Week of February 1
Monday, February 1
12:00pm Rise of the Nazis “Part 1 – Politics”
See how Adolf Hitler and the Nazis rise to power. In 1930, Germany is a liberal democracy. Just four years later, democracy is dead, Germany's leader is a dictator and the government is in the hands of the Nazis. In part one, learn the chain of events that propels Hitler from the fringes to the heart of the government. After leading a failed coup in 1923, he turns the Nazis into a legitimate, mainstream party and plots to overthrow Germany's political elite.
Watch the show here: https://www.pbs.org/video/episode-1-politics-6y6ygy/
1:00pm Rise of the Nazis “Part 2 – The First Six Months in Power”
See how Adolf Hitler and the Nazis rise to power. In 1930, Germany is a liberal democracy. Just four years later, democracy is dead, Germany's leader is a dictator and the government is in the hands of the Nazis. In part two, discover the measures Chancellor Hitler takes to dismantle the German state. The Nazis have the power to ban free speech, books are burned, and Jewish people, gay people and those holding anti-Nazi beliefs begin to disappear.
Watch the show here: https://www.pbs.org/video/episode-2-the-first-six-months-in-power-fcglhv/
Tuesday, February 2
12:00pm Rise of the Nazis “Part 3 – Night of the Long Knives”
See how Adolf Hitler and the Nazis rise to power. In 1930, Germany is a liberal democracy. Just four years later, democracy is dead, Germany's leader is a dictator and the government is in the hands of the Nazis. In part three see how Hitler finds himself caught between Germany's president and the Nazis' power base. His advisors persuade him to destroy the Nazi stormtroopers and their leader -- one of his oldest friends -- to make the SS Germany's only paramilitary force.
Watch the show here: https://www.pbs.org/video/episode-3-night-of-the-long-knives-oj9icq/
1:00pm Enemy of the Reich: The Noor Inayat Khan Story
In August of 1943, the last surviving clandestine radio operator in Paris desperately signaled London. Everything depended on her and the Gestapo was at the door. How did a Sorbonne educated musician and author of a book of fairy tales become a daring spy who died fighting the Nazis? With an American mother and Indian Muslim father, Noor Inayat Khan was an extremely unusual British agent, and her life spent growing up in a Sufi center of learning in Paris seemed an unlikely preparation for the dangerous work to come. Yet it was in this place of universal peace and contemplation that her remarkable courage was forged. When the Nazi's invaded France, she joined Britain's Women's Auxiliary Air Force, and was recruited as spy, going to Paris to support the French Underground. For four crucial months, Noor was the only surviving radio operator in Paris, calling in the air-drop of weapons and supplies, and coordinating the rescue of downed allied fliers. She was ultimately betrayed by a French collaborator, and interrogated for months by the Gestapo. She never gave up any information, not even her real name, and she organized two breakouts from Gestapo headquarters. For this and the damage she did to the Nazis war efforts, she was executed in Dachau. 2014 marks the 100th anniversary of her birth.
Watch the show here: https://www.pbs.org/video/enemy-reich-noor-inayat-khan-story-full-episode/ (Passport required)
Wednesday, February 3
12:00pm Shanghai 1937: Where World War II Began (Click here for Supplemental Materials)
When did World War II begin? Americans might say December 7, 1941-the day the Japanese Imperial navy attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. For Europeans, it was September 1, 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. But in China, people will tell you a different date-August 13, 1937, the start of the Battle of Shanghai. That day, after what is called the "century of humiliation," including six years of repeated "incidents" initiated by the Japanese military, China at last "stood up." Shanghai was the most international city in Asia, with a large foreign population, so at the time of the military conflict, it was headline news around the world. Based on the book Shanghai 1937: Stalingrad on the Yangtzeby Danish author Peter Harmsen, this program introduces key figures in the conflict, chronicles how the battle unfolded over the course of three months, and explores the aftermath and years of war that followed. It incorporates rarely seen archival footage as well as interviews with author Peter Harmsen, military historian Edward Drea and professor of modern Chinese history Hans Van DeVen, in addition to two Chinese experts on this subject: Su Zhiliang, Ph.D. of Shanghai Normal University, and Ma Zhendu, director of the Second Historical Archives of China. The film also includes vivid recollections of men and women, such as Ronald Morris, Liliane Willens and Patricia D. Silver, who experienced these events as foreign children living in Shanghai.
Show not available online, but you can watch the preview here: http://www.shanghai1937.tv/
1:00pm Secrets of the Dead “Bombing Auschwitz”
Join historians, survivors and experts as they consider one of the great moral dilemmas of the 20th century. Should the Allies have risked killing Auschwitz prisoners and bombed the camp to stop future atrocities?
Watch the show here: https://www.pbs.org/video/bombing-auschwitz-ksouts/
Thursday, February 4
12:00pm Enola Gay’s Navigator: Theodore “Dutch” Van Kirk
Van Kirk flew 58 missions in England and North Africa before returning to the United States. He was assigned to navigation training and in November 1944 became group navigator of the 509th Composite Group training for atom bomb delivery. Quietly, in June 1945, the group started moving overseas to the Pacific island of Tinian in the Marianas chain. Their familiar arrowhead tail markings were changed on both sides to the letter "R" in a circle, standard identification for the Sixth Bomb Group. The idea behind this change was to confuse the enemy if they made contact, which they did not. On Aug. 6, 1945, Van Kirk was the navigator on the first atomic bombing mission. At 2:30 a.m., the Enola Gay lifted off North Field en route to Hiroshima, Japan. "I knew when we hit the coast of Japan we were well on the way to completing a successful mission and the new bomb we carried would be a great help in shortening the war," Van Kirk said. At exactly 09:15:15, the world's first atomic bomb exploded. When the Enola Gay landed back on Tinian Island at 2:58 p.m., the plane and crew were greeted by Gen. Spaatz, a large contingent of brass and jubilant GIs. Van Kirk later participated in the first Bikini Atoll atomic bomb tests.
Show not available online, but you can watch the preview here: https://www.ket.org/program/enola-gays-navigator-theodore-dutch-van-kirk/
1:00pm 1st to Fight: Pacific War Marines
On the Pacific island of Guadalcanal in 1942, the famed 1st Marine Division - the oldest, largest and most decorated division of the U.S. Marine Corps - defeated Japanese forces in a turning point of WWII. 1ST TO FIGHT: PACIFIC WAR MARINES, narrated by actor Jon Seda (HBO's The Pacific and NBC's Chicago P.D.), documents the experiences of 1st Marine Division veterans who took part in the historic fight.
Show not available online, but you can watch the preview here: https://www.pbswesternreserve.org/blogs/history-circle/1st-to-fight-pacific-war-marines/
Friday, February 5
12:00pm Registry
See the hidden history of the US Army’s Military Intelligence Service during World War II.
Show not available online, but you can watch the preview here: https://www.pbs.org/video/preview-dt8qx1/
1:00pm History Detectives
First, detective Eduardo Pagan travels to our own Riverside, California investigates the history of a hand-drawn map, taken from the body of a Japanese soldier during the World War II battle of Iwo Jima, in the segment "Iwo Jima Map." Then, in "Copperhead Cane," Wes Cowan follows the story of a cane topped with a coiled snake that has ties to the anti-Abraham Lincoln group, the "Peace Democrats." Finally, in the segment "Theremin," Elyse Luray traces the origins of the Theremin - one of the first electronic musical instruments - and finds out if a New Mexico man owns one of the fewer than a dozen Theremins in the U.S. built by Leon Theremin himself.
Watch the show here: https://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/video/1527264347//
