The Schutzstaffel (SS): Waffen-SS, Gestapo & Einsatzgruppen

The Schutzstaffel (SS): Waffen-SS, Gestapo & Einsatzgruppen

23 Episodes

They called themselves the elite of the Third Reich — loyal only to Adolf Hitler and bound by oath, ideology, and blood.
From the Waffen-SS divisions that fought on every front, to the Gestapo secret police that silenced dissent, and the Einsatzgruppen mobile killing units that left a trail of massacres across Eastern Europe — the Schutzstaffel was the backbone of Nazi terror.

This series reveals how these branches of the SS worked together to enforce Hitler’s will through war, occupation, and extermination.
Through rare footage, survivor accounts, and historical analysis, we explore the structure, missions, and key figures behind the organization that combined fanaticism with ruthless efficiency.

Uncover the rise, power, and downfall of the SS — the machine that turned ideology into systematic terror and left a legacy of crimes that shocked the world.

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The Schutzstaffel (SS): Waffen-SS, Gestapo & Einsatzgruppen
  • 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...

  • 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...

  • The SS Butcher of Radom: The Crimes and Fall of Herbert Böttcher

    Episode 4

    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...

  • The Rise and Fall of Nazi Germany’s Security Chief: Ernst Kaltenbrunner

    Episode 5

    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 6

    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 7

    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 8

    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 9

    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 10

    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...

  • From Pastor to Mass Murderer: The Story of Ernst Biberstein

    Episode 11

    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...

  • Gestapo Terror in Norway: The Rise of Gerhard Flesch

    Episode 12

    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...

  • The Architect of the Lithuanian Holocaust: Karl Jäger

    Episode 13

    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 ...

  • The Butcher of Babi Yar: Einsatzgruppe Commander Paul Blobel

    Episode 14

    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...

  • The Bureaucrat of Genocide: SS Officer Adolf Eichmann

    Episode 15

    Captured by Mossad agents in Argentina and brought to Jerusalem in 1961, SS Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann stood trial as one of the principal organizers of the Holocaust. From his office in the Reich Security Main Office, he meticulously coordinated the deportation of millions of Jews from a...

  • Architect of Terror: Theodor Eicke and the Birth of the Nazi Camp System

    Episode 16

    The liberation of Dachau exposes the full horror of the Nazi camp system—but its foundations were laid years earlier by Theodor Eicke, the man who turned repression into policy.

    This documentary traces Eicke’s journey from a disillusioned World War I veteran to one of Heinrich Himmler’s most tru...

  • Massacre Commander and Architect of the Killing Fields: Friedrich Jeckeln

    Episode 17

    From the first days of World War II, Nazi mobile death squads — the Einsatzgruppen — follow the German army into Eastern Europe, turning towns, forests, and ravines into open-air execution sites. At the center of this machinery of mass murder stands Friedrich Jeckeln, a ruthless SS and Police Lea...

  • From Barbarossa to Warsaw - The Road to Annihilation: Bach-Zelewski

    Episode 18

    On 22 June 1941, Nazi Germany launches Operation Barbarossa, the largest invasion in history, and Belarus quickly falls under German control. What follows is not only a military campaign, but a war of racial extermination, as Jews and civilians across the region are forced into ghettos, starved, ...

  • SS Brigade Commander Behind Atrocities: Mass Murderer Oskar Dirlewanger

    Episode 19

    From the invasion of Poland to the ruins of Warsaw, Nazi Germany unleashed one of the most brutal formations in the history of the Waffen-SS — a unit built not from soldiers, but from convicted criminals, rapists, and murderers.

    At its center stood Oskar Dirlewanger, a decorated First World War ...

  • Einsatzgruppe Commander Behind the Genocide in Crimea: Werner Braune

    Episode 20

    On 22 June 1941, Nazi Germany launches Operation Barbarossa, turning the war in the east into a campaign of racial annihilation. As German forces seize Crimea, the Jewish and Krymchak communities are marked for destruction.

    At the center of this killing campaign stands Werner Braune, commander o...

  • SS Commander Behind the Malmedy Massacre - The Fate of Joachim Peiper

    Episode 21

    On 16 July 1946, inside the former Dachau concentration camp, Allied judges deliver verdicts against the men responsible for one of the most infamous war crimes of the Western Front — the Malmedy Massacre. American prisoners of war and Belgian civilians were lined up in the snow and machine-gunne...

  • The Nazi Jurist Turned Executioner: Karl Eberhard Schöngarth

    Episode 22

    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 ...

  • Einsatzgruppe Killings in Yugoslavia and the Conviction of Wilhelm Fuchs

    Episode 23

    On 17 April 1941, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia collapsed after just eleven days of fighting against the Axis invasion. In the aftermath, Nazi occupation forces moved swiftly to crush resistance in Serbia. Sabotage, ambushes, and partisan attacks spread across the country, threatening German supply l...