Wednesday, January 15, 2020

DVD/150: THE NAZIS: A WARNING FROM HISTORY (Laurence Rees, 1997, tv)

This 1997 BBC series is still compulsive viewing:, a sober explanation of the rise and fall of the Nazi Party using contemporary footage and interviews with those who witnessed it. 


Starting at the end of WWI, Laurence Rees traces the rise of the National Socialist German Workers Party, alongside it's charismatic firebrand Adolf Hitler.


Rees shows how the Nazis took advantage of the Wiemar Government's crash when Germany was hit by the 1931 Depression; the public was ready to believe that communists and Jews were to blame.  President Hindenburg made Hitler Chancellor, believing he could be tamed by Government.  He was wrong.


Rees shows that, rather than being a well-run administration, the Nazi offices were rife with power battles, fighting to get access to Hitler by flattery or suggesting policies he would be in favour of.


A major contribution to it's success is the marvelous narration by Samuel West.

Shelf or charity shop?  An absolute keeper... a warning that is all too needed now

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