Serious second war movies and documentaries
This list is not in a particular order but is extremely informative and recommended for a serious WW2 viewer
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- StarsMathieu KassovitzMartin SheenRudolf HessThis six-part series traces the Second World War, from the rise of the Nazis to the surrender of the Japanese, with detailed portraits of key figures.
- StarsLinda HuntSamuel WestGert HeidenreichThe history of the Final Solution phase of the Nazi Holocaust, particularly with the most infamous of the death camps.
- StarsPeter DicksonA broad scoped, yet in-depth and neutral perspective of the Second World War. From its beginning with the Versaille Treaty and the invasion of Manchuria, to its conclusion at the Nuremburg Trials and the beginning of the Cold War,
- DirectorHans-Jürgen SyberbergStarsHeinz SchubertPeter KernHellmut LangeDirector Hans-Jurgen Syberberg examines the rise and fall of the Third Reich in this brooding seven-hour masterpiece, which incorporates puppetry, rear-screen projection, and a Wagnerian score into a singular epic vision. Syberberg, who grew up under Nazi tyranny, ruminates on good and evil and the rest of humanity's complicity in the horrors of the holocaust.
- StarsJoseph BottomsTovah FeldshuhRosemary HarrisThe saga of a Jewish family's struggle to survive the horror of Nazi Germany's systematic marginalization and extermination of their community.
- DirectorNigel TurnerStarsAdolf HitlerArthur KentDetails the many attempts to assassinate Adolf Hitler, their planning, execution and why they failed plus the consequences of their failure.
- DirectorEgidio EronicoStarsThomas KretschmannCharlton HestonF. Murray AbrahamA man who grew up an orphan finally gets to meet his father: The psychopath Dr. Josef Mengele, the Auschwitz surgeon who performed genetic experiments on concentration camp refugees during WWII.
- DirectorRalf PiechovakStarsVera AlexanderChristian BrücknerElla LingensHis nickname was the angel of death: Josef Mengele, a doctor who carried out sadistic experiments on his prisoners, including many children. Mengele got away. Was never tried in court. Died in freedom.
- DirectorJohn MusilliStarsLeni RiefenstahlPortrait of filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, shot in her studio in Munich, Germany and in the nearby Alps. With many photos from her own archive and excerpts from her films, including "Triumph of the Will," "Olympia," and "Tiefland." Extensive interview about her early career as a dancer, as an actress in "mountain films" and finally as a director of "The Blue Light".
- DirectorAleksandr SokurovStarsElena RufanovaEva MattesLeonid MozgovoyIn 1942, in Bavaria, Eva Braun is alone when Adolf Hitler arrives with Dr. Josef Göbbels and his wife Magda Göbbels and Martin Bormann to spend a couple of days without talking politics.
- StarsAlec BaldwinBrian CoxChristopher PlummerThe dramatized account of the war crime trials following the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.
- DirectorStanley KramerStarsSpencer TracyBurt LancasterRichard WidmarkIn 1948, an American court in occupied Germany tries four Nazis judged for war crimes.
- StarsSebastian KochTobias MorettiDagmar ManzelA reassessment of the role Albert Speer played in the Third Reich. Speer, who was ultimately convicted at the Nuremburg trials and served a 20-year prison sentence, was known for designing many of the Third Reich's buildings and for being Hitler's minister for war production.
- DirectorJoseph VilsmaierStarsDominique HorwitzThomas KretschmannJochen NickelThe story follows a group of German soldiers, from their Italian R&R in the summer of 1942 to the frozen steppes of Soviet Russia and ending with the battle for Stalingrad.
- DirectorPeter CohenStarsRolf ArseniusBruno GanzSam GrayAn absorbing and chilling documentary about the National Socialist aesthetic, and how attempts to create the Aryan Ideal caused the extermination of millions. Aspects covered include: Hitler's epiphany while viewing Wagner's opera 'Rienzi', the rise of the homo-erotic Grecian/Nordic ideal, the parallels drawn between the 'degenerate' art of the cubists and dadaists and the mentally ill/physically deformed, the Nazi obsession with purity and cleanliness, and, finally, the descent of the Jewish people to the level of a virus/vermin.
- DirectorRichard BergeBonni CohenNicole NewnhamStarsJoan AllenE. Randol SchoenbergMaria AltmannThe story of Nazi Germany's plundering of Europe's great works of art during World War II and Allied efforts to minimize the damage.
- StarsMatthew MacfadyenRichard OveryJohn DoliboisProfiles on the major defendants of the Nuremberg war crimes trials.
- DirectorRoland Suso RichterStarsHeino FerchNicolette KrebitzSebastian KochDuring the Cold War, Germany was divided into two states - East and West. This epic story tells about their dramatic connections.
- DirectorChristopher MenaulStarsRutger HauerMiranda RichardsonPeter VaughanIn April 1964, more than twenty years after the Nazis won World War II, S.S. officer Xavier March uncovers a plot to eliminate the attendees of the Wannsee Conference so that Germany can establish better relations with the U.S.
- DirectorKeith GordonStarsNick NolteSheryl LeeTony RobinowAn American spy behind the lines during WWII serves as a Nazi propagandist, a role he cannot escape in his future life as he can never reveal his real role in the war.
- StarsSamuel WestAdolf BuchnerJutta RüdigerAn examination of how a cultured people could have allowed Adolf Hitler's rise to power.
- StarsJohn Schwab'Weaponology' unravels the mysteries of a multitude of weaponry and arms, both archaic and contemporary. In this episode, the development and lineage of Nazi Germany's Waffen SS.
- DirectorThomas CarterStarsRobert Sean LeonardChristian BaleFrank WhaleyA group of teens adores forbidden music in Nazi Germany just before the outbreak of World War II.
- StarsDavid TennantJanet MontgomeryMarcin DorocinskiA military attaché at the French embassy is drawn into a world of abduction, betrayal and intrigue in the diplomatic salons and back alleys of Warsaw.
- DirectorDennis GanselStarsJürgen VogelFrederick LauMax RiemeltA high school teacher's experiment to demonstrate to his students what life is like under a dictatorship spins horribly out of control when he forms a social unit with a life of its own.
- DirectorDiego ArsuagaStarsHéctor AlterioFederico LuppiPepe SorianoThree old man, a little boy training to protect an old patrimony, La "33", the last train.
- DirectorJeremy LoveringStarsPeter McDonaldKate AshfieldKenneth CranhamA drama-documentary about Operation Foxley, a 1944 British plan to assassinate Adolf Hitler.
- DirectorRobert YoungStarsAvner W. LessThomas KretschmannTroy GarityBased upon the final confession of Adolf Eichmann, made before his execution in Israel as he accounts to Captain Avner Less, a young Israeli police officer, of his past as the architect of Hitler's plan for the Final Solution. Captured by intelligence operatives in Argentina, 15 years after World War II, Eichmann (Kretschmann), the world's most wanted man, must be broken down and the truth unveiled. As the world waits, two men must confront each other in a battle of wills - the result of which will change a nation forever.
- StarsTrevor NicholsAaron MayA series that discusses secrets and mysteries during wars in the 20th century
- StarsPeter JenningsNorman SchwarzkopfTony CordesmanGeneral Schwarzkopf's press briefing at the end of the Persian Gulf War.
- StarsVyacheslav TikhonovYefim KopelyanLeonid BronevoyDuring World War II, a Soviet undercover spy manages to infiltrate the Nazi elite.Seventeen Moments of Spring
- DirectorJon AvnetStarsLeelee SobieskiHank AzariaDavid SchwimmerJews rise up in the Warsaw Ghetto against the Nazis in 1943.
- DirectorBrian PercivalStarsSophie NélisseGeoffrey RushEmily WatsonWhile subjected to the horrors of World War II Germany, young Liesel finds solace by stealing books and sharing them with others. In the basement of her home, a Jewish refugee is being protected by her adoptive parents.
- DirectorWladyslaw PasikowskiStarsIreneusz CzopJerzy SzymkiewiWojciech WalasikA Polish man who returns home after the death of his father unearths a secret about the now-deceased Jewish residents of his village.
- DirectorFedor BondarchukStarsMariya SmolnikovaYanina StudilinaPyotr FyodorovA group of Russian soldiers fight to hold a strategic building in their devastated city against a ruthless German army, and in the process become deeply connected to two Russian women who have been living there.
- DirectorPatryk VegaStarsStanislaw MikulskiEmil KarewiczTomasz KotIn 1945, Polish intelligence agent Hans Kloss, codenamed J-23, goes to Konigsberg to search for the treasure stolen by the Nazis. It's there that he meets his old friend and rival, SS Officer Hermann Brunner.
- DirectorIrmgard von zur MühlenStarsIrmgard von zur MühlenFrederic MartinAleksandr VoronsovThis chilling, vitally important documentary was produced to mark the 40th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz Concentration Camp. The film contains unedited, previously unavailable film footage of Auschwitz shot by the Soviet military forces between January 27 and February 28, 1945 and includes an interview with Alexander Voronsov, the cameraman who shot the footage. The horrifying images include: survivors; camp visit by Soviet investigation commission; criminal experiments; forced laborers; evacuation of ill and weak prisoners with the aid of Russian and Polish volunteers; aerial photos of the IG Farben Works in Monowitz; and pictures of local people cleaning up the camp under Soviet supervision.
- DirectorAgnieszka HollandStarsRobert WieckiewiczBenno FürmannAgnieszka GrochowskaA dramatization of one man's rescue of Jewish refugees in the German-occupied Polish city of Lvov.
- DirectorAndrzej WajdaStarsWojciech PszoniakEwa DalkowskaTeresa Budzisz-KrzyzanowskaThe last days of life of the legendary Polish pedagogue Dr. Janusz Korczak and his heroic dedication to protecting Jewish orphans in the Warsaw Ghetto.
- DirectorJohn Kent HarrisonStarsAnna PaquinGoran VisnjicMichelle DockeryThe story of Irena Sendler, a social worker who was part of the Polish underground during World War II and was arrested by the Nazis for saving the lives of nearly 2,500 Jewish children by smuggling them out of the Warsaw ghetto.
- DirectorRyszard BugajskiStarsOlgierd LukaszewiczAlicja JachiewiczMagdalena EmilianowiczThe tumultuous life of General August Emil Fieldorf aka "Nil", who commanded the underground Home Army against the Nazis and was killed after WW2 by communists.
- DirectorWarsaw JewsStarsWarsaw JewsArchival footage taken by the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto during World War 2. This is scenes of what it was like, what really happened, no punches are pulled, it is extremely graphic.
- DirectorMarcin KrzysztalowiczStarsMarcin DorocinskiMaciej StuhrSonia BohosiewiczLate autumn 1943. Wydra (Otter), a Polish partisan, catches an informer in a nearby village and brings him to his starving unit in the forest. A thrilling adventure finds desperate times calling for desperate measures in wartime...
- StarsKrzysztof StroinskiZofia CharewiczJakub MazurekBasia and Stefan are a young married couple during World War II who risk their lives to bring aid to Jews. He is an architect, she a nurse--a member of "Zegota" (the Polish underground organization to aid Jews in occupied Poland which operated under the auspices of the Polish government in exile). The series takes place both during the war and in the present day. Basia and Stefan meet accidentally, fall in love, and marry. Basia is active with the underground from the beginning of the war; Stefan is not, but a family tragedy changes his attitude.