AllMovie

This video tells the story of Hitler's inner circle of protection, an elite corps of combat troops known as the Schutzstaffel, or SS. The SS was headed by Heinrich Himmler from 1929 on until the demise of the Nazi war machine and his own suicide. Under his leadership, the role of the SS expanded from being a protective force to that of a powerful party weapon to coerce or eliminate Hitler's political enemies. The secret police, or Gestapo, terrorized the nation. The SS also supervised the concentration camps and oversaw the murders of millions of people. Some units, known as "waffen" or "armed" SS, were used as elite shock troops. The film tells the terrible story of Himmler and his men with rare archival footage and first person accounts.