01x12 - Experimentum Crucis

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Good morning, Professor.

The boys told me
you appointed me the monitor.

I brought notebooks.

Come in. I'll finish soon.
I have one paper left.

Make yourself some tea.
I'm waiting in the study.

Tell me--

after everything you experienced
during the w*r

why can't you understand
suffering is absurd.

Just like our lives.

How can you look up
to a man who, in our time,

is still trying to teach people
the thought of St. Augustine

that the cry of pain of a single being

is not audible in the beautiful
harmony of our world.

Not true. You are lying.

Where did I lie?

Professor Stefanus does not
use Augustine's quotes at all.

He has his original thought.

And you think no pain
can make him change his mind?

He will never renounce his ideas.

You can't know that.

Professor Stefanus--

renounced his views?

Do you know what
an experimentum crucis is?

The experiment of the cross.

I'm not asking you to translate this
phrase, but to say what it means.

I don't know.

This is the final moment of trial.

Professor Stefanus had
his experimentum crucis.

In Auschwitz.

What happened?

Do you think it gives me joy
to talk about my friend's weaknesses?

In the name of science, professor.

In the name of science we can conduct
a new experimentum crucis.

It will finally settle

the question of how much
Professor Stefanus' theories are worth.

Do you want it?

Yes.

You will take part in it.

You will be the heroine.

ERINYES
The Goddesses of Vengeance

Chapter 12
Experimentum Crucis

ONLY ONE THING MATTERS:
LEARNING TO BE THE LOSER.

Cioran, The Trouble with Being Born

Boroshvili. I found him
while following Murawski.

Way too thick a masquerade.

He would go to Murawski
with a chessboard,

even though the professor had his own.

Follow me.

- Do you know Captain Chernikov?
- Yes.

Call him and say Ryleyev.
Do you understand?

You are oddly dressed.

- I followed a man.
- The NKVD issued an ultimatum.

In the next few days we are
to deliver the murderers to them.

And if we don't, they'll find fakes

and won't take action
against Colonel Bogdylov.

I will disappear with him.

And you won't find the murderers.

Anyway--

They will definitely be far away.

I've been following a man.
I think it's Boroshvili.

He pretends to be a Jew. He goes
under the name of Leyzor Fajertag.

Today he met with the colonel who was
standing next to you on the stand.

Bogdylov.

The colonel was in civilian clothes.
They argued a lot.

Almost started to fight.

And then they got into a car
with a driver.

If this is Boroshvili,
and he enjoys Bogdylov's protection,

I'm sure he won't run away from here.

Maybe he is staying in our barracks.
I know every corner there.

We'll look for him,
and then I'll deal with him

with care and tenderness.

The Security Office
is breathing down my neck.

My neighbor came here this morning.

Yesterday they came
and took him to Łąkowa Street.

They intimidated him.

He agreed to report to them
if I leave home for a longer time.

Why does the SO want to do a search
while you are gone?

Normally they would arrive
in the morning.

They'd punch you in the face
and do the search in front of you.

Unless--

Unless what?

They want to confiscate your book.

To make you their agent.

They designed a stratagem

because they know they won't break

a former Auschwitz prisoner.

I am not steadfast.

The story of my breakdown was

well known among the camp prisoners.

The SO certainly knows about it.

What is the solution, you Jewess?
What's the solution?!

SS-sturmbannfuehrer Adolf Lindemann
told me to come to his place.

What is the solution?

He loved logic puzzles.

One of his favorites,
a Jewish woman from Lviv,

showed him how to prove
Pythagoras' theorem in drawing.

He sent for me
because he knew I was a mathematician.

I managed to reach out to him

and calm him down.

Do you know what was the worst part?

I wiped my face off her brain

and started to eat.

I removed bits of it
from the potatoes and-- ate.

I will keep your work.

Is this the only copy?

I used carbon paper.
There is one more copy.

I will keep both.

I know how to protect them from the SO.

What I am about to tell you now
is for your ears only.

I have proof that Professor Murawski--

had contacts with a pimp

who led rapists to your students.

Murawski challenged me to a duel
this Saturday at 9 AM.

In the presence of our students.

I would like you to be there.

If Anastasia keeps her word,

we will hand over the rapists
to Soviet comrades on Saturday.

What did Anastasia call this debate?

A what experiment?

Experimentum crucis.

The experiment of the cross.

An experiment determining whether
a theory is true or not.

What's with the cross?
What kind of cross is it?

It's a reference
to Christian superstition.

Those who do not--

renounce their views on the cross
testify that they are true.

Well, we are constantly doing
such experiments here.

Experimentum crucis.

The trial of truth.

Murawski must have known about
Auschwitz and Stefanus' weakness.

He wants to provoke and humiliate him
in front of Fredzia.

But why does he do it in public?

Maybe there will be someone else.

Anastasia.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

points to spirituality
as the heart of the matter.

He says that all creatures

look for a mystical union with God.

In the mouth of the Jesuit,
God is good.

Hello, hero.

Hands up.

Open your mouth.

You're coming with us.

Soon, though unfortunately
not in our time

nor in the coming generations,
criminals will be freaks,

hiding from normal people.

You are wrong.

If you were a father of a child

who was brutally m*rder*d
in front of your eyes, then what?

Would you also let up on the criminals,

on evolutionary freaks?

No, my dear.

You would suffer so terribly

that you would forget the genes.

Professor, my dear colleague.

Through mental, spiritual exercise

man can control mental suffering.

Fall into a wonderful stoic apatheia.

Can you do that?

Maintain stoic indifference when
someone close to you is suffering?

Yes.

I can do it.

Well, let's check it out.

It's time for an experimentum crucis.

Let's see if Professor Stefanus
can keep calm

when someone very,
very close to him suffers.

But--

how will we know that you are calm?

I know.

Using all rhetorical tricks

you will be lecturing
on your famous Patodicea.

In the meantime,

in front of your eyes
two criminals will r*pe Fryderyka.

You can still pull out.

But then no one will believe you
in justifying evil.

All right.

Let's do an experimentum crucis.

Guys!

Come on!

Don't run anywhere, pretty.

We didn't come here to joke.

Anastasia assures that

the two wanted rapists
will be in the building

during the experiment.

We'll catch them easily.

And then we will give them back
to our Soviet friends.

And that will cement our friendship.

I'm not entirely satisfied with you.

- What is it, Comrade Colonel?
- What is it?

What is it?

It's the historic work

of a certain Dr. Stefanus.

It was supposed to be on my desk.

Wasn't it?

And where is it?

Where?

I'm asking you, damn it.

Comrade Colonel, we did
a thorough search at his place.

- The manuscript was not there.
- It wasn't there, blah blah.

Sure it wasn't because you started
looking for it too late.

Edward Popielski--

asked his German neighbor to keep it.

And the German

immediately ran to the police station
on Piastowska Street.

And they called me.

Can I take this manuscript?

Comrade Colonel.

You said you would only review it
and then give it back to me.

As a reward.

You will get it as a reward

if you bring the two rapists
to my car, handcuffed.

Patodicy! This is my life's work

in which I prove the evolution
of man towards good.

Man who is a mutation.

Other creatures are immutable,
but man evolves.

Billions of years ago,

the pendulum of violence
was let loose for the first time.

m*therf*cker!
Rapists and murderers of our friends.

This is not how it was supposed to be!

- Leave her, Czesiek, leave her!
- It's not just about reproduction.

And succumb to the most dangerous
urge like this Bolshevik scumbag.

Evolution also created
the principle of peaceful prevention.

That's how cooperation was born.

That's how good was born.

Give me the knife.

Did they r*pe her?

They didn't make it.

I don't know why my boss has such
a fondness for you, you pig.

But I don't.

And I will come after you someday.

Get out.

Put them in the truck.

And wait for me.

We will take them
to Comrade Colonel Bagdylov.

Take the young ones to the hospital.

You were supposed to let Kiekilbayev
and Boroshvili go and take this fool.

And I was supposed to get
his manuscript. You promised, sir!

You had sirs during the Sanation.

Call me Voter Lieutenant.

Did you understand, Anastasia?

You were supposed
to make the r*pist out of him.

What for, Anastasia?

Why do we need a fake r*pist
when we have the real ones.

Look at him. He is no longer
a threat to you in any way.

You will publish
his manuscript as your own

and build a great career.

History

is chaos.

But history is also evolution

which we all have to say

holy and trusting

"Yes".

What, Comrade Colonel?

Are you going on vacation to Sochi?

What do you have in this suitcase?

What kind of manners are these,
Comrade Captain?

First you sit at my desk,

and then you inquire about something
in an interrogative tone!

I remind you that I am a higher rank!

Sorry. It's just a joke,
Nikolai Ivanich.

For merriment.

We have much to be happy about.

We caught those rapists and deserters.

They will be brought here
by our Polish friends.

This is the gift
for our Polish friends and allies.

This is the reward I have set
for whoever captures the murderers.

Oh, we've got booze! We will celebrate.

And what's the occasion,
Comrade Colonel?

What do you mean, the occasion?

We captured the rapists

and hand them
over to our Soviet friends.

Go ahead, Comrade Colonel.

You deserve this reward.
You have caught the murderers.

I'd never dare to ask
our Soviet comrades for payment.

I am a Polish patriot
and internationalist.

I know how much we owe
to the victorious Red Army.

Comrade Placyd?

Or-- Hanas?

I don't understand.

I know a lot about your
interesting deeds in Lviv.

Who told him, who?!

Well, comrades?

If it's you, Baldy, better start dying.

Name and rank.

Sergant Vladimir Boroshvili.

Do you know Colonel Bogdylov
who is present here?

No.

I see him for the first time.

You know, Volodya, I hate those
who capture and defile women.

And nothing will stop me

from tearing off your arm!
Unless you do it yourself!

Tell me, do you know Colonel Bogdylov?

No. I just told you.

- Speak up because I can't hear you.
- I know him, I do.

I know him!

He is the one--
who told us to k*ll that fence.

He's the one who stole the silverware.

And he hasn't paid us until this day.

Not nice, Nikolai Ivanich.

What's with you?

You are a disgrace to the uniform
of a Red Army officer.

Because of your contacts
with these outcasts!

You, a high-ranking officer.

None of our brave soldiers--

wants to hear that the colonel
from the Wroclaw garrison,

Colonel Bagdylov was degraded
and sent to Siberia!

Let's go, Mikhail Petrovich.

I think Comrade Colonel
will find a solution himself.

A manly solution.

What are you so sad about?
Is there anything you don't like?

The silverware becomes
the property of the garrison.

Who should inventory it?

Certainly not you.

The day after tomorrow
you are going home, to the Far East.

And you?

Well--

after all I have done
for this garrison,

I will humbly accept the nomination
for its commandant.

If the world and history

are driven towards good
by some internal engine,

then this execution doesn't matter.

The world will go its way anyway,

indifferent to the death
of these scoundrels.

It will march towards the good
trampling on

or stepping over the carcass
of these and other villains.

Are we then to be idle?

Good, therefore,
can be done in two ways.

Actively and preventively.

I and Chernikov
are in the latter evolutionary trend.

Are you looking for this?

This Patodicy is pretty good,

though written in poor French.

Listen to what he writes here.
Wait, where is it?

You are not a human being

in search of spiritual experience.

You are a spiritual being

immersed

in human experience.

Do you understand?

That means you are immortal.

That ghosts exist.

That the evil ones are part of us.

And we have this evil in us.

But it will all pass.
It will all pass and become good.

How is he?

He will have a scar.

Thank you.

Did Stefanus lose?

Doesn't this story end well?
Do you believe in it?

That it's all absurd?

Why does Murawski triumph?
I can't stand it.

I am a worshipper of Erinyes,

goddesses of vengeance.

What are you doing here?

I need a teacher.

Please.

Come in.

I didn't expect to see you again.

Professor Stefanus was wrong.

He lost because Christian charity
requires heroism, and heroism is rare.

And what is rare perishes.

Evolution appreciates only vitality.

Not what's good.

Professor.

Please, forgive my mistake.

This experience has taught me
that only the winner is important.

Because it is his genes
that will evolve further.

He is the one who deserves
full devotion.

Are you OK?

Are you sure?

I want to do it.

Our life is not absurd.
We just need to give it meaning.

The trend towards good
flows without our participation.

We can be idle, and the spring
of this river will still flow.

But we can also track and destroy evil,

and when we remove the obstacle
to the trend, it will flow faster.

We?

Yes.

You and I.

Professor.

Because justice is good.

for Gosia

THE SERIES IS AN ADAPTATION
OF MAREK KRAJEWSKI'S BOOKS:

Erinyes, Charon's Numbers, The Rivers
of Hades, In the Depths of Darkness