Customer Reviews

Unsolved Mysteries of World War II

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

 

 

While the historical content of these DVDs is quite interesting, the sound quality is so bad that they are almost unwatchable. The background music is so loud that it drowns out the narration. Adjusting the volume doesn't help. The problem is the same on all 3 DVDs of this set.

By and large, the Unsolved Mysteries of World War II box set is quite good, filled with important facts and oftentimes fascinating speculation. The running time of four and a half hours is broken up into 12 separate documentaries, all of which deal specifically with the Third Reich. The title is a little misleading because you will find almost nothing here dealing with the imperial Japanese army, and the American war effort is really only presented in light of its effects on German strategy and eventual defeat.

Volume 1 features The Riddle of Rudolph Hess, The Strange Death of Geli Raubal, and Drugs and the Fuhrer. I find much of the information on Raubal's death highly speculative, but the information on the medical facts of Hitler's case is quite interesting. As for the Rudolf Hess story, I think more attention should have been given to claims that the man imprisoned in Spandau was not truly Rudolf Hess, and the mysterious death of the Spandau prisoner also deserved more attention.

Volume 2 features Decision at Dunkirk and Stalin's Secret Armies. This look at what essentially constitute two of Hitler's biggest blunders is excellent. The Russian campaign, and the secrecy Stalin maintained over the state and number of his soldiers to both enemies and allies alike, is a war story too often neglected, and the speculation concerning Hitler's decision to essentially let the British live to fight another day is quite interesting.

Volume 3 features Hitler's Secret Weapon, Enigma of the Swastika, and Himmler's Castle. The term "Hitler's Secret Weapon" is rather lurid and overblown, but the fact that Hitler devoted a disproportionate amount of funds and essential supplies to his rocket program definitely contributed to his ultimate downfall. There is some speculation that the V-2 was to serve as the delivery mechanism for weapons of mass destruction, but this issue is not pursued as there is little evidence to support it. The other two documentaries on this tape delve into the occult nature of the National Socialist Party and, in particular, Himmler's feared S.S.; these are subjects I find darkly fascinating.

Volume 4 features Hitler's Secret War and Kill Hitler. This may be the best video in the series. "Hitler's Secret War" is something of a misnomer, as this documentary covers in great detail the allied breaking of the German military codes early in the war. Most interesting is the evidence that the Allies ignored significant portions of the information they intercepted for a number of reasons. The citizens of Coventry were apparently sacrificed because to remove the population before the bombs dropped would have clued Hitler in to the fact that the British knew his codes, and the surprise German counteroffensive at Ardennes in 1944 should have come as no surprise at all  but it did. Equally surprising is the fact that the Germans never seemed to figure out that the Allies knew of many of their military plans in advance and thus staged some rather remarkable victories. Kill Hitler covers a number of plots to arrest or kill Hitler, and the analysis of Hitler's fluid relationship with the Wehrmacht is nothing short of riveting.

The final volume features The Eagle and the Swastika and The Last Days of Hitler. The first documentary covers Hitler's decision to declare war on the United States in the wake of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent American declaration of war on Japan. The analysis of the inexplicability of this decision is quite valuable to students of World War II. The look at Hitler's final days is rather disappointing to some degree, as facts that have been pretty well established by now are treated with skepticism or dismissed out of hand.

All in all, I found this an excellent series on the Third Reich's rise and fall. It must be said that the audio and video quality leave something to be desired, but the information and footage to be found in this set of documentaries is well worth the attention of those interested in the rise of a dictator and the eventual ruin of a conquered German state.

Thsi 5 Cd collection is quite captivating as well as thought provoking. It goes into the past of Nazi Germany and answers many questions while leaving just a few unanswered, possibly in the hopes of spurring on new research. I found myself stopping and rewinding each cd several times to go over the material presented.

The footage is excellent and the background material is top notch. There are a few glitches here and there in the filming but that can be attested to the age of the original footage and not the CD.

These cd's will make a great gift for the World War II buff or someone with a keen interest into the the secrets of Nazi Germany. I myself would like to know what was in Himmler's safe in his SS castle, as well as what happened to those who opened the vault. Somethings, only time will tell!

I agree with the previous reviewer:
The footage is excellent and the background material is top notch. There are a few glitches here and there in the filming but that can be attested to the age of the original footage and not the CD.
For those who can't understand that this material is approx 70 years old,
I suggest you watch some new Hollywood action movie with special effects.
This type of material is not for immature kids.

I got this for Christmas a few years back. It is a pretty good series of WWII mysteries and other off-center subjects. The film that accompanies the narration make this a more interesting way to take in some of the strangeness. Much of this information I had heard of, a lot of it I hadn't, and some of it didn't interest me at all. However, there is a LOT of information on this 6 hour tape. The producers get a lot of different subjects in this time frame and I think they gave each episode about the right amount of time. It doesn't come across as overly sensational; let's face it, if you got this tape you're likely looking for something sensational. Thus I didn't think that this aspect was overdone. The tape acknowledges a lot that isn't known but what MIGHT be true. Some of this stuff had nothing to do with the origin or outcome of WWII but reminds us that there were some deranged people involved in the Third Reich. On the other hand, a lot of this stuff helps the viewer to understand some background of things that did (and did not) happen.

I haven't gotten around to watching it a second time. However, I know I'll eventually watch it again. It's not the the quality of programs like "The World At War" but it's interesting.

I could not believe the bad quality of the footage. No, it has nothing to do with the original footage. Even the credits were very blurry and blocky. I have had the misfortune of buying another video set, on VHS, by this same company. Same dismal results. I would recommend looking elsewhere. The company that makes this video has released lots of video sets with flashy pictures, but when you actually view them, you realize how shoddy their workmanship is. It looks like a bad propaganda film from the 1950s. My other video set actually was: War in the Pacific.

Being a WWII buff for 40 years has made me a bit fussy, being one of whom has seen hundreds of hours of actual combat and non combat films of that era. Eventhough this film had ample time to display many unsolved subjects, it stuck to items that have been repeated in many films on the history channels, and elsewhere. What would be nice, is if when somebody makes this type film in the future, that they could dig up some subject matter that hasen't come up before. And I know many of these type items are out there. For instance, operation Hammerhead, where all soviet troops that fought on the german side, and were captured by the western allies, had to be turned over to stalin at the end of the war, for a fate that I'd rather not elaborate on. Or another item of secrecy: England and France declared war on Germany in 1939 because of the German invastion of Poland. A matter of days after that invasion, Germany's non-aggression pact ally, the Soviet Union, invaded Poland from the east, and occupied their pre arranged half of Poland. "Why was it that England and France didn't also declare war on The Soviet Union"? Poland was an ally of those two western nations no matter who invaded Poland. Now these are some of the many secrets I'd sure like to hear about?

This collection is yet another attempt to squeeze money out of World War II buffs by unscrupulous production companies. Each episode casts a very broad net and creates questions which the episode never really answers. However the subjects are covered vastly better in just about any 1 hour History Channel or Discovery Channel documentary. The producers use an English narrator apparently for the sole purpose of sounding authoritative (a la Lawrence Olivier narrating the BBC series 'World at War'). This series is not an English production. Don't waste your time. Even if you see it in the bargain bin cause it's not even worth 2 or 3 dollars from there.

A utter utter rip-off. These bad BAD people are making a profit by ripping you off. There are some short sequences of interesting videos, packaged into a box set, but of low production quality. Inexcusable. Only for the true die-hard Third Reich fans. Wait for it to appear in the bargain bin. Very sad. Makes me Sick Heil! Or, as the Germans used to say, this is pure Kotz durchs Fenster (Vomit out of the Window) stuff.

The last reviewer was the author, manufacturer or distributor of the DVD series! Sounds just like an ad!