The Winds of War

[Bob_the_Bartender]

Hey gang,

I noticed that Dan Curtis’s two epic series, “The Winds of War” and “War and Remembrance” are on You Tube.  The two series feature several DS actors, including John Karlen, Barbara Steele, John Harkins, Dennis Patrick and Addison Powell.

I had not seen these series in many years and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing them again, especially during these days of COVID-inspired self quarantine.

Bob

[Gerard]

I remember the true horror of the Auschwitz scene in WaR.  From the arrival the trains to the dumping of the ashes into the Vistula River, nothing was left hidden or edited.  DC and he production crew wanted everyone to know exactly what it was like so all sensibilities of the audience were ignored and for the first time the FCC and ABC censors allowed complete full-frontal nudity of both males and females, young and old. 

Most of the "extras" were not actors/actresses - they were Polish locals with no acting experience.  In the horrific "shower room" scene, where the lights were suddenly extinguished, the doors locked shut and the zyklon B gas released, as the "extras" (now totally nude) started screaming in the dark rushing the secured doors, pounding and pleading, small children crying hysterically, it was true terror on their part, not acting. 

It is all very difficult to watch, but a necessity so such a thing can never happen again.

Gerard

[Bob_the_Bartender]

Gerard,

Yes, that death camp scene was powerful and absolutely gut-wrenching.  I remember watching “War and Remembrance” with my family and my father told me his regiment liberated the survivors at Landsberg Prison, a concentration camp in Germany.  My father said the horrific sights he witnessed there were worse than anything he had seen in North Africa, Italy or France. 

Years before the war, Adolf Hitler wrote Mein Kampf at Landsberg Prison while he was a prisoner there and, ironically, several of the convicted Nazi war criminals were executed there by the US Army in 1945 and 1946.

“War and Remembrance” was Dan Curtis’s most important and socially-relevant work.  Young people should watch this program in order to grasp the absolute horror of the Holocaust and why such genocide must never happen again.