A World Divided

From the Second World War to the 1960s, when the world was divided into East and West, this series traces the lives of six real people, including the German engineer Wernher von Braun, who rose from Nazi ranks to eventually work for NASA, the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and the future Prime Minister of Israel Golda Meir.

In 1941, Hedwig Höss moves in with her family in Auschwitz, close to the concentration camp run by her husband, Rudolf. In Tel-Aviv, Golda Meir finds out about the Nazis’ plans for the extermination of the Jews.

Nikita Khrushchev plays a decisive role in the Battle of Stalingrad. As Allied bombing rains down on Germany, Wernher von Braun makes a pact with the SS. Frantz Fanon from Martinique joins the Free French Forces, where he is confronted with racism on a daily basis.

In 1944, Joan Hinton was recruited for the Manhattan Project, a top-secret project in New Mexico. The young soldier Frantz Fanon risks his life for the liberation of France, but racism within the army leads him to doubt the validity of his commitment. After Germany surrenders, Hedwig Höss flees.

In 1947, Golda Meir sees her dream come true: the newly founded United Nations decides to partition Palestine into an Arab state and a Jewish state. However, the creation of Israel is to meet with strong resistance in the Arab world.

In 1952, Frantz Fanon became head physician at the largest psychiatric hospital in French Algeria. Shortly afterwards, the uprising for Algerian independence began. In Moscow, the death of Stalin in 1953 heralded a radical change in direction.