Hitler's Countdown to War (2021) War Biography Documentary (3 x 44 mins episodes)

In 1938, Adolf Hitler and his Nazi troops crossed the German border and invaded Austria. This is the moment when the countdown to the Second World War began.

A war that wouldn't have happened without the actions taken by Hitler in this period. To understand how it happened we need to understand him. In this series, we're telling the story of these 18 months through the eyes of Hitler himself.

A team of leading young historians explore what Hitler was doing day by day from 12 March 1938 to 3 September 1939, revealing how this bully, gambler, and arch manipulator brought the world to the edge of destruction.

The rise of Nazism and the advent of WWII have been exhaustively documented, but a new three-part series offers a closer look at the crucial pre-war period.

(By Travis Johnson - Published 18 November 2021 - www.sbs.com.au)

It’s doubtful that anyone reading this doesn’t have a general handle on Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in post-World War I Germany and the broad events that led to World War II. The period and the incidents are well-turned earth, the subject of thousands of books and millions of metres of film, both non-fiction and fiction.

Onerous war reparations imposed on Germany at the Treaty of Versailles put Germany on the economic backfoot, which was exacerbated by the Great Depression. Failed artist, war veteran and right-wing demagogue, Hitler clawed his way to prominence through a combination of nationalism, populism, and the scapegoating of the Jewish people for the country’s woes. Economic revitalisation and military rearmament followed, then expansionism enabled by Britain and the Western powers’ policies of appeasement. In 1939 German tanks rolled across the Polish border, and the war began in earnest.

That’s enough to not embarrass yourself on a high school test paper, but the general gist only gets you so far. The specifics, however, are fascinating. In the new three-part documentary series, Hitler: Countdown to War, specialist history director and producer Robin Dashwood puts the focus squarely on the 18 months leading up to the invasion of Poland, beginning with Germany’s annexation of Austria on March 12, 1938, and ending with the invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939.

Going almost day by day and beginning with the foreboding title card ‘540 Days To War’ the series attempts to drill down into the specific events, decisions and negotiations that led to the outbreak of war, eschewing generalisations for the nitty-gritty of diplomacy, policy and brinksmanship.

Broadly speaking, the most revealing area of inquiry is Germany’s invasion of Czechoslovakia, which began with the annexation of the culturally German Sudetenland in 1938 and was effectively Hitler testing the waters of military action. While Hitler was cheered upon his entry into Austria, German ambitions in Czechoslovakia were condemned on the international stage, but Hitler’s promise that the Sudetenland represented the limit of German territorial expansion saw the invasion met with little resistance or censure – a costly mistake. This period tends to get skipped over in more broad accounts, and this deep dive sheds some welcome light on the events.

But even more interesting is the insight we get into Hitler’s personal life and psychology. We’re told how Hitler enjoyed cinema, especially films like King Kong and Walt Disney cartoons, and how he made time in his schedule of public appearances to watch movies procured by Josef Goebbels. We hear how he was a fan of Westerns, viewing the European colonisation of North America as a natural extension of Anglo-Saxon expansion in the home continent. These are somewhat humanising touches, but all the more chilling for that; the notion of Adolf sitting with Eva Braun and laughing at Donald Duck in the evening and stoking the fires that led to Kristallnacht the next morning makes the blood run cold.

And that is the essential value of a documentary series like Hitler: Countdown to War. When we think about history in the abstract, it’s easy to forget that the events of both the past and the present are rooted in choices made by mere people, no matter how heinous. However, a closer scrutiny of the past reveals the quotidian nature of evil. Hitler’s monstrosity was not supernatural, and it’s always worth remembering that the most horrifying decisions are made by ordinary human beings.

Premiere: February 22, 2021

Creator, Director, Producer, Writer: Robin Dashwood

Commissioning Editor: Lucy Willis

Cast: Dr Emma Butcher (Contributor), Paul Moore (Contributor), Claire Hubbard-Hall (Contributor), Saul David (Contributor), Joseph Cronin (Contributor), Lisa Pine (Contributor) James Holland (Contributor), Prof Frank McDonough (Contributor).

Series Consultant: Prof Frank McDonough

Narrator: David Leon

Executive Producers: Amanda Lyon, Sanjay Singhal

IMDB Rating: 7.1

Director of Photography: Justin Evans

Runtime: 44m episodes

Series: 1 series • 3 episodes

Total Runtime: 2h 12m (3 episodes)

Networks: Channel 5, Histoire TV, Voltage TV

Country: United Kingdom

Original Language: English

Languages: English, French

French title: Hitler, le compte à rebours

Genres: Historical, Documentary, War, Biography

Production company: Voltage TV

Type: Scripted

Subjects: World War (1914-1918), Adolf Hitler, War and society, International relations, Documentary, television programs, Poland, Germany, Great Britain

Synopsis: An intriguing look at the countdown to World War 2 through the eyes of Adolf Hitler himself. The countdown started on 12th March 1938, when Hitler and his Nazi troops crossed the German border and invaded Austria and ended on the 3rd of September 1939, when both Britain and France declared war on Germany following the invasion of Poland.

Synopsis: On 12th March, 1938 the streets of Austria are vibrant with the cheers to thousands of people as they welcome their new leader of the new German Reich. Little do they know what is to come: 540 days of fear and terror as the world is brought to the edge of destruction. In this fresh and original 3 part series, we tell the story of the explosive escalation to World War II through the eyes of the man pulling the strings of it all: Adolf Hitler.

S01-E01 - Episode 1

November 19, 2021 - Channel 5

This episode reveals how Hitler manipulated and played games with the Czechs and with the western powers of Britain and France to achieve his ends. It also explores why Hitler was so popular in Germany, how he created his distinctive public image, and how he whipped up support through his public speaking technique.

Emma Butcher (Contributor), Paul Moore (Contributor), Claire Hubbard-Hall (Contributor).

S01-E02 - Episode 2

November 19, 2021 - Channel 5

By September 1938, Hitler had occupied Austria and was intent on invading Czechoslovakia. But the British and the French had made it clear that they would go to war against Germany if he did so. Forced into a corner, Hitler agreed to a conference with the British and the French to come to a peaceful solution.

Saul David (Contributor), Paul Moore (Contributor), Joseph Cronin (Contributor).

S01-E03 - Episode 3

November 19, 2021 - Channel 5

Fresh from invading Czechoslovakia, Hitler now turned to his next target - Poland. He saw it this vast country as ripe for German expansion, taking him to the borders of the Soviet Union.

Lisa Pine (Contributor), Emma Butcher (Contributor), James Holland (Contributor), David Leon (Contributor)