The Twilight Zone (TV Series)

Deaths-Head Revisited (1961)

Oscar Beregi Jr.: SS Capt. Gunther Lutze

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.

• [first lines] 

  Innkeeper : Yes, sir?

  SS Captain Gunther Lutze : I've just arrived in town. Do you have accommodations here?

  Innkeeper : I can give you a lovely front room overlooking the square. Would you care to see it?

  SS Captain Gunther Lutze : I'm sure it will be satisfactory.

  [signs in; the innkeeper looks at his face with a frightened look, he looks up] 

  SS Captain Gunther Lutze : Yes? Anything wrong?

  Innkeeper : No, sir.

  [looks at what Lutze signed] 

  Innkeeper : Mr. Schmidt.

  SS Captain Gunther Lutze : That's what I've written.

  Innkeeper : Of course, sir.

  SS Captain Gunther Lutze : Of course, what?

  Innkeeper : [nervously]  I just meant, uh - I just wondered - it's just that...

  SS Captain Gunther Lutze : What? You just wondered what?

  Innkeeper : It's just that - you remind me of someone.

  SS Captain Gunther Lutze : Oh?

  Innkeeper : During the war.

  SS Captain Gunther Lutze : Go on.

  Innkeeper : There were - there were SS stationed here. They used to come to the inn very often.

  SS Captain Gunther Lutze : I spent the war years on the Russian Front. The panzer division.

  Innkeeper : Of course, sir.

• 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!

• SS Captain Gunther Lutze : You'd like water number - 23575? Is that what you'd like? You'd like water? But why should you care? It's only been five little days since you've been fed. Five little days!

• 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.

• SS Captain Gunther Lutze : Was it a prison or something you had here?

  Innkeeper : Something of the sort, sir.

  SS Captain Gunther Lutze : [raises his voice]  Was it a prison?

  Innkeeper : A camp, sir.

  SS Captain Gunther Lutze : How's that?

  Innkeeper : A camp, Mr. Schmidt! A - concentration camp!

  SS Captain Gunther Lutze : [smiling]  A concentration camp? Really? Now that's odd.

  [lights his cigarette] 

  SS Captain Gunther Lutze : For the life of me, I can't seem to recall the name of this town.

  Innkeeper : Sir?

  SS Captain Gunther Lutze : The name of this town!

  [turns to innkeeper] 

  SS Captain Gunther Lutze : What is the name of this town?

  Innkeeper : Dachau, sir.

  [painfully] 

  Innkeeper : Dachau.

  SS Captain Gunther Lutze : Dachau. Of course. Dachau.

• SS Captain Gunther Lutze : Listen to me Becker, there is no more war, that's all in the past, there are no more camps. It's ridiculous. It's utterly ridiculous to dwell on these things. You did what you thought best and I functioned as I told.