The Nazis, A Warning From History
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The Nazis, A Warning From History

1997, History  -   194 Comments
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Ratings: 6.10/10 from 234 users.

The Nazis, A Warning From HistoryThe Nazis would later try to rewrite history to say that Hitler became Chancellor simply because it was his destiny, but in reality, Hitler had been helped by economic circumstance and the support and miscalculation of others.

As the new century approaches, one historical question more than any other demands an answer.

How could a cultured nation at the heart of Europe be responsible for acts so heinous that they have altered concepts of what man is capable of.

How could the Nazis come to be? This series is the definitive television history of the rise and fall of the Nazis.

Helped Into Power - How was it possible that a cultured nation at the heart of Europe ever allowed Hitler and the Nazi party to come to power?

Chaos and Consent - If the Germans are famous for one quality it is efficiency. Yet the Nazi administration of Germany during the 1930’s was characterized by radical chaos.

The Wrong War - Hitler admired one country more than any other - Great Britain. His favourite film was the Bengal lancers which told the story of the British in India. In Mienkampf he spoke of expanding German territory tot he East. How was it possible then that in 1939 he ended up fighting the one country that he had started out wanting as an ally, Great Britain, and allied to the one country he had intended to take land from, Russia?

The Wild East - Poland was to become the epicentre of Nazi brutality; the place were Nazism achieved its purest and most bestial form. This is the story of the first two years of the Nazi occupation of Poland and the vicious power battles between the Nazi barons.

The Road to Treblinka - How was it possible that the holocaust ever happened? With access to extraordinary new material from Lithuania including an interview with a member of the Nazi killing squads this programme examines how the Nazi could commit acts which have caused estimates of how low human can sink for ever to be altered.

Fighting to the End - In the summer of 1943 the Italians, seeing which way the war was going, voted Mussolini out of office declared the war over. Why couldn't the Germans do the same? Why did it take the near total destruction of their country for them to give in?

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obhooun
obhooun
5 months ago

to now and all of time I've seen the oldest Commet i have ever seen 12 years of age to rot endlessly

Ted Nugent
Ted Nugent
2 years ago

Being able to give any name and remain anonymous has value. But sometimes it is unwise.

Deborah
Deborah
2 years ago

Please read The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by Wm. Shirer for the most comprehensive research regarding WW2, esp. Hitler. Roughly 1250 pages of well cited info. This program is essentially propaganda.

Ted Nugent
Ted Nugent
6 years ago

The world owes Germany an apology for all the lies of WW 1 and WW 2. Please view "Adolph Hitler, the greatest story never told", or any video or book by M.S. King, or maybe "Benjamin Freedman 1961 Speech". Wake up world.

A.V. Salvatore
A.V. Salvatore
6 years ago

Hitler was backed by the Swiss pharaohs who create the problems with their secret societies. Washington D.C, Vatican, and City of London. OBELISKS celebrated in all these cities. City of London never bombed, and the Banking center in neutral Switzerland never bombed. The world is controlled by a satanic cult out too destroy our world.
I'm very familiar with this propaganda piece.

PermReader
PermReader
6 years ago

The nazis like the vikings are the very attractive,shining evil. Hitler understood this and ordered that everything German must be attractive.The Bauhous `designers helped.

Audun Nilsen
Audun Nilsen
7 years ago

What was he doing in Liverpool, England after the war? Visiting relatives, like the script reads?

Jon
Jon
7 years ago

Many horrifying genocides have been committed in war by many nations. To isolate the "Nazi's" as specifically evil is disingenuous. The Communist Soviets, The Turks, The Japanese, the British and French in parts of their empires. Much of the "genocide" was the starvation of Germans who simply had no resources to look after themselves let alone those in concentration camps. Look how skinny they all are, these "holocaust" victims, that is result of starvation, not murder, you think they would let someone get that thin, and then murder them? Clearly they tried to keep them alive as long as possible and that is only reason we have such images of such extreme thin people to look at. Why would they keep them alive if they wanted to genocide them? It makes no sense and is all just the standard media lies to guilt trip a whole race of people, who were inconvenient to the spread of their materialist and capitalist corrupt individualistic practices.

Ken
Ken
7 years ago

Mainstream media propaganda lies.

joe
joe
8 years ago

Jeff has it totally right.

Peter Melian
Peter Melian
11 years ago

I just watched: The nazis, a warning. Much appreciated and valued.
Many other present nations should considered themselves warned ... having the dellusion that they are engaging in a crusade. We all know in what state how all crusades end. A word to the wise is sufficient !
pjmelian

John
John
11 years ago

PEOPLE stop ******* arguing that's what divides us and we can be easily conquered cause if we dont stop fighting and start working together as a whole human race we will go no where we are in a fork in the road guys either a beautiful,prosperous future or utter destruction.lets move on as a race lets all try to ******* get along for once your not ******* 5 years old stop fighting i know there is reasons to fight but what i mean is dont be the reason anyways take care and i hope you try to actually help humanity it doesnt have to be big cause small steps will still get you there

PLsmscientist
PLsmscientist
12 years ago

Interesting documentary basically only for some new footage and some new testimonials, however here also there is the manipulative manner to distort the facts to serve the zionist beasts. In fact quite curios that it show how Germans discriminated shops belonging to jews (forgetting????) to show that USA jews had declared an economical war on Germany. Also Hitler hated the financial system and for this reason in order to have Germany recover without making the bankers happy a new money was printed. I think Hitler was also manipulated just to serve the Zionist movement to get that so called State Israel. Stickt at the facts of today. The financial system is still in the hands of the jews, the media is mostly run by the jews. They also have influence in the school programming of your children with a distorted rappresentation of history, the jews control also comunications like the web also. You just seem to undersestimate their power, therefore anyone willing to destroy it is welcome today.

Heidi-Lynn Borter
Heidi-Lynn Borter
12 years ago

This will happen again, in some way or in some degree. It will happen because man doesn't learn from his mistakes.

peter downton
peter downton
12 years ago

There is a bit too much paraphrasing on here unfortunately from a couple of people :( Otherwise pretty useful historical source if not just for the interviews conducted with survivors and witnesses. In regards to the quality of the content not my field but seemed fine to me. Recommend the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich the reconstruction of footage into colour is brilliant as is the insight into prewar 30s Germany.

Rebecca Malley
Rebecca Malley
12 years ago

Brilliant Documentary series, about the rise of National socialism, and the horrible path that it led Germany down. I recntly watched the film Downfall as well and would have to class that as the best movie I have seen regarding Hitler and his descent into madness. Unrelated to this documentary I know, but I strongly recommend to anyone who has not yet seen it.

Tom Cruze
Tom Cruze
12 years ago

Best docu's ever made for WW 2 and Germany's reality prior to Hitler's rise to power.

jhm1
jhm1
12 years ago

Yea it is good. Now I can understand the skepticism what with the same old story being beaten of us time and time again, believe me I had the same thoughts but this is full of new and interesting stuff and like the ad says stuff they couldn't show on tv

john kay
john kay
12 years ago

i have a question. Is this any good?
isnt it funny how you can be alone on a machine and still get somehow manage to argue with people - i think the internet is a false flag operation.

Richard Jackson
Richard Jackson
12 years ago

Those who do not learn the lessons from history are destined to repeat it.

GABRIEL MCKINLEY
GABRIEL MCKINLEY
12 years ago

The tea partiers are fake americans they are not for real democracy as is the republicans and the democrats,, Most own factories and some sort of companies that underpay their workers and most invest in overseas companies that take work from (REAL AMERICANS!) They are all the same party.We Argue with these guys while thehighr ups are really stealing and holding the people down with the money they are stealing........... But moving on The nazi's atleast had some good things going for them...Love them or hate'em the nazi's really had some good philosiphies on immigration!!!FACT!!!

Bear None
Bear None
12 years ago

tea party is frighting

eugler
eugler
12 years ago

Just watched the first two parts, pretty good but some major elements are presented too incomplete and I feel the urge to augment some of them.

Firstly the legend of the stab in the back was not simply aimed at the jews but mainly at the democrats and socialists. The second democratic revolution in Germany which lead to the Weimar Republik couldn't have happened without the consent of the military high command - whose head was incidently the later President Hindenburg. It did so for its own reasons since it was believed the Americans under Wilson would be much milder towards a defeated German democracy than to a German monarchy. Furthermore it was a perfect opportunity to spoil democracy from the beginning. To the soldiers and the people it looked like everything went well, the Russians were defeated, so were the Italians and despite major losses in ground the imperial army was still standing deep within French territory. But then Democracy took control and its first act was to surrender while the Emperor conveniently went into exile. This in essence is the legend of the stab in the back, it was created and fed by the high command which thought that after a peace treaty was signed, the people would be quickly fed up with the new system and the emperor could return. It didn't work out that way for the original dictator but immensely helped another one.

The second part of the plan didn't work out either. The Americans held back in the negotiations and the Europeans who had been on the brink of defeat had their say which lead to the Treaty of Versailles. This is another point very poorly made in the documentary. The Treaty of Versailles was a blatant injustice. It blamed solely the German Empire for causing the first world war which is by any means ridiculous but served well in imposing even more ridiculous demands. It meant the loss of one eight of its territory, refounding the state of Poland which hadn't existed for decades, and splitting it by the Polish corridor. Along with it went one tenth of the population, each and every colony and every patent held by any german scientist or scientific organisation. It meant the occupation and successive demilitarisation of the entire rhineland exposing it to the then archenemy France, the complete loss of souvereinty of the german air- and seaspace. Along with it came massive general demilitarisation, an army of 100 000 only infantry, no artillery, no tanks, no planes and a navy that couldn't defend a fish pond. At the beginning of this war the Germans were a proud people, leading in economic, cultural and scientific terms, imagine how humiliated and vulnerable they felt. And in their mind it wasn't the monarchy that stumbeled into WW I like a drunkard into an irish wedding but the new democracy that was to blame for all they felt was lost.

On top of it came the reparations imposed on the new Republic, ridiculous reparations. Had they been paid as planned, the Weimar Republic would have had to pay them until 1988 - 60 years!!!. Since you can't really reach into a nacked man's pocket, what couldn't be payed in cash was taken directly. When the new government refused to continue payment and called upon the population to strike, the French - who had undoubtedly suffered most from the direct effectss of the war - simply marched into the rhineland and took literally everthing. Engines, entire factorys, even telegraph posts were dug out and taken. The only way to finance the strike was to print money which in turn led to the incredible inflation mentioned in the doc. Within weeks every German citizen whithout non monetary posessions lost absolutly everything. A billion marks for a loaf of bread sums it up. In the people's minds it was the Allies who did this to them and the new government wasn't able to defend them at all.

Having said all that I must ad that if the other side had won, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have been more lenient towards its opponents. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk is a strong implication in this direction. So I'm writing all this not to assign any guilt to either side but to try giving a deeper inside into the circumstances of the time. There would be much more to say about the European mindsets between 1870 and 1918 and the events that shaped them but if you've come this far, thanks for being interested, I hope it was worth your while.

nirvanafan
nirvanafan
12 years ago

This is a great show. Very informative.

nirvanafan
nirvanafan
12 years ago

This is a fantastic show. Very informative.

naipe
naipe
13 years ago

Great Documentary, Must be watched carefully to understand the subtleties that are exposed in it.

francois
francois
13 years ago

Essential documentary. The most intelligently made document of The nazi regime. Not playing with emotional empty statement, but on facts and reason.

The rise and fall of the last attempt of the old ways of European imperialism.

After that, the western world changed. The german lost, but fascism and imperialism survived. It just got more cynical and with a more complex hidden agenda.

And less based on National identities then on special interest group inside these countries.

Russia, British commonwealth, USA, France, China, APEC countries

The "BODY NATIONAL" is no longer an issue, and the propaganda surrounding Nazi Germany made sure that any analogy to such ideology would be dismissed.

It only pop-up sometime like in Rwanda, Yugoslavia, and in a certain shameless way in some of Israel policies.

And as for the exaggerated statements and metaphors with the actual american political climate since Obama. I think you are completely vulgar and don't know what the heck your talking about.

raul
raul
13 years ago

i want to know how to download this video to keep it is so good

Bikeman
Bikeman
13 years ago

Wow.....who would have imagined a website for a Nazi documentary would turn into some half-cocked political fight.
Nice....

Maximum1
Maximum1
13 years ago

This web site asks the question how could a sophisticated society be fooled into letting such a person come to power, yet we're seeing it right now. Just look back to a few years ago at the rantings of the paranoid and tell me how many times you see Woodrow Wilson mentioned? Never, but then a few years ago Glen Beck starts his insane babble and count how many times do you see Wilson condemned in these discussions. The "Big Lie" still works.
What I really can't understand is if this whole conspiracy started back with Teddy Roosevelt and Wilson, what's he so worried about? It's been over a century and they still haven't managed to take over.

AnotherStudent
AnotherStudent
13 years ago

Sorry I screwed up.. Correction "I'm only 16, but some of these views about Obama, or the TEA PARTY being compared to the NAZIS are just ridiculous.

AnotherStudent
AnotherStudent
13 years ago

After reading many of the comments above I find myself very disturbed by the ideology of a few of you. I'm only 16, but some of these views about Obama, or Nazis being compared to the TEA Party are just ridiculous. The Nazis were Socialists. I find it hard enough to believe that Fox news is still around. I cant imagine why anyone would listen to all that rubbish.

Geno Rossi
Geno Rossi
13 years ago

@ Julia you are so wrong and brainwashed. Nazi Germany was aright wing empire. National Socialism is the same as Social Conservatism. Its socialism for conservatives. If anyone should be compared to Hitler its Dick Cheney or George W Bush.

Julia
Julia
13 years ago

The Nazis were not conserative. Germany, the time the Nazis were rising, was a democratic nation. Any political party considered "conservative" at that that time would have to promote a democratic platform. Consevative, in political context means to "conserve" the current political and social order. The Nazis were a socialistic, totalitarian party which pushed socialist economic policy and hardcore government control, breaking powerfully away from a democratic ideology. With this in mind, it's valid to compare today's democratic liberal regime as "Nazism" because they push heavily for expansion of government control, heightened power of the police, and economic consolidation. They are socialists, as were the Nazis. Consider the 700 Billion dollar bailout of 2008, signed by obama, which gave government the partial ownership of the auto and insurance industires. In addition, the Obamacare plan looks to put the healthcare industry in governmeant hands as well. Sound familiar? One of the first things Hitler did when put into power was take over the healthcare and insurance industries in Germany. Do your research. Obama is worse than Adolf Hitler.

Awesome Audrey
Awesome Audrey
13 years ago

Im glad Hitler killed himself he was a very bad man!!

Chris
Chris
13 years ago

#98 is truth

Chris
Chris
13 years ago

#4 Samantha must be African American..
Obama is part of the schism that is driving this nation back in time, to the Nazi era. Whats in store is a much more progressive strong hold rather than complete and brute force. Obama was elected because of the hopes of a split nation with split criticism. With Bush, he had complete and total hate, his next stance was to act ignorant and take the fall on all accounts, common skapegoat tactics. This would allow the country to use all political energies towards criticising the man at the helm; it was made quite easy. Obama's stance is to hold the countrie's attention and favor for as long as possible, he is the transfat additive added to a shelf full of lies and deceit. He and his wife are to hold this countrie's attention for as long as it takes to alter this country, like secretly pulling the rug out from underneath us. All elected officials are elected fotr political, and monetary gain. There is no in-between, no happy ending. Money talks

cordero
cordero
13 years ago

i cant believe those horrible things ever happened. my prayers go out to those families who were forced involvement in any of that in-humane non-sense.

Greg
Greg
13 years ago

Part 2 and 3 wont work for me, I come back every once in a while to see they will work but they never do. I blame the Nazis lol

rk
rk
13 years ago

only the first movie worked for me the rest say they dont work

Abdul
Abdul
13 years ago

@40:30 of part 1 pretty much sums up for me. German president at the time had solid judgement, so the pressure from wealthy Aristocrats afraid to lose their wealthy subotaged German democracy and allowed a flawed character to be put in high office.

I always suspected that if you dig deep enough, you will find greed at the heart of it.

G.Rapaport
G.Rapaport
13 years ago

To Mr Rossi:
The fact is the Nazis (NSDAP) and Italian facists as well as the Bolsheviks were all socialist left wing totalitarian movements. This means that the government had a custodial duty to the population from cradle to grave as well as absolute control of the economy and means of production. In the case of the Nazis racial competition and bigotry was a major hallmark of there ideology, less so for the Italian fascists and not at all for the Spanish fascists who one could argue were truly right wing.

G.Rapaport
G.Rapaport
13 years ago

We must always keep in mind the common denominator of all
these genocidal events: the conspicuous absence of the implements of self defence by the victims. The USA is for the most part immune from this nightmare by virtue of the second ammendment to the bill of rights. The rest of the entire world including Europe is still vulnerable to a repeat genocidal nightmare. Until such time that all citzens of every country have a right to self defence, (as the documentary states) a holocaust can happen at any time.

tomregit
tomregit
13 years ago

To Paul:
You have concisely summarized what I was thinking and about to post, but you probably said it better than I would have. Thanks for one of the few rational comments. Unfortunately with proper spelling, your use of
punctuation and upper case letters where appropriate it may not be clear to those who really need to read it.

ILAN
ILAN
13 years ago

I don't know if it is o.k to use this forum for this but I would like to share with you the story of how my family was affected by the Nazis :
23 people from my father's side of my family the - Jewish side were murdered by the Nazis in Latvia Only 1 Survived My grandmother, from my Mothers side the Christian side - 3 were murdered all the others fled for their lives towards Stalingrad only to be under Siege later, Both of my grandfathers fought the Nazis , one was a simple rifle man - wounded at the end of the world and suffered all his life from pains Until he died at the age of 55 , my other grand father was drafted at the age of 14 , became an officer at the age of 17 and commanded one of the special units that were attached to tank battalions and were providing intelligence through night recon operations - their main objective was to capture Nazi officers and bring them back for interrogation. He was among the first soldiers to reach Hitlers bunker . I'm only 22 years old , and I will remember this and tell my children and their children about what happened because as humans we must remember how cruel can we become , and how quick can we turn into savages .

I've read some of the posts here and I would like to say that you Americans need to really realize that what has happened to the Nazis can happen to any one , therefore you should be careful trusting your gov' and leaders to an extent of idolization , Because it is in the time of crisis that those in power begin to truly open their greedy eyes and shut yours , Fill your mind with hate and lies , But mostly fear , fear of the unknown just so the can calm your fear by the feeling of power of the herd not the individual and as a herd you are much more easier to control.
Therefore
Knowledge is Power and Ignorance is a bliss .

Greg
Greg
13 years ago

Did the American government not admit years later that they knew beforehand of the coming attack on Pearl Harbour and let it happen so they could use it as an excuse to join the war? Joining the war was not popular with the American public so the gov said they needed something bad to happen ( I am paraphrasing, and rather poorly I think lol) to get the American people behind joining the war. I believe this is fact and not just something so called conspiracy theorists came up with, but I am no expert just a guy with an opinion.

Also coming on to a web site insulting everyone and their opinions is a bit rude. If you know more about a subject (or at the least say you do)than some others is it not better to politely say your piece and inform and educate than to come on sounding pompous calling everyone ignorant thereby alienating yourself to the point of having what you say be ingored?

Paul
Paul
13 years ago

I was truly amazed by the comments made on this blog; in particular the references to Obama. I have studied social history at degree level and it is important to realise the Second World War was a consequence of many different events. You must remember that America did not want to become involved in the war until Pearl Harbour and it is important to remember that America came out of the war the richest country in the world. The causes and effects of the war are complex and it is impossible to explain it in a couple of paragraphs.
I think the majority of people on this site are missing the point, over 50 million people died as a result of WWII (those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it). The level of ignorance demonstrated by comments made on this site show how easy it is for a megalomaniac such as Hitler to cause such catastrophic events
I find it amusing that many of the comments were made before watching all of the series. Keep an open mind, but first of all watch the full series before making any comments and try to look at it constructively.
I believe in universal suffrage, but the level of ignorance shown by many on this sight show how easy it was for a dictator to come into power.
Remember the name of the series is “a warning from history”.

Greg
Greg
13 years ago

Part 2 and 3 will not work for me it says they are unavailable. Anyone else having this problem? I will just skip ahead to part 4 and work backwards (wouldnt be the first time i have been said to work backwards lol), I did enjoy part 1 there was some info in it i was unaware of.

Will
Will
13 years ago

olio - you're pathetic. just another anti-semetic.

olio
olio
13 years ago

germans did genocides,turkish did genocides,american,russuian,all countries did it....and yet the people that are accusing germany are supporting israel for what they are doing in lebanon and palestine....pathetic...!!!