des Teufels General (The Devil's General) by Zuckmayer

Anyone have an opinion on this play? I have never seen it but found myself reading it again recently. It is a cracking drama, full of larger-than-life characters and edge-of-the-seat dilemmas. But perhaps for this very reason, it's inadequate as a presentation of Nazi Germany. Not that the characters are either whitewashed or caricatured, just that the story is too full of an old-fashioned romantic heroism and relish for life to be appropriate to its sordid subject.

I especially liked the characterization of Putzchen, the nauseatingly Nazi sexpot. It was telling how her thoughtless cruelty about Jews and enemies of the regime was expressed in the punitive language of the classroom and playground: 'Was zum Untergehn verurteilt ist, das muss herunter, da lasst man die Finger weg, sonst kriegt man drauf...' 'Wer nicht horen will, muss fuhlen.'

In any society where a majority think that people who suffer probably deserve it, Nazism can happen.