Third Reich: The Rise & Fall

Excellent program that is worth your time. If you are a WWII buff you will appreciate this very interesting look at the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. I was intrigued by the writings of those who were disgusted at what was taking place in their homeland. People saw the coming storm of death and intolerance and did whatever they could to get out. I will be researching where they obtained these writings and trying to obtain them. The depiction of the mass group think that was going on at this time was astonishing, people were buying into Hitlers vision and ignored the atrocities that were being committed all around them. One package in particular stuck with me.."all around me people were celebrating, why? It was easier to celebrate..easier to howl with the wolves" Catch this on the History Channel whenever you get a chance..worth every second.

This review is concerned with the second part, the fall of the Third Reich. I've seen many documentaries about the Third Reich, but none of them is even in the same league with this one, none of them conveys the tragedy, the folly and the pure inhumanity that overtook Germany and the world during that period in history. The presentation is intended to be dramatic and it has been brilliantly constructed to do that without distorting the events. The narration, the camera clips, the background score and all the other things that make up the presentation are seamlessly integrated into a chilling vision of the madness that people can inflict on each other. Some of the other reviewers have faulted the story for not including some events they thought important, but its message is larger than the Third Reich; it defines what and how so many people can lose their humanity while some can give their lives to save it.

I'm sorry but I can't accept that this is one of the best documentaries about the rise and fall of the Third Reich. Grant you, its focus on rare footage and home videos made by Germans during the era is a large plus.

Unfortunately, the first part of the story leaves so many points out that it is insulting to the Germans. I have no sympathy towards the Nazis, in fact I lost my grandfather during the occupation of Greece but the documentary is missing many points. For example there is no mention whatsoever about the fall of unemployment after Hitler took power. No mention of the support he got from the industrialists. About the massive state investments in infrastructure. About the rebuilding of the economy. It is as if the majority of Germans, at least those not persecuted, were suddenly enchanted by parades and flag waving and became supporters of the regime. There is no mention of the remilitarisation of the Rhineland one of Hitler's first diplomatic victories. There's only as brief mention of how the Annexation of Austria came to be, again as if Germans woke up one morning to find Vienna listed as a German city.

The second part(The Fall) is much more balanced and I have no serious complaints about it.

I would also prefer if the documentary was more balanced towards the victims of the Second World War. True, the Holocaust is the Nazis' largest crime against humanity. But it is extensively covered throughout the documentary while other crimes such as the brutal murdering of civilians in the USSR, in Poland and in most occupied countries or the slave labourers are mentioned for brief seconds or not at all.

Lastly, I too found the start/end fake frames of the footage overused and that some of the videos were uninteresting (toddlers walking/falling/playing). All in all not bad, but not one of the classics.

I was going to give this a 5 but am upgrading slightly to a 6 just because of the video quality. This documentary suffers from taking itself but not the material serious enough. The edits are overdone and make the documentary seem more like a twitchy horror movie similar to the Ring rather than a good informative documentary.

Another issue I have is overuse of pauses during the speech, I assume for dramatic effect, but ends up being more like a way to draw out the documentary in a lazy way. For example, a narration would begin, quoting a victim our German citizen, then there would be a pause of about 5 seconds and I've thought they moved on, then suddenly the same person is saying something more. Often the narration repeats something that was said earlier in the same delayed fashion. I've seen some other reviewers talk about all that was left out in the first half (the rise), and they've said it better than I ever could. It makes it seem like they were just enamored with his speech and promises, which they were, but there was so much more to it. I'm glad it was covered, however briefly, how much the rest of the world seemed to like Hitler, too, because we share the blame for letting him get away with murder in his rise.

I suppose I'm also a little bitter about the title, which shares a name with probably the best nazi book ever written by shirer, and as far as detail goes they are polar opposites.

A beautifully done documentary. Lost in the endless shuffle of World War II documentaries unfortunately. Great footage and great editing great writing and great quotations and great narrations.

I honestly think it is one of the best World War II documentaries.

2010. Apparently it is two parts, although I was only able to see the second one.

And it has a view of the war that is just a little bit different than the normal to say the least. It shows the horror of it for all sides.

A very good and honest effort to do some thing first rate.

Tony Call stands out as a very good American narrator. Although I'm sure some people would think it's over done, but I think he is fantastic.