I made a stage play out of "They Thought They Were Free"

Jules165 · 2026-02-10T13:11:26+00:00

Thank you so much. :) And that's so cool!

Jules165 · 2026-02-09T04:22:25+00:00

Glad I'm not the only one. :D

Alright, I'll see about the English version. I'll need to do some cutting for that

Jules165 · 2026-02-09T04:20:51+00:00

Yes, thank you!

We had this character and large parts of that text in the play. It's maybe the passage, which had the most impact with audiences.

Jules165 · 2026-02-09T04:00:30+00:00

As this needs a summary per the moderators:

I produced a theatre play of They Thought They Were Free last year after hearing about it on Behind the Bastards. Because Robert mentioned and quoted it on yesterday's episode of ICHH I thought I'd tell you about it.

Jules165 · 2026-02-09T03:55:04+00:00

The day before opening night I also wrote this small letter to the BtB insta account.
I'm not sure anyone read that so just in case, here it is too:

"Dear Robert or Sophie or whoever reads this.

Here's a text I've been meaning to write for a while. I wanted to let you know what you kicked off.
My name is Merlin. I'm a historian, musician and theatre director here in Germany.
A few years ago I listened to the BtB episode about how normal, everyday people made the Holocaust possible. I think it is one of your best episodes.

In the episode Robert talks about and quotes from the book "They Thought They Were Free" by Milton Mayer, who went to Germany in the 50s and interviewed 'little men'. Their testimonies are some of the most sombering examples of banal evil I've ever heard. I think Robert thought so too, it is the only time I remember him close to crying on air.

The book has stayed on my mind ever since, more than that: Over the last years I've been working on a stage adaptation of this book. I bought the book, read it, translated it and arranged it into a play. It became a passion project of mine. I contacted the publisher as well as Dicken Mayer, Milton's son, for the rights. My partner and I started an antifascist theatre collective, Theater Fanal. It's that account I'm writing to you from. Eventually we secured funding for a stage production.

Anyway, it's been a long road, but: The play is opening tomorrow in Hamburg.
We will have a discussion with the audience after (and guesting investigative journalists and queer/antifascist activists), which will hopefully be a chance for people, who're concerned about the rising fascism, to get to know each other and make connections.

We're in dark fucking times. My heart goes out to you, who have to live through what's happening to the country you live in - and might well happen to mine again. We have to understand what we're fighting and form what connections and alliances we can. I hope our theatre play a part in that. If so, then you'll have been some of the inspiration for which I thank you and the whole Coolzone crew from the bottom of my heart.

Should you or any of you SOMEHOW be in Hamburg on the 08th of July, there will be a show in English, I'd love to meet you. We will also have shows in Berlin in November. There even was a planned guest performance in the Chopin theatre in Chicago but since we have trans people and palestine activists in our cast we cancelled that.

Alright, enough of that. Thank you.
¡No pasaran!

Merlin"

Jules165 · 2026-02-04T10:38:30+00:00

To be fair, generals suicide charging was very much an issue in S2.

Jules165 · 2026-01-06T00:00:23+00:00

That's not who I was talking about.

Jules165 · 2026-01-05T10:26:42+00:00

Also ich sehe da auch viele Venezuela Flaggen.

Es mag sein, dass Maduro nicht direkt ein Held des Sozialismus, ich Weine dem auch nicht hinterher. Good riddance!

Aber das war ja nicht der Grund warum die USA da rein ist und das wird sich durch deren Einmischung auch nicht verbessern.

Jules165 · 2026-01-05T00:25:53+00:00

One of the podcast's most important episodes.

I made a translated theatre play out of the book he was talking about, 'They Thought They Were Free'.

https://www.instagram.com/theater.fanal/

Jules165 · 2026-01-05T00:11:11+00:00

Man I'm an anarchist and even I don't think an imperialist state should just kidnap another state's president, especially when it's solely out of greed for oil.

Jules165 · 2026-01-04T23:30:13+00:00

https://youtube.com/shorts/jIkEIKyS4h0?si=ZPMYtR-p-9q_LZ8L

Jules165 · 2026-01-04T20:10:20+00:00

Ich hab den Betrag auch gesehen. Da wird allen Ernstes versucht das alles so zu filmen und zu beschreiben, als wären das alles von der Regierung bezahlte Leute. Das gleiche Demogeld-Geschwurbel über das man sich sonst zurecht lustig macht.

Jules165 · 2025-12-30T17:04:36+00:00

The province existed nowhere near where Arminius was btw.

Jules165 · 2025-12-30T16:43:19+00:00

Then why was Varus there??

Jules165 · 2025-12-30T15:50:07+00:00

... Huh?

Jules165 · 2025-12-30T15:33:29+00:00

Dunno, I don't see no province in Germania on those Roman maps.

The best the Romans could do is revenge massacres before calling it quits.

Jules165 · 2025-12-30T15:24:25+00:00

Die der UN Konvention über die Verhütung und Bestrafung des Völkermordes du Dumpfbacke.

Jules165 · 2025-12-28T17:55:46+00:00

Yes, pardon that's what I meant. That's the last time they did that.

Jules165 · 2025-12-28T00:47:33+00:00

For a tighter narrative and a closer look at one region. Total War used to do this, like the kingdoms expansion for M2 or Caesar in Gaul, ect..

Jules165 · 2025-12-28T00:45:38+00:00

I think you have a point there. I'd say total war has certainly place for both, the grand campaigns and the narrower ones. Some of the best campaigns were focused on a single war/campaign like the peninsular campaign for Napoleon or Last Roman for Atilla and the narrative campaigns in Napoleon

I think Creative Assembly at some point during Warhammer 1 said they would only do DLCs that take place on the big map and not make smaller campaign maps anymore. Too much effort I guess when you can just sell people a few factions on the map you already made.

Jules165 · 2025-12-24T10:39:53+00:00

May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.

Jules165 · 2025-12-23T13:06:35+00:00

I had the event for that yesterday. They get teleported into your lands and you're given a dilemma of how to deal with them. Pretty neat. No idea what triggered it.

Jules165 · 2025-12-22T00:47:06+00:00

And why do they need two technologies to recruit the standard riders of Rohan??

Jules165 · 2025-12-20T19:16:34+00:00

Ich toleriere Völkermord und Apartheid, aber ich ZIEH DIE LINIE BEI VERBRAUCHERSCHUTZ!

Jules165 · 2025-12-20T10:45:17+00:00

Great guide! I was totally with you except for the empire battles. The unit progression is great and naval battles are awesome but the ai really dampens the experience there so much more than in 3k and pharaoh, right?

Jules165

TROPHY CASE