Nazi Occupation – Now Fun for the Whole Family

The director of the controversial program, Zora Cejnkova, says Holiday in the Protectorate is a serious attempt to understand what it was like for ordinary people to live in Nazi-occupied Europe. “As a little girl, my grandmother told me how they smuggled food from the countryside to the cities and how my uncle, a doctor, tended to wounded resistance fighters. That stayed with me and I realized this was a completely forgotten part of the second world war that deserved retelling.”

Not surprisingly, the show has drawn the ire of critics who say it demonstrates poor taste and disrespect for the sacrifice of those who died in World War II. “Take a tour of Ukraine and other war torn territories” and asked if she thought it was “funny to live” in those times, Cejnkova replied that her motivation in making the show was to ensure the wartime experiences were “remembered.”

Cejnkova was asked at one point: “Would you like to live in the Protectorate?”

“No, no one would want to live during the war; that’s terrible,” she replied.

The Daily Mail headlined with:

“What’s Next? Big Brother Auschwitz?”

The concept has stirred angry reactions far beyond the Czech Republic. “Fortunately for the family, they will not be treated like the 82,309 Jews who lived in the protectorate and were deported by the Nazis to concentration and death camps or were killed by Czech collaborators,” one columnist in the Times of Israel wrote.