At the height of the Second World War, with the future of the world still hanging in the balance, understanding enemy thinking was of supreme importance. The Americans tried to predict how it would all end – by getting inside the mind of the one man above everyone else who could
determine the final outcome – Adolf Hitler.

US military intelligence calculated that knowing what Hitler would do, could prove decisive, not only in winning the war but also saving millions of lives. The top secret psychological profile that the American secret service produced was locked away for decades. It is now declassified and Timewatch has access to this unique document, the first psychological profile of a world leader drawn up by another nation’s secret service.

Revolutionary for its time, the research opened up a whole new epartment in the business of counter-intelligence. Dr Jerrold Post worked for the CIA in the 1970s setting up teir first ever profiling unit. His biggest success was at the groundbreaking Camp David summit in 1978 when Jimmy Carter negotiated a peace accord between the Arabs and the Israelis. Post drew up detailed psychological profiles of the Jewish leader, Menachem Begin, and the Egyptian president Anwar Sadat. These psycholological insights into the two leaders sealed the deal that changed the Middle East forever.

Now Dr Post is going back in time, into the archive to see if the first ever
psychological profile of a political leader was as prescient and successful. Did the analysts get it right about Hitler? And did they make a difference?
Using a mix of archive, dramatic reconstruction of the psychological
investigation and the testimony of the man who led the investigation, Inside the Mind of Adolf Hitler illuminates a period of history shrouded in mystery.

Producer
David Stewart
Executive Producer
John Farren

DURATION
1 x 50'