Deaths-Head Revisited
Encyclopedia
"Deaths-Head Revisited" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone
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in the SS, returns to the ruins of Dachau concentration camp to relive the memories of his time as its commandant during World War II
. He revels in the recollections of the torment he inflicted on the inmates, remembering with a cold smile the suffering he was responsible for. As he walks around the gallows and prepares to leave he is surprised to see Alfred Becker, one of the camp's inmates. Becker relentlessly dogs Lutze with the reality of his grossly inhumane treatment of the inmates, while Lutze stubbornly and unemotionally insists that he was only carrying out his orders and had no idea that the Third Reich planned to exterminate Jews. Lutze eventually remembers that he killed Becker 17 years ago on the night before US troops reached Dachau, and realizes that he is facing the man's ghost. Becker and the spirits of many other inmates put Lutze on trial for crimes against humanity and find him guilty. As punishment and atonement, Lutze is made to undergo the same horrors he had imposed on the inmates. He is not physically touched; rather, he experiences the pain in his mind, culminating near the detention room, where he screams in agony. Lutze has been driven insane.
Before departing, Becker's ghost informs him, "This is not hatred. This is retribution. This is not revenge. This is justice. But this is only the beginning, Captain. Only the beginning. Your final judgment will come from God
." Lutze is eventually found and taken to a mental institution for the criminally insane in a straitjacket, leaving his finders to survey the remains of the camp in wonder and bafflement. As they prepare to leave and take Lutze to the asylum, the doctor who examined him looks around visibly upset and asks, "Dachau. Why does it still stand? Why do we keep it standing?"
Serling closes the episode with a powerful statement: "There is an answer to the doctor's question. All the Dachaus must remain standing. The Dachaus, the Belsens, the Buchenwalds, the Auschwitzes - all of them. They must remain standing because they are a monument to a moment in time when some men decided to turn the Earth into a graveyard. Into it they shoveled all of their reason, their logic, their knowledge, but worst of all their conscience. And the moment we forget this, the moment we cease to be haunted by its remembrance, then we become the gravediggers. Something to dwell on and to remember, not only in the Twilight Zone but wherever men walk God's Earth."
sampled a few lines of dialogue for the introduction to the song "Intro to Reality" on the 1990 album Persistence of Time
. The song "Belly of the Beast" by Anthrax was itself based on the episode's story.
The New Jersey hardcore band Rorschach
samples some of the lines from the ending narration on the song "Lightning Strikes Twice" from their album Remain Sedate.
The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
The Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. The series consisted of unrelated episodes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events; each show typically featured a surprising...
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Synopsis
Gunther Lutze, a former sadistic captainHauptsturmführer
Hauptsturmführer was a Nazi rank of the SS which was used between the years of 1934 and 1945. The rank of Hauptsturmführer was a mid-grade company level officer and was the equivalent of a Captain in the German Army and also the equivalent of captain in foreign armies...
in the SS, returns to the ruins of Dachau concentration camp to relive the memories of his time as its commandant during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. He revels in the recollections of the torment he inflicted on the inmates, remembering with a cold smile the suffering he was responsible for. As he walks around the gallows and prepares to leave he is surprised to see Alfred Becker, one of the camp's inmates. Becker relentlessly dogs Lutze with the reality of his grossly inhumane treatment of the inmates, while Lutze stubbornly and unemotionally insists that he was only carrying out his orders and had no idea that the Third Reich planned to exterminate Jews. Lutze eventually remembers that he killed Becker 17 years ago on the night before US troops reached Dachau, and realizes that he is facing the man's ghost. Becker and the spirits of many other inmates put Lutze on trial for crimes against humanity and find him guilty. As punishment and atonement, Lutze is made to undergo the same horrors he had imposed on the inmates. He is not physically touched; rather, he experiences the pain in his mind, culminating near the detention room, where he screams in agony. Lutze has been driven insane.
Before departing, Becker's ghost informs him, "This is not hatred. This is retribution. This is not revenge. This is justice. But this is only the beginning, Captain. Only the beginning. Your final judgment will come from God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
." Lutze is eventually found and taken to a mental institution for the criminally insane in a straitjacket, leaving his finders to survey the remains of the camp in wonder and bafflement. As they prepare to leave and take Lutze to the asylum, the doctor who examined him looks around visibly upset and asks, "Dachau. Why does it still stand? Why do we keep it standing?"
Serling closes the episode with a powerful statement: "There is an answer to the doctor's question. All the Dachaus must remain standing. The Dachaus, the Belsens, the Buchenwalds, the Auschwitzes - all of them. They must remain standing because they are a monument to a moment in time when some men decided to turn the Earth into a graveyard. Into it they shoveled all of their reason, their logic, their knowledge, but worst of all their conscience. And the moment we forget this, the moment we cease to be haunted by its remembrance, then we become the gravediggers. Something to dwell on and to remember, not only in the Twilight Zone but wherever men walk God's Earth."
Critical response
Gordon F. Sander, excerpt from Serling: The Rise and Twilight of Television's Last Angry Man:- Serling meted out nightmarish justice of a worse kind in "Deaths-Head Revisited" (directed by Don Medford), Serling's statement on the Holocaust, written in reaction to the then-ongoing Eichmann trial, in which a former NaziNazismNazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
, played by Oscar BeregiOscar Beregi, Jr.Oscar Beregi, Jr. was a Hungarian-born film and television actor. He was the son of actor Oscar Beregi, Sr...
, on a nostalgic visit to Dachau, is haunted and ultimately driven insane by the ghosts of inmates he had killed there during the war.
Cultural references
The band AnthraxAnthrax (band)
Anthrax is an American heavy metal band from New York City, formed in 1981. Founded by guitarists Scott Ian and Danny Lilker, the band has since released ten studio albums and 20 singles, and an EP featuring Public Enemy. The band was one of the most popular of the 1980s thrash metal scene...
sampled a few lines of dialogue for the introduction to the song "Intro to Reality" on the 1990 album Persistence of Time
Persistence of Time
-Personnel:* Joey Belladonna – Vocals* Scott Ian – Rhythm guitar, Lead guitar on "Got the Time", Harmony Guitar on "Intro to Reality", vocal intro on "In My World", lead vocals on "Protest and Survive"* Dan Spitz – Lead guitar* Frank Bello – Bass...
. The song "Belly of the Beast" by Anthrax was itself based on the episode's story.
The New Jersey hardcore band Rorschach
Rorschach (band)
Rorschach is a New Jersey-based band that existed from 1989 to 1993 and reformed in 2009. The group often blended hardcore punk and dissonant elements of metal providing the inspiration to a number of hardcore and post hardcore bands thereafter....
samples some of the lines from the ending narration on the song "Lightning Strikes Twice" from their album Remain Sedate.