A House Through Time. Distressing content.

[PersephoneParlormaid]

Has anyone watched this? I enjoyed earlier series so thought I’d watch it.
The whole thing is awful, the way people were treated, but one woman’s fate was particularly upsetting. She a young Jewish woman with her 4 year old and 8 week old baby. She herded onto a train which travelled for about 5 days to Estonia, we aren’t told about food/drink/toilet but you can assume it’s a no. They are then put on a bus to the forest. She then has to walk them into the forest where a pit has been dug. They are then made to undress and lie on top of the dead bodies already in the pit. They are then massacred.
I found it so upsetting. The fate of many of the residents in the apartments was awful, but that one particularly upset me.

It is a terrible thing that happened, but surely this cannot be the first time you've heard about the Holocaust/Shoah?

6 million Jews, along with about 6 million Gyspy/Roma/Sinti, gay men, disabled people, Poles, Soviet POWs, Jehovah's Witnesses and Black people were murdered.

No it’s not, but it’s the first time I’ve heard about such a personal story

I can understand why a particular personal story would make you upset OP. We should never become hardened to the Holocaust.💐
Edit: is it series 6?

I haven't seen it, but yes, that is heartbreaking. I can understand why you feel so affected by this.

Series 5, Berlin and London.

I don't think I'll watch this now after reading this.

Agree.

It was beyond words. Never forgotten.

As the quote misattributed to Joseph Stalin goes: 'The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic.'

Often it is the individual suffering that really hits home. We can empathise acutely with one mother, and her fear and despair for herself and her babies. Empathising with millions all at once? It would be impossible.

The unimaginable cruelty that humans have inflicted on each other during the Holocaust, Black slavery, the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan's sexual slavery of women in occupied territories, the Yazidi genocide...the list is never-ending, and each horror is comprised of so, so much individual suffering.

'Empathising with millions all at once? It would be impossible.'

Not so for me. I am Jewish. It is far from impossible to feel empathy for every one of those six million souls.

It is an excellent series and I thought the comparison of lives in the capital cities during the same conflict worked very well.

Often it is the individual suffering that really hits home. We can empathise acutely with one mother, and her fear and despair for herself and her babies

Exactly this. When you’re a young mum you instantly feel vulnerable. To have to strip naked in front of guards and other people, take the clothes from your babies, then lie on top of dead rotting bodies and wait to be massacred while clutching your children is heart breaking.

I think you misunderstand me.

I mean that truly empathising with - so 'understanding and sharing the feelings of' - the accumulated individual suffering of millions of people all at one time would break a person entirely. One person couldn't do that - it would be impossible.

I can be horrified at the scale and degree of suffering of millions, and saddened by it, but there's a certain degree of detachment that comes with it. It's an overview, in a way. Only with individual stories can I imagine myself in, for example, that powerless, terrified mother's very specific situation, and feel an echo of the despair and horror that she must have felt, truly empathising.

For instance, as a woman, I am horrified and angered by the way in which women throughout history and in modern times have been slaughtered, enslaved, silenced, and discarded - but it would be impossible to truly empathise with the suffering of every single one, all at once. Our minds are not designed to be capable of that.

The reality is visceral in the way it strikes home. I can imagine the agony of resignation, despair, fury, and heartbreak that the woman must have felt, and the impotence and powerlessness, as she undoubtedly tried to keep her older child as ignorant and 'happy' as possible, and her baby quiet and comforted. It's utterly devastating, and makes you wonder how - how - people could have inflicted that kind of sadistic suffering on others.

There is a quote, "One death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic" - one human story is "understood" and processed by your brain differently than it trying to absorb the horror and horrifying fact of millions.

I do understand why you’re upset by the content @PersephoneParlormaidbut it happened. It happened and it was terrible and people need to know.

I have Jewish ancestry and made the decision to visit Auschwitz when I was 23. In my opinion there should be a mechanism for making everyone in the country (and in the world) stand in that place and see what you see and hear the stories you hear from the tour guide. Antisemitism would surely die off if everybody had to see the freezing stables where they slept and walk the train tracks that the cattle carts came in on. I’d make sure that everybody visited when I went too: February. Freezing February. Thick snow and icicles on the inside of the sleeping quarters. My daughters are only 11 and 9 right now, but once they’re old enough I’m going to take them and show them.

So I’m sorry that you were upset by the content in that TV show, but it happened, it is real and people do need to know.

There are thousands of books on the Holocaust and thousands and thousands of stories, but I will always recommend this one because I met Freddie through my work a couple of times. He was lovely, funny and inspirational. Here is an interview with him from the 90s and here is some more info on him. His story is harrowing, but Holocaust Memorial Day is coming up, so we owe it to the victims to take some time and remember them and learn about what happened.

Unmumsnetty hugs to you. Terrible and good to feel and understand this, but don't dwell too much. Think of something to cheer you up now (film, happy music, baking, whatever does it for you) and do that soon. It doesn't benefit anyone to let yourself become depressed by the world.

much of history is perhaps unsettling and upsetting to us now but it happened, for that reason it must not be forgotten or glossed over. The people who suffered need to be remembered

I had enough doing my history A level in 1999 so I've made a point of not watching anything to do with the holocaust. It makes me ill. Of course I recognise what happened and never glossed over it. But watching a distressing TV show won't change anything.

Humans have to be the most cruel species on earth.

I’ve just finished watching the series. It made me think:

1. What on earth possesses these dreadful men like Hitler (and Putin) to think they’re entitled to invade other countries which start wars in which millions die
2. We are so very lucky not to have had to live through a war on our turf (touching wood)
3. I was just willing the Jewish families to get out of Germany, while thru still could, before the worst of it all kicked off. You can understand why they say that a lot of Jewish people have a mentality of keeping a little bag packed, ‘just in case’.

It was really moving and thought-provoking. I’d encourage others to watch it.

I've watched all 4 on I Player. Very worth my time. I don't want to spoil, but there was a piece in Ep 4 which really had me in tears. I say no more.

I missed the first two episodes, but watched Episode 3 last night (I recorded it). It was interesting (and heart breaking, in some cases) to 'meet' the different people who lived in each house and to learn of the fates of some of the inhabitants. And that Jewish family thought they had clearance to move to America, only for it all to fall through. You can only imagine their fear and desperation.