[Theme music playing]
(Narrator) You're tra vel/ng through another dimension.
A dimension not onl y of sightand sound, but of mind,
a journey into a wondrous land
whose boundaries are tha t of ima Gina t/on.
Your next stop, the twilight zone.
[Pleasant music]
[Rings bell]
Yes, sir.
I've just arrived in town.
Do you have accommodations here?
I can give you a lovely front room
overlooking the square.
Would you care to see it?
I am sure it will be satisfactory.
[Suspense music]
Yes? Anything wrong?
No, sir.
Mr. Schmidt?
That's what I've written.
Of course, sir.
Of course, what?
I... I just meant, sir...
I just wondered...
It's just that...
What? You just wondered what?
It's just that... you remind me of someone.
Oh?
During the wa r.
Go on.
There were... there were s.S. Stationed here.
They used to come to the inn very often.
I spent the war years on the Russian front...
The panzer division.
Of course.
Was it a prison or something you had here?
Something of the sort, sir.
Was it a prison?
A camp, sir.
How's that?
A camp, Mr. Schmidt.
A concentration camp.
Really?
Now, that's odd.
For the life of me, I can't seem to recall
the name of this town.
Sir?
The name of this town!
What is the name of this town?
Dac h au, si r. [Suspense music]
Dachau.
Of course, dachau!
The camp, it's that group of buildings
up on the hill, isn't it?
It is, indeed.
But most of us would like it burned to the ground.
(Narrator) Mr. Schm/d 7', recen tl y arri ved in a small ba var/an villa ge
which lies eight miles northwest of mun/oh.
A pioturesoue, del/ghtful little spot
one time known for its soenery,
but more recently related to other events
having to do with some of the less positive pursuits of man.
Human slaughter, torture, misery and anguish.
Mr. Schmidt, as we will soon perceive,
has avested interest in the ruins of a concentration camp,
for once, some 17 years ago, his name was Gunther lutze.
He held the rank of a captain in the ss.
He was a black-uniformed, strutting animal
whose function in life was to give pain,
and like his colleagues of the time
he shared the one affliction
most common amongst that breed known as Nazis.
He walked the earth without a heart.
And now former s.S. Captain lutze
will rev/sit his old ha unts, sa t/sf/ed perhaps
tha tall tha t is a waiting him in the ruins on the hill
is an element of nostalg/a.
Wha t he does not know, of course,
is thata place like dachau cannot exist onl y in ba var/a.
B y its na ture, b y its very na ture,
it must be one of the popula Ted areas of the twilight zone.
[Suspense music]
[Ominous music]
[Wind blowing soft/ y]
All right, pigs, up!
Time to greet the morning.
On your feet, filth!
We have a nice day
ahead of us.
It's sno wing.
Tempera ture's are slightl y bel ow zero.
You will all assemble in the square.
And dress.
We'll do some exercises.
I and you!
[Mouths si/ent/ y]
[Suspense music]
[Soft thud]
(I utze) Detention.
Yes, I remember you.
We had some good times in this building.
[Chuckles]
Such good times.
You'd like water, number 23575?
Is that what you'd like? You'd like water?
But why should you care?
It's onl y been five da ys since you've been fed.
Five little days!
[Door closes]
Good afternoon, captain, and welcome back.
We've been waiting.
[Hinge creaks]
That's right, captain.
We've been waiting for a long time.
You're...
You're Becker, Alfred Becker.
I remember you.
And well you should. [Suspense music]
How well you should, captain lutze.
[Curtain music]
You don't look so bad, Becker.
No, as a matter of fact, you look quite well.
You don't seem to have changed at all.
That's it. You haven't changed.
Why, it's been...
It's been 15 or 16 years.
It's been 17 years, captain,
since you and I last saw each other.
Really?
You're the caretaker around here?
In a manner of speaking.
It's odd how paths cross
and we meet again
under somewhat happier circumstances.
[Wind ho w/s]
What was that?
It sounded like...
The wind, captain?
Wind?
Perhaps.
Perhaps it was the wind, eh?
Of course.
Of course it was the wind.
It was not the wind,
it was...
It was...
It was what, captain?
Stop calling me captain!
I'm not a soldier anymore.
[Ho w/ing]
You never were a sold/er.
The uniform you wore
cannot be stripped off.
It was part of you, part of your flesh, part of your body.
It was a piece of your mind.
A tattoo, captain.
A skull and crossbones
burned into your soul.
I was a soldier, Becker.
No, captain, you were a sadist.
You were a monster who derived pleasure
from giving pain.
Listen to me, Becker.
There's no more war.
That's all in the past.
There are no more camps.
It's ridiculous.
It's utterly ridiculous to dwell on these things.
You did as you thought best, and I...
I functioned as I was told.
[Ho w/ing]
(I utze) Wha t is this noise?
Strange that it should disturb you
so it never used to, captain.
When your victims screamed
you weren't so sensitive.
But now, they are not screaming.
No, they are reacting.
They just heard you offer the apology
for all the monsters of our times.
"We did as we were told."
"We functioned as ordered."
"We merely carried out
directives from our superiors."
Fam/I/ar, is it, captain?
It was the Nazi theme music at nuremberg,
the new lyrics to the gotterdammerung,
the plaintive litany of the master race as it lay dying.
"We did not do, others did."
Or "someone else did it.
"We never even knew
tha t it was being done."
Or "we did it, but others told us to."
Captain lutze,
ten mill/on human beings
were tortured to death in camps like this.
Men, women, children,
infants, tired old men.
You burned them in furnaces.
You shoveled them into the earth.
You tore up the/r bod/es in ra ge,
and now you come back to your scenes of horror
and you wonder that the misery that you planted
has lived after you?
[Howling grows louder]
There's no point in talking about this any longer.
I must leave you now, Becker.
I told you I had to leave, Becker!
Why did you come back, captain lutze?
You changed your name.
You were quite safe down there in South America.
What could possibly have brought you back here?
One misses the fatherland, Becker.
One grows nostalgic for the good old days.
I had thought...
I had hoped that with the passage of time
sanity would have returned,
people would be willing to forget the...
Little mistakes of the past.
Little mistakes?
Little mis...
You ask too much, captain lutze.
Far too much.
Why not ask for the earth to stop revolving in its axis?
Don'task the impossible, captain lutze.
Do not ask forgiveness
from those whom you have destroyed to a point
past forgiveness.
But time is short, captain.
We have something to accomplish here today.
Accomplish?
What?
Your trial.
It is time for your trial, captain.
The court is convening in compound six.
The court?
What is this nonsense?
Is this a joke?
No. No joke, captain.
Your trial.
You will be tried for crimes against humanity.
By whom? Who will try me?
You're insane, Becker. You were insane
when I used to string you up and...
When you used to string me up, captain?
Suspended over a hot pipe?
Feed me salt water until my tongue swelled?
Burned me with cigarette butts all over
and la ughed when I screamed
to please put an end to it,
to please have mercy and kill me?
Your memory's quite good, captain.
Quite good, indeed.
Come.
Shall we go?
The court is waiting.
N o! [Suspense music]
Shall we proceed, captain lutze?
Please.
Please let me out of here.
This... this is... This is inhuman!
I must get out of here.
I must get out of here!
We inmates of compound six, dachau concentration camp
versus Gunther lutze, captain, s.S.
Indictment one. That he condemned to death
without a trial 1,700 human beings.
Ind/c tment two.
That he did maim and torture without provocation
thousands and thousands of human beings.
Ind/c tment three.
Tha t he did del/bera tel y condone
the use of criminal med/cal experiments
on women and children.
[Panting] No! No! No!
Indictment four. That he did personally murder at least...
Oh. Oh, no! No!
No! No!
No!
Indictment five. That he did sign
and put into effect specific orders
calling for the gassing and crema ting
of one million human beings.
[Screams]
[Scream grows distorted]
[Suspense music]
I fell asleep.
No, you were unconscious for awhile.
I had such a dream.
You had no dream, captain.
Of course I had a dream.
I dreamt there were people in this room.
There was a trial.
Ghostly figures.
They are still here.
They have never left.
They walk the buildings in the square outside.
You didn't Bury them deep enough, captain.
You didn't cover them up with enough earth,
or perhaps the bullets were too small a caliber,
or the flames not sufficiently hot,
or perhaps there wasn't enough gas.
Becker. Becker, who are you?
Did you forget?
Th e caretake r.
This, this trial...
The trial is over, captain lutze.
You ha ve been found gu/I Ty.
It's time to pronounce sentence.
You are going to pronounce sentence?
Is that what you have in mind now?
You will pronounce sentence,
and then you shall execute that sentence?
[Is that correct? Uaughs]
Pigs! Filth!
You will all assemble in the square!
You will pass sentence on captain lutze!
You will crawl out of your graves
[to see that justice is done! Uaughs]
Where are they?
Where's the judge?
Where's the jury?
Where's the executioner?
Shall I tell you where they are?
In your mind.
You've ha tched them out of your ha tred.
You've planned your vengeance
out of the crazy ou/I t of your ima Gina t/on
sewed together with thin little threads
of wishful thinking!
Why didn't I kill you when I had a chance?
Why didn't /...
Becker?
Becker, I did kill you.
I killed you the night...
You killed me
the night the Americans came close to the camp.
You tried to burn it down, remember?
You tried to kill everyone who was left.
In my case, you succeeded.
So I think it would be a waste of time, captain, wouldn't it...
A waste of your precious time...
Of that little time you have left to murder me again?
[Yells]
[Tragic music]
(Becker) Captain I utze.
Captain lutze,
you ha ve been tried and found gu/I Ty
of crimes against human/ty.
It is the unanimous judgment of this court
tha t from this da y on, you shall be rendered insane.
What is this nonsense?
What is this gibberish?
What is this madness?
(Becker) A t this ga te, you shot down
hundreds of people with machine guns.
Do you feel it now, captain?
Do you feel the bullets [machine gun firing]
Smashing into your body?
Do you feel the agony of tortured lead?
[Tragic music]
On these posts, by the anguished hour
you hung up human beings to die a slow death.
Do you feel their torture now?
[Tragic music]
In this room, captain,
the things you did to human beings
are unmentionable.
[Agonized wailing]
How does their torment feel?
[Agonized screaming]
[Tragic music]
[Screaming continues]
Captain lutze, if you can still reason,
if there's still any portion of your mind
that can still function, take this thought with you.
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.
He's so full of sedatives now
he doesn't even know he's on the earth,
but I want him in the hospital,
and I want him strapped to the bed.
Doctor?
What happened to him?
I drove him up here myself not two hours ago.
He was all right then.
I have no idea.
I only know that he is screaming through pain.
No, it's more than pain, it's agony.
And there isn't a Mark on him.
He's insane, a ra v/ng man/ac.
But what could happen in two hours
to turn a man into a raving maniac?
That, somebody will have to tell me that.
Dachau.
Why does it still stand?
Why do we keep it standing?
(Narrator) There is an answer to the doctor's quest/on.
All the dachaus must remain standing.
The dachaus, the belsens, the buchenwalds,
theauschw/tzes, all of them. They must remain standing
because theyarea monument to a moment in time
when some men decided to turn the earth into a gra veyard.
Into it, they shoveled all of their reason,
the/r log/c, the/r knowledge,
but worst of all, the/r consc/ence.
And the moment we forget this...
The moment we cease to be haunted by/ts remembrance...
Then we become the gra ved/ggers.
Something to dwell on and to remember,
not only in the twilight zone,
but wherever men walk god's earth.
(Announcer) Rod serling, creator of the twilight zone,
will tell youabout next week's story
after this message.
And now, Mr. Serl/ng.
Next week, we see what will happen to a world that,
with each passing hour, draws closer and closer to the sun.
This is a nightmare in depth, in which we watch
two doomed women spend their last hours
struggling for survival against a fiery orb
that moves over the top of a hot, still, deserted city.
We call it "the midnight sun,"
and we also recommend it most heartily.
[Theme music playing]
This is James arness.
You know, it's onl ya short hop
fromthe twilight zone to dodge cityand gunsmoke,
sa turda y nights, over most of these sta t/ons.