This documentary details the life and crimes of Ilse Koch, the Nazi woman who became notorious for her monstrous crimes against the prisoners of Buchenwald concentration camp, where her husband was a commander. Accused of embezzlement by her fellow Nazis during the war, Koch faced charges brought by three separate tribunals -- and grisly accusations that she collected the tattooed skin of murdered inmates.
The inhuman brutality and bloodshed that was endemic at Dachau - Nazi Germany's first concentration camp - did not come to an end with its 1945 liberation, for this dread place proved capable of triggering a spate of vengeful retaliation not only by its half-crazed prisoners, but their rescuers. Chapels of various faiths, memorials and sculptures now mark the camp's sites of execution and torture.
From Austrian princess to ill-fated last queen of France, Marie Antoinette's life journey is captured in this meticulously researched documentary about the woman who is considered to have triggered the French Revolution for her lavish lifestyle. Vilified for extravagant tastes that epitomized the wanton excess of the French aristocracy, the young queen found herself caught in a political firestorm, doomed no matter what course she followed.
Terry Jones (of Monty Python) gives a narrative of the life of and society around Geoffrey Chaucer. Geoffrey Chaucer's life to middle age, He survived the Black Death as a child, and become actively involved in the 100 Years War, the war that was to leave England devastated. Despite all these catastrophes, English literature went though a short Renaissance, and the program considers the leading role that Chaucer was to play in it.
West Stow Anglo-Saxon Village is set in 125 acres. Here in the 60s and 70s a series of archaeological digs revealed the remains of a substantial settlement of over 70 houses of which 8 have been reconstructed. The earliest remains go back as far as 420 B.C., coinciding with a period during which the Roman legions withdrew from Britain, leaving it open to the Anglo-Saxon invasions. The village was settled until 650 AD, the age of Beowulf, when a poem was composed and recited by the bards. Hose Lance Alexander is the acknowledged expert in this field.
Today's missle and helicoptor-equipped destroyers and frigates can reach further and more effectivly than even the mightiest capital ships of former years. While the capabilities of the current generation of carriers and cruisers are truly awesome. Using the pick of film from the leading navies of the western powers, this program shows the major types of vessels in action.
