Dekalog

Good morning.

Good morning.

Are you going away or coming back so early?

I'm coming back.

I took the night train from Szczecin

Gee, madam.

Ah, I see you've made a good deal.

A series.

Showing the German flight to the North Pole

of 1931. The Polarfahrt.

A Zeppelin, I guess?

Three of them. They're great.

You must show them to me one day.

Well, good... bye.

I'll be glad to show them to you.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning, professor.

The dean would like to speak to you.

Come on in, please.

This is Mrs. Elzbieta Loranz from New York.

We've already met. In the states.

Do I remember well?

You translated my works didn't you?

Hearty all of them.

Your Polish is perfect! And to think I've been breaking my

You did very well.

Yes. Mrs. Lorans is here on scientific exchange.

She's interested in your works professor.

If I got her right

she'd like to attend your classes.

That will be a pleasure for me.

Do you want to come today?

If I may.

Will you excuse me?

Mrs. Elzbieta Loranz

works at the American institute

for investigation of the fates of Jews rescued from the

Well, let's continue our subject The moral inferno.

Who'd like speak first?

We already have two political stories to consider

And one related to the customs,

To simplify matters. Yes?

Let's imagine the following situation.

A man is dying of cancer. This is the third case of cancer

He is tread by an excellent specialist

who's a believing Christian by the way.

It's important.

Well, the doctor happened to live in the same house

as the patient and his wife

The wife starts pestering the doctor

She wants to know whether her husband will die.

And when.

But the doctor can't tell her that.

To him, it's like passing a death sentence.

As a believer he can't do it.

But the patient's wife grows more and more intrusive.

The doctor suspects her of having special reasons

that make her insist on his answer.

It appears he's right

the woman is pregnant.

It's another man's baby.

The husband doesn't know.

What's more, she couldn't get pregnant before.

She loves her unborn baby

but she also loves her husband.

If he's going to live she'll have a abortion.

If he dies, she can have her baby

The doctor is to decide that baby's life whether he likes

He's aware of that.

I know how the story ended.

Warsaw's a small town.

To make things more difficult for you,

I might add the baby's alive.

Which is perhaps the most important element of the story

Excuse me, I can't make the recording from that distance.

I said the baby was alive.

And that I considered that fact the most important element...

I'd like you to define

the characters and motives of the hero of that story.

It's going to be the more interesting

as we both know the archetypes

Though actually, I believe you

know different archetypes than I do

Yes, madam.

Thank you

Anybody else wants to say something?

No? Let us therefore analyse the previous stories.

Yes, madam?

You said the baby's life was paramount, didn't you?

Yes

indeed.

It just occurred to me...

If I'm allowed to take an active part in the class, that

But of course, all those present have equal rights

I'd like to tell you about an event

We'll be glad to hear you.

I'm afraid it has a week point for you...

it happened in the pass.

But then, it also has an advantage: It's true

Does what I said about the baby's life

matter to you specially?

Yes, it does. To some extent.

It's the year 1943. February.

The winter.

The heroine is a girl of six A Jewish girl

kept in a basement of a house in the neighborhood.

But she can't stay there any longer

The girl's father is in the ghetto.

His friends try to find a new place for her.

The place is found,

but her future guardians pose a condition:

The girl must have an official certificate of baptism

It's a cold evening The girl visits a married couple

who have agreed to be her godparents.

They are Catholics, and young.

The girl's frozen,

she has spent all day getting through the city

with her guardian to reach this flat

Well, she now goes in,

accompanied by that guardian.

The husband seems nervous The wife is calm.

They serve hot tea The girl wants that tea very much

but there isn't time.

The priest's waiting and the Curfew's near.

But the woman who should start getting dressed

asks them to sit down inside.

Sorry.

Get out of here.

Please go out.

Thank you.

You said it was in 1943?

Yes. In february.

In Warsaw?

Yes. In the distant parts on Mokotow district. In Odynoa

Yes? What happened next?

Next? Ah, yes.

They sat at the table.

The man kept walking round the table

They looked at one another

And at last the woman made up her mind

to say things that were so very difficult to say.

They can't keep their promise

Having considered everything

They cannot lie to the one they believe in.

He does demand them to be charitable,

but forbids to give false testimony.

The lie they had planned to commit

knowing what cause it serve proved reconcilable

with their moral principles after all.

That's it.

Then, the guardian and the girl rise from the table.

"Have some more tea" the woman says.

The girl takes a sip

But then she glances at her guardian

and puts the glass down.

And then, downstairs at gateway

the girl notices her guardian

"it's Curfew soon", she says

But the guardian doesn't move

Was there any body else in that flat?

Yes. An elderly gentleman

He was sitting with his back to the rest

in a wheelchair, I believe

Do you know any details?

The tea cups were good quality china

But didn't match one another

There was a green kerosene lamp on the table but it was out.

The man never took his hand out of his trouser pocket

during the two or three minutes of the conversation.

These are all the detail

Any questions?

None?

Maybe doubts?

Yes?

The motivation seems improbable to me

if that married couple were really Catholics.

That false testimony wouldn't be directed against their

This is the only motivation I know.

It seemed quite genuine that evening.

What other motives were possible?

How do you think?

I don't know I can't understand that.

I don't know motives which would justify a decision like

Yes?

Fear

Imagine another Jewish child had been discovered in the

Just an hour before

and his head smashed against the railing,

And the family that had kept him

executed in the backyard It could have been fear.

Yes. Fear, yes.

Is fear a justification to you?

I've just suggested a possible motive

I haven't said...

We're going too far.

Please consider the moral problems

that emerge from that story as your homework.

As for you, try and present