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turning to page one
A courtroom has been improvised inside the town hall. There are large windows, with milky glass, down the left-hand side. As ROHL and the STUDENTS arrive, the court is a melee of PHOTOGRAPHERS, LAWYERS and PUBLIC. The three JUDGES are already in place, next to six selected CITIZENS. MICHAEL and the others take places in the gallery
CLERK
All photographers are now asked to
leave.
The PHOTOGRAPHERS go.
JUDGE
The defendants, please.
From being noisy and chaotic, the court is now silent.
JUDGE
The first thing I’m going to do is
hear motions from each of the
defendants’ lawyers.
They’re going to be arguing that
there’s no reason to keep the
defendants in jail until the
outcome of the forthcoming trial.
DIETER grins at MICHAEL in anticipation.
JUDGE
I am going to take these cases one
by one.
MICHAEL is leaning down to get stuff out of his briefcase, as MARTHE shakes a pen which isn’t working.
MICHAEL
Do you want a pen?
MARTHE
I’ve got a pen.
So MICHAEL doesn’t hear as the JUDGE speaks.
JUDGE
Hanna Schmitz.
There is a row of six DEFENDANTS. The fifth woman is HANNA, her hair tied in a knot, her gaze fixedly into the middle distance, not looking towards the SPECTATORS. She is wearing a grey dress with short sleeves. They all sit, sideways to the gallery. HANNA rises to her feet. The words seem to come very quietly, across a great distance.
JUDGE
Your name is Hanna Schmitz?
HANNA
Yes.
It is only when the JUDGE repeats the name that MICHAEL looks up, hearing it for the first time.
JUDGE
Can you speak louder please?
HANNA
My name is Hanna Schmitz.
MICHAEL is rigid, blank, just staring.
JUDGE
Thank you. You were born on October
21st, 1922?
HANNA
Yes.
JUDGE
At Hermannstadt. And you’re now 43
years old?
HANNA
Yes.
JUDGE
You joined the SS in 1943?
HANNA
Yes.
JUDGE
What was your reason? What was your
reason for joining?
HANNA doesn’t answer.
JUDGE
You were working at the Siemens
factory at the time?
HANNA
Yes.
JUDGE
You’d recently been offered a
promotion. Why did you prefer to
join the SS?
HANNA has a DEFENCE COUNSEL, a young man, beside her, who is about to get up. But the JUDGE forestalls him.
JUDGE
I’ll re-phrase my question. I’m
trying to ascertain if she joined
the SS freely. Of her own free
will.
Everyone waits.
JUDGE
Well?
HANNA
I heard there were jobs.
JUDGE
Go on.
HANNA
I was working at Siemens when I
heard the SS was recruiting.
JUDGE
Did you know the kind of work you’d
be expected to do?
HANNA
They were looking for guards. I
applied for a job.
MICHAEL is intent now, so are the STUDENTS beside him.
JUDGE
And you worked first at Auschwitz?
HANNA
Yes.
JUDGE
Until 1944. Then you were moved to
a smaller camp near Cracow?
HANNA
Yes.
ROHL leans into MICHAEL.
ROHL
Are you OK?
MICHAEL
I’m fine.
JUDGE
You then helped move the prisoners
west in the winter of 1944 in the
so-called death marches?