Amazon’s latest addition to its original series list left everyone reeling. Hunters tells the fictional story of a team of Holocaust survivors, mixed with a newer generation, who enact retributive violence against former Nazis living in the United States. The show is witty, violent, heart-breaking, and controversial.
The biggest negative comments pertain to the exaggeration of violence being performed by the Hunters themselves and fictional Holocaust events. However, the show does have some accuracy to it, drawing from real life events around World War II and in the 1970s. It brings to light some ugly truths. The question is, were we ready for them?
Fictional: Human Chess
Depicted as one of the first Holocaust events in the series, the human chess match garnered the most criticism for excessive cruelty and disrespect towards Holocaust survivors. The fact of the matter is that the root of these criticisms is true, there was never a human chess match at Auschwitz.
However, this does not downplay the cruelty faced in any of the concentration camps. Treatment ranged from immediate extermination to prolonged suffering to the slaughter of newborn Jewish infants. The chess match serves as an extension of that cruelty in a way the 21st century audience can understand.
True: The Kindertransport
Sister Harriet definitely isn’t a real person, but her experiences are founded in reality. Though spared from the horrors of the work and extermination camps, their stories weren’t all sunshine and rainbows.
Known as the Kindertransport, around 10,000 Jewish children were evacuated from Germany and Nazi-occupied countries such as Austria and Poland. Despite being regarded as one of the only successful evacuations, the Kindertransport fueled anti-Semitism in Great Britain as well as the very real fear of Nazi invasion. This resulted in mistreatment of the children, including abuse, cultural assimilation, and incarceration of 1,000 refugees as “enemy aliens.” Many never saw their parents again.
Fictional: The Hitlers in Brazil
In all fairness, nobody actually knows what happened to Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun. However, they most likely weren’t living it up in Brazil and popping out Hitler clones all willy nilly.
Their official day of death is listed as April 30th, 1945 in Berlin, Germany. Unwilling to fall to the Soviets, both committed suicide in the Fuhrerbunker. After death, their corpses were burned and the Soviets discovered their remains.
From there, things get hazy. Hitler’s dentist identified Hitler and Braun’s teeth, but we don’t have official confirmation beyond that. This has led to various conspiracy theories about Hitler and Braun faking their deaths and doing who knows what.
True: Nazis in South America
South America became a safe haven for Nazi officers after the fall of the Third Reich, which is why the whole Hitler in Brazil theory has the slightest bit of weight to it.
It’s estimated that an estimated 9,000 Nazis made their home in Brazil, Chile, and Argentina. Argentina provided refuge for the largest number of Nazis due to the fact that many German immigrants found their way to the country over the years. Though the country declared neutrality during WWII, Argentina kept good relations with Germany, resulting in the Argentine government creating an escape route through Spain and Italy to smuggle Nazi officers out of Europe.
Fictional: The Corn Syrup Plot
The corn syrup plot of Hunters is wildly creative given the time period and the financial gain for many companies. In the United States, very few soft drinks use actual cane sugar to sweeten the drink. Corn syrup is a cheaper sweetener, thus lowering production costs and allowing us to readily buy soda.
The timeline and health concerns fit absolutely perfectly. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave the ok on corn syrup in 1976, making the show’s commercial usage of it in 1977 completely plausible. And though corn syrup doesn’t kill you with no hope of recovery in 6 days or less, long-term health issues from excessive intake include obesity, increased liver fat, and the development of type 2 diabetes.
True: The NYC Blackout of 1977
New York City experienced a blackout from July 13th to July 14th. For 25 hours, the city was engulfed in darkness due to a lightning strike rather than a Nazi extermination plot. However, the fallout was one of the worst in the city’s history. The results highlighted racial inequity, the rising crime rate, and general anger and unrest in the city.
People took the opportunity to riot, commit arson, and loot. We see all of this in the show and due to the themes of both the historical event and the show, they tie in very well. Nazis reject everything and everyone that does not fit their agenda, which includes people of color. Having the 1977 blackout riots coincide with Nazism is undoubtedly a powerful message.
Fictional: Retributive Justice
Arguably, survivors never exacted proper revenge on those who tormented them. This can be said for the countries that were completely taken over by Nazi occupation as well, considering how much the maps of Eastern Europe have changed within the last 30 years.
Despite criticism for excessive violence and retribution, some of it does feel good in a very visceral way. You’re supposed to feel uncomfortable, but you definitely don’t cry over Nazis. Hunters brings our personal morals into question and gives the newer generation of Jews something to think about. Do we exact righteous justice on those who exhibited such cruelty or do we believe that people can change without forgiving their actions?
True: Operation Paperclip
It might be a hard pill to swallow for some of us, but the truth of the matter is that the United States government did indeed invite Nazis into the country.
Actually referred to as Operation Paperclip, the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency (JIOA) carried out a covert plan that recruited over 1,600 German scientists, engineers, and technicians. This was fueled by fear spurred by the Cold War and the Space Race. President Truman ultimately approved granting limited military custody to these individuals, essentially granting them a free pass to the country in the name of beating the Soviets.
Fictional: The Fourth Reich
Thankfully, the Fourth Reich isn’t a thing. Despite the rise of white nationalism and neo-Nazism in the United States, these groups haven’t exactly achieved universal domination. Though various types of discrimination are alive and well, so are the people who combat that ideology.
But knowing that Nazis were brought to the United States and found relief through other countries, it does lower your faith in humanity a bit.
True: Nazi Hunters
To restore that faith in humanity, there were actually Nazi hunters in the decades following the end of WWII. Obviously, Hunters dramatizes the hunt with heist schemes and allows survivors to be the judge, jury, and executioner.
In real life, Nazi hunters were primarily Holocaust survivors and there have been too many of them to properly record. Arguably, the most prominent of the group was Simon Wiesenthal, who started the hunt shortly after liberation from Mauthausen. A survivor of four concentration camps, Wiesenthal created a database of sorts of Nazi and Gestapo officers, much like Ruth’s Ark in the show.
Though Wiesenthal’s hunt predates Hunters by a solid decade, in 1977, Rabbi Marvin Heir founded the Simon Wiesenthal Center. It’s still active today, with Efraim Zuroff leading the hunt. Over the years, Zuroff has assisted in bringing more than 40 Nazis and collaborators to trial.