This series was recently shown on History channel and it is a must see for any student, American citizen, teacher or human being.
It is based on actual footage from the many residents of Berlin and German villages, prior to, and then after the Third Reich and its rise and fall. It is a very human story as we see family movies, made by a German man who was later executed for not revealing his knowledge of an assassination plot against Hitler. He was, prior to that a devoted follower of the Third Reich. They also have film of the youth camps, the picturesque and lush Austrian villages (before they were decimated) and the Olympics which were staged in Berlin prior to the onslaught of Hitler's regime.
Ruth Andreas-Fridrich describes how in the late 30's she scrambled to get out of Germany before the war was initiated. One was required to leave all their assets to Germany in order to survive. The narration is very real and not melodramatic: It simply describes what it was like to have your life taken away by a regime bent on utter control and destruction.
Austrians, Polish in Warsaw (there are quite disturbing films of the Warsaw ghetto by the last American journalist who remained there). Including the eating of a dead horse, there was no food, the housing was demolished.
For those to whom war seems to be in a bubble,(especially when you view censored American corporate news today) this must be watched. The camps of Dachau, viewed in horror as the German people were at that time brought to see the reality of it. The Berlin Zoo, after it was bombed by Americans and British to stop the war. The animals and people reduced to a powdered mass.
The film is all encompassing as it shows the mass murder, and also the villagers who once believed their government. That the Third Reich would save Germany. In the end the utter destruction and alienation the German people had to return to: we see them in a futile fashion attempting to rebuild the rubble and trashed cannot be comprehended.
There were mass suicides once it was announced that Germany had lost, and its people must just "go back and rebuild it's up to them now". A very complex and important historical lesson here. Must-see. 10/10.
It is based on actual footage from the many residents of Berlin and German villages, prior to, and then after the Third Reich and its rise and fall. It is a very human story as we see family movies, made by a German man who was later executed for not revealing his knowledge of an assassination plot against Hitler. He was, prior to that a devoted follower of the Third Reich. They also have film of the youth camps, the picturesque and lush Austrian villages (before they were decimated) and the Olympics which were staged in Berlin prior to the onslaught of Hitler's regime.
Ruth Andreas-Fridrich describes how in the late 30's she scrambled to get out of Germany before the war was initiated. One was required to leave all their assets to Germany in order to survive. The narration is very real and not melodramatic: It simply describes what it was like to have your life taken away by a regime bent on utter control and destruction.
Austrians, Polish in Warsaw (there are quite disturbing films of the Warsaw ghetto by the last American journalist who remained there). Including the eating of a dead horse, there was no food, the housing was demolished.
For those to whom war seems to be in a bubble,(especially when you view censored American corporate news today) this must be watched. The camps of Dachau, viewed in horror as the German people were at that time brought to see the reality of it. The Berlin Zoo, after it was bombed by Americans and British to stop the war. The animals and people reduced to a powdered mass.
The film is all encompassing as it shows the mass murder, and also the villagers who once believed their government. That the Third Reich would save Germany. In the end the utter destruction and alienation the German people had to return to: we see them in a futile fashion attempting to rebuild the rubble and trashed cannot be comprehended.
There were mass suicides once it was announced that Germany had lost, and its people must just "go back and rebuild it's up to them now". A very complex and important historical lesson here. Must-see. 10/10.