MovieChat Forums > Saving Private Ryan (1998) Discussion > Was Adam Goldberg's character realistic?...

Was Adam Goldberg's character realistic? (upset @ Nazis)

posted 8 years ago by DoctorShemp
2 replies | jump to latest

In the beginning they show him break down crying when handed a Hitler youth knife. And throughout the movie he is depicted as having a more personal "grudge" against Germans. But I was always told that the US and the rest of the world had VERY little idea just how bad the Jews were being exterminated was until we actually won the war and raided the camps. The Adam Goldberg character seems a little too retrospective to me, like he somehow had a modern understanding of the Holocaust. I feel like even a Jewish soldier wouldnt have been aware of the gravity of the genocide enough to react like that. Let me know if im wrong

[–] RoadKillBill1 8 years ago

Well, you're not wrong on the issue of how much they knew. But you are certainly wrong on the core argument that a Jewish, American soldier in June 1944 would not be aware of the Nazi's hatred, and persecution of Jews. Look up Kristalnacht, and the Nuremberg laws. Both were well known throughout the world long before that time. Also, the removal of Jews from occupied lands to concentration camps was also well known. In fact, just about the only thing about the holocaust that wasn't known was the systematic, industrialization of the genocide the Nazis were engaged in. In short, Melish had ample reason to hate the Nazis without knowing about the gas chambers, and ovens.

EDIT: Oh, and the crying with the knife bit was just a delayed stress reaction. It's quite common for folks to break down following (as opposed to during) a high intensity, high stress event such as he just went through.

TNSTAAFL

[–] Vulcans_Rule 8 years ago

He would not have known of the Holocaust, but he would have been aware of the systematic persecution of Jews in Germany and the gist of Hitler's speeches.

 Live long and prosper.