Nazi Hunters (BBC)
Season 1
The hunt for Nazi war criminals after the Second World War.
Where to Watch Season 1
13 Episodes
- The Hunt for Martin Bormann
E2The Hunt for Martin BormannMartin Bormann was vital to Hitler. Bormann made Hitler, and the Third Reich, rich through thinly veiled extortion schemes such as The Hitler Endowment Fund of German Industry. He also came up with the idea of charging royalties on Hitler's image on postage stamps - and so made his Fuhrer personally wealthy. He became so close to Hitler and the running of the war that Hitler once screamed "To win this war, I need Bormann!". More sinister was Bormann's involvement in ensuring the progress of the final solution . Himmler had to report back to Bormann on the extermination of the Jews.Bormann, Hitler's doctor Stumpfegger and Artur Axmann (the Head of the Hitler Youth) all left the bunker in Berlin together after Hitler's suicide on 30th April 1945. After Axmann left them at the Lehrter Station Bormann and Stumpfegger disappeared. This led to one of the longest Nazi hunts in history. - Justice SAS Style
E3Justice SAS StyleJustice SAS Style examines the brutal murder of 31 British Special Air Service Soldiers in Eastern France after the failure of Operation Loyton. After the war, an SAS War Crimes Investigation Team commanded by Major Eric Alistair 'Bill' Barkworth hunt down the Gestapo officers responsible for the crime. - Peiper the Murderer of Malmedy
E4Peiper the Murderer of MalmedyJoachim Peiper and his vicious bunch of SS thugs marched US 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion into a field near Malmedy in January 1945 and shot them. There were a series of other massacres of US soldiers which were attributed to Peiper. The hunters were members of Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force. They were horrified by the brutality of the action. It was also the biggest massacre of US soldiers in the Second World War and caused uproar among the US public. - The 'Good' Nazi?
E6The 'Good' Nazi?Speer's crimes included using and organising slave labour in death camps and prolonging the war by his fanatical work to develop the Nazi war machine. He was hunted by two groups. The UN War Crimes Commission, but first he was wanted by the US Strategic Bombing Survey. This strange group of people included the economist JK Galbraith and the veteran arms negotiator Paul Nitze. These were hardly hardened prosecutors and they had authorisation from the highest level to keep Speer out of the hands of the Criminal Investigators from the UN. They tracked Speer down and spirited him away to a country house after the war, where he was extensively questioned, giving the Americans detailed information about the effectiveness of US bombing. This was critical intelligence and would eventually shape much of US strategy during the Cold War. When this story leaked out it caused huge controversy as the hint has always been that the Americans agreed to go easy on Speer at his trial in exchange for his co-operation. - The Angel of Death
E7The Angel of DeathNazi Hunters examines the case of Joseph Mengele a Nazi doctor who experimented on adults and children in the Auschwitz death camp. After the war, his relatively common name allowed him to slip through the finger of the Allies. He fled to South America with the help of Odessa where he became the topic target for Nazi Hunter and Holocaust survivor Simon Wiesenthal. A hunted man, Mengele eventually dies in Brazil under the name Wolfgang Gerhard. - The Jewish Avengers
E8The Jewish AvengersThe story of the Jewish Avengers after the Second World War has been rarely told. For the first time, a group of men and women, now in their 80s, tell the extraordinary story of how some Jews decided after the war had ended to seek brutal and shocking “eye for an eye” revenge on the Germans. They believed that those who’d delivered the holocaust had simply not paid a high enough price. - Killing Reinhardt Heydrich
E9Killing Reinhardt HeydrichNazi Hunters examines the assassination of SS-Gruppenführer Reinhardt Heydrich. Heydrich was the brutal military dictator of Czechoslovakia and was also one of the main architects of the Holocaust. He was assassinated in Prague by a group of Czech partisans specially trained by the British SOE. The Germans military respond by liquidating the Czech villages of Lidice and Lezaky in reprisal. - Hunting Adolf Eichmann
E10Hunting Adolf EichmannAdolf Eichmann - The logistical brains behind Hitler’s Final Solution. He organised the transportation and incarceration of 6 million Jews to the death camps. The Holocaust even made him rich. Eichmann stole the jews’ last possessions and sold them for profit. At the end of the war, when others were being arrested, Adolf Eichmann vanished. He had escaped to Argentina where he thought he was safe, but on his tail was Israel’s ruthless intelligence agency…Mossad. - Who Killed Heinrich Himmler
E12Who Killed Heinrich HimmlerNazi Hunters examines the life and death of Heinrich Himmler the Nazi head of the SS and the Gestapo. Two weeks after the end of World War II, Himmler killed himself while he was being interrogated by the British. Although it looked like a suicide, years later rumors began to spread that there was more to the story. - Goering the Star Exhibit
E13Goering the Star ExhibitNazi Hunters looks at the life and death of Hermann Goering the Commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe and Hitler's anointed successor. At the end of the war, Goering is the only Nazi of Hitler's inner circle left alive. The Allies desperately wish to put him on trial and execute him. Unfortunately, he manages to avoid this fate by committing suicide with poison that was somehow smuggled into his cell.
