I was taken out of the quarry to become a prostitute for the SS.

So they fed me.

A fate worse than death.

No fate is worse than death.

(He makes the either or gesture) Well......

Is the witness's statement accurate ?

Perfectly.

- What was done with the rocks ?

Nothing.

They were piled in heaps.

Then what was the point of the operation ?

[Goldman] Humpf. Therein lies the tale or rather several tales.

Although anyone who has been in the army, any army, would understand.

- Please, enlighten us.

Well, you see, Judge... Mimi...

To be assigned to the camps was a prize:

It kept you out of combat.

All military units have a T. O.

A table of organization.

The bigger the task of the unit,

the more enlisted personnel you get,

and the more people you get, the more officers you need

and the faster your promotion.

I fail to see what that has to do with the prosecutor's question.

What was the point of the operation ?

I'm coming to it...

Incidentally, the other two officers the lovely lady mentioned...

Kilewanger's got a job in Cairo and Pohse is drawing a pension in Hamburg.

Why am I here and they are not ?!

Irrelevant, Colonel

You couldn't get the press coverage out of them you got out of me, Huh ?

I did go on to greater glory.

Answer the question, please

Well... you see, sir...

... judge....

Our unit was assigned to engage Jews in work useful to the war effort

.... at minimum cost.

When it cost more to work them than to kill them, we killed them.

(the gallery gets stirred up)

After all we had six million to draw on...

Murderer!

Murderer!

We'll kill you !

[Judge] Guard ! (rapping gavel)

[Goldman] I assume this is typical

(more commotion)

(more gavels)

[Judge] Order !

[Goldman] Is this thing connected ?

(more gavels)

Sit down, sit down....

Sit down all of you

You're disgracing yourselves.

Israel cannot afford to luxuriate in these emotions.

Madam Prosecutor...

[Goldman] Very good, indeed, your honor.

These must be descendants of the same group ...

that threw stones at Him...

in the Via Dolorosa.

[Miriam] Colonel Dorff,

You have told us the quarry work was useless.

We knew that.

they knew that ....

but headquarters, didn't.

You see, in order to stay out of combat, we had to establish Mauthausen,

in order to establish Mauthausen we had to invent...

some kind of work which, on the books, would look useful to the war effort.

I came up with the rock idea.

- Why didn't you simply kill the prisoners since that was your ultimate goal ?

You don't seem to understand the military mind.

We had to kill them in a work process, according orders,

so we had to invent the work process.

Believe me, it was tedious.

Our investigations indicate

that you developed a way of relieving the tedium.

What was that ?

Well... uh...

It was childish and I'm a little ashamed of it.

We...

We.... we had a pool going.

[Goldman] We numbered each day's batch

and the officer who came up with the largest number of survivors

would win a bottle of schnapps.

(apologetic) We stopped it...

we stopped it when we found out that some of the officers...

were putting lighter loads on their numbers

so they would survive and win that bottle of schnapps.

[Miriam] Thank you, Colonel.

Thank you, Mrs. Levi.

[Miriam] - I call Joachim Berger.

[Miriam] Mr. Berger, what was your occupation in October of 1943?

I was a cinematographer with the rank of captain...

attached to the Ministry of Information under Joseph Goebbels.

[Miriam] Where were you on October 11th of that year ?

The Village of Ptalnya, Occupied Poland.

What were you doing there ?

I'd been ordered to photograph a punitive operation conducted by the counterinsurgency section of the SS.

... in the ghetto of Ptalnya.

Will you describe for the court what you photographed ?

Our opening sequence was staged before dawn...

I remember we had to use five kilowatt arcs to light the streets.

[Miriam] Yes?

Colonel Dorff's blackshirts rolled up in open trucks.

They ran into the houses,

ran up the stairs and threw all the male Jews they found out of the windows.

- How old were these Jews ? - Over thirteen and over sixty.

The others were of course already in the camps, working.

Tell the court...

how you became certain of the age of the victims.

We had to move in for close-ups.

They held back throwing some of them out of the window so we could change our set-ups

[Miriam] And then, Mr. Berger ?

[Berger] Those who could walk were made to stand against the wall.

The others were tied in place. Some fifty or sixty altogether.

Then as we moved the camera along the wall... behind the guns,

... they went off in succession

What happened ?

Well...

A nine point two millimeter shell is very powerful... to use at close range.

The people exploded.

They disintegrated ? - Yes.

Into pieces?

Severed arms and legs ...

Yes.

Then what happened?

(Goldman from the booth)

Now comes the third act.

Tell us, Mr. Berger.

The corpses, the few that were intact and the pieces of the others...

were trucked back to the ghetto.

They were dumped in a pile...

I'd say at least reaching the second story of the houses...

By this time it was full daylight...

Colonel Dorff's troops were holding back the mothers and daughters of these people with bayonets.

Then at a signal

they were all allowed to rush to the pile to try to find their sons and fathers

to try to find their sons or fathers

or to try to assemble what they found.

Describe what happened.

An old lady would find an arm with a familiar ring on it...

that would dislodge other parts of bodies and they would all come tumbling down...

Sometimes...

a woman would discover the head of a son or a father...

When that happened Colonel Dorff would make us shoot extreme close-ups with hand-held Ariflexes.

(an outburst from the gallery) (Judge raps gavel for order)

[Miriam] Thank you, Mr. Berger.

What was done with the film, Colonel ?

- We made a title which, em, bloomed out of these last close-ups...

It said in Polish:

"Obey the German Occupation or this will happen in your town."

We played it first-run in every theater in Poland.

So these executions were staged deliberately for the cameras ?

[Goldman] Well, you see...

Joseph needed a propaganda film...

to make himself look useful and to keep his office in business.

and I needed a counterinsurgency operation for the same reason.

Clarify, please.....

Well, there wasn't any insurgency,

but if you have a counter-insurgency, you stay in business because

... everyone assumes the insurgency.

That keeps you looting and raping behind the lines in style

while the rest of the army is dying at the front.

I understand the Americans developed it to fine point in Vietnam.

The Mai Lai massacre is a classic.

Irrelevant, Colonel.

I doubt it, but I'll subside.

In any case, Mimi,

the whole operation was for Joseph and me... a happy coincidence.

[Miriam] Your Honor...

in the interest of justice

we scoured the world of Colonel Dorff's contemporaries to find

even one person who would defend him, who would speak well of him.

We found one.

I call Charles Cohn.

Charlie ?

Charlie, what the hell are you doing here ?

(taunting) You don't want I should hang Charlie ?

... a nice Jewish boy like you?

God forbid.

[Goldman] Got that Mimi ? And he's in my will, inherits a lot .

A true Christian spirit, Charlie Cohn. No pun intended.

What is your defense of Colonel Dorff ?

Oh, I couldn't defend Colonel Dorff.

- I mean all those concentration camps and whatever he did was before I was born.

They had to be exaggerated anyway.

[Goldman] Your Honor, the witness is calling me a liar.

[Charlie] I mean , I can't believe things like that could have happened.

That people could do such things.

They happened.

Then let's say I don't want to believe it.

If I did, I might have to resign the human race.

If you will take a survey of my generation,

I think you'll find that that's the prevailing attitude.

[Goldman] (applauds from the booth) There you're right.

If you do not want to defend Colonel Dorff, then what are you doing here ?

Oh, I don't believe he is Colonel Dorff.

We have incontrovertible proof of that...

.... in his X- rays, past and present,

plus his own admission. Now why should you think that ?

[Goldman]

- Mimi, Mimi...

- We had someone like this in the camp. "Morris something..."

I owned him. The Svengali treatment, you know...

' Prisoner one million and four requests permission to defecate. '

Sometimes I'd give it, sometimes wouldn't.

Colonel Dorff is a Nazi, correct? - Yes.

- Therefore he could not be a Jew.

He could not.

Then Mr. Goldman cannot be Colonel Dorff.

(impatient) I am not following you, Mr. Cohn

Colonel Dorff, (scoffs) Mr. Goldman,

the man in the glass booth is a Jew.

(murmurings from the gallery)

[Judge] You have every right to say that young man, but how do you know it ?

- Because of his sense of humor.

No Gentile could possibly have Mr. Goldman's particular sense of humor.

[Goldman] (admonishing)

Charlie...

[Judge] I'm afraid that is a generality the court can not entertain.

Well then, then there's his mastery of Yiddish.

No matter how talented, I don't think that can be faked by a Gentile.

[Judge] That is one generality supporting another.

Well there's one other thing .... I don't like to say.... but ...

No Gentile could ever be as anti-Semitic as Mr. Goldman is.

- That is all you have to say, Mr. Cohn?

Yes, m'am.

You are free to go, Mr. Cohn. Thank you.

I just wanted to ... help, Mr. Goldman.

It was a good try, Charlie.

And I appreciate your loyalty.

I see you are wearing the vicuna jacket, hm ?

- Yeah, but you gave me...

you told my cousin Rudin to make it for me.

So I did.

- Where did he send the bill ?

- To you, Mr. Goldman.

- Ah ! You see ? You came here to help but you still remembered the jacket.

There's been a lot of time on your shoulders. Never lost your head.

[Miriam] What does this got to do with anything, Colonel ?

Kept your sense of proportions. I'm proud of you, Charlie boy.

Thank you, Mr. Goldman. Mr. Goldman, I ...

- Kiss momma for me. That woman ought to go on a diet !

[Miriam] Your Honor, the question has in fact never been put to Colonel Dorff.

... For the record, may I ?

[Judge] - Proceed...

Are you Jewish, Colonel?

Am I Jewish?

(laughs) (repeats defiantly) Am I Jewish?

I'll tell you this.

My father was pure junker. (trans. 'aristocrat' )

... a hundred and three now.

Still doing great. One of the oldest guys in Germany.

... cousin of Hindenburg.

The Fuehrer never forgot that.

In some ways he was a snob, y'know ?

Am I a Jewish?

My dear madam,

It was I. G. Farben who discovered the site,

... very suitable for synthetic coal, oil, and rubber.

I entered the place laughing; my first mission of that kind.

They handed over their valuables and outer clothing.

I put them in the anti-tank ditch.

I laid them down flat.

I shot them through the nape of the neck gaining confidence at every pull.

Sent in my report, a very honest report... never slept better in my life !

One month later... in the pink, the prime of my life,

I came to a pit: the Adumno, Poland.

Was getting quite cold around there.

I saw one thousand pairs of shoes and five hundred pairs of panties.

Nobody was complaining.... sheep.

One old grandmother, bald as a coot, should have worn wig... picked up a baby.

The baby laughs, the father laughs the mother laughs...

They all looked up at the sky, including the baby.

They couldn't believe it was happening, you follow ?

So I walk over to the mount, I get to the grave,

"Wedge them in," I say, laughing.

Am I Jewish?

We light the cigarettes and we start the shooting,

we fill up the bottom. They're laying obligingly from the top

the blood runs down from their heads.

They're laying cooperatively from the side,

We packed them more and underneath there's a movement...

waving arms and such like...

Naked, they go down the steps,

they climb on the heads of the people below...

and I tell them exactly where.

Am I Jewish?

They lay on the top of their dead and dying

and we SHOT SHOT SHOT! I never missed one!

And in the end, the last lot was so high on the pile ...

that we had to hold them with one hand and shoot with the other

Just day in my life ! Just one clear day to enjoy !

Am I Jewish ?

[Miriam] I call Samuel Weinberg.

Do you recognize the defendant, Mr. Weinberg ?

Could I forget him ?

I dreamed about him every night,

... dreamed of killing him in a hundred ways.

I remember you, Sam.

And I most respectfully question it.

None of them dreamed of any revenge. They couldn't imagine it.

I may not have dreamed of revenge in the camp,

but I am making it up for it now.

(laughs) I'm glad you corroborate me, Sam.

The system is important to remember.

The black people get tough in the good old United States.

Irrelevant, Colonel.

Mr. Weinberg, take the stand.

Nevertheless...

for historical purposes I'll give you the recipe.

You take away decisions,

you take away the future...

You make them feel a meaningless mass.

I do not mean individuals in a mass,

I mean a meaningless mass,

Nobody there to watch, you understand ?

Whatever is left in them that isn't impotent they turn against themselves

just so they can hold on to it.

Sometimes, your honor,

they'd even get happy with it.

There would be a kind of orgy.

They would be so happy to feel a tiny trickle of energy just to be alive...

that they didn't care if you killed them.

It's a great system.

Put them down, down, down as long as you can

as much as you can...

and you will rule the world.

Was that the system, Mr. Weinberg ?

Yes, it was a ritual of depersonalization,

dehumanization, designed to keep us passive, make no trouble for them.

- Please tell us of the day you first saw Colonel Dorff.

We came off the cattle cars...

It had been fourteen hours from Frankfurt...

And we were packed in so we could only stand upright.

Some old people died standing up.

A woman fell asleep and dropped her baby and it died on the floor.

Colonel Dorff was on the train ?

Certainly not. I was waiting for them at the camp.

What did he do there ?

He lined us all up on the gravel,

then he singled out four of the Orthodox, two men and two women,

and he shot each of them in the head in front of us.

Do you confirm that, Colonel ? - Of course... of course.

What took place next, Mr. Weinberg ?

He had four more Orthodox step forward ...

He held his gun on them and forced them to...

urinate on the bodies.

Did they ?

All but one. He died.

[Miriam] He was shot ?

No, he just died. I guess he couldn't do it.

Come on, don't make a hero out of him !

He probably just relieved himself and couldn't piss.

(Judge clicks off Goldman's microphone )

(silent gesturing to the gallery)

I have a question , Mr. Weinberg. Mrs. Rosen... ?

Yes, your honor.

It is suggested by Colonel Dorff's comments about heroism and... (trails off)

it's a question that has always troubled the witnesses of the Holocaust.

Ask it, your honour.

There were hundreds of you assembled in the freight yards of Frankfurt.

- Yes.

How many guards were there.. about ?

Perhaps twenty.

(Goldman's microphone is still off)

[Judge] What year was this ?

[Weinberg] 1944....

So your Jewish neighbors had been disappearing by the thousands for five years....

(silence from the booth)

[Judge] If you so outnumbered the guards,

Why didn't you rush at them and tear their hearts out ?

Some of us would have been killed. Maybe all of us.

Are you saying you didn't know what happened to all those thousands of people ?

Some of us suspected, even so you don't do anything.

Maybe it won't happen to you.

[Judge] Suppose you knew, you actually knew ?

Ah, that would have been different .

but they made sure we didn't.

Our faith was beyond our imagination.

Some people all over the world don't believe it thirty years later.

Your honor, we know now.

They swear they will push us into the sea.

We have learned by experience.

We are prepared to rush at them now.

This time if we go we won't go alone.

(Applause from the gallery)

(Judge rapping gavel)

You are out of order Mrs. Rosen.

Yes, your honor.

[Miriam] You may step down...

(Goldman can be heard again)

God damn, Mimi, you are a pistol !

Another time, another place, I could have been your husband !

You're out of order, Colonel.

You are quite right.

What I meant was, what I was trying to say in my crude way was , um, there were no heroes.

Maybe a few, those we got the first five minutes.

And if there was any heroism left...

it was gone after... in front of each other

we made them screw their wives and everyone else's wives and their children and everyone else's children.

They were too disgraced to be heroes.

Are you finished, Colonel ?

[Goldman] I was just warming up.

Your question, your honor, and it's ancillary question:

How did it happen ? How was it possible ?

I will tell you.

It happened out of love,

Do not make the mistake of thinking it happened out of hate.

It happened out of love,

the most dangerous virtue of all.

[Goldman] I promise you: Love !

(Goldman continues) People of Israel, let me speak to you of our Fuehrer.

Let me speak to you of our Fuehrer with love.

He who answered our German need...

He who rescued us from our most terrible fears,

He who made us believe in ourselves...

His family background was commonplace,

his education negligible, his appearance undistinguished.

To whom did he appeal ?

(as a whisper) To the people.

When he spoke, at first he was shy, he would hesitate

he would stammer, his body stiff his voice hushed,

but then the words came stronger, came steadier, came louder.

His body grew free, he would bang out his right arm like a hammer.

Louder and louder he spoke a torrent, a waterfall.

The climaxes were shouted and shouted out and out and up and beyond...

Und die göttliche Vorsehung wird uns zum endgültigen Sieg führen, (And divine providence will lead us to final victory.)

wir werden bis zum letzten Atemzug des letzten Mannes kämpfen (We will fight until the last breath, until the last man.)

At the end was absolute (whispering) ...silence, ... utter .... silence.

A great wide sweep of the right arm and so to the tremendous cries a vast overwhelming cry

the call of love from the people

Deutschland erwache ! (Germany, wake !)

Heil Hitler! Sieg Heil! SIEG HEIL !

Why, why did we love him?

Because we were afraid and we knew he was afraid.

We did not know what he feared, but he did. And he told us...

And because we loved him, we believed him.

the Jews.

Yah, yah yah, yah Die Juden

They hovered over the Fatherland like vultures.

He told us.

It was marvelous to know finally what frightened us.

To have it all go away to easily.

And therefore to end his fear and our fear... .... we had to destroy them.

That was the need he satisfied in us.

That is why he became our good and wise father.

That is why we loved him.

With the killers of the world at our throats, we loved him.

With the hordes from the East, and the West:

Capitalists, Communists... we loved him.

Starving, we loved him.

With his head wobbling, his left arm slack ... his hands trembling

... we loved him.

His generals lost the him the war.

His subordinates were unworthy.

It was only him, there was no successor.

Hess was mad,

Goering reviled, Himmler rejected.

He, he was loved.

Great king, brave king,

Wait a little while and the days of your suffering will be over.

Already the sun of your good fortune stands behind the clouds

And soon, oh beloved fuehrer, soon the sun will rise upon you.

He never deserted us. All but he.

He only loved to the end.

While he lived, Germany lived.

And the people demanded it.

We never denied him.

People of Israel, we never denied him.

And those who tell you differently, lie in their hearts !

And if, if he were able to rise from the dead...

He would prove it to you, now, all over again !

If only, if only we had someone to rise to,

Someone to throw out our arms to...

Love ! To stamp our feet for....

Someone, this marvelous father ....

.... to tell us what we are afraid of...

and to tell us how to get rid of our fears forever.

for anytime, anywhere, anyplace.

That is whom we will love,

that is for whom we will kill,

and in killing, we would live and be cleansed of fear !

(Goldman sings) ♫ Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, über alles in der Welt ♫

(he trails off in singing)

Well your honor that was a thousand years ago.

There must have been Germans who didn't agree with you. Who hated Hitler.

Why didn't they speak up ?

Proceed, please.

Your Honor,

we have persuaded these two witnesses to come here

to publicly corroborate the identity of Colonel Dorff.

They were his physicians.

[Judge] - Proceed.

I call Dr. Schmidt.

What is your profession, Dr. Schmidt ?

I'm a dental surgeon practicing in Munich.

Was Karl Adolf Dorff your patient ?

- Yah!

But I had no idea he was a war criminal.

Of course, naturally.

Is that Dorff?

Yah ! That is Dorff. - You are certain ?

- Absolutley certain.

Did you make X-rays of Colonel Dorff's mouth in 1943 ?

- Yah, I did.

Are these those X-rays ?

- Yah, these are those X-rays:

You see here on the side you can see the name.

- Thank you.

These are X-rays made of the defendant's mouth

here in Jerusalem last week...

Will you tell us how they compare... ?

They are plates of the same mouth and teeth. The dental work is absolutely identical.

- Thank You. You may step down.

I call Dr. Álvarez of Buenos Aires.

[Miriam] What is your medical specialization Dr. Alvarez ?

I am an orthopedic surgeon.

- Did you perform surgery on Karl Adolf Dorff

in 1946 in Buenos Aires ?

- Yes.

These X-rays were made here last week.

Please compare them to these which came from your office....

(shuffling X-rays)

- They are identical.

Do you recognize the defendant ?

It was a long time ago.

Are both these sets of plates X-rays the defendant ?

- Yes

And that is the defendant

- Yes.

Then is it reasonable to assume that in spite of the passage of years,

you can recognize him as Colonel Dorff ?

- Doctor Alvarez does the defendant resemble Karl Adolf Dorff to you ?

Yes, but...

- But what?

I am a Jew.

That is irrelevant, Doctor.

- No, I, I have to tell you...

- Why is it important for us to know that?

Because...

... that is not Dorff.

(murmurs from the gallery)

(Judge gavels for order)

If that is not Dorff,

then how is it that the X-rays made last week

are duplicates of the X-rays of Dorff you gave our agents from your files ?

I am sorry, but those were not Dorff's X-rays.

Then how did they get in your files ?

A man gave them to me. - What man ?

I didn't know him.

What have you done with Dorff's X-rays ? The real ones ?

I destroyed them.

[Miriam] ....And replaced them with these, why ?

The man gave me ten thousand American dollars.

(more gallery murmuring)

You are dismissed, Doctor Alvarez.

I am sorry.

I am very sorry. I, I could not let it happen.

- Dr. Schmidt,

Will you return to the stand, please ?

(from the gallery) - Nien, I do not wish.

I insist.

- I am a voluntary witness.

[Miriam] - You are in Israel and subject to the laws of Israel,

specifically those concerned with perjury.

There will be no prosecution if you now tell the truth.

Is that Karl Adolph Dorff? - No.

Speak up!

(in English)

No!

(more muttering from the gallery)

What were you paid to replace Dorff's X-rays with those of the defendant ?

- Forty thousand Deutschmark.

- That will be all, Dr. Schmidt.

(Schmidt clicks his heels on leaving)

Your Honor, all these X-rays,

ours made here and these substituted in Munich and Buenos Aires

for those of Colonel Dorff...

are positive identification only of...

... Arthur Goldman ...

Why did you do it, Mr. Goldman, why ? Why ?

- Why did you assume the identity of Colonel Dorff ?

Why do you want to degrade yourself... ?

- Why do you want to take all this guilt upon yourself ?

Why, Mr. Goldman, why ?

[Judge] Mr. Goldman...

[Judge] .... Mr. Goldman...

[Dr. Churchill] Your Honor, the patient...

... the defendant... is unable to respond, he is ill.

I'm afraid so.

It's more than that your honor. He has become a catatonic

Remove the defendant from the booth.

... Gently....

(lock opening)

(the gallery is startled)

(Goldman slams the door shut)

(Guards attempt to force the door)

[Judge interrupts this]

No, no. Let him be. Let him...

(quietly) Mr. Goldman, please, open the door, please open the door

We want to help you, Mr. Goldman,

- Mr. Goldman, please.... please...

[Goldman hears this as a far away echo from the booth)

(it blends into the sounds of Hitler rally rants)

und der Fatherland .... sieg heil !

More sounds in his mind as in those earlier reveries:

(sounds of the jackboots and sirens continue)

Attempts to open the door off screen

A woman cries out

Sirens,

More of the rally speech

Train whistles

(a baby cries )

(screams of pain)

(attack dogs barking)

(more rally speech)

Fur die Fatherland...

Boots marching

The order of Achtung

The countdown.....

FIRE !

Machine gun fire

Rally sounds continue Sieg Heil Sieg Heil

(Finally a repeated Sieg Heil Sieg Heil Sieg Heil... and fades

[Judge] (speaks briefly) ' parol dynamis ' (free him)

[Judge] (bowed in prayer speaks in Hebrew) Sh'ma Yis'ra'eil Adonai Eloheinu Adonai echad

("Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.")