Hitlers Imperium

In the autumn of 1940, the decision was made by Hitler to construct a base of operations from which Operation Barbarossa could be planned and instigated. This almost impenetrable series of structures, located in the Masurian woods near the town of Rastenburg, welcomed the Fuehrer for the first time on the 23rd June, 1941. Although Hitler had a number of similar bases built throughout Europe, the Wolfsschanze was by far his preferred location, spending a total of over 800 days there during a three and a half year period. In that time, a number of key decisions were made there that drove the Eastern campaign against Russia, as well as a failed assassination attempt on the Fuehrer himself.

Traudl Junge was Adolf Hitler's private secretary, from Autumn 1942 until the collapse of the Nazi regime. She worked for him at the Wolfsschanze in Obersalzberg, on his private train and, finally, in his bunker in the besieged capital. It was Traudl Junge to whom Hitler dictated his final testament. In her first ever on-camera interview, 81-year-old Junge talks about her unique life. In the spring of 2001, Andre Heller succeeded in convincing Traudl Junge how valuable it is to record her unique memories. Fifty-six years after the end of the Second World War, an important eyewitness reveals her experiences to us. What she saw and heard turned her into an furious opponent of National Socialism; an opponent, moreover, who is still painfully aware and seems incapable of forgiving the young girl she once was–for her naivete, ignorance, and her liking for Hitler.

Meet the Hitlers is a feature documentary that examines the relationship between names and identity, by exploring the lives of people who are linked by the name 'Hitler.' The film raises important questions about the meaning of names, and explores complex issues like immigration, racism, and tolerance. Yet it's ultimately a character-driven story, offering an intimate portrait of its subjects, whose reactions to their name span the spectrum of human experience, from tragedy to comedy, and heartbreak to hope.

1943: Cornered and with the tide of WWII turning irreversibly against it, Germany engaged in total war. Hitler needed men to fight. By drawing on resources within the Hitler Youth, and by launching a wide-scale recruitment process, he managed to enlist 20,000 teenagers to establish the sadly infamous 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend.

It took less than 10 years for Hitler to set up the concentration camps, many of which became centers for mass killing. As research and archaeological exploration continue, this documentary reveals the established historiographical elements of this Nazi system of genocide. May 1945: With the end of World War II and the surrender of the Third Reich, the world discovered the full horror of Adolph Hitler's genocidal system. Hitler's Nazi death camps were meticulously designed to kill on a scale never before seen in the history of humanity.