1 00:00:01,266 --> 00:00:02,233 [narrator] In Poland, 2 00:00:02,233 --> 00:00:05,467 an imperial bastion provides the backdrop 3 00:00:05,467 --> 00:00:08,567 for powerful propaganda in the US. 4 00:00:08,567 --> 00:00:11,467 A successful film in the favor of the Germans 5 00:00:11,467 --> 00:00:14,133 could really have changed the course of the war. 6 00:00:16,667 --> 00:00:18,200 [narrator] In New Jersey, 7 00:00:18,200 --> 00:00:20,200 a powder keg of injustice 8 00:00:20,200 --> 00:00:22,266 set to explode. 9 00:00:22,266 --> 00:00:24,867 [Bell] In those conditions, it wouldn't take much 10 00:00:24,867 --> 00:00:26,000 to kick off a riot. 11 00:00:29,700 --> 00:00:31,000 [narrator] And in England, 12 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:35,266 a haven of privilege harbors radical fugitives. 13 00:00:35,266 --> 00:00:36,900 [Pedrick] It was a common occurrence 14 00:00:36,900 --> 00:00:38,166 to have the police 15 00:00:38,166 --> 00:00:39,333 knocking on the door. 16 00:00:44,900 --> 00:00:46,133 [narrator] Decaying relics... 17 00:00:47,867 --> 00:00:50,133 Ruins of lost worlds... 18 00:00:51,800 --> 00:00:54,800 Sites haunted by the past... 19 00:00:56,200 --> 00:00:58,567 Their secrets waiting... 20 00:00:58,567 --> 00:01:00,233 to be revealed. 21 00:01:09,667 --> 00:01:11,100 [narrator] In central Poland 22 00:01:11,100 --> 00:01:15,400 are the battered remains of a once feared complex. 23 00:01:21,800 --> 00:01:24,567 You've got this big walled facility, 24 00:01:24,567 --> 00:01:26,567 you know, hulking over the river. 25 00:01:26,567 --> 00:01:29,100 Really, what's striking is the variety of styles. 26 00:01:29,100 --> 00:01:32,033 This was clearly something that was worked on over the ages. 27 00:01:33,467 --> 00:01:36,567 [Dr. Nusbacher] You can see casemates designed to protect 28 00:01:36,567 --> 00:01:40,000 gun emplacements and ammunition storage. 29 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:42,567 We can see all of the signs 30 00:01:42,567 --> 00:01:46,133 that this is military construction. 31 00:01:47,867 --> 00:01:50,000 [Hadley] Inside you have these rows of beds 32 00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:52,467 and it's clear this place could have really held 33 00:01:52,467 --> 00:01:55,300 thousands and thousands of people. 34 00:01:55,300 --> 00:01:59,200 You really are well prepared to guard the entire region. 35 00:02:00,467 --> 00:02:03,066 [narrator] This was once a key battleground 36 00:02:03,066 --> 00:02:05,667 in an era-defining conflict. 37 00:02:05,667 --> 00:02:08,266 And a place you wouldn't expect to find 38 00:02:08,266 --> 00:02:11,667 a pair of outsiders from the US. 39 00:02:11,667 --> 00:02:15,000 [Dr. Nusbacher] Two Americans and their sports car 40 00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:18,367 happened to be pinned right in the middle 41 00:02:18,367 --> 00:02:21,300 of a war between two great powers. 42 00:02:22,300 --> 00:02:23,867 [narrator] Yet their mission 43 00:02:23,867 --> 00:02:26,767 could have dramatically changed the outcome. 44 00:02:26,767 --> 00:02:31,400 [Dr. Nusbacher] It had the potential to bring the United States 45 00:02:31,400 --> 00:02:33,433 into the First World War 46 00:02:33,800 --> 00:02:36,000 on the German side. 47 00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:43,667 [narrator] Elzbieta Wiercinska 48 00:02:43,667 --> 00:02:46,934 knows the secrets of this imposing structure. 49 00:02:48,066 --> 00:02:49,900 [speaking Polish] 50 00:02:49,900 --> 00:02:52,700 [translator in English] This is a very strong building. 51 00:02:52,700 --> 00:02:55,000 Most of the walls are more than five feet thick, 52 00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:57,500 regardless of whether they're inside or outside. 53 00:02:58,367 --> 00:03:00,066 They were completely indestructible. 54 00:03:02,800 --> 00:03:05,467 [narrator] For centuries, this contested region 55 00:03:05,467 --> 00:03:07,700 was controlled by Tsarist Russia. 56 00:03:08,667 --> 00:03:10,467 But in 1914, 57 00:03:10,467 --> 00:03:13,000 when the First World War broke out, 58 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:14,467 it was on the front line 59 00:03:14,467 --> 00:03:17,934 between the warring Russian and German empires. 60 00:03:18,467 --> 00:03:21,467 This is Modlin Fortress. 61 00:03:21,467 --> 00:03:23,700 A year into the global conflict, 62 00:03:23,700 --> 00:03:25,700 this far-flung stronghold 63 00:03:25,700 --> 00:03:29,266 was thrust into the international spotlight, 64 00:03:29,266 --> 00:03:32,133 thanks to a brash journalist in Chicago, 65 00:03:32,500 --> 00:03:35,567 Wilbur H. Durborough. 66 00:03:35,567 --> 00:03:39,367 [Hadley] He was working for the Newspaper Enterprise Association 67 00:03:39,367 --> 00:03:42,600 and they decided they needed a man on the front 68 00:03:43,200 --> 00:03:45,400 and Durborough leapt at that chance. 69 00:03:47,266 --> 00:03:51,066 [Dr. Nusbacher] He wants the new medium of cinema 70 00:03:51,066 --> 00:03:55,567 to become a tool of documentation. 71 00:03:55,567 --> 00:03:58,066 He is going to create a documentary 72 00:03:58,066 --> 00:04:01,700 about World War I on the Eastern Front. 73 00:04:03,467 --> 00:04:05,667 [narrator] But Durborough wasn't going to cover the war 74 00:04:05,667 --> 00:04:07,867 from the perspective of the Allied forces 75 00:04:07,867 --> 00:04:10,100 of Russia, Britain and France. 76 00:04:10,100 --> 00:04:12,967 He was going to embed with the Germans 77 00:04:12,967 --> 00:04:16,133 who had their own motives for granting him access. 78 00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:18,667 This was a really interesting time 79 00:04:18,667 --> 00:04:19,934 in American history 80 00:04:19,934 --> 00:04:23,000 because the United States was still neutral in World War I. 81 00:04:24,066 --> 00:04:25,900 [Hadley] American entry into the war 82 00:04:25,900 --> 00:04:29,033 on the side of Britain is not guaranteed. 83 00:04:30,867 --> 00:04:34,266 [Dr. Nusbacher] But, English language propaganda 84 00:04:34,266 --> 00:04:35,867 coming from London 85 00:04:35,867 --> 00:04:39,567 all about German war crimes, 86 00:04:39,567 --> 00:04:41,467 some of which are true, 87 00:04:41,467 --> 00:04:45,166 is turning American public opinion 88 00:04:45,166 --> 00:04:47,300 against Germany. 89 00:04:48,367 --> 00:04:50,266 [narrator] The last thing Germany needed 90 00:04:50,266 --> 00:04:52,166 was for the US to join the war 91 00:04:52,166 --> 00:04:56,166 is support of Russia's ally, Great Britain. 92 00:04:56,166 --> 00:04:59,700 [Dr. Nusbacher] The German government wants American journalists 93 00:04:59,700 --> 00:05:04,734 to tell the German side of World War I in America. 94 00:05:06,266 --> 00:05:09,900 [Hadley] A successful propaganda film in favor of the Germans 95 00:05:09,900 --> 00:05:12,734 could really change the course of the war. 96 00:05:13,800 --> 00:05:15,700 [narrator] In March 1915, 97 00:05:15,700 --> 00:05:19,467 Durborough and his camera operator Irving Guy Ries 98 00:05:19,467 --> 00:05:20,266 set sail for Europe. 99 00:05:21,600 --> 00:05:23,467 When they arrived one week later, 100 00:05:23,467 --> 00:05:24,900 the pair drove to Berlin 101 00:05:24,900 --> 00:05:27,166 in Durborough's beloved sports car 102 00:05:27,166 --> 00:05:29,667 that he insisted on taking with him, 103 00:05:29,667 --> 00:05:32,433 complete with stars and stripes. 104 00:05:33,667 --> 00:05:34,700 Before long, 105 00:05:34,700 --> 00:05:36,900 arrangements were made to take the filmmakers 106 00:05:36,900 --> 00:05:39,000 to the Eastern Front of the war. 107 00:05:41,467 --> 00:05:43,100 By July 1915, 108 00:05:43,100 --> 00:05:45,867 German forces are pushing Russians back 109 00:05:45,867 --> 00:05:48,934 and Durborough and Ries are right there with them. 110 00:05:50,166 --> 00:05:52,867 [Wawro] We're getting a real glimpse of everyday life 111 00:05:52,867 --> 00:05:56,000 of German armies in action on the Eastern Front. 112 00:05:57,367 --> 00:05:59,266 [narrator] But as the Germans advanced, 113 00:05:59,266 --> 00:06:01,800 there was one thing in their way... 114 00:06:02,567 --> 00:06:04,567 Modlin Fortress. 115 00:06:04,567 --> 00:06:05,767 [Wawro] This was really one of 116 00:06:05,767 --> 00:06:07,867 the biggest, most impressive, 117 00:06:07,867 --> 00:06:10,900 most modern fortifications of its day. 118 00:06:10,900 --> 00:06:14,200 In theory, it should have been an impregnable fortress. 119 00:06:15,567 --> 00:06:17,200 [narrator] Modlin had been designed 120 00:06:17,200 --> 00:06:20,000 not only to protect the soldiers inside, 121 00:06:20,000 --> 00:06:23,000 but to withstand a drawn out siege. 122 00:06:24,166 --> 00:06:27,300 They built this water tower but they disguised it 123 00:06:27,300 --> 00:06:29,600 using decorative facade 124 00:06:29,600 --> 00:06:32,433 to, kind of, camouflage it from the enemy. 125 00:06:33,867 --> 00:06:35,667 [Elzbieta speaking Polish] 126 00:06:35,667 --> 00:06:38,400 [translator in English] This building was built in 1847. 127 00:06:39,500 --> 00:06:41,100 It was a brilliant piece of work 128 00:06:41,100 --> 00:06:43,266 as the tower still stands here today 129 00:06:43,266 --> 00:06:45,400 and has not been destroyed by any war. 130 00:06:48,567 --> 00:06:51,100 [Hadley] They also built a grain storage facility 131 00:06:51,100 --> 00:06:52,900 in the middle of the river 132 00:06:52,900 --> 00:06:54,400 which was a really cool idea 133 00:06:54,400 --> 00:06:57,500 because this meant the grain was safe 134 00:06:57,500 --> 00:06:59,433 from any invading forces. 135 00:07:00,867 --> 00:07:03,500 [Dr. Nusbacher] So the Russians had provisioned this fortress 136 00:07:03,500 --> 00:07:06,700 to hold out against the Germans for months. 137 00:07:09,667 --> 00:07:12,066 [narrator] A victory at Modlin Fortress 138 00:07:12,066 --> 00:07:15,400 would be a massive military success for Germany. 139 00:07:15,767 --> 00:07:17,467 But officers knew 140 00:07:17,467 --> 00:07:19,500 their troops could be stuck outside 141 00:07:19,500 --> 00:07:21,567 in the trenches indefinitely 142 00:07:21,567 --> 00:07:24,667 while a 90,000 strong Russian garrison 143 00:07:24,667 --> 00:07:27,400 was secure inside the fortress. 144 00:07:27,400 --> 00:07:30,500 No one could have predicted what happened next. 145 00:07:31,400 --> 00:07:34,000 [Dr. Nusbacher] We must always remember 146 00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:37,233 nothing is ever impregnable. 147 00:07:44,300 --> 00:07:46,166 [narrator] In 1915, 148 00:07:46,166 --> 00:07:49,900 German troops had the mighty Modlin Fortress surrounded. 149 00:07:51,266 --> 00:07:53,667 But the Russian soldiers holed up inside 150 00:07:53,667 --> 00:07:56,333 showed no sign of surrender. 151 00:07:57,166 --> 00:07:59,567 [Hadley] A long siege was the last thing 152 00:07:59,567 --> 00:08:00,533 that the Germans wanted. 153 00:08:00,533 --> 00:08:02,467 They wanted to make their way to Russia 154 00:08:02,467 --> 00:08:04,233 as quickly as they could. 155 00:08:05,200 --> 00:08:07,567 [narrator] The stalemate was also bad news 156 00:08:07,567 --> 00:08:11,500 for the two US filmmakers embedded with the German army. 157 00:08:13,266 --> 00:08:15,700 So Durborough and Ries 158 00:08:15,700 --> 00:08:17,367 faced the prospect 159 00:08:17,367 --> 00:08:21,367 of filming hundreds of German soldiers 160 00:08:21,367 --> 00:08:23,100 sitting still, 161 00:08:23,100 --> 00:08:27,900 staring at hundreds of Russian soldiers. 162 00:08:27,900 --> 00:08:33,800 The siege of a fortress is going to be terrible film. 163 00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:36,400 [narrator] German high command had hoped 164 00:08:36,400 --> 00:08:37,567 that compelling coverage 165 00:08:37,567 --> 00:08:40,200 of their sophisticated maneuvers 166 00:08:40,200 --> 00:08:42,166 would help their overall objective 167 00:08:42,166 --> 00:08:43,567 to convince the US 168 00:08:43,567 --> 00:08:46,233 to stay out of the war altogether. 169 00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:48,567 As the siege wore on, 170 00:08:48,567 --> 00:08:51,133 their hopes were fading fast. 171 00:08:52,300 --> 00:08:54,166 [Hadley] And then the Germans had 172 00:08:54,166 --> 00:08:56,900 the most amazing stroke of good fortune. 173 00:08:56,900 --> 00:08:58,100 If you saw this in a movie, 174 00:08:58,100 --> 00:09:00,700 you would think it had gone too far. 175 00:09:00,700 --> 00:09:03,500 A Russian officer was kind of touring 176 00:09:03,500 --> 00:09:04,400 the outworks, 177 00:09:04,400 --> 00:09:07,200 and he's captured by a German patrol. 178 00:09:08,767 --> 00:09:11,166 Amazingly, he had detailed plans 179 00:09:11,166 --> 00:09:12,266 of the fort, 180 00:09:12,266 --> 00:09:15,500 with annotations marking where the weakest spots were. 181 00:09:15,500 --> 00:09:18,133 I mean, you cannot make this up. 182 00:09:19,700 --> 00:09:22,467 [narrator] On August 10th, 1914, 183 00:09:22,467 --> 00:09:25,400 the assault on Modlin Fortress begins. 184 00:09:26,467 --> 00:09:29,166 If the Germans had tried to bombard 185 00:09:29,166 --> 00:09:31,100 the whole fortress, 186 00:09:31,100 --> 00:09:32,967 they'd have gotten nowhere. 187 00:09:32,967 --> 00:09:35,900 Because the Germans can focus, 188 00:09:35,900 --> 00:09:39,133 they are able to blast a way in. 189 00:09:41,467 --> 00:09:45,000 [Hadley] The Germans pound the two weakest parts of the fort, 190 00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:46,767 reducing them to rubble, 191 00:09:46,767 --> 00:09:49,033 and then they launch an all-out assault. 192 00:09:50,500 --> 00:09:53,367 [narrator] Thousands of German infantry breached 193 00:09:53,367 --> 00:09:55,133 its innermost defenses. 194 00:09:55,667 --> 00:09:57,233 In just ten days... 195 00:09:57,600 --> 00:09:59,700 Modlin had fallen. 196 00:10:02,567 --> 00:10:03,867 [Elzbieta speaking Polish] 197 00:10:03,867 --> 00:10:06,800 [translator in English] 85,000 soldiers were taken prisoner, 198 00:10:06,800 --> 00:10:08,867 including about 14 generals, 199 00:10:08,867 --> 00:10:12,700 130 canons and large reserves of food. 200 00:10:14,567 --> 00:10:16,567 [Wawro] It's a huge loss for the Russians 201 00:10:16,567 --> 00:10:19,300 and it's, sort of, like, spells the end of their plan 202 00:10:19,300 --> 00:10:20,734 to use this place 203 00:10:21,266 --> 00:10:22,500 as a kind of hurdle, 204 00:10:22,500 --> 00:10:25,333 slowing up the advance of the German army into Russia. 205 00:10:27,100 --> 00:10:30,100 [narrator] The defeat was a coup for the Germans. 206 00:10:30,767 --> 00:10:32,166 And the American filmmakers 207 00:10:32,166 --> 00:10:34,300 decided to take some creative license 208 00:10:34,300 --> 00:10:35,834 to cement the victory. 209 00:10:37,000 --> 00:10:38,867 [Wawro] They were instructed, "You can't film 210 00:10:38,867 --> 00:10:40,767 the German emperor Kaiser Wilhelm II." 211 00:10:40,767 --> 00:10:42,667 And they say, "Oh, the hell with that. We're Americans," 212 00:10:42,667 --> 00:10:43,467 and they film him. 213 00:10:45,200 --> 00:10:48,166 Having taken the bizarre initiative 214 00:10:48,166 --> 00:10:52,100 of plunging themselves into a war zone, 215 00:10:52,100 --> 00:10:55,467 these two fellows are able to get back 216 00:10:55,467 --> 00:10:58,433 to America with their film 217 00:10:58,867 --> 00:11:00,667 and their car 218 00:11:00,667 --> 00:11:02,600 and they're heroes. 219 00:11:03,567 --> 00:11:05,767 [narrator] On the Firing Line with the Germans 220 00:11:05,767 --> 00:11:09,734 premiered in Milwaukee in November 1915. 221 00:11:10,467 --> 00:11:13,000 While it received good reviews, 222 00:11:13,000 --> 00:11:14,100 many people thought 223 00:11:14,100 --> 00:11:15,800 it was a piece of propaganda 224 00:11:15,800 --> 00:11:17,533 that lacked objectivity. 225 00:11:18,367 --> 00:11:19,667 For a number of reasons, 226 00:11:19,667 --> 00:11:22,266 but chiefly because of German submarine attacks 227 00:11:22,266 --> 00:11:25,000 on American shipping that was crossing the Atlantic, 228 00:11:25,700 --> 00:11:27,367 this confluence of factors 229 00:11:27,367 --> 00:11:30,300 leads to Americans to join the war against Germany 230 00:11:30,300 --> 00:11:31,700 despite the efforts 231 00:11:31,700 --> 00:11:35,600 to make the Germans look like a heroic party on the Eastern Front. 232 00:11:36,867 --> 00:11:39,367 [narrator] When Germany was finally defeated, 233 00:11:39,367 --> 00:11:41,266 Modlin Fortress became part 234 00:11:41,266 --> 00:11:43,967 of newly independent Poland. 235 00:11:43,967 --> 00:11:46,567 It remained key to the nation's defenses 236 00:11:46,567 --> 00:11:50,400 until it finally shut down in 1995. 237 00:11:57,400 --> 00:12:00,767 Wilbur H. Durborough's film lay forgotten 238 00:12:00,767 --> 00:12:02,367 until 2016, 239 00:12:02,367 --> 00:12:05,500 when it was restored by the Library of Congress. 240 00:12:07,166 --> 00:12:09,400 [Wawro] This is a really foundational piece 241 00:12:09,400 --> 00:12:10,367 of war documentary, 242 00:12:10,367 --> 00:12:13,100 because, you know, today we take for granted 243 00:12:13,100 --> 00:12:14,200 that we're going to see 244 00:12:14,200 --> 00:12:18,100 all kinds of video footage of combat. 245 00:12:18,100 --> 00:12:20,100 But it really begins over 100 years ago 246 00:12:20,100 --> 00:12:20,934 in World War I. 247 00:12:28,000 --> 00:12:29,300 [narrator] In the suburban streets 248 00:12:29,300 --> 00:12:31,066 or Newark, New Jersey 249 00:12:31,066 --> 00:12:32,567 hide the decaying remains 250 00:12:32,567 --> 00:12:36,333 that for some became a symbol of rebellion. 251 00:12:41,667 --> 00:12:44,333 We're just a half hour from downtown Manhattan. 252 00:12:45,000 --> 00:12:46,166 It's a pretty typical street 253 00:12:46,166 --> 00:12:49,233 with office buildings and a hospital across the way. 254 00:12:50,667 --> 00:12:52,900 But you'll notice one block 255 00:12:52,900 --> 00:12:55,066 is a little bit more disheveled 256 00:12:55,066 --> 00:12:56,500 than all of the others. 257 00:12:57,700 --> 00:13:00,700 You can barely see in through the overgrown trees 258 00:13:00,700 --> 00:13:02,400 spilling out into the street. 259 00:13:03,767 --> 00:13:05,667 Just through the foliage you can spot the walls 260 00:13:05,667 --> 00:13:07,033 of an imposing building. 261 00:13:08,367 --> 00:13:11,767 [narrator] The construction within is falling apart. 262 00:13:11,767 --> 00:13:15,000 But evidence of its original function still lingers. 263 00:13:15,867 --> 00:13:19,300 [Alicia] You can see different wings and sections 264 00:13:19,300 --> 00:13:22,634 and the foundations of a few structures. 265 00:13:23,867 --> 00:13:26,066 [Michele] There's holes in the roof, rusty metal bars, 266 00:13:26,066 --> 00:13:28,600 and vegetation is working its way through the windows. 267 00:13:30,000 --> 00:13:32,100 [Bell] Despite all this decay, 268 00:13:32,100 --> 00:13:34,867 you can still make out what this building once was. 269 00:13:34,867 --> 00:13:36,700 And it's the long corridors 270 00:13:36,700 --> 00:13:39,433 and the barred doors, they're a dead giveaway. 271 00:13:40,367 --> 00:13:42,367 [narrator] During a decade of change, 272 00:13:42,367 --> 00:13:44,266 the violent struggles taking place 273 00:13:44,266 --> 00:13:47,734 outside this jail would permeate its walls. 274 00:13:48,166 --> 00:13:49,567 New inmates were pouring in 275 00:13:49,567 --> 00:13:51,400 and the jail was full to the brim. 276 00:13:52,467 --> 00:13:54,567 [Alicia] One of those new inmates 277 00:13:54,567 --> 00:13:58,100 within the course of one generation, 278 00:13:58,100 --> 00:14:00,467 his family's narrative arc 279 00:14:00,467 --> 00:14:03,233 would go from solitary confinement... 280 00:14:03,800 --> 00:14:05,300 to the mayor's office. 281 00:14:13,066 --> 00:14:14,200 [Myles] As a young person, I grew up 282 00:14:14,200 --> 00:14:16,800 four or five blocks from here in downtown Newark, 283 00:14:16,800 --> 00:14:20,700 and I was really interested in abandoned structures, 284 00:14:20,700 --> 00:14:23,200 particularly that speak to moments 285 00:14:23,200 --> 00:14:25,567 in... in American history. 286 00:14:25,567 --> 00:14:29,100 [narrator] Myles Zhang is an urban historian and artist 287 00:14:29,100 --> 00:14:32,166 with a lifelong passion for this building. 288 00:14:32,166 --> 00:14:34,600 [Myles] When you think about why this needs to be preserved, 289 00:14:34,600 --> 00:14:36,400 it's the story that this building 290 00:14:36,400 --> 00:14:37,567 allows us to tell. 291 00:14:37,567 --> 00:14:39,800 And it's a story of the common people 292 00:14:39,800 --> 00:14:41,333 that are held behind bars. 293 00:14:42,367 --> 00:14:45,667 [narrator] This is the old Essex County Jail. 294 00:14:45,667 --> 00:14:48,166 It opened in 1836, 295 00:14:48,166 --> 00:14:50,500 a period when the population of Newark 296 00:14:50,500 --> 00:14:52,867 was rapidly expanding. 297 00:14:52,867 --> 00:14:55,767 [Myles] It cost about $70,000 at the time 298 00:14:55,767 --> 00:14:57,767 and that was the largest municipal expanse 299 00:14:57,767 --> 00:15:00,700 which makes this the oldest building in Essex County. 300 00:15:01,767 --> 00:15:03,467 It was designed to be state-of-the-art 301 00:15:03,467 --> 00:15:05,533 by the famed architect John Haviland. 302 00:15:06,967 --> 00:15:08,767 [Myles] He's kind of known as the father 303 00:15:08,767 --> 00:15:10,700 or the inventor of the form of the modern prison. 304 00:15:12,467 --> 00:15:13,967 [narrator] In later years, 305 00:15:13,967 --> 00:15:16,467 two additional wings and a hospital 306 00:15:16,467 --> 00:15:18,667 were added to his design. 307 00:15:18,667 --> 00:15:21,100 But as the population of Newark grew, 308 00:15:21,100 --> 00:15:24,600 the jail would become disproportionately overcrowded. 309 00:15:25,200 --> 00:15:27,100 Over the course of the 20th century, 310 00:15:27,100 --> 00:15:28,700 over six million African Americans 311 00:15:28,700 --> 00:15:29,867 would leave the South 312 00:15:29,867 --> 00:15:32,400 for the North and the West to escape the harsh reality 313 00:15:32,400 --> 00:15:34,500 of Jim Crow laws and segregation. 314 00:15:35,567 --> 00:15:37,000 [narrator] But in Newark, 315 00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:40,333 the predominantly white population wasn't welcoming. 316 00:15:40,767 --> 00:15:41,834 And police arrests 317 00:15:41,834 --> 00:15:45,533 among the African American newcomers was high. 318 00:15:46,200 --> 00:15:47,233 [Myles] By the 1930s, 319 00:15:47,233 --> 00:15:51,700 I believe Newark was about 20% or so Black. 320 00:15:51,700 --> 00:15:54,467 But the prison population is 70% Black. 321 00:15:54,467 --> 00:15:57,567 And so, you see increasing incarceration 322 00:15:57,567 --> 00:15:59,867 of Black men. 323 00:15:59,867 --> 00:16:02,934 [Michele] With more and more African Americans coming North, 324 00:16:03,700 --> 00:16:05,066 by 1967, 325 00:16:05,066 --> 00:16:06,900 Newark had become one of America's 326 00:16:06,900 --> 00:16:08,900 first majority Black cities. 327 00:16:10,300 --> 00:16:11,500 [narrator] Although the population 328 00:16:11,500 --> 00:16:14,000 was now mostly African American, 329 00:16:14,000 --> 00:16:18,367 Newark's law enforcers remained overwhelmingly white. 330 00:16:18,367 --> 00:16:21,900 This imbalance would soon reach a tipping point 331 00:16:21,900 --> 00:16:24,166 and the old Essex County Jail 332 00:16:24,166 --> 00:16:26,600 would be caught in the crosshairs. 333 00:16:31,200 --> 00:16:33,467 [narrator] In the late 1960s, 334 00:16:33,467 --> 00:16:34,767 pressure was rising 335 00:16:34,767 --> 00:16:37,400 in Newark's old Essex County Jail. 336 00:16:38,467 --> 00:16:40,066 [Bell] Decades of overcrowding 337 00:16:40,066 --> 00:16:43,100 had led to poor, poor conditions. 338 00:16:43,100 --> 00:16:45,300 And it was about to get much worse. 339 00:16:47,000 --> 00:16:49,066 [Alicia] Tensions between law enforcement 340 00:16:49,066 --> 00:16:52,333 and the Black community of Newark were rising. 341 00:16:53,667 --> 00:16:56,100 During the long, hot summer of 1967, 342 00:16:56,100 --> 00:16:58,700 over 150 urban rebellions 343 00:16:58,700 --> 00:17:00,567 broke out all over the country. 344 00:17:00,567 --> 00:17:02,800 And in July, Newark reached a boiling point. 345 00:17:04,467 --> 00:17:06,000 During a traffic stop, 346 00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:08,166 a Black cab driver was arrested 347 00:17:08,166 --> 00:17:10,066 and brutally beaten, 348 00:17:10,066 --> 00:17:13,233 sparking a week of protest and violence. 349 00:17:17,867 --> 00:17:18,834 In total, 350 00:17:18,834 --> 00:17:21,900 26 people were killed by the National Guard 351 00:17:21,900 --> 00:17:24,367 and 1400 were arrested 352 00:17:24,367 --> 00:17:26,934 in what became known as the Newark Rebellion. 353 00:17:27,667 --> 00:17:29,000 Many of those people 354 00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:31,300 were taken to the Essex County Jail. 355 00:17:32,700 --> 00:17:34,667 [narrator] Activist Fredrica Bey 356 00:17:34,667 --> 00:17:38,467 is a Newark resident who remembers the rebellion. 357 00:17:38,467 --> 00:17:41,266 Two of her siblings were also incarcerated 358 00:17:41,266 --> 00:17:43,233 at old Essex County Jail. 359 00:17:44,400 --> 00:17:45,400 [Fredrica] The tombs... 360 00:17:46,100 --> 00:17:47,667 it was called in Newark. 361 00:17:47,667 --> 00:17:51,367 Of course, tombs is for dead people. 362 00:17:51,367 --> 00:17:53,100 And my brothers and the people 363 00:17:53,100 --> 00:17:56,100 who, you know, were confined here, 364 00:17:56,100 --> 00:17:58,066 I mean, were in the tombs, 365 00:17:58,066 --> 00:18:00,200 you know, while they are living. 366 00:18:02,166 --> 00:18:03,533 And to think about it... 367 00:18:04,266 --> 00:18:06,734 it makes me angry. 368 00:18:09,100 --> 00:18:11,700 [narrator] On the first night of the Newark Rebellion, 369 00:18:11,700 --> 00:18:14,066 controversial writer Amiri Baraka 370 00:18:14,066 --> 00:18:16,300 was also thrown in the jail. 371 00:18:16,867 --> 00:18:18,667 An influential poet, 372 00:18:18,667 --> 00:18:21,400 Black activist and native of Newark, 373 00:18:21,400 --> 00:18:23,367 Baraka has attracted criticism 374 00:18:23,367 --> 00:18:26,834 for including anti-Semitic elements in his work. 375 00:18:27,400 --> 00:18:28,300 To many, 376 00:18:28,300 --> 00:18:30,066 he was one of the greatest Black writers 377 00:18:30,066 --> 00:18:31,000 of his generation. 378 00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:32,233 But to some, 379 00:18:32,233 --> 00:18:35,700 his writings reflected violence, misogyny and homophobia. 380 00:18:37,266 --> 00:18:40,133 [narrator] Baraka had been pulled over by police, 381 00:18:40,400 --> 00:18:41,567 fiercely beaten 382 00:18:41,567 --> 00:18:44,100 and charged with carrying a weapon. 383 00:18:44,100 --> 00:18:47,166 Amiri Baraka got his head bashed in 384 00:18:47,166 --> 00:18:48,433 by the Newark police. 385 00:18:49,367 --> 00:18:51,233 He shed blood... 386 00:18:51,900 --> 00:18:54,133 and was locked up in this place. 387 00:18:54,667 --> 00:18:56,467 And he did it... 388 00:18:56,467 --> 00:19:00,200 while he was advocating for us, for Black folk. 389 00:19:00,967 --> 00:19:03,333 To be willing to give your life 390 00:19:03,867 --> 00:19:05,100 for your people, 391 00:19:05,100 --> 00:19:06,367 I honor him. 392 00:19:07,200 --> 00:19:09,166 [Bell] He was placed in solitary confinement 393 00:19:09,166 --> 00:19:10,400 when he entered the jail 394 00:19:10,400 --> 00:19:13,000 and detailed his experience years later 395 00:19:13,000 --> 00:19:14,400 in his autobiography. 396 00:19:15,467 --> 00:19:18,367 [narrator] He recounted watching from his cell window, 397 00:19:18,367 --> 00:19:22,000 "The police shoot down people in the streets outside." 398 00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:25,800 Once he left this jail, 399 00:19:25,800 --> 00:19:29,233 he never stopped campaigning for the residents of Newark. 400 00:19:31,567 --> 00:19:33,867 [Fredrica] That was a volatile time. 401 00:19:33,867 --> 00:19:36,300 The Newark Rebellions, I remember that 402 00:19:37,100 --> 00:19:39,367 it definitely changed things. 403 00:19:39,367 --> 00:19:41,000 The rebellions did. 404 00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:41,967 I remember 405 00:19:41,967 --> 00:19:44,867 I got my first real job 406 00:19:44,867 --> 00:19:46,300 after the Rebellion. 407 00:19:46,700 --> 00:19:47,834 Things opened up. 408 00:19:50,767 --> 00:19:52,500 [narrator] But Newark's lawmakers 409 00:19:52,500 --> 00:19:54,166 still hadn't addressed 410 00:19:54,166 --> 00:19:57,166 the injustices inside the jail. 411 00:19:57,166 --> 00:19:59,567 There's really severe overcrowding 412 00:19:59,567 --> 00:20:01,200 in the Essex County Jail. 413 00:20:01,200 --> 00:20:03,300 A jail designed for 200 or 300 people 414 00:20:03,300 --> 00:20:06,400 at that point had over 500 people confined here... 415 00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:08,266 in some of the cells right here. 416 00:20:08,266 --> 00:20:10,867 Cells barely four feet wide, 417 00:20:10,867 --> 00:20:12,166 uh, six feet deep, 418 00:20:12,166 --> 00:20:14,467 would have two people confined here 419 00:20:14,467 --> 00:20:16,300 in rooms without electricity. 420 00:20:17,400 --> 00:20:18,867 So people are locked in their cells 421 00:20:18,867 --> 00:20:20,700 in this narrow corridor here 422 00:20:20,700 --> 00:20:22,800 24 hours a day for weeks on end. 423 00:20:23,767 --> 00:20:26,166 [Bell] In those conditions, it wouldn't take much 424 00:20:26,166 --> 00:20:27,433 to kick off a riot. 425 00:20:28,166 --> 00:20:30,166 And in 1968, the violence 426 00:20:30,166 --> 00:20:33,033 spilled over into Essex County Jail. 427 00:20:34,567 --> 00:20:37,467 [Myles] Several of the inmates in the west ward, 428 00:20:37,467 --> 00:20:40,367 when it's time for them to go back into their cells at the end of the day, 429 00:20:40,367 --> 00:20:42,066 they said, "We're not going back. 430 00:20:42,066 --> 00:20:43,567 We're gonna spend this time outside." 431 00:20:43,567 --> 00:20:46,266 And so they set fire to the place. 432 00:20:46,266 --> 00:20:50,367 Over the course of two hours, the inmates clashed with the wardens, 433 00:20:50,367 --> 00:20:54,667 breaking furniture and setting fires. 434 00:20:54,667 --> 00:20:57,800 They burned a hole in the roof and Newark Fire Department was called in. 435 00:20:59,200 --> 00:21:01,000 [Alicia] In the aftermath of the riot, 436 00:21:01,000 --> 00:21:04,600 over 100 inmates were transferred to other locations 437 00:21:04,600 --> 00:21:07,700 in order to try to ease the tensions. 438 00:21:10,166 --> 00:21:13,100 [narrator] Finally, the city was forced to deal 439 00:21:13,100 --> 00:21:15,800 with the jail's overcrowding problem. 440 00:21:15,800 --> 00:21:19,667 It built a large, modern facility on the outskirts of town 441 00:21:19,667 --> 00:21:25,100 and in 1971, the original jail closed down. 442 00:21:28,367 --> 00:21:31,467 Today, the old Essex County Jail 443 00:21:31,467 --> 00:21:33,667 stands as a powerful reminder 444 00:21:33,667 --> 00:21:37,066 of Newark's struggle with injustice. 445 00:21:37,066 --> 00:21:40,934 Some of the activists that fought for change and were incarcerated here, 446 00:21:41,667 --> 00:21:44,300 still inspire hope. 447 00:21:44,300 --> 00:21:48,600 Baraka's career would go on to span some 52 years. 448 00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:53,200 [Bell] Baraka's influence on Newark lasted generations. 449 00:21:53,200 --> 00:21:57,066 Almost 50 years after he was locked up in Essex County Jail, 450 00:21:57,066 --> 00:22:00,834 his son, Ras Baraka, was elected mayor of the city. 451 00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:07,233 [narrator] Baraka went on to serve the people of Newark for multiple terms. 452 00:22:14,767 --> 00:22:16,200 In Namibia, 453 00:22:16,200 --> 00:22:19,000 the desiccated remains of a settlement 454 00:22:19,000 --> 00:22:21,300 sink into the sand. 455 00:22:27,166 --> 00:22:32,133 It's a foreboding landscape, where the Namib Desert clashes with the Atlantic Ocean. 456 00:22:33,467 --> 00:22:35,900 You can just about notice a train track, 457 00:22:35,900 --> 00:22:37,867 and just a few miles down the line, 458 00:22:37,867 --> 00:22:41,567 a lone station in the middle of nowhere. 459 00:22:41,567 --> 00:22:45,467 [Martin] Why would anybody have any reason to run 460 00:22:45,467 --> 00:22:48,000 a small-gauge railroad through this area. 461 00:22:48,600 --> 00:22:50,467 [narrator] Not far from the line, 462 00:22:50,467 --> 00:22:55,800 a series of ramshackled remains may yield the answer. 463 00:22:55,800 --> 00:22:59,767 It's the last place in the world you'd expect to see a town. 464 00:22:59,767 --> 00:23:01,667 But there are signs of a settlement. 465 00:23:01,667 --> 00:23:04,600 It's a collection of houses, some of which are residential, 466 00:23:04,600 --> 00:23:06,567 that have been taken over by the sand 467 00:23:06,567 --> 00:23:09,400 to such an extent that there are sand drifts 468 00:23:09,400 --> 00:23:12,600 in the inner hallways of these buildings. 469 00:23:12,600 --> 00:23:16,567 But there's also rusted machinery littering the ground. 470 00:23:16,567 --> 00:23:20,600 There was clearly some kind of industrial operation going on here. 471 00:23:20,600 --> 00:23:23,400 But what could a barren place like this offer? 472 00:23:24,367 --> 00:23:28,100 When people come to a desolate place like this, 473 00:23:28,100 --> 00:23:31,567 there's usually a very good reason for them to be here. 474 00:23:31,567 --> 00:23:36,300 A discovery in these dunes, changed this region, forever. 475 00:23:42,266 --> 00:23:45,367 [narrator] Today, this site sits in an area 476 00:23:45,367 --> 00:23:48,000 called Das Sperrgebiet, 477 00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:49,433 the forbidden zone. 478 00:23:51,367 --> 00:23:54,000 Local historian, Heinz Manns 479 00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:57,300 has special permission to access this restricted area. 480 00:23:59,567 --> 00:24:03,300 This railroad was built by the German government, 481 00:24:03,300 --> 00:24:05,400 for the German army 482 00:24:05,400 --> 00:24:08,667 to move their armament to the interior of the country. 483 00:24:08,667 --> 00:24:11,800 And to do business with the interior, 484 00:24:11,800 --> 00:24:14,367 to do trade with the local people 485 00:24:14,367 --> 00:24:17,100 of Namibia at the time. 486 00:24:17,100 --> 00:24:20,266 [narrator] The railroad was completed in 1906. 487 00:24:20,266 --> 00:24:23,867 And ran from the coast into the heart of Namibia, 488 00:24:23,867 --> 00:24:26,867 which the Germans called South-West Africa 489 00:24:26,867 --> 00:24:30,867 and had controlled since 1883. 490 00:24:30,867 --> 00:24:33,767 The Germans established this colony in an attempt 491 00:24:33,767 --> 00:24:35,367 to counter the British 492 00:24:35,367 --> 00:24:37,800 who had established the South Africa colony. 493 00:24:39,567 --> 00:24:40,767 [narrator] In 1907, 494 00:24:40,767 --> 00:24:43,867 a young railway surveyor from Germany 495 00:24:43,867 --> 00:24:47,100 decided to come to this desolate outpost, 496 00:24:47,100 --> 00:24:51,233 hoping the arid climate would help to cure his asthma. 497 00:24:52,166 --> 00:24:55,100 [Heinz] So, August Stauch worked for the railroad 498 00:24:55,100 --> 00:24:58,467 and he had a team of workers under him, 499 00:24:58,467 --> 00:25:01,800 clearing the railroad track of dune sand. 500 00:25:03,066 --> 00:25:06,600 He was the station master, you can call it. 501 00:25:08,667 --> 00:25:10,667 [Sascha] He came here for health reasons. 502 00:25:10,667 --> 00:25:14,800 But soon, he found himself on a quest for something far more lucrative. 503 00:25:16,266 --> 00:25:20,100 [Heinz] There were supposed to have been diamond finds in the area, 504 00:25:20,100 --> 00:25:22,600 but nothing was ever confirmed. 505 00:25:23,767 --> 00:25:26,900 [Sascha] He just couldn't let go of that idea 506 00:25:26,900 --> 00:25:29,000 that somewhere, hidden in these sands, 507 00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:31,233 were precious gemstones. 508 00:25:32,367 --> 00:25:35,166 [narrator] Stauch was scorned by geologists, 509 00:25:35,166 --> 00:25:37,567 who had already scoured the area. 510 00:25:37,567 --> 00:25:40,100 But he remained determined. 511 00:25:40,100 --> 00:25:42,800 He instructed his workers to keep an eye out 512 00:25:42,800 --> 00:25:44,900 for gemstones in the sands. 513 00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:50,767 [Heinz] Well, Zacharias Lewala, he was one of the workers 514 00:25:50,767 --> 00:25:52,734 clearing the railroad track. 515 00:25:53,667 --> 00:25:56,367 He came to August in the morning 516 00:25:56,367 --> 00:25:58,000 and said, 517 00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:00,600 "Mr. Stauch, look, I found a pretty stone." 518 00:26:03,400 --> 00:26:07,166 Stauch took it and scratched the glass of his watch. 519 00:26:07,166 --> 00:26:09,367 It left a deep cut. 520 00:26:09,367 --> 00:26:12,166 It confirmed what he had long suspected. 521 00:26:12,166 --> 00:26:16,567 That there were diamonds in the sands of Namibia. 522 00:26:16,567 --> 00:26:19,867 Stauch also had them tested at a government laboratory. 523 00:26:19,867 --> 00:26:23,100 They all came back, confirmed as genuine, 524 00:26:23,100 --> 00:26:25,000 and the diamond rush was on. 525 00:26:26,900 --> 00:26:29,667 Between June and December 1908, 526 00:26:29,667 --> 00:26:32,767 40,000 carats worth of diamonds were found. 527 00:26:32,767 --> 00:26:36,000 And prospectors were buying up land as fast as they could. 528 00:26:37,367 --> 00:26:39,166 [narrator] By 1912, 529 00:26:39,166 --> 00:26:41,767 the industry had grown so quickly, 530 00:26:41,767 --> 00:26:45,400 a town was built to support the flourishing trade. 531 00:26:46,467 --> 00:26:49,634 It was called Pomona. 532 00:26:50,367 --> 00:26:52,166 Over the next few years, 533 00:26:52,166 --> 00:26:56,667 prospectors pulled almost five million carats from the sand, 534 00:26:56,667 --> 00:27:00,867 worth almost $20 billion in today's money. 535 00:27:00,867 --> 00:27:06,000 Pomona was the richest area in diamond mining. 536 00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:10,166 There were teachers here, there was a doctor here, two hospitals, 537 00:27:10,166 --> 00:27:13,000 340 permanent employees, 538 00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:17,767 that included wives, children, everything. 539 00:27:17,767 --> 00:27:21,100 Pomona was complete with a mess hall, a school, 540 00:27:21,100 --> 00:27:22,133 and even a bowling alley 541 00:27:22,133 --> 00:27:25,500 to make the German employees feel more at home. 542 00:27:26,467 --> 00:27:28,867 To get the right people to work here, 543 00:27:28,867 --> 00:27:29,700 to get the expertise, 544 00:27:29,700 --> 00:27:32,867 you have to look after the people. 545 00:27:32,867 --> 00:27:35,567 This was a very well-thought-out mining town. 546 00:27:35,567 --> 00:27:39,567 Not unlike the mining towns that you'll see in the American West. 547 00:27:39,567 --> 00:27:43,900 But not everyone who came to Pomona found such comforts. 548 00:27:46,066 --> 00:27:50,266 [Heinz] This is part of the laborers' quarters. 549 00:27:50,266 --> 00:27:53,100 The workers, the three-year contractors. 550 00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:56,867 Each one had his own little cubicle. 551 00:27:56,867 --> 00:27:59,100 Like, they'd pop their stuff on the top there, 552 00:27:59,100 --> 00:28:00,400 their personal belongings. 553 00:28:00,400 --> 00:28:03,200 This is where they lived, three years. 554 00:28:04,266 --> 00:28:08,300 [narrator] 800 local laborers did the manual work. 555 00:28:08,300 --> 00:28:12,867 The brutal task of searching for diamonds in the sand. 556 00:28:12,867 --> 00:28:16,000 These rickety sheds and rusting machinery 557 00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:18,900 were designed to assist the process. 558 00:28:20,867 --> 00:28:23,800 [Heinz] These are the classifiers. 559 00:28:23,800 --> 00:28:27,600 These were used to sift at the diamond gravel. 560 00:28:27,600 --> 00:28:30,000 These machines, they were hand operated. 561 00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:32,266 The first process worked was 562 00:28:32,266 --> 00:28:34,767 the material shaking in the water, 563 00:28:34,767 --> 00:28:36,667 so the heavy stuff goes to the bottom. 564 00:28:36,667 --> 00:28:38,867 Diamond is a heavy material all around. 565 00:28:38,867 --> 00:28:40,333 That's what they were looking for. 566 00:28:41,467 --> 00:28:44,000 [narrator] It was painstaking work. 567 00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:47,200 For those who carried it out under the desert sun, 568 00:28:47,200 --> 00:28:50,233 it exacted a punishing toll. 569 00:28:51,266 --> 00:28:54,100 The Germans overseeing the operation 570 00:28:54,100 --> 00:28:57,500 treated the local laborers with distrust. 571 00:28:59,066 --> 00:29:01,700 For the mine owners, there was the constant paranoia 572 00:29:01,700 --> 00:29:04,600 of workers smuggling out diamonds with them. 573 00:29:04,600 --> 00:29:08,000 And they went to extreme lengths to prevent this. 574 00:29:08,967 --> 00:29:10,667 They were checking you inside and out 575 00:29:10,667 --> 00:29:13,233 to see whether or not you were stealing the diamonds. 576 00:29:14,700 --> 00:29:18,100 [Sascha] Some suspect they forced the workers to take laxatives, 577 00:29:18,100 --> 00:29:21,500 to make sure even if they swallowed the diamonds, they couldn't hold on to them. 578 00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:26,900 [narrator] By 1914, 579 00:29:26,900 --> 00:29:29,400 Germany was in control of a third 580 00:29:29,400 --> 00:29:32,266 of the world's diamond supply. 581 00:29:32,266 --> 00:29:35,867 August Stauch, the man who started it all, 582 00:29:35,867 --> 00:29:40,000 had become rich beyond his wildest dreams. 583 00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:44,500 Germany's great diamond rush, however, would soon grind to a halt. 584 00:29:51,166 --> 00:29:53,700 [narrator] In early 1914, 585 00:29:53,700 --> 00:29:57,567 Pomona was one of the wealthiest towns in Africa. 586 00:29:57,567 --> 00:30:02,467 But global events would soon conspire to change that. 587 00:30:02,467 --> 00:30:05,400 On the night of August 4th, 1914, 588 00:30:05,400 --> 00:30:08,567 the radio station at Lüderitz received a report 589 00:30:08,567 --> 00:30:11,300 that Germany and Great Britain were now at war. 590 00:30:12,967 --> 00:30:15,567 During the war, they were allowed to mine 591 00:30:15,567 --> 00:30:18,300 minimal scale just to sustain themselves, 592 00:30:18,300 --> 00:30:21,300 but the companies didn't operate really. 593 00:30:23,166 --> 00:30:27,500 [narrator] Within the year, Britain's South African colonial troops 594 00:30:27,500 --> 00:30:29,266 invaded Namibia, 595 00:30:29,266 --> 00:30:32,300 forcing the Germans to abandon the town. 596 00:30:35,266 --> 00:30:37,367 They took everything they could 597 00:30:37,367 --> 00:30:39,300 and they also destroyed a lot of stuff. 598 00:30:39,300 --> 00:30:41,100 The same with the railway line 599 00:30:41,100 --> 00:30:44,133 so it didn't fall into the enemies' hands. 600 00:30:45,867 --> 00:30:47,567 [narrator] By the end of the war, 601 00:30:47,567 --> 00:30:52,467 the defeated Germans had lost control of Namibia and the mine. 602 00:30:52,467 --> 00:30:54,700 In 1919, 603 00:30:54,700 --> 00:30:57,667 the German-born industrialist, Ernest Oppenheimer 604 00:30:57,667 --> 00:30:59,500 took control of Pomona. 605 00:31:00,467 --> 00:31:04,800 Operations continued until deposits ran out in the 1930s, 606 00:31:04,800 --> 00:31:08,233 when Pomona was left deserted. 607 00:31:09,567 --> 00:31:11,000 Pomona turned into a ghost town 608 00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:13,567 because, with the disappearance of the people, 609 00:31:13,567 --> 00:31:17,700 the desert reclaimed what belonged to it before. 610 00:31:17,700 --> 00:31:21,667 [narrator] Meanwhile, the man who started Namibia's diamond rush 611 00:31:21,667 --> 00:31:24,867 met no kinder fate. 612 00:31:24,867 --> 00:31:26,967 [Heinz] August Stauch was a millionaire overnight. 613 00:31:26,967 --> 00:31:30,367 But he did a lot of wrong investments. 614 00:31:30,367 --> 00:31:32,367 He died a poor man. 615 00:31:32,367 --> 00:31:34,133 He had no money. 616 00:31:41,266 --> 00:31:44,100 [narrator] After being uninhabited for so long, 617 00:31:44,100 --> 00:31:49,567 the region has some of the highest biodiversity in Namibia, 618 00:31:49,567 --> 00:31:54,500 with unique desert plants, reptiles, and herds of antelope. 619 00:31:55,567 --> 00:32:00,400 Since 2009, it has been preserved as a national park. 620 00:32:07,266 --> 00:32:09,867 To the northwest of London, England, 621 00:32:09,867 --> 00:32:15,100 a ghostly manor house gives little hint of its radical past. 622 00:32:19,100 --> 00:32:21,567 [Meigs] It's a beautiful sandstone building 623 00:32:21,567 --> 00:32:25,800 that stands at the end of a quarter-mile long, tree-lined driveway. 624 00:32:27,100 --> 00:32:28,867 [Pedrick] The brickwork is crumbling, 625 00:32:28,867 --> 00:32:33,967 but you can still see that this place must have been a real sanctuary. 626 00:32:33,967 --> 00:32:39,233 [narrator] Inside, there are trappings of privilege and wealth. 627 00:32:40,367 --> 00:32:43,500 We've got these fine plasterwork ceilings, 628 00:32:43,500 --> 00:32:45,000 opulent wood-carvings, 629 00:32:45,000 --> 00:32:47,900 stone-framed windows. 630 00:32:47,900 --> 00:32:51,900 [Meigs] This might seem like a place that would be a home for upper class aristocrats 631 00:32:51,900 --> 00:32:55,033 who would resist any kind of social change. 632 00:32:56,266 --> 00:32:58,567 [narrator] But this mainstay of the establishment 633 00:32:58,567 --> 00:33:03,567 was once pivotal to a vicious struggle for civil rights. 634 00:33:03,567 --> 00:33:09,867 It was a real hotbed for one of the most important battles of its day. 635 00:33:09,867 --> 00:33:14,100 It was a common occurrence to have the police knocking on the door. 636 00:33:22,300 --> 00:33:24,166 [narrator] Amanda Pitcairn 637 00:33:24,166 --> 00:33:26,000 has a deep family connection 638 00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:28,667 to this sprawling estate. 639 00:33:28,667 --> 00:33:31,000 [Amanda] This house was owned by my great grandparents. 640 00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:34,634 When I was growing up, I heard lots and lots of stories about this place. 641 00:33:35,300 --> 00:33:36,867 [narrator] This dilapidated mansion 642 00:33:36,867 --> 00:33:40,967 was once home to Agnes and Henry Harben. 643 00:33:40,967 --> 00:33:42,867 [Meigs] Harben was very wealthy 644 00:33:42,867 --> 00:33:45,800 'cause he'd inherited a fortune from his grandfather 645 00:33:45,800 --> 00:33:49,100 who'd built up the Prudential insurance company. 646 00:33:49,100 --> 00:33:51,767 [narrator] At the time, in the homes of the elite, 647 00:33:51,767 --> 00:33:55,300 strict rules of etiquette were still being followed. 648 00:33:55,300 --> 00:33:59,200 [Amanda] This is the room that was, pretty much, a male preserve. 649 00:34:00,200 --> 00:34:02,500 Men would sit and drink potions and smoke cigars 650 00:34:02,500 --> 00:34:05,300 and tell bad jokes until they got very drunk. 651 00:34:06,400 --> 00:34:09,066 [narrator] This is Newland Park, 652 00:34:09,066 --> 00:34:12,367 a 550-acre estate and 50-room house 653 00:34:12,367 --> 00:34:15,200 with rigidly manicured gardens. 654 00:34:15,200 --> 00:34:19,900 But despite appearances, Henry Harben was far from conventional. 655 00:34:21,500 --> 00:34:24,100 He made friends with all sorts of radical people, 656 00:34:24,100 --> 00:34:26,900 regardless of their social background. 657 00:34:26,900 --> 00:34:30,166 [Meigs] Henry and Agnes Harben turned their home into a kind of salon, 658 00:34:30,166 --> 00:34:34,266 where people with new ideas, people interested in social change 659 00:34:34,266 --> 00:34:38,700 could gather and discuss the kind of world they wanted to see in the future. 660 00:34:39,667 --> 00:34:41,600 [narrator] The first decade of the 20th century 661 00:34:41,600 --> 00:34:44,200 was a time of social reform. 662 00:34:45,166 --> 00:34:48,367 This was a period of great liberalizing 663 00:34:48,367 --> 00:34:50,200 in social norms 664 00:34:50,200 --> 00:34:54,533 and embrace of a more egalitarian approach to life. 665 00:34:55,967 --> 00:35:00,467 [Pedrick] So, in the 1900s, Henry and Agnes became involved 666 00:35:00,467 --> 00:35:04,767 in one of the biggest issues of the day. 667 00:35:04,767 --> 00:35:08,900 All women, regardless of social class, were still barred from voting. 668 00:35:11,000 --> 00:35:12,400 [Meigs] It's almost hard to remember today, 669 00:35:12,400 --> 00:35:15,100 but the world's great democracies we think of 670 00:35:15,100 --> 00:35:16,967 like Britain, like the US, 671 00:35:16,967 --> 00:35:19,433 they weren't actually all that democratic. 672 00:35:20,266 --> 00:35:22,800 [narrator] In both Britain and America, 673 00:35:22,800 --> 00:35:25,266 women had been fighting for the right to vote 674 00:35:25,266 --> 00:35:27,600 since the mid-19th century. 675 00:35:28,667 --> 00:35:32,166 But after decades of kind of getting nowhere with politicians, 676 00:35:32,166 --> 00:35:34,667 a new, all-female group would emerge 677 00:35:34,667 --> 00:35:38,500 and kind of take Britain by storm. 678 00:35:38,500 --> 00:35:41,166 And a dramatic escalation of events 679 00:35:41,166 --> 00:35:45,100 would turn Newland Park from a place to just meet... 680 00:35:45,667 --> 00:35:47,900 into a place to hide from the law. 681 00:35:53,700 --> 00:35:55,100 [narrator] At Newland Park, 682 00:35:55,100 --> 00:35:56,767 near London, England, 683 00:35:56,767 --> 00:36:00,166 Henry and Agnes Harben supported the suffragist movement 684 00:36:00,166 --> 00:36:03,700 and welcomed like-minded people to their home. 685 00:36:03,700 --> 00:36:07,600 They frequently played host to Emmeline Pankhurst, 686 00:36:07,600 --> 00:36:10,934 an ardent campaigner for a woman's right to vote. 687 00:36:12,767 --> 00:36:17,400 Emmeline Pankhurst was this very dramatic leader of the movement, 688 00:36:17,400 --> 00:36:20,533 a real magnet for press attention. 689 00:36:21,600 --> 00:36:25,000 [narrator] Emmeline had been an activist for decades. 690 00:36:25,000 --> 00:36:28,200 But her increasing frustration with peaceful tactics 691 00:36:28,200 --> 00:36:31,800 had forced her to form a more radical action group. 692 00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:35,767 [Jaega] This was a very different type of organization, 693 00:36:35,767 --> 00:36:39,266 fed up of broken promises given from men in power, 694 00:36:39,266 --> 00:36:41,367 only women could join. 695 00:36:41,367 --> 00:36:43,967 They began a campaign of direct action 696 00:36:43,967 --> 00:36:46,600 with the motto "Deeds, not words." 697 00:36:47,667 --> 00:36:50,300 In an attempt to belittle them, 698 00:36:50,300 --> 00:36:53,600 a journalist labeled them "suffragettes" 699 00:36:53,600 --> 00:36:55,367 as opposed to suffragists 700 00:36:55,367 --> 00:36:59,700 which they sort of embraced and kind of took as a badge of honor. 701 00:37:00,867 --> 00:37:03,800 Agnes was a member of the suffragette movement 702 00:37:03,800 --> 00:37:05,700 and totally committed to it. 703 00:37:05,700 --> 00:37:08,533 Henry funded it, of course, to great extent. 704 00:37:09,900 --> 00:37:11,400 [narrator] From Newland Park, 705 00:37:11,400 --> 00:37:14,667 Henry Harben used his inherited assets 706 00:37:14,667 --> 00:37:17,100 to bankroll the nationwide movement. 707 00:37:18,266 --> 00:37:21,166 But as women's rights continued to be denied, 708 00:37:21,166 --> 00:37:24,400 the suffragettes became increasingly militant. 709 00:37:25,800 --> 00:37:29,100 Emmeline Pankhurst proclaimed that it was her duty 710 00:37:29,100 --> 00:37:32,700 to break the law in order to bring attention to their plight. 711 00:37:33,767 --> 00:37:37,066 [Pedrick] Women started smashing windows, 712 00:37:37,066 --> 00:37:40,266 setting postboxes on fire. 713 00:37:40,266 --> 00:37:44,667 They even chased after Winston Churchill with a horsewhip. 714 00:37:44,667 --> 00:37:49,900 [Meigs] And then it escalated, and the fight got very intense and ugly. 715 00:37:49,900 --> 00:37:53,233 Bombs were sent to the homes of government officials. 716 00:37:54,266 --> 00:37:58,667 In their minds, their actions were completely justified. 717 00:37:58,667 --> 00:38:02,767 [Jaega] In response, many hundreds of women were arrested and imprisoned. 718 00:38:02,767 --> 00:38:07,266 In protest, the women began a campaign of hunger strikes. 719 00:38:07,266 --> 00:38:12,367 So the government began a policy of force-feeding the women. 720 00:38:12,367 --> 00:38:14,800 A warden would restrain a woman, 721 00:38:14,800 --> 00:38:18,500 take a rubber tube, put it down her nostrils, into her throat, 722 00:38:18,500 --> 00:38:21,967 sometimes directly into her stomach. 723 00:38:21,967 --> 00:38:25,767 If one of these women were to die of starvation from a hunger strike, 724 00:38:25,767 --> 00:38:30,700 it would be a political disaster for the country. 725 00:38:30,700 --> 00:38:35,367 [Pedrick] So, hunger strikers would be kept until they were extremely weak, 726 00:38:35,367 --> 00:38:37,300 and then they'd be released, 727 00:38:37,300 --> 00:38:39,200 um, long enough to recover 728 00:38:39,200 --> 00:38:41,000 and then they would get picked up again 729 00:38:41,000 --> 00:38:43,400 and serve out the rest of their sentence. 730 00:38:44,600 --> 00:38:48,266 Emmeline Pankhurst herself was constantly arrested and released 731 00:38:48,266 --> 00:38:52,133 as many as 12 times in the space of 12 months. 732 00:38:54,200 --> 00:38:55,500 [narrator] Once released, 733 00:38:55,500 --> 00:38:58,834 many suffragettes escape to the home of Henry and Agnes. 734 00:39:01,166 --> 00:39:03,200 [Pedrick] Newland Park became a place 735 00:39:03,200 --> 00:39:07,634 for the malnourished women to hide out and recover. 736 00:39:08,767 --> 00:39:11,000 [narrator] For the suffragettes fresh out of prison, 737 00:39:11,000 --> 00:39:14,500 coming here was like stepping into another world. 738 00:39:16,800 --> 00:39:19,567 The suffragettes were from a different class, basically. 739 00:39:19,567 --> 00:39:21,700 And they would not have been used to 740 00:39:21,700 --> 00:39:24,700 um, the sort of lifestyle that was led here. 741 00:39:25,500 --> 00:39:28,100 This is a testament to my great grandmother 742 00:39:28,100 --> 00:39:31,700 who would have done her utmost to make them feel welcome. 743 00:39:33,000 --> 00:39:37,467 [narrator] But Newland Park was only 25 miles from London. 744 00:39:37,467 --> 00:39:40,500 And rumors of Harben's involvement in the movement 745 00:39:40,500 --> 00:39:43,000 led police right to their doorstep. 746 00:39:43,567 --> 00:39:45,400 A well-timed tip-off 747 00:39:45,400 --> 00:39:48,600 allowed Agnes and Henry to conceal the fugitives. 748 00:39:49,567 --> 00:39:53,400 This is where, in the cellars, is where they hid. 749 00:39:53,400 --> 00:39:56,433 Emmeline Pankhurst and more, uh, suffragettes. 750 00:39:57,867 --> 00:40:01,000 Well, it feels so much like a... 751 00:40:01,000 --> 00:40:02,934 like a cell, actually, 752 00:40:03,400 --> 00:40:04,900 that they must have felt 753 00:40:04,900 --> 00:40:07,000 they were sort of back into jail. 754 00:40:08,100 --> 00:40:10,600 [narrator] Thanks to their hideout at Newland Park, 755 00:40:10,600 --> 00:40:14,433 the suffragettes were spared a return to prison. 756 00:40:15,667 --> 00:40:19,100 A year later, the outbreak of the First World War 757 00:40:19,100 --> 00:40:21,400 transforms society's view of women 758 00:40:21,400 --> 00:40:25,800 and confirmed their place in a changing world. 759 00:40:25,800 --> 00:40:30,700 Male politicians could no longer claim that women were unfit to vote. 760 00:40:30,700 --> 00:40:32,900 If they could work in munitions factories 761 00:40:32,900 --> 00:40:35,100 and drive ambulances, 762 00:40:35,100 --> 00:40:37,600 why couldn't they walk into a voting booth? 763 00:40:38,266 --> 00:40:39,867 [narrator] In 1918, 764 00:40:39,867 --> 00:40:42,100 the government finally conceded 765 00:40:42,100 --> 00:40:46,166 and the process of allowing women to vote began. 766 00:40:46,166 --> 00:40:50,100 But life at Newland Park wasn't so successful. 767 00:40:50,800 --> 00:40:52,900 Agnes and Henry separated 768 00:40:52,900 --> 00:40:56,767 and their home changed hands several times... 769 00:40:56,767 --> 00:40:59,400 until it fell into disrepair. 770 00:41:05,667 --> 00:41:09,867 Today, developers are turning this valuable real estate 771 00:41:09,867 --> 00:41:12,700 into a complex of luxury homes. 772 00:41:13,567 --> 00:41:15,867 It'll feature Harben Drive 773 00:41:15,867 --> 00:41:19,567 and a central statue of Emmeline Pankhurst, 774 00:41:19,567 --> 00:41:21,967 ensuring the importance of this site 775 00:41:21,967 --> 00:41:24,066 in a vital social movement 776 00:41:24,066 --> 00:41:26,100 will not be forgotten.