Drama
United States of America
The miniseries Holocaust was groundbreaking for its time, as it was one of the first attempts to depict the events of the Holocaust on American television. It was produced by Robert Berger and directed by Marvin J. Chomsky, and starred Meryl Streep, James Woods, and Michael Moriarty.
The story of the Weiss family is central to the miniseries. The patriarch of the family, Dr. Josef Weiss (played by Fritz Weaver), is a successful doctor in Berlin. His wife, Berta (Rosemary Harris), is a good-hearted woman who tries to do what she can to help their family survive in the increasingly hostile environment of Nazi Germany. The Weisses have two children, Karl (Joseph Bottoms) and Anna (Blanche Baker).
The other main character in the miniseries is Erik Dorf (Michael Moriarty), a rising star in the SS. At the beginning of the series, Dorf is depicted as a man with some reservations about the Nazi regime, but over the course of the series, he becomes more and more brutal and fanatical.
One of the most harrowing scenes in the series is the depiction of the Wannsee Conference, in which high-ranking Nazi officials met in January 1942 to plan the "Final Solution" to the "Jewish Question." The scenes in which the extermination camps are shown (in particular the gas chambers) are also very powerful.
One of the criticisms of the miniseries is that it portrays the Jewish victims as somewhat passive and helpless, and does not fully capture the agency and resistance shown by many Jews during this time. Another criticism is that it focuses too much on the experiences of the Weiss family, and does not fully explore the wider context of the Holocaust.
Overall, Holocaust remains an important and powerful depiction of the Holocaust, and it helped to raise awareness of the atrocities committed during this dark chapter in history.
