According to Marx: “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.” But if history continues to repeat itself, a  third, fourth, nth time, what would it then become? Repe- tition is probably nothing more than a false, superficial im- pression. Does this mean we should dismiss it out of hand?  Walter Benjamin puts his finger on the root of the problem: for him, it is only “one single catastrophe which keeps piling up wreckage”. In any case, history enlightens us. As it can also blind us. 

Brecht fled Nazi Germany in 1933. After an 8-year long trek, through various European countries, he finally arrived in the United States in July 1941. He had already been in the  US for over five years, when in 1947 he was summoned be- fore the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC)  charged with fighting communist activism, because of his political affiliations.  

Years after reading the transcript of Bertolt Brecht’s case in the United States, and the statement he prepared for the Committee, but which he was not permitted to read, these two texts suddenly resurfaced in our memory, and are haunting us. How can we release ourselves from this spectre, except by examining the texts? 

A 3rd text by Brecht has also been found, written in 1950 following the condemnation in the United States of those of his colleagues with whom he had shared the dock. Brecht there denounces what he calls a Cold Execution (referring to the Cold War). In this process, the accused was not sent  to prison, nor executed, but suffered a much greater pen- alty, imposed by the artistic and cultural “industry” itself:  being blacklisted, when the “criminal” is deprived of their livelihood and is unemployed.  While retaining a sense of proportion, of course, and  given the political, social, historical and contextual differ- ences, is that not what we are seeing today: coordinated  and exponential muzzling of freedom of expression? Can- cellation of invitations, awards, conferences, theatrical  pieces, exhibitions... Public accusation and condemnation of this writer or that artist, or anyone else... Dismissal of journalists, academics... Public funding subject to political obedience... The list goes on.

Right up to today, many people from various parts of the globe are still fleeing their countries of origin, because of and in circumstances just as frightening as those that  14  Brecht knew, and for which the entire world is more or less  responsible. They are trying to find refuge in more demo- cratic countries, that will provide them with a wider and  more stable field for free expression. Or at least, so they be- lieve. But they are trapped in the reality. It traps the whole  world. Just as it trapped Brecht in the United States. 

As for us, Rabih and Lina, we did not flee from Lebanon; we made the free choice to leave to try for a life and work in a more democratic setting, and a wider and more stable field for free expression. Or at least, so we believed. What Brecht denounces in the second part of his statement about the United States, as well as about the content of the case itself, corresponds closely with the waking or half-sleeping nightmares that have harassed and maddened us for some time: passionate and desperate discussions—but useless in the end—with unknown, hostile individuals with closed faces, looking at us from on high, when they condescend to look at us at all, without really seeing us, and certainly without hearing us.  

Four Walls and a Roof is based on these two texts by  Brecht, on his case, and sometimes on our own lived ex- perience, as well as on other documents.  

Lina Majdalanie, March 2025