Hermann Wilhelm Göring, (or Goering;German pronunciation: [ˈɡøːʁɪŋ] ( listen); 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German politician, military leader, and leading member of the Nazi Party (NSDAP). A veteran of World War I as an ace fighter pilot, he was a recipient of the coveted Pour le Mérite, also known as "the Blue Max". He was the last commander of Jagdgeschwader 1, the fighter wing once led by Manfred von Richthofen, "the Red Baron".
A member of the NSDAP from its early days, Göring was wounded in 1923 during the failed coup known as the Beer Hall Putsch. He suffered from a lifelong addiction to morphine after being treated with the drug for his injuries. He founded the Gestapo in 1933. Göring was appointed commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe (air force) in 1935, a position he held until the final days of World War II. By 1940 he was at the peak of his power and influence; as minister in charge of the Four Year Plan, he was responsible for much of the functioning of the German economy in the build-up to World War II. Adolf Hitler promoted him to the rank of Reichsmarschall, a rank senior to all other Wehrmacht commanders, and in 1941 Hitler designated him as his successor and deputy in all his offices.
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The focus is on the years 1932-1933 the rise of Adolf Hitler as a politician, which eventually led to his dictatorship and the Nazi-Regime. Hitler had to fight many obstacles and setbacks, it almost seemed impossible for his party to ever gain power, but his ruthless determination and versatile diplomacy combined with his opponents dramatic mistakes and many coincidences finally led him to power. With Hitler's appointment as the 30th Chancellor January 1933 begins the end of the Weimar Republic. Within months he abolished press freedom, suspended fundamental rights, established the first concentration camps. With the Enabling Act he dis-empowers the Parliament, and the Nazi party is the only party. In June 1934, Hitler can kill his former comrades Röhm and his opponents Strasser and Schleicher. Five years it will take until the beginning of World War II and the way that led to the greatest crimes of the 20th Century has been prepared.
How the politician Adolf Hitler managed to gain dictatorship
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Chancellor Adolf Hitler assists Azad Hind Fauj, led by Subhas Chandra Bose, which include a group of Indians who are frustrated with the Gandhian manner of non-violence to compel the oppressive British to quit their country. Punjab-based Balbir Singh is one such member of the Fauj, who has left his wife, Amrita, and son, Veer, behind. Ironically, Amrita is a follower of Mohandas Gandhi, and patiently awaits her husband's return home. Mohandas writes to Adolf, addressing him as 'dear friend', imploring him to end the violence. The allies, which include America, Russia, Britain and France close in on the Germans, while Adolf, a little perturbed by defectors, but still in company of many loyal supporters, is determined to continue, and even makes preparations to wed his mistress of 12 years, Eva Braun. Meanwhile Balbir and the rest of the Fauj must risk their lives through treacherous territory, allied soldiers, and quite surprisingly - they themselves - when they end up bickering and fighting with each other.
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In the final months of World War II, American troops discovered a top-secret facility in Germany with an advanced batwing-shaped jet fighter. If Nazi engineers had had more time, would this jet have ultimately changed the outcome of the war? In this National Geographic documentary they rebuild a jet discovered in a top-secret German facility during the final months of World War II - the Horten 229.
Keywords: reenactment
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The story of Mafalda is like the one of Cinderella, just the other way round. The dramatic real story of a Italian princess, born and raised in the comforts of a golden court, who will be forced by war to share the fate of ordinary people in a concentration camp. Mafalda di Savoia was chosen to represent the decline of nobility and the errors of war, which separate and destroy even noble families. Mafalda is a victim of political strategies that overlook her, and her tragic death shows the levelling power of war, that forces poor and rich alike to share the same destiny. Mafalda di Savoia, second born of the King of Italy Vittorio Emanuele III, immediately demonstrates great sensibility towards those who cannot share her privileges. Animated by a docile but determined nature, despite her father's will, she falls in love and decides to marry Prince Filippo D'Assia. The King, who does not approve the union of his daughter, a Catholic, with a German and protestant aristocratic, receives strong signals of disapproval from the Pope and Mussolini. The marriage of Mafalda and Filippo is rewarded by the birth of four children, but the historical situation - Fascism, the advent of Nazism and the imminent war - deprive the family of its usual serenity. Filippo spends most of his time in Germany, at Hitler's service, and Mafalda - who does not approve either of Mussolini or Nazism - is watched by the Gestapo. Her sudden attempt to maintain Montenegro outside the area of the Nazis influence, puts the Germans definitively against her. The Italian surrender on 8th September 1943 finds Mafalda on her way back from the funeral of her brother-in-law Boris of Bulgaria. She is alone and unprepared. She is captured by the SS and taken to Buchenwald. In the lager Mafalda is witness of the horrors of Nazism, but she bravely reacts to discouragement, by helping other prisoners. Her goodness of heart overcomes the initial distrust of the Italian prisoners towards the daughter of the traitor king and wins their confidence. In particular Mafalda becomes friends with Sara, a nurse in the lager, with some Italian sailors and with little Miriam, who becomes part of her family. Her proud and determined attitude puts her in contrast with Karl Rüdiger, chief of the camp, who tries to bend her will and to force her to betray her husband Filippo D'Assia. Mafalda does not surrender even if it means she will never see her children again.
Keywords: italian-history
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In April of 1945, Germany stands at the brink of defeat with the Soviet Armies closing in from the west and south. In Berlin, capital of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler proclaims that Germany will still achieve victory and orders his Generals and advisers to fight to the last man. "Downfall" explores these final days of the Reich, where senior German leaders (such as Himmler and Goring) began defecting from their beloved Fuhrer, in an effort to save their own lives, while still others (Joseph Goebbels) pledge to die with Hitler. Hitler, himself, degenerates into a paranoid shell of a man, full of optimism one moment and suicidal depression the next. When the end finally does comes, and Hitler lies dead by his own hand, what is left of his military must find a way to end the killing that is the Battle of Berlin, and lay down their arms in surrender.
Keywords: 1940s, 1945, accordion, acropolis, adjutant, air-raid, airplane, allegiance, allied-forces, anti-semitism
April 1945, a nation awaits its...
Adolf Hitler: In a war as such there are no civilians.
Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler: When I meet Eisenhower, should I give the Nazi salute, or shake his hand?
Adolf Hitler: The war is lost... But if you think that I'll leave Berlin for that, you are sadly mistaken. I'd prefer to put a bullet in my head.
[first lines]::Traudl Junge: I've got the feeling that I should be angry with this child, this young and oblivious girl. Or that I'm not allowed to forgive her for not seeing the nature of that monster. That she didn't realise what she was doing. And mostly because I've gone so obliviously. Because I wasn't a fanatic Nazi. I could have said in Berlin, "No, I'm not doing that. I don't want to go the Führer's headquarters." But I didn't do that. I was too curious. I didn't realise that fate would lead me somewhere I didn't want to be. But still, I find it hard to forgive myself.
[last lines]::Traudl Junge: All these horrors I've heard of during the Nurnberg process, these six million Jews, other thinking people or people of another race, who perished. That shocked me deeply. But I hadn't made the connection with my past. I assured myself with the thought of not being personally guilty. And that I didn't know anything about the enormous scale of it. But one day I walked by a memorial plate of Sophie Scholl in the Franz-Joseph-Strasse. I saw that she was about my age and she was executed in the same year I came to Hitler. And at that moment I actually realised that a young age isn't an excuse. And that it might have been possible to get to know things.
Walter Hewel: Why do you want to live on?::Prof. Dr. Ernst-Günter Schenck: And you? Why do you absolutely want to die?::Walter Hewel: You see this? [shows him a cyanide cap] The Führer personally gave it to me!::Prof. Dr. Ernst-Günter Schenck: [bitter] As last honor?::Walter Hewel: ...maybe.
Magda Goebbels: Sleep tight, children.
Adolf Hitler: General Von Greim, I appoint you supreme commander of the Luftwaffe. I hereby promote you to General-Fieldmarshall. A big responsibility rests on your shoulders. You have to rebuild the Luftwaffe from scratch. Many mistakes have been made. Be ruthless. Life doesn't forgive weakness. This so-called humanity is religious drivel. Compassion is an eternal sin. To feel compassion for the weak is a betrayal of nature. The strong can only triumph if the weak are exterminated. Being loyal to this law, I've never had compassion. I've always been ruthless when faced with internal opposition from other races. That's the only way to deal with it.
Albert Speer: You must be on stage when the curtain falls
Adolf Hitler: I always make mistakes when I'm dictating.
From Heil to Hell!...