Hitlers Helfer

As minister for Armaments, Speer used hundreds of thousands of slave labourers. Yes, he was sorry at Nuremberg, but it was a little too late by that time! It stands as a stark reminder, that out of 4 million Nazis, only 12 were executed for their crimes against humanity........Speer should certainly have been 13!

This "historytainment" TV series is about some of the most important people of Nazi Germany. Because Hitler sells, they included his name in the title, though he sometimes does not even have a connection to the men portrayed (e.g. Mengele). The show focuses more on entertainment than on being factual and reasonable which it got some criticism for. By that, Prof. Guido Knopp, the man behind the series, managed to get history documentaries into German primetime at one of the country's biggest channels. TGo those unfamiliar to what is shown, the show is somewhat informative, but also not accurate every time. Instead, the narrator delivers quite suggestive texts and they connect the documental narration to time witnesses who talk about their own life and experiences which are linked to the topic by the same events. May also be problematic because of linking the crimes of Nazi Germany mostly to Hitler.

I remember seeing most of the series about twenty years ago and this year watched them all again. The best episode was on Goring, whose mother prophetically said her unruly son "will either be a great man or a great criminal". Almost as good is Speer, and I'm surprised it's the least liked one, though not all that meaningful as the ratings currently comprise less than two dozen votes each. His lenient treatment by the Allies is attributed to him admitting guilt. He was also softly spoken and I suspect if he had sounded anything like Freisler he was more likely to have been hung.

Also interesting, because of their importance, Goebbels and Himmler. In the middle, half mad Hess, social climber Ribbentrop, and Bormann. Donitz is rather an odd man out; a purely military figure until the poisoned chalice of becoming Hitler's successor. The worst episodes were Eichmann and Mengele, wholly defined by their Holocaust crimes and having no discernible personalities. Hitler Youth leader Schirach was another nonentity, albeit less evil.

Talking of evil, notably absent was Heydrich, more feared and dangerous than most of them. I can only surmise he wasn't included because others got there first. The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich (1992) is excellent and would have been impossible to improve on.

This is a very good portrait of some of the top officials of Hitler's inner circle in Nazi Germany. My only real complaint is how brief everyone is explained. There is so much more to all of these characters that a 43 minute show doesn't really do them or us the audience justice. I would recommend this to those that aren't really familiar to these men, but not to those that do. They really only cover the basics of these men, and to a certain extent it is interesting, but not for history buffs. Even though this says that all these men were non-repentant which is probably true, I don't think it was completely true for at least one of these men. Albert Speer started out as Hitler's Architect, then moved on to the Minister of Armorments. However he was the only man that apologized for any wrong doing during the trials at Nuremberg, which says a little something about his character. I would recommend anyone interested in learning more about any of these characters to read up on them as they were all fascinating in their own sometimes disturbing ways. In particular read "Inside the 3rd Reich" by Albert Speer. It is a fascinating look at the some of the inner workings of the NAZI's and how Hitler slowly became more and more the monster. Speer was first and foremost his friend for many years, then seeing as the NAZI's were going to lose the war, Speer becoming the Minister of Armorments and then only having a very business-like relationship. Do watch these excellent if short biographies of the most deprived/sick/racist people the world has ever seen. If you take away anything from these, It is to see what no one should want to become. It is also self-evident that absolute power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Hitlers Helfer(Hitler`s helpers) is a German series about Hitler`s helpers. This series is from the same people who made the excellent "Hitler- eine Bilanz", and Helfer is produced with the same style that made eine Bilanz so good.

This time around, Hitler is not the main-character, but important people in The Third Reich, which mostly were officers in the German Wehrmacht. Each episode is about a different character from Hitler`s Germany. We all now the "famous" German officers during World War 2 like Wilhelm Keitel, Erich von Manstein and Friederich von Paulus. I always wanted to learn more about these people than just the 10 lines that were in the encyclopedia. Helfer is in many ways the sequel to eine Bilanz, and focuses thoroughly on characters that were only mentioned in eine Bilanz. In Helfer you see the same people that were interviewed in eine Bilanz, but know they talk about Keitel or von Paulus rather than Hitler.

Helfer has the same style and class that I liked about eine Bilanz, and is one of the best German documentaries around.