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The subjects of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany are most intriguing ones that have captured the imagination of historians and students alike for years.
At the heart of the mystery that was Nazi Germany was the puzzling question - how an advanced, cultured and civilised nation could have submitted its collective will to a demagogue such as Hitler.
The possible answers are, of course, numerous.
As you survey the basic facts surrounding the life of Hitler and the swift descent of Germany into the moral abyss of the 1930s and 40s, you will need to consider several important contextual issues.
These include:
1) The social and economic conditions within Germany in the late 1920s and early 30s that facilitated the rise and advent of Hitler.
What aspects of Hitler's personality, plans and programme so mesmerised the German people.
Watch a short and sharp graphic summary on the factors leading to Hitler's rise in power.(6 min)
Hitler's rise in influence in post-war Germany, as presented by Simple History (5 min) For a really simple description of Hitler's life and deeds, here is Hitler Oversimplified Part 1 and Part 2. (10 min each)
Adolf Hitler's Rise (45 min) in colour. Here is another documentary on Hitler's life, (70 min) presented with dramatic contemporary cinematic effects, and again, in colour!
Find out about the immediate aftermath of the end of WWI in Germany and the start of the Weimar Republic.
What were some of the problems Germany faced in the 1920s? How did the Weimar leaders try to solve them?
2) The racial policies of the Nazi regime.
A Day in Auschwitz. (90 min)
Adolf Hitler Bio 1 (15 min), in colour. Bio 2 / Bio 3 / Bio 4 / Bio 5
The deportation of Jews from Hungary to Auschwitz (10 min)
The Final Solution: Jewish life on the brink of death (15 min)
The "liberation of concentration camp" scene, in the acclaimed series Band of Brothers.
3) Nazi Government in Germany
The Reichstag Fire and Enabling Act of 1933, Hitler's first acts to enforce his dictatorship at home.
The Waffen SS and the German national anthem, Deutschlandlied. This clip captures very well the buoyant and proud mood of the German nation in the years preceding and just after the rise of Hitler as Fuhrer in 1933. Likewise here.
A sample of Hitler's speeches can be viewed here. With English subtitles. Not difficult to see why in the early 1930s Hitler was so mesmerizing in his ways.
Here's another of his speeches, titled "Never Despair."
Hitler was extremely popular with the young people of German, especially in the early days of his rule, as this clip will attest: Hitler's Children, Nuremberg 1934 (9 min)
Even Walt Disney, the famous American film producer, got into the act producing wartime cartoons with not-too-subtle lessons on the tyranny of Nazi rule. Himself a Jew, Disney's short cartoons are a model of brevity, sharp messaging and old-fashioned humour. Watch the favourite two below.
One very intriguing and controversial event during the Nazi era was the 1936 Olympic Games, that was held in Berlin, the capital of Hitler's German Reich. With the eyes of the world fixed on Berlin, how did Hitler respond, with numerous ugly features of his dictatorship now surfacing uneasily. Watch the official German documentary on the Berlin Olympics, produced in 1936.
During the Olympics, the American-African sprinter Jesse Owens, caused a major upset by both winning track and field medals, and in doing so, throwing into disarray Hitler's racist hierarchy of people .
4) Hitler's part in the movement towards World War Two.
BBC documentary on the gradual militarization of life in Nazi Germany.
A 45 min look at how the man Adolf Hitler and his foreign policy were responsible for World War Two.
A summary of Hitler's foreign policy aims that led to German expansion into Europe (6 min)
The Nazi German reunification of Austria in 1936. This move allowed Hitler to re-enter the land of his birth. (4 min)
A lighthearted look at the intriguing question - "What if Hitler ruled the world?"
5) The impact of the Nazi era on Europe as a whole
6) Adolf Hitler
Life of Hitler Tour. An unusual travelog which takes in locations in Austria and Germany visited by Hitler.
An example of Hitler's speech, given early in his rule of Germany. With some subtitles.
What happened to the man who refused to salute Hitler?
7) Movies about Nazi Germany
VALKYRIE
A must-see is Valkyrie, which I rate very highly.
It documents the final and unsuccessful attempt on Hitler's life by Colonel Stauffenberg and his co-conspirators.
A thought provoking movie which does well to assert the premise, that not all Germans were Nazis.
Here is the dramatic coup scene in the movie.
The movie is based on a true episode in Nazi history.
THE RACE
The intriguing story of Jesse Owens, the American African who competed in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin - in the heart of Hitler's Germany - and dispelled the Nazi myth that the white Aryan race of Germanic peoples were inherently superior to other ethnic groups. Owens won four gold medals that year and forced many Germans to reconsider their views on race relations.
DOWNFALL
A very highly acclaimed German-language movie about the last days of Adolf Hitler; it depicts the strain and pressures he faced as the reality of a German defeat in 195 loomed large.
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