Hagan TV: Documentary

Are we numb?

“Over 11 Million people were killed in the Holocaust, making it the biggest murder in the history of the world. But 70 years later, have we become numb to what happened?”

Story synopsis

With cases of young people disrespecting the Holocaust memorial, stealing from Auschwitz, mocking and making light of what happened during the Holocaust. Liam Alexandru travels to London to investigate whether the young generation really has become numb to the murder or 11 million people. Talking with experts from the Imperial War Museum on what happened during the Holocaust and traveling over to Berlin to visit the Holocaust Memorial and to talk to artist Shahak Shapira, who took the internet with his project ‘Yolocaust’ to stop people disrespecting the memorial. Have we become numb? Do we think light of what happened all those years ago? Liam aims to find out.

Why are we telling this story?

Are we, as a generation, numb to the past?

That’s something we want to find out and something that BBC 3 has yet to cover.

The Holocaust happened over 70 years ago, and over 11 million people were murdered. The current generation of young people may not have a connection to the second World War or have grandparents who fought in the war and therefore don’t feel as strongly about this as they should. As well as schools not teaching about the Holocaust to children, unless they chose to study the subject in either GCSE or A level academic years. This has led to events where young people have been stealing shoes from Auschwitz, taking inappropriate selfies at the memorial and making jokes about the Holocaust, which we have all seen and experienced. This story is to find out if we really are numb to what is the biggest mass murder in the history of the world. So many documentaries, films and TV Programmes have covered what happened and those who suffered by it. But, not covered today’s opinion on it. Specifically, we with who joke and make light of it and why they do that.

Character profiles

Presenter – Liam Alexandru

21 years old, British, actor

Liam has had a lot of experience both on stage and in front of the camera, and will therefore be confident being filmed. He also takes a great interest in history, including the Holocaust, studying it for his A-level examinations. Liam has just got back from a trip to Berlin, with his step-sister who is studying Hebrew and Jewish Major at Barcelona University; in terms of historical knowledge he is well educated. He is familiar with the area in which we are filming, which will only improve his confidence. Liam is in the correct age bracket to be able to talk and relate to teens, who will be the target audience for this documentary.

‘Yolocaust” artist – Shahak Shapira

29 years old, Israeli but lives in Germany, artist/writer

Shahak is well known for his opposition to extremism and his website “Yolocaust” where he photoshopped pictures of people taking selfies or inappropriate pictures at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin. People had been taking pictures of themselves doing Yoga or Juggling whilst some teens had been jumping over the concrete slabs, one even captioning his picture “Jumping on dead Jews” as a joke.

He did this to a total of 12 images. His website was visited over 2.5 million times and all twelve people who were in the pictures reached out to Shahak to apologize, one stating that he was an idiot and just trying to make a joke which was in very bad taste.

Proposed locations

- Hotel lounge in Berlin (awaiting to be confirmed)

For our interview with Shahak. He doesn’t want to be filmed at the memorial or his house. We have therefore decided to use the hotel lounge where we will be staying as it has a nice background and it’s quite big.

- Holocaust memorial in Berlin (confirmed)GV’s for Shahak’s interview, walkie talkie with the presenter and interview with an expert working at the memorial.

- The Imperial War Museum (awaiting to be confirmed)Filming in an office for an interview of an expert.

- Inside a car (confirmed)

Filming the presenter traveling to different locations.

- Airport (confirmed)

Showing bits of the presenter’s travel.

Approach/style

For our documentary, the style is intentionally BBC Three. BBC three produces content that has purpose, that stimulates emotions and provokes reactions, particularly from young people. For the documentary, we want to approach the topic as an investigative documentary with our narrator, Liam Alexandru, finding out whether our generation is growing numb to the holocaust and our past. We will also test out having an Edgar Right Style to our documentary, in terms of montage and quick cuts – when our character is traveling from England to Berlin.

For the Interviews, we want to film them as a conversation, incorporating the narrator as a character rather than just a voice, this would be like how Louis Theroux approaches difficult subjects, and isn't afraid to tackle them.

For GV’s, we’ll be doing establishing- and inside the car-shots, use archive footage and photos (awaiting confirmation), some drone shots of locations, walkie-talkie shots with the presenter, stock photos/footage of Berlin (the wall, streets, people etc.)