Ken Burns: The U.S. and the Holocaust (DVD)

The documentary examines the American response to one of the greatest humanitarian crises of the twentieth century. Our national mythology claims that we are a “land of immigrants,” but during one of the darkest moments in history, and with the opportunity to save hundreds of thousands of desperate people, the United States closed the “golden doors” and failed to live up to those ideals. The film follows families who are frantically trying to escape the menace of Nazism, traveling all over Europe, splitting apart and being forced into hiding, only to find that avenues of immigration are blocked by public indifference and bureaucratic red tape. Could we have done more? Should we have done more? This is a story all Americans must reckon with.