The SS was the Third Reich's instrument of control and repression. It was responsible for the secret services and the police. Among the atrocities committed by the SS were the persecution of regime opponents, brutal war crimes, and the carrying out of the Holocaust. How could a small group of thugs rise to be one of the most feared organs of the Nazi state? With the help of international experts and rare archive footage, the films investigate the mythology of the SS. Eyewitness interviews with SS victims and unrepentant perpetrators help us get closer to the psyche of SS members in an attempt to understand the unfathomable.

The SS was the Third Reich's instrument of control and repression. It was responsible for the secret services and the police. Among the atrocities committed by the SS were the persecution of regime opponents, brutal war crimes, and the carrying out of the Holocaust. How could a small group of thugs rise to be one of the most feared organs of the Nazi state? With the help of international experts and rare archive footage, the films investigate the mythology of the SS. Eyewitness interviews with SS victims and unrepentant perpetrators help us get closer to the psyche of SS members in an attempt to understand the unfathomable.