Robert J. Maxwell
It isn't one of those shabby, scratchy documentaries that wave the flag all over the place and terrify the viewers, the kind of product popular during the war.Actually, it's well researched and the material is presented systematically. Sure, it's a "What If" film. Another reviewer complained that it's not a documentary. Well, how could it be? Who has ever produced a documentary of things that never happened? Yet, the conjecture is kept to a minimum and existing Nazi documents are used in the construction of this awful scenario.One thing we're reminded of is that the Nazis did, in fact, occupy a part of Great Britain, namely the channel islands of Guernsey and Jersey, closer to France than to England. There was no resistance. The German troops simply walked in and took over. They were under strict orders to treat the population politely and fairly. (Violators would be executed.) They paid for their goods at the going exchange rates, until the goods more or less ran out.But if the Nazis had been able to invade and conquer England, the results would have been far different, according to plans laid out for the occupation. (The plans for the occupation were infinitely more thorough and logical than the plans for the invasion itself!)As in other conquered nations, the Germans would not simply have exterminated all those at the top and installed their own dictator. They didn't even plan to involve the English fascists. They had been courting the recently abdicated Edward VIII and would have installed him on the throne and had him urge national unity. You know, "Let's get the past behind us and work for the common good." The Royal Family itself would by this time have been evacuated to Canada.Once in power, the political situation would have followed a common channel. With German thoroughness, the occupation plan prepared by a general lists the names of individuals and groups that would, little by little, been quietly "removed" and sent away, never to be heard from again.Among the first to go would be those accused of homosexuality, like Noel Coward and Aldous Huxley. And good-bye avowed socialist Bertrand Russell, then at Oxford. The Freemasons and the Church of England were to be deprived of any political power -- or worse. The libraries would have had decadent books burned. The museums would have been looted and the work sent to the Fuhrermuseum in the Austrian city of Linz. Parallel to all of this, of course, would come the gradual identification, isolation, and extermination of the Jews.What difference would the Nazi conquest of Britain meant in the rest of the world? With Britain out of the way, there could have been no interference with the Axis occupation of the Balkans, which would mean that the invasion of the USSR could have begun in early spring as originally planned. The result would have been quick strikes in good weather and the likely collapse of the Soviet Union.There would have been no need for Hitler to declare war on the United States, which was busy with a war in the Pacific. But just in case his designers were working on a transatlatic bomber and a nuclear weapon. The making of an atomic bomb was in the hands of a physicist, Werner Heisenberg, who didn't proceed with it, for one reason or another, perhaps deliberately aborting the project. Still, Germany was far ahead of any other country in rocketry and the US could hardly have considered itself safe.The film spends too much time on the "auxiliaries," who were, in effect, trained as guerrilla fighters, but it observes accurately that they wouldn't have lasted long and that reprisals for their acts sabotage would have been terrible. The subject of collaboration is treated candidly. The film, as it now exists on DVD, is interrupted too often by the sign-on and sign-off logos -- an expanding circle of fire over a map of Britain with a swastika in the middle of it. And a few of the "reenactments" are overly extended.Those carps aside, it's not bad.
missismiggins
There was no plan to invade England by the Nazis, a waste of film! Should be described as a work of complete fiction - a "What If" rather than a true documentary. The Germans were already busy on various fronts without having to even contemplate invading the British Isles.There is no "Concrete" evidence, documents or otherwise that suggested that Hitler even contemplated this other than as an excuse to get rid of his own Military advisers, and get them off his back.He paid no more than lip service to any of their crazy schemes.His Air Force were totally incapable of providing necessary air support over Germany at the time let alone supporting a 3rd Reich Invasion force.A wasted exercise for a rather phony documentary.
Pete_Falina
For the same subject treated quite well in fiction, look for a copy of Len Deighton's "SS GB". You follow the path of a British cop who has to answer to Nazi officers as he first investigates, and then is drawn into, a resistance movement. The resistance schemes to draw the sympathy of the isolationist USA, looking for America's intervention in the European war. This could help you flesh out some of the concepts in "Hitler's Britain." And, frankly, I'm a bit annoyed with the summary that suggests a likely ineffectual British resistance. That scarcely jives with the Brits who survived the bombing of London, and who rescued the troops at Dunkirk. For those of you who know Len Deighton's work, you won't be wasting your time, if you can find the book.
Keith Williamson
What if Hitler had invaded the UK? What if Germany had won WWII? What if the United Kingdom was a Nazi State? This documentary - or I suppose, more correctly docu-dram paints a very vivid and very credible picture of what life would have been like under the Nazis.The documentary is very methodical, as it takes us step-by-step, down the path from initial invasion, via appeasement, to UK death camps.I watched this on television on its first showing and it has left an indelible mark on my memory. I only wish it was available to purchase.I strongly recommend that anyone with an interest in history, politics or the war, who gets the opportunity to watch this - to make every effort to do so - you will not be disappointed.
