WWII: Behind Closed Doors

Posted on 05/12/2009 at 10:33 pm by Bob Cesca

yalta_wwii.jpg

The producers of WWII Behind Closed Doors: Stalin, the Nazis and the West were awesome enough to send me screener DVDs of this PBS documentary miniseries. If you’re at all interested in World War II, Stalin’s Soviet Union, and FDR’s approach to foreign policy, you should definitely watch this one.

Episode 1 focused mostly on Stalin and the infamous Non-aggression Peace Pact. But I never knew about Stalin’s ridiculous excuse for the “disappearance” of 22,000 Polish officers. He told exhiled Polish resistance officials that they all escaped. All 22,000. When, in fact, Stalin systematically executed every single one of them.

Episode 2: Cracks in the Alliance airs Wedneday night — it revolves around the first meeting between Churchill and Roosevelt, as well as the behind-the-scenes details of the first summit between Churchill, FDR and Stalin.

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  • http://homepage.mac.com/wildlifeweb/bird/flamingo/honolulu/flamingo01.jpg veralynn

    thanks Bob- Being a student of WWII history and US.Soviet realations, this is right up my alley. Perchance you can put up a reminder tomorrow so I can DVR and enjoy over the weekend.Gettng excited!!!

  • http://homepage.mac.com/wildlifeweb/bird/flamingo/honolulu/flamingo01.jpg veralynn

    thank you Bob! I have just added it to my DVR.YAY!!

  • http://tarackian.deviantart.com J M Ashby

    I wish I would have known this was going to be on ahead of time. Hmm maybe it will be on on-demand. I dont have a DVR.Eh I can probably download it ill search for a Torrent.Anyone who isn’t familiar should be shocked by Part2 with how much Roosevelt tried to stay out of the war. Even when britian appeared to be near total collapse.I’m assuming they will cover that anyway. The name of it being “cracks in the alliance.”

  • Drummer Doug

    I had always been a WW II history buff, but until I married awoman from Poland, I never knew a whole lot about the Polishinvolvement in the war effort, except perhaps their role intaking Monte Cassino.

    Anyone who wants to be really disgusted and outraged needs toread the book "Army in Exile" by General WladislawAnders, who commanded the Polish II Corps in Italy. This bookgoes in great detail on the political quagmire surrounding theFree Polish armies fighting in the west, and it describes inheartbreaking terms the betrayal of the Poles to the Soviets bythe US and Great Britain. Seeing that photo of what I believe isthe Yalta conference, where the major part of this betrayaloccurred, reminded me of this book. Written in 1947, it gives awonderfully contemporary account of the war and its politics fromthe Polish perspective, not colored by decades of followingevents. Of course, it presents only one side of the story, butit’s a side that is rarely discussed outside of Poland. Check itout.

  • Ejoiner

    Thanks for the heads up – I’ll definitely try to catch it (although tonight is all “Lost”). I teach an IB history class this would have been perfect for – two weeks ago before the final exam! (This year’s document section was focused on the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact as a matter of fact)