The Investigation

Between December 1963 and August 1965 the first Auschwitz trial took place in Frankfurt am Main, charging those responsible for the operation of the machinery of extermination. The confrontation with the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials had a formative effect on the country and its politics in the sixties. Peter Weiss depicted this trial in his documentary play and condensed it into an "oratorio". In eleven „cantos“ witnesses, defendants, judges and defense lawyers step forward to describe what happened in Auschwitz. Perpetrators and victims are confronted with each other, allowing the horror of this killing factory to become clear, precisely by dispensing with the reconstruction of individual experiences and emphasizing the functional aspects. Both the total dehumanisation and the attempt to survive in the camp, as well as the silence, denial and repression of the perpetrators are reported on. The first Frankfurt Auschwitz trial, in which Germans sat in judgement of Germans, lasted just under two years. Peter Weiss took part in the trial as a spectator. His play is based on the transcripts of the trial.
The Investigation is one of the most successful German plays of the post-war period. In 1965, the play was premiered simultaneously by 15 West and East German theatres as well as the Royal Shakespeare Company in London. The Investigation is shown in the Landtag and at other locations throughout the city.