Lucky Ones

 

I just finished watching the last episode of “We Were The Lucky Ones” on Hulu.

It shows the horrors of the Holocaust from the perspective of one Family  - the Kurc Family – from Radom, Poland – and is from a 2017 Book of the same name by Georgia Hunter, inspired by the story of her own Family.

It stars: Joey King, Logan Lerman, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Amit Rahav and Hadas Yaron, Lior Ashkenazi and Robin Weigert.

The real-life events it shows include:

What life was like in Pre-War Poland (1938.)

What happened during the German Invasion and Occupation of western Poland (September 1939.)

What happened during the Soviet Invasion and Occupation of eastern Poland (September 1939.)

Being made to wear the White Armband with the Star of David on it.

Being forcibly evicted from their home in Radom by the Germans and made to live in the Radom Ghetto (with 33,000 other Men, Women and Children.)

Having to do Forced Labor in Ghetto Workshops and Factories for the Germans.

Having to hide your Children while you did Forced Labor.

The difference and similarities of living in German-Occupied Poland and Soviet-Occupied Poland.

How the Germans used fake Certificates to British Mandatory Palestine (Israel after 1948) to murder Jews in the Ghettos in Mobile Killing Units (Einsatzgruppen.)

The Einsatzgruppen mostly murdered Men, Women and Children in open pits and included the German Wehrmacht (Army), the German Police, Non-German Collaborators (Ukrainians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Estonians, Russians, Belarussians, etc.) 1.2 Million People were murdered this way.

How the Soviets forced 13.5 Million Poles living under their Occupation to become Soviet Citizens in order to receive: Food Rations, Work, Education, etc.

How the Soviets forcibly deported 1.4 Million Poles to the Soviet Union (Siberia and Central Asia) and how hundreds of thousands of them died of Starvation, Beatings, Forced Labor, the Extreme Cold, Being Shot.

How the Germans invaded the Soviet Union (including Soviet-Occupied eastern Poland) in June 1941 and created Ghettos and used the Einsatzgruppen in those territories.

How the Citizens (Poles and Ukrainians) in Lwow, Poland (today Lviv, Ukraine) embraced the Germans over the Soviets and carried out Pogroms against the Jews.

How, after the German Invasion of eastern Poland) the Soviets allowed their Polish Deportees to join the Polish Anders Army (led by Władysław Anders) and how Polish Jews were not allowed to join due to Anti-Semitism.

How Anders Army fought in Italy (including Monte Cassino.)

 How Jews gave up their Children to Non-Jewish Poles and Convents to keep them alive.

How there were several Jewish Resistance Groups throughout German-Occupied  Poland.

How the Germans invaded France in May 1940 and occupied northern France while Vichy France (French Collaborators with the Germans) occupied southern France and French Territories in Africa.

How Brazil limited the number of Jews that could enter their Country because of Anti-Semitism.

How the Volksdeutsche (people whose Language and Culture were German, but didn’t have German Citizenship) lived in German-Occupied Eastern Europe.

The Warsaw Uprising (August -October 1944) where 49,000 Polish Resistance Fighters fought the Germans while the nearby Soviet Army watched. 90% of Warsaw was destroyed by the Germans; 200,000 Polish Civilians were killed; 700,000 Polish Civilians were forcibly deported from Warsaw.

How the Germans surrendered to the Allies (the Americans, the Brits and the Soviets) on May 8, 1945 ending the European Theater of World War 2.

How the remaining Holocaust Survivors (from Concentration Camps, Death Camps, Ghettos, being Hidden, fleeing Overseas, etc.) tried to find their Family after the War and how they were treated and mistreated by both the Soviet Military and the Civilians (Poles, Ukrainians, etc.) in their Hometowns.

How Anti-Semitism continued after the Holocaust around Europe and the World.

80 years have passed since the Holocaust and yet Anti-Semitism has risen 300% in the United States and 350% around the World (especially France, Spain, Poland, Russia, Germany, the UK, etc.)