Original subtitles

This programme contains very strong and discriminatory language

The bands came in 1933.

So, you can't say they came with the rise of the Nazis exactly.

The Nazis were on the rise long before that.

To some extent, it was a device that was with me from childhood.

Bringing music into the dramatic moments in my life.

But from '33,

it became an addiction.

Jazz bands, cafe bands, tenors,

crooners, symphony orchestras,

depending on the particular situation and my mood.

A strategy for survival?

Turning the reality into fantasy.

It was a dance band that day.

I'm Always Chasing Rainbows by Charles Harrison

What they were playing was an English song...

..or an American one.

Is there any difference?

♪ At the end of the rainbow, there's happiness

♪ And to find it, how often I've tried... ♪

Dr Halder... I'm coming.

♪ But my life is a race, just a wild goose chase... ♪

Stolen from Chopin, of course.

Fantaisie-Impromptu. Nice.

"Wallowing in self-pity" kind of thing.

Visiting hours are between 7 and 8, Dr Halder.

I live in Frankfurt, you see?

Long journey to Hamburg.

Busy time at the university just now, coming up to examinations.

You can go in and see her for ten minutes or so,

but we are about to serve lunch.

Johnnie!

Oh, Johnnie, listen to me.

Get me out of here!

Another day, and I'll go out of my mind.

Get a chair for Helen.

Helen? Have pity on me!

Helen's not there, Mother.

Well, you get your wife a chair.

This isn't the time or place for jokes, son.

Mother, you're imagining it. She's not here.

She's not standing beside you?

It's just, you're confused just now, that's all.

Oh, listen, are you trying to make me mad altogether?

Helen! Tell him he's got to get me out of here!

Have pity on me!

You've been in a coma, Mother. Thyroid deficiency.

One of the effects, you see things.

Helen's not there?

Are you not there, Helen?

Oh! Wait a minute.

Do you think I'm going out of my mind?

If I'm going out of my mind,

that's a bad business, Johnnie!

It makes you confused, that's all.

Johnnie, come closer to me a minute.

Is anybody listening to us?

No-one's near us.

You're not...

a communist?

You know I could never accept Marxism.

Parts of it, yes.

You're not a communist,

and Hitler's not going to put you in prison.

Your trial's this afternoon...

Oh, for God's sake, Mother!

Oh, thank God!

Thank God you're not. Mother!

Oh, Johnnie, I am going out of my mind.

I've got to get back home.

You can't see, Mother.

What about your house?

With the children and Helen, I couldn't cope with you, Mother.

I would, but how can I ask the children and Helen?

Listen, is this my imagination, too?

This place is a front.

Men come up here to go with women.

This hospital's a front for a brothel?

It's a bad business, Johnnie.

I am going out of my mind!

I could cope with you for a week, Mother.

We'd love to have you for a week or so.

But you know what Helen's like.

She can't even organise the house with just us in it.

You wouldn't be happy, you never are there.

Oh, the best thing is to take 20 or 30 my pills

and finish myself off once and for all?

You could do that.

It's against the law, but... What have I got to live for?

I can't see, my eyes are finished.

Nobody wants me.

I'm better out of it.

What have I got to live for, for God's sake?

Difficult question, that.

Can I help you?

This is Tiergartenstrasse Four.

I'm looking for the Committee for Research into Hereditary Diseases.

Over-Leader Philipp Bouhler.

You've come down the wrong passage.

Ah... I'll show you where his office is, Herr...

Professor - Halder. Is this some new committee?

I've never heard of it before. It's just been set up.

I'll see if the Over-Leader is free.

Ahem.

Will you stop wandering around, man?

Sit down.

Bands.

Have you got to be a doctor, Maurice?

I'm a doctor, it's an automatic response.

Somebody comes to see me as a doctor, I'm a doctor.

Listen, what do you want to do? Pull me into your neurosis?

I've got my own, thanks.

Maurice, how can I come to see you as a doctor, for God's sake?

The question I'm putting to you, as my closest friend -

my only friend -

should I see a psychiatrist?

Bands?

Music generally.

Not very big bands - odd time, the Berlin Philharmonic.

Last Senate meeting, it was the Phil,

playing the storm movement from the Pastoral.

But it's not only the bands, Maurice,

I want to see if I can throw off this neurosis I've been living with

all my life, to give my work

and my family relationships a more healthy basis.

What does that mean?

That's words, Johnnie.

Johnnie, that's verbal shit you're giving me.

We don't work like that, for Christ's sake, you and me.

I want to try!

All my work so far has been based on this bloody anxiety neurosis.

I do, I want to see what work I can do free of it.

What's he talking about? What is this man talking about?

Pe-People don't go to analysts to streamline their lives.

They go to free themselves from agony.

Listen, if you want to know about suffering - just now,

my agony, just now, that wakes me up at 4.00 in a panic...

I can't get lost, you see?

I can't lose myself in people or situations.

Everything's acted out against this bloody music background.

Objectively, intellectually, the Nazis.

Now that's just flag waving to get hold of the masses,

this anti-Jew hysteria.

Now it's got them where they wanted to go...

Could it be some subconscious comment on my loose grip of reality?

The whole of my life is a performance -

is that too glib, do you think, Maurice?

If he knew the unconscious like I do,

nothing's too glib for that bastard.

What I'm saying to you - listen to me...

It's interesting sometimes, listening to other people, I mean,

you don't need to make too big a habit of it, but the odd time...

I'm listening! I'm telling you, I know, for Christ's sake.

Professor Halder!

The Nazis are politicians above everything else, realists.

I'm slightly early. I know that.

I can never time appointments, sorry.

Over-Leader Bouhler has someone with him at present.

He'll see you shortly.

That's all right, that's fine. I have my book here.

This is some new committee, I gather?

You'll have to excuse me. Heil Hitler!

Yeah, of course. Heil Hitler.

Politicians are practical people, I know that.

They're realists, they live in the world as it is.

Let's just have some coffee, Maurice, forget about my problems.

Listen, is it sex, Johnnie?

I'm asking, is it sex?

Of course it's sex. Everything's sex.

Sex is very difficult, Johnnie.

I don't personally know anybody who doesn't find sex difficult,

Johnnie, if that's any comfort. Listen, if it's some...

..potency problems, or-or maybe some sort of taste has developed -

bondage, for example - that's no problem.

Y-You can find somebody with mutual interests, or transvestism.

You'd be amazed how common transvestism is.

I've never been attracted to bondage or flogging,

or anything like that, Maurice.

Probably my sexual imagination's very limited.

Listen, listen, I know how much Germany depends on Jewish brains.

Jewish business.

Hitler's got all the power he needs now, they're bound to drop all

that racial shit they had to throw around to get their votes.

They can't afford not to. I know that...

..but I can't believe it.

Do you see what I'm getting at?

Sorry, I-I'm developing an obsession, I...

I'm in a bloody panic state. Look at me.

I'll get you a drink, Maurice, relax. You're right.

All that anti-Jewish rubbish,

that's just balloons they threw up in the air to distract the masses.

You're right. I know I'm bloody right, I'm telling you.

But my bloody anxiety neurosis has fixed onto it.

And I-I do shit all about it.

Listen, what do I want to run off to England for? Or Shanghai?

Shanghai might be interesting.

China.

This is my home.

I love Frankfurt. I love Hessen.

I love the whole bloody place.

Take a bit of cheesecake, Maurice. I'm a German. I was born here.

Maurice, you're right, the racialist programme is not practical.

They'll drop it, they'll have to drop it.

I said, I know I'm right, I know I'm bloody right.

I just, I don't want any cheesecake.

This is my home.

Every morning before breakfast,

I take a walk in Nizza Park, along the river.

Yes, you're right, talking of impotence complexes...

I'm telling you about my feelings for Frankfurt.

Walking about Frankfurt in the morning, looking at the river and

the trees, and the wonderful buildings, you know...

..the pride, for Christ's sake, Y-You're...

You're proud to be a German, to live in a city like this,

walking past the cathedral... He's a nice man.

I love him, but I cannot get involved with his problems.

I bet you he has no problems in bed with his wife.

I've got problems now - me. My problem is immediate.

It's an urgent problem!

You're right, Maurice, It's a beautiful city to live in.

Was that you just now having a visitation from one of your bands?

I do that...

..from time to time, I talk to myself in my mind.

It's another addiction.

About me?

More or less.

Negative? Resentment?

Negative and positive, Maurice.

This morning, walking along Deer's Ditch,

passing Goethe's house, I thought about you.

"Wh-What a worthwhile man that is, Johnnie Halder - good!

"I love him." You know, Goethe refused to send Beethoven money

when he was desperate, dying... Don't talk about Beethoven, Johnnie.

Never knew this until a few weeks ago,

but the week Hitler became Chancellor,

happened to be going through some papers in the library,

I found this letter - Beethoven writing to Goethe

for a few marks, desperate, last days before he died.

Swine wouldn't send him a penny.

Ignored his letter.

Do you know what's happened? It's just come to me, John.

Hitler's perverted the whole nature of our relationship.

He's buggered up one of the few friendships I valued.

That's not good, John.

Failing - I don't like failing.

Failing throws me into a panic state. It's not good.

I'm envious. I'm bloody envious.

What, of my state, Maurice? You're safe!

That's what I'm talking about.

Y-You can stay in Frankfurt for the rest of your life.

End up Professor, Vice-Chancellor.

Whereas I can't...

Wh-Whereas I can't predict what pillow I'll be resting

my head on tonight. Oh, that's panicking, Maurice!

It really is. It is, you're right. Next week...

Maurice, we've established they've got to drop the anti-Jew

programme in the long run for the survival of the bloody state.

I know that, and you know that.

But does bloody Hitler?

That's it, it's not neurosis at all. It's bloody reality.

The night the girl turned up at my house...

..there was a cafe trio playing Wagner.

Star of Eve by Richard Wagner

I had difficulty stepping through the debris of

Helen's battle with the day.

Helen was lying in front of the fire,

reading a biography of Telemann,

waiting for me to cook the supper for the kids.

Johnnie...

..I'm useless.

I've spent all afternoon trying to play those triplets

against crochets in that Beethoven sonata.

Look at the state the house is in.

Oh - ooh, I didn't even clean my teeth this morning.

I'm a slut.

I've no idea why you love me.

Do you, love? Yes, I love you.

I bought smoked ham, panisse and bread.

Will you have it at the fire if I clear the scores and newspapers,

Shall we try a maid, once more?

I know you find it hard having strangers living with us.

Over-Leader Bouhler will see you now, Herr Professor.

Thank you.

Heil Hitler! Heil Hitler.

Sit down, Herr Professor.

Make yourself comfortable.

Please, if you wish to smoke, be at ease to do so.

Oh, thank you, Over-Leader. I don't smoke.

Before we begin, I wish this to be clearly understood.

Everything that is discussed between us in this room

is absolutely top secret.

This is understood? Absolutely, Over-Leader.

Apart from knowing something of your work and your record

since you joined us,

your superiors have recommended you without reservation

as a person of total loyalty to the State and National Socialism.

Would you consider this an accurate description

of your position and commitment?

I-I've written about this, Over-Leader.

Erm, I am committed to using whatever abilities and talents

I might have, for the betterment of the lives

of the people around me.

Are you warm, Herr Professor?

It's a hot day.

Slightly, yes. Please, take your jacket off.

Make yourself comfortable.

We've called you here in the role of a consultant.

A comrade who we can trust and who is, at the same time

something of a figure in the academic world.

We've been reading your novel about life in a home for the aged.

You raise very interesting moral questions in it, Halder.

Some of your conclusions - fascinating, profoundly.

It was a subject close to me at the time.

I have coffee at 2.30.

Would you like coffee? Please, yes.

I'll arrange to have an extra cup brought in.

In the meantime, this is a letter I'd like you to read.

PAGES RIFLING

It was sent direct to the Chancery for the attention of The Leader.

It's from the father of a deformed child.

Even your wife, Herr Professor, not even a hint of what is

discussed here must be communicated to even your wife.

Not a word.

This is a direct order from the top leadership.

You understand this?

Fully, Over-Leader, yes.

John.

I'm sorry.

Why should you be sorry?

I don't mind living in chaos. It's all right.

The children are used to it.

You come back from a hard day at work, and...

..I overwhelm you with self-pity.

Yes.

You shouldn't stand this.

Me turning your house into a shit house, Johnnie.

Tell you what, after tea, we'll clean it up.

And I wish you wouldn't buy those pastries.

It's just indulging my greed and making me fat.

Well, don't eat them. Oh, for Christ's sake.

Why do you love me?

I don't know why I love you - have you got to?

I can't even look after your bloody kids.

Oh, Father rang.

Behaviourist psychiatrist.

Losing clients left, right, and centre to Jewish Freudians.

All right, now Hitler was in.

He wants to speak to you tonight.

He says "the time is long past

"for being pure and self-righteous.

"For the sake of your children and me,

"you must make a definite decision to join the National Socialists.

"With your Army record, they'll welcome you with open arms."

Actually, he heard from somebody very high up...

..Goebbels has read your Faust And Goethe In Weimar.

I was thinking about Hitler on the way home.

He's right.

You'll get nowhere in the university now,

unless you join the Party, Johnnie.

Father thinks you could even lose your lectureship.

Listen, you're not to leave me, you understand?

Whatever it is, you and the kids,

they're the whole basis of my life.

Yes, I know.

I know that, dear.

I'll never leave you, you'll never leave me.

Thought I'd tell you.

I'm sorry.

I'm tired, Johnnie.

I'll be up soon.

Just waiting for this student.

I love you. I love you.

I had to keep saying that to her for my sake, not to pacify her.

And the girl turned up with Richard Tauber?

It's very complex - unless you bear with me, Maurice,

and follow every strand, you're not going to get anywhere near

the core of what's happening to me -

if there's anything to get to the core of, anyway.

She had an appointment with me in the morning,

so the tenor turning up at my office was clearly related

to her coming to see me.

It could have been Richard Tauber.

He was singing You Are My Heart's Delight.

♪ You are my heart's delight... ♪

Oh, yeah! Probably was Tauber.

♪ I love the beach... ♪

That's what I find hard, Herr Doctor, trying to find

what it has to do with life,

Faust, or practically everything on the literature course.

Goethe especially!

Though obviously, he's Germany's greatest writer.

There must be something missing in me.

Tell me about the troubles in your lodgings.

You see, it's ridiculous.

I find what happens to me in my digs -

I don't know why - profound, important anyway.

And what happens in Faust, banal, trivial.

How am I going to get a degree with an attitude like that?

That's what worries you, then?

We're all in this flat in the Altstadt...

Next door to where Goethe was born. Oh.

There's a dozen of us in this flat with Frau Stagl.

She runs it for some capitalist.

A Jew? Probably.

Anyway, they're also pathetic - and interesting.

There's a man who has an obsession with trains.

He plays them all night.

And a couple of days ago, one of the lodgers smuggled

a woman into his room.

You should have seen her, at least 45.

I thought, "Poor soul, you must be desperate".

I see that, yes.

Faust, with his deep abstract thoughts in his study,

conjuring up rather tedious, depressing spirits,

spouting poetry, and the devil with his cheap conjuring tricks,

and your fellow lodger with his train set.

What am I going to do, Herr Doctor?

I'm never going to get my exams like this, am I?

You didn't find my book on Goethe helpful?

Oh, I find your novels more real...

Sorry, it's just me.

And this man who keeps knocking at your door?

Oh, it's understandable, he gets confused.

You see, there are a couple of prostitutes in the house, too.

Listen, I want to think about this.

You've raised an important point,

the contemporary significance of Faust to your generation.

Why don't we have another one-to-one seminar very soon?

This evening?

Are you busy this evening? Actually, he's quite nice.

The man who keeps knocking at my door.

He's very tall, lovely white teeth.

It's just, he gets on my nerves, waking me up.

I mean, he's not a rapist or anything.

He takes "no" for an answer very calmly, you know?

"Well, if you're not inclined, that's all right.

"Pity. Sorry for troubling you."

Oh! I'm doing it again.

I'm sorry.

Why am I coming out with all this rubbish, Herr Doctor?

She touched my hand.

No. Our clothes accidentally brushed together,

my jacket and her cardigan.

That was all.

I would like to come tonight very much, if you can spare

the time, Herr Doctor.

That would be wonderful.

PHONE RINGS

John!

It's like a prison here.

I've got to get back to my own house.

I'm getting everything organised, Mother, there was a burst pipe.

The whole house is damp just now.

Well, it doesn't matter if there's food.

Just as long as I can get back to my own house.

I've the plumbers in!

Why can't I come to you for a week?

You come to me for a week - what happens after the week?

No. The best thing to do is to do away with myself.

That'll be a finish to the whole problem!

PHONE HANGS UP

She's late.

Your mother turned up, this girl, and the band?

You had a crowded evening.

Richard Tauber came back for a final chorus, too.

Maurice, listen, is nothing I touch real?

Is it that my whole life is like that?

I do everything more or less like everybody else does.

But I don't feel it's real, like other people.

On the other hand, could be...

..other people probably feel the same thing.

Oh, Christ, maybe I am in a bad way.

So, I'm entitled to pity myself a bit.

There's the doorbell.

♪ You are my heart's delight... ♪

She was very pale and lovable.

That was my first impression.

Standing by the doorway... wet.

And her hair was dripping... and her coat soaked through.

I'll put more coal on the fire. Are you soaked through?

Take my dressing gown. I don't mind being wet.

I'm going to give you a cognac.

Will you take it? Yes, please.

Thanks.

Frau Halder's in bed - doesn't mean you're late.

She goes to bed early.

One of her pleasures is reading in bed.

Frau Stagl kept me back.

She had an accident. Oh, nothing much!

She burnt her arm, cooking.

I took her to the hospital to get it dressed.

She's fine now, but it took up all evening waiting around.

Would you like some smoked ham and bread?

I was actually going to have some myself, just before you came.

Actually, I am hungry!

Please.

Shall I help you? No, I've got everything here.

That girl is definitely after me.

Am I after her?

That's the question.

RAIN FALLING

Could be.

Listen, you can't go all the way back to your digs tonight.

It's still pouring. I'll bring you down some blankets.

That couch is very comfortable. I've slept in it myself.

Herr Doctor, I couldn't sleep here.

And a pillow - we haven't got to the core of the problem yet, anyway.

You see, I don't believe in evil.

Not like Goethe seems to.

Do you?

That's what we have to talk about.

That could be a way into Faust for you.

Well, the examiners generally are looking for the same old stock

answers to the stock questions.

If a student does come up with a really original approach,

showing that he's taking the work they take seriously

as seriously as himself...

She's rousing me!

Christ, she really is.

Where there's life, there's hope.

I always thought there was a major flaw in me.

Love.

Never thought it was in me, love.

To really love.

If you give me the blankets, I'll make up the bed, Herr Doctor.

Yeah, I'll get them for you. Do you like two pillows, or one?

I'd like two, please.

Herr Doctor, delighted to meet you.

Major! Please come in.

You wish to join us. First-class.

Your father-in-law, Dr Brunau, telephoned me.

He speaks so highly of you.

You joined the Nazis? You? For fuck's sake!

I told you I joined the Nazis.

The reality's coming to me.

Jesus, Johnnie, God in heaven.

Fact of life.

Anne.

I think I'd better tell you this.

The last few months you've been coming to me for seminars...

..what's happened is, erm,

I've been getting emotionally attached to you.

Have you?

Honestly?

I don't know how it's happened. I have.

Falling In Love Again by Marlene Dietrich

♪ Never wanted to

♪ What am I to do?

♪ I can't help it

♪ Love's always been my game...

John!

I love you!

I can't believe it.

I love you!

I've loved you for months - and you love me!

I love you!

And you lost your erection.

I was a bit overwhelmed by her response.

Panic? A bit.

Yes.

Yes, I was frightened. In a panic.

What I let myself in for - I was bloody terrified.

The last person I wanted to hear was Marlene Dietrich!

I've never fancied her, anyway.

I have a good wife.

Reasonably attractive.

Three first-class children, a home, a growing reputation

as a critic and a novelist.

I'm on the brink of committing myself to the National Socialists -

a completely new phase in my life.

To get myself involved in an affair with a woman...

You understand?

What was I going to do?

I had, with a couple of sentences,

unleashed the floodgates of a woman's heart,

as Goethe might have said.

Two women love me, my God!

My children... what would become of them?

Where could I go? Where would we live, Anne and I?

In that sordid lodging house? It didn't even have a proper garden.

I needed a garden! And Helen, how could I leave Helen?

You know how you get when you jump into the sea for the first time.

Like that.

With the combination of guilt, brandy, over-fatigue,

and general tension, on top of ever-present anxiety neurosis,

I fell asleep.

When I woke up, Helen was up,

reading some new book on keyboard technique.

I woke up and couldn't get to sleep again.

Did I wake you?

That student turned up last night.

Soaking wet, it was pouring,

so she's downstairs in the lounge.

I gave her some blankets.

That's all right.

Will she be warm enough?

I gave her some blankets.

Helen, I wanted to talk to you.

I decided to join the Party.

I had a long talk with your father. He's right, basically.

You told me that.

Who's going to give her breakfast?

I'll give her breakfast.

I didn't tell you about my decision.

I assumed, in the end, you'd be sensible.

I'm doing it because I love you. You know that.

If it was just myself, I'd take the chance.

I'm not 100% sure about Hitler.

You understand that I love you and the children. I know that.

That's the whole foundation of my life. That's good.

I'll never leave you. Why should you?

You won't leave me?

Why should I?

Plenty of people leave each other.

Plenty of people get knocked down by buses.

That's a good observation.

Well, they do.

I'm glad.

Father'll be glad you've joined the Party.

It's a real commitment.

And you're not doing it just to keep your job or to get on in life.

Am I not?

You see... I don't do anything well, do I? I'm useless.

You're a good wife.

I don't think I am. You are.

You're the best wife in the world.

I love you. Do you?

You're my sweetheart, aren't you?

Am I? You are!

What are you? Your sweetheart.

I brought the coffee in myself, to avoid interruptions.

Halder...

..would it surprise you if I said Dr Goebbels himself

suggested your name to us?

He drew our attention to your novel.

He was profoundly moved by it.

"Objectivity," he said,

"combined with compassion and humanity".

They got me at a bad time.

With my mother in the state she got herself in,

and the state I got in at her state,

I had to write all the guilt out in a pro-euthanasia novel.

You read the letter?

I read it. Yes.

Moving.

The Leader himself has looked over your book.

Do you know that?

Would you like to read his comment?

Look.

In his own writing.

God forgive me, the human bloody being...

..the surge of pride in me reading that scrawled sentence

in Adolf's shaky hand.

It said, "Written from the heart".

Bavarian mountain band?

While Anne was in the bathroom,

and the Bavarian Mountain Ensemble were playing their heart out,

I kept moving from panic...

..to romantic plans of going back to nature with my beloved.

♪ We will go to Schwartzwald, Anne and I

♪ There's a stretch of forest there

♪ We will build a rough hut warm and dry

♪ Shoot wild boar and deer... ♪

I'll buy a rifle, 'course!

It was irresponsible of me, in my position,

to encourage her.

♪ A goat, a goat, we'll buy a goat

♪ Can you keep a goat in the forest... ♪

Well, why shouldn't you?

I'm not talking about illegally living in a forest, obviously!

♪ I'll have to buy some land

♪ Four or five acres, sell the house

♪ Split the money two ways... ♪

Two ways, between Helen and I.

♪ I could gather folk tales from the natives

♪ Make a book from them

♪ We would each drink and make love upon the land... ♪

Under the sun, or the stars,

whatever is about at the time of the activity.

♪ With the Bavarian mountain band... ♪

Oh, I'm not sure if...

Are you musical? Do you play anything?

I don't play anything, no.

I like music, but I never seem to be able to stand more than

the first movement of anything.

Do you play?

Obviously somebody does, with all that sheet music around.

I-I don't play, no.

Look, will I take you into the university with me this morning,

or do you want to go back to your lodgings first?

I still can't believe it.

All this time I've been thinking, "He'll never look at me".

And I've been on your mind all the time.

Oh, you stood out, you see, as an exceptional person.

That's what drew me to you. You are.

No question about it. I was drawn to you...

I like you very much, but...

..you have to understand...

Yes, I want to understand.

I want to understand everything about you.

When I said to you last night how much I liked you...

..you might have got the wrong impression.

Sometimes I can be very inarticulate.

Honestly?

I feel it.

You love me.

Last night, I felt it.

This morning, you're fighting it.

I know it must be frightening for you, I know that.

Are you frightened, my love?

Er, I don't know where I am, no.

Last night, you said you were emotionally involved with me.

You loved me.

How could I not love you, my beautiful darling?

You see, it's the children.

I love them.

I could never leave my children.

Being a father, you see?

No, I can see that. You love them, they love you.

I suppose your wife, being what she is, not being able to cope.

You've had to be father and mother to them.

They love their mother, too.

Do you love her, do you think?

Do you still love her?

Outsiders might think, with all the...

..rubbish littering the floors, and my having to cook the meals

and send the children to school,

and not being able to invite people to the house without having

a major cleaning operation...

John, you are drowning.

I'm not saying that because I love you and I need you.

You are drowning.

Erm...

..I came down for more coffee.

Is there any hot?

I'm-I'm sorry the place is such a pigsty.

I-I've not been coping with things.

Did you tell me her name, John?

Anne.

Did you make anything for me, John?

I fried you liverwurst.

I was just going to do an egg for you.

Anne.

Were you warm enough here?

Jewish wedding song.

I'm standing in the square by the fountain, paralysed.

Not physically - whatever part of me is responsible for decision-taking

seems to have gone out of action on my way to join the Party.

Understandable, totally understandable.

You make a deal with yourself one minute,

totally repudiate it the next.

I had to see Anne first, before I could make a definite decision.

Christ, I'm in a classic, neurotic relationship.

My best-loved friend is a Nazi.

Anne...

You see, I'm not a political person.

I wish I could help you.

I've never been able to get involved in politics.

Just now, whatever you do would be all right to do.

I couldn't make the move, you see, until we talked about it.

I'll try to help you as much as I can.

I hate them being so down on the Jews, I hate that.

Their ideal might be a Germany without Jews.

The reality is the Jews are part of Germany. That's not real.

A Germany without Jewish doctors, scientists, chemists,

and capitalists - for Christ's sake, without Jewish capitalists?

I think, you see, people just survive and live.

It doesn't seem to matter what kind of government people have.

They've survived through all kinds of terrible times, haven't they?

You find someone you love, you have a family,

you look after them, and you try not to harm anybody.

Isn't that what happens?

In the end, you have to survive.

And the less you harm people in survival...

It's not only survival, is it?

Joining the Nazis?

If people like us join them, instead of keeping away from them,

being purist, and push them a bit,

toward humanity...

What if they push us the other way?

Yes.

That could happen.

Yes, well, if it did, I'd get out.

No question about it, I'd pull myself away.

I'd get out of the country.

We'd get out of the country.

What are you thinking about, sweetheart? It's just...

..it's not good being frightened for yourself when you're on your own,

but being frightened for someone you love?

It's all right. We'll help each other, won't we?

As long as we're together.

I feel that.

It's the first time I've felt anything like that in my whole life.

Doesn't matter what happens around us,

as long as we have each other.

Another letter we received only this week on the same theme.

The Chancery is continually receiving requests from relatives

of people with incurable mental illnesses,

for the Leader's permission for mercy deaths for these patients.

This is just another aspect of the way Germans are beginning

to come to terms with the world - and the human situation as it is,

throwing away superstition and mysticism,

and self-indulgent sentimentality.

Which does not always lead to humanity and compassion.

Halder, we want a paper from you, arguing along the same lines

as you do in your novel.

The necessity for such an approach to mercy killings of the incurable

and hopelessly insane on the grounds of humanity and compassion.

The novel came out of a direct experience

of my mother's senile dementia.

Exactly, and that's what makes your analysis so potent.

As the Leader says, "From the heart".

I would add, "From the mind".

I take it the opinions expressed so clearly in your book, Halder,

are from personal conviction?

Below a certain level of the quality of human life, yes,

I can't see it worth preserving.

From the individual sufferer's point of view and his family's, yes.

Look here, Professor, let me be open and frank with you.

I could rest much easier in my bed

with your participation in this project.

You and I know how these things can get out of hand.

There are certain elements in the Party.

And, aside from that aspect, the inhumanities that can happen

in hospitals and other medical institutions,

if we have you with us.

You follow me?

This would be for me a guarantee that the whole question of humanity,

in the carrying out of this project, would never be lost.

From the initial stages of planning

to the final implementation of the scheme.

I'll draft out a paper for you, Over-Leader, in the next week.

That is excellent, Halder, first-class.

Now, one copy only, and to be handed personally to me

as soon as you have it.

♪ Drink! Drink! Drink!

♪ To eyes that are bright as stars when they're shining on me

♪ Drink! Drink! Drink!

♪ To lips that are red and sweet as the fruit on the tree...

It could have been the atmosphere of the place.

The Nationalist Socialist Office was in this great house,

belonged once to some great nobleman,

marble hall, chandeliers...

Forgive me, it was a wonderful feeling, joining.

You've no idea the emotional heights it lifted me to.

♪ Here's a hope that those bright eyes will shine

♪ Lovingly, lovingly, soon into mine...

Listen, we're old comrades!

Oh, yes, I suppose we are!

You went into the Hessian Life Guards first - remarkable.

I'm not sure how I got in, you see,

some confusion when I joined up in 1916.

It's a terrible thing.

But it's a wonderful thing, getting into uniform.

When I first got into my uniform in 1916,

all the emotion came back to me.

Now, now, for the first week, Martin and I -

a quasi-emotional homosexual relationship, to be frank about it,

this friend I had, Martin -

we went round for the first week in uniform,

looking for officers to salute.

It was one of the most exciting experiences of my youth,

walking around Stuttgart, saluting officers.

Some of the swine wouldn't even look at us.

Turned their heads in the opposite direction.

Now... joining the Party...

Not just joining, being taken in like a brother...

Herr Doctor, you can't just join the SA.

How can a man like you join the SA?

That amuses me, the modest opinion you have of yourself.

I-I'll be honest with you, Major,

I hadn't heard of the SS.

Ah, the SS, you see, Herr Doctor...

♪ May those lips that are red and sweet

♪ Tonight with joy my own lips meet.. ♪

Let me tell you something.

I never tell the usual applicants this, you understand?

John Halder, the Goethe man.

My wife is a great reader.

I'm sure she's read several of your books.

And your father, The Roman Man - now, that book, I read.

Obviously such a deep book as that, I just got the gist of it.

But that wonderful discovery he made,

the true and pure German culture

can be found only in that part of Germany

the Romans failed to contaminate.

See? I remember bits of it.

I want to talk to you in detail about the SS.

They loved me, you see?

I was an old soldier, and the Goethe Man.

If they love you like that,

you can't help loving them back.

Freddie, the Major, gave me smoked ham and baked potatoes,

and Frankfurt cider.

Better than wine, eh? Our apfelwein.

The Kaiser had his own elite regiment, as you know,

the Imperial Guard.

So, of course, we have our elite - the SS.

Clearly, that is the only place for you -

in the elite, along with us.

He was such a nice, open man.

His father was a schoolteacher, so was his wife's father.

He wasn't a cliche Nazi ex-jailbird thug.

And he told me what Hitler said to him.

I can still hear his voice.

That Austrian accent.

Pleasant, quiet, concerned -

he was so concerned about us.

"I should like to make you two pledges.

"I will never give a command to march against the lawful

"government of Germany -

"that is, I will never attempt a second time

"to come to power by force."

We all looked at him.

Everybody was surprised.

This is 1932 I'm talking about.

The terrible conditions - inflation, unemployment,

children in the streets in winter, without shoes.

"And I promise you,

"I will never give you an order which goes against your conscience."

"I will never give you an order

"which goes against your conscience."

And the way he said it, you see...

♪ Drink! Drink! Drink!

♪ Let every true lover salute his sweetheart

♪ Drink! Drink! Drink!

♪ To eyes that are bright as stars when they're shining on me... ♪

♪ Here's a hope that those bright eyes will shine

♪ Lovingly, lovingly soon into mine... ♪

Listen to me, Nazi cunt.

I'm fucking talking to you, you hear me?

Maurice, I'm listening. Oh, for fuck's sake!

This obscenity, Johnnie...

I never use obscene language like this.

I don't need to use obscene language.

I don't mind the obscenities and the abuse, it's understandable.

But I want to get down to business and go home.

The whole situation throws me into panic.

Coming here to a Jewish house -

that's a highly dangerous action, for God's sake.

What was I saying to you, Johnnie? I got lost in abuse and obscenities.

I've forgotten what I was saying. The whole situation depresses me.

That was one of the highlights of my week -

a quiet, relaxing evening of communication with my one friend

over a Jewish dinner, completely destroyed.

I can't even speak to him on the telephone now,

without being thrown into panic.

You're my one bloody friend, you know that?

And he's got to be Jewish.

Get me these exit papers, then, Nazi fuck.

Fucking do something about this fucking great friendship,

then, for fuck's sake! Jesus, wh-what am I doing?

D-Don't pay attention to it, Johnnie.

Th-This is just my filthy unconscious coming to the surface,

because all my defences have totally collapsed.

Nothing to do with my real feelings for you I love you.

I do, Jesus, I do.

Maurice, how can I get you exit papers?

If I could, I would. You know that.

I love him. No question about it.

I love him, but I'm not going to prison for him.

Couldn't stand going to a Nazi prison.

Look at this meal...

You're a fucking Nazi SS officer, for fuck's sake.

You can find me some way of getting me out this fucking country!

Oh, for fuck's sake, listen to the fucking language

pouring out of me!

Maurice, this is a circular discussion leading nowhere.

You know that. Come with me.

If you came with me, I-I could stand leaving Germany.

Th-That would make it bearable, huh? If we were together.

Listen, I know both of us.

W-We don't take to all that many people,

so, what kind of life would it be here without me?

You're in an anxiety state, Maurice. You know that.

"Engulfed in a subconscious storm" - your own words.

I'm lost, Johnnie.

Totally, utterly lost.

Do you know what's happening to me?

Look at this meal.

Maurice, we sit down to a meal that would cost a worker,

if he's lucky, what he earns in a week.

That's the real issue just now.

More - the wine alone's a week's wages.

We can't go on like that, can we?

You as a socialist? Me as a socialist?

How long can you go on crying over the poverty of the workers

while you're living off the fat of the land?

Johnnie, J-Johnnie, this is my fucking home.

I-I'm, like, in mourning. I-I'm bereaved, you know that?

The idea of being cut off for the rest of my life

from my place in Bursinn.

I've put up nesting boxes for the spring.

Went out and bought special nesting boxes for woodpeckers.

We were looking forward to woodpeckers nesting at

the back of our cottage.

I want to talk to him about that cottage.

I want to talk to you about the cottage.

I come alive there, the trees and the green...

I-I was fucking born here.

My-My father was born here. My grandfather.

Listen, I don't even like Jews,

Well, I like my wife and kids, but generally?

I don't like anybody all that much. Yeah, well, that's true.

L-Listen, you've got to help me get out of...

Are you listening to me? You've got to help me.

We've both got to get out of here.

John!

Oh, John, for God's sake, where am I?!

Where do you think you are, Mother?

It's no use.

Take me back to the hospital.

I'll never manage to live here on my own, take me back!

I'm collapsing. Just try, Mother.

Try to get a picture of your house in your mind.

Am I in the kitchen?

No. You're in the bedroom.

I'm in the bedroom?

Oh, it's no use.

I can't take it in, I'm finished.

I-I'll go back to the hospital.

OK, I'll take you over to the bed again.

Just try to picture it in your mind.

Your room.

Put your hand on the bed...

Oh, it's no use, I tell you, I'm finished!

You've got your own life to lead, son.

Go back to Frankfurt.

Go into some institution.

Follow the edge of the bed, Mother, hand, think!

I can't think, it's all going from my brain.

Think of the room. You remember the room!

It's all going through my brain! I tell you, I can't!

Oh...

Oh. Oh!

This is the bedroom wall.

And-And that's the bed cabinet.

Try again, Mother.

Work out what it is. How can that be the cabinet?

It-It's the table! That's right!

And that's the way to the door.

That's the window.

Oh...

Hold That Tiger

What about these? What's that, Private Bach?

They're in French! I can't make them out.

Recherche du Temps Perdue. Eh?!

"Remembering The Past".

Well, they might as well go in, too!

We don't want to waste any time in the past, do we?

Fancy French dish in for you, bonfire!

Brandy, Johnnie?

Good party, Freddie.

Freddie, I need to speak to you.

John, why didn't you tell us about your accommodation problem?

John and Anne have nowhere to live.

We'll find somewhere. No, John needs to live somewhere

where there are fields and open spaces.

I'm just going to have a quick word with Johnnie, Liz, my love.

No! Where are you going? We're going to choose our May Queen.

Choose Anne! Why can't I have women like that falling for me?

Freddie, they need somewhere to live, desperately.

We'll organise that, don't worry about it.

We'll be choosing the May Queen and May King at 9 precisely.

I just want a minute with him, Liz.

What a pleasant place this is, Doctor.

It hasn't been a private residence for some years.

All the courtyards and the archways.

Sold for an orphanage, then it became a hospital, Herr Professor.

S-So, your field is literature, then? I see.

I think Berlin sees me as some kind of humanity expert.

My role is to look around, assess the arrangements,

make some recommendations on general humane grounds.

Yes, I understand. I see.

We had thought, of course, you were a medical man.

What would you like to do first? Meet the staff?

I think I'll just wander around, if you don't mind.

Johnnie, I'm going to let you into this to show I trust you.

Both of us, our records -

we don't need to goose step around the square shouting "Heil Hitler"

to prove we're good Party people.

Look here, an order's come through for you.

I'd rather we didn't make it an order, you know that,

this particular order,

because I can understand how you feel about it.

We all have our vices, our private secrets.

Not a man hasn't something he doesn't want anybody else

to know about.

If it's an order, give it to me. It's all right, Freddie.

I'm letting you into MY vice, Johnnie.

Records.

Gramophone records? That's it.

Military marches?

That's what it says on the labels.

See?

My Very Good Friend The Milkman, by Fats Waller

♪ My very good friend the milkman... ♪

Jazz? I changed all the labels. Took me weeks.

You know the Party line on decadent Negroid jungle, swamp music.

Opium.

I'll tell you something.

I know this for a fact.

Great man up in Berlin, know his favourite film?

Jew Charlie Chaplin.

Watching Charlie Chaplin till midnight every night.

I can't help it. I've been playing jazz since I was called up.

Had a sergeant in my squad, got killed in Verdun,

he played the fiddle.

He played the blues. Soothed me.

I'm trying to listen to the music.

Christ knows you need soothing in this bastard job at times.

Building up a country from fuck all.

What did those Social Democrats leave us? A fucking shit heap.

I'm sorry.

I don't usually talk like that, but it's true.

It's a nice tune.

What else can you say?

I haven't any real friends.

I haven't. Have you?

Apart from your woman, I mean.

Between you and me, most of the other comrades -

I mean, they're good lads,

but they piss me off after an hour or so.

Only one who doesn't seem to piss me off's you.

Ha! Probably because you're educated.

Oh, I don't know. At times, you piss me off, too, of course.

Oh, mutual! Oh-ho-ho! I know I piss you off.

No mistake about that.

That's the list.

Oh, I like him.

I like everybody.

It's just books. It's a list of books.

Oh, I see.

I'm ordered to organise

the book-burning ceremony at the university.

When it came through, you see, I said to myself,

"Johnnie's got deep feeling about books.

"This is going to cut him deeply."

I can see that.

It's a long list.

Thomas Mann, Remarque...

I read that All Quiet On The Western Front.

Don't ask me why they've done a downer on that.

That's exactly how it was on the front, wasn't it?

There's a positive aspect to all this.

Got to make a supreme effort to look positively.

One of the basic defects of university life is learning

from books, not from experience.

Life, involvement, commitment,

agony and panic at being thrown into the storm

that's the human condition.

Mind you, I can see where they're getting at

burning Freud's filthy shit.

Pervert, isn't he?

Trying to make out everybody's as twisted and as perverted as he is.

If you looked at it from the philosophical standpoint,

that the burning is symbolic of a healthy new approach

to university learning -

man does not live by books alone.

All right, Johnnie.

Can I leave it to you?

As long as I can keep MY copies, Freddie.

I've got my jungle music, haven't I?

♪ Gently floating, through the evening

♪ Hear this song for you... ♪

You might think, "What a bloody ridiculous thing to be done,

"writing out a recipe for goulash for your wife,

"who you're about to leave".

But if you think about it, it's sensible enough if she can't cook.

Anyway, it was something practical to do

while she was practising Schubert.

It's a simple recipe, Helen.

See, I've written it out in simple stages.

John, you're so pale.

You don't look well.

Oh, that's a good approach. Excellent. Go on.

Make it really difficult!

Be understanding!

I am very sorry for that woman.

All my compassion goes out to her. I'm failing her.

I am failing myself, even worse.

Are you just going to leave me one recipe before you run off

to the forest with her?

Helen, I don't know what I'm doing. Who says I'm running off?

Don't know if I'm going anywhere.

I just wrote the recipe because it's easy.

All you need's a tin of meat. It looks easy enough on paper.

I'm not sure there's not something wrong with me.

I don't seem to be able to co-ordinate things.

I get obsessed with the wrong order.

When I make a stew, I get obsessed with the potatoes

and cook them before the meat.

I don't know what I'm going to do.

Oh, I hate it when you suffer like this. Look at you.

Why have you turned so bloody understanding all of a sudden?

I don't know, have I?

I'm just lost, that's all.

The worst thing...

You know what the worst thing is?

John!

Helen! I'll be up in a minute, Mother!

I need to go to the toilet!

What was the worst thing? John!

You've been to the bloody toilet!

Well, I need to go again!

Do I have to have set hours when I go and don't go?

I'll take her. She's my mother.

You take her all day.

Stop being so nice to me, will you?

I'm coming!

I'm here, Mother. Oh, I'm very sorry.

I can't get my bowels to make a timetable for me, son.

Oh, where's the seat?

There you go.

I'll wait outside for you. Oh, wait outside, stay inside -

what difference does it make to me now?

I'll wait outside.

John.

What's going to happen to me if you run off with

your prostitute from the Altstadt?

And don't kid yourself she's in love with you.

She knows when she's got a mug with a position and a good income.

Where's the toilet paper?

Oh, God, I can't find it!

This miserable house, they don't even have any toilet paper!

Oh, I knew this was an unlucky house

the first time I stepped through the door.

There's the toilet paper, for God's sake.

Mother, why the hell did you have to tell Helen about Anne?

TOILET FLUSHES

Where's the wash hand basin? I need to wash my hands.

Follow the wall! Use your imagination.

You are never going to be able to bloody live on your own

if you don't give yourself a shake.

Well, I'm very sorry, son, I can't perform for you!

I can't take it in and be independent

so that you can run off with your prostitute and leave me on my own

without feeling guilty.

Where's the bloody tap?

Use your imagination.

I can't wash my hands with imagination, son!

Maybe you can.

God in Heaven, the women you pick.

I told you from the beginning, y-your father did,

that woman was no good to you.

Didn't we plead with you the night before your wedding to...?

Whoa, where are you taking me now?

I'm taking you back to the bedroom.

No! I've been stuck up there all day.

I want to go downstairs.

What are you going to do about the children?

They'll be all right. I'll look after them.

Oh, dear God, that woman - she can't even make a cup of coffee.

She gave me bread and butter this morning.

The bread was cut like doorsteps.

I want to go downstairs. Just sit in your room a minute.

Will you take me downstairs?

What do you think you're doing?

Huh? Torturing me here?

Locking me up all day, not a soul coming to see me.

If that's what you wanted to do, giving me a holiday with you,

you should never have taken me out of the hospital!

I'll come back in a minute. I need go to the toilet.

Helen was in the kitchen

trying to cook the recipe I'd written out for her.

MEAT SIZZLES

Could well be there's a vestigial brain damage.

Not all that much, just a trace that stops her cooking

and cleaning the house.

And, of course, relating to me as deeply and as fully as I need.

You fry the onions first.

You don't need to do it this minute, do you?

Well, I'm doing it now while you're here to put me right.

Up until a few months ago, I wouldn't have felt it so much.

You saying you love someone else.

But now, when you say it, it's like a cold hand

reaching into my intestines.

I loved you a bit during our honeymoon.

And after...

And then, just a few months ago,

I really started falling in love with you.

It surprised me, I-I don't know why.

Did you notice?

Yes.

Well, when your wife suddenly comes out with someone like that,

for Christ's sake!

I think so.

Probably my instinct told me I was losing you.

So, I began to realise what I was losing.

I-I don't know. She's not frying the meat.

You have to fry the meat, too. That's right.

The idea of losing you... You're not losing me.

It's just, my whole life, it's round you.

That's the basis of my whole life.

You're not losing me. I won't leave you.

What do I mean by that? "I won't".

Don't just say things to pacify me, John, will you not, love?

I couldn't stand that.

John! John!

Jesus, I cannot bloody cope with that bloody woman just now.

John! I'm coming!

I thought you were in the toilet!

Where are you going to do with her?

If you've got any ideas, tell me.

John! I'm coming!

I don't understand you, John, what do you mean you're not leaving me?

I don't know.

What do I mean?

I'll be in every day to see you and the children.

Make sure you're all right.

If you're living miles away in the forest...

I've got to come in to the university. Got meetings.

All kinds of things to do in Frankfurt.

Is this right? That's fine.

John!

Erm, I wish I could help you.

I do. It's a shame for you.

I know it's me.

Better get that bloody woman downstairs.

I haven't any friends.

I could never make friends, never at any time.

I've never had any real friends, except you.

John! I'm bloody coming!

You still have me as your friend.

When I started loving you,

the children irritated me.

Their continual bloody presence.

I just wanted the two of us to be on our own.

You know what I'm like, stupid fantasies.

You know what I'm like.

John!

John! I'll bring you down in a bloody minute!

I don't want to go down!

I need to go to the toilet!

Y...You have to ask yourself, as you did in your novel,

which moved me deeply, Herr Professor,

is this a human life?

She's no control over her bladder or bowels.

Dimmest awareness of her environment and what's going on around her.

I can take the arguments as read.

Doctor...

..what we have to make sure of is that the procedure

is carried out humanely.

The last hour must be absolutely free from any trace of anxiety.

Absolutely, of course.

This room is adequate,

but it needs to be much more ordinary and reassuring.

Could it be made to look like a bathroom, perhaps?

So the patients are reassured,

believe they're being taken for a bath? Yes.

They come in here ostensibly for a bath.

Normal daily routine.

And what about the families? This is very important.

Exactly how the families are informed will have to be

carefully worked out in detail. Of course, Herr Professor.

Of course, they'll be bound to accept the doctor's word

on the death certificate.

I want to have a meeting of everyone concerned, after lunch,

Doctor, to discuss this in detail.

The families have had enough pain as it is...

..looking after poor souls like her.

What are we doing here?

Sitting in the middle of a cold, freezing, miserable fucking park

in the middle of winter.

Interesting thing, Maurice.

I'm not consciously aware I ever knew this song,

Carolina In The Morning.

I don't know it.

It's like lovers having secret meetings.

In any case, I don't think it's a good idea.

It's suspicious, coming here.

Who goes to parks in the middle of winter?

No, I established this as a regular routine.

Every day about this time, go for a walk in the park.

Well, I'm freezing, for God's sake.

Well, you should've brought a warm sweater, Maurice.

This friendship, all I get from it now is pain, anxiety, and panic.

This is not good -

the shallowness of my feelings for my one friend I have in the world.

On the other hand,

could be I'm underestimating my love for him.

My feelings may not be quite as shallow as I'd imagine.

I have gone out of my way to meet him here just now.

I know I'm after his cottage, but it's not entirely that, is it?

Going to your house, Maurice,

during this temporary racialist aberration -

not a sensible action, for your sake or mine.

So, how does the cat come over the water?

I can't come to your house.

Worse, coming to my house.

Listen, Johnnie, I-I know...

I can understand that you can't get me these exit papers.

I know it's asking too much of you.

What is coming clear to me now...

..I'd thrown away the concept of cowardice and courage.

I can see now, there is some meaning to them.

There is cowardice in my failing Maurice like this.

At the same time, all these people depending on me.

If it was just myself, but I've got two wives, three children,

and a blind mother, Maurice.

Brought you some cheesecake.

Where will you get Jewish cheesecake when you've locked up all the Jews?

There's somebody coming.

Somebody's coming. Feed the pigeons, Maurice.

There's nobody coming... Feed the pigeons, Maurice!

What am I going I feed the fucking pigeons with?

Give them some cheesecake!

I'm not giving good Jewish cheesecake to fucking pigeons!

There is somebody coming.

Oh, well, they've come to listen to your band, yeah.

Unusual attraction for the park in winter.

It's all right.

They've gone down the other path.

Erm, Maurice, listen, I don't want to push you about the cottage,

but if we could have it even just for a few months?

You're not using it anyway just now.

It'd be exactly the right start for us,

somewhere like your cottage.

Walking through the forest hand-in-hand with

the love of your life at dawn,

the way the sun comes through the trees at dawn sometimes,

shafts of sunlight - beautiful picture.

Lifts the whole sexual element right up. You're right!

Beautiful picture.

Yes, it was a superficial evaluation of my feelings for him.

I still love him.

Just for the moment. Love has been obscured

by panic and anxiety.

Listen, you understand what I'm saying, Johnnie?

It's... it's too much to ask of you, the exit papers.

Forget the papers.

Just get me five tickets to Switzerland.

Maurice,

how can I go to the station and ask for five single tickets

to Switzerland, for God's sake?

Ask for returns. Or returns!

I'm a bloody officer in the SS!

That cheesecake... bought it at Epstein's.

Can't stand them. Can't stand Jews.

I spent 35 marks in there at one go, and they couldn't even give me

a "good afternoon". You're right.

Th-There's something seriously wrong with Jews.

I-I can see Hitler's point. With people.

That's what I said, with people.

What kind of fucking neurotic am I?

Jews in the same boat as me have done me no wrong,

except th-they don't wish me a "good afternoon".

I can't stand Nazis, who want to... crucify me -

I buy a cheesecake for!

Another word for a human being, Maurice - neurotic.

Listen, a major insight like that - we should send a telegram to Freud.

Johnnie, take the cottage.

Use it in health and joy.

I won't need it in Switzerland.

You don't need to go anywhere, Maurice,

I don't want you to go anywhere.

This is a temporary racialist aberration.

Hitler's not going to survive another six months.

You said that yourself. This is still a capitalist country.

Real power is in the hands of the capitalists.

They can't afford to have some... mystic idealist

running their country. You know that.

This is a temporary aberration.

It's a basic biological drive, you see, Johnnie, when people come after

you with fucking machine guns, you start running.

Look at me... I-I'm calm.

I'm looking at this cold and rationally.

Yes, it-it's a temporary aberration.

The trouble is, with all the machine guns in this fucking country,

it's not going take all that long a temporary aberration to finish off

the whole Jewish population. I love Jews.

I'm attracted to their whole culture.

Their existence is a joy to me.

Why do they have to be a bloody problem to everybody?

You know that, Maurice, nobody takes all that metaphysical,

racialist rubbish in Mein Kampf seriously.

Pure races and foul, perverted, spiritually riddled

with diseased Jews.

Nobody can even read it.

He doesn't listen to people.

I am telling you, there's legislation coming in the next few

days - in the next day, today, maybe yesterday -

against men without foreskins, and I know that!

Laws!

I've got... I've got fucking hard information.

Now, will you give me five tickets to Switzerland?

No. No, you won't.

You don't give a shit what happens to me.

Understandable.

Listen, it's cold.

I have enough on my head without getting pneumonia.

When you're out of your anxiety state, Maurice, you'll see

for yourself, Hitler is not going to survive.

They got rid of Rohm, they'll get rid of Hitler.

It's going to be all right.

Well, yes, for you, it'll be beautiful.

For Nazi cunts, it's going to be a beautiful golden world.

We'll talk about it when you're calmer, Maurice.

What, when I'm lying on the ground riddled with fucking Nazi cunt

machine gun bullets?

He was cutting himself off from me.

Good.

I was free from him.

And then he turned back and looked at me.

"No," I said to myself, watching him.

I didn't think it would be as easy a parting as that.

Listen, you have to run from here for your fucking life, Johnnie.

As much as me.

Maybe even more than me.

What is vital, Doctor, is to fully look into the families, the quality

or lack of quality of the relationship to the patients,

how often they visit them. Absolutely.

I'd suggest something like families being told patients are being sent

here for some new course of treatment.

Or perhaps a routine transfer?

They should not have the slightest grounds for alarm or anxiety.

We are planning to hold to the normal procedures, Herr Professor.

On arrival, each patient will be examined by a doctor.

And no delay. It would be intolerable if they stayed here

any length of time.

Absolutely, once the decision has been reached to terminate.

Lohengrin - Vorspiel by Richard Wagner

What's on your mind, John?

That's the most important thing - the beliefs in your mind.

I don't know.

It's political hysteria for the minute.

Hitler being in power, getting drunk with success.

Once the hysteria is over, I told Maurice this...

Do you think it is?

What about Freddie's summer house by the river?

Liz is taking me tomorrow to look at it.

It was a nice party.

Nice when they crowned you May Queen.

I know it's silly, I had a little feeling of pride.

I looked as though I'd stepped out of the Rheingold in that dress.

You're lovely.

I love you, and you love me.

I do.

But...

I don't know what it is. MUSIC STOPS ABRUPTLY

These books - when I think about them burning the books,

I just say to myself, "It's just a gesture."

It doesn't mean anything.

Most people, they aren't even aware they exist, but...

I'm frightened.

I know, you're right.

That's exactly the feeling.

Do you have it?

I went into a fever hospital when I was four.

Scarlet fever.

They came for me during the night.

A nurse carried me away from my room.

All we can do is hold on to each other.

If we're good to each other and to the people around us,

if we try the utmost to be good, what else can we do?

I haven't even read Einstein.

My Blue Heaven by Gene Austin

Life is sweet...

..for the next five minutes.

It's a beautiful house, Anne.

It IS a nice house, Liz. I like it.

It's a professor's house, come up in the world

since your little wooden hut by the river.

I loved that summer house!

John, I need to talk to you a minute.

Anne is cooking duck for dinner, especially for you.

Good woman. Christ, that's an excellent woman you've got, John.

EXHALES SHARPLY

You want to hear the verdict?

The verdict is we can't have any kids.

Well, that's only one opinion, Freddie, for Christ's sake.

Do not be nice to me, Johnnie.

Not just now. Do not be nice to me.

Nothing marvellous about kids, anyway.

I said do not be nice to me.

I know you're a good, nice man.

I mean it. There is nothing marvellous about having kids.

Yeah, you can say that because you've got fucking kids.

Yes... You're right.

I used to dream about having kids before I had any. You're right.

Look at us, for fuck's sake, Liz and me.

They keep on at me at headquarters.

"When are you going to start fucking breeding, a perfect Nordic pair

"like you and Liz?"

This regime is obsessed with fucking breeding.

I'm going to be stuck major, you know that?

I might even get demoted till I can breed some fucking kids.

That's not why we want kids.

That's the official line.

I even had to go to Liz's uncle's doctor

in Wiesbaden, for fuck's sake, just in case they

tracked down my report.

They'll probably still track it down.

What am I going to do, for Christ's sake?

We love each other, you know that.

It could be the doctor's wrong, Freddie.

Well, what else can you say? A situation like that.

I was getting to love him, and Liz. We both were.

I haven't been sleeping.

Three nights running, going round in circles talking about it,

Liz and me.

It's me.

Nothing to do with potency.

Liz is all right.

And then there was this screaming motorbike.

They were always running round with screaming motorbikes,

with dispatch riders.

Anne showed a young lad into the room.

Tall, blond, beautiful in his SS uniform.

Heil Hitler.

The Jews have shot vom Rath. Vom who?

Secretary in a Paris embassy. A Polish Jew shot him.

You ought to go to headquarters.

I've got a car. Sir.

If I got desperate... If you were desperate for your wife to

have a kid, would you get someone like that lad?

Who's vom Rath?

Oh, who the fuck knows or cares?

Some 15th fucking secretary in the Paris embassy.

Man has fucked up my whole night.

I haven't had duck in months and I wanted to fucking talk to you.

Leave Liz here. Yeah, I'll leave her here. Liz!

I've got to go burn down a few synagogues and arrest some Jews.

I could be up all night.

I thought it was all finished.

I thought they'd finished with the bloody Jews.

A Jew shot somebody in the Paris embassy.

Save some of the duck. Won't be the same heated up.

No, the first thing is a briefing session to organise

down to the last detail a spontaneous demonstration

of the indignation of the people of Germany, for tomorrow night.

Over-Leader Eichmann is ready to see you now, Professor Halder.

Thank you.

Heil Hitler. Heil Hitler.

Heil Hitler. Sit down there, Professor.

I've just been going through your papers.

You joined us in 1933... Early '33, Over-Leader.

..and been an excellent comrade, Halder, since your first days

as an officer and a university man.

I think we can work well together.

The ingredients are all there for an excellent working relationship.

What do you think?

If the leadership believe we can.

You haven't written specifically on the Jewish question, Halder.

My field, as you'll see, is German literature.

I mean, on the question from a racial point of view.

At the same time, some of your papers, some of your lectures...

This paper here, on the reactionary individual-centred emphasis

of the Jewish influence on Western literature. Very good.

True. Deep comment, first-class.

I have to warn you, Over-Leader.

I've had very little personal contact with Jews.

There's a note here referring to some kind of friendship

with a Gluckstein. Maurice Gluckstein.

It's mainly a professional relationship as a doctor.

That's right, he was a doctor. I have it down here.

But your paper on the corrupting Jewish influence

on our literature...

I do not wish to get lost in speculation about such things

as Jewish humanist writers' word orders, or Heine's poetry reflecting

the structure of the Jewish palate.

Whether this is objectively true or not seems, to me, trivial

besides the consideration, the direction Judeo humanistic

philosophy has pushed Western literature.

There's a Talmudic quotation, much used by Jewish writers and thinkers.

"If I am not for myself, then who is for me?"

In certain aspects, of course, this is a valid question or statement.

It is, however, in complete contradiction with the basic

philosophical statement which is the foundation

of the Third Reich - the common interest before self.

In the course of these lectures, we'll examine the highly

individually centred philosophy of Judaism, the concept that God

himself can be appealed to directly without the need for priests

or other intermediaries.

We will look into the evolution from the basic individualistic

philosophy or degeneration in the total preoccupation

with self-fulfilment of much contemporary literature, influenced

as it has been by the strong current of Jewish humanism.

Proust. Kafka. Freud.

It will be my thesis that whilst this was a valid exploration

of the human soul at the time, it pushed Western literature

in a direction which almost entirely ignored man as a social animal.

Man as an organism, which in fact

has no objective reality, no meaning,

unless seen in relationship to his culture - the political,

economic structures of the society he lives in, and so on.

It's not to say writers have not touched on these aspects

of humanity, but they have examined them only from the point of view

of individual fulfilment, rather than the fulfilment

of a culture, or a nation as a whole.

The question I will be asking is, can this be the only role

for literature - the self-fulfilment of the individual?

Can we not move in a new direction? Reflecting that in which our

political philosophy has moved - the common interest before self.

This order, Over-Leader, to resettle all the Jews

by the end of the year... Sooner, if possible.

As we're going to work closely together and I'm in the role of some

kind of adviser, can I ask you how you feel about

this direction of resources? Personally.

I'm just thinking of us fighting the war on so many fronts,

the desperate shortage of rolling stock for the offensive and so on.

To be directing so much of it to transporting Jews...

Russia will soon finish off. They're on their last legs, Halder.

That'll be one front less.

In any case, that's our orders.

I'm just curious about the need for such urgency.

Your point about fighting on so many fronts, all the more reason to keep

the enemy within under tight control.

You can see that, can't you, from the question of security alone?

You'll make arrangements, then?

I'll make arrangements, yes.

I look forward to us working together.

On the morning of the Night of Broken Glass...

..I didn't have to go in to the university.

I went into the garden...

..to take the last of the potatoes.

The air was sharp.

Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 - Andante by Felix Mendelssohn

All the scents of autumn were still fresh to me...

..giving me the feeling I was in a different country.

This Jew operation tonight, it weighed on me...

..along with the food I couldn't digest properly.

I enjoyed the duck at the same time.

I am very happy.

I love her. She loves me.

Got enough money.

People recognise me for the brilliant man I am.

Maurice came into the garden...

..playing Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto.

That's a very Jewish interpretation, Maurice.

Of course, it's a Jewish concerto. That's right.

Listen...

This Jewish operation tonight.

If you try to look at it in perspective, yes, of course,

it's not a good thing.

For tonight, and next week, coming down on a racial group,

like arresting Jews...

..breaking into their houses and synagogues.

No doubt, I'll be honest with you, Maurice -

kicking in quite a number of Jews' balls and teeth.

You know, the roughnecks in the Party, excesses

are bound to happen.

I'm not deluding myself, am I, Maurice?

This is a regime in its childhood.

It's...

..a social experiment in its earliest stages.

You know what a child's like - self-discipline isn't formed yet.

A large element of unpredictability.

It could be...

..if the Jews stay here much longer...

Do you see what I'm getting at?

Some of the extreme elements in the Party could get out of hand.

Christ knows what they'd do to the Jews next.

I see tonight as a basically humane action.

It's going to shock the Jews into the reality of their situation

in Nazi Germany.

Tomorrow morning, they'll be running for their lives out the country.

A sharp sudden shock is going to make

those who still delude themselves they can stay here in peace,

to face the reality and keep out of it as much as possible.

You can do fuck all about it.

Tonight, what can I do about it?

All over the country, they'll be marching against the Jews.

It's a bad thing, no question about it.

Work it out.

Me - if I died, that would worry me.

The idea of being snuffed out.

If I got cancer, that would worry me.

Or if they stuck me in one of those concentration camps

and one of Himmler's perverts got at me, THAT worries me.

If Anne stopped loving me and ran off with another man,

that would worry me.

There's a whole scale of things that could worry me.

The Jews and their problems, yes, they're on it.

But very far down, for Christ's sake.

Way down the scale.

That's not so good, the Jews being so low on my anxiety scale.

Emotionally, intellectually...

As an intellectual concept,

it's fairly high. As a moral problem...

The thing is, I am...

..fundamentally, a happy person.

That's what it is, that's the problem.

I am a happy person.

Absolutely.

Herr Professor, it's Lieutenant Boeck.

I'm here, out in the garden.

What a house you've got! A mansion!

Look at the garden. Acres! Four acres.

Oh, you deserve it.

I'm delighted for you, do you know that?

You've got a good woman like Frau Halder

and a house like this.

You want some beer?

I've got some beer chilled in the fridge.

They sent me up with orders for you. I've got them here.

I wouldn't mind a cold beer.

Well, if they won't let me alone, they won't.

It's a big show tonight.

You heard? The Jew cunts have murdered vom Rath.

Was he a friend of yours, Boeck?

Oh, I like that!

That's to the point, isn't it?

That's a wonderful thing about you, Herr Professor.

You can get it straight up the hole.

Who gives a shit about vom Rath? You're right.

It's the idea of a Jew having the cheek to shoot a German.

Is your beer all right?

I never had a garden.

I thought about getting an allotment.

Never got down to it.

"We move into action at 3pm this afternoon."

That's the orders.

You should see the excitement back at the university.

The students are making banners, organising torches.

Nobody's doing a stroke of work.

I was looking for a peaceful day in the garden.

I wish they'd get these bloody Jews out of their system.

Why didn't they all get the hell out the country years ago,

when they still had the chance?

We'll get them out now, Professor.

Would that make you really happy, When there's not a single Yid

left in the universe?

Me? I'm talking to you. Would that make you really happy?

Paradise.

A Jew-free world.

Well...

I'll put it to you this way.

Hitler.

Now, he comes up with this stuff about the Jews.

He's thought about it, he's worked it out.

The Jews are sucking the fucking lifeblood out the country.

Now look at us. Now that he's began to shake the cunts out,

everybody's got jobs, holidays.

A couple of years' time and everybody will have their own cars.

Ordinary workers.

Some people used to say he didnae know what the fuck

he was talking about, Hitler.

Used to fart out of his mouth instead of his arsehole.

What did they know?

He's delivered the goods, hasn't he?

He knew what he was doing all along.

Herr Professor, you didnae like living in a Jew Germany, did you?

Now, when you walk the streets, you can feel it -

you know this is our place now.

He's got us back our own country.

And what about you, Herr Professor?

If you don't mind me saying so, you are laughing.

You've taken over that Jew shit Mendelstram's job, this big house

and the whole university is back to a German university.

You've got no complaints what Hitler's done for you, have you?

I am very happy.

I am.

I'm looking at the map.

I see, because of the railway.

It's a logical centre. We've psychologists and medical doctors

and other specialists looking into this, but you're one of us, John.

I need a report I can trust. An evaluation of the recommendations

for the processing of the diseased and the unfit.

We're not monsters, for God's sake.

The order's out, it has to be obeyed.

I'm in total agreement with it in any case, but I want the same

human-without-sentimentality approach that seems to be

your particular strength. Understood then?

I'll be on the train for Silesia tonight.

Total and absolute top-secret.

I agree, by the way, totally with your report on the accidents

in the East.

The procedure's not to be even considered on grounds of humanity,

among other things. And I want any evidence you might find

there too of unnecessary cruelty, indulgence in sadistic behaviour.

Apart from anything else, these things have a disastrous effect

on the general level of discipline.

I'll make a full report. Directly to me.

No copies, Halder.

Johnnie.

When are you going to get changed, for God's sake?

You've to report at three o'clock. Oh!

John, relax.

All right, my love? Had this...

..picture in my mind out in the garden.

Germany's been turned into one great prison.

Don't think we shouldn't run away?

Might not be too late.

Too late for what?

Run away where?

Why do you have to make such a dramatic thing of everything?

No, just...

..sometimes I panic. I know.

Now, look here, that's exactly what you're doing.

You're panicking. Talking about prisons and running away.

Men look funny in their underwear, don't they?

Do I?

Yes. I panic sometimes.

Out in the garden,

after Boeck went off, I had this wave of panic.

And guilt.

I'd destroyed your whole life.

How have you done that?

If it is destroyed - the words you use, love -

if it is...

I did it myself.

It was my choice.

You, I wish you hadn't a wife and other children that keep pulling

you from me, but you have. I love you.

And it would have been easier to love someone without all

these weights on them,

but I love you.

Now, what exactly are you doing tonight?

Think about it. Hmm?

You're going out on police action, that's all.

You're not going to shoot Jews, do any violence to them.

Your orders are to keep things under control,

stop people from burning down Frankfurt.

That's all, for God's sake.

And just try and think calmly what you're really doing.

I am.

You have a good, logical mind.

That's good, you're right.

Well, someone in this family needs to have one.

Are you going to stop beating your breast now about things

you don't need to be beating your breast about?

You've got plenty of real things to feel guilty about.

You're right.

What real things?

In any case, if I were Jewish, I would have got

out of here years back,

the first year Hitler was in power.

Any Jew with sense is out by now, and the ones that are left

must be utterly stupid or desperate to hang on to their property.

What are they doing staying in Germany?

Listen, you're so clever.

Everything you say is so logical and true. You're right.

You look lovely in your uniform.

I think that Liz is after you, do you know that? Oof!

We need to run away, then! To California.

All right, we'll run away.

I'll pack and you can phone your children and tell them

you'll write to them every week.

I'd better go.

Is the revolver loaded?

I think so. I'll see you when I see you, love. Love you.

I love you.

And no prisons or yawning chasms in front of you.

God, I love you, sweetheart.

I know you do.

Maurice came to me again.

With the Frankfurt Jewish Male Voice Choir.

He'd disappeared months ago, I don't know where to.

One day, he stopped meeting me in the park,

but he came to me that night,

through the smoke of the burning buildings.

Flames are aesthetic.

I've never seen Frankfurt look more like

the set of Gotterdammerung at Bayreuth.

It was five o'clock in the morning, they were still at it.

I was dizzy with the smoke and the violence.

It was getting on my nerves.

Maurice, it's just come to me.

Our whole approach has been superficial and simplistic.

The Jews, the victims. The Nazis, the persecutors.

We've reduced this whole complex situation

to a stock simplistic construct.

What do you think?

Trying to take it in, Johnnie.

The effect seemed simple enough.

They, they mow me down with machine guns, cut off my balls,

rape my wife.

No, no. Take that back.

Most of them couldn't rape a fucking sparrow.

What we're doing, Maurice, listen to this, is we're allowing ourselves

to be trapped by obvious stock responses instead of daring

to confront ourselves with... reality, maybe, Maurice.

Maybe it's the Jews' fault.

They are responsible for pushing

Germany into this Jewish, moralistic, humanistic, Marxist

total fuck-up!

Maurice, I'm trying to communicate deep and profound truths with you,

will you stop that choir?

What is the Frankfurt Jewish Male Voice Choir doing

singing about Jesus, anyway? It's reformed...

..converted.

No. I withdraw that word "profound".

I accept that.

Profundity has nothing to do with human beings.

Whenever you imagine yourself soaring to profundity,

remember the total banality of your existence and vision.

That's true. That's a profound statement, Johnnie.

Do you think we might be having a nervous breakdown?

This whole thing is a national nervous breakdown.

It's a standard process, evolution, isn't it?

Animals go as far along the line of development as they can,

and that's it.

They become too big or too heavy or too specialised,

and they go extinct. Don't worry about it. I don't accept that.

All right, don't accept it. Please yourself.

You have to accept the consequences of your Jewish humanism.

Time's past for covering it up with pseudoscientific smokescreens.

I'm not blaming you. I forgive you, Maurice.

What? What's he saying? What's this shithead talking about?

It's my fault his fucking machine guns mowed me down?

I'm talking about objective moral truth, Maurice!

What is an objective moral truth?

I'm not being profound, Maurice.

I'm just getting to grips with reality.

What's happened is we've confused subjective fantasy concepts

like good, bad, right, wrong, human, inhuman

as objective, immutable laws of the universe.

Jews are bad, Germans are good, like a stone falls to the ground.

It is a moral act to get rid of the Jews.

It is an immoral act.

That's the kind of clouded, subjective thinking

parading as objective truth,

which has totally disorientated the world

and led us into this violence and chaos.

There's something there, Maurice.

Is there? Something there?

I'm confused. What are you saying?

It's a good thing to have your balls cut off?

It's a wonderful, uplifting experience

being mowed down by machine guns?

Johnnie, I'm confused.

It's what's happening.

It's what human beings do.

What happens.

How the world is,

not what Jesus or Moses or Lenin or

all your Jewish moralists would like to be.

How it IS.

If we could work on that basis, of accepting the world as it is...

What do you think? People fuck other people's wives, Johnnie.

That's the world as it is.

How does that fit in with your new approach, boychikcal?

Yeah.

That's true. That's a good point.

I don't like that.

The idea of somebody stealing Anne.

That's not good, Maurice, you're right.

Oh, don't worry about it. It's too complicated.

There's too many people in the world to cope with.

With too many problems. Coping with all those people, Maurice.

Two's difficult. Three's getting too many.

Ten for a minyan - impossible.

Listen, you're probably right, Maurice.

The way things are going, that should be the end of us.

You're right.

I can't see people lasting much longer on this Earth.

Best thing.

A finish to people torturing the Earth.

I'm telling you, who needs us?

You know what I could do with?

A good, thick slice of ham,

two eggs, black bread and butter,

hot mug of coffee, and seeing Anne.

I could do with my arms around Anne

more than anything else just know.

Oh, let it all burn.

Don't want to drag out the end too long.

We're mad.

Some couples are separated for years. I know.

I've never heard of Auschwitz.

In Upper Silesia.

Oh, yes, you told me.

I'll be back in a week or so. Two at the most.

I'll phone you every day if I can.

There's something wrong with us.

The way we can't stand to be separated.

I know.

Are you all right now, my love?

Fine. John, listen to me.

Whatever happens round us, however we get pushed,

I know that we're good people, both of us.

And it just isn't what's happened.

You destroyed me.

Pulled me down.

It just isn't.

It's the other way round.

You've pulled me up,

and I did the same for you since the first time we came together.

Yes.

I think... we probably are good.

Yes. Whatever that means.

You know what it means.

Yes. Remember it, then.

I got into Auschwitz early in the morning.

It was an ordinary, dirty industrial town.

Big station. Munition trains.

Sparrows on the platform, poking at microscopic crumbs in the cement.

People going about their work.

Like a normal town.

I was sitting on the platform feeling insecure,

like I always feel away from home.

Absolutely longing for Anne and the children.

The comfort of her hand in mine.

I'd taken out a book

while I was waiting for the car from the camp to pick me up.

German translation of Don Quixote.

I could only read escapist literature these days.

Remember it, then.

And remember I love you, and you love me.

And we'll always love one another. Will you remember that?

I'll remember that.

When we arrived at the camp, Hoss, the commandant,

was waiting at the gate for me.

Funny man. Poor soul. Something wrong with him.

I was trying to work out what exactly it was all the time

he was welcoming me. That's very kind.

Reich-Leader Eichmann sending his regards.

Of course, please convey mine to him.

My very kindest regards.

He showed no emotion.

That's what it was.

Might have been some mental condition.

On the other hand, just stress.

The poor bastard had a hell of a job.

He did make a supreme effort, and smiled.

The funny thing is, I heard this band playing a Schubert march.

"Oh," I registered to myself, "We're having Schubert now."

Then I became aware there was, in fact, a group of prisoners.

Maybe in my honour, I'm not sure.

The important thing was...

..the significant thing...

..the band was real.

The band was real.