Name a significant historical event and you might think of World War II. German fascism, a term that has been mentioned since primary school, becomes the representation of evil and heinousness. However, the German TV miniseries, "Generation War," takes a more provocative perspective—that of the German Nazi soldiers, describing a group of brave and young people during Germany’s blitzkrieg against the Soviet Union in 1941. While such an angle tries to focus on the individual stories through several  characters  representative  of Garman’s different identities and occupations, it also introduces people to a world where good and evil are intertwined in a misleading way.

         Among the German troops are William, already a captain before the war has begun, and his little brother Fried, a nerd who has never volunteered to enlist and is always despised by his comrades. While Fried grew to be a mature and cold-blooded leader, William, who showed his perseverance at the beginning of the war has his mind slowly fades. The change of Fried represents a move from innocence to evilness while William the right opposite. These internal struggles and conflicting characteristics extend to putting an emphasis on the grey area of the battle between Nazi troops and the rest of the world.  

          There is no single version of a story, and the world is not black-and-white; indeed, exploring the blurry grey space shows us a full picture. However, when such a TV show reaches audiences of all ages and countries, the show’s creators and script writers bear a responsibility to the audience to draw a clear line on the atrocities of this time in history. While avoiding blindly emphasizing Germany’s defeat but rather humanizing the Nazi system by focusing more on the team spirit of German soldiers, the show easily gets audiences to sympathize with the soldiers’ sorrowness and failures. When the characters who are in fact aggressors, sending the world the terribly cruel massacre without a single blink, are depicted like common individuals who were forced to undergo changes in war, German soldiers as a whole are easily being forgiven by people who are unaware that the serious misconducts of the WWII deserve critique despite their internal complexity.

        Standing at a neutral point to view the event helps people to be more open to the German side of the story, yet no matter how we are moved by their national confidence and ambition as a team, simply muting the voice of the suffering victims is not the right way. A heavy topic should inform people of the horrors that started the war, rather than drag people into a gray area to kidnap their values and judgement by connecting characters with audiences emotionally.