To Be or Not to Be Quotes
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Source: To Be or Not to Be
Speaker: Colonel Ehrhardt
"What he did to Shakespeare we are doing now to Poland."
Josef: Her husband is that great, great Polish actor, Josef Tura. You've probably heard of him.
Colonel Ehrhardt: Oh, yes. As a matter of fact I saw him on the stage when I was in Warsaw once before the war.
Josef: Really?
Colonel Ehrhardt: What he did to Shakespeare we are doing now to Poland.
Context
This line is spoken by Colonel Ehrhardt, played by Sig Ruman, in the film To Be or Not to Be, directed by Ernst Lubitsch (1942).
This movie revolves around a theater troupe performing in Warsaw on the eve of the German invasion of Poland in 1939. Did we mention it's a comedy? What can get more laughs than the Nazis, right?
But somehow, To Be or Not to Be, which was released during World War II and pokes fun at the conflicts in that very war, turned out to be a comedy classic. In the scene where this line pops up, Josef, one of the actors, disguises himself and speaks with Colonel Ehrhardt, a member of the Gestapo. He's trying to stall the man, but also manages to compliment himself in the process. The colonel admits that he saw Josef in a play...and the actor utterly destroyed Shakespeare. Much like what the Germans are doing to Poland right now. Yikes.
When the movie first came out, some critics were really offended by this joke. Was an act of war actually fodder for comedy? It was only in later years that the jokes and the subject became something that moviegoers could appreciate. Because, hey, if anything gets funnier over time, it's Nazis, right? Well, maybe not.
Where you've heard it
This movie isn't as widely quoted today, but you might hear someone drop a line like this as an attempt at some dry (and cringe-worthy) humor.
Pretentious Factor
If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.
Polite people don't usually quote Nazis at dinner parties, so you might want to avoid channeling an officer of the Gestapo. Even if he is trying to be funny.