"Holocaust" is a brilliantly made mini-series that made a HUGE social impact when it debuted. Here in the US, the term 'Holocaust' was rarely used before 1978 and it's become a familiar part of our lexicon since. The series follows the Weiss family from 1935-1945 and shows how these Jews fared during the Holocaust. Additionally, the Dorf family who know the Weiss family is shown as a parallel. Unlike the Weiss clan, the Dorfs are gentiles. At first, they seem like decent people but over time, they become caught up in the SS and Erik becomes one of the architects of the Final Solution. The plots are all well-written and as the Weisses are disbursed, you see how each of them is caught up in the hate and hysteria. In addition to nice direction and writing, it didn't hurt that the show had an amazingly competent cast which included Fritz Weaver, Meryl Streep, James Woods, Sam Wanamaker, Michael Moriarty and many more.While I truly believe that this is one of the greatest mini-series events of all-time, the show is not quite perfect. One problem is NOT the fault of the filmmakers and that is that the Jewish prisoners and ghetto residents look way too healthy. You cannot starve actors enough without killing them to really approximate how awful it really was--so it is, unintentionally, a bit sanitized. Also, while it was not necessary, it would have been nice to know the dates as events unfolded. Sometimes this is given--mostly is it not.One final note. Although the series was apparently comprised of four episodes, on DVD, it's stretched into five.

In 1988, we had "War and Remembrance," which gave us a graphic and multi-faceted tale of the Nazi's genocidal program. In 1993, we had Schindler's list, which gave us a less panoramic but equally explicit display of what went on in the death camps."Holocaust" was shown in 1978, preceding the others, and is the least careful about the material. It's budget must have been small because there are no epic scenes of the nightmarish conditions and events. It looks like the TV movie it was, even the credits.The performances are mostly fine. Michael Moriarty could hardly be better as the baby-faced, imaginative SS officer. Tovah Feldshuh is perfect as the pretty but tough Czech resistance fighter, and Sam Wanamaker with his gray hair and rugged features does a good job as the pharmacist who finally realizes what's going on. Sam Bottoms disappoints. He looks hardy enough but isn't much of an actor. I've seen better on the stage of a community college in St. George, Utah. Meryl Streep doesn't really have much to do but she certainly looks the very Aryan part, and she's sexy too. The writing doesn't do Moriarty any favors. Unemployed, the non-political lawyer applies for a job with the SS and gets it. Next time we see him, he's fully committed to his awful task. It takes him about ten second of screen time to convert from human to beast. He does away with himself at the end, but I don't know why, and neither will you. Some of the film was shot in the spring and summer, which is a relief because, judging from most other depictions of the events, everything seemed to take place under gloomy skies and in muddy fields with patches of snow.If there's a message, it's that absolutely nobody -- not Nazis, not anti-Nazis, not nationalist partisans, not Christians, not foreigners -- has any interest in the plight of the Jews who are being systematically swept up and exterminated. Their only recourse is to stick together, fight before they die, and hope to reach Palestine some day.The people who put stories like this together have to be careful because they are dealing with one of the more horrible events in recent history and the narrative is extremely emotional, especially to Jews and others who lost family members in Europe. It's rather like the crucifixion is to Christians. The very subject deserves delicate treatment. "Holocaust" reads more like a primer, full of stereotypes.Yet I'm glad it was made. People forget rather easily. And they seem to forget most quickly those things that make them uncomfortable to think about. Moreover, an astonishing number of younger people don't know what happened before and during the war. A survey of high school students about five years ago showed that many of them didn't know who fought against whom. A survey by the Chicago Tribute revealed that almost 25% of 17-year-olds couldn't identify Adolf Hitler. In 2010, a survey showed that one in five Americans didn't know which country the United States had won its independence from. Collectively, we don't seem to show much curiosity about anything that doesn't directly affect our body sheaths.If this was an artistic disappointment, it was a valuable history lesson. It took another ten years for "War and Remembrance" to bring us another, more polished, reminder, and five years more for "Schindler's List." For elderly Jews, history may be a nightmare from which they are trying to awake, to quote another derided ethnic, but for the satisfied kids skateboarding on the quiet residential street of No Problem Drive, and playing video games and watching "World's Wildest Police", it's all becoming as remote as Nova Zembla. "Why should I have to know anything about what happened so long ago, and why do I have to memorize the names of all fourteen planets?" Well, I suppose it's because if your mind finally becomes a complete blank, you'll all follow World War II down the memory hole.

This simply and aptly titled miniseries is not only titled that way, but is told that way as well. Aptly, it is about a circle of German Jews who simply live their lives until they are accosted by the hate campaign against them, which takes them completely aback, and which works the way it worked with virtually every circle of German Jews during the reign of the Third Reich. Their spiral into misery, their loss of freedom, is like a dog whose master drops them off at the pound and drives away, never to come back: Like such an unfortunate animal, they simply have no idea why the master they loved and lived with turned their back coldly and left them to whatever misery would work like clockwork till their lonely, sorrowful and mystified deaths. That is not to say that each of the characters ends up this way. Every character undergoes deeply nuanced strands of this saga.The narrative stems from a Polish émigré, a much-liked general practitioner in 1935 Berlin where he lives with his wife Rosemary Harris, her parents, and their three children. When his oldest son, played by James Woods in a curious uber-American casting choice, marries Meryl Streep, comparatively apt in casting as an Aryan German, he is confronted by Anti-Semitism but justifies it and the family resolves not to leave the country. Michael Moriarty plays the husband of one of the doctor's German patients, a scrambling lawyer who strives for a real living and class progression by joining the fledgling yet prevailing Nazi Party. Within three years things will have transposed markedly for them all.The performances are all persuasive in some way or another. Michael Moriarty is chilling in his indirect self-assertion, unbending in spite of his character's realization of the immediacy of his personal involvement in the histrionics. An early Meryl Streep performance cannot help but be noticed in particular, demonstrating even before Sophie's Choice her realistic emotional responses and how especially aware she is of her character's personal backdrop. Even James Woods merges his expressively temperamental facade with an inward timidity; despite his strange presence, the drama comes naturally to his grand gestures.Holocaust is, yes, a melodrama, but it is also quite unrelenting in its depiction of early Nazi hate campains, and a lot of its drama means going to the far lengths of the everyday horrors of Nazism. It is obligated to take itself seriously and fulfills that duty to the subject matter with a feeling of epic entitlement.

NBC's Holocaust is perhaps the finest miniseries I've seen on television. I purchased the two VHS set several years ago and watch it at least once a year over several nights. Holocaust features a large, excellent cast, which make up for emotion which they lack in depth. Sadly, the stories are all too familiar and have presented in one form or another, but what makes this series stand out is the fact that it was able to compress time and feature some of the best known events of the holocaust, such as Babi Yar, Sobibor and Warsaw Ghetto, seamlessly. The dual story lines tracking the Jewish Weiss family and the German Dorff family intertwine believably, and the graphic violence is appropriate for this production. Michael Moriarty was excellent as the meek lawyer who became a cold calculator and Rosemary Harris was memorable as the proud but stubborn Berta Weiss. Meryl Streep and James Woods also are noteworthy, and it's a delight to see both actors in early roles. I recall when Holocaust debuted it became a media event and school project, with study guides for classroom discussion. I wonder if some of the material was appropriate for some young audiences.