Over the last week and a half, I watched Winds of War and War & Remembrance. I've watched WOW several times in the past and enjoyed it, but I had never watched W&R in its entirety until now. All of the concentration camp scenes and even some of the Theriesenstadt scenes, especially when Aaron was beaten and the commandant threatened to murder Louis, nearly left me in tears. I got cold chills down my spine when I heard "Auschwitz" for the first time. I read that Dan Curtis demanded that he be allowed to show the reality of the Holocaust and I believe it was a smart move. Yes, seeing such scenes was heartwrenching, but that was the reality that the Jews faced in Germany under Hitler's dominance. We shouldn't forget what happened or play it down because it is an insult to the memories of those who died and to the survivors. Usually if I watch a movie or TV adaptation based on a book, I've already read the book first. Not this time. So my next project will be to read WOW and W&R. It's likely to take teo or three months since they're both long books, so wish me luck.
I've read both books and loved them, and I saw the miniseries. I should probably warn you that the scene in which the commandant threatened to murder Louis was even worse in the book; I wasn't sure that one would make it to the miniseries at all. I think they did well to include it though. Seems like we got more details on Warren's death in the book but the miniseries was generally a pretty faithful adaptation.
I skimmed through the books briefly using Amazon's "Search Inside" feature, and I may be wrong on this, but was Pug and Pamela's wedding not in the book? It seemed like it, but I couldn't tell for sure.
