Timelines

In the late 1970s, the television miniseries was introduced in the US as an alternative to the long-established genre of “daily soaps.” This new format was able to address and explore more difficult themes, often with historical backgrounds, in such a way that could generate a broad public discussion. The broadcaster NBC commissioned the screenwriter Gerald Green and the director Marvin Chomsky to create a miniseries dealing with the history of the Holocaust. According to NBC’s concept, dramatic series of events were to be given priority over historical accuracy. Thus scenes were shot on location in West Germany and Austria, but the Berliner district of Wedding stood in for the Warsaw Ghetto.

In four parts, the lives of two German families during the period of the Nazi regime were depicted. The narrative spans the years 1935 to 1945. In it, the story of the Jewish family Weiss is meant to be representative of the Jews persecuted and murdered under the Nazi regime, while the story of the Catholic family Dorf is to reflect the role of the perpetrators.

In West Germany in the 1970s, a broad willingness to deal with the Nazi past had not yet developed, and questions of involvement or complicity in it within one’s own family had not been addressed. Many bemoaned the loss of “traditional values” and were not prepared to answer for their former deeds or misdeeds. By moving the perspective away from that of anonymous mass-murder and focussing on the destinies of individual characters, Holocaust spurred the first major public reckoning with the Nazi past in both the US and West Germany, especially among those who had not experienced the persecution and terror firsthand. Between 15 and 20 million people watched the series as it aired. The name of the series, “Holocaust,” which means “fully burnt” or “burnt offering,” quickly established itself in West Germany as the common designation for what had previously been referred to as “the genocide of the Jews.”

Nonetheless, the series was criticized as well. The Jewish historian, author and Shoah survivor Elie Wiesel described the series as trivial for dealing with what he saw as stereotypes of both the victims and the perpetrators. Furthermore, Wiesel argued that only the survivors of the Holocaust had the right to tell its story; he saw the format of a fictional series containing historical inaccuracies in the name of dramatic plot as completely inappropriate. Also drawing criticism was the fact that both families in the miniseries lived through all key moments in the history of the Nazi regime, which in reality would have been impossible.