BBC2’s Rise of the Nazis: Dictators at War returns

The rumblings of nationalism around the world may be stirring up fears in some quarters that history will repeat itself, as the Second World War and all its associated horrors passes out of living memory.

Thank goodness then, for profoundly insightful and intelligent series like Rise of the Nazis, which returns for a three-part second run subtitled Dictators at War and reminds us of the dangers of extremism.

It begins in June 1940, after the fall of Paris. Hitler visits the city to stand in silent reverie in front of Napoleon’s sarcophagus, eager to do what Napoleon couldn’t: conquer Russia and build the biggest empire ever seen.

In Moscow, the Soviet Union’s dictator Joseph Stalin is trying to understand how much of a threat Hitler’s European ascendancy is to his own power.

An invitation comes from Berlin to discuss a deal; in exchange for Stalin’s support in the war against Britain, Hitler offers to carve up the post-war world. Stalin’s interest is piqued and he sends his Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov to Berlin to find out more.

What the politician doesn’t realise is he’s walking into one of Hitler’s great deceptions, and the German leader launches into a charm offensive, talking of grand plans to divide up the world. However, Molotov refuses to be taken in by Hitler’s vague promises and grills the Fuhrer until the discussions are abruptly cut short.

Molotov thinks the Fuhrer does not pose an immediate threat to the Soviet Union, but Hitler draws a very different conclusion from the meetings and begins planning for Operation Barbarossa – the biggest land invasion in history.

Field Marshal Von Brauchitsch, who leads the German Army, is privately convinced a war on two fronts is unwinnable, but won’t do anything to jeopardise his comfortable lifestyle, even with thousands of lives at stake.

Meanwhile, Luftwaffe Officer Harro Schulze-Boysen receives plans for Barbarossa, but he and his wife Libertas are secretly part of an underground resistance network plotting to overthrow the Nazis. Harro begins meeting with a Soviet spy, raising the alarm over Barbarossa and giving the Soviets a blow-by-blow account of Hitler’s attack plans.

Unfortunately, Schultze-Boysen’s reports fall on deaf ears, and on 22nd June 1941, three million German troops cross the border into the Soviet Union. They are followed by Heinrich Himmler’s Einsatzgruppen death squads, tasked with the mass murder of Jewish and Soviet civilians.

Within days the German Army is only 400 miles from Moscow. The gravity of the situation comes crashing down on Stalin who, at the height of the war, retreats to his Dacha.

After the heady days of the early campaign, the German advance is slowing and a rift emerges between Hitler and von Brauchitsch. Convinced of his own military genius, the Fuhrer sidelines the Field Marshal and makes the fateful decision to delay the attack.

The German Army finally reaches Moscow, the Russian winter is setting in and the city is under the defence of the brilliant General Zhukov.

Over 100 years earlier, Napoleon’s army had taken Moscow only to be driven back. Now Hitler’s army reaches the gates of the city – but no further…

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