Shockwaves were sent – like carpet-bombs – over unprepared filmgoers when this film appeared on the screens fifteen years after the end of World War II. For the first time ever a careful selection of documentary footage from the twelve years of Hitler’s 'millennium' madness was made into a full-length movie format. And for the first time the awesome documents were compiled, with a clear, tangible purpose: to find an answer to questions, still to be answered: What happened? How could it happen??Berlin-born filmmaker and journalist Erwin Leiser, decided to tell the story behind Hitler’s rise to power, triumphs and final disaster. Most of his material had never before been shown in public. Some of it was filmed by Goebbels´ own photographers, and was considered too strong to be used even for propaganda purposes, like the unbearable scenes from the Warsaw ghetto – “impossible to shake off. Perhaps the most horrible footage ever shown on a screen”, as a leading Swedish newspaper wrote after the opening of this film. Shockwaves were sent – like carpet-bombs – over unprepared filmgoers when this film appeared on the screens fifteen years after the end of World War II. For the first time ever a careful selection of documentary footage from the twelve years of Hitler’s 'millennium' madness was made into a full-length movie format. And for the first time the awesome documents were compiled, with a clear, tangible purpose: to find an answer to questions, still to be answered: What happened? How could it happen??Berlin-born filmmaker and journalist Erwin Leiser, decided to tell the story behind Hitler’s rise to power, triumphs and final disaster. Most of his material had never before been shown in public. Some of it was filmed by Goebbels´ own photographers, and was considered too strong to be used even for propaganda purposes, like the unbearable scenes from the Warsaw ghetto – “impossible to shake off. Perhaps the most horrible footage ever shown on a screen”, as a leading Swedish newspaper wrote after the opening of this film.