Holocaust

Woah.


Can we just take a moment and recognize the ridiculousness of what I'm doing?  I just sat through 8.5 hours of a retelling of the HOLOCAUST all for a cumulative hour, at best, of Meryl Streep.  Something is very, very wrong with me.

That being said.  On we go.

This 5 part mini-series covers the story of the Family Weiss from the early intimations of the Nazi party all the way through the defeat of Hitler and the end of World War II.  This particular post will be SPOILER FILLED.  The honest truth is that I'm not sure that there are a lot of readers of this blog let alone any who reeeeeaaallly want to go spend 9 hours to watch a 1977 rendition of the holocaust.  If you do, stop reading, just go away already.

Meet Inga:

Inga has a deep and abiding love for her new husband Karl:

JAMES WOODS!!!!  Yeah, he's basically in diapers.

It's 1935 and Karl & Inga are a "mixed marriage" for the time.  Both families are a little awkward at the wedding.  The Weiss' are because they feel guilty about being bad Jews because it wasn't really a jewish wedding.  And the Helms' were because they are almost all budding Nazi's and basically think Inga's spoiled and a little crazy for marrying "A Jew" but they love her anyway.

Time passes and progresses to 1938.  Papa Weiss gets a clear warning from a well meaning gentile who has just enscripted with the SS who basically tells him to get the hell outta dodge.  At which point I freak about a little because it is so effing stressful watching the core of the Weiss family (Mama Weiss, Papa Weiss, Rudi Weiss and Little Annoying Daughter Weiss) not leave.  Karl & Inga have the good sense to at least try to figure out a way out of town but they are so consumed by their love they keep getting distracted:

Meryl Streep's Inga is young, unrealistic and very in love.  She's stubborn, brave and intelligent.

The Weiss' have a hard year after they refuse to leave Berlin.  Grandpa and Grandma Weiss read the tea leaves and after some serious initial violence from the Nazi's they off themselves.  Papa Weiss is deported to the future Warsaw ghetto where his brother Uncle Weiss lives.  Karl gets hauled off by the SS for questioning.  And the Annoying Little Sister get gang raped and goes febrile-minded and sent to an aylum where she is essentially promptly gassed in a shed with the others.  Fun times.   So Inga is left to take in her brother in law Rudi and her mother in law Mama Weiss.

At this point Meryl's family demands that she kick the Jews out and she tells them to shove it.  Then a family friend, or possibly a cousin (it's never made clear) who is also a Nazi tells Meryl he's working at the concentration camp where Karl is.  Then he makes her sleep with him in order for him to bring notes to Karl.  And he brags to Karl about it every time he delivers a note.

More time passes.  1941.

Mama Weiss has finally managed to reunite with Papa Weiss and things aren't all that great in Warsaw.  The Jews get executed every time they leave the ghetto and try to return with food as it is considred smuggling.  All characters involved seem to have a hard time wrapping their heads around mass extermination.  Rudi has high tailed it to Russia and met a nice lady.

During scenes with nazi's actual footage and photos from the actual mass murders and burials are being shown.  The nazi's seem to be waffling at the prospect of killing 11 million people, apparently it's a daunting task.

You know what?  Eff this.  Like this time of year isn't totally depressing already.  The last thing I need to be doing is recapping the HOLOCAUST in the name of Meryl Streep.

I've been staring and staring at this post trying to find away to keep going but mostly I just feel incredibly grateful for my family.  Bottom line it's depressing as hell.  Meryl Streep gives a decent performance and the ending shot is of the remaining survivor of the original family who, despite every awful thing that befell him and his family, is smiling: