

The Moon Landing and the Nazis(NaN)
The fact that Neil Armstrong was the first man to set foot on the moon on July 19, 1969, was also the success of Wernher von Braun and a team of more than 100 NASA technicians and engineers from Germany. But the success story is shrouded in dark shadows: Many of the Germans had a Nazi past and were part of the development of the infamous V2 rocket. Some 20,000 forced laborers lost their lives during the production under the inhumane working conditions at several Nazi underground weapons factories. In a secret operation to secure German rocket technology, the Americans brought the scientists to the USA in 1945. Only decades later were classified documents released, detailing the involvement of German NASA employees with the Third Reich.


Movie: The Moon Landing and the Nazis

The Moon Landing and the Nazis
HomePage
Overview
The fact that Neil Armstrong was the first man to set foot on the moon on July 19, 1969, was also the success of Wernher von Braun and a team of more than 100 NASA technicians and engineers from Germany. But the success story is shrouded in dark shadows: Many of the Germans had a Nazi past and were part of the development of the infamous V2 rocket. Some 20,000 forced laborers lost their lives during the production under the inhumane working conditions at several Nazi underground weapons factories. In a secret operation to secure German rocket technology, the Americans brought the scientists to the USA in 1945. Only decades later were classified documents released, detailing the involvement of German NASA employees with the Third Reich.
Release Date
Average
7
Rating:
3.5 startsTagline
Genres
Languages:
EnglishKeywords
Similar Movies

Mengele, the hunt for a Nazi criminal(fr)
He was one of the most notorious Nazi war criminals, infamous for his assassination attempts on twins. But at the end of World War II, he simply disappeared...

Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary(de)
Documentarians Andre Heller and Othmar Schmiderer turn their camera on 81-year-old Traudl Junge, who served as Adolf Hitler's secretary from 1942 to 1945, and allow her to speak about her experiences. Junge sheds light on life in the Third Reich and the days leading up to Hitler's death in the famed bunker, where Junge recorded Hitler's last will and testament. Her gripping account is nothing short of mesmerizing.

Blood Money: Inside the Nazi Economy(fr)
How did Nazi Germany, from limited natural resources, mass unemployment, little money and a damaged industry, manage to unfurl the cataclysm of World War Two and come to occupy a large part of the European continent? Based on recent historical works of and interviews with Adam Tooze, Richard Overy, Frank Bajohr and Marie-Bénédicte Vincent, and drawing on rare archival material.

Radical Evil(de)
Das radikal Böse is a German-Austrian documentary that attempted to explore psychological processes and individual decision latitude "normal young men" in the German Einsatzgruppen of the Security Police and SD, which in 1941 during the Second World War as part of the Holocaust two million Jewish civilians shot dead in Eastern Europe.

The Day We Walked on the Moon(en)
On July 16, 1969, hundreds of thousands of spectators and an army of reporters gathered at Cape Kennedy to witness one of the great spectacles of the century: the launch of Apollo 11. Over the next few days, the world watched on with wonder and rapture as humankind prepared for its "one giant leap" onto the moon--and into history. Witness this incredible day, presented through stunning, remastered footage and interviews that takes you behind-the-scenes and inside the spacecraft, Mission Control, and the homes of the astronaut's families.

Apollo: Missions to the Moon(en)
National Geographic's riveting effort recounts all 12 crewed missions using only archival footage, photos and audio.

Night and Fog(fr)
Filmmaker Alain Resnais documents the atrocities behind the walls of Hitler's concentration camps.

Olympia: Part One – Festival of the Nations(de)
Commissioned to make a propaganda film about the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany, director Leni Riefenstahl created a celebration of the human form. This first half of her two-part film opens with a renowned introduction that compares modern Olympians to classical Greek heroes, then goes on to provide thrilling in-the-moment coverage of some of the games' most celebrated moments, including African-American athlete Jesse Owens winning a then-unprecedented four gold medals.

Olympia: Part Two – Festival of Beauty(de)
Commissioned to make a propaganda film about the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany, director Leni Riefenstahl created a celebration of the human form. Where the two-part epic's first half, Festival of the Nations, focused on the international aspects of the 1936 Olympic Games held in Berlin, part two, The Festival of Beauty, concentrates on individual athletes such as equestrians, gymnasts, and swimmers, climaxing with American Glenn Morris' performance in the decathalon and the games' majestic closing ceremonies.

2 or 3 Things I Know About Him(de)
What would your family reminiscences about dad sound like if he had been an early supporter of Hitler’s, a leader of the notorious SA and the Third Reich’s minister in charge of Slovakia, including its Final Solution? Executed as a war criminal in 1947, Hanns Ludin left behind a grieving widow and six young children, the youngest of whom became a filmmaker. It's a fascinating, maddening, sometimes even humorous look at what the director calls "a typical German story." (Film Forum)

Hitler's Germany in Color(de)
This documentary is showing Nazi Germany in color. The original and unique color images are portraying the war and German life of the time. You will see the Nazis at work but also in their private situations. All film images are original and fully restored color recordings.

Generation Sputnik(de)
From 1957 —the year in which the Soviets put the Sputnik 1 satellite into orbit— to 1969 —when American astronaut Neil Armstrong walked on the surface of the moon—, the beginnings of the space conquest were depicted in popular culture: cinema, television, comics and literature of the time contain numerous references to an imagined future.

Munich, or Peace in Our Time(fr)
September 28, 1938, war is about to break out. Tension was mounting, as Chamberlain and Daladier on one side, and Hitler and Mussolini on the other, met in Munich. This conference marked the culmination of the weakness of European democracies in the face of the rise of fascism. Through period documents and interviews, author Marcel Ophüls recounts this meeting and recreates the European climate of 1938.

In the Shadow of the Moon(en)
Archival material from the original NASA film footage – much of it seen for the first time – plus interviews with the surviving astronauts, including Jim Lovell, Dave Scott, John Young, Gene Cernan, Mike Collins, Buzz Aldrin, Alan Bean, Edgar Mitchell, Charlie Duke and Harrison Schmitt.

For All Mankind(en)
A testament to NASA's Apollo program of the 1960s and '70s. Composed of actual NASA footage of the missions and astronaut interviews, the documentary offers the viewpoint of the individuals who braved the remarkable journey to the moon and back.

Victory in the West(de)
A Nazi propaganda film about the lead up to World War II and Germany's success on the Western Front. Utilizes newsreel footage of battles and fell into disfavour with propaganda minister Goebbels because of it's lack of emphasis on Adolf Hitler.

Apollo 17: The Untold Story of the Last Men on the Moon(en)
The remarkable story of the determination and courage of a generation. A tribute to three brave astronauts and the thousands of men and women behind them during the final days of NASA's Apollo program.

Chaplin Today: 'The Great Dictator'(en)
A short documentary about the making of "The Great Dictator."

The Rape of Europa(en)
World War II was not just the most destructive conflict in humanity, it was also the greatest theft in history: lives, families, communities, property, culture and heritage were all stolen. The story of Nazi Germany's plundering of Europe's great works of art during World War II and Allied efforts to minimize the damage.

The Nazi Pug: Joke or Hate?(en)
Markus Meechan is a criminal. Guilty of posting a YouTube video judged “grossly offensive” and containing menacing, anti-Semitic and racist material. He claims the video was a joke. Others claim, Markus is a Nazi. But what does the prosecution of a YouTube comedian mean for freedom of expression – is a censorious state overstepping the mark? Or are there some things you just shouldn’t joke about?