As far as how ethnic cleansing/genocides happen, there are a number of explanations that Burns fails to touch on, preferring the odd/dubious framing set up in the first minutes of Part 1, and revisited at the end of Part 3. This choice will ultimately date the doc, and make it somewhat unpalatable to viewers familiar with deeper understandings, many sought out & uncovered in the first decades after the scope of the Holocaust came into wider exposure at the end of the war. He might have been better advised to shift the primary focus to the Frank family, and the lovely, bittersweet revelation at the end of that narrative. But a worthwhile watch to be sure, including that extraordinary clip of Anne in the window - the only known footage of her.
As far as depth of understanding, I think it was as comprehensive as you could hope for given the limited time a documentary film has to cover everything. I see nothing dubious in the way the beginning or ending was framed since it helps dismiss the notion that it could never happen again and that the seeds of the holocaust remain with us today. I can understand why some won't like those parts of it regardless of the depth of their knowledge of the overall subject.
You're wise to avoid touching on any political relevance. It would only confuse things. A few years ago the son of a survivor asked me if it could ever happen again. I told him, "No. Not on that large a scale." I don't think I would answer the same way if he asked me today. At best I would have to say I don't know. You know what breaks my heart? Seeing survivors who now live in Ukraine. As children they dealt the horrors of Hitler and Stalin. How disturbing what they're experiencing today as elders in Ukraine must be. How horrible it must be to have your life bookended by such evil doing. Anyway, it's an excellent documentary and in order to avoid wandering off topic, this will be the last I'll speak of it.
As far as cause - the seeds - it's fair (I think) so say that the wrap up was woefully narrow & non-comprehensive, and with the depth and scope of exploratory/explanatory material out there, the conclusion came across as a cop out at best; it was also interesting to note that he never circled back to other key - and much more significant - narrative threads, including the foundational national genocide touched on in the beginning. But Burns is who he is, and that's someone with a keen understanding of the national psyche and its limitations, though his success in this regard may in part derive from his own limitations. A worthwhile watch to be sure, however.
The Ukranian Nazis are indeed terrifying; their existence and goals part of the larger complexities not touched upon in Burns' work. But again, some great elements to be sure.
I almost forgot - Three Identical Strangers. I was familiar with a lot of it, but a worthy watch despite being superficial & overly sentimental. I won't say more for fear of spoiling.
Religious fanatics...these happen to be Mormon, but they're all the same. People do weird and scary things when they start believing the hype and see themselves as saviors.
Agreed - I was looking for one, and only found a reference in this thread. Maybe a larger "Holocaust in film" topic.
Not according to the MSM, but that's completely off-topic; there's a thread about Ukraine in the OT/GD Forum I think. Did you see the doc in question?
What does MSM do for your body? Laboratory studies have found that MSM has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects
For those of you who don't know, this three part doc is about the case of Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell made with the cooperation of Vallow's family and friends . This story has been heavily covered by all the main media outlets in the US for the past two years. What makes this documentary different is that that it uses the couple's text messages and phone calls to lay out a pretty conclusive timeline as to what happened and when. I binged it last week and thoroughly enjoyed it. Highly recommended.
It's fairly common, has happened for years. The likelihood that you or I and everyone you know would have gone along with it, had you been a German at the time, is far higher than that you would have objected. Just a few months ago, there were any number of people, who were quite fine with the idea of rounding up people because they didn't get an injection. Some things don't change that much. Sad but true. I've not yet read this book, but it's on my list. The Men Who Pulled the Triggers (Published 1992)
Exactly. It's quite ironic that Burns' own conclusions, such as they are, seek to scapegoat a specific group of people rather than exploring the true & larger underlying issues. He engages in the very "othering" that drives genocide and ethnic cleansing. And it's doubly ironic that Burns takes such a shallow approach to the topic, as it was Hitler's hatred and fear of (primarily Jewish) intellectual accomplishment that drove so much of his pathetic scheming. But alas, anti-intellectualism has always been, and will always be, popular.
Yes. Incredibly scary that she was able to get away with as much as she did...in the name of her religion.