The Schutzstaffel (SS) - Hitler's Criminal Machine
15 Episodes
They began as Hitler’s personal bodyguards — a small elite sworn to serve the Führer.
But within a few years, the Schutzstaffel, or SS, became one of the most feared organizations in human history.
From the front lines of occupied Europe to the concentration camps of the Holocaust, the SS built a regime of terror, ideology, and mass murder.
This series exposes the rise and structure of the SS — its divisions, commanders, and secret police — revealing how a paramilitary order evolved into a criminal machine of the Nazi state.
Through original footage, testimony, and historical analysis, we uncover the men behind the black uniforms: those who enforced Hitler’s will and carried out crimes that would lead to the Nuremberg trials and the condemnation of the SS as a criminal organization.
Explore the origins, the power, and the ultimate downfall of Hitler’s most brutal creation — the Schutzstaffel.
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From Mass Murderer to Traitor of the Führer: SS General Arthur Nebe
Episode 1
He hunted Jews, Roma, and the “asocial” for the Nazi regime — yet in July 1944, this same man secretly joined the plot to kill Adolf Hitler.
Arthur Nebe, head of Nazi Germany’s Criminal Police and commander of Einsatzgruppe B, personally oversaw the massacre of tens of thousands during the Holoca... -
The Rise and Fall of Hitler's Butcher of Prague: Reinhard Heydrich
Episode 2
Reinhard Heydrich, known as the “Butcher of Prague,” was one of the most feared men in Nazi Germany. As Himmler’s deputy, he commanded the Gestapo and SD, created the Einsatzgruppen, and presided over the Wannsee Conference that set the Holocaust in motion. This film explores his rise to power, h...
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The Butcher of Galicia: SS General Fritz Katzmann Who Boasted of Genocide
Episode 3
22 June 1941. As Nazi Germany launches Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union, the city of Lviv falls under German occupation. Within weeks, its 200,000-strong Jewish community is subjected to pogroms, deportations, and mass executions — carried out under the command of Fritz Katzmann, the...
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The Nazi Jurist Turned Executioner: Karl Eberhard Schöngarth
Episode 4
He began as a law graduate from Leipzig — and became one of the most ruthless SS commanders of the Holocaust. As head of the Gestapo and Security Police in occupied Poland, he led Einsatzgruppen death squads that massacred Jews, Polish elites, and professors in Lwów. A participant at the Wannsee ...
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The SS Butcher of Radom: The Crimes and Fall of Herbert Böttcher
Episode 5
Born in 1907 in East Prussia, Herbert Böttcher rose from a young lawyer to one of Nazi Germany’s most ruthless SS and Police Leaders. After joining the SS and Nazi Party, he quickly advanced through the ranks — using law, power, and ideology to serve a regime built on terror.
As SS and Police Le...
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The Rise and Fall of Nazi Germany’s Security Chief: Ernst Kaltenbrunner
Episode 6
He was the man who ruled Nazi Germany’s internal empire of fear.
As Chief of the Reich Security Main Office, Ernst Kaltenbrunner controlled the Gestapo, Criminal Police, and SS Security Service, enforcing Hitler’s will through mass arrests, deportations, and executions. A devoted Austrian Nazi an... -
The SS Commander Behind the Babi Yar Massacre: Otto Rasch
Episode 7
On September 1, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland — and behind the advancing Wehrmacht marched the Einsatzgruppen, mobile death squads led by men like Otto Rasch.
An educated lawyer turned SS officer, Rasch helped design the blueprint for Nazi mass murder — from the secret executions of Polish in... -
Einsatzgruppen Commander Otto Ohlendorf: The Bureaucrat of Death
Episode 8
He was not a soldier of the front but of ideology.
Otto Ohlendorf, a lawyer and economist, led Einsatzgruppe D — one of the Nazi death squads responsible for wiping out Jewish life across the occupied East.
To him, mass murder was an administrative task, carried out with discipline and precision.... -
Hitler’s First Bodyguard - The Jew Who Founded the SS: Emil Maurice
Episode 9
Before Himmler, before the black uniforms, there was Emil Maurice — SS member No. 2, Hitler’s driver, confidant, and friend.
A man of partial Jewish descent who stood at the very birth of the Nazi Party and helped create its most feared organization, the SS.
From the failed Beer Hall Putsch and p... -
The Bureaucrat of Death: SS-General Walter Stahlecker
Episode 10
He looked like a model civil servant — calm, educated, meticulous.
But behind the typewriter and legal jargon, Walter Stahlecker built one of the first genocides of the Holocaust.
As commander of Einsatzgruppe A, he oversaw the annihilation of the Baltic Jews, turning Nazi ideology into systemati... -
Einsatzgruppen Commander Who Brought Death to the East: Erich Naumann
Episode 11
1 September 1939 — as Nazi Germany invades Poland, the first waves of terror follow not with tanks, but with firing squads. Behind the advancing army come the Einsatzgruppen — mobile death squads sent to exterminate civilians, intellectuals, and Jews. Among their leaders stands Erich Naumann, a c...
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From Pastor to Mass Murderer: The Story of Ernst Biberstein
Episode 12
He was once a man of faith — a Protestant pastor who preached the word of God.
But when the Nazis came to power, Ernst Biberstein traded his Bible for the black uniform of the SS.Appointed to lead Einsatzkommando 6, one of the Nazi mobile death squads, he personally oversaw the execution of tho...
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Gestapo Terror in Norway: The Rise of Gerhard Flesch
Episode 13
April 9 1940 — under the codename Operation Weserübung, Nazi Germany invades Denmark and Norway. While Denmark surrenders within hours, Norway resists for two months before falling under occupation. In the years that follow, the Gestapo tightens its grip on the country through terror, torture, an...
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The Architect of the Lithuanian Holocaust: Karl Jäger
Episode 14
22 June 1941. Under the codename Operation Barbarossa, Nazi Germany invades the Soviet Union.
Among the first territories occupied is Lithuania, home to a vibrant Jewish community that soon faces total annihilation.Behind the front lines operates Einsatzkommando 3, a Nazi death squad commanded ...
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The Butcher of Babi Yar: Einsatzgruppe Commander Paul Blobel
Episode 15
He was trained to build — but became one of history’s greatest destroyers.
Paul Blobel, an SS officer and architect by profession, commanded the Nazi killing unit responsible for the massacre of over 33,000 Jews at Babi Yar in Kyiv.
Later, he led the secret “Operation 1005,” tasked with erasing t...