Holocaust (TV Mini Series)

Part 4: 1944-1945 (1978)

Deborah Norton: Marta Dorf

Quotes 

• [last lines] 

  Marta Dorf : [reading the notification of Erik's death]  Be assured, dear Frau Dorf, that your husband, Major Erik Dorf, died a hero in the service of the Reich. We who are his comrades will honor his memory and keep alive the great tradition he personified. It's unsigned.

  Uncle Kurt Dorf : It is also untrue.

  Marta Dorf : Untrue?

  Uncle Kurt Dorf : Marta, Erik took his own life. The Americans had him in custody as a war criminal. In all likelihood he would have been executed or given a long term in prison.

  Marta Dorf : You're lying! You always hated Erik.

  Uncle Kurt Dorf : No, not always. And I can no longer hate him. I was too involved in his dreadful business myself to pass judgment.

  Peter Dorf - teen : You get out of here! My father was a hero!

  Uncle Kurt Dorf : Peter, you must face the truth. You and your mother and Laura...

  Peter Dorf - teen : Shut up!

  Uncle Kurt Dorf : Your father was a murderer. He and his colleagues, those strutting men in black uniforms were mechanical killers. Oh, a heroic career - the shooting and gassing and torture of innocents.

  Peter Dorf - teen : Mom, make him stop!

  Marta Dorf : Kurt! Leave us! We never want to see you again. How dare you defame Erik's name! You should be praying for his soul.

  Uncle Kurt Dorf : Somebody else will have to furnish those prayers. I watched and did nothing, and believed the lies. We've got to face up to what we are and what we've done. I won't be silent. Goodbye, Marta. Goodbye, children.

  [Kurt leaves] 

  Marta Dorf : Children, we must light a candle to your father.

• Marta Dorf : [reads from a copy of her husband's orders]  "The copses in Babi Yar are to be dug up and burned. Not a trace is to remain. This is of the highest priority."

  Marta Dorf : [brings the next page forward]  "The crematoria are obviously not doing their job. We suggest you start a program of outdoor burnings to destroy the bodies. Huge piles of railway ties drenched in gasoline may prove efficient."