Part four displays the inner workings of the S S. Dorfman's boss is assassinated and the viewer watches the inner workings of the back biting of the S S. Arrogance, and malice is the theme of the S S as they implement the final solution with gas. Gut-wrenching to watch. The underground gets defeated, and many of the Weis family dies, but trying in everyone to save lives as the good doctor and Mrs wife risk and plan. Ruby and the resistance have a few tender moments while operating missions. We see the lawyer lies of Dorfman, and what Dorfman's word speak really means threw the S S actions. Part four was well directed and casted. Strongest episode so far. 9 stars.
3 Reviews
The show is getting harder and harder to watch...which is to be expected.
planktonrules29 September 2013
Warning: Spoilers
This is not quite the last episode of "Holocaust"--at least when you watch it on DVD. Despite originally airing in four parts (at least that's according to IMDb), it is broken into five on the DVD. So, I'm going to give you a summary of what you'll find on the disc for both part four and part five.
Part four begins with Moses Weiss sneaking out of the ghetto with his new friend--a little street urchin who knows how to slip in and out of this hellish place. Moses' mission is to get guns, as he no longer deludes himself--the Jews must make a stand as the Germans will kill them all.
The bulk of the episode concerns Dorf and his quest for the perfect method to kill the Jews. You learn about the murder of his boss, Heydrich (yippee) and that his wife KNOWS what he's doing and heartily approves! Another major theme is about Karl. His wife manages to get herself interned at Theresienstadt with him--though this is short-lived. When some of the drawings that he and his fellow artists have done to document the horrors*, they are tortured to learn if there are any more drawings. This portion of the show is tough to watch and brutal.
As far as Dr. Weiss goes, he mostly does what he can to spare a few token individuals from deportation to the death camps but it's a losing game. And, by the end of the show, he and his wife are themselves deported. More effective is Rudi's work with the partisans--killing a few Nazis here and there.
Part five begins with Karl's release from the torture. However, he's to almost immediately be deported to Auschwitz and only has a brief meeting with his wife.
Surprisingly, you learn that Karl, inexplicably, is still alive in Auschwitz. Still, he's very tired, looks old and near death.
The uprising in the ghetto of Warsaw continues and is, not surprisingly, crushed.
Rudi and his wife are continuing their work with the partisans. Unfortunately, his wife is killed and Rudi captured. However, there is an uprising at the prison camp and he and his fellow inmates overthrow the place.
Dorf is captured by Americans. He's unrepentant and feels justified for what he did. Later, when Dorf's uncle confronts the family about his nephew's atrocities, they, too, are unrepentant and make excuses for what has occurred.
At the end of the show, Rudi and Karl's wife manage a brief meeting. They discuss their lives and the status of their friends and family--pretty much all who are now dead.
All in all, a very sad but satisfying conclusion to a brilliant mini-series. Well acted and gripping throughout.
Part four begins with Moses Weiss sneaking out of the ghetto with his new friend--a little street urchin who knows how to slip in and out of this hellish place. Moses' mission is to get guns, as he no longer deludes himself--the Jews must make a stand as the Germans will kill them all.
The bulk of the episode concerns Dorf and his quest for the perfect method to kill the Jews. You learn about the murder of his boss, Heydrich (yippee) and that his wife KNOWS what he's doing and heartily approves! Another major theme is about Karl. His wife manages to get herself interned at Theresienstadt with him--though this is short-lived. When some of the drawings that he and his fellow artists have done to document the horrors*, they are tortured to learn if there are any more drawings. This portion of the show is tough to watch and brutal.
As far as Dr. Weiss goes, he mostly does what he can to spare a few token individuals from deportation to the death camps but it's a losing game. And, by the end of the show, he and his wife are themselves deported. More effective is Rudi's work with the partisans--killing a few Nazis here and there.
Part five begins with Karl's release from the torture. However, he's to almost immediately be deported to Auschwitz and only has a brief meeting with his wife.
Surprisingly, you learn that Karl, inexplicably, is still alive in Auschwitz. Still, he's very tired, looks old and near death.
The uprising in the ghetto of Warsaw continues and is, not surprisingly, crushed.
Rudi and his wife are continuing their work with the partisans. Unfortunately, his wife is killed and Rudi captured. However, there is an uprising at the prison camp and he and his fellow inmates overthrow the place.
Dorf is captured by Americans. He's unrepentant and feels justified for what he did. Later, when Dorf's uncle confronts the family about his nephew's atrocities, they, too, are unrepentant and make excuses for what has occurred.
At the end of the show, Rudi and Karl's wife manage a brief meeting. They discuss their lives and the status of their friends and family--pretty much all who are now dead.
All in all, a very sad but satisfying conclusion to a brilliant mini-series. Well acted and gripping throughout.
6000 a day. And that's just from the ghetto.
mark.waltz23 May 2022
Warning: Spoilers
The drama gets all the more dire even as a reunion takes place. Meryl Streep's desperate wife goes out of her way to see husband James Woods, manipulating the situation so she is put in the same ghetto where he is even though she is not Jewish or guilty of any crime. At Warsaw, it's only because of the power that doctor Fritz Weaver has that certain people are not boarded on the trains allegedly headed to Russian family camps. If ever a train look like a monster and sounded like one with its whistle indicating the road to their final destiny, it's that visual, even outdoing the moment in a previous episode where a mother arriving at Warsaw with her dead infant child is gently guided off the train, that would show equal inhumanity in future movies about the Holocaust. Only in the black and white "Schindler's List' does that visual remain in the psyche long after the film is over, although the more obscure earlier film, "The Hiding Place" (1975) does come close, even though only half of that film takes place in a concentration camp.
This episode focuses more on Streep and Woods with Weaver and Harris supporting, and less of Joseph Bottoms and Tovah Feldshuh among the resistance in hiding in Russia. Their story will pop up later in the episode. Michael Moriarty's character has completely morphed into the desperate, evil character representing thousands of war criminals, having early on here revealing to his wife his fear that with the Americans now in Europe, the war is lost and their actions will most likely be misunderstood. But there's no misunderstanding evil, and his delusion is all the more frightening. That gives him a lot of very powerful material to work with, and that one scene revealing his fears is topped by others showing him basically acting without any kind of guilt. Indeed, the series may be beginning to wrap itself up, but it's the case of things getting much worse before the disease of hatred is eradicated. Once again, this is about history being explored, and not an evening entertainment. Torture scenes involving Woods and others he works with are very hard to take.
This episode focuses more on Streep and Woods with Weaver and Harris supporting, and less of Joseph Bottoms and Tovah Feldshuh among the resistance in hiding in Russia. Their story will pop up later in the episode. Michael Moriarty's character has completely morphed into the desperate, evil character representing thousands of war criminals, having early on here revealing to his wife his fear that with the Americans now in Europe, the war is lost and their actions will most likely be misunderstood. But there's no misunderstanding evil, and his delusion is all the more frightening. That gives him a lot of very powerful material to work with, and that one scene revealing his fears is topped by others showing him basically acting without any kind of guilt. Indeed, the series may be beginning to wrap itself up, but it's the case of things getting much worse before the disease of hatred is eradicated. Once again, this is about history being explored, and not an evening entertainment. Torture scenes involving Woods and others he works with are very hard to take.
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