The Deputy [Paperback]

Professor Rolf Hochhuth (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 16, 1997

First staged in 1963, The Deputy stirred up more controversy and caused greater repercussions than any other postwar work. Based on Rolf Hochhuth's research into Vatican activities during World War II, the play's treatment of Pope Pius XII -- the "deputy" of Christ on earth -- and the Church during the Nazi persecution of the Jews made it the object of impassioned praise and violent denunciation. It is a powerful, shocking work. This new paperback edition includes an appendix about Hochhuth's research.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The outstanding, burning, controversial drama of... [the] postwar years." -- New Yorker

"Extraordinary... A devastating experience." -- San Francisco Chronicle

"A cry from the mind as well as the heart... Its ambition is deeper, its scope wider, its ferocity more sustained than those of any other play written since the war." -- New Leader

"Quite possibly the most important Christian document to develop from the abysmal tragedy of World War II... It brings home with the sharpness of a scalpel, as no history, no film, and no news report can do, the utter horror of the Nazis' 'final solution'... No one who reads this will fail to be stirred by it." -- Los Angeles Times

"Shattering... powerful impact... one of the scarring moral parables of our age." -- New York Post

"Immense scope and power... Nothing has been produced since the war to set beside its profundity, its compassion, its understanding." -- London Daily Mail

Book Description

"Fierce and compelling... A remorseless, furious J'accuse." -- New York Times

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press; Johns Hopkins paperbacks ed edition (June 16, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801856531
• ISBN-13: 978-0801856532
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,064,291 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning and still relevant....., July 29, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Deputy (Paperback)

"The Deputy" is stunning and still relevant, despite the acidic reviews you might find here contesting the pertinence of this play. It's more than probable the negative ratings in regards to this piece belong to the pious who, instead of looking at the objective facts, hide behind their own grandiose illusions regarding the dogmas into which they have been indoctrinated.

Afterall, is there any historical doubt that Pope Pius XII did not publicly condemn the wholesale slaughter of Jews by the Nazi regime? I haven't seen any document stating otherwise. Sure, he made blanket condemnations pronounced in the garb of generalities, but that's not what Hochhuth's play addresses. It's a simple question we must ask: should, as some consider, the highest moral authority on the planet straddle the fence in an attempt not to offend anyone, or should we expect a public condemnation of evil on such a grand scale? This, in my view, and in sum, is the dilemma the play poses to each reader.

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great (if unwieldy) play on a subject of devastating importance, July 5, 2005

By 

Scott Ross (Raleigh, NC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Deputy (Paperback)

It may be difficult to imagine how one would stage this play effectively: it's length is prohibitive and it moves around from location to location, each described in great, novelistic detail by the playwright, and utterly impractical in a theatrical context. But it's a riveting, rigorously intelligent and utterly damning take of Pius's unforgivable reticense regarding the Holocaust. What with the Vatican's continued talk of canonizing Pius -- in spite of its much-ballyhooed (by the Vatican only) talk of repentence for centuries of murderous anti-Semitism -- this is a timely play and should be read widely.

11 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hugely important drama on the holocaust, October 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Deputy (Paperback)

No literary work about the holocaust has so much shaken the conscience of the western world as he Deputy". Since the play first appeared in 1963, it has been reviewed, rereviewed, praised, damned and boycotted (including the American Nazi Party). What I have to add here is (1) praise to Johns Hopkins University Press for republishing the play and (2) rebuttal of the bizarre and shameful comments appearing at this site on July 1, 1999 and October 21, 1999.

To any one who has read the play, or attended it, it is obvious that it deals with the HOLOCAUST and nothing less. That Pius II did not protest as strongly and often as he should could have and that he did not protect Roman jews is an important part of the play.

Nowhere in the play, the stage instructions, the appendices nor anywhere does Hochhuth "shift the blame" for the holocaust. Indeed, Acts 1-3 and 5 put the responsibility brutally and exactly where it belongs. (The pope, drawn as a caricature of a CEO, appears only in Act 4, essentially denying the reality of the holocaust).

The principal character in the play is Riccardo Fontana, a catholic priest (a jesuit), son of a laic counsellor to the pope, who struggles futilely against the Nazis - and the obtuseness of the vatican - and is murdered by the Nazis. Like all characters in the play, Riccardo is a fictional character inspired by a real person. The inspiration for Riccardo came from Bernard Lichtenberg, prelate of St. Hedwig's cathedral, Berlin and father Maximilian Kolbe, martyred in Auschwitz and canonized (John Paul II) in 1982. The play is dedicated to these men.