I was watching a series of documentaries about WWII and National Socialism in particular.

What struck me the most was one quote, so familiar today.

Himmler once said to Freisler: "Be grateful for people with a bad conscience. They are the only ones we can be sure of. They have no where else to go."

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Hitlers Henchmen. (potentially relevant for our times and how some officials are acting)

Hitler's Henchmen is the most comprehensive film series ever produced on Nazi Germany and its leaders. In six parts series portrays the men who aided Adolf Hitler in his rise to power and serviced the infernal machinery of the Third Reich. Meticulously researched, it offers an unrivalled insight into the secret lives of the men of the Nazi elite.

Created, ordered and led by Hitler, the state apparatus of Nazi Germany rigorously controlled all aspects of life in the Third Reich from cradle to grave. To maintain his iron grip on the German people through the ministries of his dictatorial government, Hitler surrounded himself with a small clique of fanatical, devoted acolytes. Men such as Heinrich Himmler, the much-feared chief of the Waffen-SS and organiser of the Holocaust, and Hermann Goering, the bombastic head of the Luftwaffe, wielded enormous power and held the fate of millions in their corrupt hands.

This series tells the inside story of the Third Reich, looking at the personalities, roles and rivalries of Hitler's closest associates; Joachim von Ribbentrop, the Reich's chief diplomat; Baldur von Schirach, the fanatic who moulded the thoughts of the youth of Germany; and Martin Bormann, Hitler's enigmatic advisor. The programs not only examine the actions of these infamous men, but probes their psychological makeup, determining how they earned Hitler's trust, became blindly loyal to the cause, committed deadly atrocities and remained unrepentant to the end.

Made in association with Germany's leading TV producer, HITLER'S HENCHMEN features never-before seen footage from both government and private sources, rare photographs, documents and eyewitness testimony that proves conclusively that these men were not just following orders, but willing accomplices in Hitler's crimes. Among those interviewed are members of Hitler's staff, retired German army officers, and world- renowned historians. It's the definitive dossier of some of the most reviled men in history.

"Hitler's Henchmen Volume 2" is a six-part sequel to "Hitler's Henchmen Volume 1", portraying the men who aided Adolf Hitler in his rise to power and serviced the infernal machinery of the Third Reich. They were the men who consolidated Hitler's reign and turned his plans into action. Hitler's henchmen wove the complicities and plots without which Hitler could have never perpetrated the crime of the century. They helped to sway the judges and the bureaucrats, the armed forces and the police, the scientists and the industrialists, the students and their teachers to the regime's ways of thinking.

What kind of men were they? What inspired them to serve a corrupt administration with such enthusiasm and devotion? How did their careers unfold and their fates end? This fascinating original German ZDF series answers all these and other burning questions by examining six of Hitler's most infamous cohorts. With the use of newly discovered film clips and sound recordings from international archives, the portraits of these aides-de-camp provide viewers with a revealing psychogram of 'Hitler's most willing executors', making it a must-have for anyone interested in military history.

Freisler: The Hanging Judge

Roland Freisler was a German Nazi jurist, judge, and politician who served as the State Secretary of the Reich Ministry of Justice from 1934 to 1942 and President of the People's Court from 1942 to 1945. He was a careerist, sadist who sentance people to their deaths with impunity and seemingly took lot of pleasure in doing so.

There was no justice to be found in Freisler's courtroom. The 'Blood Judge' would rave and scream at the accused, lecturing them and robbing them of all dignity before handing down the inevitable sentence -- death.

His name is synonymous with a parody of justice. His victims never received a real trial, but rather were humiliated in public. He handed down judgments that suited him. For the most part, the verdict was one and the same: death. As President of the People's Court, he was the main representative of the legal reign of terror in the Third Reich. Those who stood accused before the furious and roaring Bloody Judge had no hope of being able to maintain their dignity.

Himmler: The Executioner

Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the Schutzstaffel, and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of the Holocaust. As a member of a reserve battalion during World War I, Himmler did not see active service.

Himmler, the enforcer with his SS brigades was the most powerful of all Hitler's aides as well as being the most ruthless.

His brave new world consisted of concentration and death camps, security services and the Gestapo. No-one more typified the terror of the Holocaust than Himmler.

Heinrich Himmler's skill was in being unprepossessing. He knew how to exploit the advantage he gained from being long underestimated by Hitler's other aides. No one would ever have suspected that of all people he would become the most powerful man in the Third Reich after Hitler. Utilising newly discovered archive material, original sound recordings and exclusive eyewitness testimonies, a picture is built up of an unassuming but single-minded enforcer -- of perhaps the most willing, but undoubtedly also the most terrible of Hitler's aides.

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What struck me the most was one quote, so familiar today.

Himmler once said to Freisler: "Be grateful for people with a bad conscience. They are the only ones we can be sure of. They have no where else to go."