The Deputy
by Rolf Hochhuth, Jerome Rothenberg

A German officer from a death camp comes to the Papal legate in Berlin with incriminating evidence against the Reich in its annihilation of the Jews, and thus begins the torturous and fruitless effort to interest the Papacy in the cause of the Jews under Hitler.

The torch is passed to a humanitarian priest-attache who beats in vain upon the Papal portals, and who is turned aside by a fatuous cardinal.

Several documented scenes ensue in which we see how some Jews are secreted in monastaries, and how others are rounded up by the Nazis in Rome and subjected to a humiliating and brutal interrogation.

Then at last into the inner chamber, where we meet Pope Pius XII himself, whose arguments are all specious and who sits in stern self-esteem.

He dismisses the protest of the young priest-attache, who thereupon pins upon himself the star of David and proceeds to join the Jews on their march to the gas chambers.