All language subtitles for Hitler Chronicles

(machine whirring)

(ominous music)

- [Presenter] Adolf Hitler
neither finished school,

nor had any vocational training.

(crowd cheering)

He occasionally lived
in homeless shelters
or on the street.

He refused to pursue
a regular job.

To this day, it
seems inexplicable

that he could come to power.

Out of nowhere, Hitler
became the Fuhrer,

leader of the German Reich,

one of the most powerful
men of the 20th century,

who brought the world
to the brink of disaster

and death to millions of people.

The nation worshiped him

and followed him
blindly into the abyss.

But during his lifetime,

he kept his origins
and his life secret.

No one should know
how or who he was.

Hitler's contemporaries, from
his birth to
his death,

flesh out the picture.

Who was Hitler?

(somber music)

(people chattering)

- [Narrator] On
June the 30th 1903,

the 72-year-old Kaiser Franz
Joseph I visits Braunau am Inn

to celebrate its 700th birthday.

An historical coincidence,

this border town to
Bavaria of all places

is the origin of the
oldest film footage

shot by an Austrian
cinematographer.

- [Voiceover] "In the late
'80s of the last century,

my parents lived in the
small town on the Inn,

which is Bavarian by blood and
Austrian by nationality."

Adolf Hitler,
"Mein Kampf."

- [Narrator] The customs
inspector Alois Hitler

and his family occupy
a small apartment

on the top floor of the
Pommer Hotel in Braunau.

At Easter time, on
April the 20th 1889,

at about 6:30 in the evening,
Adolf Hitler
is born.

(people chattering)

- [Voiceover] Parish
register, Braunau.

Adolfus Hitler, born
on April the 20th 1889,

at 6:30 in the evening.

Baptized on April the 22nd
at 3:15 by Ignat Proust.

(solemn music)

- [Voiceover] "To begin with,
there's this picture

of little Adolf
from the year 1889,

a few months after his birth.

One thing worthy of note in
this first picture
of Hitler

is the close resemblance
of Adolf to his mother."

August Kubizek, childhood
friend of Adolf Hitler.

- [Narrator] Adolf
Hitler is the third

of the couple's six children.

He and his younger sister Paula

are the only ones to
survive beyond childhood.

The mother is 28 years old
at the time of the birth.

The father is 51.

Klara Hitler is related
to Alois Hitler.

She's her husband's
second cousin.

When Hitler is three years old,

his father is
transferred to a new post

and decides to move into
an apartment in Passau

on the German side
of the border.

Adolf Hitler lives with
his family in Bavaria

for three years until 1895.

- [Voiceover] "Actually,
Hitler didn't speak

a typical Austrian dialect."

August Kubizek.

- [Voiceover] "In my youth,
my German was
the dialect

spoken in Lower Bavaria."

Adolf Hitler,
"Mein Kampf."

- [Narrator] The
oldest film recording

made in Austria-Hungary

was shot by foreigners,
the Lumiere brothers.

It shows Vienna, the capital
of a multinational empire,

in the year 1896.

(vehicles clanking)

- [Voiceover] "In Old Austria,

you could travel
without a passport,

from the Mediterranean,
over the Alps,

way into the east, the
west, and the north."

Oskar Kokoschka,
painter and writer.

- [Narrator] Hitler's ancestry
from Lower Austria

as well as a total of 21 years

spent in Upper
Austria and Vienna

do not suffice to
make him Austrian

in the sense of a
citizen of that nation.

- [Voiceover] Kurt Schuschnigg,

Austrian Chancellor
from 1934 to 1938.

"Austrians who spoke about
the nation before 1938

meant the national culture

that extended beyond
their borders,

which is what Austrian man
also identified with."

- [Narrator] This cultural
nation is Germany.

(hooves clopping)

Transporting a locomotive
through the streets
of Chemnitz,

16 workhorses pull
the locomotive

as the factory has
no rail connection.

(people chattering)

The majority of German
speaking Austrians

feel close links to the Germans
in Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria,

and the smaller federal states

already united in a partly
industrialized Reich.

- [Voiceover] "He was a
grumpy, reticent old man,

and like a lot of political
free spirits
at the time,

a stern German nationalist."

Joseph Mayerhofer,

farmer in the village
of Leonding by Linz.

(pensive music)

- [Voiceover] "A visit
to his parent's grave.

His school friends
say his mother

was loving and kindhearted.

The father, cold,
silent, and straight."

Joseph Goebbels,
diary, July 22nd 1938.

- [Voiceover] "I
never loved my father,

but feared him all the more."

Adolf Hitler, table talk,

recorded by his secretary
Christa Schroeder.

(baby wailing)

- [Voiceover] "My brother
Adolf provoked my father

to such extremes that he
was beaten every day."

Paula Hitler, later Paula Wolff.

- [Narrator] In June 1939, Eva
Braun films the
small farm

in the village of
Hafeld in Upper Austria

that Hitler's father leases
after retiring early
in 1895.

(melancholy music)

On May the 1st 1895,
Hitler starts school

in a one-room schoolhouse

in the neighboring
village of Fischlham.

In the year 1897,

Hitler's father sells
the farm in Hafeld.

The family lives temporarily
in the small town of Lambach.

(gloomy music)

In 1898, the Hitler family moves

to the village of
Leonding near Linz.

Here Hitler's father
buys property number 61,

including 1,900
square meters of land.

After five years of
elementary school,

in 1900, Adolf Hitler aged 11

begins secondary school
in the city of Linz.

Adolf Hitler has to
repeat his first year

at secondary school
due to poor grades.

- [Voiceover] "I remember
the scrawny pale boy

who commuted every day

between Linz and
Leonding fairly well.

He was definitely
talented on the one hand,

but was not in
control of himself.

He was considered rebellious,

and he didn't work hard."

Dr. Eduard Humer,
Hitler's French teacher.

(children chattering)

- [Voiceover] "The quiet life
enjoyed by the Hitler family

on its little patch of land
only lasted a
few years.

The head of the family
died unexpectedly

of a heart attack
in January 1903."

Max Zigstel, "Leonding,
the Fuhrer's Hometown."

- [Narrator] Alois Hitler
leaves his modest savings

to his four surviving children,

Alois and Angela from the
second of his three marriages

and Adolf and Paula.

This inheritance is to be paid
out when they
come of age.

- [Voiceover] "The quiet
cemetery of Leonding

was his final resting place.

His widow moved to the
nearby city of Linz

for the better educational
opportunities for
her children."

Max Zigstel.

(melancholy music)

- [Narrator] In
1904, Klara Hitler

has to send her son Adolf,
who due to bad grades

is again in danger of
not moving up a class,

to the state secondary school
in Steyr, 40 kilometers away.

(children chattering)

- [Voiceover] "Look
at my school grades.

I had bad marks in German.

That idiot of a professor

spoiled the German
language for me.

I would never be able to
write a proper letter."

Adolf Hitler in the Fuhrer's
Headquarters, 1943.

(children chattering)

- [Voiceover] Last grades at
secondary school
in Steyr.

Diligence, inconsistent.

German, insufficient.

Geography and
history, sufficient.

Mathematics, insufficient.

Physics, satisfactory.

Freehand drawing, commendable.

Sport, excellent.

- [Voiceover] "I don't have
a photograph of
Adolf Hitler

during the years
of our friendship.

There probably aren't
any photos of Hitler

during this period.

Everything that could be said

about images of Hitler as a
young man has already
been said,

were it not for the
drawing by a classmate

from the fourth grade of the
junior high school in Steyr.

By chance, this drawing done
in 1905 was preserved.

The boy could only
draw profiles.

Nevertheless, there is
something peculiarly fascinating

about this pencil sketch."

August Kubizek.

- [Narrator] After nine years,
Adolf Hitler finishes school

without graduating.

For the following three years,

he lives in Linz on
his mother's pension,

not really doing anything.

(jaunty music)

- [Voiceover] "All
of his relatives

considered him worthless,

a person who shied away

from any gainful employment
from the start."

August Kubizek.

(elegant music)

- [Narrator] Adolf
Hitler talks his mother

into allowing him
to travel to Vienna.

He wants to apply for admission

to the general painting class
at the Academy of Fine Arts.

- [Voiceover] "From early in
the morning to late at night,

I ran from one sightseeing
attraction to the next,

but the buildings were the only
things that fascinated me.

All of Ring Street affected me

like a spell from
the Arabian Nights."

Adolf Hitler,
"Mein Kampf."

- [Voiceover]
"From 1904 to 1908,

I was Adolf Hitler's
only friend in Linz

and thereafter in Vienna."

August Kubizek.

- [Narrator] Hitler,
who later in the opinion

of a few art experts was
not entirely untalented,

manages to pass the
first selection,

but is turned down
after the second.

- [Voiceover] "Adolf Hitler,
born on Braunau, Upper Austria

on April the 20th 1889.

German, Catholic.

Few faces, test drawing
unsatisfactory."

Classification list of the
general painting class.

- [Narrator] When Adolf Hitler,

disappointed by the rejection,

returns to his family in
Linz after eight weeks,

Klara Hitler is struck down
with a serious illness.

She's suffering from a swelling.

Nowadays, it would be
diagnosed as cancer.

For several months,
Adolf Hitler devotedly

takes care of his
mother at home.

(foreboding music)

- [Voiceover] "Dr.
Bloch, well-loved by all,

was the Hitler
family physician."

August Kubizek.

- [Voiceover] "To
a great degree,

the boy lived in his own world.

I have no idea what
dreams he dreamt."

Dr. Eduard Bloch, Jewish
physician of the
Hitler family.

- [Narrator] Klara Hitler dies

in the night of
December the 21st 1907,

surrounded by her family.

(somber music)

- [Voiceover] "The
death of our mother

had a great effect
on me and Adolf.

We were very attached
to our mother.

When she died, Adolf
stopped coming home."

Paula Hitler, Adolf
Hitler's sister.

- [Narrator] In contrast to what

Hitler's sister
Paula claims later,

Adolf Hitler remains in Linz

several weeks after the
death of his mother.

He never tells his family
or his friend Kubizek

that he failed the admissions
test the previous year.

- [Voiceover] "Apparently,
he was having

some really bad days.

He was easily irritated
and gave me short shrift

when I started to talk
about my studies."

August Kubizek.

- [Narrator] In
the spring of 1908,

Adolf Hitler begins living

the life of a wastrel
in the metropolis.

- [Voiceover] "Vienna was the
most thorough education

of my life."

Adolf Hitler,
"Mein Kampf."

- [Voiceover] "The
small inheritance

that was diligently
managed by his guardian

had to cover both the cost
of living and
his studies.

He may have been able
to supplement his income

through the sale of
drawings and paintings."

August Kubizek.

- [Narrator] For the next month,

there's no trace of Hitler's
activities
in Vienna.

He's broken off contact
with his family,

and he fails the second
entrance test at the
art academy.

He begins to copy street views
of Vienna from books

and then sells
them as postcards.

- [Voiceover] "I was a
young inexperienced man

without any means of support.

Forced to get by on my own,

the few kronen,
often only cents,

from the proceeds of my work

were barely enough to pay
for my bed and board."

Adolf Hitler,
"Mein Kampf."

- [Narrator] Hitler's share
of his father's inheritance

is paid out on April the 20th
1913, his 24th birthday.

Hitler met Rudolf Hausler
in a men's hostel.

With him, he wants to move to
the German city
of Munich.

(people chattering)

- [Voiceover] "He was just
full of praise for
this city,

and at the same time,
he didn't forget

the large beer gardens
and radishes, et cetera."

Housemate of Hitler's in 1912.

(train clattering)

- [Voiceover] "I had arrived
in this town
as a boy

and departed as a
quiet and serious man."

Adolf Hitler,
"Mein Kampf."

- [Narrator] The main reason
for leaving Austria

is probably that the later
Commander in Chief
Adolf Hitler

wants to get out of
doing military service.

On Saturday, May the 24th 1913,

Hitler and Hausler give notice
of departure to
the police,

but don't state where
they plan to live.

In Munich, Adolf Hitler
has found the city

that is to become the
center of his life.

He does, however,
remain an outsider.

His inheritance helps him build

an uncertain yet
adequate existence

on the fringe of society.

(somber music)

- [Voiceover] "It
was a beautiful

Sunday afternoon in spring.

Someone knocked on the
door and I answered it.

It was a young man wanting to
see the room we were renting.

I showed it to him and
we reached an agreement."

Frau Anna Popp, landlady,
Schleissheimerstrasse 34.

(gloomy music)

- [Narrator] Adolf
Hitler and Rudolf Hausler

rent a room together
from the tailor Popp

at 34 Schleissheimerstrasse
near the district
of Schwabing.

- [Voiceover] "The younger
generation that
we belonged to

didn't know anything about war,

but were intoxicated
by foreign wars.

We had no real
idea what war was.

Adolf's father had
never been a soldier.

Now and again, old
men would talk about

Koniggratz and Custoza."

August Kubizek.

- [Voiceover] Diary, Monday,
June the 29th 1914.

"Archduke Franz Ferdinand,

the heir apparent to
the Austrian throne,

has been killed
along with his wife.

The scum of moral turpitude."

Henrietta Schneider, born 1872,
housekeeper, East Prussia.

(bell tolling)

- [Narrator] The incident
triggers a war in
the Balkans

that grows to
become a world war.

(crowd shouting)

- [Voiceover] "For me, those
hours were
a release

from the annoying
emotions of youth.

I'm not ashamed to say today

that I was overwhelmed
with enthusiasm,

fell to my knees and thanked
the heavens with all my heart

that they'd given me the good
fortune to live in this era."

Adolf Hitler,
"Mein Kampf."

- [Narrator] On
August the 2nd 1914,

the day after Germany
declares war on Russia,

there is a big patriotic
rally on Odeonsplatz

in front of the Feldherrnhalle.

(stately music)

Heinrich Hoffmann photographed
the ceremony.

Years later, in an enlargement,

he discovers a face
among the masses,

which is presumably Hitler's.

(crowd shouting)

- [Voiceover] "On
August the 5th 1914,

I enlisted in the army on
a request to His Majesty

and entered the First Bavarian
Infantry Regiment.

I was deferred for several days,

then transferred to the
Second Infantry Regiment,

and finally assigned

to the Bavarian Reserve
Infantry Regiment
Number 16

on August the 16th."

Adolf Hitler,
outline of my person.

(soldiers chattering)

- [Narrator] For the
first time in his life,

Adolf Hitler wears a uniform.

(train rattling)

In the early morning hours
of October the 21st 1914,

Hitler's regiment sets
out from Munich Station

in a westerly direction.

(explosions banging)
(gunfire rattling)

Shortly after the first combat
mission of the List Regiment

Hitler is promoted
to lance corporal.

He will reject
further promotions

during the course of the war.

This would have involved an
attachment to other
army units,

and Hitler would have lost the
camaraderie and security

of the regimental family.

(explosion banging)

- [Voiceover] "For
the first time,

Hitler was part of
a bigger community,

and with that came the
order and structure

that spared him the daily
struggle to survive."

Fritz Wiedemann, Lieutenant.

(ominous music)

- [Narrator] As of
November the 9th,

Hitler is deployed
as a dispatch runner

and assigned to the
regimental staff.

In the eyes of many
soldiers in the trenches,

the staff orderlies behind
the immediate front

are privileged cowards.

- [Voiceover] "Whenever
death was on the prowl,

a certain something
attempted to rebel

and appeared to the weak body
in the guise
of reason,

and was, in fact, only cowardice

that was behind this disguise

trying to seduce the individual.

By the winter of 1915-16,

this battle was
already decided for me.

The will itself had finally
become my complete master.

Now fate could
put me to the test

without me losing my nerves.

A young war volunteer had
become an old soldier."

Adolf Hitler,
"Mein Kampf."

- [Narrator] Hitler is respected

by his comrades at
regimental headquarters,

but he remains an outsider.

In five of six photos showing
Hitler with his comrades,

he's either standing
or sitting to one side.

Hitler is wounded by British
artillery shrapnel

on October the 5th 1916

and is taken to the
Red Cross Hospital

in Beelitz, south of Berlin.

(gunfire rattling)

By March the 1st 1917,

he's back running dispatches
in the regimental staff.

In the following months,

he participates in
combat activities.

On August the 4th 1918,

Hitler is awarded the
Iron Cross First Class,

the highest military honor
that soldiers of his rank

in the Imperial German
Army can receive.

The nomination was submitted
by a Jewish officer,

Lieutenant Hugo Gutmann.

(gloomy music)

- [Voiceover] "I never
got out of Hitler

the reason for his
fanatical hatred of Jews.

The experience with Jewish
officers during
the World War

couldn't have
contributed to this."

Fritz Wiedemann, Lieutenant.

(gunfire rattling)

- [Narrator] In the night
of October the 13th,

Hitler's war service ends in
a heavy British barrage.

- [Voiceover]
"Mustard gas was used.

On a hill south of the city of
Werwick, on October the 13th,

we came under several hours

of artillery fire
with gas shells.

Already around midnight,
some of us dropped out,

including some
comrades permanently.

In the morning, I
too experienced pain

that grew stronger
every 15 minutes,

and at seven o'clock,

I staggered and stumbled
back with burning eyes,

taking my last message
of the war with me."

Adolf Hitler,
"Mein Kampf."

- [Narrator] After treatment
in a mobile army hospital,

Adolf Hitler is transported

to the Prussian Reserve Hospital

in Pasewalk, Western Pomerania.

He's been on the front for 42
of the 51 months of the war.

Hitler remains in
Pasewalk for 28 days,

during which the world changes.

(somber music)

(crowd cheering)

In the military
hospital in Pasewalk,

Adolf Hitler and the
other patients learn

that a revolution
has taken place,

the monarchy abdicated, and
a ceasefire been concluded.

(crowd cheering)

(somber music)

- [Voiceover] "I hadn't cried

since the day I stood
by my mother's grave.

Now, I couldn't stop myself."

Adolf Hitler,
"Mein Kampf."

- [Narrator] Like everything
else in "Mein Kampf,"

this portrayal is a stylization
and must be doubted.

We don't know whether
it was Hitler's will

or merely coincidence

that influenced his future
course from then on.

On November the 21st 1918,
Adolf Hitler returns
to Munich.

He tries to evade
demobilization and
remain a soldier.

There are clashes
between supporters

of the Workers' Councils

and parliamentary democracy
in the state capital.

The social democratic majority

allows right-wing
volunteer groups,

the so-called Freikorps,

to break the power of
the Workers' Councils.

- [Voiceover] Letter to
Clara and Fritz Hess.

"The Volunteer Corps made
an excellent impression.

Without them, we would have
been finished
in Bavaria."

Rudolf Hess, student and
member of the Freikorps.

(foreboding music)

- [Narrator] Adolf
Hitler keeps his distance

to the revolutionary forces,

but also to their
right-wing opponents.

During this period, Hitler
grows more radical.

He is under the influence of
army officers like Karl Mayr,

the head of the
Intelligence Battalion.

- [Voiceover] "When I met
him for the first time,

he came across as a tired stray
dog looking for
an owner."

Karl Mayr, Captain
of the Reichswehr.

(train rattling)

- [Narrator] Karl Mayr also
finances patriotic parties

like the Deutsche
Arbeiterpartei,

the German Workers' Party,

which is founded in Munich
on January the 5th 1919,

mainly by a group of railwaymen.

(stately music)

On September the 12th 1919,

Hitler, who has in the
meantime been demobbed,

is sent to spy on the German
Workers' Party
by Mayr,

who also provides
financial support.

- [Voiceover] "During
the discussion,

a professor spoke
about separatist views.

A second speaker
then took the floor

and in short powerful words
demolished the professor.

It was Adolf Hitler."

Michael Lotter, Secretary of
the German Workers' Party.

(pensive music)

- [Voiceover] "One day,
I had the opportunity

to talk to a large audience,

and what I had always
instinctively felt
without knowing it

turned out to be true.

I could speak in public."

Adolf Hitler,
"Mein Kampf."

- [Narrator] In the second
half of September 1919,

Hitler joins the
German Workers' Party

and participates regularly
in its meetings.

(crowd cheering)

- [Voiceover] "Among the various

right-wing radical
organizations,

the NSDAP was by no
means the strongest,

but it was the most active
and cohesive group.

Its significance is
solely the result

of the effect of
Hitler as a speaker."

Ernst Hanfstaengl,
son of a publisher,

acquaintance of Adolf
Hitler from 1920.

(foreboding music)

- [Narrator] On
February the 24th 1920,

Hitler speaks for the first time

in front of more than 1,000
people at the Hofbrauhaus.

He also announces the
25-point party program,

which is formally valid for
a quarter of
a century

until the demise of the NSDAP.

- [Voiceover] First, we
demand the unification

of all Germans in
a greater Germany

based on the rights
of self-determination
of the people.

Second, we demand equal rights
for the German people

in respect to other nations

and the abrogation
of the peace treaties

of Versailles and Saint-Germain.

Third, we demand
land and territory

for the sustenance of our people

and settlement of our
surplus population.

Fourth, only a national
comrade can be a citizen,

Only those of German blood
can be national comrades,

regardless of creed.

Consequently, no Jew can
be a national comrade.

(regal music)

- [Narrator] A few days later,

they changed their name from
the German Workers' Party

to the National Socialist
German Workers' Party
or NSDAP.

- [Voiceover] "Hitler
was the party,

and the party was Hitler."

Ernst Hanfstaengl.

(people cheering)

(regal music)

- [Voiceover] "Because right
now, here in Munich,

a movement is starting so strong

that all young, powerful,
and healthy forces

are attracted to it.

It is the National Socialist
German Workers' Party.

To make it absolutely clear,
we're anti-Semites."

Ilse Prohl, later Ilse Hess,

from 1921, member of the NSDAP.

Letter to her former
college teacher.

(somber music)

(people chattering)

- [Voiceover] "When the first
party congress
is held,

the Augsburg SA is
well-represented.

At this first
public presentation,

I get the impression
that this has substance.

We are not alone.

The idea of the
Fatherland is growing."

Karl Wahl, Augsburg,
former SA member.

- [Narrator] The German
economy collapses.

In August 1923,
hyperinflation sets in.

- [Voiceover] "Everything
is getting worse, famine.

A loaf of bread, 140 billion.

Then reduced again
to 80 billion.

Famine, famine everywhere."

Kathe Kollwitz,
painter and sculptress.

- [Narrator] The
national associations

overestimate their own strength

and believe that parliamentary
democracy is
at an end.

- [Voiceover] Interview with
the Daily Mail newspaper,

October the 2nd 1923.

"If a Mussolini were
to appear in Germany,

then the people would fall on
their knees and
worship him

more than Mussolini has
ever been worshiped."

Adolf Hitler.

- [Voiceover] "A large revolt
from the right
in Bavaria

with Ludendorff at its head."

Henrietta Schneider,
District L, East Prussia.

(dignified music)

- [Voiceover] Report of
the regional government

of Upper Bavaria.

Munich, November the 9th 1923.

"The day before yesterday,

Hitler promised
General Von Lossow

and Colonel Von
Seisser personally

that he would not
undertake anything.

The answer to this word of
honor was given
last night

when, with pistol in hand,
Hitler extorted
a declaration

in favor of a
national dictatorship

from General State
Commissioner Von Kahr,

General Von Lossow, and
Colonel Von Seisser.

At the same time,
the ministers present

were taken into custody
by Hitler's people."

- [Narrator] Hitler
presents his suggestions

for new governments
in Berlin and Munich

and mentions Erich Ludendorff

as fuhrer and chief
with dictatorial power

over the German National Army.

He asks the already
drunken audience.

- [Voiceover] "Do you
accept this solution

for the German question of
a greater German state?"

- [Narrator] Then as the crowd
shouts its agreement,

Hitler proclaims.

- [Voiceover] "Morning
will either find us

with a national government in
Germany or find
us dead."

- [Narrator] The
revolt is intended

to put Munich and Bavaria

in the hands of the
revolutionaries,

and then with a march on Berlin,

to topple the democratic system.

The putschists are
counting on defections

from the army in Bavaria
and the Bavarian police.

These, however,
fail to materialize.

On the morning of
November the 10th,

2,000 revolutionaries,
some armed,

march from the
Burgerbrau Beer Hall

through the center of town to
Ludwigstrasse at Odeonsplatz.

(ominous music)

10 years later, Munich,
November the 9th 1933.

Amateur film of a tradition

that actually dates from the
year of the seizure of power.

The annual march of the
old fighters of the NSDAP

to the Feldherrnhalle.

Leading the column, as in 1923,

are Adolf Hitler
and Hermann Goering.

(triumphant music)

- [Voiceover] "We retreated
to Cafe Stephanie.

People soon came in and said

there had been a skirmish
on the Odeonsplatz,

and the enormous
crowd of Hitler men

turned and ran away
from the state police."

Oskar Maria Graf,
writer, from my life.

(gloomy music)

- [Narrator] On
November the 12th 1923,

Adolf Hitler is sent to the
fortress prison
in Landsberg.

He is given cell number seven.

The leaders of the putsch are
put on trial for high treason

in the main lecture theater
of the Central
War School

on February the 26th 1924.

- [Voiceover] Report of
the Wittenberg emissary,

March the 13th 1924.

"I attended one of
the hearings myself,

and I was upset to
see how the observers,

who you could clearly
see were mostly

from circles close to Hitler,

used every opportunity
to show their support

for the accused."

Karl Moser von Filseck.

(gloomy music)

- [Voiceover] Letter to
Clara and Fritz Hess.

"Hitler's final
statement enclosed.

It is one of the best,
most powerful speeches

that he has ever given.

Even those in the courtroom

who weren't particularly
friendly to Hitler

were deeply moved."

Rudolf Hess, student.

- [Narrator] The
verdict is handed down

on April the 1st 1924.

All of the accused, with the
exception of Ludendorff,

are found guilty.

In his 13 months in
Landsberg Prison,

Adolf Hitler begins the
transcript of a manifesto

that portrays his alleged
journey through life

and his development
as a politician

and sets out his worldview.

- [Voiceover] "So I decided

not only to clarify the
goals of our movement,

but also to draw a picture
of its development.

With that, I also had the chance

to give a representation
of my own development.

Adolf Hitler, Forward
to "Mein Kampf."

- [Narrator] The biographical
parts of
his book

are, to a great extent,
exaggerated and unverified.

However, his political
goals are deadly serious.

His view of the world
is voluntaristic.

He sees it as he
wants to see it.

Hitler's political
gospel is derived

from a primitive Darwinian idea
of a struggle for existence.

It reflects the permanent fight

for survival of all against all,

transferred from nature
to human society.

This struggle is, in his view,

a selection process in which
so-called high quality races

have a better
chance of survival.

At its head is
supposedly a white person

of the Nordic race of Aryans,
the founders
of culture.

Like most anti-Semites
before him,

Hitler believes in a Jewish race

disguised as a
religious community.

He sees Jews in history as being

parasites in the
bodies of other nations

and as contaminators of the
blood of the
Aryan race.

- [Voiceover] "For hours,
the black-haired Jew boy

waits to ambush the
unsuspecting girl

whom he pollutes with his blood

and thus steals her
from her people.

With the same hidden agenda,

destroying the hated white race

with the inevitable resulting
bastardization."

Adolf Hitler,
"Mein Kampf."

- [Narrator] In another
chapter, Hitler
drafts plans

for territorial living space
for his Aryan German people.

- [Voiceover] "We are stopping

the endless Germany
movement southwards

and turning our gaze towards
the land in
the east.

If today we speak of
new land in Europe,

we can primarily only
have in mind Russia

and her vassal border states."

Adolf Hitler,
"Mein Kampf."

(somber music)

- [Voiceover] Diary,
January the 14th 1925.

"At the end of the month,

Hitler wants to call
for the reestablishment

of the National Socialist
German Workers' Party,

the only thing to do."

Joseph Goebbels.

- [Narrator] Hitler's
remaining sentence

of three years, 333 days,
21 hours, and 50 minutes

is waived according
to the pedantically
exact court records.

On February the 27th 1925,

Hitler reestablishes the party.

In the first round of elections

for German president
on March the 29th 1925,

Erich Ludendorff
is the candidate

of the NSDAP and other
nationalistic groups.

He only receives
1.1% of the votes.

When Paul von Hindenburg
enters the race

in the second round of voting,

Hitler orders his party

to support the aging
77-year-old army general.

Hitler and Ludendorff
go separate ways.

Hitler is now the sole leader
of the national camp.

(crowd shouting)

- [Voiceover] Diary,
April the 26th 1925.

"Hindenburg elected.

Is he the man that Germany
needs at this time?

Is he not too old?

Too easy to influence?"

Bella Fromm, German
Jewish journalist.

(dignified music)

- [Narrator] From 1924 onwards,
the German economy recovers.

This leads to the five golden
years of the Weimar Republic.

(traffic clamoring)

- [Voiceover] "Looking
back on it now,

I see the mad whirl of this
Berlin of 1928
and '29

as a kind of Pompeian revel

on the eve of the
Vesuvian eruption."

Sefton Delmer,

correspondent of the
Daily Express in Berlin.

- [Voiceover] "The Nazis
hated culture itself

because it is
essentially international

and therefore subversive
of nationalism."

Christopher Isherwood,
British American writer.

(tense music)

(sprightly music)

- [Voiceover] "In the 1920s,
Berlin was ahead of everything

that was known as
new in our field.

It had everything.

Reinhardt's great theater,
great film studios,
great films.

The most beautiful
bars and restaurants,

including gay bars.

Berlin was productive
and rich with ideas,

rich in ideals, and at
the same time practical,

a combination never
achieved before."

Marlene Dietrich, actress
and singer, memoirs.

(elegant music)

- [Voiceover] "Art was no
longer a mere ornament
of life,

but rather its
immediate expression.

Cubism, futurism, expressionism,

whatever you want to call it,
this is how we
wear it.

This was our world,

so shaken and shocked that
everything was upside-down.

Surrealism?

Of course! What else?"

Vicki Baum, writer
and journalist.

(jaunty music)

(crowd cheering)

- [Narrator] Despite the lack
of political success,

the party stages
spectacular rallies,

first in Munich and Weimar,

then from 1927 onwards,
exclusively in Nuremberg.

(crowd cheering)

- [Voiceover] Diary, Nuremberg,
August the
4th 1929.

"A stampede of people that
exceeds our wildest hopes.

Outside, the drums
are already booming.

Torch light processions,
endlessly long."

Joseph Goebbels, NSDAP
leader of Berlin.

(plane rattling)

- [Voiceover] "The
party conventions
are without question,

Hitler's personal work.

Just as he was involved
in building the SA

from the smallest
details of the uniforms

to the color of
the collar patches,

he concerned himself

with the planning of
the party conventions,

right down to the decorations
in the Congress Hall."

Albert Krebs, NSDAP
leader, Hamburg.

- [Voiceover] "Through the
city, a triumphant procession,

everyone cheering
and throwing flowers,

marched past, almost four hours.

A sea of joy and flowers."

Joseph Goebbels, diary.

(crowd cheering)

- [Narrator] The
continuing fragmentation

of the party landscape
is advantageous

for the rise of the NSDAP.

In elections, they win
more and more support

from the splinter
and protest parties.

After imprisonment in Landsberg,

Hitler becomes the sole leader
of the nationalist movement.

He feels chosen by destiny

to show Germany the way
to national salvation.

Although the party remains
unsuccessful at the polls

and membership
increases only slowly,

the personality cult
around Hitler is growing.

This fuhrer cult

holds the National Socialist
Movement together

across ideological divisions
and personal differences.

Between 1925 and 1929,

Hitler's small
political movement

is marked by activism,
dynamism, enthusiasm,

youthfulness, and strength.

Nearly 60% of new party members
are under 30
years old.

(people laughing)

- [Voiceover] "Street
processions, press promotions,

propaganda tours
into the provinces

created an atmosphere
of activism and tension.

There were countless clashes

and wounded people, even dead
people left in
the square."

Horst Wessel, autobiography.

(vehicles rumbling)

- [Narrator] In February 1930,
one of the casualties

will be the Berlin
student Horst Wessel.

(people shouting)
(horses neighing)

(singing in foreign language)

(Hitler speaking in
foreign language)

- [Narrator] On
November the 16th 1928,

for the first time

after the ban on public
speaking in Prussia
has been lifted,

Hitler speaks in the
Sportpalast in Berlin,

allegedly in front
of 18,000 supporters.

For the first time, he uses

an electro-acoustic
sound system,

speaking into a microphone,

and for the first time, his
words are clearly understood

in every corner
of a large space.

(reel rattling)

(speaking in foreign language)

(somber music)

(crowd cheering)

- [Voiceover] October 1929.

"Angry autumn after
a beautiful summer.

Rain and calm weather

and something
suffocating in the air,

and it wasn't the weather.

For the first time on the
street, manure brown uniforms."

Sebastian Haffner,
journalist, memoirs.

(triumphant music)

- [Narrator] The SPD had won
the German elections of 1928,

and since then led a
coalition government

with the middle-class
people's parties.

This falls apart one
year after the death

of the liberal foreign minister

over domestic
policy differences.

In 1930, Chancellor Bruning

convinces President
Von Hindenburg to
dissolve Parliament

and call for new elections
24 months early.

Bruning is determined to govern

with the help of the president,

if necessary,
without a majority.

(stately music)

- [Voiceover] "National
Socialists were now

sitting in Parliament.

The rise of the party could
no longer be overlooked."

Ernst Niekisch, National
Bolshevist, Hitler opponent.

(crowd cheering)

(rhythmic music)

- [Narrator] Following
the example of Italy,

at the end of the 1920s,

movements which
are called fascist

are gaining strength
all over Europe.

In some Eastern European states,

dictatorial governments rely

on the support of such factions.

A union of fascists is also
established
in the UK.

(crowd shouting)

A party demonstration
in Manchester in 1934.

- [Voiceover] Sir Oswald Mosley,

founder, British
Union of Fascists.

"In 1930, unemployment had
increased to 3,076,000,

and the National Socialists
then increased their
MPs to 108

with a vote of 18%.

Less than three years later,

the National Socialist
Party came to power.

Unemployment had
risen to 6,014,000."

(crowd shouting)

- [Voiceover] New Year's
Order, December
the 31st 1931.

"The army of brown shirts has
multiplied numerous times.

The movement has suffered a
great deal of blood sacrifice.

Comrades, at the
beginning of this year,

I thank you for everything
that you accomplished

over the past year
through dedicated work

and self-sacrificing battles.

You can enter the new year
with joyful confidence,

proud of what you achieved
in the year 1931."

Adolf Hitler.

(pensive music)

- [Narrator] After an
internal party discussion

in Munich on February the 2nd,

Adolf Hitler decides to run
in the first round
of voting

in the German presidential
elections of March 1932.

- [Voiceover] Diary, Berlin,
February the
16th 1932.

"What a strange country
in which the presidency

must be decided
between Thalmann,
Hitler, or Hindenburg."

Thea Sternheim, art
collector and author.

- [Voiceover] "Again it was
the politics of toleration

when the SPD asked its voters
to vote for Hindenburg,

and how faithfully
they followed."

Golo Mann, son of
Thomas and Katia Mann.

- [Voiceover] Diary, Monday,
February the
29th 1932.

"Who will win?"

Henrietta Schneider,
housekeeper, East Prussia.

(crowd cheering)

- [Voiceover] Election
campaign flight,
April 1932.

"Soon Hitler had sunk
into morose apathy.

He just sat there staring
gloomily out of
the window,

wads of cotton in his ears,

a complete contrast

to the glad-hand, extrovert
man at Tempelhof.

As the door of the
aircraft was flung open,

Hitler ducked out and
immediately threw himself

into his fuhrer pose.

There he stood, bare-headed,
upright, and unsmiling,

his hand raised in greeting."

Sefton Delmer,
British correspondent

of the Daily Express in Berlin.

(people chattering)

(crowd cheering)

- [Voiceover] Diary, Weimar,
April the 10th 1932, Sunday.

"Second round of voting in
German presidential election.

Hindenburg finally
elected over Hitler."

Harry Graf Kessler,
publicist and diplomat.

- [Narrator] In June
1932, Franz von Papen,

on behalf of Reichsprasident
Von Hindenburg,

forms a right-wing
conservative cabinet

which is without a
majority in Parliament.

The new chancellor hopes for
the support
of Hitler,

and according to
Hitler's demand,

asks the Reichsprasident

to call new parliamentary
elections on July
the 31st.

(people chattering)

- [Voiceover] Diary,
May the 31st 1932.

"Lotte is coming on Sunday.

She's planning a trip
with Karl to Westerland.

Yesterday, Bruning resigned.

Now what?"

Henrietta Schneider.

- [Voiceover] "The
hero of Tannenberg,

the hero of the German
Republic had a
dull spirit,

a grumpy field marshal with
his robust conscience.

With truly Germanic
blind loyalty,

he betrayed the pious
chancellor to whom he
owed his power.

Bruning was fired.

His successor,

the comparatively liberal
General Von Schleicher,

was soon the target
of wild intrigue."

Klaus Mann, son of
Katia and Thomas Mann.

(children laughing)

- [Voiceover] "For far too
long, we had been content

with laughing and joking about
the house painter Hitler."

Carl Zuckmayer, German
Austrian dramatist.

(children chattering)

- [Voiceover] Diary, Sunday
July the 31st 1932.

"The hatred of the
parties is awful.

At 10 o'clock the elections
begin without Wilhelm.

He is plagued with neuralgia."

Henrietta Schneider.

(people clapping)

- [Narrator] The triumph of
the National Socialists

in the July elections of 1932
is a pyrrhic victory.

(stately music)

- [Voiceover] Diary,
August the 1st 1932.

"Election results.

We have gained a little ground.

Marxism has gained a great deal.

Now we have to seize power
and wipe out Marxism.

Either way, Hitler is
also of this opinion.

We won't get an absolute
majority this way."

Joseph Goebbels.

(majestic music)

(thunder cracks)

- [Narrator] As almost
all the major parties

in the Reichstag want to bring
down Von Papen's government,

Reichsprasident Von Hindenburg

dissolves the newly elected
Parliament in September

and calls new elections for
November the
6th 1932.

(thunder cracking)

- [Voiceover] "In the German
elections of November 1932,

the NSDAP won 11.75
million votes,

the SPD 7.25 million,

and the KPD some six million.

So together, both
workers' parties

were a lot stronger
than the Nazis."

Manes Sperber, Austrian writer
and KPD member
at the time.

- [Voiceover] "Many
leftists believed

that Hitler would never
recover from this setback

and had ceased to be a menace."

Christopher Isherwood,
British American writer.

(somber music)

(people laughing)

- [Voiceover]
January the 1st 1933.

"Hitler was in a good
mood that evening

and talkative, like
in the old days.

Before he left, he added to
his entry in the guestbook."

- [Voiceover] "On the first
day of the New Year."

- [Voiceover] "Then he
looked at me and said

with suppressed excitement."

- [Voiceover] "This
year belongs to us."

- [Voiceover] Ernst Hanfstaengl,

Head of the NSDAP
Foreign Press Bureau.

- [Voiceover] "After
Hindenburg had decided

against Chancellor Bruning,

the president
turned his attention

to the forces of the
great agrarian heavy
industry coalition

that operated with
Hitler against Bruning,

his natural allies.

He took their view of Hitler.

The reconstruction
and further expansion

of the great agrarian and heavy
industry positions
of power

was to be taken forward.

(elegant music)

But the power was not to be

transferred to the
National Socialism."

Ernst Niekisch, journalist,
National Bolshevist.

(stately music)

- [Voiceover] Diary, Monday,
January the
30th 1933,

"Elsa came back from school
with the cry 'Heil Hitler!'

Then we knew Hitler had become
German Chancellor
at last."

Henrietta Schneider.

(crowd cheering)

- [Narrator] A fragment of film

produced using an early
Agfacolor film process.

It shows thousands of extras

recreating the
torchlight procession

through the Brandenburg Gate.

It is supposed to remind
viewers of January
the 30th 1933.

- [Voiceover] "That
the Nazis are enemies,

enemies for me and for
everything dear to me,

I was not for a moment
mistaken about that.

Where I was completely mistaken

was how terrible an
enemy they would become."

Sebastian Haffner.

- [Voiceover] "The
majority of his ministers

were members of the German
National People's Party.

He utterly despised the
party and was convinced

that he would one day be able
to rid himself
of them.

To be able to carry this
out, he set one condition

to which the German
President also agreed.

He wanted the power to
order new elections."

Ernst Niekisch.

(crowd cheering)

- [Voiceover] Speech in
the Berlin Sportpalast,

February the 10th 1933.

(Hitler shouting in
foreign language)

"I cannot divest myself
of my faith in my people

and stand firmly
by the conviction

that the hour will come at last

when the millions who curse
us today will
stand by us

and with us will
hail the new hard-won

and painfully
acquired German nation

that we have created together,

the new German Reich
of greatness and power

and glory and justice, Amen."

(crowd cheering)

Adolf Hitler, Reich Chancellor.

- [Narrator] The Reichstag
elections of March
the 5th

are the last more or
less free elections

in the German Reich.

On the streets, dissidents
are terrorized by the SA.

(people chattering)

- [Voiceover] "The terror
that was felt everywhere

interfered, of course,
with free elections,

but it influenced the
results only slightly."

Manes Sperber.

(people cheering)

- [Narrator] In the elections,
the NSDAP profits

from the high turnout of 88.8%,

gaining 43.9%.

It has to form a coalition

with the German
National People's Party.

But the majority of Germans

don't want a parliamentary
democracy either.

The democratic parties remain
clearly in the minority

because 12.3%
of the voters

cast their votes
for the Communists.

(crowd cheering)

- [Voiceover] March the 12th
1933, press dispatch.

"The Office of the Reichstag
sent the newly elected members

an invitation to
the opening session.

According to a directive,

the Communist members
of the assembly

were not sent an invitation."

Vossische Zeitung Newspaper.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Voiceover] "Two days later,

I was sitting in the
Kroll Opera House,

not as a Reichstag deputy.

I was an observer, and
on March the 23rd 1933,

I witnessed the
Reichstag session

in which the Enabling Act was
passed by 441 votes to 94."

(speaking in foreign language)

Artur Axmann, member of the
leadership of the Hitler Youth.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Narrator] With the
so-called Enabling Act,

Hitler demands
extraordinary powers

for himself and his government,

thus paving the way
for a dictatorship.

(people applauding)

- [Voiceover] "The Social
Democrats were the
only members

to vote against
the Enabling Act.

(speaking in foreign language)

But despite my conviction

that the Social
Democrats had failed,

I was not unimpressed
by Wels' speech."

Artur Axmann.

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Narrator] Article
one of the act

describes the transfer
of legislative powers

from Parliament to the Cabinet.

The legislative and executive
branches become one.

Parliament has virtually
abolished itself.

(speaking in foreign language)

(crowd cheering)

- [Voiceover] "He
overrode the constitution

with the constitution

and thus won the fight
for unlimited power

in the first and decisive rout."

Lutz Graf Schwerin von
Krosigk, Finance Minister.

- [Voiceover] "Anyone
who did not fight

against the Hitler state
effectively served it."

Esther, Countess of Schwerin,
East Prussian landowner.

(people chattering)

- [Voiceover] "I,
as a natural coward

and endowed with an
excruciating imagination,

kept my mouth shut."

Marie Luise Kaschnitz,
writer, notes.

- [Voiceover] "People
cling to life.

You could certainly
go along with it,

but you could also keep a low
profile and become invisible."

Oda Schaefer, writer.

(people chattering)

- [Voiceover] Letter from
prison, June the
7th 1933.

"You know that imprisonment
doesn't depress
me at all.

What could I really do
outside at the moment?

Shrug off the sad
looks of the workers

with a humiliated heart
and sagging shoulders

and tell them that I
cannot change it either?

It's better to be
outwardly unfree

and inwardly face the future
with a proud soul."

Julius Leber, SBD
member of the Reichstag.

- [Narrator] The first
improvised concentration camps

are run by the SA

and are then taken
over by Himmler's SS,

thus creating the SS state.

(majestic music)

At the Nuremberg Victory Rally
in early September 1933,

SA Chief of Staff Ernst Rohm

is the most prominent
party leader after Hitler

and clearly his right-hand man.

Rohm shows his loyalty
to Hitler in public.

Privately, however, he
criticizes Hitler severely

for his policy on
the German Army.

Thanks to his
instinct for power,

Hitler is willing to
believe the rumors

spread by opponents of the
powerful head of the SA

that the leaders of the SA,
with its four million members,

are planning a coup.

(crowd cheering)

- [Voiceover] Diary, Berlin,
June the 24th 1934.

"Politically it stinks.

Nobody knows why exactly.

A power struggle is impending
between the SA
and the SS."

Erich Ebermayer, writer.

(people chattering)

- [Narrator] The
differences of opinion

between Rohm and Hitler,
especially concerning

the issue of the
German Army, escalate.

Before the SA leadership,

Rohm finally calls
for the German Army

to be included in his command.

(people chattering)

- [Voiceover] Diary, Sunday,
July the 1st 1934.

"Mutiny of the SA leaders in
Munich with Rohm at its head.

Hitler himself helped arrest
the gang and had them shot."

Henrietta Schneider.

- [Narrator] On July the 2nd,

Hitler announces the
official end of the purge

in which between 150 and
200 people were shot.

(solemn music)

- [Voiceover] "Rohm was
one of the last victims.

He was shot on
July the 2nd 1934."

Hans Frank, Bavarian
Minister of Justice,

Reich Legal Director.

(crowd cheering)

- [Narrator] To crush the
alleged revolt by Rohm,

Adolf Hitler uses the
services of the SS,

whose leaders have already
brought the police

almost entirely
under their command.

The SS, which was formerly
still affiliated
with the SA,

is rewarded for its
murderous service.

On July the 20th
1934, Hitler decrees.

- [Voiceover] "In view of the
great services
of the SS,

particularly in connection

with the occurrences
of June the 30th 1934,

I hereby promote them to a
self-contained organization

within the NSDAP."

Adolf Hitler.

- [Narrator] With
that, Hitler has forged

the decisive weapon
of his state.

The SA becomes a kind of
folklore club for
the NSDAP.

[Voiceover] "Hitler
swore that only 77 people

had been executed.

It had been unavoidable that
some were shot
by accident.

Like a certain Willi Schmid
in Munich for example.

The SS were in a hurry to
shoot the first
Willy Schmidt

they could find without
court proceedings.

You have to consider
how many Willy Schmidts

there were in Munich."

Friedelind Wagner,
granddaughter of
Richard Wagner.

(somber music)

- [Voiceover] Diary, Berlin,
August the
1st 1934.

"At lunchtime, we drove
to the Halensee Baths.

People are friendly
and peaceful.

Even the young people
seem well-behaved here.

The Berliner Zeitung newspaper

published a bulletin
at 8:30 this morning.

Condition deteriorating,
pulse weaker.

So the end is near.

This death does not
come at a good time."

Erich Ebermayer.

- [Voiceover] "The newspaper
reports the following

about the death of Hindenburg.

The government has
enacted the following law

that is hereby announced.

The office will be merged with
that of the chancellor,

which means all authority
of the president

goes to the Fuhrer and
Chancellor, Adolf Hitler."

Karl Windschild, retired
pastor, Ballenstedt, diary.

(solemn music)

(people chattering)

- [Voiceover] Diary, Wednesday,
October the
17th 1934.

"A law has been made.

Hitler will remain the leader

of the German people for life."

Henrietta Schneider.

- [Voiceover] "The
magic formula,

the Fuhrer has ordered,

the Fuhrer wishes,

the Fuhrer accepts,

the Fuhrer forbids,

or the Fuhrer authorizes

became the completely new
legitimized method
of authority

to issue directives

that nullified all existing
forms of state life
in Germany."

Hans Frank.

(people chattering)

- [Voiceover] "Arrived
in Munich around 8:00

and went to the Hofbrauhaus,
which was very interesting.

Hitler seems so popular here,

as Mussolini was
in Italy."

John F. Kennedy, student
traveling in Europe, diary.

- [Voiceover] "At
first, what surprised me

was that most Germans,
as far as I could see,

didn't seem to mind

that their personal freedoms
had been taken away,

that so much of their splendid
culture was being destroyed,

or soon became
aware, to be sure,

that in the background

there lurked the
terror of the Gestapo

and the fear of the
concentration camps.

The vast majority did
not seem unduly concerned

with what had happened
to a few Communists,

socialists, pacifists, defiant
priests and pastors,

and to the Jews."

William Shirer, correspondent

to the Universal News
Service in Berlin.

(train chugging)

- [Voiceover] "Departure for
Cologne via Frankfurt.

All towns are very attractive,

showing that the Nordic races

certainly seem
superior to Latins.

The Germans really
are too good."

John F. Kennedy, diary.

(train chugging)

(crowd cheering)

- [Voiceover] "I had to think
a lot about the comments

of an ordinary
middle-aged Berlin woman.

She said she went to
all the ceremonies

and stood near the front rows
where the Fuhrer
walked by,

but she was never
able to see him

because whenever he came near,
her eyes filled with tears."

Erich Kordt, Department
Head, Foreign Ministry

(crowd cheering)

- [Voiceover] "Hitler seemed
modest, middle-class,

rather dull and self-conscious,

yet with a strange tenderness
and appealing helplessness."

Martha Dodd, daughter of US
Ambassador William Dodd.

(people chattering)

- [Voiceover] "In private,

and we as personal bodyguards
belonged to his private life,

he was uncomplicated."

Rochus Misch, SS
Bodyguard Regiment.

- [Voiceover] "Simple
lower middle-class life

was not hard for him.

It attracted a lot of empathy.

It gave him a lot of credit
for other unpopular decisions.

Otherwise his simple manner

also had clear
political intentions.

He often emphasized."

- [Voiceover] "If I am
simple and unpretentious,

then my surroundings
have to be pompous.

That way, my simplicity
appears even stronger."

- [Voiceover] Albert Speer,
"The Kransberg Protocol."

(majestic music)

- [Voiceover] "Goering, who'd
become fat and out of shape,

seemed ridiculous in
his fantasy uniforms

and his love of medals
and decorations.

His greed for earthly goods
turned him into
a crook.

Robert Coulondre, who
served as an ambassador

to Berlin in autumn 1938,

wrote that of all Hitler's
sinister buddies,

he was still the best."

Paul Stehlin, Air Force Attache

in the French Embassy in Berlin.

- [Voiceover] "It has
been suggested many times

that Hitler had unwavering
faith in his old comrades.

As far as the Reichsmarschall
was concerned,

this assumption is
true unfortunately."

Heinz Guderian, Commander of
the Second Tank Division.

(people chattering)

- [Voiceover] "For the rest of
the evening, he told jokes

about Goebbels and Goering."

- [Voiceover] "Do you
know the difference

between Goebbels and Goering?"

- [Voiceover] "He asked, and
when nobody could answer,

he solved the riddle himself."

- [Voiceover] "Goebbels is the
maximum amount
of nonsense

a man can utter in one hour,

and Goering is the
maximum of sheet metal

a man can hang on his chest."

- [Voiceover] Friedelind Wagner.

(people chattering)

- [Voiceover] Berlin,
November 1937.

"In November, the hunting
exhibition was opened

by Reich Master Hunter Goering.

Strong foreign participation
contributed to
its success,

causing a sensation in Berlin

and impressing the visiting
guests from all over
the world.

Our French countryman
came in droves."

Paul Stehlin.

- [Voiceover] "He condemned
the elegant passions

of his lofty colleagues, like
hunting or horse racing.

These were the last remnants

of the feudal rule
of the princes.

He made fun of
them a lot."

Albert Speer.

- [Voiceover] "Hitler's
evil sprit was Goebbels."

Ernst Hanfstaengl.

- [Voiceover] "On
the same evening,

I saw Goebbels for
the first time,

a small man with an overly
big head on a child's body.

He was surprisingly ugly.

His defect, he has a club foot,

barely lessened the antipathy
that he aroused.

He was, however,
very intelligent

and, after Hitler, the best
public speaker in
the party."

Paul Stehlin.

- [Voiceover] "I couldn't care
less what people think,

and I'll say this openly.

Goebbels was an interesting man.

I never disliked him.

He was only dangerous
towards the end."

Zarah Leander, Swedish
singer and actress.

(majestic music)

- [Voiceover] "He was
capable of recognizing

the faults and weakness of the
National Socialist system,

but he wasn't courageous enough

to point these out to Hitler.

In front of Hitler,

he was like Goering and
Himmler, a little man."

Heinz Guderian, Major General.

(people cheering)

- [Voiceover] Speech in
Munich, March the
14th 1936.

"With the confidence
of a sleepwalker,

I am following the path marked
out by destiny
for me."

Adolf Hitler.

- [Voiceover] Diary, Sunday,
March the 16th 1935.

"In the evening, we
heard a proclamation

to the German people
by Dr. Goebbels.

In answer to the adoption

of two-year military
service in France,

Hitler has introduced

compulsory military
service in Germany.

Jubilation in Berlin."

Henrietta Schneider.

- [Voiceover] Interview
with Ward Price,

correspondent for
the Daily Mail,

January the 17th 1935.

"I know the horrors of war.

No gains can compensate
for the losses it brings.

I have seen that war is not
the highest form
of bliss,

but the contrary.

I have witnessed only
the deepest suffering.

Hence, I can quite
frankly state,

Germany will never break the
peace of its
own accord."

Adolf Hitler.

(children chattering)

- [Voiceover] "I saw a
sign on the shop door,

dogs and Jews
not allowed."

Edgar Feuchtwanger.

- [Voiceover] Diary, Sunday,
September the
15th 1935.

"On the radio tonight, they're
announcing the outcome

of today's resolutions
in the Reichstag.

That is to say, the laws

that the NSDAP deputies
have agreed on,

the anti-Jewish laws.

Marriage between Aryans and
non-Aryans is forbidden."

Calvin Sched, retired.

(speaking in foreign language)

(audience cheering)

(speaking in foreign language)

(audience cheering)

(shouting in foreign language)

- [Voiceover] Diary, Berlin,
December the
10th 1935.

"The genetic health
act or sterilization
law has been passed

and envisages
extensive examinations

and tests for engaged couples
before they get married.

If things continue like this,

we'll soon have a
race of supermen.

So far, there is no
sign of this happening."

Erich Ebermayer.

- [Voiceover] "Before
the end of Culture Week,

I was once again in an airplane,

and even from the air, I could
see the mass
of people

inside the party buildings
on Zeppelinfeld.

On the way back
from the airport,

the boiling heat of this
uniformed public festival

suddenly enveloped me.

Marching music, columns
of men, swirling dust,

swastika flags in all possible
and impossible places.

And the pavements
brown with people."

Paul-Otto Schmidt,

Chief Interpreter at the
Foreign Ministry, experiences.

(singing in foreign language)

- [Voiceover] "The march
past took four hours.

He held his right arm
out in the Nazi salute

for literally the entire time.

Afterwards I asked him how
he was able to do that.

His answer, willpower."

Neville Henderson, British
Ambassador to Germany.

(crowd shouting)

- [Voiceover] "Each
time, I noticed

how enchanted people looked,

their faces full of
near biblical devotion

when they saw Hitler.

As if delirious, they
stretched out their arms

and greeted him with screams
and shouts
of Heil."

Paul-Otto Schmidt.

- [Narrator] Over the years,

the procedures at the Nuremberg
rallies are canonized.

The form, as Hitler
expresses to Albert Speer

in a debriefing of the
party convention in 1938,

must be an irreversible ritual
for as long as
he lives.

Canonization would provide
his potential successor

with Hitler's borrowed charisma

and become a liturgy
of the Third Reich.

(people chattering)

(crowd shouting)

- [Voiceover] "On Friday
the 11th of March 1938,

Austrian Radio broadcast
a program of light music.

It was 7:45 in the evening

when the announcer
suddenly interrupted.

The Chancellor was
going to speak.

Kurt Schuschnigg said that in
order to avoid bloodshed,

he would capitate
to Hitler's wishes.

He ended his speech with the
words God protect Austria."

Dr. Eduard Bloch, the
Hitlers' family doctor,

written in US exile,
March the 15th 1941.

(guns banging)
(pensive music)

- [Voiceover] "Apart
from his resolve

to bring all Teutonic
races into the Reich,

as so plainly described
in 'Mein Kampf, '

Hitler had two
reasons for wishing

to absorb the Austrian Republic.

It opened both the
door of Czechoslovakia

and the more spacious portals

of Southeastern
Europe to Germany."

Winston Churchill,
"The Second World War."

(stately music)

- [Voiceover] "If it
is still claimed today

that Hitler occupied Austria

against the will
of the Austrians,

that doesn't coincide
with my observations."

Fritz Wiedemann,
Adjutant to Adolf Hitler.

(people chattering)

- [Voiceover] Hitler's
speech from a balcony

of the Hapsburg Palace.

(speaking in foreign language)

"As Fuhrer and Chancellor of
the German nation and Reich,

I report before history
the entry of my homeland

into the German Reich."

(crowd cheering)

- [Narrator] On
March the 25th 1938,

Hitler begins the last
election campaign
of his life.

Hitler wants to confirm
the annexation of Austria

in a referendum.

He estimates 80% will vote
in favor of it
in Austria.

He's more than surprised

when on the evening
of April the 10th

the referendum
results are announced.

99.7% have voted
for the Anschluss,

more than in the Old Reich.

(crowd cheering)

(somber music)

- [Voiceover] "He's
really very lonely.

Doesn't have any
luck with women.

He's too soft with them

Women don't like that.

They need a man to
lord it over them."

Joseph Goebbels, diary.

(people chattering)

- [Narrator] In October 1938,

Willi Forst shoots "Bel Ami"
in the UFA Studios in Berlin.

(jaunty music)

(singing in foreign language)

- [Voiceover] Speech to
the Nazi Women's League

in Nuremberg.

"There was a time
when liberalism fought

for the equal rights of women,

but the faces of German women,
of German girls lacked hope.

They were gloomy and sad.

And today, today we
see countless beaming,
laughing faces."

Adolf Hitler.

(singing in foreign language)

- [Voiceover] "He knew
that he could have

any number of women.

He refused because he didn't
know, as he said jokingly,

whether they favored
him as Reich Chancellor

or as Adolf Hitler."

Albert Speer.

- [Voiceover] "As for Eva Braun,

no one outside the inner
circles of the party
and the SS

knew of her until the
last year of the war."

Charles Bewley,

Irish Envoy Extraordinary
to Berlin, 1933 to 1939.

- [Voiceover] "Privately
Hitler was very nice.

Eva Braun loved him very
much and he loved her."

Herta Schneider,
friend of Eva Braun.

- [Voiceover] Diary,
November the 18th 1934.

"I don't want it to be my fault

if he doesn't like me anymore."

Eva Braun.

- [Narrator] For several months
in the years 1934
and 1935,

Eva Braun keeps a diary.

The diary includes the period
when she attempts suicide,

probably to get Hitler
to commit to her.

(squirrel chirping)

- [Voiceover] Diary,
March the 11th 1935

"If only I'd never met him.

I'm in despair.

I'm buying sleeping
powders again.

He only needs me for
certain purposes.

Nothing else is possible.

When he says he loves me, he
means it only at that moment."

Eva Braun.

(waves rustling)

- [Voiceover] "That
was when Eva Braun

attempted her first suicide.

This act of desperation
moved Hitler deeply."

Christa Schroeder, Hitler's
private secretary.

"Politically she had no idea.

You often heard Eva
Braun complaining."

- [Voiceover] "I
don't know anything.

Everything's kept
secret from me."

(breezy music)

- [Voiceover]
"Hitler had got used

to his girlfriend's character,

but he didn't give in to
everything she wanted.

She was subject to a
lot of strict rules.

When she danced,
she did so secretly

because Hitler
disliked dancing."

Christa Schroeder.

(people chattering)

(elegant music)

- [Voiceover] "The efforts
my wife and
I made

to encourage Hitler to take
private dancing lessons

weren't crowned with success."

- [Voiceover] "No."

- [Voiceover] "He
said categorically."

- [Voiceover] "For a statesman,

dancing is an
undignified activity.

All of these balls are
purely a waste of time.

And besides, the waltz is far
too effeminate
for a man.

It's exactly this waltz mania

that made me hate Vienna so much

and how it contributed

to the downfall of
the Habsburg Empire."

- [Voiceover] Ernst
Hanfstaengl, from
1937 in exile.

(elegant music)

(people chattering)

- [Narrator] Hitler maintains
his publicly spartan lifestyle

in surroundings of not
inconsiderable luxury.

In addition to his private
apartment in Munich,

he also has a residence in
the Alps on Obersalzberg.

Unnoticed by the public,

he builds up a fortune
worth millions.

- [Voiceover] "I
don't have any stocks.

I don't own shares
in any company.

I don't earn dividends."

Adolf Hitler in the
Krupp works, Essen,

March the 27th 1936.

- [Narrator] The Reich
Finance Ministry declares

that Hitler is no longer
obliged to pay taxes

due to his
constitutional position,

and as of 1934, Hitler
no longer does so.

(foreboding music)

- [Voiceover] "When he had
to make big decisions,

he went up to Obersalzberg.

Here, life was geared
to his personal needs.

Strolls around Obersalzberg,

stopping in small guesthouses
gave him, as
he said,

the inner peace and confidence

to make the decisions
that surprise the world."

Albert Speer.

- [Voiceover] "He didn't
drink a drop of alcohol,

never ate meat, didn't smoke.

His asceticism was real
and not artificial."

Hans Frank.

- [Voiceover] "One
of those present

asked his personal physician

whether the health of
the Reich Chancellor

forced him to keep
such a strict diet,

and he answered that
his spartan habits

were mainly for
psychological reasons."

Gustaf Mannerheim,
Finnish Field Marshal.

- [Voiceover] Incidentally,
the Fuhrer tried
to spoil

the meat eaters'
enjoyment of their meal.

Although he didn't want to
convert anyone to vegetarianism,

he suddenly began talking
about how awful it was

walking through an abattoir.

Gertraud Traudl Junge,
Hitler's private secretary.

(pig squealing)

(people chattering)

- [Voiceover] "Enjoying
meat, he said,

triggered a desire for alcohol,

and then again, alcohol
stimulated smoking,

and this was how one
vice led to another.

Nicotine was, in his opinion,
even worse than alcohol.

He actually toyed with the idea

of totally banning smoking
throughout Germany.

The campaign would start with
a skull and crossbones

printed on the
cigarette packet."

Christa Schroeder.

- [Narrator] Hitler is
driven by the notion

that he will only be
granted a short life.

(ominous music)

- [Voiceover] My personal
last will and testament.

Berlin, May the 2nd 1938.

"In the case of my death,

I dispose that my
remains be buried

in the right-hand temple of
the Eternal Guardhouse.

My coffin should
resemble the others.

That my entire estate
be left to the party.

To Fraulein Eva Braun, Munich,

a lifelong allowance of
1,000 marks per month.

To my sister Angela, Dresden,

a lifelong allowance of
1,000 marks per month.

To my sister Paula, Vienna,

a lifelong allowance of
1,000 marks per month.

To my stepbrother Alois Hitler,

the lump sum of 60,000 marks.

To my trusted Julius Schaub,

the lump sum of 10,000 marks

and a lifelong monthly
pension of 500 marks.

I appoint the Master
of the Treasury

as executor of this testament.

In the case of his
death, Martin Bormann."

Adolf Hitler.

(somber music)

- [Voiceover] "He has managed
to captivate
his people,

using a mystical band

that is not even dependent on
the National Socialist Party

that helped him into power.

I often have the opportunity
to experience this,

indeed, in all social circles."

Robert Coulondre,

French Ambassador to
Berlin, 1938 and 1939.

(people clapping)

- [Voiceover] "Troppau lies
near the German border.

Whenever we came
up to the border,

several in the group broke away,

ran across the border line,
and kissed the
German earth.

Later, I learned that these
children were ethnic Germans

who were raised
to love Germany."

Ruth Elias, Czech Jew.

- [Voiceover] Diary, Monday,
September the
12th 1938.

"In the evening,
we heard the close

of the party convention
in Nuremberg.

Adolf Hitler called
on President Benes,

if the Sudeten Germans
are not protected,

we know what we have to do.

God preserve the
existing peace."

(stately music)

Diary, Tuesday,
September the 27th 1938.

"Hitler spoke to the
German people last night.

If Benes doesn't
accept his offer,

we'll move in on
October the 1st.

That means war."

Diary, Wednesday
September the 28th 1938.

"Tomorrow, a meeting in Munich

between Hitler, Daladier,
Chamberlain, and Mussolini."

Diary, Friday,
September the 30th 1938.

"The negotiations in Munich
have had a happy ending.

The Czechs have to pull out
of the Sudetenland tomorrow.

Hitler, our prince of peace."

Henrietta Schneider,
housekeeper, East Prussia.

- [Voiceover] "The
genius of the Fuhrer

and his determination not to
shrink even in the face of war

have again achieved victory
without the use
of force."

Alfred Jodl, Major General.

- [Voiceover] "In spite of the
harshness and ruthlessness

I thought I saw in his face,

I got the impression
that here was a man

who could be relied upon when
he had given
his word."

Neville Chamberlain,
British Prime Minister,

letter to his sister.

- [Voiceover] "On Monday,
November the 7th 1938,

the stateless 17-year-old
Jewish boy Grynszpan

goes to the German Embassy,

demands to speak with
one of the councilors,

is taken to the Duty Councilor
Vom Rath, and
shoots him.

Grynszpan describes
the motive for the act

as wanting to take revenge
for his fellow believers

for the Polish Jews
forced out of Germany.

Walter Tausk, German
Jew, Wroclaw, diary.

- [Voiceover] "In Munich,
the failed putsch of 1923

was celebrated with great pomp.

The SS marched through
all over the city.

The radio announced the
death of the diplomat."

Edgar Feuchtwanger.

(speaking in foreign language)

(dignified music)

(speaking in foreign language)

(pompous music)

(speaking in foreign language)

(singing in foreign language)

(fire crackling)

- [Narrator] Following
a traditional march

to the Feldherrnhalle,

at a social evening of NS party
leaders and old comrades,

Joseph Goebbels announces the
death of Ernst
vom Rath.

- [Voiceover] "I go
to the party reception

in the Old Town Hall.

Very busy.

I report the matter
to the Fuhrer.

He orders."

- [Voiceover]
"Withdraw the police.

The Jews should for once
feel the people's anger."

- [Voiceover] Joseph
Goebbels, diary.

(fire crackling)

- [Voiceover] Diary,
November 1938.

"In the night that brings
the news of the death,

a pogrom breaks out
all over Germany.

All the synagogues are on fire.

Windows are smashed in
all the Jewish shops,

the wares destroyed.

Apartments are broken into.

Thousands of Jewish
men are arrested

and locked up in
concentration camps."

Kathe Kollwitz,
painter and sculptress.

(rain splattering)

- [Voiceover] "When that
segment of the population

that had not taken part,
either as police or SA,

awoke after the fatal night

and saw the destruction
that had taken place,

a sequence unfolded that its
instigators had not expected.

An unmistakable deep sense
of depression and shame

seized the public.

People said, 'I'm
ashamed to be a German.'"

Rudolf Bing, German Jewish
businessman, Nuremberg.

(thunder cracking)

(lively music)

- [Voiceover] Diary,
December the 6th 1938.

"A boycott has been
issued against Jews

throughout the Reich.

The ban against Jews in Berlin
applies to all theaters,

cinemas, cabarets, concert
and lecture halls,

museums, fairs, the radio tower,

the Deutschlandhalle
and the Sportpalast.

In addition, all outdoor and
indoor swimming pools,

as well as from Wilhelmstrasse
and Vossstrasse

to the Reich Monument
and the Zeughaus."

Erich Ebermayer, writer.

(audience cheering)

- [Narrator] Harassed
by the Nazi authorities,

around 120,000 German
and Austrian Jews

succeed in leaving
their homeland

by the beginning of
the Second World War.

(jaunty music)

(wind howling)

- [Voiceover] Diary,
January the 1st 1939.

"A new year.

Ah, may it be a year of peace."

Thea Sternheim, art
collector and author.

- [Narrator] On the
13th of February 1939,

Hitler tells a few confidantes
that he intends

to take action against
the Czechs in mid-March.

German propaganda is
adjusted accordingly.

(people chattering)

- [Voiceover] Diary, Berlin,

March the 14th 1939, nighttime.

"Foreign broadcasters
are reporting

that the Czechoslovak
President Hacha

arrived in Berlin today and
was received
by Hitler.

Does this mean war after all?"

Erich Ebermayer.

(triumphant music)

- [Voiceover] "In the meantime,

I dealt with the transcription

of the statement of just
a few lines, reading,

the Czechoslovak
President has declared

that he has trustingly placed

the fate of the Czech
people and country

in the hands of the Fuhrer
of the German Reich.

The Fuhrer accepted
this declaration

and expressed his intention
of taking the
Czech people

under the protection
of the German Reich

and guaranteeing them
autonomous development

of their ethnic life suited
to their character."

Paul-Otto Schmidt, interpreter
for Adolf Hitler.

- [Voiceover] "For three hours,

Hitler conducted a discussion

with the President
of Czechoslovakia.

We all knew that it
was about war or peace.

Suddenly the door opened.

Hitler rushed out
and proclaimed."

- [Voiceover] "So
people, good news.

Hacha has signed the agreement.

I will go down as the greatest
German in history."

- [Voiceover] Christa
Schroeder, Hitler's
private secretary.

- [Voiceover] Letter
to Elisabeth Wagner,

March the 15th 1939, evening.

"The Fuhrer drove to Prague at
four o'clock this afternoon.

He is staying at Prague Castle.

In the morning, there
will be a parade.

His dream is thus fulfilled."

Eduard Wagner,
Artillery General.

- [Voiceover] Secret report

to Ambassador Jozef
Lipski in Berlin.

"Everyone is awaiting further
steps from Hitler.

It is generally assumed that
after the annexation of Memel,

he has to move on to the
settlement demands
with Poland,

primarily the takeover of
Danzig and the Corridor.

The solution to these questions
will meet with understanding

and recognition by
the German people."

Feliks Chiczewski,
Polish General Consul.

(bell ringing)

- [Voiceover] Letter to his
wife, Vita Sackville-West,

April the 20th 1939.

"There is a break in the
crisis, which makes
me uneasy.

That is one of the worst
things with this tension.

If Hitler doesn't do anything,
we all become uneasy,

and if he does do something,
we all get frightened."

Harold Nicolson,
member of Parliament,
National Labor Party.

(mellow music)

- [Voiceover] "The
summer was winding down.

The weather was warm and sultry,

and Danzig's numerous cafes,
beer and wine gardens

were filled with Germans
enjoying themselves

despite all the talk
of imminent war.

It was difficult to conceive
of such folks
going to war

or causing war to
break out over them."

Williams Shirer, correspondent

for the Columbia Broadcast
System in Berlin.

- [Voiceover] August the
13th 1939, Obersalzberg.

Paul-Otto Schmidt, interpreter
of Adolf Hitler.

"Hitler was completely
set on war."

- [Voiceover] "The British
are guilty of everything.

The Poles have a
serious lesson to learn.

The democracies are
inferior to Germany

and will never fight."

- [Voiceover] "Was
the recurring key note

of the German
dictator's speeches.

The next day, the Italian
Foreign Minister Ciano

was received at the Berghof.

Hitler spoke the following
sentence at this event."

- [Voiceover] "I
am firmly convinced

that neither England nor France

will enter into a general war."

(ominous music)

- [Narrator] On August the 19th,

Kathe and Erich
Heuser from Leipzig

begin their honeymoon with a
canoe trip on the Oder River

in Upper Silesian Raciborz.

They take Erich's camera.

For 12 days, the newlywed
Leipzigers paddle
down the Oder.

During this time, Adolf Hitler
propels the continent

into a world war.

- [Voiceover] Diary, Paris,
August the
19th 1939.

"Announcement of
a German-Russian
Nonaggression Pact."

Thea Sternheim.

- [Narrator] At the end of
July, on Hitler's approval,

Foreign Minister Von Ribbentrop

and State Secretary Von
Weizsaecker set the foundations

for an agreement with
the Soviet Union,

which also includes the
partitioning of Poland

and the Baltic states.

Hitler is in a hurry because
he believes autumn rains

will prevent a motorized
war in backward Poland.

- [Voiceover] "On
August the 19th,

Stalin accepted Hitler's
offer with both hands

after Hitler had suggested
splitting the Baltic

into spheres of influence.

I noted, but if Ribbentrop
travels to Moscow,

it means Russia is inviting
Hitler to invade Poland."

Ernst von Weizsaecker,

Secretary of State at the
Foreign Office, memoirs.

- [Voiceover] Telegram
to the German Chancellor,

Herr A. Hitler.

August the 21st 1939.

"I thank you for your letter.

I hope that the German-Soviet
Nonaggression Pact

will be a turning point
and a serious improvement

in political relations
between our countries."

J. Stalin.

- [Voiceover] Addressed to
the commanders
in chief

of the military,

August the 22nd 1939.

"It was becoming clear to me
that a dispute
with Poland

might take place at
an unfavorable time.

Here is the basis
for this finding.

It depends essentially
on me, on my existence,

on my political ability.

For it is a fact
that probably no one

will ever have the trust

of the entire German
people as I do.

In the future, there will
probably never be a man

who has more authority than I.

My presence, therefore,
is of great value,

but I can be eliminated any time

by a criminal or by an idiot."

Adolf Hitler.

- [Voiceover]
"Suffocatingly humid days

full of fear and expectations.

Very calm, now only a few cars,

but trains, trains
almost without a break,

whistling shrilly.

You can't do
anything, can't think,

can't feel anything
other than no war."

Marie Luise Kaschnitz,
author, notes.

- [Narrator] On August the
30th, Kathe and
Erich Heuser

reach the delta
of the Oder River

and Szczecin, the harbor.

Government cruise liners
are anchored here,

placed under the protection
of the Red Cross

as hospital ships.

Two days after the honeymooners
arrive in Szczecin,

the Second World War begins.

Erich Heuser becomes a soldier
on September
the 1st.

- [Voiceover] Diary, Wednesday,
August the 30th 1939.

"In the afternoon,
troops equipped for war

passed for hours
heading for the border.

Poland has declared
mobilization."

Henrietta Schneider,
East Prussia.

- [Voiceover] Private war
diary, General
Franz Halder.

"Demands of the Fuhrer on
the military leadership.

Destruction of Poland equals

elimination of its living power.

It is not about achieving a
specific line or
a new border,

but about destroying the enemy.

The means are of
little concern."

(people chattering)

- [Voiceover] "It is
disturbing to see the amount

of responsibility that
he bears and accepts."

Eduard Wagner.
(ominous music)

(gunfire banging)

- [Voiceover] Message
from Commander

of Westerplatte Peninsula

to Polish Navy
Headquarters in Gdynia,

September the 1st 1939, 4:50.

"At 4:45, the armored cruiser
Schleswig-Holstein

opened fire on the Westerplatte
with all its guns.

The barrage continues."

(gunfire banging)

Henrich Zukarski, Major
of the Polish Army.

- [Voiceover] Morning, 10:00
am, Reichstag session.

"Hitler appears deadly serious,

for the first time in
field gray uniform.

Members of Parliament
rise silently,

and Hitler speaks without notes,

describing the events
of the last days.

Then comes a sentence."

- [Voiceover] "Since 5:45 am,
we have been returning fire."

- [Voiceover] Rudolf Jordan,
provincial NSDAP leader.

- [Voiceover] Address
before the Reichstag,

September the 1st 1939.

"I have once more
put on that coat

that was most sacred
and dear to me.

I will not take it off again
until victory
is secured,

or I will not
survive the outcome."

- [Voiceover] "In
the early hours,

4:00 am of September the 3rd,

I was accordingly instructed
by His Majesty's government

to arrange for a meeting

with the Minister for Foreign
Affairs at
9:00 am.

I accordingly handed
the final ultimatum

from His Majesty's
government to Dr. Schmidt

at precisely 9:00 am,

pointing out that unless
satisfactory assurances

were received by His
Majesty's government

before 11:00 am
British summertime

of the suspension of all the
German forces
from Poland,

a state of war would exist
between our two countries

as from that hour."

Neville Henderson, British
Ambassador to Germany.

(bells tolling)

- [Voiceover] Paul-Otto Schmidt,

Chief Interpreter of the
Foreign Ministry, experiences.

"Then I took the ultimatum
to the Chancellery.

Hitler's most prominent people

were gathered in the room
in front of his office.

'What news?' asked
anxious voices.

I answered with a shrug,
'School's canceled, '

and entered the next room

where Hitler was
sitting at his desk,

while Ribbentrop
stood at the window.

I remained some distance
from Hitler's desk

and slowly translated
the ultimatum

of the British government.

When I finished, there
was total silence.

Hitler sat as though
turned to stone,

just looking straight ahead.

After a while, he
turned to Ribbentrop."

- [Voiceover] "What now?"

- [Voiceover] "Ribbentrop
replied with a
quiet voice."

- [Voiceover] "I suppose
the French will issue

an identical ultimatum
within the hour."

- [Voiceover] "As my
job was now finished,

I left and told those
waiting outside,

in two hours, a state
of war will exist

between England and Germany.

Goering turned to me and said."

- [Voiceover] "If
we lose this war,

then may heaven
have mercy on us."

(somber music)

- [Voiceover] War diary,
September the 13th 1939.

"The Fuhrer's
motorcade roared by.

We saw our Fuhrer.

He was going to
the front."

Gerhardt Ent,
soldier, Flensburg.

(crowd cheering)

- [Narrator] Some 16,000 members

of the German Armed Forces die,

and 30,000 are wounded in the
Polish campaign
of 1939.

Sources report 68,000 dead

and 130,000 wounded
on the Polish side.

Tens of thousands of Polish
civilians are killed

in the course of the
five-week conflict.

(fire crackling)

- [Voiceover] Diary,
September the 28th 1939.

"Warsaw has finally fallen.

Mountains of corpses
have to be removed.

The Russians are
marching into Poland

and are moving up to an
agreed demarcation line.

Scattered Polish divisions

are leading a heroic
desperate struggle."

Rudolf von Auvensladen,
Captain, 16th Tank Division.

(majestic music)

- [Voiceover] "The
next day in Warsaw,

troops paraded in
front of Hitler.

The Lantschner
brothers filmed him.

I was standing near Hitler

and saw how the troops looked
at him, mesmerized.

Without exception,

they appeared ready to
do anything for him.

If he were to give the order,
they would die
for him."

Leni Riefenstahl,
director and actress.

- [Voiceover] "Fuhrer spoke
at length and
in detail

about the ongoing incorporation

of the former provinces of
Posen and West Prussia.

The social strata thought
to be racially valuable

could be Germanized.

In principle, they would have
to look racially pure

and have the right
hereditary disposition.

A special cultural heritage
group would
be created.

Here, language would be the
most important factor.

He said he wasn't interested
in the Polish intelligentsia

as they were the supporters
of Polish nationalism."

Gerhard Engel, Army
Adjutant to Hitler,

memoirs in diary form.

- [Voiceover] "At
lunchtime on May the 9th,

we left Berlin in great secrecy

and traveled at first
light towards Hamburg.

Turned the train around and
arrived in Ahm
at 3:00 am.

Under a beautiful starry sky,

we went by car to
the command post

to the Fuhrer's headquarters,

the Felsennest or Rocky Eyrie."

Wilhelm Keitel,
Supreme High Commander

of the Armed Forces, memoirs.

"In the first armed forces
report at noon on
May the 10th,

I had recorded the sentence,

the Fuhrer has personally
taken over supreme command

of the German Army
operating in the west.

I wrestled with him
for half an hour

over the approval
of this publication.

He declared he wanted
to remain anonymous

and not diminish the
glory for the generals.

I did not let up, and
in the end, he gave in."

Wilhelm Keitel.

(people chattering)

- [Voiceover] "Hitler
took the credit

for the success of
the western campaign."

Albert Speer, memoirs.

(horn blaring)

- [Voiceover] Diary, Friday,
May the 10th 1940.

"Now the war has really begun.

Chamberlain has stepped down
and Churchill
replaced him.

One bad person's left, and
a much worse one
has come."

Henrietta Schneider.

(solemn music)

- [Voiceover] "Thus, then, on
the night of the 10th of May,

at the outset of
this mighty battle,

I acquired the chief
power in the state.

I cannot conceal
that I was conscious

of a profound sense of relief.

I felt as if I were
walking with destiny

and that all my past life
had been but a preparation

for this hour and
for this trial."

Winston Churchill,
"The Second World War."

- [Voiceover] May the 23rd 1940.

"We've done it.

The Air Force is destroying
the English on
the beach.

I was able to persuade
Hitler to stop the army.

The Fuhrer wants this to
be a lesson for them."

Hans Jeschonnek,

Chief of the General
Staff of the Air Force

to Erhard Milch, State
Secretary of the Aviation
Ministry.

(ominous music)

- [Voiceover] Diary, Friday,
June the 14th 1940.

"News at one o'clock at night.

Paris occupied by our
troops without a fight.

Flag raised for three days."

Henrietta Schneider.

(people chattering)

- [Voiceover] "France offered
a ceasefire on June the 17th.

I've never seen Hitler
as happy as on that day."

Heinz Linge, valet
to Adolf Hitler.

- [Voiceover] "France's peace
offer was submitted
to him

while he stood surrounded
by his officers.

He slapped his thigh
in a lively gesture.

We were to one side
and observed the scene

that Walter Frentz also filmed."

Christa Schroeder,
"He Was My Boss."

- [Voiceover] Heinrich
Hofmann, photographer.

"Keitel, who was carried away
by an outburst
of emotion,

coined the fatal phrase."

- [Voiceover] "My Fuhrer,
you are the greatest

military commander of all time."

(crowd cheering)

(stately music)

- [Voiceover] Franz Halder,
Chief of the General Staff.

"Part of Hitler's
growing self-deification

after the first
military successes

involve believing it himself."

(crowd cheering)

- [Voiceover] "Hitler was at
the height of
his power.

He was the master of Europe."

Gustaf Mannerheim, Field
Marshal of Finland.

(singing in foreign language)

- [Voiceover] "Germany had
air supremacy over Europe

An invasion of Great Britain
seemed to be in the offing."

Ernst von Weizsaecker.

- [Voiceover] "A stay of a few
days in the English capital

was all that was needed

to recognize the difference
between London
and Paris.

Here, no one was considering
capitulation."

Julius Deutsch, Austrian
Socialist of Jewish descent,

in exile, memoirs.

- [Voiceover] "It
was only after France

had been flattened out

that Britain, thanks to
her island advantage,

developed out of
the pangs of defeat

and the menace of annihilation

a national resolve equal
to that of Germany."

Winston Churchill.

(crowd cheering)

- [Voiceover] Diary, Saturday,
July the 20th 1940.

"Hitler spoke in the Reichstag.

Made an offer of
peace to England."

Henrietta Schneider.

- [Voiceover] Memoirs
in diary form,

November the 4th 1940,
Reich Chancellery.

"An unpleasant meeting
at headquarters

attended by Goering,
Von Brauchitsch, Keitel.

Due to English and
other press reports,

Fuhrer for the first
time doubts the successes

of the Luftwaffe and
the strike figures.

Fuhrer visibly depressed.

Have the impression that he
doesn't know how
to proceed."

Gerhard Engel.

- [Voiceover] The Fuhrer
and the Supreme Commander

of the German Army.

The Fuhrer Headquarters.

Absolutely top secret,
for officers only.

Nine copies, second copy.

Order number 21,
Operation Barbarossa.

"Even before the end of
the war against England

the German Army
has to be prepared

to overthrow Soviet Russia
in a quick campaign,

Operation Barbarossa.

The bulk of the Russian
Army in Western Russia

should be destroyed
in bold operations

via tank pincer movements

in order to prevent
the withdrawal of
strong combat units

into the expanses of
the Russian interior."

Adolf Hitler.

- [Voiceover] Memoirs
in diary form,

December the 18th 1940.

"The order for Barbarossa
has been issued.

The Army Supreme Commander
has ordered us
to find out

whether the Fuhrer
wants armed engagement

or is just bluffing.

In my opinion, Fuhrer himself

still doesn't know
how to proceed.

He hopes the English
will capitulate

and doesn't believe the
USA will enter the war."

Gerhard Engel.

(vehicles rumbling)

- [Voiceover] Diary, Monday,
June the 9th 1941.

"There's a big operation here.

The streets are full of
military of every kind

on their way to the border."

Henrietta Schneider,
East Prussia.

- [Voiceover] "When he decided
on the eastern campaign

in the summer of 1941,

he told Eva Braun he
had to travel to Berlin

for a few days."

Christa Schroeder.

(stirring music)

- [Voiceover] "When Adolf
heard the music
of Wagner,

he was transformed.

Then he lost his fierceness.

He became quiet,
flexible, manageable.

The unease disappeared
from his face.

What had moved him
during the day vanished."

August Kubizek,
childhood friend.

- [Voiceover] "Wagner's music
became second nature to him."

Ernst Hanfstaengl,

until 1937, Head of the NSDAP
Foreign Press Bureau.

- [Voiceover] "He loved the
Wagner opera
the most.

Other than that, symphonies
by Beethoven
and Bruckner

or songs by Richard Strauss.

Of the light
entertainment pieces,

he appreciated 'The Bat'
and 'The Merry Widow.'

Bormann proved his
musical knowledge

just by changing the records."

Heinrich Hoffmann.

(jaunty music)

(singing in foreign language)

- [Voiceover] "It was almost
always the same repertoire

that Hitler had them play.

The only popular
song Hitler allowed

was the 'Donkey Serenade, '

which often concluded
the concert."

Gertraud Traudl Junge,
Hitler's private secretary.

(triumphant music)

- [Voiceover] "You'll
be hearing that a lot

in the near future.

It'll be the victory fanfare
for our Russian campaign.

Very like it."

Adolf Hitler to Albert Speer,

after listening
to the first pass

of "Les Prelude" by Frans Liszt.

The Russian Fanfare,
June 21st 1941.

(birds chirping)

- [Voiceover] Diary, Saturday,
June the 21st 1941.

"Wild rumors are coming
from the border."

Henrietta Schneider.

(foreboding music)

- [Voiceover] War diary
of the Army Group North,

June the 22nd 1941.

"Beginning of the
invasion, 3:05 am.

The entire front of the army
group crossed
the border."

Robert Freiherr von
Griessenbach, Major.

- [Voiceover] "Is
he mad, this Hitler?

He could have allied himself
with England's Chamberlain

against Communist Russia

or with Communist Russia

against the Anglo-Saxon
capitalist world.

But he invaded both.

Yes, he is mad,
thank God."

Klaus Mann, "A Life's Report."

(people chattering)

- [Voiceover] Christa Schroeder.

"It all began so promisingly.

In the first two days
in the Wolfsschanze,

we experienced the
boss standing in front

of a large map of Europe

and pointing to Moscow, saying.

- [Voiceover] "In a few weeks,
we'll be in Moscow.

There's no doubt about that.

And then I'll raze
Moscow to the ground.

I'll build a reservoir there.

The name Moscow has to
be erased completely."

- [Voiceover] Wilhelm Keitel,

Chief of the Armed
Forces High Command,

to Field Marshal Fedor von Bock

on July the 25th 1941.

"The speedy collapse of Russia

is vital for German interests

since Russia cannot
be subjugated.

The Fuhrer was concerned
about this situation

and asked worriedly."

- [Voiceover] "How much
time do I have left

to finish off Russia,

and how much time
do I still need?"

(crowd cheering)

- [Voiceover] Russia, Army
Group South, letter, 1941.

"It is our war,

not as the enemy propaganda
likes to call it,
Hitler's war.

They don't know that
Hitler is one of us,

a soldier like us.

We know that he would do
everything in his
power for us.

That gives us unlimited trust.

The Fuhrer leaves no
comrade in the lurch,

and when he doesn't help,

it's because there was
something more important."

Horst Rocholl, regimental
doctor from Kassel.

(wind howling)

- [Voiceover] Diary, October
the 10th 1941,
11:30 pm.

"It's snowing in Russia now,

something we can't
deal with well."

(soldiers laughing)

Eduard Wagner,
Quartermaster General.

(solemn music)

- [Voiceover] "There is a
winter, you know,
in Russia.

For a good many months,

the temperature is
apt to fall very low.

There is snow, there
is frost, and all that.

Hitler forgot about
this Russian winter.

He must have been
very loosely educated.

We all heard about it at
school, but he
forgot it."

Winston Churchill.

- [Voiceover] Diary, Thursday,
December the
11th 1941.

"Around three o'clock we
listened to the Fuhrer

from the Reichstag.

The war with America
is also official now.

The Fuhrer will make sure
everything turns
out well."

Henrietta Schneider.

- [Voiceover] "When
the German Army,

surprised by the terrible
winter of 1941-42,

got stuck in the
Russian ice and snow,

Hitler was frequently depressed.

But as before, he hoped
for a quick victory."

- [Voiceover] "There is
only a very thin veil

that we have to penetrate.

We have to be patient.

The Russian resistance
will not hold."

(gun bangs)

- [Voiceover] Christa Schroeder.

- [Voiceover] "On December the
17th, I visited the generals

commanding the 14th
and 47th Tank Corps,

as well as the
Seventh Army Corps

to again learn about the
condition of the troops.

The three generals reported

that the troops were
beginning to have doubts

about the high command.

Black ice making all
movement difficult.

The Russians are prepared
and equipped for winter,

and we have nothing."

Heinz Guderian, Colonel General.

(wind howling)

- [Voiceover] Franz
Halder, war diary,

December the 17th 1941.

"Midnight, summoned
to the Fuhrer."

- [Voiceover] "Disengagement
is out of the question.

The enemy has only made deep
incursions in
a few places.

Setting up a rear
echelon is illusionary.

The front is suffering
in only one respect.

The enemy has more soldiers.

He has no more artillery.

He is much worse
off than we are."

- [Voiceover] Adolf Hitler,
oral order to Army
Group Center,

December the 16th 1941.

"Commanders, unit
leaders, and officers,

I had to take personal
steps to force troops

to engage in fanatical
resistance to hold
their position

without regard to
enemy breakthroughs

on the frank or in the rear.

Only with this kind of warfare

can we gain the time necessary

to get reinforcements from
the homeland and the west

that I have ordered."

(gunfire rattling)

- [Voiceover] Diary,
January the 11th 1942.

"How meek our military
communiques have become."

Friedrich Kellner, court
employee, Laubach, Hesse.

(explosion banging)

- [Voiceover] "But
the burden of work

and increasing concerns

from setbacks in the
course of the war

eroded Hitler's health.

From the winter of
1941-1942 onwards,

Morell monitored
him day and night.

In the end, Hitler began
having mysterious injections

almost every day."

Christa Schroeder.

- [Voiceover] Diary, Berlin,
March the 3rd 1942.

"The hallmarks of the situation.

Further erosion of the
German forces in Russia.

Slow further deterioration

of the economic and food
situations in Germany."

Ulrich von Hassell,

diplomat and member of
the German Resistance.

- [Voiceover] From
Rostov-on-Don.

"Several waves of retreat
roll through our area

in this summer of 1942.

The oil tanks are opened.
Wheat fields torched,

all so that they wouldn't fall
into the hands of the enemy.

On August the 3rd 1942, German
scouts surface on motorbikes.

Within three days, German
troops moved into Privolnoye.

Soviet troops are scattered.

But beyond Nalchik,
barrier units worked

to carry out Order
Number 227 from Stalin.

'Not one step back.'"

Mikhail Gorbachev, schoolboy.

- [Voiceover] War diary, July
the 30th 1942,
Day 404.

"In the bow of the River
Don, west of Stalingrad,

the Sixth Army of Army Group B

is engaged in a fierce battle,

and the situation is
at present unclear."

Franz Halder.

- [Voiceover] "I wanted
to come to the Volga,

to a specific place
and a specific city."

Adolf Hitler, addressed to
the traditional gathering

in the Munich Burgerbraukeller,

November the 9th 1942.

(people chattering)

- [Voiceover] "On
September the 11th,

I was ordered to report

to the front line
staff under Khrushchev.

They told me to take
over the 62nd Army.

My orders were
defend Stalingrad.

After I accepted the order,

Nikita Khrushchev asked me,
'How do you
see this?'

I said, 'I understand
the order very well.

I try to carry it out.

Either I defend Stalingrad
or I die doing so.'

I got in the car and
drove to Stalingrad."

Vasily Chuikov,
Lieutenant General,

"The Stalingrad Protocols."

(men laughing)

- [Voiceover] "The high point
of the war had been reached.

Something unimaginable
overpowered the wildest dreams.

The North Cape, Pyrenees,
Sahara, and Volga

formed the boundaries
of a sphere of influence

created overnight.

For sure there were
bigger empires,

but this one included
Europe and its nations.

There was no reason for joy.

You knew what lay ahead for us

because the disproportion
of forces was obvious."

Rudolf von Auvensladen,
Army Captain, diary.

(gunfire rattling)

- [Voiceover] "We knew
that Hitler wouldn't stop

and would keep throwing
military forces
at the front.

But he sensed that it
was not a battle for life

being fought here, but rather
a battle to
the death."

Vasily Chuikov.

(gunfire rattling)

- [Voiceover] "I feel
entitled to demand

that every German soldier
should sacrifice
his life."

Adolf Hitler to Heinz Guderian

on December the
20th 1940, 3:30 pm.

- [Voiceover] Diary, Sunday,
November the
8th 1942.

"The Fuhrer spoke from the
Munich Hofbraeukeller.

He laid into the
war criminals again.

The Americans landed in
Algiers during
the night."

Henrietta Schneider.

- [Voiceover] Dr. Theo Morell,

Adolf Hitler's
personal physician.

Diary, December the 15th 1942.

"Patient day.

Sleeping badly because of
the military situation.

Profundol."

(wind howling)

- [Voiceover] "Up
until the very end,

the soldiers believed
Hitler's promise

that he would get them
out of the encirclement.

I knew that this
was a terrible lie."

Bernd Freytag von
Loringhoven, Major,

flown out of the
Stalingrad siege.

(gunfire rattling)

- [Voiceover]
Interrogation protocol

of prisoner Hermann Strotmann,

Lieutenant Adjutant
of the First Battalion

of the 79th
Panzergrenadier Regiment,

born 1918 in Muenster, Catholic.

"Men reached the limits
of their endurance,

and this limit was reached
on February the 2nd.

We surrendered spontaneously.

Around six o'clock
in the morning,

I was told that Russian
tanks had arrived.

I began to cry, walked
out of the shelter,

and laid down my weapon."

(menacing music)

- [Voiceover] "At what
point is one allowed

to view the war as lost?

As I see it, very late."

Albert Speer, "The
Kransberg Protocols."

- [Voiceover] "His
mother went to Mass

with little Paula every Sunday.

I can't recall that
Adolf accompanied

his mother to
church once."

August Kubizek, childhood
friend of Adolf Hitler
in Linz.

- [Voiceover] "Hitler had
no emotional connection

to the church.

He thought the Christian
religion was an outdated,

hypocritical, people-ensnaring
institution."

Christa Schroeder, Hitler's
private secretary.

- [Voiceover] "If the people
think I'm a religious man,

that cannot hurt."

Adolf Hitler to photographer
Heinrich Hoffmann.

(crowd cheering)

- [Voiceover] "I can
say with certainty

that even before my departure,

I learned about
Hitler's intention

to liquidate patients
with incurable diseases,

not only incurable mental
patients, in the
event of war.

His reasoning was
that these would be

unnecessary mouths to feed."

Fritz Wiedemann,
personal adjutant

of the NSDAP to Adolf Hitler

until January the 19th 1939.

(projector rattling)

- [Voiceover] Memoirs
in diary form,

August the 8th 1939.

"Today we witnessed
something cruel.

Bouhler and Bormann
showed Hitler

the euthanasia film,
'Unworthy Life.'

It deals with the
life and behavior

of incurable mental patients
in a number of sanatoriums.

There was a long
discussion afterwards.

The Fuhrer had a
really harsh attitude.

If he had such a child,

he would request that it
be put out of its misery,

not least for the sake
of fellow humans."

Gerhard Engel, Army
Adjutant to Hitler.

- [Narrator] For many of
Adolf Hitler's crimes,

no documents exist

that verify his direct and
immediate responsibility.

It is different with the
centrally organized killing

of the mentally handicapped,
referred to as euthanasia.

Some time in early October 1939,

Adolf Hitler signs
a backdated order

for September the 1st, the day
of the start
of the war.

With his signature, he
authorizes Philipp Bouhler,

the Chief of the
Fuhrer's Chancellery,

and Hitler's young personal
physician, Karl Brandt.

- [Voiceover] "Reichsleiter
Bouhler and
Dr. Brandt

are entrusted with
the responsibility

of extending the
authority of physicians

so that patients who, on the
basis of human judgment,

are considered incurable

can be accorded mercy killing
after a definitive diagnosis."

Adolf Hitler.

- [Voiceover] "One day, we
were surprised
by a report

that a euthanasia operation
was underway
in Swabia.

Family members
received the ashes

with the official notice
that the beloved deceased

had unfortunately died quite
suddenly of pneumonia

or from an infectious disease.

Through faulty communication
of such condolences

and sometimes double
deliveries of urns,

unrest was created among the
population and
the clergy."

Reinhard Spitzy, Austrian
member of the SS
and NSDAP.

(people chattering)

- [Narrator] The
Bishop of Muenster,

Clemens August Graf von Galen,

finds the courage to deliver
a frank opinion
in public.

(church bell ringing)

- [Voiceover] Sermon in St.
Lambert's Church, Muenster,

August the 3rd 1941.

"So now we must expect that
poor, defenseless,
sick people

will be killed sooner or later.

Do you or do I only
have the right to live

as long as we are recognized
as productive
by others?

If it is legitimate

to kill unproductive
members of the community,

then woe betide our
brave soldiers who
return home from war

with serious battle
wounds as invalids.

If the principle
that man is entitled

to kill his
unproductive fellow man

is established and applied,

then woe betide all of us

when we become aged
and thus unproductive."

Clemens August Graf von Galen,
Bishop of Muenster.

- [Narrator] Von
Galen's brave protest

is based on concrete critical
points and is successful.

The conflict between
the Hitler regime,

the Bishop of Muenster,
and other public critics

is settled only partially.

Hitler suspends the largest
part of the euthanasia program

for more than a year

after more than 70,000
people had been killed.

In less conspicuous forms,

the euthanasia program
was reintroduced

to sanatoriums and nursing homes

and practiced right up
to the end of the war.

- [Voiceover] "The
Fuhrer called me

into the Reich Chancellery
at 4:00 pm today.

To start with, he
spent a whole hour

describing the
campaign in Poland.

'The Poles, only a
thin Germanic layer.

Underneath that, dreadful stock.

The Jews, the worst that you
could possibly imagine.

Only a master's heavy
hand could rule here.'"

Alfred Rosenberg,

Director of the Foreign Policy
Office of the NSDAP.

(traffic clamoring)

- [Voiceover] "Two days later,
I went to the Warsaw Ghetto.

A brick wall about
eight feet high

had been built around
the entire desolate area

from which all the
Aryans had been evacuated

and into which than 400,000
Jews had been forced.

The entire population
of the ghetto

seemed to be living
in the street.

There was hardly a square
yard of empty space.

As we picked our way across
the mud and rubble,

the shadows of what have
once been men or women

flitted by us in pursuit
of someone or something,

their eyes blazing with some
insane hunger
or greed.

Frequently, we passed by corpses

lying naked in the streets."

Jan Karski, courier of
the Polish Underground.

- [Narrator] For a long time,
researchers and prosecutors

searched for a definitive
written order from Hitler

for the murder of European Jews.

Such an order from Hitler

on the Final Solution
of the Jewish Question

obviously doesn't exist.

- [Voiceover] Service
calendar, Heinrich Himmler,

Himmler's lecture notes.

"Fuhrer Headquarters,
Fuhrer, Wolfsschanze,

July the 18th, 1941, 4:00 pm.

Jewish Question,
exterminate as partisans.

Restructuring of the Waffen-SS."

- [Voiceover] "In any case,
I'm totally convinced,

even without written proof,

that the extermination
of the Jews

goes back to a specific
order from Hitler

because it's unthinkable
that Himmler and Goering

would have carried this out
without his knowledge.

Nicolaus von Below, Luftwaffe
Adjutant to Adolf Hitler.

- [Narrator] Immediately
after the invasion

of the Soviet Union
by the Wehrmacht,

the 3,000-man death
squads of security police

and the Reich Security Service

begin their killing operations.

The political responsibility
lies with Hermann Goering,

to whom Hitler has transferred

the coordination
of Jewish policy.

(people chattering)

- [Voiceover] "If I am asked

whether I knew about the
shooting of the Jews,

I have to say that
I received an order

to attend the shooting
of Jews as a spectator.

I remember that we had to be

at the shooting
site at 8:00 pm."

A navy captain, Liepaja.

(singing in foreign language)
(upbeat music)

- [Voiceover] "Around noon, an
old man from Lower Saxony,

Colonel Scherr, visited me.

Among the things he talked about

that were especially horrible
was the shooting
of Jews.

He'd been told by
another colonel,

Tippleskerch, I believe."

Ernst Junger,
Captain, Paris, diary.

- [Voiceover] "I saw
a long deep ditch.

SS men and Latvian police in
plainclothes wearing armbandsú

were standing beside it.

The terrain was
overgrown with bushes,

and the ground was sandy.

(gun banging)

We watched about 1 1/2
hours of the execution.

During this time,
three to four trucks

were brought in from the city
to the shooting site.

Then the victims were
driven like cattle

from the truck to the ditch.

Each time, five had to march
in single file into the ditch.

The shooting took place under
the command
of the SS.

The victims stood facing us.

I can remember exactly

that after the salvos,
the victims collapsed."

A navy captain, Liepaja.

- [Voiceover] Letter to the
SS and Latvian
Police Chief.

Commander of the
Riga Police Force.

January the 3rd 1942.

"The execution of the Jews

carried out in the
timeframe of the report

is still the talk of
the local population.

The fate of the Jews is
deplored numerous times,

and at the moment,
you hear few people

in favor of their elimination.

Among other things, there
is a rumor circulating

that the execution was filmed."

SS and Police Chief, Liepaja.

- [Voiceover] Memoirs
in diary form.

"A grim, gloomy mood.

Fuhrer had a long
discussion with Himmler,

and afterwards
there was the usual

corresponding atmosphere."

Gerhard Engel.

- [Voiceover] "Hitler
never told me anything

about the treatment of the Jews.

In foreign policy,
the subject only arose

when the Jews were
to be deported

from some country or other."

Franz von Sonnleithner,
NSDAP member,

after 1939, Legation Councilor
in the Foreign Ministry.

(people chattering)

- [Voiceover] Adolf Hitler,

address to the
traditional gathering

in the Munich Burgerbraukeller,

November the 8th 1942.

"You will recall the Reichstag
session at which
I declared

if Judaism imagines for a moment

that it can bring about an
international
world war

for the extermination
of the European races,

the result will not be

the extermination of
the European races,

but the extermination
of the Jews in Europe.

I was always derided
as a prophet.

Countless numbers of those
who laughed at the time

are no longer laughing today.

Those who are still laughing now

will perhaps not be
laughing much longer."

- [Voiceover] Danziger
Vorposten daily newspaper,

May the 13th 1944.

"Jewry records major losses
in other regions
of Europe.

The core areas of
Jewish settlement that
we found in Poland,

like those in Warsaw and Lublin,

have today been neutralized.

The settlements of 1/2
million Jews in Hungary

are currently being dealt
with in a similar fashion.

Thus, in these countries alone,

five million Jews
have been eliminated.

In other European countries,

longstanding state
measures against Jewry

are also increasing."

Wilhelm Loebsack, Provincial
NSDAP Propaganda Director

in Gdansk, West Prussia.

(train rattling)

- [Voiceover] "During
the military briefing

around autumn 1944,

the Reich Press Chief Dietrich

came up with an English report.

In this newspaper
article, it was alleged

that the Russians had taken
a German concentration camp

by the name of Majdanek.

Pictures showed racks

on which a large number
of combs could be seen,

well-laid out, as
foreigners expect to see

in a German institution.

The text said that people had
been exterminated here.

Dietrich presented the
press report to Hitler.

We stood there with
baited breath to hear
what he would say.

The answer was swift."

- [Voiceover] "Those are the
hands of Belgian children

chopped off during
the First World War.

It's nothing but
enemy propaganda."

- [Voiceover] "I believe
that I have quoted

Hitler's statement correctly.

In any case, we
were all relieved."

Franz von Sonnleithner,

after 1939, Legation Councilor
in the Foreign Ministry.

(soldiers chattering)

- [Voiceover] "On the
third day of the war,

I was wounded near Grodno.

When I came to, there
were many wounded

lying on the ground.

We were at the mercy
of the German soldiers.

After a while, those who could
move were driven onwards.

My comrades grabbed
me under the arms

because those who fell down
were immediately shot."

Dmitri Dmitrienko.

- [Narrator] Since
February 1938,

Adolf Hitler has been
the Supreme Commander
of the military.

In this capacity,
he's responsible

for the mass killings of
Soviet prisoners of war.

Whereas one to 3% of
Anglo-American prisoners die,

some 50% of Red Army
prisoners perish.

Of the roughly 5.3 to 5.7
million Red Army soldiers

in German captivity,

2.5 to 3.3 million die.

Estimates vary.

- [Voiceover] "Only the
gravediggers were
given food.

The camp was set up in a dense
forest, a pine forest.

We scratched the
bark off with a nail

and fed ourselves that way.

After a while, the whole
forest had been eaten."

Boris Sheremet.

- [Narrator] Army command is
fully aware of the situation

and condones the starvation
of Soviet prisoners.

In November 1941,

when the Chiefs of
Staff of the East Armies

tell the Quartermaster General

that the armies need Soviet
prisoners as laborers,

but that these are starving
in camps, he states.

- [Voiceover] "Prisoners
of war who do not work

have to starve.

Working prisoners of
war can, in some cases,

be fed army provisions."

Eduard Wagner,
Quartermaster General.

(rain splattering)

- [Voiceover] Letter
to Wilhelm Keitel.

"The fate of the
Soviet prisoners of war

is a tragedy of
huge proportions.

The large majority
of them have starved

or died from exposure
to the weather."

Alfred Rosenberg,

Minister for the Occupied
Eastern Territories.

- [Voiceover] Wilhelm Keitel,

Chief of the Armed
Forces High Command.

"Such doubts belong
to soldierly concepts

of chivalrous warfare.

Here, we are dealing with the
destruction of
an ideology.

For this reason, I approve and
support these measures."

(soldiers chattering)

- [Voiceover] "I keep hearing

that Hitler could not have
known about everything.

This is sheer nonsense.

I know from personal
observation and remarks
by Hitler

that he knew everything."

Heinz Linge, valet
to Adolf Hitler.

(dog barking)

- [Voiceover] "Up until 1940,
Hitler looked younger

than he was in reality.

After that, however,
he aged rather quickly.

Up to 1943, he looked
his age outwardly.

Later, his rapid physical
deterioration was obvious."

Professor Dr. Hanskarl
von Hasselbach,

Deputy Attendant
Doctor to Adolf Hitler.

(dog panting)

- [Voiceover] "The
death of a human being

didn't bother him at all.

He saw people as the
links in a long chain,

and he considered the
first link to be himself.

Children were, in his
eyes, only the potential

by which the greater or smaller
living space
of a people

was measured."

Christa Schroeder.

(upbeat music)

- [Voiceover] "The
soldiers that I met

were not followers of Hitler

and only served the
Fuhrer unwillingly,

but all approved of war

as an indispensable
phenomenon of life.

The war is the ultimate
exertion that you
cannot dodge.

This picture was deeply
ingrained in them."

Wilma Schtoem,
journalist and writer.

- [Voiceover] Diary, Monday,
July the 26th 1943.

"Mussolini has resigned.

He's said to be ill.

Last night, Hamburg, Essen,
and Kiel were bombed again."

Henrietta Schneider.

- [Voiceover]
"While I endeavored

to establish worthwhile targets

to Hitler and the general
staff of the Air Force,

our enemies launched
five big attacks

on only one major city, Hamburg.

Although this
action contradicted

all tactical considerations,

it had catastrophic
consequences."

Albert Speer.

(fire crackling)

- [Voiceover] Diary of fighter
pilot Hans Ahrens,

born 1921,

killed in action
February the 21st 1944.

"That first night of
terror on July the 25th

will remain unforgettable for us

and the majority of
all Hamburg residents.

Personally, I'm glad that
I experienced it all.

As a soldier, it led to an
ultimate resolute hatred

of our enemy."

(fire crackling)

- [Voiceover] Letter
to Gayog Zimmerman,

soldier in Norway,
from his mother.

Hamburg, July the 28th 1943.

"Dear Gayog, we are still alive,

but Hamburg de facto
no longer exists.

No house left standing.

Just mountains of rubble.

Entire streets blocked.

Dead bodies not salvaged.

Impenetrable smoke
and fumes and fires

still burning everywhere.

Disintegration is in progress.

No police anymore, nothing.

Hamburg is lost forever."

Magdalena Zimmerman.

- [Voiceover] "When I
traveled to the Baden

from Babelsberg, I met an
acquaintance on
the train.

He'd experienced
it all in Hamburg

as an anti-aircraft soldier.

It smelled so
strongly of corpses

that you couldn't get the
stench out of your nose.

Leaflets were
dropped over Hamburg

with quotes from the war
speeches of Hitler
and Goering,

without any comment."

Erik Kessner, writer, war diary.

- [Voiceover] Hamburg,
July the 30th 1943.

"My Hanele, words can't express

what we're going through here.

A government that cannot
protect its women
and children

is simply criminal.

My Hanele, if I could
only hear one word

from you and Gayog,
your mother."

Magdalena Zimmerman.

- [Voiceover] "When he traveled
to Bavaria to
the Berghof

or the Fuhrer Headquarters,

then he went by train and at
night with blacked out windows

so that he wasn't faced

with the devastation
from the bombing raids."

Bernd Freytag von
Loringhoven, Captain.

- [Voiceover] "During
the entire war,

Adolf Hitler never once
visited a bombed city."

Albert Speer.

- [Voiceover] Dr. Theo Morell,

Adolf Hitler's
personal physician.

Diary, September the
23rd 1943, 8:15 pm.

"Examination after dinner.

Strong flatulence,
spasms from agitation.

Stomach shows increased
fat formation.

Prescribed a diet."

- [Voiceover] "He admired
Morell and his art

and was, in a sense, dependent
on him and his medication."

Albert Speer.

(tense music)

- [Voiceover] New Year's
Proclamation, 1944.

"The year 1944 will make
hard and heavy demands

on all Germans.

The monstrous events of the war

will come closer to
crisis this year.

We are fully confident
that we will endure."

Adolf Hitler.

- [Voiceover] Diary,
May the 27th 1944.

"An impression of an
increasingly destroyed Berlin.

Devastating.

At the same time, Berliners
are sitting in
the sunshine

on chairs amid the rubble and
debris on the esplanade

as if it were peacetime."

Ulrich von Hassell, diplomat
and member of the resistance.

- [Voiceover] Diary,
May the 9th 1944.

"Patient A.

Tension headache, left side.

Legs trembling due to agitation.

Invasion imminent but where?"

Dr. Theo Morell.

- [Voiceover] "The plutocratic
world of the West

can undertake its threatened
landing attempt

whenever it wants.

It will fail."

Adolf Hitler, order of
the day to the Wehrmacht.

(ominous music)

- [Voiceover] "Hitler
was told of the landing

on the morning of June the 6th.

He expressed relief when he
received the
first report

and said now it would be
possible to beat
the enemy."

Nicolaus von Below, Luftwaffe
Adjutant to Adolf Hitler.

(gunfire rattling)

- [Voiceover] "The
conviction of the Germans

that we would not attack in
the weather then prevailing

was a definite factor in the
degree of surprise
we achieved.

In the Omaha Sector, an alert
enemy division,
the 352nd,

which prisoners stated
had been in the area

on maneuvers and
defense exercises,

accounted for some of
the intensive fighting

in that locality."

Dwight D. Eisenhower,
US General,

Supreme Allied
Commander, Europe.

- [Voiceover] Heinz Linge,
valet to Adolf Hitler.

"Among Hitler's habits,

which despite our efforts
couldn't be remedied,

was that he kept asking
what time it was,

above all, during
the war."

- [Voiceover] "I principally
only ever stop

at five past 12."

Adolf Hitler in November 1942.

- [Voiceover] "On
July the 20th 1944,

I'd received the
order to prepare

for the move of
the operations unit

from Mauerwald to
Zossen, south of Berlin.

It was a hot East
Prussian summer's day.

Mauerwald was located
just 20 kilometers away

from the Wolfsschanze

where Stauffenberg's bomb
exploded around
12:45 pm."

Bernd Freytag von Loringhoven.

- [Voiceover] "I
remember thunder

combined with a
brightly flashing flame.

At the same time, thick smoke.

After a few seconds
of complete silence,

I heard someone call.

It was probably Field
Marshal Keitel."

- [Voiceover] "Where
is the Fuhrer?"

- [Voiceover] Heinz Buccholz,

stenographer in the
Wolfsschanze Headquarters.

- [Voiceover] "There were
agitated calls
for a doctor.

A bomb exploded, nothing
happened to the boss,

but the hut was blown sky high."

Christa Schroeder.

- [Voiceover] Heinz Linge.

"When I arrived, I saw Hitler,

who looked at me
inquiringly with big eyes

and stared at my troubled face.

With a calm smile
he said."

- [Voiceover] "Linge, someone
tried to kill me."

(crowd cheering)

- [Voiceover] Diary, Friday,
July the 21st 1944.

"The radio broadcast
details of the attack.

The bomb was planted by
a Count Von Stauffenberg.

Around one o'clock,
the Fuhrer spoke

to prove that he had survived.

What would have happened
if the Fuhrer had died?

The war would be over,

and there would be
revolution in Germany."

Henrietta Schneider.

- [Voiceover] "His confidence,

his faith in victory,
and his assurance,

but also his power
consciousness and delusions
of grandeur

now exceeded all
boundaries of reason."

Traudl Junge, Hitler's
private secretary.

- [Voiceover] Personal war
diary, October
the 7th 1944.

"Morning briefing.

Beginning of the attack on
East Prussia and Budapest.

Long discussion with Goering.

Station 12 heavy anti-aircraft
batteries immediately

to protect the
Fuhrer's headquarters.

Keitel for relocating to Berlin.

Hitler against it."

Werner Kreipe, General
of the Aviators,

Chief of Staff, Luftwaffe.

- [Voiceover] "In the first
days of November 1944,

we moved out of the Wolfsschanze

because the Russians
were close by."

Traudl Junge.

(train rattling)

(cannons booming)

- [Voiceover] "Germany was
under intense pressure.

At the end of 1944, weapons
production fell sharply.

Trapped in the east,
southeast, south,
and west,

Germany was
strategically encircled

and could not break free.

Nevertheless, Hitler
took one ultimate measure

after the other.

The Nazis suppressed
without mercy

the slightest opposition
to the regime.

It was clear to us

that Germany was mobilizing
its last forces,

but at the end of 1944,

Germany was still
able to defend itself

and put up serious resistance.

Its military still consisted
of around 17.5
million men,

of whom 5.3 million
were fighting troops."

(explosions booming)

Georgy Zhukov,
Commander in Chief,

First White Russian Front.

- [Voiceover] "At
just 19 years old,

Walter was also
killed in action.

I was sitting on the
roof of our house

that had been damaged
in another bombing

when I saw the postman
bring the death notice.

My aunt called through the
house, 'Walter
has fallen.'

The death of my brother
was a deep shock for me."

Helmut Kohl, schoolboy.

- [Voiceover] Speech
to division commanders,

December the 12th 1944

in Adlerhorst near
Ziegenberg, Hesse.

"If we suffer a few more
really hard strikes,

then this artificially
maintained common front

can suddenly collapse
at any moment

in a huge clap
of thunder."

Adolf Hitler.

- [Voiceover] "Hitler
revealed the following

to a very limited
circle of listeners.

Due to a noticeable weakness
of any new forces

in the Eifel region,

he had decided to start
the attack from there.

The target had to be Antwerp."

Siegfried Westphal,
Major General,

Chief of Staff to the
Commander in Chief West.

(tense music)

- [Voiceover] "On
December the 16th 1944,

General Bradley came
to my headquarters

to discuss ways and means

of overcoming our
acute shortages in
infantry replacements.

Just as he entered my office,
a staff officer
came in

to report slight
penetrations of our line.

It was through this same region

that the Germans launched
their great attack
of 1940."

Dwight D. Eisenhower.

- [Voiceover] "German
tanks have been spotted

north of the city of Luxembourg.

Rundstedt has ordered the tanks

to advance through the Ardennes
in nearly the
same place

as the Germans
penetrated in May 1940.

They're heading in the
same direction again

to the channel coastline
towards Antwerp

and ordered to stop the
Allies using the port

through which their
main supplies come."

Stefan Heym, Corporal
of the US Army, writer.

- [Voiceover] "It was my
opinion that it
was necessary

to play Hitler's last
card to maximum effect.

As a gawker, I tried to
get as close as possible

to the front.

The troops pushing forward
were in a good mood

because low-hanging clouds
prevented any aerial activity.

I was worried that the weather
would brighten up."

Albert Speer, memoirs.

(tanks rumbling)

- [Voiceover] "As
long as the weather

kept our planes on the ground,

it would be an ally of the enemy

worth many additional days."

Dwight D. Eisenhower.

(ominous music)

- [Voiceover] "Our last major
offensive in
the West

with 300,000 men

that was so gloriously
successful at the start

failed in the end thanks to
10 days of radiant sunshine.

The Anglo-Americans
were thus able to deploy

their overwhelming
air superiority."

Leon Degrelle, Commander of
the Walloonian Waffen-SS.

- [Voiceover] "The
Allies had expected

to reach the River Rhine by
Christmas at
the latest.

The Ardennes Offensive
prevented that.

But how many men
lost their lives

due to this senseless delay?"

Walter Rowland, industrialist,

Commissioner for Tank Production

in Ministry of Armaments
and War Production.

- [Voiceover] Rudolf Jordan,

provincial NSDAP leader,
Defense Commissioner,

December the 25th 1944.

"When we were sitting together
one sunny morning,

tears appeared in
my wife's eyes.

'Where will we be at
Christmas next year?'

This was the question asked by
the mother of our children,

the question of
the family's fate.

This question would be asked

in the house of the
provincial leader

and everywhere else in Germany.

I was frightened because I felt

that the answer was
no longer convincing,

but I had to remain
the same person,

Hitler's deputy, the spokesman
of German hope until the end.

I know today that it was
the belief in a miracle."

(people chattering)

- [Voiceover] "In the
days after Christmas,

it was clear that
the expected success

would not be achieved.

At the end of the year,

the offensive had to
be seen as a failure."

Nicolaus von Below.

(gloomy music)

- [Voiceover] Adolf Hitler
at the end of December 1944

to his adjutant
Nicolaus von Below.

"I know the war is lost.

Their superiority is too great.

I hope you first put a
bullet in my head now.

We will never capitulate, never.

We can perish, but we'll
take the world with us."

(fire crackling)

(speaking in foreign language)

- [Voiceover] December the
31st 1944, Luxembourg.

"You sat there with a half
empty glass in your hand

and listened to the hoarse voice

with the unmistakable accent.

Two or three times, the
speaker almost lost
his voice,

and he also got
his words mixed up,

but that was always the
case when he got excited.

It was significant
that his throaty bellow

no longer wanted to work
that New Year's Eve."

Stefan Heym, Corporal
of the US Army, writer.

- [Voiceover] Adolf Hitler,

last radio address
to the German people,

January the 30th 1945.

"Thus, I now appeal to
the entire German people

to gird themselves

with a yet greater, stronger
spirit of resistance

until we can again, as before,

put on the graves of the dead
of this titanic struggle

a wreath inscribed
with the words,

'And yet you were victorious.'

I therefore expect every German

to fulfill his
duty to the utmost,

to make every sacrifice that
will and must
be required."

(pensive music)

- [Voiceover] February
the 13th 1945.

"The model of Linz
is finally finished.

The extensive model

of the development of
the Danube riverbanks

was now set up in one of the
large brightly-toned basements

of the new Chancellery.

When I led Adolf
Hitler into this room,

he stood for a long
time just looking

as though overwhelmed by
the general impression.

I moved the spotlight

to the position of the sun's
rays in the afternoon.

Now he was presented
with the perspective

of how his city on the Danube
would look in his retirement."

Hermann Giesler, general
building inspector

for the redevelopment
of the city of Linz.

- [Voiceover] "Not a day went by

when the government quarters
were not attacked.

When a bomb exploded nearby,

the bunker lying in the
groundwater swayed noticeably.

The light began to flicker,

so Hitler raised his
voice as if in a dream."

- [Voiceover] "That was close.

Those bombs could have hit us."

- [Voiceover] "He was
noticeably fearful

and didn't feel safe."

Christa Schroeder.

- [Narrator] In mid-March 1945,

Hitler transfers nearly
all of his activities

to the bunker under
the Chancellery.

Since then, he
rarely sees daylight.

- [Voiceover]
"Sometime in mid-March,

Eva Braun arrived at
the Reich Chancellery.

Hitler tried his best to get
her to go back
to Munich,

but she made it clear that her
place was at Hitler's side

and no one would be able
to change her mind."

Rochus Misch, telephone
operator in the Fuhrer's bunker.

- [Voiceover] "April the 20th
1945 was always
referred to

as the date of the last
photos and film segments

of Hitler and the delegation
of the Hitler Youth.

This is not true.

They are, in fact, from
a different reception

of a delegation by Hitler.

This took place on
March the 20th 1945."

(boys laughing)

Artur Axmann, leader
of the Hitler Youth.

- [Voiceover] "It was
between 3:00 and 4:00 am

on April the 11th 1945.

Suddenly cries were heard.

They grew louder and louder.

We stumbled outside
to discover the cause.

'Look, the gate!'
somebody shouted.

The crooked swastika
had disappeared.

Something white fluttered
on the flagpole.

The delightfully
victorious minute

for which our German
comrades had waited

4,453 days and nights
was finally there.

In the evening, an American
infantry unit arrived."

Thomas Giefer, German Jew,
prisoner in Buchenwald.

- [Voiceover] April
the 12th 1945.

"It will not be
pleasant listening.

I propose to tell
you of Buchenwald.

We reached the main gate.

The prisoners crowded
up behind the wire.

There surged around me
an evil smelling stink.

Men and boys reached
out to touch me.

They were in rags and
the remnants of uniforms.

Death had already
marked many of them,

but they were smiling
with their eyes."

Edward Murrow, radio
correspondent for
CBS News.

- [Voiceover] "On
April the 21st,

our troops reached the
Berlin Autobahn Ring.

This success created
favorable conditions

to totally enclose
the fascist capital."

Vasily Chuikov, General.

- [Voiceover] "That day, I
saw Hitler only briefly.

The boss could still not believe

that the Russians
were at the gates."

Rochus Misch.

- [Voiceover]
Szczecin, Mecklenburg.

"Around 11:50 pm, Hitler calls.

He gives a short
lecture on the situation

and concludes with the words."

- [Voiceover] "You will see.

The Russians will suffer
the biggest defeat,

the bloodiest defeat
in their history

before the gates of Berlin."

- [Voiceover] Karl Koller,

Chief of the General
Staff of the Luftwaffe.

- [Voiceover] April
the 22nd 1945.

"This date marks the end of
the Third Reich
for me.

The German Wehrmacht
capitulated on May
the 8th 1945,

but on April the 22nd, a Sunday,

Hitler capitulated."

Rochus Misch.

- [Voiceover] "On
April the 22nd,

we attended the status report

at the usual time
in the afternoon.

I recognized immediately that
clouds as heavy
as lead

were hanging over the room."

Wilhelm Keitel,

Chief of the Armed Forces
High Command, memoirs.

- [Voiceover] "I have already
reached my decision.

I won't leave Berlin again.

I will defend the
city till the end.

Either I lead the fighting
around the capital
of the Reich,

or I perish with my
soldiers in Berlin

and die in the battle for
the symbol of the Reich."

Adolf Hitler.

- [Voiceover] "During
the status conference,

which had been
loud and turbulent,

Hitler had finally uttered
the magical sentence

and since then repeated
it to everybody

who crept around the
bunker disbelievingly."

- [Voiceover] "The war is lost."

- [Voiceover] Rochus Misch.

- [Voiceover]
Gertraud Traudl Junge.

"In the small anteroom,
Hitler stands motionless.

In a distant and commanding
manner, he calls out."

- [Voiceover] "Get
changed at once.

In one hour, an
aircraft will come

and take you to the south.

Everything is lost,
hopelessly lost."

- [Voiceover] "Eva Braun
walks up to Hitler,

takes both of his hands,

and says, smilingly
and consolingly,

as if talking to a sad child."

- [Voiceover] "But you know
that I'm staying
here with you.

I will not be sent away."

- [Voiceover] "Hitler's
eyes begin to light up,

and he does something that
no one has ever witnessed,

not even his most trusted
friends and aides.

He kisses Eva
Braun on the lips."

(dog barking)

(solemn music)

- [Voiceover] "The German Army
dissolved before
our eyes."

Winston Churchill.

- [Voiceover] "Gloom
and doom began to spread

throughout the bunker."

Artur Axmann.

(explosion banging)

- [Voiceover] "The
Fuhrer comes up to me,

shakes my hand, and asks."

- [Voiceover] "Have you rested
a little, my child?

I'd like to dictate something,
get the shorthand pad."

- [Voiceover]
Gertraud Traudl Junge.

- [Voiceover] "My private
will and testament.

As I did not consider that I
could take the responsibility

of contracting a marriage
during the years
of fighting,

I have now decided before the
closing of my earthly career

to take the girl who after many
years of faithful friendship

entered the practically
besieged city of her
own free will

in order to share her destiny
with me as
my wife.

At her own desire, she goes as
my wife with me
into death.

What I possess belongs,

in as much as it has
any value, to the party.

Should this no longer
exist, to the state.

Should the state
also be destroyed,

no further decision
of mine is necessary."

Signed Berlin, April
the 29th 1945, 4:00 am,

Adolf Hitler.

- [Voiceover] April
the 30th 1945.

"I had close
contact with Mohnke,

the Commander of the Citadel.

Mohnke was often with the
troops on the front line.

(explosion banging)

On April the 29th, he reported
to Hitler that
to the north

the Russians were a
short distance away

from Weidendammer Bridge,

to the east, in Lustgarten,

to the south near Potsdamer
Platz and the Air Ministry,

and to the west in Tiergarten.

That was only a few 100 meters
from the Chancellery.

When Hitler asked him."

- [Voiceover] "How
long can you hold out?"

- [Voiceover] "He answered,
'20 to 24 hours
at the most.'"

Artur Axmann.

- [Voiceover] "On April the
30th 1945 around noon,

Bormann told me that Hitler's
decision was
now firm.

Then Hitler said to me that
he would now shoot himself

and that Fraulein Braun
would also take her life.

The bodies were to be buried.

He assigned me to make the
necessary arrangements."

Otto Gunsche, SS
Adjutant to Hitler.

- [Voiceover] "My
political testament.

I die with a happy heart

in the face of the immeasurable
deeds and achievements

of our soldiers at the
front, our women at home,

the achievements of our
farmers and workers,

and the efforts,
unique in history,

of our youth who bear my name.

Above all, I oblige the
leaders of the nation

and those under them

to scrupulously
observe the race laws

and to offer
merciless opposition

to the poisoner of all
peoples, international Jewry."

Issued in Berlin

this 29th day of April
1945, four o'clock am,

Adolf Hitler.

- [Voiceover] "There cannot
be the slightest doubt

that Adolf Hitler took his life

in the Fuhrerbunker of
the Reich Chancellery

in Berlin on April
the 30th 1945,

with his own hand, namely by
a shot in the right temple."

Cause of death, District
Court Two, Berchtesgaden,

December the 8th 1956.

- [Narrator] Valet Heinz Linge

reports the hour of
his death as 3:50 pm.

He says he noted this time

from a grandfather clock in the
anteroom to Hitler's office.

Adjutant Otto Gunsche cites
his final hour
as 3:30 pm.

He said he'd looked
at his watch.

(people chattering)

(lively music)

- [Voiceover] "It
was not disloyalty,

but rather his suicide

that put an end to
Hitler's organization.

He and his organization
were one and the same,

and thus it ended with him.

This man who rose out of nothing

had offered himself to Germany

at a time when it was
longing for a new magnet.

He formulated a doctrine

based on a mixture of
fascism and race theory.

The totalitarian system

allowed him to act
without restraint.

The mechanization
of the military

gave him the trump cards of
lightning attacks
and surprise.

All of this led to repression,

and that, in turn,
led to these crimes."

Charles de Gaulle, memoirs.

(ominous music)

(somber music)