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Nazi Collaborators This series looks at the many people who chose to collaborate with the Nazis. It is at times, uncomfortable viewing, but it's also totally absorbing too. It's a simple question. "How could they have done it?" How could anyone have collaborated with the Nazis? And yet so many did. From Pierre Laval in France to Chaim Rumkowski, who ran the Jewish administration in the Lodz ghetto, from Quisling to the IRA, from the 1600 Belgians who served in the SS to the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem - all worked with the Nazis. Many of these people did what they did out of the best intentions. Others felt they had no choice. Others still had darker and more disturbing motives. This series will draw upon WMR Productions unrivaled 4000 hours of archive, much of which has never been seen before. At the heart of this 13 part series lies one uneasy question. If you had faced what these people had faced, might you have done the same thing - and danced with the devil? All the stories are told through the experiences of individuals who were prominent collaborators. Through this we will give the full background of collaboration in nations and places across Europe and the Middle East.It is one of the final unexplored topics in the history of the war - as most of these secrets have been kept firmly locked away in the post war era.
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Episode 1
Tue, Oct 11, 201160 mins
Pierre Laval was a French politician who held several cabinet posts including Foreign Minister and was Prime Minister in 1931-32 and 1935-36. After the Nazis occupied France in 1940, Laval developed a close relationship with Adolf Hitler and proposed that the two countries should collaborate. In 1943 Laval created the Milice. Within six months they were playing the leading role in capturing Jews and left-wing activists and deporting them to Germany. After Liberation (1945), he was arrested, found guilty of high treason, and executed by firing squad. This film tells the story of Laval's rise to power and his relationship with Hitler. He is still one of the most detested men in French history.






