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Holocaust (miniseries)
Encyclopedia
Holocaust was a television miniseries
broadcast in four parts in 1978 on the NBC
television network. The series tells the story of the Holocaust from the perspective of the (fictional) Weiss family of German Jews
and that of a rising member of the SS, who gradually becomes a merciless war criminal. Holocaust highlighted numerous important events which occurred up to and during World War II
, such as Kristallnacht
, the creation of Jewish ghettos and later, the use of gas chambers
. Although the miniseries won several awards and received critical acclaim, it was criticized by some, including noted Holocaust author and survivor Elie Wiesel
, who described it as "untrue and offensive."
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Holocaust was produced by Robert Berger
, and was filmed on location in Austria
and West Berlin
. It was broadcast in four parts from April 16 to April 19. The series was popular, earning a 49% market share; it was also received well in Europe
.
The nine and a half hour program starred Fritz Weaver
, Rosemary Harris
, Meryl Streep
, James Woods
and Michael Moriarty
, as well as a large supporting cast. It was directed by Marvin J. Chomsky
, a veteran of many television specials, including ABC
's highly successful miniseries Roots
, which first aired in 1977. The teleplay
was written by novelist-producer Gerald Green
, who later adapted the script into a novel..
Jewish family, the Weisses, consists of Dr. Josef Weiss (Fritz Weaver
), the father; Berta Weiss (Rosemary Harris
), the mother and talented pianist
; Karl Weiss (James Woods
), an artist who is married to a Christian
woman named Inga Helms-Weiss (Meryl Streep
); Rudi Weiss, an independent, rebellious soccer player; Anna Weiss (Blanche Baker
), the young daughter; and Moses Weiss (Sam Wanamaker
), Joseph's brother and a chemist from Warsaw. Throughout the series, each member of the Weiss family experiences hardships and are ultimately led to a terrible fate, with the exception of Rudi and Inga.
Dr. Weiss is a respected doctor (GP) from Berlin. After losing his right to treat "Aryan
" patients, he is deported
to Poland for being a foreign citizen. He becomes a member of the Town council for the Warsaw ghetto. Josef is sent to Auschwitz along with his wife for attempting to save Jews from the Warsaw ghetto
's liquidation process. At Auschwitz, he is assigned to road labor for Uncle Kurt, who is trying to save several Jews by having them work for him. Uncle Kurt then is punished for using Jews when he shouldn't have and they all (including Josef) are sent to the gas chambers.
Mrs. Bertha Weiss, after her husband's deportation, survives with the help of Inga and her family. She is later deported to the Warsaw ghetto to be reunited with Josef. Bertha then obtains a job teaching at the school before eventually being sent to the gas chamber
(at Auschwitz).
Anna Weiss, unresponsive after being rape
d by German soldiers earlier in the series, is sent to a sanitarium
and killed by carbon monoxide poisoning
as part of the Nazi Action 14f13
.
Karl Weiss is arrested and sent to Buchenwald. Later, a family friend of Inga's, Heinz Muller, has Karl transferred to Theresienstadt where he works in the art studio. He and the other artists secretly make pictures depicting the reality of the Ghetto. When the pictures are discovered, the artists are tortured by the SS and one dies. Karl is then (after hearing of his wife's pregnancy) transferred to Auschwitz and put on the sonderkommandos, he finds out that both of his parents were taken to Auschwitz. Subsequently, Karl's health deteriorates badly and he dies the day Auschwitz is liberated.
Rudi Weiss, having run away from Berlin
, goes to Czechoslovakia where he meets Helena Slomova. They escape together to the Ukraine
where they fight for years with Jewish partisans
, led by Uncle Sasha, a doctor who lost his family earlier in the war. After defeating SS and Ukrainian soldiers, Rudi is ultimately captured and Helena is shot and killed. Rudi wakes up in Sobibor
where he meets Leon Feldhandler
and Alexander Pechersky
and escapes during the uprising. Rudi decides to travel alone back through Europe and find his family.
Moses Weiss owns a pharmacy in Warsaw. When Josef and the Lowys are deported, he finds a place for them to stay. Like his brother, he is put on the Judenrat
. After hearing that the SS are planning to kill all Jews in Europe, he starts a resistance movement. This movement fights against the SS in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
, after receiving weapons from Christian Poles. They are initially successful, but the SS discovers their secret hiding places and uses gas to force them to walk out and face the wall, where they are all shot.
Karl's wife, Inga, eventually sacrifices her freedom to join him in [Theresienstadt where he is commissioned as an artist. Desperately trying throughout most of the series to reach Karl in various camps, Inga can only get letters through to him if she performs sexual favors for Heinz Muller. Threatening to keep her husband involved in heavy physical work if she does not acquiesce to his requests, the SS sergeant rapes her. After arriving at Theresienstadt to reunite with Karl, Inga becomes pregnant with his child. A fellow artist sells Karl's paintings of horrific concentration camp scenes, the Gestapo
finds them, tortures the artists and when Karl refuses to aid the Nazi investigation, he is sent to Auschwitz.
At the end of the series, Rudi meets Inga in the liberated Thresienstadt, later revealing that he found out what happened to his parents and Karl at Auschwitz. Inga reveals that despite Karl telling her not to, she had the baby and named him Josef (after her father-in-law). Inga decided to take her child back to Berlin to reunite with her family. The fate of Rudi is unknown at the denouement of the series, but he is offered a job smuggling orphaned Jewish children into Palestine. The series ends with Rudi playing football with Greek
children.
Erik Dorff (Michael Moriarty
), a lawyer from Berlin
, is another major character in the series. At the urging of his ambitious wife, Marta, the apolitical Dorff joins the SS after failing to find alternative employment. Dorff is put in charge of major extermination operations at Nazi extermination camps; coordinating mass murder
burdens his conscience at first, but over time he becomes more and more ruthless in the name of "following orders". After the war ends, he is captured by the United States Army
, and told that he will be tried for war crimes. Dorff decides to follow the example of many other Nazi officials and commits suicide
by taking a cyanide
pill.
for Outstanding Limited Series. The series also won Emmys for Meryl Streep
, Moriarty and Blanche Baker
. Morton Gould
's music was nominated, but did not win. Gould's music score was also nominated for a Grammy Award
for Best Album of Original Score for a Movie or Television Program. Co-stars David Warner
, Sam Wanamaker
, Tovah Feldshuh
, Fritz Weaver
and Rosemary Harris
were all nominated for, but did not win, Emmys. However, Harris won a Golden Globe Award
(for Best TV Actress - Drama) for her performance, as did Moriarty (for Best TV Actor - Drama).
was being commercialized. Holocaust' s creators defended it by arguing that it was an important factor in developing and maintaining awareness of the Holocaust. The television critic Clive James
commended the production. Writing in The Observer
(reprinted in his collection The Crystal Bucket
), he commented:
and CBS Home Entertainment on May 27, 2008. The Region 2 DVD followed on 15 August 2010.
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
broadcast in four parts in 1978 on the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
television network. The series tells the story of the Holocaust from the perspective of the (fictional) Weiss family of German Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
and that of a rising member of the SS, who gradually becomes a merciless war criminal. Holocaust highlighted numerous important events which occurred up to and during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, such as Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht, also referred to as the Night of Broken Glass, and also Reichskristallnacht, Pogromnacht, and Novemberpogrome, was a pogrom or series of attacks against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on 9–10 November 1938.Jewish homes were ransacked, as were shops, towns and...
, the creation of Jewish ghettos and later, the use of gas chambers
Gas Chambers
Gas Chambers is a fast, hollow and shallow point break type of wave. Being that it is a high performance wave it is well suited for the average to pro level surfer. Gas Chambers is located on the North Shore of Oahu about a 1/4 of a mile north of Ehukai Beach Park and 1/2 a mile west of Sunset...
. Although the miniseries won several awards and received critical acclaim, it was criticized by some, including noted Holocaust author and survivor Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel
Sir Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel KBE; born September 30, 1928) is a Hungarian-born Jewish-American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He is the author of 57 books, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz, Buna, and...
, who described it as "untrue and offensive."
Production
Robert Berger (producer)
Robert "Buzz" Berger is an American film producer.Among other films, he was the producer for the Emmy award winning TV miniseries Holocaust.-Partial filmography:* 1974 The Missiles of October* 1978 Holocaust...
, and was filmed on location in Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
and West Berlin
West Berlin
West Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945...
. It was broadcast in four parts from April 16 to April 19. The series was popular, earning a 49% market share; it was also received well in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
.
The nine and a half hour program starred Fritz Weaver
Fritz Weaver
Fritz William Weaver is an American actor and voice actor.-Life and career:Weaver was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Elsa W. and John Carson Weaver. His mother was of Italian descent and his father was a social worker from Pittsburgh. Weaver attended Peabody High School...
, Rosemary Harris
Rosemary Harris
Rosemary Ann Harris is an English actress and a member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame. Throughout her career she has been nominated for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award and has won a Golden Globe, an Emmy, a Tony Award, an Obie, and five Drama Desk Awards.-Early life:Harris was born in...
, Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep
Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film.Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with...
, James Woods
James Woods
James Howard Woods is an American film, stage and television actor. Woods is known for starring in critically acclaimed films such as Once Upon a Time in America, Salvador, Nixon, Ghosts of Mississippi, Casino, and in the television legal drama Shark. He has won three Emmy Awards, and has gained...
and Michael Moriarty
Michael Moriarty
Michael Moriarty is an American-Canadian actor of stage and screen, and a jazz musician. He played Benjamin Stone for four seasons on the TV series Law & Order.-Early life:...
, as well as a large supporting cast. It was directed by Marvin J. Chomsky
Marvin J. Chomsky
Marvin J. Chomsky is an American television and film director. He has also worked as a producer. He is a cousin of academic Noam Chomsky....
, a veteran of many television specials, including ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
's highly successful miniseries Roots
Roots (TV miniseries)
Roots is a 1977 American television miniseries based on Alex Haley's fictional novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family. Roots received 36 Emmy Award nominations, winning nine. It also won a Golden Globe and a Peabody Award. It received unprecedented Nielsen ratings with the finale still...
, which first aired in 1977. The teleplay
Teleplay
A teleplay is a television play, a comedy or drama written or adapted for television. The term surfaced during the 1950s with wide usage to distinguish a television plays from stage plays for the theater and screenplays written for films...
was written by novelist-producer Gerald Green
Gerald Green (author)
Gerald Green was an American author, journalist, producer and director.-Biography:Green was born in Brooklyn, New York as Gerald Greenberg. He was the son of a physician, Dr. Samuel Greenberg....
, who later adapted the script into a novel..
Plot
A GermanGermans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
Jewish family, the Weisses, consists of Dr. Josef Weiss (Fritz Weaver
Fritz Weaver
Fritz William Weaver is an American actor and voice actor.-Life and career:Weaver was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Elsa W. and John Carson Weaver. His mother was of Italian descent and his father was a social worker from Pittsburgh. Weaver attended Peabody High School...
), the father; Berta Weiss (Rosemary Harris
Rosemary Harris
Rosemary Ann Harris is an English actress and a member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame. Throughout her career she has been nominated for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award and has won a Golden Globe, an Emmy, a Tony Award, an Obie, and five Drama Desk Awards.-Early life:Harris was born in...
), the mother and talented pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
; Karl Weiss (James Woods
James Woods
James Howard Woods is an American film, stage and television actor. Woods is known for starring in critically acclaimed films such as Once Upon a Time in America, Salvador, Nixon, Ghosts of Mississippi, Casino, and in the television legal drama Shark. He has won three Emmy Awards, and has gained...
), an artist who is married to a Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
woman named Inga Helms-Weiss (Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep
Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film.Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with...
); Rudi Weiss, an independent, rebellious soccer player; Anna Weiss (Blanche Baker
Blanche Baker
-Personal life:Born Blanche Garfein in New York City, she is the daughter of actress Carroll Baker and director Jack Garfein. She attended Wellesley College from 1974 until 1976.-Career:...
), the young daughter; and Moses Weiss (Sam Wanamaker
Sam Wanamaker
Samuel Wanamaker was an American film director and actor and is credited as the person most responsible for the modern recreation of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London...
), Joseph's brother and a chemist from Warsaw. Throughout the series, each member of the Weiss family experiences hardships and are ultimately led to a terrible fate, with the exception of Rudi and Inga.
Dr. Weiss is a respected doctor (GP) from Berlin. After losing his right to treat "Aryan
Aryan
Aryan is an English language loanword derived from Sanskrit ārya and denoting variously*In scholarly usage:**Indo-Iranian languages *in dated usage:**the Indo-European languages more generally and their speakers...
" patients, he is deported
Deportation
Deportation means the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. Today it often refers to the expulsion of foreign nationals whereas the expulsion of nationals is called banishment, exile, or penal transportation...
to Poland for being a foreign citizen. He becomes a member of the Town council for the Warsaw ghetto. Josef is sent to Auschwitz along with his wife for attempting to save Jews from the Warsaw ghetto
Warsaw Ghetto
The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of all Jewish Ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II. It was established in the Polish capital between October and November 15, 1940, in the territory of General Government of the German-occupied Poland, with over 400,000 Jews from the vicinity...
's liquidation process. At Auschwitz, he is assigned to road labor for Uncle Kurt, who is trying to save several Jews by having them work for him. Uncle Kurt then is punished for using Jews when he shouldn't have and they all (including Josef) are sent to the gas chambers.
Mrs. Bertha Weiss, after her husband's deportation, survives with the help of Inga and her family. She is later deported to the Warsaw ghetto to be reunited with Josef. Bertha then obtains a job teaching at the school before eventually being sent to the gas chamber
Gas chamber
A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. The most commonly used poisonous agent is hydrogen cyanide; carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide have also been used...
(at Auschwitz).
Anna Weiss, unresponsive after being rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
d by German soldiers earlier in the series, is sent to a sanitarium
Sanatorium
A sanatorium is a medical facility for long-term illness, most typically associated with treatment of tuberculosis before antibiotics...
and killed by carbon monoxide poisoning
Carbon monoxide poisoning
Carbon monoxide poisoning occurs after enough inhalation of carbon monoxide . Carbon monoxide is a toxic gas, but, being colorless, odorless, tasteless, and initially non-irritating, it is very difficult for people to detect...
as part of the Nazi Action 14f13
Action 14f13
Action 14f13, also called "Sonderbehandlung 14f13", was a campaign of the Third Reich to murder Nazi concentration camp prisoners. Also called "invalid" or "prisoner euthanasia", the campaign culled the sick, elderly and those deemed no longer fit for work from the rest of the prisoners in a...
.
Karl Weiss is arrested and sent to Buchenwald. Later, a family friend of Inga's, Heinz Muller, has Karl transferred to Theresienstadt where he works in the art studio. He and the other artists secretly make pictures depicting the reality of the Ghetto. When the pictures are discovered, the artists are tortured by the SS and one dies. Karl is then (after hearing of his wife's pregnancy) transferred to Auschwitz and put on the sonderkommandos, he finds out that both of his parents were taken to Auschwitz. Subsequently, Karl's health deteriorates badly and he dies the day Auschwitz is liberated.
Rudi Weiss, having run away from Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, goes to Czechoslovakia where he meets Helena Slomova. They escape together to the Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
where they fight for years with Jewish partisans
Jewish partisans
Jewish partisans were fighters in irregular military groups participating in the Jewish resistance movement against Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II....
, led by Uncle Sasha, a doctor who lost his family earlier in the war. After defeating SS and Ukrainian soldiers, Rudi is ultimately captured and Helena is shot and killed. Rudi wakes up in Sobibor
Sobibór
Sobibór is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Włodawa, within Włodawa County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland. It lies close to the Bug River, which forms the border with Belarus and Ukraine. Sobibór is approximately south-east of Włodawa and east of the regional capital...
where he meets Leon Feldhandler
Leon Feldhandler
Leon Feldhendler , was a Polish-Jewish resistance fighter known for his role in organizing, with Alexander Pechersky, the 1943 prisoner uprising at the Sobibor extermination camp...
and Alexander Pechersky
Alexander Pechersky
Alexander Aronovich Pechersky was the chief organizer and leader of the most successful uprising and mass-escape of Jews from a Nazi extermination camp during World War II; this occurred at the Sobibor extermination camp on 14 October 1943.-Early life:...
and escapes during the uprising. Rudi decides to travel alone back through Europe and find his family.
Moses Weiss owns a pharmacy in Warsaw. When Josef and the Lowys are deported, he finds a place for them to stay. Like his brother, he is put on the Judenrat
Judenrat
Judenräte were administrative bodies during the Second World War that the Germans required Jews to form in the German occupied territory of Poland, and later in the occupied territories of the Soviet Union It is the overall term for the enforcement bodies established by the Nazi occupiers to...
. After hearing that the SS are planning to kill all Jews in Europe, he starts a resistance movement. This movement fights against the SS in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the Jewish resistance that arose within the Warsaw Ghetto in German occupied Poland during World War II, and which opposed Nazi Germany's effort to transport the remaining ghetto population to Treblinka extermination camp....
, after receiving weapons from Christian Poles. They are initially successful, but the SS discovers their secret hiding places and uses gas to force them to walk out and face the wall, where they are all shot.
Karl's wife, Inga, eventually sacrifices her freedom to join him in [Theresienstadt where he is commissioned as an artist. Desperately trying throughout most of the series to reach Karl in various camps, Inga can only get letters through to him if she performs sexual favors for Heinz Muller. Threatening to keep her husband involved in heavy physical work if she does not acquiesce to his requests, the SS sergeant rapes her. After arriving at Theresienstadt to reunite with Karl, Inga becomes pregnant with his child. A fellow artist sells Karl's paintings of horrific concentration camp scenes, the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
finds them, tortures the artists and when Karl refuses to aid the Nazi investigation, he is sent to Auschwitz.
At the end of the series, Rudi meets Inga in the liberated Thresienstadt, later revealing that he found out what happened to his parents and Karl at Auschwitz. Inga reveals that despite Karl telling her not to, she had the baby and named him Josef (after her father-in-law). Inga decided to take her child back to Berlin to reunite with her family. The fate of Rudi is unknown at the denouement of the series, but he is offered a job smuggling orphaned Jewish children into Palestine. The series ends with Rudi playing football with Greek
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
children.
Erik Dorff (Michael Moriarty
Michael Moriarty
Michael Moriarty is an American-Canadian actor of stage and screen, and a jazz musician. He played Benjamin Stone for four seasons on the TV series Law & Order.-Early life:...
), a lawyer from Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, is another major character in the series. At the urging of his ambitious wife, Marta, the apolitical Dorff joins the SS after failing to find alternative employment. Dorff is put in charge of major extermination operations at Nazi extermination camps; coordinating mass murder
Mass murder
Mass murder is the act of murdering a large number of people , typically at the same time or over a relatively short period of time. According to the FBI, mass murder is defined as four or more murders occurring during a particular event with no cooling-off period between the murders...
burdens his conscience at first, but over time he becomes more and more ruthless in the name of "following orders". After the war ends, he is captured by the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
, and told that he will be tried for war crimes. Dorff decides to follow the example of many other Nazi officials and commits suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
by taking a cyanide
Cyanide
A cyanide is a chemical compound that contains the cyano group, -C≡N, which consists of a carbon atom triple-bonded to a nitrogen atom. Cyanides most commonly refer to salts of the anion CN−. Most cyanides are highly toxic....
pill.
Reception
Holocaust won the Emmy AwardEmmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
for Outstanding Limited Series. The series also won Emmys for Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep
Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film.Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with...
, Moriarty and Blanche Baker
Blanche Baker
-Personal life:Born Blanche Garfein in New York City, she is the daughter of actress Carroll Baker and director Jack Garfein. She attended Wellesley College from 1974 until 1976.-Career:...
. Morton Gould
Morton Gould
Morton Gould was an American composer, conductor, arranger, and pianist.Born in Richmond Hill, New York, Gould was recognized early as a child prodigy with abilities in improvisation and composition. His first composition was published at age six...
's music was nominated, but did not win. Gould's music score was also nominated for a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
for Best Album of Original Score for a Movie or Television Program. Co-stars David Warner
David Warner (actor)
David Warner is an English actor who is known for playing both romantic leads and sinister or villainous characters, both in film and animation...
, Sam Wanamaker
Sam Wanamaker
Samuel Wanamaker was an American film director and actor and is credited as the person most responsible for the modern recreation of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London...
, Tovah Feldshuh
Tovah Feldshuh
Tovah Feldshuh is an American actress, singer and playwright.-Early life:Terri Sue Feldshuh was born to a Jewish family in New York City, the daughter of Lillian and Sidney Feldshuh, who was a lawyer. She was raised in Scarsdale, New York, an affluent community in Westchester County and graduated...
, Fritz Weaver
Fritz Weaver
Fritz William Weaver is an American actor and voice actor.-Life and career:Weaver was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Elsa W. and John Carson Weaver. His mother was of Italian descent and his father was a social worker from Pittsburgh. Weaver attended Peabody High School...
and Rosemary Harris
Rosemary Harris
Rosemary Ann Harris is an English actress and a member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame. Throughout her career she has been nominated for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award and has won a Golden Globe, an Emmy, a Tony Award, an Obie, and five Drama Desk Awards.-Early life:Harris was born in...
were all nominated for, but did not win, Emmys. However, Harris won a Golden Globe Award
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...
(for Best TV Actress - Drama) for her performance, as did Moriarty (for Best TV Actor - Drama).
Controversy
Some critics accused the miniseries of trivializing the Holocaust. The television format meant the realism of the situation was muted, whilst the fact that NBC made a financial gain from advertising led to accusations that the tragedyTragedy
Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...
was being commercialized. Holocaust
Clive James
Clive James, AM is an Australian author, critic, broadcaster, poet and memoirist, best known for his autobiographical series Unreliable Memoirs, for his chat shows and documentaries on British television and for his prolific journalism...
commended the production. Writing in The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
(reprinted in his collection The Crystal Bucket
The Crystal Bucket
The Crystal Bucket is the second selection of Clive James's television criticism for The Observer, for which the British Press Awards named him 'Critic of the Year' in 1981: "His contribution to the art and enjoyment of TV criticism over the past ten years has been immense...
), he commented:
Cast
| Character | Actor |
|---|---|
| Dr. Josef Weiss | Fritz Weaver Fritz Weaver Fritz William Weaver is an American actor and voice actor.-Life and career:Weaver was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Elsa W. and John Carson Weaver. His mother was of Italian descent and his father was a social worker from Pittsburgh. Weaver attended Peabody High School... |
| Rudi Weiss | Joseph Bottoms Joseph Bottoms Joseph Bottoms is an American actor who won the 1975 Golden Globe Award for New Star Of The Year - Actor for his role in The Dove... |
| Erik Dorff | Michael Moriarty Michael Moriarty Michael Moriarty is an American-Canadian actor of stage and screen, and a jazz musician. He played Benjamin Stone for four seasons on the TV series Law & Order.-Early life:... |
| Reinhard Heydrich Reinhard Heydrich Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich , also known as The Hangman, was a high-ranking German Nazi official.He was SS-Obergruppenführer and General der Polizei, chief of the Reich Main Security Office and Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia... |
David Warner David Warner David Warner may refer to:* Dave Warner, or David Robert Warner, Australian author, rock musician and screenwriter* David Warner , British actor* David Warner , Australian cricketer* David Bruce Warner, South African alpine skier... |
| Helena Slomova | Tovah Feldshuh Tovah Feldshuh Tovah Feldshuh is an American actress, singer and playwright.-Early life:Terri Sue Feldshuh was born to a Jewish family in New York City, the daughter of Lillian and Sidney Feldshuh, who was a lawyer. She was raised in Scarsdale, New York, an affluent community in Westchester County and graduated... |
| Heinrich Palitz | Marius Goring Marius Goring Marius Goring CBE was an English stage and cinema actor. He is most often remembered for the four films he did with Powell & Pressburger, particularly as Conductor 71 in A Matter of Life and Death and as Julian Craster in The Red Shoes... |
| Berta Palitz Weiss | Rosemary Harris Rosemary Harris Rosemary Ann Harris is an English actress and a member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame. Throughout her career she has been nominated for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award and has won a Golden Globe, an Emmy, a Tony Award, an Obie, and five Drama Desk Awards.-Early life:Harris was born in... |
| Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo... |
Ian Holm Ian Holm Sir Ian Holm, CBE is an English actor known for his stage work and for many film roles. He received the 1967 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor for his performance as Lenny in The Homecoming and the 1998 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his performance in the title role of King Lear... |
| Uncle Sasha | Lee Montague Lee Montague Lee Montague is an English actor noted for his roles on film and television, usually playing tough guys.Film credits include: Moulin Rouge, The Camp on Blood Island, The Savage Innocents, Billy Budd, The Secret of Blood Island, Deadlier Than the Male, The Legacy and Brother Sun, Sister... |
| Marta Dorff | Deborah Norton Deborah Norton Deborah Norton is an English actress best known for her appearances in Yes, Prime Minister and A Bit of Fry and Laurie.- Personal life :... |
| Mr. Lowy | George Rose George Rose (actor) \... |
| Uncle Kurt Dorff | Robert Stephens Robert Stephens Sir Robert Stephens was a leading English actor in the early years of England's Royal National Theatre.-Early life and career:... |
| Inga Helms Weiss | Meryl Streep Meryl Streep Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film.Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with... |
DVD releases
Holocaust was released in the U.S.A. as a Region 1 DVD by Paramount PicturesParamount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
and CBS Home Entertainment on May 27, 2008. The Region 2 DVD followed on 15 August 2010.
External links
- Holocaust at The Museum of Broadcast CommunicationsMuseum of Broadcast CommunicationsThe Museum of Broadcast Communications is an American museum that currently exists exclusively on the Internet and not in any physical capacity. Its stated mission is "to collect, preserve, and present historic and contemporary radio and television content as well as educate, inform and entertain...
website