The U.S. and the Holocaust

Mr ken burns for his ever so connective and brutally consistent narrative talents and partner in the direction crew together with lynn novick and sara botstein. This documentary doesnt just put the magnifying glass on the usa, indirec tly it tells the story about how the entire globe positioned itself on the jewish and other surpressed minorities going under the term of refugees during the nazi era.

Its just a pitty mr burns (et.co.) that you didnt make this series in 1985 when the war generation still lived, the year you famed the brooklyn bridge forever. I think that the number of reciepients are highly diminished due to digital media platforms, the topic of ww2 is alien and the subject of the jewish destiny is a heavy subject to elaborate and devour for the fast food and fast news generation x and z'ers of today.

I really admire the efforts done searching archives for pictorials and film reels used in this 3 part series, loads of material i havent seen in the past, and i, the grumpy old man, have a sofisticated interest on an amateur level the ww2 history and have seen almost everything that has been issued from english, french, german and japanese language spheres + the italian, and loads and loads of norwegian war history.

Im glad mr burns that you still have many productive years to come, i can not praise enough the impact and inspiration youve released in miself as your products have appeared

so to everyone sceptical to the harrowing title making usa seem like a crook, well then watch and learn, cause the refugee problem will always be there. Its an overwhelming recommend from the g.o.m..

Yes, it's another in-depth, detailed history from Ken Burns and crew.

But having each episode over 2 hours long really drags out. I watched it bite sized chunks and also found myself fast-forwarding at times. Peter Coyote's narration also drones on.

The narration outline, especially in the first episode, parallels immigration issues the USA is having today. Not sure if this emphasis was intentional or as the saying goes, "nothing ever changes."

There are a lot of still photos and videos, taken by the German soldiers, that will likely be new to anyone viewing the documentary.

The testimony from Eva Geiringer in episode 3 about camp conditions will turn your stomach.

This is as much a story about American history as it is about the Holocaust. As with another Burns' documentary The Vietnam War, the director masterfully places the personal stories in the forefront while at the same time explains the complexities of the politics and public mood at the time. Why it was plausible that FDR didn't do as much as he could have given the implications for negotiating with a Congress that represented the mood of the country at the time. You can agree or not whether FDR did the right thing but by interjecting the narrative with interviewed with historians, Burns leaves it up to the viewer to decide.

He also explains the upper crust Ivy League culture at the State Department that stymied opportunities to help people immigrate, the pervasive acceptance of eugenics and the popularity of the isolationist movement.

I take issue with the reviewers on this forum who criticized this series for not focusing as much attention on the plight of the homosexuals or Romanies. The focus of this series is the historical context in America which was also the history of the Jews in America. And it was the Jewish population of Europe that had the largest connection to America, as opposed to other groups who were met with the same fate. Each of those groups has its own unique history that would take another documentary to explore. Many Holocaust memorials actually do this because the point of remembering this horrific event is to learn how pervasive genocide is and how vulnerable we all are.

The program for some reason left out the importance of Margaret Sanger and the left democratic eugenics motivating the 3rd Reich for the final solution and holocaust. The idea was hatched and implemented in the US before trips to Germany spread our filth to them. And where were the righteous voices coming to the aid of innocents? They are complicit for now stopping this satanic philosophy that still can be heard in Georgia governor candidate this week. Great job producers and team, wow! Should be required in every high school social studies class. NEVER REPEAT IT IN ANY FORM! The research super!

This Ken Burns documentary was not up to the standards of his previous documentaries. Peter Coyote is a fine narrator and always pleasant to listen to. It was interesting in the first episode dealing with the prejudices and racist attitudes in the US with the influx of immigration concerns.

There were a number of historical inaccuracies that took away from what the documentary was attempting to portray. Historical documentaries need to do more than tell the viewer what happened; they need to ask the question why certain incidences occurred in order to better understand the issues being presented. There were a number of historical omissions that would have explained things more in depth. For instance; how the slaughter of 66 million Christians and Russians by the Bolsheviks influenced the mindset of the Germans during this time. The documentary also lost some credibility by having Deborah Lipstadt as a voice of authority as her input took away from some of the plausible historical accuracies with her repetitive accusatory conjecture presented as fact.

Other than that, there wasn't much revealed that hasn't been covered countless times before.