I have not seen this series for a long time, but after re-watching I found Holocausts is a long series but goes smoothly. Part one has the two German families at a wedding one Jewish and the other Christians. The viewer experiences the opinions at the time! Some characters believe in the government propaganda while others not so much, and others thinks this Hitler/Nazi thinking is so absurd that the craziness will die out and never happen. Mix the family dynamics fights in the soccer yard, a un employed lawyer who joins the S S for work, and the lawyers Jewish family doctor which everyone likes. One character thinks in legal terms with out emotion, while the other believe in healing sets the frame work for a riveting series. Ages well, with strong acting, well directed with great sets budgets etc. However so real there is a depressing feel about the movie.
3 Reviews
Have some Kleenex ready for this one....
planktonrules28 September 2013
I was a little surprised as I watched this episode that it begins in 1935--two years after Hitler's ascent to national power. This isn't a complaint--just an observation. The Weiss and Helms family are at a wedding banquet. The Weiss family is Jewish and the Helms are Germans. Despite this wedding between different faiths, there are signs at this celebration of what is in the offing, as the Helms family is quite content with the current Nazi government. Over time, the Helms family pulls further and further away from the Weiss family and become willing accomplices with the Nazi propaganda machine--even participating in Kristalnacht. This is not the only plot line involving a 'good German family' falling in with the Nazis and their evil policies. There is another plot involving the Dorf family. As the show begins, they are close to Dr. Weiss, but as the show progresses, this changes because nice Mr. Dorf joins the SS--and slowly rises up the ranks.
The theme is the gradual elimination of Jewish civil rights and the lack of public outcry at these injustices. It's all very well crafted, well acted and quite sad--particularly the fate that occurs with Dr. Weiss' in-laws. It also didn't hurt that such wonderful actors as Fritz Weaver, Meryl Streep, Sam Wanamaker, Michael Moriarty and many others star in this show. Episode one pulls few punches and sets the stage for the horrors of parts 2, 3 and, especially, 4.
Interestingly, parts of this show have strong parallels to the plots in "The Winds of War"--another great made for TV mini-series that you really should watch.
The theme is the gradual elimination of Jewish civil rights and the lack of public outcry at these injustices. It's all very well crafted, well acted and quite sad--particularly the fate that occurs with Dr. Weiss' in-laws. It also didn't hurt that such wonderful actors as Fritz Weaver, Meryl Streep, Sam Wanamaker, Michael Moriarty and many others star in this show. Episode one pulls few punches and sets the stage for the horrors of parts 2, 3 and, especially, 4.
Interestingly, parts of this show have strong parallels to the plots in "The Winds of War"--another great made for TV mini-series that you really should watch.
A great beginning to a tale of terror.
mark.waltz21 May 2022
Warning: Spoilers
ItIt doesn't take long for a date with a fateful destiny to roll into the lives of the Weiss family in the first part of the Emmy Winning mini-series. The marriage of the Protestant Meryl Streep to the Jewish James Woods brings on an element of happiness, but relatives of Streep's are clearly anti-Semitic. Woods' parents, Rosemary Harris and Fritz Weaver, have different views of the marriage, with Harris reluctant to show full acceptance until she gets to know her daughter-in-law better, but Weaver much more easygoing. He treats the wife of struggling lawyer Michael Moriarty, and later when Moriarty has been promoted to an attorney role within the SS, he pays Weaver a polite visit to urge him to leave Germany as soon as possible. Soon after that, the violence erupts, with the murder of a Nazi official blamed on the Jews and riots erupting. Streep longs to get out of Germany, but as long as Mama Harris has her way, they will stay put.
It doesn't take long to establish who is who in this powerful start to a classic mini-series. David Warner, always great at playing villains, adds much dimension to his role of a Nazi officer, admiring Moriarty's honesty over his claim of a neutral feeling towards the Jewish population, but obviously as he gains power, he'll be drawn into the destruction and thus starting the descent of the destruction of his soul. Deborah Norton, as his anti-semitic wife, is excellent playing an absolutely horrible person. Other members of the Weiss family are drawn into the drama with an innocent younger sister and the rebellious Joseph Bottoms dealing with the rising trauma. One of the greatest ensembles ever in a TV miniseries draws the audience in immediately with the arrest of Woods and Harris having to find strength upon realizing that she could have prevented this by getting the family out germinate earlier on. As the drama flows, the audience becomes aware that it will become very hard to watch certain segments of future episodes, but it will also be more difficult to turn away.
It doesn't take long to establish who is who in this powerful start to a classic mini-series. David Warner, always great at playing villains, adds much dimension to his role of a Nazi officer, admiring Moriarty's honesty over his claim of a neutral feeling towards the Jewish population, but obviously as he gains power, he'll be drawn into the destruction and thus starting the descent of the destruction of his soul. Deborah Norton, as his anti-semitic wife, is excellent playing an absolutely horrible person. Other members of the Weiss family are drawn into the drama with an innocent younger sister and the rebellious Joseph Bottoms dealing with the rising trauma. One of the greatest ensembles ever in a TV miniseries draws the audience in immediately with the arrest of Woods and Harris having to find strength upon realizing that she could have prevented this by getting the family out germinate earlier on. As the drama flows, the audience becomes aware that it will become very hard to watch certain segments of future episodes, but it will also be more difficult to turn away.
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