Rise of the Nazis

Facing defeat on the Eastern Front, resistance builds as Hitler pushes Germany to untold destruction. This is the story of why dictatorships fail, and of the hubris that nearly destroyed freedom, but ultimately destroyed itself.

Himmler, who once worshipped Röhm, and his terror network are brought in to bring down Röhm. Himmler plans to exploit Röhm’s weakness.

Edgar Jung, plotting Hitler’s downfall and doing dangerous political work, writes a speech for Papen which will expose the violent truth about Röhm, the Storm Troopers, and Nazi rule.

As Ernst Röhm’s Storm Troopers become more violent to the public, Hitler wants things to appear calm. Röhm, one of Hitler’s oldest comrades, feels he and his Storm Troopers were promised more.

See how Hitler finds himself caught between Germany’s president and the Nazis’ power base. His advisors persuade him to destroy the Nazi stormtroopers and their leader – one of his oldest friends – to make the SS Germany’s only paramilitary force.

Discover the measures Chancellor Hitler takes to dismantle the German state. The Nazis have the power to ban free speech, books are burned, and Jewish people, gay people and those holding anti-Nazi beliefs begin to disappear.

Heinrich Himmler and the SS, a paramilitary group made up of fanatical Nazis, saw themselves as Hitler’s most loyal soldiers.

4,000 communists were arrested by the Nazis in one night in an effort not only to squeeze them out of the electoral terrain, but to annihilate them completely.

In an effort to impress Hitler, Himmler handpicked SS officers to serve as Hitler’s personal bodyguard. Showing Hitler that he could trust the SS above any organization.

Years earlier the Nazi’s violent revolution failed, and Hitler was jailed. But with Hitler’s new strategy to be a legitimate political party and 18% of the vote, the Nazi Party captures Kurt von Schleicher’s interest.

The stormtroopers, a paramilitary group made up of disenfranchised men, went to the streets to cause violence against the Nazi’s political rivals in a way the Nazis could deny involvement.

With the largest party in the Reichstag, the Nazis gain strength as Schleicher’s grip on Hitler weakens. Seeing this, Hitler makes his big move – demanding to be chancellor.

See how Adolf Hitler and the Nazis rise to power. In 1930, Germany is a liberal democracy. Just four years later, democracy is dead, Germany’s leader is a dictator and the government is in the hands of the Nazis.