Istria (1945)

Tony Robinson's VE Day Minute by Minute

Tony Robinson’s VE Day: Minute By Minute will take a unique look at a pivotal day in the history of the modern world, delving into the key events that made VE Day such a momentous twenty-four hours. This is the story of what happened on that most celebrated and important day, including original interviews with historians and veterans who tell their stories and share their first-hand experiences. Using unseen archive footage and stills, plus never told accounts from veterans who were there, this one-off special will chart the moment the clock struck midnight, to 24 hours later, when fighting officially stopped across Europe. Up and down the country it was dawning on people that they were waking up not with fear or anxiety, but with relief and excitement. This was a Great Britain no one had experienced for six years. A Britain at peace. At almost no notice street celebrations were being prepared and tens of thousands were flocking to London and other city centres.

Quando i tedeschi non sapevano nuotare

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Alene Duerk: First Woman to Make Admiral

Following the tradition of military service in her family, Alene Duerk enlisted as a Navy nurse in 1943. During her eventful 32 year career, she served in WWII on a hospital ship in the Sea of Japan, and trained others in the Korean War. She became the Director of the Navy Nursing Corps during the Vietnam War before finally attaining the rank of Admiral in the U.S. Navy. Despite having no other women as mentors (or peers), Admiral Duerk always looked for challenging opportunities that women had not previously held. Her consistently high level of performance led to her ultimate rise to become the first woman Admiral.

Auschwitz: Countdown To Liberation

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Oppenheimer After Trinity

This captivating documentary on J. Robert Oppenheimer, the architect of the atomic bomb, explores his journey before the historic test and reveals the burden he carried after. De-classified documents, rare film footage and exclusive interviews, including Oppenheimer's grandson, show an intimate exploration of the burden Oppenheimer carried and the profound global impact still being debated today.

WWII From Space

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.

Cesty dětí

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Death of a Nation

Parallels are drawn between Abraham Lincoln's presidency and the presidency of Donald Trump. Not since 1860 have the Democrats so fanatically refused to accept the result of a free election. That year, their target was Lincoln. They smeared him. They went to war to defeat him. In the end, they assassinated him.

Coming Out Under Fire

A historical account of military policy regarding homosexuality during World War II. The documentary includes interviews with several homosexual WWII veterans.

8000 Stolen Futures: The Children at the Center of the A-Bomb

On August 6, 1945, the first-ever nuclear bomb deployed in war was dropped on the city of Hiroshima Prefecture, leaving an estimated 140,000 dead in its wake by the end of that year. Among the victims, one particular age group stands out for the sheer number of fatalities sustained: 12 and 13 year-olds, children of first year junior high school age. We investigate the tragedy of this lost generation, piecing together surviving records and speaking with survivors, for whom the memories of children robbed of their futures that day are still burned deep in their memories, nearly eight decades on.

Stalin, the Red Tyrant

On March 9, 1953, Joseph Stalin was buried in Moscow in front of a million people. His funeral is that of a demi-God. Ultimate paradox for one of the greatest criminals in History who brought misfortune to his people while arousing collective admiration.

Eric Ravilious: Drawn to War

One of Britain’s greatest landscape artists, Eric Ravilious, is killed in a plane crash while on commission as Official War Artist in Iceland in 1942. His life is as compelling and enigmatic as his art, set against the dramatic wartime locations that inspire him. This film brings to life this unique and still grossly undervalued British artist caught in the crossfire of war 80 years ago, whose legacy largely sank without trace, until now…

The Cold Blue

A meditation on youth, war and stunning bravery, featuring footage, taken from the National Archives, from the documentary filmed in 1943 by legendary Hollywood director William Wyler about the famous Memphis Belle flying fortress and the gripping narration from some of the last surviving B-17 pilots.

Hitler's 9/11

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.

Besa: The Promise

A documentary exploring how Albanians, including many Muslims, helped and sheltered Jewish refugees during WWII at their own risk, and trying to help the son of an Albanian baker that housed a Jewish family for a year return some Hebrew books that the family had to leave behind.

Kuoleman lista

A dramatic documentary film that deals with the Nazi rise to power in Germany in the 1930s and the development of the persecution of Jews up to the Holocaust. The film tells about the attitude of the Finnish government to the request for the handover of the Finnish Jews presented by Heinrich Himmler in the summer of 1942. The main focus of the film is the life of Jewish refugees in Finland in the years 1938-1942 and the attitude of the Finnish government to their handover in the fall of 1942.

Three Minutes: A Lengthening

The story of the only three minutes of footage —a home movie shot by David Kurtz in 1938— showing images of the Jewish inhabitants of Nasielsk (Poland) before the beginning of the Shoah.

The Wonderful Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl

This documentary recounts the life and work of one of most famous, and yet reviled, German film directors in history, Leni Riefenstahl. The film recounts the rise of her career from a dancer, to a movie actor to the most important film director in Nazi Germany who directed such famous propaganda films as Triumph of the Will and Olympiad. The film also explores her later activities after Nazi Germany's defeat in 1945 and her disgrace for being so associated with it which includes her amazingly active life over the age of 90.

Elvis and the USS Arizona

The surprising story of how one of music's biggest icons helped to establish a USS Arizona memorial in Pearl Harbor. Elvis’ fundraising concert drew public attention to the plight and helped to galvanize efforts to finish the USS Arizona Memorial as it stands today.

Bampton Shows the Way

Part of BFI boxset Ration Books and Rabbit Pies: Films from the Home Front.

Mrs. T. and Her Cabbage Patch

Poetic tribute to Mrs Turner's vegetable growing prowess, plus the delights of "wartime steaks".

The Happy Child

The Happy Child is a story of "New Wave" rock genre predominant in the ex-Yugoslavia during the socialist 70's and 80's.

Bombe atomique : Les Secrets d'un compte à rebours

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Reunion of Giants

It had been 50 years since two Avro Lancaster bombers flew side by side. The Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum's Avro Lancaster, VeRA, flew from Hamilton, Ontario to meet her British counterpart, Thumper - the only other surviving flight worthy Lancaster bomber in the world - the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight's (BBMF) Lancaster in England. This documentary includes first-hand accounts from the men and women who experienced the war and were connected to the Lancaster. It transports the viewer back in time as they share what it was like during the Lancaster's glory days. REUNION OF GIANTS documents this historic mission as it unfolds through the eyes of the flight crews, veterans, friends and family. It includes all parts in this new chapter of the bomber's history, as VeRA crosses the Atlantic.

Hitler's Supergun

Historians and engineers investigate how Allied forces conspired to destroy Hitler's "supergun".

Der Reichstag

Docudrama telling the story of a building with a breath taking career that began in the empire, flourished in the Weimar Republic, perished in the Nazi dictatorship, and was rebuilt after its partial destruction.

Hitler's Disastrous Desert War

When the British army looks set to defeat Mussolini’s Italian forces, Hitler sends reinforcements; the Afrika Korps led by General Rommel. The Desert Fox is on winning form until Montgomery, the British commander, sets up a plan to crush his opponent. After the American landing in North Africa, the Axis armies have no choice but to surrender and put an end to the Desert War.

Alien Endgame

In 2021, a Pentagon report revealed what the US government had denied for decades -- UFOs are real and may even pose a threat to our planet. Now, ex-military members break their silence about the massive cover-up. Are we prepared for an alien invasion?

Night and Fog

Filmmaker Alain Resnais documents the atrocities behind the walls of Hitler's concentration camps.

Schindler

The true story of German-Czech businessman Oskar Schindler (1908-74) as told by some of the Jews — more than a thousand people — whose lives he saved from extermination during World War II.

Stalin and the Katyn Massacre

The Katyn massacre, carried out by the Soviet NKVD in 1940, was only one of many unspeakable crimes committed by Stalin's ruthless executioners over three decades. The mass murder of thousands of Polish officers was part of a relentless purge, the secrets and details of which have only recently been partially revealed.

Propaganda: Engineering Consent

How can the masses be controlled? Apparently, the American publicist Edward L. Bernays (1891-1995), a pioneer in the field of propaganda and public relations, knew the answer to such a key question. The amazing story of the master of manipulation and the creation of the engineering of consent; a frightening true story about advertising, lies and charlatans.

Le Parti du cinéma

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Zeitgeist

A documentary examining possible historical and modern conspiracies surrounding Christianity, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the Federal Reserve bank.

Capitulation, the Final Hours that Ended World War II

A film made of archives mostly unknown, on the last day of the Second World War in Europe and on the events which preceded it. This film also shows the growing tension between the Allies and the Soviets at the time: May 8, 1945 is also the first day of the Cold War.

The Last Days

Five Jewish Hungarians, now US citizens, tell their stories: before March 1944, when Nazis began to exterminate Hungarian Jews, months in concentration camps, and visiting childhood homes more than 50 years later. An historian, a Sonderkommando, a doctor who experimented on Auschwitz prisoners, and US soldiers who were part of the liberation in April 1945.

Cinecittà, de Mussolini à la Dolce Vita

Cinecitta is today known as the center of the Italian film industry. But there is a dark past. The film city was solemnly inaugurated in 1937 by Mussolini. Here, propaganda films would be produced to strengthen the dictator's position.

The Autobiography of a 'Jeep'

The invention and use of a jeep are described, from the viewpoint of one of the vehicles.