All language subtitles for Mysteries.of.the.Abandoned.S12E04.1080p.WEB.h264-FREQUENCY_track3_[eng]

[narrator] In Sicily,
a ghost town
steeped in corruption.

[Alexis Pedrick]
Government troops

were brought in
to patrol the city

and what had become,
really, an all-out war.

[narrator] The secretive
Pennsylvanian institution

that shocked America.

They had 80 cages,

metal cages with people in it.

[narrator] And an aristocratic
mansion in Ireland,

embroiled in
a bizarre terrorist plot.

[Rob Bell] The kidnappers took
to driving around

using a book about Irish
stately homes as their guide.

[opening theme music playing]

[narrator] In Sicily,
skeletons of hundreds
of structures loom

over the capital's
most sought after area.

You see this
vast collection
of monolithic ruins,

perched precariously
on the hillside

that seems completely
out of place

with this picturesque spot.

[narrator] Vestiges of luxury

suggest that these
cavernous shelves

were intended to house
the city's elite.

Inside, you find bathtubs
and unfinished rooms.

And roof terraces,
all with that sweeping view.

[Alexis] The logistical
challenge to build this
must have been phenomenal.

Why would you pour
so much money into it

and then just walk away?

[narrator] It's a stark symbol
of the greed and brutality

of those who once
dominated Sicily.

[Rob] They ran violent
extortion rackets

and started taking control
of entire industries.

[Jim Meigs] One of the things
that gave them so much power

was their willingness
to murder anyone
who got in their way.

Police, prosecutors,
judges, politicians.

Nobody was safe.

[Alexis] The killings made
front page news

and sent shock waves
across Europe.

[Rob] It would
take the action
of two brave judges

to finally rid the city
from this evil,

but they would
pay the ultimate price.

[translator] The first time
I went inside
one of these houses,

it felt like
the aftermath of a bombing.

As if these abandoned houses

had been destroyed
by something apocalyptic.

[narrator] Local
documentary maker,
Andrea Di Gangi

runs an organization
that aims to put a spotlight
on what happened here.

[translator] In the 1960s,
this mountain was untouched.

There were no houses.

It was just earth
and greenery,

and lots of vegetation.

This greenbelt was famous
across Europe for its beauty.

[narrator] But being so close
to the capital, Palermo,

this prime real estate

soon attracted the attention
of Sicily's
lawless underworld.

[Meigs] This half finished
neighborhood is a legacy
of the time when Palermo

was completely ruled
by mobsters.

[narrator]
This is Pizzo Sella,

a ghost town
of more than 200 buildings.

It's got Mafia fingerprints
all over it.

[translator] Pizzo Sella
symbolizes corruption, Mafia,

malfeasance,
and illicit construction.

[narrator] Sicily
is the birthplace
of the Mafia.

It emerged here in the 1800s,
a time of political unrest.

[Alexis] Lawlessness was
running rampant, you know.

Smuggling, banditry.

All of that was kind of
taking over Sicily.

Eventually
criminal brotherhoods formed,
known as families or clans.

[Alexis] By the early 1900s,

politicians would
support them,

help them out in exchange
for their kind of
persuasive tactics.

[narrator] But in 1922,

when the fascist dictator
Benito Mussolini
took control of Italy,

he vowed to wipe out
Sicily's notorious mobsters

and imprisoned them
by the thousands.

The Mafia lay low
until Mussolini himself
was ousted in 1943,

as Allied forces advanced,
leaving Italy in turmoil.

[Rob] Sicily was left
in a power vacuum,
and in this chaos

many inmates
escaped from prison.

[narrator] After breaking
out of jail,

Sicily's Mafia families
were reunited,

and determined to regain
their unscrupulous control

of the capital's business.

Especially
the construction industry.

[Meigs] The war had done
enormous damage to Palermo.

150,000 residents
were without homes.

But the process of rebuilding
was open
to immense corruption.

Mafia connected
construction companies

began to build
apartment blocks
wherever they could.

[narrator] Eventually,
one mobster kingpin

turned his attention
to the city's greenbelt.

[Rob] In the 1970s,
a 250-acre parcel
of the mountainside

was sold to a company
owned by the sister

of a notorious Mafia boss,

Michele 'The Pope' Greco.

[narrator] Sometimes seen
carrying a Bible,

Pope Greco was the head
of the Greco Mafia clan.

He controlled much
of Palermo's business,

including the drug trade.

[Rob] At his country villa,

he hosted not only influential
Sicilian politicians,

but also a heroin refinery.

To give an idea
of the money involved,

at this time around a third

of all of the heroin
in the United States
was produced in Sicily.

[narrator] The Pope
needed an outlet

to launder
his ill-gotten gains,

so he bribed
a Mafia supporting politician
to sort it for him.

Vito Ciancimino,

Palermo's head
of public works,

was the Mafia's inside man.

[narrator] Together,
they laundered millions.

And Pizzo Sella
was one
of their biggest projects.

Construction began in 1978,
with plans for over 200 homes,

ranging from
vast multi-level villas
with pools,

to two story houses.

They finished building
some of the villas
and sold them to buyers.

[Meigs] Did they know
that they were built
by the Mafia?

Maybe they did.
Maybe they didn't.

But it was hard
to escape [chuckles] things

that were controlled
by the Mafia in that society
at that time.

It was like a fish
trying to avoid water.

[narrator] But before
Pizzo Sella was complete,

vicious rivalries
began to rupture

Sicily's powerful
Mafia families.

Toto Riina,
head of
the Corleonesi faction,

wanted to rule Palermo,

and get a piece
of the Greco family's
heroin trade.

[Alexis] A war broke out,

thanks to
the bloodthirsty ambitions
of the clan boss Toto Riina.

[Rob] He wanted to dominate
and started a vicious campaign

which left around
1000 people dead.

After two years of violence,
the Mafia war was over.

[narrator] The conflict
had involved
the entire Palermo Mafia,

and on the face of it,
it looked like
Toto Riina had won.

But ordinary Sicilians
were tired of the violence
and corruption.

[Rob] And in 1985,
they voted in a new mayor,

who promised
to break the Mafia.

[narrator] One of
his first jobs

was to clean up
the construction industry,

which included
the activities of Pope Greco.

[Rob] He halted
all construction contracts

approved by
the previous administration,

and work
at Pizzo Sella stopped.

[Meigs] They conducted
a big investigation

into the Pizzo Sella project,

what they found was,
not surprisingly,

it was deeply connected
to the mob.

[Rob] The court also ruled
that every single property

should be confiscated
by the city of Palermo,

and the whole development
completely demolished.

[narrator] It was
devastating news

for those who had
already moved in.

Meanwhile, Pope Greco
had lost the front
for his drug profits.

The heat
on Palermo's ruling Mafiosi
was far from over.

[dramatic music playing]

In the 1980s,
in Palermo, Sicily,

a notorious Mafia boss,
Pope Greco,

was using
a hillside development
to launder the vast proceeds

of his illegal
drug trafficking.

But an extraordinary move

by a high ranking mobster

was about to blow his cover.

[Alexis] A gang member
decided to cooperate
with police,

and reveal the inner workings
of the organization.

[narrator] Tommaso Buscetta
entered a witness
protection program,

and became an informant.

[Rob] He was
the Sicilian Mafia's
first supergrass,

and his evidence
helped build cases

against 475 Mafiosi.

It became known
as the maxi trial.

Among the accused
were none other

than the architects
of Pizzo Sella,

and the urban planner
Vito Ciancimino,

and Michele 'The Pope' Greco.

[narrator] Pope Greco
was given
multiple life sentences.

He would end up dying in jail.

[Rob] In retaliation,
the Mafia would mete out

its own
deadly brand of justice.

[narrator] Corleonesi boss
Toto Riina,

who in the end,
had been secretly aligned
with Pope Greco,

ordered the assassination
of two judges

who had presided
over the case.

It was a step too far.

Government troops
were brought in
to patrol the city

in what had become,
really, an all-out war

between the Mafia
and the government.

[narrator] The government won,
but the battle
is still ongoing,

as are their dealings
with Pizzo Sella.

The idea that they
could just take over
and demolish these houses

was easier said than done.

The legal battles
went on for years.

[narrator] Eventually,
the people who had
already bought houses

were allowed to keep them.

But it was too expensive
to tear the rest down.

The question of
what to do with the villas
remains unsolved.

[narrator] But
in the meantime,

Andrea keeps Pizzo Sella
in the public eye.

[translator] We organize
guided tours,

and we organize events
inside the unfinished houses.

[narrator]
In eastern Pennsylvania,

is an institution so shocking

it sparked
a national revolution.

[Hadley Meares] We're about
an hour away
from Philadelphia.

There's these buildings
with names
like Mayflower and Quaker.

So perhaps
we're at some kind of college.

[Alicia Gutierrez-Romine]
There are resting swing sets,
slides, and jungle gyms.

But as soon
as you step inside,

it's clear that this
was no ordinary school.

There are hospital beds
with guardrails on the side
and abandoned wheelchairs.

[narrator] Supposedly built
to help those in need,

this facility
soon became hell on Earth.

The horrors that took place
inside these walls

were hidden
from the outside world
for years.

[narrator] It would take
a dogged journalist

and a tenacious reformer

to expose it to the public,

and begin a fight to transform
thousands of lives
across America.

I've been in the news business
for 44 years,

and it is undoubtedly
the best story I ever did.

[Jim Conroy] Because
of what happened here,

I could say
to all the spirits who died,

your lives were not in vain.

[narrator] Jim Conroy
first visited here

more than 50 years ago,
as a young medical researcher.

[Conroy] I was 21 years old,
fresh out of college,

and I had not a clue
that places like this
existed in America.

[narrator] What Jim saw
inside these structures
changed his life

and inspired him
to take action.

[Conroy] I saw people
lying in cribs all day.

Open wounds,
untreated broken bones,

and noise and smell
and naked people
and head banging.

It felt, there has to be
a better way.

[narrator]
The devastating scenes
Jim witnessed

can be traced back
to the founding principles
of this complex,

eugenics.

[Conroy] The eugenics movement
became prevalent in the 1880s.

It was very big in America.

It was a universal belief.

[Alicia]
Eugenic reasoning
held that genetic traits

could be improved
through selective breeding,

and that inferior qualities
could be suppressed.

[Sascha Auerbach]
Leading eugenicists

argued that those
with certain characteristics

should be prevented
from reproducing

so that those conditions
could be bred out
of the gene pool.

[Meares] These theories
contribute to the mass
institutionalization

of people
with intellectual
disabilities.

They're hidden away
from the rest of society,

like some sort of
dirty secret.

[narrator] This is Pennhurst
State School and Hospital.

It opened in 1908,

to house people
with a wide range

of physical
and intellectual disabilities.

[Conroy] Families
had to get help.

And so people like me
with PhDs and MDs,

they would say to parents,
Pennhurst,
that's what we have.

And that's what parents did
because professionals
told them to.

[narrator] But
from the beginning,

this institution was
a deeply troubled place.

In 1912, Pennhurst
is already
massively overcrowded,

and this would be
a huge problem
throughout its sordid history.

[Alicia] So what
we end up with

are these
really unsanitary conditions,

and that the individuals
with the most complex needs

were being
left alone unsupervised,

and opportunities for violence
and self-harm were rife.

[Conroy] Parents
were never allowed to know

what the real conditions
were in.

They saw their sons
and daughters
in a fixed room

in a special place,
not back here.

No one knew.
Not even the families.

[narrator] Pennhurst
continued to operate
for decades.

By the 1960s,

thousands of people
were living here
in appalling conditions.

And almost no one
on the outside
knew it was happening.

[Sascha] But soon the world
would learn the truth

in all
its excruciating detail.

[Meares] This revelation
would not only spell
the downfall of Pennhurst,

it would also spur
a national revolution.

[narrator] In the late 1960s,

the conditions
in a grisly asylum
in Pennsylvania

were about to be exposed
to the American public.

It came about
thanks to a chance encounter

between news reporter
Bill Baldini,
and a Pennhurst volunteer.

[Bill] T hey told me
about it,

and I said if 10% of what
you're telling me is true,
I'll do a story on it.

And I found out
that 300% of what
they told me was true.

And that's when I decided
I'm coming up
the next day with a camera.

[narrator] At first,
the institution's workers
were skeptical

that Bill's reporting
would have any impact.

But they quickly realized
his story

could initiate the change
that they also wanted to see.

They were helpless.
They were
government employees.

If they complained,
they're going to get fired.

So I became their voice,
which was great.

They would hand me notes
in the hallway,

telling me where to look
and what to do.

[narrator] Eventually,
even the bosses
got behind Bill's work.

And what the staff showed Bill
shocked him to his core.

[Bill] In one ward,
they had 80 cages,

metal cages with people in it.

And I said,
"Why are they in the cages?"

And they said, "Because
we don't have enough people

"to take them
out of the cages."

It was the cruelest thing
I've ever seen in my life.

It was the byproduct
of poor state funding.

[narrator] Bill figured out
that Pennhurst

received less funding
than the local zoo.

And over the course
of the next five days,
his expose shook America.

[Bill] The initial reaction
was stunning.

Me, the crew, our bosses,
were stunned.

The public was stunned.

They couldn't believe
what they were watching.

[Alicia] Soon,
this story was picked up
by news outlets

all throughout
the state and country.

One even described Pennhurst
as the shame of Pennsylvania.

[narrator] With the truth
revealed in the early 1970s,

a legal campaign began
on behalf of the residents.

Jim Conroy took part
in an unprecedented
class action lawsuit

intended to get
Pennhurst shut down.

It's the civil rights movement
that nobody knows about.

[Meares] In America, you have
three indelible rights.

Life, liberty,
and the pursuit of happiness.

Pennhurst is failing
at all three.

They died young,
they couldn't leave,

and it was
absolutely miserable.

[Conroy] Anything
that deprives
people, citizens,

of those rights,
is a civil rights issue.

And that affected people
with physical disabilities
and sensory disabilities

and every kind of medical
and mental disability.

[narrator] The violation
of the residents' civil rights

gave the lawyers
a case to argue in court.

Pennhurst was the epicenter
of legal activities
that changed the world.

[narrator] But at the time,

society deemed the patients
unable to testify
on their own behalf.

Jim and his team
had a fight on their hands,

to find concrete evidence
to support their claim.

We were able to prove
through records
and individual observation

that the average person
who came to Pennhurst

had been here
for about 28 years
and they had gotten worse.

People came in able to speak,
and in a year or two
they didn't speak anymore.

They lost skills,
and quality of life went down.

And that's how
the lawsuit was won.

This was the first time
that a US Federal Court

indicated that an institution
must be closed

for violating the patients'
constitutional rights.

The Pennhurst case
was a groundbreaker,

and about 17 states
immediately copied the lawsuit

and started
closing institutions
all over the country.

[narrator]
These legal victories
marked a vital change

in how people
with disabilities
were cared for

across the United States.

Overwhelmingly,
people were recognizing

that essentially
warehousing people

with disabilities
was not the solution.

[Meares] There was
increasing pressure
to give people

with intellectual disabilities
and other illnesses

services that they needed
within the community.

[narrator] In 1985,

the courts ruled
that Pennhurst
should be shut down for good.

The federal court said
everybody has to go to

a small family-like
community home.

[narrator] Many of those
leaving Pennhurst
had no families to go to.

Others had relatives,
but with no means
to care for them properly.

[Conroy] There wasn't any such
community support system yet.
We had to build it.

We really stood out
as the first
to take this chance,

and it was a great success.

[Meares] With the last person
moved to their new home,

the doors of Pennhurst
closed officially
on December 9th 1987.

[narrator] While much
of Pennhurst

was left to decay
by the state,

before being sold
to private owners,

many former residents
came together
to speak on their own behalf.

It's a long time
since Pennhurst closed,

but there are still
about 600 people living.

Many get together every year
and they're an active
self-advocacy group.

[narrator] Ireland's county
of Tipperary
is a haven of tranquility.

Ireland is known
to many as the Emerald Isle,

and when you look
at this place,
you can really see why.

There's virgin fields,
rolling hills,

and a majestic river
running through it all.

[narrator]
On a prominent hilltop,

sits one of the largest
manor houses in the country.

There are clear signs
that this was once
very opulent.

Given the size and faded
splendor of the place,

whoever lived here was clearly
of some importance.

[narrator] But in the 1970s,

their dignified world
would not escape
the bitter conflict

that has long divided
this nation.

[Dominic Selwood]
This place would be
dragged into a web

of international
political intrigue.

[Rob] One dark night,
this safe haven

became the scene
of a terrifying assault.

They were taken
not because of who they were,

but because
of what they represented.

[narrator] During the 1960s,

in County Tipperary, Ireland,

Jackie Aird was raised
on this imposing estate.

[Jackie] I have really
special memories of here.

I had a lovely upbringing.

And I'm sad to see the way
it's gone dilapidated so much.

[narrator] She is returning
for the first time
in more than 40 years.

This room
was the drawing room,

and there was
a favorite fireplace
there as well.

As you can see,
it had a crest in there.

[narrator] The crest belongs
to the noble family
of the Earls of Donoughmore.

They had been granted
the land by the English,

who had conquered Ireland
in the mid-1600s.

And the Earl of Donoughmore
commissioned this Grand House

to suit his noble status.

[narrator] He named it
Knocklofty House.

[Selwood] This was clearly
once a grand building,

covering almost
23,000 square feet,

and 63 acres
of parkland and gardens.

[narrator] By the 1970s,

the seventh Earl
of Donoughmore
still lived here.

And Jackie remembers
its former grandeur.

[Jackie] This is the library.

They always
have beautiful portraits

of paintings up there
very high up in the wall.

[narrator] Jackie was
not allowed
in these grand rooms.

Her father was
the Donoughmores' gardener.

[Jackie] He loved gardening.

It was his life.

[narrator] Jackie lived
with her family

in one of the 22 outbuildings
scattered around the estate.

This was our kitchen,
our sink was here.

And that was our hearth press.

And our fire, the same.

My goodness, we used to dry
all our clothes up on that.

[narrator] It was
a very different world
to the aristocratic mansion.

We were not allowed
to cycle on the avenue
in front of the house.

And when
we'd meet Lady Donoughmore,

we always addressed
her as "My lady."

[narrator] When Jackie
lived here in the 1960s,

Ireland wasn't only divided
along class lines.

The country
had been split since 1922.

The south gained independence
and would become
the Republic of Ireland,

while the largely Protestant
Northern Ireland

remained part
of the United Kingdom.

Catholic Irish revolutionaries
in both north and south

have been trying to overthrow
the British ever since

the country
was divided in two.

[Selwood] The Provisional
Irish Republican Army,
the IRA,

wanted independence
from the British crown,

seeing it
as an occupying nation.

But in 1969,
the British government

sent troops
to Northern Ireland,

but it only served to inflame
the conflict further.

Bombings, shootings
and assassinations
became a common occurrence.

[Selwood] In 1972,
the leadership of the IRA

decided to plan a series
of attacks in England.

[narrator] The actions
of one pair
of IRA operatives

would soon bring The Troubles

to the grand doors
of Knocklofty House.

[Selwood] The Price Sisters
grew up in west Belfast.

They've been involved
with the Republican movement
for years,

but in 1971,
they both joined the IRA.

[Rob] They put together
what was called
an active service unit.

Their plan
was to bomb key locations
in London.

[narrator] On March 8th, 1973,

the Price sisters
helped plant a bomb

at London's
Central Criminal Courts.

[Rob] Over 200 people
were wounded in the blasts,

and there were scenes
of carnage
across central London.

This was a strike at the heart
of the British establishment.

[Luke Pepera]
10 of the IRA bombers
were caught

as they tried to flee
through Heathrow Airport.

[Selwood] The Price Sisters
were sentenced to life
in prison for the attacks

and were put in English jails.

But the sisters,
along with other members

of the bombing team,
went on hunger strike.

They demanded
to be transferred
to Northern Ireland.

[Rob] But returning
them home
to Northern Ireland

would be a symbolic victory
for the bombers

that the British authorities
just couldn't allow.

[narrator] Back in Ireland,

certain factions of the IRA
had other ideas.

[Pepera] Their plan
was to kidnap someone

connected to
the British establishment

and use them
as a bargaining chip

to get the Price sisters
and other hunger strikers

released to
a Northern Irish jail.

[narrator] In June 1974,

a rogue unit of the IRA
decided to take action.

They went in search
of the ultimate prize.

An aristocrat
with deep links to England.

[Rob] Unable to find
their first two targets,

it's reported
that the kidnappers
took to driving around,

using a book
about Irish stately homes
as their guide.

It's perhaps just bad luck
that they ended up
at Knocklofty House.

[narrator]
The kidnappers terrorized
Lord Donoughmore's staff,

before realizing
that the 71-year-old Earl
was out to dinner.

As they were looking around,
the attackers heard the sound

of the Donoughmores
returning home.

They sprang into action,
pistol whipping the Earl,

and throwing him and his wife
into a waiting vehicle.

[TV broadcaster]
Lady Donoughmore's cardigan
and an earring

still lay in the driveway
as evidence of the fight
she put up.

[narrator] In the 1970s,

life at a tranquil
Irish estate

had been turned upside down

when the Earl of Donoughmore
and his wife
were kidnapped by the IRA.

[TV broadcaster] Groove marks
in the gravel suggest that

at least one of them
had to be dragged
to the kidnap car.

There were also
two pools of blood,

both now covered
with sheets of cardboard.

[Pepera] The elderly
Donoughmores were taken
to a remote house.

They were now prisoners
of the IRA.

[narrator] It was
an anxious wait
at Knocklofty House.

[Jackie] The family
were here in this room.

They sat at the table,

beside the phone,
waiting for--
to know what was happening.

Everyone just waited
and waited and waited,

and that's all
anyone could do.

[Rob] A few days
after the couple
had been taken,

the Price sisters were told
that their conditions

to stop their hunger strike
had been agreed
by the British government.

Around the same time
as the hunger strikes
came to an end,

Lord and Lady Donoughmore
were released.

-How are you feeling?
-Gorgeous, thank you.
Very well indeed.

[TV broadcaster]
The kidnappers
had bought Lady Donoughmore

carpet slippers for comfort.

Her husband
with a bruised eye,

wore a raincoat
soaked in blood

with a deep cut
over his forehead.

[Jackie] It was fantastic.

They came back to Knocklofty,
and they just wanted
to continue on,

and they just wanted
to be back to normal.

[narrator]
Lord Donoughmore's kidnappers
were never caught.

And the Earl himself
spent the rest of his life

living quietly
at Knocklofty House.

After his death in 1981,

the family sold the estate,
and it became a hotel.

[Rob] The business
eventually failed.

The property changed hands
a number of times
in the following years.

Slowly, it fell into ruin.

Today, fortunately,
there are plans in the works
to halt its decay

and return it
to its former glory.

[Selwood] One of
the suggestions

is that
it might become part of
a retirement community,

and who knows?
Some of the local people
who grew up

only looking at it
from the outside,

may yet be able to live
inside the building.

[narrator] Off the coast
of Estonia,

a chilly island
was once the vital outpost
of a superpower.

[Natasha Billson]
It's extremely cold,

and most of it
is densely forested,
with tall pine trees.

[Geoffrey Wawro] And then
you come across

these large
concrete structures
and turrets,

which look completely
out of place.

[Katherine Landdeck] There's
nothing in them. They've been
completely stripped

of anything
that would identify them.

[Wawro] They go
many stories underground,
so that raises the question,

what were they intended to do?

They seem
to have been created for war.

[Landdeck] And then
there's that deeper feeling

that maybe somebody's spent
their last moments down here.

[narrator] These structures
played a pivotal role
in the clash

between the two
most notorious dictators
of all time.

The battle for this island
formed part of a siege

in which
almost a million people
lost their lives.

[narrator] Ain Tahiste
was born on Hiiumaa Island,

now part of
modern day Estonia.

He's studied the history
of the structures
hidden in its forests.

[Tahiste] It was
the border zone.

That means
the coasts were closed.

There was razor wire, fences.

There was armored patrol,
there were watchtowers.

This island
is strategically important.

Its position means
that it borders Sweden,

it borders Finland,
and most of all, Russia.

St. Petersburg
is only 325 miles away.

This island is the gateway
to attack Russia.

[narrator] When Hiiumaa
was first fortified
in the early 20th century,

it was part of the
imperial Russian Empire.

And the czar needed to protect
his capital, St. Petersburg,

from the possibility
of enemy warships
coming up the Gulf of Finland.

So this is the basement
of one gun place,

and here the gun starts.

It must be as high
as these trees are right now.

The gun has to shoot
on the north direction,

where the Gulf of Finland
is open, see,

because these guns
are designed
to destroy the warships.

[narrator] But construction
stopped in 1917,

after the communists
deposed the czar
and took over Russia.

The Soviet empire was born.

And St. Petersburg
was later renamed Leningrad.

In the 1930s,

communist leader Joseph Stalin

took his own steps
to protect Leningrad,

in the buildup
to World War II.

[Onyeka Nubia] So in 1939,

a Mutual Assistance Act
defectively gave
Russia control

of most
of the territorial waters
of Estonia,

that included the island.

[narrator] Stalin could now
send troops to occupy Hiiumaa,

to expand and update
its fortifications.

[Landdeck]
According to some reports,
by 1941,

there are over 40 miles
of trenches
across the island,

with 30 miles of barbed wire.

And it is now a true fortress.

[narrator] It was a small part
in Stalin's
overall defense plan,

but it would become
a piercing thorn
in Hitler's side.

[narrator] At the start
of World War II,

the notoriously paranoid
communist leader,
Joseph Stalin,

had re-fortified
Hiiumaa Island,

to help defend Leningrad
from naval attack.

But he was ill prepared
for Hitler's fanatical
determination

to conquer the Soviet Union
as part of his master plan.

[Nubia] T he people
of the Soviet Union
were going to be exterminated,

and their land
was going to be used

for the Aryan
or the German people.

[Landdeck] We have a memo
from Hitler himself

saying the Fuhrer has decided
to wipe Leningrad
from the map.

In June 1941, Hitler invades
the Soviet Union,

in Operation Barbarosso,
the greatest land invasion
in history.

Both sides,
you have 10 million troops
locked in combat.

[narrator] Hitler's armies
swept across Europe
toward Leningrad.

Within weeks,
the city would be besieged.

With the siege
potentially grinding on
for months,

the Germans couldn't risk
having the Soviet-held
Hiiumaa Island

behind their lines,

endangering
any crucial reinforcements

sailing up
the Gulf of Finland.

So in July 1941,

they invaded Estonia
and headed toward the island.

[Wawro] The Germans
launched the attack
on Hiiumaa Island

by playing this verse
on the radio.

"Der Tanz kann beginnen".
The dance can begin.

They approached
under a barrage
of artillery fire.

[Nubia] They land at the south
of the island,

and after weeks
of fierce fighting,
begin to move further north.

[Wawro] The Soviet garrison,
which is pushed back
by this German advance,

concentrates on
the Tahkuna peninsula
for a last stand.

[Tahiste] This was
their last defense line.

The Soviet soldiers,
they had very little training,

and they were as well used
as like cannon meat.

[narrator] The Soviet military
would sacrifice
any number of its lower ranks

to ensure the survival
of Leningrad.

[Landdeck]
Those Soviet soldiers
are ordered to hold the line.

Them being sacrificed
on the island

was essential for the fate
of Leningrad.

[Wawro] At 6:00 a.m.
on the 21st of October,

the German troops
on the island

take the final Soviet position
on the Tahkuna peninsula.

[narrator] With the island
finally under their command,

the Germans now
had near total control
of the Gulf of Finland.

Now their troops
could move on from Hiiumaa,

to escalate
the siege of Leningrad.

[Wawro] The suffering
of Leningrad
during World War II was epic.

You've got 100,000 Russians
dying every month,
chiefly from starvation.

First the dogs and cats
were eaten, then rats.

And then from the dead people,
they cut pieces of meat
and eat that as well.

It's hard
to have an exact number,

but historians agree
that around one million people
died during this siege.

Despite how close
the Nazis get
to taking Leningrad,

they never do.

And eventually
Soviet counterattacks

drive them away
and free up the city.

The siege of Leningrad
has ended.

The island of Hiiumaa
is free of the Germans.

But for the people
of the island,

the nightmare
was far from over.

[narrator] The Soviets went on
to retake Hiiumaa.

They reinstalled a garrison
on the island,

and further defenses
across Estonia,

which was now part
of the communist buffer zone,

which the Soviets
claimed they'd put in place

to protect themselves
from the West.

The Soviets maintained control
over Estonia,

until independence
is formally declared
in August 1991.

[narrator] Today, Hiiumaa's
battered fortifications

remain a constant reminder
of its precarious location.

[Tahiste] Liberty has
always the price.

And we have
to protect ourselves,

because the nature
of our big neighbor

has not changed at all.

[Wawro] This is
no less relevant today,

where areas that we had
regarded as being pacified

are suddenly in play again
and very much embattled.