"Fatal Alliances" uses rare footage to show the development of Germany's war machine throughout the 1920s and 1930s, and how it led into World War II. With runaway inflation making daily life excruciatingly difficult for the average German, Germany evaded restrictions placed on it after World War I, Hitler came to power promising economic restoration and the end of hyper-inflation. He secretly turned to the re-armament of Germany Firms like Krupp, Messerschmitt and E.G. Farben became major players in Germany's industrial revival and the creation of a potent war-making machine. Germany's leadership, under Hitler, adopted aggressive policies culminating in the outbreak of World War II in 1939. Germany's impressive war machine dominated the battlefield in early years, but the tide of the war eventually turned. Allied forces left Germany and its industrial infra-structure in a state of nearly total destruction in 1945.