Hitler's Last Year

From the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944, to the surrender of the Third Reich on May 8, 1945, it took 353 days to bring down the Nazi regime. HITLER’S LAST YEAR returns to the eleven months that preceded Hitler’s defeat and unveils entire chapters of the war that are largely unknown. Retrace the war’s final events through rarely seen, remastered and recoloured archival footage.

As the Allies storm the beaches of Normandy, Hitler orders the return of the Das Reich, the infamous Panzer elite division best known for its mass murders in the Ukraine and in Belarus, based at that time in southwest of France. Its mission: to push the Allies back into the Atlantic and turn the tide of the conflict in favor of the Germans. The SS division, with 15,000 men and more than 200 tanks, faces relentless attacks from the Resistance as it moves north through France. Along the way, it conducts vicious reprisals and massacres of civilians (Oradour-sur-Glane, Tulle).

Rare glimpses inside Hitler's inner circle. Hitler's Bodyguard tells the fascinating story of jealousy, betrayal and murder and what it was like to protect the biggest villain in history from bombs, snipers, plots, maniacs, poison gas and Allied assassination attempts. This is the detailed story of Hitler's survival from a very new angle. A dramatic and in-depth series analyzes the motives and methodology of the individuals and organizations that planned to kill Hitler.

History is always written by the victors… this is the other side of the coin. This is the front line perspective on World War II as seen through the eyes of the losing side, the men who fought for Hitler.

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.

This series looks at the many people who chose to collaborate with the Nazis. It is at times, uncomfortable viewing, but it's also totally absorbing too. It’s a simple question. “How could they have done it?” How could anyone have collaborated with the Nazis? And yet so many did. From Pierre Laval in France to Chaim Rumkowski, who ran the Jewish administration in the Lodz ghetto, from Quisling to the IRA, from the 1600 Belgians who served in the SS to the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem - all worked with the Nazis.