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 think many people/groups who have been involved/touched by horrible things based on their race or religion might find certain shows upsetting or unwatchable.

I think it's just that Nazism and the Holocaust are still 'current', in that there are still survivors living and people with 1st and 2nd generation family members who were lost.

There are 'Westerns' that I won't watch because of the portrayal of Native Americans or the treatment of Manifest Destiny as if it was a 'good thing'. No, it was horrible and many tribes were decimated and we're still feeling the effects of it today.

Lots of interesting posts, I’m going to look into some of the suggestions and epigenetics.

It’s obviously complicated as an issue and highly personal and I doubt one size fits all in terms of what is comfortable to watch as entertainment regardless of your background.

I’m not a great reader so wasn’t aware of the books that have apparently been released recently. A colleague suggested something like the Auschwitz Tattooist or something which I was a bit about.

I think there’s definitely a reason to record the history in the same way there is a reason to preserve the place and memorialise the murdered, but again not sure how I feel about it, perhaps it’s on a case by case basis, perhaps it’s because of the scale of the whole thing.

I suppose you could say making entertainment out of anything sad or with victims is awful so maybe it just the scale in comparison to say Titanic. I’d have to think more about it.

I'm Jewish. I don't tend to watch stuff like that, not because of the Nazi element - just because I find speculative fiction tedious.

Im Jewish and I find holocaust history a bit difficult at times but i do find it interesting. People in my community have worked to create projects to preserve and record the stories of survivors. Their stories are often quite compelling.

I’m not bothered by fantasy type programs like the Man in the High Castle. I don’t watch it cos I never got into it but some of my (Jewish) family do.

I am from a religious family though. So maybe that makes a difference. It does scare me but there are many awful things in history.

I'm Jewish. I watch speculative and non-speculative drama about WW2. Generally, it makes me angry and perplexed.

I used to wonder how so many people could hate a group of other people so much that they built an administration to destroy them like vermin. No, worse than vermin as they were stolen from, ripped from their families and homes, and experienced inhumane conditions before they were worked or gassed to death. However, seeing some of the 'my neighbour didn't wear their mask outside the school; should I report them?' threads has made me realise how easily it can happen with people making the argument that they're just being 'good citizens for the benefit of all'. It's terrifying.

I'm reading Harry Potter with my DD (who's 8) currently and she's absolutely bemused about why the Death Eaters hate Mudbloods so much. She knows a little, tiny bit about Hitler and the Nazis so I explained that JK Rowling was inspired by true history for her fictional book. How truly terrible that that kind of story can be based on such an awful truth.

The Jewish society at my university recently experienced an arson attack. Just a few weeks' ago I was told by a shop assistant to 'not be a Jew' about deciding whether to spend more money on something - or not. Twitter's (and its users') poor response to Wiley's rant... Antisemitism is rife and anything that raises awareness of it and related issues is a good thing, in my book.

I live in fear to be honest, especially at the moment. We're freemasons. We look Jewish with dark features too. I think a lot of Nazis came to Australia and things are really feeling edgy at the moment.

I might be way off here, but I've always wondered if the body has a kind of folk memory, otherwise how would animals know what dangers to avoid? Perhaps that sounds silly; I certainly don't mean to trivialise anything.

I have thought that about when children 'remember' a grandparent they never met. Almost every function of the body a baby 'practices' in the womb, sucking a thumb or stretching. I don't see why brain cells that will be storing memories don't have memories from the parents.

I have seen Schindler's list and read some Primo Levi. My mum was appalled that when I was at school I read ,'when Hitler stole pink rabbit'. I was about 9 or 10 and it really gave me a sense of what would be like to be a child and have to move country with very little.

Strangely my mum had no problem with 'The world at war' being on with me in the room when I was much younger.

I think there is a lot to be said from reading / seeing the story of an individual or a family, I think it was Stalin who said, "a single death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic", the story of a few people is more personal and hits home more than a documentary.

I think one reason there are so many books now is that the generation that survived are dying off, if their story is going to come out ever then this is sort of a last time it can.

Many who did survive did not tell their children what they went through, but were able to tell grand children or strangers.

Sorry I'm not really contributing to the discussion.

There is one thing that I think might be interesting. I watched a documentary about the children of nazis. Some were the children of the camp commandants or grandchildren of.

One thing they all seemed to have decided was not to have children. They did not want the genes to be passed on.

There's been some awful behaviour around CV19. I'm not confident we can say 'it will never happen again'. I look around the world, and at world leaders and I worry. Scapegoating is a powerful drive, and we need to be on guard against it always.