The Wehrmacht

Season

2007

Germany

7.4

Hitler's army thundered through Europe from 1939 to 1945 and brought needless death and destruction to the European continent. What was it like to service in this army? To conduct one of the bloodiest wars in history? To occupy half of Europe and yet to suffer total defeat? This five-part portrait provides long-awaited answers and sheds light on the Wehrmacht's complex bonds of loyalty, conscience and honor. The thought-provoking story of an Army's evolution from defense troops to military force to exterminating power.

Episode List

S1 • E1

Angriff auf Europa

During the early war years, Hitler outmaneuvers the German General Staff and achieves total control of the Army.

S1 • E2

Wende des Krieges

The Wehrmacht's sense of invincibility proves to be a treacherous illusion when Germany attacks the Soviet Union in 1941; the United States enters the war; the Germans are dealt a devastating defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad.

S1 • E3

Verbrechen der Armee

Debate over war crimes committed by the Wehrmacht during World War II; millions of people die along the Eastern Front; Jews fall victim to genocide.

S1 • E4

Widerstand in Uniform

Some soldiers in the Wehrmacht become opposed to Adolf Hitler's regime; German officers try to assassinate Hitler in 1944; more than 100,000 German soldiers go AWOL and 15,000 are executed.

Kampf bis zum Untergang (Until the Bitter End')

S1 • E5

Kampf bis zum Untergang (Until the Bitter End')

The war comes home to Germany as Allied forces close in from the West and East; though the war is obviously lost, die-hards try to hang on to the bitter end; more than 1.2 million German soldiers die during the war's last four months.