Band of Brothers Epi 9 "Why We Fight"
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- Опубліковано 2 гру 2023
- This episode was another difficult watch. It is hard to see what was done to the Jewish People and may we never forget. They continue to make this an amazing series and give great respect to the story.
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Original Show: Band of Brothers Mini Series (2001)
People who think this couldnt happen again arent paying attention
hmm Russia ?
@@martinslipskis379Palestine
Agreed. We are seeing anti-Semitism rear its ugly head again.
Israel ftw
Trump has already started talking about putting people, his enemies, in camps.
"Get it all on record now - get the films - get the witnesses -because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened."
Dwight Eisenhower 1945.
aka the last decent Republican
@@chancegamesone I'm not a Republican or Democrat and don't play that game. I think most Presidents regardless of party have good and bad qualities and legacies.
@@jokerz7936 how it should be but people like the words too much instead of the character of the president
@@chancegamesone🤡🐑
@@sweetrolldealer Eisenhower was a man of great character. West Pointer, 5-star general, and POTUS. The man gave more to this country than practically all of its citizens ever will including most Presidents.
9:11 "Were women just divorcing their husbands because they were away at war for so long?"
...Yes.
And not just 'were they'... They still are. It's very unfortunately VERY common.
On top of that, many US servicemen were very affected by the war in a way that many stateside couldn't quite grasp. Women, but also the generation older and younger than them. Many people in the late 40s just wanted to pick up where they left off, not realizing that the 20-something men who came back couldn't just do that all the time. Reading archive letters once I remember one letter where a US GI said he connected better with the women in the UK when he went back to a base in 1947 than the US because they had gone through the bombings, the hunger, and just things you couldn't imagine.
The US Army once wrote on twitter:
- how was serving impacted you
And a soldier wrote
My wife f*cked others and now I'm afraid of Fireworks
I have an older friend from church, when I was stationed in Illinois, who was a prisoner at the Hanoi Hilton for 7 years after his plane was shot down. His wife left him while he was enduring the hardships of being a prisoner of war, and took the kids back to where her family was, and he didn’t find out until he was being released by North Vietnam.
But at least his story has a happy ending. His second wife was introduced to him by a friend after he returned home, and their first day was at the White House dinner that Nixon threw for the POWs after they were repatriated. He wasn’t seeing anyone, and a friend suggested he take his sister so he wouldn’t have to go alone. They knew each other, but at the dinner hit it off amazingly well, and have been married nearly 50 years now. He remained on active duty and retired as a Colonel (same rank as Col. Sink) in the ‘80s. He was principal at the school my kids went to, and I got to know him over the decade I lived there, what an amazing guy! He said he promised God that if he would get him through the torture, he’d live a good and simple life when he got home, and focus on being a good husband and dad (not knowing that he’d be keeping that promise on a second wife). But that’s what he did. He’s one of the humblest and kindest men I’ve ever met.
No idea how much this happened in WW2 or happens today to soldiers, but Nixon´s case is a bad example of this since he was having an affair in England while his wife was in the States. So i think a divorce was justified. But taking his dog? That aint right.
@@JG-px9vp Came here to right this. Thank you.
The camp survivor saluting Perconte gets me every time.
Bull squatting with his back to the camp. The toughest man in company of very tough men, and he couldn't deal.
@@dsmdgold Bull and Spiers together, looking shaken. Normally these two wouldn't blink, so it would speak volumes.
The man kissing and hugging the soldier is the moment for me. Every time.
I once read that early on when the Nazis came to power that some German citizens who were Jewish and other minorities who had served in the military, especially during WW1, and even those who were awarded medals in that war, thought that they would be exempt from persecution due to their military service but learned that it meant nothing to the Nazis compared to their being Jewish or of other minorities. Beyond tragic.
@@Dej24601 I read that President Hindenburg requested that jews who served in WW1 were excluded from discriminatory laws. But he died in 1934, and after that there was nothing to limit the nazis anymore.
I love how they showed us Nixon's problems building up and the way he is handling it, but the moment the focus is shifted towards the camp.. Nixon's problems are basically non-existent compared to those in the camps.
Such a great comment so right
Great point, that is the whole subtext of this episode. Nixon is questioning everything, even loses his wife, home and dog back home. But throughout the episode, he gets much needed perspective, even getting a glimpse of his enemy's wife, house and dog when he broke into that house.
The first scene shows a man trained in the classics at a prestigious Ivy League, the following scenes show him spiraling away. His shame from the lady in red, turned to pure disgust as his perspective changed.
Yeah it's really well done. Shows you no matter how shitty things may seem, it can always get worse
“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.” Private Babe Heffron
Right. As horrifying as this portrayal is, the real thing was a hundred times worse (from what I’ve heard from those who liberated the camps). No film sets, makeup, etc. could truly recreate the horrors felt and witnessed by so many.
@@terminallumbago6465 You can't smell things on television either.
If anyone ever says that it didn’t happen, remind them that not one defendant at the war crimes trials ever said that it didn’t happen.
@@winestu5322Are you sure about that?
@@normanroscher7545 They perhaps said they didn't do it, but the evidence is irrefutable. We're well into the camera age now, these things were filmed, photographed, documented and logged. I forget who it was that insisted this was done, to ensure nobody could contest the reality. While it seems disrespectful to document and film such things, the reality is so inconceivably awful and evil, many would have a struggle accepting humanity could sink so low. To film and photograph it was critical to humanity understanding, learning and being vigilant against history repeating itself.
Many of the actors who played the concentration camp inmates looked closer to the part because they were terminally ill, many of them suffering from Stage 4 cancer which causes flesh to just melt off the bones. My Dad died of cancer and he ended up a shrunken wreck. (He had been a paratrooper, in the British Army.)
I’m so sorry for the loss of your Dad and I thank him for serving our great country 🇬🇧
My mom died of the same, and looked just the same. Sorry to have shared this experience with you.
A lot of the actors unfortunately died before the episode aired.
As an American with relatives who both fought and died in the war, I thank your Father for his service to help rid the world of tyranny. 🇺🇸 🇬🇧
@@terminallumbago6465 So much credit for them for doing such a role despite being so ill, i can't even imagine
I’m a grown man. I’ve seen this episode probably ten times. I always cry. It’s just incomprehensible to think what we’re capable of doing to each other.
And that HATE still goes on today.The Ukraine,Gaza,there’s been a war virtually every decade since World War ll ended in 1945.We just don’t seem to learn from the past, and poisonous politics seems to fan a lot of those problems.😪
T’is nature’s law that man was made to mourn, man’s inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn.
When you put humans against other humans, this is what the end result is. Fuck war, and fuck what happened there.
It is incomprehensible. And yet we can still be the agents of change. We will likely need to resign ourselves that we won’t see the end of war in our lifetime. But someone has to start somewhere so that one day there can live that first generation without war. Many have. Many are right now. But many many more will need to keep the ball rolling. A good first step… be kind to a stranger. Or forgive a bad driver. You don’t know what’s going on in their life.
It is completely comprehensible. Read Ordinary Men.
My grandfather went over with the First Canadian army (Saskatoon Light Infantry MG division) in late ‘39 and didn’t come home until Aug ‘45. His first wife and family had moved on. Nixon’s situation wasn’t uncommon.
Sorry for your grandfather's experience (really appreciate his service). Not sure how close to fact the episode (Nixon receiving his dear john letter) was but in the "Crossroads" episode, it is inferred that Nixon is having an affair. When they mention that Winters needs a dose of civilization, Nixon states that he is going to go see a certain young lady.
If you're gone for that long your family at home doesn't know if they're ever going to see you again.
Damn, that’s cold. My grandfather volunteered in 1939 (11th Field Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery) and his girlfriend at the time gave him GRIEF for it. She said that he was only doing that to get out of marrying him. He decided to prove her wrong and married her before shipping out to England.
She was my grandmother, and very devoted to her family until the end of her life. I was lucky, and my grandfather as well. My sympathies to your family, the trust issues after that must have been brutal.
The producers withheld this part of the filming from the actors until they filmed the scenes, so their reactions are as genuine as they could be.
They also went to a local hospital and asked if people in the Cancer Ward ... even terminal patients... would play the parts of these people because only someone on heavy chemotherapy could mimic the physical torment these people underwent.
Excellent review! This series has had such personal meaning to me. My Dad was 101st, D-Day, Market Garden, Bastogne to V-E Day. He then re-upped for the Pacific! I now understand why he was somber, especially at Christmas. Mom said he returned from the war totally changed. RIP, Les Jamison, my forever hero. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
📌📌
Much respect for your father. My family had large involvement in the war, no less than 8 served in WWII, 2 did not live to see the end. They truly were “the greatest generation”, they knew full well after the Great War how ugly fighting for freedom can be yet volunteered in their millions for all humanity. Your comment reminds me of a well known quote in my country from the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917:
“For those who went up that ridge I am not sure anyone truly survived; their families would not recognize them when they got home, they were forever strangers unto themselves”
🇬🇧 🇺🇸 🇨🇦 🇦🇺 🇳🇿 🇿🇦 🇵🇱 🇳🇴 🇳🇱 🇧🇪 🇫🇷
Huge respect to your dear dad....may he be at peace.....❤
My dad was in ww2, he only talked about a few things but never for long, as we got older ,he never mentioned it again, my dad passed October of 22, he was 94., love you dad ! And thank you
When i watched this for the first time, the discovery of the camp and the mass of humanity hit me, but what absolutely destroyed me was the man who hugged and kissed his American liberator! I could not even begin to image the sense of gratitude and relief of this man, not to mention the human connection of an embrace after so much time of abuse.
I agree. I watched a documentary of WWII in Europe and an American nurse was helping camp survivors, and one was a small child. He must have just arrived at the camp because they usually killed children immediately, and the nurse gave him a piece of chocolate, and he smiled and a tear rolled down his face. I broke down sobbing. It was so moving.
20+ years since I've first seen this one and it still has me gritting my teeth and shaking my head. It is a tough but necessary watch, IMO.
As for the actors, they weren't shown the camp or the people (all of them cancer patients) who played the victims so a lot of their reactions were genuine. As for the patients, a lot of them knew that would never live to see the series, but they agreed to do it because they felt it was a story that needed to be told.
One of my nieces is 12 y.o, one day as we were speaking about the war with my father over family diner's end she started to ask questions about it, especially the holocaust as they had started to brush the surface in school, it was hard to explain the concept of it, learning I was a ww2 buff she'd ask me more about the war more and more, just young genuine curiosity you know ?
At some point she asked her mom if she could watch"The Pianist "with me because I had talked about it before, her mom said yes knowing it was me. We ended up looking through the Pianist and Band Of Brothers then, it left her shocked by 'happy' as she said, 'Now I know why the older people talk so much about it', our familly was lucky to not lose anyone in the camps nor ww2 but I still cried and so did she, I'm glad I could educate the younger generation about it.
My father fought in the pacific, his brother died at Bastogne, I’m 59, and cry like a child everyone I see this episode.
Just a little background on this episode, EZ Company didn’t actually find this camp however they felt that they had to show what many of the other companies & battalions were finding. To me this is a perfect example of how you can stray from the actual history but still stay true to the historical event. I don’t care how many times I see this it’s still a gut punch that needs to be seen.
The division had found the camp.
@@genghisgalahad8465 The above commenter is actually right. It was elements of one of the armored divisions that found this camp originally, but members of the 101st were involved.
@@willd7596 And Easy did in fact spend some time at that camp. They arrived the day after it was found by the other division.
What really strikes me about that is that by Easy did not see the absolute worst of it. By the time they got there, there has been 24 hours of relief effort, but it was still horrifying enough that it affected them deeply. (See the Babe Heffron quote elsewhere in these comments.)
I like they do this too. Like they showcased the angels of bastogne even if they didn't specifically interact with members of easy company. Just to show them that respect
@@willd7596 the 101st and the 12th armored division the day before them found the camps. No Patton involved. Only when the latter had to join up to cross the Rhine under the Third Army.
The subtle acting on Winters in the concentration camp is just superb. Him being the most professional of them he keeps it together and you can almost see more disappointment than shock and anger in his face. Like he's just sad at what humans do to each other. I could watch this a hundred times and I still get choked up. The thing is that it's impossible not to sugarcoat that scene because in reality the survivors were so near death that no actor could ever be made to resemble them.
I always keep my eye on Spiers, during the scene where they are asking the man questions. It's the first time you see him genuinely upset and shocked.
I watched the series when it first came out. This episode was so very powerful. Two years ago, I went to Munich on a work trip…I had to see Dachau. I thought I knew how it would impact me. The way this show depicted a similar camp was so precise. The Nazi officers lived in these beautiful, idyllic little villages next to the camps. Like it was a normal day’s work!!! A normal job, with an place called the “blood ditch”. I was forever changed that day. I went back to my hotel and cried myself to sleep. I will never again underestimate man’s capacity for evil when they deny the humanity of another. This episode is the height of truth in art. If you ever go to Germany or Poland, go see the preserved camps, we must never ever forget!!!
The camp Easy Company had a role in liberating was Kaufering Lager IV, a sub camp of Dachau. So it would have been extremely similar to Dachau.
You are the first reactor who I've seen respond to the significance of the dog in the woman in red's home. I believe Hanks utilized the red color of her blouse and coat in the same way Spielberg used it with the little girl in Schindler's List. I was in high school in the early 1970's and in world history when we got to the point of explaining the camps, our teacher brought in one of the school janitors who rolled up his sleeve and showed us the number tattooed on his arm and then promptly proceeded to tells us what his life was like 30 years earlier when he was our age. Never forgot that. Sometimes the most unsuspecting people have the most heart wrenching stories. Thank you for doing this series and sharing your emotions with us.
Why We Fight is the name of a series of films produced by Frank Capra for US Military to show to soldiers explaining the background of the war. All of the Easy Company soldiers would have seen it. The films are available on UA-cam.
thanks for watching!
My grandfather liberated camps .I've seen pictures he took. He was mobile artillery he followed the airborne through europe. He really never spoke of details his whole life. i was with him his last few weeks, and it's all he talked about. His silence through life refleced the horrible things he has seen, and i could tell by the stories in his last few weeks that it was the thing he was most proud of in his life.
If you pause the video at 12:15, you'll see that the guy executing the soldiers on their knees is Tom Hanks himself.
I really love the interaction scene with Perconte and O'Keefe. As a Vet myself I think it does a great job showing both sides of the argument without saying either man is right or wrong. O'Keefe wants to do his duty, he wants to do what he trained and suffered for, and most of all wants to feel like and know he contributed to the war and Allied victory. I saw a bit of action but nothing like what the guys before me did in the earlier years of the war so I understand his feelings. Surrounded by all these guys that endured and fought through the worst of it; Normandy, Holland, The Ardennes. It's very easy to feel like you didn't do anything at all if you weren't in the big stuff.
But I also get where Perconte comes from. He *has* seen the worst of it. Seen his friends and comrades shot and mangled by explosions, endured hardships of awful weather and minimal food. Hell he's been shot too. To him someone openly wanting to experience that probably seems naive and stupid at best and outright offensive at worst. It's a short scene but I absolutely love it.
I saw this show before I joined the Marines but seeing this scene again surprised me with how much I related to it. I joined because my older cousin fought with the 7th Marines (can’t remember the battalion) in the GWOT. I think it was in Iraq, might’ve been both. I also remember watching all the moto combat videos those guys did and all that and then like through boot, everything was about being a warfighter and a killer and hearing about all the Marines that came before us and carrying their legacy and everything and while yes, war is hell and no one should want it, it did make me end up feeling like I wasn’t really a Marine for having not seen combat.
It’s the most accurate depiction between a guy who’s been there for awhile and the F.N.G. I’m a vet myself I’ve had to deal with some of guys like O’keefe. However, if your in the middle of a second tour your temperament is a lot less. Especially when it’s 150 degrees and your in full battle rattle.
I’ve seen the entire Band of Brothers series several times. You’d think that with each subsequent viewing, one would get less emotional about it, but I don’t. “Why We Fight” brings me to tears every time …
The writing and acting is superb, but it’s more than that … What this production has done, especially in this episode, is somehow make it REAL, like you’re experiencing it … Band of Brothers is one of the most profound and life changing productions one can experience.
Asking out of love and concern, my wife asks me, “Why are you putting yourself “through that”, again? … My answer is always the same. Because I need to remember. I also have to remind others who’d insulate themselves from the realities and horrors of war, and of the holocaust, that THIS cannot be forgotten. Humanity can’t keep repeating this
Thanks for your comment and re watching again for me! Editing these was so hard but so important to remember! Always!
Ames, I just found your channel, and I've followed you from Carentan to here. I'm an old guy. My daughter bought this series for me years ago, because I thought so much of its first run on HBO. My father fought in this war, pretty much as you see it. Thank you for watching with such an open heart and mind. This could happen again, if we let it. Let's not. Thanks again.
Your reaction here is so genuine, so raw, and so heartfelt. I of course knew Episode 9 was coming and I knew the horror you were going to see. Your observations and thoughts are both heartbreaking and beautiful. Thanks for sharing your journey.
Omg! I agree with you so much! All of Ames reactions to this series has been so moving and honest.
Truly shows how horrific the Third Reich was. Never forget.
I have watched this episode at least a dozen times, and it still brings tears to my eyes.
I had the honor of being the Military Escort for Colonel (Retired) Lewis Millet. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Korean War. What I learned about him was he thought the US should have been involved in WW2 before we sent troops to England, so he deserted the US Army and joined the Canadian Army and went to Europe. When the US Army finally arrived in England, he came back but received a court martial and reduced to the lowest rank. His bravery took him back up the ranks and he went to the Philippines after the war to teach. An incredible man, with an absolute way about him to connect with people. The way the actor portrays Winters in this series reminds me of “Red” Millet.
Cool reading he received a battlefield commission weeks after his court martial.
It's easy to forget the guy playing Nix was also in Office Space. He's a good actor.
When you finish this, there is a film about a team of American art experts who try to retrieve art and artifacts plundered by the Germans before they're gone forever. They actually recovered the Mona Lisa as it had been plundered from the Louvre. It's called 'The Monuments Men".
10:09 The song they're singing is called Blood on the Risers. It's about a training jump where the parachute fails to open. It's officially known as the Airborne Hymn.
Excellent reaction Ames! Many American soldiers become enraged when they liberated these camps. In particular, when the Americans liberated Dachau centration camp located outside Munich, they came upon the railcars stacked with corpses to be transported for cremation. It was then that some U.S. soldiers killed many SS guards that were just captured. The soldiers also didn't interfere with the liberated prisoners taking retribution on the other camp guards. An investigation was conducted. The final report reached General Patton. He elected not to take any actions against these soldiers.
I know how hard this episode hits, Ames. I feel that it is important to realize that the show-runners actually had to tone the horror DOWN a bit to be able to put it on TV.
My jr hi history teacher, Jimmy Gentry, was one of the soldiers who stormed the beach on D-Day, and his unit helped liberate Dachau. Hearing him describe what he saw when I was 14 was one of the most intensely horrible pieces of education that I ever received. Seeing a grown man cry over the darkness that he witnessed absolutely wrecked me, and still wrecks me when I think about it now.
Lets Discuss More Above📌📌
"Dear John" letters were pretty common during the war. Wives and girlfriends back home would meet someone new, and that was that. There was marching cadence that summed it up pretty well: "Your wife was lonely as lonely could be/So Jodie kept her company/Ain't it great to have a pal/Who works so hard to keep up morale." Plus, many of the guys in combat would admit that they were often bitter/angry in their letters home and grew distant from them, too. Not to mention guys falling for women in theater - it all put a lot of stress on relationships.
Hello Ames. This reaction was tough. Sentimental, your Grandpa's handkerchief.
The numbers of people systematically murdered by the NAZIS is mindboggling. Imagine a single line of people, each one yard apart. Just one million people would streach for 568 miles. That line would be from New York City to Charlotte, NC. Now imagine the line for 11 million.
Heart Breaking.
Love from Texas.❤
I always used time to make the numbers real. If one person walked past you every second, 24 hours a day, it would take more than 127 days for them all to pass by. It mind boggling that so many were murdered and more camps were planned.
Omgosh 😞it truly is horrific thank you for watching with me
Oh my..😔
And still only a drop in the ocean compared to the number of victims of communism.
Such a powerful episode. Given what is going on in the world today, this episode should be mandatory viewing for our younger generations.
Thank you for sharing your most human of reactions with us.
thank you so much for watching and for this super!
I knew this episode was coming, and I knew that your reaction would be appropriate and heartfelt. You, dear lady, never disappoint. Thank you. The best acting was by Liebgott when he sat after telling the inmates of the camp that they must remain for medical treatment. That portrayal tears me up every time.
I grew up an Army brat. We visited Dachau in 1974 when I was 6. I can remember it like it was yesterday. I'm not sure how anyone can visit one of those places and say "no evidence".
That's the thing. Most idiots who say it's not real haven't left their town, let alone state/country. It's ignorance at it's finest.
This has been a great journey with you, Ames. Your heart and soul brings extra poignancy to every episode. Especially this one. If anyone can watch this and not feel it punch them in the gut, I dunno how you consider yourself a human being. Never forget and also never forget that this kind of brutality can happen to any group that is demonized as the "other".
My grandfather was an Artilleryman with the 442nd RCT (the All Japanese American Army Unit) and helped to liberate one of the sub camps of Dachau. He was always reluctant to talk about the war but one thing he would talk about was that day, as a person who had also been interned (obviously different levels) he felt so strongly that everyone should know about the Holocaust and the atrocities committed in the name of the Hitler. He was a soft spoken and mild mannered guy but when he did speak about that day I could always see the tension and anger in his eyes that someone could willing do such heinous acts against another human.
The episode that reaches through your gut, rips your heart out, throws it on the floor and stomps on it.😢
I visited Bergen-Belsen, one of the first camps freed and also a U-Boat bunker built with slave labor. They are somber monuments, still there as memorials of dark days.
First. Great reaction, young lady you have a beautiful heart.
Second. Dam right, the people of this town knew about the camps. It was right in their backyard. They are just as guilty for letting it go on. This has been a topic of discussion since WW2. I will never believe they didn't.
And again.
The Greatest Generation of our age. Thank you gentlemen for your sacrifice to our country. You will never be forgotten.
There's this book, "What We Knew", by Eric A Johnson, that compiles hundreds of interviews with soldiers, civilians, Jews, and gentiles, and yeah, they knew. Maybe not the exact details but they knew we were being exterminated in those camps.
Even early on, Einzatsgruppe members would write home with exact details of what they were doing on the Eastern Front.
And then so many monsters got a pass, and the Wehrmacht got its history rewritten, because the US wanted the Germans to rearm against the Soviets. Same thing in Japan.
@@aerthreepwood8021More so in Japan.
They did know, but for the average German, it was dangerous to know. If you made too much noise about it you were liable to end up in there yourself. Germany was a police state, and had zero tolerance for any protesting as to what the Nazi goverment was doing.
@@DiviAugustithe West German government didn't fall below 50% former Party member until the 1970s.
But yeah, the LDP (the de facto ruling party for the last 60 years) was started by the CIA, the Yakuza, and the absolute worst Class A war criminals the IJA had to offer.
@@DiviAugusti Japan still hides what they did *to this day* to their countrymen and they celebrate the people who orchestrated it as war heroes still.
If not the entire series, at least this episode should be shown in every single high school in America in my opinion. We watched it in 05 in high school, but I'd seen it probably 5 times by then lol.
They should also be showing this episode to world leaders at the cop climate event that’s happening right now.Make our leaders realise that POISONOUS POLITICS that’s spreading around the world right now is part of the reason things like this happened.
When hold down A posts you know it’ll be a good day :D
aww thanks jay!
here here@@holddowna
"Do women do this a lot?" Yeah. It's a pretty common occurrence, and it happens in every single conflict. The letters are called "Dear John" letters, and it's depressingly common.
Thank you… Never Again
I like how this episode mounts all these problems for Nixon, makes you feel bad for him. Then they find the camps and you can tell Nixon completely forgets about all of that and realizes his problems are minor and insignificant compared to what he is seeing.
Some information about Lewis Nixon (the 3rd):
Lewis Nixon was born to Stanhope Wood Nixon and Doris Ryer Nixon on September 30, 1918 in New York City. His Father and Grandfather were corporate officers at the Nixon Nitration Works in New Jersey.
As a youth, Nixon lived in New York City and Montecito, California; he traveled the world extensively, including Germany, France, and England. Nixon graduated from Cate School in Santa Barbara, before attending Yale University for two years.
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Lewis Nixon served in the Army during World War II. He was selected (inducted) into the United States Army on January 14, 1941, in Trenton, New Jersey. After graduating from Army Officer Candidate School in 1941 as an infantry second lieutenant, he volunteered for the parachute infantry, part of the U.S. Army's fledgling airborne forces. He was assigned to E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment (506th PIR).
Lewis served as a staff officer at the battalion and regimental levels.
Nixon was appointed as the 2nd Battalion intelligence officer (S2). He and the 506th parachuted into Normandy on June 6, 1944. Shortly after Easy Company fought in the Battle of Carentan on June 12, 1944, he was moved up to the regimental level as the 506th S2. He served in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. He developed a drinking problem [vat69], and was eventually removed and assigned back down to the 2nd Battalion as the operations officer (S3).
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Nixon was one of the few men of the 101st Airborne to jump with another division or regiment. On March 24, 1945, Nixon was assigned to be an observer with the 17th Airborne Division during Operation Varsity (the airborne crossing of the river Rhine). He is also one of very few men in the 101st to earn three Combat Jump Stars [Overlord, Market-Garden, Varsity] on his Jump Wings.
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By the end of World War II, Lewis had obtained the rank of captain. Nixon never fired a shot in combat. He returned home in September 1945.
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Lewis married his third wife, Grace Umezawa, in 1956. She had been a student in California in the spring of 1942 when the President ordered the internment of Japanese Americans. Richard Winters served as the best man at the wedding. Nixon got his life back together and overcame his alcoholism during their marriage. They had no children.
After the war, Nixon worked at his family's Nixon Nitration Works in Edison, New Jersey, alongside his father, Stanhope, and longtime friend, Dick Winters. Lewis Nixon died of complications from diabetes in Los Angeles, California, on January 11, 1995. Dick Winters gave the eulogy at Grace's request.
Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it...
Your reaction to this is the same as my 26 year old daughter. She finally watched this after 20 years, when it was filmed. I have the box set. Since she's watched it, she's convinced her girlfriend's to watch. And she's watched it over and over 3 times now.! My son is a Marine, in the reserves. I know he wants to see some kind of action, but even though I know he would be a great leader, I'm fearful of what could happen to him.!
I interviewed my uncle when he was 80. He liberated Buchenwald Concentration Camp… he said all those years later he could still taste and smell it. There were no words to describe what it looked like and you could smell the corpses miles away.
You're absolutely right about the importance of this story. As hard as it is to watch, it must be told. I think you made it through the toughest episode. Well done, young lady. The only advice I'd give you for the last episode is, keep your grandfather's hankie handy. I've thoroughly enjoyed watching your reactions to this series. I'm looking forward to episode 10. I hope you'll react to "We Stand Alone Together" following Band of Brothers.
I ball my eyes out every time i see this episode, and there's STILL SO much atrocity going on today all over the world, with all my heart i hope the is a judgment of your actions when you died, could you imagine standing before your god, and having your life's deeds read out.
Thank you Ames again as always.
Kind regards Chris.
Thank You, Ames! You were very much an anchor in this episode reaction! An anchor with an open heart!
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The best is how Spears even looks disgusted and doesn't even know what to do/think. Of all people even he was at a loss.
Welp, this is the one we've been waiting for.
thanks for watching!
If you like propaganda then yes
@hruthgardahne822 what propoganda are you talking about?
Little detail most people miss. On the photo of the German soldier, there is a black ribbon on it, meaning he died and she is in mourning. That hit even harder because not only she lost her husband, she must now help clean one of the consequences of his war. It was good they made them do it, you can't put that under the rug...
Her husband was also an SS officer, who probably was aware of the nearby camp which would have made her complicit in the atrocities. Her having to help bury the bodies just adds to the irony.
@@shrodingerschat2258 He was not SS. He was Wehrmacht, regular German Army as indicated by the insignia on his uniform.
@@ronweber1402And the Wehrmacht helped prosecute the Holocaust, no matter what the "Clean Wehrmacht" myth says.
@@ronweber1402Correct. The camps were run by the SS, not the Wermacht (German regular Army). Her husband's uniform was indeed Warmacht, not SS.
I still find it hard to believe she was unaware of what was going on in the camp.
@@derekweiland1857still as a high rankings wehrmacht officer he certainly knew and his wife likely did also although we also must remember that doesn't mean he approved.
On your reaction, you mention the closing of the violin case as the closing of a chapter.
In my humble view, I see the violin as a representation of the beautiful Jewish people, and the closing of the case as a representation of their coffins.
As the music ends, so did the majesty of their wonderful lives.
How can humans be so senselessly cruel...how do we ever justify genocide.
Look up “Blood on the Risers” here on YT, find one of the videos of the old troopers singing it. Decades later and it still gives me goosebumps, proud of those guys.
Watched another reactor on this episode, when the camp was shown they said something to the effect of “what is this? This can’t be real, wasn’t all of that made up?”
On one hand it does hit home on how important this series was, is and will continue to be, to tell the story for others to learn from. On the other hand, what an absolute failure of the education system they went though. How can that system have failed to teach at that level. I’ve met holocaust deniers, I’m shocked, disgusted and terrified that any human can believe that storyline.
Great reaction, it’s definitely one of the points in the series that delivers.
Oh man.. this is gna be emotional 🥺
Def my favourite reaction channel on youtube 💯
No contest.
thanks Brad! appreciate ya being here!
Glad to hear you're watching the documentary, a lot of reacters skip it. It is absolutely episode 11 of the series.
You’re now my all time fav reactor. You’re an incredible young lady and I’d be very proud to call you my daughter, my niece, my cousin or my friend,❤
This episode should be show in every high school history class
The way the episode started by focusing on the soldiers personal pain and loss. Then the sudden shift in their behavior and personal feelings after the discovery of the camps was a great transition.
In addition, the focus on the woman in red while everything and everyone else was muted and almost black and white was interesting too.
The woman in red is a link to Spielberg's Schindlers List with the little girl in red amid the black and white background.
My Romani grandma survived a concentration camp. Born in ‘39, she was just a child. Her mother and 2/7 siblings survived too, her dad didn’t. My grandpa, born in 1935, was “lucky” enough to just get deported and not locked in camps, he lost his father tho at just 7 years old.
Unfortunately, these events have been misrepresented, so that many of the various groups victimised are not mentioned.
@@grahamtravers4522 Yeah, the Romani holocaust it is still not recognized by many sadly. Or worse, people think it was deserved. They do mention “gypsies” in the show quickly alongside Poles, and even if gypsies is an offensive term to use when talking about us I do understand it was back in the 1940s when people did not know about the term Romani in our language. But I do appreciate the fact that they did at least mention us even if quickly.
Toughest episode to watch--one reason this whole series is so important, however. Humans can be so cruel to each other. Of course, antisemitism is a blot on human history, but so is any de-humanizing that leads to genocide. I think this episode alone makes the whole series so worthwhile.
Ron Livingston's hopeless, almost sarcastic delivery of "shes taking MY DOG" always breaks me down
Such an emotional episode, we’re almost to the end. 😭😭😭
thanks for watching! ya show is almost over!
The end??? and yet right now we have people in the world wishing and trying to exterminate the Jews AGAIN.
I have really been enjoying your intelligent and emotional reactions to these episodes. I can't wait for your "Pacific" reaction.@@holddowna
@@holddowna You HAVE TO watch “ We Stand Alone Together” after this. It is the documentary after the show was made, told by the men. The interviews in this are a little of what is in it.
Looking forward for Ep 10 and your reaction. What a masterpiece this series is, and Ep 10 is the cherry on top. Outstanding last episode!
This episode just makes you sad of how cruel humans can be to others!
I've owned the dvd set of Band of Brothers for a while now, at least 18 years, and I've watched it several times and after watching it I always feel gratitude and empathy and respect for all who lost their lives in WWII. On all sides. Of course there were many wars around the world long before WWII, but this was is from our recent past, it hasn't even been 100 years since WWII ended. In fact, it's only been 79 years. So sad that we as humans feel the need to do this to each other, to try and impose our will and beliefs on other peoples and cultures and try and take what the other side has, whether it be land or oil or land with oil in it or whatever. To somehow be able justify conquering and another group of people through violence and destruction, let alone murdering millions of people. Because that's all war is really when it comes down to taking another persons life. War is murder on a grand scale. To perform genocide on another people because of a variety of reasons, including but not exclusive to, religion. There are battles being fought this very day at places around the world where people are defending their country from invaders. The only time the U.S. has faced war on our home soil in modern times is when we fought ourselves. Americans killing each other by the thousands. Yes the Civil War was a long time ago, but if we, as a functioning society, aren't careful, we will be faced with another civil war in this country
One thing about the wife of the German officer that Nix encountered, the black ribbon across the corner of her husband's picture meant he had died in combat. Nixon would have known what it meant so his breaking it, then her seeing it and him seeing the dog, may have been meant to symbolize what it could be like to be the wife of a soldier.
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I don't know if you've mentioned in elsewhere before, but I hope you'll react to "We Stand Alone Together" once you're done with Ep10, this is a fantastic way to conclude the journey, with more interviews from the veterans, you see some that were part of the show but didn't get to speak at the beginning of the episodes, and you learn a whole lot of very interesting things.
Thanks Ames for posting these vids. Great job on your knowledge of what you're talking about. Your commentary is spot on! 👍👍
You are such a beautiful person Ames. It is a priviledge to have shared these moments with you even if from a different time and place. Thank you for sharing, I know it is hard.
If you want to see life after war, you should view and react to "The Best Years of Our Lives," a film about three veterans returning home from WW2 and their adjustment to post war America. It's a film that brings tears of sadness and joy, even for men.
Good points. That aspect is also covered somewhat in the companion series to BoB, The Pacific. Reintegration can be tough.
Beautiful, moving film. I hope she watches it.
Has the distinction of one actor winning two Oscars for a role. The only time that has ever happened.
One more to go…great reactions!
thanks for watching with me!!!!!
thank you for sharing 😊 they kept the actors away from the camp set until they shot the scene, so the reaction would be genuine…
you really got the right feel for many of the things that is happening in the episodes. you say whats gonna happen right before it happens. cant wait to see the last episode with you. i tear up so bad when i look into the soldiers eyes and try to imagine what they have seen. imagine all the untold stories from soldiers we've never heard of.
cheers from norway
"I want you to bring people in from town, the guards or the policemen, whoever's in these towns. Bring them in, bring the trucks, let them see the bodies. Make them put them on the trucks. Because someday, people are going to say we made it up." Dwight Eisenhower
It's a shame so many people ruined the full impact by telling you how difficult this episode was going to be.
💯 It pisses me off big-time. How do they not understand that it taints the reaction???
And "some" people wonder why the Israelis are reacting the way they are to 10/7. No mystery.
Not the same in the slightest
Episode 10 you will cry again, but for much different reasons
Can’t wait to share!
Young Tom Hardy ! I swear, the surprise secondary characters are just amazing !
If I remember correctly, the actors didn't know about the camps until they started filming so their reactions are genuine. Also, the people in the camp were actual cancer patients from nearby hospitals who took the jobs (without pay) because they knew how important it was for this to be seen. Some of them actually died before they even saw the episode.
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My dad, Paul A. Rambow, was a Master sargeant and acting platoon leader in the 101st when the war ended. He helped liberate one of the camps, I think Bergen-Belsen. He never spoke of this experience. He was put in charge of a refugee camp after Germany's surrender. My brother still has an airborne ring that an Hungarian metalsmith made for dad from metal from an engine block from a messerscmidt. It was very special to dad. Apparently, the inmates thought highly of dad, a tribute to his humanity. RIP. Old Sarge!
Bergen-Belsen was liberated by the British.
rubbish
I love watching this series with you. I've seen all the episodes but seeing it through your eyes brings back the amazing quality of the film making plus the amazing bravery of Americans. We are always trying to do the right thing when we see cruelty. These soldiers were the best of the best.
You have the best reviews after an episode/move is over, not just about the episode itself but the acting and tone. I agree with pretty much everything you said, very powerful.
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Many of the extras playing the prisoners were cancer patients and realistically underweight from their chemo treatments.
Nixon I believe became sad, pissed off and disillusioned by the war, and alcohol helped him soothe his pain.
His wife divorces him while he was serving his country 🇺🇸, and she took everything thing. The Dog 🐕, the House 🏡 and the car 🚗 and etc. When he came home he came home too nothing😢😭. My Grandfather father told me he saw the concentration camps, it haunted him to his death. I own Band of Brothers on DVD.
I remember near the end of Crossroads he mentioned that he was heading back to England to meet up with someone. I think he was cheating, which is bitterly ironic for him later on.
@@TheTsar1918 good observation and you were correct about episode 5: Crossroads. “I’m heading to Aldbourne to look up a certain young lady.” A few articles written about the 506th in WWII confirmed Captain Lewis Nixon was cheating on his wife.
The actors were not aware of the set of the camp being built and were introduced to it and the extras when they were brought to the set for the first shooting so that their shock could be captured. Brilliant
The magnitude of *hate* against a fellow human being is beyond comprehension. How do you hold back those feelings and emotions? Bless all that went through this….😢
My grandpa lost his legs and sight due to a kamikazee during the battle of okinawa his roomate in the hospital also lost legs and his wife came in put the ring and divorce papers on the side table. Luckily my granpa was married to a very loyal woman who stayed with him.
Aren't women just wonderful? "Well, he can't be a provider anymore and give me whatever I want, so I'll just kick him to the curb." It was very, very common...and still is to this day.😑
Okinawa... absolute hell.
Tough one, for sure.
so tough thanks for watching with me!
This episode is probably the most emotional thing I have ever seen. I have watched this series near 20 times over the years and this episode still brings out the tears, every time.
Ames, thank you so much for sharing your reactions of this incredibly moving series with all of us! I watched your reaction to episode 1 initially, then went on a Damian Lewis binge for a few months rewatching “Homeland” and the last season of “Billions”. When I saw you had more episodes, I binged the whole series on Veterans’ Day weekend before coming back here and it was so worth it! My grandfather was in the Navy on the European and Pacific sides during WWII (including Omaha beach on D-Day and the Battle of Midway) and even though the experiences must have been different, I feel closer to him and respect him even more after seeing BoB.
Another of the bigger inaccuracies of the story is that Liebgott wasn't actually Jewish, he was Roman Catholic. A couple of the people that Ambrose interviewed thought he was and Ambrose never fact checked. I see in other comments that people have already said that Easy wasn't the ones to find the camp, but they needed to show it somehow.
Ambrose was sometimes a bit sloppy in cross-checking his facts.
Joseph Liebgott’s parents were immigrants from Austria. Although Jewish by descent from his mother, he and his five brothers and sisters were baptized and brought up Roman Catholic on their father’s side.
@@alanholck7995 Except in this case he was right.
At 12:14 Tom Hanks executes a prisoner.
I didn't know he was in it
Ha, never knew that.
@@holddowna It's not Tom Hanks. Looks _kinda_ like him but if you pause the scene when they show his face, it's not him. Hanks plays two tiny parts in the show, in Ep5 he's among the brits rescued when they celebrate inside the barn, and in Ep8 he provides the voice for the German they left on the other side of the river.
This is the same kind of stuff as huckleberry/hucklebearer from Tombstone, someone claimed it was hucklebearer and everyone just started repeating it without thinking twice. Keeping in mind this was filmed 20 years ago when Hanks looked very much the way he looked in Saving Private Ryan/The Green Mile, the french soldier looks much older than Hanks would.
The prisoner was supposedly Vichy French who had served as an officer in the German army, thus committing treason. Was executed immediately following conviction by military tribunal.
Thank you for doing this. It is nice to see someone your age interested in this history. God Bless
After watching several of your Band of Brothers reaction videos, I must say that I am rather surprised at just how perspicacious you are. It has been pleasantly refreshing to witness.