Simon Schama: The Holocaust, 80 Years On, on PBS

Simon Schama became one of the unlikeliest bestsellers of 1989, when Citizens, his nearly thousand-page history of the French Revolution hit the NY Times list. He subsequently became one of the leading chroniclers of the Jewish people. However, he always tried to avoid presenting their history as a “march” towards the Holocaust. Nevertheless, at some point, the enormity of it becomes inescapable. The eighty-year-old historian explains the tragic history of the Holocaust, from the places where it happened in Simon Schama: The Holocaust, 80 Years On, directed by Hugo Macgregor, which airs this Tuesday on PBS.

Schama begins with some grim statistics that explain why this program is so needed: “nearly a quarter of young Americans believe the holocaust did not happen, or has been exaggerated,” that would be the student “activists” turning campuses into cauldrons of hate, and “one in twenty Britons think the Holocaust never happened.”

As you can see from the art provided, Schama eventually takes viewers to Auschwitz-Birkenau, but he starts in Kaunas, Lithuania, which he identifies as the first major city occupied by the Germans, where the locals voluntarily and enthusiastically massacred their fellow Jewish citizens, under the watchful, approving eyes of the National Socialists. The killing was not as systematized and industrialized as it was in concentration camps, but it would be impossible for the local populace to deny their culpability.

Yes, dreadfully, pogroms were not uncommon throughout Eastern Europe during the decades and even centuries preceding WWII. That is why Schama emphasizes the case of the Netherlands, which was considered a haven of tolerance, much like Britain across the North Sea. Yet, despite initial acts of solidarity, Dutch Jewry suffered the highest mortality rate of any Western European nation during the Holocaust—a grim 75%.

The example of the Netherlands seems particularly applicable to our current times. Nobody thought something like that could happen there, but it did. Do you really think it couldn’t happen here, when the Jewish Governor of Pennsylvania and his family are targeted in an explicit act of political terror, with practically no media outrage once the motives were uncovered?

Despite his admitted reluctance, Schama finally takes viewers to Auschwitz-Birkenau, which must be the most evil-looking place on earth. Even if you believe you fully understand the magnitude of the industrialized death factory, Schama will horrify you with details, especially when describing how the death chambers “backed-up,” unable to exterminate the immense influx of transports in 1944. Fittingly, he ends by interviewing Marian Turski, who at the time was one of the last living Auschwitz survivors (before his death this February).

Schama is an excellent presenter, who speaks with great authority and conviction. Clearly, this is not just another history lesson for Schama. The events he chronicles hold deep meaning for him. They should be significant for all of us. Arguably, anyone who questions the need for ‘yet another holocaust documentary” (a complaint I have often heard spoken at New York press screenings, long before 10/7), inadvertently prove why more are needed. In this case, Schama finds a new perspective that is uncomfortably relevant to our current times. Highly recommended, Simon Schama: The Holocaust 80 Years On airs this Tuesday (4/22) on most PBS outlets.