The Abyss — Rise and Fall of the Nazis

screenable online: 10 episodes

Europe in the 1920s and 1930s – a continent licks its wounds after the devastation of World War I. In this fertile breeding ground for dissent, authoritarian regimes are on the rise.

The Abyss: Rise and Fall of the Nazis takes a fresh look at the Third Reich from a global and current perspective. It tells us how the Nazis first conquered Germany and then half of Europe within a few years. How could that be, with the horrors of World War I still so fresh? Why did it take so long before they were stopped? A combination of previously unpublished archive material, historical sources, and an international team of experts paint a new picture of Hitler’s regime.

The series unpacks the complex sequence of events that enabled the new regime, and allowed violence and brutality to unfold on an unbelievable scale. A look at history with direct relevance to the world today.

Hatred and a desire for revenge smolder in the minds of many Germans. The clash of right-wing and left-wing political convictions turned the Weimar Republic into a powder keg. Many Germans believe…

Hitler and his movement seem to be eliminated after his failed putsch on November 9, 1923, the movement is banned, the self-proclaimed leaders are imprisoned. There he wrote "My Struggle". In the…

In the late 1920s, Germany was seething. Social protest turns into a racist and anti-Jewish movement, Hitler and his NSDAP using their anger for their own benefits. This film shows how the world…

After the 1933 parliament fire, President Hindenburg signs a decree that suspends freedom of speech. Additionally, Hitler secured a majority vote in elections and referendums held apparently for his…

In October 1934, Hitler's government was firmly in the saddle - to dismay foreign critics. The majority of Germans support Hitler's offensive anti-Jewish policy. Jews are blatantly discriminated…

At the end of 1939, the Wehrmacht (German Army has invaded Poland. They are followed closely by the SS (Schutzstaffel) task forces, which have only one mission: To murder the Polish intelligence…

On June 22, 1941, Hitler invaded the Soviet Union. His goal: to deprive Great Britain in Europe and gain "Lebensraum (habitat)" in the East. In the shadow of the war, Nazi regime gradually…

Together with Treblinka and Majdanek, Sobibor is one of the camps of "Operation Reinhardt," a Nazi murder campaign that took nearly two million lives within a few months in 1942/43. While in…

After all bridges to civilization have been destroyed in 1943, the Nazis plan a kind of extended suicide on a global scale. And therefore, the terror was directed against their own people. …

In 1945, the war was over, but the violence had not come to an end. The survivors and the winners want to blame the Germans. The reckoning with National Socialism is ambivalent. No one knows…

The Seeds of Violence 1918-1922 (Episode 1)

Hidden in Plain Sight 1935-1938 (Episode 5)