Guten Tag, RDA !

Great Escape

The real Great Escape didn't feature Steve McQueen racing through the Third Reich on a motorcycle like in the 1963 movie, but the big breakout was still thrilling in every way. This program sheds new light on the audacious escape of 76 Allied airmen from a Nazi POW camp during World War II.

The Battle of Monte Cassino

The story of the legendary battle through the eyes of Jedrek - a boy who went through the hell of the gulag and left Russia with the Polish Army as one of thousands of polish orphans. Soon a decisive attack on a monastery located on the hills of Monte Cassino is to take place at the front - this spectacular battle will decide the lives of many soldiers and the fate of the Allied offensive in Italy, and will change Jedrek's life forever.

As If They Were Angels

The little known story of one of the worst non-combat disasters in the history of the US Navy, …AS IF THEY WERE ANGELS is a story of courage, heart, sacrifice and the heroism of miners & fishermen of 2 small towns, who risked their lives to save nearly 200 American sailors, shipwrecked on the rugged cliffs of Newfoundland. Narrated by Peter Coyote, it’s a deeply layered tale of navigation errors, courts martial mistakes, a steep loss of life, and resonates today as if the very telling of its deep humanity offers a lifeline for our fractured times.

Memory of the Camps

In 1945, Allied troops invaded Germany and liberated Nazi death camps. They found unspeakable horrors which still haunt the world’s conscience. A film was made by British and American film crews who were with the troops liberating the camps. It was directed in part by Alfred Hitchcock and was broadcast for the first time in its entirety on PBS FRONTLINE in 1985.

Border Street

The story of Polish and Jewish families living side by side in one Warsaw street. Everything changes once and for all with the Nazi invasion.

Soldiers in White

A young intern is drafted and placed in the Army Medical Corps as a buck private and is none too happy about it. Injured, he is placed in the hospital where a Major comes by and explains how army doctors make important advances in medical science. The private is inspired and promises to make a good soldier. He is even more inspired when a nurse becomes his superior officer.

Men of the Sky

A propaganda film, made in the early months of World War II, dramatizing a new group of U.S. Army Air Force pilots receiving their wings from Lt. General H.H. Arnold. An off-screen narrator introduces four of them to us; we see them before the war, during flight training, and in their first assignments as pilots.

1st to Fight: Pacific War Marines

On the Pacific island of Guadalcanal in 1942, the famed 1st Marine Division — the oldest, largest and most decorated division of the U.S. Marine Corps — defeated Japanese forces in a turning point of WWII. This film documents the experiences of 1st Marine Division veterans who took part in the historic fight.

The Man Who Lived at the Ritz

In this drama, an American art student is trapped amidst the political turmoil of war-torn Europe while visiting Paris and staying at the fabulous Ritz hotel. Rather than cope constructively with it all, the fellow opts to ignore it and continue living the high-life for as long as possible.

Mugaldekoak

Mugaldekoak is set in the early 40s, when, on this side of the border, the wounds of the Civil War were still open and, on the other, they were living under occupation by the German Army. The tale revolves around the Comète Network, an initiative developed during World War II on the border with Navarre: the clandestine evacuation of British pilots brought down in enemy territory.

A Journey Back to Youth

Based around the testimonies of four German women, this documentary details the abuse women suffered during after WWII at the hands of the Soviet forces, particularly during their forced labour.

Stalingrad

The story of the Battle of Stalingrad from the perspective of a Panzer commander and an officer in a penal battalion.

The Cow and I

In 1942, a French prisonner of war in Germany decide to escape to France using a cow hold by a lunge as a decoy. He cross all Germany in this way.

Jackboots on Whitehall

A satirical alternative history of World War II where the Nazis seize London and England must band together to prevent a full on invasion.

A Film Unfinished

Yael Hersonski's powerful documentary achieves a remarkable feat through its penetrating look at another film-the now-infamous Nazi-produced film about the Warsaw Ghetto. Discovered after the war, the unfinished work, with no soundtrack, quickly became a resource for historians seeking an authentic record, despite its elaborate propagandistic construction. The later discovery of a long-missing reel complicated earlier readings, showing the manipulations of camera crews in these "everyday" scenes. Well-heeled Jews attending elegant dinners and theatricals (while callously stepping over the dead bodies of compatriots) now appeared as unwilling, but complicit, actors, alternately fearful and in denial of their looming fate.

A Memory Owed

Bound by unspoken grief, reclusive 91-year-old Stan and his young carer find unexpected solace on the windswept plains of a once-bustling WWII airfield, where memory still lingers.

Y1: Silence of the Deep

14 September 1943: The legendary submarine Y1 “Katsonis” was sunk north of the island of Skiathos by the German submarine chaser UJ 2101. Through the book of XO Elias Tsoukalas who escaped capture and had to swim for nine hours to reach shore, secret documents, and crew members’ diaries, the documentary unfolds the human stories woven around the submarine. Seventy-five years later, with the support of the Hellenic Navy, we search for the submarine sunk at 253 metres depth and film the wreck for the very first time.

The War to End all Wars... and its American Veterans

Relying on newly discovered archival footage, memoirs from the fallen, and expert commentary from scholars, this documentary tells the story of World War I from the American perspective: Its ace pilots, mine-laying Sailors, heroic doughboys, Harlem Hell Fighters, and courageous nurses.

The Flag

Story about famous ballet dancer Marija who was horrified by the terror of Ustasha regime, and joined the partisans.