The first time Heinrich Hoffman tries to take a photograph of Adolf Hitler he is beaten to a pulp and his camera smashed. The Nazis change their minds and hire Hoffman as Hitler's official photographer. It is the beginning of a propaganda campaign carefully orchestrated by propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels that is built around the image of the "Führer". A film called Triumph of the Will directed by Leni Riefenstahl shows the whole world how powerful Hitler has become. It is the most sophisticated piece of demagoguery anyone has ever seen in any medium. Throughout the 1930s, Hitler and Joseph Goebbels use propaganda to terrifying effect as they stoke German pride and spread hatred toward the Jews and other minorities. The Strongmen is the story of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin and Emperor Hirohito of Japan. Each employed propaganda in their own way to gain absolute control over their citizens. In Italy, the face of fascism is that of Benito Mussolini, a colourful performer and a brutal thug who counts Hitler as his friend and ally. In Russia, Joseph Stalin's insistence on total devotion would range from the horrific to the tragic-comic. And in Japan, Emperor Hirohito is seen as a demi-god, able to protect his people from all outside threats. The Spanish Civil War in 1936 is effectively a dress rehearsal for the real war that would soon erupt between the Axis and Allied powers, and communist and fascist ideologies. In the Pacific, Japan launches a brutal attack on Nanking, foreshadowing the barbarity that would soon engulf Europe.

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