What a surprisingly good episode! When a huge atrocity is committed, there’s a pattern narratives take, especially in our current world.
It is easy to focus on the perpetrator and forget the victim or victims who suffer from the crime and continue suffering even after the hype has died.
We broke from hunting Hitler on Hunters Season 2, Episode 7. We visited somewhere in Germany during the war to look at the victims, both direct and indirect victims and how the events affected them during and after Hitler’s war on them.
This great and unexpected episode undoubtedly had everyone on edge. It began bizarrely and threw some of us for a loop before we knew what was happening.
The story of the home was more than a funny break in the show. It shows the struggles Jewish people went through being hunted all over Europe by a deranged man.
It highlighted the joys stolen by hiding all the time. The depths people had to go to keep themselves safe, and all the people who died, whether they were the intended victims or not.
Once upon a time there was a man… who told a story about a man… who told a story about a man …who told a story about… a house.
Narrator
In the story, as told by Jonah to Hitler, the first people we met were the couple. This advanced in age, they should have been living their best life at that point.
The husband took this chance to find redemption for everything he had helped design for The Reich.
We met the first trio of Nazi soldiers.
These soldiers represented the kind in the regime who were doing their duty to their country. Did that excuse their actions? Absolutely not. They were shown to be compassionate and understanding in how they addressed the couple.
Herr Hansöm, this is an uncomfortable inquiry for both you and Frau Hansöm. But I am sure it’s a mix-up of some kind. But ask it still I must. We received a tip to our intelligence service, and I must ask as delicately and respectfully as I can… is there anyone else hiding in your home?
Soldier
Earlier, we saw Hugo try to get the little snail out of harm’s way. But the longer they stayed in the house, the more their true colors showed, more so Hugo.
The first and second soldiers did not have much to them. They were there to hunt Jews and didn’t think of anything beyond that.
The case of Hugo was a curious one, though. He wanted to be an architect but was bullied by his father into joining the regime’s army.
He appears calm and composed in the early minutes, but as he senses something is amiss, he becomes disheveled and paranoid. Even after he was confident that the couple was lying to him, he struggled to show muscle and even hurt them.
One could argue that he was a good person caught up in a bad situation. This was what the Nazis did. They turned otherwise good people, by all accounts, into awful humans.
They forced people who would have gone through life without harming anyone to become killers. Hugo could have blissfully spent his life as an architect, but he became someone else. The old couple could have enjoyed the rest of their lives in peace, but they had to adapt.
They lied, plotted, and murdered. They never had a child named Hugo. They overheard the soldiers call him Hugo and took it when an opportunity presented itself.
On the flip side, it gave awful humans an excuse to inflict pain and suffering on innocent people.
When the second trio of soldiers came, they represented those people. One of them removes the snail from its shell, effectively killing it. That was the first indicator that they were bad news.
Fuelled by gluttony, he killed the couple so that he could take their home.
Hitler made neighbors spy on each other. Everyone was suspicious of the next person. Checking how much shopping your neighbor is buying, looking for signs of them being traitors.
Soldier: A Frau Olga Hiddenbrau claimed Helga Hansöm picked up from the market three whole ducks. That’s a lot of birds for just two people.
Frau Hansom: Yes, of course. Quack, quack, quack. I seldom leave this house, but when I do, I buy extra and freeze them in the ice box.
After getting rid of the soldier and his wife, the Jews live again for the first time in a while. The children play and have fun. They get a little bit of the lives they had stolen from them. They stopped living as ghosts for a while.
It was unimaginable how they got through it, but such is the nature of humans. We persevere.
But since they have gotten used to nothing good in their lives lasting for a while, they had to prepare for the inevitable reality.
The home that had housed them for a while became their protector and eventually grave for many.
It’s true. I think we’re ghosts. I think this is a ghost story.
Zev
But the children grew up and decided to exact revenge. They chose not to live as ghosts and take their destiny into their hands while still seeking justice for those they had lost. They became the first hunters.
Would Hitler have thought that the people he sought to exterminate were ones to see justice served?
This was a story of suffering, perseverance, redemption, and justice. It is an homage to the many people who sacrificed their lives to protect the marginalized. It is an homage to the lives lost. Those lost during the war, like in the house, or those lost trying to bring Hitler to justice, like Chava and Georges.
It was a story of and for the victims.
It is a lesson our media can learn and stop glorifying mass shooters. The lives of the victims are much more important than their abusers and tormentors.
What did you think of the episode?
Let us know in the comments section what you.
Denis Kimathi is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. He has watched more dramas and comedies than he cares to remember. Catch him on social media obsessing over [excellent] past, current, and upcoming shows or going off about the politics of representation on TV. Follow him on Twitter.
