A00068 - September 2022 Must See TV: "The U. S. and the Holocaust"

On my Amherst College calendar, I have penciled in "The U. S. and the Holocaust" as the most important television program to watch for the month of September 2022.  "The U. S. and the Holocaust" is the latest offering from Ken Burns' and, according to Mr. Burns, it is his most important work to this date. 


https://www.pbs.org/show/us-and-holocaust/

The importance of this particular offering stems from the ties between what led to the Holocaust and domestic events of today.  A recent Los Angeles Times review highlights the concerns.

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2022-09-16/us-and-the-holocaust-ken-burns-pbs-review

Having watched the first two hours, I suspect that this Ken Burns offering will not receive a warm reception.  After all, the subject matter is especially grim and, perhaps most importantly, American complicity in the Holocaust casts a light on the dark history of this country that many would like to ignore.

One of the more compelling takeaways from the first episode of "The U. S. and the Holocaust" is that the history of the United States actually provided a primer to the Nazis on how to conduct a Holocaust.  The genocidal wars against the First Nations in the lands that comprise the United States and the subsequent mass re-locations of the subjugated Indigenous Tribes echoes later in the Nazis' genocidal campaign against the Jews.  The United States enslavement of Blacks and the institution of Jim Crow laws would serve as a model for Nazi Germany to follow in enslaving and disenfranchising the Jews. The American justification of Manifest Destiny in invading and taking the sovereign lands of other people could similarly serve as a model for the Nazi concept of lebensraum  

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/lebensraum

And the popular theory of eugenics, 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics

which was seemingly accepted by such luminaries as Theodore Roosevelt, Helen Keller, Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh, provided a "scientific" rationale for brutalizing and ultimately killing, those who do not fit the perceived "ideal".

Based on its discussion of these issues, I will be watching the next two episodes of "The U. S. and the Holocaust".  

I pray that I will not be alone.

Peace, 

Everett "Skip" Jenkins
Fairfield, California
September 20, 2022

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