Customer Reviews

The Nazis: A Warning From History

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This six-part British documentary chronicles the rise and fall of Hitler and the Nazis, though far from just being the usual retelling of familiar historical events, it goes so much deeper. A lot of the pictures and film footage haven't been seen before, and many of the people interviewed were actual higher-ups in the Nazi Party or Wehrmacht, instead of just interviewing regular soldiers and civilians. Other people interviewed are those who lived under the Nazi occupation in Poland, the former Czechoslovakia, and Lithuania. A number of the very elderly Germans, as well as a Lithuanian who was a member of the Einsatzgruppen, are pretty matter-of-fact and unrepentant about what they did, even with so many decades of historical hindsight and knowing what we do now. There's also a lot of information that hasn't been brought to light before about many of the topics covered.

Disc one contains the episodes 'Helped into Power,' 'Chaos and Consent,' and 'The Wrong War.' The first episode covers the historical background that gave rise to the Nazi Party, starting with the humiliation of losing WWI and the skyrocketing inflation and demilitarisation that resulted, and going on to how this minor insignificant party would, within the span of a decade, become as large and powerful as it became, and how it eventually won almost unanimous support. The second episode deals with the true chaotic inner-workings of the Nazi Party, showing that beneath their veneer of order, they were really disorganised and unmotivated leaders, spending more time on infighting (much of it encouraged by Hitler) and playing around than conducting serious business. It also covers the topic of the mass murder of the mentally disabled, a policy which chillingly started when a man wrote to Hitler asking if his disabled son could be euthanised. The final episode on the first disc covers the start of WWII and how it wound up being the war that Hitler had not originally wanted, since he'd long admired Great Britain for how well they controlled their vast empire in spite of being such a relatively small people, and had also long viewed the Soviet Union as Germany's enemy, yet wound up fighting against Great Britain and allied, at least temporarily, with the Soviets.

Disc two contains the episodes 'The Wild East,' 'The Road to Treblinka,' and 'Fighting to the End.' The first episode deals with the brutal treatment of Poland and the Poles in the wake of the Nazi invasion. Poland was the nation which suffered by far the most; about one in every five Poles was murdered. In the wake of encorporating Poland into Greater Germany, ethnic Germans who lived in other areas were encouraged to move in, but as the survivors who are interviewed recount, this wasn't nearly as happy and cheery as the propaganda films suggested, even for the ethnic Germans, who soon found that they weren't moving into some paradise where everything was automatically provided for them. The second episode deals with the Einsatzgruppen (the mobile killing squads that massacred the Jewish communities in the Baltic states, Belarus, and the western regions of Russia and the Ukraine), experiments into mass extermination by gas, the Polish ghettoes, and the infamous Treblinka itself. The final episode deals with 1943 through to the end of the war, when Germany's former Italy surrendered to the Allies, overthrew their own dictator and got their king back, and began fighting on the other side, as untold amounts of slave laborers from Poland were brought into Germany to work, as people were tortured and murdered in concentration-camps, as an assassination attempt was made on Hitler's life, as Germany suicidally fought on to the bitter end and even began turning against its own loyal citizens, and finally as Germany came under a horrible occupation by the Red Army.

The lessons to be learned from this series truly do serve as a warning from history. Most people today like to think that such a thing couldn't ever happen again and can't even understand why it happened in the first place, but as it's demonstrated, the Nazis didn't come about and eventually rise to power, wage a world war, and commit horrific atrocities overnight or in a vacuum. It's up to us to remember and learn from history so that such things won't ever happen again.

This series is very good a zeroing in on individual Nazis to show how ordinary people did terrible things within the framework of the larger state. It also does an excellent job of explaining the Nazi world view. It pays well deserved attention to the importance Hitler placed on "art" and culture as well as the way in which social Darwinism was twisted into a culture of lawlessness where the strong were encouraged to exploit, if not destroy, the weak.

Episode 4, "The Wild East," I found particularly thought provoking. Its portrayal of Gauleiter Arthur Grieser is disturbing and truly "A warning from history."

I highly recommend this series.

I don't think I could add much more than what has been reviewed before me. This wonderful documentary had me glued to my tv throughout its entire run. I learned so much about how the nazi party got it's start. I had no clue before hand. I really liked how they showed where alot of these atrocities occured and then showed the exact places as they are today. Truly an errie experience and the sad silence of the places now. You truly can hear the echoes of the souls lost long ago. The interviews are very candid and show alot of people who to this day have no remorse what they were a part of. They still truly believe in Hitler and what he stood for. A must-see for everyone!

Preface: Others have covered very well the many positive qualities of this series, so I'm going to focus on just a few points for the sake of brevity.

The Nazis - A Warning from History" sadly suffers from the same faults of most documentaries about the Nazis. It simply looks at the conditions that were prevalent in Germany, acknowledges the inequity of the treaty of Versailles, but fails to give all important perspective. Anti-semitism was not especially prevalent in Germany. France expelled the Jews hundreds of years prior and at the turn of the century had the Dryfus affair which exposed rampant french Antisemitism. Anti-Jew riots were still a annual occurrence around Europe. Germany only had such a large Jewish population because it was comparatively a very tolerant country!

More importantly, the documentary totally fails to appreciate how the allies very directly enabled the rise of the Nazi party. Towards the end of the war allied propaganda logically targeted German groups they thought less interested in fighting: Jews, Communists, Intelligentsia, Trade Unionists and Socialists.

The propaganda heavily played upon Wilson's 14 points. It was produced and spread by French, American and British agents. Groups in Germany which agitated for peace did so in good faith with the belief that these promises of a lenient peace would be upheld. They did so believing it was best for the country they truly loved and indeed fought for: Germany.

Of course, we know what happened. In America's case its forgivable, as they actually intended honor these promises. But France and England had no such intent, and brutally exploited the good will of these minority groups. From the beginning, they openly planned to betray these promises and extract huge concessions, knowing that once an armistice was signed the German army would not be able to resume fighting.

In Germany the theory that minority groups were guilty of betraying Germany was widespread, and indeed seemed justified. Today it is referred to as the "Dolchstosslegende," literally "stab in the back" myth. It is derided as being racist, this corner of history is therefore rarely mentioned. Germans desperately want to avoid anything that hints of racism, and the former "allied countries" hardly want to place yet more blame on themselves.

I feel this is a true shame, because this is one of the most important warnings the Nazis have to give and very few appreciate it. Indeed, during the the gulf war we encouraged ethnic agitation by the Kurds, with no real intent of actually giving Iraq a favorable peace treaty of any sort - they paid for our carelessness.

Furthermore, I think the utility of focusing on what happened under Nazi dictatorship is limited with regards to future prevention. History has shown us again and again that once a violent dictatorship establishes itself it is nearly always too late. Milgram's experiments showed that Americans will commit atrocities, we're humans just like Germans. The critical lessons are what lead to such dictatorships. Once a dictatorship such as the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany or Fascist Japan establishes itself, overthrow from within is nearly impossible.

There are many, many redeeming points of this series and I still highly recommend it. I also understand that most people do not see this same short coming - I can't blame them. You can hardly complain that something is not there when you don't even know you should be looking for it.

I'm very fond of BBC documentaries since they are deep, insightful and intelligent. This one does not fail to prove the former. From the very beginning of the program, we learn the reasons the Nazi party is born and Jewish people fall into disgrace with the non-Jewish Germans...I highly recommend this dvd. It's clear, to the point, interesting and instructive. What else can you ask of a documentary? Thanks to the BBC again.

An excellent production!

One of the best things about this documentary was the personal perspectives - the many interviews with people who were "on the ground" as it was all happening. It reinforced the role of individual responsibility and public actions in how the Nazis came to power. As they explain in some detail, before the Great Depression the Nazi's had only single digit (percentage wise) preference by the public. It was the economic hard times that set the stage for the rise in Nazi popularity.

I also found the aspect of Hitler's vacation time and his working hours interesting. Parallels with another world leader, anyone?

The documentary shows how different people chose varying degrees of "active involvement" in the Nazi regime. From a general citizen who denounced her neighbour to the Gestapo, to a man who participated in one of the massacres of Jews in the occupied territories - the moral aspect is never left untouched by the interviewers. The guy who refused to answer any questions of whether his conscience personally bothered him, despite his frank discussion of other facts really creeped me out. Contrasting this was the ex-Nazi soldier charged with evicting Polish residents from their villages to make way for resettled Germanics from other countries. He put himself at some risk to warn the villages in advance, saying tearfully that it was the only way he was able to live with himself.

Clearly, the war was a polarizing force in more ways than the immediately apparent.

The step by step charting of how Hitler was "helped" into power was also interesting, as were the comments about the Jewish leaders of the Bavarian Communist revolt after WWI. Douglas Reed's book, "The Controversy of Zion" provides an interesting historical context in that area. That the Nazis had such an ideological vendetta against the Russians was something that I wasn't as aware of. The documentary also points out some interesting things about the pre-war Nazi relationship with the English and Americans, whom Hitler reputedly admired. It would have been interesting for the documentary to have explored the pre-war Nazi-American connection more - there is certainly a LOT of material there to investigate.

Overall, I would say this is THE best "overall perspective" WWII documentary that I've ever seen. When it finished, I felt like 6 hours wasn't enough, and I wanted to see them cover a LOT more, in more detail! Big kudos to the team that produced it - excellent work, and a sober "Warning from History" indeed.

It takes just 5 minutes of Samuels Wests immaculate narration to spellbind you as you take in the remaining 285 minutes minutes of; "The Nazis: A warning from history". The BBC shows once again why the Brits reputation for consummate documentary productions is so well earned. Beginning with the opening theme and title backdrop (a little reminiscent of the World at War I must say) the production moves to a prologue taking in some colour footage of Hitler I have never seen in 30 years of watching historical documentaries.

The seemless editing, superb script and overall production values are of the highest quality and it comes as no surprise that Samuel West is picking up so much work as a a narrator. His diction, tone, enunciation and emotional hues bring vitality, rhythm and wonderful intensity to the story in the same way that Oliviers World at War would'nt have been the same without him.

As an academic exerise I'm sure the production will have its detractors and critics. (Read "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L Shirer for the definitive account of the Nazis - published by Pan in 1959). Personally I found much of the information revelatory. How many people knew that there was a Marxist takeover of Munich Council just 18 months after the revolution in Russia. And how many would know that while Hitler was invading Poland half of it had been promised to good old Joe Stalin as part of his pact with Hitler?

As Samuel west reminds us in the prologue to this piece. "To the upper echelons of the Nazi party the explanation for Hitlers rise to power was simple and was directly linked to his superhuman qualities. The real explantion is less simple and far more alarming". Truth, as they say is stranger than fiction.

Like the politicians and public of the past, todays generation of power brokers can (and some would argue will) exploit the sloth, mendacity and simplistic bigotry of the masses to achieve very undesireable ends. A warning from history indeed.

Trully a well titled and beautifully crafted piece of documentary television.

To start with, this is a superb documentary, from the point of view of the editing, the cinematography, the script, narration, the wide array of interview subjects, etc. It kept me transfixed until I had viewed the final episode.

That said, while there are few flaws in the content, there are some large and important gaps and some over-simplifications in this film series that, while they wouldn't matter to a viewer with a knowledge of the period and the issues, make this a less-than-adequate introduction to either the Third Reich or the Second World War. What was new and intriguing to me was the additional insight into Hitler's 'hands-off' approach to government, including the degree of his personal indolence, and what that meant in terms of policy decisions. (Would-be leaders were told if they wanted to head up a regional section, they should just seize control; the party didn't believe in appointing people. Meanwhile, Hitler would give two people largely-overlapping responsibilities and let them fight it out between themselves; little wonder Germany's economy never ended up on an even keel.) His entourage competed to keep Hitler happy, reading between the lines of what he actually said, and trying to be 'radical' in their solutions to the problems that he identified, including 'the Jewish question'.

But early on, the gaps start to emerge. If you believed this film, the death of Ernst Rohm was a single murder, rather than part of a massive and bloody purge of the SA (Brownshirts) by the new Nazi state. There is no mention of the burning of the Reichstag, a seminal moment in the Nazi rise to power and one Hitler exploited to consolidate his power and oppress his enemies (that oppression is extensively documented, including interviews with social democrats shipped off to Dachau.) The Spanish Civil War, which served as a 'test run' for the weapons being developed in Nazi Germany, is never mentioned. The third episode is devoted to Hitler's envy of the traditional colonial powers, particularly the British, and his attempts to reach an accomodation with them. But the fourth episode, which opens with the destruction of Poland (the announcement of war closes the Third) moves the locus of all the action decisively to Germany's Eastern frontier. There is no reference to Hitler's efforts to avoid a shooting war in the West, to the blitzkrieg in the Netherlands, Belgium and France, etc. Just as later, there is only a single reference to D-Day and none at all to the fact that Mussolini's deposition was followed by a Nazi counter-invasion and occupation of Italy. (Mussolini's departure is placed only in the context of 'why the Germans didn't do more to oppose Hitler'.)

While the film's broad points about how Hitler had managed to sideline his opponents and make himself not only Chancellor but also head of state (meaning that the Germans couldn't turn to a king to replace him, as the Italians did), the filmmakers focus only on the Stauffenberg bomb plot. And while they emphasize the fear of the Soviet Union as a reason for rallying behind Hitler, they don't mention the insistence of the Allies that Germany surrender unconditionally, even had Hitler been deposed -- something that would have meant another Versailles, in the eyes of even Hitler's opponents. They also avoid any discussion of the (admittedly limited) civil resistance beyond the military that included church leaders like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Niemoller and the Catholic youngsters in Munich who formed the White Rose group, as well as the pro-Soviet Rote Kappelle. There's a discussion about the bombing of German cities in 1944/45 -- but no reference to the Blitz of 1940 that paved the way for that bombing of civilians. And so on...

The argument of this 5-hour series is that the Nazi regime holds a warning for us. That's very true indeed -- in fact, I believe that once broken, taboos like genocide in a way become more conceivable rather than less so. Once something has occurred once in history, it becomes an event. But to realize the full horror of the event, it's important to be aware of all the facts and consequences, not just selected ones. There was certainly room to include the ones that I have mentioned above without sacrificing any of the detail that makes this poignant and powerful. I agree that it's hard to deliver a complete history in such a short timespan, but in some cases, being sure that all the facts are there would have required only a sentence or two to be spoken.

There is little new here about the Holocaust, and yet the film devotes the better part of two episodes to the horrors of the campaign to 'Germanize' Poland and eradicate the Jewish population of Europe. Again, however, this would have had a greater impact if the editors and writers had combined this horror story with some effort to relate the Nazi regime's attempts to encourage the birth of 'pure Aryans' via the Lebensborn program. Anyone looking for a full understanding of the horror of the Nazi racial policies should go directly to Auschwitz - Inside the Nazi State, which demonstrates in a powerful and chilling way just how theory became practice in Nazi Germany. There's little new content on the subject in this film.

The best parts of this documentary are the interviews with those who lived through the era, of whom fewer and fewer are available to tell the story today. The interviewers don't shy away from the hard questions, asking why a woman denounced her neighbor, why someone participated in killing squads, why another woman admired Reinhard Heydrich. Many of the answers prove unsatisfying - but how can they be? Remorse would be unconvincing; perhaps the way they appear on screen, squirming in embarassement as they try to duck and weave their way through an interview, may cause them the shame that their actions more than sixty years ago should have but didn't.

Recommended only for those with an existing knowledge of the era; otherwise, look for a more basic introduction first. If you're interested in understanding how on earth the Nazi regime crept to power and functioned, William Shirer's book, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany is still one of the most accessible single volumes available; if you're looking for an excellent and more scholarly version, try the three volumes produced by Richard Evans, beginning with The Coming of the Third Reich. In addition to the Auschwitz series, anyone interested in understanding the Holocaust should, at some point, make the time to sit through the full film by Claude Lanzmann, Shoah 4-DVD Set [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Netherlands ]. I'd suggest renting the first disc, with the first three episodes, and then turning to the Auschwitz DVD , which covers the rest of the story in far more detail and with an even more powerful emotional wallop.

In all the examination of the Nazi regime, one giant hole remains: how did the Germans come to grips with this legacy and the issue of collective vs. individual guilt? There's room for a great documentary film maker to tackle this, from the days that the first citizens were forced to confront what had happened at the death camps, through the process of de-Nazification, reparations, etc., the broadcast of the TV series 'Holocaust' on European TV in 78/79 (I was at high school in Belgium at the time, and the debates the days after each episode aired were dramatic...) So far, that seems to have been only addressed in fiction and drama, such as The Reader.

The real warning of these superb programmes, which has only been alluded to by one or two of the other reviewers, is that it was the ordinary people, the same as in any country in the world, that made the Nazis. Hitler was just a charismatic leader in the right place at the right time. The interviews show that the same could happen anywhere, particularly if a country is brought low enough economically, because people will always follow a witchhunt.

This covers ground that has been done many times before but its to its credit that I learned facts that I was unaware of. Its engaging and the narration is well written. Highly recommended!