‘The road down authoritarianism’: What Ken Burns’ Holocaust documentary can teach Americans in 2022
Ken Burns’ new three-part documentary, “The U.S. and the Holocaust,” which will air on PBS September 18-20, comes at a time when a variety of political figures — from Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a self-described “democratic socialist,” and leftist author Noam Chomsky to arch-conservative Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and former Nancy Reagan speechwriter Mona Charen — are sounding the alarm about the state of U.S. democracy and a far-right authoritarian movement within the Republican Party. Burns’ documentary, directed and produced with Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein, focuses on events that occurred during the 1930s and 1940s and is full of old black-and-white footage. But in an interview with Axios’ Mike Allen, Burns warned that his Holocaust documentary has a lesson for Americans in 2022: Democracy should never be taken for granted.
A tragedy for the world – a reckoning for our nation. The U.S. and the Holocaust examines the rise of Hitler and Nazism in Germany in the context of global antisemitism and racism, immigration and eugenics in the United States, and race laws in the American south. Premieres Sept. 18
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