Kavanagh QC (1995) s03e03 Episode Script
Ancient History
1 MAN: No, that won't be enough.
WOMAN: Put those over there? I'll take these.
OK? Hello? Hello, Charlie? - This is ridiculous.
- What's going on? Don't you know? They're still in there.
Just some legal thing.
What a time to pick.
- Must you? - Afraid so, sir.
Take it just as a formality.
Thanks.
I like these old ones.
Pity they went out.
It is still valid.
Of course.
Renewed to 1999.
- Born Cracow, Poland.
- That is correct.
We know.
Darling, I got the message.
I'll be there shortly.
Bloody hell! (Tyres screech) - Halfwit! Well, throw them out! If they're upsetting Mum and Dad on their big day Charlie, please! Look, I don't know who they are, but they've been closeted with your father for the past hour.
Nice room, this.
It used to be my surgery before I retired.
- Oh, yes? - What happens now? We just report.
But should there be a charge, what will it be? Well, technically, murder.
Indeed? Ah, you see? There he is.
Is that my accuser, out there watching? - He's a potential witness.
- How the hell? He's often there.
He hangs about.
Pack him off home! Tell him to stay there.
Excuse me.
Excuse me, sorry.
Sorry.
His name is Rypin, as you obviously know.
He's pestered me for years.
Abusive letters, phone calls.
If he's the best you've got Good afternoon, Mr Rypin.
How are you? If you want to be witness for the prosecution What the hell's going on? RYPIN: Leave me alone! - This is intimidation.
- You mustn't pester Doctor Beck.
- Don't put your arm Who are all these people, Mother? Did you let them in? - Your father did.
- What's it all about? - Who are you? - Charlie, it's all right.
- Why do you want him? - I think it's best I think I'll call the police.
Talk to him.
All right, show's over.
Carry on with what you were doing.
Mother, Lucy.
Alexander, my dear, they've upset you.
I'm being investigated as a war criminal.
A what? They're trying to say you never knew me, my dear, all this time.
Alexander! That during the war, I was not a victim of the Nazis but a perpetrator.
Stop it! Stop it! It's a mistake, of course.
There's some ancient muddle in the records.
- Then they'll have to son it out.
- Of course they will.
This is all down to old Rypin.
I saw him outside.
The mad creature? Surely he's harmless? He's back.
Go away! Leave us alone! Why don't you go? (Rypin mutters to himself) What's he saying? I can't make it out.
It's a prayer.
The Hebrew Kaddish.
Prayer for the dead.
At us? - It's like a curse.
- No.
I heard it often enough in the camp.
It's for their dead.
Y'hey sh'met rabbah m'varach I'alam u'l'almey almahyah, Yeefbarakh I must confess, James, I'm none too happy about the War Crimes Act.
Yes, it should never have been passed.
But it was.
Now it is the law of the land.
Surely - Retrospective legislation.
- It's against all our traditions.
Reaching back 50 years to accuse people of crimes committed in some other country.
It was forced through by the Jewish lobby.
Ah, now you lose me.
No, I don't mean You know what I mean.
I'm not! Quite emphatically.
Some of your best friends Well, yes.
Voices raised in favour most eloquently and and colourfully.
KAVANAGH: As you would expect of them.
Yes, since you put it like that.
I don't, but you do.
Don't dig yourself any deeper, Jeremy.
Surely it was to punish crimes against humanity? It's a bad law.
Thank you, Peter.
Bye, Jeremy.
So, you're going to accept this brief? Not until I've done my homework.
Ancient history? (Phone rings) Yes? Oh, hello, Lizzie.
Well, what time's he coming? No, no, I'll be there.
Actually, there's something I want to ask the old boy.
The end of the war? I'll say I do.
Rather vividly.
Swanning through Germany as a young subaltern Don't grin, Matt.
That's what I was.
In an armoured car, too.
You told me once how you got to Belsen.
The camp? I liberated it.
Did you indeed? Those poor creatures.
They were so grateful.
All starving, in a pitiful condition.
There were corpses stacked high.
Let's have coffee.
Matt, would you do something for me? Trawl the Internet.
Just try the word "Holocaust".
MATT.
I could go on all night.
I just picked out bits.
Thanks, Matt.
It's all unbelievable, of course.
Yeah.
So some people choose not to believe it.
There's a lot of that, too - stuff saying it never happened.
Holocaust denial.
In Germany, they've made that a crime.
They've got something right.
Matt your grandfather saw it.
When did you get into Belsen? April 1945.
I can't be sure of the exact date.
Actually, it wasn't just me.
I lay it on a bit, I'm afraid.
An awful habit.
- There were other chaps? - Of course.
Quite a bunch of us.
We were stopped at the gate by the bloody Commandant, would you believe? - He wouldn't let you in? - That's right.
Kramer, his name was.
Josef Kramer.
Horrible thug with jackboots and medals.
So we shot him.
Didn't you tell me once before that Kramer was run all round the camp in a Jeep? A Jeep? Ah, now As a prisoner, with a gun at his head, for them all to see? So he was, I remember.
Yes, it must have been some other chap we shot.
Wasn't Kramer put on trial and eventually hanged? Could be.
It's a long time ago.
I expect you've told the story so many times, with embellishments.
That's true.
I can't help it.
Anyway, you're not doing Belsen, are you? No, no, my man was in Dachau.
No, the Yanks got that one.
Then there was Auschwitz.
The Russians got it.
The death camp with the gas chambers and crematoria.
I never saw that.
Belsen was enough for me.
You were testing him, of course.
His memory.
- Do you think he minded? - Not really.
And he's always been careless.
He knows that.
I've wondered what I'd be up against.
Witnesses of his age You'd have to put them through it.
Oh, yes.
Will it be worthwhile? Lizzie, if this man really did what they say he did No, no, if he only did a tenth of it No, a hundredth! I would want him never to have been born.
(Whir of computer printer) (Electronic beeping and whizzing) Father, I know he's been a decent, reliable old stick for all these years.
Give him some conveyancing to do or a will Look at that! Look at it! Not you.
Hang on a minute.
Dave! We can't accept this crap.
Send it back, all of it.
- They made it a condition.
- A what? If you want the 12,000 new chips, we've got to take this poxy stuff.
- And you agreed to that? - I said it'd be your decision.
Well, stick the old labels on it, not "Beck Components".
Father Nothing, nothing.
Just idiots.
Now, listen.
I've got somebody else lined up for you.
I know.
I know, but, Dad, when they start waving pieces of paper around, you'll need to be ready.
Now, he's a solicitor named Salthouse.
Guy Salthouse, and he's big-time.
So, it comes down to the crucial matter of identification.
Malicious fabrication.
Mr Salthouse, that is an it is.
- Started by that crazy man.
- Rypin? CHARLIE: We took out an injunction against him.
Stopped him.
Bound over to keep the peace.
- That should have been the end of it.
- I'm afraid this is a new law, Dr Beck.
So that they can throw their dirt at me? They have three principal witnesses.
One, this fellow, Rypin.
- Forget him.
- Secondly, a man named Shapiro.
- From Israel.
- Never heard of him.
Third, a Pole named Somper.
- Karol Somper.
- No.
- All claiming to have known you in Dachau.
- Lies.
If so, they'll be faced with them.
Now, there 'II have to be an identity parade.
A what? Parade? I'm afraid you'll have to submit yourself.
The classic confusions of witnesses.
"The man who was running, Your Honour No, no, he was walking.
Slowly.
" "He was er He had brown hair.
- No, he was bald.
" (Helen chuckles) "Middle-aged no, he was a teenager.
" Even recent memories, but ours have to think back 50 years.
(Knock on door) Come in, Arnold.
Arnold Westrope of the CPS, Helen Ames, who is my junior.
- Hello.
- Hello.
We haven't met.
I'd have remembered.
Found us any more witnesses? I'm afraid our inquiries in the Czech Republic have run into the sand.
All we need.
- But I do have the charges in specimen form.
- Why specimen? Well, we can't be sure on what date or to whom? Yes, of course.
One, murder of a Jew, unknown, between 15th April and 5th May, 1944.
There'd been a large intake of test persons at this time.
Two Murder of a Jewess, unknown, between 7th March and 29th April, 1945.
Both in Dachau Camp.
April '45.
So the war was nearly over? Yes.
Well, that didn't stop them.
I don't like "Jewess".
It sounds animal.
It is correct usage.
Whoever she was, she was a person, even when she was unknown.
Just terminology.
It's what they tried to destroy.
They were the experts.
They took away your clothes, and your name even your hair.
Till you forgot who you'd been.
You were born Aleksander Tad Tadoise? Tad-ay-usch.
I changed to Thaddeus when I was naturalised - to sound more English.
- There's no harm in that.
80, Alexander Thaddeus Beck, while the Germans occupied Poland, you were picked up as a suspected partisan.
- Were you one? - I wish I had been.
And you were sent to Auschwitz? That is correct.
I was later transferred to Dachau.
Why? They never They don't tell you.
They put me in labour gangs, all kinds.
Digging in a sand quarry, construction work, and for the SS.
They ran their own factories for their own profit.
- Will there be any records? - No, everything was destroyed.
You're sure of that? It's what I've read.
Who's prosecuting? Do you know? Yes, a QC named Kavanagh.
Any good? Well, yes, he is.
He's rather an interesting choice.
So we need the best.
Any ideas? I could suggest a few names.
Who's top man? Well, we might try Giles Culpepper.
Now, be warned.
He's very pricey.
(I'll pa)'- - Charlie, you mustn't think of it.
- It's my name as well, and the firm's.
I'll make the approaches.
Leave it to me.
I do a lot of trade with the Germans.
What we may need to prove, Mr Beck, is that your father didn't.
Supper won't be long.
I expect you're hungry.
Yes, it's been a trying day.
That lawyer of Charlie's - Is he any help? - He's very sharp.
What have you got there? Some things.
Show me.
They made you wear these? Where did you find them? The bottom of a trunk ages ago.
I was looking for jumble.
And just now, I remembered I thought I had destroyed them.
In case the lawyer wanted to see them.
Oh, I didn't think I'm so sorry.
- I'll take them away.
- Leave them.
I always do the wrong thing.
- They're shaming.
- Of course they are.
I'm so sorry.
- It doesn't matter.
- I've upset you.
Oh, Alexander, I'm so stupid! You've got such a stupid wife! You're not stupid.
I am.
I am.
Would I ever have married someone stupid? - Perhaps you did.
- And never noticed all this time? You always say that.
Listen to me.
You have made a perfect home.
You've done all those things a doctor's wife should do, haven't you? I'll burn these.
No.
They've upset you.
Not yet, anyway.
They're dirty.
Perhaps you were right.
How? Well, they prove I was a prisoner.
Little Marian.
Are you still at it? You know, your Dachau wasn't the worst camp.
They killed 30,000.
In Auschwitz, they could gas more than 10,000 a day.
They got through more than a million.
Mostly Jews.
Why? Obeying orders.
But that was just the excuse.
They thought they were the best.
The Ubermenschen.
That set them free to do anything.
To anybody.
Are you going to win? Now that, if you ever go to the bar, is a leading question.
He's here! Lew! Lev, you are here.
- It is so good to see you.
- Yes.
You're looking well, better than I ever For a dying man.
I am in exceptional rude health.
- Please don't say that.
Tut, tut, tut! - They were so good on the plane.
They gave me oxygen.
Oxygen, they gave him? You should try it.
All due to this young man.
My grandson, Yitzak RYPIN: Yitsak.
Born in Israel.
A sabra.
Shalom Aleichem.
Aleichem shalom.
I've heard all about you.
I'm sent by the family to look after him.
He's difficult.
I needn't tell you.
But I do my best.
(Speaks Hebrew) He's a good-looking boy.
Come, meet the family.
Please.
Everybody, this is Lev Shapiro, my very good friend.
I haven't seen him for years.
He's looking well, thank God.
Here's Yitzhak.
That's his grandson.
I did not expect such luxury, Inspector.
You're an important guest, Mr Shapiro.
By the way, we found that photograph.
- It's from a local newspaper, English.
- It won't be evidence, just a matter of interest.
Avram sent it to me years ago.
He said, "Do you recognise anybody?" Colleagues celebrating the retirement of the popular Dr Alexander Beck.
And there he is.
Balinski.
So, finally, we have the actual charges.
Murder of an unknown Jew.
Murder of an unknown Jewess.
Both between some very vague dates.
Both counts in the name of Alexander Thaddeus Beck.
Also known as Aleksander Balinski.
I am not Balinski.
It's just a bloody joke.
Unknown victims on unknown dates.
I bet this Balinski was bloody unknown as well.
Mr Beck, please.
I do understand your concern for your father.
Believe me, I share it.
And it's time to hand over to me.
Yeah, I'm sorry, Mr Culpepper.
I shall guard his interests.
Of course.
Back in Poland, before the war, you had begun your medical studies? A year, a year and a half.
It was merely the beginning.
I'm sure it is.
As bad as the law.
(Salthouse laughs) CULPEPPER: Dr Beck, I must put this to you, in Dachau, were you ever in the medical block where these experiments were carried out? No.
So you were never a subject of any of these experiments? No.
Could there have been any occasion for you to be in there wearing a white coat? - You mean like a doctor? - Yes.
Never.
Quite impossible.
What did you know about the Special Unit, - the freezing experiments? - Freezing? Conducted on the prisoners to test their endurance.
Ah To find the survival limits of the Luftwaffe pilots shot down in the sea.
You knew about that? I've read about it since.
And you saw nothing? How could I? I was never in that place.
SALTHOUSE: These men were tortured to death.
Now, according to what I've read, there was so much screaming, it disturbed people living nearby.
There was always screaming.
I screamed myself many times.
To be beaten after standing for 12 hours in the heavy rain.
- You're putting him through it.
- As he certainly will be, Mr Beck, by Mr Kavanagh.
- Colonel Brennan.
- Sergeant Hudd, how are you? - Very well, sir, very well.
I'll take that.
- All right.
Did you have a good flight? I slept through it, so I'm all ready for action.
Which is Remind me, is this something like our Grand Jury? Not exactly.
It's a preliminary to test out the charges.
(Mobile rings) - To see if they stick.
Right.
- And if they do? - Then it goes to the Old Bailey.
- The Old what? - Excuse me.
Hello.
Yes, I'm with the Colonel now.
An earlier flight? Why? Hello there.
- Mr Stamper'? - Stamper, yes.
Yes, we met in Poland.
Toby Hudd.
Thanks very much.
I'll take charge now.
Is that the only bag he's got? - Now, look what I found.
- Thank God.
Mr Karol Somper.
No.
His solicitor's in there.
- But that's all they allow.
- But his family? Particularly his family.
He's on his own.
That's him.
Number five.
Yeah It has been so long.
Once I would have sworn number two was Not now.
Maybe five.
OFFICER: Take your time.
Yes! Five.
YITZAK: You saw him? - Yes! This way, Mr Somper.
That man! Who is he? He was inside the place.
If I can move you to This is stupid.
- Thank you very much, Inspector.
- Not taking any chances? SALTHOUSE: We can go on now, thank you.
(Door closes) Now, will you please look at each man carefully and then if, and only if, you can identify the man you call Aleksander Balinski, give me his number.
- They can't see you.
- There he is.
- Just say his number.
- Number two, Balinski.
OFFICER: Are you sure? - I knew him in Dachau.
- I think that's quite enough.
I carried bodies he had killed.
(Low murmuring) - Where do I go? Which is the witness stand? - This way, please.
Follow me.
Colonel John D Brennan, United States Army, retired.
Colonel Brennan, I believe you were with the American forces that liberated Dachau concentration camp? Yes, sir, I was.
April 29th, 1945.
I was then serving with the United States Seventh Army.
What were conditions like inside the camp? A nightmare.
The whole Nazi organisation had collapsed.
They were trying to hide what they'd done by sending all the people away in trains.
About two days before, they'd marched out about 6,000 men and shot 'em.
About half of them were Jewish.
Over here, they had their medical block and Special Unit.
I found water tanks about two yards wide, two yards deep.
That's where they did their freezing experiments.
Sir, as I said before, I do not intend to carry out cross-examinations at this hearing.
Colonel, I take it that you saw no evidence of these experiments? No, but I heard about 'em.
That was enough, believe me.
In the blockhouses, the naked bodies were stacked up ten feet high.
Some of them were even still alive.
We managed to save a few.
Did anyone run out of the camp? Nobody ran in that place.
Except we caught a few SS guards trying to disguise themselves in prison uniforms.
Would it have been possible in the confusion to get away? To escape? Well It might have been possible but I have searched the records that had been held at the police archives in Potsdam.
I found some from the former concentration camp Auschwitz.
Please show the witness Exhibits JS44 and 45 in file number three.
Those are correct.
They refer to the Polish family, Beck.
I mean, one family Beck.
All of them received Sonderbehandlung.
"Special treatment.
" That is exterminated.
All except one.
Alexander Thaddeus.
What happened to him? He was transferred to Dachau for experimental purposes.
(Whispering) Take the book in your hand and read from the card aloud, please.
Mr Rypin, you are a Jew? Oh, yes.
How did you manage to survive so long in Dachau? I was er skilled boot maker.
I had to make boots for the SS men.
That way, I was spared from the selection.
What selection? Selected to be killed.
(Whispering) Did you know Alexander Beck? Oh, yes.
Do you see him here? No.
No, the real Mr Beck was He was brought from Auschwitz.
They made experiments with him.
Yes.
They out every day from his leg a piece to see if that will heal, you know, to heal up properly.
Yes.
I saw him many times in the hut.
He died very, very slowly.
I believe you have already identified the defendant? Oh, yes.
He is Aleksander Balinski.
You see, sometimes I made boots for the SS men that were in the medical block.
I take them there.
And I saw him passing through in his white coat.
Where was he going? Any idea? Yes.
To the Special Unit.
Where they freezed the people.
(Whispering) If you choose to be seated, you may.
No.
I am Lev Shapiro, citizen of the state of Israel.
KAVANAGH: Mr Shapiro, do you remember your time in the medical block? Yes, sir.
I was a TP.
A TP was a Test Person? I was not one of Balinski's.
I had to drink sea water, litres of it every day.
It was to do with the air pilots falling in, to test for madness.
I stole water from the fire buckets.
I kept sane.
But Balinski? He would hurry through to the Special Unit.
To the freezing tanks where he killed people.
- (Murmuring) - Did you see that happen? II heard about it.
Mr Shapiro did you ever see Balinski kill? Yes! I did.
In the Special Unit? You were there? No, no, no, it was after the camp was liberated.
I saw him running.
Where was this? I can't remember, I do not know.
Maybe the parade ground or so.
He shot a man who tried to stop him.
With a gun.
He shot him.
Was it one of the guards? How could it be? All the Nazi guards were long gone.
It had to be one of us.
A prisoner? It was just a shooting.
There was always shooting.
Shootings didn't matter any more.
You could be killed just for the way you looked at somebody.
Er, Mr Kavanagh, perhaps it's time for a short adjournment.
No, let me speak.
For 50 years, I have struggled with that question why? Why would they do it? MAGISTRATE: Mr Shapiro, if you wish to compose yourself I wish to tell you, sir, about Nazi science.
It was never to discover any truths.
It never came to anything.
It was just an excuse to torture and torment human beings.
And that is what he was doing.
Mr Shapiro, I think Every day in that camp, you had to say to yourself, "I will survive.
" And the only reason to survive was that one day, the evil would end.
And then we would tell and all the world would know what the evil had been.
Had MAGISTRATE: Take him outside.
Help him.
(Mumbles) And that was the only thing (Sobs and groans) Yitzak, did I tell them? I can't remember.
You did well, Zaydeh.
Is that so? IIl think I failed.
(Sobs) There was so much more.
You did fine.
- I must go back.
- OK.
Mr Somper, can you tell us what happened in the Special Unit? I had to go there as a prisoner orderly.
He was my boss.
KAVANAGH: You mean the defendant? SOMPER: Yes, him.
Dr Balinski.
KAVANAGH: When was this? Um Christmas, 1943.
Before that, I was on freezing experiments with Dr Rascher You were transferred? Yes, when Dr Balinski got permission to set up his own outfit.
The Todesengel programme.
That's German.
It means Death Angel.
Isn't that right? KAVANAGH: Address the court.
Well, in the spring of 1944, there were a lot of fresh TPs brought in.
Some Russian prisoners, but mostly Hungarian Jews.
For his programme.
What was that? Making people slowly die by freezing and then trying to bring them back to life.
KAVANAGH: Did that ever happen? Oh, yes, sometimes.
And then he would make them die again.
There were women, too.
He said young Jewish women responded best.
"They keep coming back.
" KAVANAGH: And if they didn't finally die? SOMPER: They got shot.
KAVANAGH: Who did it? He did.
KAVANAGH: Mr Somper, what part did you play? I got the bodies out of the ice.
They were heavy, I was strong.
That's all I did.
I never killed.
Not a single one.
What was done with the bodies? Sent away to be cut up, to test a theory that being Communists and Jews affected the structure of the skeleton.
I am not a Jew.
Thank you, Mr Stamper.
- Dr Beck - Dr Beck! You're very kind.
- If you need any help - Thank you for your support.
Anything we can do to help.
- Anything we can do to help.
- Thank you.
Thank you all.
MEN".
Good luck.
We'll try to give you plenty of warning.
- Warning? - Of the date when we need you for the trial.
But it's all happened.
He's guilty.
The judge, he said The magistrate found there was a case to answer.
Dr Beck - Balinski - has been committed for trial and released on bail.
But, sir, I did not understand.
Never mind.
Here you are - ticket, passport.
Well I say goodbye.
Take care, Mr Stamper.
(Lizzie groans) (sighs) I don't think you've been asleep.
Not much.
What is it? Worries? Images.
- Do you want a pill? - No.
(Phone rings) (Lizzie groans) Kavanagh.
Who? What? Where is he? All right, thanks.
Old Shapiro has just had a massive heart attack.
Oh, God.
Oh, I'm sorry.
One of our chief witnesses.
What will this do? I'm not sure.
I was trying to make him tell me how one man shot another.
But what was in his mind was something far bigger.
A whole philosophy gone bad.
(Steady beeping) Inspector How are you now? Come close.
Come close.
And listen.
He must speak for me in court.
My grandson, Yitzak I've told him I can't.
- He's not a witness.
- But he must! He must.
He knows.
We have studied together.
He knows it all.
Give me something I can pass on to the lawyers.
When you saw Balinski shoot this man, how was he dressed? I don't know.
Prison stripes, maybe.
Could he have been wearing them as a disguise? SHAPIRO: Don't ask me these things.
They do not matter.
- No, they might be vitally important.
- That's enough.
(Shapiro groans) Avi Avi You were in Dachau.
You know.
You must tell them.
I will.
I will, I promise.
You must tell the whole world.
Otherwise, they will do it again.
Someone will do it again.
(Heart monitor beeps rapidly) - Zaydeh! BECK: Thank you for letting me know.
Marian.
Old Shapiro's dead.
Good riddance.
KAVANAGH: Your grandfather never went into any detail about the shooting he witnessed? No.
It didn't interest him.
Only the lessons of history.
WESTROPE: You could see it either way.
A guilty man shooting his way out or an innocent inmate in terror.
I think I'll have to forget it.
KAVANAGH: When are you flying him back? Tomorrow.
By freight.
So, I have much to arrange.
KAVANAGH: Of course.
Helen will see you out and, once again, I'm so sorry.
Miss Ames I would like to see this to the end.
Can I be there at the Old Bailey? Yes, of course.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.
(Reporters ask questions) Did your wife say anything? This way, this way.
They'd shown him to the wrong courtroom.
- My mother.
- Lizzie Kavanagh.
It was tragic about your grandfather.
He was very old.
I am here for him.
LIZZIE: I understand.
But you said on the way up he wasn't just old.
He was a great man.
In Israel, yeah.
His funeral was quite remarkable.
Even I was surprised.
MATT.
Here's Beck.
Balinski.
CLERK: All rise! Alexander Thaddeus Beck, also known as Aleksander Balinski, you are charged on the first count of this indictment with murder.
And the particulars of the offence are that in the concentration camp at Dachau in Germany, on a day between the fifth day of April and the fifth day of May, 1944, you did murder a Jew, unknown.
How do you plead? Guilty or not guilty? Not guilty.
CLERK".
Alexander Thaddeus Beck, also known as Aleksander Balinski, you are charged on the second count of this indictment with murder.
And the particulars of the offence are that in the concentration camp In short, I intend to demonstrate that, in 1945, Aleksander Balinski escaped from Dachau camp and punishment for his murderous experiments there by assuming the identity of a prisoner he knew to be dead Alexander Thaddeus Beck.
And that he was able to come to England and eventually settle down here, turning his considerable medical skills to a proper use as a General Practitioner.
Colonel Brennan, in an that confusion, do you happen to recall any report of a prisoner being shot? By whom? Not by any of my men.
No, no, no.
By someone trying to escape.
Perhaps one of the SS.
Sir we had thousands of people on our hands.
We were trying to save their lives before they turned into Mussulmen.
That's what the Nazis called them when they just gave up and died.
Colonel, when you opened up the Special Medical Unit, where these experiments had supposedly been carried out, what did you find? Well (Clears throat) Some filth.
And traces of human debris in the water tanks.
Were there any records? Lists of names or staff rotas to show who worked there? All carefully burnt.
How often did you see him in the camp? Not many times.
Thank God.
Once he got you into the Special Unit you were kaput, done for.
Did people know his name? Oh, yes, yes.
You hear them whispering one to the other, "Balinski, Balinski this, Balinski that.
" Where are these people now? Hm? All dead.
Only me to speak for them.
And I do.
(sobs) Calm yourself, Mr Rypin.
I have very few questions.
That's good.
In Dachau, you were given work as a boot maker? Oh, yes.
For the SS.
That's why they don't kill me.
Special boots with much fine detail? Oh, yes.
Forthem, sure.
Yes, of course.
It had to be.
And so you needed glasses as you do now? No.
Well, surely, for such fine, close work No, I don't wear glasses for this.
You see, I've got What is it? Short sight.
You see? For this work, that's That comes in very useful, that.
But for all other purposes? Oh, yes, yes, glasses, sure.
Strong ones? Yes, very strong.
Did you wear them round the camp? When, as you've told us, you stood for hours on the parade ground? In the huts and out of the huts, did you? Yes.
Oh, no, you didn't.
Or you'd have had them smashed in your face by one of the guards.
You were ein Dreckjude.
You never wore them when you were near the medical block, for example.
- Please - And if you'd seen anyone wearing a white coat, - you couldn't have told who it was - Mr Culpepper! It Don't worry.
It's all right.
It's I don't mind.
He's right.
Yes, they break my glasses.
Those guards They beat you all the time for no reason.
But, you see, there were always more glasses.
Any son that I want, any prescription.
Where? Where they stored them.
Where they keep them Where they take them from the dead people.
There were shoes, too.
Those I could mend.
JUDGE: Mr Culpepper, any further questions? No, my lord.
No re-examination.
Thank you, Mr Rypin.
Miss Dodo, can you tell the court about your involvement in relief work after the war? I volunteered when I was 18.
I'd learnt German at school.
So I was sent to help in some of the camps for displaced persons.
Um, do you know We understand the term, Miss Dodd.
It wasn't just a matter of feeding them.
We had to provide cultural rehabilitation, whenever we could.
I was working in a camp near Stuttgart when I met Alexander Beck.
The defendant? Yes.
He told me about his time in Dachau.
His sufferings in the labour Kommandos.
He wanted to become a doctor and I was able to obtain some books for him to study.
I believe you did more than that.
II tried to help him come to England.
- With you? - Oh, no, no.
I had work to do.
KAVANAGH: How did you help him? I wrote a recommendation to the authorities.
In rather glowing terms.
It seems to have worked.
Well, things were very confused at the time.
So many Well, thousands of people on the move.
But I have sometimes worried that I might have exceeded my duties.
I was only 18.
KAVANAGH: You were instrumental in the defendant's coming here? Yes, I believe I was.
Miss Dodd, when you first met Alexander Beck, what was he wearing? Those terrible striped things, like all the prisoners.
But I found him some better clothes.
What opinion did you form of his character? I thought him .
.
quite remarkable.
He stood out from all the others.
And if you could have accompanied him to England? No, there was no question of that.
II never saw him again.
Thank you, Miss Dodd.
- What's happened? Where is he? - They're looking for him now.
- Well, that's a comfort.
- He's got lost, that's all.
It's happened before.
No re-examination.
But I would ask your indulgence, my lord, in calling my next witness.
There seems to be some delay.
- No sign.
- Right.
I need to see passenger lists of all the incoming flights from Poland.
This is very urgent and extremely important.
Please hurry.
Police? - Yes, I've just showed you.
- This may be for you.
It says, âPolice at airport.
To collect.
â It came by courier service two days ago.
Oh, my God.
"I will not go back to London.
I do not trust English justice.
" Signed, Karol Somper.
Was it made clear to him that he has immunity? - Perfectly, sir.
- And he understood? - He seemed to.
- Perhaps he didn't.
James, please.
This is my only substantial witness and you've lost him.
He worked with Beck, saw him every day.
I've got Toby Hudd and his team on it.
They'll do all they can, but "But" sounds the appropriate word.
If he's gone to ground We'll be starting from scratch.
It's essential to liaise with the Polish authorities, set up inquiries.
- How long? - Ten days, fourteen.
I'll try for a week.
I won't get it.
Out of the question.
With deep respect, if Your Lordship considers the significance of this witness to the Crown's case Very well.
Under these exceptional circumstances, I am prepared to countenance the remainder of this week and the weekend to give you time to find him.
But that win' be an', Mr Kavanagh If the witness is not here first thing Monday morning, you must continue as best you can.
KAVANAGH: As Your Lordship pleases.
- But tell Kavanagh I can do something about it.
- Well, certainly, he's here.
- Mr Shapiro? - He thinks he can help us.
Oh, no.
I can.
Your men are English.
They have to do everything the correct way.
I do not.
You are asking me to approve something that is possibly illegal? I'm just telling you, I can go to Poland.
I know the country, I've researched there on Auschwitz and on other places.
He speaks the language.
And I have friends.
In Poland? No.
Try this, Guy.
Great year.
Good health.
- Oh, yes.
- Mm.
- What have you got there? - Rejects, I think.
Er, an ex-patient, Mrs Anita Buckley.
"He saved my unborn baby.
I worship that man.
" OW .
No.
That Miss Dodd, she fell apart when she saw him again.
You know what my guess is? Beck's been a notable lecher in his time.
Shagged half the neighbourhood and the missus turned a blind eye.
It happens.
OK, Halina Birnbaum, claims to have known Beck in Dachau.
Girlfriend? Giles, hardly in a concentration camp! Birnbaum, Jewish, a good character witness.
Well, she's been in a charity home since the end of the war.
It was they that wrote to us.
She's physically very frail.
Oh, and mentally.
Oh, dear, far too risky.
It really is remarkably good, this.
In fact, we may not be putting anyone at all in the box.
What, if the case collapses? If? Come along, Guy.
Tell you what, cheer your client up, take him a bottle of this.
So I'm very pleased to be able to tell you, Dr Beck, that I think your worries are over.
The case will be stopped.
I won't have to give evidence? Nobody will.
That's wonderful.
(Polish on radio) YITZAK: Two flight tickets.
Both made out in your name, Karol Somper.
This one, you come with me to London.
This one, you go with my friend to Israel.
Make your choice.
What's it to be, James? Are you going to fall on your own sword or let His Lordship stick it in? They always say it's better tactics to do it yourself.
I am ready to proceed, my lord.
I call Karol Somper.
Who was used in the freezing programme? Um, prisoners.
Jews mainly.
They were kept in the ice and timed until they died.
It was very important to keep measuring their rectal temperature.
II suffered with my hands.
But you carried out your duties? I was only a Kapo, a prisoner.
I had to do what Balinski said.
Were they ever revived? Always.
I mean, we always tried to bring them back.
Even after they were clinic dead.
He had all sorts of secret drugs.
Sometimes, he could do it.
And then? Were any spared? Oh, no.
Soon they would go back in the ice.
He said it was to find out what death truly was.
Now, think very, very carefully.
I put it to you that the Balinski you knew there was a separate person from the defendant, Alexander Beck.
And that Beck was a helpless prisoner in the camp, who was starved and beaten like all the rest, and sent out on labour gangs, but had the awful, additional misfortune to look like your Balinski - But not be him? - No.
I never saw such a man.
He'd have had prison clothes and his head all shaved.
Nearly 200,000 prisoners passed through Dachau.
Might you not have missed him? But I know Balinski.
I worked for him every day.
I knew him.
50 years ago! I know him now.
Did you like Balinski? I didn't mean to, but he could make you like him.
He said we would all get medals from Hitler.
(Murmuring) Is she up to this? It might help her.
Halina? Halina? Miss Birnbaum Ah, it's Alexander.
I call Dr Alexander Thaddeus Beck.
(Gasps of astonishment) MY lord! Is this demonstration to be permitted? JUDGE: Mr Culpepper, was this your idea? I'd fancy it was the Nazis' idea, my lord.
- (Murmuring) - Take the oath.
You were sent out in labour gangs? Kommandos, yes.
And in the camp, where did you live? In barracks, huts.
Did you ever see the witness Karol Somper? Never.
Were you ever in the Special Unit of the medical block? No.
So if there were a man named Balinski working there? BECK".
It was not I.
Now, when the camp was liberated I ran away.
I'd lived in fear for so long, it was all I could feel.
You didn't shoot anybody? What with? I just kept going.
And starving.
They took me into a DP camp for the displaced.
And I met kind people.
They gave me a paper to show who I was and I went on.
And Hound many making their way to England.
Poles like me.
And they made me welcome.
Was that when you decided to become a doctor? I swore it.
After all the wickedness I had seen I only wanted to save lives during the whole of my own.
Thank you, Dr Beck.
It's not so easy to become a doctor, is it? Takes time.
In those days, I worked at anything.
Labouring.
But always, I studied.
As you had studied before you were briefly sent to Auschwitz? - Medical studies? - I'd hardly begun.
You must have a tattooed number on your arm.
It was the Auschwitz practice.
There.
- (Murmuring) - None.
I burnt it off.
Why? It was shaming.
But aren't those prison garments you've got on shaming? Dr Beck, why did you keep them? H' I were in your place, I'd have burnt them long ago.
I don't really know what to say.
Let me suggest a reason.
They might come in useful one day.
Such as now.
To back up an alias.
MY lord! Ifeel so much guilt.
(Whispering) Guilt? Yes.
The feeling any survivor must have.
That somehow you were spared while all those others died.
All those thousands millions.
And here you are, still alive.
Why? (Sobs) Why? That's why I forced myself to wear these shaming things, to remind me, to relieve the gum of still being alive.
(Beck weeps gently) Mr Kavanagh.
Dr Beck.
When Karol Somper says that he assisted you - to perform these obscene experiments - He's lying.
If he doesn't know you, why should he lie about you? I mean, he is mistaken.
He is most dreadfully mistaken.
(Beck breathes heavily) (Reporters shout questions) I don't remember her.
She remembers you.
50 years ago, she'd have been quite a pretty girl.
CULPEPPER: Juries are strange creatures.
Sometimes, without quite realising it, they need help.
To see the truth? Of course to see the truth.
Now, at the moment, I think they've found Mr Somper rather bad news.
Yes, but they might go for her.
If you had encountered this woman, and possibly more, it would have had to have been in the main camp, would it not? Yes, of course.
She's very frail.
CULPEPPER.
So I'd have to be gentle with her.
SALTHOUSE: She's lived mostly away from the world.
BECK: I'm really not convinced.
Bit crazy, would you say? Damaged.
A lot of us were.
It's a risk.
I think we must take it.
Mrs Beck, when you first met your husband, did he ever talk about his immediate past? No, hardly at all.
He said that he'd put all that behind him.
I remember the day that his naturalisation papers came through.
He was He was so proud.
He said, "I'm no longer Polish.
I'm an Eng Englishman.
" (sobs) And now .
.
I see him there Alexander! Your name is Halina Birnbaum? Yes.
Yes.
You were in Dachau concentration camp in Germany? Mm.
You were then 15 years old? Mm.
You know that man? Alexander.
Do you remember how you lived in Dachau? I was in Dachau and he was in Dachau.
He was my life.
- You managed to be together? - Together always.
Whenever you could.
He would have been in the men's barracks and you in the women's.
But somehow Alexander made me safe.
You mean, he managed to take care of you? He protected you? From the attentions of the guards, perhaps? Was that it? He was my life.
My life was his.
CULPEPPER: Until the camp was liberated and you were both free.
Did you leave it together? HALINA: My life was his.
You loved him? She's not smiling.
JUDGE: Mr Kavanagh Miss Birnbaum Halina.
When you say your life was his My life was his.
Was it his to take? KAVANAGH: And .
.
to give back? He made me die.
And when I was dead he made me alive again.
And then, he gave me things.
Good things to make me better.
And when I was all better, it was time to die again.
You only met him in the Special Unit in the medical block? He put you in there .
.
and he froze you.
Wasn't that it? He froze you to death.
And then he brought you back to life.
For the Todesengel programme.
Why didn't he shoot her? Take care of her.
It was original.
Completely original research into the nature of death.
It might have It might I was proud of my work there.
The Beck family have no intention of making any further statement at this point.
Would you please wait for the press conference? Excuse me.
Poor woman.
Never knew.
Or didn't want to.
What'll happen to Balinski? Life imprisonment.
Life? RYPIN: d'chohl beyt yisrael, ba'agalah u'veez'man kareev, v'eemru: Amein.
Y'hey sh'met rabbah m'varach l'afam u'l'almey almahyah.
Yeefbarakh, v'yeesh'tabach, v'yeet'pa'ar, v'yeetrohmam, v'yeet'nasei, v'yeet'hadar, v'yeet'aleh, v'yeet'halal sh'mey d'kudshah b'reekh hoo.
WOMAN: Put those over there? I'll take these.
OK? Hello? Hello, Charlie? - This is ridiculous.
- What's going on? Don't you know? They're still in there.
Just some legal thing.
What a time to pick.
- Must you? - Afraid so, sir.
Take it just as a formality.
Thanks.
I like these old ones.
Pity they went out.
It is still valid.
Of course.
Renewed to 1999.
- Born Cracow, Poland.
- That is correct.
We know.
Darling, I got the message.
I'll be there shortly.
Bloody hell! (Tyres screech) - Halfwit! Well, throw them out! If they're upsetting Mum and Dad on their big day Charlie, please! Look, I don't know who they are, but they've been closeted with your father for the past hour.
Nice room, this.
It used to be my surgery before I retired.
- Oh, yes? - What happens now? We just report.
But should there be a charge, what will it be? Well, technically, murder.
Indeed? Ah, you see? There he is.
Is that my accuser, out there watching? - He's a potential witness.
- How the hell? He's often there.
He hangs about.
Pack him off home! Tell him to stay there.
Excuse me.
Excuse me, sorry.
Sorry.
His name is Rypin, as you obviously know.
He's pestered me for years.
Abusive letters, phone calls.
If he's the best you've got Good afternoon, Mr Rypin.
How are you? If you want to be witness for the prosecution What the hell's going on? RYPIN: Leave me alone! - This is intimidation.
- You mustn't pester Doctor Beck.
- Don't put your arm Who are all these people, Mother? Did you let them in? - Your father did.
- What's it all about? - Who are you? - Charlie, it's all right.
- Why do you want him? - I think it's best I think I'll call the police.
Talk to him.
All right, show's over.
Carry on with what you were doing.
Mother, Lucy.
Alexander, my dear, they've upset you.
I'm being investigated as a war criminal.
A what? They're trying to say you never knew me, my dear, all this time.
Alexander! That during the war, I was not a victim of the Nazis but a perpetrator.
Stop it! Stop it! It's a mistake, of course.
There's some ancient muddle in the records.
- Then they'll have to son it out.
- Of course they will.
This is all down to old Rypin.
I saw him outside.
The mad creature? Surely he's harmless? He's back.
Go away! Leave us alone! Why don't you go? (Rypin mutters to himself) What's he saying? I can't make it out.
It's a prayer.
The Hebrew Kaddish.
Prayer for the dead.
At us? - It's like a curse.
- No.
I heard it often enough in the camp.
It's for their dead.
Y'hey sh'met rabbah m'varach I'alam u'l'almey almahyah, Yeefbarakh I must confess, James, I'm none too happy about the War Crimes Act.
Yes, it should never have been passed.
But it was.
Now it is the law of the land.
Surely - Retrospective legislation.
- It's against all our traditions.
Reaching back 50 years to accuse people of crimes committed in some other country.
It was forced through by the Jewish lobby.
Ah, now you lose me.
No, I don't mean You know what I mean.
I'm not! Quite emphatically.
Some of your best friends Well, yes.
Voices raised in favour most eloquently and and colourfully.
KAVANAGH: As you would expect of them.
Yes, since you put it like that.
I don't, but you do.
Don't dig yourself any deeper, Jeremy.
Surely it was to punish crimes against humanity? It's a bad law.
Thank you, Peter.
Bye, Jeremy.
So, you're going to accept this brief? Not until I've done my homework.
Ancient history? (Phone rings) Yes? Oh, hello, Lizzie.
Well, what time's he coming? No, no, I'll be there.
Actually, there's something I want to ask the old boy.
The end of the war? I'll say I do.
Rather vividly.
Swanning through Germany as a young subaltern Don't grin, Matt.
That's what I was.
In an armoured car, too.
You told me once how you got to Belsen.
The camp? I liberated it.
Did you indeed? Those poor creatures.
They were so grateful.
All starving, in a pitiful condition.
There were corpses stacked high.
Let's have coffee.
Matt, would you do something for me? Trawl the Internet.
Just try the word "Holocaust".
MATT.
I could go on all night.
I just picked out bits.
Thanks, Matt.
It's all unbelievable, of course.
Yeah.
So some people choose not to believe it.
There's a lot of that, too - stuff saying it never happened.
Holocaust denial.
In Germany, they've made that a crime.
They've got something right.
Matt your grandfather saw it.
When did you get into Belsen? April 1945.
I can't be sure of the exact date.
Actually, it wasn't just me.
I lay it on a bit, I'm afraid.
An awful habit.
- There were other chaps? - Of course.
Quite a bunch of us.
We were stopped at the gate by the bloody Commandant, would you believe? - He wouldn't let you in? - That's right.
Kramer, his name was.
Josef Kramer.
Horrible thug with jackboots and medals.
So we shot him.
Didn't you tell me once before that Kramer was run all round the camp in a Jeep? A Jeep? Ah, now As a prisoner, with a gun at his head, for them all to see? So he was, I remember.
Yes, it must have been some other chap we shot.
Wasn't Kramer put on trial and eventually hanged? Could be.
It's a long time ago.
I expect you've told the story so many times, with embellishments.
That's true.
I can't help it.
Anyway, you're not doing Belsen, are you? No, no, my man was in Dachau.
No, the Yanks got that one.
Then there was Auschwitz.
The Russians got it.
The death camp with the gas chambers and crematoria.
I never saw that.
Belsen was enough for me.
You were testing him, of course.
His memory.
- Do you think he minded? - Not really.
And he's always been careless.
He knows that.
I've wondered what I'd be up against.
Witnesses of his age You'd have to put them through it.
Oh, yes.
Will it be worthwhile? Lizzie, if this man really did what they say he did No, no, if he only did a tenth of it No, a hundredth! I would want him never to have been born.
(Whir of computer printer) (Electronic beeping and whizzing) Father, I know he's been a decent, reliable old stick for all these years.
Give him some conveyancing to do or a will Look at that! Look at it! Not you.
Hang on a minute.
Dave! We can't accept this crap.
Send it back, all of it.
- They made it a condition.
- A what? If you want the 12,000 new chips, we've got to take this poxy stuff.
- And you agreed to that? - I said it'd be your decision.
Well, stick the old labels on it, not "Beck Components".
Father Nothing, nothing.
Just idiots.
Now, listen.
I've got somebody else lined up for you.
I know.
I know, but, Dad, when they start waving pieces of paper around, you'll need to be ready.
Now, he's a solicitor named Salthouse.
Guy Salthouse, and he's big-time.
So, it comes down to the crucial matter of identification.
Malicious fabrication.
Mr Salthouse, that is an it is.
- Started by that crazy man.
- Rypin? CHARLIE: We took out an injunction against him.
Stopped him.
Bound over to keep the peace.
- That should have been the end of it.
- I'm afraid this is a new law, Dr Beck.
So that they can throw their dirt at me? They have three principal witnesses.
One, this fellow, Rypin.
- Forget him.
- Secondly, a man named Shapiro.
- From Israel.
- Never heard of him.
Third, a Pole named Somper.
- Karol Somper.
- No.
- All claiming to have known you in Dachau.
- Lies.
If so, they'll be faced with them.
Now, there 'II have to be an identity parade.
A what? Parade? I'm afraid you'll have to submit yourself.
The classic confusions of witnesses.
"The man who was running, Your Honour No, no, he was walking.
Slowly.
" "He was er He had brown hair.
- No, he was bald.
" (Helen chuckles) "Middle-aged no, he was a teenager.
" Even recent memories, but ours have to think back 50 years.
(Knock on door) Come in, Arnold.
Arnold Westrope of the CPS, Helen Ames, who is my junior.
- Hello.
- Hello.
We haven't met.
I'd have remembered.
Found us any more witnesses? I'm afraid our inquiries in the Czech Republic have run into the sand.
All we need.
- But I do have the charges in specimen form.
- Why specimen? Well, we can't be sure on what date or to whom? Yes, of course.
One, murder of a Jew, unknown, between 15th April and 5th May, 1944.
There'd been a large intake of test persons at this time.
Two Murder of a Jewess, unknown, between 7th March and 29th April, 1945.
Both in Dachau Camp.
April '45.
So the war was nearly over? Yes.
Well, that didn't stop them.
I don't like "Jewess".
It sounds animal.
It is correct usage.
Whoever she was, she was a person, even when she was unknown.
Just terminology.
It's what they tried to destroy.
They were the experts.
They took away your clothes, and your name even your hair.
Till you forgot who you'd been.
You were born Aleksander Tad Tadoise? Tad-ay-usch.
I changed to Thaddeus when I was naturalised - to sound more English.
- There's no harm in that.
80, Alexander Thaddeus Beck, while the Germans occupied Poland, you were picked up as a suspected partisan.
- Were you one? - I wish I had been.
And you were sent to Auschwitz? That is correct.
I was later transferred to Dachau.
Why? They never They don't tell you.
They put me in labour gangs, all kinds.
Digging in a sand quarry, construction work, and for the SS.
They ran their own factories for their own profit.
- Will there be any records? - No, everything was destroyed.
You're sure of that? It's what I've read.
Who's prosecuting? Do you know? Yes, a QC named Kavanagh.
Any good? Well, yes, he is.
He's rather an interesting choice.
So we need the best.
Any ideas? I could suggest a few names.
Who's top man? Well, we might try Giles Culpepper.
Now, be warned.
He's very pricey.
(I'll pa)'- - Charlie, you mustn't think of it.
- It's my name as well, and the firm's.
I'll make the approaches.
Leave it to me.
I do a lot of trade with the Germans.
What we may need to prove, Mr Beck, is that your father didn't.
Supper won't be long.
I expect you're hungry.
Yes, it's been a trying day.
That lawyer of Charlie's - Is he any help? - He's very sharp.
What have you got there? Some things.
Show me.
They made you wear these? Where did you find them? The bottom of a trunk ages ago.
I was looking for jumble.
And just now, I remembered I thought I had destroyed them.
In case the lawyer wanted to see them.
Oh, I didn't think I'm so sorry.
- I'll take them away.
- Leave them.
I always do the wrong thing.
- They're shaming.
- Of course they are.
I'm so sorry.
- It doesn't matter.
- I've upset you.
Oh, Alexander, I'm so stupid! You've got such a stupid wife! You're not stupid.
I am.
I am.
Would I ever have married someone stupid? - Perhaps you did.
- And never noticed all this time? You always say that.
Listen to me.
You have made a perfect home.
You've done all those things a doctor's wife should do, haven't you? I'll burn these.
No.
They've upset you.
Not yet, anyway.
They're dirty.
Perhaps you were right.
How? Well, they prove I was a prisoner.
Little Marian.
Are you still at it? You know, your Dachau wasn't the worst camp.
They killed 30,000.
In Auschwitz, they could gas more than 10,000 a day.
They got through more than a million.
Mostly Jews.
Why? Obeying orders.
But that was just the excuse.
They thought they were the best.
The Ubermenschen.
That set them free to do anything.
To anybody.
Are you going to win? Now that, if you ever go to the bar, is a leading question.
He's here! Lew! Lev, you are here.
- It is so good to see you.
- Yes.
You're looking well, better than I ever For a dying man.
I am in exceptional rude health.
- Please don't say that.
Tut, tut, tut! - They were so good on the plane.
They gave me oxygen.
Oxygen, they gave him? You should try it.
All due to this young man.
My grandson, Yitzak RYPIN: Yitsak.
Born in Israel.
A sabra.
Shalom Aleichem.
Aleichem shalom.
I've heard all about you.
I'm sent by the family to look after him.
He's difficult.
I needn't tell you.
But I do my best.
(Speaks Hebrew) He's a good-looking boy.
Come, meet the family.
Please.
Everybody, this is Lev Shapiro, my very good friend.
I haven't seen him for years.
He's looking well, thank God.
Here's Yitzhak.
That's his grandson.
I did not expect such luxury, Inspector.
You're an important guest, Mr Shapiro.
By the way, we found that photograph.
- It's from a local newspaper, English.
- It won't be evidence, just a matter of interest.
Avram sent it to me years ago.
He said, "Do you recognise anybody?" Colleagues celebrating the retirement of the popular Dr Alexander Beck.
And there he is.
Balinski.
So, finally, we have the actual charges.
Murder of an unknown Jew.
Murder of an unknown Jewess.
Both between some very vague dates.
Both counts in the name of Alexander Thaddeus Beck.
Also known as Aleksander Balinski.
I am not Balinski.
It's just a bloody joke.
Unknown victims on unknown dates.
I bet this Balinski was bloody unknown as well.
Mr Beck, please.
I do understand your concern for your father.
Believe me, I share it.
And it's time to hand over to me.
Yeah, I'm sorry, Mr Culpepper.
I shall guard his interests.
Of course.
Back in Poland, before the war, you had begun your medical studies? A year, a year and a half.
It was merely the beginning.
I'm sure it is.
As bad as the law.
(Salthouse laughs) CULPEPPER: Dr Beck, I must put this to you, in Dachau, were you ever in the medical block where these experiments were carried out? No.
So you were never a subject of any of these experiments? No.
Could there have been any occasion for you to be in there wearing a white coat? - You mean like a doctor? - Yes.
Never.
Quite impossible.
What did you know about the Special Unit, - the freezing experiments? - Freezing? Conducted on the prisoners to test their endurance.
Ah To find the survival limits of the Luftwaffe pilots shot down in the sea.
You knew about that? I've read about it since.
And you saw nothing? How could I? I was never in that place.
SALTHOUSE: These men were tortured to death.
Now, according to what I've read, there was so much screaming, it disturbed people living nearby.
There was always screaming.
I screamed myself many times.
To be beaten after standing for 12 hours in the heavy rain.
- You're putting him through it.
- As he certainly will be, Mr Beck, by Mr Kavanagh.
- Colonel Brennan.
- Sergeant Hudd, how are you? - Very well, sir, very well.
I'll take that.
- All right.
Did you have a good flight? I slept through it, so I'm all ready for action.
Which is Remind me, is this something like our Grand Jury? Not exactly.
It's a preliminary to test out the charges.
(Mobile rings) - To see if they stick.
Right.
- And if they do? - Then it goes to the Old Bailey.
- The Old what? - Excuse me.
Hello.
Yes, I'm with the Colonel now.
An earlier flight? Why? Hello there.
- Mr Stamper'? - Stamper, yes.
Yes, we met in Poland.
Toby Hudd.
Thanks very much.
I'll take charge now.
Is that the only bag he's got? - Now, look what I found.
- Thank God.
Mr Karol Somper.
No.
His solicitor's in there.
- But that's all they allow.
- But his family? Particularly his family.
He's on his own.
That's him.
Number five.
Yeah It has been so long.
Once I would have sworn number two was Not now.
Maybe five.
OFFICER: Take your time.
Yes! Five.
YITZAK: You saw him? - Yes! This way, Mr Somper.
That man! Who is he? He was inside the place.
If I can move you to This is stupid.
- Thank you very much, Inspector.
- Not taking any chances? SALTHOUSE: We can go on now, thank you.
(Door closes) Now, will you please look at each man carefully and then if, and only if, you can identify the man you call Aleksander Balinski, give me his number.
- They can't see you.
- There he is.
- Just say his number.
- Number two, Balinski.
OFFICER: Are you sure? - I knew him in Dachau.
- I think that's quite enough.
I carried bodies he had killed.
(Low murmuring) - Where do I go? Which is the witness stand? - This way, please.
Follow me.
Colonel John D Brennan, United States Army, retired.
Colonel Brennan, I believe you were with the American forces that liberated Dachau concentration camp? Yes, sir, I was.
April 29th, 1945.
I was then serving with the United States Seventh Army.
What were conditions like inside the camp? A nightmare.
The whole Nazi organisation had collapsed.
They were trying to hide what they'd done by sending all the people away in trains.
About two days before, they'd marched out about 6,000 men and shot 'em.
About half of them were Jewish.
Over here, they had their medical block and Special Unit.
I found water tanks about two yards wide, two yards deep.
That's where they did their freezing experiments.
Sir, as I said before, I do not intend to carry out cross-examinations at this hearing.
Colonel, I take it that you saw no evidence of these experiments? No, but I heard about 'em.
That was enough, believe me.
In the blockhouses, the naked bodies were stacked up ten feet high.
Some of them were even still alive.
We managed to save a few.
Did anyone run out of the camp? Nobody ran in that place.
Except we caught a few SS guards trying to disguise themselves in prison uniforms.
Would it have been possible in the confusion to get away? To escape? Well It might have been possible but I have searched the records that had been held at the police archives in Potsdam.
I found some from the former concentration camp Auschwitz.
Please show the witness Exhibits JS44 and 45 in file number three.
Those are correct.
They refer to the Polish family, Beck.
I mean, one family Beck.
All of them received Sonderbehandlung.
"Special treatment.
" That is exterminated.
All except one.
Alexander Thaddeus.
What happened to him? He was transferred to Dachau for experimental purposes.
(Whispering) Take the book in your hand and read from the card aloud, please.
Mr Rypin, you are a Jew? Oh, yes.
How did you manage to survive so long in Dachau? I was er skilled boot maker.
I had to make boots for the SS men.
That way, I was spared from the selection.
What selection? Selected to be killed.
(Whispering) Did you know Alexander Beck? Oh, yes.
Do you see him here? No.
No, the real Mr Beck was He was brought from Auschwitz.
They made experiments with him.
Yes.
They out every day from his leg a piece to see if that will heal, you know, to heal up properly.
Yes.
I saw him many times in the hut.
He died very, very slowly.
I believe you have already identified the defendant? Oh, yes.
He is Aleksander Balinski.
You see, sometimes I made boots for the SS men that were in the medical block.
I take them there.
And I saw him passing through in his white coat.
Where was he going? Any idea? Yes.
To the Special Unit.
Where they freezed the people.
(Whispering) If you choose to be seated, you may.
No.
I am Lev Shapiro, citizen of the state of Israel.
KAVANAGH: Mr Shapiro, do you remember your time in the medical block? Yes, sir.
I was a TP.
A TP was a Test Person? I was not one of Balinski's.
I had to drink sea water, litres of it every day.
It was to do with the air pilots falling in, to test for madness.
I stole water from the fire buckets.
I kept sane.
But Balinski? He would hurry through to the Special Unit.
To the freezing tanks where he killed people.
- (Murmuring) - Did you see that happen? II heard about it.
Mr Shapiro did you ever see Balinski kill? Yes! I did.
In the Special Unit? You were there? No, no, no, it was after the camp was liberated.
I saw him running.
Where was this? I can't remember, I do not know.
Maybe the parade ground or so.
He shot a man who tried to stop him.
With a gun.
He shot him.
Was it one of the guards? How could it be? All the Nazi guards were long gone.
It had to be one of us.
A prisoner? It was just a shooting.
There was always shooting.
Shootings didn't matter any more.
You could be killed just for the way you looked at somebody.
Er, Mr Kavanagh, perhaps it's time for a short adjournment.
No, let me speak.
For 50 years, I have struggled with that question why? Why would they do it? MAGISTRATE: Mr Shapiro, if you wish to compose yourself I wish to tell you, sir, about Nazi science.
It was never to discover any truths.
It never came to anything.
It was just an excuse to torture and torment human beings.
And that is what he was doing.
Mr Shapiro, I think Every day in that camp, you had to say to yourself, "I will survive.
" And the only reason to survive was that one day, the evil would end.
And then we would tell and all the world would know what the evil had been.
Had MAGISTRATE: Take him outside.
Help him.
(Mumbles) And that was the only thing (Sobs and groans) Yitzak, did I tell them? I can't remember.
You did well, Zaydeh.
Is that so? IIl think I failed.
(Sobs) There was so much more.
You did fine.
- I must go back.
- OK.
Mr Somper, can you tell us what happened in the Special Unit? I had to go there as a prisoner orderly.
He was my boss.
KAVANAGH: You mean the defendant? SOMPER: Yes, him.
Dr Balinski.
KAVANAGH: When was this? Um Christmas, 1943.
Before that, I was on freezing experiments with Dr Rascher You were transferred? Yes, when Dr Balinski got permission to set up his own outfit.
The Todesengel programme.
That's German.
It means Death Angel.
Isn't that right? KAVANAGH: Address the court.
Well, in the spring of 1944, there were a lot of fresh TPs brought in.
Some Russian prisoners, but mostly Hungarian Jews.
For his programme.
What was that? Making people slowly die by freezing and then trying to bring them back to life.
KAVANAGH: Did that ever happen? Oh, yes, sometimes.
And then he would make them die again.
There were women, too.
He said young Jewish women responded best.
"They keep coming back.
" KAVANAGH: And if they didn't finally die? SOMPER: They got shot.
KAVANAGH: Who did it? He did.
KAVANAGH: Mr Somper, what part did you play? I got the bodies out of the ice.
They were heavy, I was strong.
That's all I did.
I never killed.
Not a single one.
What was done with the bodies? Sent away to be cut up, to test a theory that being Communists and Jews affected the structure of the skeleton.
I am not a Jew.
Thank you, Mr Stamper.
- Dr Beck - Dr Beck! You're very kind.
- If you need any help - Thank you for your support.
Anything we can do to help.
- Anything we can do to help.
- Thank you.
Thank you all.
MEN".
Good luck.
We'll try to give you plenty of warning.
- Warning? - Of the date when we need you for the trial.
But it's all happened.
He's guilty.
The judge, he said The magistrate found there was a case to answer.
Dr Beck - Balinski - has been committed for trial and released on bail.
But, sir, I did not understand.
Never mind.
Here you are - ticket, passport.
Well I say goodbye.
Take care, Mr Stamper.
(Lizzie groans) (sighs) I don't think you've been asleep.
Not much.
What is it? Worries? Images.
- Do you want a pill? - No.
(Phone rings) (Lizzie groans) Kavanagh.
Who? What? Where is he? All right, thanks.
Old Shapiro has just had a massive heart attack.
Oh, God.
Oh, I'm sorry.
One of our chief witnesses.
What will this do? I'm not sure.
I was trying to make him tell me how one man shot another.
But what was in his mind was something far bigger.
A whole philosophy gone bad.
(Steady beeping) Inspector How are you now? Come close.
Come close.
And listen.
He must speak for me in court.
My grandson, Yitzak I've told him I can't.
- He's not a witness.
- But he must! He must.
He knows.
We have studied together.
He knows it all.
Give me something I can pass on to the lawyers.
When you saw Balinski shoot this man, how was he dressed? I don't know.
Prison stripes, maybe.
Could he have been wearing them as a disguise? SHAPIRO: Don't ask me these things.
They do not matter.
- No, they might be vitally important.
- That's enough.
(Shapiro groans) Avi Avi You were in Dachau.
You know.
You must tell them.
I will.
I will, I promise.
You must tell the whole world.
Otherwise, they will do it again.
Someone will do it again.
(Heart monitor beeps rapidly) - Zaydeh! BECK: Thank you for letting me know.
Marian.
Old Shapiro's dead.
Good riddance.
KAVANAGH: Your grandfather never went into any detail about the shooting he witnessed? No.
It didn't interest him.
Only the lessons of history.
WESTROPE: You could see it either way.
A guilty man shooting his way out or an innocent inmate in terror.
I think I'll have to forget it.
KAVANAGH: When are you flying him back? Tomorrow.
By freight.
So, I have much to arrange.
KAVANAGH: Of course.
Helen will see you out and, once again, I'm so sorry.
Miss Ames I would like to see this to the end.
Can I be there at the Old Bailey? Yes, of course.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.
(Reporters ask questions) Did your wife say anything? This way, this way.
They'd shown him to the wrong courtroom.
- My mother.
- Lizzie Kavanagh.
It was tragic about your grandfather.
He was very old.
I am here for him.
LIZZIE: I understand.
But you said on the way up he wasn't just old.
He was a great man.
In Israel, yeah.
His funeral was quite remarkable.
Even I was surprised.
MATT.
Here's Beck.
Balinski.
CLERK: All rise! Alexander Thaddeus Beck, also known as Aleksander Balinski, you are charged on the first count of this indictment with murder.
And the particulars of the offence are that in the concentration camp at Dachau in Germany, on a day between the fifth day of April and the fifth day of May, 1944, you did murder a Jew, unknown.
How do you plead? Guilty or not guilty? Not guilty.
CLERK".
Alexander Thaddeus Beck, also known as Aleksander Balinski, you are charged on the second count of this indictment with murder.
And the particulars of the offence are that in the concentration camp In short, I intend to demonstrate that, in 1945, Aleksander Balinski escaped from Dachau camp and punishment for his murderous experiments there by assuming the identity of a prisoner he knew to be dead Alexander Thaddeus Beck.
And that he was able to come to England and eventually settle down here, turning his considerable medical skills to a proper use as a General Practitioner.
Colonel Brennan, in an that confusion, do you happen to recall any report of a prisoner being shot? By whom? Not by any of my men.
No, no, no.
By someone trying to escape.
Perhaps one of the SS.
Sir we had thousands of people on our hands.
We were trying to save their lives before they turned into Mussulmen.
That's what the Nazis called them when they just gave up and died.
Colonel, when you opened up the Special Medical Unit, where these experiments had supposedly been carried out, what did you find? Well (Clears throat) Some filth.
And traces of human debris in the water tanks.
Were there any records? Lists of names or staff rotas to show who worked there? All carefully burnt.
How often did you see him in the camp? Not many times.
Thank God.
Once he got you into the Special Unit you were kaput, done for.
Did people know his name? Oh, yes, yes.
You hear them whispering one to the other, "Balinski, Balinski this, Balinski that.
" Where are these people now? Hm? All dead.
Only me to speak for them.
And I do.
(sobs) Calm yourself, Mr Rypin.
I have very few questions.
That's good.
In Dachau, you were given work as a boot maker? Oh, yes.
For the SS.
That's why they don't kill me.
Special boots with much fine detail? Oh, yes.
Forthem, sure.
Yes, of course.
It had to be.
And so you needed glasses as you do now? No.
Well, surely, for such fine, close work No, I don't wear glasses for this.
You see, I've got What is it? Short sight.
You see? For this work, that's That comes in very useful, that.
But for all other purposes? Oh, yes, yes, glasses, sure.
Strong ones? Yes, very strong.
Did you wear them round the camp? When, as you've told us, you stood for hours on the parade ground? In the huts and out of the huts, did you? Yes.
Oh, no, you didn't.
Or you'd have had them smashed in your face by one of the guards.
You were ein Dreckjude.
You never wore them when you were near the medical block, for example.
- Please - And if you'd seen anyone wearing a white coat, - you couldn't have told who it was - Mr Culpepper! It Don't worry.
It's all right.
It's I don't mind.
He's right.
Yes, they break my glasses.
Those guards They beat you all the time for no reason.
But, you see, there were always more glasses.
Any son that I want, any prescription.
Where? Where they stored them.
Where they keep them Where they take them from the dead people.
There were shoes, too.
Those I could mend.
JUDGE: Mr Culpepper, any further questions? No, my lord.
No re-examination.
Thank you, Mr Rypin.
Miss Dodo, can you tell the court about your involvement in relief work after the war? I volunteered when I was 18.
I'd learnt German at school.
So I was sent to help in some of the camps for displaced persons.
Um, do you know We understand the term, Miss Dodd.
It wasn't just a matter of feeding them.
We had to provide cultural rehabilitation, whenever we could.
I was working in a camp near Stuttgart when I met Alexander Beck.
The defendant? Yes.
He told me about his time in Dachau.
His sufferings in the labour Kommandos.
He wanted to become a doctor and I was able to obtain some books for him to study.
I believe you did more than that.
II tried to help him come to England.
- With you? - Oh, no, no.
I had work to do.
KAVANAGH: How did you help him? I wrote a recommendation to the authorities.
In rather glowing terms.
It seems to have worked.
Well, things were very confused at the time.
So many Well, thousands of people on the move.
But I have sometimes worried that I might have exceeded my duties.
I was only 18.
KAVANAGH: You were instrumental in the defendant's coming here? Yes, I believe I was.
Miss Dodd, when you first met Alexander Beck, what was he wearing? Those terrible striped things, like all the prisoners.
But I found him some better clothes.
What opinion did you form of his character? I thought him .
.
quite remarkable.
He stood out from all the others.
And if you could have accompanied him to England? No, there was no question of that.
II never saw him again.
Thank you, Miss Dodd.
- What's happened? Where is he? - They're looking for him now.
- Well, that's a comfort.
- He's got lost, that's all.
It's happened before.
No re-examination.
But I would ask your indulgence, my lord, in calling my next witness.
There seems to be some delay.
- No sign.
- Right.
I need to see passenger lists of all the incoming flights from Poland.
This is very urgent and extremely important.
Please hurry.
Police? - Yes, I've just showed you.
- This may be for you.
It says, âPolice at airport.
To collect.
â It came by courier service two days ago.
Oh, my God.
"I will not go back to London.
I do not trust English justice.
" Signed, Karol Somper.
Was it made clear to him that he has immunity? - Perfectly, sir.
- And he understood? - He seemed to.
- Perhaps he didn't.
James, please.
This is my only substantial witness and you've lost him.
He worked with Beck, saw him every day.
I've got Toby Hudd and his team on it.
They'll do all they can, but "But" sounds the appropriate word.
If he's gone to ground We'll be starting from scratch.
It's essential to liaise with the Polish authorities, set up inquiries.
- How long? - Ten days, fourteen.
I'll try for a week.
I won't get it.
Out of the question.
With deep respect, if Your Lordship considers the significance of this witness to the Crown's case Very well.
Under these exceptional circumstances, I am prepared to countenance the remainder of this week and the weekend to give you time to find him.
But that win' be an', Mr Kavanagh If the witness is not here first thing Monday morning, you must continue as best you can.
KAVANAGH: As Your Lordship pleases.
- But tell Kavanagh I can do something about it.
- Well, certainly, he's here.
- Mr Shapiro? - He thinks he can help us.
Oh, no.
I can.
Your men are English.
They have to do everything the correct way.
I do not.
You are asking me to approve something that is possibly illegal? I'm just telling you, I can go to Poland.
I know the country, I've researched there on Auschwitz and on other places.
He speaks the language.
And I have friends.
In Poland? No.
Try this, Guy.
Great year.
Good health.
- Oh, yes.
- Mm.
- What have you got there? - Rejects, I think.
Er, an ex-patient, Mrs Anita Buckley.
"He saved my unborn baby.
I worship that man.
" OW .
No.
That Miss Dodd, she fell apart when she saw him again.
You know what my guess is? Beck's been a notable lecher in his time.
Shagged half the neighbourhood and the missus turned a blind eye.
It happens.
OK, Halina Birnbaum, claims to have known Beck in Dachau.
Girlfriend? Giles, hardly in a concentration camp! Birnbaum, Jewish, a good character witness.
Well, she's been in a charity home since the end of the war.
It was they that wrote to us.
She's physically very frail.
Oh, and mentally.
Oh, dear, far too risky.
It really is remarkably good, this.
In fact, we may not be putting anyone at all in the box.
What, if the case collapses? If? Come along, Guy.
Tell you what, cheer your client up, take him a bottle of this.
So I'm very pleased to be able to tell you, Dr Beck, that I think your worries are over.
The case will be stopped.
I won't have to give evidence? Nobody will.
That's wonderful.
(Polish on radio) YITZAK: Two flight tickets.
Both made out in your name, Karol Somper.
This one, you come with me to London.
This one, you go with my friend to Israel.
Make your choice.
What's it to be, James? Are you going to fall on your own sword or let His Lordship stick it in? They always say it's better tactics to do it yourself.
I am ready to proceed, my lord.
I call Karol Somper.
Who was used in the freezing programme? Um, prisoners.
Jews mainly.
They were kept in the ice and timed until they died.
It was very important to keep measuring their rectal temperature.
II suffered with my hands.
But you carried out your duties? I was only a Kapo, a prisoner.
I had to do what Balinski said.
Were they ever revived? Always.
I mean, we always tried to bring them back.
Even after they were clinic dead.
He had all sorts of secret drugs.
Sometimes, he could do it.
And then? Were any spared? Oh, no.
Soon they would go back in the ice.
He said it was to find out what death truly was.
Now, think very, very carefully.
I put it to you that the Balinski you knew there was a separate person from the defendant, Alexander Beck.
And that Beck was a helpless prisoner in the camp, who was starved and beaten like all the rest, and sent out on labour gangs, but had the awful, additional misfortune to look like your Balinski - But not be him? - No.
I never saw such a man.
He'd have had prison clothes and his head all shaved.
Nearly 200,000 prisoners passed through Dachau.
Might you not have missed him? But I know Balinski.
I worked for him every day.
I knew him.
50 years ago! I know him now.
Did you like Balinski? I didn't mean to, but he could make you like him.
He said we would all get medals from Hitler.
(Murmuring) Is she up to this? It might help her.
Halina? Halina? Miss Birnbaum Ah, it's Alexander.
I call Dr Alexander Thaddeus Beck.
(Gasps of astonishment) MY lord! Is this demonstration to be permitted? JUDGE: Mr Culpepper, was this your idea? I'd fancy it was the Nazis' idea, my lord.
- (Murmuring) - Take the oath.
You were sent out in labour gangs? Kommandos, yes.
And in the camp, where did you live? In barracks, huts.
Did you ever see the witness Karol Somper? Never.
Were you ever in the Special Unit of the medical block? No.
So if there were a man named Balinski working there? BECK".
It was not I.
Now, when the camp was liberated I ran away.
I'd lived in fear for so long, it was all I could feel.
You didn't shoot anybody? What with? I just kept going.
And starving.
They took me into a DP camp for the displaced.
And I met kind people.
They gave me a paper to show who I was and I went on.
And Hound many making their way to England.
Poles like me.
And they made me welcome.
Was that when you decided to become a doctor? I swore it.
After all the wickedness I had seen I only wanted to save lives during the whole of my own.
Thank you, Dr Beck.
It's not so easy to become a doctor, is it? Takes time.
In those days, I worked at anything.
Labouring.
But always, I studied.
As you had studied before you were briefly sent to Auschwitz? - Medical studies? - I'd hardly begun.
You must have a tattooed number on your arm.
It was the Auschwitz practice.
There.
- (Murmuring) - None.
I burnt it off.
Why? It was shaming.
But aren't those prison garments you've got on shaming? Dr Beck, why did you keep them? H' I were in your place, I'd have burnt them long ago.
I don't really know what to say.
Let me suggest a reason.
They might come in useful one day.
Such as now.
To back up an alias.
MY lord! Ifeel so much guilt.
(Whispering) Guilt? Yes.
The feeling any survivor must have.
That somehow you were spared while all those others died.
All those thousands millions.
And here you are, still alive.
Why? (Sobs) Why? That's why I forced myself to wear these shaming things, to remind me, to relieve the gum of still being alive.
(Beck weeps gently) Mr Kavanagh.
Dr Beck.
When Karol Somper says that he assisted you - to perform these obscene experiments - He's lying.
If he doesn't know you, why should he lie about you? I mean, he is mistaken.
He is most dreadfully mistaken.
(Beck breathes heavily) (Reporters shout questions) I don't remember her.
She remembers you.
50 years ago, she'd have been quite a pretty girl.
CULPEPPER: Juries are strange creatures.
Sometimes, without quite realising it, they need help.
To see the truth? Of course to see the truth.
Now, at the moment, I think they've found Mr Somper rather bad news.
Yes, but they might go for her.
If you had encountered this woman, and possibly more, it would have had to have been in the main camp, would it not? Yes, of course.
She's very frail.
CULPEPPER.
So I'd have to be gentle with her.
SALTHOUSE: She's lived mostly away from the world.
BECK: I'm really not convinced.
Bit crazy, would you say? Damaged.
A lot of us were.
It's a risk.
I think we must take it.
Mrs Beck, when you first met your husband, did he ever talk about his immediate past? No, hardly at all.
He said that he'd put all that behind him.
I remember the day that his naturalisation papers came through.
He was He was so proud.
He said, "I'm no longer Polish.
I'm an Eng Englishman.
" (sobs) And now .
.
I see him there Alexander! Your name is Halina Birnbaum? Yes.
Yes.
You were in Dachau concentration camp in Germany? Mm.
You were then 15 years old? Mm.
You know that man? Alexander.
Do you remember how you lived in Dachau? I was in Dachau and he was in Dachau.
He was my life.
- You managed to be together? - Together always.
Whenever you could.
He would have been in the men's barracks and you in the women's.
But somehow Alexander made me safe.
You mean, he managed to take care of you? He protected you? From the attentions of the guards, perhaps? Was that it? He was my life.
My life was his.
CULPEPPER: Until the camp was liberated and you were both free.
Did you leave it together? HALINA: My life was his.
You loved him? She's not smiling.
JUDGE: Mr Kavanagh Miss Birnbaum Halina.
When you say your life was his My life was his.
Was it his to take? KAVANAGH: And .
.
to give back? He made me die.
And when I was dead he made me alive again.
And then, he gave me things.
Good things to make me better.
And when I was all better, it was time to die again.
You only met him in the Special Unit in the medical block? He put you in there .
.
and he froze you.
Wasn't that it? He froze you to death.
And then he brought you back to life.
For the Todesengel programme.
Why didn't he shoot her? Take care of her.
It was original.
Completely original research into the nature of death.
It might have It might I was proud of my work there.
The Beck family have no intention of making any further statement at this point.
Would you please wait for the press conference? Excuse me.
Poor woman.
Never knew.
Or didn't want to.
What'll happen to Balinski? Life imprisonment.
Life? RYPIN: d'chohl beyt yisrael, ba'agalah u'veez'man kareev, v'eemru: Amein.
Y'hey sh'met rabbah m'varach l'afam u'l'almey almahyah.
Yeefbarakh, v'yeesh'tabach, v'yeet'pa'ar, v'yeetrohmam, v'yeet'nasei, v'yeet'hadar, v'yeet'aleh, v'yeet'halal sh'mey d'kudshah b'reekh hoo.