After Hitler

What happened in Europe and the rest of the world after Hitler and the Nazis were removed from power? After Hitler takes on the monumental history after World War II finished, showing violence continued and the raw devastation it had brought.

By using restored, re-colored, historical footage, After Hitler shows us the story behind the short-lived ceasefire. While post-war celebrations continued across the world, the next stage of terror would begin: the World War II aftermath.

Between 1945 and 1949 the victors would “clean up” what mess the Nazi empire had created. The film footage shows the fate of male and female (presumed) collaborators with the Nazis. Furthermore, we’ll get to witness the use of the POW (prisoner of war) in the reconstruction of the plundered and devastated country.

The defeat of Nazi Germany was not a rosy path of flourishing peace and jubilant citizen marches, but rather grueling tasks of rebuilding cities and towns, dealing with the harsh realities of WW2’s destruction and the high death tolls.

In 1945, Europe was a continent of refugees. Millions of men and women who had been deported, interned, or subjected to forced labor waited for weeks, sometimes months, to return to their homelands. For many civilians, the aftermath of the war was even more brutal than the conflict itself.

Five years marked by founding events: the liberation, the founding of the United Nations, the Nuremberg Trials, the Marshall Plan, the Czech coup, Churchill’s Iron Curtain speech, the expulsion of German minorities, changes in borders, the Berlin blockade, the division of Germany, and so on.

Five years of confusion tinged with optimism, before finding themselves one side or the other of the Iron Curtain.

The entirety of After Hitler is based on remastered and recolored archives. After Hitler will immerse the viewer into the searing reality of these post war years.

This ambitious 2×52’ film will compile unseen Russian, British, German, French, Canadian and American archives, unique images of daily life that give the feeling that we are experiencing this story in the present and not the past.