HITLER'S HENCHMEN: HIMMLER: THE EXECUTIONER {DER VOLLSTRECKER: HEINRICH HIMMLER} (TV)
Summary
One in this six-part German-produced documentary series about the men who engineered and ruled Hitler's Third Reich. Using recently discovered archival footage, rare biographical material, and newly recorded testimony from firsthand witnesses, the series profiles six members of Adolf Hitler's inner circle and architects of Third Reich. This program examines the life and career of Heinrich Himmler. As Hitler's Minister of the Interior, Himmler commanded the dreaded Gestapo and SS, and supervised the "Final Solution," in which millions of Jews and other victims of Nazi policies were imprisoned in concentration camps and systematically murdered. The product of a privileged upbringing and excellent education, Himmler inconspicuously rises to the middle of Hitler's administrative ranks, heading the elite SS (the security echelon of the SA, the Nazi uniformed party militia led by Ernst Roehm, Himmler's popular mentor). After Himmler frames Roehm for treason, he becomes subordinate only to Hitler, who awards him control of the Gestapo (the secret police responsible for keeping tabs on Jews and other "undesirables"). Himmler moves the SS headquarters into a lavish castle, where he propounds a Nazi dogma that is an odd mixture of German history and folklore, medieval mysticism, and racism. Himmler conceives the plan for interring Jews in concentration camps, and masks the atrocities committed there with jargon stressing "rehabilitation." In addition to the primary objective of extermination, many prisoners are subjected to bizarre, horrific medical experiments. Himmler, the man responsible for administering these camps, is described as a colorless, unmemorable personality prized by Hitler mainly for his bureaucratic acumen and organizational skills. After a botched attempt to negotiate Germany's surrender at the end of the war, Himmler commits suicide with a poison capsule after his capture by the British . The documentary includes commentary by the following individuals: Traudl Junge, secretary to Adolf Hitler; former prisoner Max Hollweg; theologian Martin Bormann, Jr.; Ernst-Gunther Schenck and Wilhelm Sassen of the Waffen-SS; SS doctor Hans Munch; medical experiment survivors Ephraim Reichenberg, Vera Alexander and Moshe Offer; Himmler staff officer Karl Bohm-Teffelbach; and Hitler Youth leader Artur Axmann.
(This program is in German with English narration and subtitles.)
(This program was originally telecast on the ZDF German Television Network as "Der Vollstrecker: Heinrich Himmler" on January 21, 1997.)
Details
- NETWORK: History Channel
- DATE: October 19, 1997 10:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:52:10
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:50248
- GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: Anti-Semitism; Concentration camps; Germany - History - 1933-1945; Nazism
- SERIES RUN: History Channel - TV, 1997
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Guido Knopp … Executive Producer, Created by
- Andrew McDonald … Producer
- Andreas Christoph Schmidt … Director, Writer
- Silke Schlafer … Researcher
- Olav Schroer … Researcher
- Klaus Doldinger … Music by
- David Ritchie … Narrator
- Vera Alexander … Guest
- Artur Axmann … Guest
- Karl Bohm-Teffelbach … Guest
- Martin Bormann … Guest
- Max Hollweg … Guest
- Traudl Junge … Guest
- Hans Munch … Guest
- Moshe Offer … Guest
- Wilhelm Sassen … Guest
- Ernst-Gunther Schenck … Guest
- Ephraim Reichenberg … Guest
- Heinrich Himmler
- Adolf Hitler
- Ernst Roehm