Plot Synopsis

This two-part documentary follows the rise of the Nazis in Germany -- from The Great War of 1914 through the worldwide economic crisis in 1929 and to Hindenburg's decision to name Hitler as chancellor in January 1933. The Great War of 1914-1918 turned Adolf Hitler into a rabid racist, haunted by a vision and a mission: to save Germany. By 1923, he led a small group of Nazis that marched through the streets of Munich to take over a meeting at the Munich Beer Hall. The next year in Landsberg Prison, he wrote "Mein Kampf," which included statements like "A State that refuses racial contamination must eventually rule the Earth." Following a period of hyperinflation -- during which the United States provided huge loans -- Wall Street collapsed in 1929, sending the world into an economic depression. With Germany unable to pay its debts, unemployment ran rampant, promoting bloody street fighting between the Nazis and the Communists and pushing millions of Red Peril-fearing voters into Hitler's arms. In 1933, Paul von Hindenburg named Hitler as chancellor, allowing the Nazi dictatorship to extend its evil shadow over Germany and prepare for war.