Bringing History to Life

In 1933, Adolf Hitler seizes power in Germany, where he has seduced the population with golden promises of a restoration of the Great German Empire. He allies himself with Mussolini's fascist Italy, Stalin's communist Soviet Union and the military dictatorship in Japan, which has the same dreams of grandeur as Germany. In this series, you get a thorough review of World War II - from the birth of fascism through the war's many dramas to the aftermath, where the victors deal with the war's worst criminals.

Waffen-SS’s bloody hands

HITLER’S BLACK STORMTROOPERS • With Heinrich Himmler at its head, Hitler’s bodyguard developed into a large Nazi fighting force with both military and police authority. The dreaded SS consisted of an “elite of pure Aryan race” and was tasked with implementing the “genocide”.

THE HATE BRIGADE • Poachers, murderers and rapists are armed and placed in a special SS unit for hardened criminals. The bloodthirsty brigade – created by Heinrich Himmler and led by a sadistic sex offender – is unleashed in occupied territories across eastern Europe.

SS CHIEF HEINRICH HIMMLER TERROR CAMPA IGN IN EUROPE • In 1929, Heinrich Himmler was appointed as the new head of the Nazi party’s security organisation, the SS. Under his leadership, the group grew into a feared elite force, which ruthlessly suppressed its enemies to realise Hitler’s dream of a new Aryan Germany.

Klaus Barbie THE BUTCHER OF LYONS • Red-hot needles, whips and boiling water – the butcher Klaus Barbie’s sadistic methods knew no limits. Over two years he tortured thousands of Jews and opponents in the French city of Lyon. When the Allies freed the city, Barbie fled and found a new employer.

Totenkopf Division KZ GUARDS AT THE FRONT • The armoured Totenkopf Division was infamous throughout France, Poland and the Soviet Union due to its brutal methods and ultra-aggressive tactics. Part of the Waffen-SS, the division recruited soldiers and officers from Nazi concentration camps.

Liberation of Mussolini, 1943 SS FORCE’S BOLD RAID • In 1943, Italy’s dictator Benito Mussolini was deposed and kidnapped during a coup d’état. His fascist regime was toppled in a single day. In Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler gave a group of special-trained SS men orders to find and free Mussolini. They planned and carried out one of the war’s most fearless actions.

The attack on Via Rasella, 1944 SS’S UGLY REPRISALS • The bombing at Via Rasella in Rome in March 1944 was the most controversial chapter of the Italian partisan movement. While nearly 50 German soldiers were killed, the reprisals were terrible – 350 innocent Italians were executed.

Warsaw’s executioner went free after the war • He began the war as an army private, but advanced to SS general. In 1944, his forces murdered tens of thousands of civilians, yet he went free.

TEENAGE ARMY HELD CAEN • On D-Day 16,000 Hitler Youth were put into battle against invasion forces. The boys had sworn that they would fight to the last man and were assigned to defend the city of Caen. Allied plans anticipated the city being taken on day one – the boys held out for 33.

Michael Wittmann TIGER ACE • The Normandy landings in 1944 marked the beginning of the end for the Germans on the Western Front. But at Villers-Bocage, panzer commander Michael Wittmann managed to take the British by surprise and demonstrate it wouldn’t be plain sailing for the Allies.

SS PIONEERED WAR MATERIEL • The Waffen-SS was not only known as an organisation with fanatically devoted and efficiently organised soldiers. It was also a groundbreaker in the military field. When German armed forces developed new weapons during the war, it was often soldiers from the Waffen-SS who were first equipped.

Castle Itter, 1945 ...