Poster of The Goebbels Experiment

The Goebbels Experiment

Documentary, Biography, History

Director: Lutz Hachmeister

Release Date: April 13, 2005

Where to Watch

This magnificent documentary retains laser-like focus on its central thesis: depicting the life of Goebbels using his own words & footage from that time period with limited use of modern footage to depict what a particular site looks like today and the occasional use of captions during Kenneth Branagh’s reading of the diary to provide germane contextual details for Goebbels’ thoughts. Does a lot to humanize a monster while letting his own words convict him. Despite this documentary’s unflinching excellence, you will wonder how people survived the Nazis because after awhile, I felt trapped after only being exposed for less than two hours & I could take a break if I wanted. I can’t imagine if you had to hear him and be opposed to him. Still, The Goebbels Experiment did an effective job because despite being repugnant, I was still saddened to see Goebbels’ dead body & his family. I kept thinking of who he was supposed to be and how he could have used his time better. May no one ever think that about us.

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