Common Sense Media Review
By Melissa Camacho
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Insightful docu about the U.S., immigration & democracy.
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The U.S. and the Holocaust
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
Co-directed by Ken Burns, THE U.S. AND THE HOLOCAUST is a three-part documentary series about the United States' response to what is now known as the Holocaust, and how it reflects the ongoing challenges to America's democratic ideals. Archive footage, interviews with historians, and dramatic readings contribute to the examination of the social, political, and economic reasons that kept the U.S. government from issuing visas to Jewish refugees from Europe who were attempting to escape systematic and horrific persecution by the Nazis. In doing so, it underscores how America's overall attitudes about specific racial, ethnic, and religious communities from other countries, and U.S. refugee and immigration policymaking, were -- and continue to be -- at odds with the longstanding canon that the United States is a land of immigrants.
Is It Any Good?
The informative, difficult, heartbreaking series illuminates how and why the United States didn't offer more support for European Jews during their persecution by the Nazis prior to, and during, World War II. Like most media about the Holocaust, it offers some insights into the wave of nationalism that facilitated Hitler's rise to power, and the Nazis' methodical slaughter of six million Jewish men, women, and children. But the main focus of this work is on detailing what the United States did and didn't do to help them, the reasons for which are contextualized within its history of systematic racism, antisemitism, and xenophobia. It also underscores how this legacy continues to inform contemporary U.S. refugee and immigration policymaking, despite the United States' continuing to celebrate open immigration as a principle on which American democracy is built. What's presented here is uncomfortable to come to terms with, but The U.S. and the Holocaust raises important questions that should compel us to think critically about what we value as pillars of American democracy, and why we're not living up to those values as a nation.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the lessons we can learn from the Holocaust. What are some of the things that we should do to prevent something like it from happening again anywhere in the world? How has media been used to assist with this mission?
What does The U.S. and the Holocaust teach us about systematic racism and bigotry? How do these conversations relate to contemporary issues and events in the United States, such as Black Lives Matter, the 2017 Muslim travel ban, anti-Asian attitudes during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the January 6 U.S. Capitol attack?
TV Details
- Premiere date : September 8, 2022
- Cast : Peter Coyote , Bradley Whitford , Paul Giamatti , Meryl Streep , Liam Neeson
- Network : PBS
- Genre : Educational
- Topics : History
- TV rating :
- Award : Common Sense Selection
- Last updated : September 29, 2025
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