The SS(2002)

series - first aired/released 2002-11-05 - audience 9.0

War & Politics

Directed by Anja Greulich, Annette von der Heyde, Carsten Oblaender, Christian Deick, Christian Frey, Friedrich Scherer, Jens Afflerbach, Jörg Müllner, Ricarda Schlosshan, Sebastian Dehnhardt, Stefan Brauburger

SS — the two letters in old Germanic rune script represent the most effective and dangerous instrument of power of the Nazi dictatorship. The SS represented more than any other Nazi organisation the wild and deadly delusions of those who believed themselves part of the master race. It took only a few years for Hitler's Schutzstaffel to be transformed from an insignificant personal bodyguard to an all-powerful empire of evil. There are personal interviews with survivors and and with those men who served the inhuman SS system. Only now, as their lives draw to a close, are they prepared to speak up. In the world's first television series on the overall history of the SS, this documentary series takes a balanced view with many previously unpublished sources and with witnesses to the history of the SS: victims, perpetrators and opponents.