In his most unflinching film to date, historian and broadcaster Simon Schama confronts the enormity of the Holocaust and the catastrophe experienced by its victims.
In a journey which ends with his first visit to Auschwitz, he travels across Europe to explore how the Holocaust was far more than a Nazi obsession, but a continent-wide crime of complicity. From bullets in Lithuania, to bureaucracy in the Netherlands, Simon Schama reveals how prejudice was weaponised to turn people against their Jewish neighbours.
In his film Schama outlines that his focus in not on the horrors of the Holocaust, but how it was allowed to happen. It’s a confronting and challenging film to watch as the brutal truth of how people were treated is laid bare.
He begins his journey in Lithuania, where after the German take over in 1941 local residents helped to brutally murder Jewish residents. Soon Jewish people were been detained in ghettos, intellectuals were being sentenced to death, and soon mass executions were taking place.
He travels to the site of the Ponary Massacre just outside Vilnius where from 1941 to 1944 its estimated that 70,000 Jewish people were murdered in the forests, and he then looks at how Jewish people were killed in Romania, an ally nation of Germany.
The central premise of the presentation is a challenge to the simplistic version of history which tells us that the Holocaust came about because of an evil Nazi regime in Germany, and shines a spotlight on the beliefs and conditions across Europe at the time that allowed it to happen.
It’s harrowing, confronting, and unmissable. Essential viewing, stick with it to the end because it’s final note is a powerful clarion call.
The final person Schama speaks to was Marian Turski, one of the few people at the time of production who had survived the holocaust. His message to the world was simple.
“Auschwitz did not fall from the sky. It comes step by step. Evil comes step by step. And therefore you shouldn’t be indifferent. Lets start with reducing hatred, and trying to understand other people.” Turski said.
Simon Schama – The Road to Auschwitz airs on ABC at 9:00pm on Monday 12th January.
