Catholic high school and university students inside and outside a Brussels theater presenting the controversial play “The Deputy, ” about the late Pope Fius XII, provoked incidents here which led to police intervention and several arrests. The performance of West German playwright Rolf Hochhut’s play was the first public one in Brussels.
About 100 students inside the theater engaged in efforts throughout the performance to drown it out. Other spectators shouted “Young Fascists, you are afraid of the truth.” The theme of the play is that the late pontiff failed to speak out against the Nazi slaughter of 6,000,000 European Jews. Police were called in. When they were unable to halt the disturbance, they arrested three of the students.
Around the theater, other Catholic students distributed pamphlets which asserted that the Pope had sought to save Jews. They soon clashed with other persons and police intervened, wielding truncheons. The police arrested three more persons.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
