“The U.S. and the Holocaust” Documentary Review

by Alexis Madden-Tyler
(Waco, TX)

“The U.S. and the Holocaust”<br>(Visitor Submitted Documentary Review)

“The U.S. and the Holocaust”
(Visitor Submitted Documentary Review)

“The U.S. and the Holocaust” by Ken Burns is a three-part series documenting the United States’ reaction and participation in World War II.

The first part of the series discusses the events leading to before the Holocaust and what America’s thoughts before the war had started and the first post-war generation. It also talks about immigration leading to the war and during WWII.

The second episode focuses more on the Germany during WWII and the U.S.’s governmental initial thoughts and the citizens.

Here they start to introduce first person perspectives from survivors and having them talk to the camera and reflect on what they had experienced from this time.

This part of the documentary went through several different storylines talking about different famous characters of WWII such as Anne Frank, Otto Frank, Elie Wiese and other notable people from the holocaust.

The last episode of the documentary is about how once America had been enlightened about what was happening in Germany, how they reacted and what they were planning to do now that they knew what was really going on.

This documentary series was very well done. Narration, plot and key visuals were engaging and helped tell the story that the directors were trying to present. This movie had very strong points during the interviews with both historians and survivors.

However, where the movie was weak was keeping these stores completely cohesive.

At some certain parts of the second episode the water gets lost trying to keep track of all the characters and listing to history. The juggling game makes it very difficult for the viewer to keep on track with what the directors are trying to highlight.

Another issue was the integrated quotes during each episode, at some points these quotes were very well placed and help add to the story, at other times it would take the viewer out of the moment and became choppy. Which unfortunately took away the impact that this documentary could have brought on.

The documentary’s strengths were in the overall arching retelling of the Holocaust. Never before have I seen a telling of the holocaust in the view of the United States perspective.

The first episode was very strong in making the viewer rethink of the history that they previously knew.

The introduction about Ellis Island and describing what America meant to many people immigrating around the world.

The added telling of the survivors’ memories of Ellis Island and other first-person accounts, plus strong visuals, made this first episode a great start to the series.

If the director could have kept that power from the first episode on to the other episodes, it would have made for a better documentary. However, with the choppy addition of too many quotes, many characters and an unclear story line made it difficult to enjoy the document to its fullest.