Band of Brothers Epi 9 "Why We Fight" 

"Get it all on record now - get the films - get the witnesses -because somewhere down the road of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened." Dwight Eisenhower 1945.

People who think this couldnt happen again arent paying attention

The camp survivor saluting Perconte gets me every time.

I’m a grown man. I’ve seen this episode probably ten times. I always cry. It’s just incomprehensible to think what we’re capable of doing to each other.

9:11 "Were women just divorcing their husbands because they were away at war for so long?" ...Yes. And not just 'were they'... They still are. It's very unfortunately VERY common.

Many of the actors who played the concentration camp inmates looked closer to the part because they were terminally ill, many of them suffering from Stage 4 cancer which causes flesh to just melt off the bones. My Dad died of cancer and he ended up a shrunken wreck. (He had been a paratrooper, in the British Army.)

My grandfather went over with the First Canadian army (Saskatoon Light Infantry MG division) in late ‘39 and didn’t come home until Aug ‘45. His first wife and family had moved on. Nixon’s situation wasn’t uncommon.

“If anyone ever tells you the Holocaust didn't happen, or that it wasn't as bad as they say, no, it was worse than they say. What we saw, what these Germans did, it was worse than you can possibly imagine.” Private Babe Heffron

The producers withheld this part of the filming from the actors until they filmed the scenes, so their reactions are as genuine as they could be.

I love how they showed us Nixon's problems building up and the way he is handling it, but the moment the focus is shifted towards the camp.. Nixon's problems are basically non-existent compared to those in the camps.

20+ years since I've first seen this one and it still has me gritting my teeth and shaking my head. It is a tough but necessary watch, IMO. As for the actors, they weren't shown the camp or the people (all of them cancer patients) who played the victims so a lot of their reactions were genuine. As for the patients, a lot of them knew that would never live to see the series, but they agreed to do it because they felt it was a story that needed to be told.

When i watched this for the first time, the discovery of the camp and the mass of humanity hit me, but what absolutely destroyed me was the man who hugged and kissed his American liberator! I could not even begin to image the sense of gratitude and relief of this man, not to mention the human connection of an embrace after so much time of abuse.

Excellent review! This series has had such personal meaning to me. My Dad was 101st, D-Day, Market Garden, Bastogne to V-E Day. He then re-upped for the Pacific! I now understand why he was somber, especially at Christmas. Mom said he returned from the war totally changed. RIP, Les Jamison, my forever hero. 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

My father fought in the pacific, his brother died at Bastogne, I’m 59, and cry like a child everyone I see this episode.

The subtle acting on Winters in the concentration camp is just superb. Him being the most professional of them he keeps it together and you can almost see more disappointment than shock and anger in his face. Like he's just sad at what humans do to each other. I could watch this a hundred times and I still get choked up. The thing is that it's impossible not to sugarcoat that scene because in reality the survivors were so near death that no actor could ever be made to resemble them.

My grandfather liberated camps .I've seen pictures he took. He was mobile artillery he followed the airborne through europe. He really never spoke of details his whole life. i was with him his last few weeks, and it's all he talked about. His silence through life refleced the horrible things he has seen, and i could tell by the stories in his last few weeks that it was the thing he was most proud of in his life.

Just a little background on this episode, EZ Company didn’t actually find this camp however they felt that they had to show what many of the other companies & battalions were finding. To me this is a perfect example of how you can stray from the actual history but still stay true to the historical event. I don’t care how many times I see this it’s still a gut punch that needs to be seen.

I have watched this episode at least a dozen times, and it still brings tears to my eyes.

You are the first reactor who I've seen respond to the significance of the dog in the woman in red's home. I believe Hanks utilized the red color of her blouse and coat in the same way Spielberg used it with the little girl in Schindler's List. I was in high school in the early 1970's and in world history when we got to the point of explaining the camps, our teacher brought in one of the school janitors who rolled up his sleeve and showed us the number tattooed on his arm and then promptly proceeded to tells us what his life was like 30 years earlier when he was our age. Never forgot that. Sometimes the most unsuspecting people have the most heart wrenching stories. Thank you for doing this series and sharing your emotions with us.

Your reaction here is so genuine, so raw, and so heartfelt. I of course knew Episode 9 was coming and I knew the horror you were going to see. Your observations and thoughts are both heartbreaking and beautiful. Thanks for sharing your journey.

I really love the interaction scene with Perconte and O'Keefe. As a Vet myself I think it does a great job showing both sides of the argument without saying either man is right or wrong. O'Keefe wants to do his duty, he wants to do what he trained and suffered for, and most of all wants to feel like and know he contributed to the war and Allied victory. I saw a bit of action but nothing like what the guys before me did in the earlier years of the war so I understand his feelings. Surrounded by all these guys that endured and fought through the worst of it; Normandy, Holland, The Ardennes. It's very easy to feel like you didn't do anything at all if you weren't in the big stuff. But I also get where Perconte comes from. He *has* seen the worst of it. Seen his friends and comrades shot and mangled by explosions, endured hardships of awful weather and minimal food. Hell he's been shot too. To him someone openly wanting to experience that probably seems naive and stupid at best and outright offensive at worst. It's a short scene but I absolutely love it.

I watched the series when it first came out. This episode was so very powerful. Two years ago, I went to Munich on a work trip…I had to see Dachau. I thought I knew how it would impact me. The way this show depicted a similar camp was so precise. The Nazi officers lived in these beautiful, idyllic little villages next to the camps. Like it was a normal day’s work!!! A normal job, with an place called the “blood ditch”. I was forever changed that day. I went back to my hotel and cried myself to sleep. I will never again underestimate man’s capacity for evil when they deny the humanity of another. This episode is the height of truth in art. If you ever go to Germany or Poland, go see the preserved camps, we must never ever forget!!!

I had the honor of being the Military Escort for Colonel (Retired) Lewis Millet. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Korean War. What I learned about him was he thought the US should have been involved in WW2 before we sent troops to England, so he deserted the US Army and joined the Canadian Army and went to Europe. When the US Army finally arrived in England, he came back but received a court martial and reduced to the lowest rank. His bravery took him back up the ranks and he went to the Philippines after the war to teach. An incredible man, with an absolute way about him to connect with people. The way the actor portrays Winters in this series reminds me of “Red” Millet.

When you finish this, there is a film about a team of American art experts who try to retrieve art and artifacts plundered by the Germans before they're gone forever. They actually recovered the Mona Lisa as it had been plundered from the Louvre. It's called 'The Monuments Men".

I’ve seen the entire Band of Brothers series several times. You’d think that with each subsequent viewing, one would get less emotional about it, but I don’t. “Why We Fight” brings me to tears every time … The writing and acting is superb, but it’s more than that … What this production has done, especially in this episode, is somehow make it REAL, like you’re experiencing it … Band of Brothers is one of the most profound and life changing productions one can experience. Asking out of love and concern, my wife asks me, “Why are you putting yourself “through that”, again? … My answer is always the same. Because I need to remember. I also have to remind others who’d insulate themselves from the realities and horrors of war, and of the holocaust, that THIS cannot be forgotten. Humanity can’t keep repeating this

If you pause the video at 12:15, you'll see that the guy executing the soldiers on their knees is Tom Hanks himself.

Why We Fight is the name of a series of films produced by Frank Capra for US Military to show to soldiers explaining the background of the war. All of the Easy Company soldiers would have seen it. The films are available on RU-vid.

Ames, I just found your channel, and I've followed you from Carentan to here. I'm an old guy. My daughter bought this series for me years ago, because I thought so much of its first run on HBO. My father fought in this war, pretty much as you see it. Thank you for watching with such an open heart and mind. This could happen again, if we let it. Let's not. Thanks again.

Thank you for sharing your most human of reactions with us.

Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it...

10:09 The song they're singing is called Blood on the Risers. It's about a training jump where the parachute fails to open. It's officially known as the Airborne Hymn.

I grew up an Army brat. We visited Dachau in 1974 when I was 6. I can remember it like it was yesterday. I'm not sure how anyone can visit one of those places and say "no evidence".

Hello Ames. This reaction was tough. Sentimental, your Grandpa's handkerchief. The numbers of people systematically murdered by the NAZIS is mindboggling. Imagine a single line of people, each one yard apart. Just one million people would streach for 568 miles. That line would be from New York City to Charlotte, NC. Now imagine the line for 11 million. Heart Breaking. Love from Texas.❤

I know how hard this episode hits, Ames. I feel that it is important to realize that the show-runners actually had to tone the horror DOWN a bit to be able to put it on TV. My jr hi history teacher, Jimmy Gentry, was one of the soldiers who stormed the beach on D-Day, and his unit helped liberate Dachau. Hearing him describe what he saw when I was 14 was one of the most intensely horrible pieces of education that I ever received. Seeing a grown man cry over the darkness that he witnessed absolutely wrecked me, and still wrecks me when I think about it now.

My grandfather was an Artilleryman with the 442nd RCT (the All Japanese American Army Unit) and helped to liberate one of the sub camps of Dachau. He was always reluctant to talk about the war but one thing he would talk about was that day, as a person who had also been interned (obviously different levels) he felt so strongly that everyone should know about the Holocaust and the atrocities committed in the name of the Hitler. He was a soft spoken and mild mannered guy but when he did speak about that day I could always see the tension and anger in his eyes that someone could willing do such heinous acts against another human.

It's easy to forget the guy playing Nix was also in Office Space. He's a good actor.

I knew this episode was coming, and I knew that your reaction would be appropriate and heartfelt. You, dear lady, never disappoint. Thank you. The best acting was by Liebgott when he sat after telling the inmates of the camp that they must remain for medical treatment. That portrayal tears me up every time.

If not the entire series, at least this episode should be shown in every single high school in America in my opinion. We watched it in 05 in high school, but I'd seen it probably 5 times by then lol.

"Dear John" letters were pretty common during the war. Wives and girlfriends back home would meet someone new, and that was that. There was marching cadence that summed it up pretty well: "Your wife was lonely as lonely could be/So Jodie kept her company/Ain't it great to have a pal/Who works so hard to keep up morale." Plus, many of the guys in combat would admit that they were often bitter/angry in their letters home and grew distant from them, too. Not to mention guys falling for women in theater - it all put a lot of stress on relationships.

This has been a great journey with you, Ames. Your heart and soul brings extra poignancy to every episode. Especially this one. If anyone can watch this and not feel it punch them in the gut, I dunno how you consider yourself a human being. Never forget and also never forget that this kind of brutality can happen to any group that is demonized as the "other".

I visited Bergen-Belsen, one of the first camps freed and also a U-Boat bunker built with slave labor. They are somber monuments, still there as memorials of dark days.

Truly shows how horrific the Third Reich was. Never forget.

Excellent reaction Ames! Many American soldiers become enraged when they liberated these camps. In particular, when the Americans liberated Dachau centration camp located outside Munich, they came upon the railcars stacked with corpses to be transported for cremation. It was then that some U.S. soldiers killed many SS guards that were just captured. The soldiers also didn't interfere with the liberated prisoners taking retribution on the other camp guards. An investigation was conducted. The final report reached General Patton. He elected not to take any actions against these soldiers.

O’keefes face when he’s just sitting there, makes me break every time.

First. Great reaction, young lady you have a beautiful heart. Second. Dam right, the people of this town knew about the camps. It was right in their backyard. They are just as guilty for letting it go on. This has been a topic of discussion since WW2. I will never believe they didn't. And again. The Greatest Generation of our age. Thank you gentlemen for your sacrifice to our country. You will never be forgotten.

"Do women do this a lot?" Yeah. It's a pretty common occurrence, and it happens in every single conflict. The letters are called "Dear John" letters, and it's depressingly common.

Seeing the people in the camp, I couldn't breathe. And couldn't stop crying

I ball my eyes out every time i see this episode, and there's STILL SO much atrocity going on today all over the world, with all my heart i hope the is a judgment of your actions when you died, could you imagine standing before your god, and having your life's deeds read out. Thank you Ames again as always. Kind regards Chris.

When hold down A posts you know it’ll be a good day :D

I like how this episode mounts all these problems for Nixon, makes you feel bad for him. Then they find the camps and you can tell Nixon completely forgets about all of that and realizes his problems are minor and insignificant compared to what he is seeing.

Ron Livingston's hopeless, almost sarcastic delivery of "shes taking MY DOG" always breaks me down

The best is how Spears even looks disgusted and doesn't even know what to do/think. Of all people even he was at a loss.

Welp, this is the one we've been waiting for.

Some information about Lewis Nixon (the 3rd): Lewis Nixon was born to Stanhope Wood Nixon and Doris Ryer Nixon on September 30, 1918 in New York City. His Father and Grandfather were corporate officers at the Nixon Nitration Works in New Jersey. As a youth, Nixon lived in New York City and Montecito, California; he traveled the world extensively, including Germany, France, and England. Nixon graduated from Cate School in Santa Barbara, before attending Yale University for two years. ---- Lewis Nixon served in the Army during World War II. He was selected (inducted) into the United States Army on January 14, 1941, in Trenton, New Jersey. After graduating from Army Officer Candidate School in 1941 as an infantry second lieutenant, he volunteered for the parachute infantry, part of the U.S. Army's fledgling airborne forces. He was assigned to E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment (506th PIR). Lewis served as a staff officer at the battalion and regimental levels. Nixon was appointed as the 2nd Battalion intelligence officer (S2). He and the 506th parachuted into Normandy on June 6, 1944. Shortly after Easy Company fought in the Battle of Carentan on June 12, 1944, he was moved up to the regimental level as the 506th S2. He served in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. He developed a drinking problem [vat69], and was eventually removed and assigned back down to the 2nd Battalion as the operations officer (S3). ---- Nixon was one of the few men of the 101st Airborne to jump with another division or regiment. On March 24, 1945, Nixon was assigned to be an observer with the 17th Airborne Division during Operation Varsity (the airborne crossing of the river Rhine). He is also one of very few men in the 101st to earn three Combat Jump Stars [Overlord, Market-Garden, Varsity] on his Jump Wings. ---- By the end of World War II, Lewis had obtained the rank of captain. Nixon never fired a shot in combat. He returned home in September 1945. ===== Lewis married his third wife, Grace Umezawa, in 1956. She had been a student in California in the spring of 1942 when the President ordered the internment of Japanese Americans. Richard Winters served as the best man at the wedding. Nixon got his life back together and overcame his alcoholism during their marriage. They had no children. After the war, Nixon worked at his family's Nixon Nitration Works in Edison, New Jersey, alongside his father, Stanhope, and longtime friend, Dick Winters. Lewis Nixon died of complications from diabetes in Los Angeles, California, on January 11, 1995. Dick Winters gave the eulogy at Grace's request.

I absolutely LOVE your reviews....especially the combat movies. As a combat veteran I just want to say thank you for the respect and emotion you have for us.

The way the episode started by focusing on the soldiers personal pain and loss. Then the sudden shift in their behavior and personal feelings after the discovery of the camps was a great transition. In addition, the focus on the woman in red while everything and everyone else was muted and almost black and white was interesting too.

My Romani grandma survived a concentration camp. Born in ‘39, she was just a child. Her mother and 2/7 siblings survived too, her dad didn’t. My grandpa, born in 1935, was “lucky” enough to just get deported and not locked in camps, he lost his father tho at just 7 years old.

You're absolutely right about the importance of this story. As hard as it is to watch, it must be told. I think you made it through the toughest episode. Well done, young lady. The only advice I'd give you for the last episode is, keep your grandfather's hankie handy. I've thoroughly enjoyed watching your reactions to this series. I'm looking forward to episode 10. I hope you'll react to "We Stand Alone Together" following Band of Brothers.

Thank You, Ames! You were very much an anchor in this episode reaction! An anchor with an open heart!

"I want you to bring people in from town, the guards or the policemen, whoever's in these towns. Bring them in, bring the trucks, let them see the bodies. Make them put them on the trucks. Because someday, people are going to say we made it up." Dwight Eisenhower

Little detail most people miss. On the photo of the German soldier, there is a black ribbon on it, meaning he died and she is in mourning. That hit even harder because not only she lost her husband, she must now help clean one of the consequences of his war. It was good they made them do it, you can't put that under the rug...

Glad to hear you're watching the documentary, a lot of reacters skip it. It is absolutely episode 11 of the series.

The scene with the lighter shows how much relaxed they are with Speirs now, compared to how they saw him at the start of the war. They now respect him instead of fear him and know he respects them.

I interviewed my uncle when he was 80. He liberated Buchenwald Concentration Camp… he said all those years later he could still taste and smell it. There were no words to describe what it looked like and you could smell the corpses miles away.

Such an emotional episode, we’re almost to the end. 😭😭😭

Oh man.. this is gna be emotional 🥺 Def my favourite reaction channel on youtube 💯 No contest.

This episode should be show in every high school history class

This episode is probably the most emotional thing I have ever seen. I have watched this series near 20 times over the years and this episode still brings out the tears, every time.

Looking forward for Ep 10 and your reaction. What a masterpiece this series is, and Ep 10 is the cherry on top. Outstanding last episode!

Thank you… Never Again

Grandpa's hanky! Priceless and comforting. ♥

I love watching this series with you. I've seen all the episodes but seeing it through your eyes brings back the amazing quality of the film making plus the amazing bravery of Americans. We are always trying to do the right thing when we see cruelty. These soldiers were the best of the best.

One thing about the wife of the German officer that Nix encountered, the black ribbon across the corner of her husband's picture meant he had died in combat. Nixon would have known what it meant so his breaking it, then her seeing it and him seeing the dog, may have been meant to symbolize what it could be like to be the wife of a soldier.

I don't know if you've mentioned in elsewhere before, but I hope you'll react to "We Stand Alone Together" once you're done with Ep10, this is a fantastic way to conclude the journey, with more interviews from the veterans, you see some that were part of the show but didn't get to speak at the beginning of the episodes, and you learn a whole lot of very interesting things.

This episode just makes you sad of how cruel humans can be to others!

Look up “Blood on the Risers” here on YT, find one of the videos of the old troopers singing it. Decades later and it still gives me goosebumps, proud of those guys. Watched another reactor on this episode, when the camp was shown they said something to the effect of “what is this? This can’t be real, wasn’t all of that made up?” On one hand it does hit home on how important this series was, is and will continue to be, to tell the story for others to learn from. On the other hand, what an absolute failure of the education system they went though. How can that system have failed to teach at that level. I’ve met holocaust deniers, I’m shocked, disgusted and terrified that any human can believe that storyline. Great reaction, it’s definitely one of the points in the series that delivers.

It's a shame so many people ruined the full impact by telling you how difficult this episode was going to be.

If you want to see life after war, you should view and react to "The Best Years of Our Lives," a film about three veterans returning home from WW2 and their adjustment to post war America. It's a film that brings tears of sadness and joy, even for men.

I've owned the dvd set of Band of Brothers for a while now, at least 18 years, and I've watched it several times and after watching it I always feel gratitude and empathy and respect for all who lost their lives in WWII. On all sides. Of course there were many wars around the world long before WWII, but this was is from our recent past, it hasn't even been 100 years since WWII ended. In fact, it's only been 79 years. So sad that we as humans feel the need to do this to each other, to try and impose our will and beliefs on other peoples and cultures and try and take what the other side has, whether it be land or oil or land with oil in it or whatever. To somehow be able justify conquering and another group of people through violence and destruction, let alone murdering millions of people. Because that's all war is really when it comes down to taking another persons life. War is murder on a grand scale. To perform genocide on another people because of a variety of reasons, including but not exclusive to, religion. There are battles being fought this very day at places around the world where people are defending their country from invaders. The only time the U.S. has faced war on our home soil in modern times is when we fought ourselves. Americans killing each other by the thousands. Yes the Civil War was a long time ago, but if we, as a functioning society, aren't careful, we will be faced with another civil war in this country

On your reaction, you mention the closing of the violin case as the closing of a chapter. In my humble view, I see the violin as a representation of the beautiful Jewish people, and the closing of the case as a representation of their coffins. As the music ends, so did the majesty of their wonderful lives. How can humans be so senselessly cruel...how do we ever justify genocide.

No one in the Allied armies knew about the camps. At the highest levels - Eisenhower, FDR, Churchill, etc. - there had been sketchy intelligence coming out that it was happening, but it sounded too crazy, so it wasn't taken seriously...until units began overrunning the camps. Taylor's martial law order was very real, and they made sure that combat correspondents and camera crews went into the camps to film it for the record. I've watched those films, and I recommend finding and watching them...just don't do it on a full stomach.

My grandpa lost his legs and sight due to a kamikazee during the battle of okinawa his roomate in the hospital also lost legs and his wife came in put the ring and divorce papers on the side table. Luckily my granpa was married to a very loyal woman who stayed with him.

that cascade dish washing detergent commercial while they opened the train full of dead bodies taught how much these peoples sacrafice has been forgotten

Thanks Ames for posting these vids. Great job on your knowledge of what you're talking about. Your commentary is spot on! 👍👍

Many of the extras playing the prisoners were cancer patients and realistically underweight from their chemo treatments.

If I remember correctly, the actors didn't know about the camps until they started filming so their reactions are genuine. Also, the people in the camp were actual cancer patients from nearby hospitals who took the jobs (without pay) because they knew how important it was for this to be seen. Some of them actually died before they even saw the episode.

The actors were not aware of the set of the camp being built and were introduced to it and the extras when they were brought to the set for the first shooting so that their shock could be captured. Brilliant

You are such a beautiful person Ames. It is a priviledge to have shared these moments with you even if from a different time and place. Thank you for sharing, I know it is hard.

One more to go…great reactions!

Imagine Liebgott having to break the news they will be locked back up... as a jew himself

Over the last 20+ years I watched this episode dozens if not hundreds of times. It makes me weep every time, including this one.

Your reaction to this is the same as my 26 year old daughter. She finally watched this after 20 years, when it was filmed. I have the box set. Since she's watched it, she's convinced her girlfriend's to watch. And she's watched it over and over 3 times now.! My son is a Marine, in the reserves. I know he wants to see some kind of action, but even though I know he would be a great leader, I'm fearful of what could happen to him.!

The episode that reaches through your gut, rips your heart out, throws it on the floor and stomps on it.😢

Tough one, for sure.

you really got the right feel for many of the things that is happening in the episodes. you say whats gonna happen right before it happens. cant wait to see the last episode with you. i tear up so bad when i look into the soldiers eyes and try to imagine what they have seen. imagine all the untold stories from soldiers we've never heard of. cheers from norway

Ames. This is a tough series to watch. I served in the 82nd and 101st Airborne. We often heard the stories of these great men and women. I was fortunate to meet all the original BOBs while stationed at Ft.Campbell. some amazing men. Keep up the good work. And its almost over. But now you will have the memory of these men in your life.

Nixon I believe became sad, pissed off and disillusioned by the war, and alcohol helped him soothe his pain. His wife divorces him while he was serving his country 🇺🇸, and she took everything thing. The Dog 🐕, the House 🏡 and the car 🚗 and etc. When he came home he came home too nothing😢😭. My Grandfather father told me he saw the concentration camps, it haunted him to his death. I own Band of Brothers on DVD.

My dad, Paul A. Rambow, was a Master sargeant and acting platoon leader in the 101st when the war ended. He helped liberate one of the camps, I think Bergen-Belsen. He never spoke of this experience. He was put in charge of a refugee camp after Germany's surrender. My brother still has an airborne ring that an Hungarian metalsmith made for dad from metal from an engine block from a messerscmidt. It was very special to dad. Apparently, the inmates thought highly of dad, a tribute to his humanity. RIP. Old Sarge!

You have the best reviews after an episode/move is over, not just about the episode itself but the acting and tone. I agree with pretty much everything you said, very powerful. 🤠

Ames, thank you so much for sharing your reactions of this incredibly moving series with all of us! I watched your reaction to episode 1 initially, then went on a Damian Lewis binge for a few months rewatching “Homeland” and the last season of “Billions”. When I saw you had more episodes, I binged the whole series on Veterans’ Day weekend before coming back here and it was so worth it! My grandfather was in the Navy on the European and Pacific sides during WWII (including Omaha beach on D-Day and the Battle of Midway) and even though the experiences must have been different, I feel closer to him and respect him even more after seeing BoB.