Bringing History to Life

In 1933, Adolf Hitler seizes power in Germany, where he has seduced the population with golden promises of a restoration of the Great German Empire. He allies himself with Mussolini's fascist Italy, Stalin's communist Soviet Union and the military dictatorship in Japan, which has the same dreams of grandeur as Germany. In this series, you get a thorough review of World War II - from the birth of fascism through the war's many dramas to the aftermath, where the victors deal with the war's worst criminals.

» WWII’s darkest crimes

HITLER’S SECRET HENCHMEN • Deportations, torture and arbitrary executions. Germany's secret state police – the Gestapo – spread horror in all the occupied countries of Europe. Using local informants, they infiltrated Resistance groups and showed no mercy to enemies of the Third Reich.

STALIN AND HITLER WIPED OUT POLAND • Shortly after the conquest of Poland, Hitler and Stalin embark on their individual plans for the future of the shared country. The two dictators may be worlds apart ideologically, but in both parts of Poland the population pays a high price.

JAPAN’S GESTAPO STOPPED AT NOTHING • Everyone feared Japan’s military police, the Kempeitai, who rained down pain and death on civilians, resistance fighters and prisoners of war throughout the Far East. Japanese atrocities were among the worst crimes of World War II, yet very few were punished for their offences.

FAMILY MAN BUILT HITLER’S DEATH FACTORY • In 1940 Rudolf Höss was ordered to build Auschwitz concentration camp. He was neither a fanatic nor a psychopath, but blind obedience made him the greatest mass murderer in history.

SOVIET DICTATOR SLAUGHTERED POLISH OFFICERS • In spring 1940, packed trains transported captured Polish officers from prison camps to the Katyn Forest. Three or four times a day Poles would arrive and three or four times a day shots and screams echoed through the trees. Three years later, the Germans uncovered thousands of bodies: proof of a gruesome war crime.

JEWS FOUGHT BACK AGAINST THE NAZIS • Their family was murdered by the Nazis, and they came close to being captured themselves. But three Jewish brothers refused to die and instead formed one of Poland’s most-feared resistance groups, saving 1,140 lives in the process.

THE BUTCHER OF LYONO • Red-hot needles, whips and boiling water – Klaus Barbie’s sadistic methods knew no limits. Over two years, the Butcher of Lyon tortured thousands of Jews and members of the French Resistance. When the Allies liberated the city, Barbie fled and found a new employer.

SLAVE LABOUR PROPPED UP THE THIRD REICH • With most German men fighting on the front, Nazi industry became desperately short of workers. Propaganda campaigns enticed some labourers from German-occupied nations, but not enough. Soon, POWs and Soviet civilians captured in Hitler's Eastern offensive were forced to work in German factories.

HITLER’S ARYAN EXECUTIONER • He was the grandson of an opera composer and rose to become Hitler’s favourite. The Aryan fencing virtuoso Reinhard Heydrich coldly crushed his rivals and eradicated any resistance to Nazism. At the peak of his career, he masterminded the extermination of Europe’s Jews. It was to become his shameful legacy.

STALIN DROVE PRISONERS OF WAR TO SUICIDE • In prison camps throughout the Soviet Union, sick, starving and battered German soldiers spend years in primitive, cold barracks. Their grim conditions, isolation from family and uncertain future lead many to go on hunger strike and commit suicide.

WORKED TO DEATH IN THE JUNGLE • Endless forests, impassable mountains and billions of malaria-carrying mosquitoes made building a railway line between Thailand and Burma impossible – except for the Japanese military, who had plenty of POWs and little respect for...