Peter Weiss
Scenes from
THE INVESTIGATION
NOTE
In
the presentation of this play, no attempt should be made
to reconstruct the tribunal before which the proceedings of the camp
trial took place. Any such reconstruction would, in the opinion of the
author, be as impossible as trying to present the camp itself on the
stage.
Hundreds of witnesses appeared before the court. The confronta–
tion of witnesses and the accused, as well as the addresses to the court
by the prosecution and the replies by the counsel for the defense, were
overcharged with emotion.
Only a condensed concentrate of all that can remain on the stage.
This concentrate should contain nothing but facts. Personal ex–
perience and confrontations must be steeped in anonymity. Inasmuch
as the witnesses in the play lose their names, they become mere speak–
ing tubes. The nine witnesses sum up what hundreds expressed.
The variety of experiences can, at most, be indicated by a change
of voice or bearing.
Witnesses 1 and 2 are witnesses who worked with the camp
administration.
Witnesses 4 and 5 are female, the rest male witnesses from the
ranks of the surviving prisoners.
English version copyright
©
1966 by Jon Swn and Ulu Grosbard. Originally
published
in
German under the title
Die Ermittlung,
copyright
©
1965 by Suhr–
kamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main. All rights reserved.
