Hugo Stiglitz

From Hearts and Minds

Hugo Stiglitz
Arrival date:	September 2009
Age/Birthdate:	34 years old/December 19, 1909
OOC Information
Portrayed by:	Til Schweiger
Journal:	Thirteen Butchered
Tag:	Hugo Stiglitz
Player:	Kir
In the Village
Room Number:	212 with Hurley Reyes
Job:	Library

Background

Hugo was born to Lars and Ada Stiglitz on December 19, 1909, in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. An only child, on the outside Hugo was mild-mannered and painfully quiet, inside however he craved violence. Case in point, Hugo's childhood hero was the famed butcher Hauri who in 1299 stabbed the Bishop of Strasbourg to death. On numerous occasions, Hugo himself would become fully enraptured by a struggling grasshopper whose legs he had plucked off an hour ago or a colony of ants he had trapped in an anthill and was slowly roasting them alive with his father's old magnifying glass. Hugo's gruesome fascination with death and suffering manifested in more troublesome ways as time progressed, as did the victims: two stray dogs which he methodically skinned and dismembered, a nest of baby robins, and five squirrels who shared the same fate as the dogs. For the most part his parents remained in the dark about the stickier parts of their son's sickness and chose to write off his fixation with death as something he would grow out of over time.

In 1933, hungry for something more than skinning animals, Hugo joined the Nazi Party as a private and quickly worked his way up to Sergeant. Eight years later in 1941 while on patrol, something in his twisted psyche snapped and in turn he snapped the necks of the two other men with him. The following year, Hugo would visit thirteen Gestapo majors and kill them each in individual and painfully disturbing ways and he would enjoy it. Months later, he was finally caught in Prague after brutally murdering the thirteenth, a former Gestapo officer turned Reichsprotektor to the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, Reinhard Heydrich. The Nazi High Command decided to make an example of him for any other would-be insurgents. After being brutally whipped by a Gestapo member, Hugo was locked in a heavily guarded jail cell, plans for his extradition back to Berlin in motion for the following day. That evening, the basement level floor of the jail where he was confined was overrun by one Aldo Raine and his group of Jewish-American vigilantes called The Basterds. Complimenting Hugo on his claim to fame, Aldo declared that while the man had impressive numbers that he was still an amateur when it came to killing Nazis, finished up his spiel by asking if Hugo wanted to join the Basterds. Rather than face his mortality, Hugo agreed and spent the following year with the Basterds killing and scalping Nazis.

In 1944, the group was offered the chance of a lifetime: to join forces with the British Royal Army and partake in Operation Kino.

Hugo, as well as the rest of the Basterds (save Raine) didn't know much about Operation Kino and he wasn't prone to asking questions. All he knew was that joining Raine and the Basterds had given him a get out of jail free card and a ticket to the uninhibited killing of as many Nazis as he wanted. The nine-man outfit was joined by one Lieutenant Archie Hicox from the British Royal Army and the German actress slash double-agent Bridget von Hammersmark. The Basterds were to infiltrate the premiere of Joseph Goebbels' movie "Nation's Pride" which starred the celebrated Nazi war hero Friedrich Zoller. Members of the Nazi High Command would be in attendence and later on the Basterds would learn that Hitler himself would be making an appearance. With members of the SS, Gestapo and High Command in attendance, the two German-born members of the Basterds and Hicox were to go to the premiere as Bridget von Hammersmark's dates, explosives strapped to their legs, and send the theater sky high and the Nazis with it. Rendezvousing with Bridget in Nadine France at a small basement tavern called La Louisiane, Hugo, along with Hicox and another Basterd, Wilhelm Wicki, impersonated a trio of Nazi officers under the guise of meeting their old friend Bridget for a drink when in reality they were being debriefed about Operation Kino and their roles as her dates for the premiere. Unfortunately, due to Hicox's unusual German accent, the three were found out by a Gestapo Major and a gunfight between themselves and the table of Nazis behind them ensued. Ignoring the bullets flying by and hitting his comrades, Hugo shot the Nazi Major in the groin and slammed the man's head against the table, plunging his knife deep into the back of his neck while ripping the blood red swastika armband from his forearm. En route to a third stab, feeling bullets rip into his own back, he noticed the tavern as well as the pain was gone, replaced by chirping birds and a cool breeze, hard uneven cobblestones underfoot replacing the smooth flooring of the dank basement tavern.

Personality

Hugo is quite a complicated man, even past the psychopath within. The very thought that his rage and being so sick minded has no PURPOSE and REASON behind it is a frighting prospect. Throughout time, psychopaths had for the most part, a reason for doing what they were doing. Some wanted money, fame. Others wanted revenge or to be noticed and a select few wanted to simply watch the world burn. Hugo is in fact none of these. Hugo's rage and insanity started when he was a young child, the pressure building for years and apparently by the time he was in his early thirties, he just couldn't take it anymore and ended up killing two comrades in cold blood. Up till then, being in the Nazi Party and wearing the uniform was fulfilling in such a way that he could focus on killing his fellow man, though I don't think his heart was ever truly into what Nazism represented. Regardless of his violent past, I think that buried somewhere deep within him is a sensible man with decent enough ethics who just wants the war (both Hitler's and his own personal inner war) to be over and done and is willing to go to any lengths to make that a reality. Hugo's outward expression of emotion leaves something to be desired, he's rough around the edges and nonchalant to a fault, finding that an emotional distance is key. However, due to his sanity hanging on by a mere thread, Hugo is prone to sporadic and unpredictable acts of violence and angry explosions, even if unprovoked. Again, it's my hope that with time he will begin to heal and the violent outbursts will simply go away.

Lesson

Unfortunately like so many others before him, Hugo's arrival to the village is subsequently after his death in canon. In bringing him to Haurvatat it's my belief that he can go through some kind of reformation and break out of his "La La I Kill Everyone!" funk and find that yes, he does fit into society.. While exhibiting psychotic behavior for reasons unknown and long before any other character I've ever played, I'm fairly certain that without Nazis looming over him and the requirement to kill for survival and the unyielding revenge that's almost eaten him alive, that Hugo would begin to relax and perhaps not give into sadistic temptation as often as he had in Europe. The voices inside of his head might not agree with me at present, but we'll see just how they decide to deal with Hugo's new situation.