A montage of newscasts tracing the events of the "damned war" and the German invasion of 1940.
Social & External
The people behind it
Eduard Benes
Self
Georges Bonnet
Neville Chamberlain
Self (archive footage)
Winston Churchill
Galeazzo Ciano
Édouard Daladier
1st Earl of Halifax Edward Wood
Maurice Gamelin
Hermann Göring
Franz Halder
Zahi Hawass, an Egyptian archaeologist, has been excavating the ancient necropolis of Saqqara, south of Cairo, for several decades. He hopes to discover the tomb of Imhotep, the architect of humanity’s first pyramid: Djoser’s Step Pyramid. Together with his team, he will unearth fabulous tombs and uncover the secrets of Egyptian mummies.
Adolf Hitler's Nazi megalomania knew no limits. The most daring of his plans World War II involved German fighter planes crashing into Manhattan's skyscrapers as living bombs, like the Japanese kamikazes. Hitler understood the huge symbolic power of Manhattan's skyscrapers. He believed suicide bombing would have a devastating psychological impact on the American people and the U.S. war effort.
Were the eleven official witnesses—twelve if you include Joseph Smith himself—of the Book of Mormon reliable? What about the unofficial witnesses who interacted with the plates in various ways—including a number of women? Were the plates actually made of gold? How could witnesses really hear the voice of God and yet come to doubt His prophet?
Sergeant Todd is a veteran soldier for an elite group of the armed forces. After being defeated by a new breed of genetically engineered soldiers, he is dumped on a waste planet and left for dead. He soon interacts with a group of crash survivors who lead out a peaceful existence. The peace is broken as the new soldiers land on the planet to eliminate the colony, which Sergeant Todd must defend.
It was one of the greatest natural disasters of all time. On the morning of Boxing Day 2004, a massive tsunami hit the coast of the Indian Ocean. More than 230,000 people died, including many holidaymakers from Germany and France. On the occasion of the 20th anniversary, survivors tell their stories. How has the disaster affected their lives to this day?
The story of the last months of the 20-year war in Afghanistan through the intimate relationship between American Green Berets and the Afghan officers they trained.
When France rumbles, the strategy and control of public order become a crucial political issue. Between protecting institutions and guaranteeing the right to demonstrate: the right balance is subtle. At the beginning of the Yellow Vests movement, at the end of 2018, the principles of "French-style" policing were shattered. The ransacking of the Arc Triomphe, the hundreds of injuries among the demonstrators and the forces of order mark the minds. How did it come to this? In order to understand, the film questions the so-called "legitimate" force and confronts them with the images of these confrontations.
On 28 January 1901 the great musician Giuseppe Verdi died from the consequences of a stroke that had struck him six days earlier. These very rare images, captured in Milan on 27 February 1901 by the operator and pioneer of Milanese cinema Italo Pacchioni, document the transfer of the Maestro's body from the Monumental Cemetery of Milan to the famous retirement home for musicians which he himself founded.
Gdańsk, Poland, September 1980. Lech Wałęsa and other Lenin shipyard workers found Solidarność (Solidarity), the first independent trade union behind the Iron Curtain. The long and hard battle to bring down communist dictatorship has begun.
A very personal account of one of the last gentlemen of a dying era. In fact, Paul Jarrett will forever be remembered in the annals of American history as the last WWI veteran to ever return to the battlefields of France.
On April 30, 1945, while the Russian Army surrounded Berlin, Hitler committed suicide in his bunker. His body was discovered a few days later by the Soviets. He would be positively identified after a top secret inquest in which Hitler's personal dentist would play a central role. And yet, at the same time, Stalin publicly declared that his army was unable to find the Führer's body, choosing to let the wildest rumors develop and going so far as to accuse some of his Allies of having aided the monster's probable escape. What secrets were hidden behind this dissimulation? What happened then to the two ladies involved in the identification of Hitler’s body?
Over the decades, unanswered questions, tampered evidence, ulterior motives, and witness testimony surrounding the assassination has perpetuated conspiracy theories and alternative explanations that challenge the official narrative. Most of the figures involved--or knew who was involved--have mostly passed away, leaving avenues of investigation dead in their tracks. Over time, efforts to determine what happened have left more questions than answers. We take a look back on the moment that changed the course of world history, questioning the official record. Was the assassination a conspiracy?
A close examination of the Whakaari / White Island volcanic eruption of 2019 in which 22 lives were lost, the film viscerally recounts a day when ordinary people were called upon to do extraordinary things, placing this tragic event within the larger context of nature, resilience, and the power of our shared humanity.
The sinking of the Titanic sent shockwaves around the world and started debates that continue to this day. But new, explosive evidence from the most unlikely of sources may finally lay all arguments to rest and reveal, for the first time, the full story of what possibly doomed the "unsinkable" liner. Join us as we unveil recently discovered and never-before-seen photographs of the super ship that exposes shocking clues that investigators and historians once dismissed but can no longer ignore.
Amid the failing counteroffensive, a journalist follows a Ukrainian platoon on their mission to traverse one mile of heavily fortified forest and liberate a strategic village from Russian occupation. But the farther they advance through their destroyed homeland, the more they realize that this war may never end.
Prelude to War was the first film of Frank Capra's Why We Fight propaganda film series, commissioned by the Pentagon and George C. Marshall. It was made to convince American troops of the necessity of combating the Axis Powers during World War II. This film examines the differences between democratic and fascist states.
Set both in Latin America and the United States, the film explores the historic and current relationship of Washington with countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia and Chile. Pilger says that the film "...tells a universal story... analysing and revealing, through vivid testimony, the story of great power behind its venerable myths. It allows us to understand the true nature of the so-called "war on terror". According to Pilger, the film’s message is that the greed and power of empire is not invincible and that people power is always the "seed beneath the snow".
“The Soviet Story” is a story of an Allied power, which helped the Nazis to fight Jews and which slaughtered its own people on an industrial scale. Assisted by the West, this power triumphed on May 9th, 1945. Its crimes were made taboo, and the complete story of Europe’s most murderous regime has never been told. Until now...
A documentary about World War I with never-before-seen footage to commemorate the centennial of Armistice Day, and the end of the war.
This documentary movie is about the battle of San Pietro, a small village in Italy. Over 1,100 US soldiers were killed while trying to take this location, that blocked the way for the Allied forces from the Germans. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2005.
"Trinity and Beyond" is an unsettling yet visually fascinating documentary presenting the history of nuclear weapons development and testing between 1945-1963. Narrated by William Shatner and featuring an original score performed by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, this award-winning documentary reveals previously unreleased and classified government footage from several countries.
As the Russian invasion begins, a team of Ukrainian journalists trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol struggle to continue their work documenting the war's atrocities.
Meet the real-life airmen who inspired Masters of the Air as they share the harrowing and transformative events of the 100th Bomb Group.
A love letter from a young mother to her daughter, the film tells the story of Waad al-Kateab’s life through five years of the uprising in Aleppo, Syria as she falls in love, gets married and gives birth to Sama, all while cataclysmic conflict rises around her. Her camera captures incredible stories of loss, laughter and survival as Waad wrestles with an impossible choice– whether or not to flee the city to protect her daughter’s life, when leaving means abandoning the struggle for freedom for which she has already sacrificed so much.
Over a period of two years, Mark Cowen and his crew travelled to thirty U.S. states and ten European cities, to interview the veterans of Easy Company. The stories told by the veterans themselves, create a history of the Second World War from the point of view of this heroic company of men, made famous in the mini-series Band of Brothers.
During the chaotic final weeks of the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese Army closes in on Saigon as the panicked South Vietnamese people desperately attempt to escape. On the ground, American soldiers and diplomats confront a moral quandary: whether to obey White House orders to evacuate only U.S. citizens.
Pete Postlethwaite stars as a man living alone in the devastated future world of 2055, looking at old footage from 2008 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance?
What happened after Einstein fled Nazi Germany? Using archival footage and his own words, this docudrama dives into the mind of a tortured genius.
The documentary recounts the world's first nuclear attack and examines the alarming repercussions. Covering a three-week period from the Trinity test to the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the program chronicles America's political gamble and the planning for the momentous event. Archival film, dramatizations, and special effects feature what occurred aboard the Enola Gay (the aircraft that dropped the bomb) and inside the exploding bomb.
A disturbing collection of 1940s and 1950s United States government-issued propaganda films designed to reassure Americans that the atomic bomb was not a threat to their safety.
The extraordinary story of how Hollywood changed World War II – and how World War II changed Hollywood, through the interwoven experiences of five legendary filmmakers who went to war to serve their country and bring the truth to the American people: John Ford, William Wyler, John Huston, Frank Capra, and George Stevens. Based on Mark Harris’ best-selling book, “Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War.”
WWII from Space delivers World War II in a way you've never experienced it before. This HISTORY special uses an all-seeing CGI eye that offers a satellite view of the conflict, allowing you to experience it in a way that puts key events and tipping points in a global perspective. By re-creating groundbreaking moments that could never have been captured on camera, and by illustrating the importance of simultaneity and the hidden effects of crucial incidents, HISTORY presents the war's monumental moments in a never-before-seen context. And with new information brought to the forefront, you'll better understand how a nation ranked 19th in the world's militaries in 1939 emerged six years later as the planet's only atomic superpower.
When Sgt. First Class Brian Eisch is critically wounded in Afghanistan, it sets him and his sons on a journey of love, loss, redemption and legacy.
With unprecedented access, this documentary follows the extraordinary journey of “Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently”—a group of anonymous citizen journalists who banded together after their homeland was overtaken by ISIS—as they risk their lives to stand up against one of the greatest evils in the world today.
