HITLER'S REICH - A GERMAN JOURNAL

Episode 1: Power & Terror (1933–1935) | Episode 2: Fear & Exclusion (1936–1938) | Episode 3: War & Crime (1939–1941) | Episode 4: Survival & Downfall (1942–1945)

Author & Director:

Eva Roeger | Daniel Ast | Juergen Ast

Commissioning Editors:

Jens Stubenrauch | Rolf Bergmann | Ilka aus der Mark | Gabriele Trost | Mark Willock | Michaela Herold | Andrea Besser-Seuß

Duration:

4 x 54' | 2 x 90' | World Sales: NEW DOCS

Producer:

Daniel Ast | Juergen Ast

Coproduction:

astfilm productions | RBB | SWR | Radio Bremen | MDR // ARD // in association with HISTOIRE TV

May 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the victory over Germany in World War II and the end of Nazi rule. "I have longed for it with all my heart," writes 20-year-old Ortrun Koerber in her diary. Inge Thiele (anonymised), an enthusiastic Nazi who is expecting her first child, notes: "This is the end of the Third Reich we believed in. Perhaps things will turn out better than we think." Willy Cohn, his wife Trudi and their two daughters Susanne and Tamara did not live to see the end of the war; they were murdered by the Nazis in November 1941... Fourteen days earlier, Cohn wrote in his diary: "We have to vacate the apartment and will probably be sent away. God will help us!"

The Nazi era lasted 12 years, 3 months and 8 days. Who were the people who voted for Adolf Hitler in 1933, who did not vote for him, who trusted him or despised him, who felt pride again in being German, who saw their own advantage or began to fear for their lives? Who were they in 1939 when the war began? Who were they in 1945 when it ended?

Diaries and letters recount the lives of Germans under National Socialism between 1933 and 1945 in "Hitler's People – A German Diary." Eight life stories, eight destinies from Germany: Franz Schall, a Hitler Youth member from Dresden; Ortrun Koerber, a schoolgirl from Wuerzburg; Willy Cohn, a teacher from Breslau; Egon Oelwein, an official in the Reich Labour Service; Luise Solmitz, a housewife from Hamburg; Matthias Mehs, a restaurant owner from Wittlich; a gardener; and a Wehrmacht soldier. Eight lives under National Socialism, between euphoric allegiance, career, inner conflict, conformity, despair and death.

The diary entries tell of strokes of fate and moments of happiness: of youth and opportunities, longing, exclusion, the threat of deportation. Of the first – still hesitant – Hitler salute, of "Aryan certificates" and dance lessons, of Gestapo surveillance, of hunger and love. And of looking away, of silence, of guilt. They describe how the war comes "home," tell of nights spent in bunkers, of wanting "only to survive." The result is a story of experiences arising from the immediacy of the day and the situation of the time. Everyone lives in the present; no one knows what tomorrow will bring. Fate unfolds against the backdrop of history. Historical events are reflected in the life stories.

Graphic novelist Vincent Burmeister "translates" the diary entries into scenes, giving the moments of experience an emotional quality. The result is "memory images" that are an expression of the protagonists' inner landscapes.