ABSTRACT
When the NBC series Holocaust was aired on German television early in 1979, it started a heated public discussion about the ethics of turning this episode of national disgrace into a family melodrama and thriller. But, so the verdict ran, if a tearjerker manages what no documentary film, no literary account, and not even a show trial like that of Adolf Eichmann had achieved, namely to bring home the horrors of Nazi rule and to open locked doors of memory, conscience and personal history – as Holocaust did for millions of Germans – why quibble over points of detail or aesthetics? And why had German filmmakers not tackled the subject themselves in a format accessible to the general public in-stead of waiting for Hollywood? The American series had crossed, inadvertently or not, a certain taboo threshold for the West German media; and Reitz’s Heimat, begun around March 1979, responds to the challenge by entering into a sort of dialogue not only with Holocaust, but with its reception in Germany and the “retro” fashion in general.
