The Nazis

The Third Reich - The Rise
This is not the story of how Adolf Hitler seized power in Germany: this is the far more shocking story of why the German people gave it to him. A man with the power to mesmerise and terrify those around him, discover the truth behind Hitler’s rise through fascinating insights and memories from some of the people around him at the time. This is their story, their version of how the Nazi Party and its symbolic leader came to power. Even today some of this footage cannot be shown in Germany. In their words, and through their own films, this is the story of the rise of the Third Reich.

The Third Reich - The Fall
This programme offers a revealing perspective on a dark chapter in history: the reality of German life under the Nazis. Under the rule of its new Chancellor, Adolf Hitler, Germany experienced phenomenal economic growth and its people were happy to accept the lifestyle this new prosperity offered. Without looking too closely at how Hitler had brought about ‘the German miracle’, they revelled in their new-found wealth. Ordinary people were now able to enjoy regular work, good food and even holidays. When the Nazi government surrendered unconditionally on 7th May 1945, Hitler’s dream was finally shattered, and the world began to learn the shocking truth of the Nazi atrocities. It was then that all of Germany’s people – perpetrators, victims and bystanders alike – would be confronted with the crimes of the Third Reich.

Night of the Long Knives
June 30th 1934: the date German freedoms and the rule of civilised law died at the hands of Adolf Hitler. In the hours that became known as ‘The Night of the Long Knives’ he murdered his way to dictatorship. Under his stewardship a string of pitiless assassins worked for 48 hours to purge all who might contest him for absolute power or threaten to reveal an unsavoury past. The event can now be regarded as a precursor to what would come to be seen on a larger and more frightening scale: it was a prelude to the Holocaust.

Gestapo - The Sword is Forged
During the darkest days of the Third Reich the most ominous sound was a knock at the door after dark. Everyone who lived under Nazi rule lived in fear of the secret organisation that made the night-time calls. Hitler called it his deadliest weapon and without it the Führer’s ambition could never have been realised. They acted as an instrument of state terror that has never been equalled. Until now, its full story has not been told. The organization was called 'The Gestapo'.

Gestapo - The Sword Unsheathed
Within six years of its inception the Gestapo had grown from a regional secret police force into a crucial element of the rise and expansion of the Third Reich. Under the guidance of its shadowy director Heinrich Müller it had evolved into an instrument of terror whose success in crushing resistance to Hitler was unequalled. By 1939 few people in Nazi Germany dared risk opposing the Führer or the Reich. This was Hitler’s primary objective and as it had proved to be so dazzlingly well achieved he was now ready to move ahead with his next step unhindered by any opposition to his master plan. The Gestapo was ready to graduate to a new role, this time on an international stage.

Gestapo - The Sword is Shattered
By 1942 Nazi Germany’s armed forces controlled most of Europe. The Gestapo, Hitler’s most potent and hated weapon of fear, was at full stretch routing out opposition and implementing Hitler’s ‘final solution’ – the extermination of the Jews. What had begun as a domestic secret police force had now gained the power of life and death over millions of people. Later, by 1945, as the Third Reich hurtled toward its destruction and Hitler raged in his bunker, the Gestapo was to reach new depths of brutality. But in the aftermath of war its officers would simply melt away, largely unpunished, and the greatest mystery of all remains to this day – what was the fate of the Gestapo’s creator, Heinrich Müller?