“ | Captain Lutze, if you can still reason, if there's still any portion of your mind that can still function, take this thought with you: This is not hatred, this is retribution. This is not revenge, this is justice. But this is only the beginning, captain. Only the beginning. Your final judgment... will come from God. | „ |
~ Becker punishing Lutze by driving him insane |
Alfred Becker is the titular main heroic antagonist of "Deaths-Head Revisited", the ninth episode of the 3rd season of The Twilight Zone, the episode airing in 1961. He is a Jewish prisoner of the Dachau concentration camp, executed in the last days of WW2, who returned as a ghost to deliver judgement on Captain Gunther Lutze.
Alfred Becker was portrayed by the late Joseph Schildkraut.
Biography[]
The Holocaust[]
Alfred Becker was a Jewish man who lived somewhere in Bavaria, who was sent to the Dachau concentration camp, held in Block 6. An SS officer, Captain Gunther Lutze, was camp commandant, where he would constantly torture the prisoners in incredibly sadistic manners. Becker himself would be suspended from the camp's gallows over red hot pipes, force-fed saltwater by Lutze until his tongue got swollen, and had his body used to extinguish Lutze's cigarettes, making Becker cry for the release of death. In 1945, when American soldiers advanced on Dachau, Becker and many other inmates were killed by Lutze when they tried to escape, their bodies quickly buried somewhere under the camp.
Deaths-Head Revisited[]
17 years later, Becker's spirit lingered in Dachau, alongside the ghosts of all the prisoners executed on its grounds. Gunther Lutze, who escaped Europe to South America under the name Schmidt, returned to Dachau to admire his work and see if his countrymen had accepted his ideology, wandering the camp while reminiscing about his time as commandant. Becker, who had been waiting for 17 years to deliver justice on Lutze, then manifested outside Block 6 as Lutze was inspecting the gallows, startling him. Becker welcomed Lutze back to the camp, saying that he and others have been awaiting him, making the gate close and lock itself. Lutze tried to shake off his fright and greeted Becker, asking if he was the caretaker, to which Becker replied that he was, in a way. Lutze then noted how it was nice to meet Becker under 'happier' circumstances, only to hear a strange howling sound, wondering if it was the wind, although Becker kept asking him what it was, still referring to him as "captain." Lutze demanded to not be called captain anymore, but Becker told him that the uniform was practically his skin, making Lutze a monster whose only pleasure was causing pain.
Lutze tried brushing it aside, saying that he only functioned as he was told, making the howling sound start up again, where Becker revealed that the sound was the angry moans of the ghost inmates, reacting to Lutze giving the usual 'apology' from Nazis and other monsters of the time, trying to deny that it was their fault. Becker rebuked Lutze for his crimes, especially how Lutze was trying to see if the misery he caused had lived on after him. Lutze, growing increasingly frightened, tried to run to the gates, unable to open them. Becker then asked why Lutze returned, noting that he had gotten away, to which Lutze claimed that he simply missed his home, and hoped that his 'little mistakes' would be forgotten. Becker, shocked and offended by Lutze writing off the Holocaust as a mere mistake, advanced on Lutze, telling him he asked too much, likening that to asking the Earth to stop spinning, for Lutze was asking for forgiveness from those he had destroyed past forgiveness. Becker then said that Lutze was to be put on trial for crimes against humanity in Block 6, clarifying it was not a joke when Lutze questioned him. After remembering the various tortures Lutze put him through, Becker asked him to go to the building again, but Lutze tried to run, only for Becker to teleport him inside Block 6, where Lutze was confronted by the ghosts of all the inmates along with Becker.
Becker asked if they could proceed, where Lutze, struck with fear, hypocritically called that the situation was inhumane, but Becker ignored him and opened a scroll, leading out the inditements against the captain: that Lutze condemned thousands to death without trial, tortured without provocation, deliberately condoned criminal experiments, personally murdered many inmates, and was willingly complicit in the Holocaust, but Lutze began screaming loud enough to drown out Becker's voice, and fell unconscious. However, Becker still finished the trial, finding Lutze guilty of crimes against humanity.
Lutze awoke a couple hours later, still in Block 6, seeing Becker still there. Lutze thought the trial was just a dream, but when he mentioned the ghosts, Becker said that they never left, and they still wandered the empty camp. Lutze asked who Becker was, and Becker said he was the caretaker, and that Lutze had been found guilty. When Becker said it was time for his sentence, Lutze took it as a joke, breaking a window and mockingly calling out for the ghosts to assemble in the square for the sentencing, before accusing Becker of creating a judge, jury, and executioner in his imagination, getting up to strangle Becker while asking himself why he didn't kill Becker when he had the chance, only to realize that he did. Becker confirmed this, and told Lutze that it would be a waste of time to kill him again, but Lutze attempted to grab Becker, only to be teleported back to the gallows, instead grabbing one of the wooden poles.
Becker's voice echoed through the sky at Lutze, declaring him guilty and reading his sentence: that he shall be rendered insane for the rest of his life. Lutze tried to flee once more, running to the gate, only to run into an apparition of Becker, who reminded him that Lutze had many prisoners shot at the gates, making a tactile illusion of Lutze being shot by machine gun fire, the pain manifesting despite there being no wounds. Lutze tried to run back to the gallows, where Becker appeared again, making Lutze get pains of being hung. Lutze managed to stand and run to hide in a building where prisoners were tortured, but Becker was already there, making Lutze experience excruciating pain of various forms of torture. Lutze then fell over while screaming and convulsing, where Becker stood over him and told him that the punishment was neither revenge nor hatred, but rather, retribution and justice, and that it was only the beginning, for Lutze's final judgement would come from God. Lutze, rendered insane by the tactile illusions, was soon taken away by local authorities, and Becker vanished, although it is unknown if he passed on or lingered in the camp.
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Alfred Becker | Blind Singer | Brother Jerome | David Ellington | Douglas Winter | Edgar Witherspoon | Gaspar | Giant Alien Woman | Harmon Cavender | J. Hardy Hempstead | Jeff Myrtlebank | Jerry Riden | Johnny Davis | Joseph Fitzgerald | Keith Barnes | Maddie Duncan | Major Alex McAndrews | Mitchell Chaplin | Morgan le Fay | Old Ben | Peter Corrigan | Robert Franklin | Robert Wilson | Romney Wordsworth | Scott | Sheriff Roy | Sir Lancelot | Steve Brand | Susan Montgomery | Will Sturka | William Decker | Williams |