Toute L'Histoire

Berlin, February 27, 1933. The Reichstag is in flames. A young Dutch unemployed man, Marinus van der Lubbe, was found alone in the building. For Hitler, it was a plot by the "Reds". One hundred thousand communists and sympathizers were arrested during the night and in the days that followed and locked up in the first Nazi concentration camps. In March, the Chancellor obtained full powers. On September 21, the trial opened in Leipzig, broadcast on the radio. For the Nazis and the Communists alike, van der Lubbe was the perfect scapegoat. On December 23, 1933, he was sentenced to death, while his four co-defendants were acquitted.

They were going to become heroes, but they didn't know it. Most of them were not yet twenty years old in June 1940, when France found itself on the ground. They were starting careers, studies, had families, friends. None had heard General de Gaulle's call on June 18, but all listened to Marshal Pétain's speech on the 17th, asking to stop fighting. They immediately rebelled and joined London or the Resistance. Through the testimonies of seven of the last Companions of the Liberation (made in 2013), this film tells us about their unwavering commitment and takes us in their footsteps until the Liberation.

At the end of WWI, the treaty of Versailles established the conditions for peace in Europe. The aim for the victorious powers was to make Germany pay reparations, and to guarantee a future without war. Yet a decade later, the denunciation of 'Versailles' became a powerful lever for the nazis to obtain power as these reparations would mark the beginning of the humiliation of the German people, and nurture a feeling of having been bestowed a hopeless future. In the 20 years that follow the end of WWI, the issue of reparations and responsibility will effectively poison international relationship. The treaty negative impact goes well beyond WWII as the new European borders it implemented led to many conflicts during the twentieth century. This documentary shines a light on the causality between the decisions taken with the treaty of Versailles, and the ensuing events of the century.

Inaugurated in 1986 by François Mitterrand, a link between the Louvre and Pompidou, Orsay houses the largest collection of Impressionist art in the world. Project after project, the museum has been transformed to modernize and welcome more visitors, while preserving its historic character. Challenges taken up with each new project.

Tracing the turbulent history of referendums since 1958, journalist Patrice Duhamel and documentary filmmaker Pauline Pallier open up a fascinating debate, combining archives and interviews with historians, political scientists and editorialists.

Historic archives shed new light on the secret history of Klaus Barbie, head of the Gestapo in Lyon in 1943-44, with particular attention being given to the scandalous protections that the German and American secret services provided him with.

At just 19 years old, in 1942, Anne Beaumanoir had already experienced so much: involved in the clandestine communist youth movement, she had begun medical studies, secretly distributed parcels, saved Jewish children, changed her identity, lost her first love, and narrowly escaped death several times. Twelve years later, as a courier for the FLN (National Liberation Front), she was sentenced by France to 10 years in prison for terrorism, but fled to Algeria where she became the principal advisor to the Minister of Health under Ben Bella. Until the military coup, she went to Switzerland where she would head the neurophysiology and epileptology division of the Geneva University Hospital for 26 years. Through the eyes of Annette, witnesses, and rediscovered friends, this film recounts Algeria, France and its litany of buried tragedies, racism, and the fight for freedom and independence. Annette ultimately instills in us a necessary and difficult-to-define virtue: courage.

Discovering Paris under the German occupation through the story of an SS soldier and more generally of Wehrmacht soldiers allows us to follow the daily life on the German side. These soldiers enjoyed privileged status, during their stay, they were led to believe that they belong to a social elite, a status unreachable back in Germany during peacetime. And who better than a German who has led such lifestyle to serve as a common thread and tell this story?

September 3rd, 1939. Britain and France declare war on Nazi Germany, only two days after the Wehrmacht invades Poland. This day, the sad date when the fate of the world changed forever, the Phoney War began: eight months of uncertainty, preparations, evacuations and skirmishes.