Peter weiss the investigation. The Investigation 2022-12-08
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Peter Weiss' "The Investigation" is a powerful and thought-provoking play that deals with the Holocaust and the Nuremberg Trials. Written in the 1960s, the play is based on the transcripts of the actual Nuremberg Trials that took place in the aftermath of World War II.
The play follows the proceedings of the Nuremberg Trials as a group of actors take on the roles of the defendants, the judges, and the witnesses. Through their performances, we see the events of the Holocaust unfold before our eyes and hear the testimony of those who experienced it firsthand.
One of the key themes of the play is the idea of responsibility and accountability. The defendants in the play, all high-ranking Nazi officials, are on trial for their crimes against humanity during the Holocaust. They are forced to confront their actions and the impact they had on the lives of millions of people.
The play also deals with the concept of memory and how history is recorded and remembered. The testimony of the witnesses in the play serves as a record of the atrocities committed during the Holocaust, ensuring that they will not be forgotten.
Furthermore, "The Investigation" explores the idea of justice and how it can be achieved in the face of such unimaginable suffering. The play raises questions about the effectiveness of the Nuremberg Trials and the extent to which justice can truly be served in the wake of such horrific events.
Overall, "The Investigation" is a poignant and thought-provoking work that forces us to confront some of the darkest moments in human history and consider the consequences of our actions. It serves as a reminder of the importance of holding those in positions of power accountable for their actions and the need to remember and learn from the past in order to create a better future.
The investigation : oratorio in 11 cantos : Weiss, Peter, 1916
. This project centers on guided discussions about mass murder and its lasting impact upon individuals, families, communities, and countries throughout the world. The Investigation is a dramatic reconstruction of the Frankfurt War Crimes trials, based on the actual evidence given. To the author, they have lent their names which, within the drama, exist as symbols of a system that implicated in its guilt many others who never appeared in court. The Berlin Investigation, on an Oratium by Peter Weiss. Weiss uses this to illustrate the complex of "second guilt", a concept which The Second Guilt and the Burden of Being German. What emerges is a chastening and purging documentary of deeply moving power.
The international productions of The Investigation display a great conceptual diversity, ranging from a representational play to scene reading to concert performances of the oratorios. Giordano argued that in their failure to acknowledge and address the collective crimes of the Nazi era, contemporaries of the Third Reich after 1945 brought upon themselves a "second guilt", distinct from the guilt associated with the crimes themselves. Performed by a diverse cast, including international performers from communities affected by genocide, The Investigation seeks to generate powerful dialogue across cultures and communities about the human capacity for evil, as well as the systems and hierarchies that create the conditions for unthinkable violence. A remarkable artist, he was a talented painter who then turned to writing. In it, the ones responsible for the functioning of the machinery of annihilation stood in front of a tribunal. Apart from his writing, he was also well known as a painter, theatrical and operatic director, and a film maker. The play is presented in eleven cantos, beginning with "The Platform" where the trains arrived, proceeding to "The Camp", and ending with two cantos on "Zyklon B" and then "The Firte Ovens".
What emerges is a chastening and purging documentary of deeply moving power. The perpetrators counter with derisive denials and clichéd rejections of their individual responsibilities. New Haven, 1975 Langer later reversed his opinion, see Langer: "The Literature of Auschwitz". In Frankfurt it was the German government itself that held the war-crimes trial, focussing on the crimes perpetrated at Auschwitz. There is no artistic license, no manipulation of facts and figures, no rearrangement of events for theatrical effect. Graves, in Encyclopedia of German Literature 2000 , p. His play The Investigation.
Weiss shapes the huge amount of material, reducing it to a compelling indictment of what happened at Auschwitz. Peter Weiss in Exile: A Critical Study of His Works. After the German occupation of the Sudetenland, his family moved to Sweden where Weiss would spend the rest of his life, becoming a Swedish citizen in 1946. « The Complete Review »Peter Weiss has created the most impressive literary manipulation of the subject. The Book of Job is an ancient Hebrew poem that timelessly explores how humans behave when faced with disaster, pestilence and injustice.
Retrieved October 20, 2011. His play The Investigation. The variety of experiences can, at most, be indicated by a change of voice or bearing. Retrieved October 20, 2011. Weiss published the first third separately as The Investigation.
The nine witnesses sum up what hundreds expressed. Martin Luther King Jr. These proceedings, held in 1963-5, are not to be confused with the Nürnberg trials held right after the war. The stark, largely anonymous portrayal of this unspeakable evil is very effective. An important contribution to the literature about World War II, and an impressive drama in its own right. Inferno, written in 1964 but first published in 2003 as part of Weiss' estate, described the netherworld in its title. Chicago, 1980; James E.
Peter Weiss: The Investigation (Die Ermittlung, Suhrkamp Verlag)
Citation styles for The Investigation How to cite The Investigation for your reference list or bibliography: select your referencing style from the list below and hit 'copy' to generate a citation. This testimony, concerning Auschwitz and the atrocities which were enacted there, has been edited and extracted by Peter Weiss into a dramatic document that relies solely and completely on the facts for its effectiveness. Witnesses 1 and 2 are primarily apologetic. The play ends before the verdicts are announced, an ending which rejects the notion that there could be any punishment commensurate with genocidal crime or which might bring closure to the victims. Winner of many West and East German literary prizes, he was also the author of Die Ästhetik des Widerstands, the most important German novel since The Tin Drum. »Peter Weiss has created the most impressive literary manipulation of the subject.
« Elizabeth Hardwick, The New York Review of Books »Must be counted among the most important European authors of the 20th century. This testimony, concerning Auschwitz and the atrocities which were enacted there, has been edited and extracted by Peter Weiss into a dramatic document that relies solely and completely on the facts for its effectiveness. Oratorio in 11 Cantos brings to paper and to the stage that which can be expressed about the trial and the cruelties that were tried there in a highly artificial yet direct manner. . Apart from his writing, he was also well known as a painter, theatrical and operatic director, and a film maker. The confrontations 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. Peter Weiss was born in 1916 and settled in Sweden before the outbreak of World War II.
Weiss carefully shaped the text, culling, cutting, and changing very little from the original transcripts to create what is truly a poetic text. Born in Germany in 1916, he began his career as visual artist, studying at the Prague Art Academy in the late 1930s. After a twelve-year break, the play was brought back in 1979 in a provocative comedy-style production authorized by Weiss in the In the 1980s, several works which became part of the emerging discourse on the ethics and aesthetics of the representation of the Holocaust in literature denounced The Investigation. Oratorio in 11 Cantos brings to paper and to the stage that which can be expressed about the trial and the cruelties that were tried there in a highly artificial yet direct manner. There is no artistic license, no manipulation of facts and figures, no rearrangement of events for theatrical effect. . The Investigation at Photo by Marion Bührle Written by Characters Judge Prosecuting Attorney Counsel for the Defense Witnesses, numbered 1—9 Dr.
