Customer Reviews

Reich Underground, The

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was one that seemed interesting, but that I didn't expect much from, which turned out to be a delight. Basically two-50 minute shows from Germany (with English narration!) filled with footage of large underground spaces created by the Nazis during WW2. If you've seen the show CITIES OF THE UNDERWORLD, this one is right up your alley, but without the overenthusiastic hosts/narrators. They have an episode on Germany that barely touches on sites seen in this documentary.

Simply amazing footage and work to uncover one of the more interesting tidbits of history of Germany during the War. Hitler, in an attempt to protect his production capacity, authorized with his leaders, hundreds of millions of ReichMarks to build underground caverns for the purpose of preserving the building of the German war machine.

We see scenes throughout occuppied Europe, including tunnels still in use as well as ones that were destroyed by bombing raids. Interestingly, we meet one of Adolf Hitler's body guards, who tours us around the site of the major Valkerie assassination attempt.

In color, black and white and with old war footage, we see the lairs of Goebbels, and Hesse, additionally, we see actual family members of Goebbels in their bunker just before they were killed by their parents.

One of the better documentaries of the war. This is well worth the time to buy and view.

This Brit documentary manages to make a fascinating subject - the Nazi underground industrial infrastructure - a tad dull. We see a lot of footage of old tunnels and mine shafts and the like, overlaid with WWII footage of some of the same structures, not enough. I came away a little antsy.

It teases with some very interesting and unseen footage from bunkers, underground factories, and air-raid shelters. However, there were too many segments showing footage from today. I didn't care to see some inspector riding a boat in a tunnel...or how the German military uses a former WWII bunker for weapons storage and research. I wanted to see more about the bunkers and fortresses built by the Nazis before and during WWII.

There were portions that were absolutely fascinating. For example, seeing the bunkers of Goering and Gobbels, which I hadn't seen before, was compelling.

However, spending 15mins talking with some German military person about a tunnel was not.

I had to laugh at the review that said this was a dull show. It's about factories built underground during the war by the nazis. They pick different places and go there today and filmed it and then interspace it with vintage footage. What were they expecting? A fast paced action show? Explosions? I don't know but the fact is that they do not veer from telling the truth about what happened building all the various Nazi underground tunnels and factories. The used slave labor and basically worked many of them to death. The nazis and even the civilians involved acted with the most cruelty they could in this endeavour. The show is a overview and picks various sites to explore and to talk about. Most of them are factories but a few are living areas and bunkers and bomb shelters. The mountain where hitlers bergoff is probably one of the few featured in this documentary film that wasn't built by slave labor. I found it very interesting and well done. This was a german production and they use English speakers for narration in this version. If you don't find documentaries about old underground tunnels and factories from world war two interesting then don't watch this one, but if you are curious then this one is a good overview of the more than 800 major sites known. Including a system under a castle that was for the heads of the nazi state. Lots of factories and a gun site in france for the supergun that the british blew up before it could be used. Several v rocket building sites and other sites too. One of the sites is still used today as a storage and repair facility in modern germany and it's interesting to see that site and be granted access to it. That reminded me of when I toured "cheyenne' mountain' in colorado springs, back when it was still in use as the head of norad. IT's now a site for top secret computers and and other things and Norad is on peterson Airbase in a simple building. Which is cheaper I guess and the mountain now only has a skeleton crew to man it. Unless there's a stargate in there! I love exploring ruins and would even like to explore caves so this was a good two hours of informative informaion for me. The dvd looks great too as this was mainly filmed in the last ten years. The extras are few though.

I wasn't expecting much from this title, I figured that it would be somewhat like the other boring documentaries going through a few abandoned nazi tunnel systems...To my pleasant surprise this is actually very interesting, I did not know that so many underground tunnel systems built by the reichs forced labor programs were still in use today...I was astonished with the speed that these massive systems were built to be in production order for the last 2 years of the war, listing and showing underground nazi tunnels that would have been otherwise impossible to see with the naked eye..Some of these were so hidden that you may not even know that you were walking on enormous underground tunnels and rooms that were once the secret production areas of weapons like the first guided missile, the V1-V2 rockets.. Also the first fully operational jet propelled plane, the Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe...This documentary will take you on a guided tour of these Gargantuan tunnel systems, explaining how jewish and other ethnic forced labor workers built these marvels dug literally into a mountain hollowing it out... You find other useful information like how most were mainly only half completed due to germanys defeat in ww2 and how some of these huge rooms and systems were completed by the post-war german government and are now used to house heavily guarded material, aviation fuel, technology and even home of some of todays german army....

Overall this is thoroughly enjoyful, it is still today a testament to (though ruthless) the third reichs ability to achieve some of the first technological marvels of the modern world.. You grasp the understanding of how well protected those secrets were and also see that even after so many years, nazi germany was the creator of the worlds first guided missile, jet plane and ("also they were the inventors of the Sturmgewehr 44, the worlds first assault rifle") also touching on much of the underground munitions capabilities of the reich...

This is worth watching even just to see some of the condition of these tunnels, some not used since the fall and others well, you see modern cars driving through....

Very good, well worth the time and money

The are some gnawing gaps in the historical time-line. Needs re-editing and a newer version should be released. Publisher should convoke a new set of witnesses and military historians to take this program to a new completion.

This is a documentary about Germany's attempt to place many of their weapons manufacturing plants underground later in the war as the Allies relentlessly bombed their cities and armament operations. It was a last ditch attempt to pull out victory from what was becoming certain defeat. It is also the story of the degree to which Hitler would go to grasp for victory. Humans were nothing more than disposable tools (like worn out saw blades or broken down vehicles) in the building of these amazing underground facilities. Thousands of lives (many of them were POW's) were lost in this effort. After being closed to the public for many decades, they have been reopened to show the world. There always is the question of 'what if' they had succeeded in building plants that were safe from the Allies' bombs. We will never know. A more pertinent question today might be 'where' could this be going on in the world with rogue nations building secret weapons or other potentially lethal or illegal operations. Even our country has deep underground facilities connected with the military and critical defense operations. A fascinating world to think about and explore. This film is a beginning and very interesting although it could have been pared down to a shorter version but nevertheless a worthwhile venture. [...].