- Rudi and Helena escape from a long procession of Jews being marched into Babi Yar. They are eventually rescued from a hayloft by a group of Jewish partisans. Erik Dorf attends a top-level Nazi conference in which Heydrich gives Hilter's orders of the final solution for all the Jews in Europe. Karl Weiss has been transferred to Theresienstadt concentration camp which the Germans use to display to the Red Cross officials and representatives of neutral countries that Jews are being treated kindly. Karl learns that his fellow artists in the camp are creating propaganda paintings by day while secretly drawing images of the brutal conditions of the camp by night.—Anonymous
- Having witnessed the mass executions at Babi Yar, Rudi and Helena eventually join a group of Jewish resistance fighters. They are eventually married by the Rabbi in their group. In Warsaw, a debate begins over the degree to which they should resist the Nazi occupiers. Berta Weiss joins her husband in the Warsaw ghetto. Their son Karl is transferred to Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia where his artistic skills are put to use creating propaganda for the Nazis. He also draws pictures of what life is really like, as do some of the other artists. Meanwhile, Heydrich calls a meeting where he tells numerous officials of the proposed final solution.—garykmcd
- Even though Berta and Josef don't know where Rudi is and Karl is a prisoner, Berta still feels the family will one day reunite. She begins teaching school in the ghetto, but conditions are growing worse each day. News reaches the Polish Jew Ghetto that Germans have started exterminating the Jews at the Russian border and are working their way towards Poland. Thier aim is to eliminate all Jews in Europe. In the Polish ghetto, Josef and Moses can do nothing while Germans kill Jews to even trying to survive. Moses supports a rebel Jewish unit run by Lowy (George Rose), a printer, publishes resistance leaflets and bring the truth to all Jews and organize them into a resistance.
Rudi comes face to face with Inge's bro Hans, a SS infantry, in Kiev. While attempting to steal loaves of bread, they are hiding from the SS troops inside a shop. But an explosion enables them to escape and run for cover. They find Inga's brother Hans wounded from the explosion. Rudi learns that Hans was recently home on leave and asks for news of his family. When Hans reveals Anna's death, Rudi accuses him of murdering her. Frightened, Hans offers to get them passes so they can travel safely. Helena urges Rudi to trust Hans, but when soldiers discover them, Hans denounces them as Jews. Once more Helena and Rudi are prisoners. Later they are able to escape. Hans is killed during another explosion.
Erik confiscates all video recordings of the mass killings in Ukarine and brings them to Heydrich, who orders Erik to keep them in SS archives. When Kiev resistance forces kills hundreds of SS men, Erik orders Blobel to kill even more Jews, even though he has exterminated more than 100K of them.. Rudi and Helena witness the Babi Yar massacre in Ukraine. 30000 Jews killed & buried in mass graves next to a Jewish cemetery.. Kurt spends Christmas with the family and Marta receives a Bechstein grand piano. Erik says it was sitting unused in a medical clinic formerly owned by a Jewish doctor. He is evasive when Kurt asks what happened to the doctor. Inside the piano are pictures of Dr. Weiss and his family. Marta is startled as she recognizes the doctor and Erik orders their daughter Laura to burn the pictures.
Rudi and Helena meet up with Jewish partisans in Ukarine & join the fight with them. Sasha is the leader of the partisans and is kind to both. He has a small camp in the jungle where they hide from the Germans. A rabbi among them performs a marriage ceremony for the lovers. Heydrich and Erik launch Hitler's "final solution".. mass murder of 11 MM Jews in the world. Erik is convinced that he has a task to finish as later generations wont have the will to do it. Eirk orders the installation of gas chambers all over Europe to speed up the process of Jewish extermination. Blobel is pissed with Erik when he says that Heydrich is not happy with Babi Yar and wants his forces to dig up the mass graves and burn the corpses. Blobel has had enough and tells Erik that he knows that Heydrich is a part Jew himself. Erik has made many enemies in the German army (which still has decent officers) and a rumor circulates that he has Jewish ancestors (to discredit him in the SS). Although he denies it, he is subjected to an investigation.
Meanwhile, in the Warsaw ghetto, the Weisses and others learn (from a Ukaranian Jew who smuggles into the Warsaw ghetto) about the death camps and join a resistance movement. They try to save lives in any way possible.
When Karl reaches Theresienstadt (this is a fake ghetto with a cafe and cinema, which the Nazis show to the Swiss and the others to convince them that Nazis are treating the Jews with kindness), he is commissioned as an artist. Theresienstadt is kept as a showplace to fool Red Cross observers, but Karl and others know better and begin secretly drawing the reality of the concentration camps
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