Deaths-Head Revisited

Description: Season 3, Episode 9

Air Date: November 10, 1961

Plot Summary: A former Nazi officer finds more than he bargained for after attempting to relive the good ol' days by visiting a concentration camp.

Review: This is a particularly powerful episode that touches on what would have been an extremely touchy subject for '61. It does appear they held back to a degree, but what could you really expect given the era and the fact that this is a TV show after all. The story is that a former Nazi captain decides he's feeling nostalgic and decides to visit the old concentration camp he was in charge of during the war. I have to say, Oscar Beregi plays the character so slimy and as such a huge asshole--it's perfect. After getting his kicks dreaming of the glory days, the captain thinks he sees an old captive of the camp, named Becker, and wonders if he's like a caretaker or something. As the two banter back and forth about the evils of the past, the captain is unapologetic as we obviously realize Becker is a ghost. When the captain tries to escape he realizes he's trapped and will be put on trial for his crimes. The captain grows overwhelmed by the supernatural phenomenon as he realizes that Becker was personally killed by the captain as a final demonstration of his evil. Becker then declares that the captain has been found guilty and is psychically forced to experience all the suffering that the captain inflicted to others.

Shortly after this, the captain is found in an insane state by locals who question why do they keep the concentration camps standing. Mr. Serling closes us out brilliantly with the lines, "They must remain standing because they are a monument to a moment in time when some men decided to turn the Earth into a graveyard. Into it they shoveled all of their reason, their logic, their knowledge, but worst of all their conscience. And the moment we forget this, the moment we cease to be haunted by its remembrance, then we become the gravediggers. Something to dwell on and to remember, not only in the Twilight Zone but wherever men walk God's Earth." Undoubtedly, a moving conclusion to a disturbing episode. While most of us are aware of the atrocities of the past, I have to give this episode credit for approaching the topic in a profound way. Sadly, so few realize that the worst Nazis never had any real justice brought against them. The worst offenders were allowed to be spread around the globe with the blessings of the major government super powers. You must wonder if evil ever really dies or simply comes back again with a new face and a new gimmick to con the masses.