User reviews

Overall, a pretty good account of the rise of Hitler and the reign of terror perpetrated by the Third Reich. I've watched a number of similar documentaries about Hitler and this one showed me a few things I had never known.

The documentary is certainly taken down a peg by the atrocious casting of Károly Kozma as Hitler. When it comes to physical likeness, on a scale of 10 Kozma is about a 6. The casting department could have chosen from hundreds of capable actors with much more similar physical characteristics. Kozma's poor likeness to Hitler is one thing, but his abysmal performance amounts to little more than scenes of hysteria - usually unwarranted - giving Hitler very little depth. Kosta's scenes are all pantomimed (there are no speaking parts) and most of them are poorly executed. To say the least, this was a critical role and they made an awful choice by going with Kosta. You also have to blame director Joe Berlinger for encouraging Kosta's ridiculous style of performance.

There are other things that are seemingly glossed over, including Hitler's terrible health and booming drug dependency. Hitler was prescribed over 90 medications through his life, suffered from numerous serious ailments, and regularly consumed amphetamines, barbiturates, opiates, and cocaine. Between his very poor health and easy access to drugs, little wonder that Hitler devolved into the madman that he surely was.

There's also short shrift given to Hitler's pact with Japan, the courage of the British military, and various other facets of World War II. But, after all, I still did award the documentary a 7 out of 10, indicating I did find it very watchable and illuminating. It shouldn't be the ONLY documentary you watch about Hitler, but it certainly belongs in the upper echelon.

I read The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich in 1961 when I was 13 years old. In my opinion it was and still is the definitive work on Nazi Germany. While this documentary drew on William Shirer's written materials and broadcasts it fell short in several areas.

Having lived and worked in the former Soviet Union as well as the former Soviet Bloc countries, it infuriates me to see how western historians gloss over the complicity of Stalin, Molotov and Beria for their part in starting WWII. While some mention was made to the Soviet invasion of Poland and the subsequent annexation of the eastern half. There was no time spent on the Soviet invasion of Finland and the Baltics. There was no mention of the vast amount of material aid provided to the Nazi regime by Stalin. Despite Poland's invasion by both Germany and the USSR, there was no mention of why the UK and France declared war on Germany but failed to declare war on the USSR.

A brief aside during the Nuremberg trials about the fact that the Soviets committed many of the same "crimes against peace " but were not only never "put in the dock" but were allowed to judge and then allowed to enslave all of eastern Europe despite agreements to allow free elections.

No mention of the fact that Stalin was responsible for the deaths of at least ten million civilians, that Molotov's signature was alongside Ribentroff's assuring the start of the war and finally not a word on the Soviet "concentration camps" (gulags) where civilians were starved, beaten and shot to death in the millions or the many Soviet public works projects constructed with forced labor.

One last comment, the comparison of Hitler's retreat to Mar a Lago was unnecessary and stain on the great historical work by Shirer.

Have taken a keen interest in the rise of Hitler in recent years and this documentry does a pretty decent job of showing how and why he rose to power.

As with most documenteries of this type some is very hard to watch- episode 5 with the death camps is extremely tough.

There is some glossing over in Britains part in the war but think thats the same for the USA and other Allies. After all it is showing the war from the German side

Some of the reconstructions are well done but the guy playing Hitler looked more like the guy from the group Sparks ! But that aside a good series that shows how WW2 came about.

And Germany WTF were you thinking ?

Shirer's book written in the early 60's was far better and more inclusive. This skips over many relevant actions. I've read too many books about WW1 and WW2 and have always been more fascinated by the first war and how it started. The release of this documentary seems to be a not so subtle suggestion that Trump is the new Hitler. Going so far as to mention Hitler's mountain lair being the equivalent of Trump's Mar-A-Lago. Not sure how long this was in the works, but I would guess this was timed to come out before the election. It's still good but read the book instead if you want a better account of the times.

As someone who is just beginning to learn more about WW2 and the Holocaust but has a tendency to find some documentaries on the more "dry" side, I felt this was incredibly well done. I found it very engaging, very interesting and thoroughly enjoyed the input from the various figures that spoke during the documentary. I also enjoyed the readings from William Shirer.

There was of course parts of this that were difficult to watch, in particular episode five. While this isn't an easy watch in terms of being graphic and emotional, I believe it to be a necessary watch for all so that this history does not repeat itself.

It is a very well done documentary that shows the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party. A very good job of covering the aftermath of the devastation that they caused across Europe and gives some insight into what could have happened if they went unchecked.

To me, the most glaring omissions in all of these documentaries is not the why of the Nazi rise to power, but where they got all the funding and support. I guess, because no one wants to talk about the American money that funded them. Henry Ford, the Dulles brothers etc. There was a great deal of support amongst American money to bring them to power. This is well documented but not discussed in these things because it puts America into a bad light. It also is quite telling as to why America was not interested in really getting into the war, until it absolutely had to. Not that it was pivotal, that was the Russians.

The film footage in this documentary is worth the watch. I already knew a lot about Hitler having read a book titled "I Knew Hitler" written by someone who was close to him until he was arrested.

I never realized that Shiler was so close to danger and was an observer to so much history. I knew he wrote the book and I read it a long time ago.

This series is informative and educational, and as the Russian Movie "White Tiger" tells us, Fascism never goes away, it just sleeps. Great movie, all allegory, if you haven't seen it.

My only complaint and it is a "nit" is that the actor playing Hitler looked like an anorexic Hitler, but he was really good. I personally know people that look more like Hitler than he did. But you will regret watching this, if you are interested in WWII.

Did not need to watch the trial scenes while watching the footage from the original one. And the actors who do not resemble the original characters who appear constantly. This caused some confusion.

But overall a good series and historical scenes are indeed rare and well colored.

Also, the guests are from different specialties, which adds perspectives.

The acting scenes away from the trial are very good.

Theater as a decoration for dialogues. I did not understand its purpose.

Special thanks to the director of photography and the decorators and costume designers. I went back in time............

Good documentary series but not worth the build up for several weeks on Netflix. It would really be strong if important historical documentaries stuck with a solid single narrator (Peter Coyote/ Martin Sheen) & not a constant trope of random academics who provide their two sense as if they were first-hand witnesses.

Most of all, documentaties like this need to get rid of the constant 10 second frames of random individual men/ women in a semi-darkened room speaking when they can just continue with the interesting footage or re-enactments that they already have. This doc series has plenty of unique footage & decent reenactments but is ruined by the consistent random guy/ gal sitting legs crossed with a red curtain behind them.

The tones of the voices from the speakers are a bit whiny/ annoying & there does seem to be many personal opinions given without the speakers stating that what they were saying was actually an opinion. If I watch again I would write them down but I likely will not watch again. If I do I will worth the watch with closed captioning on & volume muted.

Lastly, I understand WW2 & Hitler covers tons and tons of information, but it is hard to understand how large events kinda just get muttered but then they fixate on smaller events & really blow them up. Not a word mentioned about the "Danzig Corridor". Lots of jumping around takes place but this is truly a cliff notes version of many things at best.

I watched a LOT of Nazis, Hitl., WW2 movies and docs, and I can say this was a good one. The doc is well made, great old footage. The story is well told, perhaps some things left out, but it's not that big of a problem. It is quite detailed tho. From the start, it takes you on a history journey about Hitler s life and how he became such a person.. The pace is okay, not too fast, not too slow, just good enough for us to understand and keep up with the story. Some scenes are new, acted, but it's not a problem, it does not take you out of the experience. Overall a great docuseries. Good job Netflix 👏

Seeing other reviews notice the same thing makes me happy. I love the content and the topic. But it is hilarious when they make subtle references to "someone" when they say things like Germany was trying to "Make Germany Great Again" and that the eagles nest was "Hitler's Mar-a-lago".

It's embarrassing. America is not even close to being on the same path as the Nazi's, as annoying as our politics can be.

Why can't any scholar or traditional media or Hollywood have a unique thought in their brain? They all just echo each other on the latest "thing" and it's funny how rattled they are over Trump. Get over it.

I'm not a huge WW2 enthusiast, actually until recent years I'd found it rather boring. You can blame monotone school history lessons for that. However I now start to actually engage and get interested in that horrible period of our history to learn more.

So I'll just go with the pros and cons of this mini series.

The pros:

Whatever method they used to do cleverly colourise the old footage is remarkable, it's truly amazing and does really break down the disconnect you get from black and white.

The variety of different nationality commentators is also really nice to give slightly different perspectives.

I really enjoyed the approach of looking at it from the common Germans persons perspective, and what they saw and thought, how they voted etc. It was refreshing to hear that they weren't all somehow complicit, and how ultimately they were slowly strongarmed into saying nothing.

The cons:

This is clearly politically driven. I'm not sure how many times they said 'make Germany great again', but it was enough times to make me, a Brit, think "wow, that's a bit on the nose". I've no dog in that race but I found that a very thoughtlessly glib comparison to make regardless of what side youre on. So it lost a whole lot of intellectual integrity for me.

The dramatisations are actually awful, and totally un-needed. A lot of the time the dramatisations of the trials are still voiced by the criminal, but slow mo reenactments, even when there are actual videos? It makes no sense. Still pictures would have been better if the reel was damaged. It cheapens it, and cheapening this when diving into the holocaust is just distasteful.

I guess this one is a bit 50/50 if you'd like it or not. Worth giving the first episode a go tho and find out for yourself.

Considering the voluminous information surrounding WWII, it's not going to cover every detail or aspect that one might want to see. However, I think they've managed to include the key moments of the narrative they're focusing on.

This documentary combines commentary, historical footage, and reenactment scenes. The reenactment scenes help enhance the documentary. A lot of important meetings were done behind closed doors and were not recorded, so the reenactment gives a sense of what might have happened.

I think this is a great documentary and shows how such dangerous regimes can come into power. Hopefully, although unlikely, such grand scale atrocities are behind us.

Excellent documentary on Hitler and his fellow travelers. It is well-produced, with plenty of original video footage and the helpful audio from the Nuremberg trials.

They have done a great job putting together the narrative, with WWII-era journalist William Shirer and his diaries helping creative a cohesive production.

Congrats to Netflix for funding this hard-hitting and insightful (and timely) series.

This first episodes focus on the change from the Wiemark Republic to Hitler's ascent to power. Later episodes outline the gradual development of the Third Reich into the abyss of genocide, total war and annihilation.

Hitler presided over possibly the largest cult in human history, numbering the populations of Germany and Austria. He was a malignant narcissist, like most infamous cult leaders like Jim Jones, whose unwavering grandiosity helped sway the German population, who felt isolated and were looking for relief from their overwhelming post-WWI uncertainty and austerity, into his spell.

A malignant narcissist is so named because of their nihilism and perverse appetite for destruction. Like all narcissists, they rely on external validation to create an identity and sense of worth. Malignant narcissists are the most extreme in the sense that they will stop at nothing to achieve and maintain that tenuous identity they have created; there is no morality and no empathy. Without that identity, they are nothing and hence nothing else matters.

Like any plane crash, a series of unfortunate events have to occur to precipitate total catastrophe. The first in the case of WWII was Hitler's failed attempt to be an artist. No doubt he blamed the art world for not recognising his brilliance. His "woe is me" and underdog persona endeared him to many Germans, including his Nazi henchmen, who felt hard done by following what they perceived as unjust treatment for Germany's role in WWI. Combined with his absolute certainty in himself and Aryan superiority, it proved an intoxicating salve to the impoverished German masses.

I am no historian and am unqualified to comment on the veracity of the content of this docuseries. What I appreciate about it is that it gave me a glimpse into the mind of Hitler and how it is plausible that such horrific events can happen again, because people remain too susceptible to the empty promises and false narratives wielded by mentally-unstable and self-serving leaders like Hitler. 20 million dead in Europe in WWII because Adolf had a bad childhood and people are still not good at identifying malignant narcissists, let alone mounting a defense against their fake charm.

Eerily similar to recent American political changes, this documentary is specifically good at explaining the intricacies of politics during hitlers rise. Much I had not known. Old film is colorized and very impressively done. There is criticism of the casting of Hitler for reenactment scenes. No he's not the best but if you were an actor would you respond to a casting call to be Hitler? Especially for a low paid gig of a documentary? I know I wouldn't. So they worked with who they got. His lack of physical resemblance to Hitler is irrelevant in my opinion.

This documentary also went deeply into all of the trials and the background for each trial that warranted the charges.

This documentary has much information that is new for me. It compliments the other documentary films I have watched and contains some very difficult scenes that show the ruthlessness of the nazi army. It also shows how they became that way, and how many had to make a choice to save their own lives.

All in all very well done and kept my interest easily. Not easy to do with a multi hour documentary. 9 out of 10 for that and the editing, explaining and colorization.

What I will say as far as production value is that they're casting is absolutely atrocious. The guy they chose for Hitler looks more like Himmler or Goebbles ,gaunt ,thin and tiny .. like a 3rd choice for the role to save money.. when you look at the series released in the last 10 years, finding the appropriate cast member becomes so important... you look at the casting for Mindhunter and one of the serial killers looks remarkably close to the real thing and it without it, it seems to take away from the storyline.. Especially when there's tons of good actors that they could've called on that look more like Hitler and others in the series.

It is in the nature of the subject that this documentary leaves one deeply shaken. The many original colorized videos and audio recordings, supported by reenactments of the scenes, have an enormous impact.

Regarding the casting criticisms mentioned by some: I cannot fully understand them to that extent. It is not particularly desirable to make the actor look as similar as possible; not for the actor at least; more importantly, it is about conveying the energy. This has been very well achieved.

What also shocked me greatly are the many parallels to a current Austrian politician. It was clear to me before the documentary, but still, some things only became apparent to me while watching. Such documentaries are extremely important in our society, which is largely spoiled by wealth, comfort and the on holding peace in center Europe.

Overall the title of the series is a bit misleading. I watched it for the reason that I really wanted a deep dive into the details of the Nuremberg trials. The trial itself is not at all the focus of the documentary. Instead the documentary is really just another rise and fall of Nazi Germany. While this is useful historical knowledge , not much of it is new information. However some of the in colour footage that is shown I hadn't witnesssed before. The Himmler scene watching the shootings is extremely startling , but a necessary reminder of how warped human beings can become.

In terms of the trial I have found other sources to provide more information. There are of course some very interesting direct recordings, but I would have really liked to have heard more from people's feedback from the trial who were there other than just Shirer. It would have been very interesting to see them go through each of the defendants and shown what they did during the War. They do this in part, but it isn't very organized as each defendant is mixed into essentially the docs retelling of World War 2.

Overall the documentary doesn't do injustice in any way to the topic, it's just not delivering on the trial aspect as much as I was hoping.

This documentary series should be required viewing for all U. S. voters, for the upcoming presidential general election. The series follows the origins and development of Hitler's Third Reich. It is an excellent primer for the study of World War II.

There are some foreboding parallels that mirror today's political climate in America, at least on one side of the aisle. As in Nazi Germany, there are remarkable similarities here in today's America. Germany citizens were effectively brainwashed by Hitler's rise to power, hoodwinked by his charismatic promises and speech deliveries. In the final analysis, Hitler cared not one iota about his country's citizens, only his conquest of territory and warped thinking of Aryan ancestry. Today in America, there are similar undercurrents among some of America's would-be voters. They are being blindsided by dictator-like developments, promising a nation to be made great again.

As the adage goes, those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.

There are many war documentaries, and this one integrates notable technology in all the information that support the Nuremberg trials. The perspective is narrated from the American journalist William L. Shirer, who lived in the Germany that embraced Nazism, including reflections, opinions, and historical episodes in first person. The story tries to be arbitrary, but insists a fundamentally American perspective, with several nods to Trump's demagogue speech or racial discrimination problems. There is allusion to lesser-known episodes, such as Hitler's visit to Compiègne, the severe rape of German women at the end of the war or the massacre of Jews in Kyiv. Clearly, the director's intention is to raise awareness about the dangers in failing to democracy, so the documentary is mostly easy to digest. Personally, it seems to me that the vision between good and evil is quite basic, pondering between the sense of justice to justify some purpose. I think the documentary loses points there. In any case, it is a good opportunity to look at the impeccable timeline that brought Hitler to power and review his alarming strategy from beginning to end.

Well done documentary when they stick to colorized newsreels and original Nuremberg sound and film. The Hitler actor is clownish and takes away from the drama of the story. It was refreshing to see the 1930s and '40s in color. Mostly a lot of interesting history.

Gratuitous anachronisms such as "Make Germany Great Again", comparisons of Hitler's mountain retreat to Mar A Lago, and Nazis decrying American journalist reports as "fake news", cheapen and denigrate the credibility of the presentation. One half expects to see Hitler adorned with a photoshopped red baseball cap.

A lot of great history here- cheapened by cheap shots.

I never tire of watching docu-series about Hitler and WW2, especially while much of the Western world repeats a trajectory that led to the murder of millions of Jews and gypsies and gays and others in the depravity of the Third Reich. This 6-episode series on Netflix was really good, with a lot of archival footage mixed in with re-enactments in such a way that I was constantly doing a double-take to confirm what I was watching. The series was chock full of new tidbits presented in a way that helped to make a bit of sense out of the warping of the minds of a population by a charismatic charlatan. If you too are a history buff like I am, you'll find this show fascinating, chilling, riveting, and disturbing.

I've watched a considerable amount of movies and docs about WW2 since the late 80s, but none of them are as comprehensive as this. Often times a movie or doc on the subject focuses on one small aspect of the war. In my mind, I never put all those pieces of info together in chronological order.

I learned a ton from this documentary. Just so many details that I'd never heard of. For example, I had never learned anything about the Germanic Kingdom, WW1 or Weimar Republic. From this doc, I learned how Hitler created himself into the monster he was out of the ashes of WW1. And William Shirer - I kept saying "How have I never heard of him??" His reporting as a foreign correspondent is heavily used here.

I was not bothered by format. Personally, I liked having multiple experts/historians/educators being interviewed, rather a single narrator reading a script for voiceover. Anyways, I consider this to be the definitive source on the subject. Should be shown in schools.