Original subtitles

In Germany,

a therapeutic country retreat

commandeered for a disturbing goal.

Gebhardt becomes a credible contestant

for the title of the most twisted Nazi doctor.

In Malaysia,

an engineering workhorse drawn into a colonial conflict.

This is a story of conquest, greed and exploitation,

and it doesn't end well.

And a rural site in Texas

that impacted the lives of millions

for better and for worse.

It wasn't until years later that I really understood

what I had participated in.

In the sleepy German town of Lychen,

70 miles north of Berlin,

is a collection of magnificent buildings

tainted by an unspeakable tragedy.

We're away from the city here.

We're out in the fresh air of the countryside.

We've got charming German-looking buildings.

It could be a boarding school. It could be a barrack. It could be a spa.

I mean, you go down to the lower level,

and there are these big sort of bathing pools.

When you take a closer look, you start to see hints of what this place was.

We see the tiled floors, the tiled walls.

This place is designed so that whatever splatters on the walls,

can be scrubbed down and disinfected.

It has all the hallmarks of an old hospital.

Under the influence of a tyrannical regime,

its function veered dangerously off course.

Historically, this site has many layers,

but it's the role it played during World War II

that is particularly chilling.

This was meant to be a place of healing.

It turned into a place of terror.

What happened here is the stuff of nightmares.

The first day I was here in Lychen,

it was the same weather as today.

It's beautiful in the summer here.

It's beautiful in the winter.

Developer Max Siegmann bought this property in 2021.

He was drawn to its potential as a peaceful retreat for busy Berliners.

He also understood it is a site burdened by its past.

For us, it's important

that the history will not be forgotten

and we are responsible for this place,

even the dark historic.

In the beginning,

its purpose couldn't have been more different.

The facility was originally founded in 1902 by the German Red Cross

to treat patients suffering from tuberculosis.

People were breathing bad air

and their lungs were becoming infected,

and it was believed that you had to remove them from the urban environment

and get them into a clean place

where they would breathe clean air.

We have patient rooms with a lot of windows.

They have a lot of space compared to modern hospital buildings.

It was a very famous place.

It was called the Hohenlychen Sanatorium.

In the decades to come, it would become infamous.

The history of this site

was transformed by the activities of Dr. Karl Gebhardt.

When he emerges in the '20s and '30s,

he's seen as a very innovative surgeon.

He served in the First World War.

He became fascinated with treating battlefield injuries.

After the First World War,

there were these militias called Freikorps,

of people who were trying to exert political power

through violence,

and Gebhardt

and Heinrich Himmler, chief of the SS,

were buddies from that period.

And Gebhardt becomes someone who earns

his credibility with the Nazis

by having been in from the beginning.

And so he's then recognized as being this leading surgeon

by the Third Reich.

Himmler adopts Dr. Karl Gebhardt

as his personal physician.

As Hitler consolidated his grip on power

in the 1930s,

he began removing Jewish people from positions of authority

and replaced them with trusted Nazi allies.

The Jewish physician that ran this sanatorium

was one of those stripped of his role.

In 1933, Gebhardt was given control of Hohenlychen.

Under his leadership,

it became the first sports-medicine clinic in Germany.

It was all part of the Nazi vision

to create a superior master race.

So Karl Gebhardt was revolutionary in his methods.

He believed in physiotherapy.

He believed in treating the injured

with open air and physical exercise.

He's a sports scientist.

He's all about taking sports injuries like a torn meniscus

and repairing it

and making excellent sports people,

better sports people.

We are now in the operation rooms

where the surgeries took place.

And as you can see behind me, we have a glass window

so trainee doctors could watch the operations.

At the Berlin Olympics in 1936,

Gebhardt got the chance

to demonstrate his achievements to the world.

Dr. Gebhardt became chief physician of the Olympic Games,

and this facility became the main hospital for the Olympic athletes.

The site here grows again in that time period.

They built a swimming hall.

They built a sports hall.

The controversial games

are best remembered for American sprinter Jesse Owens,

winning a record of four gold medals.

The Buckeye Bullet stepped into his destined role

to win in the phenomenal time of ten and two-third seconds,

breaking all existing world records.

Yet Owen's triumph was not enough

to stop the Germans from winning the most medals,

and Gebhardt was lauded for the success.

After the Olympic Games, Dr. Gebhardt's position rises.

Next to Hein Himmler, all other high-ranked Nazi persons

got their surgeries here.

Even Hitler visited this place.

But after the outbreak of World War II,

Hohenlychen was turned into a military hospital,

and the type of operations carried out here by Gebhardt

would follow a much darker path.

They are the kinds of activities

that are so extraordinarily abhorrent

that they stand against the very notion

of what we think a doctor should be capable of doing.

2 In Germany, are the remains of a sports medicine hospital

run by pioneering Nazi doctor Karl Gebhardt.

Under his leadership, it would turn into hell on earth.

It all started when a high-ranking SS official

named Reinhard Heydrich

was badly injured in an assassination attempt by the Czech resistance.

They chuck a grenade into his car

and Heydrich's body is filled with bits of springs and dirt,

and Heydrich is dying of sepsis.

Who better to try to bring him back to life than Dr. Gebhardt?

At the time,

German doctors had access to an early antibiotic

called sulfonamide.

But Gebhardt was skeptical about its effectiveness,

and declined to use it.

And so Heydrich dies.

He might have died anyway, his injuries are pretty severe.

But Gebhardt's rivals inside the Nazi states are saying,

"You see, Gebhardt killed Heydrich

because he wouldn't use sulfonamide on him."

Gebhardt was facing ruin.

He had to prove that his methods

weren't the reason for Heydrich's death.

Himmler advised him to conduct human experiments

to prove that sulfonamide would not have saved Heydrich.

Gebhardt gets women from Ravensbruck concentration camp,

women who are going to be killed by the Nazis anyway.

He breaks their legs,

he drives bits of wood and hair into their bodies.

These poor victims fester for days on end

as the infections develop and gangrene develops.

Gebhardt then administered sulfonamide to some of the patients,

leaving others as a control group.

But the experiment was rigged to ensure

Gebhardt got the results he wanted.

Gebhardt creates a house of horrors.

They are tortured to death with infection.

In total, 84 women were put through this sickening ordeal.

Twenty-one of them died either from infection

or because they were murdered to cover up the evidence.

But Gebhardt didn't stop there.

His experiments continued,

this time to treat amputee soldiers.

He's basically... takes concentration camp prisoners and he says,

"Hey, you know, this German soldier needs an arm.

Why don't I just take your arm and try to attach it to this German soldier?"

The German authorities regarded all of these

activities as justifiable

because they regarded those that were being

experimented on

as being genetically and racially inferior.

The terrible crimes perpetrated here

continued until Stalin's Red Army defeated the Nazis

at the Battle of Berlin in 1945.

The Soviets then took control of Hohenlychen to use as an Army hospital.

But Karl Gebhardt's vile actions were not forgotten.

Miraculously, many of the poor

concentration camp inmates survived,

and they would testify against him after the war,

when he was brought to justice at Nuremberg.

Karl Gebhardt.

They lived to see Gebhardt executed.

Their character was stronger

than the Nazi death machine.

What happened at Hohenlychen will always be remembered.

Now, Max Siegmann is working towards a brighter future.

In the past, we have a dark history.

But it does have a beautiful architecture, it's worth saving this place.

We will develop a wellness resort.

We have holiday flats. It's a place for everybody here.

In the Malaysian state of Perak,

is a technological heavyweight that helped build a nation.

We're in a swampy tropical area,

and this massive structure is floating in the middle of this body of water.

It must be 200 ft. long, five stories high.

At first glance, it could be a giant fishing trawler,

but there's only one problem with that.

The ocean is over 30 miles away.

In fact, this entire waterway is landlocked.

How did this hulking beast get here in the first place,

and what was it for?

A cavernous interior lined with heavy machinery

is the first piece of the puzzle.

There are massive cogs, thick metal cables.

These are all telltale signs of a massive industrial enterprise.

On the front, you've got these huge, rusting buckets

which seem to be designed for scooping stuff out of the ground,

and you can only assume that was something valuable.

It would transform the economy,

making this place one of the most profitable countries

ruled over by the British.

The resources' incredible value also made it a target.

We're talking invasion by the Japanese

and violent attacks by Communist guerrillas,

all of which played their part

in the downfall of the world's biggest empire.

If you looked around this region half a century ago,

you'd have seen over 50 machines like this

dominating the landscape.

Today, this rusting relic is one of the last.

What we see here is a great example

of taking an industry that had been around for over 100 years

in a low tech way,

and then mechanize it, even supersize it.

That industry was tin mining,

and it was one of the reasons the British Empire became so powerful

in the late 19th and early 20th century.

To understand Britain's complex relationship with Malaysia,

you have to rewind to the 1700s.

Back then, Malaysia didn't exist.

And this region was part of the Malay Peninsula,

which consisted of multiple regional kingdoms.

This was an era when much of Europe

was trying to establish different empires.

The British were desperate to get a foothold in Southeast Asia

to protect and dominate trade with China.

To do their dirty work,

the monarchy used the services of the East India Company.

The East India company was possibly

the most powerful corporation in history.

The English crown said,

"You can have an exclusive contract to venture out there,

trade with the natives, subdue them if you have to,

and bring back anything of value."

After that, it was only a matter of time

before the empire's tentacles spread further across the region

until eventually they controlled all the Malay states

and Singapore.

This was classic colonialism,

and for its time, it was very, very successful.

At first, the British made their money through taxation and trade.

But that all changed after the discovery of large tin deposits

in the mid-1800s.

Tin is valuable, partly because it resists rust very well.

So when you hear the phrase "tin can",

it's not actually a can made of tin.

It's a steel can coated with tin.

Initially, the British leased the mining operations to the Chinese,

who had fled from their own country

to escape instability and poverty.

Local museum curator Jacky Chew

is an expert on the history of tin mining in this region.

In the year of 1860,

we have about 20,000 Chinese miners.

And another 10 years down the road,

40,000 Chinese miners.

In the early stages, the Chinese mining method,

basically, is human labor intensive

without any help of the machineries.

Even so, they still produced a large amount of tin,

which made the British a small fortune.

About a quarter of the demand came from the United States of America

in the late 1800s.

The British soon realized

they could get an even bigger share of the revenue

by taking more control of the industry,

and they knew that in order to maximize profits,

they needed to mechanize.

2 In Malaysia is a mechanical marvel

central to the British Empire's plans to control

one of the country's most valuable natural resources.

It was called the Tanjung Tualang Tin Dredge No. 5

or TT5 for short.

This one first began operating in 1938.

The dredge has a long series of large buckets

connected on a chain that can

roll down into the water,

scoop up the material and then bring it up

and dump it inside the structure.

This was then transported along the length of the dredge,

where heavy machinery would separate out

the valuable tin from the waste

which was dumped out the back.

So the purity of the tin ore

would be as high as 70%.

All this tin ore

will be pumped out from this two outlet

to this big metal bucket.

It was a tough job with long hours.

And in return, the workers were well paid,

and their families received education and health care.

But soon, the TT5 would grind to a sudden and dramatic halt.

War was coming,

and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it.

Many people believed that Japan's first major attack of World War II

took place at Pearl Harbor.

But 90 minutes earlier,

the Japanese launched a surprise invasion of Malaya.

The British troops were not remotely prepared for this attack.

The British have wrong strategies to defend Malaya

because they always assume

the Japanese will be invade from the sea, from Singapore.

Instead, the Japanese launched simultaneous operations,

invading from the north of the country near the Thai border.

They then fought their way south,

inflicting heavy losses as they went.

Despite their numerical inferiority,

it was a total bloodbath.

In the end, 85,000 troops were captured.

Churchill described the defeat

as the greatest disaster that has ever befallen British arms.

One of the motives for the Japanese invasion

was to take control of the tin industry,

which they needed for their war effort

and economic self-sufficiency.

The British knew exactly what the Japanese were after

and did everything they could to destroy the tin mining operations

as they retreated.

The Japanese occupation lasted three-and-a-half years

until their surrender in 1945,

after which the British quickly returned and rebuilt the mines.

Yet there was a bigger issue they now had to face up to.

The British Empire was dying and its colonies could smell blood.

The image of the British, the mighty British

started to crumble

after the Japanese occupation in Malaya.

In 1947, India gains independence from the British,

and this sets off a chain reaction

all over the empire.

Malaya's multicultural population

was a powder keg set to explode.

And the tin mining industry would yet again

be caught in the crossfire.

So 37% of the country was Chinese

and they lived in the poorest conditions

and had the fewest civil rights.

The Communist Party of Malaya

and their armed wing,

the Malayan National Liberation Army,

took advantage of their discontent

to start a rebellion.

What followed became known as the Malayan Emergency.

It began in 1948.

The MNLA targeted police stations,

derailed trains

and attacked rubber plantations and tin mines,

including tin dredges like this,

The use of tin in canned goods

generated so much money

for Britain's struggling economy.

The government had to do everything in their power

to protect the industry.

As these insurrections got more violent,

Britain decided to bring in troops to defend its operations.

By around 1955,

many of the insurgents had been killed or captured,

but the MNLA refused to give up.

The British command realized

that they needed to win hearts and minds

and so promised to grant independence to the country

once the guerrillas were defeated.

The plan worked

with the support of Malay battalions.

The insurgency was crushed.

And on August 31st, 1957,

Britain granted Malaya its independence.

In 1960,

the new Malaysian government declared the emergency

officially over.

Throughout the conflict, the TT5 remained operational.

In 1976, almost 20 years after independence,

a Malaysian owned mining corporation

took control for the first time.

This was a significant

and symbolic step for the country.

But this new era of Malaysian run mining didn't last long.

In the 1980s,

a perfect storm of reduced demand and rising costs

led to the complete collapse of the global tin industry.

In 1982, the owners of the TT5 ceased

all tin mining operations and retired the dredge.

The effect was devastating for the local community.

For so many years,

it had been such a stable employer.

After the collapse of the tin industry,

most of the Malaysian tin dredges

were dismantled and sold for scrap.

But not the TT5, that survived.

Then, in 1997,

it was donated to the state government

so it could be turned into a historical site,

a way to preserve some of the history of this region.

In West Texas, near the city of El Paso,

is a dilapidated ruin

where hope and hardship collided.

Right on the edge of town is a strange compound

of single storey adobe buildings.

Initially, you're thinking this might be some kind of ranch

with the central space used for horses or other farm animals.

But there's something odd,

almost prison-like, about the layout.

Over time, the role of this site

would change from a place of shelter

to a den of exploitation.

One structure in particular

symbolizes the level of mistreatment.

It looks like you would have been forced

to walk through this long, windowless metal tube.

Hundreds of thousands of people came.

They didn't know what to expect.

They were often very young.

They were scared.

Those who arrived here

did so by choice.

For some, it was a decision they lived to regret.

This was the start of a national program

that changed the face of America forever.

However, many of the people were treated like animals,

and faced racism

from the very people they were here to help.

2 In Texas, on the outskirts of El Paso,

is a neglected structure that was supposed to deliver

the dream of a better life.

Yolanda Leyva is a historian at the University of Texas.

She grew up near this dusty border site

with a complex past.

I just think of all the stories of the men

that came with such hope.

They went through very extensive medical tests

while they were here.

When first conceived,

it was part of the solution

to an unprecedented state crisis.

The original reason this place exists

dates back to the Civil War era.

Of the 70,000 or so Texans that served,

about 24,000 were killed outright.

Suddenly, Texas had more widows

and orphans than ever before,

and this was well before any type of

social program like Social Security.

So counties would set up what were called poor farms

for poor people.

And basically provided them room and board.

But they would have to work.

This poor farm, which opened in 1915,

catered to elderly people and children.

And it was run by the O'Shea family.

They called it the Rio Vista Farm.

Life was tough, but for many

it was their best shot at survival.

Helen O'Shea Keleher would go to at El Paso

every Monday and go to court.

And see which children were being taken

from their mothers,

usually because the mothers

were not able to provide for their kids.

And she would bring them here.

So several thousand children went through this place.

Helen O'Shea Keleher's kindness meant Rio Vista

became a beacon of hope for those that needed it.

But in the early 1940s,

America's involvement in a global conflict

began the process of turning this site

into something far more ominous.

With the onslaught of World War II,

there were new challenges,

and one of those was related to labor.

Thousands of young men were shipping abroad to fight,

and American farms were facing

a desperate shortage of workers.

The U.S. was in danger of running low on food

and the government was forced to turn to a former rival for help.

Mexico agreed to assist

with the temporary worker program.

They saw this as a way to assist the war effort

and boost their own economy.

It became known as the Bracero program,

a Spanish term meaning manual labor.

They worked on farms throughout the country,

making it possible for the U.S. economy

to face the challenges imposed upon it by the war.

When the Bracero program first started in 1942,

it was very celebrated.

There were parades, for the Braceros,

and they called them soldiers of the fields.

The program was so successful, it continued,

even after World War II ended.

By 1951,

a new site was needed to house the U.S. headquarters,

and Rio Vista's location next to the border

made it the perfect base.

Celia Castro Berton was a secretary here when it first opened.

When I started working at Rio Vista,

I was 19-years old

and we were asked to ask questions of the Braceros

and type the contract.

The contract included, like the name, the address,

age and where they wanted their money to be sent.

This agreement included basic provisions

for living conditions and wages,

specifically 30 cents an hour for agricultural workers.

People waited by the thousands

at these recruitment centers,

hoping for a chance to cross the border.

It's estimated that some 880,000 Mexican workers

were processed through this farm.

But none could have predicted the high hardship

and trauma that awaited their arrival.

It was an ordeal that began when the program first started

during World War II.

This hut is the most important building here

because this is what the men remember.

When they talk about it, they cry.

In this purpose filled metal hut,

they were fumigated with toxic chemicals.

This was supposedly to delice the men.

The men who sprayed them were instructed to spray them

in their hair, to spray in their ears,

to spray in their genitals.

While the officials wore masks,

the workers were offered no such protections.

We know that it was DDT, which in the 70s

was banned because it's carcinogenic.

What the men always remember is that that was the beginning

of feeling like they were treated like animals.

At the time,

the effects of DDT were not well recognized.

Even so, much of what happened was kept hidden from the women

working in the contract rooms.

I don't believe that this was part of

what they wanted to be known to the public.

It wasn't until years later that I really understood

and knew what was going on

or what I had participated in.

After being processed and fumigated,

the Braceros were relocated to farms across the country.

When the men left Rio Vista,

their mistreatment only continued.

While this program offered certain protections,

the cracks would soon begin to show.

2 In Texas is the ruin of a site used

to process Mexican agricultural workers brought to America

as part of the Bracero program.

The men came for a better life.

The reality they found was very different.

Despite the regulations,

many farmers tried to get around them.

Providing crowded slum-like housing

or even charging people rent

for lodgings that should have been free.

So I have actually seen a paycheck of a Bracero

that was one cent after they took away all those charges

that the employer charge them for.

Over time, the program began to come under fire,

drawing more and more criticism for worker exploitation.

It would take a tragic accident

to draw national attention

to the abusive Bracero program.

In September 1963,

58 workers were riding

on their employer's crudely made bus in Chualar, California.

When crossing a set of railroad tracks,

the makeshift bus was hit by a freight train.

Thirty-two people were killed and 25 more were injured.

It's said to be the most fatal car accident

in all of US history.

The Chualar bus crash

shone a light on the poor treatment of Braceros,

proving that their employers did not care about their well being

even to the the point of providing safe transport.

Under pressure from unions and other social welfare groups,

the program was discontinued in 1964

After this, the Rio Vista farm was no longer needed.

It first passed into the hands of the local county

and then to the city of Socorro.

Throughout those years, the old buildings fell into ruin.

But many of the men remained

and in the 1980s,

where there was an amnesty program, many of the men were able

to legalize their status,

and that was 20 years of being here

without papers.

In 2023,

Rio Vista Farm was designated

as a national historic landmark.

Ensuring that its story will be told for future generations.

The Bracero program had a very important legacy for the United States.

It saved our economy during World War II,

but also the men who stayed

became US citizens

and their children were born here.

They have contributed so much to their communities.

In northeast Italy,

In the shadow of towering mountain peaks,

lies the devastating outcome of Mother Nature's fury.

In the foothills of the Alps,

as beautiful and dramatic as the scene is,

hidden among the vegetation,

eerie remains begin to appear.

Sat high above the town

is what was once quite a grand church.

But the roof is missing

and entire walls have come crashing down.

So what happened?

Inside the town's buildings,

it's evident that whatever misfortunes struck here occurred quickly

and with phenomenal force.

You start to see the scraps of people's lives

as furniture, shoes, clothes

and children's work books open

as though they've just finished their homework.

Which suggests they could have been running for their lives.

In the moment, there was panic.

Everything was shaking.

People could barely stand.

The threat was always hanging over here.

It was part of daily life.

But eventually, some would pay the ultimate price.

My dad, my mum, myself, my wife

and my children used to live in this house.

We used to live well because we also had some farmland.

We had cows.

Giuseppe Bulfon was born in this rural town

in 1936.

For 40 years, it was the place he called home.

There were two taverns and two shops.

We had everything we needed to live here.

This is the town of Portis.

For centuries, it stood proud

with a small yet thriving community.

So this town is really what you would think of

when you think of rural Italy.

On Saint's days, people would march

to the town and have celebrations and festivals.

It was a beautiful, quiet life here,

but little did the residents know

that disaster was just around the corner.

2 In the centuries old Italian town of Portis,

residents lived an idyllic life.

But soon the peace would be shattered.

At 09:00 p.m. on May 6th, 1976,

the ground beneath Giuseppe Bulfon's feet began to violently shift.

Everyone came out of their homes.

We were all outside.

I felt the ground shaking.

I couldn't walk.

It was a massive 6.5 magnitude earthquake,

and Portis was a little over five miles from the epicenter.

Very quickly giant cracks start to appear in the buildings.

It is obvious that the place is unsafe

and people are really scared.

Then the second shockwave came.

It was rumbling.

The ground trembled for one minute.

My wife came outside shouting.

"Come here. So that we all die together,

together with our children."

Giuseppe and his family were fortunate to survive.

Other members of the community were not so lucky.

Unfortunately, six people were killed

as they were trying to escape,

Running through those narrow streets

when an old house collapsed right on top of them.

In addition to the town of Portis that was destroyed,

over 150,000 people across the region were homeless overnight.

In the aftermath,

the town's residents were forced to move

into temporary accommodations.

When the immediate danger had passed,

they returned to survey the damage.

They bury the dead

and try to figure out what to do next.

Many hoped they could rebuild,

forget the terrible event,

and return to life at Portis,

as it had been before the earthquake.

The government brought in geologists to study this space.

They knew the people wanted to continue to live there.

But unfortunately, the geologists knew

that the town would never be safe again.

The cause of the danger was a steep sided cliff

that overshadowed Portis.

There was this gigantic overhang of rock,

and the scientists found that it had been fractured

by the first earthquake.

And feared that if there was another one,

the whole thing could come crashing down

right on top of Portis.

But the residents

did not want to give up their homes without a fight.

Tensions get very high, with the government saying

you can't come home again

and the people of the town saying,

no, we're coming home again.

To the point of putting giant signs up saying,

"Portis must be reborn here."

But just four months later,

the resident's worst nightmares became a reality.

On September 15th, 1976,

disaster struck yet again.

At the time, Giuseppe Bulfon

was in the neighboring town, catching up with old friends.

We were sitting in the Caffè Vecchio

in Via della Stazione, drinking.

I just saw the mountain coming down.

It was huge, yes, huge.

"Now it's all over", I said.

Thousands of tons of rock sheared off the mountain

and hurtled towards the town below with a deafening roar.

The landslide smashed into the church cemetery

and made it as far as the road that lies next to the town.

The town is declared completely unsafe

and the line is drawn.

You will never go back to your homes again.

Giuseppe and all the residents of Portis

had no choice but to abandon their homes

and move to a nearby city.

Eventually, on December 15th 1978,

the authorities announced that they would found a new town.

Portis Nuovo, New Portis, less than a mile up the road,

I wanted to go back to my town.

I was always here

even when I was living somewhere else.

The land is calling.

Some of the people that grew up there

or loved Old Portis,

still have that connection, still want to be a part of it.

And while many of the homes are deemed too unsafe to enter,

the gardens are still tended by some,

keeping the connections to their ancestral homes alive.