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Nazism, Nazi Germany, and Fascism

60 Minutes: Hitler's Secret Archives
The largest archive of Nazi documents is in Bad Arolson, Germany, where 50 million files detail the horror endured by 17.5 million victims of the Third Reich. Among the victims whose stories are held here: Anne Frank and the Jews on Schindler's list. Scott Pelley travels to the immense archive with three Jewish Holocaust survivors who see, for the first time, the detailed paperwork the Nazis kept on their torturous imprisonment. DVD only. Airdate: 12/17/06

A Newsreel History of the Third Reich, Vol. 1: The Early Days to 1935
A Newsreel History of the Third Reich, Vol. 1 compiles a series of vintage newsreels that showcase how Hitler's rise to power in Germany was reported to filmgoers in the thirties and forties. 85 minutes. DVD only.

Ambulance
Depicts the essence of the Holocaust is one single incident: the gassing of unsuspecting innocent school children, using an ambulance to lead them to their death. No dialogue; uses only the visual to create a story of lasting impact. (HS+). B/W. (9 min)

The Architecture Of Doom
This film captures the inner working of Adolph Hitler and the Third Reich. It shows everything from the Nazi party rallies to the last days in Hitler's bunker. The first 30-40 minutes works particularly well because it ties together Hitler's asthetic vision (including his personal design of Nazi standards, uniforms, flags, etc.) and the Nazi conception of the beautiful body politic (in the form of eugenics). This film covers all topics from the banning of modern artists like Picasso to the extermination of Jews. A penetrating analysis of Nazi ideology which extends beyond the scope of ordinary politics. It claims that the underlying motivation was an extreme aesthetic aspiration to return beauty to the world - to counteract the miscegenation and degeneration that defiled it - through sheer violence. (HS+). (119 min)

Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State
Auschwitz occupies a chilling and disturbing place in the history of humankind. It began as a Nazi labor campt to terrorize the local Polish population and evolved intothe site of the largest mass murder ever recorded. This six-part series, narrated by actress Linda Hunt presents an in-depth examination of the camp's evolution and the decisions that enabled such an incomprehensibly inhuman place to come into being. Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State is the result of three years of research, drawing on the close involvement of world experts, recently discovered documents and nearly 100 interviews with camp survivors and perpetrators, many of whom are speaking on the record for the first time. Their stories are brought to life through the innovative use of archive footage, dramatic recreations of key decision-making moments, and their extraordinary testimony. While never losing sight of the suffering of the victims, this documentary offers a unique and alarming look at the mindset of the perpetratos - killers like the Commandant of Auschwitz Rudolf Hoess, camp doctor Josef Mengele, and SS Commander Heinrich Himmler. Written and produced by laurence Rees, the Creative Director of BBC History Programs. The historical and script consultant for the series is the award-winning Hitler biographer, Professor Ian Kershaw. DVD only. See http://www.keene.edu/cchs/t_resources/Inside%20the%20Nazi%20State.pdf for clips for classroom useage.

Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State (Educator's Edition)
In January and February 2005, Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State, a six-hour documentary television series, aired on U.S. public television and the BBC in Great Britain. The series chronologically explores the evolution of Auschwitz and introduces perpetrators from all levels of the Nazi bureaucracy who were involved in the design, construction, and administration of the camp. Interspersed is the testimony of Holocaust survivors. This Educator's Edition DVD-ROM is a comprehensive multimedia teaching tool designed to serve the needs of secondary, postsecondary, adult educators and students. Featuring video segments from the original documentary series, the DVD-ROM includes printiable primary materials that correlate to national curriculum standards. Included on this disc: 27 video segments from the seies, with discussion questions; 122 photographs; 25 maps and charts; 28 background readings; 19 primary resources; 14 l;iterary extracts; 4 complete units, with detailed lesson lans.

Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary
The astonishing true story of Hitler's private secretary coming to terms with working alongside unspeakable evil after remaining silent for nearly sixty years. (87 min)

Breadline: The Great Depression at Home
Part of the People's Century series, Breadline -- The Great Depression at Home documents the serious economic decline faced by the United States of America and felt throughout the world after the boom of the 1920s. Utilizing archival footage and new materials, the film illuminates such events as the stock market crash of 1929, FDR's New Deal, and the rise of fascism in Europe. This is a fine, informative film for those with an interest in the subject matter, as well as for teachers who may find it useful in a classroom setting. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide. 60 Minutes VHS

The Bunker
In an Emmy Award winning performance, Anthony Hopkins portrays Adolf Hitler over the 105 days of his decline. With the Third Reich crumbling around him, as he rages against those of his supporters now turning against him, in the final hours before the allied troops swarm into Berlin, Germany's leader must make a choice between surrender . . . or suicide. (87 min)

Daniel's Story (Currently unavailable)
The videotape of Daniel's Story runs approximately 14 minutes and documents the events of the Holocaust from the perspective of a Jewish child growing up in Nazi Germany. The characters of Daniel and his family have been based upon, and are a composite of, the experiences of actual German Jewish families, and the story is told with authentic photographs and film footage. Because the videotape has been designed for children ages 8-13, it does not rely on images of graphic horror to describe the plight of families persecuted by the Nazis. 4th Grade+. (14 min)

Degenerate Art
Examines the historical context of the infamous Entartete Kunst (degenerate art) exhibition mounted by the Nazis in Munich in 1937. Includes archival footage of Nazi book burnings and interviews which lend a poignancy and immediacy to this powerful story of the Nazis' attack on modern culture. (General audiences). Color. (60 min)

Der Ewige Jude (The Eternal Jew)
A visit to the Lodz ghetto in Nazi occupied Poland, recorded by German cameramen with the naive cooperation of the Jewish community, is combined with rare archival footage, clips from international newsreels, and excerpts from related cultural films to portray the World's Jews as swindlers and parasites. Note: It Is strongly recommended that viewers of this film be warned beforehand that it is a piece of deliberate Nazi propaganda designed to inculcate the most virulent and hateful manifestations of antisemitism. They should also be told that under coercion the Jews in the film are distastefully and cruelly exploited through the use of lighting and camera angles, let alone the powerlessness of their situation. (High School seniors and older.) B/W (62 min)

Downfall
This 2007 German film takes you into Hitler's bunker during the brutal & terrifying last days of the Third Reich. The riveting subject of Downfall is nothing less than the disintegration of Adolf Hitler in mind, body, and soul. A 2005 Academy Award nominee for best foreign language film, this German historical drama stars Bruno Ganz (Wings of Desire) as Hitler, whose psychic meltdown is depicted in sobering detail, suggesting a fallen, pathetic dictator on the verge on insanity, resorting to suicide (along with Eva Braun and Joseph and Magda Goebbels) as his Nazi empire burns amidst chaos in mid-1945. While staging most of the film in the claustrophobic bunker where Hitler spent his final days, director Oliver Hirschbiegel (Das Experiment) dares to show the gentler human side of der Fuehrer, as opposed to the pure embodiment of evil so familiar from many other Nazi-era dramas. This balanced portrayal does not inspire sympathy, however: We simply see the complexity of Hitler's character in the greater context of his inevitable downfall, and a more realistic (and therefore more horrifying) biographical portrait of madness on both epic and intimate scales. By ending with a chilling clip from the 2002 documentary Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary, this unforgettable film gains another dimension of sobering authenticity. --Jeff Shannon Studio: Starring: Bruno Ganz Julianne Kohler DVD. 155 minutes. English subtitles. Rating: R

Fatal Attraction Of Adolf Hitler
The Fatal attraction tells the story of how Hitler was able to acquire absolute power over, and unquestioned loyalty from, young and old, rich and poor, the elite and the worker, the military and the civilian population. Students will see the pageantry of the Third Reich, the success of Germany's early campaigns and some rare glimpses of Hitler's personal life. (90 min)

The Fuhrer Gives a City to the Jews
Nazi propaganda film on Theresienstadt. Teachers should exercise caution with this film. It is a carefully staged film proporting the "good treatment" of Jews. Many of those seen in this highly deceptive film were sent, shortly after the filming was ending, to the gas chambers at Auschwitz. The film was produced during the summer of 1944 by Germany's Ministry of Propaganda about theresienstadt, the model ghetto established by the Nazis in 1941. It was intended to be used to show the International Red Cross and the world that Jews were being well treated in the camps. This is the only film known to have been made by the Germans inside any operating concentration camps; it is, however, an elaborately staged film presenting a completely false picture of camp life. Only a few survived to attest to the falsity of the film, which has renewed significance in the face of Holocaust denial. This film is incomplete and the restoration segment of all extant fragments was done by the National Center for Jewish film. German with English sub-titles. (HS+). B/W. (23 min.)

The Garden Of Finzi-Continis
This Vittorio DeSica classic relates the gradual destruction of an aristocratic Jewish family due to Mussolini's antisemitic edicts and their own detachment. This film received an Academy Award for Best Screenplay Adaptation. Italian with English subtitles. Rated R. (Adult). Color. (95 min)

Goebbles: Master of Propaganda: We Have Ways Of Making You Think.
A chilling portrait of Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi master of propaganda who fathered the "big lie", disseminated the Fuhrer myth, and leavened his mass persuasion with mass entertainment. This film provides a rare glimpse of the German home front and film industry, and analyzes the propaganda techniques Goebbels refined, and reveals the power of the media in influencing public opinion. (49 min)

Good Morning Mr. Hitler
Rare footage of the Nazi leadership at a three day festival six weeks prior to the start of WWII. The 1939 footage is viewed by those who were there. Shows a rare view of Hitler is relaxed celebration. The audience consists of those who were filmed fifty years ago as they relive the events of the day.

Healing By Killing
This documentary looks at Nazi Germany's euthanasia program to eliminate the mentally handicapped. The first murders committed by doctors for reason of public health lead to the death camps. This film interviews survivors, former Nazis and historians to provide an in depth picture.

Heil Hitler! Confessions Of A Hitler Youth
A shocking true story based on the book by Alfons Heck, recalling how he became a high-ranking member of the Hitler Youth during World War II. Along with 8,000,000 other German children, he pledged his life to Hitler as an impressionable 10-year-old. Could it happen today? "Of course," says Heck. For general audiences; High school and college students. (JHS?MS?HS). Color & B/W. (30 min.) FOR KSC CAMPUS USE ONLY.

Hilter Youth Quex
English Subtitles (100 mins). Nazi propaganda film, 1933. (Mentioned in Confessions of a Hitler Youth.)

Hitler's Courts: Betrayal of the Rule of Law in Nazi Germany
35 minute documentary about the legal system in Nazi Germany. (Reserved) DVD only.

Hitler's Secret Archive - (60 Minutes)
The largest archive of Nazi documents is in Bad Arolson, Germany, where 50 million files detail the horror endured by 17.5 million victims of the Third Reich. Among the victims whose stories are held here: Anne Frank and the Jews on Schindler's list. Scott Pelley travels to the immense archive with three Jewish Holocaust surviors who see for the first time the detailed paperwork the nazis kept on their torturous imprisonment. This aired on 60 Minutes on 12/17/06. DVD.

The Holocaust: In Memory Of Millions
The story of the Holocaust hosted by Walter Cronkite at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. From the halls of the museum, Cronkite chronicles the entire story of the Holocaust from the rise of the Nazi party and their plan to annihilate the Jewish people, to tales of incredible bravery among the Holocaust survivors and the liberators of camps. (7th grade+). Color. (90min)

Homo Sapiens 1900: The Quest to Improve the Human Race
Eugenics, Racial Hygiene, Selective Breeding and Sterilization. Unearthing startling footage and long-hidden documents, HOMO SAPIENS 1900 is a stunning exploration of the history of eugenics, race hygiene and the quest to improve the human race. Beginning around 1900, eugenics movements in the United States, Germany and elsewhere spawned government sanctioned research projects, with the goal of improving the human species through biological means - including selective breeding, sterilizations, and weeding out 'degenerate' members of society. This film reveals the social and political undercurrents of the feverish quest to build a superior race, and exposes how "eugenic theory has been used to justify the most virulent racism in the name of science." (NY Times) 85 minutes (DVD only)

In The Shadow Of The Reich: Nazi Medicine
A documentary that studies the process that led doctors under the Third Reich to perform such unethical experiments and euthanasia. (54 min.)

Jehovah's Witnesses Stand Firm Against Nazi Assault
As the Nazi killing machine engulfed Europe with terror, thousands of Jehovah's Witnesses suffered brutal persecution. Why? Because they sttod firm in their beliefs and boldly spoke out against the cruelty of Nazism. They were among the first to be thrown into Nazi concentration camps. "The goal was to destroy this religious group," says Dr. Detlef Garbe. Hitler vowed to smash this small Christian group. But they could not be silenced. In this video, 10 historians from Europe and North America, and more than 20 Witness survivors, join in relating a story of courage and triumph that must be told. 78 minutes

Jud Suss
Jud Süß (Jew Süss) is a 1940 film produced by Terra Filmkunst on behalf of the Nazi regime and conceived as an antisemitic propaganda film. The screenplay was written by Veit Harlan, Wolfgang Eberhard Möller and Ludwig Metzger, and it is partially based on the 1925 historical novel Jud Süß by Lion Feuchtwanger as well as the 1827 novella by Wilhelm Hauff. Neither the film, nor the novel nor the novella correspond to the historic sources regarding Joseph Süß Oppenheimer as still accessible at the Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg. The movie was directed by Veit Harlan. The movie played on basic Nazi stereotypes of Jews having hooked noses and being materialistic, immoral, cunning, untrustworthy and physically unattractive. With the exception of Marian-who shaved off his beard, cut his hair and wore "Christian" attire for most of the story-the actors playing male Jewish characters were made up to look unappealing and alien (non-German) to German audiences. The best example of this is Marian's co-star Werner Krauss who played the two other major Jewish characters, Rabbi Loew and his secretary Levy. There was also a scene that purported to show Jewish religious services. Jewish extras were "recruited" (coerced into performing) in Prague (the capital of the German occupied Bohemia-Moravia) and the scenes showing the entry of the Jews into Württemberg and worshipping in a synagogue were filmed there. VHS. For Cohen Center use only. This video does not circulate.

The Liberation Of Aushwitz (1945)
This documentary, produced to mark the 40th anniversary of the liberation of the camp at Auschwitz, contains previously unreleased film material of the event as well as an interview with the eyewitness Soviet cameraman, Alexander Vorontsov. The film footage was shot by the Soviets between January 27 and February 28, 1945 in Auschwitz and Birkenau. (HS+). B/W & Color. (55 mins).

The Longest Hatred
"They are the other. They are not us." Throughout time, words such as these have been used to justify and vilify. This stunning documentary takes an unsparing look at the ways such words have shaped the experience of Jewish people, from the first century to the present - a revealing history of antisemitism with roots long before the Holocaust and branches that continue to sprout in surprising places today. Part One, "From the Cross to the Swastika," traces an image that begins with the earliest writings of Christianity, which leveled the charge that Jews were responsible for Jesus' death. In this segment, historians show how demonizing dogma has affected Jews through the centuries - in Italy, Spain, England, and Germany - reaching its zenith with the development of Nazi ideology. Part Two, "Enemies of the People," shows how antisemitic sentiment has accompanied a growing nationalism in Europe in recent decades, causing a mass exodus of Jews from Russia and even resurfacing in Poland and Austria, where few Jews remain. In Germany, the remarkable collapse of the Berlin wall has been followed by the rise of neo-Nazism among German youth. Part Three, "Between Moses and Muhammed," takes a humanistic look at relations between Arabs and Israelis, once linked by pseudo-science under the degrading label "Semite" and now enmeshed in one of the world's most violent conflicts. Experts on both sides tell how Arabs and Jews, who for centuries lived in relative peace, have been drastically alienated by political turmoil - and how the anti-Jewish propaganda now disseminated in the Arab world is so eerily like that seen in Europe before World War II. Color, 150 minutes.

The Lost Children Of Berlin
In April 1942, the Gestapo closed the last Jewish school in Berlin. Half a century later, 50 of its former students traveled from around the world to the reopened school for an extraordinary reunion. The video weaves together the social and political events of the 1930s and 1940s detailing the Jewish life of pre-war Berlin. (General Audience). Color. (50minutes)

The Master Race
This program shows how and why the Nazi concept of racial superiority developed, and how and why the German nation was organized to achieve it. It focuses on the 1936 Olympic Games as grist for the German propaganda mill; organized, planned persecution as an element of government policy; political suppression and antisemitism; Mein Kampf as a blueprint; the Nuremberg Laws defining racial purity; Joseph Goebbels and the Big Lie; how German youth were educated to support the goals of the Nazi state. (JHS/MS+). B & W. (20 min.)

Memories of Kristallnacht
The sounds of broken glass, on the eve of November 9, 1938, will be forever etched in the collective memory. It was the night that the Nazis publicly and blatantly announced to the world that they had declared open war on the Jewish people. Through archival footage, photographs and first hand interviews with witnesses, this video forms a sharp portrait of the time and the events. 57 mins. VHS.

Mosley
While Hitler was raising an army, he was also raising the hopes of Oswald Mosley, England's own Fascist leader. As a young army officer in the First World War, Mosely discovered a camaraderie among working men that would inspire him to enter politics - not a characteristic reflected in his loyalties. Mosley would stand for the right, stand for the left, and then for the extreme right forming the British Union of Fascists. This powerful tale tells of one man's ruthless rise to power, dispassionately fighting the nation's leaders while reserving his passion for sleeping with their wives. His charm seduced many, and those not easily seduced soon found themselves persuaded by the violent actions of his Blackshirt army. This is the rise and fall of a man who would govern, a man who would rule, a man who brought a nation to its feet not to its knees... 4 parts Part I: Young Man in a Hurry (1918-1920) Part II: Rules of the Game (1924-1927) Part III: Breaking the Mold (1929-1933) Part IV: Beyond the pale (1933-1940) 240 total minutes. Color. 1997.

Music Box
Courtroom drama which follows an attorney who agrees to defend her Hungarian immigrant father against charges of war crimes committed 50 years earlier. As she searches for evidence to establish innocence, she also examines her doubts about his past. VHS and DVD. (126 min)

The Nazi Officer's Wife
In 1938, Edith Hahn was a Viennese law student, a "Christmas-tree Jew" with a gentile boyfriend. In 1942, she was living under an assumed name in Munich, married to Werner Vetter, a Nazi party member who was later drafted into the Wehrmacht. Based on Hahn's acclaimed memoir, THE NAZI OFFICER'S WIFE is the riveting account of how she survived the Holocaust by posing as an Aryan hausfrau. Despite the risks, she kept painstaking records, including real and falsified documents, and photos of labor camps. These moving artifacts, along with testimony from Hahn and her duaghter, bring this tale of survival, resilience, and redemption to life. From award-winning filmmakers Rory Kennedy and Liz Garbus THE NAZI OFFICER'S WIFE is narrated by Susan Sarandon, with additional readings by Julia Ormond. DVD only. Approx. 100 minutes.

The Nazis
The acclaimed BBC documentary explores the myths encompassing Hitler's ruthless organization. Little-known details are revealed about the rise and fall of the Third Reich, and its role in unleashing the most devastating war in mankind's history. The series includes interviews of eyewitnesses, many telling their stories for the first time. Rare archival footage from the Communist Bloc is used as well as unpublished documents, along with the valuable insight of Ian Kershaw a preeminent scholar of the Nazi period. Vol. 1 Helped into Power. Vol. 2 Chaos and Consent. Vol. 3 The Wrong War. Vol. 4 The Wild East. Vol. 5 The Road to Treblinka. Vol. 6. Fighting to the End. ( All videos approximately 50 min. each)

Nuremberg
A history of the rise to power of the Nazis recounted within the context of the Nuremberg trials. Excerpts of footage used by the prosecution to show Nazi atrocities are interact with trial sequences to illustrate each of the four counts of the indictment. Not recommended for unprepared audiences due to the Intensely graphic presentation of atrocities. (HS+) B/W. (76 min)

Ordered To Love (Lebensborn)
Made in post-war Europe, this fictional feature film deals with the actual undertaking in the Third Reich. This story portrays the attempt to produce Hitler's super Aryan type by breeding "clinically defined" Aryan women with SS men who as members of this elite group will engender Hitler's "super race" for the future. The film is not sensationalistic and handles the sexual content in a very modest fashion. While it does not relate directly to the Jews and the Holocaust, it clearly addresses the distorted Nazi view of genetics and their quest to create physically superior beings. Junior/Senior level and older.

Outcast: Jewish Persecution In Nazi Germany
Jewish persecution in Nazi Germany between the years 1933-1938 until Kristallnacht. Film footage and photographs with testimonies of witnesses who were teenagers at the time. (General Audiences). (40 min)

Purple Triangles
Fifty years ago, under the Nazi Regime, Jehovah's Witnesses were forced to wear a purple triangle and were thrown into concentration camps. Many were annihilated. Survivors of the Kusserow family tell of their harrowing experiences in the Third Reich. (Grades 9 and up.) Color. (25 min)

Rise And Fall Of Adolf Hitler (Vols.1-6)
A comprehensive psychological profile of one of the most influential, destructive and powerful men of the twentieth century, this six volume set explores the life of Adolf Hitler. A remarkable profile from one of Germany's leading production companies examines Hitler's background, rise to power, rule and downfall. Including interviews with people who served under his rule, this unique documentary features never-before-seen film footage that offer a chilling reminder of the man who ordered the murder of six million Jews as well as other undesirables. (General audience). (50 min per video)

The Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich
Traces the political and social climate of Germany, from the disintegration of the Weimar Republic, through the rise of the Nazi Party and WW II, to the destruction of Berlin and Hitler's death. Extensive documentary footage, interviews and introductory remarks by William Shirer, author of the book. Narration by Richard Basehart. (JHS/MS+). B/W. (120 min.)

Sorrow: The Nazi Legacy
A group of six Swedish teenagers, Jewish and non-Jewish, embark on a journey to Auschwitz in an effort to try to comprehend the incomprehensible. A preliminary visit to Wannsee sets the stage for their pilgrimage. Yet, no amount of intellectual explanation of the facts as they occurred can adequately prepare the gorup for their own emotional reactions after having spent time in auschwitz. A meeting with one of the camp's survivors, Ruth Elias, proves to be one full of pain and sorrow, yet full of hope for the future. The pilgrimage concludes as the group returns to Stockholm to a meeting with Niklas Frank, the son of Hans Frank, a high-ranking Nazi official who was the governor-general of nazi-occupied Poland. (HS). Color. (33 min.)

Synagogues on Fire
From Producer/Director Jeremy Newman. Footage of Kristallnacht. 4 minutes.

The Music Survives! Degenerate Music: Music Suppressed by the Third Reich
Nobody could resist Johny Spielt Auf. In the '20s, nobody could resist the bitterly yearning, ironically passionate modernist movement in any of the German-speaking countries. Some of the composers of the music on this disc were the toast of Weimar Germany and their music was performed in the great concert halls and opera houses of Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, the Sudentenland, the Rhine Valley, and Alsace-Lorraine. But after the Nazis seized power, their music was banned as degenerate and the composers were branded as dangerous. Within 15 years, most of them were in exile or forgotten, and many of them were dead. But, as the title of the disc says, The Music Survives! From the brilliantly lyrical Vorspiel to Braunfels' Die Vögel through Death's final Aria in Ullmann's Der Kaiser von Atlantis, which was written in a concentration shortly before the composer and his wife were gassed, every work on this disc is astoundingly good. That music is as extravagantly sensual as the rapturous Aria from Korngold's Das Wunder der Heliane or as profoundly disturbing as the love-death from Schreker's Die Gezeichneten or as ecstatically joyous as the closing scene of Johny Spielt Auf could have been silenced is evidence of the vilest inhumanity. That the music survives is testimony to its transcendent humanity and sublime beauty. And that includes the singing sword and the factory whistle at the absurd climactic chorus of Johny. London's sound is rich, warm, detailed, and just about real. ~ James Leonard, All Music Guide VHS. 36 minutes.

The Specialist: Portrait of a Modern Criminal
A German worker in the upper echelons of the Nazi party, Adolf Eichmann was in charge of the expulsion of Jews, Slovenians, and Gypsies from the Reich between 1938 and 1941, and then of their deportation from Europe to the death camps. In 1960, he was captured by the Israeli secret service in Argentina. His subsequent trial in Jerusalem was one of the first public events recorded on video. Filmmakers Rony Brauman and Eyal Sivan have assembled excerpts of this footage to create a tightly edited and compelling documentary about a bureaucrat who has fulfilled his duties during a time of war. Eichmann steadfastly insists that his part in the Holocaust was neither active or evil: he was only following orders. At the outset of the trial, the prosecutor calls Eichmann an inhuman beast, but the thin balding man in a black suit who is taking copious notes and nervously interlaces his fingers during the course of the trial doesn't seem to fit that description. Even during the tensest moments and facing direct accusations by the prosecution who wants to see him hanged, he refuses to show remorse or culpability for his actions. The film is fascinating for Eichmann's resoluteness. By the nature of his answers, he proves himself to be the quintessential bureaucrat of Kafka's worst nightmare. Perhaps the most striking feature about Eichmann is just how ordinary he seems--not a monster, not a mad thinker, but an efficient man who sat behind a desk, processing forms. Based on Hannah Arendt's famous account of the trial, "The Specialist: Portrait of a Modern Criminal" offers profound insight into how the Holocaust was facilitated by bureaucracy and a subservient mindset that allowed people like Eichmann to claim ignorance and shuffle responsibility for atrocious crimes around like so many carbon-copy forms. The DVD features a substantial hour-long interview with the filmmakers, an excerpt of the book "In Praise of Disobedience," and extensive language options, which come in handy since the trial itself is multilingual. DVD. B&W. 123 minutes.

Theologians Under Hitler
In the days after World War II, a convenient story was told of church leaders and ordinary Christians that defied the Nazis from the beginning. Recent research has uncovered a very different story. Rather then resisting, the greater part of the German church saw Hitler's rise in 1933 as an act of God's blessing, a new chapter in the story of God among the German people. This film, based upon ground-breaking research, introduces the viewer to three of the greatest Christian scholars of the 20th century: Paul Althaus, Emanuel Hirsch, and Gerhard Kittel, men who were also outspoken supporters of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. In 1933 Althaus spoke of Hitler's rise as "a gift and miracle of God." Hirsch saw 1933 as a "sunrise of divine goodness." And Kittel, the editor of the standard reference work on the Jewish Background of the New Testament, began working for the Nazis to find a "moral" rationale for the destruction of European Jewry. This provocative film asks: how could something like this happen in the heart of Christian Europe? Could it happen again? How does the scholarship of this period affect the church today? Does the church of today retain the ability to recognize profound evil? DVD only. 64 minutes.

Triumph Of The Will
Leni Riefenstahl's controversial film of the Sixth Nazi Party Congress at Nuremberg (1934) is considered by many to be the greatest propaganda documentary ever filmed. It provides a fascinating psychological study of the Nazi leaders in action. Told visually with little dialogue; speeches by Hitler and others are in German with English subtitles. Caution from the Coordinator of Educational Outreach: Though often recommended for Junior/Middle school level, the effectiveness of this brilliant film in projecting Nazi racism and the Cult of Hitler makes it a potentially dangerous film. It is recommended that teachers often stop the film to illustrate how the film is made (camera angles) and that, at its making, the Nazi Party was not the only political force in Germany. It is a propaganda film. (HS+). B/W. (110 min.)

The Willy Lindwer Collection. The Road To Wannsee: Eleven Million Sentenced To Death
On January 20, 1942, eleven million Jews were sentenced to death at Wannsee. In this compelling work, we learn of Hitler's political rise to power in 1933, the neutralizing of his opponents, his political aims, and his obsession with the elimination of the Jews. (50min)

The Wonderful, Horrible Life Of Leni Riefenstahl ( Vols. 1 & 2)
"Hitler's moviemaker" addresses her past for the first time on camera. Creator of the single most effective propaganda film ever made "Triumph of the Will", Riefenstahl has spent much of her lift trying to live down her association with the Third Reich. Brings the story to the present with 91 year old Riefenstahl scuba diving and filing exotic aquatic life. (2 tapes 96; 92 min)