All language subtitles for Secrets.Declassified.with.David.Duchovny.S01E10.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[dramatic music]

- Throughout time,
governments

and the people
who work for them

have done strange
and even terrible things

in the name of
national interest,

and sometimes they turn to
unlikely allies for help.

Tonight, a partnership
with the FBI

transforms
a small time gangster

into Boston's kingpin.
- It's crazy.

You have this combination
of this FBI deal

and a crooked agent
giving Bulger the power

to take over
the Boston mob world.

- The CIA commissions assassins
from the underworld.

- They have to get Castro

out of the picture
permanently.

It's a bold and risky move.

- The idea of the CIA
partnering with the mafia

is so outrageous that no one
will possibly believe it.

- And a pharmaceutical company
partners with the Nazis

to create super soldiers.

- They take the entire country
in five weeks.

It's a crushing victory.

- It's time to bring these
unholy alliances to light.

♪ ♪

It's 1945.

World War II
is coming to an end,

and the Allies are hunting down
Nazi war criminals,

but when many of
the Fuhrer's henchmen

escape to freedom
in South America,

it's clear someone
is aiding them.

Who could be helping
the Nazis escape?

♪ ♪

- When World War II ends,

the Allies are
obviously desperate

to capture every surviving Nazi

and put them on trial
for their horrific crime,

but amongst the Nazis
trying to flee

are hundreds of thousands
of displaced refugees,

all on the move
and all in search

of a new life abroad.

- To prevent Nazis escaping,
every road,

train, and boat leaving Europe
is being watched.

Nothing and no one
leaves without being checked.

- They tightened up
the travel restrictions

to the extent that really there
was only one avenue available,

and that was obtaining
a Red Cross visa

that would allow you
to get out.

- Despite the Allies
capturing hundreds

of high ranking Nazis,
many of Hitler's

most senior officers
are missing.

The U.S. believes someone is
helping them escape Europe.

But who?

- In 1947,
an American attaché

in Rome named Vincent La Vista
is put in charge

of monitoring this situation
to determine whether or not

former Third Reich officials
or military members

were attempting to use
the Red Cross visa

to escape from justice.

♪ ♪

- La Vista starts
the investigation

at the Red Cross.

- And that's when he hears
that there's something called

the Papal Refugee Center.

- Apparently,
some refugees there

are able to get
a Vatican issued letter

of recommendation to leave,
which means

they can skip the Red Cross's
background checks.

♪ ♪

- La Vista asks his contacts

if there's been
any suspicious activity

at the refugee center.

- One name starts to come up
again and again,

a mysterious German
based in Rome known as Dr. Nix.

- What La Vista discovers is
that this mysterious doctor

is one of
the leading characters

facilitating these pathways
that are being used

by former
Third Reich officials

to escape out of Germany
and into Rome

and then South America.

♪ ♪

- Dr. Nix
and his collaborators

are using escape routes
called ratlines,

a reference to rats
getting off a sinking ship.

But even more shocking
is who is protecting Nix.

♪ ♪

- An anonymous source tells
La Vista that Nix,

he's being sheltered
inside the Vatican.

♪ ♪

- Apparently, Nix not only has
the protection of the Vatican,

he's actively working
for the Vatican.

♪ ♪

- The theory is that Nix is
sheltering the Nazis in Rome,

and he's connecting them
with Catholic bishops

who can assist them
in obtaining these letters

and identity paperwork
that are critical

for them to achieve
the Red Cross visas

that will allow them
to leave Italy.

- The Vatican is working
hand in hand

with Nazi war criminals

because the church
and the Nazis

share common ground.

They both despise communists.

- In the aftermath
of the conflict,

there are major
Communist movements

in Czechoslovakia and France
and also in Italy.

Communism was in
direct conflict

with the Roman Catholic Church

because it is atheistic
at its core.

♪ ♪

- And the Catholic Church
is concerned

that Communist leaders
will take over

Europe and Latin America.

- South America is
almost entirely Catholic.

The Vatican is absolutely
terrified about anything

that might hinder
its influence

among Catholic populations
around the world.

Anyone that opposes
the spread of communism

is someone that ought
to be supported.

- And surprise, surprise,
if there's anybody in 1945

that has a reputation
for being anti-communist,

it's the Nazis.

So someone gets the idea
to give them free passage

out of Europe
and set them up as allies

to fight communism
and save the Catholic Church

across the globe.

♪ ♪

- La Vista sends
everything he has

on the Nazis and the Vatican
back to the U.S. government,

but the report disappears.

♪ ♪

It will be 37 years before
the Vatican's dark secret

and U.S. silence
will be revealed.

- In 1983, historian
and renowned Nazi hunter

Charles R. Allen Jr. files

a Freedom of Information
Act request.

- It unearths a really dark
chapter of Vatican history

helping Nazis escape justice.

- The story is picked up
by "The New York Times"

and becomes
a global news sensation.

All eyes turn to the Vatican
demanding answers.

- The Vatican strongly denies
being involved in this process,

and that instead, a series
of rogue bishops acting alone,

they were responsible
for doing this

and that they were all stripped
of their positions,

and they're
no longer a problem.

- The U.S. doesn't just
turn a blind eye

to the Nazis on the run.

It gives them jobs.

They recruit hundreds
of German scientists

to fight on a new frontier
against the Soviets in space.

♪ ♪

- In July of 1969,

650 million people
tune in to watch...

- Ignition sequence start.

- The enormous
Saturn V rocket

launch American astronauts
out of orbit

and towards the moon.

♪ ♪

- Then four days later,
they make it to the moon

and Neil Armstrong etches his
name into the history books.

♪ ♪

- One of the most proud viewers

of the launch
of the Saturn V rocket

was the man that was
at the heart of its creation,

Wernher von Braun.

He was the face of
the American rocket program

for more than two decades,
and the Saturn V

was the culmination
of a lifetime spent

inventing and testing rockets.

♪ ♪

- By the late 1960s,
Wernher von Braun

is a household name
in the United States,

and he's even been on the cover
of "Time" Magazine.

- But very few people know
what he did

before building rockets
for NASA.

♪ ♪

In 1985, "The New York Times"

exposes the truth
about von Braun's past.

- The article takes a deep dive
into declassified files

that were produced as a result
of a Freedom of Information Act

request by a journalist
named Linda Hunt.

Hunt found that von Braun
was a commissioned major

in the Waffen SS, a branch
of the German military

notorious for being a place
where the true believers went.

- SS Major von Braun's past
shocks the American public,

but not the U.S. government.

They knew about it all along.

- He's not some
disassociated scientist

who's just inventing rockets.

His production facilities
for the rockets

that he's so devoted to
employ slave labor,

and those slaves are literally
being worked to death,

and von Braun is well aware
of that fact.

- At the same time, they're
prosecuting Nazi criminals

at Nuremberg,
the American government

were prepared
to bury their morals

just so they can beat
the Soviets in the space race.

The contradiction
just blows your mind.

♪ ♪

- Von Braun is far from
the only Nazi scientist

working in the U.S.

It turns out
there are more like him.

- Hunt reveals a top secret
operation called Paperclip

that President Truman
authorized

during the closing weeks
of the Second World War.

- Operation Paperclip
is a program

to try to capture
as many Nazi scientists

and engineers as possible.

- Germany was regarded
as the Mecca of hard science.

So the Nazis we really want
are the Nazis

that are a part of their
high technology programs,

and we'll do almost anything to
get our hands on those people.

- We're going to have
to hold our noses

and accept any help
that we can potentially get

from these Nazi inventors

in order to be able to offset

the rising power
of the Soviets.

- Secrets fester
if left uncovered,

but thanks to Linda Hunt,

the truth about von Braun

and Operation Paperclip
is revealed.

♪ ♪

- For decades,
James Whitey Bulger

runs Boston's underworld
with an iron fist.

He's in that position
because the authorities

who should be taking him down
are actually working with him.

- It's January 1995.

It's early in the evening
and workers are headed home,

but the day has only
just begun for the FBI

and the Massachusetts
State Police

sitting in unmarked cars,
staking out a restaurant.

[dramatic music]

- For the last six years,
the FBI and the state police

have been trying to build
an airtight case against

two of the city's
most reputed mob leaders,

James Whitey Bulger and his
number two, Stephen Flemmi.

Bulger is not above
utilizing any means

to consolidate power
in the city.

He's connected
to some 19 murderers

and is seen as a vicious
and ambitious gangster.

- The task force is finally
ready to make their arrests.

The plan is for the
Massachusetts State Police

to grab Flemmi while
the FBI simultaneously

takes down Bulger.

- The state police were able to
corner the unsuspecting Flemmi.

- But when the FBI swoops in
to arrest Bulger, he is gone

and nowhere to be found.

- This isn't the first time

he has slipped
through the net.

Very few people knew about
the coordinated arrests,

so the state police
want to know,

how does Bulger
keep getting away?

- They become so suspicious
that they start

to actually think that
someone in the FBI

is tipping Bulger off.

The FBI was actually
starting to get frustrated

by these accusations that were
being made against them

by the state police.

- So in a show of good faith,

they have now joined forces
with the state police

to lead the investigation
into Bulger.

- The FBI investigation
does not say

how Bulger evades capture.

That only comes out
three years later

at the trial of
his right hand man,

Stephen Flemmi.

- When Stephen Flemmi
takes the stand

at his racketeering trial,

he's got a bombshell secret
to share.

He reveals that he and Bulger
had been recruited by the FBI

in the early 1970s,
and have been

protected informants
ever since.

♪ ♪

- Flemmi's testimony
forces the FBI

to admit their alliance
with Bulger.

- They confirm that Bulger
was recruited in 1975

by FBI Agent John Connolly
to help take down

one of Boston's most powerful
mafia families, the Patriarcas.

♪ ♪

The deal was simple.

If Bulger was to feed the FBI

enough intel
on the Patriarcas,

they would turn a blind eye
to all his criminal ventures

and provide him with immunity
from prosecution.

Just like that.

- According to Flemmi,
the FBI isn't just

turning a blind eye
to Bulger's crimes.

At least one Fed
is actively helping him.

- Flemmi's testimony
is damning.

He tells the court
that every time

law enforcement built a case
against him and Bulger,

they were tipped off
by an insider,

which allowed them to stay
one step ahead of the law.

♪ ♪

- The man on the inside,
Flemmi lets go,

is actually their FBI handler,
John Connolly,

who's been working
with the pair

for more than 20 years.

- The Boston FBI is caught
completely off guard.

- They discover that
Connolly and Bulger

had actually grown up
in the same neighborhood

and developed
a personal relationship.

They were old pals.

- The revelation
is just mind blowing.

But why would FBI break bread
with a notorious gangster?

♪ ♪

Because of their close ties,
once Bulger becomes

a confidential informant,

Connolly is easily
corrupted by him.

So in exchange for bribes,

Connolly is feeding Bulger
information

about
the police investigations.

- The relationship
with Connolly and Bulger

is exactly what empowers Bulger
to basically become

the kingpin of the mob world.

- It's crazy.

You have this combination
of this FBI deal

and a crooked agent
giving Bulger the power

to take over
the Boston mob world.

They made a monster.

♪ ♪

- By 1999, the FBI has
gathered enough evidence

to arrest Connolly.

♪ ♪

- He's eventually
convicted of racketeering

and second-degree murder

and is sentenced
to 40 years in prison.

♪ ♪

- Meanwhile,
Bulger remains a fugitive

on the FBI's most wanted list
for 16 years.

♪ ♪

- In 2011, they finally
take Whitey Bulger down.

At his trial,

he is sentenced
to life in jail.

♪ ♪

- But seven years later,
Bulger pays the ultimate price.

For all those years
as an FBI informant,

an ex-mafia hitman
murders him in his prison cell.

♪ ♪

- It's 2019 in Berlin.

A man is gunned down
in cold blood.

The dead man is
a well-known enemy of Russia,

and his killer's name
is a mystery.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

- An assassin is in the bushes

waiting for
a Georgian national

to come walking by
in a public park in Berlin.

His target is
Zelimkhan Khangoshvili,

a longtime enemy
of the Russian state

who has fought against them
in two wars

in the '90s and was now living
in exile in Germany.

♪ ♪

- Khangoshvili walks past.

The hitman emerges
from the bushes.

♪ ♪

He fires,

and Khangoshvili
dies instantly.

- After the assassination,
despite trying to blend in,

the German police find this guy
and quickly arrest him.

- The assassin is carrying
a Russian passport

under the name of
Vadim Sokolov,

but neither the passport
nor its holder is real.

- When the assassin
is apprehended

and they find his passport
under the name Vadim Sokolov,

they go searching
through the records

but aren't able
to find this guy.

He's a ghost.
It isn't a real name.

It isn't a real passport.

- The German police
announce to the world

that they have arrested
a killer,

but they have no idea
who he is.

- The news explodes
around the world.

Everyone wants to know,

who is
this mysterious assassin?

Who is he working for,
and has he killed before?

♪ ♪

- A group of
European journalists

start investigating
this murder,

and they go out looking
for other assassinations

that there are
similar methods used,

and they find one that's
eerily similar to this.

- Six years earlier
in Moscow in 2013,

a Russian entrepreneur
is gunned down in the street.

Like the Berlin murder,

it looks like
a professional hit job.

The killer shot his victim
multiple times

and fled on a bicycle.

- The prime suspect in the case
is a man named Vadim Krasikov.

- The investigative
journalists want to know,

are Krasikov and Sokolov
the same person?

- Back in 2013, Russian police
quickly launched

a worldwide search for him

and a red notice warrant
was filed with Interpol.

- There's an interesting thing
about this red notice.

It has a picture on it,
and that picture

is almost identical
to the person

that they know
as Vadim Sokolov.

♪ ♪

So they discovered
that Sokolov is

actually a guy named Krasikov.

- In December 2019,
the journalists hand over

their findings
to German investigators

working on the assassination of
Zelimkhan Khangoshvili,

the man killed
in the Berlin park.

- Because of the efforts
of these journalists,

Krasikov is put on trial
in 2021 in Germany

and is convicted of
the murder of Khangoshvili.

♪ ♪

- The German government
sentences him

to life in prison.

- Krasikov is identified,

but there is still
one question.

Who is he working for?

- As the judge
delivers the verdict,

he makes a shocking disclosure.

The court believes
Krasikov was acting

on a state contract authorized
by Vladimir Putin himself.

♪ ♪

- When that information
comes out,

the Kremlin
vehemently denies that.

The Russians really categorize
these allegations

as absurd and unproven.

- Three years later,
cameras capture

the largest high profile
prisoner exchange

between Russia and the West
in recent history,

and the truth is finally
available for all to see.

- The U.S.
and other Western countries

have agreed to the release
of 15 people held in Russia.

They will be swapped
for Russian prisoners

held in the West.

A middle aged man
in a tracksuit

walks down the steps.

When he reaches the bottom,
he receives a warm embrace

from President Putin.

The man being greeted like an
old friend is Vadim Krasikov.

♪ ♪

- The cozy hug between tyrant
and hitman

confirms what the world
knew all along.

Vadim Krasikov is working
for Vladimir Putin.

- Putin is blatantly making
a mockery of the West,

because he first
publicly denies

having any kind of
relationship with Krasikov,

and then here he is rolling out
the red carpet for the guy,

effectively confirming
the alliance.

- Krasikov was, I guess,
the perfect person

to become Putin's
personal hitman.

♪ ♪

- Putin joining forces
with a contract killer

made headline news,

but Russia isn't
the only nation

to do a deal with a killer.

In order to eliminate
a common enemy on foreign soil,

the CIA will join forces
with the mob.

- In 1959, Fidel Castro leads
his Communist Party to power

in the Cuban Revolution.

The island of Cuba is barely
100 miles from America,

but it's a threat too close
for comfort

for the U.S. government.

- The CIA want communism
out of Cuba,

so that means
they have to get Castro

out of the picture permanently.

It's a bold and risky move.

- The CIA does not want to
be tied back to the crime.

♪ ♪

- The CIA reaches out
to a fixer,

someone who has connections

to the U.S.
criminal underworld.

And he comes back
with the names

of two
potential collaborators,

mobsters John Roselli
and Sam Giancana.

- It's a serious gamble
to try and approach them,

but in a way, it's kind of
a masterstroke too.

The CIA is confident
that if word gets out,

the idea of the CIA
partnering with the mafia

is so outrageous that no one
will possibly believe it.

- The mobsters agree
to meet with the CIA.

It seems they have
their own agenda.

- Roselli and Giancana
have their own interests

in seeing Castro
removed from Cuba,

as he's been shutting down
their lucrative casinos

in the island nation as well.

- The mob don't just
hate Castro's politics.

The Cuban leader
is also bad for business.

- The CIA offers them
$150,000 to do this hit.

And they don't just
decline the offer.

They offer to do it for free.

- Giancana and Roselli
are happy to take this on

without compensation
because they believe

that this will constitute
a get out of jail free card

for them later on.

- This is doubly crazy.

You've got the CIA trying to
take out a foreign leader

and the mafia turning down
money for the hit.

♪ ♪

- These mobsters want to take
a more subtle approach.

They don't want
to shoot Castro.

They want to take
a lethal pill

and put it into his food
or his drink,

and the CIA actually
gives this operation

basically a rubber stamp.

- Finding someone in Cuba
who's willing to poison Castro

is the easy part.

Roselli knows
an anti-communist worker

at Castro's
favorite restaurant.

♪ ♪

In April 1962,
he arranges for poison pills

to be delivered
to the assassin.

- The months pass,
and Castro still isn't dead.

It could be because Castro
never went to the restaurant.

It could be because the guy
took the money and disappeared.

Or it could be that Castro
is just too well protected.

- The delays make CIA's
top brass increasingly nervous

about relying on the mafia
to do their dirty work.

So in October 1962,
the CIA and the mobsters

agreed to abandon the plot and
keep their alliance top secret.

- This was one deal that was
never meant to be made public,

but in 1974,
the truth was revealed

with fatal consequences.

- "The New York Times"
publishes an exposé

which accuses the CIA
of being involved

in assassination attempts
against foreign leaders

like Fidel Castro.

A government investigation
is immediately launched.

- During the investigation
into plots to kill Castro,

Roselli and Giancana
are identified

and summoned to testify.

But before Giancana can take
the stand, disaster strikes.

He's shot dead
in his Chicago home.

♪ ♪

Roselli fears he will be next.

- But rather than
go into hiding,

Roselli risks his life to tell
the Senate the truth.

"The New York Times"
was right.

The CIA did recruit him
to kill Castro.

♪ ♪

- But just weeks later
in Miami,

his body is found stuffed
inside an oil drum.

- Who killed the two hitmen?

Well, someone knows,
but they're not telling.

To this day, no one's been
charged with either murder.

♪ ♪

- In the run up
to World War II,

Hitler believes
his blitzkrieg tactics

require troops
with superhuman stamina.

So he strikes a deal with
a pharmaceutical company

to supply his soldiers
with a brand-new drug,

methamphetamine.

[soft dramatic music]

- What German scientists
discovered in the 1930s

is that methamphetamines
can be used

to treat a whole host
of conditions.

Things like narcolepsy,
weight loss,

but they can also enhance
athletic performance.

[people shouting
German together]

- The Germans are hosting
the Olympics in 1936,

and Adolf Hitler wants to show
the superhuman capabilities

of German athletes.

- Methamphetamine tablets are
prescribed to these athletes.

♪ ♪

The Third Reich decides
to go one step further.

German military doctor
named Otto Rank believed

that methamphetamine
could be used

to turn soldiers
into super soldiers.

- Drugging a whole army
with amphetamines

doesn't sound like
a very wise plan,

but Hitler is convinced that
it is his path to victory.

[people shouting
German together]

- In 1939, Germany is
planning an invasion

of Poland, the event that
will ignite World War II.

♪ ♪

- Germany since World War I
has been thinking about

how to potentially fight
the next war,

and they have figured out
a better way

to use the materials at hand,

and that way is blitzkrieg.

♪ ♪

Blitzkrieg means
lightning war.

It's all about speed
and mobility.

♪ ♪

- In 1939,
there are a million men

in the German military,
a force that is soon to be

launched across the world.

So how does the Third Reich
get enough pills

to supply every soldier
within a matter of months?

The high command strikes
a deal with Germany's

biggest pharmaceutical
company, Temmler.

Temmler make a type of meth
they call Pervitin.

- For Temmler, this represents
a money making opportunity

because they're going to
produce tens of millions

of doses of Pervitin.

For the Nazi regime,
they're going to

chemically create
the superhumans that Hitler

already believes Germans
to be.

It's a match made
in financial heaven.

- On the eve of the invasion
of Poland in 1939,

the German troops
are issued Pervitin pills,

and the result is that
they are able to hike

35 miles without stopping.

They're able to persist
for three days

without stopping to sleep.

They take the entire country
in five weeks

and kill 100,000 Polish
soldiers in the process.

It's a crushing victory.

- But these are
the early days of the war.

To keep the blitzkrieg going,

they're gonna need
a lot more pills,

so Temmler agrees to ramp up
production of Pervitin.

- Between April and July 1940,
the Temmler factories produce

over 800,000 Pervitin tablets
every day,

and that turns into
35 million tablets

across the entire
German military.

- The use of Pervitin
is going to fuel Nazi armies

to conquer the low countries.

In a matter of only
a few short weeks,

German armies drive the British
off the continent.

The speed of the advance
is mind-boggling to the West.

♪ ♪

- In 1941, the Nazis
discover that soldiers

using their wonder drug
are facing dire consequences.

♪ ♪

They become addicted
to Pervitin.

Some even die from
heart failure and suicide.

♪ ♪

- But despite the risks,

the drug continues
to be given to troops

for the remainder of the war.

- The alliance between
the pharmaceutical company

and the Nazis remains hidden
until 2015,

when author Norman Ohler

unearths lost
military documents.

- Even after
World War II ends,

Temmler continues
to produce Pervitin

all the way until 1988.

♪ ♪

- Macon, Georgia, 1932.

A medical experiment
is about to be launched.

On the surface, it looks fine.

A government agency working
with a respectable university

to research
a life-threatening disease,

but the truth behind their
partnership is much darker.

[tense music]

[train whistle toots]

- Life in the U.S.
in the early 1930s

is incredibly tough.
The economy has collapsed.

Millions of Americans
are struggling to get by.

- Macon, Georgia is one
of the poorest regions

in the nation in the 1930s.

It's also predominantly
African American.

In the fall of 1932,

signs began appearing
in Macon offering

free blood tests
and medical treatment,

particularly for
African American men.

- Charlie Pollard
is one of the men

who takes up the offer.

Like many African Americans
in Macon County,

he has never had access
to medical care.

♪ ♪

- A sample of his blood
is taken,

and when the results return,

he is told that his blood
is bad

and that the cause is unknown,

but doctors promise
to monitor the situation.

But the doctors know
exactly what's wrong

with Pollard's blood.

He has a deadly infection
called syphilis.

It affects
one in ten Americans,

and there are almost half
a million new cases every year.

- Its symptoms can be
managed with treatment,

but there is no cure,

and, right now, little is known
about how it progresses.

♪ ♪

Syphilis is
extremely infectious,

and it can start
with a painless rash

that may not even be noticed.

But over time,
it eats away at your body,

your brain, your spinal cord,
your heart, your aorta.

It can be life-threatening.

♪ ♪

- What Pollard doesn't know
is the United States

Public Health Service
has set up

a clandestine experiment

using African American men
like him

as human guinea pigs
to observe

the long-term progression
of the disease.

♪ ♪

- They won't try
and manage the disease.

Instead, they simply monitor
their worsening symptoms

and prescribe them
with placebos.

- The U.S.
Public Health Service

can't carry out
the study alone.

They need a site
and they need people

whom the community will trust.

Just a ten minute drive
from Macon County

is an African American College
named the Tuskegee Institute,

and it's the perfect place.

- The Public Health Service

approaches the institute

and offers to underwrite
the study.

For an African American
institution in the 1930s,

funding is scarce.

It's an offer
they can't turn down.

- And so this unholy alliance
is basically forged

by the fact that
the United States

Public Health Service
has the funding

to provide to Tuskegee,
and in exchange,

the U.S. Public Health
Service promises

that they'll be on site
to direct all the experiments,

to provide
the medical treatment

for the test subjects.

- The deal is done.

Now all they need is people.

- And they ultimately
focused their attention

on African American men.

Given the existence of
segregation at the time

and the belief in the inherent
inferiority of Black people,

it seems natural
that they'll be able

to conduct the study
on Black men

with few consequences.

- With the local men duped
into participating,

the Tuskegee study of
untreated syphilis begins.

♪ ♪

- Patient Chris Pollard
is not alone.

Over the next 11 years,
he and 600 other patients

will regularly make trips to
Tuskegee for medical treatment.

- But in 1943,
syphilis is rendered curable

with the arrival
of the life-saving

antibiotic penicillin.

Despite this,
the U.S. Public Health Service

decides to continue
the Tuskegee experiment.

- So they're going to continue
to let people die

when their syphilis
could be cured by penicillin

almost instantly.

This is just extraordinary.

It's tantamount to murder.

- The project continues
for another 29 years,

until 1972, when journalist
Jean Heller

exposes the alliance between
the government and college

after documents
detailing the experiment

land on her desk.

- The United States
Public Health Service

has violated the most
fundamental tenets

of its mission to promote
and protect public health,

and in this alliance
with the Tuskegee Institute

has wreaked havoc
and suffering.

It is a major betrayal
of the public trust.

- The world knows
the awful truth.

The government
is forced to act.

- Three months
after the article,

an advisory panel is formed
who finds the experiment

medically unjustified
and is finally terminated.

- Pollard and the other
surviving members of the study

launch a class action lawsuit,

and, in 1974,
they are awarded $10 million

with free medical treatment
for the rest of their lives.

♪ ♪

- In the last days of
the Second World War,

an extraordinary alliance forms
between enemy soldiers

to fight against
fanatical SS stormtroopers.

- In May 1945, the war
in Europe is almost over.

Hitler has taken his own life

and the Allies
are heading towards victory.

- In the Austrian Alps,
there are still

active units
of the Waffen SS,

the Reich's
most zealous defenders.

For them,
the prospect of defeat

only increases
their lust for blood.

- The Waffen SS are
Hitler's elite shock troops.

They are the most hardcore,
fanatical Nazis.

They have no intent
of surrendering,

even as the war is
clearly about to be over.

- They want blood,

and they're out to find
suitable victims.

- The SS have a target,

Castle Itter, an Alpine hotel
turned prisoner of war camp.

- Castle Itter had once
been a luxury hotel,

but it was taken over
by the Germans in 1938.

It was converted into
a 19-cell prison in 1943.

- The prisoners in
Castle Itter aren't just

your run of the mill POWs.

These are fairly
high-ranking individuals.

♪ ♪

- With rumors of a German
surrender approaching,

the commander at Castle Itter
decides to take his life.

♪ ♪

- Their commander dead,
the prison guards

fear they will be captured
by the Americans,

so they abandon their posts.

♪ ♪

- When the commandant of
Castle Itter commits suicide,

news of his death quickly
spreads through the area.

There's a group of about
150 SS troops in the woods

in the vicinity,
and they realize

that now Castle Itter is
no longer under Nazi control.

They start moving toward
the strong point

with mayhem on their minds.

- The prisoners in the castle
know that the SS is out there.

They're nearby,

and the prisoners are
understandably quite concerned

that if the SS
comes to the castle,

they'll execute
all the prisoners.

♪ ♪

- They know if
they're going to survive,

they need to take
drastic action,

so they send the prison cook
to find help.

♪ ♪

- He takes an SOS letter
to American troops

who are rumored
to have captured

the nearby town of Worgl.

When he gets there,
he realizes that the Americans

have not yet taken the town
after all.

The cook encounters
another German officer

named Sepp Gangl.

- He hands the letter over,

but to his shock,
Gangl isn't hostile.

He's a battle-hardened major

who is disillusioned
with the Nazi cause

and tired of all the bloodshed.

- Gangl has troops with him,
but he doesn't have enough

to put up a defense
against the 17th SS

as they move through the area,
and Gangl understands

that if we're gonna
save these guys,

we're gonna need help.

We're going to have to reach
out to the American troops

that are known to be nearby.

- What Gangl decides
to do is to proceed

under a flag of truce,

essentially waving
a white flag.

- Slowly and carefully
approaches the Americans.

In front of him is
27-year-old Captain Jack Lee.

- When Captain Lee spots
a German soldier approaching,

he's on high alert.

He has no idea
if this is a trap.

- After a bit of
back and forth,

Lee becomes convinced
that Gangl

is exactly what he claims
to be,

and the two of them agree
to combine forces.

- After years of conflict,

it's an unimaginable
partnership.

GIs and Germans work together.

- These guys have been
machine gunning each other

and throwing grenades
at each other for years,

and now suddenly,
they're erstwhile allies

in defending against Hitler's
most fanatical soldiers.

- But they're
heavily outnumbered.

Even with the American
reinforcements,

there are only 24 armed men
capable of resisting

an SS force of 150
fanatical Nazi troops.

But they do have
an advantage in that

they are in a prepared
defensive fortification.

♪ ♪

And all of a sudden,
the SS assault begins.

The chatter of machine guns,

the explosion
of mortar rounds.

These troops are under siege.

♪ ♪

- After hours
of bitter fighting,

somehow the alliance
holds strong.

The SS are defeated
and withdraw from the fight.

- The action
is not without loss.

While trying to rescue
one of the prisoners, Gangl,

he's caught in a crossfire
and shot by a sniper.

He's the only casualty
of the action.

♪ ♪

- The operation is a success,

but the involvement
of Major Gangl

and his countrymen
is not mentioned

in American newspapers,

only in classified
military reports.

- It's more than
70 years later, in 2013,

when Gangl's role in one of the
strangest alliances of the war

makes international headlines.

♪ ♪

A full account of
the Battle of Castle Itter

is finally published
by historian Stephen Harding.

♪ ♪

- When nations vie for power,
foes can turn into friends

and former allies
can become enemies,

but as these files reveal,
secret and unholy alliances

can influence history.

I'm David Duchovny.

Thanks for watching
"Secrets Declassified."