ERKKI-SVEN TÜÜR
WALLENBERG

LIBRETTO
IN ENGLISH

The only opera by Erkki-Sven Tüür on DVD. Performed by Estonian National Opera. “Mister Wallenberg, my family will fit in your coat pocket. My family will make your fingers dirty, you can scrape them together from Polish fields, tree leaves and the ridges of gable roofs, there is not even so much left of them that you could paint a cross with ashes on your forehead, not even so much that a soldier would start coughing when they fly into his throat.”

Libretto by Lutz Hübner
Translation into English by Kesklinna Tõlkekeskus

 

ACT I

1st SURVIVOR
Do we have to honour Wallenberg?

2nd SURVIVOR
Who else if not him?

CHORUS
What did he do? Why did he do it? For whom did he do it?

3rd SURVIVOR
What is important:
that one helps and lives or why does one help?

CHORUS
What did he do?

2nd SURVIVOR
But do we honour the living or the dead?

CHORUS
Why did he do it?

3rd SURVIVOR
What does a tree care that is growing in his honour?
What does the street care that is bearing his name?

CHORUS
If he is dead, where is his grave?
If he is alive, where is he kept in prison?

1st SURVIVOR
If he is the Righteous among the nations,
is it important then whether he is alive or dead?

2nd SURVIVOR
Is this an example for the future?
Is memory more important than a man,
who lives and dies in the shadow of that memory?

3rd SURVIVOR
The example matters, not the man.

CHORUS
But where is Wallenberg?

1st CONFERENCE

1st GUEST
Where is Raoul Wallenberg?

2nd GUEST
Why are we waiting for him?

3rd GUEST
Why was he invited here?

1st DIPLOMAT
We have something in store for him.
He is our on our side.

1st GUEST
Why him?

1st DIPLOMAT
He is Wallenberg.

2nd GUEST
No less than Wallenberg
but no more either.

3rd GUEST
Name is one thing, the man another.

1st GUEST
He studied law for a while.

2nd GUEST
But this did not suit him.

1st GUEST
He studied architecture for a while.

2nd GUEST
But this did not suit him.

1st GUEST
He studied banking for a while.

2nd GUEST
But this did not suit him.

1st GUEST
He is trading with delicatessen a little.

2nd GUEST
But this does not suit him.

3rd GUEST
An incomplete man.

1st DIPLOMAT
But he is Wallenberg.

3rd GUEST
No name is bigger than its bearer.

1st DIPLOMAT
He is Wallenberg.
The name that can open doors.

2nd DIPLOMAT
Wallenberg is the bank
that makes half-deals,
half with Germans, half with us.

3rd DIPLOMAT
Wallenberg is a name that
a half-man does not fill,
there is room for a lot more
that must remain unknown for a half-man.

1st DIPLOMAT
And Wallenberg is the name
that has a good sound,
where whole offers are made
in incomplete sentences.

(Wallenberg enters)

1st DIPLOMAT
Mister Wallenberg, we have a task for you.

2nd DIPLOMAT
The task commissioned by the President of America
and the Refugee Assistance.

3rd DIPLOMAT
Go to Budapest and try
to save as many people as possible!

WALLENBERG
Give me time to think.

1st GUEST
Wallenberg, why should you do it?

2nd GUEST
It is terrible what is done to the Jews.

3rd GUEST
But is it our problem?

A LADY
What is it to you, when
the President discovers in his heart compassion for the Jews,
because the elections are coming.
What is it to you, when
the Secret Service wants to make you
the puppet of its diplomacy.
What business is war to you?
What does the politics concern you?

WALLENBERG
I need time to think.

1st DIPLOMAT
Have you decided, Wallenberg?

WALLENBERG
I am alone.

3rd DIPLOMAT
We will give you money.

WALLENBERG
But I am alone.

1st DIPLOMAT
Do you want to die,
being just an importer of goose liver?

WALLENBERG
But I am alone.

3rd DIPLOMAT
Diplomatic immunity!

WALLENBERG
But I am alone.

2nd DIPLOMAT
Do you want to die,
being just a pendant to a big name?

3rd DIPLOMAT
Addresses, information!

1st DIPLOMAT
Do you want to die,
being a man who has not succeeded at anything?

3rd DIPLOMAT
We will show you your friends and your enemies.

2nd DIPLOMAT
Don’t you want to be useful just for once to be useful?

WALLENBERG
Yes!

WALLENBERG
I thought about it for five minutes.
During these five minutes
five people were killed,
shot, poisoned with gas, slain.
Each minute that it takes me to go,
costs one human life.

TRAIN STATION I

WALLENBERG
What are you doing?

OFFICER
Don’t you have eyes, or what?
Work is done here, we are doing our duty.
Thousand every day, this is no child’s play.
Thousand Jews, every day, every hour
one train that arrives, one train that leaves.
Thousand lists, thousand timetables.
Last week, there were a hundred of them, this week a thousand,
two thousand next week, every day,
twenty-four hours in a row,
every minute, when someone
asks stupid questions,
is a minute lost.

WALLENBERG
Why these people?

OFFICER
Thousands ask every day, who asks is a Jew!
Who bears a number that is between one and thousand, is a Jew!
Who enters these carriages, is a Jew!
Who is shot because I don’t have time to answer, is a Jew!
Do you want to go into the carriage or keep on asking?

WALLENBERG
I am a Swede.

OFFICER
I can make a Jew also out of a Swede.
Get going!

WALLENBERG
I have immunity.

OFFICER
I can prove the opposite.
Get going!

WALLENBERG
I am a diplomat.

OFFICER
Get going!

WALLENBERG
Wait, this man is a Swede, therefore he is untouchable.

OFFICER
Is this certain?

WALLENBERG
Yes!

OFFICER
Proof!

OFFICER
Passport wins a weapon,
but a weapon wins a man.
(Kills the man)

OFFICER
Did you see? A Jew!

PLAN I

Passport wins a weapon,
a weapon wins a man.
What can blood do against ink?
What can a bullet do against a stamp?
My heart is beating in my hand...
A yellow paper with a Swedish crown on it.
Tomorrow morning, thousands of Jews
will be driven out of their houses.
Tomorrow afternoon thousands of Swedes
will come back to the houses.

TRAIN STATION II

OFFICER
You – over here and you – over there!
Move yourself, we don’t have time forever!

OFFICER
You again!
Leave the platform at once!

WALLENBERG
Stop, this man over there has a passport
and this one as well,
you there, you also have a passport, right?
And you, you also have a passport, right?
Come here to the truck, but quickly!

OFFICER
What are you doing?

WALLENBERG
Don’t you have eyes?
Work is done here, I do my duty.
Hundred Swedes, every day,
twenty-four hours in a row,
and every minute, when someone
asks stupid questions,
is a minute lost.
Get going!

OFFICER
These are Jews.
You have no right for that!

WALLENBERG
The one who has this passport is a Swede.
I decide who is a Swede.
The one who is a Swede, is untouchable.
Do I have to complain about you?
Do you want to go back to the front?
Do your work, let me do mine
and now step aside before I report where needed.
I have no time, do you understand?
Passport wins a man, passport wins a weapon.
Shoot them! Will you take responsibility for that?
The next bullet will hit you, because you
took a Swede for a Jew!
I said, get going!

THE RESCUED ONES

WALLENBERG
Go home, you are under my protection.

1st ONE
The paper may get lost. It falls into the gutter.

2nd ONE
It may be torn to pieces, stolen.

3rd ONE
The paper is patient, too patient.

WALLENBERG
You are under Swedish protection.

2nd ONE
This is only paper, we have trusted
stronger things than paper.

WALLENBERG
But this paper means life.

1st ONE
Paper does not relieve hunger, does not give warmth.
Life is more than not being dead.

WOMAN
I thank you for this paper.
I thank you for saving my youngest son.

WALLENBERG
Where are the rest of your children?

(The woman leaves crying)

PLAN II

WALLENBERG
What I do is not enough!
Not being in the carriage is not enough!
Not going to the gas chamber is not enough!
Not being shot is not enough,
not being a slaughter animal and
a number between one and a thousand, is not enough!
To be a human being without a bed, without a roof over the head,
without food and drink – this is not enough!
Passport, a patch of free land,
only a size of a palm is not enough.
A house is not enough, but it would be a start.
Other people, who within the minutes of their lives,
tear others away from the jaws of death, even this is not enough.
But it would be a start.
Merely fighting against the boots of death
is not enough.
To feel his face or hand,
with which he is strangling,
this is not enough,
but it would be a start.

EICHMANN I

COLLABORATORS
Who are you waiting for, Wallenberg?
For whom are you sacrificing your time?
Who is so important for you,
that you are waiting for him for a whole hour?
Is this the Stone Guest, Mr Wallenberg?

WALLENBERG
I invited him to find out
what he is made of.

EICHMANN
Sorry I’m late, my gentlemen,
but the work has no end.
Nobody knows it better than the host,
Mr Wallenberg, a Jewish dog.
So, where is he, this master of Jewish houses,
this printing press, Jewish dog, this master of autumn.
All Budapest is rustling with yellow leaves,
one can hardly see the yellow stars
with all this falling of Swedish leaves
on our town, but enough of jokes.
No long spoons, Mr Wallenberg?
You are eating with the Devil, don’t you know that?
Enough of jokes, let’s get down to business!
Don’t your friends want to save a few more Jews
until there are a few in Budapest?

WALLENBERG
Don’t your escort want to try to stop them in doing so?

EICHMANN
You did not invite me over, because nobody else will eat with you,
you have friends in town, more with every day,
you have friends elsewhere as well, you do not eat with me
because you love Germans, you are here not
because you love Hungarians and you do not save
the Jews either because you love them, let’s get down to business.
What do you want? What is your task?

WALLENBERG
I am here to save people.
This is my task, nothing else.

EICHMANN
I don’t believe that, Wallenberg.

WALLENBERG
Why are you here, Mr Eichmann?

EICHMANN
I transport people from here to there,
nothing else, this is my task.

WALLENBERG
Here are people who are living,
because I am here and the longer I am here,
the more of them there will be.

EICHMANN
The longer I am here, the less
people there will be, whom you can save.
This is mathematics, you have to know this.
You are the banker, you are the tradesman,
besides a bad one. You haven’t understood anything.
You love people, this is your flaw.
I respect the Jews, I was in Palestine,
I know their language, their history,
I read theis books.
But my task is the calculations,
timetables, quotas, units,
administration, lists and evacuation.
I don’t deal with small change.
Enough of jokes.
There is only one you, not more,
this is not enough.

WALLENBERG
You are wrong, I am not alone.
I have one ally – the Time.
It works for me, not for you.

EICHMANN
This is not the first burning city that I see.
It is not my task to put it out.
Enough of jokes,
what is your offer?

WALLENBERG
Stop. You have lost.

EICHMANN
The city is burning and you are printing passports.
Passport is a piece of paper, isn’t it?
It may burn.
Safe house is just a house with a Swedish flag, isn’t it?
It may burn down.
It burns as easily as a human being.

DIPLOMATS
Do you know that, Wallenberg?
Do you know what the exchange rate is for Jews?

EICHMANN
Immunity is just an agreement, isn’t it?
Sweden is just a country far in the North, right?
An agreement may be forgotten, right?
North is far from Hungary, right?

DIPLOMATS
Ten thousand Jews for one truck?
Two million Jews for peace?
Don’t you know that a human being is merchandise?

EICHMANN
Diplomat may be run over by car,
he may fall off the bridge,
or become a victim of crime, right?
We are living during a time when things happen.
Every minute brings along new questions.
Have you already thought about these questions?

DIPLOMATS
What is a human being worth, if five thousand go to the gas chamber every day?
What is a safety pass worth, if one thousand are issued every day?
What is a safety pass worth, if everyone has it?
Don’t you know the rules of inflation?

EICHMANN
Have you already thought about it,
that I can change my opinion?

DIPLOMATS
Do you know, what the exchange rate is?
Do you know, who determines it?

EICHMANN
Or that others change their opinion?

DIPLOMATS
Do you know what is your value on the stock exchange of war?

EICHMANN
Have you already thought about it,
why you are allowed to do what you are doing?

DIPLOMATS
Do you know why you are still living?

EICHMANN
Don’t you know it?
Don’t you know?
(Eichmann leaves)

WALLENBERG
Every question is a minute lost.
Every minute kills.
Every minute takes us closer to the end of killing.
Also when the time
is on my side. I have no time!

TRAIN STATION III

WALLENBERG
A secretary.
An accountant.
A telephone operator.
A driver.
A janitor.

WOMAN
Mr Wallenberg?

WALLENBERG
A messenger.

WOMAN
Mr Wallenberg?

WALLENBERG
Do you need work?
Do you want to telephone?
Do you want to be an accountant?
Do you want to distribute food?
Do you want to make lists?

WOMAN
Mr Wallenberg, I want to give you back my safety pass.
I want to go back to my family.

WALLENBERG
Bring them here, I have something for all of them.
Bring them here, I will give them safety passes.

WOMAN
Mr Wallenberg, my family
will fit in your coat pocket.
My family will make your fingers dirty,
you can scrape them together from Polish fields,
tree leaves and the ridges of gable roofs,
there is not even so much left of them
that you could paint an ashen cross on your forehead,
not even so much that a soldier would start coughing
when they fly into his throat.
They waited for me at home,
but I was not the knocker.
Why should I need a life as a present
How can I live with the guilt,
that one day I went out,
when others stayed inside?
Do I have to build my life upon a walk
and the luck of meeting you?
Tell me how must I overcome
the guilt of being alive?
(The woman steps into the carriage)

PLAN III

I die in everyone, whom I cannot save.
I die in everyone, whom I save.
Each bullet hits me.
Why am I still living?!
I have gas in my lungs!
Why am I not shouting with my last breath,
it is hoarse from the dead, who preceded me!
I see only death,
when I keep still, it attacks me,
drives out the sweat from under my skin.

LADY
Take a free evening,
one hour, just for yourself.
And if not four yourself, then for me.
Look into my eyes, nothing more.
Forget who you are,
for one breath, for one minute,
one hour, an evening.
Wallenberg do you hear me?

WALLENBERG
There’s no time!
Not to think of peace,
but of the end of the war.
There’s no time.
Not to think of the end,
the end is everywhere,
think of the beginning,
and beginning means time,
and I don’t have time.

DEATH MARCH

He who lives, he works, he who doesn’t want to work, will not live,
he who cannot work, he cannot live, he who has no value,
is of no value, and he who is of no value,
will be crossed out.

The hand of the Lord was on me,
and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord
and placed me in the midst of the valley,
and it was full of bones.
He made me walk all around among them.
I realized there were a great many bones in the valley
and they were very dry.
He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”
I said to him, “Sovereign Lord, Lord, Lord…”

EICHMANN
Mr Wallenberg!
I am coming to bid you goodbye.
My work has come to an end.

WALLENBERG
Your war is lost.
I told you that the time is working in my favour.

EICHMANN
You still think wrong, Mr Wallenberg.
I spent a year in Budapest, I came with thirteen people.
I deported three hundred thousand Jews.
Only time was working in your favour,
Wehrmacht, SS, Hungary and the Jews in my favour.
Yes, even the Jews, I do not call this a defeat.
And you? How many did you save, Wallenberg?

WALLENBERG
I don’t know, I had no time to count.

EICHMANN
No time? Really? Enough of jokes!
You saved a hundred thousand, I counted.
Nothing will become of you, Wallenberg, at best
only a hero, a bust sculpture, nothing for practical life.
A hero for one hundred thousand, it is easy to say, it is a beautiful number.
By no means do I want to spoil it with one.
There is only one of him. Still, he would spoil the number,
Number wins the man.
(Shoots the man)

I cannot stand blood.
Can you? Can you?

WALLENBERG
Now is the beginning,
now is the time!

WALLENBERG
Apartments are needed,
work, food.
Everything that has been torn up,
has to be bound together again!
Everything that has been torn open,
has to be joined together!
It is time to bury the dead
and send the living home,
and behind an empty table,
someone must sit again!
There where prayers were said,
someone must pray again, and where people lived thanks to passport,
someone must live again, as he is breathing and is a man,
not a number or a list any more,
and the yellow star is not a death sentence any more,
but belongs to heaven and poems, nothing more.
This is a beginning or the start of a beginning.
But it is a start.

1st OFFICER
Come along. To a friendly chat.

ACT II

NKVD

1st OFFICER
He’s not here with us.

2nd OFFICER
So don’t ask any more!

1st OFFICER
And, if he is with us, then he is doing well.

2nd OFFICER
So don’t ask any more.

1st OFFICER
And, if he is not doing well,
then his health is to blame,
not life behind the bars.
And, if his condition becomes worse,
then we have done everything
to help him.

2nd OFFICER
So don’t ask any more!

1st OFFICER
And, if he is dead,
then we don’t know where his grave is.
And, if he is found, a bullet in his head,
none of us has pulled the trigger.

2nd OFFICER
So don’t ask any more!

1st OFFICER
And, if someone of us has pulled the trigger,
he had a reason and an order to do that.

2nd OFFICER
So don’t ask any more!

1st OFFICER
Because then he was an enemy, a spy and a Nazi,
then he had to die, or he is walking the roads,
of which we know nothing,
under other names, that we know not of.
Then he is with us and we don’t know it,
and this is the same thing
as if he’s not here with us.

2nd OFFICER
So don’t ask any more, because he’s not here with us.

GUESTS
Where is Wallenberg?

1st OFFICER
Very many...

2nd OFFICER
... are not there, where they should be.

1st OFFICER
Very many...

2nd OFFICER
... are looking for and
not finding the ones they are looking for.

1st OFFICER
Very many...

2nd OFFICER
... are not looked for, because there is no one left to look for them.
You could pave a whole street with them,
but you are looking for one hero.
Why don’t you look for them,
who did not have time to become heroes,
but victims – this happens easier.
Help is needed by those who are just names between the names.

GUESTS
Where is Raoul Wallenberg?

1st & 2nd OFFICER
We don’t have him!

CONFERENCE II

1st DIPLOMAT
Why Wallenberg?

2nd DIPLOMAT
He was a good hero.
A good sport, who does business like a good sport,
or not at all.
A hero who is a good sport!
Do you hear, Wallenberg?
But so far, only half a war has been won.
Half of the battles have been won by now.
Only half of the enemies have been defeated.

3rd DIPLOMAT
After the war is before the war.
We open the heroes’ graves,
they are still needed.

1st DIPLOMAT
War devours raw materials,
heroes are a raw material,
and there is not much raw materials.

2nd DIPLOMAT
And Wallenberg is a name
that cannot be filled by a half-war.

1st DIPLOMAT
Mr Wallenberg, you have done your business well.

WALLENBERG
I did what I could, now it is over.
I had planned to do a lot, I managed to do little,
but little is more than nothing.

3rd DIPLOMAT
You are mistaken, Mr Wallenberg.
It may be that the one who saves one hundred people,
will get a life as a present,
maybe one is living, when hundreds see him.

WALLENBERG
Let me die!

1st, 2nd & 3rd DIPLOMAT
You’ve got a new mission, Mr Wallenberg!

GULAG I

CHORUS
I will be sent to Kolyma, they told me that,
I will get 25 years for espionage, I don’t know why!

WALLENBERG
How many times do I have to tell you
that I’m not a spy, this is absurd!

CHORUS
We haven’t seen the Romanian,
he did not come back from the interrogation.
The Swede is no longer here either.
I heard he was transferred.
An Italian is sitting in the cell below me.
I was asked about Wallenberg.

WALLENBERG
I came here on my own accord, you can’t deny it!

CHORUS
They shoot you after the judgement is pronounced.
Only not to Vladimir, nobody will survive that!
I am Georgian, I knew Stalin, this was my judgement.

WALLENBERG
Of course I was in contact with the Nazis, this was part of my tasks!

CHORUS
I wrote a letter.
Yesterday they called a general.
You have to learn the system of knocking.
Parcels will arrive, letters too.
The one who gets a letter, dies.
The one who doesn’t get letters, dies.

WALLENBERG
I don’t know anything about separate negotiations, I want to save people!

CHORUS
I have already been behind the bars for ten years,
this proves my guilt.
This is against the Jews.
No, it’s against the writers.

WALLENBERG
I want to talk with the Swedish Ambassador!

CHORUS
Against the doctors, if they are spies and Jewish
and knew Trotski.
I knew no one. These are the worst.
The one who denies everything, has something to hide.
The one who confesses something, is proven guilty.

WALLENBERG
I will not sign anything!
I am a Swede, I have diplomatic immunity!

CHORUS
The one who is Russian, has betrayed his country.
The one who is a foreigner, is a spy.

WALLENBERG
I told you all this already in Debrecen, didn’t I?

CHORUS
Death is the proof of guilt.
The Swede is dead!
The Swede is alive!

WALLENBERG
I will not make any more confessions!

CHORUS
Who is the Swede?
Wallenberg.
Who is Wallenberg?

GULAG II

1st GULAG PRISONER
Do you remember the dam that we built?
The words you spoke to me?
Punishment in the snow?
Nights in the carriage and the dead,
who were loaded out at the station?

WALLENBERG
I don’t remember.

1st GULAG PRISONER
The laughter, when my judge came to the camp?
A convict just like us?
And then the judge’s judge?
And so on and when all have arrived to the camp
we will be sentenced to freedom,
the first inhabitants of the country that has become deserted
and you are running back to Sweden.
Do you remember?

WALLENBERG
I don’t remember.

2nd GULAG PRISONER
When I was born, you were at the camp.
When I went to school, you were at the camp.
When I got married, you were at the camp.

GULAG PRISONER
When I fell into despair in the camp, you turned up.
Life before the camp and life at the camp.

2nd GULAG PRISONER
Two lives, you gave me hope for my second life.
Because you survived, I will survive as well.
And I did survive, thanks to you Wallenberg.
Do you remember?

WALLENBERG
I don’t remember.

3rd GULAG PRISONER
I don’t know, why I was imprisoned.
I don’t know, why I happen to be in Kolyma.
I don’t know, why I became an old man at the camp.

3rd GULAG PRISONER
I saw you, Wallenberg, and ten years in the snow,
to see one Christ, is not a long time!
I was imprisoned, so I could see you!

WALLENBERG
I don’t remember.

3rd GULAG PRISONER
I became an old man, so I could see you!
A man, of whom the world is talking, Wallenberg.
Do you remember?

WALLENBERG
I don’t remember.

1st, 2nd & 3rd GULAG PRISONERS
Recall, Wallenberg!

WALLENBERG
I don’t remember.
There is a hole in my head,
a hundred thousand names are flowing out if it.
Names, that I have never heard before,
even my own name is flowing through me.

GULAG PRISONERS
There is only one you,
we are many, who saw you.
Recall, Wallenberg!

WALLENBERG
You cannot force me, I said what I could say, I will not give testimonies any more.
You cannot force me, I will defy,
I am Raoul Wallenberg!
I remember!

(Wallenberg II arrives)

WALLENBERG
Who are you?

WALLENBERG II
I am Raoul Wallenberg!

WALLENBERG
I am dead.
My work is done.

WALLENBERG II
I will decide, when your work is done.

WALLENBERG
Let me go.

WALLENBERG II
You gave birth to me.
You no longer belong to yourself.
I am Raoul Wallenberg!

WALLENBERG
And who am I?

WALLENBERG II
You are a sketch. I am the picture!
You are a stone. I am a sculptor!
You are a grain of sand. I am a pearl!

WALLENBERG
Let me go.

WALLENBERG II
You are the material, from which heroes are made.
Do you want to be just half a hero?
Every stray dog will lick your feet,
when it hears your name.
You are Wallenberg.

WALLENBERG
I am just one of many over whom the war has swept.
I am one out of millions.
Let me go!

WALLENBERG II
I will scrape you out from earth!
I will dig out your skull from mud!
I will pull out the spike from your chest!
I will scrape together your ashes from the Lubyanka furnace!
Choose yourself a death, I will rob you of it!
Choose yourself a thousand deaths that the century has invented!
None will bring you peace.
I am your hero, you can no longer get rid of me.
I will suck the life out of you,
I will steal your memories, your face,
and you will not recognize yourself
and nothing will be left of you!

EICHMANN
I wanted a lot, achieved a little.
But little is more than nothing.
Now I am ashes, nothing more.

WALLENBERG
Save me!

EICHMANN
Save you?!
You are the saviour, not me.
Enough of jokes!

EICHMANN
What a life it was,
when there was only one death
in which peace could be found.
Isn’t it, Jewish dog?
One could work undisturbed.
And now, Jewish dog?
But there is no escape from one’s fate.

WALLENBERG
Where are you going?

EICHMANN
I’m on my way to Jerusalem.
I will be hanged in front of the whole world.
Clean ending, books will be closed.
I am the accountant.
You have to be a hero,
because you are a bad bookkeeper, even if you don’t want this.
I am disappointed in you, Jewish dog!
But the shortcuts were never meant for you.
You always made your life complicated for yourself.
I conceived a son, when you were dust in one Moscow puddle.
I had women, good food, when you didn’t have time even for one meal,
although the time was on your side and faithful to you.
It is faithfully by your side, the time,
so that you would wander around in Gulag forever
and I forced you to it.
This is my revenge.
You are my hero.
If I had shot you in Budapest, you would have had your peace.
But without me you would have remained a shopkeeper
and you wouldn’t be a hero now, who must not die.
Order wins humanness.
Statistics win courage.
Banality wins exceptions and evil is just goodness at the wrong time.
Enough of jokes, I have no more time!
I have to finish my story.

WALLENBERG CIRCUS

WALLENBERG II
Extremely talented already as a child.
Handsome and ingenious!
Women’s friend, men’s idol.
With a laughing face between the jaws of hell.
Flames of freedom! Angel of salvation!
Extremely talented already as a child.

JACOB WALLENBERG
When I am asked, why did we supply the Nazis with steel,
I say: Raoul Wallenberg, my nephew on Siberian ice fields!

GULAG PRISONER
My father is dead, in heaven.

GENERAL
We did not bomb the railway going to Auschwitz.
But we’ve got Wallenberg.

WALLENBERG II
I succeeded at everything.

SOLDIER
I come from Kansas.
The land is vast and sunny.
Why should I die in the snow?
My heroes are Americans!

JACOB WALLENBERG
When I am asked, why we protected German companies,
I say: Raoul Wallenberg, my nephew on Siberian ice fields!

WALLENBERG II
Handsome and ingenious!

GENERAL
We did not bomb the crematoriums,
but we’ve got Wallenberg.

WALLENBERG II
The world was open before me.

SOLDIER
But when I heard of Wallenberg,
of the Swede, handsome like Elvis,
between red claws...

WALLENBERG II
Splendid prospects that I also seized.

GENERAL
We sent back ships filled with Jews.
But we’ve got Wallenberg.

WALLENBERG II
To help people.

SOLDIER
I know how shooting is done.
You can count on me.

WALLENBERG II
One word said by me, banished the evil.

SOLDIER
We throw them into the sea.
In the name of Wallenberg and God’s Land.

WALLENBERG 2
Not a trace of doubt.

GULAG PRISONER
I will tell you what I know of Wallenberg.
Give me some tea!

WALLENBERG II
With a laughing face between the jaws of hell.

GULAG PRISONER
I met one Swede.
I need new clothes.

SURVIVOR
I stood at the cellar window
and saw the Swede’s shoes going and coming.

WALLENBERG II
I bore my fate with an iron will.
An example to people.

GULAG PRISONER
He told me about Budapest.
My resources are exhausted.

WALLENBERG II
Flame of freedom.
From the ruins of evil I shouted into the free world.

GULAG PRISONER
His name was Wallenberg.
I am looking for a job.

WALLENBERG II
I am the face.

GULAG PRISONER
He’s doing well.
I don’t have a flat.

2nd SURVIVOR
... and I always loved the Swede’s shoes. Always.

WALLENBERG II
Between the machines.

GULAG PRISONER
Help him.
Help me, who is helping to help the helper.

RUSSIAN OFFICER
We haven’t got him, have we?
We haven’t got him.

ALL
The President is coming!

RUSSIAN OFFICER
But if we have got him, why don’t we know anything about it?
Everybody sees him, only we don’t,
although we see everything. Even things that nobody else sees.
We see the victory of the working class!
We know what conspiracy is!
We know the spies!
But we are looking past him,
we have got him and we don’t even know.
We have got him after all, although we have never got him.

WALLENBERG II
President of the United States of America.

REAGAN
Today I will sign this document,
with which Raoul Wallenberg is awarded the honorary citizenship
of the United States of America.
What he did, what he achieved, acquires the dimensions of the Bible.
Fearless in front of dangers, he dedicated himself to others in their suffering.
Wherever he is today, his humanness burns as a torch.
Nazis had gone and the Soviets came as allies,
nevertheless there is proof that he is still kept as the Soviet war prisoner.

JACOB WALLENBERG
But Wallenberg.
When I say Wallenberg.
But we have Wallenberg.

GULAG PRISONER
When I say Wallenberg.
Secret Wallenberg.

GENERAL
A noble soul in the background.
A hundred thousand Jews have been saved.

JACOB WALLENBERG
Between heroism and torment.

SOLDIER
Angel of salvation.

GULAG PRISONER
A missing hero.

GENERAL
Man in an iron net.

VOICE
I will stain your fingers.
You can scrape me from the fields,
from the tree leaves and the ridges of roofs,
you will not find even so much of me,
that a soldier would start coughing,
when I fly into his throat and who can breathe
thinking of ashes that fly into one’s lungs.

 

See also: Opera Wallenberg