Band of Brothers Episode 9 - Why We Fight | Canadians First Time Watching | Reaction & Review |
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- Опубликовано: 5 июл 2024
- Simone & George are reacting to and reviewing Band of Brothers Episode 9 - Why We Fight
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00:00 - Intro
02:32 - Episode 9 - Why We Fight
21:56 - Discussion
Welcome to Cinebinge, this time we are reviewing and reacting to Band of Brothers Episode 9 - Why We Fight
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Ya,this is a hard episode to watch,I was stationed in Germany in mid to late 80s,and met a lot of people my age that didn't believe it happened,even tho there are still a couple camps in Germany as memorials.
The camp the 101st Airborne together with the 12th Armoured division liberated was Kaufering IV on the 27th and 28th April which was one of 11 satelite camps under the administration of the Dachau concentration camp. It initial held 3600 prisoners.
In regards whom know about the camps (besides certain selected Germans / Nazi & leadership) , generally only the higher Allied leadership. They knew about these camps for years, however there was nothing they could do about them expect win the war more quickly. However, when the details came out, even they were surprised and shocked.
@@philstone2627 I was based in hohne camp about 1km from Bergen belsen
@@tommears7321 I was in giessen,60 clicks north of frankfurt
Don't worry about it, shit happens.
As one Jewish survivor said when her camp was liberated by the Allies was "There was something we all were carving but lost hope seeing again and that wasn't food or water, it was human kindness".
*"If there is a God, he will have to beg my forgiveness."*
This was carved in German into the wall of a concentration camp cell by a Jewish prisoner.
The prisoners were cancer patients undergoing intense radiation and chemotherapy. The cast was kept away from the camp set until filming so their reactions were genuine.
And not only were the cancer patients said to be in better shape than the actual inmates, but not all of them lived to see BoB when it was finally broadcast.
@@alexlim864
_And not only were the cancer patients said to be in better shape than the actual inmates_
Most of the prisoners found when the camp shown in Band of Brothers was liberated were dead, so yes the cancer patients were in better shape. The camp shown in Band of Brothers is Kaufering IV which was actually found and liberated by the 12th Armored Division on April 27, 1945 and only a handful of prisoners were found alive, along with about 500 bodies. For dramatic purposes, the producers of Band of Brothers decided to show Easy company liberating the camp and filled it with a large number of emaciated prisoners with whom the actors could interact. Easy company didn't actually arrive at Kaufering IV until April 28, the day after the camp had been liberated.
Wow I did not know this. Incredible factoid.
Not all were cancer patients as several are actually actors from the UK & Eastern Europe.
@@iammanofnature235 I wish they'd just told the truth, instead of fictionalizing this episode for shock value. Things were bad enough, and this kind of misleading is irresponsible, and only fuels conspiracy theories.
One thing that was omitted was, when Easy company brought in the townspeople to start with the burials, they made sure that they confiscated any scarf , hankerchief or mask the townspeople tried to use to alleviate the stench of the bodies and the camp in general. They wanted the townsfolk to grasp the full extent of the atrocity that had been happening "right under their nose".
_One thing that was omitted was, when Easy company brought in the townspeople to start with the burials, they made sure that they confiscated any scarf , hankerchief or mask the townspeople tried to use to alleviate the stench of the bodies and the camp in general. They wanted the townsfolk to grasp the full extent of the atrocity that had been happening "right under their nose"._
Colonel Edward Seiller of the 12th Armored Division, who had taken control of the camp shown in Band of Brothers, Kaufering IV, when it was liberated by the 12th Armored Division on April 27, 1945, was the one who ordered civilians from the town of Landsberg am Lech to bury the dead (he also ordered it filmed: ruclips.net/video/NS02Cq3Lifc/видео.html ). There are also several photos of Colonel Seiller standing among the dead while forcing civilians to look at the bodies. Easy company did assist Colonel Seiller when they arrived on April 28.
One thing a lot of people forget since its only mentioned once in like the first or second episode is that Liebgott is Jewish having to learn so suddenly what's happening to Jewish people then be ordered to tell them they have to go back into the camp must have been devastating and his actor showed it so well I think.
liebgotts religion was mostly mysterious in reality
I think his mother was Jewish. but he wasn't raised Jewish.
And he knew everyone assumed he was Jewish, and didn't bother trying to correct them (and technically, if his mother was Jewish, so was he).
Winters has written of his concern over Liebgott's growing anger, and violence toward POWs, as the war progressed (we see a little of this in the scene where he confiscates Liebgott's ammo, and again when the accused commandant is gunned down at his mountain cabin)
At the beginning, Nixon isn’t angry with Spiers. He’s angry about the jump he just did and the men who died. Spiers was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I think Nixon was a part of Operation Varsity, which was last Airborne Assault of WWII. It was successful (Drop two Airborne Divisions on the East Bank of the Rhine in support of a British Amphibious Assault, but came at great cost as the operation was carried out in the Daytime. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Varsity
Nixon was angry because while he was getting men killed (or so he felt), Spiers was feathering his nest for after the war - note: soldiers do loot, but it's against all military regs, and Spiers is an officer - his law-breaking is so brazen, it's an outrage.
@@neilgriffiths6427 Those are the spoils of war
@@neilgriffiths6427 As Winters said, he was fine with them taking trinkets, given the severity of the crimes of the Nazies and those that supported them. That may not seem right in retrospect, but putting ourselves in the mindset of that time... Yeah, I can understand.
@@OpenMawProductions Looting was prohibited precisely because of the mindset of the time. Just because it's commonplace in war doesn't mean soldiers don't know it's wrong. The era of loot, spoils, and rape being explicitly promised to soldiers as rewards is a number of centuries in the past. But those things still happen and soldiers who engage in that conduct absolutely know what they are doing is wrong.
I've seen this episode dozens of times over the last 20 years, and every time I weep. Every time. Including this one.
Something that gets to me every single time. They pan past Captain Spiers at one point, and the man is visibly forcing himself to not burst into tears. This is big nuts no quit hard charging Spiers, and he's about to break down and cry. That gets to me every time.
The film directors didn't tell the actors what they were coming to. They wanted real emotions .
_That gets to me every time._
The liberation scenes were specifically written for dramatic and emotional effects, but they are also fictional.
From the Internet Movie Database Trivia:
_The concentration camp liberated by Easy Company was actually a subcamp called Kaufering. It was actually discovered and liberated on April 27th, 1945 by the 134th Ordnance Maintenance Battalion of the 12th Armored Division. For dramatic purposes, the scene is written to depict Easy finding it._
From the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum:
_As US armed forces approached the Kaufering complex in late April 1945, the SS began evacuating the camps, sending the prisoners on death marches in the direction of Dachau. Those inmates who could not keep up were often shot or beaten to death by the guards. At Kaufering IV, the SS set fire to the barracks killing hundreds of prisoners who were too ill or weak to move._
_When the 12th Armored Division and 101st Airborne Division arrived at Kaufering IV on April 27 and 28, respectively, the soldiers discovered some 500 dead inmates. In the days that followed, the US Army units ordered the local townspeople to bury the dead._
@@iammanofnature235 Nobody gives a shit that they're fictional but pedantic nitpickers.
@@GrumpyOldGuyPlaysGames
_Nobody gives a shit that they're fictional but pedantic nitpickers._
Ah yes, yet another ignorant moron who claims to speak for everyone.
@@iammanofnature235 What part of "go fuck yourself" went past your comprehension?
Well done, young people, for the sensitivity and quality of your reactions and comments during this series. You two were amongst my favourite commentators. I’m an old Aussie bloke and my Dad and uncles fought mainly in the Pacific theatre of war. Thank you for your commentary. Cheers 🤗👍👏🏽
My grandfather fought in the Pacific Theater and Korea with the Marines. God Bless, from the US.
My great uncle was killed in the pacific. My grandfather fought and was wounded in Italy early in the war. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about them and the sacrifice they made. Truly, they are my heroes.
It’s scary to think that this show probably doesn’t even begin to cover the true horror of what happened. Bless those who fought against this evil.
I'm grateful for your family's service.
@@jasonb9562 What actually happened was a different unit liberated a quarantine camp as part of a network of forced work camps building bunker factories for the Luftwaffe to avoid Allied bombing. As Germany collapsed there was no medicine and a lot of disease outbreaks, including a typhus outbreak. The Germans moved the sick to the camp we see, and unfortunately nearly all of them died. It's made to look like a deliberate atrocity for shock value in this episode, but as always the truth is much more nuanced. There was a major labor shortage and the Germans would not have killed any of those prisoners on purpose. The factual tragedy here was that there was no medicine and no safe way to keep those prisoners alive and fed. The German guards were scared of getting the fatal disease themselves and fled. When Allied soldiers arrived, they found basically just dead bodies and a very small number of sick people in barracks, not masses of people walking around. I wish they'd told the real story, and if Spielberg wanted to put the real Nazi atrocities on the small screen he could have made a miniseries about the Soviet soldiers on the Eastern Front which did liberate some much worse camps. But, Soviets would not have been as relatable to American audiences, I guess. Typical Hollywood nonsense. The consequence of course is that many people don't know the real story, because they've been misled, and some see the lies and assume everything about the holocaust is a lie. It just fuels conspiracy theories. They had a responsibility to be as accurate and unimpeachable as possible, so it's very disappointing.
The guy that played Liebgott and the prisoner deserved awards for this. It was spot on translation if you read history and then Liebgott's reaction is amazing
When the man salutes Perconte. Gets me every time.
And how Perconte salutes back; throughout the show they don’t salute civilians, not with the same respect as fellow Paratroopers, Perconte is shown giving a “hard” salute. 😢
@@boydsinclair4166 perfectly put Boyd. This scene and the significance gets me every time too.
Notice that the only time Perconte calls O’Keefe by his real name and not O’Brian or O’Reilly or something, is when he sees him sat upset at the camp, and checks if he is ok
I also love the comparison of Nixon looking ashamed when the generals wife catching him breaking into her house, and then when she looks ashamed when he sees her at the camp, the moral high ground having shifted massively
And apparently I can’t even watch other people watching this without crying. Dammit.
Yep and I knew this was going to happen. All the other reactions I have watched have the absolute same result. For them, and me.
Same
You don't stand alone in that, Joel. Any person with a heart cannot see such things and not weep.
Same 😭
it is the most appropriate response to one of the most horrendous events in history
A lot of women worked to support the war effort. “Rosie The Riveter” was the poster model for women working.
My own grandma operated a drill press in a factory for the war
My Mother was a US Navy WAVE. She
did maintenance and repaired PBY Catalina flying boats that did anti submarine patrols on the West coast.
My grandmother was a riveter on B-29s
My father was 82nd airborne in WWII he helped liberate two camps and was never the same. I fought in Vietnam . You can not possibly know the good you have both just done
thank you for this and God bless you both
I knew a man, in my youth, who helped liberate a camp. He told me if I ever heard that the locals didn't know about the camps, they were lying. He said you could smell the camp from at least a mile away.
A new extensive report that took over 15 years of data and information dating back to 1940 shows that most german citizens did indeed know about the camps whether that be directly or indirectly, they knew what was happening damn near the whole time. It's sickening.
There are some people who have said that Germany is only well liked again in recent years because much of that generation in the country passed on. From Norweigians to Russians to Brits, a number of that WWII generation hated Germans until the day they died, for sadly understandable reasons.
@@aerthreepwood8021 Thank you for the info! I will definitely check it out.
What are you doing against MAGA right now?
My aunt is a senior caregiver in Germany. Ten years ago she cared for a little old lady who was so fragile she would break if the wind blew too hard. When the woman found out my aunt was Polish, she showed her a photo of her brother, a high-ranking SS officer standing next to Adolf Hitler. She was very proud of him and angry that he was killed in Poland during the Warsaw Uprising. Of course, my aunt didn't reply to her because she didn't want to lose her job. It's not as if the old woman would learn decency at 90.
I do not understand why Americans and/or Brits try to find excuses for Germans of that era. I know that English is a Germanic language and there is a certain feeling of camaraderie between Western powers, but it doesn't sound good when you feel sorry for Nazis. Yes, civilians knew. Some resisted and died- RIP Sophie Scholl- some just wanted to survive, but there was a large group that wanted their army to take over the world. No need to feel sorry because they too had blood on their hands even though they didn't fire any weapons.
I think the early focus on Nixon's personal troubles was to emphasize what comes later - that his problems pale in comparison, and he realizes it.
Is it morbid that all of us who've seen this before were waiting for you two to get to this?
Also my great-Uncle was in the 4th Infantry Division. Hit Utah Beach, fought in the Hürtgen Forest and was in vanguard of group that liberated a camp called Haunstetten. He would never buy German or Japanese equipment of any kind for his entire life. RIP Uncle Herman "Tubby" Mott.
To Uncle Herman “Tubby” Mott, from a 2000-2003 82nd ABN DIV soldier, thank you for your service and sacrifice to defend freedom worldwide. I stood upon the shoulders of such men as you “Tubby”, and all of us who served hope, in some small way, we can honor you with our service. RIP, my brother. I never knew you, but I carry you with me daily.
My Uncle Tommy (my grandmother's brother) was in the 6th Armored and took part in the liberation of a couple of the camps. Tommy was one of those "hale fellow well met" sort of guys who always had a joke and a smile for everybody. Unless you were German. And then he treated you like you were something he had stepped in and wanted to scrape off his shoe.
Hurtgen Forest. Good grief. Respect.
No I don’t think it’s morbid at all. You’re watching reactions cause you want to see reactions. Of course you would want to see their reactions at one of the most emotional moments in the series.
While sometimes people will watch reactions in a schadenfreude, happiness at the misfortune of others sort of way (like watching people scream at horror films), I don't think anyone goes to watch Band of Brothers or other heavy media with that intent.
I think it's more to go 'yes, you feel what I felt... you have a soul... you are human'. Because this is so raw and gut-wrenching, how can you not be moved to tears?
This is why it is important to not forget or disrespect these veterans. They fought united with a just cause to liberate Europe from the Nazi's. With every year that passes, the more we start to lose touch. Thank you for your review.
As others mentioned, Tom and Stephen kept actors away from this set (camp) until day of filming. Those survivors of the camp are cancer patients from nearby hospital. I knew that both of you would break down into tears. Because I did. Very powerful episode. Death camps were outside of Germany mostly in Poland.
And also in Germany
@@tommears7321
Although people did die in the various camps located in Germany, technically they weren't death camps. The camp shown in Band of Brothers is Kaufering IV (Hurlach) which was one of eleven labor subcamps of Dachau located near the town of Landsberg am Lech known as the Kaufering Complex (Kaufering IV was located north of Landsberg am Lech between the villages of Kaufering and Hurlach). And contrary to what is shown in Band of Brothers, the camp was actually found and liberated by the 12th Armored Division, specifically the 134th Ordnance Maintenance Battalion, on April 27, 1945, with Easy company of the 101st arriving on April 28, and there were only a handful of prisoners found alive, along with about 500 bodies.
@@iammanofnature235You're well informed, so what was the Survival Rate for the "Labor" Camps?
there were quite a few in holland as well
@@Alvan81 It depends. Some were treated okay and others just as bad as concentration camps if not worse. These slave laborers built the Atlantic seawall, fortified the channel islands, built bunkers for the u-boats, worked on farms, etc. I think they were supposed to be fed 1200 calories per day officially, but generally got half that while doing heavy labor. Some, mostly political and resistance prisoners, were marked down to be worked until dead. NN was put next to their names which stood for "Nacht und Nebel", Night and Fog. One of these was Jean de Vogue who headed the famous Moet and Chandon winery which makes Dom Perignon champagne. He was a top French resistance leader. He survived the camps, barely. (I'll have to fix his wikipedia page as it is just abysmal with lack of information.)
“I never thought I’d say this but I love Gonorrhoea” 😂 that made me choke on my wine 🍷
3:28 That reminds me of when anothet RUclipsr reacting to Band of Brothers said "I really like Gonorrhea. Wait, that sounds wrong."
It’s really interesting to me that you noticed the silence surrounding the camp. I’ve visited Auschwitz twice, both the big primary camp in Ostwiecim and the auxiliary camp at Birkenau, and especially at the primary camp it is still deathly silent. It’s striking in that it’s located in the middle of a big birch forest, beautiful location, that you would totally expect to be full of birds and other creatures making all sorts of noise, but the only sounds I can recall is the distant sound of traffic on the road outside the camp, a few flies buzzing, and the wind rustling the leaves of the trees. There remains a very heavy atmosphere to the place and if I’ve ever been anywhere that’s haunted, it’s there. It doesn’t feel malicious, though, just sad and very very aware of what happened there, and it demands to be remembered.
It is a graveyard as much as it is a museum. I've seen people finding bones there after decades. That's why I cannot stomach foreign tourists taking selfies or laughing while covertly filming a gas chamber.
They were treated well by the US and officers actually tended to be given more respect. The only formal executions by the US were for war crimes
There are many accounts of US soldiers doing executions of POW, mostly because they were angry. When Dachau near Munich was liberated there were many accounts of at least 500 or more POW being killed and that some were killed by inmates while the Americans were watching. There are also accounts of some of the prisoners that were kept in the POW camps in the west were treated poorly, especially if they had SS insignia on their uniform, even if it had just been the Waffen-SS (foreign legion soldiers).
There is a reason why almost all media representations tries to show that the Allies were also sometimes the bad guys.
@@YekouriGaming the Germans in American and Britain unless they were high command got treated very well. One of them even came out and became one of Man City’s best ever goalkeepers
@@TrequartistaFM For like the 99.9% of the cases yearh, especially at the very end of the war when the Germans were surrendering en masse. There are accounts of German "battle deaths" during the early fighting in France being Germans who actually surrendered, but it was likely not many.
@@docbearmb Yearh it was the French who were executing some Sergeants, as payback time.
It is incorrect to say that few German POW's in Soviet hands made it home. Over 60% of all German POW's in Soviet hands made it home, while it was less than 20% of Soviet POW's that made it home. Of all the German POW's taken by the Soviets, the Stalingrad ones are the big outlier and skews the data a lot, but those prisoners were all almost dieing of starvation, freezing and some of them had diseases, when they were made to march to the prison camp and most had already died within weeks.
"In the 20th century alone, Stalin and Mao each killed more of their own countrymen" It is a common misconception in narrative that those 2 guys did things with the sole intent of actually killing people.
Stalin treated people sent to prison badly, just like the Tsarist regime had done in the 19th century but way more people were arrested so the impact was way bigger. Stalin also intentionally exported grain in exchange for factory machines and tools, while the country was having a famine. The reason why on earth he would do that comes down to the Geopolitical situation at the time and his understanding of economics and very strict reading of Das Kapital by Karl Marx.
Mao was a very uneducated man, who had spent almost his entire life in a civil war, he was so ignorant about the world that he did not understand how food grows, the importance of animals or how industrial materials work. His drafts of the laws in his "Great Leap Forward" is a candidate for the Dumb & Dumber movies, as he told people to take the metal in their homes and put them in their furnace to make steel for machine tools, which just resulted in people destroying their own tools. The laws redistributed land without any care for the natural ecosystem so many people did not get enough fertile land to feed themselves, and he had specific birds hunted because he "didn't like them". The birds proved to be vital for fertilizing the crops, and now many crops failed, combined with many farmers not having enough land to feed themselves and other farmers had just destroyed their own tools, which all combined led to the deadliest famine in history.
Just as a site note, Mao had a dam build during this era, and as it was politically decided that there should be a Dam there, without any engineering inspection and many of the normal engineering practices were thrown out to build it fast to please the political agenda. As the ecosystem was severely damaged and led to a huge famine, many of the trees and other plants also died, which changed the water absorption in the area. Finally in 1975 the dam collapsed and flooded a huge area leading to the destruction of about 6 million houses and a death toll of up to 240.000 people. Not on purpose, but just due to complete ignorance. The entire "Great Leap Forward" era stands as a beacon for why science and engineering is important when making political decisions.
@@docbearmb The question of the Holodomor is about whether or not Stalin purposefully didn't send aid to Ukraine like he did to other areas of the USSR. Similarly it was the Ukraine that produced most of the Grain that was exported, so the collectors would purposefully seize it all.
It is still a controversial part, because it depends on the angle you put on it. The Holodomor narrative puts it as a punishment for the Ukrainians, while there is no documentation of actual ill intentions other than Stalin looking at the larger picture and thus not deciding to stop the huge quotas on Ukraine and not diverting most of the aid to Ukraine who had the greatest need for it.
It is still in one of the grey areas of a genocide.
The issue is that both perspectives of the Holodomor are probably true at the same time, as there are many factors contributing the decisions being made.
12:08 - those are French soldiers executing German soldiers. I imagine this was just some random act of revenge. Also, Axis POWS taken by the allies were treated very well. After being processed, they were shipped to camps mostly in Canada and the southern US where they worked as agricultural workers due to the lack of available workers. They were well-fed, lived in adequate housing and even were allowed lots of leisure time to play sports. Some high-ranking German commanders were even put up in castles and mansions where they lived a life of relative luxury; the only catch was that every room was bugged so the British could secretly gather intelligence from them. It didn’t matter if you drafted or enlisted on your own accord, all pows were treated the same. It wasn’t until after the war, during the Nuremberg trials, where war criminals were tried and either jailed or executed. At the end of the war, many german generals disregarded their orders to fight to the death against the Soviets and surrendered in mass to the western allies, bc they knew they would be treated much better than if they were captured by the Soviets. The Germans treated American/Canadian/British prisoners with respect, but their conditions were pretty dire considering the the fact that the Germans could barely feed their own troops by the last years of the war. Captured Soviet troops, on the other hand, were intentionally starved and were often worked to death as slaves. The Soviets treated captured Germans horribly as well. Of the 91,000 Germans captured at Stalingrad, only 5,000 survived to make it home.
If you look at the original video (not reaction which is blurred) you'll see that it's actually Tom Hanks that is doing the shooting.
Western allies treated most prisoners well enough, then again they never had as much hate in them as their civilians never suffered as much as those in the east.
Having said that allies did mistreat (and even shoot) quite a few POW and even some civilians. These actions were sometimes even ordered by the leadership. Not many official evidence about that sadly as they (still) keep the info under lock and key.
German POWs were treated better than African-American soldiers during the war, unfortunately.
_Also, Axis POWS taken by the allies were treated very well. After being processed, they were shipped to camps mostly in Canada and the southern US where they worked as agricultural workers due to the lack of available workers. They were well-fed, lived in adequate housing and even were allowed lots of leisure time to play sports._
Yes and no. Those captured before the end of the war were treated fairly well, but those captured near the end of the war were sent to the Rheinwiesenlager camps which had appalling conditions.
Although it is true that POWs in the west we're generally treated well, at the end of the war with mass surrenders, the system broke down and many German POWs dies of preventable causes. As for vetting prisoners to determine the true believers, there was little political will to do that right, and de-Nazification was sloppy at best. It's an oversimplification to say that the western allies did a good job handling their prisoners.
*died ... and also, the black band on the German officer's picture means he died in the war.
Wow, your reaction was so moving you two.
George, I can't believe you were at the Unit 731 Museum. I toured the Seodaemun Prison in Seoul, South Korea (a concentration camp the Japanese made to kill Koreans who stood up against the occupation). It was horrible. I remember so plainly the feeling of dread I experienced there. I used to think I'd like to pay my respects at places like Unit 731, SS-17 (Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum), and Auschwitz. Seodaemun was enough. I can so understand where you must have gone in your head watching this.
I really appreciate that you and Simone put up your honest reactions. This is why historical films, done right, like BoB does break down all our modern cynicism and teaches us important lessons in humanity. You both did an amazing job of reacting and editing this.
Imagine seeing all the death, destruction and inhumanity of this War...and then seeing this. There is no coincidence with the woman in the red coat and the little girl from Schindler's List. Spielberg doesn't have coincidences in his work.
P.S.
"Why We Fight" is a nod to a legendary WW2 film series that came out during the War itself, it was shown to the public as well as soldiers to motivate the War effort. Love the shirt Simone
P.P.S. That was Tom Hanks in a French uniform that shot the prisoner 12:10
When that Jewish man hugged and kissed the soldiers, I got really choked up too. I mean, you should right? Series like the Band of Brothers is important to make and make as accurately as possible. Shows like this demonstrate why we should be grateful we live in such peaceful times.
If you're ever in Washington D.C. I highly recommend touring the Holocaust museum. It's not a pleasant place to visit but it is well presented and powerfully impactful. I sincerely believe all humans must know what we as a species are capable of if we hope to never see this kind of brutality and ugliness again.
Sad there are no museums to the 65 million murdered under Chairman Mao - yup, and that figure is a conservative estimate - fanaticism needs the light of the freedom to be exposed for what it does.
@@neilgriffiths6427 Or the 60 million murdered in the US via utero murder since 1973 alone. Those who condoned it today will be viewed justifiably as bad as we now look back at the Holocaust and slavery.
Not really because that's a single person's deeply personal decision regarding their own life and that of their family and future.
In short, it's none of your business how other people deal with it. Nobody is going to abort you. Don't worry about it.
From the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum:
_As US armed forces approached the Kaufering complex in late April 1945, the SS began evacuating the camps, sending the prisoners on death marches in the direction of Dachau. Those inmates who could not keep up were often shot or beaten to death by the guards. At Kaufering IV, the SS set fire to the barracks killing hundreds of prisoners who were too ill or weak to move._
_When the 12th Armored Division and 101st Airborne Division arrived at Kaufering IV on April 27 and 28, respectively, the soldiers discovered some 500 dead inmates. In the days that followed, the US Army units ordered the local townspeople to bury the dead._
This is why my grandfather fought. This is why I enlisted and stood ready for 6 years. It must never happen again.
"I said SHUT UP YOU NAZI FUCK" is my favorite line in the entire series. The sheer rage at the German people and Nazi regime for letting the Holocaust happen and perpetuating it in Webb's voice gives me chills.
Also, the Germans knew. Maybe not all the details, but they had borne witness to the Nazi Party turning Jews into scapegoats and then persecuting them and finally disappearing them. They just chose to go along with it because it was easier.
It's sadly not hard to believe. You only have to pick up on the hate in society today to realise a sizeable portion of people still think the same way.
@@kevtb874 It's not hard at all just use the golden rule. Flip anything said and see if it would piss somebody off who said it if they were in the reverse. It's surprising how much is just constantly blasted that fails such a simple test.
My uncle James was part of the British forces who liberated Bergen Belsen, everything he witnessed from D-Day to Berlin and the bombing of his and my dad's home and the death of friends here in Liverpool UK due to the mass air raids by the Germans, it was Belsen he couldn't talk about.
And this is why 80-90% of Germans will agree: "Nie wieder!" - "Never again!". Some of the rest will still claim this never happened or they'll try to justify it. Thank you for your honest reaction to those images!
Guys hi my name Nick and I am from South Africa and I am a veteran of the bush war. I have seen your reactions to Band of Brothers and I love your reaction to episode 9 because it shows what beautiful souls you have. Having experienced the horrors of war this episode even tore me up. The one beautiful thing that shines through is the men that fought against Hitler and his henchman. They fought for democracy and the freedom of oppressed people. The world was made better by these men. I and have to say you also make the world a better place because of your souls. The last thing we need to take away from this is that the freedoms most people enjoy was paid for in blood by men like the men of easy company.
My great Uncle Charlie was at the opening of Buchenwald. He never ever spoke about it but I'm told when he saw anything about the camps his eyes went dull like he was somewhere else. He never was the same after the war. When he got drunk it's said sometimes he slipped and the stories of the horrors supposedly came out. I wish I had known him better and heard some of these stories. God forbid we ever let this happen again here.
The moment where they realize you can't feed the prisoners hits me EVERY time.
The Picture the Lewis Nixon picks up, and then drops, had a black ribbon on the top left corner, signifying that he was KILLED IN ACTION
I’m binging BoB Episode 9 reactions and your reactions are what i’d hope someone’s first time reaction to seeing the camp would be 15:20 And yes, you get bonus points for the reaction from the male side of the screen (edit: George). Both of you are empathic and that is a welcome trait to see.
The best message is given through Bull, the 'hardened' soldier, just crouched there in front of the camp... That sunk in for me
The woman in red definitely knew about the camp. You're not married to a high ranking German officer and living that close to the camp and have no idea. The look on her face at the end wasn't one of shock and horror, it was "I'm only sorry we got caught." The fact is, that entire town was very, very unlikely to be ignorant of the camp and its purpose.
Not all Germans were nazis. I think the baker really didn't know. He appeared very upset with what he was seeing while moving the bodies.
Wouldn´t bet on that. If you look at her husbands picture, he wasn´t part of the SS Totenkopfverbände, who ran the concentration camps. He was a, if I saw it right, Colonel of the Wehrmacht, regular army. Probably somewhere at the frontline or already dead. Can´t watch into the minds of the people back then, and many surely knew, or figured out, but there´s a reason, why the Nazi Leaders did not tell the people about what´s really happening in those camps. There was no newspaper headline like "We burned another 1000 people yesterday". But also imagine being an average citizen, learning about the gas chambers and stuff, what would you do? Complaining to the next SS Officer? Not everybody is brave and willing to risk his life, even if he could save 100 people.
I think she looked ashamed when she saw Nixon. She probably did know about what her husband was part of with the camp, if he was a part of it.
@@shcuf95 Current scholarship really strongly suggests that the Wehrmacht (and especially the officer class) was well aware of and a direct participant in the Final Solution.
By the late war they generally weren't the ones doing the killing, they were certainly involved in providing security, logistics, etc. for the units that were and were sporadically involved in direct action besides.
Obviously it's impossible to full get into it in a RUclips comment, but suffice it to say that the "clean Wehrmacht" is a myth that was largely put into place to protect the interests of both the German ruling class (who were almost universally guilty of serving the Nazi party in SOME capacity even if they weren't enthusiastic adherents) and the anti-Soviet interests of the West following WWII and the advent of the Cold War. It's only very recently that scholarship has started to pick away at the very entrenched idea in the mainstream.
Dr. Omer Bartov has done some really excellent, easily digestible work about the criminality of the Wehrmacht, as have Stephen Fritz and Wolfram Wette (the latter of whose work is in German but a very good English language translation of his book is available, published by Harvard University Press.)
I've seen a few accounts showing that many officers kept as much of that knowledge as possible from their wives, so I'm not sure how much they really knew.
The episode that made everyone cry (including me) with the cancer patients portraying KZ inmates. You can't get more realistic than that, that made it even more tough to watch.
Edit:
By the way, in case you are wondering, the bigger camp the soviets found was Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Love you watched this series and your reaction was just like mine. This is the one episode my dad didn't watch with me during the premiere. He knew what was coming and couldn't bear to see it again. As much as he hated seeing his friends die in combat, seeing a work camp destroyed him. I think this series should be shown in every high school in America. You can read about this event but to see it so visually is another. We must never let any organization or political party,who thinks they are superior to another, rise again. Democracy is very fragile and needs constant watching.
_I think this series should be shown in every high school in America._
Unfortunately, parts of Band of Brothers are entirely fictional...for instance the liberation scenes. The camp shown in episode 9 is Kaufering IV which was actually found and liberated by the 12th Armored Division on April 27, 1945 and there were only a handful of prisoners found alive, along with about 500 bodies. Easy company didn't actually arrive until the following day.
When you're done with Band of Brothers, you should watch "The Pacific".
Forreal. The pacific was unbelievable
After seeing George and his reaction to this episode, idk. That one may be a bit too close to home.
Let's not get carried away, folks. Most German soldiers participated in The Final Solution. They were not compelled to do so, despite their claims to the contrary. They were an integral part of the killing apparatus. But you don't have to take just my word for it. There are countless numbers of books on the subject.
What exactly are you saying?
I have been to the Auschwitz/Birkenau complex in Poland, and I was thankful to have some company there after I met some Canadians who had attended the same wedding I was at near Krakow the day before. It would be a lot to take in by yourself. What took me aback at first was the sheer scale of the place. It goes all the way out to the horizon, like the size of an airport or a small city. You can see why people weren't kidding when they warned about this episode being the heaviest.
I gave this video a thumbs up, not because I enjoyed watching it (though I have enjoyed your reactions), but because I am thankful when another person sees how well done this episode has put us right into what it would be like to discover one of these camps. How there could be anyone in this world who believes the Holocaust didn't really happen is beyond me. Holocausts and genocide are real and we need to come to terms that humans would actually do such a thing to one another.
My great uncle was there. Only when he was really drunk while baby sitting us he'd tell us kids stories of that war. By now, he was a crane operator at the mine making $40 an hour w/ his own own kids begging him for money (which he rarely gave b/c he considered them greedy). He fed us babysat kids steak, grilled fish, beer to the older us us b/c "thats what they fed us at base b/c they didnt know we were coming back"... but we actively listened to his stories which F$#%ed our nightmares, but now as im older i understand. Someone needed to listen, someone needed to know. We kids scooped up his vomit and cleaned his floor/shirt when he would have an episode (which was every day at sunrise "attack time", just as we got dropped off for babysitting)... we always looked after our uncle from the war and he kept us around to babysit until he died. I dont like telling this secret, but us kids.. thats what we did for him. When he died, we cut a lock of our hair into his military shirt pocket so he would know how to find us in the afterlife. Us kids, we will rescue him in the end and save him from his own torture. "Ill see you soon" is what we all whispered to him at the funeral. We natives will follow our own into hell itself to save a soul.
*hugs* i don’t think you’re telling his secret. You’re telling the world how much you all love each other. You all, including your uncle, seem like damn fine people. ❤️❤️❤️
This is what happens when people court the ideas of the egoist, populist, personality and the state, who scapegoat an entire race of people for the poor performance of ones nation, historically perceived injustices, or how the rest of the world looks down on a "once proud nation".
If you start treating others as less than human, it makes it much easier for atrocities like this to occur. Human dignity and human rights must always be the highest value in our minds. Don't fool yourself, this can and probably will, happen again.
Don't look for easy answers or to leaders to fix everything and don't blame the "others" for any perceived failings of our own.
This right here!! ^^^
This episode does a good job of bearing witness to what those camps where like. At least the best job it can and still be shown.
They did SUCH an exceptional job on this episode. It is almost as hard to watch as the archival films from the actual camps. This episode, if not the entire series, should be required watching in high school history classes.
My Grandfather fought in both WW2 and Korea from the beginning of U.S. involvement to the end. And the horrors he witnessed at just one of the many liberated concentration camps in Europe haunted him for the rest of his days. He even said that you could pick up a grown male prisoner with one hand that’s how malnourished they were.
Well in episode 10 you'll be crying much happier tears. The ending is absolutely brilliant.
The average German soldier was just a soldier with no knowledge of the atrocities of the camps. They went to prisoner of war camps and were released after the war was over. Same with regular army Officers. The soldiers and officers who ran the camps were tried and executed for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Thousands did die in the camps in the first months, due to poor conditions.
There was a scandal some years ago when a journalist wrote a book called "Other Losses" claiming evidence that over a million German POWs died in American/British captivity after the end of the war (and that Eisenhower not only knew but basically approved, as a kind of revenge).
It's considered largely debunked by now.
We (the Allies) didn’t know about the Holocaust. We discovered it as we got into Germany. And as horrific as it was, we still have genocides going on today. We say, “Never Again” (‘Nie Wieder’ in German), but it continues to happen world-wide (such as where we just left as well as against the Kurds).
As an officer stationed in Germany and living “on the economy” (meaning among the German population away from American housing), I had several neighbors who were common soldiers in the German Army during WW2. And as a kid, the father of one of my best friends was a common WW2 German soldier who survived 6 years in a Soviet POW camp. The stories of what happened to common German soldiers as POWs is drastically different between those captured by the West and those captured by the East. For my neighbors captured by the West, the prisoners were well fed and housed, and after the war were used for several years as the workforce to clear and rebuild the German cities. Harold’s father’s story (Harold was my friend) was one of starvation, poorly housed, poorly dressed, and being worked mercilessly.
As to the population knowing about the Holocaust, the stories are mixed. Harold’s mother lived in a small rural village and said they knew nothing about it. They only knew that Jews were moved. The intellectuals imprisoned were classified in the newspapers as criminals, and the German population had no reason to doubt that. Other Germans I have met (especially around Munich) knew of Dachau as a prison camp, but did not know what went on there. And the Einsatzgruppen of the Eastern Front were simply not spoken about by the press. Even among the common German soldier, the Einsatzgruppen’s work was not known to most. The men and women who made up this group were fanatical racists who believed in what they were doing (not unlike those in the US today who believe in J6 and Q).
Many amateur historians will argue that the German people knew about the Holocaust and the atrocities, but they make these claims in 20/20 hindsight of already knowing about it. As Harold’s mother and others said to me many times (separate from each other), they only knew that Hitler brought jobs and increased the quality of life for the German people following the post-WW1 economic failures. For the first time in their history, even common farmers’ income increased, cars were more readily available, the Autobahn was the only roadway of its kind in the world (even the US did not have anything like it), and electricity was delivered to the entire country (the US would not achieve this until the 1960s). Because of these things, like any population today, the Germans did not care about or ask questions about how it all came about. Even in the US today, no one asks or cares about what Washington DC is doing so long as the common household has a good income, a big screen TV, a nice car or truck, maybe a Bass boat, and can indulge themselves. As long as a government pacifies the population with a good economy, a population does not question or examine the government. So long as something doesn’t affect me, I don’t care about it. This is how it was for most Germans, and this is how it still remains even today across the world.
We can say, ‘Nie Wieder!’, but without really learning from the past we are condemned to live by ‘Immer Wieder!’ (Always Again!).
Love the chemistry between the two of you. Simone, never lose you empathy; it is beautiful to see the world through your eyes.
The first prisoner Liebgot talks to has a small role in Captain America: the First Avenger. I can’t help but think of this episode every time I watch that movie. It’s a bit of whiplash.
When they filmed the work camp scenes the actors weren't told what they would be walking into so their reactions were genuine.
Catching this a few months later, even when you know what is coming in this episode... nothing can prepare you for the moment when it happens, it rips your heart out.
Here's a little known fact: they built that set in secret from the actors. The reactions that you see are their real reactions to seeing it. Even the extras were brought to the set in secret
There is an older movie called "The Big Red One" and it follows a squad thru the start of the war to the end and there is a very well done scene like this at the end where they liberate a camp. Also Luke Skywalker is in it
>> _it follows a squad thru the start of the war to the end_
Specifically from the start of when the _Americans_ entered the European war (well, landed in North Africa).
I never really understood why he just unloaded his rifle into the cremation oven.
@@CEngelbrechtfrom what I remember there was a German guard hiding in the oven.
You're emotions are raw after seeing this in 2021. You could Imagine how the soldiers felt afterwards.
@CineBingeReact when the Bosnian War broke out....my dad and his regiment were taken to this very camp. It was to prepare them for what they might experience whilst deployed. He told me that even then (latter 1990's), there was still no bird song in the forest surrounding the site, and no wild life for miles. Xx
You guys in the beginning coming up with various suggestions as to why the episode might be called 'Why We Fight', with each one you suggested, I just kept mumbling, "Nope, that aint it. Nope, that aint it either."
_"Why We Fight"_ was a propaganda series produced by Frank Capra from 1942-1945. Steven Spielberg chose the name to imply that we were fighting because of the Holocaust and created this fictional version of the liberation of Kaufering IV showing Easy Company liberating the camp filled emaciated prisoners. In reality, Easy Company did not liberate the camp and there were only a few prisoners found alive along with about 500 bodies. The Holocaust was bad, but it was not the reason we fought.
You both did a great job of reviewing this movie...thank you..... As a US Marine that has been in war (Vet Nam) World War II was horrific beyond belief.....hope to God that we have learned to not have wars .(I wish and hope)
I bought the entire series on DVD, and I watched every episode, and I still cry to this day on this episode, and I still don't know how a human being can harm another human being this way.... horrible..most of us don't have word to describe these atrocities...
13:25 This scene is an explicit reference to Schindler's List 'little girl in a red coat' but mirrored. That's Spielberg referencing himself, he does that a lot. This time the red coat is wore by a nazi officer's widow. Of course the reference extend to the follow up scene during camp cleaning.
Yes, you are correct. And except for civilians burying the dead at Kaufering IV (minus the woman in red), everything else shown in Band of Brothers related to the liberation of the camp is completely fictional.
The short scene where the French soldiers shot the Germans is probably a reference to some summary executions done to wars criminals.
Near all the German prisoners were put in camps until the war's end.
The Soviets did give the same treatment.
Been loving watching your reactions to this show, and you guys are quickly becoming one of my fav channels! Excited for ep 10.
It was situation like what you saw with Nixon that brought about the creation of the Soldiers, Sailors, and Airman's Act that prevents any legal actions (including divorce) from being filed against a deployed member of the US Armed Forces. Signed into law in 1940, it was intended to provide the following protection and relief for service members: Mortgage Relief, Termination of Leases, Protection From Eviction, 6% Cap on Interest Rates, Stay of Proceedings, and Reopening Default Judgments. The law as it read between 1991 (when it was updated) and 2003 (when it was replaced by the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA)) also required the service member must be present or have legal representation in any court action. Prior to the act being updated around the time of the 1991 Gulf War, it was not uncommon for deployed military members to come home and find they were now legally divorced and the ex wife had taken everything they owned and custody of any minor children.
The guy reading the article "turns out they are bad, very bad" i just realized that was a "funny" way of foreshadowing, so well hidden in plain sight that foreshadow
I always love seeing reaction videos to this episode especially by the younger generations. How they respond to this episode specifically tells you so much about the reactors. Thank you.
The German Soldier POW's were kept in camps and then patriated into Western countries and served mainly as Farm hands. After the war, those who did not commit war crimes were re-recruited back into the German Army to maintain order and defence under supervision of the Allies. The rest were either sent home to rebuild or stayed in the western countries. Those who were found to commit war crimes were either jailed, hung or shot.
Some of the German POWS through the war came to America. An old boss of mine went to Germany in the late 1950s and lived there for many years and went to University. He made friends with a Professor of his that was a German POW- The professor picked apples in Colorado until he was sent back after the war was over.
I always think about how we are a generation away from know one remembering.
So many people deny that it even happened.
This episode was meant to be a punch to the guts. The hardest part about it is knowing that this is the subdued version that could be shown on tv.
There is a reason why they were called the greatest generation. Real men of honor and bravery. Never forget them
The title, "Why We Fight" was taken from a series of films made by the US Department of War from 1942-1945. Originally they were intended to help soldiers understand what the conflict was about and to counter Axis propaganda (as well as to counter the strong noninterventionist movement in the US), but was released to the general public. The films (8 in total) were directed by Frank Capra (of "It's a Wonderful Life" fame) and Anatole Litvak, with animated segments created by Walt Disney Studios.
One of the best reaction I've watched. I washed band of brothers every year. Has a major in the United States army it reminds me of why we serve. Thank you for watching band of Brothers and doing your reactions
Actually the12th armored discovered this camp. Easy Company arrived the next day.
I went to Dachau Concentration Camp back in "89. The birds weren't chirping that day either...just a huge vacuum as if all sound just had been sucked out, very somber. Gas chambers, ovens, two barracks left standing while the others were gone, just foundations. Guard Towers, barb wire and the Kommadant's Office Serving as a memorial museum...heart wrenching.
A coworker visited a concentration camp around 2015. She said no birds chirped either. The fact always makes me ill. Even the animals are silent in horror to this day.
Unlike Soviets or Polish most American and British soldiers who fought on the ETO didn’t have a slightest idea what the concentration camps were until the very end of the war when the allies entered Germany
I just had to try VAT 69 once because of BoB and Nixon. So 11 years ago i bought a bottle during a music festival here in Norway (Hove festival). It tasted terrible like every other type of liquor does to me. I have the bottle as an ornament on my shelf, but I won't ever buy another.
After you finish Ep.10, I would recommend "The Pianist" (Adrien Brody) 2002 production - autobiography of a Polish-Jew who survived holocaust, just to put into wider perspective what you watch in this Ep.9
The Pianist, a story of a Classical Pianist who managed to survive the Holocaust, Playing for Time, (a movie about the Orchestra that had to play to hide the screams of agony during torture and as the work parties returned to camp in Auschwitz) So many good movies about this time in World History.
They song they were singing at the 10:30 mark is "Blood On The Risers" and has been sung by U.S. paratroopers since WWII. When I went to Jump School in 1971, sometimes during training "breaks'" some of the Black Hats (TAC NCO's) had memorized it and would sing it. We'd sing the chorus "Gory, Gory What A Hell Of A Way To Die." Risers are where the parachute canopy connects to your harness. On these early 'chutes there were 4 risers. The small suspension lines run from the perimeter of the canopy skirt to the four risers; thick straps about a yard long on the early parachutes. Pulling down on a riser would give you a small amount of steerage. During Jump Week when we did our 5 qualifying jumps, we'd do this song every time after we'd finished donning the chutes and just before going out to get on the aircraft. Here's the whole song: ruclips.net/video/5HtVYr9aKRM/видео.html
Yes the "Dear John" letters are a harsh reality to all soldiers even to the present. While i was Deployed in Iraq we had several soldiers get them and it is another thing the unit soldiers help each other get through mentaly while dealing with combat issues on top. I do undestand the partner point of view because they would not understand what its like overseas. Its just a long seperation to them.
16:50 that was Michael Fassbender
Just FYI..this was the men's camp .they split the women from the men...so husbands separated from wives, brothers from sisters, mothers from sons.......and they did unspeakable things to the women in those camps. While the men were forced to work and be beaten..the women went through just as much or worse. Also, this is all based on stories from the men of Ez DID discover this camp. If you listen the men are asking about the women...they missed their sisters, mothers, wives....the bonds you can tell.
FYI, that particular lasger was not liberated by any unit of the 101st. Easy was not the first unit present at any such facility. It’s my understanding they toured or were present at that camp soon enough after it’s liberation that the men reported “that fucking stench,” still lingering, would never be forgotten. It was an artistic liberty that very, very few I’ve ever encountered strenuously object to, including surviving members of the unit that actually liberated that camp.
One of the inaccuracies in the series was that Joe Liebgott was portrayed as Jewish. In reality he was Catholic. But of course there were plenty of 'Joe Liebgotts' in the forces who were Jewish, I'm sure.
Germans taken prisoner by Allies mostly turned out well, even a large chunk of SS and other war criminals never faced any real consequences and some went on to hold important positions in the US (NASA, Operation Paperclip) and Germany.
Most of the Germans taken prisoner by the Russians died in Soviet work camps and the survivors did not return to Germany until 1950s and/or 1960s.
From what I've read on other reactions, the POW carrying a relative is speaking a Serbian dialect, and is saying "People, help him. Please, help him. He's still alive, you can still save him. Please...please."
It was not a POW camp. The Camp depicted in Band of Brothers is Kaufering IV which was one of eleven labor subcamps of Dachau located in the Landsberg region of Germany known as the Kaufering complex. Contrary to what is shown in Band of Brothers the camp was actually liberated on April 27, 1945 by the 12th Armored Division with some units of the 101st arriving on April 28 and Easy Company stopping by on April 29. For dramatic purposes, Easy Company is shown liberating the camp.
I had the privilege of learning my trade from a Holocaust survivor. He and his wife both are. He sadly passed away in 2020 a few weeks shy of his 100th birthday. It wasn't till he fully retired from tailoring at the age of 97 that he and his wife both felt it was their duty to speak out against hate.
I remember seeing this scene again several years after it first aired and after I had heard some of my mentors stories. He was from Poland and sent to Auschwitz at first, but then after some time was selected to go to one of the satellite camps as a laborer. It a put a whole new perspective on this scene and it hits me like a gut punch every time. It always did, but there is something different when someone you love lived this experience.
Vat 69 is a blended Scotch whisky created by William Sanderson & Son Limited of South Queensferry, Scotland.
Nowadays, it occupies the bargain shelf at the supermarket or liquor store.
The soldier shot was a member of the SS.
Normal soldiers who surrendered eventually went home after the war on the non Soviet side of the allies. The Soviets sent most to the gulags, a system of labor camps maintained in the Soviet Union from 1930 to 1955 in which many people died.
German soldiers actually fought TO get to US and British lines to surrender.
There was a German unit that was deep in the Soviet occupied zone that fought it's way to US lines to surrender. They reached the US lines a couple months after German surrendered and the war was over.
I would like to know George's thoughts on the Japanese knowing now that he has seen Unit 731's horrors in China.
I (George) am assuming you are asking about modern day Japanese people? if thats the case, I fully separate them from those that committed the atrocities during ww2. Except for the deniers of course. Frankly I think Japan did an amazing job on rebranding since ww2.
I haven't seen this mentioned in another comment, but the French officer executing those prisoners was Tom Hanks himself.
Their were a few occasions were the soldiers who first reached the camps just rounded up and shot the guards outright on their own inisitive and personally its a wonder it didn't happen more often.
I saw the camp at Dachau in 2015. I'll never forget that either.
Fun fact about the US, we have an actual federal law law called, "War booty" (10 U.S. Code § 2579 - War booty: procedures for handling and retaining battlefield objects).
the picture in the house was NOT of a high ranking Nazi officer. It was of a Wehrmacht officer. These were different branches and the Wehrmacht was different from the SS, Gestapo and Sturmtruppen.
Also, there were enough Germans who did NOT know about the concentration camps. There was no free press or radio in 1945, everything was checked and controlled to allow only proper, positive news. Aside from people in the underground movements and/or who had the luck to receive either French or British radio, many did not know about it.
Next was the stranglehold of the SS and Gestapo at that point. Even a few days, sometimes hours before the final surrender, these would kill people (f.e. in Berlin) who wanted to surrender.
Most Germans knew about the concentration camps and slave labor camps, they were all over Germany and the Nazis did little to hide them. The German citizens saw Jews being taken away, they knew they were being taken to camps. Most Germans probably didn't know about the death camps in Poland. Even if they did know, there wasn't a whole lot they could have done without risking their own safety, many didn't care because of anti-Semitism and being brainwashed by Nazi propaganda.
I have seen the entire series probably 15 times easily. Some episodes more. This episode still hits me hard even though I can almost quote the scenes word for word. The evil man can do to another is heartbreaking. Also, Liebgott having to explain to them what had to be done must have been horrible.
Stunningly real reaction guys. Big hugs.