My grandfather survived a camp that had been liberated by American troops. He made sure to commit every soldiers name to memory and swore to God that he would name every one of his descendants after the men that saved him. So far 21 names have been used. I’m told there are 14 more. Only when you have a kid are you allowed to see the list to pick a name. Every person that has married into the family has been told the story, and agreed to adhere to his wishes as best as they could. Boys are named directly after the soldier while girls are given a variation (like Luke would be Lucy). My grandfather didn’t live long enough to see any great-grandchildren but I’m certain he’d be pleased to know that we are following his wishes as best as we can.
Mine survived a work-camp in Poland that got liberated by Canadians in 1944. Spent 4 years there after the germans caught him and his platoon on the Greppenberg in the Dutch province of Limburg, when the Netherlands got invaded. He told life there was pretty brutal, but fortunately for him not nearly as bad as what we see here. He did mention that the military convoy that brought him back to the German-Dutch border also carried survivors of a camp like the one shown here. He and his comrades talked to these survivors and heard stories they wished they had never heard.
@@ImCorran I hate to tell you this, but the story you were told is incorrect. Am I saying he lied? Absolutely not, but the facts are that British, Canadian, and American troops never got to Poland, and certainly not in 1944. The furthest east any allied troops that weren’t Russians got was Prague in the Czech Republic, in 1945. Perhaps your grandfather misremembered what country the camp he was in was located. That happened a lot. Perhaps he embellished a little because the worst camps…the extermination camps…were all in Poland and extremely Eastern Europe. You can probably look up his story via Yad Vashem or the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to find out exactly where he was. The Nazis were incredibly good bureaucrats and kept records of so many prisoners, I’d be shocked if you can’t find out.
@@charlesedwards2856 It's too bad that I can't ask him again because he passed away some time ago. You are right, of course, he must have been mistaken. Maybe the camp had actually been in Germany somewhere? And he got rescued in 1945, instead? I can't even verify whether it was the Canadians that got him out. Maybe if I had some more information on which work-camp he had occupied but he never told us. Maybe there are records of this somewhere, but I wouldn't know where to begin looking. I googled his name and rank at the time he was in service once, but came up blank. Whether he actually met extermination-camp survivors, I don't know. To my knowledge, he never lied to me about anything so it's hard to believe he would make up stuff like this. Maybe he met them under different circumstances and later weaved the story of him meeting them into his story on returning to the Netherlands from imprisonment. Whatever the case, he was my hero. Fighting against the German invasion back then with outdated equipment (the Dutch were infamous for not modernizing their army back then), facing overwhelming odds, must have been the scariest thing ever.
I'm in my 70s. I majored in history in college. I have watched BoB dozens of times including reactors, like you. I literally cry every time I see Episode 9 again. Your tears are something to be proud of. They mean you are empathetic human beings. Bless you for your reactions.
@@iammanofnature235because Easy may not have experience it...but soldiers did. While fitting it into this specific framing is fictional, it makes you understand what was REAL for so many people. To not get that means you either are a denier or just have zero social skills or empathy.
@@ArgentLeftovers _because Easy may not have experience it...but soldiers did._ *I never said anything about other soldiers, this is what is known as a red herring. And of course, I specifically name the camp. And Easy Company did not liberate the camp in question. Kaufering IV was actually liberated by the 12th Armored Division on April 27, 1945, with some units of the 101st arriving on April 28 and Easy Company arriving on April 29. And there were only about 7 prisoners found alive along with about 500 bodies. Those are the facts, and they can be confirmed by doing a less than 10 minutes of research.* _While fitting it into this specific framing is fictional, it makes you understand what was REAL for so many people._ *Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who actually believe what they see in Band of Brothers is accurate. There are even some for whom it has become akin to a religion. And I should point out that there are numerous other embellishments, omissions, fictional elements, and factual errors in Band of Brothers.* _To not get that means you either are a denier or just have zero social skills or empathy._ *And you are likely an ignorant delusional fanboy or girl. Have a wonderful day.*
Ron Livingston always somehow manages to make me laugh even in literally his lowest point of the series. And then when he sees the camp, it's almost like he's reminded of the episode's namesake "Why We Fight" Nix and Winters are my favorites btw.
The toughest episode to watch, but, the most important episode to watch. “If anyone ever tells you the Holocaust didn't happen, or that it wasn't as bad as they say, no, it was worse than they say. What we saw, what these Germans did, it was worse than you can possibly imagine.” - Edward "Babe" Heffron
@@Flavius_Belisarius The Japanese were more brutal. The Germans were systematic. Its like the Japanese were sociopaths and the Germans were psychopaths on a national level.
@@Flavius_Belisarius just came from an argument against a war crime denier. He denied both the Holocaust, and Japanese war crimes. Christ, I cannot get it through that thick skull of his.
Both Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg kept the actors who are portrayed real heroes from "camp" scene until schedule filming day for actors' real reactions of the "camp". Those "camp" survivors were cancer patients from nearby hospital. Very emotional episode!
Some of the cancer patients took real health risks with their treatment to film, but volunteered because they thought this message was so important. I can't imagine. And a lot of Holocaust victims looked worse than that.
@@ericbrett3095Unfortunately, these patients are "fat" in comparison with the real victims of these camps. They are also treated very good, or even excellent in comparison with the real victims. The real victims were more dead than alive, for the most part. These poor victims were extremely brutally forced to work to death, with severe punishment and misstreatment.
Your tears are diamonds. I am 68 I was a (British) soldier during the Cold War and I have seen the original footage of Dachau many times. I have been there once. I watched this with you and still am crying. I cannot stop it when I see these camp scenes. If you cannot cry at scenes like that, I question your humanity. Eisenhower saw that camp and said film it, photograph it, cover everything, because years from now some bastard will stand up and say this didn't happen. My dad was a British medical Officer and was called to another camp in the north called Bergen-Belsen. He could not speak of it without choking and tearing up - no I am not Jewish, just human
My Uncle Bill was 82nd Airborne. He parachuted into Normandy and lived to fight in the Battle of the Bulge, which he also managed to survive. He also liberated some camps. These men were brave beyond measure and helped save the world from utter darkness. Please also remember Sgt. Clarence William "Bill" Robinson. He endured all the same things these men of the 101st endured and survived.
_He endured all the same things these men of the 101st endured and survived._ Not everything shown in Band of Brothers is historically accurate...for example: the camp liberation scenes are completely fictitious and Easy Company did not capture Berchtesgaden nor were they were not the first to reach the Eagle's Nest.
@@iammanofnature235 It was the 12th Armored and another 101st Airborne unit that actually liberated the Landsberg-Kaufering camp but Easy Company was at the camp as well as the rest of the Kaufering complex (which itself was massive considering it was one of 11 subcamps of Dachau.) Donald Malarkey, Carwood Lipton and Dick Winters spoke about it, so them being there was at least accurate.
My father Porter Lee McBride , Texas was 82Airborne and he too was at Normandy and the Battle of the bulge. he came home after being wounded in the Bulge. Shrapnel and 2 bullet wounds. He suffered from nightmares as he got older saying we were under attack. He never would explain and we didn't ask. Father in law Billy Charles Painter also from Texas,was 101st. When they met they saluted each other and hugged and sat down and talked for a long time. They knew each others pain. I'm grateful to have had both of them in my life.
My maternal grandfather, Private Robert Glenwood Phillips, was one of your uncle’s comrades in the 82nd. Grandpa Phillips was a paratrooper and a radio operator. He fought on D-Day and in the Battle of the Bulge, where he was wounded in action.
My Uncle Bill Lorenz was in the Army. 2nd Lt. Killed 22 days before German army surrendered, by machine gun fire from a church. Please say his name aloud.
This is why this show was made. Far too many people don't believe, or cant understand, just how evil some men can be. The reactions you both showed on your faces, are genuine and heartbreaking. I am so grateful this series was made before the last of "The Greatest Generation" had passed away. We need to remember how these wars start. How many lives are lost. Both military and civilian. Many who served never spoke of their actions. My grandfather was one of them. I never heard him speak of what he went through. So much of history stands to be lost. I am glad we are able to see what really happened
The problem is that the liberation scenes shown in Band of Brothers are completely fictitious. Easy Company actually arrived the day after Kaufering IV (Hurlach) had been liberated by the 12th Armored Division on April 27, 1945. And there only few prisoners found alive (about 7; those who had been able to hide) and about 500 bodies. From the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: _As US armed forces approached the Kaufering complex in late April 1945, the SS began evacuating the camps, sending the prisoners on death marches in the direction of Dachau. Those inmates who could not keep up were often shot or beaten to death by the guards. At Kaufering IV, the SS set fire to the barracks killing hundreds of prisoners who were too ill or weak to move._ _When the 12th Armored Division and 101st Airborne Division arrived at Kaufering IV on April 27 and 28, respectively, the soldiers discovered some 500 dead inmates. In the days that followed, the US Army units ordered the local townspeople to bury the dead._
@@iammanofnature235Yes, we know it’s fictitious. But the impact and the lesson remain, this is an instance where bending the details of history to illustrate the larger point is acceptable. It didn’t stop being heartbreaking and horrifying just because they simplified the story to keep focus on Easy Company, and while accuracy is important at the end of the day I’d rather it be digestible enough that more people will watch and learn rather than be so stringent to detail that it loses the larger audience. Spamming all these comments with “uM aCtUaLlY iT wAsN’t EaSy CoMpAnY” is neither helpful nor important in this instance, if the only takeaway you have from this episode is “hey they made up this scene to be emotional” then you’re focusing on the wrong thing.
27:02 - The "yeah he should've....but he didn't" line delivered by Nixon at the end of the episode is still to this day one of the most sublime lines/quotes I've ever heard, particularly his delivery and the context of the situation.
No one really is ready to this episode for the first time. Everyone who has watched Band of Brothers knows this episode breaks people. Years after initially watching this episode, it still hit hard for me. The people who played as the Concentration Camp prisoners were cancer patients. They volunteered to play their roles. As many people have said throughout this reaction series… Band of Brothers is just not a TV show but are lessons that later generations need to know. I understand Band of Brothers is such a hard series to get thru. I really hope you give The Pacific tv series a chance. It is really worth watching how the Pacific War was.
@@MoMoMyPup10 It’s up to them to try reacting to The Pacific. It is worth watching but no pressure in reacting to it. I, truly, believe shows like Band of Brothers and the Pacific. Movies like Saving Private Ryan and All Quiet on the Western Front are worth watching. Gives the smallest glimpses of war and, if done right, provides lessons why war is hell. Most of us will never actually be in the hellfires of war. I have been part of one and wouldn’t wish to be part of it.
Yeah, I'm'a vote no on The Pacific. It's a brutal program that I think is truly important for people to watch. However, if these girls are having as much trouble as they say they're having with BoB, The Pacific is not for them. Not yet at least. They're not American or Japanese, so it's not as crucial for them either
@@MoMoMyPup10 Why weren't our Vietnam War veterans given a break? When we came into airports and cities young women would call us baby killers and then spit on us or slap our faces. And we just had to stand there and take it!! If we wanted to ask a girl on a date or for a dance we would be asked by them if we were veterans and then we would be laughed at or swore at as they walked away with their friends! (This was at the beginning of the Peace Protests and the Women's Movement.) So no I won't give them a break! But like every chump veteran I will give them my respect and love as a fellow American and forgive them if they will forgive us for what we had to do to protect them and their future.
Ah the "I suffered so you don't stuffer but if you refuse to suffer I will get angry because who are you not to suffer". Very noble of you, thank you for your service and agent orange.
Thank you for watching these. And just so you know you have plenty of viewers crying right along with you, I've watched this many many times, and I am never not moved to tears. And yes especially as time goes by, it's important for people to see that these things happen. And to thank how it actually managed to happen.
I'd seen the episode already a couple of weeks prior, but when the company pulled into the camp my heart started racing and I got chills as though I were watching it all over again. When you said "it's our language" I had to pause the reaction for a while to gather myself. Same for during your review when you told us of your proximity to one of the camps, and how you don't know anyone who's jewish in your country. A very close friend of mine is jewish and of polish descent, her great-grandparents were extremely lucky to have been able to flee in time. I've been to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, and I've watched a considerable amount of documentaries and have read a lot in relation to the holocaust, and the horror of it only ever gets worse. The word 'horror' doesn't begin to describe it, trying to use words to describe the holocaust feels like an insult in and of itself. I agree with the sentiment that this absolutely needs to be seen by everyone, especially when holocaust denial and general antisemitism is as rampant as ever 80 years later. There's a certain amount of comfort we shouldn't be allowed to have. Ignorance toward the Shoah is one such comfort.
Hi there Tea Drinker.I saw this series when it first came out in 2001 and its still powerful stuff today in 2023,especially this episode.I’ve visited the Holocaust museum in Laxton, near Newark,Nottinghamshire,and the horror of the holocaust is there to see.Its a fascinating place to visit.Unfortunatly poisonous right wing politics seems to be on the rise everywhere, including Eastern Europe, countries that were invaded by the Nazis, like Poland, like Russia that lost millions during the war,and have their own Neo Nazis.Some of the stuff I’ve seen on line is truly sickening and hard to believe.It’s as though history, RECENT HISTORY like this, has taught some people absolutely nothing.It’s like the poison that is spouted by Conservative politicians like Suella Braverman... a British Asian woman, who’s folks were immigrants to this country, but comes out with shocking comments saying she dreams of sending illegals to Rwanda, calling them INVADERS, and failing to apologise to a concentration camp victim, who had been incarcerated in a camp as child, when that victim had asked Braverman to apologise for her use of the word INVADERS, a word the Nazis had used about the Jews in Europe.Labour were rightly hammered under Corbyn, for anti semitism in the party,but how dare the Tories act like they’re innocent when Braverman can come out with shocking comments like INVADERS and refuse to apologise to a concentration camp victim.The war in the Ukraine has taken the heat off the hatred that is spreading, but it’s still very much there.This episode of BAND OF BROTHERS, ‘WHY WE FIGHT’, should be shown to students in all schools, especially in history lessons.Mans inhumanity to man.The Shoah,the transatlantic Slave trade, World wars One and Two,the destruction of the Inca and Aztec empires and other terrible acts right through human history.Sadly I fear we just keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again.😪
_but when the company pulled into the camp my heart started racing and I got chills as though I were watching it all over again._ The camp liberation scenes were written specifically to produce an emotional response, but they are completely fictitious. Easy Company actually arrived the day after Kaufering IV (Hurlach) had been found and liberated by the 12th Armored Division on April 27, 1945. And there were only a handful of prisoners found alive, along with about 500 bodies.
@@iammanofnature235all your responses to these videos is the full on “well ackchyully” meme. As someone who knows about the inaccuracy of the series, it’s still a great series to show what the people in WW2 went through to liberate Europe from the Nazis (all though the Soviets did the brunt of the work). The camp scene is powerful to again, show a taste of what the soldiers who liberated the camps all throughout Europe saw and showed the some of the emotions they went through and more importantly the victims being so happy beyond words to be liberated from the Nazis. I think 99% of people know Hollywood is going to take liberties with shows and movies based on true events. Happens all the time. Regardless of the inaccuracies, this series is still fantastic and it shows what it was like on the Western front.
Of all the amazing details of the camp discovery scene, the one that always catches my attention is how Nixon and Winters both remove their helmets so as to seem slightly less threatening. It's such a small detail, but it says a lot about who they are, that when confronted with such horror, their first instinct is the consideration for others.
_Of all the amazing details of the camp discovery scene_ The camp shown in Band of Brothers is Kaufering IV (Hurlach) which was actually found and liberated by the 12th Armored Division on April 27, 1945, with Easy Company actually arriving on April 28. What is shown in Band of Brothers is completely fictitious.
@@StinkyBuster _the detail of who the Americans precisely were is the ONLY inaccuracy._ The camp liberation and associated scenes are fictional. Kaufering IV had been evacuated prior to the liberation of the camp. When the 12th Armored Division liberated the camp only about 7 prisoners were found alive (those who had hidden), along with about 500 bodies. The large number of prisoners shown in Band of Brothers is fictional. From the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: _As US armed forces approached the Kaufering complex in late April 1945, the SS began evacuating the camps, sending the prisoners on death marches in the direction of Dachau. Those inmates who could not keep up were often shot or beaten to death by the guards. At Kaufering IV, the SS set fire to the barracks killing hundreds of prisoners who were too ill or weak to move._ _When the 12th Armored Division and 101st Airborne Division arrived at Kaufering IV on April 27 and 28, respectively, the soldiers discovered some 500 dead inmates. In the days that followed, the US Army units ordered the local townspeople to bury the dead._
@@iammanofnature235 Major Dick Winters' memoirs, Beyond Band of Brothers addresses Easy Company's discovery of Landsberg concentration camp, p. 214: By now the men and I were seasoned combat veterans, but the sights we witnessed when we arrived at the camp defied description. The horror of what we observed remains with each paratrooper to this day. You could not explain it; you could not describe it; and you could not exaggerate it. It did not take long to realize that the Nazis were intent on eliminating all the Jews, gypsies, and anyone who disagreed with Hitler's regime. The memory of starved, dazed men who dropped their eyes and heads when we looked at them through the chain-link fence, in the same manner that a beaten, mistreated dog would cringe, left a mark on all of us forever. Nor could you underestimate the barbarity of the Nazi regime, even during the latter stages of the war. I'll take his word over yours.
@@iammanofnature235so then fuck the atrocities? Just because it wasn't Easy company that first found it? They're showing the atrocities of the war. No matter who found it, it was an atrocity. They're showing what ww2 was like and how the soldiers that actually found it would have reacted.
This is going to sound weird to anybody who hasn't seen it, but there's an episode dealing with death in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "The Body," that's as intense, albeit in a different way, dealing with a very personal death (vs. the mass, evil killing of this episode).
The second half of this episode is what gets remembered, but the first half of this episode is honestly a brilliant way to set it up. Everyone is getting fed up with the war, wondering what its even for at this point, wondering what good came of their friends getting killed and maimed. The second half of the episode answers the question, shows "Why We Fight".
Lola, you keep saying you don't know what to say, but you spoke to it PHENOMALLY. And you proved yourself wrong - you did make it through! Listen to your own words - it's incredibly important to learn things that make us uncomfortable at times, just as you sometimes have to take bitter medicine to fight off sickness. I hope at the end of the day you can say it was worth the discomfort for what you've gained from it!
Your reactions were exactly what I expected. It's been a pleasure watching this series with you. This episode should be shown to older school children to show them what possible horrors there are in the world. Something like this should NEVER be allowed to happen again. Thank you for sharing your viewing and thoughts.
_This episode should be shown to older school children to show them what possible horrors there are in the world_ Not a good idea. The liberations scenes are completely fictitious.
My Grandfather fought in WW11 in Europe and he did not talk much about it, I took him to an army reunion in 2001, I met some of his army buddies that is when my grandpa's friends talked about what they saw in the camps, I was shocked because I had no idea that he saw that horror, On the way home he talked a little bit about what he saw, he never talked about it again he died in 2002, RIP.
I don't know what to say girls, I've always loved your reactions, from Attack on Titans, through Vikings and Fullmetal, but watching Band of Brother and especially this episode is something very strange, in the sense that it's brutally strong but at the same time necessary to never forget what happened, I say it as a History teacher that I am, and in my classes with my students I always try to use this chapter of the series to reflect the theme of war and its consequences… It broke my heart to hear Lola say "that's our language", it is known that Serbia was one of the critical points in this horrible event, but listening to Lola with her broken voice about her language just broke me... You are Very brave to see this episode and the analysis, I expected nothing less. You are so great girls. Hugs and cordial greetings from Chile.
Knowing this was coming for you two, those of us who’ve seen it already knew this was gonna be tough for you. It’s crazy hard to watch liebgott tell them they have to go back in the camp.
But, the young man's reaction, after delivering his commander's message, told a lot about the depth of the character. He did his duty, but he was crushed.
One of the things I love about how this episode was made was the deliberate use of 360º shots in the camp. You may not be noticing them as they happen because you're very focused on "what" is happening, but subconsciously it's convincing you that this is not a set - this is a real place that we're inside.
@@FacloFormerFavorite That's weird because in the Crossroads episode where he said they got me there were SS Officers there and they were all Nazis. What were the three divisions of the SS? The Waffen-SS was made up of three subgroups: the Leibstandarte, Hitler's personal bodyguard; the Totenkopfverbände (Death's-Head Battalions), which administered the concentration camps and a vast empire of slave labour drawn from the Jews and the populations of the occupied territories; and the Verfügungstruppen
Many if the actors who played the people in the camp were cancer patients. The producers went to a cancer ward at a hospital, explained what they were doing, and most of the patients volunteered to be part of the show, because it was such an important story. The actors who played the soldiers didn’t get to see the camp before shooting, it was kept a surprise to them. So when you see the soldier’s reaction to seeing the camp and the victims, that’s their genuine reaction to seeing the camp for the first time. Don’t worry, the next episode isn’t as sad, and has the happiest of endings. You’ll still cry, but happy tears.
_because it was such an important story._ The liberation scenes are completely fictitious and were written to produce an emotional response. In reality, Easy Company arrived the day after the Kaufering IV had been liberated by the 12th Armored Division on April 27, 1945.
@@iammanofnature235 when you are filming a war movie or series you are faced with a choice between two options…. Cast hundreds if not thousands of main actors …. With whole groups only being on the screen for a few minute such that you dont really get to know most of them beyond being a dirty face in a torn uniform and dented helmet, OR taking a smaller cast , and have them tell the stories of more than one individual, more than one group. ….. Long before band of brothers came out that is how i explain the TV show MASH both in the length of time it was on the air (compared to the relatively short Korean Conflict) and the absurdly small MASH unit, with only four doctors in the entire company
@@MrSheckstr Why would they have to cast hundreds or thousands of main actors...you're reasoning doesn't make any sense. They needlessly brought in people to play emaciated prisoners (in actuality only about 7 prisoners were found alive) and there are many extras in other scenes. Some more examples: 1) Easy Company did not liberate Berchtesgaden nor were they the first to reach the Eagle's Nest as shown in episode 10. The 7th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Infantry Division is credited with the liberation of Berchtesgaden on May 4, 1945, and members of the French 2nd Armored Division are credited with being the first to reach the Eagle's Nest in the early morning of May 5. Easy Company arrived a few hours later. 2) Also, in episode 10 members of Easy Company did not kill an unnamed commandant of an unnamed concentration camp. This is based on the shooting of Franz Ziereis who had been commandant of Mauthausen. He had tried to hide out at his mountain hunting cabin but was spotted and reported. On May 23, 1945, U.S. Army soldiers attempted to arrest him, and he was shot three times trying to escape. He died the next day in a U.S. Army hospital. No members of Easy Company were involved.
I changed my mind. Please, watch Pacific too. I know it's hard to watch, but many of your fans going to watch that because of you. More people watch Band of Brothers and Pacific-fewer people will want war. It's not just about you anymore, it's about humanity well-being.
By the way, I am from Russia and basically feel like germans on ww2 who didn't support nazi, but not doing anything to stop them. For people who don't know much about Russia - I can't just leave this rotten country. Most citizens very poor, to the point that average salary is much lower than a ticket out of Russia. One my friend has been pro war at the beginning of this and even was thinking about joining army to "protect our country". I wasn't able to change his mind by just words, so i somehow managed to force him to watch this 2 tv series. He didn't completely change his mind, but at least he doesn't want to go to war anymore. So I am hoping that people going to watch this series with you and at least some of them will better know about horrors of war.
@@nikolaypetrov9789 for what it's worth you are a FANTASTIC HUMAN BEING. I am genuinely so sorry for you. I have watched hours of interviews of the heroic youtube channel 1420. And also some of Vasya in the Hay, helping out famished babushkas in rural areas. Shit, Russia is bigger than China AND India and the EU combined, there is an INFINITY OF LAND that begs to be developed in the east, but no, Putin had to covet that bit in the West instead of developing his own abandoned lands. Russian culture has so much more to offer to the world than "servile scum" as Webster says, whose mind goes blank whenever it has to think in ways that might challenge what the goverment says and go full "neutral" mode. Exactly what Orwell described with 1984's Thoughtcrime: "Crimestop means the faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought. It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments if they are inimical to Ingsoc, and of being bored or repelled by any train of thought which is capable of leading in a heretical direction. Crimestop, in short, means protective stupidity." Brave Nikolay, take pride in your fortitude and clarity. You are the kind of Russian the future needs. I want to add that, in my heart of hearts, the greatest hero on this planet was a Russian. Vassili Arkhipov. He who saved the world from nuclear apocalypse, on October 27 1962. Stay strong my friend.
I really don't know what to say either...you two ladies have been so invested in this series. I'll go as far as to say more so than any other YT "reactors". You connected with the veterans, the men portrayed... enough to feel for them. You wore your hearts on your sleeves & I commend you for that. It's not easy being vulnerable. Your commentary is among the best out there. By taking this seriously, you validate the service of those men. As a veteran myself, I thank you. This episode is gut-wrenching to say the least & when you recognized what the patrol found i saw it on your face. You both have beautiful, caring & compassionate hearts...God bless you. Thank you for this & look forward to episode 10
If you haven't I hope you will watch The Perfect Mix and their reactions, the woman is Jewish and watching their reaction to this episode was very hard. The moment that always hits me is the salute that Perconte and the Great War veteran share. Since my brother-in-law passed I have gone to every Remembrance service here; her was a mechanic with the Army and my older sister a Nurse with the RAF, and they met when both were serving in Singapore. I always seem to manage to find a way of pissing him off, partly because I was never his idea of what a man should be, but he was a good man who raised some great kids and I miss him very much. It also seems more important somehow since I hope I would have had the courage to be a conscienctious objector during the Great War. Thank you, kerk hiraeth
15:37 & 26:28 What is interesting is that the eyes of soldier and lady were opposed to each other. In the first scene, there was a sense of alertness to intruders in the house and anger for her husband. The soldier also seemed to feel guilty. However, when german moving the Jewish body, the lady was depressed, and on the contrary, the soldier showed angry look in front of the madam I think it is the producers' intended intention that the two of them completely change their position.
I am German and 61 years old. I can only say that many people think there were only 10 or 100 or 1000 perpetrators but that is not true. There were several thousands who killed people in the concentration camps, there were quite a few who went to war with enthusiasm at first. There were thousands and thousands who appropriated the property of Jewish people and knew these people would never come back. There were thousands who lived near concentration camps and smelled the crematoria. This smell is so "special" that you have to know that something "extraordinary" is happening there. The ovens ran almost 24 hours a day. Where are the people who arrived by endless train transports? It was impossible for them all to live "normally" there. There just wasn't enough space. But where were all the people then? Anyone who could add 1+1 knew, that the smell had to be related to people disappearing. I've been to Israel several times and talked extensively with Jewish people and the only answer to the question "why didn't anyone notice that" was that nobody wanted to know and/or that they simply didn't care. This has turned out to be a particularly German idiosyncrasy, this "I don't know anything, I don't want to know anything and it's not my fault". I'm not at fault is the most important thing. Only the others are to blame, but not me. I am against the death penalty but if I had been an Allied soldier who was present at the liberation of a concentration camp, I would have participated in the killing of SS guards. The whole thing is revenge but I would have been fine with it. Pay attention to what is happening in your lands and where the followers of these beasts raise their heads. There are monsters like that in other countries too anti-Semitism is everywhere. The wickedness and stupidity of people is not dying out.
@@jimreilly917Yes the salute and the kissing inmate are heartbreaking. I've lost track of how many times I've watched this episode, and those two scenes always get me. Every. Single. Time.😢
Thank you for watching this episode and for posting this video showing your empathy. It is appreciated. Beautifully crafted episode, my favorite of all the episodes. The script, the camera work, the acting, the music, all a class act. Decades later Waters said in an interview that looking back on his long life, seeing that camp made him the angriest he'd ever been in his life. My husband's Uncle Jack was one of the soldiers who liberated Dachau, another camp. He was a country boy; until he went into the Army he'd never been much off the farm in his whole life. Decades later when Uncle Jack was dying of cancer, he told my husband that though he'd never spoken of it, what he'd seen in that camp had haunted him his whole life. Uncle Jack spoke with my husband shortly before he died about the afterlife and said that if he was going to hell after he died, he surely knew what to expect going in - for he'd seen in April 1945 what hell on earth looked like. RIP Uncle Jack, sleep well ❤️
_seeing that camp made him the angriest he'd ever been in his life._ In actuality, Easy Company arrived at Kaufering IV two days after it had been liberated by the 12th Armored Division. For dramatic purposes, Easy Company is shown liberating the camp.
The intro and outro where the German musicians were playing Beethoven rather than Mozart was symbolic; most people tend to forget that Hitler was Austrian, not German. With him dead, Germany was on its way back to being under the control of Germans rather than a mad Austrian. The closing of the violin case is also symbolic of the closing of a coffin; dedicated to the millions killed in the concentration camps. The 300,000 Germans you see marching was known as the Ruhr pocket; basically boys and old men who were forced into defending Germany. Originally the Allies were going to bomb major cities like Hamburg. German resistance won the fight against the SS and radioed the Ruhr to surrender, which convinced the Allies to call off the bombing raid. After the Ruhr fell, that was when Hitler realized he had lost the war and shot himself. In the scene where the French soldiers shot the three Germans, that was technically a violation of the Geneva Convention; no harm is supposed to fall on soldiers who had surrendered. When Germans lost a battle against American or British forces, they happily surrendered because they could expect humane treatment; against Russian and French forces, they chose suicide because they knew they could expect no mercy. The camp the 101st Airborne found was Kaufering IV; a subcamp to Dachau. Originally when troops were preparing to take Dachau, they thought it was a chemical plant because the stench was so bad. Whether German citizens knew or not about the camps, truth be told, it's really hard to say. When brownshirt activists smashed and ruined the stores of Jews and non-party citizens during Kristallnacht, this actually generated sympathy for Jews in the public, which infuriated Hitler because it showed he didn't have the public support he thought he had. So propaganda had Jews moved out of the cities into ghettos; telling the public they were being moved for their own safety and to aid in the war effort. Once the camps were built, they moved the Jews there. Out of sight, out of mind. And if you're living under a dictatorship, asking questions, not pledging support, stuff like that easily got you killed. People either supported Hitler's fantasies, or they kept their heads down and mouths shut out of fear. That's not to say there weren't plenty of Germans who didn't fight back; Col. Stauffenberg and officers in the Wehrmacht tried to assassinate Hitler, shut down the camps and make peace with the Allies. Others like Oskar Schinder, Josef Gangl, etc, rescued Jews and POWs from certain death.
Bless you lovely girls… I assume you’re from Poland, one of the first peoples to witness Nazi atrocities. As an American I see seeds of bourgeoning fascism in my country, and some in parts of Europe as well. We must stand together to make sure we don’t see history repeat itself, in honor of the people shown in this episode. Thank you for doing this video.
@@mo45327 Thanks for the info! I didn't realize the extent of the Nazi crimes against peoples in the Balkans region. I've been reading and learning more.
@benholt06 unfortunately nazism and fascism have never gone away. They have always been present under the line. Someone says that once nazism touch a country, this country will be marked forever.
@@andreagiuntini6945 Very true. It's always been there in the margins, but in my country it is becoming mainstream in one of our major political parties.
My great grandfather was at a camp, though my family is not jewish, he was a freedomfighter here in Denmark. He survived, but the experience marked him
Oh ladies, when you said that's our language, it broke my heart. I just wanted to hug you. The Band of Brothers is a master class of that era, in my opinion. Thank you for watching this. Bless you ladies and take care. 🙏
I was stationed in Germany while in the us army and if you wanna get a reality check go to the concentration camp visits. Dachua was terrible and never forget even after 5 deployments to iraq and afghanistan I remember them camps very well.
My Grandfather raided a half dozen of the Camps. He was on point element for Patton. They had to separate the Prisoners from the Food Stores, with Bayonets. He was very tortured over all of it. I saw the Box he had, with hundreds if not thousands of pictures he took, after the Raids. God rest his Soul.
It should be noted that Easy Company did not discover the camp. They took a very reasonable artistic license here as Easy company did encounter the camp but it was discovered by a completely different regiment and I believe most of the events portrayed were actually more reflective of that unit.
My father was with the Fourth Armored Division, which had come to the relief of the 101st at Bastogne, a few months earlier. They were actually the first division to find a camp (Ohrdruf). Eisenhower, Patton, and Bradley came to see it, and an enraged Eisenhower ordered the resident of the town to be marched through the camp. The mayor and his wife went home and killed themselves. Toward the end of his life, I got up the nerve to ask him about Ohrdruf. He went ashen and his eyes took on a "thousand yard stare." I could see him seeing it. He struggled to find words and finally said, "The smell was beyond belief." He still had pictures of it. I noted that the people there (like the Germans in the town near this camp) claimed they knew nothing about it. He shook his head and said the stench of death carried for miles. There was no way they could not know. He had heard the cretins and bigots who denied the Holocaust. And he would ask me, as he faced the end of his own life, "You have those pictures don't you? You have those pictures?" He was a witness, a liberator and a man whose own soul was scarred by the horror he found.
My grandfather and grandmother survived the worst camps, Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen. Both were more death camps than any other. This camp in this episode is a drop in the bucket of the Nazi oppression that occurred, a drop.
@@self-transforming_machine-elf the impacts are different between the two. The pacific does a really good job at portraying the mental toll on soldiers in the pacific theatre of the war. Both sides were hard but each had different effects on the soldiers.
Pacific, while being a fantastic piece, never had the same effect on me as Band of Brothers. Maybe BofB had that much of an impact because I have personal ties to that part of the world but still ...
IMO, the most poignant scene in the entire series when Liebgott had to tell them to get back in the camp. Broke my heart. EDIT: To appease the anti- S'ites
@@aryzen2781 . Apparently He was Roman Catholic, went to catholic school. His fellow soldiers assume he was jewish because of his surname, appearance and his hatred for nazis. He is also spoke an Austrian dialect that was confused with Yiddish. He never corrected his fellow soldiers because he found it amusing.
@@aryzen2781 Many historians have done breakdowns of Band of Brothers. One of the things that the show got wrong was portraying Liebgott as Jewish. He wasn’t. Show states Liebgott returned to San Francisco and got his taxi. Liebgott’s own son stated Liebgott actually became a barber. Just like the show said Blithe didn’t survive his injury which he actually did and even fought in the Korean War.
You didn't have to be a high level Nazi to know their policy on Jewish citizens. The party anthem talks about the blood of the Jews "running down our daggers." These people's neighbors had been disappearing for close to decade. Their homes were abandoned. Some of these people lived within a wind's blow of a nonstop crematorium and the smell was overpowering. You want to say that people were powerless to stand against the Nazi regime, yeah a case can be made for that. But plenty of them didn't even want to. And they definitely knew what was happening, even if it was little hints in some cases.
The Allies were not aware of the Nazi's "Final Solution" camps. They knew that there were camps all around from aerial reconnaissance, but didn't know what they were for until they actually went into the camps. That's why they made the local Germans help out in the clean up so they could see for themselves what their own government were up to. It got so bad, a German town mayor hung himself in shame. 15:32 When Nixon scoffs at the dead German officer's portrait, his widow scowls at him for being the invader into her home. 26:26 Later the roles are reversed as we see Nixon staring down the widow while she cleans up the bodies. They played this scene really well as most Germans really didn't know about the camp's existence. 20:23 This prisoner actor is probably the star of the episode. When questioned if they were criminals, he gives a look of shock. He realises that the Americans really do not know what the camp was about. 20:53 That's why he starts crying; he realises that they haven't found the other camp yet and whatever family he has there is still locked up.
The combat jump Nixon participated in and described to Winters was called “Operation Varsity”. My father made this jump as 2nd Lieutenant. They jumped over the Rhine river
And note that the camp depicted was not an extermination camp, it was a concentration camp. The concentration camps had a fatality rate between "only" 40-60%. The 6 extermination camps (Chełmno, Bełżec, Sobibór, Treblinka, Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau) were all located in occupied Poland and were liberated by the Red Army. The extermination camps had a fatality rate of 90%. My father was lucky bacause he had already been collected for deportation to Auschwitz by the Hungarian authorities, but a German SS officer noticed from his papers that his mother was Catholic and sent him home. Yes, even in the SS there were officers like that. All the more surpising, because the deportation of the Hungarian Jews was organized by Eichman with an SS staff of only about a 100 ... the actual work was carried out by the Hungarian Gendarmerie. An uncle was taken to Auschwitz with his father. He returned, but his father died there, mainly due, according to my uncle, to depriving himself of the meagre food rations, giving portions to my uncle so he could survive.
As bad as what they showed here, this was just a work camp to build the Me-262 jet fighters. The camps like Auschwitz were far, far worse. Gen. Eisenhower ordered that everything be documented so people couldn't claim it was all made up. Gen. George S. Patton, nicknamed "Old Blood and Guts", who went into combat with his men and saw himself as a warrior in the wrong time toured one of these camps, and during the tour excused himself and vomited behind a building because it was too horrible even for him. May we never forget.
I am Jewish with Russian-German-Israeli parents and grandparents. My Grandfather barely escaped the Nazi's after the Bolshevik's ran him out of Russia. I didn't see it coming either when I first watches this and I watched it when it was released every week on HBO. The way they follow Easy Company I expected a historically accurate representation of all events and since the discovery of the camps was made by 12th armored division with the 101st arriving the next day. So it was great use of artistic license and an absolute head fake to catch you unaware. Brilliantly done and don't feel bad for not anticipating it.....few did.
I’ve seen Band of Brothers 3 times, and this episode never gets easier. Part of what gets me is the look on Joe Liebgott’s face when they tell him they’re Jewish, because Joe was also Jewish. It’s beyond belief what these men experienced while fighting this war. No wonder most of them didn’t talk about it when they got home. They just wanted to get a job, get married, and start their lives. There are only 119,000 WWII veterans left and soon they’ll be gone. We will never see their kind again. Those ordinary guys - those heroes of WWII.
My father grew up in Zagreb. His family was Jewish, and many, including my father, fled Croatia (then Yugoslavia) as Jews were being rounded up. Several members of his family who did not leave Croatia were captured and sent to the Jasenovac Concentration Camp, located between Zagreb and Slavonski Brod, and they were murdered there. I had a chance to visit Croatia a few years ago, and went to the Jasenovac Memorial. Standing in that place and seeing my relatives' names engraved in the memorial museum made it very, very real for me. Like you, watching this episode is difficult - but necessary. Thank you for sharing your reaction, and your genuine emotions.
18:40 "Please, help me! Help me!" 34:00 You are absolutely right, but you must know that, before Hitler was raised to a power, Stalin established a terror regimen in the Soviet Union putting political opposition and Jews into Gulags. Hitler perfectioned and mechanized the Soviet Gulags.
So, my friends grandfather was an Italian paratrooper in world war 2. He was captured alongside both German and other Italian troops. When they found the camps, they questioned him and he had no idea. None of the Italians did. The Germans said they didn’t. Every single Italian soldier knew that the Germans were lying. They told the Americans, too.
It's great to see that this show is being watched and re watched and watched again 23 years later. A true testament to the absolute amazing quality of the show.
You have officially survived the toughest episode of the series. If there was ever any question, as Webster put it only scenes earlier, after this anyone fighting in the European Theater definitely understood why they were there, and as the episode is titled, Why We Fight. It's a far cry from why we usually fight now. Good for you both for sticking it out. This is an important thing for everyone to see and think about. On a brighter note, if at the end of the series you've enjoyed it and you want to check out some of the behind-the-scenes stuff, Ron Livingston shot a vlog during their whole actor boot camp experience. It's much more lighthearted, and Ron is just a lovable guy. It would give you both a break from the tear-factory, and it's also really impressive how they prepped the cast to make this piece of art a really incredible monument to a bygone era and its heroes. Thanks for keeping it up and always making great content!
when the man spoke carrying his dead loved one,he was speaking serbo-croation it was a similar dialect to the language used while Yugoslavia was whole for those wondering
Having seen the series a number of times over the years, I have at some point skipped some of the episodes I don't particularly like - but I always make a point of watching this one, to keep reminding myself what it actually was all about, and that as horrble as this depiction is, it is a far cry from what the real horror would have been. On the other hand, I am now more grateful than ever, that I stumbled across your channel, just as you started this series - or more precisely, it got recommened because you started reacting to this series... As a German, I am well used to hearing my own language at various scenes in movies about ww2, but I find myself unable to comprehend, how it must have felt to hear your own language totally unexpected in this scene of all. I find that scene heartbreaking as a not very emotional person, but I never realized what language it was, or what was said - finally knowing makes it hit much harder.
I am somewhat overwhelmed by the fact that you two young women make it, with this episode and others, a duty to remember the atrocities that the Nazis and other extreme-right (or left) dictatorships did to not only their people, but others as well. I find this very refreshing, in this era of historical negatitivism. Kudos to you. Personally, I visited some of those camps (of course much later after the war, I'm just 58) but I also have been to numerous refugee camps around the world; including in Peshawar, Pakistan, during the invasion of Afghanistan by the USSR, in the 80'. It seems to me that we, as a human race, keep making the same mistakes. Your empathy is remarkable, in this era again of perverse narcissism. Thank you. I will be watching your channel, from now on.
It's impossible to see this episode without tearing up, very though to watch, but a must watch IMO. We must know our past, we must learn to never repeat this.
I had family that did not make it out of Europe in the 1920's and early 1930's. They were victims of the slaughter. It hurts to know that there are actually people that deny it happened. Your emotion warms my heart a bit and hope more younger generations all over the world see and learn from this.
The camp depicted in Band of Brothers is Kaufering IV and what actually happened there is far different than what is shown in Band of Brothers. The camp was actually liberated by the 12th Armored Division on April 27, 1945, with some units of the 101st Airborne Division arriving on April 28 and Easy Company arriving on April 29 (with the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion and 36th Infantry Division arriving on April 30). And there were only about 7 prisoners found alive (those who had hidden), along with about 500 bodies. From the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: _As US armed forces approached the Kaufering complex in late April 1945, the SS began evacuating the camps, sending the prisoners on death marches in the direction of Dachau. Those inmates who could not keep up were often shot or beaten to death by the guards. At Kaufering IV, the SS set fire to the barracks killing hundreds of prisoners who were too ill or weak to move._ _When the 12th Armored Division and 101st Airborne Division arrived at Kaufering IV on April 27 and 28, respectively, the soldiers discovered some 500 dead inmates. In the days that followed, the US Army units ordered the local townspeople to bury the dead._
I think in 1945 those images would’ve been more shocking to see. In 2023 in the day of instant communication news and images travel a lot quicker and are more easily accessed than ever before. I learned about these events in elementary school and it’s something I was aware of as young as nine.
Totally agree. Today, we’ve had 80 years to learn through documentation and literature of these atrocities, but to come across is first-hand in the 1940’s with nothing like this to draw experience from previously is just indescribable
Back in 1966 as a 13 year old boy we were stationed in butzbach Germany. My father was in co A 2nd battalion 32nd armor. We visited Dachau concentration camp a very sobering experience. What those poor people went through was unbelievable. Hope and pray this will never happen again.
The Band of Brothers is based a book by the American historian Stephen Ambrose of the same title, Band of Brothers about the exploits of a regiment of American soldiers, the 506th regiment of the 101rst airborne. They were considered by some historians as the best rifle infantry of WWII. The book was factually based. Stephen Spielberg and Tom Hanks did a great job making this documentary to accurately follow the book. The actors in this series are based on true characters of the 506th, and the documentary is based on reality. My son in law had the privilege of serving in the 101rst Airborne, the 506th Regiment infantry-40 years later and saw combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In my life as a nurse, I cared for 3 people who had their numbers tattooed on their arms. They had survived medical experiments in the camps. My Dad was in WWII. He said you could smell the camps 2 miles away. That's all he would say.
I knew this episode would be especially hard for you, especially hearing your native tongue being spoken during that scene where they found the camp. My heart goes out to you even more! ❤
Doesn't matter who you are or where you come from, this scene hits everyone hard with good reason. It truly is unbelievable what those people went through.
While the whole series is a superb piece of tv cinematography, there are couple of stand out episodes. The winter battle of Bastogne is one, the other is this. I'm a 60yo guy, who has seen things like The World at War, which was - and still is - one of tv's greatest series, and many other documentaries, but I was weeping all through this. Sincerest kudos to you two for your reaction, as you're still young as to not have seen things like this, and your crying shows how empathic you are. The music throughout the series is a perfect match for each episode too. It makes me want to see the rest of your reactions to this now.
As an American I’m proud of you young ladies for watching this and baring your emotions. It’s frustrating as an American to know of the sacrifices of millions of us to preserve and restore the freedom of others across the world. We have been clumsy and we have mishandled international circumstances but there is no denying that the American people are more committed to freedom than any other country in the history of the world. We are those most charitable of any country in the world. When disasters strike Americans are the most dependable to show up to help…not for any reason but love and compassion. There are many Americans who hate their own country for our old fashioned ideals but it’s because they have enjoyed relative peace and prosperity that is unprecedented in history. There is real evil in the world. It does not rest in the hearts of the American people. God bless you ladies
Do yourself a favor and watch the HBO documentary "We Stand Alone Together" after you finish the series - with more interviews with the vets, more of the vets you dint see interviewed in the series (Bull, Buck, others). You also see how they stayed close knit and kept up with each other and each others' families.
One aspect of this episode is brilliant. It opens and closes with beautiful art, ie. music. The middle is the ugliest of atrocities. It isn't just music, it is Beethoven, the greatest German composer. This shows not just that humans are capable of the finest or worst things, but even the same group of humans, Germans are capable of both extremes.
Well said, I was about to make the same point. The Germans were rightfully proud of their culture, science and art; yet it shows how such an intelligent people can stoop so low under the authority of a madman.
A large number of German POWs were shipped to POW camps in the US. They were less likely to try to escape and they filled in labor shortages in the surrounding areas. Many of them decided to immigrate to the US after the war. The soldiers were well thought of by the civilians, but the mood changed when the reports of the concentration camps began to surface.
This episode shows that Germany should have been stopped at the beggining, and the question "why fight" was ridiculous. Concentration camps exist today. For example in China and North Korea(basically entire country is huge concentration camp). And countries like those need to be stopped. Best example of how people did not learn anything from history is how weak was the response to Russian attack on Ukraine.
The allies never went to war with Germany because of the holocaust. Such crimes were uncovered after the fact. War was declared because Germany kept annexing/invading its neighbor countries. The sad reality is that if they had kept to their own borders, they probably would have gotten away with and fully realized the holocaust. The countries you've mentioned are keenly aware of this fact; that's why they're keeping to themselves and getting away with it, not to mention the true reason why nothing can be done about it at least militarily, nukes.
The Final Solution/Holocaust was primarily based in Eastern Europe, Poland in particular, and other Soviet buffer states like Romania, Ukraine, Czechoslovakia, etc. The concentration camps that the Western Allies (US, Britain, France, Canada, and Australia) discovered in Germany itself- within the borders of Germany proper -were actually *much less greusome* than the ones the Soviets liberated in the East. The camps in the East were basically murder factories where the only objective was to exterminate the "undesirables." As the war carried on and Germany started losing it's soldiers to combat, it's armaments & munitions factories to Allied aerial bombings, and it's economy to both of those two things combining, Germany began to resort to using these "undesirables" for slave labor instead. Using these people for slave labor was actually a setback in the greater Nazi agenda. If they had it their way, and they were still winning the war as easily as they were in 1939-41, they'd just have all the Jews and Slavs in Eastern Europe exterminated rightaway and with no suffering. As crazy as this must sound to anyone who's not a WW2 student or academic, the #1 priority the SS was given when planning the Final Solution was to find methods of mass extermination that would be instantaneous and humane; painless and pleasant. The Nazis actually went to great lengths to mask the purpose of their extermination camps. They built a lot of false front structures with empty interiors, and used healthy Jews that could be seen from the railways and disembarking stations working in the campground yards to make it look like everything really was on the up and up in these camps. They didn't want to do anything to panic the captives and spark a revolt because they only had limited numbers of SS guards working at these facilities. The SS was exponentially outnumbered inside the camps. Therefore, the Nazis genuinely wanted everyone who arrived at these centers to be calm and oblivious to the reality that they were walking into their own deaths. That was the plan at least. The Nazi state was actually very concerned and fearful of how the German public would react if they knew these camps existed, so they kept the atrocities to a minimum inside the German based concentration camps. They were still extremely cruel facilities by any standard regardless, but here, they at least tried to follow operating procedures that were more in-line with functioning the way normal prisons would. Unfortunately, as the situation declined for Germany both on the battlefield and at home, these rules were increasingly being thrown out the window. As Germany's troops and normal citizens started suffering enormous deprivations of food, supplies, and basic living necessities, their anger started to be taken out on the Jews & Slavs in these places.
_As crazy as this must sound to anyone who's not a WW2 student or academic, the #1 priority the SS was given when planning the Final Solution was to find methods of mass extermination that would be instantaneous and humane; painless and pleasant._ *Gassing was far from instantaneous and humane; prisoners would scratch at the walls and doors in an effort to get out. The Germans were looking for a more efficient way of killing large numbers of people instead of digging a large trench and shooting them in the back of the head like the Einsatzgruppen. The Germans in the camps employed Sonderkommandos, prisoners who worked with the Germans in exchange for better living conditions and treatment, to do most of the work at the gas chambers and at the crematoria. It took several minutes for everyone to die and then the Sonderkommandos would then remove the bodies and transport them to the crematorium.* _Unfortunately, as the situation declined for Germany both on the battlefield and at home, these rules were increasingly being thrown out the window._ *The camp depicted in Band of Brothers is Kaufering IV and what happened there is far different from what is shown in Band of Brothers.* *From the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum:* _As US armed forces approached the Kaufering complex in late April 1945, the SS began evacuating the camps, sending the prisoners on death marches in the direction of Dachau. Those inmates who could not keep up were often shot or beaten to death by the guards. At Kaufering IV, the SS set fire to the barracks killing hundreds of prisoners who were too ill or weak to move._ _When the 12th Armored Division and 101st Airborne Division arrived at Kaufering IV on April 27 and 28, respectively, the soldiers discovered some 500 dead inmates. In the days that followed, the US Army units ordered the local townspeople to bury the dead._
You said you don’t know how to speak about this, but you both perfectly articulated incredibly deep and meaningful insights about human nature and genocide-and in a language that is not your native language! Thank you for doing this.
My great grandfather was with the men that found another concentration camp. He rarely spoke of it, but it's the only time I have ever seen a tear in his eye. He wanted to emphasize the value of kindness to me and my sister, and the dangers of blind hatred. I miss him. He was as wise as he was gentle.
Brave ladies. I know it took a lot for you two to sit through this. Honest, pure, empathic reaction. This was a tough one. Always brings tears my eyes. Well done.
PLEASE watch the unofficial 11th episode, "We Stand Alone Together". It closes this series nicely. And are you planning on jumping right into "Saving Private Ryan" and then "The Pacific"? YOU NEED TO! It will be fun! PS: You also need to add “Schindler’s List” as well. Spielberg made a monumental film in “Schindler’s List”. The experience of watching it in the theater is as vivid today as if I were still walking out of the theater.
Young ladies, you are wise beyond your years. I served as a US Navy Hospital Corpsman. My job was to care for sick & injured. My first duty station, I cared for a patient, a retired US Navy Captain. He was dying from cancer. Because of his disease, he lost the ability to speak. This resulted in him being very depressed and angry. One day I laid into him because he got mad I called him Sir. Military protocol required it, the way I was raised demanded I called him Sir. I pointed at the serial number burned into his arm by those F'N PIGS and said that "tattoo" meant no one called him anything but Sir. Both he and his wife bore those. One survived Treblinka the other Auschwitz. After the war they came to the US and to served in the Navy more than 40 years. As for the show you are correct there is one episode left but I highly recommend the documentary "We stand alone, Together " the clips of the real soldiers was edited into an excellent documentary.
My grandfather survived a camp that had been liberated by American troops. He made sure to commit every soldiers name to memory and swore to God that he would name every one of his descendants after the men that saved him.
So far 21 names have been used. I’m told there are 14 more. Only when you have a kid are you allowed to see the list to pick a name. Every person that has married into the family has been told the story, and agreed to adhere to his wishes as best as they could. Boys are named directly after the soldier while girls are given a variation (like Luke would be Lucy). My grandfather didn’t live long enough to see any great-grandchildren but I’m certain he’d be pleased to know that we are following his wishes as best as we can.
That’s amazing. God bless and may your grandfather memory be cherished forever, along with all who fell as victims of the Nazis….or fighting them.
Mine survived a work-camp in Poland that got liberated by Canadians in 1944. Spent 4 years there after the germans caught him and his platoon on the Greppenberg in the Dutch province of Limburg, when the Netherlands got invaded. He told life there was pretty brutal, but fortunately for him not nearly as bad as what we see here. He did mention that the military convoy that brought him back to the German-Dutch border also carried survivors of a camp like the one shown here. He and his comrades talked to these survivors and heard stories they wished they had never heard.
@@ImCorran I hate to tell you this, but the story you were told is incorrect. Am I saying he lied? Absolutely not, but the facts are that British, Canadian, and American troops never got to Poland, and certainly not in 1944. The furthest east any allied troops that weren’t Russians got was Prague in the Czech Republic, in 1945.
Perhaps your grandfather misremembered what country the camp he was in was located. That happened a lot. Perhaps he embellished a little because the worst camps…the extermination camps…were all in Poland and extremely Eastern Europe.
You can probably look up his story via Yad Vashem or the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to find out exactly where he was. The Nazis were incredibly good bureaucrats and kept records of so many prisoners, I’d be shocked if you can’t find out.
@@charlesedwards2856 It's too bad that I can't ask him again because he passed away some time ago. You are right, of course, he must have been mistaken. Maybe the camp had actually been in Germany somewhere? And he got rescued in 1945, instead? I can't even verify whether it was the Canadians that got him out. Maybe if I had some more information on which work-camp he had occupied but he never told us. Maybe there are records of this somewhere, but I wouldn't know where to begin looking. I googled his name and rank at the time he was in service once, but came up blank.
Whether he actually met extermination-camp survivors, I don't know. To my knowledge, he never lied to me about anything so it's hard to believe he would make up stuff like this. Maybe he met them under different circumstances and later weaved the story of him meeting them into his story on returning to the Netherlands from imprisonment.
Whatever the case, he was my hero. Fighting against the German invasion back then with outdated equipment (the Dutch were infamous for not modernizing their army back then), facing overwhelming odds, must have been the scariest thing ever.
Goddamn, that's a fantastic way to honour them.
The moment you said ”thats our language” while crying really got me
Yes, indeed. Between 400 000 and 700 000 Serbs were killed in Jasenovac conc. camp in Croatia
@@Nemchi90 😞😢
What's her language?
@@ciscof4041 Serbien .
@@armandassante5928 Jasenovac concentration camp did murder between 70,000 to 100,000 people, though not all were Serbians.
I'm in my 70s. I majored in history in college. I have watched BoB dozens of times including reactors, like you. I literally cry every time I see Episode 9 again. Your tears are something to be proud of. They mean you are empathetic human beings. Bless you for your reactions.
_I literally cry every time I see Episode 9 again._
Why would you cry? It's fictional. Easy Company did not liberate Kaufering IV.
East - Yes. Indeed. And they also display their ... "protected?" lives ...
"Imagine quitting college to go to war ??" Well,... ya. 1968
@@iammanofnature235because Easy may not have experience it...but soldiers did. While fitting it into this specific framing is fictional, it makes you understand what was REAL for so many people.
To not get that means you either are a denier or just have zero social skills or empathy.
@@ArgentLeftovers
_because Easy may not have experience it...but soldiers did._
*I never said anything about other soldiers, this is what is known as a red herring. And of course, I specifically name the camp. And Easy Company did not liberate the camp in question. Kaufering IV was actually liberated by the 12th Armored Division on April 27, 1945, with some units of the 101st arriving on April 28 and Easy Company arriving on April 29. And there were only about 7 prisoners found alive along with about 500 bodies. Those are the facts, and they can be confirmed by doing a less than 10 minutes of research.*
_While fitting it into this specific framing is fictional, it makes you understand what was REAL for so many people._
*Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who actually believe what they see in Band of Brothers is accurate. There are even some for whom it has become akin to a religion. And I should point out that there are numerous other embellishments, omissions, fictional elements, and factual errors in Band of Brothers.*
_To not get that means you either are a denier or just have zero social skills or empathy._
*And you are likely an ignorant delusional fanboy or girl. Have a wonderful day.*
@@iammanofnature235 “zero social skills” irony is not your friend here.
Nixon's absolute rage through this episode was an amazing performance.
IT'S MY DOG!
Ron Livingston always somehow manages to make me laugh even in literally his lowest point of the series. And then when he sees the camp, it's almost like he's reminded of the episode's namesake "Why We Fight"
Nix and Winters are my favorites btw.
@iammanofnature235
Watch episode 11.
This show was based on the stories of the actual soldiers of Easy Company.
@@iammanofnature235 What aspects were fictional??
@@keithm1493do not pay attention to this stupid kid
The toughest episode to watch, but, the most important episode to watch. “If anyone ever tells you the Holocaust didn't happen, or that it wasn't as bad as they say, no, it was worse than they say. What we saw, what these Germans did, it was worse than you can possibly imagine.” - Edward "Babe" Heffron
Also Imperial Japan. In some ways more brutal than the Germans, and I am quarter Japanese.
@@Flavius_Belisarius The Japanese were more brutal. The Germans were systematic. Its like the Japanese were sociopaths and the Germans were psychopaths on a national level.
@@kharilane1340 I could see that.
@@Flavius_Belisarius just came from an argument against a war crime denier. He denied both the Holocaust, and Japanese war crimes. Christ, I cannot get it through that thick skull of his.
@Nguyễn Minh It is annoying, but thankfully those deniers are a tiny minority.
Both Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg kept the actors who are portrayed real heroes from "camp" scene until schedule filming day for actors' real reactions of the "camp". Those "camp" survivors were cancer patients from nearby hospital. Very emotional episode!
Some of the cancer patients took real health risks with their treatment to film, but volunteered because they thought this message was so important. I can't imagine. And a lot of Holocaust victims looked worse than that.
Some of these patients didn't live long enough to see this series released.
@Eric brett I know, but their families have though....
What is shown in Band of Brothers is a fictional version of the liberation of Kaufering IV.
@@ericbrett3095Unfortunately, these patients are "fat" in comparison with the real victims of these camps. They are also treated very good, or even excellent in comparison with the real victims. The real victims were more dead than alive, for the most part. These poor victims were extremely brutally forced to work to death, with severe punishment and misstreatment.
Your tears are diamonds.
I am 68 I was a (British) soldier during the Cold War and I have seen the original footage of Dachau many times. I have been there once. I watched this with you and still am crying. I cannot stop it when I see these camp scenes. If you cannot cry at scenes like that, I question your humanity. Eisenhower saw that camp and said film it, photograph it, cover everything, because years from now some bastard will stand up and say this didn't happen.
My dad was a British medical Officer and was called to another camp in the north called Bergen-Belsen. He could not speak of it without choking and tearing up - no I am not Jewish, just human
And today Hillary Clinton said in an interview that they needed to send anyone who supports Trump to a "re-education camp".
Beautiful comment. I applaud you.
@@johnski4709 Lol please... Trump has said way worse than that.
provide examples @@american_cosmic
@@johnski4709 Just google it, you'll find plenty.
My Uncle Bill was 82nd Airborne. He parachuted into Normandy and lived to fight in the Battle of the Bulge, which he also managed to survive. He also liberated some camps. These men were brave beyond measure and helped save the world from utter darkness. Please also remember Sgt. Clarence William "Bill" Robinson. He endured all the same things these men of the 101st endured and survived.
_He endured all the same things these men of the 101st endured and survived._
Not everything shown in Band of Brothers is historically accurate...for example: the camp liberation scenes are completely fictitious and Easy Company did not capture Berchtesgaden nor were they were not the first to reach the Eagle's Nest.
@@iammanofnature235 It was the 12th Armored and another 101st Airborne unit that actually liberated the Landsberg-Kaufering camp but Easy Company was at the camp as well as the rest of the Kaufering complex (which itself was massive considering it was one of 11 subcamps of Dachau.) Donald Malarkey, Carwood Lipton and Dick Winters spoke about it, so them being there was at least accurate.
My father Porter Lee McBride , Texas was 82Airborne and he too was at Normandy and the Battle of the bulge. he came home after being wounded in the Bulge. Shrapnel and 2 bullet wounds. He suffered from nightmares as he got older saying we were under attack. He never would explain and we didn't ask. Father in law Billy Charles Painter also from Texas,was 101st. When they met they saluted each other and hugged and sat down and talked for a long time. They knew each others pain. I'm grateful to have had both of them in my life.
My maternal grandfather, Private Robert Glenwood Phillips, was one of your uncle’s comrades in the 82nd. Grandpa Phillips was a paratrooper and a radio operator. He fought on D-Day and in the Battle of the Bulge, where he was wounded in action.
My Uncle Bill Lorenz was in the Army. 2nd Lt. Killed 22 days before German army surrendered, by machine gun fire from a church.
Please say his name aloud.
This episode never fails to make me cry.
ua-cam.com/video/dE49zKf8pzs/v-deo.html SS MARCH HİTLERJUGEND
It's a good sign that your soul is still intact.
If you don’t cry you have no empathy
I start to cry… and then the sorrow is drowned in anger. Makes me want to punch something.
You and me both, brother.
This is why this show was made. Far too many people don't believe, or cant understand, just how evil some men can be. The reactions you both showed on your faces, are genuine and heartbreaking. I am so grateful this series was made before the last of "The Greatest Generation" had passed away. We need to remember how these wars start. How many lives are lost. Both military and civilian.
Many who served never spoke of their actions. My grandfather was one of them. I never heard him speak of what he went through. So much of history stands to be lost. I am glad we are able to see what really happened
The problem is that the liberation scenes shown in Band of Brothers are completely fictitious. Easy Company actually arrived the day after Kaufering IV (Hurlach) had been liberated by the 12th Armored Division on April 27, 1945. And there only few prisoners found alive (about 7; those who had been able to hide) and about 500 bodies.
From the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum:
_As US armed forces approached the Kaufering complex in late April 1945, the SS began evacuating the camps, sending the prisoners on death marches in the direction of Dachau. Those inmates who could not keep up were often shot or beaten to death by the guards. At Kaufering IV, the SS set fire to the barracks killing hundreds of prisoners who were too ill or weak to move._
_When the 12th Armored Division and 101st Airborne Division arrived at Kaufering IV on April 27 and 28, respectively, the soldiers discovered some 500 dead inmates. In the days that followed, the US Army units ordered the local townspeople to bury the dead._
@@iammanofnature235Yes, we know it’s fictitious. But the impact and the lesson remain, this is an instance where bending the details of history to illustrate the larger point is acceptable. It didn’t stop being heartbreaking and horrifying just because they simplified the story to keep focus on Easy Company, and while accuracy is important at the end of the day I’d rather it be digestible enough that more people will watch and learn rather than be so stringent to detail that it loses the larger audience.
Spamming all these comments with “uM aCtUaLlY iT wAsN’t EaSy CoMpAnY” is neither helpful nor important in this instance, if the only takeaway you have from this episode is “hey they made up this scene to be emotional” then you’re focusing on the wrong thing.
27:02 - The "yeah he should've....but he didn't" line delivered by Nixon at the end of the episode is still to this day one of the most sublime lines/quotes I've ever heard, particularly his delivery and the context of the situation.
There are TWO left. "Points" is the last in the series. "We Stand Alone Together," is a follow up with extended interviews with the actual veterans.
You're right!
And also, Ron "Lewis Nixon" Livingston's documentary during their boot camp!
ua-cam.com/video/Ju11gCisOL4/v-deo.html
Thanks for pointing this out. It makes me sad how many reactors don't watch "We Stand Alone Together" after finishing BoB
No one really is ready to this episode for the first time. Everyone who has watched Band of Brothers knows this episode breaks people. Years after initially watching this episode, it still hit hard for me.
The people who played as the Concentration Camp prisoners were cancer patients. They volunteered to play their roles. As many people have said throughout this reaction series… Band of Brothers is just not a TV show but are lessons that later generations need to know.
I understand Band of Brothers is such a hard series to get thru. I really hope you give The Pacific tv series a chance. It is really worth watching how the Pacific War was.
C'mon man, you like torturing people too? Give the girls a break please.
@@MoMoMyPup10 It’s up to them to try reacting to The Pacific. It is worth watching but no pressure in reacting to it. I, truly, believe shows like Band of Brothers and the Pacific. Movies like Saving Private Ryan and All Quiet on the Western Front are worth watching. Gives the smallest glimpses of war and, if done right, provides lessons why war is hell. Most of us will never actually be in the hellfires of war. I have been part of one and wouldn’t wish to be part of it.
Yeah, I'm'a vote no on The Pacific. It's a brutal program that I think is truly important for people to watch. However, if these girls are having as much trouble as they say they're having with BoB, The Pacific is not for them. Not yet at least. They're not American or Japanese, so it's not as crucial for them either
@@MoMoMyPup10 Why weren't our Vietnam War veterans given a break?
When we came into airports and cities young women would call us baby killers and then spit on us or slap our faces. And we just had to stand there and take it!! If we wanted to ask a girl on a date or for a dance we would be asked by them if we were veterans and then we would be laughed at or swore at as they walked away with their friends! (This was at the beginning of the Peace Protests and the Women's Movement.) So no I won't give them a break! But like every chump veteran I will give them my respect and love as a fellow American and forgive them if they will forgive us for what we had to do to protect them and their future.
Ah the "I suffered so you don't stuffer but if you refuse to suffer I will get angry because who are you not to suffer".
Very noble of you, thank you for your service and agent orange.
Thank you for watching these. And just so you know you have plenty of viewers crying right along with you, I've watched this many many times, and I am never not moved to tears.
And yes especially as time goes by, it's important for people to see that these things happen. And to thank how it actually managed to happen.
I'd seen the episode already a couple of weeks prior, but when the company pulled into the camp my heart started racing and I got chills as though I were watching it all over again. When you said "it's our language" I had to pause the reaction for a while to gather myself. Same for during your review when you told us of your proximity to one of the camps, and how you don't know anyone who's jewish in your country. A very close friend of mine is jewish and of polish descent, her great-grandparents were extremely lucky to have been able to flee in time. I've been to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, and I've watched a considerable amount of documentaries and have read a lot in relation to the holocaust, and the horror of it only ever gets worse. The word 'horror' doesn't begin to describe it, trying to use words to describe the holocaust feels like an insult in and of itself. I agree with the sentiment that this absolutely needs to be seen by everyone, especially when holocaust denial and general antisemitism is as rampant as ever 80 years later. There's a certain amount of comfort we shouldn't be allowed to have. Ignorance toward the Shoah is one such comfort.
Hi there Tea Drinker.I saw this series when it first came out in 2001 and its still powerful stuff today in 2023,especially this episode.I’ve visited the Holocaust museum in Laxton, near Newark,Nottinghamshire,and the horror of the holocaust is there to see.Its a fascinating place to visit.Unfortunatly poisonous right wing politics seems to be on the rise everywhere, including Eastern Europe, countries that were invaded by the Nazis, like Poland, like Russia that lost millions during the war,and have their own Neo Nazis.Some of the stuff I’ve seen on line is truly sickening and hard to believe.It’s as though history, RECENT HISTORY like this, has taught some people absolutely nothing.It’s like the poison that is spouted by Conservative politicians like Suella Braverman... a British Asian woman, who’s folks were immigrants to this country, but comes out with shocking comments saying she dreams of sending illegals to Rwanda, calling them INVADERS, and failing to apologise to a concentration camp victim, who had been incarcerated in a camp as child, when that victim had asked Braverman to apologise for her use of the word INVADERS, a word the Nazis had used about the Jews in Europe.Labour were rightly hammered under Corbyn, for anti semitism in the party,but how dare the Tories act like they’re innocent when Braverman can come out with shocking comments like INVADERS and refuse to apologise to a concentration camp victim.The war in the Ukraine has taken the heat off the hatred that is spreading, but it’s still very much there.This episode of BAND OF BROTHERS, ‘WHY WE FIGHT’, should be shown to students in all schools, especially in history lessons.Mans inhumanity to man.The Shoah,the transatlantic Slave trade, World wars One and Two,the destruction of the Inca and Aztec empires and other terrible acts right through human history.Sadly I fear we just keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again.😪
Why is antisemitism rampant 80 years later?
_but when the company pulled into the camp my heart started racing and I got chills as though I were watching it all over again._
The camp liberation scenes were written specifically to produce an emotional response, but they are completely fictitious. Easy Company actually arrived the day after Kaufering IV (Hurlach) had been found and liberated by the 12th Armored Division on April 27, 1945. And there were only a handful of prisoners found alive, along with about 500 bodies.
@@iammanofnature235all your responses to these videos is the full on “well ackchyully” meme.
As someone who knows about the inaccuracy of the series, it’s still a great series to show what the people in WW2 went through to liberate Europe from the Nazis (all though the Soviets did the brunt of the work). The camp scene is powerful to again, show a taste of what the soldiers who liberated the camps all throughout Europe saw and showed the some of the emotions they went through and more importantly the victims being so happy beyond words to be liberated from the Nazis.
I think 99% of people know Hollywood is going to take liberties with shows and movies based on true events. Happens all the time.
Regardless of the inaccuracies, this series is still fantastic and it shows what it was like on the Western front.
The struggle you two feel watching this will make a peaceful existence feel all the sweeter.
Powerful statement
Thanks
Of all the amazing details of the camp discovery scene, the one that always catches my attention is how Nixon and Winters both remove their helmets so as to seem slightly less threatening. It's such a small detail, but it says a lot about who they are, that when confronted with such horror, their first instinct is the consideration for others.
_Of all the amazing details of the camp discovery scene_
The camp shown in Band of Brothers is Kaufering IV (Hurlach) which was actually found and liberated by the 12th Armored Division on April 27, 1945, with Easy Company actually arriving on April 28. What is shown in Band of Brothers is completely fictitious.
@@iammanofnature235the detail of who the Americans precisely were is the ONLY inaccuracy.
@@StinkyBuster
_the detail of who the Americans precisely were is the ONLY inaccuracy._
The camp liberation and associated scenes are fictional. Kaufering IV had been evacuated prior to the liberation of the camp. When the 12th Armored Division liberated the camp only about 7 prisoners were found alive (those who had hidden), along with about 500 bodies. The large number of prisoners shown in Band of Brothers is fictional.
From the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum:
_As US armed forces approached the Kaufering complex in late April 1945, the SS began evacuating the camps, sending the prisoners on death marches in the direction of Dachau. Those inmates who could not keep up were often shot or beaten to death by the guards. At Kaufering IV, the SS set fire to the barracks killing hundreds of prisoners who were too ill or weak to move._
_When the 12th Armored Division and 101st Airborne Division arrived at Kaufering IV on April 27 and 28, respectively, the soldiers discovered some 500 dead inmates. In the days that followed, the US Army units ordered the local townspeople to bury the dead._
@@iammanofnature235 Major Dick Winters' memoirs, Beyond Band of Brothers addresses Easy Company's discovery of Landsberg concentration camp, p. 214:
By now the men and I were seasoned combat veterans, but the sights we witnessed when we arrived at the camp defied description. The horror of what we observed remains with each paratrooper to this day. You could not explain it; you could not describe it; and you could not exaggerate it. It did not take long to realize that the Nazis were intent on eliminating all the Jews, gypsies, and anyone who disagreed with Hitler's regime. The memory of starved, dazed men who dropped their eyes and heads when we looked at them through the chain-link fence, in the same manner that a beaten, mistreated dog would cringe, left a mark on all of us forever. Nor could you underestimate the barbarity of the Nazi regime, even during the latter stages of the war.
I'll take his word over yours.
@@iammanofnature235so then fuck the atrocities? Just because it wasn't Easy company that first found it? They're showing the atrocities of the war. No matter who found it, it was an atrocity. They're showing what ww2 was like and how the soldiers that actually found it would have reacted.
It is hard to imagine a more intense single episode of television.
This is going to sound weird to anybody who hasn't seen it, but there's an episode dealing with death in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "The Body," that's as intense, albeit in a different way, dealing with a very personal death (vs. the mass, evil killing of this episode).
It was written for dramatic effect, but it is a fictional version of the liberation of Kaufering IV.
This is the hardest episode guys, so you’ve made it through the toughest part! Really appreciate you guys going on this journey.
The second half of this episode is what gets remembered, but the first half of this episode is honestly a brilliant way to set it up. Everyone is getting fed up with the war, wondering what its even for at this point, wondering what good came of their friends getting killed and maimed. The second half of the episode answers the question, shows "Why We Fight".
Tough episode but a very necessary one
Lola, you keep saying you don't know what to say, but you spoke to it PHENOMALLY.
And you proved yourself wrong - you did make it through!
Listen to your own words - it's incredibly important to learn things that make us uncomfortable at times, just as you sometimes have to take bitter medicine to fight off sickness.
I hope at the end of the day you can say it was worth the discomfort for what you've gained from it!
Couldn't agree more. She spoke wonderfully about the topic in all honesty.
Your reactions were exactly what I expected. It's been a pleasure watching this series with you. This episode should be shown to older school children to show them what possible horrors there are in the world. Something like this should NEVER be allowed to happen again. Thank you for sharing your viewing and thoughts.
_This episode should be shown to older school children to show them what possible horrors there are in the world_
Not a good idea. The liberations scenes are completely fictitious.
My Grandfather fought in WW11 in Europe and he did not talk much about it, I took him to an army reunion in 2001, I met some of his army buddies that is when my grandpa's friends talked about what they saw in the camps, I was shocked because I had no idea that he saw that horror, On the way home he talked a little bit about what he saw, he never talked about it again he died in 2002, RIP.
I don't know what to say girls, I've always loved your reactions, from Attack on Titans, through Vikings and Fullmetal, but watching Band of Brother and especially this episode is something very strange, in the sense that it's brutally strong but at the same time necessary to never forget what happened, I say it as a History teacher that I am, and in my classes with my students I always try to use this chapter of the series to reflect the theme of war and its consequences…
It broke my heart to hear Lola say "that's our language", it is known that Serbia was one of the critical points in this horrible event, but listening to Lola with her broken voice about her language just broke me... You are Very brave to see this episode and the analysis, I expected nothing less. You are so great girls. Hugs and cordial greetings from Chile.
Knowing this was coming for you two, those of us who’ve seen it already knew this was gonna be tough for you. It’s crazy hard to watch liebgott tell them they have to go back in the camp.
But, the young man's reaction, after delivering his commander's message, told a lot about the depth of the character. He did his duty, but he was crushed.
One of the things I love about how this episode was made was the deliberate use of 360º shots in the camp. You may not be noticing them as they happen because you're very focused on "what" is happening, but subconsciously it's convincing you that this is not a set - this is a real place that we're inside.
I've always loved Webster, but this episode always showed me why.
Was it he who said it’s funny ever since then entered Germany they never saw one nazi? Might be the next episode .
@@FacloFormerFavorite he said it in the beginning of this one
ua-cam.com/video/dE49zKf8pzs/v-deo.html WAFFEN SS
@@FacloFormerFavorite That's weird because in the Crossroads episode where he said they got me there were SS Officers there and they were all Nazis.
What were the three divisions of the SS?
The Waffen-SS was made up of three subgroups: the Leibstandarte, Hitler's personal bodyguard; the Totenkopfverbände (Death's-Head Battalions), which administered the concentration camps and a vast empire of slave labour drawn from the Jews and the populations of the occupied territories; and the Verfügungstruppen
@@FacloFormerFavorite Perconte says it, when they are getting themselves billets by forcing Germans out of their homes.
Many if the actors who played the people in the camp were cancer patients. The producers went to a cancer ward at a hospital, explained what they were doing, and most of the patients volunteered to be part of the show, because it was such an important story.
The actors who played the soldiers didn’t get to see the camp before shooting, it was kept a surprise to them. So when you see the soldier’s reaction to seeing the camp and the victims, that’s their genuine reaction to seeing the camp for the first time.
Don’t worry, the next episode isn’t as sad, and has the happiest of endings. You’ll still cry, but happy tears.
_because it was such an important story._
The liberation scenes are completely fictitious and were written to produce an emotional response. In reality, Easy Company arrived the day after the Kaufering IV had been liberated by the 12th Armored Division on April 27, 1945.
@@iammanofnature235 when you are filming a war movie or series you are faced with a choice between two options…. Cast hundreds if not thousands of main actors …. With whole groups only being on the screen for a few minute such that you dont really get to know most of them beyond being a dirty face in a torn uniform and dented helmet, OR taking a smaller cast , and have them tell the stories of more than one individual, more than one group. …..
Long before band of brothers came out that is how i explain the TV show MASH both in the length of time it was on the air (compared to the relatively short Korean Conflict) and the absurdly small MASH unit, with only four doctors in the entire company
@@MrSheckstr
Why would they have to cast hundreds or thousands of main actors...you're reasoning doesn't make any sense. They needlessly brought in people to play emaciated prisoners (in actuality only about 7 prisoners were found alive) and there are many extras in other scenes.
Some more examples:
1) Easy Company did not liberate Berchtesgaden nor were they the first to reach the Eagle's Nest as shown in episode 10. The 7th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Infantry Division is credited with the liberation of Berchtesgaden on May 4, 1945, and members of the French 2nd Armored Division are credited with being the first to reach the Eagle's Nest in the early morning of May 5. Easy Company arrived a few hours later.
2) Also, in episode 10 members of Easy Company did not kill an unnamed commandant of an unnamed concentration camp. This is based on the shooting of Franz Ziereis who had been commandant of Mauthausen. He had tried to hide out at his mountain hunting cabin but was spotted and reported. On May 23, 1945, U.S. Army soldiers attempted to arrest him, and he was shot three times trying to escape. He died the next day in a U.S. Army hospital. No members of Easy Company were involved.
I changed my mind.
Please, watch Pacific too.
I know it's hard to watch, but many of your fans going to watch that because of you.
More people watch Band of Brothers and Pacific-fewer people will want war.
It's not just about you anymore, it's about humanity well-being.
By the way, I am from Russia and basically feel like germans on ww2 who didn't support nazi, but not doing anything to stop them.
For people who don't know much about Russia - I can't just leave this rotten country. Most citizens very poor, to the point that average salary is much lower than a ticket out of Russia.
One my friend has been pro war at the beginning of this and even was thinking about joining army to "protect our country". I wasn't able to change his mind by just words, so i somehow managed to force him to watch this 2 tv series. He didn't completely change his mind, but at least he doesn't want to go to war anymore.
So I am hoping that people going to watch this series with you and at least some of them will better know about horrors of war.
@@nikolaypetrov9789 for what it's worth you are a FANTASTIC HUMAN BEING. I am genuinely so sorry for you. I have watched hours of interviews of the heroic youtube channel 1420. And also some of Vasya in the Hay, helping out famished babushkas in rural areas. Shit, Russia is bigger than China AND India and the EU combined, there is an INFINITY OF LAND that begs to be developed in the east, but no, Putin had to covet that bit in the West instead of developing his own abandoned lands.
Russian culture has so much more to offer to the world than "servile scum" as Webster says, whose mind goes blank whenever it has to think in ways that might challenge what the goverment says and go full "neutral" mode.
Exactly what Orwell described with 1984's Thoughtcrime:
"Crimestop means the faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought. It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments if they are inimical to Ingsoc, and of being bored or repelled by any train of thought which is capable of leading in a heretical direction. Crimestop, in short, means protective stupidity."
Brave Nikolay, take pride in your fortitude and clarity.
You are the kind of Russian the future needs.
I want to add that, in my heart of hearts, the greatest hero on this planet was a Russian. Vassili Arkhipov. He who saved the world from nuclear apocalypse, on October 27 1962.
Stay strong my friend.
Humanity will always want war.
I really don't know what to say either...you two ladies have been so invested in this series. I'll go as far as to say more so than any other YT "reactors". You connected with the veterans, the men portrayed... enough to feel for them. You wore your hearts on your sleeves & I commend you for that. It's not easy being vulnerable. Your commentary is among the best out there. By taking this seriously, you validate the service of those men. As a veteran myself, I thank you. This episode is gut-wrenching to say the least & when you recognized what the patrol found i saw it on your face. You both have beautiful, caring & compassionate hearts...God bless you. Thank you for this & look forward to episode 10
If you haven't I hope you will watch The Perfect Mix and their reactions, the woman is Jewish and watching their reaction to this episode was very hard. The moment that always hits me is the salute that Perconte and the Great War veteran share. Since my brother-in-law passed I have gone to every Remembrance service here; her was a mechanic with the Army and my older sister a Nurse with the RAF, and they met when both were serving in Singapore. I always seem to manage to find a way of pissing him off, partly because I was never his idea of what a man should be, but he was a good man who raised some great kids and I miss him very much. It also seems more important somehow since I hope I would have had the courage to be a conscienctious objector during the Great War. Thank you, kerk hiraeth
Band of Brothers is one of the greatest pieces of film/tv ever created.
15:37 & 26:28
What is interesting is that the eyes of soldier and lady were opposed to each other.
In the first scene, there was a sense of alertness to intruders in the house and anger for her husband. The soldier also seemed to feel guilty.
However, when german moving the Jewish body, the lady was depressed, and on the contrary, the soldier showed angry look in front of the madam
I think it is the producers' intended intention that the two of them completely change their position.
I am German and 61 years old.
I can only say that many people think there were only 10 or 100 or 1000 perpetrators but that is not true. There were several thousands who killed people in the concentration camps, there were quite a few who went to war with enthusiasm at first.
There were thousands and thousands who appropriated the property of Jewish people and knew these people would never come back. There were thousands who lived near concentration camps and smelled the crematoria. This smell is so "special" that you have to know that something "extraordinary" is happening there.
The ovens ran almost 24 hours a day. Where are the people who arrived by endless train transports? It was impossible for them all to live "normally" there. There just wasn't enough space. But where were all the people then? Anyone who could add 1+1 knew, that the smell had to be related to people disappearing. I've been to Israel several times and talked extensively with Jewish people and the only answer to the question "why didn't anyone notice that" was that nobody wanted to know and/or that they simply didn't care.
This has turned out to be a particularly German idiosyncrasy, this "I don't know anything, I don't want to know anything and it's not my fault". I'm not at fault is the most important thing. Only the others are to blame, but not me. I am against the death penalty but if I had been an Allied soldier who was present at the liberation of a concentration camp, I would have participated in the killing of SS guards. The whole thing is revenge but I would have been fine with it. Pay attention to what is happening in your lands and where the followers of these beasts raise their heads. There are monsters like that in other countries too anti-Semitism is everywhere. The wickedness and stupidity of people is not dying out.
Oh that hurt.❤
The scene where the prisoner saluted broke me
The one that cracked me hard was when the one prisoner came up to the GI, hugged him and couldn’t stop kissing him and crying. Liberated!😢
@@jimreilly917Yes the salute and the kissing inmate are heartbreaking. I've lost track of how many times I've watched this episode, and those two scenes always get me. Every. Single. Time.😢
And never again…is happening again. Now. As of October 7.
Thank you for watching this episode and for posting this video showing your empathy. It is appreciated.
Beautifully crafted episode, my favorite of all the episodes. The script, the camera work, the acting, the music, all a class act.
Decades later Waters said in an interview that looking back on his long life, seeing that camp made him the angriest he'd ever been in his life.
My husband's Uncle Jack was one of the soldiers who liberated Dachau, another camp. He was a country boy; until he went into the Army he'd never been much off the farm in his whole life. Decades later when Uncle Jack was dying of cancer, he told my husband that though he'd never spoken of it, what he'd seen in that camp had haunted him his whole life. Uncle Jack spoke with my husband shortly before he died about the afterlife and said that if he was going to hell after he died, he surely knew what to expect going in - for he'd seen in April 1945 what hell on earth looked like. RIP Uncle Jack, sleep well ❤️
_seeing that camp made him the angriest he'd ever been in his life._
In actuality, Easy Company arrived at Kaufering IV two days after it had been liberated by the 12th Armored Division. For dramatic purposes, Easy Company is shown liberating the camp.
The intro and outro where the German musicians were playing Beethoven rather than Mozart was symbolic; most people tend to forget that Hitler was Austrian, not German. With him dead, Germany was on its way back to being under the control of Germans rather than a mad Austrian. The closing of the violin case is also symbolic of the closing of a coffin; dedicated to the millions killed in the concentration camps.
The 300,000 Germans you see marching was known as the Ruhr pocket; basically boys and old men who were forced into defending Germany. Originally the Allies were going to bomb major cities like Hamburg. German resistance won the fight against the SS and radioed the Ruhr to surrender, which convinced the Allies to call off the bombing raid. After the Ruhr fell, that was when Hitler realized he had lost the war and shot himself.
In the scene where the French soldiers shot the three Germans, that was technically a violation of the Geneva Convention; no harm is supposed to fall on soldiers who had surrendered. When Germans lost a battle against American or British forces, they happily surrendered because they could expect humane treatment; against Russian and French forces, they chose suicide because they knew they could expect no mercy.
The camp the 101st Airborne found was Kaufering IV; a subcamp to Dachau. Originally when troops were preparing to take Dachau, they thought it was a chemical plant because the stench was so bad.
Whether German citizens knew or not about the camps, truth be told, it's really hard to say. When brownshirt activists smashed and ruined the stores of Jews and non-party citizens during Kristallnacht, this actually generated sympathy for Jews in the public, which infuriated Hitler because it showed he didn't have the public support he thought he had. So propaganda had Jews moved out of the cities into ghettos; telling the public they were being moved for their own safety and to aid in the war effort. Once the camps were built, they moved the Jews there. Out of sight, out of mind. And if you're living under a dictatorship, asking questions, not pledging support, stuff like that easily got you killed. People either supported Hitler's fantasies, or they kept their heads down and mouths shut out of fear. That's not to say there weren't plenty of Germans who didn't fight back; Col. Stauffenberg and officers in the Wehrmacht tried to assassinate Hitler, shut down the camps and make peace with the Allies. Others like Oskar Schinder, Josef Gangl, etc, rescued Jews and POWs from certain death.
Bless you lovely girls… I assume you’re from Poland, one of the first peoples to witness Nazi atrocities. As an American I see seeds of bourgeoning fascism in my country, and some in parts of Europe as well. We must stand together to make sure we don’t see history repeat itself, in honor of the people shown in this episode. Thank you for doing this video.
I can't appreciate your comment enough. I see it too.
They are from Serbia. That's why they recognize the language in that scene
@@mo45327 Thanks for the info! I didn't realize the extent of the Nazi crimes against peoples in the Balkans region. I've been reading and learning more.
@benholt06 unfortunately nazism and fascism have never gone away. They have always been present under the line. Someone says that once nazism touch a country, this country will be marked forever.
@@andreagiuntini6945 Very true. It's always been there in the margins, but in my country it is becoming mainstream in one of our major political parties.
The finale like the other episodes, is done with realism, sensitivity, empathy and class...😌
My great grandfather was at a camp, though my family is not jewish, he was a freedomfighter here in Denmark. He survived, but the experience marked him
Oh ladies, when you said that's our language, it broke my heart. I just wanted to hug you. The Band of Brothers is a master class of that era, in my opinion. Thank you for watching this. Bless you ladies and take care. 🙏
I was stationed in Germany while in the us army and if you wanna get a reality check go to the concentration camp visits. Dachua was terrible and never forget even after 5 deployments to iraq and afghanistan I remember them camps very well.
My Grandfather raided a half dozen of the Camps. He was on point element for Patton. They had to separate the Prisoners from the Food Stores, with Bayonets. He was very tortured over all of it. I saw the Box he had, with hundreds if not thousands of pictures he took, after the Raids. God rest his Soul.
Nonsense.
It should be noted that Easy Company did not discover the camp. They took a very reasonable artistic license here as Easy company did encounter the camp but it was discovered by a completely different regiment and I believe most of the events portrayed were actually more reflective of that unit.
My father was with the Fourth Armored Division, which had come to the relief of the 101st at Bastogne, a few months earlier. They were actually the first division to find a camp (Ohrdruf). Eisenhower, Patton, and Bradley came to see it, and an enraged Eisenhower ordered the resident of the town to be marched through the camp. The mayor and his wife went home and killed themselves. Toward the end of his life, I got up the nerve to ask him about Ohrdruf. He went ashen and his eyes took on a "thousand yard stare." I could see him seeing it. He struggled to find words and finally said, "The smell was beyond belief." He still had pictures of it.
I noted that the people there (like the Germans in the town near this camp) claimed they knew nothing about it. He shook his head and said the stench of death carried for miles. There was no way they could not know.
He had heard the cretins and bigots who denied the Holocaust. And he would ask me, as he faced the end of his own life, "You have those pictures don't you? You have those pictures?" He was a witness, a liberator and a man whose own soul was scarred by the horror he found.
to think so much of this suffering could have been avoided if Russia had chosen to honour their pact with France instead of their pact with Germany.
My grandfather and grandmother survived the worst camps, Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen. Both were more death camps than any other. This camp in this episode is a drop in the bucket of the Nazi oppression that occurred, a drop.
God bless them all
If this series is difficult for you to watch, be aware “The Pacific” is much more graphic and brutal.
And much less impactful
@@self-transforming_machine-elf That depends.
@@self-transforming_machine-elf the impacts are different between the two. The pacific does a really good job at portraying the mental toll on soldiers in the pacific theatre of the war. Both sides were hard but each had different effects on the soldiers.
Band of Brothers is about war turning men into brothers.
The Pacific is about war turning men into monsters.
Pacific, while being a fantastic piece, never had the same effect on me as Band of Brothers. Maybe BofB had that much of an impact because I have personal ties to that part of the world but still ...
Keith Woods: "russian" oligarchs.
Igor Kolomoisky.
Great russian famine, Holodomor, Famine in Khazakhstan, Lazar Kaganovich, Genrikh Yagoda, Aron Solts, Filipp Goloshchyokin, Yakov Yurovsky, Lazar Kogan, Matvei Berman, Naftaly Frenkel, Salomon Morel, Helena Brus.
IMO, the most poignant scene in the entire series when Liebgott had to tell them to get back in the camp. Broke my heart.
EDIT: To appease the anti- S'ites
fun fact he wasn't
@@Daario_ how do you know
@@aryzen2781 . Apparently He was Roman Catholic, went to catholic school. His fellow soldiers assume he was jewish because of his surname, appearance and his hatred for nazis. He is also spoke an Austrian dialect that was confused with Yiddish. He never corrected his fellow soldiers because he found it amusing.
@@aryzen2781 Many historians have done breakdowns of Band of Brothers. One of the things that the show got wrong was portraying Liebgott as Jewish. He wasn’t. Show states Liebgott returned to San Francisco and got his taxi. Liebgott’s own son stated Liebgott actually became a barber.
Just like the show said Blithe didn’t survive his injury which he actually did and even fought in the Korean War.
No he wasn’t, stop spreading lies. Smfh
25:25 Unfortunately most citizens DIDN'T know exactly what was happening in these camps so painting them as culpable isn't historically accurate.
You didn't have to be a high level Nazi to know their policy on Jewish citizens. The party anthem talks about the blood of the Jews "running down our daggers." These people's neighbors had been disappearing for close to decade. Their homes were abandoned. Some of these people lived within a wind's blow of a nonstop crematorium and the smell was overpowering.
You want to say that people were powerless to stand against the Nazi regime, yeah a case can be made for that. But plenty of them didn't even want to. And they definitely knew what was happening, even if it was little hints in some cases.
Thank you for reacting to this one, Lola and Milena
The Allies were not aware of the Nazi's "Final Solution" camps. They knew that there were camps all around from aerial reconnaissance, but didn't know what they were for until they actually went into the camps. That's why they made the local Germans help out in the clean up so they could see for themselves what their own government were up to. It got so bad, a German town mayor hung himself in shame.
15:32 When Nixon scoffs at the dead German officer's portrait, his widow scowls at him for being the invader into her home. 26:26 Later the roles are reversed as we see Nixon staring down the widow while she cleans up the bodies. They played this scene really well as most Germans really didn't know about the camp's existence.
20:23 This prisoner actor is probably the star of the episode. When questioned if they were criminals, he gives a look of shock. He realises that the Americans really do not know what the camp was about. 20:53 That's why he starts crying; he realises that they haven't found the other camp yet and whatever family he has there is still locked up.
The combat jump Nixon participated in and described to Winters was called “Operation Varsity”. My father made this jump as 2nd Lieutenant. They jumped over the Rhine river
And note that the camp depicted was not an extermination camp, it was a concentration camp. The concentration camps had a fatality rate between "only" 40-60%. The 6 extermination camps (Chełmno, Bełżec, Sobibór, Treblinka, Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau) were all located in occupied Poland and were liberated by the Red Army. The extermination camps had a fatality rate of 90%.
My father was lucky bacause he had already been collected for deportation to Auschwitz by the Hungarian authorities, but a German SS officer noticed from his papers that his mother was Catholic and sent him home. Yes, even in the SS there were officers like that. All the more surpising, because the deportation of the Hungarian Jews was organized by Eichman with an SS staff of only about a 100 ... the actual work was carried out by the Hungarian Gendarmerie. An uncle was taken to Auschwitz with his father. He returned, but his father died there, mainly due, according to my uncle, to depriving himself of the meagre food rations, giving portions to my uncle so he could survive.
As bad as what they showed here, this was just a work camp to build the Me-262 jet fighters. The camps like Auschwitz were far, far worse.
Gen. Eisenhower ordered that everything be documented so people couldn't claim it was all made up. Gen. George S. Patton, nicknamed "Old Blood and Guts", who went into combat with his men and saw himself as a warrior in the wrong time toured one of these camps, and during the tour excused himself and vomited behind a building because it was too horrible even for him.
May we never forget.
I am Jewish with Russian-German-Israeli parents and grandparents. My Grandfather barely escaped the Nazi's after the Bolshevik's ran him out of Russia. I didn't see it coming either when I first watches this and I watched it when it was released every week on HBO. The way they follow Easy Company I expected a historically accurate representation of all events and since the discovery of the camps was made by 12th armored division with the 101st arriving the next day. So it was great use of artistic license and an absolute head fake to catch you unaware. Brilliantly done and don't feel bad for not anticipating it.....few did.
I’ve seen Band of Brothers 3 times, and this episode never gets easier. Part of what gets me is the look on Joe Liebgott’s face when they tell him they’re Jewish, because Joe was also Jewish. It’s beyond belief what these men experienced while fighting this war. No wonder most of them didn’t talk about it when they got home. They just wanted to get a job, get married, and start their lives. There are only 119,000 WWII veterans left and soon they’ll be gone. We will never see their kind again. Those ordinary guys - those heroes of WWII.
My father grew up in Zagreb. His family was Jewish, and many, including my father, fled Croatia (then Yugoslavia) as Jews were being rounded up. Several members of his family who did not leave Croatia were captured and sent to the Jasenovac Concentration Camp, located between Zagreb and Slavonski Brod, and they were murdered there. I had a chance to visit Croatia a few years ago, and went to the Jasenovac Memorial. Standing in that place and seeing my relatives' names engraved in the memorial museum made it very, very real for me. Like you, watching this episode is difficult - but necessary. Thank you for sharing your reaction, and your genuine emotions.
I strongly recommend following this with From the Earth to the Moon. Definitely not as emotionally draining
18:40 "Please, help me! Help me!"
34:00 You are absolutely right, but you must know that, before Hitler was raised to a power, Stalin established a terror regimen in the Soviet Union putting political opposition and Jews into Gulags. Hitler perfectioned and mechanized the Soviet Gulags.
So, my friends grandfather was an Italian paratrooper in world war 2. He was captured alongside both German and other Italian troops. When they found the camps, they questioned him and he had no idea. None of the Italians did. The Germans said they didn’t. Every single Italian soldier knew that the Germans were lying. They told the Americans, too.
It's great to see that this show is being watched and re watched and watched again 23 years later. A true testament to the absolute amazing quality of the show.
You have officially survived the toughest episode of the series. If there was ever any question, as Webster put it only scenes earlier, after this anyone fighting in the European Theater definitely understood why they were there, and as the episode is titled, Why We Fight. It's a far cry from why we usually fight now. Good for you both for sticking it out. This is an important thing for everyone to see and think about.
On a brighter note, if at the end of the series you've enjoyed it and you want to check out some of the behind-the-scenes stuff, Ron Livingston shot a vlog during their whole actor boot camp experience. It's much more lighthearted, and Ron is just a lovable guy. It would give you both a break from the tear-factory, and it's also really impressive how they prepped the cast to make this piece of art a really incredible monument to a bygone era and its heroes.
Thanks for keeping it up and always making great content!
when the man spoke carrying his dead loved one,he was speaking serbo-croation it was a similar dialect to the language used while Yugoslavia was whole for those wondering
Having seen the series a number of times over the years, I have at some point skipped some of the episodes I don't particularly like - but I always make a point of watching this one, to keep reminding myself what it actually was all about, and that as horrble as this depiction is, it is a far cry from what the real horror would have been.
On the other hand, I am now more grateful than ever, that I stumbled across your channel, just as you started this series - or more precisely, it got recommened because you started reacting to this series... As a German, I am well used to hearing my own language at various scenes in movies about ww2, but I find myself unable to comprehend, how it must have felt to hear your own language totally unexpected in this scene of all. I find that scene heartbreaking as a not very emotional person, but I never realized what language it was, or what was said - finally knowing makes it hit much harder.
I am somewhat overwhelmed by the fact that you two young women make it, with this episode and others, a duty to remember the atrocities that the Nazis and other extreme-right (or left) dictatorships did to not only their people, but others as well. I find this very refreshing, in this era of historical negatitivism. Kudos to you.
Personally, I visited some of those camps (of course much later after the war, I'm just 58) but I also have been to numerous refugee camps around the world; including in Peshawar, Pakistan, during the invasion of Afghanistan by the USSR, in the 80'. It seems to me that we, as a human race, keep making the same mistakes.
Your empathy is remarkable, in this era again of perverse narcissism. Thank you.
I will be watching your channel, from now on.
HBO also did a series called "Generation Kill" that follows a Marine company in Iraq
Report on the status of JLO
I'm happy you guys decided to watch this show.
It's impossible to see this episode without tearing up, very though to watch, but a must watch IMO. We must know our past, we must learn to never repeat this.
I had family that did not make it out of Europe in the 1920's and early 1930's. They were victims of the slaughter. It hurts to know that there are actually people that deny it happened. Your emotion warms my heart a bit and hope more younger generations all over the world see and learn from this.
Funny fact. The second to last episode of the Last season of The Expanse, is also called Why we Fight.
The camp depicted in Band of Brothers is Kaufering IV and what actually happened there is far different than what is shown in Band of Brothers. The camp was actually liberated by the 12th Armored Division on April 27, 1945, with some units of the 101st Airborne Division arriving on April 28 and Easy Company arriving on April 29 (with the 522nd Field Artillery Battalion and 36th Infantry Division arriving on April 30). And there were only about 7 prisoners found alive (those who had hidden), along with about 500 bodies.
From the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum:
_As US armed forces approached the Kaufering complex in late April 1945, the SS began evacuating the camps, sending the prisoners on death marches in the direction of Dachau. Those inmates who could not keep up were often shot or beaten to death by the guards. At Kaufering IV, the SS set fire to the barracks killing hundreds of prisoners who were too ill or weak to move._
_When the 12th Armored Division and 101st Airborne Division arrived at Kaufering IV on April 27 and 28, respectively, the soldiers discovered some 500 dead inmates. In the days that followed, the US Army units ordered the local townspeople to bury the dead._
I think in 1945 those images would’ve been more shocking to see.
In 2023 in the day of instant communication news and images travel a lot quicker and are more easily accessed than ever before.
I learned about these events in elementary school and it’s something I was aware of as young as nine.
Totally agree. Today, we’ve had 80 years to learn through documentation and literature of these atrocities, but to come across is first-hand in the 1940’s with nothing like this to draw experience from previously is just indescribable
Back in 1966 as a 13 year old boy we were stationed in butzbach Germany. My father was in co A 2nd battalion 32nd armor. We visited Dachau concentration camp a very sobering experience. What those poor people went through was unbelievable. Hope and pray this will never happen again.
The Band of Brothers is based a book by the American historian Stephen Ambrose of the same title, Band of Brothers about the exploits of a regiment of American soldiers, the 506th regiment of the 101rst airborne. They were considered by some historians as the best rifle infantry of WWII. The book was factually based. Stephen Spielberg and Tom Hanks did a great job making this documentary to accurately follow the book. The actors in this series are based on true characters of the 506th, and the documentary is based on reality. My son in law had the privilege of serving in the 101rst Airborne, the 506th Regiment infantry-40 years later and saw combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.
In my life as a nurse, I cared for 3 people who had their numbers tattooed on their arms. They had survived medical experiments in the camps. My Dad was in WWII. He said you could smell the camps 2 miles away. That's all he would say.
I knew this episode would be especially hard for you, especially hearing your native tongue being spoken during that scene where they found the camp. My heart goes out to you even more! ❤
This is the episode that I think that we've all be waiting for.
Doesn't matter who you are or where you come from, this scene hits everyone hard with good reason. It truly is unbelievable what those people went through.
Yes. In a strange way, this episode is always the most eagerly waited reaction. For first timers, it hits like a sledgehammer.
yes
While the whole series is a superb piece of tv cinematography, there are couple of stand out episodes.
The winter battle of Bastogne is one, the other is this.
I'm a 60yo guy, who has seen things like The World at War, which was - and still is - one of tv's greatest series, and many other documentaries, but I was weeping all through this.
Sincerest kudos to you two for your reaction, as you're still young as to not have seen things like this, and your crying shows how empathic you are.
The music throughout the series is a perfect match for each episode too.
It makes me want to see the rest of your reactions to this now.
I just want to give them both a hug after this.
As an American I’m proud of you young ladies for watching this and baring your emotions. It’s frustrating as an American to know of the sacrifices of millions of us to preserve and restore the freedom of others across the world. We have been clumsy and we have mishandled international circumstances but there is no denying that the American people are more committed to freedom than any other country in the history of the world. We are those most charitable of any country in the world. When disasters strike Americans are the most dependable to show up to help…not for any reason but love and compassion. There are many Americans who hate their own country for our old fashioned ideals but it’s because they have enjoyed relative peace and prosperity that is unprecedented in history. There is real evil in the world. It does not rest in the hearts of the American people. God bless you ladies
Do yourself a favor and watch the HBO documentary "We Stand Alone Together" after you finish the series - with more interviews with the vets, more of the vets you dint see interviewed in the series (Bull, Buck, others). You also see how they stayed close knit and kept up with each other and each others' families.
Little bit of trivia: the French soldier executing Germans (14:55) is played by Tom Hanks.
You have made it to probably the toughest episode...well done on making to this point. ✌
One aspect of this episode is brilliant.
It opens and closes with beautiful art, ie. music.
The middle is the ugliest of atrocities.
It isn't just music, it is Beethoven, the greatest German composer.
This shows not just that humans are capable of the finest or worst things, but even the same group of humans, Germans are capable of both extremes.
Well said, I was about to make the same point. The Germans were rightfully proud of their culture, science and art; yet it shows how such an intelligent people can stoop so low under the authority of a madman.
You MUST watch The Pacific!
A large number of German POWs were shipped to POW camps in the US. They were less likely to try to escape and they filled in labor shortages in the surrounding areas. Many of them decided to immigrate to the US after the war. The soldiers were well thought of by the civilians, but the mood changed when the reports of the concentration camps began to surface.
This episode shows that Germany should have been stopped at the beggining, and the question "why fight" was ridiculous.
Concentration camps exist today. For example in China and North Korea(basically entire country is huge concentration camp).
And countries like those need to be stopped.
Best example of how people did not learn anything from history is how weak was the response to Russian attack on Ukraine.
The allies never went to war with Germany because of the holocaust. Such crimes were uncovered after the fact. War was declared because Germany kept annexing/invading its neighbor countries. The sad reality is that if they had kept to their own borders, they probably would have gotten away with and fully realized the holocaust. The countries you've mentioned are keenly aware of this fact; that's why they're keeping to themselves and getting away with it, not to mention the true reason why nothing can be done about it at least militarily, nukes.
Forced Labor camps still exist in Siberia as they have since the time of the Tsars.
Yeah lets simply stop a nuclear power. Its all so simple. Just simply deploy our simple troops.
The Final Solution/Holocaust was primarily based in Eastern Europe, Poland in particular, and other Soviet buffer states like Romania, Ukraine, Czechoslovakia, etc. The concentration camps that the Western Allies (US, Britain, France, Canada, and Australia) discovered in Germany itself- within the borders of Germany proper -were actually *much less greusome* than the ones the Soviets liberated in the East. The camps in the East were basically murder factories where the only objective was to exterminate the "undesirables."
As the war carried on and Germany started losing it's soldiers to combat, it's armaments & munitions factories to Allied aerial bombings, and it's economy to both of those two things combining, Germany began to resort to using these "undesirables" for slave labor instead. Using these people for slave labor was actually a setback in the greater Nazi agenda. If they had it their way, and they were still winning the war as easily as they were in 1939-41, they'd just have all the Jews and Slavs in Eastern Europe exterminated rightaway and with no suffering.
As crazy as this must sound to anyone who's not a WW2 student or academic, the #1 priority the SS was given when planning the Final Solution was to find methods of mass extermination that would be instantaneous and humane; painless and pleasant. The Nazis actually went to great lengths to mask the purpose of their extermination camps. They built a lot of false front structures with empty interiors, and used healthy Jews that could be seen from the railways and disembarking stations working in the campground yards to make it look like everything really was on the up and up in these camps. They didn't want to do anything to panic the captives and spark a revolt because they only had limited numbers of SS guards working at these facilities. The SS was exponentially outnumbered inside the camps. Therefore, the Nazis genuinely wanted everyone who arrived at these centers to be calm and oblivious to the reality that they were walking into their own deaths.
That was the plan at least.
The Nazi state was actually very concerned and fearful of how the German public would react if they knew these camps existed, so they kept the atrocities to a minimum inside the German based concentration camps. They were still extremely cruel facilities by any standard regardless, but here, they at least tried to follow operating procedures that were more in-line with functioning the way normal prisons would.
Unfortunately, as the situation declined for Germany both on the battlefield and at home, these rules were increasingly being thrown out the window. As Germany's troops and normal citizens started suffering enormous deprivations of food, supplies, and basic living necessities, their anger started to be taken out on the Jews & Slavs in these places.
_As crazy as this must sound to anyone who's not a WW2 student or academic, the #1 priority the SS was given when planning the Final Solution was to find methods of mass extermination that would be instantaneous and humane; painless and pleasant._
*Gassing was far from instantaneous and humane; prisoners would scratch at the walls and doors in an effort to get out. The Germans were looking for a more efficient way of killing large numbers of people instead of digging a large trench and shooting them in the back of the head like the Einsatzgruppen. The Germans in the camps employed Sonderkommandos, prisoners who worked with the Germans in exchange for better living conditions and treatment, to do most of the work at the gas chambers and at the crematoria. It took several minutes for everyone to die and then the Sonderkommandos would then remove the bodies and transport them to the crematorium.*
_Unfortunately, as the situation declined for Germany both on the battlefield and at home, these rules were increasingly being thrown out the window._
*The camp depicted in Band of Brothers is Kaufering IV and what happened there is far different from what is shown in Band of Brothers.*
*From the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum:*
_As US armed forces approached the Kaufering complex in late April 1945, the SS began evacuating the camps, sending the prisoners on death marches in the direction of Dachau. Those inmates who could not keep up were often shot or beaten to death by the guards. At Kaufering IV, the SS set fire to the barracks killing hundreds of prisoners who were too ill or weak to move._
_When the 12th Armored Division and 101st Airborne Division arrived at Kaufering IV on April 27 and 28, respectively, the soldiers discovered some 500 dead inmates. In the days that followed, the US Army units ordered the local townspeople to bury the dead._
The scene at 21:02 always gets me when the prisoner starts crying about I imagine some lost family member at the women's camp
Imperial Japan did some crazy stuff too during ww2
I just noticed that Michael Fasbender (younger Magneto in X Men) and Tom Hardy were in this episode
Your comments and perspective was amazing to hear thank you so much for that.
You two are so brave, I'm glad you watched this one, and I hope you get us to the end
You said you don’t know how to speak about this, but you both perfectly articulated incredibly deep and meaningful insights about human nature and genocide-and in a language that is not your native language!
Thank you for doing this.
My great grandfather was with the men that found another concentration camp. He rarely spoke of it, but it's the only time I have ever seen a tear in his eye. He wanted to emphasize the value of kindness to me and my sister, and the dangers of blind hatred.
I miss him. He was as wise as he was gentle.
Brave ladies. I know it took a lot for you two to sit through this. Honest, pure, empathic reaction. This was a tough one. Always brings tears my eyes. Well done.
This is why history teaching is mandatory.
PLEASE watch the unofficial 11th episode, "We Stand Alone Together". It closes this series nicely.
And are you planning on jumping right into "Saving Private Ryan" and then "The Pacific"? YOU NEED TO! It will be fun!
PS: You also need to add “Schindler’s List” as well. Spielberg made a monumental film in “Schindler’s List”. The experience of watching it in the theater is as vivid today as if I were still walking out of the theater.
Young ladies, you are wise beyond your years. I served as a US Navy Hospital Corpsman. My job was to care for sick & injured. My first duty station, I cared for a patient, a retired US Navy Captain. He was dying from cancer. Because of his disease, he lost the ability to speak. This resulted in him being very depressed and angry. One day I laid into him because he got mad I called him Sir. Military protocol required it, the way I was raised demanded I called him Sir. I pointed at the serial number burned into his arm by those F'N PIGS and said that "tattoo" meant no one called him anything but Sir. Both he and his wife bore those. One survived Treblinka the other Auschwitz. After the war they came to the US and to served in the Navy more than 40 years.
As for the show you are correct there is one episode left but I highly recommend the documentary "We stand alone, Together " the clips of the real soldiers was edited into an excellent documentary.