From the trenches of WW1 to rise of Hitler and the Nazis, never before seen diaries & photos reveal the life of German Soldier & Teacher Wilhelm Kurtz.

Hidden away since his death in 1982, they are part of an extraordinary archive of documents and personal photographs from the frontline of history, revealing a typical, shocking life from a generation that lived through one of the darkest periods in human history.

Born in central Germany in 1888. Wilhelm studied to become a teacher, but like so many of his generation, was called to serve in the First World War.

From 1914 to 1918 he saw action on the western front, where he experienced the horrors of trench warfare and endured the loss of some of his closest friends.

Unlike many of his comrades, Wilhelm survived the war but returned to a defeated nation in the grips of political turmoil

Wilhelm would play no part in the violent political battles of the early 1920s and instead would return to the classroom - but the coming of the great depression and the rise to power of the Nazis - would alter the course of his life and history forever.

By the start of the Second World War, Wilhelm had been a member of the Party for seven years.

During the war he would serve as an air raid warden and then as a member of the Volkssturm where he would witness the destruction of his country and the final days of Nazi rule.

For Wilhelm, as for millions of other Germans, defeat was only the beginning. Within months, the victorious Allied powers launched the denazification process, and their gaze would soon fall on him.

Published for the first time in this special film, Wilhelm's letters and photos have been entrusted to History Hit by his family. We are grateful for them allowing us to tell this story.

Special thanks to Bart Degroote, Zeitgeist Tours, Hoodge Crater Museum, Niek Benoot & Phillippe, Oosterlinck.