All language subtitles for Abandoned.Engineering.S09E07.Trouble.In.Paradise.1080p.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-squalor_track3_[eng]

In France a mighty fortress
with an extraordinary past.

The story that somebody
could take it so easily

it's almost unbelievable.

An argentinian hotel
for Nazi sympathisers.

When the einhorn's create their
special little bit of Nazi Germany.

That is the shape
of things to come.

In Hawaii, Elvis Presley's
home away from Hollywood.

You have Elvis Presley
staying not just to make movies

but then going back
with Priscilla Presley

and their new baby Lisa Marie.

And the opulent mansion
of a Mexican crime boss.

He also trafficked in weapons

and it's alleged that
he practiced torture

and extra judicial executions.

Decaying relics.
Shadows of lost worlds.

Ruins haunted by the past,

their secrets waiting
to be revealed.

In the highlands of Argentina,

there lies an estate built
for the rich and powerful.

You've got these
beautiful mountains

and you have nestled in there
this beautiful large old building.

You go in to this place and
it's absolutely sumptuous.

And it's clearly targeted at
a rather upmarket clientele.

But details that tell the story
of this place are now missing.

If you look up at this arch

you can see that there
used to be something er,

that has clearly
been knocked off.

It looks like there was a
hasty change to this arch.

Wonder what was there.

Everything here is at the
heart of a controversial theory.

Did an infamous tyrant
fake his own death

and escape here
to seek sanctuary?

Of course this is complete
rubbish and not true at all

but the fact that that
conspiracy theory exists,

that people think about this
gives us a clue to the history

of this building.

In 1897 this land was just an empty
Meadow until the arrival of one man.

A German tourist
comes in to Argentina

and comes to this region
and realises this is beautiful.

It, the air is clean, it's
just a wonderful space

and he makes this
decision to build a hotel.

His hotel was to be the most
luxurious in all of Argentina.

It had 100 bedrooms,
it had 38 bathrooms

now that doesn't seem like
a lot by today's standards

but you know, at the time 38
bathrooms for 100 bedrooms,

that was a lot, and
it was electrified,

meaning you had
electric light in every room

and all the common areas.

And it had you know,
huge kitchens, refrigerators,

yeah, so that the
guests could partake

of all the fruits of
Argentina, you know,

some of the best
beef in the world.

But not all of the rooms
were built for luxury.

Not far away from the
gloss and glitz of the hotel

is the gritty side of the place.

Here is a er, an engine
room, a generator room,

it's where the grease
monkeys who keep the lights on

are all doing the hard work.

But the no expense spared
approach wasn't overly successful.

The original owners could never
get this hotel profitable enough

to make up for their debt

but they did find someone
to buy it from them.

In 1912 the hotel came
under new management.

It was bought by a married couple
called Walter and ida einhorn.

Einhorn's were very clever
in their business techniques,

they had a lot of great ideas,

they worked in the
sophisticated circles of the day

the more popular
and wealthier crowds

and were able to convince them
that Argentina was the place to go

and the hotel Eden was
the only place to stay.

Gabriela Sanchez has studied
the couples fascinating story.

Germans start to come
and stay at the hotel Eden

because it's one up
on their neighbours

who only went to baden baden.

The einhorn's had turned the
hotel around from a failing business

to a thriving resort.

But it soon began to attract a
very specific kind of clientele.

All sorts of prominent
Germans, you know, went there

including Albert Einstein
who was there in 1925.

But a rumour suggests that
another influential German

stayed at the hotel.

A rising star in German
politics, Adolph Hitler.

One of the really difficult aspects
of the early days of the Nazi party

was that Hitler was the
most engaging speaker

the Nazi's had

and he went on speaking
tours around Germany

to raise money and gain
support for the Nazi party.

The einhorn's were just
the kind of forward looking,

modern people with money

who Adolph Hitler
was trying to latch on to.

Walter and ida einhorn
invested their own money

into Hitler's national
socialist party.

Hotel Eden became an argentinian
outpost for Nazi sympathisers.

They would sit in the
bar at the Eden hotel

and they would drink German
wine and eat German food

and talk German talk,

they were German heroes
drinking German beer

and listening to the greatest
German of them all, Hitler.

The hotel's entrance was even
decorated with Nazi symbols.

If you look at old photographs
you can see what was missing

and what it was on that great
arch above it was a giant eagle

in the German style er,

following er,

the pattern of the
national socialist party.

The couple's loyalty was rewarded
on their silver wedding anniversary

in 1937.

The einhorn's hold a
huge party at the hotel,

they invite all the best guests

and all sorts of important
people from the region

and from Germany

to come to the hotel to
celebrate their 25th anniversary.

The einhorn's invited the
German ambassador to Argentina

as a guest of honour.

He arrived bearing
a special gift.

And you know they get in
to some sort of dream state

'cause they've, they've heard that
the German ambassador is coming to,

from Buenos Aires with
a present for the fuhrer.

The gift was a photograph
in a silver frame,

it came with a personal message.

(Read) Mr and mrs einhorn,

to my comrades in
battle during difficult times,

for your silver anniversary.

Warm wishes. Adolph Hitler.

For them to receive this gift is
going to mean a great deal to them

and it's going to elevate
them erm, politically

that Adolph Hitler is going
to think so highly of them

to send such a personal gift.

Throughout the second world war,

the einhorn's boasted
of their close friendship

with Hitler,

although it might not have been
quite as close as they thought.

What really happens is this,

no doubt somebody from
the German foreign office

goes over to Hitler's
office and says

can we have another one
of those autographed pictures

and Hitler's secretary
gets the fuhrer

to write a little
handwritten note,

they stick it on to one
of a million Hitler pictures

and they send it in the
diplomatic pouch out to Argentina.

That day, that 25th anniversary
day in Argentina was so special

'cause Hitler himself
had noticed them.

Great.

But of course their beloved
Hitler didn't quite deliver

the Nazi utopia he had promised.

Well Argentina was always
heavily German influenced,

they were a natural allies for
the Germans in world war two

so of course they
do not join the allies

when the war breaks out

so they grudgingly declare
war on Germany only in 1945

and very half-heartedly.

Overnight, hotel Eden
became an enemy of the state,

the Argentine government
seized it as a Nazi stronghold.

The luxury apartments were used
as prisons for Japanese diplomats.

Then after the war they
give it back to the einhorn's

but you know,

all the life has kind of
gone out of the einhorns,

they were big Nazi,
big Nazi sympathisers,

their dream has gone away,

they've gotten old, they don't
want to put anymore energy into it.

The einhorn's retired
and faded from public life.

But Argentina remained
a safe haven for Nazis.

In those post-war years

the argentinian president was
very sympathetic to the cause

of these former German Nazis er,

and so you end up having
thousands of these former Nazis

being smuggled out of
Germany, coming to Argentina,

often bringing their
wealth with them.

Er, and living in Argentina
for absolutely decades.

Even today the hotel is the
subject of weird speculation

and mad-cap theories.

Because this place used
to be owned by Germans

and because they
were a kind of Nazi,

people say that Hitler
snuck out of Germany

and came and
stayed in this hotel.

This is nonsense.

Hitler died in his
bunker by his own hand

and he did not
end up in Argentina.

The end.

In guerrero state

a traditional coastal town on
the western shores of Mexico,

there's a great
architectural relic.

This is a place where you
have hotels and residences

with a beautiful sea view.

The bay curls round forming
this kind of sheltered utopia.

Above the sands of Zihuatanejo
sits an abandoned complex

with echoes of ancient Greece.

Beyond the gates there's this
unkept path with eerie headless statues

and fallen columns around it.

You get the sense there's
something very sinister in the air here.

The basement is dank
and very frightening.

There also appears to be
the beginnings of a tunnel,

what possible need would
you have for a tunnel down here

and where does it lead?

But above the dilapidated
basement is a place of wonders.

You've got 42 doric columns

and this
Parthenon-shaped structure

but the place hasn't been
wrecked and vandalised,

it's still pretty intact,

there's sort of a nimbus of
power that still surrounds the place.

To the side of the entrance,

these snake-like vines creep
through these colossal cages.

What could they possibly
have been used for?

Rodrigo Campos first
came here in the 1980s

when he worked for
the local government.

Since it was closed, few
people have been allowed inside.

This is the holiday home
of Arturo durazo moreno,

a Mexican police chief
with expensive tastes.

This became a real go-to
spot for high flying decadent set

of Mexico

that could afford to fly
in on their helicopters

or dock their private
yachts in the bay below.

He would throw these robe
parties in which famous actors

and even the
president's own mistress

would come to the party
wearing just their robes.

But durazo's eccentricities
didn't end there,

this was his far flung
shrine to the human form.

The upstairs bedrooms were
the venues for numerous orgies.

With their mirrored ceilings,

I'll leave it to you to imagine

the indulgencies that the
guests enjoyed in these rooms.

It gets darker than that if you
look closer you see satanic images,

imagines of violence and they
kind of radiate a sinister feel.

The graphic imagery
depicts fictional violence

but the building's story began
in the aftermath of a real war.

In 1968 a conflict

between the government
and guerrilla groups

reached a violent peak with
a state-funded massacre.

This paramilitary force
opened fire on a large group

of peaceful student
protestors in Mexico City

killing hundreds

and forcing thousands to
flee in terror for their lives.

During this period

people on the state payroll
practiced disappearances,

kidnappings, torture,
illegal imprisonment

and even extra-judicial
executions.

One of the architects of
this war lived on top of the hill

in his Greek palace.

This is the Parthenon

of the Mexican thug

and infamous chief of
police Arturo durazo moreno,

otherwise known as
El negro or the black.

El negro was the childhood
friend of Lopez portio

the long-serving
president of Mexico.

When he was a kid
he got bullied in school

and El negro was his protector

so of course when Lopez portio
becomes president of Mexico

he makes El negro the
chief of the Mexico City police.

El negro was able to
capitalise on the chaos

to enjoy the perks
of his new job.

The Parthenon became his lair.

This guy was earning $1,000 a
month as chief of the Mexican city police,

this place was built at a cost
of $35 million, you do the math.

So where did the
money come from?

Extortion, corruption,
intimidation,

embezzlement, that's where.

His powerful
friends kept him safe

and he's reported
to have pocketed

around a billion dollars
whilst he was in charge.

Now this is a guy who is
said to have lit his cigarettes

using hundred dollar bills.

Durazo turned the Mexico
City police force in to a mafia.

They even helped
build his mansion.

He needed about 1,000
labourers to build this

so he just told 1,000
Mexico City cops,

hey, you're gonna
build my dream home

and they worked at government
expense to build this place.

Durazo's coastal retreat became
the hub of his criminal activities.

Cocaine was the glamour drug of
the 1970s and El negro stepped in

to supply this
sought after powder

and it made him
very rich very quickly.

When you look around this place

you start to see evidence

that this guy really was you
know, a big narco in Mexico.

There's this little
compartment under the pool

that can be explained as
being for pool maintenance

but it's obviously a place
where he could hide out.

There's a tunnel that leads
under the palace and out to the sea,

this was for trafficking
cocaine on to boats.

El negro's syndicate came
down hard on criminal competitors,

his methods certainly
produced results.

During his time as the head
honcho of the police in Mexico,

the crime rate
dropped substantially.

On his watch, criminals
had a serious incentive

not to cross the line.

In January of 1982

several tortured bodies
of columbian bank robbers

turned up on the
banks of the tula river

and it became painfully obvious

that it was really torture
and intimidation and violence

that was keeping the
criminal element in check.

People began to ask more
serious questions about durazo

and his methods.

Later that year El negro's
friend, president portio,

was replaced by
Miguel de la Madrid.

In 1982,

president Miguel de
la Madrid was elected

and El negro lost his
position as chief of police.

The new president began

what he called moral renovation
and a war on corruption.

For El negro the game was up.

To avoid arrest
durazo fled the country.

He just abandoned this place,

like the Parthenon leaves like
dozens of expensive automobiles

and he goes off
to the United States

hoping that, you know,
he won't be charged there.

In the meantime

the Mexicans are putting
together a list of his crimes.

El negro was charged
with tax evasion, extortion,

smuggling and possession
of illegal weapons.

After two years on the run

he was finally captured,

put on trial and sentenced to
25 years in a Mexican prison

and the Parthenon was abandoned.

El negro served only eight years
in prison before he was released.

He died in 2000 but
his brutal reputation

is still not forgotten
by many Mexicans.

And we have to ask
ourselves, you know,

the question that the
romans often ask themselves

about giving people power,

you can choose
watchmen to watch over us

but who watches the watchmen?

Today El negro's Parthenon

is a towering memorial
to a time of dirty war

and corruption.

Its walls maybe uncomfortable
reminders of the past

but the local government here
hopes it will one day be repurposed

to properly serve
the local community.

In the French countryside

an unusual concrete
structure rises from the ground.

The landscape is broken by
this strange five sided shape,

there are these bizarre metal
protuberances coming up,

some of them look like helmets.

As you come close
to this construction,

you can see massive
poured concrete fortifications.

You can't build this
in the middle ages,

you can't build this
in the renaissance.

This building,

this construction is all an
artefact of the industrial revolution

and of the 19th
and 20th centuries.

The walls hold clues
to it's fascinating past.

You can see there are
remains of battle all around.

Clearly a huge fight took place
here but the question is who won.

It's situated just 20
miles from the border

with another
European super power.

This spot

is clearly going to be

key terrain in any conflict

between Germany and France.

This fortress was once known
as the most powerful in the world

but in February 1916

it was captured by a
commando team like no other,

during one of the most
infamous battles of world war one,

the battle of verdun.

The fighting around verdun was
one of the most drawn out episodes

of the first world war.

The battle lasted for 11 months.

The German plan was to tie
down thousands of French troops

fighting at historic verdun.

The most vital fortification
here was fort duhermont.

There's strong

and there's impregnable and
fort duhermont was impregnable,

it could house
over 1,000 soldiers

and it's walls were
eight feet thick

and made of steel
reinforced concrete.

Duhermont had been considered

the most invincible
defensive position in the world.

But on February the 25,
1916, the fort was captured.

Patricia piatek has come to the
place where the German attack began.

A French soldier
was Manning his post

and he saw soldiers come
rushing across no man's land.

The French soldier tried to
hold them off but it was hopeless.

The German attackers
made it to the walls.

Just 10 minutes later, fort
duhamont had been taken.

A fortification this
massive, this impressive,

you would think that this would
be a long involved campaign,

all sorts of blood shed

and so the story that
somebody could take it so easily,

it's almost unbelievable.

If you ask a staff college
audience the question,

what do you need

in order to attack a
well-entrenched enemy like a fortress,

the text book answer
is you need six to one.

But incredibly,

fort duhamont had been captured
by a single German soldier.

The soldier had not only
dodged a sniper's bullet,

he'd also single-handledly
overrun a machine gun nest

and locked its entire
crew in a classroom.

This inevitably
poses the question,

how on earth did
one person do this?

Well there are several
versions of the story.

But as the Germans
approached the fort,

the lookout made
a crucial mistake.

A French infantryman thought
he saw something, shot at it.

Realised that he didn't want
to shoot other frenchmen

and put his rifle down.

It gave the Germans the
opportunity they needed.

Three soldiers scoured
the fort for French infantry,

one was sergeant Felix kuntz

who made a startling
discovery inside a briefing room.

The explosion sent a shockwave
that extinguished all the lights.

So as soon as the lights go
out he dives out of the room,

slams the door, bolts the door,

and the frenchmen are all
locked in when the lights come on.

With a large portion of the
French Garrison locked in

the briefing room

the Germans were able to
completely capture fort duhamont.

It really does seem like an
extraordinary military achievement,

taking this vast fort without
a single shot being fired

but in fact there's
a wider context.

The previous year France
had actually redeployed

many of its troops elsewhere,

fort duhamont was in
fact an acceptable loss.

When the Germans
win fort duhamont,

it is not a great
German victory.

It is simply a
repositioning of forces

which the Germans
mistake for success.

But the truth remains
that sergeant kuntz

and his small force
had managed to capture

one of the most powerful
fortresses in the world.

To make the most of a
great propaganda opportunity

a grand German victory
parade was essential.

The achievement of the German
army in winning this fortress

is something that the Germans
really want to use in propaganda

to energise the rest
of the German army

to beat the French.

At first sergeant kuntz seemed
to modestly play down his role

in the fort's capture.

There was one part of
the epic tale that he feared

might spoil his reputation.

Once the French soldiers
were locked in to that classroom,

kuntz then came upon a kitchen
or mess hall and he was famished,

he was absolutely famished

and so when he came upon this
food he takes this moment to eat it.

And kuntz is really worried

that he is going
to get in trouble

for having paused to eat

all the good French food

down in the French canteen.

So for years after
the first world war

sergeant kuntz
doesn't tell anybody

that he was the guy who
got in to the fortress first.

Germany held fort duhamont
for another eight months.

It's one reason why verdun became
the longest land battle in history.

300,000 soldiers
were killed at verdun,

all as result of a German strategy
that ultimately cost them the war.

The Germans were there to
make the French fight and die,

the Germans don't
need to take verdun,

they just have to fight verdun.

But they lose the plot,

they tried to win
the battle at verdun.

And it's one of the
reasons they lost the war.

On the east coast of
kauai, Hawaii's oldest island,

an abandoned structure
has been reclaimed by nature.

This is a gorgeous place,
there's trees, there's lagoons.

But then there's all these
buildings that are abandoned,

they're falling in to disrepair and
the question is what is this place?

Lush palm trees have taken over
this site making it a green oasis.

Tucked away amongst the greenery
are what look to be bungalows.

As you enter the structures
one of the first things you notice

is the murals

that are very colourful
lining all the walls.

The elaborate architecture
of this complex makes you feel

that at its height this was
probably a beautiful place

but now all that
remains is eerie silence.

Fans of the big screen may feel like
they know this place from somewhere.

All of Hollywood would stay here
you know, Sinatra, John Wayne, Elvis.

As you walk around you can
see that it was once quite lavish,

even though today
it is in great disrepair.

But even now this rundown
place attracts rock and roll fans

from all over the world looking to
follow in the footsteps of the king.

All his fans and there are a
zillion of them, they all come here.

It has become a
mecca for Elvis fans

but something happened
to turn it in to a ruin.

The buildings here stand
just inches above the waterline

but this swamp is a holy spot.

This area lies at the
mouth of the wailua river

and this river holds a special
significance to the people of kauai.

To this day the
native people of kauai

believe that this
spot is sacred.

This land was once part
of the Hawaiian kingdom

until it was bought by a
private investor in 1890.

They'd been coming here every
day for almost 30 years now.

In the 1990s, Bob Jasper
became a frequent visitor.

We are at the most famous abandoned
building in the whole south pacific.

Welcome to the
coco palms resort.

The coco palms was a hotel,

the dream of a businessman
called Lyle lol guslander.

Guslander or Gus as he was
known around the times er,

was very smart, very active,

he was known as a little
rough around the edges,

maybe a little bit of a tough
guy but he was very ambitious.

Despite Gus's great ambitions,

he couldn't run the
hotel on his own.

It had 24 rooms,

it had five employees
and two guests

so it was a far cry from this luxury
resort that Gus had envisioned.

If the coco palms was going to
be a success, Gus needed help.

He knew a very intelligent
woman named grace busher,

he asked grace if she would
come and operate his hotel.

Together the pair set about
to transform this little lodge

into what they expected guests'
Hawaiian fantasies to look like.

In 1953 grace busher was
hired to transform the fortunes

of the coco palms resort.

At the time grace was 43, had
no prior hotel running experience,

she was a non-Hawaiian,

originally from Pennsylvania with
no background in Hawaiian culture.

What grace lacked in experience
she made up for in enthusiasm.

She moved in to the cheapest
room at the coco palms

where she faced
her first big challenge.

All along the front
of the hotel here,

right out here where
you see this big ditch

were the tracks and the
train would go by here

who knows how many times a day
- honk honk honk - blowing it's horn.

Customers began to complain
and bookings were affected.

But the train was
carrying sugar cane

which was then part of
a billion-dollar industry.

Well, this is just
irritating grace to death,

so one day at
3.00 in the morning,

grace took a chair
out, set it on the tracks,

sat down in the
chair and said that's it,

until your boss tells me

you're not going to blow the horn
any more at 3.00 in the morning,

I ain't moving.

And that was grace
and she got her way.

Grace faced down
the sugar company

and won, it was the
first in a line of victories

and creative innovations.

When some rooms
became infested with frogs,

she rebranded
them the frog rooms.

She even devised the
famous tiki torch ceremony

which is now a staple
of the Hawaiian vacation.

But it was another
billion-dollar industry

that left an indelible
Mark on the hotel.

This is a very special place.

Written in the cement here
are the words pagan love song

filmed at the coco palms.

That starred Esther Williams,
Howard keel, Rita maurino

and as far as Hawaii
and the traditions,

that did a pretty
good job of showing it

and they left
something behind for us

which we found
etched in the cement.

Pagan love song was the
start of a long relationship

between coco
palms and Hollywood.

Elvis shot one movie here
and that was blue Hawaii

but that was his most
successful movie, it was huge.

It not only helped put
coco palms on the map,

it helped put Hawaii on the map,

a huge deal for the hotel.

We're going in to bungalow 56,

every time Elvis was here this
is the bungalow he stayed in,

he was a creature of habit

and whenever he came
back he wanted bungalow 56

and what Elvis wanted Elvis got.

That was grace, she
took care of Hollywood,

Hollywood came here
and took care of her.

By the time grace retired, nine
movies had been shot at the resort.

Guests here including
bing Crosby, frank Sinatra

and the Von trapp
family singers.

But in 1992

the coco palms faced a disaster
that even grace couldn't prevent.

You know, hurricane
enicki was out there

but it was 400
miles south of Hawaii

and it was headed west,

nobody's paying
any attention to it.

Right.

That thing just took a 90
degree turn and here she comes.

It just, it's as if god

took this perfect 400
mile-across storm -

let me see where's the
centre of kauai, it's right there.

He just slammed it right on us
and this thing was unbelievable.

160 mile per hour winds
swept across the island,

Steven Spielberg even
filmed the devastation

for his movie Jurassic park.

Sadly the coco
palms was destroyed.

This place sat here
empty for 13 years.

So sadly enicki had a
devastating impact on this hotel

in the long run.

We're the only island in Hawaii
to ever be hit with a hurricane,

we've been hit
with three of them.

Today, the coco palms is in limbo
as Hawaiians debate it's future.

At the moment there are plans
again to develop and refurbish the site

but there are native Hawaiians who
do claim the property as their own.

Some might say that it's fitting
that nature is reclaiming this spot

where humans tried to
build upon sacred land

and that it should
just be left alone

but only time will tell
what's in store for this place.

The current owners would
still like to see it a hotel,

other people have other things
they'd like to see done with it,

a park or cultural centre.

Who knows.

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