This chapter examines how the political and economic turmoil of the Weimar Republic assisted the Nazis into a position of power. The economic depression of the early 1930s and opposition to communism from senior German politicians are shown to be important contributory factors.
Shows that behind the public façade of a rigidly ordered Nazi party, the lackadaisical approach to administration of Adolf Hitler created a cloud of confusion in which ambitious Nazis could exert considerable power in the formulation of specific policies.
The immediate events preceding the outbreak of WW2 are presented and the question why Hitler ended up at war with the power he most admired – Great Britain - and allied to the country he most hated – Soviet Russia – is answered.
Reveals how the occupied territories of Eastern Europe were governed once they were conquered. The chapter focuses on the brutal Nazi administration of Poland, in which forced migration, slave labour and execution were commonplace.
Charts the rise of anti-Jewish sentiment and policies which led to the Holocaust and the creation of mass slaughter camps such as the one at Treblinka. The daily operation of the Treblinka camp is revealed and accounts from living survivors are presented.
Asks why, despite a growing awareness of the repression and atrocities of the Nazi regime and a realisation of impending military defeat, the German people were not able to rid themselves of Adolf Hitler and were left fighting to the end. Even in the midst of set backs Hitler was able to inspire a fatalistic loyalty in his people and army that prolonged the Second World War. In addition, fear of the advancing Soviet army and the reprisals they would exact on the German people kept the nation fighting until the finale of the Battle of Berlin.
The episode considers how it was possible for a man such as Adolf Hitler to come to power in a supposedly cultured country such as post First World War Germany. It gives a number of long term and short term factors to explain the Nazi phenomenon
The theme of the episode focuses on the paradoxical nature of Germany under Nazi rule - a society obsessed by order and yet characterized by administrative inefficiency. It opens with daunting images of Nazi crowds and the comment that the Nazis were obsessed with images of order which they attempted to illustrate and promote in their careful propaganda and yet, the episode claims, it was 'an illusion of order'
The episode starts, with Hitler in his retreat in southern Bavaria, watching feature films about the British Empire - supposedly, these offered proof of the superiority of the Aryan Race! In 1941 he said 'Let's learn from the English - what India was to the English, let Russian territories be to us'. The episode then asks the question - How did Hitler end up fighting the wrong war? - a war against both the English and the Russians.
This episode focuses on the experience of Poland during the Second World War, a country that suffered more than any other under Nazi occupation and where one in five people died. In particular, the Poles suffered the most brutal acts of ethnic cleansing
The episode starts with a view of a railway line, followed by the view of a field. Between July 1942 - August 1943 this area became a 'killing factory'. This is TREBLINKA, one of six extermination camps set up in Poland by the Germans to tackle the Jewish Question
The episode starts with the observation that Italy was the birthplace of fascism, an alliance between Rome and Berlin in the 1930's therefore seemed natural and not unexpected. The two countries fought together in the first years of the Second World War, but on 19 July 1943, the unthinkable happened Rome was bombed.
