By Lee Pfeiffer
Producer David L. Wolper's acclaimed three-part documentary The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich has come to DVD through the Warner Archive. Originally telecast in 1968, the film is based on author William L. Shirer's best-selling 1960 book, which caused a sensation and debate among historians. Shirer had personally witnessed key events leading up to the war. Like his contemporary, Edward R. Murrow, Shirer was a European correspondent for CBS radio during the late 1930s. He was adept at circumventing even the press restrictions dictated by Hitler himself. Thus, Shirer managed to be the only non-German reporter to witness the French surrender in 1940. Shirer had also accompanied German troops during their Blitzkrieg attacks on other European countries. Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich was acclaimed by academics for the personal aspects he brought to the narrative, but he was assailed for his theory, postured in the book, that Germanic peoples were naturally predisposed to follow tyrants. German literary critics and historians fiercely contested that theory, saying that the period of Hitler was simply a terrible anomalie in the nation's legacy. The TV adaptation of Shirer's book is itself a cause of some controversy. There are those who claim there is a six hour version of the documentary that has never been widely seen. The DVD released by Warner Archive is a three hour version and it appears as though this is the entire ABC broadcast from 1968. There are, however, some curious chunks of history absent from the program. This might be due to the problems of condensing a twelve year period into a three hour program or it could indicate that the broadcast had been culled from a longer version that was never released. (For example, the Battle of the Bulge, Hitler's mad but initially successful attempt to save the Reich, is not even mentioned.)
Despite these reservations, it's easy to see why the show caused a sensation upon its initial broadcast. Keep in mind that it was shown during an era when the major networks prided themselves on educating the public and financing intellectual programing, a notion that seems sadly quaint nowadays. This was also decades before the emergence of the cable TV networks that now routinely broadcast WWII documentaries. Thus, it was powerful stuff to see the shocking footage of war, carnage and genocide in one's own living room. The program is solemnly narrated by Richard Basehart and follows Adolf Hitler from his humble beginnings in Austria through his disgust at the German surrender in WWI. Hitler had certainly distinguished himself in battle, serving as a runner between trenches- a job where one's life expectancy was measured in days. He also received the Iron Cross for bravery. However, his intemperate nature and volatile personality precluded him from what would have seemed a natural career in the military. Indeed, he never rose above the rank of corporal.
The program traces how Hitler became a political activist with the National Socialist party in the post WWI era, when Germany was in dire straits. Not only had the nation suffered terribly during the conflict but had also been cynically used by the British and French as a cash cow for war reparations. Hitler perceived that Germany would never be able to rise from the status of a serf nation and used public anger to empower him. His initial attempts to seize the government by force failed, but he became a martyr to the cause by going to jail, where he authored his manifesto Mein Kampf. Because the documentary was shot during a period when most people from the WWII era were still alive, there are fascinating interviews with those who knew Hitler well and they give interesting insights into the man's psyche. It becomes clear why Hitler was destined to become a national leader: he was unapologetic, cocksure and driven by a singular obsession to restore Germany as a leading world power. The film deftly covers the integral aspects of Hitler's rise to power, his stunning takeover of virtually all of Europe and his ultimate fatal mistakes: declaring war on America in solidarity with the Japanese and launching his misguided invasion of the Soviet Union. The movie also spends a good deal of time examining the human toll of the war on civilians and the graphic footage of concentration camps is as chilling today as it was decades ago. William Shirer appears periodically throughout to add his own historical perspectives. If the occasionally bombastic musical score sounds a bit like music from Mission: Impossible, it's because both programs were scored by Lalo Schifrin- and some of the background themes in Reich seem to be actually lifted from the classic spy series.
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich is by no means a Ken Burns-type comprehensive look at a momentous historical era. However, it achieves its goals of condensing these events into a powerful, informative and timeless look at a time when the world truly seemed to have gone mad. It also serves as a cautionary tale in terms of allowing economic despair to lead to the election of false gods who wreak havoc on the societies they had vowed to save.
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