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This episode deals with rats - in Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum - and the possibly anti-Jewish rat-like vampire in Nosferatu.   The Nosferatu vampire is especially portrayed as vermin, and some scholars believe this was subtle propaganda towards viewing Jewish people as "less than human" - and rationalizing their extermination.  All in all - a very dark (and important) episode.

• Do you think Nosferatu is anti-Semitic?
• Why is dehumanization so dangerous?
• In which story does Edgar Allan Poe write about rats?
• What are some of the reasons that pre-Hitler Germany was in turmoil?
• Why is it highly unlikely that F.W. Murnau intended Nosferatu to be anti-Jewish?
• Did Murnau die in a German death camp?
• How did Hitler use propaganda?
• According to Ken Burns, what is the role of the artist?

• 00:00 Intro
• 01:37 Comparison of Dracula protrayals
• 02:38 Rats in The Pit and the Pendulum
• 09:15 Historical background in Germany
• 14:36  F.W. Murnau’s intentions and actions
• 20:32 The Eternal Jew "review"
• 26:35 Dehumanization
• 30:14 Concluding story
• 33:52 Halloween episode
• 34:32 Sources
• 36:52 Outro

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