Band of Brothers Ep. 9 Reaction| *First Time Watching* | Asia and BJ

[@ExUSSailor]

"If anyone ever tells you the Holocaust didn't happen, or that it wasn't as bad as they say, no, it was worse than they say. What we saw, what these Germans did, it was worse than you can possibly imagine." - Edward "Babe" Heffron

[@aubreyjones2206]

Deniers are the reason Eisenhower had all the film evidence and statements on the camps. He knew the deniers would surface.

[@renewillner5061]

Facts…❤️✌🏻🌸

[@buddystewart2020]

On April 12, 1945, Generals Eisenhower, Bradley, and Patton were taken to inspect Ohrdruf Nord concentration camp near Gotha. It was not one of the most gruesome camps: just an ordinary slaughterhouse, stinking of death, with 3,000 or more naked and emaciated corpses barely in or on the ground, rotting, lice crawling over them. Bradley was revolted; Patton withdrew to vomit; Eisenhower, his face frozen white, forced himself to examine every nook and cranny of the camp. Three days later, in his first letter home, Eisenhower wrote this account of his experience: The other day I visited a German internment camp. I never dreamed that such cruelty, bestiality, and savagery could really exist in this world! It was horrible. Soon after seeing Ohrdruf, Eisenhower ordered every unit near by that was not on the front lines to tour Ohrdruf: "We are told that the American soldier does not know what he is fighting for,” Eisenhower said. “Now, at least, he will know what he is fighting against.” Soon after he ordered that all the camps be photographed and filmed, interviews conducted, everything documented. He said something to the effect of, one day, some bastard will say this never happened.

[@JohnRodriguesPhotographer]

My father was involved in the liberation of Buchenwald, the one thing he didn't talk about.

[@loganrideout9151]

Does Asia have a sister that is single? Because, damn!!

[@MLawrence2008]

My father was a bulldozer driver at Belsen concentration camp (he helped bury thousands of corpses). He was a quiet and funny man and the only time I saw him get REALLY angry was when he met someone who denied that any of this happened. Never EVER let this be forgotten or allowed to happen again!

[@michaeldmcgee4499]

As a kid, I watched a TV documentary about the Third Reich and remember watching film of a British army bulldozer pushing a mass of bodies into a mass grave. That horrifying image was burned into my brain and I never forgot it.

[@Elezium]

My Grandfather was also there at Bergen-Belsen and helped bury those bodies - he was a great man but always went silent with a 1000 yard stare when i would ask him as a kid about what he did in the war, he only ever said he was at D-Day and he saw parts of Germany...we found out more after he passed when my Dad (who was also in the military) started doing some research on his regiment and unit and the actions they took part in.

[@imnotyourfriendbuddy1883]

I met some old guys in Hungary who would get mad if you said it never happened. They were proud of their work 😬

[@LolGamer5]

I doubt its possible in a western country unless they control the media or internet, since there are even leakers in china which controls theirs heavily, so we'd know this time

[@EatDatBitchAwp]

⁠@@imnotyourfriendbuddy1883how do you know they were involved in concentration camps? Or are you just yappin your ass off ?

[@eadecamp]

The prisoners were played by local cancer patients, all of whom were glad to do it. Some did die during the production, but they knew they were doing something useful.

[@blakerh]

Not true. The super thin people were not real.

[@laalki80]

Wow! Didn't know that, what a contrast to the scene depicted, brilliant.

[@patches6309]

I am a retired combat veteran of Iraq and had the honor & privilidge to be Dick Winter's escort one day at a July 4th event in our state Pennsylvania back in 2002. In my entire military & police career, and in my lifetime no man has ever inspired me in such a powerful way. I took much of the advice he gave me to heart & practice. It made me a far more effective Sargeant, Soldier & man than I ever believed I could become. Your words of advice echo in my head forever, and I am in your debt Sir, and thank you often.

[@getschwifty8449]

I recommend after you finish this series is Schindler's list before you move on to another tv or movie that way it stays fresh in your mind. The emotions alone in that movie will truly leave you speechless.

[@jaredday8272]

To get a fuller appreciation of the final solution, see Schindler's List. It would be a great follow-on to this series.

[@archaeologist86]

Incredible movie. One of the most difficult to watch movies of al, time, but it should be required in schools.

[@russvedder9266]

What a great movie to watch as an eye opener

[@kingjames1308]

great suggestion

[@1145ontop]

It is a must see movie.

[@SlyDawg951]

Triumph of the Spirit (1989) is also a good movie to see about Holocaust.

[@williamb5484]

We're getting through this tough history lesson together, but it's definitely easy to see why we owe that generation almost everything

[@iammanofnature235]

_We're getting through this tough history lesson together_ What is shown in Band of Brothers is a fictional version of the liberation of Kaufering IV.

[@BlackRoseImmortal]

Very well said @williamb5484

[@jesussaldana4558]

​@iammanofnature235 are there any other series that show the reality of WW2 from a soldiers perspective? There m8ght be but not like this one

[@greggross8856]

Senior officers in the Pentagon knew about these camps (even if they didn't know all the details) from aerial reconnaissance photos, but troops in the field were not told. So when they found these camps, the shock was real. For this episode, they kept the actors from the camp until it ws time to shoot the scene. Their shock was real, too.

[@iammanofnature235]

Many of the larger concentration camps, such as Dachau (1933), Buchenwald (1937), Flossenbürg (1938), and Mauthausen (1938), were operational before the war and were widely reported. What was mostly unknown were the over 1,000 subcamps like the one depicted in Band of Brothers. The camp depicted in Band of Brothers is Kaufering IV which was one of 11 labor subcamps of Dachau located in the Landsberg (Bavaria) region of Germany known as the Kaufering complex. Contrary to what is shown in Band of Brothers, Kaufering IV was actually liberated by the 12th Armored Division on April 27, 1945. For Dramatic purposes, Easy Company is shown liberating the camp.

[@jonv8177]

The truly sick part is FDR knew what the Germans intended to do with the Jewish people from the outset of the war. Yet refused to take Jewish refugees, often sending them back to German occupied areas, knowing what fate awaited them.

[@iammanofnature235]

@@jonv8177 Yes and no. While some Jewish refugees were turned away before the U.S. entered the war in 1941 (Hitler declared war on the U.S. on December 11), between 1939-1941 almost 300,000 Jewish emigrants were allowed to enter the U.S.

[@3ggh3ad]

With how many us corporations that benefitted from it. I'm sure the pentagon knew

[@TehPwnXor]

This episode is painful to watch, but important to know. I am not even ashamed to say I cry every time they first get into the camp. Emotional damage...

[@matori1901]

16:08 man carrying older man, he is speaking Serbian, he is saying "People help, please help, he is still alive, you can still save him" Man I was just a kid when I first watched the series, to hear those words to understand them, while everything was subtitled. I still get chills down my spine...

[@katheryns1219]

It's interesting - I understood what he was saying because I speak Russian, and that's what it sounded like to me. I also heard someone say it was Polish, another that it was Bulgarian. Of course, the vocabulary consists of old common words, which have deep Slavic roots, so it's no wonder speakers of several Slavic languages could understand it.

[@aljosapetkovic69]

@@katheryns1219 yes it was Serbian for sure, but very close as you said "Molim vas pomozite mu, jos je ziv" - gets me everytime.

[@TekWolfie]

@@katheryns1219 Polish was mentioned because someone made subtitles where it describes it as Polish. The guy that did that was mistaken. As @aljosapetkovic69 said it's either Serbian or Croatian. That particular statement would be said using the same words in both those languages. A native from those countries could maybe pick up the accent to distinguish between them but pretty much the whole Balkan area can probably understand the meaning.

[@scottsutoob]

I could tell it was Slavic. Thank you all for telling us it was Serbian. I have seen it listed in subtitles as "Speaking Polish" and some even say "Speaking German" Which I would understand so I knew this was not German.

[@andaimhineach4131]

My dad's cousin was there when they shot the locks off the gates at Dachau. They found piles of bodies, in rail cars and elsewhere also. They put a lot of the SS officers up to the wall and gunned them down.

[@duster1968]

My father was at Dachau shortly after it was liberated. He only spoke of it once and mumbled something about rail cars filled with bodies, and he never spoke of it again.

[@christopherkowalczyk4405]

I worked in a care home out of high school. One resident was the sweetest old guy you could think of. Then one night we're talking history and WWII comes up. Long story short his unit found a camp and caught 6 guards. I asked what happened to them, "5 got shot while escaping", I asked about the 6th and he said they took their time with him.

[@About37Hobos]

@@christopherkowalczyk4405as they should’ve.

[@TRWilley]

The book "The Liberator" covers Felix Sparks, who led the regiment that liberated Dachau - those guys did not handle the shock as calmly as Easy Company and the execution of the SS was a chaotic revenge killing before Sparks stopped it from getting any worse. Sparks was cleared of any wrong doing but could not prove his complete innocence until years later when a roll of film was found in a garage that had photos of the incident and showed him clearly telling them to hold their fire and trying to stop the situation from getting further out of control. Facinating read.

[@mikearmstrong8483]

It's a myth that only the SS was involved. That makes it sound like only a select group of evil guys did it all. In fact, the regular army was heavily involved in guarding the camps also, and the German people in general were well aware of the atrocities. It's hard not to notice when a lot of your neighbors and local shopkeepers suddenly "disappear" along with their families, and there seems to be a sudden ready supply of slave labor in the arms factories.

[@sellsjeeps]

Love you guys. Thank you for the reaction. As hard as something like this is to see, it's necessary. The more people that learn about these tragedies the better we off we are as a society. Knowledge of the past helps us understand the present so we can create a better future.

[@JHulse29]

My grandfather was a tank commander in the third armored division and liberated Nordhausen during the war. Another concentration camp and yes, Asia is correct he said you could smell it miles away

[@larsprst4231]

There are a few camps left as museums. I've visited one. The silence, even with hundreds of visitors, was unbelieveable. Scary! Walking the way the prisoners walked on the way to execution, seeing the baracks where several hundreds slept with only space for 50 people, ovens for burning all the bodies! I will never forget it! There was a swimmingpool at one of the commanders house inside the camp. When the group of men (jews) who made it were done, they were all put in it before it was filled with water, and they were shot down. Then it was washed clean by others and the commander and his family used that pool for fun and swimming! The piles of clothes, glases, bags, teeths, shoes from thousands of prisoners, were all kept and was a part of the exhibition! Laying in big, big piles! I will never forget it. Still, to this day, the trip to that camp/museum makes my cry - like this episode!

[@chvisk]

My grandfather was a survivor - smuggled out before the death camps at age 16, lived in an orphanage in the UK. Went back after the war to find he'd lost his whole family. Parents, sister, etc. all gone.

[@raymonddevera2796]

General Eisenhower Supreme Allied Commander ( later US President) toured one camp. He was so disgusted he he gathered all people of the village and told them that they made him feel ashamed that his last name was Eisenhower. It was said that old Blood and Guts General George Patton openly cried when he came across one camp. To correct both of you this was a concentration/death camp. We should never forget.

[@joshuaortiz2031]

I read Patton threw up he didn't cry. Who knows maybe he cried and then threw up. Lol

[@iammanofnature235]

_He was so disgusted he he gathered all people of the village and told them that they made him feel ashamed that his last name was Eisenhower._ According to military historians and George Patton this never happened.

[@keeftaylor834]

I highly recommend an older movie called "The Killing Fields." Between 1975-79 the Cambodian Communists (Khmer Rouge) under the leadership of Pol Pot enslaved the entire country. Anyone with any Western ties; any one with education; anyone with ties to the government was tortured, forced to make confessions, and murdered. The numbers are hazy but I believe 1.7 milion died in the Killing Fields, and an additional 1.3 died of starvation after the Vietnamese invasion. The man who portrays Dith Pran in the movie Hang Nor was himself also a survivor. His wife died during childbirth and he was unable to help her despite being a physician, because that would have singled him out and he would have been executed.

[@Polymathically]

As time passes ever further away from WWII, the more it becomes necessary for shows like this to exist and educate younger generations. Learning about this - and war in general - will help them understand how and why our modern world is like it is. The Holocaust was part of the curriculum way back when I was in high school, and Elie Wiesel's memoir of the Holocaust, _Night,_ was mandatory reading as well. The History Channel used to show uncensored documentaries about it. All the stuff you can find on KZbin is heavily sanitized, but people should see the sheer barbarity and depravity of what their fellow human beings are capable of, and do everything possible to prevent it from happening again. As for movies, you should definitely watch Schindler's List sometime.

[@tigerbait134]

This will always be the most difficult episode of the series. Thank you for taking the time to watch these stories.

[@JoeXTheXJuggalo1]

All those surrendered Germans came from *The Battle of the Ruhr Pocket* . Pretty much before D-Day the allies knew they had to take the Ruhr district of Germany. It was an major industrial area of Western Germany. So once the Americans had a foothold on the eastern bank of the the Rhine River under the command of Eisenhower had the 1st and 9th Army do a pincer maneuver to go around and surround the German Army Group B of roughly 400,000 in the Ruhr district. Once the 1st and 9th army had them completely surrounding they started to slowly close in around them making the pocket of Germans get smaller and smaller. At this time the Germans was pretty much out of food, ammo, fuel, and supplies. Also there was a good bit of their forces was the undertrained Voltsstrum (People's Storm) which was just drafted German civilians of old men and kids. Hitler himself told them to stay put and they couldn't surrender or retreat. So close to mid April of 1945 the Americans had cut the German Army in half in the Ruhr. So with the pressure of the Americans and the desperate urgencies of the German civilians in the Ruhr around 317,000 German soldiers and 24 German Generals surrendered. The British 6 and the American 17th airborne divisions was part of the operation as well to jump as support. The Airborne took heavy casualties and Nixon was part of that airborne operation. As shown earlier in the film.

[@alanholck7995]

I think that as they are telling story of Easy Co, they are intentionally not explaining the bigger picture. The further you go down the chain in military, the less you know. Just like higher-ups knew about the concentration camps, but not battalion level (Winters) and below.

[@lelouchvibritannia4028]

I'm sure many of those Germans in that battle must've also surrendered because they must've been redeployed west after serving in and seeing the brutality of the Russians in the Eastern Front, knowing the western allies are far more merciful than the Soviets.

[@JoeXTheXJuggalo1]

@@alanholck7995 of course it was like that. The story of Band of Brothers is just telling the story of Easy company and a few connections with them. They wasn't going to be talking about a certain events happening in another part of Europe unless Easy company was directly linked to it. Also intelligence and higher ups knew lots about what's going on. It was there issue to deal with it. Not to go around and tell each individual soldier of all the allies "hey they have camps that there killing Jews". The less the soldiers knew the better. They're only there to fight and get the job done. They only find out things for themselves as they discovered them first hand.

[@JoeXTheXJuggalo1]

@@lelouchvibritannia4028 yeap. I believe Army Group South of Army Group B was deployed to the Eastern front to support the invasion of Russia of Army Group A. At the time of the Events of Ruhr the Field Marshal of Army Group B was Walter Model. He was there in Russia too. After his army was cut in 2 and couldn't make contact with the other half of Army Group B and the men already doing mass surrender Walter Model disbanded the half of Army Group B and told all the Voltsstrum to drop their weapons and take off their uniforms and flee back home. Walter Model didn't want to surrender to the allies due to him being such a high ranking person but also knew he couldn't go back home or to Hitler. He "offed himself". Like I mentioned in my main comment the citizens of the Ruhr area was pretty much pleading, demanding, and urging the German soldiers to just surrender because all the fighting going and they pretty much had no way of fighting themselves. If they kept fighting the Americans would hit back and hard and lots of German citizens would die or get seriously hurt. I remember reading that one of the German soldiers even said *"what's the point in fighting anymore. I have a wife and children"* just before he surrendered to the allies.

[@barte3822]

The toughest episode to watch !!! Hard to believe humans can do this to other humans. Asia & BJ, please put the film Schindler 's List on your to watch list. ✌️❤️

[@MPereira2622]

Asia and B.J. first let me say that from the first time I watched your reaction videos I have totally enjoyed all of them , you both seem like really good kind people so thank you for that. Secondly , Band of brothers is to this day in my top 3 of any series I've ever seen. I'm so glad you two are enjoying it. The bravery of the men and women of that (The Greatest) generation is just absolutely amazing. Men and women.......they were all kids in reality.

[@StevePaur-hf4vy]

There is a difference between a P.O.W. camp and a concentration camp. A concentration camp is where civilian citizens of Germany and countries occupied by Germany who were deemed "undesirables" because of their religious beliefs, sexual orientation, nationality or ethnicity were incarcerated. P.O.W. camps are where the Germans kept allied military prisoners with the exception of those deemed as "undesirable" under Nazi law. Many Jewish and black military prisoners were sent to concentration camps. Concentration camps were used to provide slave labor to help the German war effort. These prisoners were treated inhumanely and many died under the nazi's extermination thru labor policy. There is another category of camp and those were the Nazi death camps whose sole purpose was extermination of Jews. They committed murder on an industrial level scale.

[@barragin9893]

The most important episode you will ever see.

[@soundwave6083]

Just to clarify, the soldiers that executed the Germans while they were surrendering were French troops. The US stayed out of their way with their choice of handling political matters.

[@joshuaortiz2031]

Those guys they executed might have been French SS volunteers. The French didn't take kindly to traitors they summarily executed many of them.

[@iammanofnature235]

_Germans while they were surrendering were French troops_ The French soldiers shown in Band of Brothers are wearing old early war uniforms (c. 1940) and are carrying nonstandard equipment which would suggest that weren't regular French Army soldiers. French Army soldiers of 1944-1945 wore mostly U.S. Army style uniforms and used U.S. equipment and were pretty much indistinguishable from their American counterparts. A smaller number of French Army soldiers, such as French commandos who were trained by the British, wore British style uniforms and used British equipment.

[@douglasdenniston8367]

Upon their discovery, Eisenhower told news people to film as much of the camps as possible... So people could not deny it. Realize.... Humans did this to other humans.... When you wonder at the amazing things we can accomplish, remember that we have shown what we are capable of doing to each other as well...

[@DongusMcBongus]

Thanks for reacting to this. It’s a hard one, but it deserves to be remembered. This was a concentration camp. Not a POW camp.

[@CigarMick]

A good movie to watch that gives a perspective on the death camps is "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas". It is a movie that shows the cruelty of the Third Riech and Hitler's view towards people deemed to be unworthy of life in German society.

[@rhaegoti]

This is by far the most gut wrenching episode of Band of Brothers for me. It's important to watch, but never easy. You've got a platform that can be used to help others understand the horrors of the Holocaust and the concentration camps. I know Schindler's List has been recommended already, and I'd like to add my vote there. Another really powerful movie that you should watch is The Boy In The Striped Pajamas. Love you guys!

[@michaelstach5744]

This is the best written episode. We start with the moral equivalence between the G.I.s and the Germans. We could go fishing together. Then we see that the men are not the nice guys we met in Taccoa. We like Luz and Perconte but we genuinely worry for the girl in the barn. Speirs loots without a second thought. French troops execute prisoners and the guys shrug. Nixon goes on a rampage to get a drink. Even our hero Winters evicts a family with only a few minutes notice. Combat has hardened these men. People warn you how hard this episode is, that you will need a box of tissues. You get halfway through the episode and the worst thing that happens is that a dog barks at Nixon. Then you start using the tissues…

[@Demigord]

Why We Fight is so iconic, so well made, and so hard to watch.

[@morganspector5161]

Band of Brothers is the greatest war movie (OK, yes it is a 10-part HBO series, but still ....) My wife and I binge watch it twice a year, sometimes three. It never gets old or stale. Especially Episode 9. Spielberg later said that filming BOB was a lot of fun, but the fun all ended at Episode 9. BTW, Nixon's wife divorcing him occurred often, and was part of the impetus for the Soldiers and Sailors Act, which basically prohibited civil actions against enlisted soldiers. And I must admit it was susrprising that neither of you recognized that this was a Concentration Camp. Not a POW camp, a Concentration Camp: The Holocaust. "Why we fight"

[@scottdarden3091]

BJ, that wasn't a POW camp, those were not prisoners of war! They were just Jewish civilians. In there because the Germans wanted racial purity.

[@ihaveaquestion222]

Why are the Jewish people themselves changing the death toll? Do your research people

[@SwearyCyclist]

My brother was based at Bergen - Hohne with the UK military back in the 90's. This was next to Belsen concentration camp. He always said there was a dark atmosphere there.

[@dandaintac388]

This was the very hardest episode to watch, you'll be relieved to know. Glad to see BJ and Asia talk it out some. This was not a POW camp--it was a concentration camp. The producers of the movie had cancer patients who volunteered to play the inmates. Webster blows up at the surrendering Germans when he saw how few trucks they had, and how overly dependent they were on horses. The Americans had tens of thousands of trucks--the Germans did not have many and were still using horses! Not prepared for a modern war! He was angry because how the fuck could they hope to win using horses? It was foolhardy to have started a war without the proper logistical capabilities. The Americans forced the Germans in the nearby towns to go into the camps and clean up, so they could see first hand exactly what had been happening, and what their officers and government had been doing. The other allied troops such as France, that had been occupied by the Germans, some of those soldiers had scores to settle, and there were indeed summary executions of SS troops.

[@codygates7418]

This is why I say reality is more scary then any horror film 😢 God bless their souls ❤

[@BSUSwim4Gold]

Band of Brothers will forever change you. It should be shown in every high school in America.

[@MrPingn]

When they were building the concentration camp set. They kept the Easy Company actors away. So the first time they saw it was the day of filming it. The surprise and shock was still fresh on camera.

[@dicknijenhuis9894]

For the concentration camp scenes, cancer patients were used. There was hesitancy on the part of the film crew to use the most ill but the patients refused to be taken out of the film. The patients wanted the film to be as realistic as possible.

[@iammanofnature235]

_The patients wanted the film to be as realistic as possible._ The camp depicted in Band of Brothers is Kaufering IV which was actually liberated on April 27, 1945 by the 12th Armored division. There were only about 7 prisoners found alive (those who were able to hide), along with about 500 bodies. From the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: _As US armed forces approached the Kaufering complex in late April 1945, the SS began evacuating the camps, sending the prisoners on death marches in the direction of Dachau. Those inmates who could not keep up were often shot or beaten to death by the guards. At Kaufering IV, the SS set fire to the barracks killing hundreds of prisoners who were too ill or weak to move._ _When the 12th Armored Division and 101st Airborne Division arrived at Kaufering IV on April 27 and 28, respectively, the soldiers discovered some 500 dead inmates. In the days that followed, the US Army units ordered the local townspeople to bury the dead._

[@lt.spears1889]

Wait you guys didn’t know this was a Concentration Camp??????? Huh 🤔 I’m speechless

[@harryrabbit3928]

I recommend the Movie "Conspiracy" from 2001 , it gives you a good inside view on the thinking and doing of High Rank Nazi's and the "Final Solution". Brilliant acting which gives you chills. The Movie is like watching a Play in Theater but still amazing.

[@GreyDoofus88]

You should read up about Irma Grese, nicknamed "the Hyena of Auschwitz". The torture that she inflicted upon those who were incarcerated at that notorious concentration camp was absolutely horrendous. She was captured by the British at the Bergen Belsen concentration camp. At her execution, Irma's last words to the hangman was basically "get on with it then".

[@janiceduke1205]

Soon after seeing Ohrdruf, Eisenhower ordered every unit near by that was not on the front lines to tour Ohrdruf: "We are told that the American soldier does not know what he is fighting for,” Eisenhower said. “Now, at least, he will know what he is fighting against.” Ohrdruf was a German forced labor and concentration camp located near Ohrdruf, south of Gotha, in Thuringia, Germany. It was part of the Buchenwald concentration camp network

[@patrioticjustice9040]

The intro were the Germans were playing Beethoven which was mistaken for Mozart is symbolic; most people today think Hitler was German (Beethoven was German) but he was actually Austrian (Mozart was Austrian). The 300,000 Germans that surrendered was known as the Ruhr Pocket; the last major line of defense between the Allies and Berlin. Previously, a lot of major German cities were slated for air raids and bombings, including Hamburg. The German resistance had been fighting with Waffen-SS in Hamburg. Fortunately they won, and they were able to radio the Ruhr Pocket to stand down (they were mostly comprised of old men and boys who were barely capable of fighting anyway) This convinced the Allies to call off the bombings, sparing the cities. When Hitler found out that the Ruhr Pocket had surrendered, it was in that moment that he realized the war was lost, and began preparations to commit suicide. The soldiers who killed the three German soldiers were French. When the Germans lost a battle, they were happy to surrender to American and British forces because they knew they could expect humane treatment. When they lost against French or Russian forces, they would choose suicide because the French and Russians would kill them out of vengeance. This particular concentration camp was known as Kauffering IV; a subcamp of Dachau. The stench was so overwhelming from outside Dachau that originally Allied troops thought they were going to storm a chemicals factory. They had no idea what was inside. Believe it or not, the vast majority of the German populace did not know about the camps. In 1938, brown shirts and political activists in the Hitler Youth Program struck out against Jews by destroying cars, homes and stores owned by Jews (similar to what ANTIFA had been doing in their riots in places like New York and Portland) This had the reverse effect the Nazis wanted; it created sympathy for Jews in the German population, which infuriated Hitler because it meant he didn't have the support he thought he did. So the Nazis moved the Jews out to the ghettos; with propaganda telling the population that it was for their safety and to help with the war effort. Once the camps were constructed, the Jews were sent there to begin the Final Solution. Most people did not know about the camps. The few who did was either in support of Hitler's anti-semitic fantasies, or they kept their mouths shut out of fear of being sent there. Most of the world does not understand that living under a dictators' regime basically means living with a gun pointed at the back of your head; any second, you could be killed for almost no reason at all. There were those, however, who did know about the camps and were actually able to use them to save Jews. One was Karl Plagge, who hid children who were slated for execution. Another was Oskar Schindler, who saved over 1100 Jews from Auschwitz by having them work in his factory.

[@Christiand2821]

I remember reading in the Band of Brothers book (paraphrasing) that the Easy Company guys had a fair deal of respect for the Germans as a people because they actually cleaned up and rebuilt their towns and villages after battles whereas the French people tended to just leave everything in ruins. Almost like they thought that rebuilding was beneath them or that they were just too lazy for it.

[@t.c.thompson2359]

I only recently discovered this fact myself and I love it and want to spread it to more people, When Nixon says in the beginning that the music being played isn't Mozart, its Beethoven. Beethoven was German, Mozart was from Austria, the birthplace and true homeland of Adolf Hitler, who had a perverted love affair with German culture and tried to make his version of a foreign country that countries actual identity. It would be like if an anime fan tried to make Japan into a Miyazaki movie. The point of Nix's comment is to show that Hitler's distorted view of Germany is gone and the true Germany is weakly shining through.

[@boomshakala3593]

You'll never find a better Series too watch than Band Of Brothers!!!.😊😊😊

[@BlaQBetty2018]

Been waiting for your reaction to this. Definitely a tough episode. That soldier that shot the nazis as easy company was driving by was actually Tom Hanks!

[@stevem7192]

No it wasn't. Every time somebody watches this show people say that and its not him.

[@vinniemoran7362]

Great reaction, as always. None of us expected this to be shown as part of 'Easy entering Germany'. But it's a great creative choice. Instead of showing more battles, they show why they fight. For me, it's one of the many reasons why this is one of the greatest shows of all time.

[@miely0847]

It’s always a good time to learn. Always and never too late. Americans liberated Buchenwald and Bergen Belsen. Russians liberated Auschwitz

[@SharkWayneGaming]

Like everyone else, I'm surprised BJ didn't know much about the Concentration Camps but glad Asia was there to explain about what happened. I went to the Holocaust museum in DC... it was wild and the thing that hit me like a punch in the gut... was the smell of the leather shoes, I took one smell and I just bawled into tears. I know it was a real thing that happened, it took the smell of those shoes that it solidify that everything I've read in school and stories from the survivers are as real as those shoes. Such a powerful expierence. Like what everyone says, check out the Shindler's List. It would put great context on this episode of what happened and a great man who saved alot of lives. If you do, tissues are needed.

[@EGSimon-ds1vf]

What hit me hardest was seeing the stack of eyeglasses and shoes. You can hear about 6 million people, but actually seeing their possessions in huge mounds, makes it real.

[@janiceduke1205]

Wallenberg: A Hero’s Story is a 1985 NBC mini-series starring Richard Chamberlain as Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat instrumental in saving thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Holocaust. It won four Emmy Awards and was nominated for five more.

[@rednecksniper4715]

“Get it all on record now - get the films - get the witnesses -because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened.” Dwight D Eisenhower supreme allied commander. The extras were played by local cancer patients who refused extra breaks because they knew how important it was that the story was told. Most of the extras didn’t make it to see the viewing.

[@iammanofnature235]

What is shown in Band of Brothers is a fictional version of the liberation of Kaufering IV.

[@rednecksniper4715]

@@iammanofnature235 nothing about band of brothers is fictional all of these people are real some events were dramatized and some of the words used may not be exactly verbatim what was said it but damn sure didn’t fiction

[@rhiahlMT]

The Nazis had 24,500 extermination, concentration and work camp throughout Europe. The death camps for mass murder were mainly in Poland. There is no way they can say they knew nothing about it. You cannot move that many people without something getting out. I've been to Dachau concentration camp several times. It's psychological I know but the place still smells of death. There was a satellite camp at my duty assignment in the Army in Germany.

[@Mange070]

At 19:20 they mentionend "cremating all the bodies"......probably referring to Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland.

[@TerryT324]

It’s more shocking that BJ and Asia don’t know these are concentration camps. Wow.

[@ReelinwithAsiaandBJ]

We literally talked about concentration camps at the end 🤷🏽‍♀️ Wow

[@RonhozZ]

watch till the end terry

[@UnclePengy]

12:16 I think this was an inside joke that they threw in to lighten up the mood of the episode just a little. This is probably the same set they filmed the Bastogne episode on.

[@frenchfan3368]

This episode certainly shows humanity at its worst. If only humans spent half the amount of energy at helping each other get through the challenges of life instead of finding ways to torture and kill each other. May the world never forget the crimes of the Hitler's Third Reich, Tojo's Imperial Japan and also Stalin's Soviet Union!

[@iammanofnature235]

While the Nazis did commit horrible atrocities, what is shown in Band of Brothers is a fictional version of the liberation of Kaufering IV.

[@frenchfan3368]

@@iammanofnature235 Of course it's a recreated version, but it is not a "fictional" version. What we saw is a group of actors and extras who represented a concentration camp. Unless you watch the original footage, you will see a recreated version. The fact that it is recreated does not take away from the reality of the crimes of the Third Reich.

[@Chevy11]

Man, one more episode. Be sure to watch the documentary episode with the interviews after 10. Also, you guys have to watch The Pacific next. Another one Tom Hanks did. Same layout, but about fighting the Japanese in the pacific theater of WW2.

[@jennieo333]

In my junior high class they taught us about concentration camps of WW2 and I never forgot it. The history books included pictures that weren't gruesome pictures but still it gave us the idea of just how truly horrible concentration camps were. I never forgot what I learned in that class and I still remember the pictures in the books and that was almost 30 years ago.

[@GarrickMerriweather]

This is my favorite episode of the series. Its hard to watch but it is needed. Most people in/from America at the time, even most soldiers didn't know about what they were doing to the Jews. The episode is aptly named "Why We Fight".

[@lidlett9883]

Nixon never fired his weapon in combat because he was military intelligence officer. Which meant his job was to rely information from the front to command post and the from command post to Headquarters then take the orders from HQ back to the front lines. Had he actually fought in combat he wouldn't be doing his job.

[@6panzer]

I love you guys. I’m a combat veteran. I’ve had weeks upon weeks feeling the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. You guys make great comments upon that thesis. Please keep posting.

[@davechoate]

BJ, you should watch Schindler’s List. I’m amazed that they didn’t teach about Concentration Camps at your high school in History Class.

[@krisfrederick5001]

Imagine seeing all the horrors of War, then being speechless seeing this. "Why We Fight" is a nod to the legendary series made by Frank Capra, it was made while the War was still happening and the outcome was unknown....The German Woman wearing the stark red coat is interesting to me, maybe as a connection to the little Jewish girl who dies in Schindler's List. I don't think there are coincidences in Spielberg's work. Tom Hanks alert! 🚨 @11:21 👀

[@robclark8889]

Schindler’s List is often mentioned to check out along these lines, but I would like to offer you another. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. After watching it, trust me, you will never forget it. As far as the P.O.W camp, I could be wrong on this, but it WAS the first camp the U.S. came across. There were reports of camps but this was the first the U.S. encountered. The reason they put them back in was because they had no place to put them and if they kept feeding them after being starved for so long, they would eat themselves to death.

[@CaseyinTexas]

when filming this episode, the actors said that they rehearsed their lines while sitting around the table. They weren't shown the camp until it was time to actually to shoot it, because the directors wanted their initial reaction to be genuine. the prisoners were recruited from a nearby cancer hospital to add another layer of realism to the scene.

[@craigmorris4083]

If there is one episode that MUST be seen, it is this one.

[@blueeyedcowboy8291]

Great reaction to a hard episode to watch. You could feel the passion Asia had about this subject, and it was nice to see. Lots of comments about Schindler's List, and I completely agree, I think it is a must see since she talked about reading The Diary of Anne Frank. I think you will really enjoy this next episode.

[@danmellen1423]

So much respect for any person who served. What a great series. P S. BJ you are one lucky man

[@ruralhappy2835]

My grandpa died in a WW2 POW camp...he was starving to death, literally, and contracted pneumonia then died. They refused to release his body to the US and it took over a year to get them to send him back. My grandma was left with 4 children to raise on her own with the weight of grieving on her. If he/they hadn't been treated so poorly (a man that was in the camp with grandpa wrote a book about it and talked a bit about grandpa, they called him the preacher cause he was always encouraging trying to lift their spirits) on purpose in the camp grandpa might have lived and come back to his family.

[@Lucky-od9jq]

I grew up in Germany, being a Military Brat, and people still deny that the Holocaust ever happened. I have been to Dachau and Auschwitz. The feeling that comes over you when you enter the camp is very eerie. I highly recommend you watching Schindler’s List and the mini series A Small Light (based on the woman who helped hide Anne Frank and her family). And also watch Band Of Brothers: We Stand Together, Alone.

[@fishblades]

I'm kind of stunned you didn't know about the camps. The holocaust is the biggest thing about WW2. I remember watching a 10 part WW2 doc with my dad when I was around 13 or 14 and that's when I first learned about it. It took me days to wrap my head around it. Glad my dad was there to talk me through it as we watched. I guess you know some of it, just maybe not the extent.

[@kellyk3889]

Imagine how the stench of that place would LOCK those visions into your head.

[@SidewaysEightSix]

The music in the beginning has a hidden meaning as well. The Company believed it was Mozart, who primarily lived in Austria, as did Adolf Hitler. Nixon corrects them and informs them that the song is actually the work of Beethoven, who is true German. When you tie in the opening scene with the closing scene you get the full moment. And it signifies the removal of Hitler/Austrian influence and the return of Traditional German ideology.

[@AttorneyBCollins]

Plus at first you feel sorry for the German civilians as you should, then you see the concentration camp. Then you understand why we fought there and why their city is in ruins. You still feel sorry for them but you have a better understanding of why the War was necessary.

[@paulhnatuszka6850]

As bad as this film was it was watered down or it could not have been shown. i have seen the uncensored footage filmed by the army and it is beyond horrific. i am a very strong minded man but it broke me and once seen it can not be unseen. the biggest part of the ones that survived had lost everything no home no family no friends no where to go. as for a lot of the soldiers that liberated these camps they were never the same when they went home they had seen death on a big scale but nothing could have prepared them for what they found. i knew 2 men who were part of the army who first found these camps and for the rest of their lives they had screaming nightmares every single night untill they passed away 50 and 54 years later they never told of what they saw and if asked they would leave the room crying and visibly shaking and i understand why after seeing the real filming. I Hope all that suffered now rest in eternal peace...

[@keithcharboneau3331]

Allied Troops did not discover any of the concentration camps until the wars last days, If I remember correctly, the Russians found the first one about 7 weeks before the German Army surrendered, the U.S. discovered the first one that we did 2 days after the Russians found one, after that they were almost being discovered hourly for a couple of weeks.

[@ThunderTaco206]

I genuinely don't understand how you didn't instantly know what you were seeing with the concentration camp. I thought this was still common knowledge. The fact that it's not makes me so, so, so sad.

[@Ironhead251]

Watch Shiendler's List and you will truly understand.

[@gabby15107]

In some camps the prisoners were used as test subjects in horrible ways. In one camp, a survivor stated they were forced to test boots for Nazi troops, by walking around a track up to 25 miles a day. Anyone who couldn't complete the day or fell and was unable to continue was executed, and the boots given to someone else. According to one manufacturer's account, in one test prisoners were forced marched in snow and ice, ultimately completing 1,370 miles. All under threat of frost bite, hypothermia, starvation, and execution.

[@JV-kg4oc]

I hope y'all learn more about this and other darker points in world history. What happened there was no accident. People put systems in place to make it happen. It is good we learn and acknowledge history, whether it be another country or our own. The people in this episode ignorant of what was going are just like the people today who want to sanitize history.

[@marksanders8028]

Thank you Asia an BJ. For screening this movie. Maybe it will open some peoples eyes. You should also watch Schindler’s List for some context please. And again Thant you so much. God bless you both.

[@JAREDsFOr]

A key interaction in this episode is when Capt Nix goes into that lady's home looking for booze. The photo he breaks shows a high ranking Nazi officer with a black ribbon hung on the frame. Typically the black ribbon would mean KIA or killed in action. We can assume the man in the photo was her husband, given it was placed on the mantel next to her own portrait, and the age similarities. When you first see her it makes you look at Capt Nix in a different light "Man this dude really broke into this poor grieving woman's house just for some hooch" The second time they see each other is in the camp, and it reveals two things. She and the other locals were fully aware of the goings on at the camp(s), and as a Nazi officers wife, she likely played a part in it as well.

[@iammanofnature235]

The photo is of German actor Wolf Kahler who is also seen in episode 10 speaking to his men. While civilians did actually bury the approximately 500 bodies at Kaufering IV, the rest of the camp liberation and associated scenes are fictional.

[@aliwilliams8545]

Watching your reaction to this series has been great.

[@larrywelchko6136]

Operation Market Garden was abolutley FUBAR thnaks for Field Marshal Montgomery from England

[@J4ME5_]

You guys are aware if the Holocaust .. right

[@michaelstach5744]

We want to differentiate three different types of camps. Well, maybe four… P.O.W. Camps were for combatants, soldiers, captured during the war. Now things were VERY different for the Russian prisoners. Russia was not a signatory for the Geneva Conventions that governed how POWs were to be treated. If you want to measure the worst possible situation you could be in it would be a choice between being a Russian prisoner of the Germans or being a German prisoner of the Russians. There are several good POW movies: Stalag 16, The Great Escape, and Bridge on the River Kwai are good places to start. Then there are concentration camps. These held political prisoners and other people who might, small chance, live. Often these camps were associated with slave labor. Then there were extermination camps. This is where trains would pull in, families would be divided. Depending on individuals, some might get sorted to slave labor, others would be killed by gas chambers or other methods as quickly as possible. There are whole libraries on this. But one point is that this was made possible by industrialization. Railway networks could move Jews across Europe to be murdered. I would HIGHLY recommend a graphic novel, Maus, to give give you a better view of all this.

[@janiceduke1205]

Stalag 17.

[@michaelstach5744]

@@janiceduke1205 sorry, both my memory and math skills are shot

[@janiceduke1205]

@@michaelstach5744 😊

[@tigqc]

I would highly recommend watching the Holocaust documentary Shoah (1985) which is widely considered in World Cinema to be the greatest film of any kind ever made.

[@jestx101]

Since y'all live so close to Dallas, you should experience the Holocaust Museum downtown.

[@actaeon299]

After seeing what the German troops did in other countries, the men weren't too upset about kicking people out of their homes for a bit.

[@tonyben3]

A very powerful episode for sure. These are lessons we should never forget which show how people can be easily swayed to dismiss the sanctity of human life. On another note, did you notice Tom Hardy's appearance in this episode? He was such a young, up-and-coming actor when this was made. He's in the next episode as well.

[@greggross8856]

If you ever get a chance, visit one of these camps. Famous ones like Dachau near Munich or Auschwitz in Poland. The one we hit was Sachsenhausen, near Berlin. Whichever one you visit, you will NOT be the same when you come out.

[@ericelander9936]

Great reaction as always guys. Others have mentioned Schindler's List and I will second that. However something even better than that is a mini series from the late seventies that was on NBC entitled "Holocaust". It chronicled the history of two German families in Berlin one of whom was Jewish and one was German during the Nazi rise to power and then the war. The Jewish family was successful, the father was a doctor, and couldn't believe what happening (much like many in this country nowadays) and of course suffered at the hands of the Nazis. The other family, the father was not too successful until he joined the SS and became one of the architects of the Final Solution. It is very much worth your time reviewing it. A very young Meryl Streep is in this. I believe it was her first starring role and if memory serves she won an Emmy for her performance.

[@sheila-dt5np]

my dad went thru this at a different camp 30 years later he would still wake up some nights screaming about the smell you could never forget it

[@PollyTheWog-ff8rt]

As horrific as the Nazi crimes are, and they should never be forgotten, the Allies also worked alongside the Soviets to beat them. The Soviets had murdered millions of people up to that point in time, within Russian borders and beyond, and even had handshake agreements with the Nazis to share conquests in Eastern Europe. It was only Hitler’s betrayal that brought them over to the Allies. And, after the war, their reign of terror continued.

[@Easy_Skanking]

When Webster tells the German army to say hello to Ford and GM, it brings to mind the enablers of the Germans. Germany was supported by a number of major US companies before and most of the way through the war. Ford sent them parts, Standard Oil sent them oil and fuel, and Union Bank helped finance them. Those that knowingly funded them are just as guilty as Hitler and the camp guards, and have largely gone ignored. So many people suffered and died, including my grandfather, because of their desire for money and power.

[@TheManWithNoName93]

There was roughly 10 main camps, a few thousand smaller camps and ghettos. Looks like they were trying to recreate a smaller camp in this episode.

[@wulfgold]

It's a tough episode, but completely necessary. Everyone should see this.

[@AttorneyBCollins]

Geddy Lee of the band Rush said his parents were in separate concentration camps. It took them 2 years find each other, There was no place for them to go so they got passage on a ship headed to America. By the time they got to NY they were turning away Jewish refugees. They got taken in by Canada.

[@renewillner5061]

Respect..lovelovelove ❤️🌸✌🏻