The Twilight Zone (TV Series)

Deaths-Head Revisited (1961)

Joseph Schildkraut: Alfred Becker

Photos 

Quotes 

• SS Captain Gunther Lutze : Stop calling me captain! I'm not a soldier anymore.

  Alfred Becker : You never were a soldier. The uniform you wore cannot be stripped off, it was part of you. Part of your flesh, part of your body. It was a piece of your mind.

  [raises left arm] 

  Alfred Becker : A tattoo, captain. The skull and crossbones, burned into your soul.

  SS Captain Gunther Lutze : I was a SOLDIER, Becker!

  Alfred Becker : No captain, you were a sadist. You were a monster who derived pleasure from giving pain.

• Alfred Becker : Good afternoon captain, and welcome back.

  [motions] 

  Alfred Becker : We've been waiting.

  [Captain turns to watch gate close and lock itself] 

  Alfred Becker : That's right, captain. We've been waiting for a long time.

  SS Captain Gunther Lutze : You're - you're Becker! Alfred Becker! I remember you.

  Alfred Becker : And well you should. How well you should, Captain Lutze.

• SS Captain Gunther Lutze : What is this noise?

  Alfred Becker : Strange that it should disturb you, it never use to, Captain. When your victims screamed, you weren't so sensitive. But now they are not screaming, no, they are reacting. They just heard your offer the apology for all the monsters of our time: 'We did as we were told, we functioned as ordered, we merely carried out directives from our superiors.' Familiar is it, Captain? It was the Nazi theme music at Nuremberg. The new lyrics to the Götterdämmerung. The plaintive litany of the Master Race as it lay dying. 'We did not do, others did;' or 'some else did it but we never knew that it was being done;' or 'We did it, but others told us to.' Captain Lutze, ten million human beings were tortured to death in camps like this: men, women, children, infants, tired old men. You burned them in furnaces, you shoveled them in the earth, you tore up there bodies in rage, and now you come back to your scenes of horror, and you wonder that the misery you planted has lived after you?

  SS Captain Gunther Lutze : There is no point talking about this any longer, I must leave you now, Becker.

  [Lutze tries to leave, only to find the gate locked up tight] 

  SS Captain Gunther Lutze : I told you I had to leave, Becker!

• Alfred Becker : Captain Lutze, if you can still reason, if there's still any portion of your mind that can still function, take this thought with you: This is not hatred, this is retribution. This is not revenge, this is justice. But this is only the beginning, captain. Only the beginning. Your final judgment... will come from God.

• SS Captain Gunther Lutze : Becker? Becker, I did kill you. I killed you the night...

  Alfred Becker : You killed me the night the Americans came close to the camp. You tried to burn it down, remember? You tried to kill everyone who was left. In my case, you succeeded. So, I think it would be a waste of time, Captain, wouldn't it. A waste of your precious time, of that little time you have left to murder me again.

• Alfred Becker : You ask too much, Captain Lutze. Far too much. Why not ask the Earth to stop from revolving on its axis? Don't ask for the impossible, Captain Lutze. Do not ask forgiveness from those whom you have destroyed to a point past forgiveness. But time is short, Captain. We have something to accomplish here today.