All language subtitles for Apocalypse-The Second World War.2008.1of6.THE AGGRESSION.WS-PDTV.XviD.Ekolb-eng(3)

Apocalypse
The Second World War

Timing & Viet by jdinic3@podnapisi
English by godlob@IDWS

Berlin - 1945

Europe has been freed from
The Nazis' reign of terror.

The Red Army is waging its final battles.

Captain Joseph Prautof,
A Russian officer:

the hate ran so deep...

we wanted to end the war, and nighly
that force that wanted to kill us...

finish it off, once and for all.

Hitler's days are numbered.

He leaves his bunker for one final bit of
showmanship,

as seen in this propaganda film.

Is there still a soldier, or a child,
willing to die for him?

The war left some 50 million dead.

most of them innocent civilians.

For the women of Germany,
the ordeal would continue

even after the cannons have gone silent.

The book "A Woman in Berlin" is a
deeply disturbing account

of the Russians rape of
German women in 1945.

They grab me and throw me down.

I'm lying with my head on the steps.

I see one of the soldiers keeping watch, while
the other rips off my under clothes.

and brutally forces himself on me.

But then we'd say, better to
have a Russian on your belly,

then an American over your head.

This German woman was referring to the Allied bombers,
that pounded her city into ruins.

The Kurfurstendam,
Berlin's most fashionable avenue.

13 years earlier, the showcase of Germany.

A nation still plagued by crisis.

A monument commemorating the millions of victims

of the First World War.

Marlene Dietrich is singing "The Blue Angel" in Berlin -
Alexanderplatz.

Thomas Mann is savoring his
Noble Prize for Literature.

in the shade of the linden trees, of
Avenue Unter den Linden.

Berlin is major cultural center of Europe,

one of the most open and tolerant cities
in the world.

Then in 1933, all that changes.

Through intimidation, demagoguery, and exploiting
the bitterness of the German veterans.

Hitler and his armed malicious, like the SA
with their hymn, the "Horst Wessel Lied",

seized control of Germany.

The Nazis take advantage of the fact
that the German Left is splinted.

And it even seems like Hitler
with his raised fist,

revolutionary salute,
wants to get on *****

German Communists take their orders from Moscow,

which view the social democrats
as the true enemy.

No alliance is possible between them.

So for the last time, German Communists
sing "De Internazionale".

Hitler comes to power legally
on January 30th, 1933.

Within a few months, his dictatorship
is firmly in place.

He becomes The "Fuhrer" - The Leader.

His supporters rise and chant: "Heil Hitler!"

However, not all Germans are totally convinced,
so again and again,

Hitler hammers home his simplistic,
nationalist slogans:

Before us lies Germany

Within us Germany is stirring

Behind us, All Germany is following

And he eventually wins more and more people over,

for he has a remarkable power of
persuasion over the masses.

But what does Hitler want?

In his book "Mein Kampf" - My Struggle,
He clearly states what he calls his mission.

Being one of the imbedded veteran of the First World War,
his mission will be to destroy France,

to wipe out the humiliation of
the Versaille Treaty of 1919

that strips Germany of its army,
and part of its territory.

Then, he wants to conquer what he calls
"Lebensraum" - living space.

Germany has a population of 80 million,
twice that of France.

He wants to make Germany "The World Power"
that it deserves to be.

A pathological anti-semit,

Hitler has also taken on the mission of asserting
the superiority of the Germanic Arian race.

menaced by the Jews.

For him, the Jews were the
cause of the Great War,

German's defeat, inflation,
unemployment.

The next war will be
a war on the Jews.

They will be sent to Dachau,
the first concentration camp.

Where Hitler locks up the anti-Nazis,
the communist, social-democrats,

and all those opposed to the Nazi regime.

Last lead, Hitler takes on the mission of bringing all
German speaking people

into the rights fold,
beginning with those of his homeland.

The Anschluss: Austria's annex,

and immediately submitted to the same
reign of terror as Germany.

With the opening of one of the infamous
concentration camps

at Mauthausen, near Linz.

Which country will be his next victim?

Neighboring Czechoslovakia, whether is
a German population,

the Sudeten German.

But the country is recognized as an independent state,
by England and France.

The clouds of war gather.

In Munich, temple of Nazism,
an 11-hour peace conference is organized.

On one side, Adolf Hitler who was becoming
more and more frightening.

And his ally, the Italian dictator,
Benito Mussolini.

Mussolini, the founder of fascism,
an indoctrination of an entire nation.

From child to a Don,

On the other side, the Western democracies,

victorious but exhausted from the Great War.

Neville Chamberlain, the conservative
British Prime Minister.

And the radical socialist French Premier,
Edouard Daladier,

want to save the peace.

They end up accepting the unacceptable,

They give up the Czech province of Sudetenland to Hitler,

In exchange for his solemn promise to make no more claim

on another European territory.

But what is Hitler's promise worth?

Just 6 months later, he invades
the rest of Czechoslovakia,

and enters Prague, accompanied
by Marshall Hermann Goering.

Goering, a former First World War
fighter pilot,

one of the founders of the Nazi party,
is now the Air Minister.

And an ogre, trying to charm
the Czech children.

Hitler no longer needs the excuse of
reuniting German speaking people.

The powerful Czech industry
will be working for him.

Why shouldn't he take advantage of it?

The Allies let him get away with it.

The U.S.S.R. is the last major neighboring
power left to counter Hitler

It assigned a mutual assistance treaty
with France.

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics,
is the official name

of communist Russia, and
its satellite republics.

Manipulation of the masses in Red Square,
masked the ironfisted dictatorship of Stalin

who�s also thrown million of poor wretches
into his labor camps,

The Gulag

Industrialization and forced militarization,
have made the U.S.S.R. a major power.

Despite their fear of communism,
the Western powers rely on the U.S.S.R.

Hitler is going to beat
them to the punch.

In the summer of 1939, in his Berchtesgarden chalet,

with his Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Joachim von Ribbentrop,

he prepares a blocking maneuver.

Hitler, who swore to destroy communism,
sends von Robbentrop, the Nazi, to Moscow

to sign a history-making treaty
with his worst enemy.

When Stalin's foreign affair minister, Molotov,
signed the Germano-Soviet Pact,

communists are totally taken aback,
like these French Party Members.

It's August, 1939, and people in France
are enjoying their first paid holidays.

One of the major victories of the
Socialist Popular Front.

One of the reasons behind
this non-aggression pact.

The Soviets answer that Stalin
is playing for time.

Letting Hitler and the Western powers
killed each other off.

Perhaps, Stalin, who intends to grab the Baltic
countries and part of Poland

even has the illusion that he could share Europe
with Hitler on a permanent basis.

In 1936, the US Congress had passed
the Neutrality Act,

to avoid being dragged into
European war once again.

So, with nothing to fear either from
the United States or from Russia,

Hitler decides to wipe out what he calls

"the worst monstrosity of The Versaille Treaty"

The Danzig Corridor.

In 1919, German territory was cut in two,

in order to give Poland access to the sea.

Hitler decides to launch his invasion off Poland
and recover Danzig.

On September 1, 1939,

At 5:35 AM.

The first cannon shot of the Second World War,
is fired on Danzig.

Hitler is convinced that the French and the British
will not take action.

He had the two governments meet immediately,
and sent him an ultimatum

demanding that he hold all military action
against Poland.

Hitler declares, "Our enemies are little worms,"

and he adds, "Who wants to get bogged down
in a world war for Danzig? "

September 3, 1939.

At 11 AM, The Ambassador of Great Britain in Berlin
delivers a declaration of war.

At 5 PM, France declares war on Germany.

Hitler can hardly believe it.

German generals find themselves facing
their worst case scenario:

war, on two fronts.

But the die is cast.

Hitler unleashes the Wehrmacht,
The Armed Forces of Nazi Germany,

onto Poland.

Entering battle as if in a bygone age, the Polish cavalry
charges the German tanks,

and is slaughtered.

Paris, the Gare de l'Est train station,

Many of these men had shipped out from
these same platforms 25 years ago,

in a totally different atmosphere.

In August 1914, they marched off
to war in high spirit

with flowers in their riffles.

But there are no flowers this time.

And no riffles.

Nobody wants to fight this war.

4 million men are mobilized.

Many of them are farmers.
France is still a largely rural country.

They head for the German border on foot,
with their officers following on horseback.

Army's still rely heavily on horses.
And these are requisition surround the country.

Motorization is not kept up.

Gaston Chirac, a driver of one of these
outdated trucks,

with solid rubber tires, recalls:

There was such a shortage of equipment.
we have one riffle for two per truck

We have one box of 10 bullets,
which we won't allow to open.

It was pathetic.

If we had what we needed, we'd have fought,

cause we're no a great friend
of the "Bosche".

The "Bosche" was a pejorative term for the German soldiers
during the previous war.

They were also called "vert-de-gris",
which in French means "field gray",

the color of their uniform, which enable them
to blend in with their surroundings.

But just who are these soldiers?

Let�s take for an example, one of these
young German, marching as he sings:

"Our lag is waving before us,
Our flag is a new age."

"Our flag is stronger than death."

His name is August von Kageneck,
he writes:

I thought that the military career was the right choice.
My parents thought so as well.

My father would tell me: "At least there, you can still
open your mouth and say what you like,

and you don't have to do
that Nazi salute. "

In September 1939, August von Kageneck is still
training to become a tank commander.

He writes:

My father who is a general was telling me:

The French have 40 divisions on the border,
we have 15.

All the rest of them are in Poland.
500,000 men against 200,000.

They outnumber us,
2 to 1.

French Forces attack on September 7, 1939,

4 days after declaring war.

This offensive notched to show public opinion
that Poland is not being abandoned,

advances 8 km into the Saar region.

The French army's cinema department shows off
the spoils of war.

Bicycles..

The Saar offensive stops there,
and degenerates into a series of skirmishes,

raids by lead commandos,
led by the hero, Joseph Darnand,

who receives the citation of
"Premier Soldier of France".

Later, he will become one of the most rabid
collaborators with the German.

And eventually, he'll be executed after the war.

The French army, in spite of its hero and its superiority
in numbers, takes no further action,

General Maurice Gamelin
67 years old,

is Commandeer-in-Chief of the
Allied-Franco British Land Forces.

For the French outnumber the British,

who also thinks that this war isn't for real,
and it'll all be settled soon.

Gamelin himself has no desire
to re-fight the war of 1914.

He wants to avoid another blood bath,
at any cost.

He considers that he needs 2 years
save behind the Maginot Line,

in order to re-arm the country.

The Maginot line is the work of a former
Minister of war, Andre Maginot.

This complex of fortification was meant to stop
the German enemy, once and for all.

It took nearly 10 years to construct,

and swallowed up 1,5 million
cubic meters of concrete,

and 150,000 tons of steel.

All these ***** are linked together by a labyrinth
of tunnels, 100 km of them.

The line itself, stretch for 720 km,

from the Swiss to the Belgian borders.

The Maginot Lines ends on the foot
of the Ardennes Forrest.

The French military command thought that German tanks
could never cross these extremely

rough terrain.

The French didn't extend the line
all the way to the sea,

because Belgium before declaring
its neutrality

was an ally of France,
and opposed it.

This northern part of the France is man by a French army
and the British Expeditionary Forces.

Later reinforced by Canadians, and troops
from the far flunk British Empire.

In Britain a popular song of the day was
"The Washing on the Siegfried Line"

We're going to hang out the washing
on the Siegfried Line.

Have you any dirty washing, mother dear?

We're gonna hang out the washing
on the Siegfried Line.

'Cause the washing day is here.

The Siegfried line is the string of fortifications
constructed by Hitler,

facing the Maginot Line.

The Germans don't attack,
they're still trying to avoid a second front.

The French, nevertheless,
takes some precaution.

They evacuated the population of
Alsace and� Lorraine

to the region of Perigord and Charentes
in the south west.

Strasbourg, a ghost town,

abandoned by its population,

emptied off its soul

especially that of the synagogues.

On September 20,
Hitler orders the bombing of Warsaw.

The city is surrounded,
but still holding out.

The Fuhrer wants to strike terror into the hearts and mind
not only of the Polish
.

but also the French's and British' as well.

"This is what is in the store for you."

The world is horrified.

In New York, the bombing of Warsaw
is up in lights in Time Square,

and on the front page of
all the newspapers.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, The President of The United States
addresses the nation:

This nation will remain a neutral nation,

But I cannot ask that every American
remain neutral in thought as well.

Even a neutral has a right
to take account of facts.

Even a neutral cannot be asked
to close his mind,

or to close his conscious.

The bombing of Warsaw shows how vulnerable
the cities are.

Paris sets about protecting its monuments.

and hides its museum masterpieces
out in the provinces.

The Champ de Mars, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower,
is dug full of bomb shelters,

and there are frequent air raid drills.

Gas masks are compulsory.

Poison gases were used in the First World War,
and now, everyone is afraid of them.

Even the horses.

Meanwhile, Poland, is being ruthlessly
carved up.

As previously agreed with Hitler,
the Soviet have invaded the eastern half of Poland.

Here, German and Soviet soldiers are fraternizing,

and in congruent side, to say the least.

The Nazis hand out flyers that read:

The German Army salutes the Red Army
of workers and farmers

which is always held
in the highest respect.

The Polish Army surrenders to the German,
and in the east, to the Soviet.

Stalin then orders the execution of
20,000 Polish prisoners.

He wants to eliminated their leads of
this country he intends to annex.

4,500 Polish officers are executed
with a bullet in their head,

in the Katyn forest, near Smolensk,
in Russia.

2 years later, at the Kremlin, Stalin meets with
the head of the Polish Government in exile,

General Sikorski, who delivers a list of
Polish missing officers.

The Soviets deny any wrong-doing.

In 1992, the president of post-Soviet Russia,
Boris Yeltsin

will present the Polish president, Lech Walesa,
with the original order of execution,

signed by Stalin himself.

Stalin, by occupying half of Poland,

is in fact, playing into the hands of Hitler,
who needs a common border

with U.S.S.R. to facilitate his plan,
to invade Russia.

Hitler and Himmler, the head of the SS,
will now take care of Poland

by naming the Nazi, Hans Frank,
Governor General of the Occupied Polish Provinces

who proclaims:

I have the power of life and death
over the Polish people.

After the war, he will be tried in Nurenberg

and hanged for crime against humanity.

These gypsies, held in a pen,
are filmed by a German.

For the Nazis, they are 'non-persons'.

The women will be forced
to undergo sterilization,

because they "do not deserve to reproduce".

The Nazis declare 'open season'
on gypsies.

Hundreds of thousands will be interned
in concentration camps,

The ordeal of the Jewish people,
begin.

The Nazis now have 3 millions of Polish Jews
at their mercy.

Hitler is still uncertain about
what to do with them.

As long as the war is going well for him,
he considers deporting them to the east.

or even shipping them to Madagascar.

It's only when the outcome of the wars
becomes less certain

that Hitler and his accomplices unleashed
a frenzy of hate and murder.

"The Final Solution".

For the time being, the Jews had to be identified,

marked with the yellow star,
and herded into ghettos.

Some of which, are completely
walled-off.

From the diary of one of these
unfortunate souls:

It's heart-rending to see the shameful
scenes of violence that take place

before our eyes.

Women and the elderly, beaten right out
in the street by petty thugs.

Tears come to my eyes.

All our powerlessness,

all our isolation is there to see right in the open
where not a single person takes on offence.

We are so weak.

All the major cities of Poland
will have their ghetto prisons

where German, Austrian, and Czech Jews
will also be interned.

The Jews here still feel confidence that, perhaps someday,
they'll be able to return to their home.

They don't know that they will die
of hunger and cold.

They don't know that the show
is about to begin.

Inhabited by Jew.
No Entrance.

Warsaw, is in ruins.

Hitler comes to be filmed
by a propaganda crew,

seen here traveling in
a car in the background.

These victorious German soldiers march their goose step
to the sound of the grenadiers' march.

But they weren't too efficient
during the Polish campaign.

Poor preparation, a lack of fighting spirit,
and even cases of indiscipline

are the points that the commander-in-chief,
General von Brauchitsch,

dares report to the Fuhrer.

Hitler is furious, but he is immune to doubt and
orders the attack to the West to be prepared.

An attack on the Netherlands,
Belgium, and France.

Some of his generals think its madness,

some of them begin plotting
to overthrow the Fuhrer.

This is a crucial moment, the course of history
lies in the balance.

November 8, 1939.
Hitler narrowly escaped an assassination attempt.

It's seems that he enjoys some kind of
divine protection.

When he attempts the funeral for the victims,
he's no longer the same man.

His power over the army and the German people
has grown even stronger.

He told to the generals:

My decision is irrevocable.
I will attack France when the time is right.

I will be victorious,
or die in the attempt.

Yet, Hitler is still uncertain about attacking the West,
for he also says:

War is like opening the door on a dark room.

You'll never know what will happen.

Eventually, he postpones the order on the attack,
and goes back to his chalet in the Alps

to join his mistress, Eva Braun.

She shot this footage of Hitler entourage

of the Reich's architect, Albert Speer,
who goes for a long walk with Hitler.

Speer recalls:

Hitler wanted to re-christened Berlin,
Germania.

We already had a mark up of the future,
Adolf Hitler Square

with a dome,
inspired by St. Peter's in Rome,

but 17 times bigger.

I said to him, "My Fuhrer, wouldn't that
make an ideal target for bombers?

He answered:
Not at all. Goering has assured me that

no enemy aircraft will ever fly
over the Reich.

From his barrack, the future German officer,
August von Kageneck, writes to his mother:

We are all eager to fight.
We are ready for battle.

His mother answers:

This war is a crime, and we are going
to have to pay for it.

The war then enters a new bizarre face,

The Germans call it the "Sitzkrieg",
"the sitting war".

The British call it the "phoney war",

and for the French, it's "Drole de Guerre",
"the funny war".

A long, strange waiting period,
especially hard on the women.

For them there's not only the anguish of war,
but also the survival of their family to worry about.

As in the last war, the soldiers dig in
and try to make the best of things.

The French soldier, Gaston Chirac,
writes to his wife:

It's 30 degrees below zero,
the bread is frozen.

I'm one of the lucky ones. They gave us some straw,
and with that, we can sleep better.

The winter of 1939-1940 is indeed
one of the coldest of the century .

To make a bad situation worst, all the winters of this war,
will be brutally cold.

The commander-in-chief, General Gamelin,
is expecting the Germans to attack through Belgium

and move towards Paris across
this open plain, like in 1914.

Gamelin plans to make his stand against
the German, on Belgium soil.

In France, Colonel de Gaulle, a tank officer,
who is beginning to make a name for himself

criticizes this strategy.

He calls it the "Maginot Lines Mentality"

which consist in waiting for the other side
to make a move.

It is booked towards the professional army.

He argues in favor of taking the offensive,
making massive use of tanks.

France is producing 300 tanks a month,

but they're being disperse in all the sections
to back up the infantry.

French aviation has also fallen behind.

France ordered 4,000 planes
from the United States.

Inspired the ever growing isolationist trend
championed by Charles Lindbergh,

the hero who made the first
Trans Atlantic solo flight

and now a leading proponent of
the "America First" movement.

If you believe in an independent destiny
for America,

if you believe that this country
should not enter the war in Europe,

we ask you to join the America First Committee
in its stand.

It's the isolationists'
voice of America

and, of public personalities like Henry Ford,
the anti-Semitic car maker,

or like Joseph Kennedy, America's ambassador in London,
who is anti war.

Whereas his son, John 'the future president' Kennedy,
supports European democracies.

Nazi sympathizers in America also
contribute to the impassion climate

that reigns at the beginning of 1940.

In Europe, The British Union of Fascist
are also quite active

up to the moment they're banned.

Oswald Mosley, "The English Fuhrer", challenges
the government, right in the center of London.

He'll spend the next several years
in prison.

Mosley's speeches urge people to get out
on the streets, and stop the war.

But Winston Churchill has taken the reins
of the British government.

Here, we see him with French general Gamelin,
and Admiral Darlan

who are on an unofficial visit
to London.

A Franco-British Expedition Recon,
is formed to help Finland

which is being invaded
by the Soviet Union.

France is preparing to send its elite soldiers,
The French Foreign Legion.

For a century it has been taking in the world's reprobates,
no matter what their past.

As long as it's not too 'shady'

Their headquarters, in Sidi Bel Abbes,
in Algeria

now signs up a good number
of Spanish Republicans.

Having fled from their country,
after Franco's fascists' victory.

They now eager to fight the Nazis,
who supported Franco.

They all make the long trip
to France.

The Legionnaires embark at Brest, along with
the well equipped "Chasseurs Alpins".

A mountain corp,
trained for action in the snow.

But Finland and the Soviet Union
sign a peace treaty.

A few days later, Hitler launches an offensive
against Denmark and Norway.

The "Blitzkrieg",
The Lightning War.

The Wehrmachts takes Oslo
in 2 days.

Hitler is seeking to protect
"The Iron Route".

Iron is indispensable to
the German war effort,

and 50 percent of it Swedish iron ore is shipped
out of the Norwegian port of Narvik.

The Franco-British Expedition Recon
lands in the 'feoffee' of Narvik.

After a month of fighting,
The Allies take Narvik.

The Iron Route is temporarily cut.

This victory is good for French morale
and adds credence to their motto:

We will win because we are the strongest.

But the expedition recon will
have to abandon Narvik,

and for the rest of the war, train load after
train load of Swedish iron ore

will feed the German war machines.

The French are brought
back home

for the Germans have just launched
their offensive in the West.

May 9, 1940, Hitler left Berlin on his private train,
code name "Amerika".

Heading west towards new headquarter
near the French border.

Hitler announces:

Gentlemen, the offensive has just begun.

His generals has submitted him their battle plan
during the winter.

It looks similar to that of 1914,
attack through Belgium.

But Hitler preferred General von Manstein's idea.

Cutting straight through the Ardenne forest,
and swinging up and driving towards the sea,

encircling the allies,
with a circle cut movement.

But this circle-cut movement is, in fact,
a huge gamble.

Because the Ally could turn back
and counter attack.

However, Hitler is confident.
He notes:

The main thing is to have a good weather.

Lieutenant August von Kageneck claims:

We are the Wehrmacht,
the armed forces of greater Germany.

Victory is certain.

For the German soldiers,
their homeland is in danger.

After all it was the French
who declared war on Germany.

May 10, 1940. At dawn, German parachuters
make a jump over Holland.

Their mission is to capture the air fields
and bridges around Rotterdam.

At the same time, Hitler unleashes
his war machines on Belgium.

Hitler waits.

Will The Allies fall
into the trap?

Need help on some blanks (*****).