Three Angels of Hitler

   While reading the play and discussing the power and change of Arturo Ui, his three henchmen Roma, Giri and Givola, and how influential they really were to Arturo, Since all of these characters are actually representation of real life people, Ui being Hitler, we should all do some research on these three men. This will help us all understand a little bit more of their motives in the play but also what kind of people we can politically connect them to people of today. Also, once we are cast it will help the actors to create their Gest.

GIRI aka HERMANN GÖRING

   In the play, Giri is seen as the cold blooded killer who collects the hats of the men who he kills. In real life he was a man called Hermann Göring, a German politician, military leader and a leading member of the Nazi Party. Göring was interested in the military career since he was young, probably inspired by his soldier father, he became an ace fighter pilot in the First World War and a member of the NSDAP from its early days. After being wounded in 1923 and being heavily treated for his injuries, he became addicted to morphine. He helped Hitler to rise to power in 1933 and at the same time became the second man in power in Germany. Same year he founded the Gestapo, the secret state police of Nazi Germany, and was appointed commander-in-chief for the air force in 1935. He hold this position until the end of WWII. In 1940 he was at the highest point of his power being the minister ahead of the Four Year Plan and responsible for the functioning of the German economy. In 1941 Hitler appointed him as the successor. In 1942 Göring withdrew from the military and political scene and lost a lot of Hitlers respect after the failure of the air force, and after asking Hitler to give the control of the Reich, since Göring had heard Hitler was going to kill himself, Göring lost all of his positions, expelled from the party and commissioned to be arrested. After WWII, he was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to die by hanging, but the night before his execution Göring committed suicide by cyanide.
    During the rise of Hitler, Göring was very much responsible to list out all of those who needed to be killed and organized those killings. This can be seen in Giri who is often ahead of the action, shooting and organizing.

ROMA aka ERNST RÖHM
 
   A WWI veteran Ernst Röhm was one of the founders of the Nazi Party and grew to be known as the representative of the militant wing for the party. He was the chief organizer of the SA, or the Brownshirts. Röhm stayed extremely loyal to Hitler, and the two had served together in the war, but also Röhm went into prison with Hitler after Hitler's failed Beer Hall putsch. Röhm was an open homosexual, but this didn't affect his closeness to Hitler(who would later have homosexual captured into working camps and executed). Röhm was the only Nazi leader who dared to call hitler by his first name, Adolf, rather than 'mein Führer'.
   Röhm ultimately wanted the SA to over take the German military and this would be the cultivation of Nazi power. But after rising to power in 1933, Hitler became worried about Röhm's want to have his multimillion militia equal to the Nazi party. The SS leader Himmler also saw him as a threat. So, in June 30, 1934, the SS forces break into a country inn in Munich where Röhm and SA staff are staying for a conference. The men are literately dragged from their beds to prison and executed. Allegetly, they first asked röhm to commit suicide, but Röhm declined stating  "If I am to be killed, let Adolf do it himself". He was shot in place.


GIVOLA aka JOSEPH GOEBBELS

   Goebbels has been considered as one of Hitlers closest associates and most devoted followers. As a child Goebbels was sick with polio, which resulted him having a crippled foot. This would later on prevent him from serving in the WWI and cause enormous amounts of self-esteem issues. He was squeamish, dark haired and out of an intellectual background. This lead him to fear of being judged as a "bourgeois intellectual" and he overcompensated his physical virtues by joining the NSDAP and radical views. But before this, he was able to express his creative mind with poetry, theatre and bohemian-lifestyle.
   Goebbels was given the responsibility for propaganda in the Nazi party, in which he excelled, and after Hitler was appointed chancellor, Goebbels became the Minister of Enlightenment and Propaganda and held his position until 1945. Goebbels's skill with propaganda is seen in the play with Givola excellent speaking skills, but also how he influences Ui the most. It is him who comes to Ui to say about Roma's betrayal and helps Ui to kill Roma in the end.
   Goebbels was a known womanizer, even if he was married. Hitler didn't give him  the permission to divorce, since part of his ideal Germany were strong family values. As someone who was a t a high position and frequently in the public light, Goebbels couldn't show such a bad example to the people of Germany, But he was good at lying and was the one that kept telling the nation lies about Germany's position in the war. He stood for Hitler and Germany till the end, but failed to hide the difficulties that the country was facing after the Battle of Stalingrad. It is believed that he was the only senior leader to stay by Hitlers side right at the end, even blaming the German people for their failure in the war. On May 1st 1945, Goebbels poisoned all of his six children, shot his wife and then himself.