Media Review – Nazi Murder Mysteries – Yesterday Channel (2018)

The Yesterday Channel (UK) is airing a six-part series entitled “Nazi Murder Mysteries“. I’ve reviewed each of the episodes and links to my blog posts are below:

Part 4 is coming up this Thursday (December 6, 2018 at 8 p.m. in the UK) and focuses on the story of Bella in the Wych Elm. The episode is going to cover the possible links between the woman’s skeleton found in a hollow wych elm in Hagley Wood in 1943 and Clara Bauerle, German cabaret singer and mistress of Josef Jakobs (ill-fated German spy executed in 1941).

While I’m naturally most interested in the episode about Bella, during filming last year, the crew mentioned some of the other stories that they were investigating, all of which sounded quite intriguing.

After reaching out to the production team from Like A Shot, I received a private link to view the episodes after they have aired in the UK. (Much easier than downloading Tunnel Bear again and pretending to be a resident of the UK!) For those of you in the UK, you can view the episodes via this link. So far, I’ve seen the first two episodes, both of which were fascinating.

Yesterday Channel - Nazi Murder Mysteries Series 1 - Episode 1 - Hitler
Yesterday Channel – Nazi Murder Mysteries Series 1 – Episode 1 – Hitler’s Niece

Episode 1 – Hitler’s Niece

First off… I had no idea that Hitler had a niece! She apparently lived with Hitler in Munich in the late 1920s and early 1930s. She accompanied him to receptions and events and many began to wonder… what exactly was their relationship? Hitler was quite domineering and the pair had many violent arguments in the weeks leading up to her apparent suicide in 1931. The story raises raise a lot of questions. What exactly was the relationship between Hitler and his niece, Geli Raubal (19 years his junior)? Did she commit suicide or was it murder? There are no clear answers which makes this story a rather intriguing mystery.

Yesterday Channel - Nazi Murder Mysteries Series 1 - Episode 2 - The Duke of Windsor
Yesterday Channel – Nazi Murder Mysteries Series 1 – Episode 2 – The Duke of Windsor

Episode 2 – The Duke of Windsor

Happy to say I HAVE heard of the Duke of Windsor, the former King Edward VIII who abdicated the throne in order to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson. During the Second World War, the Duke’s pro-Nazi sympathies created a bit of a stir and he was sent/exiled to the Bahamas where he was appointed/demoted Governor. In 1943, a wealthy British-Canadian expat, Sir Harry Oakes, was found brutally murdered at his residence. The Duke, rather than calling upon Scotland Yard to investigate the murder, invited a couple of Miami police officers to come to the island and investigate the case. Again, there are a lot of questions. Why did the Duke turn to police in Miami rather than Britain? Was he trying to cover up financial shenanigans? Was there Nazi involvement? Another intriguing story.

I’m looking forward to the next few episodes:

  • Episode 3 – A Serial Killer in Berlin – the story of Paul Ogorzow, an S-Bahn railway worker who raped and murdered numerous women from 1939 to 1941
  • Episode 4 – Bella in the Wych Elm – the story of the woman’s skeleton found in a hollow wych elm in Hagley Wood in 1943

Review

While much of the information presented in these stories is available on Wikipedia or other sources, seeing it on screen is always much more engaging. I appreciated how the series brought in experts/authors to provide context to the story. The re-enactments were also helpful in creating an engaging backdrop for the story.

4.5 out of 5 – I did find that some of the re-enactment scenes were over-used and became repetitive after a while.

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