It seems incredible that the Nazis ever came to power. Today, they are among the most unpopular of all movements, portrayed as bad guys in movie after movie (and rightfully so). You would think that they were as unpopular then as they are now, but this was obviously not the case. Most of the people who supported them at that time have since tried to conceal their Nazi pasts. But a small number of them are more open about their involvement in these things, and are willing to praise Nazism even in the climate of today. This series interviews a few of these people on camera, and shows why they were willing to follow Adolf Hitler to the extent that they did (or at all, for that matter). It is a revealing look into the psychology of the Nazis.
Adolf Hitler
This documentary interviews people who lived through these times
But first, a few basic things about this documentary: It was made in 1997, by the BBC. Obviously, as a British network, the BBC has a healthy dislike of the Nazis. Indeed, this is one of the most important things to know about this film. It interviews a number of people who lived through this time, more than fifty years after the Nazis’ reign had ended. Some of these people were openly pro-Nazi, even when they were interviewed in 1997. Others had since changed their mind (or at least said they had), but were open about how they had once supported Hitler. One actually finds such honesty refreshing, given that few are willing to admit to such things today. Others claimed that they opposed the Nazis all along, denying that they had ever been sympathetic to Hitler. When the BBC didn’t believe their denials, they were not averse to calling them out on it, and refuting their denials with some documentary evidence. For example, they showed one woman a document which bore her signature, in which she had informed on one of her female neighbors. This document played a role in sending this neighbor to a death camp, something that the interviewer was quick to point out to the interviewee. After repeating her denial for the camera, the woman abruptly cut off the interview with the BBC. Given the admission that this signature was indeed her own, one finds her denial somewhat less than believable. But she’s not the only one who was in this position here. Others, too, cut off the interviews when they took a more hostile turn.
Nazi book-burning in Berlin, May 1933
Episode 1: “Helped into Power”
But next, some comments about the episodes: The episode that I learned the most from may have been the very first episode. This is the episode that discussed how the Nazis came into power, and examined the prior history of their movement. The episode is simply called “Helped Into Power.” This is a subject that “The World at War” did not examine much, since it started at the moment that the Nazis assumed power in 1933. But this documentary actually goes into their various campaigns before then, much earlier than their actual assumption of power. There is not much biographical information about Adolf Hitler himself, but there is certainly a wealth of sources from which to get this kind of information (most of them unsympathetic to him, which is as it should be). They talk about how Germany was on the losing end of World War One, and how Hitler was a soldier in that war. The Jews were blamed for virtually all of Germany’s ills at that time. The Allies imposed reparations on Germany, which meant that the Germans had to pay the winners for the damages that they had caused in that war. As you might expect, the Allies saw these reparations as very fair, but the Germans saw them somewhat differently. In fact, these reparations contributed to a German desire for revenge against the Allies. From a German point of view, World War Two was partially about getting this revenge.
One-million mark notes used as notepaper, October 1923 – symptomatic of the terrible inflation in Germany caused by the reparations
After World War One, the Allies created a democracy in Germany, now known as the “Weimar Republic.” Like the Jews, this democracy was blamed for most of Germany’s ills. Thus, the two most popular parties in postwar Germany both advocated the overthrow of democracy. One was the Communist Party, and the other was the National Socialist Party. (The National Socialists are the group now known as the “Nazis.”) Because the democracy had not been overthrown yet, the Germans had to vote on which of these parties was to take power in Germany. They voted for the Nazis, despite the Nazis openly admitting that they were “intolerant.” The Nazis were openly preaching dictatorship, and didn’t really attempt to conceal this fact from the public. This makes it particularly disturbing that the Germans actually voted for them despite this. They were openly anti-Semitic, and blamed the Jews for all of Germany’s ills (as mentioned before). They also blamed the Communists for these ills – and, as mentioned earlier, the Weimar democracy. Thus, the democracy was soon overthrown, and Hitler was launched into power.
Destroyed synagogue in Aachen, Germany – Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass), 1938
Episode 2: “Chaos and Consent” and Episode 3: “The Wrong War”
Another interesting episode is called “Chaos and Consent.” This is the only episode that the scriptwriter for this documentary appears in on camera. They make the case that, far from being well-ordered, Nazi Germany was actually a fairly chaotic place. There was plenty of infighting from various factions in the Nazi government, all of which claimed to represent the will of Hitler. Despite having major power, the Gestapo were actually a fairly small percentage of the population, and depended heavily upon the cooperation of their subjects. Many had to turn in their neighbors for “subversion,” before these people were actually punished by the Gestapo. This paints a surprisingly chaotic picture of Nazi Germany. Fascism is often sold as the path to order, but this documentary shows that it is anything but. Hitler was a lazy ruler, and did not like to get involved in the details of his policies. Thus, a surprising amount of latitude was left to his subordinates, and they fought each other fiercely over the right to exercise this latitude. I will only say a few brief things about Episode 3: “The Wrong War” here. One is that this episode talked about how Hitler idealized the British – ironic, since he would soon be making war on the British. The other is the response of prime ministers Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain to the German expansionism in Europe, leading to an eventual rupture between Britain and Germany. (More about that here.)
Arthur Greiser, a Nazi that this documentary covers in some detail
Ethnic Germans in the Sudetenland greet German soldiers with the Nazi salute, 1938
Episode 4: “The Wild East” and Episode 5: “The Road to Treblinka”
Another interesting episode covers “The Wild East.” This focuses disproportionately upon certain things, such as the first 18 months or so of the occupation in Poland. Indeed, they spend more time on Poland than on any other occupied country. Other occupied countries don’t get anywhere near the kind of coverage that Poland does. But this episode is still valuable for what it does have to offer. It should not be expected to cover everything equally, in my not-so-humble opinion. They paint a picture of Nazi cruelty, with surprising departures from the stated goals of Hitler. This testifies to how much power Hitler’s subordinates really had. One episode is called “The Road to Treblinka,” and focuses largely on the Holocaust. Treblinka was just one of many Nazi death camps, and not even the most important one. Thus, their reasons for focusing so much on this one camp are unclear to me. But they do paint a disturbing picture of the Holocaust, and get to the heart of the matter with commendable clarity. They go into the psychology of the war criminals, and how they were able to commit such terrible deeds. Such things need to be remembered today – again, in my “not-so-humble” opinion.
Jews being loaded onto trains to Treblinka at the Warsaw Ghetto's Umschlagplatz, 1942
Episode 6: “Fighting to the End”
The last episode is called “Fighting to the End.” As its name suggests, it covers the end of the war, and how Germany fought to the end. By this time, it was obvious to most of the Germans that they were going to lose the war. But nonetheless, they were stuck with this unwinnable war until Hitler committed suicide in 1945. This is one of the hardest aspects of Nazi Germany for a contemporary audience to understand. Why would the Nazis have fought on to the end, when it was so obvious to most of them that they were going to lose the war? The power of the dictatorship is undoubtedly a prominent part of this answer. But the psychology of his supporters is another part, and this documentary is good at going into this mindset. Questions like this are obviously somewhat complicated, but this documentary makes a valiant effort to answer them to their viewers’ satisfaction. I find their answers fairly convincing, and enough to satisfy my desire for understanding.
Conclusion: This is a great documentary series
Even people who have spent their lives studying Nazi Germany can find it hard to understand certain aspects of its history. Indeed, episodes like the Holocaust can defy understanding, even from some of the finest experts on the subject. But if we are to prevent such things from happening again, we have to at least try to understand why these things happened. Otherwise, our efforts to prevent them will be somewhat ill-informed. This documentary is a timely examination of these things, which went wherever the evidence took them. Indeed, the filmmakers were fairly good at finding some new evidence in this film, which had never before fallen under the eyes of historians. This may be why this film is timeless, and well worth the attention of World War II buffs. It helps to address some complicated questions, and helps to introduce a new generation to the causation behind World War II. If you want to understand this massive topic, it would help to understand the twentieth century’s most infamous regime, and this film is good at introducing people to that subject. In my opinion, it will remain a valuable historical record for years to come.
Footnote to this blog post:
I link below to a DVD that has this program about the Nazis. But this program is also sold as part of the “BBC History of World War II.” If viewers are interested in the other documentaries in this series, I presume that it’s probably cheaper to get them all at once. However, I link to both versions below, so that viewers may be presented with multiple options. Viewers may do as they please.
Also available as part of the “BBC History of World War II”
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