SURVIVING THE HOLOCAUST

CHOOSING TO SURVIVE AS NARRATIVE DEVICE

By PETER THOMAS BUSCH

Everyone has the will to survive but people use those instincts in different ways in We Were the Lucky Ones (2024).

Joey King, as Halina Kurc, and Logan Lerman, as Addy Kurc, and Hades Yaron, as Mia Kurc, and Henry Lloyd-Hughes, as Genek Kurc, play siblings of a Jewish family that split up and choose different ways to survive the Holocaust during World War II, in the 8 part series streaming on Disney+.

Directors Amit Gupta, Neasa Hardiman and Thomas Kail each bring slightly different styles to the episodes under their charge, with the overall intent of describing the separate lives of close family members that remain intertwined emotionally.

In this manner, the three narratives split apart from the main narrative, and then ultimately reunite before the series concludes and the Holocaust ends.

Halina decides to deny her Jewish ancestry and survive inside the Nazi occupation of Poland. Addy decides to flee Europe altogether on a passenger ship to South America. Genic tries to flee to Russia, once Germany and Russia become adversaries, but he ends up volunteering to fight with the Polish resistance.

The individual episodes blend the three narratives by moving the individual stories along about the siblings and the plight of European Jews as the series progresses. This intertwining of narratives makes the series unique, although the approach may also be difficult to follow at times, especially with the real time gaps in the release of individual episodes.

Joey King shows how Halina had true strength of character, almost as a matriarch for the siblings, while Logan Lerman shows how Addy questions his decision as successive countries turn away the Jewish refugees on board the passenger ship.

Addy endures many events in disbelief of the hatred towards Jews and the unwillingness of nations to help them even as knowledge of the Holocaust spreads.

Lerman portrays the character as carrying a lot of optimism around with him, despite the obvious adversity. Addy nevertheless loses his joy of playing the piano and composing.

Halina must continually deny her ancestry so as not to be beaten and taken away by the Nazi’s. King takes the character through an array of heart felt emotions as she does her best to find safe havens for her individual family members.

The directors show how the Kurc family is torn apart by the Nazi occupation of Poland, but then also how the need to survive tests the strength of the next generation of families.

This series would resonate a bit better if multiple episodes were watched consecutively, which is possible now with all 8 episodes finally streaming at once.

The series does hint of film auteurs behind the camera with many thoughtful artistically composed scenes.

And there is an ever present lingering over the series of finding three or four feature length quality films by editing together the individual narratives, especially as the war ends and the family members begin to seek each other out.