Triumph des Willens (1935)

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This is a documentary and propaganda film by the German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl that chronicles the 1934 NSDAP Congress in Nuremberg. It features footage of uniformed party members (though relatively few German soldiers), who are marching and drilling to classical melodies. The film contains excerpts from speeches given by various NSDAP leaders at the Congress, including portions of speeches by Adolf Hitler. Hitler commissioned the film and served as an unofficial executive producer; his name appears in the opening credits. The overriding theme of the film is the return of Germany as a great power, with Hitler as a German Messiah who will bring glory to the nation.

Triumph des Willens was released in 1935 and rapidly became one of the best-known examples of propaganda in film history. Riefenstahl's techniques, such as moving cameras, the use of telephoto lenses to create a distorted perspective, aerial photography, and revolutionary approach to the use of music and cinematography, have earned Triumph recognition as one of the greatest propaganda films in history. Riefenstahl won several awards, not only in Germany but also in the United States, France, Sweden, and in other countries. The film was popular in the Third Reich and elsewhere, and has continued to influence movies, documentaries, and commercials to this day, even as it raises the question over the dividing line between art and morality.

Gladiators Of World War II - Waffen SS (2004)

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The Waffen SS began as Hitler’s elite bodyguard and grew into on of the most formidable fighting forces of Nazi Germany. Although part of the infamous SS (and indelibly linked with the excesses of the feared Gestapo, the concentration camps, and the extermination squads), the men of the SS saw themselves as combat soldiers, respected for their courage, feared for their ruthlessness and fanaticism.

For these were political soldiers; mature men, recruited for their physical perfection and pure Aryan ancestry. They were drilled in Nazi ideology, indoctrinated to believe in themselves as the master race and their enemies as subhuman.They became the cornerstone of the German defences, who carried on fighting, even when all hope was gone.

Using unique archive footage, this documentary presents a detailed insight into the Waffen SS, an elite fighting force of fanatical soldiers who went from being Hitler’s bodyguards to a fighting force feared for their ruthless acts of violence as well bravery during the Second World War.