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Sir: I cannot find words strong enough to protest your outrageous and unfair review of The Deputy [March 6]. Your cute word plays, however, will not hide the fact that you are insensitive to the central issue of the play, which is not the Pope but people—6,000,000 people exterminated by the Nazis. From his office in Rockefeller Center, your reviewer imagines that there "might have been a far finer spur to conscience." When I walked out of the Free People's Theater in Berlin in the company of a stunned audience after having seen the play last summer, I could imagine no "finer spur to conscience," then or now.
(THE REV.) RICHARD E. KOENIG Immanuel Lutheran Church Amherst, Mass.
Sir: It is foolish to argue that Hoch-huth's play is a "shift-the-blame show," in which the attempt is made to whitewash the German people at the expense of the Roman Pontiff. In the play itself, the guilt of Germany is presented in a brutal and radical manner. Not a single sentence hints that the Pope is "guilty" of the mass murder of millions of people. This, however, does not change the fact that Pope Pius XII remained silent and refused to condemn the Nazi atrocities. Bodo Nishan
East Lansing, Mich.
Sir: I think some notice should be taken of the fact that Pius XII, in his "complacency, indifference," etc., procured the life rather than the death of thousands of Jews. A papal condemnation of Germany would only have caused the atheistic Hitler to terminate relations with the Vatican. This, in turn, would have severed all opportunity for the Vatican to supply ways and means of escape to the Jews. However, no condemnation was made, and the ways and means of escape remained open, as thousands of Jews can testify.
PETER DABOUL II Providence, R.I.
Sir: Rolf Hochhuth has a Nazi mind and unscrupulously capitalizes on a painful dilemma. Pius' protest was not heard, so Hochhuth makes him a criminal.
(THE REV.) JULIAN FUZER DeWitt, Mich.
Sir: While Pope Pius XII did not publicly condemn the ghastly Nazi crimes to "prevent more misfortunes," men in more vulnerable positions did speak out. German Bishop Clemens August von Galen, for example, spoke out against those responsible for "Action T-4," the murder of defectives. He also read the list of his detailed charges from the pulpit of the Sankt-Lamberti Church in Munster, Westphalia, on Aug. 3, 1941. After protests by more clergymen, Hitler, allegedly worried about weakening morale, had Action T-4 stopped in August 1943. Bishop Galen, who became known as the Lion of Munster, earned much respect for his courage. He died a Cardinal in 1946.
FRANK HAARHOFF Toronto, Ont.
Sir: The author of The Deputy should be reminded that the brutalities and injustices committed by Hitler and his followers were not stopped by protests. It took lives and billions of dollars to put an end to their activities.
ROBERT M. THEIS Cold Spring, Minn.
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