Maurice
In many ways the most shameful and heart-breaking example of Halder’s moral duplicity is his gradual and self-centred betrayal of his friend Maurice.

At the start of the play Maurice tries to rationalise the Nazi’s anti-semitism as no more than an election ploy, and that in practical terms the nation cannot afford to do without Jewish business and brains. At this stage Halder and Maurice are united in this view, reasoning that the “the racialist programme is not practical.”  They differ, however, in that Maurice also instinctively recognises that the Nazis are not rational; he outlines all of the logic, but then admits that instinctively he “can’t believe” that they don’t mean the worst.

Of course their initial reaction repeats the tragic trope that many people, including Jews themselves, kept under-estimating the danger; not crediting the worst possibilities that were being signalled. It would be hard not to believe that leaving Germany would be a disproportionate reaction, until it becomes too late. Maurice talks about how much he loves Frankfurt – he is German, born and bred.

As the pressure mounts on Maurice, it is tragic to watch Halder distance himself from his supposed friend. It starts with his joining the Nazi party, despite his knowing what they stand for. He attempts to justify himself by suggesting that he may be able to help “push them a bit toward humanity”, and promises that if he found that in fact the Nazis were “pushing us the other way”, he would get out. Pledges that are clearly futile or hollow.

In the first act Halder tells Maurice a story about how Beethoven wrote to Goethe in the last few days before his death asking him for some money, and Goethe ignored his letter. Halder’s disgust at Goethe becomes ironic as the story of Goethe’s betrayal prefigures Halder’s later refusal to help the desperate Maurice obtain an exit visa. Halder by now an SS officer, pleads to us: “I love him, but I’m not going to prison for him”. His hypocrisy becomes more and more reprehensible.

Halder does have a moment of self-awareness about his failing his friend. When they meet in the park because he cannot be seen to meet with him at their homes, he says “I know. This is not good. The shallowness of my feelings for the one friend I have in the world.” Though of course the realisation is itself shallow, because at the same time he admits that he is actiually keen to move into Maurice’s cottage.

Inevitably Maurice disappears. He comes to Halder some months later as the city burns in the pogrom of the Jews. It is not clear that this is not an imagined encounter, but it is the nadir of Halder’s betrayal of his friend as he attempts to argue that what has happened to Germany is the Jews’ fault. However else Halder may try to justify himself, he cannot convince us that he is a ‘good’ friend.