Hitler's Bodyguard

Introduction

Adolf Hitler and his Third Reich caused the deaths of over 50 million people after rising to power during the 1930's. His country willingly followed him into a war that led to the destruction and ruin of Germany as well as a redrawing of the borders for nearly 50 years. As with any dictator (and actually the same applies to any political leader), Hitler was hated by his opponents and those he persecuted so he needed to have the personal protection in place to ensure his safety.

His wartime opponent, Britain's Winston Churchill, only had a single bodyguard but Hitler required thousands. His inner core protection was provided by SS Begleitkommando, a small handpicked bodyguard commanded by longtime supporter Bruno Gesche. The Begleitkommando were aided by Sepp Dietrich's SS Leibstandarte, a regiment of SS men who were pivotal in the invasion of France as well as the Eastern Front and were guilty of a number of war atrocities, most notably the massacre of US soldiers during the Ardennes offensive of 1944. Wider security and intelligence was further provided by the Reich Security Service (RSD) and the Gestapo.

This series from the producers of Churchill's Bodyguard looks at the security arrangements surrounding Hitler and tries to examine why none of the reported 40 attempts on Hitler's life from 1920 to 1945 succeeded.



Episode list:

1.How Hitler's Bodyguard Worked

2.Early Attempts On Hitler's Life

3.Kill The New Chancellor

4.Night Of The Long Knifes

5.Jewish And Emigre Attempts To Kill Hitler

6.Kill Hitler Before The War Starts

7.Bombs And Paranoia

8.Dangerous Car Journeys

9.Flights Into Danger

10.Hitler's Dangerous Train Journeys

11.Attempts To Kill Hitler At The Wolf's Lair

12.Nearly Assassinated At The Berghof

13.Poison Gas In The Bunker

Picture

A mix of archive footage, low-budget CGI and reconstruction. There's a lot of repetition with archive footage recycled several times, often within the same episode. The CGI is not in the slightest convincing, the low budget being plain for all to see.

Sound

Robert Powell provides suitably austere narration but the effect is spoiled a little by some ludicrous German voiceover accents, thankfully not provided by Powell. Also, as this is a documentary on Nazi Germany, it comes with a suitably over the top opening theme tune that doesn't quite live up to expectations.

Overall

Quite an interesting series overall, although it's too long. It appears that the producers had an idea of how they wanted to showcase their ideas but didn't really have the material to pad it out across the 13 episodes presented here. There is a lot of repetition in both the narration and footage used. This may not have been overly obvious during TV transmission where you have a week between episodes but is blindingly and annoyingly obvious when watching it on DVD. Another thing to note is that a lot of these episodes provide you with a lot of information on general events that are only loosely and desperately linked to the issue of Hitler's bodyguards.

Still, it isn't all bad as this series does provide some useful information and anecdotes on the period from Hitler's first sojourn into nationalist politics right up to his death in 1945, providing background on a number of important events and also provides some good detail on Hitler's travel arrangements, key buildings and characters in the Nazi hierarchy.



As you would expect, there is detail on the likes of Himmler, Goering, Goebbels, Roehm and Heydrich - names familiar to most people interested in this period. What we also get though are details on secondary characters close to Hitler but outside the hierarchy like Bruno Gesche, Sepp Dietrich and Hans Baur (Hitler's personal pilot). As you may also expect with the recent release of Tom Cruise's Valkyrie, suitable time is spent on Colonel von Stauffenberg as well as other suitable potential assassins.

I did enjoy watching this and there is a decent history series in here, but in reality it could have been cut by a third and still have covered the majority of the events described here. Not quite a whole-hearted recommendation but a recommendation nonetheless, with a side recommendation to the producers to consider consulting with Laurence Rees next time out...