THE NURSING HOME


SETTING: Vienna, 1941. A day room in a nursing home, which was formerly a convent, and has all its religious trappings

CHARACTERS: Irmgaard

Ursula

A silent Jewish woman

Irmgaard and Ursula sit at one end of the room, a  Jewish woman at the other.


I. " I don't know why they don't take her away like the others. I know she is a Jew."

U. " They say her son got the Iron Cross in the Great War.  But they are so busy to win this one soon for the Fatherland...but they won't forget her. You can be sure. " Sometimes I wonder if this war isn't all about her and her kind."

I.  " She does attend Mass but is silent like the Trappists who lived here. I heard her son who is a doctor cured someone high up in the government. But everything now is rumor."

U. "She never talks. Maybe its all pretense, or the cat has her tongue or it was taken out from her. She could be Italian or Croatian my son said on his way to fight in the East."

I. "She doesn't seem suspicious. I saw her washing the picture of Jesus in the chapel. They tell us God is not Jewish,never was. But in that picture he looks like a Jew."

U. " That's blasphemy, Imgaard.  When she is sick she never complains but it makes me sick thinking about her."

I.   " She always picks up after us. She hardly eats like she's fasting. Maybe she wants to be a nun or like us . Maybe she's half Jewish. I wonder if she is a witch who steals the wafer from communion. I read a book after high school about it in the middle ages...and then they took blood..."

U. "She doesn' t do anything for her appearance... no make up... though they are in a low supply. We must conserve, Fritz my son says until until after the war's victory."

I.  " Maybe she is a deaf mute,  or a spy. She could be a  Vienese Communist or a Gypsy."

U. "I wish she was invisible. I heard a rumor Frau Ursula they were going to clear us out from here. I  can still remember to the day when Hitler was visiting Vienna, and everything was spruced up and he came by in his motorcade some ladies picked up the stones and ate them. They gave out toothbrushes for the Jews to sweep the streets. I confessed to the priest I stole all the rings from my Jewish neighbor and never gave it to the authorities."

I.   "That should be our worst sin. Fritz wanted to kill her, but he was afraid of Father Joseph."

U.   "Is your son Horst coming for the Easter holiday?"

I.    " He is so busy with the law and the police powers."
   
U.  " I hope for God's sake we are safe at least here. But there are so many rumors, like you say. Maybe they will transfer her. Or us, but the East is so cold.  It's all for the God and the Fatherland they say."

       THE END