World At War

Today I saw the first two episodes of the definitive WWII series - the World At War. Directed by Jeremy Isaacs and narrated by Sir Laurence Olivier, the series set a trend for well researched documentaries. I had never before seen a video clip of Paul von Hindenburg going to the hustings, or those of people like Lord Halifax or the MPs in the House of Commons during the start of the WWII. The episodes talked about the causes that led to the war. Since the scope of the series was much larger, and included both the Pacific and the Atlantic theaters, the focus of the series was not as much about Hitler and the persecution of the Jews but the political situation in Europe, and mostly from the British perspective. The best part about old documentaries is that , while they are not as objective and clinical as the current lot, they could interview people who survived the war, or were key players during the war. That is not possible now. The series was produced during 1969-1974 : Churchill was dead already. But people like Sir John Colville (interviewed in episode 2: The Distant War) were still alive and discussed the political situation at the time Chamberlain stepped down (or rather, got unceremoniously booted out) and Churchill, the adventurer, stepped in. It discussed how Lord Halifax couldn't make it since no one from the House of the Lords had made it as a PM in 40 years! Anyways, the need of the hour then, in 1940, was to get an old military hand, not an ex Chancellor of the Exchequer. I really wonder what it would have been had the king okayed Halifax's nomination and rejected Churchill....the following year, Britain was to face the brunt of Luftwaffe's raids. Under Churchill's leadership, the Royal Navy and RAF could contain some damage.
The episodes also have clips from the private collections of people like Eva Braun (though this particular film that I am referring to, a short intimate color film short circa 1939, can be found on YouTube)..it looks quite strange to see a young, attractive girl trying to flirt with a man her father's age. And Hitler acts his Fuehrer image. His lackeys - Himmler and Heydrich are shown posing in front of some document - perhaps their "Die Endloesung der Judenfrage". I also read somewhere about the children of the Nazi leaders. While some were very repentent and disgusted and chose not to get married, like Niklas Frank, some like Himmler's daughter became the driving forces behind post war Nazi organizations such as Stille Hilfe, ODESSA, etc..
YouTube has its share of some real good videoclips - color and otherwise - of Nazi leaders including Heydrich, Himmler, Goering, Goebbels and others...Anyways, thats a digression. I would strongly recommend the World At War series to anyone interested in WWII history. I am adding other videos to my collection too - have Leni Raufenstahl's Triumph des Willens and Der Sieg des Glaubens..