The U.S. and the Holocaust is a new three-part, six-hour PBS series that tells the story of how the American people grappled with one of the greatest humanitarian crises of the twentieth century, and how this struggle tested the ideals of our democracy. Directed by Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein, and Lynn Novick, the series examines the periods leading up to and during the Holocaust with fresh eyes and dispels competing myths that Americans either were ignorant of the unspeakable persecution that Jews faced in Europe, or that they looked on with callous indifference.

It also takes a candid look at the roles that eugenics and racism, as well as xenophobia and antisemitism, played during this crisis and throughout American history. In the process, it grapples with questions that remain essential to our society today: Is America, truly, as it claims to be, a land of immigrants? Why did we fail to rescue a people at the time of their greatest need? How do the continued struggles over how we define our past shape our future as a country?

The U.S. and the Holocaust airs on KNME September 18 – 20 at 7 PM MT. Tune into your KNME channel to see this important series.