War of the Century - When Hitler Fought Stalin, by Laurence Rees.
[Episode 1 of 4 - HIGH HOPES]
Go inside Hitler's war room in the early months of the Russian campaign, when a swift Soviet defeat seemed likely.

War of the Century - When Hitler Fought Stalin, is a BBC documentary film series that examines Adolf Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 and the "no holds barred" war on both sides. Not only it examines the war but also the terror inside the Soviet Union at the time due to the paranoia of Joseph Stalin, the revenge atrocities, the purge of the armed forces, the near-lunacy orders, and the paranoia of being upstaged by others, especially Marshal Zhukov. The historical adviser is Prof. Ian Kershaw.

It was the bloodiest war in history, yet Hitler's brutal invasion of the Soviet Union and Stalin's subsequent fight back is surprisingly little known in the West.

More than 30 million people died during Hitler and Stalin's terrible war in the East - more than in any other single war in history. But only since the fall of the Berlin Wall have Western journalists been allowed free access to those who took part in the conflict. At last the truth behind the war can be revealed with direct testimony from people who perpetrated atrocities and the victims who suffered on both sides. More than two years in the making and filmed in Germany, Hungary, Poland, Russia, the Ukraine and Byelorussia (Belarus), War of the Century reveals hitherto unpublished documentary evidence that challenges many of our assumptions about why Hitler decided to invade Russia and the Soviet response to German aggression. The series uses archive footage, documentary evidence and moving testimony to reveal the complexities of this most brutal of wars, bringing the unspeakable to the screen and allowing victims and aggressors to tell the truth as they see it.