Hochhuth, << HOK hoot, >> Rolf (1931-2020), was a German playwright. His plays dramatize disputed moral decisions made by famous people of modern history. In The Deputy (1963), also known as The Representative, his most famous play, Hochhuth condemned Pope Pius XII for not protesting the Nazi extermination of Jews during World War II (1939-1945). The play was later adapted into a motion picture, Amen (2002), by the Greek director Constantin Costa-Gavras.
Hochhuth’s second play, Soldiers (1967), was also set in World War II. In this drama, Hochhuth charged Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Britain with causing the death of General Władysław Sikorski, leader of Poland’s government in exile. He asserted that Churchill had Sikorski killed for diplomatic reasons. He also portrayed Churchill as insensitive to the deaths of German civilians in cities bombed by the Allies.
In Guerrillas (1970), Hochhuth charged the United States with racial and political murders. This play portrays fictional public figures in the United States and Latin America. Hochhuth was born on April 1, 1931, in Eschwege, Germany, near Kassel. He died on May 13, 2020.
