Bishop Attacks Play on Late Pope’s Stand Toward Nazi Annihilation of Jews

Germany’s most controversial drama, “The Deputy,” by Rolf Hochhuth, a play that accuses the late Pope Pius XII of indifference to the mass murder of the European Jews during the wartime Nazi holocaust, drew the fire of Dr. Wilhelm Kempf, Bishop of Limburg, yesterday. In his sermon at the Limburg Cathedral, Bishop Kempf said the play had been based on “mere assumptions, not on facts.” Hochhuth, a young German, is considered one of the country’s outstanding playwrights.

Not since the Eichmann case has any public event stirred so much controversy in this country as has the production of “The Deputy.” Since its debut in Berlin, last February, the play has stirred bitterness and sharpest dispute. Catholic churchmen, scholars and laymen have accused the playwright of anti-Catholicism. There are reports that the Papal Nuncio at Bonn is investigating whether a legal case exists for a possible libel suit against the playwright, who is accused of defaming the memory of the late Pius XII.

Meanwhile, wide interest around the world has increased the scheduling of performances of the play in various world centers. Israel’s Habimah Theater, in Tel Aviv, is scheduled to do “The Deputy” under the aegis of the famous German producer, Erwin Piscator. Ingmar Bergman has been asked to direct the play in Stockholm, and London’s Royal Shakespeare Theater will put on “The Deputy,” probably under the direction of Peter Hall. (In New York, it was announced today that the famous impresario, Billy Rose, will produce “The Deputy” on Broadway.) Film rights to “The Deputy” have also already been bought by a Parisian producer, Georges Beauregard.