Critic Reviews

For all the darkness of the history, there is much that's irresistible about the six hours of this saga. ... The series' commentators deliver views that are pricelessly succinct. ... The eloquence of the script by Geoffrey C. Ward is everywhere evident, though never more so than in the sections on the Statue of Liberty and the words of poet Emma Lazarus. Familiar as they may be by now, their powers, as used here, approach the sublime. The same can be said for the heart that went into the writing of these six unforgettable hours.

The U.S. and the Holocaust stands as one of the most vital projects in Burns’ five-decade relationship with PBS. Smartly constructed and packed with avenues for future research and investigation, the three-night series may be the most viscerally affecting film to carry Burns’ name.

Piercing, must-see documentary. ... “The U.S. and the Holocaust” will break your heart and challenge your faith. It tells its nightmare story with eloquence, insight, rigor, and compassion, an unflinching report from master storytellers at the height of their powers.

So no, we haven’t had enough stories about the Holocaust. And this one, from television’s greatest historians, is a masterpiece.

Burns's assiduous method of documentary-making never talks down to the viewer, uses gimmicks or assumes that they have short attention spans. It's one reason why his films are so compelling.

Devastating as it is to watch, as survivors grow fewer in number, rigorous, watertight documentaries such as this can be the first defence against Holocaust revisionism.

Adding to Ken Burns’ legacy of classy historical fare for PBS, The U.S. and the Holocaust is documentary filmmaking with a purpose, a three-night production that directly links undercurrents of American society that influenced the decades featured to lingering strains of White supremacy and anti-Semitism. It’s fascinating as history, but sobering as current events.

Six emotionally demanding hours. ... Thorough history of the American response, and lack of it, to Germany’s criminal war on the Jews. ... Burns’ measured style — some would call it sleepy — does not always do favors to his subject. (“Jazz” was not very … jazzy.) But in this case, given the elegiac, tragic nature of the material, it feels entirely apt. ... “The U.S. and the Holocaust” becomes harder to watch as it goes on, for obvious reasons — it is unflinchingly graphic. ... Yet I don’t think it’s been made to be popular, but from a sense of mission.

It imposes a clarifying honesty on our claims of openness and exceptionalism. ... What makes "The U.S. and the Holocaust" required viewing, which is its determined focus on the everyday people living in cities across Europe before the Nazis mass murdered.

This is unvarnished history that attempts to scratch away the surface myths – and it is well worth your time.