In the six-part documentary series Hitler and the Nazis: evil on trial, director Joe Berlinger details the rise and fall of Hitler and the Nazi party. The story is told through colorized archival footage, audio recordings, re-enactments and readings of works using AI-created voice tracks, as well as numerous interviews with historians and experts.
HITLER AND THE NAZIS: EVIL ON TRIAL: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Initial shot: “BERLIN, GERMANY. April 30, 1945.” A recreation of Adolf Hitler (Károly Kozma) and Eva Braun (Anna Szilvási) commit suicide when Germany is about to surrender to the Allied forces.
The essence: Berlinger begins with the end of the European campaign in World War II and the war crimes trials of senior Nazi officials in Nuremberg, Germany, which began in November 1945. Much of the story is also told through the writings and radio speeches by the American journalist. William Shirer (Balázs Kató), who was in Germany between 1934 and 1940, documenting the rise of the Nazi party and the implementation of its racist and anti-Semitic policies.
As the trial begins, with Robert H. Jackson, the chief American prosecutor, presenting a stirring opening argument, the spectacle flashes back to World War I and the near chaos that ensued in Germany after its defeat and attempts to start a new one. war. republic. Hitler’s younger years in Austria are also examined, as well as how he came to Germany, how his views on government and Aryan supremacy developed, and the first time he and the Nazi party attempted to seize the Bavarian government by a violent coup d’état in the 1920s. This led to a light prison sentence, which he obtained thanks to his persuasive speech and a right-wing judge, where he wrote his book. My struggle.
What shows will it remind you of? There have been many docuseries about World War II and the rise of the Nazis, but this could be a companion piece to Ken Burns. United States and the Holocaustto give a view of Nazism from multiple sides.
Our opinion: Whether in scripted dramas or docuseries, we almost always prefer stories that are told in a linear fashion rather than those that jump back and forth in time. But in the case of Hitler and the Nazis: evil on trialBerlinger’s decision to frame the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party in the context of the Nuremberg trials was a smart one.
The history of that time is, of course, well known. But what Berlinger accomplishes with this method of storytelling is to directly compare the rise of the Nazis and their atrocities with the consequences of the actions of the surviving Nazi superiors. He shows these monsters when they rose to power and then what they were like when they had to answer for the war crimes they committed.
We’re also not big fans of re-enactments or colorized stock footage. But by using both, often in close proximity, Berlinger makes the story seem more immediate, as it should be. As one of the experts says, something like the rise of the Nazis doesn’t happen overnight, and by making the images more vivid and modern, Berlinger communicates that it’s not so inconceivable that the same thing could happen now.
Sex and skin: None.
Parting Shot: Shirer’s AI-generated voice reads in his writings that “we will see” what Hitler did with the power he gained when the Nazi party took control of Germany’s government.
Sleeping star: It’s not easy to play Hitler at various stages of his life, but Károly Kozma manages to pull it off, making him look small and menacing at the same time.
Most pilot line: This isn’t really a complaint, but if it weren’t for the difference between the archival footage and the reenactment footage from the trials, it would be difficult to tell them apart. Perhaps it’s a tribute to both the coloration of the archival footage and how well Berlinger recreated the trial in his reenactments.
Our call: TRANSMIT IT. While Hitler and the Nazis: evil on trial It may not provide a lot of new information for people who have even casually studied the period before, during, and after World War II, Berlinger still does a good job of making a powerful argument that the conditions that gave us the horrible atrocities that Hitler and the Nazis committed. committed can very easily happen again.
Joel Keller@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and technology, but make no mistake: he’s a couch potato. His writings have appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.comFast Company and other places.
