The U.S. and the Holocaust is a new three-part, six-hour 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?

MEET DANIEL GREENE

Following the preview screening, we will be joined by Dr. Daniel Greene who curated Americans and the Holocaust, an exhibition that opened at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC., joins us after the preview to shed additional insight into the role of the U.S. in the years leading up to and during the Holocaust.

The full series initial broadcast on KNME is scheduled for 7 PM MT September 18-20, 2022.  (6 hours)