The World at War - sobering footage

[matchmaker]

I recently bought the box set of the remastered version of the above and we've been working our way through it. Last night we arrived at episode 20 - "Genocide". About the Nazi "Final Solution".

We were reduced to silence by the footage - the graphic images of the murder of the Jews and the horror of the extermination camps are truly sobering.

Not an easy watch - but recommended.

Edited by matchmaker on Sunday 30th August 14:51

[matchmaker]

Eric Mc said:

Have had the box set for quite a while. I watched the series when it was originally broadcast back in 1973/74. Hard to believe that a work of such importance and magnitude would have been contemplated by an ITV franchise company (Thames Television).

Times change.

I too watched it when originally broadcast, but was probably a bit young to take it in. Apparently it would cost about £12m to make at todays prices - although it would be impossible to make today anyway.

[matchmaker]

Derek Smith said:

The opening sequence is horrific. I saw as many episodes as I could when originally broadcast - it was compulsive viewing - and it contrasted dramatically from the flags and heroes stories I had read and saw at the cinema. The Cruel Sea was about as realistic as it got. It was the catalyst for my father to tell me something about his war. He volunteered in 1938, but came out of it utterly anti-war. It seems an odd thing to say, but those chats were the closest I ever got to him. He spoke from the heart without any holding back.

My father-in-law was a prisoner of war, working on roads in Burma with Korean guards. He died of cancer and when on opiates used to drift back into those days and wake up screaming.

One of the most honourable projects ever undertaken. They intended to show war as it happened. I seem to remember some contemporaneous criticism about being too negative.

I bought the video set way back. It was offered in episodes, two a month, over a year. It became eagerly awaited and friends came to our house to watch it. The old boy next door was in tears once. The concentration camp chapter was, as the OP says, particularly horrific. For me, with many uncles in the RN and Merchant Marine, the one on the North Atlantic convoys stuck in my mind.

Yet we've since gone to war, apparently with the full support of the public, to kill people we've never met.

The series is sobering indeed. It became the topic of conversation at work. It should be compulsory viewing for children in schools.

Well done ITV. In those days the advertising revenue allowed them the freedom to take such risks. I see it is 19th in the top 100 greatest British television programmes, beaten by Blue Peter and Dr Who.

I quite agree!