FEAR AND MISERY OF THE THIRD REICH (Furcht und Elend des Dritten Reiches)

Play by Bertolt Brecht, 1941

Bertolt Brecht began writing Fear and Misery of the Third Reich in 1933, when he fled Germany for Denmark. Outraged by the rise of the Nazi dictatorship in his homeland and all too aware of the character of Hitler's regime, he set out to create a work that portrayed the fear, repression, and violence of life in Nazi Germany. Consisting of 27 dramatic sketches (which Brecht believed could be performed individually or together), the work documents the lives of everyday men and women and the misery they experienced under the Third Reich. Brecht completed Fear and Misery in 1938, well before he and the rest of the world learned the full scope of Nazi atrocities. Therefore, although the work deals pointedly with Nazi Germany's omnipresent anti-Semitism, it does not address the Holocaust in a direct manner. But this only serves to make the work richer, as it is underpinned by the reader's knowledge of what comes after. It was first published, as Deutschland: Ein Greuelmärchen, in 1941.

When Brecht began writing the sketches—or playlets, as they are sometimes called—he was not planning to synthesize them into a single dramatic work. Instead, he sought to provide material for amateur theater groups of German exiles. It was only in 1938 that he combined the 27 terse sketches, using an introductory poem, connecting poems, and a scenic device to link the disparate scenes. This method proved effective because the playlets fit naturally together. They range in length from ten lines to coherent one-act plays, but each one examines the impact of the Nazi regime on everyday German men, women, and children. The sketches are set between 30 January 1933, when Hitler became chancellor, and 13 March 1938, when Hitler marched into Austria. Instead of using historical figures or the likenesses of prominent people, Brecht portrays a cross section of "average" German citizens—soldiers, workers, farmers, butchers, housekeepers, teachers, doctors, and judges—and the impact of their government on them. Although Fear and Misery is a political work, it is in no way a propaganda piece. Brecht eschewed melodrama in favor of a quiet, semi-documentary style that is ultimately more resonant for its restraint.

One of the best-known sketches, "The Jewish Wife," typifies Brecht's detached style. The scene depicts a Jewish woman, Judith Keith, deciding to leave her non-Jewish husband and move to Amsterdam. He is a prominent physician, and she does not want to risk either his safety or career, both of which are threatened by the fact that he has a Jewish wife. Brecht distilled the dilemma into three powerful portraits, which together take only about 20 minutes to deliver: Judith makes farewell phone calls to acquaintances, she practices a speech she plans to deliver to her husband, and the couple meets in a final confrontation. The scene where she packs is typically spare, yet powerful. As she places items in her suitcase, she rehearses what she will say to him, becoming, in the process, increasingly upset that she is forced to leave. Men are "not even allowed to choose their own wives anymore," she says to herself. She predicts that her husband will not fully accept her decision, that he will be ostrich-like and will discount her leaving as only a short-term hiatus. Her fears are borne out, and the vignette ends on this note of betrayal.

Brecht explores the consequences of Nazism on everyday lives in the other playlets as well. "Chalk Crosses" touches on a theme that runs through the collection. In this play Brecht examines how conscious choices made by ordinary individuals helped cement Hitler's hold on power. This vignette is centered on paramilitary storm troopers in 1933. It depicts their chilling transformation. At first they play their brutal roles out of self-preservation, but over time they begin to live these roles fully. "The Informer" presents a domestic scene rife with the paranoia Nazism bred: a high school teacher and his wife fear that their own son will denounce them to the authorities.

—Rebecca Stanfel