Third Reich: The Rise and Fall
For the second half of the twentieth century, the Third Reich has been deliberated and dissected.
Now, as the Greatest Generation fades into history, the image of 40,000 uniformed Nazis goose-stepping in perfect synchronization represents all most Americans know about history’s most dangerously successful totalitarian government.
Dig deep beneath the surface of our collective understanding of the Third Reich as History unearths what we don’t know about the individuals who comprised one of the most fascinating and complex regimes of recent history.
Third Reich: The Rise and Fall uncovers familiar anecdotes and fascinating details about the people who comprised the Nazi Party, and raids the treasure trove of archives the Nazis left behind, including rarely seen German newsreel recordings along with other unique footage carried home by Russian troops.
@ 1:24:00 Not September 1938 but April 20 1939.
Armies don't invade wearing 'dress' uniforms.
They are lined up for someones birthday parade.
This was a very good documentary! Well done!
Does anyone know if this video is appropriate for students in grade 6?
What about you watch it..
More propaganda from the History Channel? Perhaps also watch 'Adolf Hitler:The Greatest Story NEVER Told.
Thank you will watch it now :)
Everyone should remain open to the high likelihood that almost everything we think we know about this episode of history is a falsification.
The propaganda machine is alive and thriving, now it called " American Exceptionalism" every trailer park in America has a large US flag!
It's very interesting to see the view of the world from the journals of everyday people in Germany during this period.
I tire of the excessive demonisation of the Nazis, they were clearly humans and their actions are inherently human, using the Nazis as the ultimate scapegoat for all blame is so terribly shallow it seems insulting to the suffering of humanity that occurred as a result of WWII on all sides.
To me it has always remained a dark point of interest that as a whole our response to genocidal behavior was genocide.
Pull your head out of your a**. They are portrayed as monsters because THEY WERE!!!!!! If you can't see that...... seek help man.
human beings were the ones who were sent to the camps, and human beings are the ones who put them there.
Still one of the best Nazi documentaries I've yet seen.
Gee, some of these comments were made years and years ago. I just realized that :)
Best WW2 I've ever seen, amazing rare footage and excerpts. Can't recommend it enough, masterfully done.
its arguable that hoover recalling the germans debt after our stock market crash brought hitler into power...
id also remind people attempting to say the german people were unfairly oppressed after WW1 that WW1 was not the first attempt by Germany at world conquest. 3 times in a century is enough for any planet, id imagine.
that's not to say the german people cant be forgiven for what happened in WW2, of course they can.. life moves on .. its just important to remember the mistakes of the past so you don't ever repeat them. I hate that germans must feel shame, but all of us have our hands bloody in some way in our family/ethnic/nationality history... I mean hey, im white and and live in the united states after all. people don't realize the last racially motivated lynching here was in 1981.
people will always attempt to point the finger at others for their own misfortunes... you must not let hate and fear consume our hearts as all of us working together as human beings will uplift the entirety of all civilized mankind.
Ha...but the Mexicans aren't forgiving us for the fighting at the Alamo....go figure...hate and fear??
Agreed! Were the Germans treated poorly in Versailles? How did the Germans treat the Russians at Brest-Livostk
prob similar things were said in 1918...
First,we are told that German Jews constituted less than 1% of the German population. Later,we are told that confiscated Jewish assets paid for 30% of the German war effort! So,by the own admission of this documentary,a few Jews had all the wealth! So where Is the lie that the Jews didn't have all the money? Less than 1% owning at least a third of the wealth Is absolute proof of the massive wealth of the Jews who - before Hitler - lived In luxury whilst the ordinary German people starved. Hitler may have been a nutter and a murderer but the question of 'using the Jews as his Scapegoats' Is utter fallacy,as Is clearly shown here In this one-sided,Judo-American 'heard-It-all- before' trash.
Strange I just got Cut off I shall try to finish, [ like I said all communications scrutinised ], needed for not only Detention but indefinite detention, Detention camps,,, Kill lists & constant War all after September the 11th, Pardon me I meant to type/say Feb 28th are you people really the Idotic, your embarrassing yourselves AGAIN, When will you t*ats from the shallow end of the gene pool realise your that you are getting ROYALLY F**KED like every one else on the planet, Jesus Wake up!!!
Freedom of the Press,Free speech, Highest number of prisons & prisoners, Massive spying network, [ supported ] by people informing on each other, [ Rats ], phones tapped, all communications scrutinised, Areas Governed by unelected suits, Military on the streets, no just cause or warents needed
Very good documentary. Hitler was a bad leader. An opportunst that took advantage of a sick society. Terrible what the Nazis did. but we also have to remember USA´s treatment of Indians, Their own soldiers in the civil war (Andersonville) and the treatment of Afro Americans. USA is still a sick country while Germany has transformed it self to a very strong and good country. But never forget what the Germans did to Europe. I´m from Denmark and know how Prussia/Germany has treated Denmak. We won in 1848-1850 Lost in 1864 and lost half of Denmark, got some of it back 1920 and was conquered in 1940 again. So I´m not on the German side, but neither on Americas when it comes to civil rights...
Thank you to the author for posting the documentary, and thank you to someordinaryguy and Jakob Isindahawtz for their much moving thoughts.
I am a Japanese national of the same age group as someordinaryguy educated in the USA working in Europe with a love for history, with shame of not coming across this topic sooner.
The Japanese as we all know were the axis partner country to the third reich along with Italy, and hold similar responsibilities and shame in Asia on acts against humanitarian acts during WW2, with the likes of Rape of Nanjing (although the book is issue of debate) and the colonization/forced prostitution in the Korean peninsula etc. However, it's quite obvious Japan had "the easy way out" upon it's post war reconstruction via the US-GHQ occupation, further the government dubbed "51st state of the US" even til today,
Wars and its associated environment expose the darkest of our hearts as said in the film, also, could not stop thinking perhaps conflicts within the same bio-ethnic group (please advise+correct if wrong), i.e. emotional issues of the Chinese and the Koreans against the Japanese belonging to the same mongoloid ethnicity, and/or the Germans, Russians and the European Jews of caucasion gene pool where the intra-group similarities trigger an exceptional hatred once the button is pushed for denouncement - Similar to what they say about emotional hatred between siblings tend to be the worst. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was yes by far the largest single genocide known to man, however, it was a push of the release button as opposed to the slaughter and rape depicted in the document, which likely to have caused a spiral of dark-hearted jestures against one another.
2000 years ago at times when "eye for an eye" was normal, a superstar Jew gospeled "when hit on your right cheek, give him your left" . 40 years ago, a superstar working class gospeled "imagine" when both britan and germany suffered form losses. I prey.........and believe.... this century sincerely learns from the past one.
Please be proud of your motherland. The two fastest mass production automobiles to have circuit Nurenburg are made in Germany and Japan.
Love, Respects and Peace
am glad Hitler turn to fight the Russian that save the world.
That was the turning point. Russian were going to stay out of the war
till hitter turn on them. I don't blame Russian for rape killing women children
That's what german did in Russia.
You are a piece of s*it man. Really? You don't mind raping and killing women just because it was good revenge? Wow. This is what America is composed of? We really do need a change..
I doubt Big John is the normal American...maybe he is a troll.
Russia, the Soviet Union Union invaded Poland from the East when NS Germany invaded Poland from the West...
So much for your theory that Russia /USSR was going to stay out of war.
we can all watch this and denounce them as horrible people but how many people can watch this and say they understand them? untill our compassion extends to all people including our enemys we will continue to allow things like this to happen over and over and over again and again untill we all die
whats the differnce between US now and hitlers GOV???? im far from being a skinhead , but he was a great leader, US has never had a great leader,, yes i might be b from this place, but we need a leader that aint islam , that can take control and not listen to the id**t gov... we need a revilotion
Well, I am German and I just finished watching this documentary. I read about it somewhere on the Internet and was happy to find it here as an online stream. First thing I would like to mention is that the footage shown in this piece is not banned or restricted or anything like that in Germany. Perhaps some of the homemade film material seems to be new to me, but the rest is known and was shown before in many similar documentaries broadcasted on German TV or History Channels.
I am 52 years old and thus still belong to the post-war generation in Germany which was confronted very intensely with the crimes and cruelties the generation before us committed during the Third Reich. Collective guilt, shame and grief was something I was brought up with. I was confronted with concentration camp survivors who came to our school and reported dabout the horror and tortures they went through. The diary of Anne Franck was a compulsory read in class and of course the Nazi era was a constant topic in history classes was well as the guilt and the responsibility accrueing from these twelve years. Twelve years which dramatically overshadow the long German history dating back to the times of the ancient Roman empire and still set everything else behind to the present day. I still belong to the generation older people threw stones at or spat out when I was on holidays in France in the seventies and they found out we were Germans. Being from Germany was something I was never proud of and will probably never be. I do not blame anyone for that and I don't want to wallow in self-pity or something. It is the way it is and all I can say is that at least my generation learned a hard lesson. Sometimes I envy the younger generation in Germany a bit, since they could develop a more relaxed attitude towards their home country. A generation that has no problem with waving the German colours for their team during football championships or sing along the German anthem without feeling uncomfortable. I still wouldn't wave a German flag or sing the German anthem. I have no patriotic feelings in me and there is still nothing I could be proud of without feeling guilty.
We as a people paid a dear price for our deeds and it was only fair and simply a matter of justice and consequence to do do. We lost our homes and cities, lost our identity and self-confidence, lost over 900.000 civilians in the constant air raids alone, 5.7 million soldiers and 2.7 million further civilians as so-called collateral damage. Probably like no other nation in the world, Germany is done with war, militarism and dictatorship - you can take that for granted.
Finally I would like to thank the creators of this documentary for having put together a well-balanced synopsis of the reasons for Hitler's rise and the role other nations played in this desaster. I am not saying this to play anything down or to relativise anything. It's just important to know that there were reasons for the rise of the Nazi party which sometimes tends to be forgotten and it's always good to know the whole story. Especially for the future generations.
Thank you for this; however, I don't think you should be ashamed of Germany now. To me the problem in the U.S. is that this is not taught well enough in middle and high schools. There are people in the U.S. that do not believe this even happened, that it is all a hoax. This video should be mandatory in all U.S. high schools even with the disturbing videos taken when the U.S. soldiers entered Dachau. I fear the human race is not good at learning lessons.
I am a teacher in New York, and YES the US does not teach ANYTHING correctly with regards to world history and how events in history affect society and how we can perhaps avoid these problems in the future.
Thank you for your wise and thoughtful comments.
Everyone who denounces Germans as Nazis for whatever minuscule grudge should read your post!
However,had the German people not been plunged Into abject poverty after WW1 by the terribly unfair and massively punitive 'Treaty of Versailles',Hitlers' chance would never have come. Instead of blaming the Warmongers and Politicians, the allies chose to Starve and humiliate the German people.(As an example,one Clause In the treaty was that Germany pay for 40,000 telegraph poles damaged during the hostilities.). The allies declared war on Germany,not the other way around,so to plunge the whole Nation Into poverty was absurd,cruel and dangerous.The Versaille treaty suggested that 100% of the war was the fault of 100% of the German people which of course Is absurd.This left a Government with no means to serve It's people. So WW1 never really ended - the allies continued the war against the German people with the Treaty of Versaille...perhaps,then,WW2 would be better called 'WW1 part 2! The allies paved the way for Hitler and his cronies by their own self-serving actions.
Thank you.
the problem is with u all watching this.... ur happy sat on you chair watching it
Its a small glimpse of how a people wanted sanity and ended up insane.
No mater who you are, about 54 million us our fellow humans died.
Yep some were good and some were bad, but they died all the same.
For our safety we have CCTV Camera with face recognition, Xray security checks, "Home land security" to protect our "Fatherland"
In 20 years how many Cameras will there be? For our safety will our children have RFID chips?
Do you think we will have Cash or imbedded ID.
We see it happening right now, we all know its going to happen, but we all know we cant stop it.
The Insane monster is already loose.
For the security of a nation maybe those of us that remember freedom will be in Camps.
I think its already too late.
I hate to see how you lose hope!
we need to help our friends wake up and then take action, we must take action!
What I dislike is the labeling of any group being demonized more than others or that a particular group was more damaged.Yes the Nazis did terrible things but it wasn't only the jews. Every nationality or ethnicity has both done terrible things and been victimized. What about the tens of millions who died at the hands of the Russian purge or the Chinese communists. How about Americas world record or extinguishing the most innocent civilians in just 2 single acts against the Japanese? Or, some may argue the irony of Israel being an idealistic state based solely on jewish ethnicity with"camps" of "unwanted". Quit the blaming game and move on. Only then will we have a peaceful world. It kind of bothers me how Germany has been so freakin demonized here in the west when even worse atrocities have been committed and no one every has heard about those. In a way we repeat history by vilifying them.
Not so sure they need the disclaimer at the beginning of these episodes. I don't think anyone could watch this expecting NOT to be disturbed. Besides the fringe sociopaths, of course, who look at this a say "I like those hats." Still having a hard time making the leap between the loss of national pride for losing a war they started, a messed up economy, and how that's somehow the fault of Jewish people. Not like I'm really trying to, but still I'd like to know.
Antisemitism was found everywhere, not just in Germany, but all over Europe and North America.
J O T ... there is nothing quite like a good old fashioned jump to conclusions ,no jehova's witnesses at this location or christians for that matter,simply a question relating to what seems to be an omission of fact and why that would have been done ,also keeping in mind that my info could be incorrect , or possibly I've misunderstood entirely and you meant I should stop feeling prostituted /or is it persecuted ???? clarity sometimes eludes the best of us. anyhow, happy winter solstice to you.
today's my 50th birthday. when my mother was 13, they made her walk into the camps, it frightened her and shaped the rest of her life and her family's life. it affected me. America, you made no friend of me the day you pushed my mother and her family's nose into a pile of s*** they did not make. You did not make an enemy of me, but you did make a spectator.
@oilchng. NO this is not odd, stop feeling prosecuted. There is no mention of the killing og homosexuals, Roma or thousands of other minorities!
The general rule is, if he/she wasnt "aryan" and Christian, he/she most likely ended up in a ditch somewhere!
They killed Christians and clergy as-well, anyone who spoke out or who was thought to no support the Third Reich was killed. God was used as a tool to manipulate the masses. And is confirmed as such from Hitler himself via documented discussions with his inner circle.This is even if you were "Aryan" and Christian". as Aryan or "Classic Nordic" features are not uncommon.
The crowd is a crowd. The only thing we can try to do - raise our children as individuals, already from the birth
there seems to be no mention of the nearly 2 million jehovah's witnesses murdered along side the jews / handicapped / "undesireables" . anyone else find that odd ??
Dear Oilchng
I don't know where you get your 2 million Jehovah's Witnesses from. There wasn't even 2 million JWs worldwide at the time..! JWs themselves, if you check, admit that around 3500 went into NAZI concentration camps and roughly 1500 came out at the end of the war. Sachsenhausen was a camp which housed many JWs.
Thank you for correcting me ... I discovered my mistake about 6 months ago while studying another subject and had I remembered this post , would have removed it . If wikip can be believed 10000 jws were imprisoned ,2000 went to camps , 1200 were executed...Your post reminds me that I should check my facts more closely, and my shoe size. I truly hope that this doc has shown us all that stupidity in the form of pure evil is not acceptable under any circumstance . Possibly,the pursuit of intelligence will save us all from the waste that occurred in Connecticut yesterday. I wish the victims families and you, PEACE ...
Even that is wrong there were no more than at the most 800 JWs sent to the camps.
Wow, the only thing funny about this doc is that once again, christians were right there with the iron fist of their god killing and being as self-righteous and evil as mankind is capable. christians = nazi is funny because it's true and this movie proves it. opps, a bit of a tangent.
Pretty good Doc, I'm not sure the old vintage family film footage helped explain anything. Yes, it was background for the narration but gees, 3 hours could have been condensed and more interesting if they actually had interesting footage.
We need constant reminders of what man is capable of doing to fellow man, it's still happening today, I hate being caught in evolution in this time period - let's get on with and evolve away from our egos (and belief in fairy tales, like JC and his dad).
John Marus, I agree that we need constant reminders of what man is capable of doing to fellow man. What I don't agree with is your conclusion that Christians = Nazis. I guess Mao, Stalin, Marx, etc., and their ways of persecuting and killing anyone who disagrees with them, means that all atheists = blood thirsty tyrants? Hardly. As you have said, it is man. That is what it comes down to. Man and selfishness is the main ingredient in all of these examples of brutal hate. Not a principle based on "love your neighbor," which gets denied or twisted for selfishness. It is true that there are Christians which are self-absorbed hypocrites, many of whom did nothing of good worth in the midst of these atrocities (and other matters such as the Dark Ages, don't even get me started on that). But they did it in opposition to the plain teachings such as "love your neighbor," "he who is without fault throw the first stone," "if a fellow man errs, correct him in the way he should go," and "let us reason together." Also, if you're waiting for humans to "evolve away" from our egos, then you will be waiting a very long time. As long as there are humans on this earth, there will be selfishness. Thank you for your time.
why do you need a reminder, just look around it hasnt gone anywhere
Sorry, you are wrong. The Nazis set about to destroy Christianity under Hitler. Mein Kampf was touted as better than the Bible, and any Christian clergy that spoke out against the party were imprisoned or executed.
I can't believe people actually argue the Holocaust is fiction.
I find it extremely hard to stomache that the war on Jews was also financed a great deal by the spoils of the victims.
I have a question! I believe Judiasm is religion, some others believe it is race, anyone have an answer?
search on youtube for david cole Auschwitz part 3 of 6
@lovinight
Most Jews do not consider themselves a "race," is the short answer I can give you.
An ethnic group.
Wood Allen is Jewish.
Leon Trotsky and Karl Marx was Jewish.
Roman Polanski was/is Jewish.
Hollywood , AIPAC, Adam Sandler are pretty much Jewish.
Hope that helps.
Jon Stewart, Jerry Seinfeld, Jerry Lewis, Danny Kaye, Mitch Albom, Shel Silverstein, Barbara Streisand...the list goes on if you are naming famous Jews. These people are an ethnic group?
Before I start watching.
I myself am a fan of WW2 documentaries. So hopefully can enjoy this.
Most of the concentration camp survivors looked in excellent health so it is obvious the others died from disease. I don't know how in 2011 people are still keeping up this pretense about how all these people were murdered when the video evidence they show speaks for itself. It would surprise people to know how many German prisoners died from starvation after the war yet these people obviously didn't. Where is the justice in that.
You said, "Most of the concentration camp survivors looked in excellent health so it is obvious that others died of disease."
That must have been some kind of epidemic, much worse than the Plague in the 14th century. I would think civilized people like the Nazis would have done everything in their power to help the people (by the way, they're called Jews, Gypsies, Slavs, homosexuals and the mentally ill). But the Nazis did nothing. In fact they went ahead and murdered about 6 million Jews, Gypsies, Slavs, homosexuals and the mentally ill. I don't know what films you are referring to but the ones I saw showed half dead skeletons with a skin covering. We people also have the sworn testimony from survivors to the FACT that the HOLOCAUST happened and to the brutality of daily life in those awful camps. By the way, we "people" are the ones with common sense and appreciation for what's right and what's wrong.
You said, "I don't know how in 2011 people are still keeping up this pretense about how all these people were murdered when the video evidence they show speaks for itself."
We "keep up the pretense" because the proof the Holocaust happened is clear and overwhelming. I'm not Jewish but I have bi-polar mood disorder (look it up if don't know what that is). If I had been in a hospital from '33 to '45 I probably would have been sent to a concentration camp.
jpquick the story related to execution camps has been revised more times than anyone couls ever imagine from every camp in Germany and Poland being a death camp as was originally suggested to their only being one, that being Auswitz. The problem is that there is absolutely no scientific evidence to back up claims of gas chambers and lots of evidence against this having occurred. The sworn testimonies puzzled me in the beginning because the science says the opposite of the testimonies however if you pay attention you will notice that all testimonies have within them the same flaws. They refer to a smell of chicken as referring to people being incinerated, but people smell of pork or liver when being cremated. They refer to jews having been turned into soap when the scientific community has now agreed that it is impossible to make soap from human beings. Also the testimonies refer to seeing flames at the top of these high chimneys and since the fire would have been at the base of the chimney I really dont know how every testimony can get that wrong. What is worse people who actually gassed people and cremated them or those who lie about others saying they have did this. In my opinion it is a very evil lie to invent but it was the Russians who started it so where is the surprise. Think of all the murdered women and children due to the allied bombing raids and it is easy to understand why the allies needed to invent this lie.
You are an ignorant, pitiful man. Do not reply.
That is an order.
@ james irvine
"In my opinion" is the phrase that gets to the heart of the matter. This is not about opinions. It is about mountains of testimony at Nuremberg, millions of individuals who just disappeared, Nazi camp records, and film and photographs taken of incredible conditions at these camps. If you ignore this, it could only be because of a personal agenda that precludes any ability to view evidence and arrive at a rational conclusion.
I've heard of the death camps since the sixties. I read the book "Anne Frank" in 1965. My parents grew up in Holland during the war. It was their generation who told me of the horrors of Nazi occupation and they knew these horrors because they lived it. I have never heard any revision. The stories have been consistently brutal since I first became aware of them almost 50 years ago. Why anyone would believe otherwise is beyond all reason.
I will just add that I do not wish a rebuttal from you because I am not interested and will not respond.
Ann Frank was at Auschwitz and didnt get executed, this isnt about satisfying your own view of history as being valid. Whatever happened to the truth Jack is that irrelevant I guess
History is mostly written by the winners , i guess .
But , nazism was evil indeed : had shown the darkest sides of Man .
Terrible .
Nazism reminded me of that other topic " Are You Good or Evil ? ' : the latter as a materialistic point of view : The victims of the nazis would not agree much with that good & evil topic really ,so.
P.S.: There is a famous fact in psychology that says that abused individuals during their childlhood or youth become abusers in their turn unless they get the proper therapy : i see that that also goes for peoples somehow : see how the zionists israelis have been treating the palestinians & others for more than 60 years now with almost total impunity .
I agree AbdelZ but nature itself must therefore be evil, I think you must be referring to sterilizing certain people however is this really an act of evil? ask yourself if you were to find yourself being one of the unfortunate victims who found that they didn't quite match up to expectations of society and as a result had to endure a life not quite as nice as the other fortunate people who can live life to the full. Ask yourself if you were such an unfortunate individual would you agree with an action which would stop others having to endure a pointless miserable life without having the chance of true happiness as you did. You are absolutely correct in your psychological assessment though because the holocaust is repeatedly used as an excuse for what happens to Palestinians, the west see what is happening but don't act e.g. when David Cameron was first elected as prime minister of the UK he condemned Israel for their actions but now doesn't even acknowledge the situation and the UK didn't vote for a free Palestinian state at the UN recently. Where is all this influential power coming from? it is dragging down the relations between the west and the Islamic world so it is having some dire consequences for the future of the world, a good enough reason why scientific evidence needs to be considered in relation to claims made against Nazi Germany at the end of ww2, its a disgrace that people can be eternally labelled with the same made up lies which have already been accepted as such but that is conveniently ignored.
Anne Frank and her sister, Margot, were eventually transferred to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they both died of typhus in March 1945.
Anne Frank and her sister, Margot, were eventually transferred to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they both died of typhus in March 1945.
You are picking apart tiny parts in peoples stories when the overwhelming amount of evidence is completely in favor of the holocaust having happened. Setting aside the concentration camps for a minute. How about all the people German soldiers murdered as they conquered lands in Europe. How about the devastation in Russia caused by the war and the millions slaughtered at the hands of the German invasion. What ever horrors war brought to Germany, you can bet that they came as a direct consequence to their desire to make war.
Have you even read HItler's Mein Kampf. He talks all about his desire to expand Germany's borders "Lebensraum" and all about his thoughts on race and ideology. In a nutshell, other lands should be appropriated and the peoples there dealt with so that Germany could have more resources and places to live. Next you are going to tell me that the allies wrote Mein Kampf and conjured up all the documents seized from the Nazis.
Are you kidding me? How much proof do you need. Not only is there ample amount of video and photo evidence taken by different people in different regimes, but there are also numerous archival records taken from the Nazis themselves after the war that document the holocaust. You are living on the moon man!
amazing never seen it put quite like this before
Your ignorance is amazing.
I never knew that the people of Germany first rejected Hitler. Very educational.
He never won an election.
Just like George Bush.
No Hitler never won an election but he was going to become chancellor regardless of who won the 1933 election. The Communists were the top party that year and Hindenburg needed the Nazi vote to get elected. Hitler offered to give his support and in exchange Hindenburg would have to make Hitler chancellor. Hindenburg dies in 1934, Hitler merged his office with the office of the President effectively making him dictator and the rest as they say is history.
@ morgmorg
George Bush is back in power? How long have I been asleep? Obama was in power when I took my nap.
HaHa, this comment makes me realize that history does repeat itself. The same thing is going on in the U.S. today and has since 1944, who can say they really ever agreed with the Administrative Powers of Washington.
U.S. history since 1944 starting with the War on Communism, 1980's War on Drugs, 2000's War on Terror. Each have their own agenda's and have killed 1000's if not millions. The same will continue as long as the U.S. has a two party system. Where regardless, it doesn't matter who you vote for, the same agenda is still be promoted.
NATO's (USA'S) air war in Libya is a prime example (not the only) reflecting how Obama is the same as the rest. I'm sure if Syria had coastal access to the Mediterranean there would be a war supported by NATO in a heartbeat.
No, the same thing is not going on in the US. The two party system is exactly the thing that prevents a Nazi Germany from happening. Don't forget that Germany was a democracy before Hitler came to power with many political parties. Once Hitler had enough power, he eliminated all of the other political parties--made them illegal. He also suspended a lot of citizens rights.
I do agree with you about things like the Patriot Act. That kind of legislation is dangerous and is more akin to Nazi Germany.
Anyone living in mainland Europe today can see how mainstream and inherent Nazi ideology really is...
You must look at what National Socialism Stands for as a whole to see the addiction to it. What does it stand for? It stands for the belief that your Ethnic Culture is better then the rest and will find ways to promote that.
Some use the comparison of Patriotism and Nazism, and i would agree that they are identical. Nazism will use hate and anger towards other cultures to drive the masses into unity of ones culture. Patriotism will use ones pride in a country to make them attack another because they are an Inferior country.
Mans natural instincts are to eat kill, breed and sleep. It is inherent because the anger created from it goes with one of our natural instincts. The only way for Nazism to take place is when the good men and women stand to do nothing and let basic instincts dictate foreign policy.
Pride in Ethnic Culture or Ancestors is an accepted Human condition. The Dieing starts with Nationalism, a new religion of capitalism and world domination with the nukes to do it.
I find it so annoying that people hate on the way these types of docs are presented. They act as if dramatization is some evil that needs to be done away with. False. Dramatization is easily picked up on by anyone who has watched tv before and as stupid as everyone seems to think the american consumer is, we know when to take things with a grain of salt. The fact is, dramatization makes watching these things interesting for people who otherwise would be watching jersey shore or the likes. I'll trade a little distortion of facts for more viewship. The net impact on society is a benefit in my opinion.
nationalism like any other isms comes from the romanticism period and hence it is an idea full of emotionalism
capitalism included there, guess it is, greed. Islamism is for stupidity and cruelty to women at the end of the day the Germans were at least good to their own people in lots of ways our governments are not. Condolences it was a magnificent effort, women and children murdering is a low way to go to save your own neck so who really is the good guy the one who made up so many lies and killed so many innocent people or the Nazis. All criminals and still are its just a case of who is a criminal with selfish intentions and that is just a matter of opinion.
IMO.
The common comparison of Modern America and post WW1 Germany are closer then one cares to see. The "United" states are about as United as the 50 states that divide them. You look at below comments about "Illegals" coming in and ruining the country is just like Hitler and saying the Jews are the blame and cause of Communism... The ability to control the mass of people with lies (Modern day Terror scare) gives the government the ability to manipulate the mass population [Iraq Afghanistan], and as proven Time in and Time out that with the manipulation of the people can make them do things that are wrong.
Americans also stand silent as the patriot act gives the government to spy and arrest it's own people. Something that the Gustapo did for Germany. You want to see the government calling for a war look at G.W. Bush's whole congress call for the blood of Saddam saying that he is the root of evil that must be destroyed and that he is a MAJOR threat to the safety of the US people when he really wasn't [Not saying Saddam wasn't an evil person just that his threat to America was drastically inflated], Didn't Hitler say that Stalin was a major threat to Germany to Gun Ho his people to invade the Soviet Union?
The American health care is being run by corporations therefore their best interest is making money not to care for those whom need to be treated for a medical ailment. The Health "Insurance" is also a complete joke, Love how Americans say that they are the land of the free and home of the brave but yet are Enslaved by Credit. And the part of the Brave they are brave i will say that but they are blind to the truth that surrounds them and that their internal dissent is perfect for a Hitler styled government to take over.
Now.... Just got to find a people to hate.... A country to take over for raw materials (but they are a threat to US safety)..... Take out the voice of anyone who might not be with the picture.... and a people who believes that their country is destined by god to lead the world....
" The "United" states are about as United as the 51 states that divide them." um,not to be overly rude or anything.........but when did we pick up the extra state?
he said 50 states, not 51. read it again.
one of the aspects the doc glossed over, to its detriment since the focus was to be on the german people, was the capitulation of the churches (r.c. & evangelical) to the nazis.
i would love to see a detailed treatment of how responsible cultural & relgious institutions responded to events in this era.
theres a great book by john cornwell called hitlers pope that is an in depth look into religious groups and how they worked with the nazis.
thanks gatorpaw. will check it out. the Reichskonkordat , administered by the german cardinal and later pope Pius XII, is one major episode I am aware of, want to find out more about the Evangelical Churches responses...
The whole thing looks so Roman with all those flags and banners it's nationalism run amok. There are many lessons to be learned from this period. How blind nationalism is blind faith. This is not about Germans per se but about how our best intentions can easily be turned to something quite other if we are not very careful. It is about human nature and fallibility. There are some quite direct parallels to USA 2011 in disturbing ways. -Like being taken into 2 immediate preemptive wars through lies and deceit, the Patriot Act, the eradication of habbeus corpus, torture, illegal renditions & secret CIA prisons. ALL in the name of corporate profits. This aim is no different than that of many the Nazi's pursued. *after all we did find a cave literally loaded with plundered gold and art works after the war). America's law have her poised ripe for abuse and exploitation by events that can be easily manufactured by those in power. That was Vietnam and Afghanistan-Iraq (w/9/11 as a pretext), are no different
Careful when invoking the "Nazi" moniker...save it for when we systematically wipe a people off a continent or draw every industrialized nation into a "bloodiest of all time" war. THEN you can call us Nazis...though somehow I doubt we'll ever go in for National Socialism.
I'm also sure my grandfather and his brothers (or anyone else who experienced both Nazi Germany AND the U.S. first hand) would have something to say about that comparison.
Incidentally, I don't think Hitler used any sleight of hand to get Germany on a war footing...he said it was German peoples' destiny to spread east and settle the lands occupied by Bolsheviks...and he did it. Not much in the way of deception there...the German volk were on the same page and digging the 'natural rights' the Nazis were selling. GW, on the other hand, couldn't STOP lying...pretexts for Iraq were BS for sure (I saw through it, but not enough did). At any rate, we can bitch about it, or have a go at cleaning up our mess. Some people just like to bitch, I've found.
well put
hi..
That is why I said "This aim is no different than that of many the Nazi's pursued." Not ALL. And if we spoke to the loved ones of the approximately one million dead in the middle east as a result of these 2 wars, of the destroyed and displaced lives of millions more, the destroyed infrastructure of Iraq, and civil strife etc..
they would probably would tell us that from their perspective there is little difference. Manufactured wars and barbarism for corporate greed are just that.
Hitler used false flag attacks on at least a couple of occasions in order to carry out pre-established goals. The Reichstag Fire is suspected to be one. And the invasion of Poland without a doubt was based on lies.
It looks roman because thats how they wanted it to look. Romans had the eagle on top of there banners then the french then german and now the united states has the eagle on there poles and banners
I don't think people blame present day Germans for the past, however a study of what happens also serves as a reminder to many other people of what can and has happened in many countries in the name of ideologies and totalitarianism. I don't think control and mass mob rules is unique only to Germany from 1931-45 but also happens not only modern forms of fascism but also communism as we once witnessed. Many people also forget the many Germans who resisted the Nazis such as the communists, church leaders and statesmen. Milton Mayers book "We thought we were free is a very good book not only on what happened in Germany but what also happens in many countries even "democracies" when information is manipulated and propaganda controls
When will it be that germans are no longer in some way blamed for the things that happened around 70 years ago.
I mean i was born over 30 years after the war ended.
My parents both are born 10 years after it ended.
And my grandparents were in there teens.
And still i got to here all that crap about the war like it somehow is my fault.
this is a history. how are you, personally, blamed? i just dont understand, precisely, the complaint.
personally, i've visited and worked in Germany, & love the place - the people are great too.
that was another time, the world was very different, people were in certain ways groomed to be intolerant and insular, thus more vulnerable to being led in such directions. but having this object lesson in front of us all is no bad thing. the german experience is most instructive because it involves white europeans, who have been the dominant faction on the planet, uniquely gifted and influential, culturally and otherwise. moreover, this situation is instructive because it is well documented and -did- happen, it has happened since, and it would be a very good thing if it stopped happening in future.
I'm white British born in 1980 and I have been blamed for racism and colonialism
simply because of my colour and nationality. It's history and we we never shake the stigma of who our ancestors were
You prolly have to wait a long time. I mean the jews still get blamed for killing Jesus.
Though Germany on the other hand apologized for what they did...
Those who blame you, should be feeling the same pain as those people did in the 40's!
Seven minutes into the movie I already detected 2 pieces of American propaganda typical for History channel productions (which seems to be targeting mainly adolescent/immature audiences AFAICT from the previous ones).
The first is the short mention of material being forbidden from being shown in Germany. Without background and spoken in this dramatic tone it sounds as if the Germans were keen to censor the atrocities of WW2 even today. In fact the opposite attitude prevails here (and has prevailed for 2 generations now). If censorship is applied, it is to suppress any neo-Nazi trumpeting.
The second is the cheesy statement that there is no plural for savior in German language, "so there can be only one". Of course there is a plural form, it just happens to be the same word as singular, as is the case for thousands of other words that end with the -er suffix. One could senselessly argue in the same way that there is no plural for a mechanic (Mechaniker), an electrician (Elektriker), or an IT guy (Informatiker).
Given the current economic problems and international pressure on Germany to foot the bill for other nations' problems (once again), and given the hegemony of the USA in the financial system and stirring up the original 2008 crisis, it seems like this movie is going to be a particularly vile piece.
Incidentally, there are already some voices that feel it appropriate to "remind" Germans that they suddenly today "owe" billions to Greeks because of "unpaid" WW2 reparations. And there's the last week's visit of Mr. Geithner in Wroclaw, who felt it necessary to remind Germans that they should spare no money on the "rescue" program (his idea being mostly to rescue eurobanks and their U.S. counterparties, if you haven't noticed the plan yet). Obviously and rightfully the Germans are quite pissed off, mostly because they have been trying so hard to redeem their original sins throughout decades.
I do believe that you're talking out of your ass.
@Savage Henry
Yes, I agree, the 'government' is the people: mesmerized, ignorant or not, 'American counter - propaganda' or not. It may take a long long time to remove the hideous stigma and reparations owing.Like at least a 150 years. x
What exactly do you disagree with?
BTW, having watched the whole doc now, I must admit to its credit that there were few (if any) references to present times in the remaining part and lots of good footage. The voiceover commentary was mostly childish/sensational/boring, but that's just History channel for you - bubble gum entertainment (if you can do it with WW2) instead of education.
I confess. That was a juvenile, unconstuctive reply I gave...I apologize for that. I think I dumped on you my frustration at all the comments on every other documentary (no matter HOW unrelated to American foreign policy it may be), dissing America and Americans in general.
I'd definitely feel more comfortable with criticisms about specific factions within our citizenry and our government.
My greatest point of contention is about this supposed bias against the people of Germany (who are currently, among our great allies and are seen as such by Americans) and post-war German sentiment about Nazism.
The Germans aren't monsters...let's get that out of the way. I'm also absolutely convinced that any group of people in a position of uncontested power and a will to kill will do so...Rwanda, Serbia, Albania...several millenia jam-packed with others.
While I agree that the modern German sentiment about the war is more enlightened than that held by, oh say, the Japanese...who are notorious deniers of atrocities they committed against the Chinese (and to a FAR lesser extent, Allied POWs...read about Unit 731), there was, immediately following the war...a kind of denial mindset on the part of the Germans.
So many ethnic Germans had to rebuild their ruined lives, but still, the pervasive anti-semetic sentiments of the First and Second Reichs lingered. That and the understandable nostalgia for the booming Nazi years (economically, until the end of the war, an oasis compared to the rest of us). They weren't bad for wanting to deny (initially) the horrors they permitted, but they did...and many bits of legislation exist to ensure that a Nazi cult does not spring up in its wake.
As for your comments on the bias of the History Channel's documentary (incidentally, one of the better docs by them...I mostly turn to the BBC for quality educational eye-candy):
The Germans aren't monsters...let's get that out of the way. I'm absolutely convinced that any group of people in a position of inequitable power and a will to kill will do so...Rwanda, Serbia, Albania...several millenia of others.
There were definite mixed feelings on the part of ethnic Germans...there were those who spit on Oskar Schindler on the streets because of his role in safeguarding Jewish lives and those who were genuinely ashamed about their nation's involvement in such a tragedy. Whatever the case (and it has softened in recent decades...though, and giving moral credit to their current government;
I don't know if any other nation should have the kind of gumption to tie their stars to the U.S. economy and bemoan the hand that feeds when the inevitable, 10-year, world-wide recession hits...simply because the bulk of the world's capital and credit is housed or traded here.
You've obviously analyzed this film far more than I...and I applaud you for your dissection of the film. I'm sure I challenged you only because you're capable of raising salient points (as opposed to many here).
I know the scenes you speak of, but my knowledge of German culture only extends to history and geopolitical issues. It'd be cool to have a handle on the language.
at around the 48 minute mark they show some fat dude at the beach not only wearing a speedo type bathing suit but to add insult to injury as was they style of the day he has the thing hiked up to his belly button (or close to it) stretching the lower part FAR to tightly around his package. It is on for maybe 2 seconds but the image (after nearly throwing up) is now in my brain for life. They wont let Jewish people on the beach (which is the point of the clip) but this fat prick can walk around giving everyone a far to graphic view of his junk and big ass gut.
Yes I have some actual comments on the doc but I will watch more of it before I do so, although I must say that showing things from the perspective of the people is a nice change from the usual nazi docs that we have all seen to many times. Interesting that they were so desperate for food etc ( I don't know any of the rules that were imposed on Germany after WWI that more than likely caused a good part of this hardship and maybe they were too harsh or too many but it is something I am going to look up and then the depression hitting made things even worse, wrong doc for me to get into the cause of the basically planned depression) that they didn't immediately notice that Hitler was completely nuts and should have just been ignored from the start. There was a good quote by the narrator when he said Hitler looked so crazy that if you saw him on the street you wouldn't even go near enough too him to ask for a light for your smoke but yet ( I am paraphrasing and adding my own rant to this) the same person who would avoid the crazy bastard on the street cheers for him, verbally swears an oath to him and lets him not only enact insane rules like bugging any phone they want, no freedom of the press, can't say anything that doesn't tow the party line etc ( yes it sounds far to familiar) and because of their religion there is a possibility that some of your neighbours and maybe even friends but at the very least to a great extent natural born countrymen are now to be considered as non human and treated as such.
Yeah I wasn't going to comment yet but as a lot of you know I cannot make a short comment, I have to not only explain any point I have but I have to over explain it to the point that I even start boring myself (and at times forgetting my original point lol) before I am finished.
A great documentary; I particularily like the quote early on stating, 'the Polish terrorists are threatening the German people', sound familiar??? With that said, I don't expect Americans who inhale FOX news punditry brainwashing to understand their own hypocracy, but when Canada's Stephen Harper declared in his interview with Peter Mansbridge that, Islamic terrorism is the greatest threat facing Canada, I do expect Canadians to figure it out. Then again, we are presently dropping bombs in a no fly zone in a civil war in Libya. Considering Canadians pride themselves on being a peace keeping nation, I am sickened at the absence of outrage in our own moronic behavior.
Pretty good - a little overdramatised considering the subject matter needs no dramatisation.
Very nice doc to understand a bit of the german's side. It doesn't show Hitler's, but that seams to be the point.
...........maybe because Hitler killed himself like a gutless coward and so cant present his side.
I read the book. Highly recommending it, the book that is.
This is extremely good.
You may not learn anything new, but the presentation is very good, the music adds loads of atmosphere and the personal accounts are gripping.
This is one weird comment.
Not learning anything new is extremely good and nazi atrocities needed "loads more atmosphere" via music.
I..........I'm...................I'm going over here now.
I was simply praising the film making of the movie, not the content. Would you rather I have said "Not very informative but well-presented"? That's a bit boring.
And yes, atmosphere, since WW2 docus are usually monotone and repetitive since there are so many of them, this one manages to make it a bit more engaging.
He said "you may not learn anything new" and out of that you get that he said or meant "Not learning anything new is extremely good" As for the rest neoaxd can stand up for himself and does so very nicely.
So unit ..... ahh never mind I am not going to insult you, there is too much of that going on already in most comment sections and I don't really want to be a part of it.
This documentary had the feel of a German propaganda film. Unfortunately, they didn't have to lie about the facts. It is unbelievable that a country can succumb to the insanity of a man like Hitler. The Kim family in North Korea have proved that if it can happen once, it can happen twice...and probably more.
no mention bush?
No need. Bush is old news. Besides, Bush cannot compare to Hitler. His destruction of Europe was unprecedented.
When I see the nationalist/conservative/tea party hyperbollock(!) rhetoric coming from the US, I wonder how far away from such an outcome you could truly be. Pick the wrong enemy, wrong fight, start losing - god knows what you people will do.
The type of rhetoric that the Tea Party is known for may well be the hyperbole that leads to a Nazi style regime. The United States has a greater diversity in its population than Germany did in the thirties, however. The biggest fight an American style Hitler may have is with fellow Americans. A great many of them do not identify with this line of thinking at all. Even of those who do support the Tea Party, many will balk at the idea of an overt dictator running the country.
I think a country like China, whose inhabitants are accustomed to a dictatorship, could react in unpredictable ways if they suddenly suffer a major recession or depression. There is no cultural diversity to speak of, which could be an ideal atmosphere for a charismatic dictator to instill a sense of patriotic outrage.
@Jack1952 He was talking about Prescott Bush, who did a lot of business with the Nazis
China has "no cultural diversity to speak of"? Your ignorance is breath-taking. China has every religion on earth within its borders. An "overt dictator" in the US simply has to hate the left so much they outlaw it for "national security" issues. I see a number of republican influences who would love to do just that. And they can still say they hate Hitler and claim he was evil etc. and that they are different.
Ignorance like that which you just displayed, is all it takes.
Of course there is diversity in China. That is true of almost any country in the world. However, very few countries have the religious, ethnic, political and religious diversity that the United States does. The only other countries of that size with large population diversities are Brazil, Russia and India. Even here in Canada, where we pride ourselves on being a multicultural nation, we cannot compare ourselves to the United States.
To say that the right in the United States has the power to simply outlaw the left if they hate them enough is an overstatement. It would be far from simple. I mean, the right is not even in power. They lost the last election. And why would you assume that it is the right that would would become the dictator. Granted the American right are the aggressive ones at the moment but the left have proven to be quite oppressive in other countries so it is not totally out of the question. A dictator can rise quickly and unexpectedly just about anywhere. No matter where a person lives, he or she should always keep an eye out for the tyrants.
I don't care for the American right wing, either but to compare them to Hitler and his cronies is quite a long stretch and is more of an emotional response than an accurate one.
Since I never compared Hitler and the political right in the US, your points are invalid. Describing the chances of a dictatorship is not the same as direct comparison to Hitler, so I suggest you pull your head in.
"To say that the right in the United States has the power to simply outlaw the left if they hate them enough is an overstatement."
Pretty sure you would have said that about Habias Corpus and the Patriot Act.
Wouldn't you know. I defend the Americans and one of them posts a comment that supports your assessment of them. "America, destined to be better than you...and the world."
I would like to see the United States make a lot of changes. Their foreign policy is bankrupting them. The rest of the world doesn't trust them anymore. They allow their corporations to set domestic and foreign policy. Their educational systems are a mess. They allow the religious right to impose their values on the country even though this is not allowed in their constitution. They actually believe that the Patriot Act is a good idea.
Calling them stupid, unfortunately, will not help matters. It can only get their backs up and you will get responses like the gentleman made below. We want (need) them to change. We don't want them to become defensive and sullen. Angry people will not accept any advice you have, even if it is good for them. Take "better than you" as a prime example of such behavior.
sir/maam is this really what other countries think of the US? though not a Taxed Enough Already member many of us just wish to stop the runaway spending the government here is doing. do any of you realize illegals alone have more rights than citizens here? perhaps i could be called conservative but i think the meanings may be different for us both. many just do not want the gov here to interfere in our daily lives. taxes, and regulations alone are driving much of the work from these shores. conservatives are aware that you cannot spend more than you take in for long, it just does not work. we do not fear change but drastic changes in ideals and practices can have drastic consequences on the psyche. and many here are well aware that the non- tax payers are close to outnumbering those working and paying taxes for those that do not. many of us are very cautious, and throwing caution to the wind to be just to embrace ideas not in ones upbringing is fraught with dangers. not all of us has the "better than you" idealism, though we are proud of our country. personally i am no better or worse than another-anywhere, i believe in being fair, courteous, getting along with my neighbors, doing my civic duty, volunteering to help in what i can with my meager abilities. i was a nurse until an injury and health issues overcame the body, Multiple Sclerosis is not a very nice diagnosis to deal with. my grandmother said explore differences in people and things but remain true to oneself. a wise cherokee healer she was. not all are defensive and sullen, just your way of living in other countries are as strange to us as ours to you. and we are a republic here not a democracy. and what you call the right here is you there. my humble opinion.
@ cassandra/kes
I'm sorry to hear about your health problems. You appear to be a decent person and do not deserve that kind of hardship.
It would seem that you believe that the Americans are over taxed. In Canada we shake our heads and smile when we hear Americans complain about their taxes. Many Canadian professional hockey players prefer to play in the United States because of the tax breaks available there. When they retire they move back to Canada. The average Canadian pays a much larger percentage of their wages in taxes than the average American does. However, the Europeans pay even more.
The American taxation problem rises from its over bloated military. The United States has hundreds of military bases all over the world. These are expensive to maintain and are a source of animosity towards your country. A lot of people don't understand why the American government feels they need so many bases and they become highly suspicious of their motives. This suspicion slowly turns into anger at the American government and also towards unscrupulous American corporations operating in their countries. They start to believe that the military is there to support the corporations and help them steal their natural resources. Many Canadians believe that when your country runs low on oil and fresh water, they will come here and just take ours. Most Canadians live less than 100 miles from the American border. We watch American tv, vacation in the American south, take shopping trips across the border and we are the biggest trading partner of the United States and yet many of us don't trust the red, white and blue. If someone who is that familiar with you doesn't trust you, how much more would someone distrust you if he doesn't have that familiarity.
I understand the frustration you have with the illegals. We are fortunate in Canada because of our location that we do not have near the problem that the United States does, although there are communities of illegals in Canada.
I am trying to be honest in relating how people feel about the United States. My comments are quite tame compared to what a lot of non Americans would have said.
Good luck to you.
Lot's of people don't even know what the Patriot Act is but the ones that do that I know are completely against it. Nader was the only one I know who addressed the issue, otherwise it seems almost never mentioned in politics and I don't know why that is?
Americans are not stupid, they are busy and than harder things get, the busier they are working to keep a roof over their heads. If that isn't enough to the avg citizen, the govt feels like a mountain to move with an army of ants. We want change, we just feel powerless to make it happen.
THANK YOU!!! one of the better docs on History Channel. I hate the narrator though, sounds like he's narrateing a horror film which is getting real old for WW2 docs. its plodding but still offers a fresh perspective and no reaction shots of holocaust survivors crying.
With comments like the other jingoistic crap you posted here - I doubt many care what you think since your "better than us and the world"
...........pathetic. Its like a football team cheerleader but dumber.
Your debt is more than your net worth. Better than us? yeeeeeaaah.....
American Wins even when it loses! its our destiny from GOD to rise and leda the world to the rightous path and accept those wholove america and crush all that don't make sense or jealous of our values. AMERICA!!! IS NUMBER 1!!! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!
Yawn. Have a pom pom sweetheart.
There is only one definitive WW2 doc....... "The world at war" narrated by Olivier. The doc is on the site but the link broken. If I had the cash I`d buy the DVD of the series, It really is that good.
I was in Germany last month purely for beer drinking time, had all kinds of associated activities like face smashed :) anyway i drink beer in a trainstop and my friend tells me how 2 teenage girls jumped under the train last year in here. And its mostly young girls and trains are "fashionalble and fast end". Aperently its not a news in there... Deep scars are on the minds of German folke.
so ppl commit suicide in germany only?
I`d be more concerned with his "fiend" telling him stories TBH
I half agree with what some are saying, considering the subject matter in parts this docu is a little too dramatized in context to its presentation. There is little need for the ominous music and emulated camera flickers, film grain effects and tone of narration, however the content is sound with respect to what it shows, yet it did miss out on other aspects which was a little disappointing. I do understand that its hard to squeeze such a vast and complicated situation into one neat picture in a 3hr docu, but all in all this is done quite well and certainly one of the "better" short docus I've seen relating to this theme.
I just hope that people recognise the similarities to what is happening in many areas of the world right now after watching this.. and not simply watching it for its entertainment or curiosity values. How we love to shun past peoples deeds yet so comfortably fall into the same attitudes that can lead to such results just re-packaged and re-branded.
Someone mentioned "The Century of the Self" here, which I also happen to recommend in context to this documentary.
@Matt van den Ham
... documentaries are about documenting situations, events, people. I fail to see the point in stating whether you think its boring or not, yet since its documenting a situation isnt it the situation itself you find boring? In that case why did you even start watching this let alone comment that you found it boring.
I respect your comment. You are right this Doc certainly should not be viewed for entertainment. For me personally it was difficult to watch it becomes depressing because its so tragic, I had to stop watching this one.
You think that is depressing, check youtube video about the fur trade in China, it is unforgettable.
it is not situation that is boring but documentary is, 'cause a doc. is interesting if it is presented dynamically and this one hardly qualifies... that's why every two minutes we must listen 'you are watching 3rd reich...' otherwise we would get confused...omg
Sure I agree (as i stated above for other reasons) up to a point, yet dont you realise this was made for tv hence the parts your complaining about are intro and outro's for advert breaks. Im sure the uploaded/ripper could have edited out those parts, but Its still a weak argument to say the content is not good based on that. And as I also stated it did miss out on alot of other fundamental areas.
Sounds like your prone to confusion, inpatients with a short attention span... another sign`o`the times. ;)
This was good. I like seeing film from this time - and it is not annoying at all. Especially the logo tune is awesome.
A remarkable doc. I hope the stupid Americans don't continue their slide towards tyranny.
Don't put all Americans into one category. It only proves your ignorance.
Do please excuse me. It would be ignorant to put all Americans into one box and I apologize. But somehow GW Bush stole an election and then got elected again. Stupid was the wrong word. How about scary?? Ahem, Patriot Act?? Tyranny was the gist of my comment, which the Americans seem to be sliding toward. Even the savior Obama has not adjusted course one bit. America is just damn scary to me. The worst part is that they do not look into the mirror and see it within themselves.
Some of us do, but when I go to the polls I am afraid I don't see candidates who have a chance in hell of winning that propose to turn this thing around. I voted for Nader, I knew he had no chance but I didn't like my options, you know what kind of criticism that got me.
Last election I didn't even bother voting, the Govt seems to have a life of it's own. USA is still better then living in places like China anyway.
If I didn't have child custody issues, I'd have moved to Panama 8 yrs ago.
@ lovinight
Keep on voting and get involved in the electoral process. If people give up then it is a guarantee that the good things will never happen. Nothing starts big. It starts as a single voice that touches the minds of those around them. It may take years to accomplish what you want but it is possible. Think of it like buying a house. You sign a 25 year mortgage and at first it feels that you will never pay it off. Then the 25 years are behind you and you wonder why you ever felt so discouraged at times.
Things are indeed pretty scary here. In my opinion, a lot of people here seem to be willing to give up more and more of their rights for a "perceived" (in my opinion false) sense of security. Your comment about looking into the mirror is very true. The political system is broken here (only two major parties and both are run by corporate money). I really hope people here stop "settling" for the misinformation (the evening news...ect.) and really start thinking for themselves.
Thanks for clarifying your comment. I agree with what you are saying.
lol my sentiments exactly :P but the only way for things to change is for the people to stand up and say theyve had enough, but whether its the fact that we as a people dont want conflict (im talking bout the average citizen, not millitary/government) or are scared of another civil war is what perplexes me. we went through a civil war because we didnt like how the government was acting, so why cant we do it again? i dont like the idea of killing amongst ourselves, but in the end if we dont even attempt to change, then we as a society are doomed. i dont compare the situation today to the way the nazi's were, but i do believe it more closely resembles that of the roman empire. grew fast, was a super power at one point, but in the end they were responsible for their own demise.....
Your use of the word "stupid" I find objectionable, but the people of the United States have relinquished many of the rights that their constitution allows them. The idea that they are the protectors of democracy and the chosen nation of God can be particularly dangerous. Such arrogance has been the source of many unspeakable acts in human history.
lol!! Okay, maybe I'll quit calling Americans stupid!! Yeesh!! Picky, picky!! Stupid Americans.... ;)
But really, the point is that America is dragging the world into another tyranny. I think that was the lesson behind this doc. It is a warning for us, especially the stupid Americans!! I'm sure that I am not the one with the message to lead us forward but how are we ever going to get this world on an even keel?
You know those riots in britan would have ended quicker if civilians had some guns, and you had take no shit/effective cops, AND knew how to deal with riots in the first place. rly? 4 days in the 21st century to deal with a bunch of teens-twenty somethings? talk about peace and democracy all you want but if your country can't maintain it's peace, I think you should be less worried about the USA and more worried about your own countries lack of tactful leadership.
-AMERICA, destined to be better than you...and THE WORLD!!!
Now you're just being silly! It's a helter-skelter! Not a slide!
Wouldn't you know. I defend the Americans and one of them posts a comment that supports your assessment of them. "America, destined to be better than you...and the world."
I would like to see the United States make a lot of changes. Their foreign policy is bankrupting them. The rest of the world doesn't trust them anymore. They allow their corporations to set domestic and foreign policy. Their educational systems are a mess. They allow the religious right to impose their values on the country even though this is not allowed in their constitution. They actually believe that the Patriot Act is a good idea.
Calling them stupid, unfortunately, will not help matters. It can only get their backs up and you will get responses like the gentleman made below. We want (need) them to change. We don't want them to become defensive and sullen. Angry people will not accept any advice you have, even if it is good for them. Take "better than you" as a prime example of such behavior.
Hmmm.... I hear you. Will not help, eh?
Okay, here is my opinion. We want them to change, for the good of our children and grand kids and all the people. My tack is to slap the stupid bastards in the face. I cannot say that it is a particularly effective tactic but there you have it. You can try reasoning with them. I just try to wake them up. It's all good work, pal. I appreciate your words.
I think it is an interesting subject. How do we stop the next Reich (America) from creating the next world war and their apocalypse for the world? Bit of a sticky wicket.
lol what a joke! you consider yourself intellectually superior to us americans then come off with such an arrogant, ignorant comment. You just showed a great example of the style of hypocrisy the so called leaders of my country employ. you assume that the actions of the corperations and government reflect that of all the citizens; not surprising as it seems to be the way people think all over the world; but if people think that there isn't corruption in a single country; or that their country is free of such, then you need a reality check. people like to think that the u.s is the source of all the problems, and vice versa. and dont think that Im a blind sheep for the government, that should be obvious that i don't support what they are doing. So OxDeadBeef this "stupid American" is one of the few that stands against the way the government is run, and i will never allow myself to be labled as such.
Good for you, Joe!! Please, do your best to stand against your awful leaders. Quit wasting your time with stupid Internet trolls like me and get out there!! ;)
This was boring as sh*t!
Go back to playing farmville then
As a german i must apologize for my ancestors for not being able to make that war more interesting.
Cause it really was all about entertainment.
"All about Entertainment"Are u completely off your rocker? I am not a Jew nor am i a communist.But what i am is or has nothing to do with hate.I have watched and read hundreds of thousands of hours on ww2.This was no entertainment then.Maybe to the sadisticly insane and so called master race.Try to imagine you or your ancetors not saluting the FUHRER.Or eating food made out of wood pulp.This is a good doc,In todays world it is obvious that the pwers that be have learned nothing.This is no laughing or entertaining matter.But a matter of time when a different type of war may become reality to all.ANNIHILATION from Nuclear destruction.Maybe in twenty years a doc on ww3 might show the same but only to a couple of thousand survivors throughout the world
Just try reading the comment i replyed to and you might get it.
WWII was boring? Wow what do you do on the weekends?
I take you are from Holland, as a (ex) neighbour perhaps you know of a better account. Care to tell us what would have made it more interesting? Your comment doesn't say much or does it?
az
this guy is nuts!
Wow, just add some screaming in the background, and we have a rip-off of the Blair-witch project, with horribly annoying background music, and even more annoying title overs, And really crappy effects.....continuously ... Argh, I gave up by the 2nd part with an amazing headache ...
I am still waiting for the documentary about the concentration camps in South Africa of the Boers by the British, hypocrites....
@Robby: There is no good way to use propaganda ....
Yeah I feel you I had to stop watching this one myself :(
If I went back in time, I'd kill the time machine. Then I'd live like a living god.
MEDIC? this man has escaped from room 23.
Incredible work for the history channel.
Everyone says that if they had a time machine that they'd go back and kill Adolf Hitler. So would I, but before I pulled the trigger, I'd show him this.
If it was up to me, I would have loved to go back in time and killed Adam and Eve :D. So this would avoid all future destruction of mother nature caused by the almighty human nature. ;)
There are many posts I read that I do not agree with, but this one has to be in my top 5.
I wouldn't kill Adam and Eve, they were strictly pawns, would have annihilated the ineffectual gods of religion, if there were any, who apparently did not know their @ss from the hole in the ground.
What arrogance. We are what "mother nature" has designed. Whatever the future holds it is the way nature itself unfolds. You (we) are nothing special and we are not at odds with the natural process. We are the natural process.
To wipe out an entire species because of a personal bias is arrogant and shortsighted...even when that species is us. It is like you are saying that you know how the universe should be and that "mother nature" is wrong.
If you see problems with the world today, do your part to fix it. Quit whining and stop toying with the idea of annihilating an entire species.
@ Achems_Razor
I'm thinking he meant Adam and Eve as a metaphor to describe early man rather than a religious construct.
@Teamtigerpaw
Just had to say that I couldn't agree with you more.
@jack1952:
To kill early man, would have to annihilate all forms and processes leading to the formation of man millions of years hence. So my take is he meant religious Adam and Eve that had sprung up by creation. But will grant you. I could be wrong, only he knows.
@ Achems_Razor
I would have to grant you that I could be wrong. If I am wrong and following his logic, he possesses an even greater arrogance than I thought. He would then believe that he knows better that his omnipotent God. That should P.O. the Almighty.
I did notice that more misanthropes have pushed the like button for his post since I've been gone. If the majority of humanity does feel this way, we are in a sorry mess. It surely does appear that there are a lot of people who would rather destroy themselves than to work for a better existence. A sad lot, for sure.
@jack1952:
He was probably just stating allegorically as in an extended metaphor, or could be completely misanthropic, hating mankind in general.
Or could be following the Matrix, in reference that us humans are like a virus, infecting its host the Earth, and raping the planet of all its resources, but the great Greek Goddess "Gaia" the mother of the Earth will never allow that to happen "metaphorically speaking," just thought I would throw that in for the religee's, would like them to prove that I am wrong.
But he has to realize that if he travelled back in time and did what he did, then he would not exist to travel back in time to do what he did.
My guest is, he means killing Adam and Eve would have killed the thirst for knowledge(science).
az
All the advancement in modern weaponery and space tech is due to the third reich.The competition to win the war resulted in advancement of atomic,missile and space tech
That sure is true.
But at the cost of more than 50 million lives.
Was it worth it? I don´t think so.
Do you have a doctorate in stating the bloody obvious?
....aaand all antiviral medicine is due to viruses. Whats your point? You realise the third reich was a failure - right? Their technology didn't help them etc etc?
No. Probably not.
Hitler had a great ability...it's just to bad he used it in the way he did.
Yeah. He and his propaganda ministers had this great ability to influence the masses with their charismatic hatespeeches against various minority ethnic groups to form majority alliance on the bases of irrational fear of the minority and irrational love for the majority.
Few know about it, but the fact is that Dr. Sigmund Freuds nephew Edward Bernays "invented" Public Relations and extensively used Freuds psychoanalysis to influence the masses in to behaving like animals or consumers.
Joseph Goebbels admitted using Bernays research and litterature as a basis for his destructive campaign against the Jews of Germany. Watch the documentary "The Century of the Self" regarding this issue.
....he had a great ability at destroying his nation, a few others and taking his own life in a cowardly manner, you mean?
You think he would have made a good Power Ranger or Ninja Turtle?