HuluThe new period drama. We were the lucky onesThis shines a devastating light on motherhood during the Holocaust as one of the characters makes the ultimate sacrifice for the safety of her daughter.
The series, which premiered on March 28, is inspired by a true story and follows the Kurc family as they are separated during World War II.
In episode 4, “Casablanca,” young mother Mila Kurc (Hadas Yaron) seeks refuge after struggling to protect her daughter Felicia in an increasingly hostile environment. The situation comes to a head when Mila is working a shift and has to hide Felicia during an interrogation.
In an intense conversation with her loved ones, Mila is encouraged to find a safe home for her daughter with a Polish family when she learns that soldiers have been forcibly removing Jewish children from their homes.
Mila immediately rejects the suggestion: “Is this what you’re talking about? How do I get rid of my son?
The family matriarch harshly explains the situation, telling Mila, “I saw the Germans grab a child and smash his head against the wall. “That’s what will happen if we wait.”
The vile images reach Mila as she begins to prepare Felicia to hide. But her attempt to leave Felicia with another family is rejected when the girl returns with the response that she seems “too Jewish.” Later, Mila is approved to be transported to Palestine with Felicia under the pretext that her husband, a doctor, will join them.
However, the trip does not go as planned. In the final scene of episode 4, German soldiers stop the vehicle carrying Mila and Felicia. The refugees are violently removed from the vehicle and forced to dig a trench at gunpoint. Mila hugs her daughter and tries to distract her by pointing out the desert that surrounds them. “See those trees?” she asks the boy. “I wonder if they are apple trees?” The heartbreaking scene continues to show Felicia sitting on the ground while her mother is harassed to “dig for two.”
Mila sees one of the refugees, a blonde woman, approaching the captain. In a last-ditch effort to save her daughter’s life, she trains Felicia to run to the woman and pretend to be her mother. “Run up to her and yell ‘Mom!’ When you get to her, hug her and kiss her, and don’t let go of her for anything,” Mila tells Felicia.
The child reaches the woman, who hesitantly accepts it. The soldier asks the woman if the child is hers and the woman accepts. The soldier then allows the woman and Felicia to return to the vehicle. Mila watches the scene with teary eyes, and as the soldiers move to tell the diggers to take off their clothes, she escapes and runs to the vehicle. The others who resisted and fought the soldiers were shot, but the chaos unfolding around them seemed to overlook Mila’s escape.
According to him United States Holocaust Memorial MuseumDuring the Holocaust, pregnant women and mothers of young children were often labeled “unable to work” and sent to death camps. The interrogation described in the episode would likely end in execution, as described Yad Vashem, World Holocaust Remembrance Center. An excerpt from the site reads: “When the Nazis employed the gun method of murder in the extermination pits, the entire population was captured and killed together, usually after men, women and children were forced to strip naked.”
At the end of episode 4, Mila and Felicia’s future was unclear. However, the remaining episodes are likely to provide some much-needed answers. For now, episode 4 and Hadas Yaron’s brilliant performance as Mila, a mother forced to live through her worst nightmare, leaves viewers with a harsh reminder of what families endured during the Holocaust.
We were the lucky ones is streaming on Hulu.
