Act II, Scene 2

1970. Stage dark. Light up. Corso and Orsini are in the room, arraigning their respective groups of papers on the table.

CORSO

(looking around the room) Four months, and this tomb still isn’t painted!

ORSINI

I filed the papers requesting it on the morning after His Holiness authorised it. But things here move slowly.

CORSO

(knowingly) Yeah. (Looking at his watch.) You ready? (Orsini nods. Corso goes to the door at stage right, opens it, leaves the room, and a few seconds later returns with Leon Schwarcz and Eva Schwarcz. Eva keeps her distance from Corso and Orsini.) Rabbi Leon Schwarcz, Miss Eva Schwarcz, this is Father Silvano Orsini. (Leon shakes hands with Orsini and they exchange greetings, while Eva continues to stand away from Orsini and Corso.)

ORSINI

A pleasure, Rabbi.

LEON

Piacere.

ORSINI

Miss Schwarcz ... (Eva merely nods to Orsini.)

CORSO

(to Leon and Eva) Please, be seated. (Corso pulls out a chair for Eva. She sits down. The three men sit down. Corso turns on the tape recorder.) Father Orsini and I are very grateful to you for agreeing to talk with us. We’re more than mindful of all you’ve experienced. The last thing we want is to cause you distress. Nothing here is important enough to justify that. If at any point you want to stop, please ...

LEON

Thank you, but I’ve given testimony before. But my sister is not used to talking about ... Eva?

EVA

(nervously) Let’s begin.

LEON

(to Corso) Where would you like to start?

CORSO

Please, Rabbi Schwarcz, if you would, tell us how you came to be in Palestine during the war.

LEON

Actually, although I was based in Palestine, I travelled a good deal. To Switzerland, Britain, America, Portugal, Sweden ... You see, in Hungary, we Jews had been in contact with Jews in other countries. Our concern initially, of course, was the persecution of Jews in Germany. But when the persecution exploded to a new level in November, 1938, with Kristallnacht, a group of us in Budapest decided to go abroad to join our brothers from other countries in an effort to call attention what was going on in Germany. I was young, and unmarried, so I went with them.

CORSO

Please, tell us about your efforts.

LEON

Our main effort then was to get Jews out of Germany. But we had little success. No other country would take them in any numbers. This seemed to be to them only another episode in the long centuries of anti-Semitism. And it would soon pass, they said. Many Jews felt this way too. Everything worsened with the German invasion of Poland. Soon, we began to get reports – reliable reports – of the mass killing of Jews in Poland. It was denied by the Germans, of course, as “British and Jewish propaganda.” So we had no choice but to set about documenting the atrocities to overcome the scepticism that still existed. It was an extremely agonising time for us – extremely painful.

ORSINI

Did you try to get Jews out of Europe altogether? To where it would be totally safe? America, let’s say?

LEON

Yes, but with little success. During the entire Nazi period up to Pearl Harbor, America took few Jews.

ORSINI

So we’ve heard. And what of Britain? It controlled Palestine at the time.

LEON

No, the British did not want to antagonise the Arabs.

ORSINI

I see. Forgive my interruption.

LEON

Then we received news smuggled out of Germany – it jolted us, stunned us! The Nazis had held a meeting in January of 1942, in a suburb of Berlin called Grossen-Wannsee. They decided on the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question,” as they called it. All the Jews were to be shipped to concentration camps to make Europe Judenrein. By the extinction of Jewry through systematic genocide.

CORSO

Did you solicit the help of the Catholic Church at that point?

LEON

Yes. Two months later, we – that is a group of us under the auspices of the World Jewish Congress – met with the Papal Nuncio in Berne, Switzerland. We presented him with proof of the mass killings of Jews to that time – in Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia – the list went on and on: Romania, Croatia, Slovakia, Holland, Belgium, and worst of all in Poland.

CORSO

What did you want the Church to do?

LEON

We asked that Pope Pius speak out against this.

CORSO

What was the Vatican’s response?

LEON

For months, there was none.

CORSO

And the murder of Jews continued during these months?

LEON

Of course! And it was constantly accelerating. In July, 1942, the deportation of French Jews began. Some French bishops protested, but there was no word from the Pope.

ORSINI

Forgive me for interrupting again. Did not a monsignor of the Church in Germany speak out publicly against the murder of the Jews, way back in November, 1941? I refer to Monseigneur Bernhard Lichtenberg.

LEON

Yes, he was a brave man. The Nazis, of course, arrested him.

ORSINI

Rabbi, did Monseigneur Lichtenberg’s protest halt the persecution of the Jews?

LEON

No.

ORSINI

Did it slow down the persecution, or impede it in any way?

LEON

No.

CORSO

Monseigneur Lichtenberg wasn’t pope – unfortunately. Tell us, please, Rabbi Schwarcz, did Pope Pius say anything in 1942?

LEON

Yes – in a way. At the end of the year, in his Christmas message to the world.

CORSO

(taking up a document from the table) I have a copy of his message. Would you please read out loud the part having to do with the mass murder of Jews? (He hands the paper to Leon.)

LEON

(taking the paper) There is no such part. There is only a brief, oblique admonition.

CORSO

Please, Rabbi, would you read it to us?

LEON

(reading from the papers) Pope Pius urged all people to take a vow, quote, “to lead society back to the divine law.” Then he said, and I quote: “Humanity owes this vow to hundreds of thousands of people who, through no fault of their own and solely because of their nation or race, have been condemned to death or progressive extinction.”

CORSO

That’s it? All of it?

LEON

Yes.

CORSO

(taking the paper back from him, and reading it) “Solely because of their nation or race have been condemned to death or progressive extinction.” Rabbi, were you and your colleagues satisfied with this reference?

LEON

No, we were disappointed – we were bitterly disappointed.

CORSO

And what of those sympathetic to you?

LEON

There was unanimous disappointment. The Free Poles protested. And Harold Tittman – he was President Roosevelt’s envoy to the Pope, safe because the Vatican is a sovereign state – do you know about him...?

CORSO

Yes.

LEON

... Tittman protested personally to Pope Pius that the message was too vague to have any impact. But Pius wouldn’t go further – he said – because he would then also have to denounce the crimes of the Soviets.

CORSO

So we’ve heard. And what of your own country, Hungary?

LEON

For the first part of the war, the leaders of Hungary were engaged in a policy of appeasing Hitler – a foolish policy. And for years, the Government encouraged anti-Semitism to scapegoat the Jews for Hungary’s problems. To make the story short, it ended with Hungary becoming an ally of Germany in 1941 and declaring war on the Russians and the Americans. (With great sad emotion.) My family was now trapped there ... (Pause. He turns to Eva.) Eva, do you want to tell them what happened? Are you up to it?

EVA

(nodding) There was great anti-Semitism in Hungary since long before I was born. But the worst began in 1938 when Hungary adopted anti-Semitic racial laws like in Germany. My father was fired from his job – he was a teacher. He took odd jobs, in secret, doing any kind of work he could, for gentiles. Most of them took advantage of him and underpaid him. I was a girl, and my parents protected me as best they could. But on three different occasions, anti-Semites broke windows of our apartment in Budapest. My parents tried to teach me at home, using my brothers’ old schoolbooks. As Jews, we were allowed less food rations, and we were hungry all the time. But still, we were alive. We didn’t know what was really going on in the world because our radio broadcasts were controlled by the government, and it broadcast only propaganda. We got broadcasts also from Germany, and later from Russia, but they were worse. One day, my father and my brother, Istvan, were beaten on the street by Hungarian fascists. They were members of the Arrow Cross Party. The police allowed them license to commit outrages against Jews. But the new government under Miklos Kalay in 1942 refused to turn us over to the Germans. And we knew that my brother, Leon, and others outside the Germans’ control were trying to get the world to help us. (Bitterly.) So we had hope.

LEON

We should have said, Eva and I had two brothers, both older than us.

CORSO

For the record, let me state that during this time, Pope Pius did make a statement in response to your pleas – a secret statement. Are you aware of it?

LEON & EVA

(Surprised) No.

CORSO

(picking up a paper from the table) It was on June, 2, 1943. Pius made a speech to the Sacred College of Cardinals. He raised what he called, (reads from the paper), quote: “the anxious entreaties of all those who, because of their nationality or their race, are being subjected to overwhelming trials and sometimes, through no fault of their own, are doomed to extermination.” Then he explained why he would say nothing to help them. Quote: “Our public utterances have to be carefully weighed and measured by Us in the interests of the victims themselves, lest, contrary to Our intentions, We make their situation worse.”

LEON

Make it worse? Could it have been worse?

EVA

(very upset) It could not! Oh, in Hungary, at first we didn’t know how bad the murder of Jews was in other countries, but we soon found out. In March, 1944, the government gave into Hitler’s demands. We were ordered now to wear yellow Stars of David on our clothing. The police came to our apartment looking for valuables to take. But there weren’t any. My mother had long ago sold her jewelry to buy us food on the black market. As they left, one of the policemen said to us, “We’ll come for you soon.” And they did. We were ordered to move into a Jewish ghetto, but we decided to try to hide. My mother started out to a friend’s house – a Catholic friend. But I learned after the war that she never made it. My brothers made for the countryside, but they too were captured. I was the only lucky one. I made it to a friend’s house – a Catholic house. The family I was staying with was very worried. The Arrow Cross was searching apartments in the area looking for Jews. Some diplomats from neutral countries were helping us – Sweden, Portugal, the Papal Nuncio, even fascist Spain. They sent word out that they would help us if we could make it to their embassies. Some even put large Stars of David on their buildings. So we decided that I should try to make it to the embassy of the Papal Nuncio because it was the closest. My friend’s father accompanied me. We were stopped outside the Papal Embassy building by Arrow Cross members in uniforms. We pretended that we were father and daughter, both of us Catholics. But one of the Arrow Cross recognized me. They beat my friend’s father senseless, and arrested me. By that time, German troops were all over Budapest – and so was the SS. The Arrow Cross turned me over to them. But not before three of them raped me. I was nineteen years old at the time, and pretty. (Eva reaches for a glass, and Leon pours her some mineral water. Eva drinks some of it.)

CORSO

Miss Schwarcz, we don’t have to continue.

EVA

(ignoring Corso) The SS took me to the central train station, and I was put in a freight car with about one hundred other Jews – men, women, children. We were standing shoulder to shoulder. The others had been told that we were being taken to “family camps” in Germany, in the Black Forest, where we’d be safe from the Russians. Some people believed this fairy tale. I did not have the heart to tell them is was nonsense. But they didn’t believe it for long. We were on the train forever, it seemed. People began crying and screaming. People soiled themselves and vomited – especially the dying. The smell was terrible. (Eva drinks some more water.)

CORSO

Miss Schwarcz ...

EVA

(cutting Corso off) I didn’t know how many died until we reached Mauthausen. Most of the old people and small children were dead. The camp was crowded, and we were made to sleep on the open ground. In winter. (She begins to lose her composure, and stops. Pause.)

LEON

It was late in the war. The Germans knew that they would be defeated. But this made them accelerate the killing of Jews, hoping to kill all of them before they lost the war. All the concentration camps were working in a frenzy to kill Jews.

EVA

They had set up new “showers” at Mauthausen. Gas showers. Before then, Mauthausen had been a “work camp” where people were killed more slowly by forced labor in a rock quarry, starvation, beatings and exposure. Jews, Russian POWs, even some American POWs who had tried to escape. All who were designated Ruchkerhr unerwunsht. (To Corso.) Do you know German?

CORSO

Yes, “Return not desired.”

EVA

(nodding) When I arrived there, there were gassings and shootings every day. I was forced to help dispose of the dead. That was the Germans’ great problem. They were killing us much faster than they could dispose of our corpses. And they were furious that it was slowing down our extermination. I was resigned to dying – I even hoped it would be soon. But again, I was one of the “lucky” ones. An SS officer came looking for young women for an important function. They needed more “field whores” to keep up the morale of the German troops during this hard time for them. So I was raped by many men each day, by more men than I can tell you, until the American Army overran us at the very end of the war. So there is a reason, you see, why at my age I am still “Miss” Schwarcz. I cannot tolerate any man to come near me.

LEON

(softly, with great sadness) After the war, we learned that our father, mother and brothers were all murdered by the Germans. Along with 550,000 other Hungarian Jews.

EVA

(shaking) That is why I wanted to testify here! I learned after the war that Adolph Eichmann was once asked what the world would think of the murder of so many millions of people. He said, “The death of one hundred is a catastrophe. The death of a million is a statistic!” (Pause.)

CORSO

Rabbi Schwarcz, did any Catholic officials in Hungary speak out against the murder of Hungarian Jews?

LEON

Yes. The Papal Nuncio, Monseigneur Angelo Rotta, spoke out in May 1944. And the following month, after we appealed to him for help, the Cardinal Primate of Hungary spoke out, although he made an anti-Semitic statement in the same speech.

CORSO

Did Pope Pius speak out?

LEON

No.

CORSO

Did you ask him to?

LEON

Yes. On May 22, 1944, the chief rabbis of Palestine appealed to him to make a public statement about Hungarian Jews.

CORSO

Did Pope Pius at any time speak out against the slaughter of Europe’s Jews except for his oblique statement in his Christmas message of 1942?

LEON

No. We continued to plead with him to do so – along with Sweden and other countries – even Brazil and the International Red Cross. But he said nothing!

CORSO

Not a word?

LEON

No!

CORSO

Did he say why?

LEON

Toward the end?

CORSO

Yes, when the Germans were working overtime to kill Jews. After the Allies had liberated Rome.

LEON

(with bitter disgust) He said that it would be useless for him to speak out because all efforts to that point had been futile!

(Light fades to black.)