1 00:00:00,047 --> 00:00:03,095 Sub extracted from file and improved by Se7enOfNin9 for addic7ed.com 2 00:00:05,920 --> 00:00:08,680 On April 1st 1933, 3 00:00:08,840 --> 00:00:13,800 Adolf Hitler's first official act to persecute Germany's Jews 4 00:00:14,170 --> 00:00:18,740 is an attempt to sever them from all commercial life with a boycott. 5 00:00:19,440 --> 00:00:25,495 What follows over the next 12 years is an organised, sustained cruelty, 6 00:00:25,520 --> 00:00:27,880 unparalleled in human history. 7 00:00:28,720 --> 00:00:31,200 It unfolds step by step. 8 00:00:32,167 --> 00:00:34,967 When he first grasps the enormity of the evil, 9 00:00:35,120 --> 00:00:39,240 Winston Churchill calls it "the crime without a name." 10 00:00:40,560 --> 00:00:43,280 It becomes known as the Holocaust. 11 00:00:44,560 --> 00:00:47,360 All wars change the world. 12 00:00:47,520 --> 00:00:51,200 But none of them changed the world like the Second World War did. 13 00:00:51,533 --> 00:00:54,773 Japan's on the march, Germany's on the march. 14 00:00:56,080 --> 00:00:59,120 No one can imagine the nightmare they're about to unleash. 15 00:00:59,673 --> 00:01:02,460 The most destructive war in human history. 16 00:01:02,640 --> 00:01:05,400 Suddenly, the world is turned upside down. 17 00:01:05,560 --> 00:01:07,420 And all hell is let loose. 18 00:01:09,120 --> 00:01:12,220 The west is stunned by the speed of the advance. 19 00:01:13,547 --> 00:01:19,415 You get the Allies led by the big three, Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin. 20 00:01:19,440 --> 00:01:24,240 Men who are dealing with immensely complicated questions. 21 00:01:24,420 --> 00:01:28,675 It's the biggest military operation of human history. 22 00:01:28,700 --> 00:01:30,389 The Allies have to come together, 23 00:01:30,414 --> 00:01:33,243 not just militarily but on an industrial scale, 24 00:01:33,268 --> 00:01:35,280 it's a global perspective. 25 00:01:35,300 --> 00:01:37,200 They have to fight in every climate 26 00:01:37,226 --> 00:01:40,486 from the Arctic, to the jungles of the Pacific, 27 00:01:40,511 --> 00:01:43,831 to the deserts of Africa and the depths of the ocean. 28 00:01:46,673 --> 00:01:49,460 But there was no certainty of victory; 29 00:01:49,860 --> 00:01:52,580 it was going to be a horrific bloodbath. 30 00:01:53,063 --> 00:01:55,180 We see humans at their absolute worst, 31 00:01:55,272 --> 00:01:57,392 how they treat other human beings. 32 00:01:57,620 --> 00:01:59,399 And we see them at their absolute best, 33 00:01:59,400 --> 00:02:01,756 willing to give their lives that others might live. 34 00:02:01,780 --> 00:02:06,460 World War Two was a struggle in which there could be one victor 35 00:02:06,860 --> 00:02:08,940 and one vanquished. 36 00:02:37,453 --> 00:02:41,660 In early 1939, Germany has seized Austria. 37 00:02:43,340 --> 00:02:45,279 Adolf Hitler, the Fuhrer, 38 00:02:45,280 --> 00:02:48,460 wants to take even more land in Europe. 39 00:02:51,220 --> 00:02:52,980 On January 30th, 40 00:02:53,140 --> 00:02:55,220 Hitler tells the German Reichstag 41 00:02:55,380 --> 00:02:56,900 that if war comes, 42 00:02:57,060 --> 00:02:59,100 it will not be his fault. 43 00:03:00,199 --> 00:03:02,439 The blame will lie with one people... 44 00:03:04,100 --> 00:03:05,340 ...the Jews. 45 00:03:26,940 --> 00:03:30,720 Two months later, Hitler will take all of Czechoslovakia. 46 00:03:33,740 --> 00:03:35,700 On September 1st, 47 00:03:35,860 --> 00:03:39,480 he invades Poland and World War Two begins. 48 00:03:43,123 --> 00:03:46,079 One of the things that's critical for us to understand 49 00:03:46,080 --> 00:03:49,320 about the history of World War Two and history of the Holocaust 50 00:03:49,320 --> 00:03:52,660 is that all of these things are inextricably linked together. 51 00:03:53,020 --> 00:03:55,680 The ebb and flow of the war itself 52 00:03:55,887 --> 00:03:59,400 impacts the way the Holocaust unfolds on the ground. 53 00:04:00,750 --> 00:04:02,675 Antisemitism is central 54 00:04:02,700 --> 00:04:05,780 to Hitler's and the Nazi party's philosophy, 55 00:04:06,060 --> 00:04:09,186 which he clearly stated in his book Mein Kampf 56 00:04:09,873 --> 00:04:11,506 or My Struggle. 57 00:04:13,020 --> 00:04:19,140 Mein Kampf is a manifesto slash autobiography of the young Hitler. 58 00:04:19,803 --> 00:04:22,280 It contains a rough sketch for the world, 59 00:04:22,281 --> 00:04:23,879 as he would like it to be, 60 00:04:23,880 --> 00:04:27,559 and an endless documentation of all the groups of people 61 00:04:27,560 --> 00:04:30,180 he has grievances against. 62 00:04:32,239 --> 00:04:36,399 Hitler reserves his greatest grievance for Germany's Jews. 63 00:04:38,220 --> 00:04:40,980 He uses base metaphors to describe them, 64 00:04:41,140 --> 00:04:44,260 playing on long-held antisemitic tropes. 65 00:04:45,300 --> 00:04:49,700 He portrays them as exploiting or manipulating the German people. 66 00:04:51,580 --> 00:04:53,119 In order to understand Hitler, 67 00:04:53,120 --> 00:04:55,880 one has to understand the importance of race 68 00:04:55,940 --> 00:04:59,020 that underlines every single thing that he does. 69 00:05:00,100 --> 00:05:01,719 He believes that 70 00:05:01,720 --> 00:05:06,860 the whole human race is divided into categories, 71 00:05:07,020 --> 00:05:09,940 the Aryan race is at the top of that category, 72 00:05:10,100 --> 00:05:11,900 the Jews are at the bottom. 73 00:05:12,780 --> 00:05:14,860 Hitler is obsessed with Jews. 74 00:05:15,406 --> 00:05:19,680 He's obsessed with Jews as an eternal enemy, 75 00:05:19,740 --> 00:05:24,100 as impure racially, as non-German. 76 00:05:26,260 --> 00:05:30,799 And he believes that Germany will fulfil its destiny 77 00:05:30,800 --> 00:05:32,820 when its free of Jews. 78 00:05:34,390 --> 00:05:38,140 In 1934, Hitler appoints himself the Fuhrer, 79 00:05:38,300 --> 00:05:40,100 the leader of Germany. 80 00:05:41,300 --> 00:05:44,620 And he will quickly turn his hatred of Jews into law. 81 00:05:50,383 --> 00:05:54,863 In the fall of 1935, at a Nazi gathering in Nuremberg, 82 00:05:55,260 --> 00:05:58,575 Hitler's deputy Hermann Goering unveils a sweeping set 83 00:05:58,600 --> 00:06:03,080 of legal measures targeting the country's Jewish population. 84 00:06:13,883 --> 00:06:15,243 Sieg Heil! 85 00:06:17,903 --> 00:06:22,615 The laws prohibit marriage or sexual relations between Jews 86 00:06:22,640 --> 00:06:24,200 and non-Jews, 87 00:06:24,360 --> 00:06:27,560 and strip German Jews of their citizenship. 88 00:06:29,496 --> 00:06:31,519 For Jews living in Germany, 89 00:06:31,520 --> 00:06:34,540 the Nuremberg laws are a huge turning point. 90 00:06:36,020 --> 00:06:39,580 It doesn't matter if you're not religious. 91 00:06:39,780 --> 00:06:42,320 Identity is now biological. 92 00:06:43,140 --> 00:06:47,260 It plants the seeds for saying Jews are a separate race 93 00:06:47,600 --> 00:06:49,440 that are polluting Germany. 94 00:06:51,084 --> 00:06:53,760 The Nazis intend to make life so difficult 95 00:06:53,760 --> 00:06:57,420 for German and Austrian Jews that they will want to emigrate. 96 00:06:58,173 --> 00:07:03,700 Around half of Germany's Jewish community of 500,000 go into exile. 97 00:07:08,263 --> 00:07:12,319 In November 1938, the Nazis coordinate a brutal wave 98 00:07:12,320 --> 00:07:15,500 of destruction and violence across Germany. 99 00:07:16,460 --> 00:07:19,260 Jewish businesses are looted and burned. 100 00:07:21,380 --> 00:07:23,340 Synagogues razed. 101 00:07:24,060 --> 00:07:26,120 And homes left in ruin. 102 00:07:27,626 --> 00:07:29,540 Jews are killed and raped. 103 00:07:31,299 --> 00:07:34,980 The event is called in German "Kristallnacht", 104 00:07:35,340 --> 00:07:37,800 "the Night of Broken Glass." 105 00:07:39,306 --> 00:07:43,660 The windows of Jewish shopkeepers are smashed. 106 00:07:49,670 --> 00:07:52,920 There's also incursions into their homes. 107 00:07:53,080 --> 00:07:55,999 They're kicking in the doors, they're dragging people out, 108 00:07:56,000 --> 00:08:00,760 they're beating them up, to petrify the Jewish population. 109 00:08:02,563 --> 00:08:07,920 Police or military were instructed not to wear their uniforms 110 00:08:08,080 --> 00:08:11,080 when they went out to commit the violence on Kristallnacht 111 00:08:11,105 --> 00:08:14,700 to make it look like it was more spontaneous than it actually was. 112 00:08:15,500 --> 00:08:19,799 But it is a government-coordinated terrorist attack against Jews. 113 00:08:25,282 --> 00:08:27,446 The morning after Kristallnacht, 114 00:08:27,471 --> 00:08:30,519 the Nazis arrest 30,000 Jewish men 115 00:08:30,520 --> 00:08:33,220 and march them off to concentration camps. 116 00:08:35,060 --> 00:08:37,480 I think Kristallnacht is an inflection point 117 00:08:37,480 --> 00:08:40,239 because it showed the Nazi government 118 00:08:40,240 --> 00:08:42,965 that average Germans would be willing 119 00:08:42,990 --> 00:08:44,680 to go along with the violence. 120 00:08:45,420 --> 00:08:49,719 By the late 30s, Jews living within Germany and Austria 121 00:08:49,720 --> 00:08:52,540 face persecution and intimidation. 122 00:08:53,180 --> 00:08:56,740 Even worse dangers are on the horizon. 123 00:09:11,217 --> 00:09:15,360 In early September 1939, German forces invade Poland. 124 00:09:25,620 --> 00:09:28,260 In just a few weeks, the Poles are conquered. 125 00:09:30,300 --> 00:09:35,080 Poland's three million Jews are now controlled by Hitler and the Nazis. 126 00:09:37,850 --> 00:09:39,697 When the Nazis enter Poland, 127 00:09:39,722 --> 00:09:41,719 they have no real, coherent strategy 128 00:09:41,720 --> 00:09:44,040 about what they're going to do with Jews. 129 00:09:44,200 --> 00:09:47,495 So they start to improvise pretty quickly. 130 00:09:47,520 --> 00:09:50,799 And one of the things that emerges as part of this improvisation 131 00:09:50,800 --> 00:09:53,200 is an idea about creating ghettos. 132 00:09:55,020 --> 00:09:57,559 Within days of the German occupation, 133 00:09:57,560 --> 00:10:00,560 many Polish Jews are forced into ghettos. 134 00:10:02,760 --> 00:10:04,759 Jews are ordered to wear armbands 135 00:10:04,760 --> 00:10:07,520 and are restricted on entering and leaving. 136 00:10:10,040 --> 00:10:13,640 The decision is made in Warsaw to create a closed ghetto. 137 00:10:15,060 --> 00:10:17,976 There is movement across the gates of guards and of Poles, 138 00:10:18,001 --> 00:10:21,060 but not of the Jews themselves. They are locked into the ghetto, 139 00:10:21,380 --> 00:10:25,100 and a wall is created to restrict Jewish movement. 140 00:10:25,860 --> 00:10:29,439 It's a very visible signal of the racial segregation 141 00:10:29,440 --> 00:10:31,140 of the city of Warsaw. 142 00:10:32,320 --> 00:10:34,959 Over 100,000 Jews who lived in other parts of Warsaw 143 00:10:34,960 --> 00:10:37,000 had to move into this area. 144 00:10:37,000 --> 00:10:40,500 It was about 1.3 square miles, so it was tiny. 145 00:10:42,080 --> 00:10:45,559 The circumstances of the ghettos actually create the perfect 146 00:10:45,560 --> 00:10:47,920 breeding grounds for disease. 147 00:10:48,080 --> 00:10:52,239 This is exacerbated by the fact that running water is limited 148 00:10:52,240 --> 00:10:54,719 and sewage systems are not adequate, 149 00:10:54,720 --> 00:10:57,420 especially with the size of the population. 150 00:11:00,770 --> 00:11:05,079 Mendel Jakubowicz is 14 when his family is sent 151 00:11:05,080 --> 00:11:08,760 to the ghetto in Ostrowiec, Southeast Poland. 152 00:11:12,333 --> 00:11:13,980 He later writes: 153 00:11:15,140 --> 00:11:19,760 "I remember that as a small boy I used to walk the ghetto streets, 154 00:11:20,400 --> 00:11:23,780 and I could see people dying, people screaming. 155 00:11:25,780 --> 00:11:29,900 There was no food, especially for the people that had no money." 156 00:11:36,500 --> 00:11:39,620 The Jews fight to survive in the ghetto... 157 00:11:40,540 --> 00:11:43,540 ...and even look for opportunities to resist. 158 00:11:45,920 --> 00:11:49,119 There were smugglers who would smuggle in food 159 00:11:49,120 --> 00:11:51,520 and smuggle out people sometimes. 160 00:11:51,545 --> 00:11:54,319 For forced labour, they would sometimes slow their work 161 00:11:54,320 --> 00:11:57,400 or make sure that whatever they were told to do 162 00:11:57,400 --> 00:12:00,320 would be broken by the time the Nazis get it. 163 00:12:01,080 --> 00:12:03,639 There was all sorts of work that they were doing 164 00:12:03,640 --> 00:12:05,760 to try to resist as long as possible. 165 00:12:07,540 --> 00:12:09,639 For the first year of the war, 166 00:12:09,640 --> 00:12:13,900 life in the ghetto is the cruel daily reality of Poland's Jews. 167 00:12:16,420 --> 00:12:19,200 But Hitler is planning a new campaign. 168 00:12:19,460 --> 00:12:23,280 And millions of people are about to descend into horror. 169 00:12:38,923 --> 00:12:44,000 By mid-1941, Germany controls much of western Europe. 170 00:12:49,590 --> 00:12:52,999 But Hitler's true goal is to create Lebensraum, 171 00:12:53,000 --> 00:12:55,700 "living space" for the German people. 172 00:12:57,380 --> 00:12:59,660 Which will be found in the east. 173 00:13:00,682 --> 00:13:05,092 Hitler now realised that this was the ideal moment to begin 174 00:13:05,117 --> 00:13:08,680 the secret planning of the invasion of Russia, 175 00:13:08,840 --> 00:13:12,420 the great climax of his life's work, 176 00:13:12,660 --> 00:13:15,960 the destruction of the entire Soviet Union. 177 00:13:16,120 --> 00:13:17,540 Barbarossa. 178 00:13:21,660 --> 00:13:25,719 For Operation Barbarossa, Hitler and his generals will deploy 179 00:13:25,720 --> 00:13:28,840 three army groups and three million men... 180 00:13:31,183 --> 00:13:36,220 ...supported by thousands of tanks and aircraft across a vast front. 181 00:13:39,997 --> 00:13:44,920 The German preparations for Barbarossa are on a scale 182 00:13:44,920 --> 00:13:47,020 that's almost unimaginable. 183 00:13:48,300 --> 00:13:53,560 This is going to be and remains the largest invasion in human history. 184 00:13:57,250 --> 00:14:00,200 Hitler adds another mission to the plan. 185 00:14:00,949 --> 00:14:04,559 He issues a directive stating in the invasion there will be 186 00:14:04,560 --> 00:14:06,380 "special tasks." 187 00:14:07,500 --> 00:14:11,660 In charge of these will be Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS. 188 00:14:13,644 --> 00:14:15,840 If you want to know what Hitler's thinking, 189 00:14:15,840 --> 00:14:17,880 look at what Himmler was doing. 190 00:14:18,160 --> 00:14:20,720 Because Himmler was talking to and meeting Hitler 191 00:14:20,745 --> 00:14:23,725 very, very frequently across these periods of time. 192 00:14:24,726 --> 00:14:28,980 Himmler has been a member of the Nazi Party since 1923. 193 00:14:30,903 --> 00:14:32,080 By all appearances, 194 00:14:32,081 --> 00:14:35,199 Heinrich Himmler seems like an ordinary human being. 195 00:14:35,200 --> 00:14:38,680 He was born to a good family, went to decent schools. 196 00:14:38,680 --> 00:14:41,799 He hooks up with various kinds of occupations. 197 00:14:41,800 --> 00:14:45,279 He's a chicken farmer, sells fertilizer for a time. 198 00:14:45,280 --> 00:14:48,159 And like so many young men of his generation, 199 00:14:48,160 --> 00:14:50,180 came under Hitler's spell. 200 00:14:54,840 --> 00:14:58,559 Himmler's mobile death squads, the Einsatzgruppen, 201 00:14:58,560 --> 00:15:02,940 will follow the advancing German army into Soviet territory. 202 00:15:03,500 --> 00:15:06,680 They have orders to move into occupied communities 203 00:15:06,840 --> 00:15:09,800 and kill anyone who threatens the operation. 204 00:15:11,800 --> 00:15:14,279 The Einsatzgruppen will follow the Wehrmacht 205 00:15:14,280 --> 00:15:15,679 in the Barbarossa campaign, 206 00:15:15,680 --> 00:15:19,460 and their task is the long-term pacification of Soviet society. 207 00:15:19,980 --> 00:15:22,160 They are, above all, targeting what they believe are 208 00:15:22,160 --> 00:15:25,279 the two key facets of the Soviet social system: 209 00:15:25,280 --> 00:15:28,660 Commissars or Communist political leaders. 210 00:15:29,220 --> 00:15:31,720 Then they particularly single out Jews. 211 00:15:33,449 --> 00:15:37,799 The conflict now was being raised to a new level 212 00:15:37,800 --> 00:15:40,435 of ideological and racial warfare. 213 00:15:40,460 --> 00:15:44,719 The annihilation of certain groups was encouraged, 214 00:15:44,720 --> 00:15:49,240 sanctioned, and ordered. And this is a dark step. 215 00:15:49,240 --> 00:15:54,600 The world is darkening visibly as this-as this operation begins. 216 00:16:01,033 --> 00:16:05,239 In June 1941, the Wehrmacht smashes through Soviet defences 217 00:16:05,240 --> 00:16:08,160 and makes rapid advances across the front. 218 00:16:09,920 --> 00:16:14,040 There are over five million Jews in the Soviet Union. 219 00:16:15,469 --> 00:16:17,600 The Jewish communities in the Soviet Union 220 00:16:17,638 --> 00:16:21,120 were very different from those in many parts of Eastern Europe, 221 00:16:21,120 --> 00:16:22,479 like Poland and Romania. 222 00:16:22,480 --> 00:16:25,920 They weren't generally communities of orthodox Jews 223 00:16:25,920 --> 00:16:28,655 with ringlets and black hats. 224 00:16:28,680 --> 00:16:31,599 Jews in the Soviet Union were assimilated 225 00:16:31,600 --> 00:16:33,760 within the general population. 226 00:16:35,853 --> 00:16:37,773 In the wake of the German army, 227 00:16:37,993 --> 00:16:41,580 the Einsatzgruppen begin their special task. 228 00:16:42,440 --> 00:16:45,839 Einsatzgruppen didn't know enough about who was Jewish. 229 00:16:45,840 --> 00:16:49,280 So locals would volunteer or be seized in order to give them 230 00:16:49,280 --> 00:16:51,520 exactly the information they wanted. 231 00:16:54,179 --> 00:16:56,730 There are groups within Eastern Europe 232 00:16:56,755 --> 00:16:59,708 of people who are already very anti-Semitic 233 00:16:59,993 --> 00:17:04,120 and will voluntarily sign up to be auxiliaries 234 00:17:04,460 --> 00:17:06,800 and help these units. 235 00:17:07,903 --> 00:17:11,280 An Einsatzgruppen usually would round up the Jewish population, 236 00:17:11,281 --> 00:17:14,762 they'd then assemble in a central location where they're guarded 237 00:17:15,055 --> 00:17:18,440 and then marched in groups to a killing site. 238 00:17:21,356 --> 00:17:25,319 They would be taken to a place of execution on the edge of the town. 239 00:17:25,320 --> 00:17:29,720 They would be very often forced to dig pits for their own bodies. 240 00:17:31,053 --> 00:17:33,380 And then they would be shot into these pits. 241 00:17:38,140 --> 00:17:40,839 Sometimes they used wooded areas or forests, 242 00:17:40,840 --> 00:17:44,160 and sometimes these executions were remarkably public. 243 00:17:53,280 --> 00:17:56,500 They're bringing Jews to a killing site, 244 00:17:56,820 --> 00:17:58,940 often in family groups, 245 00:17:59,260 --> 00:18:01,300 forcing them to undress... 246 00:18:02,380 --> 00:18:05,959 ...and then making them lie down on the bodies of people 247 00:18:05,960 --> 00:18:09,720 that have already been murdered, to wait to be shot themselves. 248 00:18:11,946 --> 00:18:16,879 This is grown men, standing, aiming at another human being. 249 00:18:16,880 --> 00:18:19,399 It could be a man. It could be a woman. 250 00:18:19,400 --> 00:18:22,960 It could be a baby. And firing a gun at them. 251 00:18:24,120 --> 00:18:26,640 And it's happening on a huge scale, 252 00:18:26,680 --> 00:18:28,620 over a huge territory. 253 00:18:30,860 --> 00:18:35,079 Einsatzgruppen killed nearly half a million Jews 254 00:18:35,080 --> 00:18:39,680 in the Soviet Union in the first six months of Operation Barbarossa. 255 00:18:41,600 --> 00:18:45,599 Just incredible numbers of human beings murdered 256 00:18:45,600 --> 00:18:48,320 by shooting over and over and over again. 257 00:18:49,193 --> 00:18:51,600 There's a close relationship between 258 00:18:51,600 --> 00:18:54,415 the actual military campaign, Operation Barbarossa, 259 00:18:54,440 --> 00:18:56,100 and the Holocaust. 260 00:18:56,420 --> 00:18:58,839 The Holocaust really begins the moment they cross the border 261 00:18:58,840 --> 00:19:00,420 into the Soviet Union. 262 00:19:00,860 --> 00:19:05,040 The war enabled the entire Soviet Union to be treated 263 00:19:05,200 --> 00:19:07,159 as a killing zone. 264 00:19:07,160 --> 00:19:10,679 It meant that the lifting of norms of civilised behaviour, 265 00:19:10,680 --> 00:19:15,200 the lifting of norms of warfare, all restraints were removed. 266 00:19:20,649 --> 00:19:25,199 The killing of Jews is reported back to Berlin every day. 267 00:19:25,200 --> 00:19:29,100 Senior Nazis discuss the next stages of Hitler's plan. 268 00:19:30,620 --> 00:19:34,759 Hitler's deputy Herman Goering writes to Reinhard Heydrich, 269 00:19:34,760 --> 00:19:38,599 the SS official responsible for executing Nazi plans 270 00:19:38,600 --> 00:19:40,620 for the Jewish population. 271 00:19:41,900 --> 00:19:45,559 Reinhard Heydrich is one of the key figures in the SS. 272 00:19:45,560 --> 00:19:48,380 He's distinctly Aryan in his visage. 273 00:19:49,246 --> 00:19:51,599 He has icy cold blue eyes, 274 00:19:51,600 --> 00:19:54,900 and his face registered almost no emotion. 275 00:19:56,140 --> 00:19:58,639 In late July 1941, 276 00:19:58,640 --> 00:20:02,420 Goering sends an official communique to Heydrich. 277 00:20:02,980 --> 00:20:05,719 He asks him to promptly submit an 278 00:20:05,720 --> 00:20:10,239 "overall plan for the execution of the intended final solution 279 00:20:10,240 --> 00:20:12,220 of the Jewish question." 280 00:20:13,380 --> 00:20:17,759 This is essentially the order authorising Heydrich 281 00:20:17,760 --> 00:20:21,352 to begin preparations for the final solution 282 00:20:21,377 --> 00:20:23,344 of the Jewish question in Europe. 283 00:20:24,810 --> 00:20:28,815 They're going to remove them from the world by murdering them. 284 00:20:43,543 --> 00:20:47,320 As the German army advances across the Soviet Union, 285 00:20:47,480 --> 00:20:52,319 the Wehrmacht works with units liquidating communists and Jews, 286 00:20:52,320 --> 00:20:56,320 the SS and, particularly, the Einsatzgruppen. 287 00:21:03,070 --> 00:21:06,799 In August, SS leader Heinrich Himmler visits Minsk 288 00:21:06,800 --> 00:21:09,420 in Nazi-occupied Belorussia. 289 00:21:10,195 --> 00:21:13,439 Himmler maintains a really close watch on what the Einsatzgruppen 290 00:21:13,440 --> 00:21:15,839 are doing, because ultimately, they're his responsibility. 291 00:21:15,840 --> 00:21:18,140 So he travels a lot around the Eastern Front. 292 00:21:19,660 --> 00:21:22,599 Himmler realises that the shootings are taking 293 00:21:22,600 --> 00:21:24,980 an emotional toll on his men. 294 00:21:25,300 --> 00:21:27,520 It's difficult no matter who you are, 295 00:21:27,545 --> 00:21:31,199 to wake up in the morning and to shoot people all day long 296 00:21:31,200 --> 00:21:33,199 and then to try to go to bed at night and know that 297 00:21:33,200 --> 00:21:36,140 the next morning you're going to wake up and do it all over again. 298 00:21:38,866 --> 00:21:42,799 A massacre of 100 people is set up for him so that he can see 299 00:21:42,800 --> 00:21:48,119 how difficult it is to actually watch the killing of human beings. 300 00:21:48,120 --> 00:21:50,399 Because Himmler has never had to do this before. 301 00:21:50,400 --> 00:21:52,900 He's never really seen death first hand. 302 00:21:54,532 --> 00:21:57,279 He reacts very badly to the sight of 303 00:21:57,280 --> 00:21:59,639 bodies being murdered in front of him. 304 00:21:59,640 --> 00:22:02,080 And he turns green, and he almost throws up. 305 00:22:02,980 --> 00:22:07,079 Himmler returns to Berlin to help design ways to execute 306 00:22:07,080 --> 00:22:09,700 mass killings that are more efficient. 307 00:22:14,330 --> 00:22:17,420 On the Soviet front, the killing continues. 308 00:22:21,977 --> 00:22:26,660 Babi Yar is a ravine just outside Kiev, in Ukraine. 309 00:22:29,080 --> 00:22:31,360 In September 1941, 310 00:22:31,520 --> 00:22:35,900 over 33,000 Jewish men, women and children are marched here. 311 00:22:39,340 --> 00:22:42,040 Across two days, they're all shot. 312 00:22:43,227 --> 00:22:45,707 And then buried in a mass grave. 313 00:22:51,370 --> 00:22:55,820 The Nazis had already developed a method of mass murder. 314 00:22:57,860 --> 00:22:59,799 At the start of the war, 315 00:22:59,800 --> 00:23:03,820 Hitler authorised the killing of patients with disabilities... 316 00:23:04,860 --> 00:23:08,180 ...a euthanasia programme known as T4. 317 00:23:09,060 --> 00:23:10,759 The T4 programme, 318 00:23:10,760 --> 00:23:13,999 which is code named after Tiergarten Strasse number four, 319 00:23:14,000 --> 00:23:16,759 which is the building in Berlin that was the headquarters, 320 00:23:16,760 --> 00:23:21,479 was the programme to murder with carbon monoxide, 321 00:23:21,480 --> 00:23:24,359 physically and mentally disabled Germans, 322 00:23:24,360 --> 00:23:28,060 because they were deemed to be drains on the state. 323 00:23:29,540 --> 00:23:32,479 The T4 programme runs for two years, 324 00:23:32,480 --> 00:23:36,480 before it's officially halted in August 1941. 325 00:23:37,680 --> 00:23:41,839 What you then have is a group of men with a particular set of skills; 326 00:23:41,840 --> 00:23:44,040 the use of gas to murder people, 327 00:23:44,080 --> 00:23:46,759 the transportation and logistics of that, 328 00:23:46,760 --> 00:23:50,679 the hiding of the evidence of that operation. 329 00:23:50,680 --> 00:23:56,720 And these people are then available to be used in another operation. 330 00:23:58,186 --> 00:24:02,720 The first extermination centre, where Jews are sent to be gassed, 331 00:24:03,000 --> 00:24:07,220 is at Chelmno, located in German-occupied Poland. 332 00:24:11,053 --> 00:24:14,840 The victims in the Chelmno centre are Jews from the ghetto 333 00:24:14,840 --> 00:24:18,680 of the Polish city of Lodz and the Romani, 334 00:24:18,840 --> 00:24:23,120 who the Nazis also regard as an inferior race. 335 00:24:24,960 --> 00:24:27,479 On December 8th, 1941, 336 00:24:27,480 --> 00:24:31,220 the first Jews are killed using gas vans. 337 00:24:32,700 --> 00:24:36,159 They are vans where the Nazis could pipe carbon monoxide 338 00:24:36,160 --> 00:24:38,360 into the back of the bed of the truck. 339 00:24:40,700 --> 00:24:44,439 Szlama Ber Winer is a Jew from Central Poland 340 00:24:44,440 --> 00:24:46,560 who is deported to Chelmno. 341 00:24:47,453 --> 00:24:51,580 Szlama witnesses the death of his family in gas vans. 342 00:24:53,020 --> 00:24:55,280 He writes about this in a letter. 343 00:24:56,046 --> 00:24:59,780 "The leader of the guard detail was a high-ranking SS man, 344 00:25:00,020 --> 00:25:02,220 an absolute sadist and murderer. 345 00:25:02,723 --> 00:25:06,000 He ordered that eight men were to open the doors of the lorry. 346 00:25:06,580 --> 00:25:09,220 The smell of gas that met us was overpowering. 347 00:25:09,980 --> 00:25:14,720 Out of my family of about 60 people, I was the only remaining survivor. 348 00:25:15,407 --> 00:25:17,887 I was left alone in this world now." 349 00:25:20,959 --> 00:25:25,220 The war against the Jews is about to take an ominous turn, 350 00:25:25,520 --> 00:25:28,480 as the Nazis build additional killing centres 351 00:25:28,640 --> 00:25:32,480 and devise new methods to destroy a people. 352 00:25:41,479 --> 00:25:43,420 December 1941. 353 00:25:44,940 --> 00:25:48,519 A villa overlooking Lake Wannsee in Berlin is the location 354 00:25:48,520 --> 00:25:50,359 for a gathering of officials 355 00:25:50,360 --> 00:25:53,540 representing different parts of the Nazi regime. 356 00:25:55,180 --> 00:25:58,860 The organiser of the conference is Reinhard Heydrich. 357 00:25:59,100 --> 00:26:01,660 The topic is the Jewish question. 358 00:26:02,740 --> 00:26:05,380 But the conference is postponed. 359 00:26:06,706 --> 00:26:08,920 The conference at Wannsee was initially scheduled 360 00:26:08,921 --> 00:26:12,320 on the 9th of December, but it had to be postponed because, 361 00:26:12,320 --> 00:26:15,439 of course, on the 7th December 1941, 362 00:26:15,440 --> 00:26:19,000 the Japanese launched a massive attack on Pearl Harbor. 363 00:26:36,500 --> 00:26:39,180 Three days after the attack at Pearl Harbor, 364 00:26:39,205 --> 00:26:42,500 Adolf Hitler declares war on the United States. 365 00:26:49,866 --> 00:26:53,279 Hitler has long predicted a world war, 366 00:26:53,280 --> 00:26:55,520 and now he has brought it about. 367 00:26:57,666 --> 00:27:01,399 In a speech, he accuses the Jews of manipulating 368 00:27:01,400 --> 00:27:04,300 the American President, Franklin D. Roosevelt. 369 00:27:22,880 --> 00:27:24,920 At a briefing on December 12th, 370 00:27:24,920 --> 00:27:27,220 Hitler summons Nazi Party leaders. 371 00:27:27,860 --> 00:27:29,079 In his diary, 372 00:27:29,080 --> 00:27:33,320 Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels writes what is discussed. 373 00:27:33,740 --> 00:27:37,300 "The Fuhrer is determined to make a clean sweep." 374 00:27:37,820 --> 00:27:39,580 "The world war is here; 375 00:27:39,900 --> 00:27:44,600 the destruction of Jewry must be the inevitable consequence." 376 00:27:48,086 --> 00:27:51,020 On January 20th, 1942, 377 00:27:51,240 --> 00:27:53,999 Nazi officials arrived at Lake Wannsee 378 00:27:54,000 --> 00:27:56,660 for Heydrich's rescheduled conference. 379 00:27:59,020 --> 00:28:02,598 The SS officers are in their full formal uniforms. 380 00:28:02,623 --> 00:28:06,100 They're being served cognac and canapes. 381 00:28:06,540 --> 00:28:08,880 It looks like a very civilized gathering. 382 00:28:08,905 --> 00:28:12,359 But, of course, what's being discussed at the Wannsee conference 383 00:28:12,360 --> 00:28:14,100 is anything but civilized. 384 00:28:14,860 --> 00:28:18,080 The Wannsee conference is a coordination meeting. 385 00:28:18,213 --> 00:28:21,957 It is not a meeting to decide 386 00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:24,220 whether or not to kill the Jews of Europe. 387 00:28:24,580 --> 00:28:28,000 It's a meeting to determine how that's going to take place 388 00:28:28,038 --> 00:28:30,400 and what the responsibilities are 389 00:28:30,425 --> 00:28:33,532 of all of the bureaucratic elements of the Nazi state 390 00:28:33,557 --> 00:28:35,810 in achieving this goal. 391 00:28:36,497 --> 00:28:40,400 At the conference, Heydrich lists the number of Jews 392 00:28:40,400 --> 00:28:43,600 to be exterminated by the "Final Solution." 393 00:28:45,920 --> 00:28:50,160 The list includes the Jews of the Soviet Union and eastern Europe. 394 00:28:52,149 --> 00:28:58,140 The Jews in France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Scandinavian countries. 395 00:28:59,820 --> 00:29:03,519 It also includes Jews in countries fighting alongside Germany 396 00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:06,200 such as Italy, Romania and Hungary. 397 00:29:07,209 --> 00:29:10,895 Even Jews in undefeated Great Britain and neutral Ireland 398 00:29:10,920 --> 00:29:12,440 are included. 399 00:29:13,260 --> 00:29:16,340 Grand total: over 11 million. 400 00:29:19,080 --> 00:29:23,360 The Nazis now have a plan to implement the Holocaust. 401 00:29:27,240 --> 00:29:29,640 The Germans had succeeded in taking France, 402 00:29:29,800 --> 00:29:32,880 as well as Holland, Denmark, Norway, and so on, 403 00:29:32,905 --> 00:29:35,479 which meant that they suddenly had control over 404 00:29:35,480 --> 00:29:37,940 other massive populations of Jews. 405 00:29:39,220 --> 00:29:42,960 The fact that basically the whole of Europe outside Britain 406 00:29:43,007 --> 00:29:46,927 was now part of Hitler's Nazi empire, 407 00:29:47,040 --> 00:29:50,474 gave a feeling that things could be done 408 00:29:50,499 --> 00:29:52,339 which had never been done before. 409 00:29:58,186 --> 00:29:59,906 Across all of Europe, 410 00:30:00,353 --> 00:30:04,380 a whole people are targeted for annihilation. 411 00:30:20,880 --> 00:30:23,280 Following the Wannsee Conference, 412 00:30:23,305 --> 00:30:27,185 the Nazis are working on the construction of killing centres, 413 00:30:27,259 --> 00:30:31,059 where people, most of them Jewish, will be sent to die. 414 00:30:32,373 --> 00:30:36,141 The majority are from eastern Europe and Soviet territory. 415 00:30:37,300 --> 00:30:42,040 The Nazis also begin to target the Jews of western Europe. 416 00:30:42,960 --> 00:30:46,320 The Holocaust begins as an Eastern phenomenon. 417 00:30:46,480 --> 00:30:52,100 But soon it extends to every single corner of German controlled Europe. 418 00:30:52,340 --> 00:30:56,760 Amsterdam in the Netherlands and France and Italy 419 00:30:56,785 --> 00:30:59,119 and as far north as Scandinavia, 420 00:30:59,120 --> 00:31:02,199 Jews are being shipped to these various new establishments 421 00:31:02,200 --> 00:31:04,280 in the East and murdered. 422 00:31:05,780 --> 00:31:10,160 In the spring of 1942, Himmler visits Amsterdam 423 00:31:10,320 --> 00:31:13,559 to address a police battalion specially trained to round up 424 00:31:13,560 --> 00:31:16,660 and deport the city's Jewish population. 425 00:31:17,460 --> 00:31:22,480 A few weeks after his visit, one Jewish father, Otto Frank, 426 00:31:22,505 --> 00:31:25,220 decides his family must go into hiding. 427 00:31:27,517 --> 00:31:30,280 His daughter Anne writes in her diary: 428 00:31:31,613 --> 00:31:36,720 "Our many Jewish friends and acquaintances are being taken away in droves. 429 00:31:36,880 --> 00:31:39,520 Escape is almost impossible." 430 00:31:47,600 --> 00:31:51,199 In France, many Jews who fled Germany earlier 431 00:31:51,200 --> 00:31:53,000 now find themselves threatened, 432 00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:56,560 along with the country's large French Jewish population. 433 00:31:59,006 --> 00:32:03,100 Helene Berr, a young French Jewish woman, writes: 434 00:32:03,400 --> 00:32:06,839 "A wave of terror has been gripping everybody else as well 435 00:32:06,840 --> 00:32:08,720 these past few days. 436 00:32:08,880 --> 00:32:12,240 It appears that the SS have taken command in France 437 00:32:12,400 --> 00:32:14,600 and that terror must follow." 438 00:32:18,752 --> 00:32:20,192 Over the next months, 439 00:32:20,217 --> 00:32:22,840 Jewish families are deported by German forces 440 00:32:22,841 --> 00:32:24,500 and their collaborators. 441 00:32:25,020 --> 00:32:28,520 They are informed they are being resettled in Eastern Europe 442 00:32:28,680 --> 00:32:31,700 and told to bring belongings and valuables with them. 443 00:32:33,020 --> 00:32:37,660 Instead, they are being sent to the new Nazi extermination centres. 444 00:32:39,340 --> 00:32:43,520 They are crammed into airless, lightless, railway cars 445 00:32:43,680 --> 00:32:47,400 and transported hundreds of miles without food or water. 446 00:32:50,599 --> 00:32:55,359 Modern bureaucracies and trains enabled the movement of people 447 00:32:55,360 --> 00:32:57,880 across Europe in huge numbers, 448 00:32:58,040 --> 00:33:00,900 which had really never been seen before. 449 00:33:01,700 --> 00:33:05,240 There are four major extermination centres. 450 00:33:05,400 --> 00:33:09,380 Chelmno, Treblinka, Sobibor and Belzec. 451 00:33:10,100 --> 00:33:12,840 There are two additional extermination centres, 452 00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:16,079 which also serve as forced labour camps, 453 00:33:16,080 --> 00:33:18,620 Majdanek, and Auschwitz. 454 00:33:19,780 --> 00:33:22,800 All of these centres are located in Poland. 455 00:33:24,839 --> 00:33:28,959 In the centres, the Nazis design methods to kill as many people 456 00:33:28,960 --> 00:33:34,060 in as short a time as possible, including using diesel engines. 457 00:33:36,380 --> 00:33:39,199 The Nazis pumped carbon monoxide from these engines 458 00:33:39,200 --> 00:33:42,080 into the chambers themselves. It killed a lot of people. 459 00:33:42,080 --> 00:33:46,439 But that doesn't necessarily mean that they were as kind of efficient 460 00:33:46,440 --> 00:33:48,760 in that process as is somehow supposed. 461 00:33:48,760 --> 00:33:50,559 These were very crude places. 462 00:33:50,560 --> 00:33:52,679 They were very improvisational places, 463 00:33:52,680 --> 00:33:55,760 and they were spaces of extraordinary 464 00:33:55,920 --> 00:33:58,440 and appalling suffering. 465 00:34:04,460 --> 00:34:05,784 At Auschwitz, 466 00:34:05,833 --> 00:34:09,020 the Nazis use a pesticide called "Zyklon B". 467 00:34:11,680 --> 00:34:15,000 Zyklon B is a cyanide derivative 468 00:34:15,173 --> 00:34:19,359 originally for exterminating vermin, for killing rodents in your house. 469 00:34:19,360 --> 00:34:20,879 It's a blue crystal. 470 00:34:20,880 --> 00:34:24,120 You open the can, and it emits a poison gas. 471 00:34:25,336 --> 00:34:29,119 They also begin construction on an extension to Auschwitz, 472 00:34:29,120 --> 00:34:31,520 in the neighbouring village of Birkenau. 473 00:34:32,019 --> 00:34:35,239 The site is solely dedicated to extermination 474 00:34:35,240 --> 00:34:37,320 and has several gas chambers. 475 00:34:41,173 --> 00:34:44,020 When Jews arrive at Auschwitz-Birkenau 476 00:34:44,320 --> 00:34:46,519 they are sorted into two groups: 477 00:34:46,520 --> 00:34:49,439 those who are determined fit for forced labour, 478 00:34:49,440 --> 00:34:51,320 and those who are not. 479 00:34:52,993 --> 00:34:57,820 Mendel Jakubowicz is deported from a Polish Ghetto to Auschwitz, 480 00:34:58,560 --> 00:35:00,640 he describes his arrival. 481 00:35:02,746 --> 00:35:05,560 "The SS people were walking up and down. 482 00:35:05,560 --> 00:35:07,980 I stood at attention on my toes. 483 00:35:08,980 --> 00:35:12,260 Finally, after a while, I was chosen to the right, 484 00:35:13,020 --> 00:35:15,260 some of my friends to the left." 485 00:35:16,300 --> 00:35:19,660 Mendel is selected to join a work battalion. 486 00:35:21,060 --> 00:35:23,440 His family is sent to the gas chamber. 487 00:35:27,260 --> 00:35:30,040 The people who had been brought into the gas chambers 488 00:35:30,040 --> 00:35:32,919 would be separated into men and women and children. 489 00:35:32,920 --> 00:35:35,320 They'd all be herded into this room. 490 00:35:35,480 --> 00:35:39,160 They told them that they were going there to be showered. 491 00:35:39,966 --> 00:35:43,759 They would be given fabric ties, to tie their shoes together 492 00:35:43,760 --> 00:35:47,160 under the ruse that it'd be easier to find their pair afterwards. 493 00:35:48,286 --> 00:35:51,720 The Nazis want to cram as many people into the gas chambers 494 00:35:51,721 --> 00:35:55,999 as possible because that generates this environment of high heat 495 00:35:56,000 --> 00:35:59,480 and humidity, which creates the hydrogen cyanide gas. 496 00:36:04,813 --> 00:36:09,780 The scenes that followed after that defy imagination. 497 00:36:11,100 --> 00:36:14,639 Quite often you would find families or loved ones 498 00:36:14,640 --> 00:36:16,719 that were clutching each other so tightly 499 00:36:16,720 --> 00:36:20,760 that it was impossible to pull their arms apart from each other. 500 00:36:23,846 --> 00:36:25,900 The victims are cremated. 501 00:36:27,200 --> 00:36:30,480 A perpetual pall of death hangs over the area. 502 00:36:32,283 --> 00:36:34,920 It was generally the case that people sent to death camps 503 00:36:34,921 --> 00:36:38,260 were murdered within about 45 minutes to 2 hours of arrival. 504 00:36:39,260 --> 00:36:43,855 The creation of the extermination camps is Hitler's final solution 505 00:36:43,880 --> 00:36:45,540 to the Jewish question. 506 00:36:46,540 --> 00:36:51,599 An industrial scale system to mass murder human beings 507 00:36:51,600 --> 00:36:54,060 in their thousands every day. 508 00:36:54,940 --> 00:36:57,660 Just the pinnacle of evil. 509 00:37:01,540 --> 00:37:04,820 This is murder on an industrial scale, 510 00:37:05,420 --> 00:37:07,880 but each death is uniquely suffered. 511 00:37:15,466 --> 00:37:17,999 In the summer of 1942, 512 00:37:18,000 --> 00:37:21,920 Himmler visits the extermination centre at Auschwitz-Birkenau. 513 00:37:22,793 --> 00:37:26,353 He watches enslaved prisoners working in a chemical plant. 514 00:37:27,386 --> 00:37:30,546 And sees train cars of Jews arriving to be murdered. 515 00:37:31,800 --> 00:37:33,759 Himmler later attends a dinner party, 516 00:37:33,760 --> 00:37:37,560 where he explains that the Nazis have murdered two million Jews 517 00:37:37,720 --> 00:37:39,520 and will continue to do so. 518 00:37:41,032 --> 00:37:45,319 His boasts make their way to a Western intelligence agent, 519 00:37:45,320 --> 00:37:47,560 who passes the information to 520 00:37:47,585 --> 00:37:50,846 a German exile living in neutral Switzerland 521 00:37:50,875 --> 00:37:52,515 Gerhard Riegner. 522 00:37:53,906 --> 00:37:57,719 Gerhard Riegner, who worked for the World Jewish Congress, 523 00:37:57,720 --> 00:38:01,880 learns from a German businessman that the Nazis have a plan. 524 00:38:01,905 --> 00:38:05,679 They are trying to round up, deport and murder 525 00:38:05,680 --> 00:38:08,040 the remaining Jewish communities of Europe. 526 00:38:09,320 --> 00:38:11,359 Shocked by what he hears, 527 00:38:11,360 --> 00:38:15,760 Reigner attempts to get this information to Rabbi Stephen Wise. 528 00:38:17,506 --> 00:38:20,119 Rabbi Stephen Wise is the head of the World Jewish Congress 529 00:38:20,120 --> 00:38:23,399 and maybe the most influential American rabbi 530 00:38:23,400 --> 00:38:26,680 and maybe one of the most influential American Jews at the time. 531 00:38:26,680 --> 00:38:30,080 He has a relationship with President Roosevelt. 532 00:38:32,366 --> 00:38:35,720 Reigner's message gets to the U.S. State Department, 533 00:38:36,280 --> 00:38:40,660 but officials treat it like a war rumour and don't pass it on. 534 00:38:41,380 --> 00:38:46,239 The State Department refuses to send this information to Rabbi Wise. 535 00:38:46,240 --> 00:38:49,560 They call it an "unreliable war rumour" 536 00:38:49,640 --> 00:38:51,060 and they bury it. 537 00:38:51,500 --> 00:38:53,679 "Why are we going to get people riled up about this 538 00:38:53,680 --> 00:38:55,296 if it's just probably a war rumour? 539 00:38:55,321 --> 00:38:57,839 There's no way that the Nazis are actually doing this." 540 00:38:57,840 --> 00:38:59,360 And so, they shelve it. 541 00:38:59,700 --> 00:39:01,720 But Reigner persists, 542 00:39:01,880 --> 00:39:04,080 he reaches a British member of Parliament, 543 00:39:04,240 --> 00:39:06,640 who contacts Rabbi Wise by telegram. 544 00:39:07,200 --> 00:39:10,680 The U.S. State Department now investigates the report. 545 00:39:11,013 --> 00:39:15,253 But the Roosevelt administration is not ready to take it public. 546 00:39:17,459 --> 00:39:22,680 They had a feeling that American soldiers would not agree to fight, 547 00:39:22,705 --> 00:39:25,615 if they believed that they were being asked to fight 548 00:39:25,640 --> 00:39:27,380 for the rescue of European Jews. 549 00:39:27,860 --> 00:39:31,808 We're fighting for these ideas of democracy and idealism; 550 00:39:31,833 --> 00:39:33,500 we're not fighting for the Jews. 551 00:39:35,460 --> 00:39:37,359 After their investigation, 552 00:39:37,360 --> 00:39:41,040 the State Department allows Rabbi Wise to share the information 553 00:39:41,040 --> 00:39:43,380 about the mass murder of the Jews. 554 00:39:43,973 --> 00:39:47,873 The news spreads around the globe, and Jewish communities react. 555 00:39:49,813 --> 00:39:52,660 The world is beginning to learn the truth. 556 00:39:54,300 --> 00:39:56,839 At the beginning of December, there's a Day of Mourning, 557 00:39:56,840 --> 00:39:59,400 not just in the United States, not just in Britain, 558 00:39:59,400 --> 00:40:01,180 but internationally. 559 00:40:01,500 --> 00:40:02,759 There are vigils. 560 00:40:02,760 --> 00:40:06,560 There are ceremonies and services in synagogues 561 00:40:06,560 --> 00:40:08,795 across the Western Hemisphere. 562 00:40:08,820 --> 00:40:11,280 And then finally on December 17th, 563 00:40:11,440 --> 00:40:13,879 the Allied governments issue what is called 564 00:40:13,880 --> 00:40:16,280 the Allied Declaration on Atrocities. 565 00:40:16,305 --> 00:40:18,759 And they are condemning in very strong language 566 00:40:18,760 --> 00:40:21,080 what the Nazis and their collaborators are doing; 567 00:40:21,080 --> 00:40:24,079 they're using phrases like "cold blooded extermination" 568 00:40:24,080 --> 00:40:25,920 and "bloody atrocities." 569 00:40:26,699 --> 00:40:29,000 Roosevelt particularly is very concerned 570 00:40:29,001 --> 00:40:31,279 and Churchill is appalled as well. 571 00:40:31,280 --> 00:40:35,080 He says that the best thing that we can do to help Europe's Jews 572 00:40:35,080 --> 00:40:37,359 is to win this war as quickly as possible. 573 00:40:37,360 --> 00:40:40,240 And we need to divert all of our resources in service 574 00:40:40,240 --> 00:40:41,900 of doing just that. 575 00:40:43,240 --> 00:40:46,055 They knew that these mass killings were happening. 576 00:40:46,080 --> 00:40:48,679 I don't think they could imagine quite the scale 577 00:40:48,680 --> 00:40:51,840 of the infrastructure that the Nazis had devoted to this. 578 00:40:51,865 --> 00:40:55,785 I think that the leaders had not quite grasped the extent of it. 579 00:40:58,223 --> 00:40:59,959 In 1933, 580 00:40:59,960 --> 00:41:03,860 Hitler's perverse vision was to expel the Jews from Germany. 581 00:41:04,140 --> 00:41:08,839 By 1942, he is on the verge of exterminating the entire 582 00:41:08,840 --> 00:41:11,180 Jewish population of Europe. 583 00:41:18,060 --> 00:41:20,279 After two years in hiding, 584 00:41:20,280 --> 00:41:22,440 Anne Frank and her sister are discovered 585 00:41:22,440 --> 00:41:27,140 by Dutch police officers and sent to a Nazi extermination centre. 586 00:41:27,860 --> 00:41:32,480 They eventually die of typhus, just weeks before the end of the War. 587 00:41:34,040 --> 00:41:37,399 Helene Berr is deported from Paris to Auschwitz 588 00:41:37,400 --> 00:41:39,439 and then to Bergen-Belsen, 589 00:41:39,440 --> 00:41:43,820 where she also dies from typhus in April 1945. 590 00:41:45,100 --> 00:41:50,860 Szlama Ber Winer writes a report about the gas vans at Chelmno... 591 00:41:51,580 --> 00:41:54,060 ...hoping to bring the truth to the world. 592 00:41:54,380 --> 00:41:57,860 But he is found by the Nazis and deported to Belzec, 593 00:41:58,140 --> 00:42:00,580 where he is murdered in the gas chambers. 594 00:42:02,260 --> 00:42:05,480 Mendel Jakubowicz survives Auschwitz 595 00:42:05,480 --> 00:42:08,380 and moves to the United States after the War. 596 00:42:08,940 --> 00:42:11,559 He changes his name to Mike Jacobs 597 00:42:11,560 --> 00:42:15,460 and founds a scrap metal business in Dallas, Texas. 598 00:42:19,180 --> 00:42:24,695 The Holocaust, the Shoah, will continue until Nazi Germany 599 00:42:24,720 --> 00:42:28,440 is defeated and the Third Reich is completely destroyed. 600 00:42:29,492 --> 00:42:34,439 In 1942, the Allies gather their forces for a massive assault 601 00:42:34,440 --> 00:42:37,360 on the Wehrmacht in North Africa.