The defeat at Stalingrad in 1943 was the turning point of the war. With the situation for Hitler’s Germany becoming increasingly hopeless, millions toil in German factories under brutal conditions. Romania, Hungary, Italy, and Finland leave their pacts with Germany, forcing the Wehrmacht to overstretch its forces. After destroying the political opposition and the Jews, the Nazi regime it turns its terror against its own people.
This episode reveals the important role public denunciations played in allowing the relatively small Gestapo to suppress almost all resistance. When Stauffenberg's assassination attempt was failed on July 20, 1944, the Wehrmacht was purged.
Meanwhile, the final horrific chapter of the Holocaust begins with the death marches of surviving concentration camp prisoners from the battlefields to the Reich.
What facilitated the rise of the Nazis?
With this 10-part documentary series "The Abyss - Rise and Fall of the Nazis" ZDFinfo is using the power of film to take a stand against ignorance towards the past. The project tells the story of the rise and fall of National Socialism from an international perspective, examining the causes of the rupture in civilization at the hands of Germans, which led from a crisis-ridden democracy to war and genocide.
Rare, and newly discovered film and photo footage, as well as 40 field-leading experts such as Richard J. Evans, Mary Fulbrook, Peter Longerich, Moshe Zimmermann, Alexandra Richie, and Götz Aly, offer new perspectives on the history between 1918 and 1948.
Based on the latest research, the series focuses on both the motives of the perpetrators, but also on the responsibility of a significant portion of the German people What facilitated the rise of the Nazis. What paved the way for the genocide of the Jews? This is the story of how humanity's darkest hour took place. The Abyss.
