"The Nazis: A Warning from History" (1997) TV mini-series

Directors:

Laurence Rees
Tilman Remme

Writer:

Laurence Rees (writer)

Release Date:

8 February 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | History | War

Plot:

An examination of how a cultured people could have allowed Hitler's rise to power.

Plot Keywords:

WWII | Holocaust | TV Mini-Series | Germany | Genocide

Awards:

4 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Samuel West	...	Narrator (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Fritz Arlt	...	Himself
Rudi Bamber	...	Himself
Gerda Bernhardt	...	Herself
Uwe Bitzel	...	Himself
Karl Boehm-Tettelbach	...	Himself
Adolf Buchner	...	Himself
Ulrich de Maizière	...	Himself
Herbert Döhring	...	Himself
Irma Eigi	...	Herself
Wolf Falck	...	Himself
Maria Faulhaber	...	Herself
Josef Felder	...	Himself
Walter Fernau	...	Himself
Estera Frenkiel	...	Herself
Walter Frentz	...	Himself
Robert Gellately	...	Himself
Juozas Gramauskas	...	Himself
Danuta Grocholska	...	Herself
Wilhelm Gunsilius	...	Himself
Bruno Hähnel	...	Himself
Franz Jagemann	...	Himself
Anna Jeziorkowska	...	Herself
Walter Kammerling	...	Himself
Stefan Kasprzyk	...	Himself
Ian Kershaw	...	Himself
J.A. Graf von Kielmannsegg	...	Himself (as Johann Adolf Graf Kielmansegg)
Emil Klein	...	Himself
Otto Klimmer	...	Himself
Charles Bleeker Kohlsaat	...	Himself
Erna Kranz	...	Herself
Resi Kraus	...	Herself
Anna Krautwurmová	...	Herself
Jacques Leroy	...	Himself
Eugene Leviné	...	Himself
Günter Lohse	...	Himself
Riva Losanskaya	...	Herself
Erwin Massuthe	...	Himself
Mario Mondello	...	Himself
Wilhelm Moses	...	Himself
Alfonsas Navasinskas	...	Himself
Alois Pfaller	...	Himself
Romuald Pilaczynski	...	Himself
Waltraud Reski	...	Herself
Herbert Richter	...	Himself
Sir Frank Roberts	...	Himself
Jutta Rüdiger	...	Herself
Günther Ruschin	...	Himself
Alfons Schulz	...	Himself
Susie Seitz	...	Herself
Viera Silkinaite	...	Herself
Henryk Skrzypinski	...	Himself
Reinhard Spitzy	...	Himself
Wolfgang Teubert	...	Himself
Christine Von Amsberg	...	Herself
Hans von Herwarth	...	Himself
Manfred Von Schröder	...	Himself
Fridolin Von Spaun	...	Himself
Samuel Willenberg	...	Himself
Johannes Zahn	...	Himself
Petras Zelionka	...	Himself
Eugen Zielke	...	Himself

Runtime:

350 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | German | French | Polish

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Certification:

UK:PG

Filming Locations:

Prague, Czech Republic

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Quotes:

Narrator: A Hungarian woman in Hitler's entourage looked at the sky and then turned to speak to her Fuhrer.

Movie Connections:

Features Das Erbe (1935)

New insight into the development and functioning of the Nazi state

Six 45-minute episodes are arranged chronologically, from the NSDAP rise in the context of the social and political turmoil which followed the first world war to Hitler's suicide in April 1945, and arranged thematically, dealing with the origins of the party, the road to the Chancellery, Anschluss, resettlement in the East, the death camps, and finally the Reich's collapse.

The first episode mentions the workers revolution that briefly took control of München, and shows how the number of Jews among the Communist leadership supported widespread theories of a Jewish-Communist alliance. Street-fighting between Communists and reactionaries is chronicled, explicating the German populace's understandable desire for law and order.

Local operation of the Gestapo, the surprisingly low count of actual employees and the extent to which surveillance by neighbors led to non-conformant citizens' denunciation and imprisonment is illustrated through a brief look at a case in Nürnberg. The informant who sent her innocent neighbor to die in a camp is interviewed.

The Wild East chapter illustrates the great variance in regional Nazi commanders' approach to Germanization of Poland and how Hitler's management style facilitated bureaucratic fiefdoms.

Too often documentaries demonize the Nazis and assume individuals somehow sprang fully formed from the gates of hell. In contrast, each of the well-crafted installments of The Nazis: A Warning from History offers new insight into the development and functioning of the Nazi state and enables us to intelligently consider the lives of its supporters. In calling for a more sophisticated understanding of totalitarianism the warning is very much that of Resnais' Night and Fog.