The cannibals

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The cannibals (original title The Cannibals ) is a play by George Tabori . The world premiere took place on October 17, 1968 in New York; the German premiere was on December 13, 1969. The German translation is by Peter Sandberg.

action

In The Cannibals, the author uses reports from survivors to give an insight into a day in the Auschwitz concentration camp . The play takes place in one of the barracks in the camp. Tabori's uncle Cornelius Tabori (role designation: "uncle") is one of the inmates who are terribly hungry and for whom food has remained the only relevant issue. When they notice that one of them - called Puffi - has kept a piece of bread a secret from them, a tussle begins in which the bread is snatched and then shared. In this scuffle, Puffi, the fattest man of them, dies. Uncle Tabori wants to bury him, but one of the others gets the idea that it would be a waste to spurn this amount of edible meat. A conflict develops between his uncle and his fellow prisoners, in which he tries to convince them that their plan is inhuman and against God's will. But the others prevail and Weiss, a chef, starts preparing a soup in which puffi is supposed to be the main ingredient. During the long wait until the soup is ready, Uncle continues to discuss with the others, but a poem is read, music is made and there is dancing. The youngest of them, the Ramaseder boy, only twelve years old, also dies at the end of the first act - uncle buries him and thus ensures that he does not experience the same fate as Puffi. At the end of the piece, Uncle gets into such a violent argument with the others that a fight ensues and he is put down. Uncle's collapse shakes the others, and just at that moment the cook announces that the meal is ready, replies Klaub, who previously made serious accusations: "I'm not hungry."

Shortly afterwards the security guard Schrekinger enters the barrack to select the old and the weak. When he sees the soup and notices that Puffi is missing, he realizes what is going on and tells the inmates to eat. One after the other refuses and is sent "to the shower room" - that is, to death. Only two of them bow to compulsion, it is Hirschler and Heltai, the two survivors, "to whom we owe our knowledge of the facts".

literature

  • George Tabori : The cannibals. In: Maria Sommer; Jan Strümpel (Ed.): George Tabori. Theatre. 1st edition. Volume 1. Steidl Verlag, Göttingen 2014, pp. 237–299.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ George Tabori / Kiepenheuer Bühnenvertrieb. Retrieved January 23, 2017 .
  2. ↑ George Tabori: The Cannibals . In: Maria Sommer; Jan Strümpel (Ed.): George Tabori. Theater . 1st edition. tape 1 . Steidl Verlag, Göttingen 2014, p. 292 .
  3. ↑ George Tabori: The Cannibals . In: Maria Sommer; Jan Strümpel (Ed.): George Tabori. Theater . 1st edition. tape 1 . Steidl Verlag, Göttingen 2014, p. 237 .