All language subtitles for Mysteries.of.the.Abandoned.S11E07.The.Newark.Rebellion.1080p.DISC.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-DoGSO_track3_[eng]

[narrator] In Poland,

an imperial bastion
provides the backdrop

for powerful propaganda
in the US.

A successful film
in the favor of the Germans

could really have changed
the course of the war.

[narrator] In New Jersey,

a powder keg of injustice

set to explode.

[Bell] In those conditions,
it wouldn't take much

to kick off a riot.

[narrator] And in England,

a haven of privilege
harbors radical fugitives.

[Pedrick] It was
a common occurrence

to have the police

knocking on the door.

[narrator] Decaying relics...

Ruins of lost worlds...

Sites haunted by the past...

Their secrets waiting...

to be revealed.

[narrator] In central Poland

are the battered remains
of a once feared complex.

You've got
this big walled facility,

you know,
hulking over the river.

Really, what's striking
is the variety of styles.

This was clearly something
that was worked on
over the ages.

[Dr. Nusbacher] You can see
casemates designed to protect

gun emplacements
and ammunition storage.

We can see all of the signs

that this is
military construction.

[Hadley] Inside you have
these rows of beds

and it's clear this place
could have really held

thousands
and thousands of people.

You really are well prepared
to guard the entire region.

[narrator] This was once
a key battleground

in an era-defining conflict.

And a place
you wouldn't expect to find

a pair of outsiders
from the US.

[Dr. Nusbacher] Two Americans
and their sports car

happened to be pinned
right in the middle

of a war
between two great powers.

[narrator] Yet their mission

could have dramatically
changed the outcome.

[Dr. Nusbacher] It had
the potential to bring
the United States

into the First World War

on the German side.

[narrator] Elzbieta Wiercinska

knows the secrets
of this imposing structure.

[speaking Polish]

[translator in English]
This is a very
strong building.

Most of the walls
are more than five feet thick,

regardless of whether
they're inside or outside.

They were
completely indestructible.

[narrator] For centuries,
this contested region

was controlled
by Tsarist Russia.

But in 1914,

when the First World War
broke out,

it was on the front line

between the warring Russian
and German empires.

This is Modlin Fortress.

A year
into the global conflict,

this far-flung stronghold

was thrust into
the international spotlight,

thanks to
a brash journalist in Chicago,

Wilbur H. Durborough.

[Hadley] He was working
for the Newspaper
Enterprise Association

and they decided they needed
a man on the front

and Durborough leapt
at that chance.

[Dr. Nusbacher] He wants
the new medium of cinema

to become
a tool of documentation.

He is going
to create a documentary

about World War I
on the Eastern Front.

[narrator] But Durborough
wasn't going to cover the war

from the perspective
of the Allied forces

of Russia, Britain and France.

He was going to embed
with the Germans

who had their own motives
for granting him access.

This was
a really interesting time

in American history

because the United States
was still neutral
in World War I.

[Hadley] American entry
into the war

on the side of Britain
is not guaranteed.

[Dr. Nusbacher] But,
English language propaganda

coming from London

all about German war crimes,

some of which are true,

is turning
American public opinion

against Germany.

[narrator] The last thing
Germany needed

was for the US
to join the war

is support of Russia's ally,
Great Britain.

[Dr. Nusbacher]
The German government
wants American journalists

to tell the German side
of World War I in America.

[Hadley] A successful
propaganda film in favor
of the Germans

could really change
the course of the war.

[narrator] In March 1915,

Durborough
and his camera operator
Irving Guy Ries

set sail for Europe.

When they arrived
one week later,

the pair drove to Berlin

in Durborough's
beloved sports car

that he insisted
on taking with him,

complete with stars
and stripes.

Before long,

arrangements were made
to take the filmmakers

to the Eastern Front
of the war.

By July 1915,

German forces
are pushing Russians back

and Durborough and Ries
are right there with them.

[Wawro] We're getting
a real glimpse
of everyday life

of German armies in action
on the Eastern Front.

[narrator] But as
the Germans advanced,

there was one thing
in their way...

Modlin Fortress.

[Wawro] This was
really one of

the biggest, most impressive,

most modern fortifications
of its day.

In theory, it should have been
an impregnable fortress.

[narrator] Modlin
had been designed

not only to protect
the soldiers inside,

but to withstand
a drawn out siege.

They built this water tower
but they disguised it

using decorative facade

to, kind of,
camouflage it from the enemy.

[Elzbieta speaking Polish]

[translator in English]
This building
was built in 1847.

It was
a brilliant piece of work

as the tower
still stands here today

and has not been destroyed
by any war.

[Hadley] They also built
a grain storage facility

in the middle of the river

which was a really cool idea

because this meant
the grain was safe

from any invading forces.

[Dr. Nusbacher]
So the Russians
had provisioned this fortress

to hold out against
the Germans for months.

[narrator] A victory
at Modlin Fortress

would be a massive
military success for Germany.

But officers knew

their troops
could be stuck outside

in the trenches indefinitely

while a 90,000 strong
Russian garrison

was secure
inside the fortress.

No one could have predicted
what happened next.

[Dr. Nusbacher] We must
always remember

nothing is ever impregnable.

[narrator] In 1915,

German troops had the mighty
Modlin Fortress surrounded.

But the Russian soldiers
holed up inside

showed no sign of surrender.

[Hadley] A long siege
was the last thing

that the Germans wanted.

They wanted
to make their way to Russia

as quickly as they could.

[narrator] The stalemate
was also bad news

for the two US filmmakers
embedded with the German army.

So Durborough and Ries

faced the prospect

of filming hundreds
of German soldiers

sitting still,

staring at hundreds
of Russian soldiers.

The siege of a fortress
is going to be terrible film.

[narrator] German high command
had hoped

that compelling coverage

of their
sophisticated maneuvers

would help
their overall objective

to convince the US

to stay out
of the war altogether.

As the siege wore on,

their hopes
were fading fast.

[Hadley] And then
the Germans had

the most amazing stroke
of good fortune.

If you saw this in a movie,

you would think
it had gone too far.

A Russian officer
was kind of touring

the outworks,

and he's captured
by a German patrol.

Amazingly,
he had detailed plans

of the fort,

with annotations marking
where the weakest spots were.

I mean,
you cannot make this up.

[narrator] On
August 10th, 1914,

the assault
on Modlin Fortress begins.

If the Germans
had tried to bombard

the whole fortress,

they'd have gotten nowhere.

Because the Germans
can focus,

they are able
to blast a way in.

[Hadley] The Germans pound
the two weakest parts
of the fort,

reducing them to rubble,

and then they launch
an all-out assault.

[narrator] Thousands
of German infantry breached

its innermost defenses.

In just ten days...

Modlin had fallen.

[Elzbieta speaking Polish]

[translator in English]
85,000 soldiers
were taken prisoner,

including about 14 generals,

130 canons
and large reserves of food.

[Wawro]
It's a huge loss
for the Russians

and it's, sort of, like,
spells the end of their plan

to use this place

as a kind of hurdle,

slowing up the advance
of the German army
into Russia.

[narrator] The defeat was
a coup for the Germans.

And the American filmmakers

decided to take
some creative license

to cement the victory.

[Wawro]
They were instructed,
"You can't film

the German emperor
Kaiser Wilhelm II."

And they say,
"Oh, the hell with that.
We're Americans,"

and they film him.

Having taken
the bizarre initiative

of plunging themselves
into a war zone,

these two fellows
are able to get back

to America with their film

and their car

and they're heroes.

[narrator] On the Firing Line
with the Germans

premiered in Milwaukee
in November 1915.

While it received
good reviews,

many people thought

it was a piece
of propaganda

that lacked objectivity.

For a number of reasons,

but chiefly because
of German submarine attacks

on American shipping
that was crossing
the Atlantic,

this confluence of factors

leads to Americans
to join the war
against Germany

despite the efforts

to make the Germans
look like a heroic party
on the Eastern Front.

[narrator] When Germany
was finally defeated,

Modlin Fortress became part

of newly independent Poland.

It remained key
to the nation's defenses

until it finally shut down
in 1995.

Wilbur H. Durborough's film
lay forgotten

until 2016,

when it was restored
by the Library of Congress.

[Wawro] This is
a really foundational piece

of war documentary,

because, you know,
today we take for granted

that we're going to see

all kinds of video footage
of combat.

But it really begins
over 100 years ago

in World War I.

[narrator] In
the suburban streets

or Newark, New Jersey

hide the decaying remains

that for some
became a symbol of rebellion.

We're just a half hour
from downtown Manhattan.

It's a pretty typical street

with office buildings
and a hospital across the way.

But you'll notice one block

is a little bit
more disheveled

than all of the others.

You can barely see in
through the overgrown trees

spilling out into the street.

Just through the foliage
you can spot the walls

of an imposing building.

[narrator] The construction
within is falling apart.

But evidence
of its original function
still lingers.

[Alicia] You can see
different wings and sections

and the foundations
of a few structures.

[Michele] There's holes
in the roof,
rusty metal bars,

and vegetation is working
its way through the windows.

[Bell] Despite
all this decay,

you can still make out
what this building once was.

And it's the long corridors

and the barred doors,
they're a dead giveaway.

[narrator] During
a decade of change,

the violent struggles
taking place

outside this jail
would permeate its walls.

New inmates were pouring in

and the jail was full
to the brim.

[Alicia] One of those
new inmates

within the course
of one generation,

his family's narrative arc

would go
from solitary confinement...

to the mayor's office.

[Myles] As a young person,
I grew up

four or five blocks from here
in downtown Newark,

and I was really interested
in abandoned structures,

particularly
that speak to moments

in... in American history.

[narrator] Myles Zhang
is an urban historian
and artist

with a lifelong passion
for this building.

[Myles] When you think
about why this needs
to be preserved,

it's the story
that this building

allows us to tell.

And it's a story
of the common people

that are held behind bars.

[narrator] This is
the old Essex County Jail.

It opened in 1836,

a period when
the population of Newark

was rapidly expanding.

[Myles] It cost about $70,000
at the time

and that was
the largest municipal expanse

which makes this
the oldest building
in Essex County.

It was designed
to be state-of-the-art

by the famed architect
John Haviland.

[Myles] He's kind of known
as the father

or the inventor of the form
of the modern prison.

[narrator] In later years,

two additional wings
and a hospital

were added to his design.

But as the population
of Newark grew,

the jail would
become disproportionately
overcrowded.

Over the course
of the 20th century,

over six million
African Americans

would leave the South

for the North and the West
to escape the harsh reality

of Jim Crow laws
and segregation.

[narrator] But in Newark,

the predominantly
white population
wasn't welcoming.

And police arrests

among the African American
newcomers was high.

[Myles] By the 1930s,

I believe Newark
was about 20%
or so Black.

But the prison population
is 70% Black.

And so, you see
increasing incarceration

of Black men.

[Michele] With more
and more African Americans
coming North,

by 1967,

Newark had become
one of America's

first majority Black cities.

[narrator] Although
the population

was now mostly
African American,

Newark's law enforcers
remained overwhelmingly white.

This imbalance
would soon reach
a tipping point

and the old
Essex County Jail

would be caught
in the crosshairs.

[narrator] In the late 1960s,

pressure was rising

in Newark's
old Essex County Jail.

[Bell] Decades of overcrowding

had led to poor,
poor conditions.

And it was
about to get much worse.

[Alicia] Tensions
between law enforcement

and the Black community
of Newark were rising.

During the long,
hot summer of 1967,

over 150 urban rebellions

broke out
all over the country.

And in July, Newark reached
a boiling point.

During a traffic stop,

a Black cab driver
was arrested

and brutally beaten,

sparking a week
of protest and violence.

In total,

26 people were killed
by the National Guard

and 1400 were arrested

in what became known
as the Newark Rebellion.

Many of those people

were taken
to the Essex County Jail.

[narrator] Activist
Fredrica Bey

is a Newark resident
who remembers the rebellion.

Two of her siblings
were also incarcerated

at old Essex County Jail.

[Fredrica] The tombs...

it was called in Newark.

Of course,
tombs is for dead people.

And my brothers
and the people

who, you know,
were confined here,

I mean, were in the tombs,

you know,
while they are living.

And to think about it...

it makes me angry.

[narrator] On the first night
of the Newark Rebellion,

controversial writer
Amiri Baraka

was also thrown in the jail.

An influential poet,

Black activist
and native of Newark,

Baraka has
attracted criticism

for including
anti-Semitic elements
in his work.

To many,

he was one of
the greatest Black writers

of his generation.

But to some,

his writings reflected
violence, misogyny
and homophobia.

[narrator] Baraka had been
pulled over by police,

fiercely beaten

and charged
with carrying a weapon.

Amiri Baraka
got his head bashed in

by the Newark police.

He shed blood...

and was locked up
in this place.

And he did it...

while he was advocating
for us, for Black folk.

To be willing
to give your life

for your people,

I honor him.

[Bell] He was placed
in solitary confinement

when he entered the jail

and detailed his experience
years later

in his autobiography.

[narrator] He recounted
watching from his cell window,

"The police shoot down people
in the streets outside."

Once he left this jail,

he never stopped campaigning
for the residents of Newark.

[Fredrica] That was
a volatile time.

The Newark Rebellions,
I remember that

it definitely changed things.

The rebellions did.

I remember

I got my first real job

after the Rebellion.

Things opened up.

[narrator] But Newark's
lawmakers

still hadn't addressed

the injustices
inside the jail.

There's really
severe overcrowding

in the Essex County Jail.

A jail designed
for 200 or 300 people

at that point
had over 500 people
confined here...

in some of the cells
right here.

Cells barely
four feet wide,

uh, six feet deep,

would have
two people confined here

in rooms without electricity.

So people are locked
in their cells

in this narrow corridor here

24 hours a day
for weeks on end.

[Bell] In those conditions,
it wouldn't take much

to kick off a riot.

And in 1968, the violence

spilled over
into Essex County Jail.

[Myles] Several of the inmates
in the west ward,

when it's time for them
to go back into their cells
at the end of the day,

they said,
"We're not going back.

We're gonna
spend this time outside."

And so they
set fire to the place.

Over the course of two hours,
the inmates clashed
with the wardens,

breaking furniture
and setting fires.

They burned a hole in the roof
and Newark Fire Department
was called in.

[Alicia] In the aftermath
of the riot,

over 100 inmates
were transferred
to other locations

in order to try
to ease the tensions.

[narrator] Finally,
the city was forced to deal

with the jail's
overcrowding problem.

It built a large,
modern facility
on the outskirts of town

and in 1971,
the original jail closed down.

Today, the old
Essex County Jail

stands as a powerful reminder

of Newark's struggle
with injustice.

Some of the activists
that fought for change
and were incarcerated here,

still inspire hope.

Baraka's career would go on
to span some 52 years.

[Bell] Baraka's influence
on Newark lasted generations.

Almost 50 years after
he was locked up
in Essex County Jail,

his son, Ras Baraka,
was elected mayor of the city.

[narrator] Baraka went on
to serve the people of Newark
for multiple terms.

In Namibia,

the desiccated remains
of a settlement

sink into the sand.

It's a foreboding landscape,
where the Namib Desert clashes
with the Atlantic Ocean.

You can just about notice
a train track,

and just a few miles
down the line,

a lone station
in the middle of nowhere.

[Martin] Why would anybody
have any reason to run

a small-gauge railroad
through this area.

[narrator] Not far
from the line,

a series
of ramshackled remains
may yield the answer.

It's the last place
in the world
you'd expect to see a town.

But there are signs
of a settlement.

It's a collection of houses,
some of which are residential,

that have been taken over
by the sand

to such an extent
that there are sand drifts

in the inner hallways
of these buildings.

But there's also
rusted machinery
littering the ground.

There was clearly
some kind of industrial
operation going on here.

But what could a barren
place like this offer?

When people come to
a desolate place like this,

there's usually
a very good reason
for them to be here.

A discovery in these dunes,
changed this region, forever.

[narrator] Today,
this site sits in an area

called Das Sperrgebiet,

the forbidden zone.

Local historian, Heinz Manns

has special permission
to access
this restricted area.

This railroad was built
by the German government,

for the German army

to move their armament
to the interior
of the country.

And to do business
with the interior,

to do trade
with the local people

of Namibia at the time.

[narrator] The railroad
was completed in 1906.

And ran from the coast
into the heart of Namibia,

which the Germans called
South-West Africa

and had controlled
since 1883.

The Germans established
this colony in an attempt

to counter the British

who had established
the South Africa colony.

[narrator] In 1907,

a young railway surveyor
from Germany

decided to come
to this desolate outpost,

hoping the arid climate
would help
to cure his asthma.

[Heinz] So, August Stauch
worked for the railroad

and he had a team
of workers under him,

clearing the railroad track
of dune sand.

He was the station master,
you can call it.

[Sascha] He came here
for health reasons.

But soon, he found himself
on a quest for something
far more lucrative.

[Heinz] There were
supposed to have been
diamond finds in the area,

but nothing
was ever confirmed.

[Sascha] He just couldn't
let go of that idea

that somewhere,
hidden in these sands,

were precious gemstones.

[narrator] Stauch was
scorned by geologists,

who had already
scoured the area.

But he remained
determined.

He instructed his workers
to keep an eye out

for gemstones in the sands.

[Heinz] Well,
Zacharias Lewala,
he was one of the workers

clearing the railroad track.

He came to August
in the morning

and said,

"Mr. Stauch, look,
I found a pretty stone."

Stauch took it
and scratched
the glass of his watch.

It left a deep cut.

It confirmed
what he had long suspected.

That there were diamonds
in the sands of Namibia.

Stauch also had them tested
at a government laboratory.

They all came back,
confirmed as genuine,

and the diamond rush was on.

Between June
and December 1908,

40,000 carats worth
of diamonds were found.

And prospectors
were buying up land
as fast as they could.

[narrator] By 1912,

the industry had grown
so quickly,

a town was built to support
the flourishing trade.

It was called Pomona.

Over the next few years,

prospectors pulled
almost five million carats
from the sand,

worth almost $20 billion
in today's money.

Pomona was the richest area
in diamond mining.

There were teachers here,
there was a doctor here,
two hospitals,

340 permanent employees,

that included wives,
children, everything.

Pomona was complete
with a mess hall, a school,

and even a bowling alley

to make the German employees
feel more at home.

To get the right people
to work here,

to get the expertise,

you have to
look after the people.

This was a very
well-thought-out mining town.

Not unlike the mining towns
that you'll see in
the American West.

But not everyone
who came to Pomona
found such comforts.

[Heinz] This is part
of the laborers' quarters.

The workers,
the three-year contractors.

Each one had
his own little cubicle.

Like, they'd pop their stuff
on the top there,

their personal belongings.

This is where they lived,
three years.

[narrator] 800 local laborers
did the manual work.

The brutal task
of searching for diamonds
in the sand.

These rickety sheds
and rusting machinery

were designed
to assist the process.

[Heinz] These are
the classifiers.

These were used
to sift at the diamond gravel.

These machines,
they were hand operated.

The first process
worked was

the material shaking
in the water,

so the heavy stuff
goes to the bottom.

Diamond is
a heavy material
all around.

That's what
they were looking for.

[narrator] It was
painstaking work.

For those who carried it out
under the desert sun,

it exacted a punishing toll.

The Germans overseeing
the operation

treated the local laborers
with distrust.

For the mine owners,
there was
the constant paranoia

of workers smuggling out
diamonds with them.

And they went
to extreme lengths
to prevent this.

They were checking you
inside and out

to see whether or not you
were stealing the diamonds.

[Sascha] Some suspect
they forced the workers
to take laxatives,

to make sure even if
they swallowed the diamonds,
they couldn't hold on to them.

[narrator] By 1914,

Germany was in control
of a third

of the world's
diamond supply.

August Stauch,
the man who started it all,

had become rich
beyond his wildest dreams.

Germany's great
diamond rush, however,
would soon grind to a halt.

[narrator] In early 1914,

Pomona was one
of the wealthiest towns
in Africa.

But global events
would soon conspire
to change that.

On the night
of August 4th, 1914,

the radio station
at Lüderitz received a report

that Germany and Great Britain
were now at war.

During the war,
they were allowed to mine

minimal scale
just to sustain themselves,

but the companies
didn't operate really.

[narrator] Within the year,
Britain's South African
colonial troops

invaded Namibia,

forcing the Germans
to abandon the town.

They took
everything they could

and they also
destroyed a lot of stuff.

The same
with the railway line

so it didn't fall
into the enemies' hands.

[narrator] By
the end of the war,

the defeated Germans
had lost control
of Namibia and the mine.

In 1919,

the German-born industrialist,
Ernest Oppenheimer

took control of Pomona.

Operations continued until
deposits ran out in the 1930s,

when Pomona
was left deserted.

Pomona turned
into a ghost town

because,
with the disappearance
of the people,

the desert reclaimed
what belonged to it before.

[narrator] Meanwhile,
the man who started
Namibia's diamond rush

met no kinder fate.

[Heinz] August Stauch
was a millionaire overnight.

But he did
a lot of wrong investments.

He died a poor man.

He had no money.

[narrator] After being
uninhabited for so long,

the region has some
of the highest biodiversity
in Namibia,

with unique
desert plants, reptiles,
and herds of antelope.

Since 2009,
it has been preserved
as a national park.

To the northwest
of London, England,

a ghostly manor house
gives little hint
of its radical past.

[Meigs] It's a beautiful
sandstone building

that stands at the end
of a quarter-mile long,
tree-lined driveway.

[Pedrick] The brickwork
is crumbling,

but you can still see
that this place must have been
a real sanctuary.

[narrator] Inside,
there are trappings
of privilege and wealth.

We've got these fine
plasterwork ceilings,

opulent wood-carvings,

stone-framed windows.

[Meigs] This might seem like
a place that would be a home
for upper class aristocrats

who would resist
any kind of social change.

[narrator] But this mainstay
of the establishment

was once pivotal
to a vicious struggle
for civil rights.

It was a real hotbed
for one of the most important
battles of its day.

It was a common occurrence
to have the police
knocking on the door.

[narrator] Amanda Pitcairn

has a deep family connection

to this sprawling estate.

[Amanda] This house was owned
by my great grandparents.

When I was growing up,
I heard lots and lots
of stories about this place.

[narrator] This
dilapidated mansion

was once home
to Agnes and Henry Harben.

[Meigs] Harben was
very wealthy

'cause he'd
inherited a fortune
from his grandfather

who'd built up
the Prudential
insurance company.

[narrator] At the time,
in the homes of the elite,

strict rules of etiquette
were still being followed.

[Amanda] This is the room
that was, pretty much,
a male preserve.

Men would sit
and drink potions
and smoke cigars

and tell bad jokes
until they got very drunk.

[narrator] This
is Newland Park,

a 550-acre estate
and 50-room house

with rigidly
manicured gardens.

But despite appearances,
Henry Harben was far
from conventional.

He made friends
with all sorts
of radical people,

regardless of
their social background.

[Meigs] Henry and Agnes Harben
turned their home into
a kind of salon,

where people with new ideas,
people interested
in social change

could gather and discuss
the kind of world they wanted
to see in the future.

[narrator] The first decade
of the 20th century

was a time of social reform.

This was a period
of great liberalizing

in social norms

and embrace of
a more egalitarian
approach to life.

[Pedrick] So, in the 1900s,
Henry and Agnes
became involved

in one of the biggest issues
of the day.

All women,
regardless of social class,
were still barred from voting.

[Meigs] It's almost hard
to remember today,

but the world's great
democracies we think of

like Britain, like the US,

they weren't actually
all that democratic.

[narrator] In both
Britain and America,

women had been fighting
for the right to vote

since the mid-19th century.

But after decades
of kind of getting nowhere
with politicians,

a new, all-female group
would emerge

and kind of take Britain
by storm.

And a dramatic
escalation of events

would turn Newland Park
from a place to just meet...

into a place
to hide from the law.

[narrator] At
Newland Park,

near London, England,

Henry and Agnes Harben
supported
the suffragist movement

and welcomed
like-minded people
to their home.

They frequently played host
to Emmeline Pankhurst,

an ardent campaigner
for a woman's right to vote.

Emmeline Pankhurst
was this very dramatic
leader of the movement,

a real magnet
for press attention.

[narrator] Emmeline had been
an activist for decades.

But her increasing frustration
with peaceful tactics

had forced her to form
a more radical action group.

[Jaega] This was
a very different type
of organization,

fed up of broken promises
given from men in power,

only women could join.

They began a campaign
of direct action

with the motto
"Deeds, not words."

In an attempt
to belittle them,

a journalist
labeled them "suffragettes"

as opposed to suffragists

which they sort of embraced
and kind of took
as a badge of honor.

Agnes was a member
of the suffragette movement

and totally committed to it.

Henry funded it, of course,
to great extent.

[narrator] From Newland Park,

Henry Harben used
his inherited assets

to bankroll
the nationwide movement.

But as women's rights
continued to be denied,

the suffragettes became
increasingly militant.

Emmeline Pankhurst proclaimed
that it was her duty

to break the law
in order to bring attention
to their plight.

[Pedrick] Women started
smashing windows,

setting postboxes on fire.

They even chased
after Winston Churchill
with a horsewhip.

[Meigs] And then it escalated,
and the fight got
very intense and ugly.

Bombs were sent to the homes
of government officials.

In their minds,
their actions were
completely justified.

[Jaega] In response,
many hundreds of women
were arrested and imprisoned.

In protest, the women began
a campaign of hunger strikes.

So the government
began a policy of
force-feeding the women.

A warden would
restrain a woman,

take a rubber tube,
put it down her nostrils,
into her throat,

sometimes directly
into her stomach.

If one of these women
were to die of starvation
from a hunger strike,

it would be
a political disaster
for the country.

[Pedrick] So, hunger strikers
would be kept until
they were extremely weak,

and then they'd be released,

um, long enough
to recover

and then they would get
picked up again

and serve out
the rest of their sentence.

Emmeline Pankhurst herself
was constantly arrested
and released

as many as 12 times
in the space of 12 months.

[narrator] Once released,

many suffragettes
escape to the home
of Henry and Agnes.

[Pedrick] Newland Park
became a place

for the malnourished women
to hide out and recover.

[narrator]
For the suffragettes
fresh out of prison,

coming here was like
stepping into another world.

The suffragettes were from
a different class, basically.

And they would not
have been used to

um, the sort of lifestyle
that was led here.

This is a testament
to my great grandmother

who would have
done her utmost
to make them feel welcome.

[narrator] But Newland Park
was only 25 miles from London.

And rumors of Harben's
involvement in the movement

led police
right to their doorstep.

A well-timed tip-off

allowed Agnes and Henry
to conceal the fugitives.

This is where, in the cellars,
is where they hid.

Emmeline Pankhurst and more,
uh, suffragettes.

Well, it feels
so much like a...

like a cell, actually,

that they must have felt

they were sort of
back into jail.

[narrator] Thanks to
their hideout at Newland Park,

the suffragettes were spared
a return to prison.

A year later,
the outbreak of
the First World War

transforms society's view
of women

and confirmed their place
in a changing world.

Male politicians
could no longer claim
that women were unfit to vote.

If they could work
in munitions factories

and drive ambulances,

why couldn't they walk
into a voting booth?

[narrator] In 1918,

the government
finally conceded

and the process
of allowing women
to vote began.

But life at Newland Park
wasn't so successful.

Agnes and Henry separated

and their home
changed hands
several times...

until it fell into disrepair.

Today, developers are turning
this valuable real estate

into a complex
of luxury homes.

It'll feature Harben Drive

and a central statue
of Emmeline Pankhurst,

ensuring the importance
of this site

in a vital social movement

will not be forgotten.