Michael Kloft

Hitlers Berg

Adolf Hitler spent over 1,000 days on the Obersalzberg, his mountain holiday refuge near Berchtesgaden. It was there he made his decisions about war and destruction. The producers, through special permits, explore the abandoned concrete tunnels in search of the relics of history of Hitler’s mountain and to tell almost forgotten tales of the people who lived there, high up in the shadow of power.

Firestorm

After suffering heavy losses of aircraft during attacks on German factories, Winston Churchill orders cities to be targeted in order to smash German morale and reduce the number of workers available for the Nazi war machine. Hundreds of thousands of German civilians are killed as incendiary bombs turn the center of cities like Hamburg and Dresden into tornados of fire. Sixty years later, a new debate is underway over the reasons for this lethal bombing campaign. Were these relentless aerial attacks on German cities, which killed so many and destroyed so much, a necessary tactic in the war against Hitler? Or was it an act of revenge by the British and Americans? Using rare film footage (much of it in color) and stirring interviews with historians, former bomber pilots and survivors of the destruction, this extraordinary film brings to light the devastating allied air campaign against Nazi Germany.

Television Under the Swastika

A history of Nazi television programming and technology, from 1935 to 1944.

Heinrich Himmler: Portrait of a Mass Murderer

Born into a Bavarian bourgeois family, Heinrich Himmler became the driving force behind the indescribable crimes that made the Nazi regime so unique in modern history.

Der Nürnberger Prozess - Tribunal des Todes

When the Allies realized the full extent of the crimes of the Third Reich at the end of the Second World War, it was clear that they would not be satisfied with a simple capitulation. Those responsible should not get away with it. The result of these deliberations was the International Military Tribunal, whose proceedings have gone down in history as the "Nuremberg Trial" after the venue.

Death in the Bunker: The True Story of Hitler's Downfall

Adolf Hitler spent the last ten days of his life in a bunker underneath the Chancellery of the Reich. Unwilling to face the consequences of defeat, the dictator ended his own life on April 30, 1945 in this fortified underground complex. Featuring exclusive interviews with the last survivor’s of Hitler’s inner circle and extensive archival footage, Death in the Bunker is an illuminating look at the Führer’s final decisions in preparation for his suicide.

Die Konferenz – Wie der Holocaust organisiert wurde

Hitler's Lost Sub

In 1991, professional diver John Chatterton discovered a sunken German U-boat from World War II, lying undetected only 60 miles off the New Jersey shore, its unexploded torpedoes and the bodies of its crew still aboard. This two-hour special follows Chatterton and his dive partners in their dangerous quest to identify the missing U-boat, a pursuit that takes six years and costs three lives. The U-boat's history involves unusual coincidences and a startling twist of fate.

Hitlers Berg

Adolf Hitler spent over 1,000 days on the Obersalzberg, his mountain holiday refuge near Berchtesgaden. It was there he made his decisions about war and destruction. The producers, through special permits, explore the abandoned concrete tunnels in search of the relics of history of Hitler’s mountain and to tell almost forgotten tales of the people who lived there, high up in the shadow of power.

Firestorm

After suffering heavy losses of aircraft during attacks on German factories, Winston Churchill orders cities to be targeted in order to smash German morale and reduce the number of workers available for the Nazi war machine. Hundreds of thousands of German civilians are killed as incendiary bombs turn the center of cities like Hamburg and Dresden into tornados of fire. Sixty years later, a new debate is underway over the reasons for this lethal bombing campaign. Were these relentless aerial attacks on German cities, which killed so many and destroyed so much, a necessary tactic in the war against Hitler? Or was it an act of revenge by the British and Americans? Using rare film footage (much of it in color) and stirring interviews with historians, former bomber pilots and survivors of the destruction, this extraordinary film brings to light the devastating allied air campaign against Nazi Germany.

Television Under the Swastika

A history of Nazi television programming and technology, from 1935 to 1944.

Heinrich Himmler: Portrait of a Mass Murderer

Born into a Bavarian bourgeois family, Heinrich Himmler became the driving force behind the indescribable crimes that made the Nazi regime so unique in modern history.

Der Nürnberger Prozess - Tribunal des Todes

When the Allies realized the full extent of the crimes of the Third Reich at the end of the Second World War, it was clear that they would not be satisfied with a simple capitulation. Those responsible should not get away with it. The result of these deliberations was the International Military Tribunal, whose proceedings have gone down in history as the "Nuremberg Trial" after the venue.

Death in the Bunker: The True Story of Hitler's Downfall

Adolf Hitler spent the last ten days of his life in a bunker underneath the Chancellery of the Reich. Unwilling to face the consequences of defeat, the dictator ended his own life on April 30, 1945 in this fortified underground complex. Featuring exclusive interviews with the last survivor’s of Hitler’s inner circle and extensive archival footage, Death in the Bunker is an illuminating look at the Führer’s final decisions in preparation for his suicide.

Die Konferenz – Wie der Holocaust organisiert wurde

Hitler's Lost Sub

In 1991, professional diver John Chatterton discovered a sunken German U-boat from World War II, lying undetected only 60 miles off the New Jersey shore, its unexploded torpedoes and the bodies of its crew still aboard. This two-hour special follows Chatterton and his dive partners in their dangerous quest to identify the missing U-boat, a pursuit that takes six years and costs three lives. The U-boat's history involves unusual coincidences and a startling twist of fate.

The Nuremberg Trials

One journalist described it as a chance "to see justice catch up with evil." On November 20, 1945, the twenty-two surviving representatives of the Nazi elite stood before an international military tribunal at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg, Germany; they were charged with the systematic murder of millions of people. The ensuing trial pitted U.S. chief prosecutor and Supreme Court judge Robert Jackson against Hermann Göring, the former head of the Nazi air force, whom Adolf Hitler had once named to be his successor. Jackson hoped that the trial would make a statement that crimes against humanity would never again go unpunished. Proving the guilt of the defendants, however, was more difficult than Jackson anticipated. This American Experience production draws upon rare archival material and eyewitness accounts to recreate the dramatic tribunal that defines trial procedure for state criminals to this day.

The Tramp and the Dictator

A look at the parallel lives of Charlie Chaplin and Adolf Hitler and how they crossed with the creation of the film “The Great Dictator,” released in 1940.

Dear Uncle Adolf: The Germans and Their Führer

More than any other historical documents, It is the personal private letters written by a people to "their" dictator that provide the most intimate glimpses of the history of the Third Reich. A treasure of more than 100,000 such letters were recently found, hidden in a secret Russian archive. The uncensored letters reveal the true feelings of the German people - their hopes, longings and fears; also love letters, declarations of loyalty, birthday wishes and the occasional word of protest. Like a seismograph, it mirrors the change in mood in Nazi Germany, providing a reflection of the German spirit in the years from 1932 to 1945. A.K.A. Dear Uncle Adolf.

Innenansichten - Deutschland 1937

Führer Cult and Megalomania

By early in the twentieth century, Nuremberg was regarded as the most anti-Semitic city in Europe. By 1929, Hitler had decided to make Nuremberg the "City of the Party Rallies" and a symbol representing the greatness of the German Empire. Even today, it is possible to see signs in Nuremberg of the megalomaniac proportions that the system was to assume.

Die geheimen Bunker der DDR und der Schweiz

After the Berlin Wall fell, hidden GDR and Swiss Cold War bunkers surfaced. Author Michael Kloft tours preserved Stasi and NVA shelters, including sealed command centers for Honecker and Mielke, and abandoned missile sites. In Switzerland, “false chalets” and the alpine “Reduit National” fortress reveal underground defenses once kept secret. With exclusive access to military command bunkers, the film exposes relics of a vanished era’s paranoia.

24 h D-Day

D-Day marks the starting point for the liberation of Western Europe from the grip of the Nazi yoke. On June 6th, 1944, Allied soldiers attack German positions at no less than five sectors of the beach in Normandy. The assault takes place from the sea and is considered the largest amphibious landing operation in history. This event now sees its 80th anniversary. But so close, so authentic, this battle has never been shown before. American and British cameramen are at the scene in landing boats, under fire at the beaches, and during the rescue of wounded soldiers. Their original footage, shot in black-and-white, was extensively restored and colourized for this documentary. The historically unique footage appears in motion picture quality. The war gets colour. And thereby a different impact. We look directly in the faces of those, Americans, Canadians, Britons, and Germans, who are often not older than 20. In “24h D-Day”, they tell about their D-Day, the day they never can forget.

The Third Reich In Color

This remarkable trove of color footage, assembled from far-flung private and state collections, presents Hitler's Europe as never seen before. Amateur film enthusiasts - soldiers, tourists, Hitler's own pilot, even Hitler's mistress, Eva Braun - began experimenting with color film in the late 1930s, their camera eye recording the Third Reich from every angle. Some of this film was only recently uncovered in former Soviet-bloc archives, hidden for almost 60 years; all of it, thanks to digital technology, has been newly transferred to video with surprising clarity. (This documentary was produced with two different narratives, both an English and German language version.)

Leni Riefenstahl - The End of a Myth

Countless people around the world know the pictures from Leni Riefenstahl's films, even if they have not seen them in their entirety. The work of the German director has burned itself into the collective memory. Even decades after the end of the Nazi era, she showed no remorse and presented herself as an apolitical, naive follower of the Nazi criminal regime. Her artistic service for the cinema was always recognized. But book author Nina Gladitz shows after decades of research that Hitler's favorite filmmaker was not only a follower, but also a perpetrator during the Third Reich, who instrumentalized other filmmakers such as the brilliant cinematographer Willy Zielke in order to gain fame for herself.

When the War Came to Germany

In February 1945, American troops launched a major offensive intended to bring about the end of the Third Reich. Accompanying them were two dozen cameramen from the U.S. Signal Corps, who documented the downfall of Nazi Germany on 35mm celluloid. A two-part SPIEGEL-TV documentary by Michael Kloft.

The Third Reich in the Dock

The Nuremberg trials started in 1945 and marked a milestone in the establishment of international law. The images of high-ranking Nazis in the dock are seared into our collective memory. The Nuremberg trials were a series of military tribunals staged by the Allies after World War Two. The first and best-known trial ended in October 1946 with the sentencing to death of 12 high-ranking Nazis.

American Experience

TV's most-watched history series brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today.

Nazi Hunters

Shortly after the end of the Second World War: In 1945 and 1946, the men of the British "War Crimes Investigation Unit" drove through northern Germany on the hunt for Nazi criminals. One of them is Captain Anton Walter Freud, the grandson of Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis. Anton Walter Freud fled to London with his family from the Nazis in 1938. Now an intelligence officer, he's back to track down killers on Allied wanted lists: hitmen in pinstripes, brutal SS henchmen, and ruthless doctors who conducted medical experiments even on children. The soldiers who witnessed the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp months earlier are not squeamish about it. 24-year-old Freud is a free spirit known for his unorthodox methods. He knows how to make war criminals talk. So he comes across a crime that has hardly been known before, the murder of 20 children in Hamburg in the last days of the war.

Countdown zum Zweiten Weltkrieg

12 Years, 3 Months, 9 Days - The Chronicle Of The Third Reich

About Adolf Hitler's time in Germany. On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany and his tenure in power lasted for more than twelve years. It began with a standing ovation and ended after a world war in which 50 million people were killed.

Countdown zum Kriegsende - die letzten 100 Tage

Die Gesichter des Bösen - Hitlers Henker

Hitler und Ludendorff - Der Gefreite und der General

Hitlers Hofstaat

Operation Barbarossa

Die Jahreschronik des Dritten Reichs

Desert War

Desert War is an Australian two-part documentary series portraying segments of the North African Campaign in World War II. The first episode covers the Siege of Tobruk from 10 April to September 1941, when the 9th Australian Division provided the backbone of the defence against attacks by Italian and German forces under Lieutenant General Erwin Rommel. The second episode covers the preparations for the major Allied counter-attack and victory under Bernard Montgomery in the Second Battle of El Alamein. It is demonstrated that extensive and accurate military intelligence, which greatly empowered Rommel for a long period, was gained through the copying of a burgled code book and regular indiscreet radio transmissions from the American embassy in Cairo. When these transmissions were terminated, advantage shifted overwhelmingly to the Allies.

When the World Was on Fire: The Chronicle of the Second World War

The Second World War began on September 1, 1939, with the invasion of Poland and ended on May 8, 1945, as a global catastrophe with over 50 million deaths and devastated cities. Hitler’s expansion plans and Japan’s imperial ambitions led to bloody battles such as Stalingrad and Iwo Jima, the bombing of German cities, and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. SPIEGEL-TV author Michael Kloft recounts the war’s chronology and presents rare, partly unpublished footage from both the front lines and the home front, beyond propaganda. He is supported by experts Antony Beevor, Jörg Friedrich, and Rolf-Dieter Müller, who provide insights into military strategies and personal stories. Together, they create a comprehensive portrait of the Second World War.

6 Juin 1944: Paroles de Soldats

Das Dritte Reich in Farbe

The End of the War in Colour

Eva Braun: Life and Death with the Führer

Eva Braun was Adolf Hitler's secret mistress for more than 13 years. To this day she is viewed as a naïve, apolitical appendage to the dictator and mass murderer.

Countdown zum Untergang

The Second World War entered its final phase in the summer of 1944. With the advance of the Allied armies on all fronts, the Third Reich is determined to embitter resistance. After the failed assassination attempt on Hitler in July, even more people will die than in all war years before. But what kept the gear of the Nazi dictatorship going for almost ten months and why did the Germans keep fighting until the bitter end? In the end, millions of people lost their lives and half of Europe is in ruins.