I found myself watching this documentary with interest and thought it was well done. I will point out that the military adviser for this documentary was a U.S. Marine officer despite the fact that very few individual Marines served in the European Theatre against the Axis. I still believe the Marine officer adviser, as a means of playing a joke, allowed the narrator to say that on D-Day, June 6, 1944, "the Marines" had the toughest beach to assault, referring to Omaha Beach at Normandy. In fact, it was the American Army's First Infantry Division and 29th Infantry Division who were given the first wave task of assaulting Omaha Beach. Both ARMY divisions suffered terrible losses in that assault. It is too bad that the error can't be corrected since it offends many soldiers who were there and the children of those who lived and died on that beach. To my knowledge, the nearest Marines to Omaha Beach were those serving aboard Navy vessels off shore.
6 Reviews
A must for understanding our world
evening118 October 2022
Warning: Spoilers
A gripping depiction of some of history's worst events.
I taped Chapters 3 and 4 from the Newsmax network, which often pairs fascinating documentaries with stultifyingly dull commercials in the wee hours of the night.
We meet Hitler on the empty streets of 6 AM Paris on June 23, 1940, and are told that conquest over German's "ancient enemy...made Hitler dance." Indeed, newsreel footage of the Fuhrer catches him in a rare smile.
Now that "Hitler had become the god of war...as popular among his soldiers as never before and never again," we go on to learn of some of the strategically questionable military decisions he went on to make, ultimately spelling his defeat.
Hitler next set his sights on Britain, some 22 miles across the Channel, whose new leader Churchill refused Hitler's demand for surrender. After an errant Luftwaffe plane accidentally dropped bombs on London on 8/24/1940, killing civilians, Churchill sent a retaliatory strike to Berlin, outraging Hitler and Luftwaffe chief Goering, who had vowed that no German city would ever be hit "or you could call me Myer."
The Blitz over England began, with London and other cities bombed mercilessly for 57 consecutive nights, killing 15,000 civilians. Hitler had wanted to "terrorize the British into submission," but it didn't work -- his focus on urban areas gave Britain's Royal Air Force time to recoup and repair, "and, with the air war turning against him, Hitler had to postpone his invasion of Britain." He turned eastward to Russia -- another blunder -- creating a two-front war "from which he would never recover."
I taped Chapters 3 and 4 from the Newsmax network, which often pairs fascinating documentaries with stultifyingly dull commercials in the wee hours of the night.
We meet Hitler on the empty streets of 6 AM Paris on June 23, 1940, and are told that conquest over German's "ancient enemy...made Hitler dance." Indeed, newsreel footage of the Fuhrer catches him in a rare smile.
Now that "Hitler had become the god of war...as popular among his soldiers as never before and never again," we go on to learn of some of the strategically questionable military decisions he went on to make, ultimately spelling his defeat.
Hitler next set his sights on Britain, some 22 miles across the Channel, whose new leader Churchill refused Hitler's demand for surrender. After an errant Luftwaffe plane accidentally dropped bombs on London on 8/24/1940, killing civilians, Churchill sent a retaliatory strike to Berlin, outraging Hitler and Luftwaffe chief Goering, who had vowed that no German city would ever be hit "or you could call me Myer."
The Blitz over England began, with London and other cities bombed mercilessly for 57 consecutive nights, killing 15,000 civilians. Hitler had wanted to "terrorize the British into submission," but it didn't work -- his focus on urban areas gave Britain's Royal Air Force time to recoup and repair, "and, with the air war turning against him, Hitler had to postpone his invasion of Britain." He turned eastward to Russia -- another blunder -- creating a two-front war "from which he would never recover."
first few episodes were really good
calvint-2828329 September 2015
I have watched the first few episodes over and over a lot the past few months and i have to say i really enjoyed them they were very good i liked them all though but after watching all 5 at least 6 times i had one question keep coming into my head which was there is a song that starts in episode 2 at 24:26 and in episode 4 at 4:39 they may have played in the others but i did not notice them but anyways that song was so good that i kept searching for it for a week and got nothing so if anyone knows who the artist is or the song name is could you let me know i don't know how i would get messaged or whatever but i just really want to have the full song to listen to because of how awesome it was.
A Low-Quality Documentary Made Worse
mjcom9921 August 2015
The low quality, first of all, is the video structure--it is chopped into too many sub-parts, and the narrative structure is illogical and discontinuous, and repetitious. I suspect they were trying to stretch too-scanty footage. It is made worse by the narration, which is so packed with errors and malapropisms that I have to suspect it is a rushed translation of a non-English original script.
The ultimate stretch, after they were out of material, was to tack-on an old 1958 made-for-TV documentary and call it episode five. That episode may be of slight interest if you want to watch Hitler's home movies in the second half, but turn-off the lurid, dated 1958 narration.
Only die-hard history buffs with time to waste will find any value at all in watching this. Most people will gain little understanding of the subject, and may be misled by some bits. Most people should skip it.
The ultimate stretch, after they were out of material, was to tack-on an old 1958 made-for-TV documentary and call it episode five. That episode may be of slight interest if you want to watch Hitler's home movies in the second half, but turn-off the lurid, dated 1958 narration.
Only die-hard history buffs with time to waste will find any value at all in watching this. Most people will gain little understanding of the subject, and may be misled by some bits. Most people should skip it.
Poor Research, why only mention Jesse Owens for Berlin Olympics?
omkar-5029221 February 2016
It terms of storytelling, I find the documentary just above average.
But what pains the most is when documentaries do not provide a well rounded research to its audience.
I would not boast personally to have great knowledge on Nazi history. The documentary suggests how Hitler tried to use the platform of Berlin Olympics to show the world of the superior Aryan race. The documentary also goes ahead and suggests in a very subtle way how Jesse Owens, a great athlete from the United States, also a black man, goes ahead to win medals and hurts Hitlers ego. (And all kudos to Owens effort and victory.)
But I feel it was not only Jesse Owens, a non-aryan, who won medals that unintentionally hurt the Nazi ego. Karl Hirsch, the director of this documentary should have also mentioned other non-aryan winners who I presume would have had the same effect on Hitler, and not just an American athlete. For example, Dhyan Chand led the Indian hockey team in the Berlin Olympics to win the GOLD medal in hockey. They beat the Germans 8-1 in the finals! And that 1 goal was the only goal to have been scored against the Indian team in the full series of Berlin Olympics. More information on Dhyan Chand here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhyan_Chand
In summary, I feel the director Karl T. Hirsch, while does a fair job capturing the Nazi history, he also twists it in subtle ways to show how only Americans tend to be the challengers to history. When in reality there are many challengers and contributors who have made the world change.
But what pains the most is when documentaries do not provide a well rounded research to its audience.
I would not boast personally to have great knowledge on Nazi history. The documentary suggests how Hitler tried to use the platform of Berlin Olympics to show the world of the superior Aryan race. The documentary also goes ahead and suggests in a very subtle way how Jesse Owens, a great athlete from the United States, also a black man, goes ahead to win medals and hurts Hitlers ego. (And all kudos to Owens effort and victory.)
But I feel it was not only Jesse Owens, a non-aryan, who won medals that unintentionally hurt the Nazi ego. Karl Hirsch, the director of this documentary should have also mentioned other non-aryan winners who I presume would have had the same effect on Hitler, and not just an American athlete. For example, Dhyan Chand led the Indian hockey team in the Berlin Olympics to win the GOLD medal in hockey. They beat the Germans 8-1 in the finals! And that 1 goal was the only goal to have been scored against the Indian team in the full series of Berlin Olympics. More information on Dhyan Chand here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhyan_Chand
In summary, I feel the director Karl T. Hirsch, while does a fair job capturing the Nazi history, he also twists it in subtle ways to show how only Americans tend to be the challengers to history. When in reality there are many challengers and contributors who have made the world change.
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