Hitler's Holocaust

Manhunt encompasses the years 1939 to 1941, as murder of men, women and children becomes rampant, pogroms and deportation into Jewish ghettos are commonplace. Himmler, Hitler's executioner, is confronted with his own ordered atrocities when a victim's brain is splattered on his uniform. There must be a 'cleaner' way, he thinks, one that is 'easier on the perpetrators.

Decision follows the events of 1942. Hitler proclaims the mass murdering a 'deed performed for humanity'. Following Pearl Harbour, he declares war on America. Now, he can turn his attention to all of European Jewry. Hans Frank, the German Governor of occupied Poland complains to his staff, 'Surely we can't shoot 3 and a half million, we can't poison them ...' His complaints are soon answered. Somewhere in the remote hinterland, places with names hitherto unknown: Belzec, Sobibor, Maidanek, Chelmo, Treblinka - 'exhaust fume experts' are hard at work.

Ghetto, shows the inhumane conditions, under which Jews were forced to live in the ghettoes of Eastern Europe, before they were transported to the extinction camps.

Part Four, Death Factory, focuses on 1942, as the flames of madness consume Europe. Day and night, the death trains leave German towns. The broad masses realize the truth, but stay silent. At auctions, they buy up what Jewish possessions remain. One evening at a dinner reception of dignitaries, Himmler drinks wine, smokes cigars and boasts of the murdering. This year, the world will learn of the mass killings, but it will take six months before the Western allies issue a statement: Those responsible will not escape without punishment.

Part Five, Resistance, explores courage and heroism in the face of impossible odds. German soldiers who conspire to assassinate Hitler, and whose failure cost them their lives. The Jewish citizens of the Warsaw Ghetto who take arms against brutal SS units, and miraculously hold on for nearly one month, until, out of 380,000, only 70,000 are still alive. They, too, are now deported.

This final episode covers the years 1944 and 1945. The allies have landed in Normandy. The Red Army is advancing in the east. Germany's military situation is hopeless. Recognizing he can not win, Hitler nevertheless continues his demonic objective of genocide. The goal: to prevent even the few who have survived so far from living on to bear witness to the unspeakable horrors. In January 1945, the Soviet army reaches Auschwitz. The liberators are deeply shocked by what they see - thousand of emaciated human beings are vegetating between life and death. In Buchenwald, American soldiers conduct the people of Weimar through the barracks and compel them to look. They claim they had not been aware.