Hitler's Henchmen

The series seems endless and every episode has the same format. Follow a thug (bashing us over the head these are bad dudes like, y'know, the sopranos) through the war until it ends with the same footage of the war being lost. In fact you see so many shots of Hitler walking along that row of boys with a trembling hand hidden behind his back that you actually start to feel sorry for the guy. This repetition soon makes you want to tear your roots out. Not content with squeezing the Jackboots till the pips squeek, the company follows it with Hitler's Holocaust, Warriors, Children and women. But don't stop there, ZDF, why not Hitler's dogs, Hitler's laundry and Hitler's rose bush at Berchtesgaden? There's life in the old dog yet. Amazingly, this was made by Germans but they seem to have lost that panache in presentation they once had at the Nuremberg rally. Germany needs to find some pride in itself again and hire someone to add a bit of colour to the shoddy proceedings. Does Leni Riefenstahl still have an agent?


A good series, but a little expensive.   June 30, 2000
David Segrove (Cave Creek, AZ United States)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

This is an excellent series, with a lot of hard-to-find footage and a wealth of data on the main people in Hitler's entourage. If you don't mind spending the money, then you won't be disappointed when you add this to your collection. The series focuses on the henchmen, not on Hitler himself. It does cover the relationships between the Fuhrer and his immediate subordinates.

I'd say this is reasonabe value for money.


Incredible Accuracy - From a survivor's point of view   January 23, 2000
2 out of 5 found this review helpful

My in-laws are Holocaust survivors and say this account is very accurat


Cornball rehash of old newsreels   July 19, 2000
JAMES SEELIG (SAN FRANCISCO)
2 out of 6 found this review helpful

These videos are a real disappointment. HISTORY CHANNEL insults the intelligence of the average man by putting them out as serious history. The photography is especially poor and obviously not much thought was put into the project.


Cornball rehash of old newsreels   July 19, 2000
JAMES SEELIG (SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA USA)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful

This very expensive set of videos greatly disappointed me. It was not done by serious scholars. After 50 years you would think something thought out and deeply felt could be done on Hitler and the Third Reich. HISTORY CHANNEL only seems to want to exploit it on a very cheap, lowbrow level.