How could a political party as fundamentally evil and overtly racist as the Nazis come to power? This remains one of the most enigmatic questions of the last century. Acclaimed historian Laurence Rees examines what led a cultured nation at the heart of Europe to commit the atrocities it did. In so doing, he exposes popular myths and encourages understanding of the real forces that led to one of the darkest chapters in modern history. Was it simply the hypnotic power of Hitler's rhetoric? Did the Gestapo really impose themselves by terror on an unwilling population? Through interviews with witnesses and perpetrators, along with archive film and records, this six-part series unveils a more chilling reality. The entire film: The Nazis: A Warning from History, can be viewed online at: An expanded edition of this film series can be viewed at (English language):

The companion book for this film series is: Rees, Laurence (1997). The Nazis: A Warning from History. BBC Books. ISBN 978-0563387046.

January 17, 2012: Episode 1: "Helped into Power" - How the Nazi party was formed and Adolf Hitler was able to rise to power. Interviewees include former Nazi party members and their opponents.

January 24, 2012: Episode 2: "Chaos and Consent" - Examines how the Nazis consolidated power and how extreme and radical policies were formed and implemented, using the example of the euthanasia policy of Philipp Bouhler. The help given to the Gestapo by ordinary citizens is also explored and other events covered include Kristallnacht and remilitarisation. Interviewees include former Nazi officials, an army officer, a Jewish man and an inmate of an early concentration camp.

January 31, 2012: Episode 3: "The Wrong War" - Traces the path to war with Great Britain and the alliance with the Soviet Union. Interviewees include former Nazi officials and diplomats.

February 7, 2012: Episode 4: “The Wild East” - Examines Nazi rule and 'ethnic cleansing' in occupied Poland under Hans Frank, Albert Forster and Arthur Greiser. Interviewees include a Polish man who was subject to 'Germanisation', an ethnic German who was resettled in Poland and a former Nazi official.

February 14, 2012: Episode 5: "The Road to Treblinka" - An account of mass killings in occupied territories after the invasion of the Soviet Union. Interviewees include a former member of an execution squad and a survivor of Treblinka extermination camp.

February 21, 2012: Episode 6: “Fighting to the End” - Explores why Germany fought on when military defeat was inevitable. Interviewees include German soldiers and civilians.

As a slimmed-down history of Nazi-ruled Germany during the 1930s and 1940s, The Third Reich offers a stylish and engaging look at the rise and fall of a nation. Comprised entirely of vintage film clips shot by Russian troops, journalists, German citizens and others, it's a visual tour-de-force of a terrifying era. The Third Reich reminds viewers of the horrors of war, the dangers of a totalitarian government and the fragility of human life. The accompanying book by William Shirer is available online at Google Books. Just enter The Third Reich: Rise and Fall (http://books.google.com/books). The entire film: The Third Reich: Rise and Fall, can be viewed online at (English language):

February 28 & March 6, 2012: Episode 1: “The Rise of the Third Reich” - A unique perspective on the rise of Nazi Germany and how millions of people were so vulnerable to fascism, told through rare and never-before-seen amateur films shot by the Germans who were there.

March 13 & 20, 2012: EpisoTde 2: “The Fall of the Third Reich” How did the Germans experience the Allied victory in WWII? Rarely-and never-before-seen amateur films recount the catastrophic downfall of the Third Reich through the eyes of the people who lived it: the Germans themselves. Each session of this film presentation and lecture will consist of approximately an hour of film and 45 minutes of lecture and discussion. Dr. Terry Wimberley of Florida Gulf Coast University will be the presenter. For reservations, contact Jessica Brinkert at (239) 261-1616.

Triumph of the Will (German: Triumph des Willens) is a propaganda film made by Leni Riefenstahl. It chronicles the 1934 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg (the Nuremburg Rally was attended by Nazi supporters to promote the Nazi political party), which was attended by more than 30000 Nazi supporters. The film contains excerpts from speeches given by various Nazi leaders at the Congress, including portions of speeches by Adolf Hitler, interspersed with footage of massed party members. Hitler commissioned the film and served as an unofficial executive producer; his name appears in the opening titles. The overriding theme of the film is the return of Germany as a great power, with Hitler as the True German Leader who will bring glory to the nation. Triumph of the Will was commissioned by Hitler in 1934 and directed by Leni Riefenstahl, and covers the events of the Sixth Nuremberg Party Congress. The original intention was to document the early days of the NSDAP, so future generations could look back and see how the Third Reich began. In reality, Triumph of the Will shows historians how the Nazi state drew in the masses through propaganda and also how Adolf Hitler had a unique and terrifying ability to entice crowds to his beliefs by the very power of his words." If time permits we will also review the famous - or more accurately "infamous" - Nazi propaganda film "Triumph of the Will." Here is the online link to this film (German language):

Quex 1933: Our Flags Lead Us Forward [in German only] is a famous Nazi propaganda film which concerns the life and death of Hitler Youth member Herbert Norkus, killed while distributing flyers in a Communist neighborhood. Here is the link to this film (German language):

Heini Völker is a teen-aged boy. His comrades give him the nickname "Quex". He lives in poverty in Berlin, in a one room apartment. The year is 1932 - the depth of the Depression. His father is an out-of-work supporter of the Communist Party who sends his son on a weekend of camping with the Communist Youth Group. While there Quex finds the undisciplined revelry of the Communists to be distasteful. There is smoking, drinking, and dancing late into the night. Meals are served by cutting hunks from loaves of bread and throwing them to hungry campers who push to get something to eat. Boys and girls play games where they take turns holding each other down and slapping each other on their private parts. Quex runs away and in another part of the park finds a group of Hitler Youth camping by a lake. He spies on them from a distance.

The Hitler Youth are working together to make fires and cook a hot dinner. They sing patriotic songs, listen to speeches, and shout in unison their support for an "awakened Germany." There is no smoking or drinking. In the morning they awake early and run to the lake for a before-breakfast communal swim. Health, cleanliness, teamwork and patriotic nationalism is the image projected. When Quex returns to his home singing one the Hitler youth songs, his father, an ardent Communist, beats him and signs him up to become a member of the Communist Party. However, Quex informs the Hitler Youth that the Young Communists are planning to ambush them during a march using guns and dynamite. He becomes a pariah to the Communists, and a hero to the Hitler Youth. His distraught mother tries to kill her son and herself by extinguishing the pilot light and leaving the gas on in their one room apartment at night. She is killed. Quex survives. His father, crushed by what happens, begins to wonder whether his son isn't right—National Socialism may be better for Germany than Communism.

A recurring character in the film is the Communist street performer. His theme is that "for some people things work out well...but for George they never do." The message is that life in Germany may improve for everyone else, but for the workingman, George, life won't be good unless he joins the Communist Party. It is eventually the Communist street performer who corners Quex in the streets of Berlin at night, and stabs him to death. Quex posthumously becomes a hero to the Nazi movement.

Heini Völker's antagonist is the communist youth leader Wilde, "a Nazi version of the incarnation of the 'Jewish-Bolshevik' will to destruction". The movie's message is characterized by its final words, "The flag means more than death".

The Eternal Jew concerns itself with the Jews of Poland (invaded by Germany in 1939) who are depicted as filthy, evil, corrupt, and intent on world domination. Street scenes are shown prejudicially, along with clips from Jewish cinema of the day and photos of Jewish celebrities, while the narrator "explains" the Jewish problem. The climax and resolution of the film is Hitler's 1939 announcement that the Jewish race will meet its "annihilation" (Vernichtung). Here is the link to this film (English Subtitles):

"Considered lost for nearly 70 years, Victory of Faith by Leni Riefenstahl is again available to viewing audiences. A key work in the evolution of National Socialist propaganda, it provides an ambitious record of the 1933 NS Party rally at Nuremberg. The film ran afoul of authorities, however, after the "blood purge" of 1934, which rendered Brownshirt leader Ernst Rohm, a central figure in of the 1933 rally, a non-person. Across Germany, references to Rohm were obliterated from the public record, and all prints of Victory of Faith were tracked down and destroyed. Until now, the film seemed little more than an intriguing postscript to Third Reich history. Though far from a masterwork, the film is a revelation on many counts, offering a fascinating first draft of the ideas and techniques Riefenstahl would pull off so powerfully in Triumph of the Will. In their contrasts, the two films shed much light on the early evolution of NS propaganda, its evocation of heroism and collective will! , its portrayal of the 'national people's community,' and its depiction of Hitler most of all. Where Triumph of the Will showed Hitler as supreme symbol and absolute master of the movement, the Hitler of Victory of Faith is still first among equals, a man with an unruly forelock, a presence not yet wholly in command. Moreover, Victory of Faith provides a revealing look at the NS movement in the first blush of its 1933 triumphs. Here, the movement still bears the marks of its street-fighter origins; its rituals are often raw, lacking the orchestrated precision and theatrical grandeur we associate with later stagecraft. In these and other ways, Victory of Faith fills a gap in our understanding of the Third Reich, capturing the Hitler state at a pivotal stage in its early development." Here is the link to the film (English Subtitles):

"S.A. Mann Brand is a Nazi propaganda film that tells the story of a young truck driver who is having trouble making ends meet until he is exposed to the teachings of Adolf Hitler, and he joins the S.A., aka Storm Troopers, and manages to convert his father--a former soldier with Marxist leanings--and his girlfriend of the rightness of the Nazi cause." Here is the link to this film (German language):

Long recognized as history’s most incendiary film, Jud Süss was the cultural centerpiece in Joseph Goebbels’ campaign against the Jews. Released in 1940, it was a box office sensation across Germany and Europe; alongside the movie’s theatrical distribution, it became a staple of Nazi propaganda evenings organized by the Hitler Youth, SS and others. The film as based on a historical novel, "Jud Süss "written in 1925 by best selling author Lion Feuchtwanger, a Munich born playright, novelist and also a Jew. Feuchtwanger's Jud Süss was an international bestseller and was translated into over twenty languages. The book was also adapted for the stage by Ashley Dukes in the UK in 1929 and later inspired a film version by English director Lothar Mendes in 1934. But it wasn't until Goebbels saw the British film-adaptation did he realized the anti-Semitic potential the material had, if interpreted not as a human tragedy, but as a tale of Jewish arrogance and infiltration. Here is the link to the original British film (English language) produced in 1934 that gave Goebbels the idea for his own propaganda version of the film.

Here is the German version of this film (German language with Russian subtitles):

Festliches Nürnberg is a short 1937 propaganda film chronicling the Nazi Party rallies in Nuremberg in 1936 and 1937. The film was directed by Hans Weidemann The film runs for only 21 minutes, containing footage of the 8th and 9th Nuremberg Rallies. Particularly notable scenes of both the rally and the film are images of Albert Speer's lighting techniques during the 9th Nuremberg rally on September 10 1937, in which he positioned 134 spotlights circling the Zeppelin field on which the rally was taking place. The beams of these spotlights converged at 20,000 feet, creating what became known as the "Cathedral of Light". Since the formation of the Nazi Party in 1923, annual rallies had taken place at Nuremberg, mainly orchestrated by the 'minister for public enlightenment' Joseph Goebbels. The Nazi party, as it was known, also called upon architect Albert Speer to create a number of spectacles to inspire the German population. The 8th and 9th of these rallies were known as the "Rally of Honor" (Reichsparteitag der Ehre) and the "Rally of Labor" (Reichsparteitag der Arbeit) respectively. Here is the link to this film (English subtitles):

"Kampf um Norwegen - Feldzug 1940" (English: Battle for Norway - 1940 campaign) is a 81 minute-long German documentary directed by Martin Rikli and Dr. Werner Buhre by orders of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht. Produced in 1940, the movie follows the Invasion of Denmark and Norway in the spring 1940. For unknown reasons, the film was never shown in Germany. It was considered lost in its entirety until it surfaced at an Internet auction in 2005. Here is the link to the film (English Subtitles):

It was produced by the Oberkommando des Heeres, the German Army High Command, rather than the Propaganda Ministry of Joseph Goebbels.Goebbels indeed sabotaged its release in minor ways, delaying its premiere and telling propagandists not to promote it. The prologue consists of the Nazi version of European history and the origins of World War II, and the rest deals with the Blitzkrieg in Western Europe of May and June 1940. The movie was made largely from newsreel footage recut into a documentary The program provided states that it is to show the audacity of the German offensive and the superiority of German arms, required because they will not be permitted to live in peace. It did not give Hitler or the Nazi party a central role, thus ensuring its disfavor with Goebbels. You can begin viewing the film at this link or go to part 1 of 12 above (English dubbed):

Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi is an animated short film produced by Walt Disney and released on January 15, 1943 by RKO Radio Pictures. Based on the anti-Nazi propaganda book by Gregor Ziemer, directed by Clyde Geronimi and principally animated by Ward Kimball. Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi was released when Disney was under government contract to produce 32 animated shorts from 1941-1945. This was due to the fact that in 1940 Walt Disney spent four times his budget on the feature film Fantasia (1940) which produced very little in the box office. Nearing bankruptcy and faced with a strike that left less than half of his employees on the payroll, Walt Disney was forced to look for a solution to upturn the production of the studio. Physical proximity to the military aircraft manufacturer, Lockheed, made it convenient for the U.S. government to offer Disney a contract for 32 short propaganda films at $4,500 each which would create work for his employees and in turn save the studio. The dialogue of the characters is in German, neither subtitled nor directly translated by Art Smith's lone English language narration. A voice track of Adolf Hitler in full demagogic rant is used in a torchlight rally scene. A sequence follows in which Hans becomes a Nazi soldier along with other Hitler Youth. This English language film can be viewed at:

What Hitler Wants, which depicts a devilish Hitler giving Russian factories to capitalists, enslaving and riding once-free Soviet citizens, but shows that the U.S.S.R. will be prepared to fight, paying the Germans back in triplicate, ready to beat the 'fascist pirates. This animated film can be seen at the following link (English subtitles):

Der Fuehrer's Face (originally titled Donald Duck in Nutzi Land) is a 1943 American animated short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The cartoon, which features Donald Duck in a nightmare setting working at a factory in Nazi Germany, was made in an effort to sell war bonds and is an example of American propaganda during World War II. The film was directed by Jack Kinney and features adapted and original music by Oliver Wallace. The film is well known for Wallace's original song "Der Fuehrer's Face," which was actually released earlier by Spike Jones. Der Fuehrer's Face won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 15th Academy Awards. It was the only Donald Duck film to receive the honor, although eight other films were also nominated. In 1994, it was voted #22 of "the 50 Greatest Cartoons" of all time by members of the animation field. However, because of the propagandistic nature of the short, and the depiction of Donald Duck as a Nazi (albeit a reluctant one), Disney kept the film out of general circulation after its original release. Its first home video release came in 2004 with the release of the third wave of the Walt Disney Treasures DVD sets. This film can be accessed at this link (English language):