Hitler's bodyguard - Season 1

First aired: 2/12/2010 13 episodes

Episodes

1. How Hitler's Bodyguard Worked

Aired: 2/12/2010

Hitler's personal protection squad grew from a few fiercely loyal, handpicked ruffians into an army with a complicated structure and intense internal competition.

2. Early Attempts on Hitler's Life

Aired: 2/12/2010

Beer hall brawls, street fighting, and several brushes with death marked Hitler's rise to power in the stormy politics of interbellum Germany.

3. Kill the new Chancellor

Aired: 2/26/2010

During Hitler's first year in office--as he steered Germany abruptly towards tyranny--he faced no fewer than a dozen attempts on his life.

4. Night of the Long Knives

Aired: 3/5/2010

In one bloody, well-planned purge, Hitler eliminated his political rivals and ended the looming threat from Ernst RÃ¶hm's well-armed Sturmabteilung.

5. Jewish and Emigre Attempts to Kill Hitler

Aired: 3/12/2010

As the Nazis amped up their anti-Semitic and expansionist activities, Jewish groups, Soviet Communists, and Otto Strasser's rival Black Front all targeted Hitler.

6. Kill Hitler Before War Starts

Aired: 3/19/2010

By 1938, people inside and outside Germany--including some of Hitler's senior military personnel--planned preemptive strikes against the Führer.

7. Bombs and Paranoia

Aired: 3/26/2010

Convinced that a failed bomb plot had roots in England, a Gestapo counterintelligence officer engineered an elaborate sting to snatch British agents.

8. Dangerous Car Journeys

Aired: 4/2/2010

Hitler liked to tour cheering crowds in a customized, open-top Grosser Mercedes and later a G4-a predilection that gave his bodyguards nightmares.

9. Flights into Danger

Aired: 4/9/2010

Hitler appreciated the power of aircraft, not only as a military weapon, but as a political tool. During the early 1930s, he hired aircraft for election campaigning, often facing weather and mechanical problems, as well as specific assassination attempts.

10. Hitler's Dangerous Train Journeys

Aired: 4/16/2010

British operatives targeted Hitler's special train, the Führer-Sonderzug--a rolling fortress on rails--despite its heavy armor and tight security measures.

11. Attempts to Kill Hitler at Wolf's Lair

Aired: 4/23/2010

Heavily camouflaged and fortified, Hitler's military headquarters in Poland saw several assassination attempts--including one that came closest to succeeding.

12. Nearly Assassinated at the Berghof

Aired: 4/30/2010

Hitler's Alpine retreat in Bavaria offered opportunities for a pistol-packing German officer, a sniper, a long-range bombing raid, and even an aerial assault by the Allies.

13. Poison Gas Plot in the Bunker

Aired: 5/7/2010

One member of Hitler's inner circle later claimed to have contemplated flooding the Fuhrer's Berlin bunker with nerve gas as the Allies closed in.