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The Holocaust documentary for BBC Radio1


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Old 27-09-2012, 08:52
jonjons
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Good morning, I am a student studying radio at university and the head of radio1 documentaries is coming in and we are being allowed the opportunity to pitch out ideas to him with the winning pitch being made in to a documentary.

I had the idea of doing the Holocaust through a jewish perspective rather then looking at it as a text book example of the world war.

I wanted to know if any of you would actually listen to the documentary if it went out and what type of things you would want to have included in it?


My Ideas

Stories from someone that was 13 years old in the concentration camps at the time so the audience can relate to it

Hearing how Germans now feel with the stigma that they have from the jewish people

hearing a background to what the holocaust actually was and some of the key events such as Kristelnacht.
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Old 27-09-2012, 09:05
Inkblot
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It's a very important subject but does it resonate with today's listeners? I'm not in Radio 1's target audience but I wonder whether it would need some contemporary "hook" to give it relevance. Maybe an anniversary, or some context to do with modern-day antisemitism. Possibly an examination of attitudes to Jewish people in UK schools or colleges (I've heard antisemitism is quite common even today).
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Old 27-09-2012, 10:16
Iworkinradio
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if you want to get a documentary on radio one pitch for one with an armed forces perspective. They are obssesed with them.

The holocaust has been done many times on radio one. How about hearing about the life of a palestinian child in Gaza or the West Bank, That would be very interesting.
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Old 27-09-2012, 10:19
bluesdiamond
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As an aside from that in a couple of year we have the centenary of World War 1.
I stumbled over a piece that Radio 2 are commissioning programmes for this anniversary. But in reality a lot of the soldiers were 18, 19, 20. Young men with hopes and dreams. Should Radio 1 even under Newsbeat talk about this or should BBC Three cover this period, to see how modern kids feel about being in muddy trenches, bayoneting rats for dinner, getting bugger all sleep because one side or the other thinks the other trenches need a pounding..and running out of coffee etc.
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Old 27-09-2012, 12:16
jonjons
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It's a very important subject but does it resonate with today's listeners? I'm not in Radio 1's target audience but I wonder whether it would need some contemporary "hook" to give it relevance. Maybe an anniversary, or some context to do with modern-day antisemitism. Possibly an examination of attitudes to Jewish people in UK schools or colleges (I've heard antisemitism is quite common even today).
I like this idea
I could look at what happened during the holocaust and the way that jewish people were treated and then look at it now 60 years on with in schools with how jewish people feel about other religions and vice versa?
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Old 27-09-2012, 18:14
trigpoint
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It should be remembered that other groups were also victims of the holocaust, gypsies, homosexuals, the mentally ill.
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Old 27-09-2012, 20:32
bluesdiamond
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It should be remembered that other groups were also victims of the holocaust, gypsies, homosexuals, the mentally ill.
I think even Jehovahs Witnesses were on the list.
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Old 03-11-2012, 01:09
jra
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Good morning, I am a student studying radio at university and the head of radio1 documentaries is coming in and we are being allowed the opportunity to pitch out ideas to him with the winning pitch being made in to a documentary.

I had the idea of doing the Holocaust through a jewish perspective rather then looking at it as a text book example of the world war.

I wanted to know if any of you would actually listen to the documentary if it went out and what type of things you would want to have included in it?


My Ideas

Stories from someone that was 13 years old in the concentration camps at the time so the audience can relate to it

Hearing how Germans now feel with the stigma that they have from the jewish people

hearing a background to what the holocaust actually was and some of the key events such as Kristelnacht.
Well, some more of the many events.

As far as Hitler's regime, i.e. the Nazi were concerned, everybody not fitting in, was fair game.

There are a lot of very disturbing and upsetting articles on wikipedia about all this.

Obviously look up the wiki on the holocaust, but also check out what happened in the extermination camps, such as Auschwitz, Treblinka, Sobibor, Dauchau and a few other death camps.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extermi...ers_of_victims

The Jews and various people from other nations were conned and gassed by Zyklon B when they turned up at what they thought was a transportation point to elsewhere.

However, when they turned up at these areas, they were mistakenly believed to think they were going for a shower and delousing. Once they were down the the tunnel so to speak, naked, thinking they were going for a shower, they were locked into a chamber which had superficial shower units and murdered with Zyklon B gas. This could be over 10000 innocent people per day who died in the gas chambers.

The Nazis robbed them of all their possessions, even women's hair, including jewellery, clothing, gold fillings, anything valuable, spectacles/glasses and did evil medical experiments on some of the victims, including euthanasia and eugenics projects.

Very disturbing reading below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extermination_camp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwi...entration_camp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sobibor_extermination_camp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zyklon_b
According to Rudolf Höss, commandant of Auschwitz, bunker 1 held 800 people, and bunker 2 held 1,200.[26] Once the chamber was full, the doors were screwed shut and solid pellets of Zyklon B were dropped into the chambers through vents in the side walls, releasing the cyanide gas. Those inside died within 20 minutes; the speed of death depended on how close the inmate was standing to a gas vent, according to Höss, who estimated that about one third of the victims died immediately.[27][28] Johann Kremer, an SS doctor who oversaw the gassings, testified that: "Shouting and screaming of the victims could be heard through the opening and it was clear that they fought for their lives."[29] If the gas chamber had been crowded, which they typically were, the corpses were found half-squatting, their skin discolored pink with red and green spots, with some found foaming at the mouth or bleeding from the ears.[28]

To be honest, the above doesn't cover many aspects, such as the brutality used by the Nazis and how so many of them escaped after WW2 without being punished just after the end, disappearing abroad to South America for example to lead their life, when they should have been brought to justice.

The Israelis, via Mossad, Simon Wiesenthal and the USA tried to capture as many errant Nazi war criminals as they could, but Germany IMO weren't that bothered about many of their war criminals who mingled into their own society.

Simon Wiesenthal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Wiesenthal

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Mengele
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_H%C3%B6ss
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Goebbels
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himmler
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eichmann

They were just pure evil.

Rumbula massacre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumbula...Jeckeln_system

Rudolf Höss
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_...chwitz_command

List of Nazi concentration camps
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ntration_camps

Auschwitz concentration camp (again)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwi...entration_camp
SS officers told the victims they were to take a shower and undergo delousing. The victims would undress in an outer chamber and walk into the gas chamber, which was disguised as a shower facility, complete with dummy shower heads. After the doors were shut, SS men would dump in the cyanide pellets via holes in the roof or windows on the side. In Auschwitz II-Birkenau, more than 20,000 people could be gassed and cremated each day. The Nazis used a cyanide gas produced from Zyklon B pellets, manufactured by two companies who had acquired licensing rights to the patent held by IG Farben. Despite the thick concrete walls of the gas chambers, screaming and moaning from within could be heard outside for 15 to 20 minutes. In one failed attempt to muffle the noise, two motorcycle engines were revved up to full throttle nearby, but the sound of yelling could be heard over the engines.[44]
Sonderkommandos removed gold teeth from the corpses of gas chamber victims; the gold was melted down and collected by the SS. The belongings of the arrivals were seized by the SS and sorted in an area of the camp called "Canada," so-called because Canada was seen as a land of plenty. Many of the SS at the camp enriched themselves by pilfering the confiscated property.[45]
The gas chambers worked to their fullest capacity from April–July 1944, during the massacre of Hungary's Jews. Hungary was an ally of Germany during the war, but it had resisted turning over its Jews to the Germans until Germany invaded in March 1944. From April until July 9, 1944, 475,000 Hungarian Jews, half of the pre-war population, were deported to Auschwitz, at a rate of 12,000 a day for a considerable part of that period.[46] The incoming volume was so great that the SS resorted to burning corpses in open-air pits as well as in the crematoria.[47]

Also look up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonderkommandos
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapo_%2...ration_camp%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_SS_personnel

I'm not a believer in the death penalty, but I'll make an exception in this case, as the 'Final Solution' and 'Operation Reinhard' were just human genocide, simply based on race and human characteristics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Solution
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Reinhard

IMO, Germany has a lot to answer for in starting two world wars in the last century, and although most of Germans living today are not responsible, lest not forget.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembrance_day
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Old 03-11-2012, 02:27
realwales
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I think even Jehovahs Witnesses were on the list.
As were Freemasons.
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Old 06-11-2012, 20:10
jra
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And if it couln't get any worse. Read this.

Originally Posted by wikipedia
When it was time for the final stage, guards used whips, clubs and rifle butts to drive the naked people into the gas chambers. Panic was instrumental in filling the gas chambers because the need of the naked victims to evade blows on their bodies forced them rapidly forward. Once packed tightly inside (to minimize available air), the steel air-tight doors were closed. Although other methods of extermination, such as the cyanic poison Zyklon B, were already being used at other Nazi-killing centers such as Auschwitz, the Aktion Reinhard camps used lethal exhaust gases from captured Soviet tank engines.[9] Fumes would be discharged directly into the gas chambers for a given period then the engines would be switched off. SS guards would determine when to reopen the gas doors based on how long it took for the screaming to stop from within (usually 25 to 30 minutes). Special teams of camp inmates (Sonderkommando) would then remove the corpses on flat bed carts. Before the corpses were thrown into grave pits, gold teeth were removed from mouths and orifices would be searched for jewellery, currency and other valuables.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operati...nation_process

Absolutely sickening.

The more I read about this, the more I feel absolutely disgusted about how people could have been treated in such a fashion.
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Old 06-11-2012, 21:06
TeleviixonMalta
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I think The Holocaust is definatly the kind of thingBBC Newsbeat should be covering, perhaps with the anniversary of WW2 ending, it'd be an apt time.

The 'hook' could simply be the "imagine your government wants you dead because you are gay, disabled or because of your religion..."

Anti-semitism, homophobia and discrimination against disabled people are still current issues, obviously the extent and extremity of it in modern Europe is different to then, but I think it's a good and relevant fit for Newsbeat.
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Old 06-11-2012, 21:08
TeleviixonMalta
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And if it couln't get any worse. Read this.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operati...nation_process

Absolutely sickening.

The more I read about this, the more I feel absolutely disgusted about how people could have been treated in such a fashion.
... it is absoloutley horrendous. The holocaust is the one thing I remember learning about at school that's really stuck with me. Even more so as I realised I'm gay and that gays were sent there.
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Old 06-11-2012, 21:28
jra
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... it is absoloutley horrendous. The holocaust is the one thing I remember learning about at school that's really stuck with me. Even more so as I realised I'm gay and that gays were sent there.
Indeed. You shouldn't be persecuted because of your sexuality.

You are a human being and deserve the same rights as everybody else.

That's only fair, is it not?
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Old 07-11-2012, 00:20
jonjons
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I went to Poland and saw Aushwitz and Trebelenka I cant explain what I saw and pictured. it was horrible. For example the toilets were a long row that you went to naked together then someone had to sweeep the excretion out of the the building.

The gas cylandier chambers where cyanide was poured down was another horrible sight
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Old 07-11-2012, 04:23
jra
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I went to Poland and saw Aushwitz and Trebelenka I cant explain what I saw and pictured. it was horrible. For example the toilets were a long row that you went to naked together then someone had to sweeep the excretion out of the the building.

The gas cylandier chambers where cyanide was poured down was another horrible sight
It is apparently a very moving experience for everybody, even for those that have never experienced the Nazi regime policies directly. I'm not sure if I could face it without completely breaking down in tears. Considering everything, my nearest family got off lightly, but many many others weren't so lucky. Simon Wiesenthal for example, lost most of his close relatives.
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Old 07-11-2012, 10:23
jra
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Now, hopefully people will understand that the Israeli state will never let the same thing happen again, so they are well armed in terms of defences, including nuclear weapon technology. The Arab nations will hopefully never push them into the sea (as some of them have stated in the past) and Israel will fight to the death.

Also look up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_...ry_Jewish_life
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Old 09-11-2012, 02:57
jra
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More. Sardine packing.

When World War II began, Jeckeln was called up to active duty in the Waffen-SS. As was the practice in the SS, Jeckeln took a lower rank from his Allgemeine position and served as an officer in Regiment 2 of the Totenkopf Division. In 1941, however, his front line service was terminated and he was transferred by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler to serve as Higher SS and Police Leader (HSSPF) of Eastern Russia. In this role Jeckeln assumed direction and control of all SS-Einsatzgruppen mass executions and anti-partisan operations in his district. Jeckeln developed his own methods to kill large numbers of people, which became known as the "Jeckeln System". Jeckeln had staff which specialized in each separate part of the process. As applied in the Rumbula massacre on November 30 and December 8, 1941, Jeckeln's system worked as follows:[LIST=1][*]The Security Police (SD) rousted the people out of their houses in the Riga ghetto.[*]The people to be murdered (typically Jews) were organized into columns of 500 to 1000 people and driven to the killing grounds about 10 kilometers to the south.[*]The Order Police (Orpo) led the columns to the killing grounds.[*]Three pits had already been dug where the killing would be done simultaneously.[*]The victims were stripped of their clothing and valuables.[*]The victims were run through a double cordon of guards on the way to the killing pits.[*]The killers forced the victims to lie face down on the trench floor, or more often, on the bodies of the people who had just been shot.[*]Each person was shot once in the back of the head with a Russian submachine gun. The shooters either walked among the dead in the trench, killing them from a range of two meters, or stood at the lip of the excavation and shot the prone victims below them. Anyone not killed outright was simply buried alive when the pit was covered up.[/LIST]This system was called "sardine packing" (Sardinenpackung). It was reported that even some of the experienced Einsatzgruppen killers were horrified by its cruelty. At Rumbula, Jeckeln watched on both days of the massacre as 25,000 people were killed before him. Jeckeln proved to be an effective killer who cared nothing about murdering huge numbers of unarmed and even naked men, women, children, and elderly.[2] One of the three survivors of the Rumbala massacre, Frida Michelson, escaped by pretending to be dead as the victims heaped shoes (later salvaged by Jeckeln's men) upon her:

A mountain of footwear was pressing down on me. My body was numb from cold and immobility. However, I was fully conscious now. The snow under me had melted from the heat of my body. ... Quiet for a while. Then from the direction of the trench a child's cry: 'Mama! Mama! Mamaa!'. A few shots. Quiet. Killed.[3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Jeckeln
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Old 16-11-2012, 20:16
bean999
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Good morning, I am a student studying radio at university and the head of radio1 documentaries is coming in and we are being allowed the opportunity to pitch out ideas to him with the winning pitch being made in to a documentary.

I had the idea of doing the Holocaust through a jewish perspective rather then looking at it as a text book example of the world war...
It gets a lot of coverage, in that way it might not seem too original. I was going to suggest almost any other angle in the complicated European experience of the war, but it occurs to me you could tap into the Polish presence in the UK with their experience of it.

So that would be vs Germany & Russia, shifting borders, forced migration, personal perspectives, and a UK dimension; Poles recently arrived here and the post-war community.
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