Has this Nazi-themed reality show gone too far?

A scene from the TV show Dovolená v Protektorátu.

Three generations of a Czech family have taken up residence in a farm for a reality TV show - but they won't be enjoying a country idyll. That's because the show's setting is the Nazi period.

The program is supposed to be a realistic representation of what life was like for a family during the time when Czechoslovakia was occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II.

Food is rationed and the primitive mountain farmhouse is in reality little more than a hut. Soldiers in Wehrmacht uniform descend on the family to hassle them and the men live under the constant threat of being deported elsewhere in the Third Reich to forced labour camps.

The program, Dovolena v Protektoratu or "Holiday in the Protectorate" has been running on primetime television in the Czech Republic twice a week. Its slogan is "Welcome to Hell".

The first episode attracted more than half a million viewers, a 16-per-cent share of the Czech audience.

But even before its broadcast it caused controversy, with many critics suggesting that it was not respectful to Nazi victims.

"It's a ticket to the past," says the mother, Ivana, who is a primary school teacher in real life. Her husband Miloslav is an ambulance driver.

They applied together for the show but they had no idea until filming began what they were letting themselves in for.

"They didn't know which epoch they were being sent to," says director Zora Cejnkova.

Their two sons, Marek and Kuba, as well as the boy's grandparents, Jarmila and Jiri, and the couple's nephew, Honza, are also taking part.

A traditional documentary would no longer find a wide audience, says Cejnkova.

- DPA