From Hallowe’en this year, the small village of Bad Arolsen in central Germany will be the destination for grim pilgrimages. The holocaust archive is located there and it is now open for the first time since the Second World War. The archive contains a terrifying catalogue of brutal, bureaucratic details of the camps which includes running totals of lice in inmates’ hair and lists of prisoners shot in honour of Hitler’s birthday. The fate of up to 17 million people may be recorded in the archive which has remained closed until now, ostensibly to protect the privacy of both victims and survivors. Many – probably all – of the 50 million or so documents housed in Bad Arolsen will make difficult reading.
Several people walked out of the press night of The Young Vic’s production of The Investigation by Peter Weiss. Weiss’ play is a piece of documentary theatre based on the transcripts of a 1963 trial in Frankfurt in which 319 witnesses delivered testimony on the way the camps were run. Many of those in charge were still alive and spoke at the trial. The current production is a 90 minute adaptation by its director Dorcy Rugamba, spoken in French (with subtitles) by Urwintore, a Rwandan theatre company. The ‘point’ Rugamba is making is crystal clear.
The company take on the roles of witnesses, guards, judges and lawyers in a series of vignettes about the camps. There is nothing banal about the evil they describe.
I do not think those who left early were bored by the relentless, remorseless and yet always measured storytelling of a strong Urwintore ensemble cast. They weren’t put off by the set either: the audience are on 3 sides of a set of squared off concrete blocks with steel railings. Cast members enter the auditorium through the audience and by climbing down a ladder on the 4th side – soon you realise you are staring down into a prison yard or something worse. The problem wasn’t the language barrier: the excellent subtitles are clearly visible on two angled screens which do not intrude on the action. It wasn’t too hot or too cold, it wasn’t mobile phones ringing, it wasn’t suddenly remembered appointments elsewhere or an oven left on.
The horrors described by the actors playing both guards and prisoners were simply unbelievable. The opening of the Bad Arolsen archive will provide still more evidence that they really did take place. The nursery comfort to frightened children: “It’s only a story” does not apply. That is why people left.
The Investigation runs at the Young Vic until 10 November.
