Dictator: The Hitler interviews

With populist leaders thriving and dictatorships on the rise it’s time to look at Hitler from a different perspective - through his friends, enablers, associates, and contemporaries.

Locked in archives across Europe, Russia, America and beyond are thousands of hours of recorded interviews of those who met and knew Hitler. Some of these interviews have never been broadcast, many unheard for generations.

Now, for the first time on television, we bring these testimonies together to create a unique portrait of Adolf Hitler. From former classmates to those who were at his side when he tried to conquer the world, these firsthand accounts cast new light on who Adolf Hitler was and how he wielded his power.

Rare interviews with friends and supporters from Hitler's earliest days in politics reveal his obsession with revitalising Germany and the roots of his antisemitism. At the same time, chronic economic circumstances combined with Hitler’s cocktail of charisma, stagecraft, populist message drove millions of Germans to vote for Hitler. Once in power, testimonies by enablers, followers and critics reveal how Hitler’s tyranny took hold through violence and oppression. During the war years, the accounts offer a rare glimpse into Hitler’s strategies, and the impact of his decisions on both the battlefield and the citizens of Germany. Extraordinary eyewitnesses describe the tension and chaos of the war years while those who were in the bunker with him recount his drift into insanity.