If you’re Jewish....

[RubyFakeLips]

Do you watch any of the ‘if the Nazis won WW2’ type of dramas? This scenario seems to be a more recent trend in tv drama, or possibly it isn’t and I’m only now noticing it!

I’m thinking of The Man in The High Castle, SS-GB or The Plot Against America, but there may be some I’ve missed. I’m interested in if you watch and/or enjoy the filmed versions but you may have read the books too?

Really I’d be interested if you watch any WW2 or I suppose Nazi orientated drama, not documentaries though.

To be clear from the outset, I am Jewish.

I hope you don't mind me hanging around to see how this goes? I'm not Jewish, but am interested in what people say.
I started watching The Hunters, which is controversial for its dramatisation of Holocaust events and Nazi hunting. It was uncomfortable, and I'm unsure where I stand.
The man in the high castle is on the list to watch, too.

Sure! I mean, I can’t stop you

It’s not meant to be goady, I didn’t post in AIBU either as not looking for a row.

Does it worry you? I worry about things being turned into entertainment, for example how many shows need to show violence against women. At the same time I feel completely unreasonable for doing so.

My husband is Jewish. No we don't watch them. No issue with them existing. Just not an e beings entertainment for us.

I'm sure I watch other things that wouldn't appeal to others.

No, I don’t. It’s too close to home.

I don’t think people who watch them are wrong, just it’s too upsetting for me. Every five years or so I’ll watch something about the Holocaust, the last one was The Children of Windermere, if I think I’ll learn something.

No pickle it doesn’t worry me per se, not in the sense that it could be a growing trend at least. Although admittedly I do find it a bit odd that it’s been a subject matter more than once when we don’t (at least I don’t think) see this so often about WW1 or other conflicts.

I also separate out the hypothetical ‘if the nazis won’ and general WW2 as being in slightly different categories, maybe others don’t.

Well thanks for the responses. Am obviously a bit off base in that it doesn’t seem to be a conversation many want to have. Perhaps I’ll try again in Telly Addicts.

I have watched things like this and it can be powerful in some films and I think it can give people a sense of the horror of what happened. At other times it feels reductive and tasteless and then I just switch off. I never thought that was due to me being Jewish though, I assumed most people would feel the same.

DH is jewish and loves any WWII programmes, whether documentary or drama. We watched SSGB and know Fatherland well as a book and film. I don't think he has a position on "what if the Nazis won" programmes, depends how well made and written it is. He also likes communist/soviet programmes like Deutschland 83 & 86

Mind you, his family did not come here as refugees from the Nazis. They have been here a lot longer than that

Find it all too painful. Dreading dd doing Holocaust at school

I don’t think most people do feel like that, The Man In The High Castle is in its 4th series and the amount of WW2 things being churned out is still pretty high.

I don’t actually have any objection, it’s more that I’m interested in how you feel watching them, do you enjoy them?

My DH (who is not Jewish) has been watching one of these series with our DS and I have joined on occasion, has caused quite a throng reaction for me.

No. My grandparents were holocaust survivors and I can't watch any Nazi type films or shows. It is too close to the bone for me.

I also remember that my Nan was absolutely horrified that people kept recommending Schindlers List, and that it went onto win awards and be so lauded really upset her.

I do come from a family who still feel it’s important to be cagey about being Jewish though.

No. I occasionally get that dizzy sick vertigo feeling, when you suddenly realise you are so so fucking lucky and if you’d been born just a generation earlier you’d be desperately trying to save your children.

Not Jewish, but I am German, which I suppose I take seriously in the sense of never wanting to do or say or really think anything positive about the nazis. I prefer dramas that focus more on Jewish culture without making it into a pure victim narrative. German Jewish culture seemed so rich and historical , it's hard to believe it is gone forever. I went to krakow (not to Auschwitz, too weird being a tourist), and just wandering around in the old ghetto and enjoying some very German tasting cake was the saddest moment of my engagement with my family's past.
I don't think the world portrayed in the "what-if 3rd Reich" scenarios is positive, but I also stopped watching Man in the High Castle. I disliked seeing the insignia all the time, felt like it was rotting my brain. I think Fatherland (the book, didn't know there was a film) is better at driving home the horror and avoiding the entertainment factor. It's certainly a really interesting question and I hope I haven't offended you.

I don’t mind dramas based on real events though. I will watch a Holocaust/WW2 drama and appreciate it. But not Nazis winning. My favourite WW2 film is Inglorious Basterds!!

I watch and read all I can on ww2 the main reason being is how appalled I am that a few men of had so much power.

@AnneBullen Oh yes I agree I loved Inglorious Bastards, I actually find some of QT's movies quite moving in how he uses them to give a bit of justice out!

As a person who is half-Jewish (dad), it definitely hits home that I'd have been considered Jewish enough then.

I really enjoyed Man in the High Castle, It was really interesting and it really made me think about what could have been.

But I don’t often like to watch films about the Holocaust unless they’re documentaries, as I don’t think they fully show the extent of the horror in the right way.

@Tootletum interesting! I have German heritage and ww2 totally changed my familys life (they escaped as they didnt agree) but I find ww2 films really hard to watch, and can get extremely moved by concentration camp films. hate English nationalism and triumphalsism about the war too. weird being us isnt it- but thats probably a different thread

Jewish with many family members who died in the Holocaust and no I don't but tbf I don't watch much serious drama.

But now you've brought it up, I think there is probably an element of feeling uncomfortable at the thought of something so horrific being turned into entertainment. A one off movie done with gravitas I can just about get behind but not really a TV series

Yes @AnneBullen, this is sort of how I felt quite sick and almost as though I’m in another world where are we really watching this as entertainment?! I actually went on to have a really graphic nightmare which has never happened to me before.

I’m a big fan of Tarantino so I’m not someone who doesn’t like violence or gore.

I normally manage to watch WW2 things without issue except the usual levels of discomfort in intentionally upsetting scenes.

What about books? I heard someone asking for recommendations for books about the Holocaust because they were disappointed that the one they'd recently read "wasn't hard-hitting enough" . I can't imagine for a minute they'd be Jewish, mind.