1 00:00:03,066 --> 00:00:05,200 This program is rated 14 , 2 00:00:05,333 --> 00:00:07,266 and contains scenes of violence, coarse language, 3 00:00:07,400 --> 00:00:08,667 and mature subject matter. 4 00:00:08,800 --> 00:00:10,633 Viewer discretion is advised. 5 00:00:18,433 --> 00:00:19,700 When I was a kid, 6 00:00:19,834 --> 00:00:22,934 every adult I knew shared one thing in common-- 7 00:00:23,066 --> 00:00:27,200 a gap in their lives when everything appeared uncertain 8 00:00:27,333 --> 00:00:30,834 and time itself seemed to stand still. 9 00:00:30,967 --> 00:00:32,066 When they talked about it, 10 00:00:32,200 --> 00:00:35,033 they simply called it "the war." 11 00:00:35,166 --> 00:00:38,800 For six dark years, the world was on fire. 12 00:00:38,934 --> 00:00:40,367 Cities were demolished 13 00:00:40,500 --> 00:00:43,000 and whole populations threatened. 14 00:00:43,133 --> 00:00:45,667 When would the war end? No one knew. 15 00:00:45,800 --> 00:00:48,900 How would it end? No one knew. 16 00:00:49,033 --> 00:00:51,834 Life was in stasis. 17 00:00:51,967 --> 00:00:54,066 The war is now a part of our culture, 18 00:00:54,200 --> 00:00:56,300 portrayed in movies and on television 19 00:00:56,433 --> 00:00:58,300 and novels and history books. 20 00:00:58,433 --> 00:01:01,100 The Allies usually defeat the enemy 21 00:01:01,233 --> 00:01:03,633 and save the world. 22 00:01:03,767 --> 00:01:05,367 But the grim reality of the war 23 00:01:05,500 --> 00:01:08,033 is almost impossible to comprehend. 24 00:01:08,166 --> 00:01:11,400 Over 65 million people are killed-- 25 00:01:11,533 --> 00:01:13,500 the majority civilians. 26 00:01:13,633 --> 00:01:15,900 Everyone fought some version of the war, 27 00:01:16,033 --> 00:01:17,967 beginning with the mothers and fathers 28 00:01:18,100 --> 00:01:20,100 who sent their children overseas 29 00:01:20,233 --> 00:01:24,233 not knowing when or if they would ever see them again. 30 00:01:24,367 --> 00:01:26,467 And, of course, the soldiers, sailors, 31 00:01:26,600 --> 00:01:29,300 airmen, and marines-- often just a bunch of kids-- 32 00:01:29,433 --> 00:01:31,700 who served with honor and bravery 33 00:01:31,834 --> 00:01:36,367 to liberate enslaved peoples and preserve human dignity. 34 00:01:36,500 --> 00:01:40,367 In doing so, they saved that which is most precious 35 00:01:40,500 --> 00:01:43,000 and valued by us all-- 36 00:01:43,133 --> 00:01:44,734 freedom. 37 00:01:44,867 --> 00:01:46,433 The Second World War 38 00:01:46,567 --> 00:01:49,000 is the largest event in human history. 39 00:01:49,133 --> 00:01:51,767 No part of the globe is unaffected. 40 00:01:51,900 --> 00:01:55,700 World War II changed everything for all of us. 41 00:01:58,333 --> 00:02:00,800 All wars change the world, 42 00:02:00,934 --> 00:02:02,767 but none of them changed the world 43 00:02:02,900 --> 00:02:04,700 like the Second World War did. 44 00:02:04,834 --> 00:02:08,700 Japan's on the march, Germany's on the march. 45 00:02:08,834 --> 00:02:10,100 No one can imagine 46 00:02:10,233 --> 00:02:12,867 the nightmare they're about to unleash-- 47 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:15,767 the most destructive war in human history. 48 00:02:15,900 --> 00:02:18,500 Suddenly the world is turned upside down, 49 00:02:18,633 --> 00:02:19,967 and all hell is let loose. 50 00:02:22,433 --> 00:02:25,800 The West is stunned by the speed of the advance. 51 00:02:25,934 --> 00:02:29,734 You get the Allies, led by the big three-- 52 00:02:29,867 --> 00:02:32,300 Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin-- 53 00:02:32,433 --> 00:02:34,166 men who are dealing 54 00:02:34,300 --> 00:02:37,367 with immensely complicated questions. 55 00:02:37,500 --> 00:02:41,600 It's the biggest military operation of human history. 56 00:02:41,967 --> 00:02:43,900 The Allies have to come together, 57 00:02:44,033 --> 00:02:45,367 not just militarily, 58 00:02:45,500 --> 00:02:46,734 but industrial scale 59 00:02:46,867 --> 00:02:48,600 it's a global perspective. 60 00:02:48,734 --> 00:02:50,633 They have to fight in every climate, 61 00:02:50,767 --> 00:02:54,300 from the Arctic to the jungles of the Pacific 62 00:02:54,433 --> 00:02:57,467 to the deserts of Africa and the depths of the ocean. 63 00:03:00,500 --> 00:03:03,266 But there was no certainty of victory. 64 00:03:03,400 --> 00:03:06,700 It was going to be a horrific bloodbath. 65 00:03:06,834 --> 00:03:08,700 We see humans at their absolute worst, 66 00:03:08,834 --> 00:03:11,200 how they treat other human beings. 67 00:03:11,333 --> 00:03:12,800 And we see them at their absolute best, 68 00:03:12,934 --> 00:03:15,200 willing to give their lives that others might live. 69 00:03:15,333 --> 00:03:18,367 World War II was a struggle in which there could be 70 00:03:18,500 --> 00:03:21,800 one victor and one vanquished. 71 00:03:56,000 --> 00:03:58,900 Sometimes the most monumental events 72 00:03:59,033 --> 00:04:02,834 begin without fanfare... 73 00:04:02,967 --> 00:04:04,500 before the world wakes. 74 00:04:06,700 --> 00:04:08,667 And so it is 75 00:04:08,800 --> 00:04:11,967 on the 1st of September, 1939, 76 00:04:12,100 --> 00:04:16,200 as dawn breaks over a sleeping city on the Baltic Sea, 77 00:04:16,333 --> 00:04:20,400 that the bloodiest conflict in all history begins. 78 00:04:34,066 --> 00:04:36,133 This is the national program from London. 79 00:04:36,266 --> 00:04:39,367 Germany has invaded Poland. 80 00:04:39,500 --> 00:04:40,934 Heavy outbreaks of fighting 81 00:04:41,066 --> 00:04:43,734 along the German-Polish frontier. 82 00:05:21,200 --> 00:05:26,066 In just a matter of hours, a million and a half men... 83 00:05:26,200 --> 00:05:29,500 1,300 planes... 84 00:05:29,633 --> 00:05:32,934 and 2,750 tanks 85 00:05:33,066 --> 00:05:36,300 crossed the Polish border at lightning speed. 86 00:05:38,600 --> 00:05:40,667 September 1, 1939-- 87 00:05:40,800 --> 00:05:43,133 a storm breaks over Poland. 88 00:05:46,800 --> 00:05:49,834 The Germans are racing through with tanks 89 00:05:49,967 --> 00:05:53,867 and with artillery, following up with the infantry 90 00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:56,967 and accompanied by the Luftwaffe. 91 00:06:01,433 --> 00:06:03,100 And all of a sudden, people were waking up 92 00:06:03,233 --> 00:06:05,700 to the sound of tanks rumbling through the town 93 00:06:05,834 --> 00:06:08,100 not really knowing what was happening. 94 00:06:08,233 --> 00:06:10,000 You're going to see waves of trucks 95 00:06:10,133 --> 00:06:12,633 and mechanized and motorized vehicles. 96 00:06:12,767 --> 00:06:14,467 It looks a bit like a science-fiction novel, 97 00:06:14,600 --> 00:06:16,867 like all those novels written in the '20s and '30s 98 00:06:17,000 --> 00:06:19,200 about what the war of the future would look like. 99 00:06:19,333 --> 00:06:22,367 And, suddenly, in 1939, the future is now. 100 00:06:30,967 --> 00:06:32,767 At 11:00 a.m., 101 00:06:32,900 --> 00:06:35,467 Hitler arrives at a Berlin opera house 102 00:06:35,600 --> 00:06:38,200 where he's gathered the Reichstag. 103 00:06:59,800 --> 00:07:02,867 This is the moment Hitler's been waiting for all his life. 104 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:06,367 He's been the leader of the Nazi party since 1921. 105 00:07:06,500 --> 00:07:09,900 He comes to power in '33. He rearms the country in '35. 106 00:07:10,033 --> 00:07:13,633 And since then, it's been prepare, prepare, prepare. 107 00:07:13,767 --> 00:07:15,433 But Hitler wants a war. 108 00:07:27,467 --> 00:07:30,200 The invasion follows months of diplomatic tension 109 00:07:30,333 --> 00:07:34,600 over a strip of land known as the Polish Corridor-- 110 00:07:34,734 --> 00:07:38,066 land that had once been part of Germany... 111 00:07:38,200 --> 00:07:41,667 but was ceded to Poland to give her access to the sea 112 00:07:41,800 --> 00:07:43,800 after the First World War. 113 00:07:47,433 --> 00:07:50,867 20 years earlier, global leaders gathered 114 00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:52,633 in the French city of Versailles 115 00:07:52,767 --> 00:07:56,500 to sign the historic treaty ending that war. 116 00:07:56,633 --> 00:07:59,100 After four years of brutal fighting, 117 00:07:59,233 --> 00:08:01,567 an alliance led by Britain and France 118 00:08:01,700 --> 00:08:04,333 and supported by the United States 119 00:08:04,467 --> 00:08:05,967 emerged victorious. 120 00:08:07,333 --> 00:08:09,567 Germany, its military exhausted 121 00:08:09,700 --> 00:08:13,066 and its people near starvation, had lost. 122 00:08:13,200 --> 00:08:17,433 And now they would pay the price of defeat. 123 00:08:17,567 --> 00:08:19,066 The Treaty of Versailles 124 00:08:19,200 --> 00:08:20,700 takes territories away from Germany. 125 00:08:20,834 --> 00:08:23,767 It strips Germany of populations and raw materials. 126 00:08:23,900 --> 00:08:26,133 It turns the entire German merchant marine 127 00:08:26,266 --> 00:08:27,433 over to the Allies. 128 00:08:27,567 --> 00:08:30,400 It imposes reparations on the Germans. 129 00:08:30,533 --> 00:08:33,433 The Allies were attempting to limit 130 00:08:33,567 --> 00:08:35,700 the future power of Germany. 131 00:08:35,834 --> 00:08:38,433 The effects of the First World War were so grave, 132 00:08:38,567 --> 00:08:39,667 they were so catastrophic 133 00:08:39,800 --> 00:08:41,967 that no one wanted to see a repeat of that. 134 00:08:42,100 --> 00:08:46,033 One young Austrian corporal fighting for the German army 135 00:08:46,166 --> 00:08:48,300 is Adolf Hitler. 136 00:08:48,433 --> 00:08:52,600 Like many, he is shocked by the way the war ends. 137 00:08:52,734 --> 00:08:54,500 Your average German was surprised by the news 138 00:08:54,633 --> 00:08:56,800 of the armistice because it happened so suddenly. 139 00:08:56,934 --> 00:08:58,400 The army was still in the field, 140 00:08:58,533 --> 00:09:00,600 and there was the sense that we haven't been invaded 141 00:09:00,734 --> 00:09:02,433 and thoroughly beaten. 142 00:09:02,567 --> 00:09:05,233 It was personally a tragedy for Hitler. 143 00:09:05,367 --> 00:09:07,033 He heard the news of the armistice 144 00:09:07,166 --> 00:09:10,934 when he was still ill from injuries sustained in battle. 145 00:09:11,066 --> 00:09:14,934 He did not process the end of the war well. 146 00:09:15,066 --> 00:09:18,600 He did not accept the defeat of Germany. 147 00:09:18,734 --> 00:09:21,867 Surviving soldiers come home angry 148 00:09:22,000 --> 00:09:24,033 and confused. 149 00:09:24,166 --> 00:09:26,100 Frankly, the response of many of them 150 00:09:26,233 --> 00:09:27,400 is disillusionment. 151 00:09:27,533 --> 00:09:28,967 Four years at the front, 152 00:09:29,100 --> 00:09:30,800 I managed to dodge all those bullets, 153 00:09:30,934 --> 00:09:33,233 and now I came home and this is what I fought for? 154 00:09:34,734 --> 00:09:37,200 When Hitler comes back from the war, 155 00:09:37,333 --> 00:09:39,834 he learns to talk to former soldiers 156 00:09:39,967 --> 00:09:42,300 who are now disgruntled and begins to feel the fact 157 00:09:42,433 --> 00:09:44,400 that he's actually quite a good speaker. 158 00:09:49,200 --> 00:09:51,000 He attends a meeting of a small group 159 00:09:51,133 --> 00:09:52,333 which will become 160 00:09:52,467 --> 00:09:54,400 the National Socialist German Workers, 161 00:09:54,533 --> 00:09:56,300 or Nazi Party. 162 00:09:56,433 --> 00:09:57,834 He finds something attractive. 163 00:09:57,967 --> 00:09:59,200 This is a party of grievance 164 00:09:59,333 --> 00:10:01,300 talking about how Germany could be transformed 165 00:10:01,433 --> 00:10:03,300 and Germany could be made powerful again. 166 00:10:03,433 --> 00:10:06,166 In 1921, Hitler's talent for public speaking 167 00:10:06,300 --> 00:10:09,467 makes him the leader of this tiny party. 168 00:10:09,600 --> 00:10:12,800 Hitler's first move is an attempted coup 169 00:10:12,934 --> 00:10:15,467 against the Bavarian state government in Munich. 170 00:10:17,166 --> 00:10:20,266 But it fails, and he's arrested for treason. 171 00:10:21,800 --> 00:10:23,934 At his trial, the judge allows Hitler 172 00:10:24,066 --> 00:10:26,967 to publicly share his movement's grievances 173 00:10:27,100 --> 00:10:31,834 against war guilt, reparations, and communism. 174 00:10:31,967 --> 00:10:34,834 In jail, he publishes his memoir, 175 00:10:34,967 --> 00:10:37,834 "Mein Kampf," or "My Struggle." 176 00:10:39,967 --> 00:10:43,834 With Hitler's notoriety, Nazi Party membership grows 177 00:10:43,967 --> 00:10:46,033 as Germany's Weimar Republic 178 00:10:46,166 --> 00:10:49,367 moves through the unstable '20s. 179 00:10:49,500 --> 00:10:53,600 The economy is burdened by heavy war reparations. 180 00:10:53,734 --> 00:10:57,600 In 1923, the cost of one loaf of bread 181 00:10:57,734 --> 00:11:01,300 rockets from 3 marks to 80 billion. 182 00:11:03,734 --> 00:11:07,000 The years that follow are unstable, chaotic. 183 00:11:08,734 --> 00:11:11,200 Hitler's Nazi Party fuels racial hatred 184 00:11:11,333 --> 00:11:15,300 against Jews and fears about communism. 185 00:11:15,433 --> 00:11:18,667 Then, just as the economy is recovering, 186 00:11:18,800 --> 00:11:23,500 the Great Depression throws 6 million Germans out of work. 187 00:11:23,633 --> 00:11:27,333 People in Germany are confused, bewildered, unhappy. 188 00:11:27,467 --> 00:11:29,000 And so there's a real opening 189 00:11:29,133 --> 00:11:31,100 for a leader who will speak all these lines perfectly 190 00:11:31,233 --> 00:11:32,967 and talk about, how I'm going to bring the Germans 191 00:11:33,100 --> 00:11:34,500 back together. 192 00:11:34,633 --> 00:11:39,233 In the 1932 elections, Germany is deeply divided. 193 00:11:41,367 --> 00:11:43,033 But President von Hindenburg, 194 00:11:43,166 --> 00:11:45,433 backed by conservative businessmen, 195 00:11:45,567 --> 00:11:48,066 appoints Hitler chancellor to run the government 196 00:11:48,200 --> 00:11:50,433 at the beginning of 1933. 197 00:11:53,200 --> 00:11:55,667 In 1934, Hitler declares 198 00:11:55,800 --> 00:11:58,567 that he will now continue to be chancellor 199 00:11:58,700 --> 00:12:01,934 and take over the role of the president as well. 200 00:12:02,066 --> 00:12:05,133 He's transformed what was a democracy in Germany 201 00:12:05,266 --> 00:12:09,800 into a one-party and a one-man dictatorship. 202 00:12:09,934 --> 00:12:13,233 He's become the German leader, the Fuehrer. 203 00:12:15,567 --> 00:12:19,300 His first promise as Fuehrer is to reclaim the land 204 00:12:19,433 --> 00:12:21,533 Germany lost at Versailles. 205 00:12:21,667 --> 00:12:23,467 He seizes the Rhineland, 206 00:12:23,600 --> 00:12:25,867 Austria, and the Sudetenland-- 207 00:12:26,000 --> 00:12:28,300 German-speaking parts of Czechoslovakia. 208 00:12:28,433 --> 00:12:31,834 By 1938, just four years later, 209 00:12:31,967 --> 00:12:35,000 he's reshaped the map of Europe. 210 00:12:35,133 --> 00:12:37,700 Desperate to avoid another war, 211 00:12:37,834 --> 00:12:41,934 Britain and France allow Hitler to expand his empire. 212 00:12:42,066 --> 00:12:43,800 In 1938 at Munich, 213 00:12:43,934 --> 00:12:45,834 Neville Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister, 214 00:12:45,967 --> 00:12:50,367 and the French actually made a deal with Hitler. 215 00:12:50,500 --> 00:12:53,367 What he wanted was the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia. 216 00:12:53,500 --> 00:12:54,967 The British had said, fine, 217 00:12:55,100 --> 00:12:58,667 we'll just dismantle an entire country to keep you happy. 218 00:12:58,800 --> 00:13:00,867 But when Hitler turns to Poland, 219 00:13:01,000 --> 00:13:04,333 the West finally takes a stand. 220 00:13:04,467 --> 00:13:09,467 The Poles have already endured centuries of foreign rule. 221 00:13:09,600 --> 00:13:11,467 The country regains its independence 222 00:13:11,600 --> 00:13:14,133 as part of the Versailles Treaty. 223 00:13:14,266 --> 00:13:18,033 But its new borders now include 20,000 square miles 224 00:13:18,166 --> 00:13:20,500 of what had been German land. 225 00:13:23,233 --> 00:13:26,533 In summer 1939, the British and the French 226 00:13:26,667 --> 00:13:29,066 sign a guarantee with the Poles 227 00:13:29,200 --> 00:13:33,500 promising military assistance if the Germans invade. 228 00:13:35,633 --> 00:13:37,734 Hitler, speaking to his officers-- 229 00:13:37,867 --> 00:13:39,133 they're asking him questions. 230 00:13:39,266 --> 00:13:40,967 Well, what is the attitude of the West gonna be 231 00:13:41,100 --> 00:13:42,200 if you attack Poland? 232 00:13:42,333 --> 00:13:43,900 And he snorted. Don't worry, he said. 233 00:13:44,033 --> 00:13:46,133 I've seen my opponents at Munich. 234 00:13:46,266 --> 00:13:47,767 They're little worms. 235 00:13:47,900 --> 00:13:49,500 Hitler doesn't believe 236 00:13:49,633 --> 00:13:52,433 the West has the will to go to war. 237 00:13:53,967 --> 00:13:56,567 So he moves across the border, 238 00:13:56,700 --> 00:13:59,533 ready to invade with the full force 239 00:13:59,667 --> 00:14:01,333 of the Nazi Wehrmacht. 240 00:14:09,667 --> 00:14:12,567 In the first 24 hours of the invasion... 241 00:14:14,400 --> 00:14:16,533 The Germans take out railroads, 242 00:14:16,667 --> 00:14:18,934 bridges, and airfields. 243 00:14:22,066 --> 00:14:23,967 The destruction paves the way 244 00:14:24,100 --> 00:14:27,367 for their army to advance deep into Poland. 245 00:14:29,233 --> 00:14:32,166 The Poles have a modern army. 246 00:14:32,300 --> 00:14:34,533 It's the fifth-largest army in the world. 247 00:14:37,333 --> 00:14:39,633 And it's equipped with modern tanks, 248 00:14:39,767 --> 00:14:43,734 with all sorts of artillery and armored trains. 249 00:14:43,867 --> 00:14:46,967 But Hitler has been putting almost all his resources 250 00:14:47,100 --> 00:14:49,600 into equipping the military. 251 00:14:49,734 --> 00:14:52,066 The Poles were outgunned by the Germans, 252 00:14:52,200 --> 00:14:55,467 who had three-to-one tanks and five-to-one airplanes. 253 00:14:55,600 --> 00:14:58,834 So there's no question that the Germans were a superior force. 254 00:15:00,600 --> 00:15:02,000 Despite those odds, 255 00:15:02,133 --> 00:15:05,767 the Poles are determined to defend their country. 256 00:15:08,667 --> 00:15:09,967 Everyone had to help, 257 00:15:10,100 --> 00:15:12,633 and soldiers conscripted civilians on the street, 258 00:15:12,767 --> 00:15:14,367 putting them to work. 259 00:15:14,500 --> 00:15:17,000 I saw one man who was stopped six times on his way home 260 00:15:17,133 --> 00:15:18,767 with a loaf of bread. 261 00:15:22,333 --> 00:15:25,400 The Poles remain resilient. 262 00:15:27,633 --> 00:15:29,333 But the question is, 263 00:15:29,467 --> 00:15:32,433 what will Britain and France do? 264 00:15:32,567 --> 00:15:34,467 Here, as ever in critical days, 265 00:15:34,600 --> 00:15:37,967 has seen the coming and going of the leaders of the country. 266 00:15:38,100 --> 00:15:41,533 The British and French had an alliance with the Poles. 267 00:15:41,667 --> 00:15:43,200 They have to defend Poland. 268 00:15:43,333 --> 00:15:46,233 But they're not militarily prepared to do so, 269 00:15:46,367 --> 00:15:48,533 and they're not mentally prepared to do so. 270 00:15:48,667 --> 00:15:50,900 The home fronts in Britain and France 271 00:15:51,033 --> 00:15:53,934 are dead set against war. 272 00:15:54,066 --> 00:15:56,233 British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain 273 00:15:56,367 --> 00:15:58,734 tells Parliament he's considering 274 00:15:58,867 --> 00:16:00,700 issuing an ultimatum. 275 00:16:00,834 --> 00:16:02,533 But many feel he's backtracking 276 00:16:02,667 --> 00:16:04,033 on his promise to Poland. 277 00:16:05,767 --> 00:16:09,567 This is a profound injury to British honor, 278 00:16:09,700 --> 00:16:12,600 that if we don't act and declare war, 279 00:16:12,734 --> 00:16:14,533 no other country will ever trust 280 00:16:14,667 --> 00:16:16,400 a treaty with Britain ever again. 281 00:16:16,533 --> 00:16:19,367 Britain delivers an ultimatum to Berlin 282 00:16:19,500 --> 00:16:22,600 on the morning of September 3, 1939. 283 00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:28,600 Hitler has until 11:00 a.m. to withdraw his forces. 284 00:16:32,000 --> 00:16:33,400 It's ignored. 285 00:16:35,300 --> 00:16:36,367 This morning, 286 00:16:36,500 --> 00:16:38,934 the British ambassador in Berlin 287 00:16:39,066 --> 00:16:42,533 handed the German government a final note. 288 00:16:42,667 --> 00:16:44,800 And, consequently, 289 00:16:44,934 --> 00:16:49,600 this country is at war with Germany. 290 00:16:52,166 --> 00:16:53,500 In cities across Britain, 291 00:16:53,633 --> 00:16:57,533 air raid sirens signal a strange new era, 292 00:16:57,667 --> 00:17:01,700 and millions of gas masks are sent to British homes. 293 00:17:05,734 --> 00:17:07,200 Across the Atlantic, 294 00:17:07,333 --> 00:17:10,734 America is just emerging from the Great Depression 295 00:17:10,867 --> 00:17:13,133 and not prepared for war. 296 00:17:15,000 --> 00:17:16,967 The peacetime army is small. 297 00:17:18,767 --> 00:17:20,567 And neutrality laws 298 00:17:20,700 --> 00:17:23,033 make it nearly impossible to aid the Allies. 299 00:17:25,133 --> 00:17:27,834 In the White House, the press gathers for one 300 00:17:27,967 --> 00:17:31,667 of President Roosevelt's fireside chats. 301 00:17:31,800 --> 00:17:34,700 I have said, not once but many times, 302 00:17:34,834 --> 00:17:37,266 that I have seen war 303 00:17:37,400 --> 00:17:40,066 and that I hate war. 304 00:17:40,200 --> 00:17:43,266 I say that again and again. 305 00:17:43,400 --> 00:17:46,834 I hope the United States will keep out of this. 306 00:17:46,967 --> 00:17:51,467 And I give you assurance and reassurance 307 00:17:51,600 --> 00:17:53,800 that every effort of your government 308 00:17:53,934 --> 00:17:56,800 will be directed toward that end. 309 00:17:56,934 --> 00:17:59,500 Most Americans, when they're asked, 310 00:17:59,633 --> 00:18:02,133 should the United States get involved? 311 00:18:02,266 --> 00:18:05,600 90% of Americans say absolutely not. 312 00:18:05,734 --> 00:18:08,600 But Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 313 00:18:08,734 --> 00:18:12,667 he's watching what's happening in Europe very closely. 314 00:18:12,800 --> 00:18:16,300 The question is about freedom and democracy. 315 00:18:16,433 --> 00:18:18,433 He understands what is at stake. 316 00:18:20,166 --> 00:18:22,567 In Germany, Hitler is surprised 317 00:18:22,700 --> 00:18:25,033 when Britain and France declare war. 318 00:18:25,166 --> 00:18:27,667 When the British declaration of war is made, 319 00:18:27,800 --> 00:18:29,433 Hitler receives it in silence. 320 00:18:29,567 --> 00:18:31,300 And for a couple of moments, 321 00:18:31,433 --> 00:18:34,133 he stares at his foreign minister, Ribbentrop. 322 00:18:34,266 --> 00:18:37,633 And then with a quite vicious tone to his voice, 323 00:18:37,767 --> 00:18:39,834 he says, what now? 324 00:18:45,333 --> 00:18:48,867 Despite the British and French declaration, 325 00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:51,867 Hitler continues his master plan for Poland 326 00:18:52,000 --> 00:18:54,367 and sends in the Luftwaffe. 327 00:18:56,834 --> 00:19:00,900 Hitler's air force is led by a trusted member 328 00:19:01,033 --> 00:19:03,100 of his inner circle... 329 00:19:03,233 --> 00:19:05,467 Field Marshal Hermann Goering. 330 00:19:07,600 --> 00:19:09,600 Goering's a German celebrity. 331 00:19:09,734 --> 00:19:12,166 World War I, he was the head of the Flying Circus, 332 00:19:12,300 --> 00:19:15,133 the Fliegender Zirkus, this elite group of fighter pilots. 333 00:19:16,633 --> 00:19:18,667 And so he's well-known in Germany. 334 00:19:18,800 --> 00:19:22,033 He's very handsome, very charismatic guy. 335 00:19:22,166 --> 00:19:24,700 But there's also a very dark side to Goering. 336 00:19:24,834 --> 00:19:27,734 He feels deeply embittered by the way the war ended, 337 00:19:27,867 --> 00:19:30,467 and he falls under Hitler's spell. 338 00:19:30,600 --> 00:19:34,300 And he's able to get huge appropriations from Hitler 339 00:19:34,433 --> 00:19:36,033 for Luftwaffe procurement. 340 00:19:37,500 --> 00:19:39,834 Goering's elite pilots are young 341 00:19:39,967 --> 00:19:42,133 and have spent thousands of hours in training. 342 00:19:44,033 --> 00:19:47,200 From the cockpits of heavy bombers, they drop explosives. 343 00:19:49,266 --> 00:19:51,500 But it's the precision dive bombers 344 00:19:51,633 --> 00:19:53,266 that wreak the most terror. 345 00:19:55,433 --> 00:19:56,734 The Sturzkampfflugzeug, 346 00:19:56,867 --> 00:19:59,867 the Stuka as it's usually abbreviated-- 347 00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:02,734 you know, it's not a particularly swift craft. 348 00:20:02,867 --> 00:20:06,000 But they dive at an almost 90-degree angle... 349 00:20:08,166 --> 00:20:10,333 And literally drop a bomb in your lap. 350 00:20:13,934 --> 00:20:16,934 And there's even a bit of psywar here as well. 351 00:20:17,066 --> 00:20:20,633 As they're coming down on you, there's a siren screaming. 352 00:20:23,967 --> 00:20:28,066 In Poland, there are pilots flying at low altitude 353 00:20:28,200 --> 00:20:31,567 who can see women and children fleeing the roads 354 00:20:31,700 --> 00:20:34,100 who actually target them deliberately. 355 00:20:41,767 --> 00:20:44,533 Polish civilians experience modern war 356 00:20:44,667 --> 00:20:47,500 in an unbelievably horrifying way. 357 00:20:53,200 --> 00:20:54,667 They see people killed. 358 00:20:54,800 --> 00:20:56,767 They see bodies all around them. 359 00:20:56,900 --> 00:20:58,867 It's a nightmare. 360 00:21:01,133 --> 00:21:03,300 Poland is being destroyed. 361 00:21:08,333 --> 00:21:10,100 It is not clear when 362 00:21:10,233 --> 00:21:14,300 or even if Britain and France can send forces to help. 363 00:21:22,200 --> 00:21:24,033 On day three... 364 00:21:24,166 --> 00:21:27,834 Adolf Hitler boards his heavily armored private train, 365 00:21:27,967 --> 00:21:29,200 the "Amerika." 366 00:21:30,700 --> 00:21:32,633 He named it after his admiration 367 00:21:32,767 --> 00:21:36,367 for the way America settled a vast continent. 368 00:21:36,500 --> 00:21:38,767 Now traveling towards Poland, 369 00:21:38,900 --> 00:21:42,800 he looks out on the territory he needs to conquer-- 370 00:21:42,934 --> 00:21:46,266 land stretching deep into Eastern Europe, 371 00:21:46,400 --> 00:21:50,967 Lebensraum, living space for his new German empire. 372 00:21:52,467 --> 00:21:55,767 This is his and Germany's destiny. 373 00:21:55,900 --> 00:21:58,300 Hitler talks about a thousand-year Reich. 374 00:21:58,433 --> 00:22:01,300 Its borders would stretch from the Atlantic in the west 375 00:22:01,433 --> 00:22:02,734 to Scandinavia in the north 376 00:22:02,867 --> 00:22:04,567 and the Mediterranean in the south. 377 00:22:04,700 --> 00:22:06,367 Poland and the lands to the east 378 00:22:06,500 --> 00:22:09,266 play a special role in Hitler's foreign-policy plans. 379 00:22:09,400 --> 00:22:11,166 They're wide-open spaces, 380 00:22:11,300 --> 00:22:14,767 farmland as far as the eye could see. 381 00:22:14,900 --> 00:22:18,133 In order to achieve this vast empire, 382 00:22:18,266 --> 00:22:21,133 Germans must clear out the people living there 383 00:22:21,266 --> 00:22:23,367 in a remorseless race war. 384 00:22:25,333 --> 00:22:28,100 Adolf Hitler's whole worldview 385 00:22:28,233 --> 00:22:31,500 is based on a kind of neo-Darwinism 386 00:22:31,633 --> 00:22:36,200 in which every single act is a biological struggle, 387 00:22:36,333 --> 00:22:39,066 warfare between different races. 388 00:22:42,133 --> 00:22:44,633 He believes that the Aryan race, the Germans, 389 00:22:44,767 --> 00:22:47,066 is the superior race on the planet. 390 00:22:47,200 --> 00:22:50,600 It's destined to rule Europe and indeed the world. 391 00:22:52,233 --> 00:22:54,200 Until now, Hitler's main target 392 00:22:54,333 --> 00:22:58,100 has been Germany's Jewish population. 393 00:22:58,233 --> 00:23:01,800 Under his orders, they lost their status as citizens, 394 00:23:01,934 --> 00:23:04,233 had their wealth and property seized, 395 00:23:04,367 --> 00:23:07,000 and many were forced into exile. 396 00:23:07,133 --> 00:23:09,233 Hitler believes that humanity is locked 397 00:23:09,367 --> 00:23:11,066 in this existential battle 398 00:23:11,200 --> 00:23:14,533 between Aryans, as he describes them, and Jews. 399 00:23:14,667 --> 00:23:16,900 And Jews are supposedly responsible 400 00:23:17,033 --> 00:23:21,100 for all of society's and the world's ills. 401 00:23:21,233 --> 00:23:22,400 So who is responsible 402 00:23:22,533 --> 00:23:24,967 for the German loss in World War I? 403 00:23:25,100 --> 00:23:26,533 Jewish people. 404 00:23:26,667 --> 00:23:29,967 Who is responsible for economic inequality? 405 00:23:30,100 --> 00:23:31,533 Jewish people. 406 00:23:31,667 --> 00:23:34,000 They control media, newspapers, 407 00:23:34,133 --> 00:23:35,600 all the businesses. 408 00:23:35,734 --> 00:23:36,934 The reason you are poor 409 00:23:37,066 --> 00:23:38,767 is because they are hoarding money. 410 00:23:38,900 --> 00:23:41,000 What the Nazis are seeking to do at this stage 411 00:23:41,133 --> 00:23:42,834 is to make life so unpleasant, 412 00:23:42,967 --> 00:23:45,567 so difficult for Jewish people within the Reich 413 00:23:45,700 --> 00:23:47,567 that they want to leave. 414 00:23:47,700 --> 00:23:52,066 Hitler also wants to remove the Slavs of Eastern Europe, 415 00:23:52,200 --> 00:23:55,400 including the people of Poland. 416 00:24:00,867 --> 00:24:02,033 Day four-- 417 00:24:02,166 --> 00:24:04,400 Hitler reaches the Polish front lines, 418 00:24:04,533 --> 00:24:08,000 where he holds a photo opportunity with his troops. 419 00:24:08,133 --> 00:24:10,400 He makes himself very visible, 420 00:24:10,533 --> 00:24:12,900 goes to the front, and he's greeted 421 00:24:13,033 --> 00:24:14,934 by these thousands and thousands of people. 422 00:24:15,066 --> 00:24:16,734 They're all vying with one another 423 00:24:16,867 --> 00:24:19,166 to get close to Adolf Hitler. 424 00:24:19,300 --> 00:24:22,900 He's fought in World War I. He's a battle-tested leader. 425 00:24:23,033 --> 00:24:26,166 He's taken back historic German territory. 426 00:24:26,300 --> 00:24:27,867 He's built the armed forces. 427 00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:29,333 They listen to him. 428 00:24:32,934 --> 00:24:34,934 These German soldiers marching on Poland 429 00:24:35,066 --> 00:24:38,133 believe in Germany's destiny... 430 00:24:38,266 --> 00:24:42,000 that they will be the creators of the great new Germany. 431 00:24:42,133 --> 00:24:44,500 This is the first action they've had militarily 432 00:24:44,633 --> 00:24:47,900 since the Black Day of the German Army in 1918. 433 00:24:48,033 --> 00:24:50,266 And it is an average infantryman 434 00:24:50,400 --> 00:24:53,000 from the First World War who's leading it. 435 00:24:54,467 --> 00:24:56,667 So this is redemption 436 00:24:56,800 --> 00:25:01,266 20 years after what never should have happened happened. 437 00:25:03,867 --> 00:25:05,567 Shadowing his invading forces 438 00:25:05,700 --> 00:25:08,066 is another wing of the Nazi regime... 439 00:25:09,567 --> 00:25:11,834 The Protection Squadron-- 440 00:25:11,967 --> 00:25:16,533 in German, the Schutzstaffel, or SS. 441 00:25:16,667 --> 00:25:18,700 They were Hitler's personal bodyguards 442 00:25:18,834 --> 00:25:21,266 as he rose to power. 443 00:25:21,400 --> 00:25:24,100 But under the leadership of Heinrich Himmler, 444 00:25:24,233 --> 00:25:26,333 they become a paramilitary outfit 445 00:25:26,467 --> 00:25:29,367 at the heart of the regime. 446 00:25:29,500 --> 00:25:31,734 Himmler is somebody 447 00:25:31,867 --> 00:25:34,467 who has a sadistic streak. 448 00:25:34,600 --> 00:25:36,133 He's quite meek, he's not particularly assuming, 449 00:25:36,266 --> 00:25:38,200 he's certainly not very physically impressive, 450 00:25:38,333 --> 00:25:40,533 but he's somebody who's got a burning desire 451 00:25:40,667 --> 00:25:41,767 to achieve things. 452 00:25:41,900 --> 00:25:44,633 He gets drawn into the Nazi loop, 453 00:25:44,767 --> 00:25:46,133 and then over a period of time, 454 00:25:46,266 --> 00:25:48,734 he eventually takes control of the SS. 455 00:25:48,867 --> 00:25:50,400 Himmler has developed the SS 456 00:25:50,533 --> 00:25:53,100 from a small kind of a bodyguard unit 457 00:25:53,233 --> 00:25:55,033 that's supposed to really protect Hitler... 458 00:25:56,467 --> 00:25:59,400 Into a vast militarized force. 459 00:26:00,967 --> 00:26:03,567 In Poland, the SS units fan out 460 00:26:03,700 --> 00:26:06,233 across the newly occupied territory, 461 00:26:06,367 --> 00:26:09,934 as does a special wing of the SS-- 462 00:26:10,066 --> 00:26:12,533 the Einsatzgruppen... 463 00:26:12,667 --> 00:26:14,867 mobile death squads. 464 00:26:23,300 --> 00:26:28,200 In September 1939, during the invasion of Poland, 465 00:26:28,333 --> 00:26:29,667 the Nazi Einsatzgruppen 466 00:26:29,800 --> 00:26:32,967 are under orders to neutralize any opposition. 467 00:26:34,867 --> 00:26:37,934 The Einsatzgruppen are specifically set up 468 00:26:38,066 --> 00:26:40,934 to go into towns, villages, 469 00:26:41,066 --> 00:26:42,834 and other areas of Poland 470 00:26:42,967 --> 00:26:44,767 to kill civilians. 471 00:26:44,900 --> 00:26:46,633 That's their only job. 472 00:26:46,767 --> 00:26:49,900 Professors, landowners, politicians, 473 00:26:50,033 --> 00:26:51,834 newspaper editors, these sorts of people-- 474 00:26:51,967 --> 00:26:54,300 they were targeted and killed because these were the people 475 00:26:54,433 --> 00:26:56,533 who are identified as possibly leading 476 00:26:56,667 --> 00:26:59,300 some sort of resistance against the German forces. 477 00:26:59,433 --> 00:27:02,867 And this is something that the Poles could not have known yet 478 00:27:03,000 --> 00:27:04,767 on those first days of the invasion, 479 00:27:04,900 --> 00:27:07,400 that this wasn't just going to be a military invasion, 480 00:27:07,533 --> 00:27:11,166 but this was also going to be a war of annihilation. 481 00:27:13,867 --> 00:27:17,834 For Hitler, this is a chance not just to destroy Poland 482 00:27:17,967 --> 00:27:19,700 but to clear Poland, 483 00:27:19,834 --> 00:27:22,767 to crush the Polish people, who are Slavs. 484 00:27:22,900 --> 00:27:24,700 And Slavs in the Nazi ideology 485 00:27:24,834 --> 00:27:27,200 are Untermenschen, "underhumans." 486 00:27:27,333 --> 00:27:30,100 But it's more than that. There are also Jews in Poland. 487 00:27:31,667 --> 00:27:33,533 For centuries, Poland has been home 488 00:27:33,667 --> 00:27:35,900 to millions of Europe's Jews, 489 00:27:36,033 --> 00:27:39,233 who fled there to avoid religious persecution. 490 00:27:39,367 --> 00:27:41,166 The Jews originally settled there 491 00:27:41,300 --> 00:27:44,533 because it was the freest kingdom in Europe. 492 00:27:44,667 --> 00:27:46,433 Now they found themselves 493 00:27:46,567 --> 00:27:49,900 in a terrifying, murderous trap. 494 00:27:50,033 --> 00:27:53,500 The SS drag Orthodox Jewish men out into the streets, 495 00:27:53,633 --> 00:27:56,834 and they desecrate their clothes and their hair. 496 00:27:56,967 --> 00:27:59,033 They smash up synagogues. 497 00:27:59,166 --> 00:28:01,767 They are seeking to amplify the terror 498 00:28:01,900 --> 00:28:04,033 that they've sought to develop within the Reich 499 00:28:04,166 --> 00:28:05,967 towards Jews within Poland. 500 00:28:07,700 --> 00:28:09,333 These acts of brutality 501 00:28:09,467 --> 00:28:11,700 escalate into public executions. 502 00:28:14,166 --> 00:28:17,200 In the town of Konskie on September 12th, 503 00:28:17,333 --> 00:28:21,433 German troops order local Jews to the town square... 504 00:28:21,567 --> 00:28:24,233 to dig the grave of a German soldier. 505 00:28:27,633 --> 00:28:32,200 This rather humiliating forced grave-digging exercise 506 00:28:32,333 --> 00:28:34,800 quickly descends into a pogrom. 507 00:28:36,200 --> 00:28:37,433 Jews are shot. 508 00:28:37,567 --> 00:28:39,567 You know, they try and run away from the scene. 509 00:28:39,700 --> 00:28:41,100 They're quickly apprehended. 510 00:28:42,800 --> 00:28:46,367 And in total, 22 Jews are killed on that day. 511 00:28:47,867 --> 00:28:49,800 This was happening across Poland... 512 00:28:51,667 --> 00:28:55,367 The brutal mass murder of innocent civilians. 513 00:29:01,433 --> 00:29:03,667 Nine days into the invasion, 514 00:29:03,800 --> 00:29:07,333 Britain and France continue to mobilize their forces. 515 00:29:07,467 --> 00:29:10,033 Civilians are being killed in the streets, 516 00:29:10,166 --> 00:29:11,800 but the army isn't defeated. 517 00:29:11,934 --> 00:29:15,533 With their capital city, Warsaw, now the target, 518 00:29:15,667 --> 00:29:18,300 two Polish armies stage a counterattack 519 00:29:18,433 --> 00:29:20,033 to the west of the city. 520 00:29:20,166 --> 00:29:22,633 Polish cavalry and reconnaissance tanks 521 00:29:22,767 --> 00:29:26,033 drive German forces back 12 1/2 miles 522 00:29:26,166 --> 00:29:28,266 in the Battle of the Bzura River. 523 00:29:28,400 --> 00:29:30,333 You know, all too often, the Polish campaign 524 00:29:30,467 --> 00:29:32,300 is talked about as some kind of pushover. 525 00:29:32,433 --> 00:29:34,266 But the Poles fought hard. 526 00:29:34,400 --> 00:29:36,033 The classic stereotype of the Poles 527 00:29:36,166 --> 00:29:38,667 is that they're all on their horses with sabers drawn, 528 00:29:38,800 --> 00:29:41,300 riding toward tanks who are just shooting them down. 529 00:29:41,433 --> 00:29:42,467 This is absurd. 530 00:29:42,600 --> 00:29:44,533 The Poles were very sophisticated. 531 00:29:44,667 --> 00:29:49,100 Very finely trained soldiers, extremely brave. 532 00:29:51,233 --> 00:29:54,934 As Poles fight under German bombardment... 533 00:29:55,066 --> 00:29:57,033 Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain 534 00:29:57,166 --> 00:29:59,967 and French Premier Edouard Daladier meet 535 00:30:00,100 --> 00:30:02,233 for a supreme war council 536 00:30:02,367 --> 00:30:05,433 and reach a grave decision. 537 00:30:05,567 --> 00:30:07,000 Daladier and Chamberlain 538 00:30:07,133 --> 00:30:09,900 agree to leave Poland to its fate. 539 00:30:10,033 --> 00:30:11,633 They also adopt formally 540 00:30:11,767 --> 00:30:13,800 what they call the long war strategy-- 541 00:30:13,934 --> 00:30:16,533 the idea that they have superior resources to Germany 542 00:30:16,667 --> 00:30:19,600 and that, over time, those resources will come to bear 543 00:30:19,734 --> 00:30:21,300 in the Allies' favor. 544 00:30:21,433 --> 00:30:23,533 Although the statement that is given 545 00:30:23,667 --> 00:30:26,900 to the world's press is one of wholehearted support, 546 00:30:27,033 --> 00:30:30,800 Poland is essentially cast to the four winds. 547 00:30:30,934 --> 00:30:33,266 There is one British politician 548 00:30:33,400 --> 00:30:36,567 who has always wanted to take a more aggressive position 549 00:30:36,700 --> 00:30:38,433 against the Nazis. 550 00:30:38,567 --> 00:30:40,567 Appointed to the new war cabinet 551 00:30:40,700 --> 00:30:43,834 is Hitler's most vocal critic in the West-- 552 00:30:43,967 --> 00:30:47,467 First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill. 553 00:30:49,266 --> 00:30:52,400 Throughout the 1930s, Churchill had spoken up 554 00:30:52,533 --> 00:30:54,400 with concern about German rearmament, 555 00:30:54,533 --> 00:30:57,066 about the failure to take effective measures 556 00:30:57,200 --> 00:30:59,800 to enforce the Versailles Treaty. 557 00:30:59,934 --> 00:31:03,266 It's clear now that Germany couldn't be trusted 558 00:31:03,400 --> 00:31:05,100 as a diplomatic partner. 559 00:31:12,166 --> 00:31:14,500 Two weeks into the invasion... 560 00:31:17,367 --> 00:31:18,934 The Poles seem abandoned, 561 00:31:19,066 --> 00:31:21,533 and their counteroffensive is collapsing. 562 00:31:23,567 --> 00:31:28,300 The German 3rd, 8th, and 10th armies encircle Warsaw. 563 00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:35,734 The capital is a city of palaces, 564 00:31:35,867 --> 00:31:38,166 churches, and opera houses-- 565 00:31:38,300 --> 00:31:41,667 the heart of the Polish nation. 566 00:31:41,800 --> 00:31:45,000 But now Warsaw is in ruins 567 00:31:45,133 --> 00:31:46,700 and under siege. 568 00:31:52,166 --> 00:31:54,033 Bombs were falling, and everybody 569 00:31:54,166 --> 00:31:56,800 was trying to help get people out of the rubble. 570 00:31:56,934 --> 00:31:57,967 When your roof is burning, 571 00:31:58,100 --> 00:31:59,767 when your children are in hospital 572 00:31:59,900 --> 00:32:01,100 because they've been bombed-- 573 00:32:01,233 --> 00:32:03,133 I mean, these are shocking moments. 574 00:32:03,266 --> 00:32:06,467 American photographer and cameraman Julien Bryan 575 00:32:06,600 --> 00:32:08,266 is in Poland's capital 576 00:32:08,400 --> 00:32:10,533 filming suffering and defiance. 577 00:32:12,133 --> 00:32:14,667 He pleads for Poland. 578 00:32:14,800 --> 00:32:18,200 President Roosevelt and the people of America, 579 00:32:18,333 --> 00:32:19,900 listen to my story. 580 00:32:21,367 --> 00:32:25,066 America must act. It must help. 581 00:32:25,200 --> 00:32:26,667 As help is called for, 582 00:32:26,800 --> 00:32:29,433 there is an army preparing to sweep in. 583 00:32:31,100 --> 00:32:33,800 They're not coming from the west... 584 00:32:33,934 --> 00:32:35,433 but from the east. 585 00:32:45,633 --> 00:32:47,133 On the 17th of September, 586 00:32:47,266 --> 00:32:50,166 Joseph Stalin calls the German ambassador 587 00:32:50,300 --> 00:32:52,367 to the Kremlin and says, 588 00:32:52,500 --> 00:32:54,300 we're going to invade Eastern Poland. 589 00:32:59,867 --> 00:33:03,166 Poland's fate isn't sealed just by the Nazis. 590 00:33:03,300 --> 00:33:05,300 The communists of Soviet Russia 591 00:33:05,433 --> 00:33:07,300 also sense opportunity. 592 00:33:07,433 --> 00:33:11,533 And so does their all-powerful master. 593 00:33:11,667 --> 00:33:14,800 Stalin is one of the most extraordinary figures 594 00:33:14,934 --> 00:33:17,900 in the history of the 20th century. 595 00:33:18,033 --> 00:33:21,500 From the very beginning of the Russian Revolution in 1917, 596 00:33:21,633 --> 00:33:23,600 he's been part of the tiny clique 597 00:33:23,734 --> 00:33:26,433 that's been running Russia and has emerged 598 00:33:26,567 --> 00:33:30,433 as the dominant leader of the whole Soviet Union. 599 00:33:30,567 --> 00:33:33,066 The inner circle called him-- 600 00:33:33,200 --> 00:33:34,800 the master, the boss. 601 00:33:34,934 --> 00:33:36,900 But in public, he was the [speaks Russian]-- 602 00:33:37,033 --> 00:33:38,533 the leader. 603 00:33:38,667 --> 00:33:39,834 But he was a tough man, 604 00:33:39,967 --> 00:33:42,600 a morbid man, a mysterious man. 605 00:33:42,734 --> 00:33:46,500 He learned the hard way in the Russian Civil War 606 00:33:46,633 --> 00:33:48,867 that you operate ruthlessly. 607 00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:51,033 You sacrifice, you attack, 608 00:33:51,166 --> 00:33:53,934 you show no quarter to your enemies. 609 00:33:54,066 --> 00:33:57,333 Stalin saw the world in geopolitical terms. 610 00:33:57,467 --> 00:33:59,467 He recognized that the Soviet Union 611 00:33:59,600 --> 00:34:03,600 couldn't survive isolated, surrounded by adversaries. 612 00:34:03,734 --> 00:34:07,767 He had to play the poker game of diplomacy and war. 613 00:34:07,900 --> 00:34:10,500 And the players were the Western democracies, 614 00:34:10,633 --> 00:34:14,233 led by England and France, and the dictatorships. 615 00:34:14,367 --> 00:34:17,400 His great fear was that the two sides would gang up 616 00:34:17,533 --> 00:34:20,834 against him and destroy the Soviet Union. 617 00:34:20,967 --> 00:34:24,333 And all of his decisions came from this fear. 618 00:34:24,467 --> 00:34:26,767 In August 1939, 619 00:34:26,900 --> 00:34:30,367 just one week before Germany invades Poland, 620 00:34:30,500 --> 00:34:32,934 Joseph Stalin shocked the world 621 00:34:33,066 --> 00:34:36,834 when he signed a nonaggression pact with Adolf Hitler. 622 00:34:36,967 --> 00:34:40,066 The revelation of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact 623 00:34:40,200 --> 00:34:42,900 causes mayhem in the Western capitals. 624 00:34:43,033 --> 00:34:45,934 It changes everything. It's a complete shock. 625 00:34:47,367 --> 00:34:49,000 For the last sort of five years, 626 00:34:49,133 --> 00:34:50,467 the two dictatorships-- 627 00:34:50,600 --> 00:34:53,266 Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia-- 628 00:34:53,400 --> 00:34:57,133 had been pouring excrement over each other in the media. 629 00:34:57,266 --> 00:35:00,367 They had been calling each other every name under the sun. 630 00:35:00,500 --> 00:35:05,133 And for each, the other was the quintessential enemy 631 00:35:05,266 --> 00:35:07,333 of everything they believed. 632 00:35:07,467 --> 00:35:09,967 And now, suddenly, there's a thawing, 633 00:35:10,100 --> 00:35:11,900 and the next thing you know, 634 00:35:12,033 --> 00:35:14,467 Ribbentrop is flying to Moscow. 635 00:35:16,433 --> 00:35:20,066 In August 1939, by signing a pact with Hitler, 636 00:35:20,200 --> 00:35:21,433 Stalin helps to ensure 637 00:35:21,567 --> 00:35:23,700 that the Second World War will break out. 638 00:35:23,834 --> 00:35:26,166 In fact, it makes it virtually a certainty 639 00:35:26,300 --> 00:35:27,667 that such a war will break out. 640 00:35:29,033 --> 00:35:30,700 The pact promises 641 00:35:30,834 --> 00:35:34,533 a decade of nonaggression between the two regimes. 642 00:35:34,667 --> 00:35:37,300 But there's another secret protocol 643 00:35:37,433 --> 00:35:39,533 which carves up Eastern Europe, 644 00:35:39,667 --> 00:35:42,133 sharing the land between them. 645 00:35:42,266 --> 00:35:44,400 First up is Poland. 646 00:35:45,900 --> 00:35:48,166 Neither the Germans nor the Soviets 647 00:35:48,300 --> 00:35:50,567 wanted Poland to exist. 648 00:35:50,700 --> 00:35:52,900 They both saw it as an affront. 649 00:35:53,033 --> 00:35:54,300 Poland had historically been 650 00:35:54,433 --> 00:35:55,900 a province of the Russian Empire, 651 00:35:56,033 --> 00:35:58,300 and the Soviets want that back as a buffer 652 00:35:58,433 --> 00:36:02,100 against this stronger Germany that's emerging. 653 00:36:02,233 --> 00:36:05,166 The division of Polish territory favored the Soviets, 654 00:36:05,300 --> 00:36:08,834 who got more territory than the Germans did. 655 00:36:08,967 --> 00:36:12,333 So it's actually the Soviet invasion of Eastern Poland 656 00:36:12,467 --> 00:36:15,166 that decides the fate of Poland. 657 00:36:23,200 --> 00:36:26,900 The Red Army pours into Poland's eastern provinces. 658 00:36:28,266 --> 00:36:29,967 They, too, carry orders 659 00:36:30,100 --> 00:36:34,166 to eradicate Polish leaders and culture. 660 00:36:34,300 --> 00:36:37,166 When the Red Army goes into Eastern Poland, 661 00:36:37,300 --> 00:36:41,233 they are accompanied inevitably by the secret police, the NKVD, 662 00:36:41,367 --> 00:36:44,033 and they arrest all these people-- 663 00:36:44,166 --> 00:36:48,633 writers, diplomats, aristocrats, army officers. 664 00:36:48,767 --> 00:36:50,433 Some of them are killed instantly. 665 00:36:50,567 --> 00:36:52,000 Some of them are deported. 666 00:36:52,133 --> 00:36:55,867 And a large number of them, between 20,000 and 30,000, 667 00:36:56,000 --> 00:37:00,633 are stowed in camps near the Katyn woods. 668 00:37:00,767 --> 00:37:04,333 All of these people are to be secretly executed, 669 00:37:04,467 --> 00:37:06,000 shot in the back of the head. 670 00:37:11,433 --> 00:37:16,233 On September 22, 1939, in the town of Brest-Litovsk, 671 00:37:16,367 --> 00:37:20,066 Nazi and Soviet generals gather to watch a parade 672 00:37:20,200 --> 00:37:22,133 of both armies. 673 00:37:25,100 --> 00:37:28,066 There's this free mingling of German and Soviet forces. 674 00:37:28,200 --> 00:37:29,934 The two sides are sort of mixing, 675 00:37:30,066 --> 00:37:31,767 sharing cigarettes, sharing anecdotes. 676 00:37:31,900 --> 00:37:35,033 And they even develop almost a slang between them. 677 00:37:35,166 --> 00:37:38,066 "Together strong." 678 00:37:39,800 --> 00:37:41,467 If you're a Polish person, 679 00:37:41,600 --> 00:37:45,633 to see these two people that have always been dangerous 680 00:37:45,767 --> 00:37:48,133 on both sides of you 681 00:37:48,266 --> 00:37:53,000 working together to see that Poland once again disappears, 682 00:37:53,133 --> 00:37:55,266 you had to feel like there's no help close by. 683 00:37:57,000 --> 00:38:00,500 As Poland burns and her enemies celebrate... 684 00:38:02,100 --> 00:38:03,900 One city resists... 685 00:38:05,433 --> 00:38:06,500 Warsaw. 686 00:38:15,533 --> 00:38:17,166 Despite weeks of assault, 687 00:38:17,300 --> 00:38:19,934 Warsaw has not yet surrendered. 688 00:38:20,066 --> 00:38:23,200 Surviving Polish troops rush to the capital, 689 00:38:23,333 --> 00:38:27,500 where 300,000 soldiers and civilians hold the city. 690 00:38:29,233 --> 00:38:30,834 To break the resistance, 691 00:38:30,967 --> 00:38:34,200 Goering orders the largest air raid ever seen. 692 00:38:48,000 --> 00:38:49,467 Goering levels Warsaw 693 00:38:49,600 --> 00:38:51,567 with no regard for civilian casualties. 694 00:38:51,700 --> 00:38:53,834 They strew thousands of pounds of high explosive 695 00:38:53,967 --> 00:38:57,433 and incendiary bombs, firebombs over Warsaw. 696 00:38:57,567 --> 00:38:59,633 And they reduce it to rubble. 697 00:39:09,300 --> 00:39:11,567 It is the largest incendiary bombing 698 00:39:11,700 --> 00:39:14,233 that the world has ever seen. 699 00:39:14,367 --> 00:39:16,633 Air raids last for the entirety of the day. 700 00:39:16,767 --> 00:39:18,400 People are trapped in their basements, 701 00:39:18,533 --> 00:39:21,166 they're trapped in courtyards, they're trapped in stairwells. 702 00:39:21,300 --> 00:39:23,700 Those who crawl out when the bombardment is over-- 703 00:39:23,834 --> 00:39:26,600 there's no water, there's nothing to feed them. 704 00:39:30,667 --> 00:39:33,700 20% of the city is destroyed in one way or another. 705 00:39:33,834 --> 00:39:36,166 And about 18,000 people are injured or killed 706 00:39:36,300 --> 00:39:37,834 in these bombardments. 707 00:39:37,967 --> 00:39:41,433 And the city finally has to surrender. 708 00:40:07,667 --> 00:40:10,734 In London, Winston Churchill warns his country 709 00:40:10,867 --> 00:40:13,500 that this is just the beginning. 710 00:40:13,633 --> 00:40:17,867 Poland has been overrun by two of the great powers 711 00:40:18,000 --> 00:40:21,800 which held her in bondage for 150 years 712 00:40:21,934 --> 00:40:24,967 but were unable to quench the spirit 713 00:40:25,100 --> 00:40:27,567 of the Polish nation. 714 00:40:27,700 --> 00:40:30,367 The heroic defense of Warsaw 715 00:40:30,500 --> 00:40:33,567 shows that the soul of Poland 716 00:40:33,700 --> 00:40:35,467 is indestructible. 717 00:40:38,000 --> 00:40:41,266 The British Empire and the French Republic 718 00:40:41,400 --> 00:40:44,266 have been at war with Nazi Germany 719 00:40:44,400 --> 00:40:46,367 for a month tonight. 720 00:40:48,200 --> 00:40:50,900 Directions have been given by the government 721 00:40:51,033 --> 00:40:54,867 to prepare for a war of at least three years. 722 00:40:58,934 --> 00:41:02,700 But Churchill has received a signal of hope. 723 00:41:02,834 --> 00:41:04,367 A few weeks earlier, 724 00:41:04,500 --> 00:41:07,633 President Roosevelt sent him a note congratulating him 725 00:41:07,767 --> 00:41:09,834 on his new role in the war cabinet 726 00:41:09,967 --> 00:41:14,066 and opening up a secret line of communication. 727 00:41:14,200 --> 00:41:18,166 Once Germany invades Poland, Roosevelt infers that this war 728 00:41:18,300 --> 00:41:21,266 is going to be sizable in its scope 729 00:41:21,400 --> 00:41:22,800 and that the United States 730 00:41:22,934 --> 00:41:25,900 is probably going to need to intervene at some point. 731 00:41:26,033 --> 00:41:30,333 Churchill has this reputation of being a fighter. 732 00:41:30,467 --> 00:41:33,767 It's really telling that Roosevelt seeks him out 733 00:41:33,900 --> 00:41:36,967 rather than Chamberlain at this critical juncture 734 00:41:37,100 --> 00:41:39,300 at the beginning of the Second World War. 735 00:41:39,433 --> 00:41:41,867 So there's this relationship that develops 736 00:41:42,000 --> 00:41:44,367 between Franklin Delano Roosevelt 737 00:41:44,500 --> 00:41:46,033 and Winston Churchill. 738 00:41:46,166 --> 00:41:48,233 There's an understanding on the part of Roosevelt 739 00:41:48,367 --> 00:41:51,000 that there is someone in the leadership 740 00:41:51,133 --> 00:41:54,133 of Great Britain who understands what's at stake 741 00:41:54,266 --> 00:41:57,834 and just how dangerous this moment is. 742 00:41:59,667 --> 00:42:03,467 It's not simply about the German invasion of Poland. 743 00:42:05,133 --> 00:42:07,633 They're two men who are united 744 00:42:07,767 --> 00:42:10,734 in their belief that Adolf Hitler 745 00:42:10,867 --> 00:42:13,633 is perhaps the most dangerous man on the planet. 746 00:42:14,934 --> 00:42:16,233 After the surrender, 747 00:42:16,367 --> 00:42:19,600 Hitler travels to Warsaw to survey the ruins. 748 00:42:21,400 --> 00:42:23,433 He points at the utter destruction 749 00:42:23,567 --> 00:42:26,967 and tells the officers who are with him... 750 00:42:27,100 --> 00:42:29,767 this is the real meaning of war. 751 00:42:33,500 --> 00:42:36,600 In less than a month, a major European nation 752 00:42:36,734 --> 00:42:38,734 has been removed from the map. 753 00:42:38,867 --> 00:42:43,233 It will be engulfed in darkness for most of the next six years. 754 00:42:43,367 --> 00:42:48,100 And it's only the beginning, as Hitler looks to the West.