Hitler and the Nazis

[Bert]

This is available for streaming on netflix.

This is an outstanding series on the whole origin of the Nazis, Hitlers rise to power and a powerful detailing of the events of the war. Some of it you know, but this gives detail and footage the likes of which I have never seen.

I have been reading a lot on WWII lately, because I saw a film that made me realize how much I didn't know about the war.

As an American student in public school, you learn about Pearl Harbor, the Holocaust and the Bomb, but everything else is pretty glazed over in text books. This opened my eyes to a lot of things I didn't know.


The whole part about the Russians and Stalingrad was mind blowing. I had no idea that 20 million russians were killed in WWII. My history teachers in high school and college must have thought that part of the war wasn't important!

That's right 20 MILLION, including 10MILLION civilians who were slaughtered by the Nazis.

Hitler didn't just resent the Jews or hold religious grudges against them. He literally thought of them as a subspecies of non-humans that needed to be exterminated. Not to mention the fact that he tried to take over the world, and the scariest part is how close he was to actually pulling it off. He was completely insane and evil!!! I mean I knew that and obviously he was evil, but watching this makes you realize he was evil on a completely different level than I ever imagined.

The bravery and resilience of the British was also incredible.

The whole series is absolutely fascinating, depressing, inspiring and above all, horrifying. One mans ambition to take over the world resulted in the deaths of millions upon millions.


Higlights-
Hitlers rise to power, tried several times, finally made it happen and then he promptly betrayed and executed basically everyone who helped him get there.

He grew his own army using the youth of Germany, the "Hitler youth" started like the boyscouts, turned into his own personal brainwashed stormtroopers which eventually grew into the SS.

The battle of Stalingrad is the most mind blowing story I have ever heard. Horrifying.

http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/80044662?trkid=13462047

 

[CardLogic]

The series title is "Hitler and the Nazis"?

I will have to check it out.

By the way if you haven't already seen it check out the German made movie, Downfall.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Just got through Episode 1. Its disgustingly hypnotic.

 

[Cardinals.Ken]

I got through the first half hour of the first episode, and shut it off. It just glossed over too many of the significant events that lead to Hitler's rise to power. It felt like I was watching a powerpoint presentation reading bullet-points over video (some of which was out of place chronologically) by a student in a public speaking class with a time limit.

I would highly recommend watching the BBC documentary "World at War" if you're looking for a better, more comprehensive, in depth examination of Hitler's Germany. The series is 26 episodes, 15 of which dealt with Germany. You should be able to find it at the local public library.

 

[slinslin]

Just by reading the first post of the thread it seems like the series is not a real documentary and rather one-sided point of view. I mean the title already sounds like yellow press.

 

[Bert]

I would highly recommend watching the BBC documentary "World at War" if you're looking for a better, more comprehensive, in depth examination of Hitler's Germany. The series is 26 episodes, 15 of which dealt with Germany. You should be able to find it at the local public library.

I will definitely check that out, thank you. Because now I want to know even more. The older I get the more fascinated I become by history.

But I encourage you to give this a couple more episodes, because I thought it was good once it got going.

Just by reading the first post of the thread it seems like the series is not a real documentary and rather one-sided point of view. I mean the title already sounds like yellow press.

It is far from Yellow press and the fact that you make that Judgement without even watching a second of it is silly. I typed out some quick highlights so people would understand the point of the movie and not misunderstand the title like it was some kind of pro-nazi thing because it is not that by any stretch.

It is a documentary and actually presents multiple point of views, as they have interviews with people from many backgrounds during that time. Everyone from Jews to Germans.

I didn't say it was a perfect documentary, but there is a lot of really good information in there if you are not a WWII expert.

The jist you get from general education was Hitler was bad and he killed a lot of people. This just digs a bit deeper as to the why and the when.

Like I said I watched a WWII movie the other day, was horrified, and I found myself asking questions like, why did Hitler hate the Jews so much? We did he suddenly try to take over the world? Why did so many people around him, and the German people go along with his Evil deeds?

This documentary answers some of those questions, for me. The footage of Hitler and his cronies prancing around all giddy on the empty streets of a conquered Paris is just bone chillingly creepy.

Just got through Episode 1. Its disgustingly hypnotic.

Exactly, it has always been bizarre to me that Hitler got so many people on board with his plans, but this is showing that he did it a lot of very clever ways involving fear, manipulation, betraying his "friends" and a lot of other evil crap.

It also informed me of a lot of other things I didn't know like how the nightmare didn't exactly end for the Jews after the war was over. They all (obviously) wanted to get the hell out of Europe but there was a lot of political red tape and then they awarded them half of the homeland and just basically dumped them there and were like, yeah, you and the Palestinians can work it out, good luck! Never was taught that in any history class. The story about the Exodus ship? Crazy...

Like I said, it may not be the perfect documentary some people want where every single event is chronicled to the precisest detail, but it taught me a lot of things.

 

[BigRedRage]

netflix is stocked with nazi stuff right now. I did see this one on there may have to check it out

 

[Cardinals.Ken]

I will definitely check that out, thank you. Because now I want to know even more. The older I get the more fascinated I become by history.

I pursued Netflix to find other documentaries that I thought where great, and still available. Here's what I found (I hyperlinked them, so just click on the title ) They're in no particular order, and it the lists covers a wide spectrum of the War, and all of them are well worth the watch.

WWII in HD
Ken Burns: The War
Secrets of the Dead: Deadliest Battle
World War II: Final Days
National Geographic: The Battle for Midway
Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State
Nazi Mega Weapons

Others I remember that're not available on Netflix, but well worth the time to add to your list:

World at War (Go to the library and get it, get it now...trust me on this...start at #1 and watch them all the way through)
WWII in Color (World War II documentary with using all color footage)
Russian Front (another good documentary accounting of the Eastern Front, even if it skips mention of Soviet atrocities during the war...not all 27 million Soviet dead were at the hands of the Germans)
Stalingrad (a German film, subtitled, from 1993)
Der Untergang (Downfall) (another German film about the last days of Hitler)
The Longest Day (the greatest war movie ever put on film)
Tora! Tora! Tora! (the other greatest war movie of all time)

 

[Bert]

I pursued Netflix to find other documentaries that I thought where great, and still available. Here's what I found (I hyperlinked them, so just click on the title ) They're in no particular order, and it the lists covers a wide spectrum of the War, and all of them are well worth the watch.

WWII in HD
Ken Burns: The War
Secrets of the Dead: Deadliest Battle
World War II: Final Days
National Geographic: The Battle for Midway
Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State
Nazi Mega Weapons

Others I remember that're not available on Netflix, but well worth the time to add to your list:

World at War (Go to the library and get it, get it now...trust me on this...start at #1 and watch them all the way through)
WWII in Color (World War II documentary with using all color footage)
Russian Front (another good documentary accounting of the Eastern Front, even if it skips mention of Soviet atrocities during the war...not all 27 million Soviet dead were at the hands of the Germans)
Stalingrad (a German film, subtitled, from 1993)
Der Untergang (Downfall) (another German film about the last days of Hitler)
The Longest Day (the greatest war movie ever put on film)
Tora! Tora! Tora! (the other greatest war movie of all time)

Wow this Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State is even more insane. This is hard to watch, honestly I have had to walk away a couple of times because it is just sick. You were correct that other series seems like softball now. This is very well done, a brutal telling of the facts.

I am still shocked and a little ashamed at how ignorant I was about this war. I think sometimes the average person thinks we understand history because we've seen a couple of movies about it. I guess i was in that group. But the more I learn about this, I feel compelled, almost obligated to learn about it. So many people died, it's just mind boggling.

 

[Cardinals.Ken]

Wow this Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State is even more insane. This is hard to watch, honestly I have had to walk away a couple of times because it is just sick. You were correct that other series seems like softball now. This is very well done, a brutal telling of the facts.

I am still shocked and a little ashamed at how ignorant I was about this war. I think sometimes the average person thinks we understand history because we've seen a couple of movies about it. I guess i was in that group. But the more I learn about this, I feel compelled, almost obligated to learn about it. So many people died, it's just mind boggling.

Visiting Auschwitz, and other concentration camps, as a 16 year old exchange student was surreal. I really can't describe the experience adequately to be honest.

 

[slinslin]

In Germany you get taught all this stuff beginning in 5th-7th grade even the Auschwitz stuff. Basically history classes do almost nothing else and only glance over other interesting things like Roman Empire.

 

[Shaggy]

In Germany you get taught all this stuff beginning in 5th-7th grade even the Auschwitz stuff. Basically history classes do almost nothing else and only glance over other interesting things like Roman Empire.

Why is that? To show what not to do and how bad Germany's history was? Just curious as to why they study it.

 

[Zeno]

I pursued Netflix to find other documentaries that I thought where great, and still available. Here's what I found (I hyperlinked them, so just click on the title ) They're in no particular order, and it the lists covers a wide spectrum of the War, and all of them are well worth the watch.

WWII in HD
Ken Burns: The War
Secrets of the Dead: Deadliest Battle
World War II: Final Days
National Geographic: The Battle for Midway
Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State
Nazi Mega Weapons

Others I remember that're not available on Netflix, but well worth the time to add to your list:

World at War (Go to the library and get it, get it now...trust me on this...start at #1 and watch them all the way through)
WWII in Color (World War II documentary with using all color footage)
Russian Front (another good documentary accounting of the Eastern Front, even if it skips mention of Soviet atrocities during the war...not all 27 million Soviet dead were at the hands of the Germans)
Stalingrad (a German film, subtitled, from 1993)
Der Untergang (Downfall) (another German film about the last days of Hitler)
The Longest Day (the greatest war movie ever put on film)
Tora! Tora! Tora! (the other greatest war movie of all time)

Not a Documentary but if you want to watch a really well made foreign film about WW2 see the City of Life and Death, it is about the Japanese invasion and occupation of China specifically Nanjing (Nanking to us westerners). Great movie. Then as a follow up read The Rape of Nanking if you have time.

 

[BigRedRage]

Wow this Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State is even more insane. This is hard to watch, honestly I have had to walk away a couple of times because it is just sick. You were correct that other series seems like softball now. This is very well done, a brutal telling of the facts.

I am still shocked and a little ashamed at how ignorant I was about this war. I think sometimes the average person thinks we understand history because we've seen a couple of movies about it. I guess i was in that group. But the more I learn about this, I feel compelled, almost obligated to learn about it. So many people died, it's just mind boggling.

In JR high we watched a video, had to get a permission slip signed to watch it, showed jews being tortured in camps and etc. Saw one SS wrap a jew in barbed wire and then slid a stick through and would crank the stick to tighten the barbed wire on the guy. It was pretty vile.

 

[BigRedRage]

Why is that? To show what not to do and how bad Germany's history was? Just curious as to why they study it.

I assume a bit of that but it is also their countries most recent big historical events so it makes sense to study it.

 

[Cardinals.Ken]

Not a Documentary but if you want to watch a really well made foreign film about WW2 see the City of Life and Death, it is about the Japanese invasion and occupation of China specifically Nanjing (Nanking to us westerners). Great movie. Then as a follow up read The Rape of Nanking if you have time.

City of Life and Death is on Netflix. Going to watch it this weekend, thanks for the heads up!

 

[Cardinals.Ken]

In Germany you get taught all this stuff beginning in 5th-7th grade even the Auschwitz stuff. Basically history classes do almost nothing else and only glance over other interesting things like Roman Empire.

I had only one history class at my Gymnasium, and it was a current world problems class. So we spent some of the class on the Cold War, and most of the class discussing Gorbachev's new socialism.

In my experience in Germany the holocaust was treated very clinically. Germans would discuss about it, to a certain extent, but seemed detached from it.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Why is that? To show what not to do and how bad Germany's history was? Just curious as to why they study it.

Probably the same reason our schools in this country study American history... Because it's the history of the country you live in and need to understand above all others.

 

[Chaplin]

Interesting thing--when I was a sophomore, I went to an International School in the Netherlands, that included kids of British, Canadian and German military. I took a history class taught by a German and half-filled with Germans, and it was a very different experience when we talked about Germany and World War II. NONE of the Germans spoke up about it. I got the impression that they were embarrassed and mortified by what happened. Which I took as a good sign that they wouldn't repeat such atrocities.

 

[Zeno]

City of Life and Death is on Netflix. Going to watch it this weekend, thanks for the heads up!

It isn't a happy movie by any means but it is a great movie. It is subtitled so be prepared.

 

[Cardinals.Ken]

It isn't a happy movie by any means but it is a great movie. It is subtitled so be prepared.

I also discovered that the documentary "Nanking" is also on Netflix.

 

[slinslin]

Probably the same reason our schools in this country study American history... Because it's the history of the country you live in and need to understand above all others.

Not really.

Germany has a long long history, World War II is just a small part of that. There is WW1, Industrialization, Old Germanic tribes, 30yr War, 1st Reich, 2nd Reich, Holy Roman Empire, Crusaders etc
Of course we also learn about the Roman Empire, Greece, Alexander the Great, American Civial War and Slavery though that is usually part of English Classes..

The amount of focus WWII gets in history classes is absurd and a complaint of many students in my time at least. It gets depressing to hear about that over and over again when you heard all of it.
Usually you visit old concentration camps with your school class at least once or twice.

The current generation of Germans has about as much to do with WWII as some guys in Polynesia.. In my generation your grandparents would tell you some stories about it so there was some connection still but that is it.

My grandfather for example was taken in as a young boy, one day the military showed up at school and took the boys in. He had to be a FLAK helper, he was never a Nazi but like every boy he was in the "Hitler Youth".

 

[Cardinals.Ken]

My grandfather for example was taken in as a young boy, one day the military showed up at school and took the boys in. He had to be a FLAK helper, he was never a Nazi but like every boy he was in the "Hitler Youth".

My exchange partner's father was conscripted in the same manner at the age of 14.

Not to derail the thread, but would you say that the overemphasis of WWII in German history curriculums has grown, waned, or stayed the same since reunification? I don't recall it dominating the history classroom when I was there. However, that was a small sampling of time (6 months) almost 30 years ago.

 

[Stout]

I had a good experience speaking about WWII while stationed in Germany. I did the Christmas with a host family program and, as I hadn't gotten any training in the language (the army screwed that up for me because my company was already deployed when I arrived in country), I requested a family that spoke English well. Of course the army screwed up and put me and a buddy from Palau (who spoke bad English himself) with an old German couple who barely spoke English. We figured out some methods of communicating with a bit of both languages, and though we avoided the topic for a while, we jumped right into it finally. As you would figure, everyone had to say they were a good little Nazi--it kept you out of trouble, and they didn't know of the outrageous atrocities being committed in the concentration camps. They were legitimately appalled at the Nazi regime, but had one distinction to make--Rommell was like a folk hero to them. They grew up near where he was born, and wanted us to understand they viewed him as a soldier, not a Nazi. Given that he tried to kill Hitler, I understood completely.

 

[NJCardFan]

Not a Documentary but if you want to watch a really well made foreign film about WW2 see the City of Life and Death, it is about the Japanese invasion and occupation of China specifically Nanjing (Nanking to us westerners). Great movie. Then as a follow up read The Rape of Nanking if you have time.

I was going to ask if there are any documentaries or movies talking about Japanese atrocities. I find it confusing that history pretty much glosses over what they did and focuses on what the Nazi's did. Don't get me wrong, there nothing wrong with discussing Nazi atrocities but if you're going to tell the story of WWII, tell it all, both the European and Pacific theaters. I mean, the Japanese went so far as to eat POW's and the Bataan Death March was a Sunday school picnic compared to what they did to the Chinese.