Band of Brothers 09 WHY WE FIGHT reaction

[@Pete-p4l]

Virtually all Germans knew about the camps, at least that they existed, even if they did not know the full extent of the horror. Some on the Homefront were quite enthusiastic about the Holocaust even if they were not direct participants. As far as we know historically most civilians (in Germany and the occupied territories) knew of the camps only enough to know they did not want to be sent to one. It was that fear that kept them quiet. Questioning the regime, or worse exposing and standing up to the slaughter, would ensure they'd end up in camp when caught being "resistant" to Nazi goals. So for most it was a matter of keeping their mouths shut to avoid being targeting themselves. Easy to look back 80 plus years on and say "why didn't people do anything?" when we know the end of the story that they were living moment by moment under constant threat. Also there were rumors of atrocities by the Nazis but few had any real understanding of what was going on, such a thing was incomprehensible to most sane people.

[@chuwaah]

Nix really didn't have any good reason to fire his weapon as he was appointed as the intelligence officer

[@alanolson2188]

Also the reason he was often asleep during the day. A lot of his work was at night, putting the intel together for the next day.

[@scottdarden3091]

He was also a rich boy, Ivy league kid that hated Jocks and couldn't stand Buck Compton an All American catcher 😊

[@nwmonk3105]

In my experience, Battalion S2's (Intelligence Officers) rarely need to fire a weapon.

[@arkadyfolkner]

The first camp liberated by the US Army was Ohrdruf, which was a subcamp of Buchenwald"s camp system. Eisenhower brought Generals Patton and Bradley with him, they were shown the camp by an inmate guide. What they saw there made Patton violently sick to where he vomited against a wall, then refused to go into a building where bodies were stacked like cordwood. Eisenhower ordered all units not in active combat ops to come see. He also ordered that the citizens of Ohrdruf be marched through the town to face what had happened there. After which the mayor of Ohrdruf and his wife hanged themselves in their living room. Eisenhower also sent messages to congress and the press to see what had happened. The inmate who showed them the camp? He was recognized as a guard in disguise by the real inmates, who promptly beat him to death.

[@chuckhilleshiem6596]

First I want to say thank you with as much honor as I can to you both. I am a combat veteran and I don't think that you can possibly how much good you have just done. For me and other veterans this really helps us . Thank you for this and may God bless you both for the rest of your lives.

[@kyuujinreacts]

I'm very thankful for your comment, but in all honesty, all the thanks go to you and those like you who have given so much for the people of your country ☺️ Much honor and respect to you from us both!

[@chuckhilleshiem6596]

@@kyuujinreacts I don't know what to say except that watching you both has been an honor for me. I kind of feel like the both of you are one of us now. Thanks my friends and God bless you both.

[@RickLacy-b3x]

One of the reasons I have enjoyed riding along with you thru this series is because you both are very thoughtful and provide very well thought out reactions. Why we fight, indeed. Standing up to extremism that results in things like presented here is important to remember.

[@alanholck7995]

Why We Fight is the title of a series of films produced by Frank Capra (It’s a Wonderful Life) for US Government explaining why the war happened and why the US was in it. All the Easy Co soldiers would have seen it.

[@AlexanderWinterborn-r6p]

Well, the paratroopers would've seen some of them - as the films were released all the way up to 1945. But, in any case, none of the films concerned the camps. Thought that point should be reiterated.

[@johannesvalterdivizzini1523]

The camps, as you mentioned, were of different kinds--this being a work camp. The death camps were mostly located in Poland. The German people may not have been familiar with the "Final Solution" and the death camps, but they certainly knew about the stripping of citizenship, businesses and property from the Jews and others. Further, camp inmates were leased out to much German industry outside the actual camps. Once you were able to accept the dehumanization forced on Jews, Gypsies, Slavs and others for over a decade by 1945, the rest was not a huge leap. The dead German officer husband in the photo was not in the SS, so he wouldn't have been directly involved in the camps

[@TheMedicalDemon]

A british soldier who had liberated Bergen Belsen camp and who was guarding SS camp guards had this to say about the situation in a newsreel. "The things in this camp are beyond describing. When you actually see them for yourself, you know what you're fighting for here. Pictures in the paper can't describe it at all. The things they had committed, well, nobody would think they were human at all. We actually know now what had been going on in these camps, i now know, personally, what i'm fighting for." This is why, as the episode title suggests, they fought. This is why many of those brave allied soldiers put their lives on the line to stop Nazism, even if they didn't know it at the time. Looking forward to episode 10.

[@GreyDoofus88]

Wasn't Irma Grese stationed at that camp, at the time it was liberated by British Troops?

[@FelipeGomesRX]

​@@GreyDoofus88No actually Irma Grese worked as a female guard in Auschwitz Birkenau, Bergen Belsen and Revensbruck, this concentration camp that the 101st Airborne Division and the 12th Armored Division liberated was Kaufering which was one of the eleven subcamps of Dachau

[@FelipeGomesRX]

​@@GreyDoofus88No actually Irma Grese worked as a female guard in Auschwitz Birkenau, Bergen Belsen and Revensbruck, this concentration camp that the 101st Airborne Division and the 12th Armored Division liberated was Kaufering which was one of the eleven subcamps of Dachau.

[@FelipeGomesRX]

​@@GreyDoofus88No actually Irma Grese worked as a female guard in Auschwitz Birkenau, Bergen Belsen and Revensbruck, this concentration camp that the 101st Airborne Division and the 12th Armored Division liberated was Kaufering which was one of the eleven subcamps of Dachau

[@FelipeGomesRX]

​@@GreyDoofus88No actually Irma Grese worked as a female guard in Auschwitz Birkenau, Bergen Belsen and Revensbruck, this concentration camp that the 101st Airborne Division and the 12th Armored Division liberated was Kaufering which was one of the eleven subcamps of Dachau

[@aweebunny]

5:57 Nixon is the forward intelligence officer. He's the guy looking through the binoculars when the 501st charges into battle.

[@CrackheadYoda]

506th, not 501st.

[@walterblackledge1137]

I think the woman in house probably wasn't the one who alerted them. I believe we are to assume that was a photo of her husband (I think he was a regular Wehrmacht officer and not SS, based on his uniform. ), probably killed on the Russian front. She had this look of pride when she was looking at Nixon for breaking into her home, but the tables turned when she was knee deep in bodies and had a look of guilt when she realized what her husband had been fighting for. That was my take on it, I could be wrong.

[@kyuujinreacts]

It's very possible! I didn't think it was her the first time we watched the episode, but the idea came to me while editing, so it's out there n.n Nixon will never know either, all we can do is assume (those times were probably like that, for most people...who can you trust? Who's an enemy, etc.)

[@bernardsalvatore1929]

​@@kyuujinreactsthere's a REALLY GREAT short series, I believe it's 8 episodes, on Hulu about a surviving family throughout the Holocaust in occupied Poland and other places!! It's called "We Were the Lucky Ones" starring Joey King among others! It's the story of one family's journey and survival throughout the Holocaust from 1939 through the end of the war!! Very well done!!! I don't think I've seen ANYONE else reacting to THAT show and I think you guys would enjoy it!!❤❤

[@martensjd]

The woman Nixon walked in on was a widow. The black stripe on the upper left of the officer's photo indicates he is dead. Odds are he didn't work in a camp, but was on one of the fronts. A few years ago I was in Berlin and visited Sachsenhausen, one of the earlier camps. It's about a half jour train ride from Berlin. I highly recommend the experience; it was a vivid learning experience.

[@aweebunny]

13:21 O'Keefe gets a dose of war.

[@ghengriff3600]

A life lesson learned in this episode. No matter the amount of “s” burgers thrown one’s way, (Nixon), it could Always be worse.

[@justBud.503]

One of my uncles was with Patton and was one of the first soldiers to enter a concentration camp. He went in with a small squad of soldiers, none of whom knew what they were entering, and all, including my uncle, had to undergo extensive psychiatric counselling afterwards due to the horror of encountering this, completely unaware, unprepared for it. His memory which haunted him was the specter of looking at a cadaver, which then looked back at him and whispered for help. He saw so many at death's door, but still somehow alive, but were beyond any hope of recovery, and there was absolutely nothing the soldiers could do to help them. I was able to take my three children to visit my uncle, and he recounted everything to them. That ensured that one more generation will have heard from an eye witness, and will never be able to deny that this atrocity ever happened.

[@GrumpyOldGuyPlaysGames]

Most historians (I am an historians) divide the war-time population of Germany into three groups when it came to the Holocaust. The first group, comprising maybe a quarter of the German population, not only knew about what was going on, they were enthusiastic participants in it. Most were members of hte Nazi party, and all of them were hard core bigots. Another quarter of the population knew, and did what they could to hide Jew and other targets of persecution. They did what they could to hinder and sabotage the extermination efforts. Most of this group ended up in front of a firing squad. The last group, about half of the population, knew what was going on, and were horrifiede, but were so terrified by what the Nazis did to dissifents that they kept their eyes closed, their mouths shut, and their heads down because they didn't want to end up in front of a firing squad. So the question is, do we blame group three for cowardice? Or do we accept that ther wasn't much the could have done in the first place?

[@kyuujinreacts]

It's hard, I believe, to answer that today and it would've been harder back then, I guess...I personally think we can't know for sure if we've never been in their shoes. It's easy to say "I would've done something" but everyday, we see horrible stuff happen and people just stand there and do nothing (for many reasons...peer pressure, shock, fear, etc.) All we can do is hope we'd do the right thing if the time came (god forbid D:)

[@becketv1]

The much higher ups knew about camps but the soldiers didn't. The other side tried to prevent all information from getting out. The one guy carrying another was speaking one of the Balkan languages, i don't recall which. The work camps were still horrific and designed to kill those in them especially the "undesirables". It was all part of the "Final Solution" to the Jewish question. There is a movie on HBO called Conspiracy where they do the Wannsee conference. It is where the most evil humans basically come up with the most banal way to commit mass homicide.

[@ruggedfur]

He’s speaking Serbian.

[@aweebunny]

14:29 This scene is a metafore of Nixon's like as an alcoholic.

[@jasonwilson-j1q]

Winters is like the good leaders I had in the military. The intestinal fortitude to find a way to say no to something that was only being done to glorify one person when it came at the detriment of HIS soldiers. The bad leaders say yes no matter what.

[@benschultz1784]

The soldiers executing the prisoners along the road are French. The 101st Airborne entered Germany alongside General LeClerc's 2nd French Army, made up of Free French forces and Spanish Republicans. The soldiers being executed were French collaborators. The last German forces to surrender in Berlin were actually French and Danish SS, who didn't want to go home. "Der Große Kollektivschuld" is how the Germans frame the Holocaust today. Everyone in Germany had a hand in the deaths of 12 million innocents, whether or not they were directly involved with the camps. The main goal of the war for Germany was the ethnic cleansing of Europe for "Lebensraum," and everyone knew it.

[@Dej24601]

Early in the episode, Nixon mentions that he had not fired a weapon. The reason is because he was an intelligence officer, which is why he was always involved in dealing with maps, strategy plans, giving training about the D-Day invasion in episode 1, and was seen less on the front line.

[@dustinevans256]

All of the Extras in the camp were terminal cancer patients. Most were going through chemotherapy and when it came time to film, they wouldn’t take breaks, they told them to film them at their worst, so people would see how horrible the camps were. Most died before the premiere of the miniseries but they did the world a service with their performances.

[@kyuujinreacts]

Woah, that's intense D: it sure helped pass a strong message

[@baronimhoof4042]

What the German people knew and what could be done about it at this point are two different questions. At the time of this episode, the Nazis had been in power over a decade, the Nuremberg race laws were passed in 1935, the Holocaust had been happening since Kristallnacht in 1938, and the Jewish population had all but vanished in Germany. Any adult in Germany in 1945 who didn't know something horrible had happened to the Jews simply didn't want to know. As to what any individual German could do about it in 1945, obviously not much. Who could have done something about it was the German high command. All of them knew that the war was over well before this time. Stalingrad was in 1942-43, by the time we landed in Normandy on D-Day the Russians had driven them all the back into Poland, by the Battle of the Bulge the Russian Army had taken Romania, Bulgaria, and Hungary. The German high command's failure was in blindly following and not tossing him aside when it became apparent they couldn't win. Not saying it would have been easy, many more would have been required than the few who did try to kill him in 1944, but that only illustrates the cowardice of all who stayed loyal to him and not to the German people. The excuse that they had taken an oath doesn't convince me they should not have tried, since it was the German High command that forced the Kaiser to end the First World War and abdicate in 1918, and they had taken oaths as well.

[@scottdarden3091]

In the beginning the men of Easy company speak of the German soldiers doing their job and we might have been friends. Just remember that in 1933 the Nationalist Socialist Workers Party (NAZIS) campaigned on Nationalism, Racial Purity, Expansion and the disregard for the Versailles treaty. The German people and those soldiers elected them! People in the village were a short walk from the camp, the lady in red was married to the Commandant of the camp. The train engineer and conductor obviously knew, the camp guards would certainly come in to town occasionally. The German people absolutely knew what was happening!

[@Macilmoyle]

There is absolutely no indication that the lady in red was married to the camp commander. The officer in the photograph was Wehrmacht, not SS

[@scottdarden3091]

@Macilmoyle SS weren't the only camp commandants

[@ZacharyJames-np1sp]

Nixon cheated on his wife that was something that wasn’t discussed on the show.

[@kyuujinreacts]

Aaah! That, at least, explains the divorce 😅

[@rodlepine233]

no it is because Nixon is in a non combat role he is in intelligence looking over papers captured from the enemy photos taken of locations held by the germans to see what there battle plans are

[@grandpabrogan]

Just a minor detail we often overlook about the pre-war and post-war generation being exemplified in this episode - is that whenever people go out, whether it be to go to formal gatherings or just to buy some bread... is that they got dressed properly. They almost always wear hats, don coats, vests, neckties, dress shoes, gloves, etc. Unlike nowadays, society back then would strive to wear their very best attire when seen out in public. This was not lost on the producers of this TV series. Notice that some civilians were not wearing work-clothes to bury dead bodies in the camp - as a number of them are wearing 'Sunday's Best' attire. Perhaps the producers wanted to grant civilians who claimed innocence a reprieve (as do I), because some town folk really didn't know the extent of the horrors in the camps - based on what they were wearing. However, there's a poignant symbolism in there somewhere... given that such dignified garments got soiled that day and are unlikely to ever be worn again. These could be washed until the stains and stench are gone, but one would have to deal with the awful memories would still linger.

[@iambecomepaul]

Who knew what about the holocaust is sorta tricky. People like my grandfather, growing up in rural Missouri, knew nothing. Even while in Lichtenstein during The Bulge, he wouldn’t have/didn’t know. Our intelligence people in Washington knew. But only through reports of prisoners who escaped camps. The 1936 Olympics in Berlin was a clue. Everyone knew about Jewish persecution but when the world came to Berlin in ‘36, they had “cleaned up a lot.” Pretty fishy though-the west thought it was sus. The Germans did their best to tuck away the horrors as deep into controlled territory as they could… for obvious reasons. The German people were not unaware but it may (!) be a tiny bit uncharitable to ascribe motive to them. As others here have commented: it would be extraordinarily foolish to raise a stink about it considering the Gestapo and/or the SS influence in those rural areas. I’m not letting anyone off the hook! It’s just a very tricky minefield of history, sociology, and other relevant variables. I’m not surprised Easy Company was not aware of the camps. The intelligence on those things would have (naturally) been a well-preserved secret in Washington. Or at least… “not intentionally broadcasted.” There are reasons for that but I won’t go into detail here.

[@docmetal8194]

You're correct; not all Germans were Nazis. However, the non-Nazis did stand by and let it happen. And the paratroopers that were blown up in the plane were, and are heros. They signed up for a very dangerous job which ended in a horrible death. I, and many Americans, believe all of our nation's military personnel are heros, even if they never see combat. We believe as it is depicted by a famous quote from an unknown author: "Definition of a Veteran - A Veteran - whether active duty, retired, National Guard, or Reserve - is someone who, at one point of their life, wrote a blank check made payable to 'The United States of America', for an amount of 'up to and including my life.' That is honor..." That is also heroic.

[@JustSir430]

The German officer in the photo was deceased. That's what the black ribbon on the frame symbolized. Also, his uniform was not that of the SS and they were the ones in charge of the extermination camps. The officer in the photo appears to have been regular Wermacht (regular German infantry). As an officer, I believe he had to be a part of the Nazi Party. That didn't automatically equate to being in the SS.

[@kyuujinreacts]

Aah I didn't know about the ribbon! Thanks n.n

[@johannesvalterdivizzini1523]

No, most Wehrmacht officers were not members of the Nazi Party. In fact it was the Wehrmacht General Staff which plotted the assassination of Hitler.

[@Dej24601]

If you want to delve into more fascinating history, there are feature films (and documentaries) about The White Rose - (and most are focused on siblings Hans and Sophie Scholl) a group of German students (and their extended circle) who tried to protest and expose the fascism, the xenophobia, the racism, the anti-semitism, the paranoia, the prejudice they saw while they were growing up and the ideas which were enforced in the required groups and activities of young people in Germany. Even if there were individuals who “didn’t know” about camps, the philosophy was surrounding everyone for years - people couldn’t avoid the reality that Jews were losing their jobs, Jewish businesses were shut down, mixed marriages were punished, the homes where Jews lived were emptied and taken over by others, synagogues were destroyed, people were first shunted into ghettos and then disappeared … so when thousands of citizens “disappeared” from towns, it would be obvious that something was taking place.

[@lancewolf2451]

Are you two from quebec city?..im not canadian but i think i hear quebecois accent..just curious..

[@kyuujinreacts]

Good ear!! :D we're indead from Quebec n.n

[@emberfrost8322]

Yes we are 😊

[@lancewolf2451]

@@kyuujinreacts I've been to Quebec City ..I think it's one of the best kept secrets in North America ..

[@kyuujinreacts]

Ooh I like seeing it that way x3 it does have its charms!

[@kccountrykid]

Interesting. That has to be the most stoic reaction I've seen to this video. :(

[@kyuujinreacts]

I would've expected to cry at this episode, tbh, but then I was a mix of sad, angry and very...I don't know...defeated? At the idea that humans would do this to people? Tears didn't come and that's why I said this episode is a different kind of sad (compared to breaking point where I was bawling) (And then there's next episode, at the end! Couldn't explain the tears, but yep...xD)

[@joaocarloshipolitoveloso9558]

Fun Fact - the soldier shooting the prisoner in 13:25 was Tom Hanks.

[@kyuujinreacts]

Really?! I'll have to watch it again and try to see if I can recognize him!

[@FrenchieQc]

That's not him at all. The soldier looks like how Tom Hanks looks now, not how he looked almost 25 years ago. The only 2 times Hanks is present "in front" of the camera in the 10 episodes is in Ep5 when he's a Red Devil in the back of the barn, and in Ep8 he provides the voice of the wounded German left on the far side of the river.

[@aweebunny]

25:02 It wasn't one guy with an evil idea. WW2 was really just an extension of WW1. They should never have let Germany have the capability to rebuild a war machine after WW1 because bad shit happens. This is the major reason the US nuked Japan. Even when Japan was finished and we were knocking on Japan's borders with the threat of a mass allied invasion which would have killed millions, they would not quit. Even today Japan and Germany are only allowed to have a small military to defend their borders.

[@johannesvalterdivizzini1523]

Unbearably simplistic and actually inadequate statement. "Because bad shit happens" The entire blame for WWI was ascribed by the Versailles Conference to Germany. As a result, Germany was fined massive reparations, while at the same time much of their industries were shut down as being "war related", making repayment an unbearable burden.. The British and French between them divided up the German colonies in Africa and the entirety of the Ottoman Empire for their own benefit. The most productive mining region of Germany in the Saar Valley was stolen by the French. "Even today Germany and Japan only allowed a small military..." WTF?? Read a book for goodness sake!

[@chuckhilleshiem6596]

One more thing I'm sorry. As I have watched this with you I have noticed that you both started out saying they or them but now you say we and ours a lot . You both have now become part of Easy Very cool.

[@roger3141]

For another perspective, watch "The Book Thief". A story about German civilians who did not agree with the Nazis, so what would you do?

[@kyuujinreacts]

I've heard of it! I really should get around to watch it one day

[@Aaron-io8vw]

Allied High command and Intelligence knew about the camps from peop!e who escaped the ones in Poland. American General Eisenhower(the Supreme Commander of the Allied forces) ordered it kept from the regular troops as long as possoble fearing that Allied Troops would commit massacres in retaliation. Even hiding it For as long as they did when the US troops liberated Dachau, members of the US 42nd and 45th infantry division where do shocked and appalled that they and the newly liberated Jewish survivors massacred German Guards that had already surrendered.(which would be a example of US troops comiting a war crimes as your not supposed to kill troops who surrendered)

[@sleepwalking9238]

I need my sopranos!

[@kyuujinreacts]

Next sunday! :D we're away in New York for the new year, so I don't have my computer n.n we'll resume work as soon as we come back

[@tarno_bejo_]

Oh, c'mon sists. Its literally still happening in g4 sa pls tine. By the people who were once the victim, as portrait in this ep. But if you want to go to such a camp. The prisons and mass graves in syria are still fresh. The people of syria have been liberated, thankfully. So, the people of gah za will soon follow by the Most High's will. Ameen for that.

[@tarno_bejo_]

But nah, the point of this episode is to blame the german. The interesting part tho: every veteran in the interview, none of them mentioned even the word "camp" (except training camp). And according to dictionary, holocaust simply means large destruction. It has nothing to do with any specific camp at first. So, it makes you wonder of what the veterans meant when they mentioned "holocaust" in the interview. Oh, if you guys continue to watch the pacific after this series. They already mentioned the word holocaust in the pacific? I think, what makes it hitting you hard from the movie/show is the music. You remove the music using a.i. Its gonna feel different. For me tho, since i ve too much watched the real stuffs from video footage and the tv stuffs for the longest. Somehow i can just notice the differences of the feelings. Those real footage aint feeling the same. Specially videos from ga z4 obviously. There are tons of videos. Thats the different between back then and now. Taking the life of hundreds babies, thats truly objectively false.

[@williamberry9013]

Everyone misses it - myself included - The old lady in red was married to a SS officer who lived near the concentration camp - like the commandant. When Winters wonders who from town warned them, it was her. BTW, the soldiers shooting prisoners were French. You can tell by the helmet. If the unit surrenders any found trying to hide are treated as if they wanted to be snipers. I'm not Jewish, justrational. There is NO WAY a "good" German civilian did not know. Either the guy who sold milk disappeared or, as Webster noted, the smell.

[@johannesvalterdivizzini1523]

The officer she was married to was in the regular German Army, not the SS. He would not have been a commandant, nor would have been involved with the operation of the camp.

[@manueldeabreu1980]

The one thing that gets lost to history even if Hitler and Stalin were killed there were others to step into the their place. Believe it or not both authoritarian Germany and Russia would have been worse if Ernst Röhm succeeded Hitler and Trotsky and not Stalin succeeded Lenin. Both of them were even more evil and fanatical. Trotsky was the architect of the Polish-Bolshevik war of 1919. He wanted to spread the revolution by the gun. If Trotsky was able to get rid of Stalin instead of the other way around WW2 could have started in the 1930's with the Soviet Union doing Operation Barbarossa in reverse.

[@kyuujinreacts]

Life and its horrors, sometimes, is about realizing it can always get worst ): it's scary

[@dakklan]

If you have to talk (comment) can you please pause the video. The both of you missed important dialogue while you were talking. Example; in the camp it wasn't just Jews, it was also Poles & Gypsy's. But you missed that by talking over it.

[@kyuujinreacts]

We actually didn't miss that, we just didn't comment on it 🤷‍♀️ I think my sister said "jews and other minorities" during the discussion. That's why we watch with subtitles, so that even when we comment for the video, we don't miss anything (we're very fast readers)

[@BillO964]

Stop making excuses for the german people. They are just as responsible for this.

[@kyuujinreacts]

It's not that we're trying to make excuses for them, but I feel like this was a very complex situation that had so many layers and it's important to discuss them as much as possible 🤷‍♀️ wondering what it was like on the other side gives perspective, it doesn't excuse or justify

[@BillO964]

@@kyuujinreactsok 😀 take a look at the old movie "Judgement at Nuremberg." It is about the German/Nazi war crimes trails after WW2. It is really interesting and telling.