Holocaust
The Road to Babi-Yar
TV Flash files “The Road to Babi-Yar” as a desk essential hour — Holocaust (1978) on NBC, season 1, episode 2, aired 1978-04-17, 140 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E02: listed hour 2 of 5 in the Holocaust guide, hour 2 of 5 in season 1. It aired 1978-04-17 (140 min). The listed hour before it is “The Gathering Darkness” (S01E01). Next is “The Final Solution” (S01E03).
Essential hour: “The Road to Babi-Yar”. The Road to Babi-Yar is the second night named as a killing site. Event television using a place-title as homework: Streep among the early heat, commercials still in the breaks.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Inga is desperate to reunite with Karl, but her parents don't want to risk hiding her Jewish in-laws. Rudi runs away from their hiding place. Erik Dorf helps Heydrich plan and execute his Final Solution. Moses and Dr. Weiss are caught when the Nazis overrun Poland. Helena rescues Rudi from a patrol. Berta joins her husband in the Warsaw ghetto. Rudi and Helena escape to Russia.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Road to Babi-Yar sit in the Holocaust guide?
S01E02 is listed hour 2 of 5 — hour 2 of 5 in season 1, season 1 episode 2.
When did Holocaust S01E02 air?
The Road to Babi-Yar aired 1978-04-17 and is listed at 140 minutes.
Is this a documentary?
No. It is a 1978 NBC miniseries: interwoven fictional families inside historical machinery. Melodrama as civic education, not a newsreel.
In the series
Why this series still plays
NBC puts the Shoah in American living rooms as a four-night event, with Meryl Streep among the early heat and a German broadcast fight that followed. Melodrama as civic education, messy and massive. The miniseries that forced a national conversation networks usually ducked, commercials and all.
Calendar first: four nights, 1978, NBC, the Shoah in American living rooms as an appointment, commercials included. Holocaust, from Gerald Green, did not hide in a documentary slot. It booked the week. Interwoven families — Jewish victims and a rising SS officer — trace the machinery of Nazi genocide across the war years with Meryl Streep's Inga, James Woods's Karl Weiss, Michael Moriarty's Erik Dorf, Fritz Weaver, and Rosemary Harris. **Watched by tens of millions in the U.S.**, with major European impact and…
Filed against
- Meryl Streep as Inga Helms Weiss
Meryl Streep’s Inga Helms Weiss walked NBC’s Holocaust into American living rooms as a four-night event — 1970s miniseries as civic education, messy and massive, a German broadcast fight in the aftertaste. Melodrama that forced a…
- James Woods as Karl Weiss
James Woods’s Karl Weiss put NBC’s Holocaust into American living rooms as a four-night event — Shoah as 1970s miniseries civic education, melodrama massive enough to force a conversation networks usually ducked. Messy, watched, argued.…
- Michael Moriarty as Erik Dorf
Michael Moriarty’s Erik Dorf walked NBC’s Holocaust as the other half of a four-night civic dare — 1970s miniseries that put the Shoah in American living rooms, melodrama as education, a German broadcast fight in the aftertaste. TV Flash…
- Fritz Weaver as Dr. Josef Weiss
Fritz Weaver played Dr. Josef Weiss on Holocaust — NBC's four-night Shoah in American living rooms, melodrama as civic education, messy and massive, a German broadcast fight that followed. The miniseries that forced a conversation…
- Rosemary Harris as Berta Palitz Weiss
Rosemary Harris's Berta Palitz Weiss carried Holocaust into American living rooms as a four-night NBC event — Shoah as civic education, melodrama messy and massive, Meryl Streep among the early heat, a German broadcast fight that…