it's absurd, but this is a generation that have no historical perspective, and if this will open their curiosity and educate them, why not? a jewish woman...
4
How, exactly, did someone at Czech public tv not immediately realize that contestants who would not have anything at stake would not act realistically?
The show, by necessity, will be tamed down and show a Nazi-light "Protectorate". Though the director denies it, the show can only trivialize the fear, suffering, and actual real horror of the times. It also conveniently scapegoats Germans as the only perpetrators of racism and violence.
The very real danger in the show is that Czechs (like the actor, Klimes,) may think there is something to learn from this fiction. The Nazis and their collaborators were not just big-brother making life difficult, they were out to kill and destroy those they saw as inferior (Jews, Slavs, Homosexuals, Communists, Roma, and just about anyone else not Germanic). Fascism had to be defeated at an all-out tragic cost, and this show dishonors the men and women who risked and lost their lives in the process.
The show, by necessity, will be tamed down and show a Nazi-light "Protectorate". Though the director denies it, the show can only trivialize the fear, suffering, and actual real horror of the times. It also conveniently scapegoats Germans as the only perpetrators of racism and violence.
The very real danger in the show is that Czechs (like the actor, Klimes,) may think there is something to learn from this fiction. The Nazis and their collaborators were not just big-brother making life difficult, they were out to kill and destroy those they saw as inferior (Jews, Slavs, Homosexuals, Communists, Roma, and just about anyone else not Germanic). Fascism had to be defeated at an all-out tragic cost, and this show dishonors the men and women who risked and lost their lives in the process.
1
I am Czech and embarrassed that a show like this could even be conceptualized, let alone get a green light to be made. But given that under Communism school history books made a caricature of our past, I am not surprised that Czechs who are now at the helm of our entertainment industry would think it was ok to trivialize and commercialize a painful period filled with such atrocities. It is preposterous (and cynical) -- as the director, producers and consulting historian on the show argue -- that this series is educational. The Czechs are known for their cinematography, be it drama or documentary. An impressively large number of quality titles have been produced by Czech TV processing one of the darkest periods in world history. What is sad is that half a million Czechs prefer to watch this "making war with the stars" video game.
3
Memories of that time must never be forgotten. Never.
2
Lighten up, folks. It's a game. It's not making a statement about the Nazi occupation. It makes no sense to fret about trivialization. Does the game, 'Battleship', trivialize the carnage of naval warfare? Does 'Operation' trivialize serious medical conditions? In a sense, I guess. But who cares?
I don't have a problem with this. How else are you going to teach the millenials?
We were in the Czech Republic and had a wonderful time. Beautiful surroundings, friendly people.
But a lot of darker moments also stood out. Like ...
The casual racism of our cool, young Prague guide toward the Roma.
Another guide's dismissal of Kafka as not a real Czech but a Jew and German (in fact Jews were direct subjects of the Austro Hungarian Empire as they were a separate ethnic group and were required to speak German)
Our experience belied the American myth of mulitcultural Europe. This is the land of the ethnic Czechs.
Visiting Theriesenstadt and hearing how the Czech had no idea of what was happening to the Jews. Sure.
Will the show feature an episode when the families encounter Jews and what they do about it?
Visiting Cesky Krumlov and hearing the Roma lived a bit better there because all of the population was somewhat recent. The information omitted was that is because the entire ethnic German population was expelled and all their property turned over to their Czech neighbours.
When the reality show addresses those realities, instead of some fake Czech all good victims, Germans all bad, then it will be worth watching.
This cartoon characterization of oneself be it American, Czech, as noble and the other as evil, is what people need when who they wish they are or were is so far removed from reality.
But a lot of darker moments also stood out. Like ...
The casual racism of our cool, young Prague guide toward the Roma.
Another guide's dismissal of Kafka as not a real Czech but a Jew and German (in fact Jews were direct subjects of the Austro Hungarian Empire as they were a separate ethnic group and were required to speak German)
Our experience belied the American myth of mulitcultural Europe. This is the land of the ethnic Czechs.
Visiting Theriesenstadt and hearing how the Czech had no idea of what was happening to the Jews. Sure.
Will the show feature an episode when the families encounter Jews and what they do about it?
Visiting Cesky Krumlov and hearing the Roma lived a bit better there because all of the population was somewhat recent. The information omitted was that is because the entire ethnic German population was expelled and all their property turned over to their Czech neighbours.
When the reality show addresses those realities, instead of some fake Czech all good victims, Germans all bad, then it will be worth watching.
This cartoon characterization of oneself be it American, Czech, as noble and the other as evil, is what people need when who they wish they are or were is so far removed from reality.
13
How could a family allow their son to be in this situation? I have a son, and I feel ill thinking of this:
“We broke into the house at one point and ordered everyone out and the little boy did not know how to behave. I had to take a few steps back and collect my breath.”
“We broke into the house at one point and ordered everyone out and the little boy did not know how to behave. I had to take a few steps back and collect my breath.”
9
This is just plain tacky and insensitive period.
6
Though I can not pretend to understand or feel what a person who lived through such a period or had relatives who have, being a strong supporter of Israel and Jewish people in general, I don't see any real negatives with the series.
4
James, it was very honest of you to admit "...I can not pretend to understand or feel what a person who lived through such a period or had relatives who have...."
But while I DO have relatives who were murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust, I don't consider this necessary to understand how and why the series -- though made with good intentions -- cannot help but trivialize and diminish the horrors experienced by very many of the decent and non-collaborating Christian citizens of the German-occupied and controlled countries in World War II.
But while I DO have relatives who were murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust, I don't consider this necessary to understand how and why the series -- though made with good intentions -- cannot help but trivialize and diminish the horrors experienced by very many of the decent and non-collaborating Christian citizens of the German-occupied and controlled countries in World War II.
4
It seems to me that any historical occurrence, even one as horrific as the holocaust, only remains "off limits" for a certain number of years. With what is going on with the Jews in Europe suffering outright discrimination, and now this, the time of treating the holocaust as something horrific and painful is over. Or if that time is not completely here yet, it may very well be here. Sad, but seemingly true.
2
Certainly, for me, all of these "reality" TV productions are absurd and actually harmful. So picking out this show for criticism seems pointless...all of these shows are abject, some more than others.
While the producers might have been more sensitive in choosing another time period, I think it is fair to wonder what life is like during wartime or under fascist rule. In times like these, this reality show may be getting too close for comfort.
While the producers might have been more sensitive in choosing another time period, I think it is fair to wonder what life is like during wartime or under fascist rule. In times like these, this reality show may be getting too close for comfort.
4
Actually, I am thinking that perhaps the three generations of Czech families that are going to perform on Czech public television and re-enact history might be a good thing.
In this country we have erased the horrors of slavery from our children's textbooks. Our Native Americans were portrayed on numerous popular television western series (remember cowboys and indians?) and John Wayne-type films as evil people that ambushed and scalped their enemies. When was it taught that these Native Americans had been invaded by western-bound non-native people and their land taken away and their buffalo killed?
In this country we have erased the horrors of slavery from our children's textbooks. Our Native Americans were portrayed on numerous popular television western series (remember cowboys and indians?) and John Wayne-type films as evil people that ambushed and scalped their enemies. When was it taught that these Native Americans had been invaded by western-bound non-native people and their land taken away and their buffalo killed?
11
This could be done to show how ordinary people managed to survive difficult periods of history. We often get Hollywood versions of history like Mel Gibson as a berserker during colonial times, or how American photojournalist are personally affected by cia backed counter insurgencies. Not exactly reality either but was it ever?
3
This is not "Reality TV" - more like "Fantasy TV". The reality of the WW II era - with some, albeit rare exceptions - is one of rampant complicity, ravenous greed, and unbridled anti-Semitism. Perhaps the TV audience will be more comfortable with this than what they might find in history books and documentary footage.
5
I think people who did not experience the Nazi occupation have no idea of its horrors. I was a child in Athens during that period and I remember people dying from hunger in the streets as well as the announcements of hostage executions in retaliation for acts of the resistance. Doing a "reality show" for that period is the colophon of poor taste and insensitivity.
28
I thought only Jews were mistreated during this period. Did you not read the Times Israeli columnist who wrote: " “Fortunately, for the family, they will not be treated like the 82,309 Jews who lived in the protectorate” and were deported to concentration and death camps."
5
While I don't care for the "game" part. I think a lot of American commentators don't know much about what that period of history meant for many Czechs. I don't think a lot of Americans know about how Czechoslovakia was given over to appease Hitler -- or at least all of its borders and border defenses (which was the same as giving it over). I doubt think a lot of Americans have actually met and spoken to the Czechoslovak generations that survived that period.
And none of this is meant to diminish what happened to Jewish citizens. It was clearly a noted and named genocidal hell for them. It was also hellish for many average Czechs. Does anyone know how? Perhaps the show will acknowledge this.
In America we have had lots of reality shows where our citizens of history survived suffering. For example, PBS had the series where people pretended to be pilgrims.
Czechoslovaks really did not like it when the Black Forest was given to Hitler by Chamberlain. Could you have some empathy there? Then their lands were occupied (German secret police, Nazis, Russians, secret police) for the next fifty years. If they want to make a reality show that will cause their people to think and appreciate the survivors -- and be grateful for the democracy and freedoms that they enjoy today... well that's fine. More power to them.
And none of this is meant to diminish what happened to Jewish citizens. It was clearly a noted and named genocidal hell for them. It was also hellish for many average Czechs. Does anyone know how? Perhaps the show will acknowledge this.
In America we have had lots of reality shows where our citizens of history survived suffering. For example, PBS had the series where people pretended to be pilgrims.
Czechoslovaks really did not like it when the Black Forest was given to Hitler by Chamberlain. Could you have some empathy there? Then their lands were occupied (German secret police, Nazis, Russians, secret police) for the next fifty years. If they want to make a reality show that will cause their people to think and appreciate the survivors -- and be grateful for the democracy and freedoms that they enjoy today... well that's fine. More power to them.
8
Here, in the US, we had 'Hogan's Heroes' less than a generation after the war. Harmless, friendly, bumbling Nazis, a comfortable POW camp; no killing, no torture. If that one didn't make viewers sick, this Czech show, two more generations distant, should easily pass for good entertainment. Just don't show us a breast. That's where we draw the line.
11
Brings to mind the new show Briefcase, which looks on as strapped middle class couples agonize over what to do with $100k. Haven't seen many reality shows that aren't about belittling someone or some group. It's dog eat dog entertainment, with a real life Hunger Games the next logical step.
5
I learned about this show on Facebook earlier this week and was appalled, disgusted and then found it so absurd that I laughed, I've taken the short trip from Prague to Terezin (Therisienstadt to the Nazis) and unless this family is about to be sent to a concentration camp which served as a transport stop to Auschwitz there is NOTHING realistic about this. By the way, mostly. but not just Jews were deported. I strongly suggest a everyone skip this garbage and go to Netflix and rent or Amazon and buy a magnificent documentary on the experience of the Czechs called DEFIANT REQUIEM. It's an amazing tribute to the human spirit and the power of art under the most horrible circumstances.
9
This video is bizarre. Seems like repetition compulsion as a result of intergenerational trauma. This so-called "game" may be psychologically damaging, especially to the children involved in the production. I am actually appalled to learn this is considered entertainment...
9
This shows the need for education about the 20th and 21st century's massacres and the ogres who perpetrated them. Not just the holocaust, but the Amrenian genocide, the Rwanda massacres, and the ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavian provinces. Maybe then a sense of outrage will develop with what both sides are perpetrating in Iraq, Syria, and the numerous outrages now occurring in Nigeria.
13
Well said Stuart. Thank you
3
Too busy playing violent games, to stop and learn about history.
4
Considering the reality fare on Cable TV, it is amazing the Czech Republic came up with this first. All one has to do is look at the schedule fro History, H2, National Geographic, Animal Planet, Discovery, Science, et. al.; they are full of so called "living history" or "making history" reality shows.
Though, Czech Republic Public TV did something you would not find on PBS. Donors would pull their money in droves if they did. The idea of making a reality show out of the Shoah, and the NAZI occupation, reprehensible. Unfortunately, there are few people left today, from 1939, to speak up about this.
The idea that you have a concept "See how a modern family reacts to living under NAZIsm" is almost as bad as the "Star Trek" episode where they have the show "Name the Winner". Where gladiators fought to the death on TV, because the planet the "Enterprise" visits essential a 20th century Roman Empire. Imagine Italy Public TV having a TV show of live under the Caesars, complete with enslavement. Or, an American show called "Survivor: US Calvary". A group of survivors play the role of Native Americans and must endure broken treaties, mass slaughter, relocation to fallow land, etc.
While The Czech Republic PBS can do what they want, it is hoped that their idea does not spread.
Though, Czech Republic Public TV did something you would not find on PBS. Donors would pull their money in droves if they did. The idea of making a reality show out of the Shoah, and the NAZI occupation, reprehensible. Unfortunately, there are few people left today, from 1939, to speak up about this.
The idea that you have a concept "See how a modern family reacts to living under NAZIsm" is almost as bad as the "Star Trek" episode where they have the show "Name the Winner". Where gladiators fought to the death on TV, because the planet the "Enterprise" visits essential a 20th century Roman Empire. Imagine Italy Public TV having a TV show of live under the Caesars, complete with enslavement. Or, an American show called "Survivor: US Calvary". A group of survivors play the role of Native Americans and must endure broken treaties, mass slaughter, relocation to fallow land, etc.
While The Czech Republic PBS can do what they want, it is hoped that their idea does not spread.
11
I'm reminded of an old question: "At last, sir, have you no decency."
As someone whose relatives where murdered by the Nazis in Poland, I can only feel revulsion and horror by this cynical ploy to turn the Nazi nightmare into soft core war porn. Sad, sad, sad.
As someone whose relatives where murdered by the Nazis in Poland, I can only feel revulsion and horror by this cynical ploy to turn the Nazi nightmare into soft core war porn. Sad, sad, sad.
19
Well said, Mr. Israels.
I, too, had relatives murdered by the Nazis in Poland. And a good friend, more than 100 of whose relatives in Poland-- including her mother -- were slaughtered by the Nazis, was one of the very youngest child survivors of
the Nazi concentration camps.
She was deported first to Ravensbrück concentration camp and then to Bergen-Belsen. When she was liberated at the age of seven years, she was almost dead from typhus and dysentery.
Her growth had been so stunted, the British soldiers who saved her life thought she was only two.
I, too, had relatives murdered by the Nazis in Poland. And a good friend, more than 100 of whose relatives in Poland-- including her mother -- were slaughtered by the Nazis, was one of the very youngest child survivors of
the Nazi concentration camps.
She was deported first to Ravensbrück concentration camp and then to Bergen-Belsen. When she was liberated at the age of seven years, she was almost dead from typhus and dysentery.
Her growth had been so stunted, the British soldiers who saved her life thought she was only two.
I think the problem is that it blurs the lines of pure, real life horror with entertainment. The fact that it is essentially a game show really cheapens what actually happened in reality. Anyone still old enough to remember watching their families being slaughtered by invading Germans would have a very real problem with this. That was not a game for them. I don't know, what exactly are we supposed to constructively take away from this? It's kind of tasteless.
On the other hand, there is a solution. Don't watch it. You can't have a television show without viewers.
On the other hand, there is a solution. Don't watch it. You can't have a television show without viewers.
27
I understand what the problem is. This program superimposes "Survivor" into the Nazi era for entertainment. Why not take it a step further and have a reality game show about Auschwitz? A new concentration camp could be recreated for each season. This is nothing like "Schindler's List" or "The Diary of Anne Frank" which are fictional and non-fictional representations of that time. They are not disgusting attempts to bring that era to the moronic level of reality television for entertainment.
One can only hope that the audience votes with their remote controls and that there is a diminishing number of viewers for this disgusting and disrespectful display of bad taste and judgment.
One can only hope that the audience votes with their remote controls and that there is a diminishing number of viewers for this disgusting and disrespectful display of bad taste and judgment.
9
Schindler's List was based on fact. I thought American TV was the lowest, but I see I was wrong. These reality "stars" are not fearing for their lives. It's all a game. How dreadful.
10
What is wrong with people? To trivialize a brutal, deadly, and horrific period by making a kind of game show out of it is mind-boggling. How about a follow-up show in a concentration camp? Who can survive disease, starvation, and torture? The last one standing gets a free meal. I've heard that Thailand is enamored with Hitler, using swastikas in advertising. Those who are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it, and the ignorance displayed here is huge.
17
Relieved to see that television is also awful beyond our shores. And all this time I thought it was just us.
7
I think any means of showing the suffering and agony of WW 2 is justified.
Over 60 million people died in that war, the consequences of the German occupation for the Czechs was nearly 40 years of Soviet occupation and my wife's family was subjected to that agony.
I resent totally the comment made by the Times of Israel , we all care about the holocaust ,however I would expect equal caring for all the other victims of both the Nazi and Soviet occupations including the death of over 10 million Russians.
Over 60 million people died in that war, the consequences of the German occupation for the Czechs was nearly 40 years of Soviet occupation and my wife's family was subjected to that agony.
I resent totally the comment made by the Times of Israel , we all care about the holocaust ,however I would expect equal caring for all the other victims of both the Nazi and Soviet occupations including the death of over 10 million Russians.
4
If you care about everyone, do you think, in the name of reality, the ethnic Germans dispossessed by the Czech ,many of whom died, should also be featured?
Remember Hogan's Heroes? A comedy based on German prisoner-of-war camp.
20
And each episode made the NAZIs look like a bunch of idiots. No one got killed. German, who got in trouble with the NAZIs, were evacuated to Britain. And it was not a reality show. It was effectively a comic version of the movie "Stalag 17".
So there is no comparison to "let's survive the NAZIs" and "left make the NAZIs look like a bunch of fools".
So there is no comparison to "let's survive the NAZIs" and "left make the NAZIs look like a bunch of fools".
3
They still rerun Hogan's Heroes to this day. And I am still offended at the attempt to make a Nazi POW camp an idiotic sit com.
4
If you lost half your relatives in the holocaust like I have you might not find the trivialization of the Nazis funny. Nor if you had a member of your family a German pow like I have you might not find the idea of Hogan's Heroes to be all that humorous. So you are defending what as being superior or in good taste?
1
Reality television just lost its mind. Or its soul, perhaps.
It's not that I find a Nazi themed program offensive. It's just sad that because of the lure of fame and money, a producer can lure people to do just about anything on television.
Czechs reliving the Nazi occupation for television ratings? It's obscene and disrespectful to all those who died during the occupation. It's also treating history like an amusement park, because the odds of the cast getting dragged out of bed and shipped off to Auschwitz to be gassed are zero.
Communism may have sucked the life out of then-Czechoslovakia, but they would've never done something so stupid as this television show. Reality television that hurts people for entertainment is not reality, nor entertainment.
It's not that I find a Nazi themed program offensive. It's just sad that because of the lure of fame and money, a producer can lure people to do just about anything on television.
Czechs reliving the Nazi occupation for television ratings? It's obscene and disrespectful to all those who died during the occupation. It's also treating history like an amusement park, because the odds of the cast getting dragged out of bed and shipped off to Auschwitz to be gassed are zero.
Communism may have sucked the life out of then-Czechoslovakia, but they would've never done something so stupid as this television show. Reality television that hurts people for entertainment is not reality, nor entertainment.
10
I honestly don't understand what the problem is. When I think of all the shows on TV, and how awful most of them are, this seems like a welcome reprieve. I'm old enough to remember when you didn't have to feel guilty about watching cable channels like Bravo, A&E or TLC. If any TV program that merely takes place during the WWII years is a red flag then we're in trouble, because our collective memory will only worsen as a result. Is Schindler's List now beyond the pale? What about the Diary of Anne Frank?
12
The problem is that they are sanitizing history by not showing what happened to the Jews who were shipped off to the camps. Why not show that if you want to teach people about the Protectorate
15
@ Andrew: You're comparing this show with Schindler's List and the Diary of Anne Frank? Are you serious? Those are dramas depicting historical events. This is a game show where the contestants are there to win a $40,000 prize! Can you see the difference?
25
The problem is that this trivializes what happened in that period at the hands of the Nazis to the moronic level of reality television, for entertainment. It cannot represent the reality of what actually occurred, the brutality and death, because that could not be part of the game. The film and book you mention are fictional and non-fictional representations of that true reality. This makes a theme park out of that experience.
9