ANTIGONE AT THE HILLBERRY

Victor Bloom MD

Antigone is one of the earliest extant plays of Sophocles, written three thousand years ago. There are reasons why it is still played today. There are reasons that a gifted French playwright wrote a modern version of it in Vichy (Nazi occupied) France in 1942. Some consider it a miracle the German censors let it be produced and shown. They thought the substance of the play helped to rationalize and justify the Nazi fascist dictatorship, and explained its (at the time) startling success. After an ignominious defeat in World War I, Germany rebuilt from its ruins and again emerged as a mighty force threatening world domination. They advanced a New World Order, one that would purify the human race and exterminate the inferior peoples. The new Aryan race would develop a utopian future and advance the progress of civilization. The ends justified the means and might made right.

History reminds us that among the means justifying the ends, was the extermination of mental defectives, including the retarded, mentally ill and homosexuals. The gypsies had to be destroyed, the inferior Slavs and vermin Jews, communists who were not national socialists, and all those speaking against Hitler. The German munitions makers such as Krupp, supplied the money and thugs to carry out beatings, assassinations and terror with the philosophy that Might Makes Right. Twenty million died at the hands of the Nazis and untold more suffered and were ruined. Another twenty million at least, died at the hands of Stalin. Much of Europe was devastated in the early forties.

Among those nations who were not, were those that surrendered and tolerated Nazi occupation. Chief among those was France, whose armies crumbled and the camera recorded Hitler dancing a joyful and triumphant jig on the Champs Elysée, near L'arc de Triumphe. France did not want to see Paris destroyed or the Louvre looted. Vichy France collaborated with the Nazis in exporting French Jews. All this is detailed in the classic eight hour film, "The Sorrow and the Pity." Another documentary detailed the history of Klaus Barbie, the 'Butcher of Lyons.' Barbie was eventually tried and convicted after decades of being safeguarded and utilized by the CIA, fighting communism in South America.

In the modern Antigone by the Frenchman, Jean Anouilh, drama critics called it an allegory of France under the Vichy government, which it was. How could the Nazi censors let it pass? Many French believed themselves to have outwitted the Nazi censors, as it showed the evil of dictatorship. It is said the Germans let it pass because of how well it explained the motives of the dictator, which were rational and unassailable. Their letting it be shown revealed their true intentions and their actual philosophy, which they believed was admirable and would be convincing to the French, and they were largely right. The Nazis also believed their philosophy was justified, based on the writings of Nietzsche, who described the "Ubermensch" or "Superman," who was truly superior and best fit to rule the world.

The Germans were wrong about Nietsche. They used his philosophy for their own purposes and peace of mind, not realizing the true implications of Nietzsche's Ubermensch.

Nietzsche says the Ubermensch is the man who has overcome himself; the passionate man who is master of his passions; the creator who excels in both passion and reason and is able to employ his own powers creatively. The Nazis used their passion and reason to destroy, and they were, ironically, very creative about it.

When Hitler overcame obstacle after obstacle, when the brutal forces supporting him won the admiration and allegience of the German people, when resistance was stamped out, when inferiors were being exterminated, it seemed the realization of the Nietzschian dream, the Superman was in the ascendancy.

While the Parisians winked at each other during the playing of Antigone in occupied France, retaining their attitude of cultural superiority in their abject state of occupation and collaboration, the Germans had the last laugh, at least for the time being. Anouilh's play, for them, served excellent propaganda purposes. The dictator, Creon, was shown to be rational and human, and immensely articulate. He said that the King had no choice but to seize the reins of government. He was the voice of reason, the producer of laws. Otherwise the people were a wild mob, ever fighting over petty causes. He could not say no. Somebody, whose destiny it was, had to steer the ship of state, and though it was an ugly job, someone had to do it, someone with the will and the means. Someone had to use organized power to destroy disorganized power, the forces against him.

Oedipus' daughter, Antigone, could not bear her brother's body to be rotting in the open, vulnerable to birds of prey, worms and maggots. She believed it was God's law to have a sacred burial. Creon's law, to set an example, for political purposes, was death to any who would bury Polynices, Antigone's brother. Antigone disobeyed the law and would have to be buried alive. Creon tried every which way to save her life, to convince her to stop trying to bury her brother. He ridiculed God's law, which then were the Greek gods, knowing that all those 'laws' were politically and expediently devised. Now he was as a god, making the laws, exacting punishment, setting an example.

He tried every which way to make Antigone realize that her idea of honor, reverence, loyalty and faith were misguided and misplaced. She should put herself under his protection. He would take care of her, if she would only obey, come to terms with reality. He saw her refusal as sick and crazy. She would rather not live than live so demeaned and compromised. She knew right from wrong. She would not accept the dictator's definition. And so she died with his son, her betrothed. You would have thought she would have had everything to live for, being married to the son of a king, becoming a queen herself eventually, and the mother of kings. It's the same theme as Medea. Creon is left the tragic figure, his neice, his son, his wife, all dead, and him alive with his principles and his power intact.

So we are left today with the same dilemma. Man's law or God's law? Is there a higher law? How do we know the true reality or morality? It seems clear to some and not to others. When these vital differences of opinion, of belief, reside in the same family, there can be only pain, suffering, death and destruction.