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Germany’s
War
An
ordeal by fire
Screens
Sundays until August 10
SBS, 8.30pm
Reviewer: LS Rachel Irving
This
10-part series is a real gem.
Eyewitnesses
from both the Allied and German side give viewers a real insight
into the affects of war on the people and the cities left
destroyed.
The
first episode, which screened on June 8, took us into naval
battle, in 1941, with the German battleship Bismarck against
HMS Hood.
This
set the scene for the series which has taken us below the
waters with the U-Boats and will soon take us into the sky
with the air offensive.
Episodes
five and six (July 6 and 13) focus on the bombing of Germany
and the firestorm that encompassed German cities in a retaliatory
effort by the Allies.
There
are stories from air raid survivors and one woman who was
due to “report for duty” for having a Jewish mother,
just two days after the bombing of Dresden. She did not report
in after the bombing, knowing that no one would know her fate.
The
series uses file footage from the war and includes interviews
with war survivors, including members of Hitler’s Youth
movement and concentration camp prisoners. The German interviews
have all been subtitled by SBS.
It
is truly amazing to hear what these people have to say, to
hear the stories of survival and to understand what they felt
at the time as opposed to how they feel now. In a time of
world turbulence, it makes one wonder, what will we feel and
have to say 60 years from now.
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