Conspiracy (2001 TV Movie)

Barnaby Kay: Lange

Quotes 

• Lange : I have the real feeling I "evacuated" 30,000 Jews already, by shooting them, at Riga. Is what I did "evacuation"? When they fell, were they "evacuated"? There are another 20,000, at least, waiting for similar "evacuation". - I just think it is helpful to know what words mean... with all respect.

  [Kritzinger bangs the table in applause] 

  Adolf Eichmann : If I might, I think it's unnecessary to burden the record...

  Heydrich : Yes! In my personal opinion, they are evacuated.

  Kritzinger : Explain!

  Heydrich : I have just done so.

  Kritzinger : That is not - no, that is contrary to what the Chancellery has been told. I have directly been assured - I have - that - purge the Jews, yes, but to annihilate them - that we have undertaken to systematically annihilate all the Jews of Europe - that possibility has personally been denied, to me, by the Führer!

  Heydrich : And it will continue to be.

• Heydrich : Emigration. The policy that will take the place of emigration, and we have collected enough practical experience to do it well, is evacuation.

  Hofmann : Which differs from emigration in what way? Evacuation to where?

  Heydrich : Let us postpone that question for a while.

  Klopfer : To hell, one hopes.

  Lange : Many already have.

  Undersecretary Martin Luther : Do they even have a hell?

  Heydrich : They do now. We provide it.

• Kritzinger : Lange?

  Lange : Yes, sir?

  Kritzinger : Who were those 30,000 you say you shot, when you say, YOU shot?

  Lange : In Riga, Latvia. 27,800 I have some responsibility for. And stood by with my men and allowed Latvian civilians to kill in mobs. I received memos directing the, one would say "evacuation" of Jews who, shot and buried in soil and corpses, managed to crawl out, still alive. Not exactly war, is it? And gas chambers about to come?

  Kritzinger : What gas chambers? Gas chambers?

  Lange : I hear rumours, yes.

  Kritzinger : This is more than war. Must be a different word for this.

  Lange : Try "chaos".

  Kritzinger : Yes. The rest is argument, the curse of my profession.

  Lange : I studied law as well.

  Kritzinger : And how do you apply that education to what you do?

  Lange : It has made me distrustful of language. A gun means what it says.

• Lange : [as Heydrich continues to get a final word from everyone around the table]  Yes.

  Dr. Joseph Bühler : I would like to urge that speed that Dr. Meyer asked of you. The Poles are not as disciplined a population as we Germans. And I will report our will of the group to the Governor General.

  Heydrich : He will understand that I'm relieving him of a burden. Colonel?

  SS.Col. Eberhard 'Karl' Schöngarth : I thoroughly approve and I'm anxious to start. I look forward to working with your office, and yours, Colonel.

  Dr. Roland Freisler : The sooner, the better.

• Undersecretary Martin Luther : I'm sorry, why can't you shoot them?

  Dr. Joseph Bühler : Didn't you just hear him? It is the worst thing for our soldiers to be doing. They are women, they are children. And soldiers have a sense of honor, sir.

  Undersecretary Martin Luther : There's plenty of honor in following orders.

  Lange : Sir, would you care to join my group?

  Undersecretary Martin Luther : Enthusiastically!

  Heydrich : No.

  Undersecretary Martin Luther : I will.

  Heydrich : No, you will not. 11 million, even half that number, executed in small batches, would be asinine to undertake for the reasons Dr. Meyer mentioned. Inefficient use of time, manpower, bullets. No. As Major Lange will learn, gas if much more efficient, and less public.

• Lange : These floors are not for boots