9pm Thursday THE U.S AND THE HOLOCAUST –
Take an in-depth and unflinching look at America’s response to the Holocaust – one of humanity’s darkest hours. Revealed by master storytellers Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, Sarah Botstein, and the survivors and witnesses who lived through it.
Americans consider themselves a “nation of immigrants,” but as the catastrophe of the Holocaust unfolded in Europe, the United States proved unwilling to open its doors to more than a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of desperate people seeking refuge. Through riveting firsthand testimony of witnesses and survivors who as children endured persecution, violence and flight as their families tried to escape Hitler, this series delves deeply into the tragic human consequences of public indifference, bureaucratic red tape and restrictive quota laws in America. Did the nation fail to live up to its ideals? This is a history to be reckoned with.
YEARNING TO BREATHE FREE (1938-1942)
As war begins, some Americans work tirelessly to help refugees, others remain indifferent.
As World War II begins, Americans are united in their disapproval of Nazi brutality but divided on whether to act. Some individuals and organizations work tirelessly to help refugees escape. Meanwhile, Charles Lindbergh and isolationists battle with Roosevelt to try to keep America out of the war. Germany invades the Soviet Union and secretly begins the mass murder of European Jews.
