About this season
Adolf Hitler caused the deaths of fifty million people. An entire nation followed him to ruin. Over a tumultuous 12 years Adolf Hitler went from being a minor rabble-rousing politician, to supreme leader of Nazi Germany. He was hated by those he persecuted, and even by some of his own commanders - yet in twenty-five years no one managed to kill him. This program shows how Hitler's bodyguards helped him cheat death on many occasions. They expanded from a handful of thugs recruited to protect political meetings and fight opponents on the streets, to many thousands - including some of the most fearsome secret police and paramilitary forces the world has ever known.
Episodes (13)
1. How Hitler's Bodyguard Worked
5.0Aired 12 February 2010 • 46 min
Hitler's personal protection squad grew from a few fiercely loyal, handpicked ruffians into an army with a complicated structure and intense internal competition.
2. Early Attempts on Hitler's Life
5.0Aired 12 February 2010 • 46 min
Beer hall brawls, street fighting, and several brushes with death marked Hitler's rise to power in the stormy politics of interbellum Germany.
3. Kill the new Chancellor
5.0Aired 26 February 2010 • 46 min
During Hitler's first year in office--as he steered Germany abruptly towards tyranny--he faced no fewer than a dozen attempts on his life.
4. Night of the Long Knives
5.0Aired 5 March 2010 • 46 min
In one bloody, well-planned purge, Hitler eliminated his political rivals and ended the looming threat from Ernst Röhm's well-armed Sturmabteilung.
5. Jewish and Emigre Attempts to Kill Hitler
5.0Aired 12 March 2010 • 46 min
As the Nazis amped up their anti-Semitic and expansionist activities, Jewish groups, Soviet Communists, and Otto Strasser's rival Black Front all targeted Hitler.
6. Kill Hitler Before War Starts
2.3Aired 19 March 2010 • 46 min
By 1938, people inside and outside Germany--including some of Hitler's senior military personnel--planned preemptive strikes against the Führer.
7. Bombs and Paranoia
5.0Aired 26 March 2010 • 46 min
Convinced that a failed bomb plot had roots in England, a Gestapo counterintelligence officer engineered an elaborate sting to snatch British agents.
8. Dangerous Car Journeys
5.0Aired 2 April 2010 • 46 min
Hitler liked to tour cheering crowds in a customized, open-top Grosser Mercedes and later a G4-a predilection that gave his bodyguards nightmares.
9. Flights into Danger
5.0Aired 9 April 2010 • 46 min
Hitler appreciated the power of aircraft, not only as a military weapon, but as a political tool. During the early 1930s, he hired aircraft for election campaigning, often facing weather and mechanical problems, as well as specific assassination attempts.
10. Hitler's Dangerous Train Journeys
5.0Aired 16 April 2010 • 46 min
British operatives targeted Hitler's special train, the Führer-Sonderzug--a rolling fortress on rails--despite its heavy armor and tight security measures.
11. Attempts to Kill Hitler at Wolf's Lair
5.0Aired 23 April 2010 • 46 min
Heavily camouflaged and fortified, Hitler's military headquarters in Poland saw several assassination attempts--including one that came closest to succeeding.
12. Nearly Assassinated at the Berghof
5.0Aired 30 April 2010 • 46 min
Hitler's Alpine retreat in Bavaria offered opportunities for a pistol-packing German officer, a sniper, a long-range bombing raid, and even an aerial assault by the Allies.
13. Poison Gas Plot in the Bunker
5.0Aired 7 May 2010 • 46 min
One member of Hitler's inner circle later claimed to have contemplated flooding the Fuhrer's Berlin bunker with nerve gas as the Allies closed in.