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(band plays military tattoo)
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(man speaking German)
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(narrator) April 20, 1939.
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Adolf Hitler's 50th birthday.
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A giant military display.
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On parade the army looked invincible,
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but it had never been tried in battle.
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lts generals didn't think
it would be ready for war for years.
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Not enough weapons, not enough fuel,
not enough experience.
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One unit had been tested in combat:
the Condor Legion,
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Air Force volunteers
returned from the Spanish Civil War.
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(cheering)
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Airmen who had bombed Spanish cities,
killed Spanish people.
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(cheering)
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(starter gun fires)
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(translation) A world record
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anh three new German record
performances have been achieveh.
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(narrator) Another test
for next year's Olympic Games.
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War threatened.
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Germans cheered their sportsmen
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and hoped that Hitler would win
another bloodless victory.
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(applause)
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(woman) I think that one could say
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at that period in August
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there was the same doubt
as to whether war would come,
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whether it could be avoided,
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and a general hope and wish
that it would.
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Hitler had got away
without a war that far
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and there was great hope
that he would get what he wanted
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without a war this time.
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(narrator) But Hitler was eager for war.
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His army had been ordered into position,
ready to attack Poland.
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The German people did not know this.
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(Bielenberg) The general feeling
about a war in Germany
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amongst the ordinary public
was one of great horror,
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there's no doubt about that.
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And it mustn't be forgotten
they'd lost the First World War
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and war was a really... traumatic,
terrible feeling for them
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that another war would break out.
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(fanfare)
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(narrator) Germans saw this newsreel
during the last week of August 1939.
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(translation) Germany is ready
to assert her right and her freedom
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by all means.
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A strong Wehrmacht,
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invincible on the water,
on the land and in the air,
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protecting Germany's borders,
her honour and her security.
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The German people live under
the protection of the German sword.
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(man) The tone of the German press
was absolutely hysterical.
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It was much more so than a year ago,
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when the Czechoslovakian crisis
had been.
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And I had the feeling,
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"Now Hitler means it in earnest."
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"And he's preparing the nation
by that sort of press,
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propaganda and news,
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he's preparing the nation for war."
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(men sing in German)
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(narrator) Last scenes
from that last peacetime newsreel.
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(men sing in German)
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We were very young then.
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But we didn't feel happy.
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A year before,
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when Chamberlain came to Munich,
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my father made a speech
and we drank a glass of champagne.
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We were so glad
there was no war coming.
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And when it really came
I was engaged to be married,
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my husband and father
went with the soldiers.
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It was a dreadful feeling.
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(engines start)
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With my girlfriends I went by bicycle
through the other villages,
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because we were quite sure
anything must happen now.
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Maybe bombs will come also.
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And nothing happened
and we were very much astonished.
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And we thought, "What is that war?"
Later we knew.
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(narrator)
Not all Germans believed they would win.
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Some even welcomed the idea of defeat.
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(man) When the war started, we thought
very soon Hitler would come to his end.
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So our attitude
to the starting of the war
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was a little bit ambiguous.
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On the one hand, we were horrified
by now another war.
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On the other hand, we thought all our
hopes now lay in the defeat of Hitler.
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By becoming politically interested
in opposition,
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we had to become so disloyal
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to our own country's government,
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even in the war.
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In the beginning of the war
in our group
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it was such a matter of course,
we didn't really discuss it,
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it was a matter of course that
we wished the defeat of Hitler's armies.
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Which is a horrible thing
to say for somebody
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who has not gone through this kind
of disloyalty to your own country.
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(narrator)
Loyalty was defined by the government
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and reinforced
by the propaganda machine.
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Any criticism of the war
was forbidden.
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The press relentlessly
drove the message home.
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(man) A person
who has never lived in a dictatorship
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can't understand
the power of propaganda.
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If you just hear always the same,
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if you always read
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in every newspaper the same,
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and if you have very few possibilities
for other information,
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then you become very impressed
by the things which you are told.
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And it's very difficult to make up
your own mind and be critical.
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(brass band plays)
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(narrator) Loyal Germans
had little to be critical about.
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The military campaign
against Poland was over in a month.
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Here was victory's first fruits,
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a display of real guns
captured from a real enemy.
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(man speaking German)
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(narrator) Children loved it.
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(men sing in German)
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I myself was quite happy
when I was called up
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early in 1940 for the army.
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And that suddenly left behind
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all the oppression I had every day.
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Being a soldier,
you don't read newspapers,
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you don't listen to the radio,
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you're not always under the stress
of the propaganda,
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which was pointed at you every hour
during the Nazi time.
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And I felt quite suddenly in the army,
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as much as I disliked being a soldier,
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I suddenly felt much healthier
than I did in the years before.
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(singing in German)
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(narrator) Everything for the soldier.
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Radio was the link between them
and the folk back home.
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Germans were forbidden
to listen to foreign broadcasts
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and risked going to prison if they did.
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Authorities had trouble
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finding enough wholesome
German material for them instead.
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(translation) Go.
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(narrator) When Jewish subversive music
had been eliminated
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there wasn't much left
but Die Fledermaus.
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(all sing in German)
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(narrator) It was performed again...
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..and again...
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..and again.
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A web of fear and denunciation
enveloped people in Germany.
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If you went to a party
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it was the duty of your host
to warn anybody coming to that party
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if there was one person there
whom he did not trust
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or did not know about.
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And when that happened
the whole conversation changed
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and the whole party altered
its atmosphere, really,
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to beware of this one person.
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(engine chugs)
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(woman speaking German)
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(translator) We really were completely
surrounded by unseen evil spirits
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who watched what you did
and then denounced you.
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For instance, once I took in
the baby of a school friend.
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Both the father and mother
were leading communists
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and were taken away.
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I had the baby less than an hour
and they came to search my house
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to find out about the child.
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I told them openly,
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"It's the child of my friend who was
rounded up as a communist leader."
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But then the mother sent me some baby
things and they learnt about that too.
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My home was searched to find out
what was in the boxes. Baby clothes.
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They really couldn't take the baby
away from me.
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Perhaps a year later
they might have taken the baby.
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We lived in Grunewald in a little house
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with three little children,
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the eldest boy was seven
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and the others were smaller.
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And near to us lived a lonely woman
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with her about nine-year-old daughter
or so.
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And this Mrs Leidig was interested
in spiritualistic matters
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and she always had clairvisions
and so on.
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And after the attempt on Hitler
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in 1939 in Munich, ja,
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next morning
she said to her little daughter,
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"You see, I knew before
that that would happen."
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And little Helga proud on her mother,
of her mother,
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told that in school to her classmate,...
classmates.
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00:15:01,191 --> 00:15:05,528
And one of these girls
told that at home to her father.
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And that father was a party member.
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And he felt the chance to win
some Ansehen in the party.
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The next morning
the little girl came to school
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and said to Helga, "l told my father
what you said about your mother,
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that she knew what would happen."
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"And now they will come
and take your mother."
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"You will see, she comes in prison."
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00:15:34,975 --> 00:15:39,812
And Helga, of course, desperate
and in tears, didn't know what to do.
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She couldn't call home
because the Leidigs had no telephone.
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So she called me and I said,
"l don't know what to do,
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but come to my house and I will go
over and see what I can do."
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And I went over and I told Mrs Leidig
who didn't know anything about this
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and was extremely... desperate.
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And we arranged that at first
she should go out for some hours
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and I offered to stay in her house
and die Leute zu empfangen,
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see who will come
and speak with them,
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00:16:18,519 --> 00:16:20,687
to receive them if they came.
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00:16:20,771 --> 00:16:23,189
It wasn't clear
if they really would come,
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because it was children's talk, yes?
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And she went out and I went over
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00:16:28,904 --> 00:16:32,240
and took my little daughter
of five years
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and my knitting work
and sat in her living room
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expecting what would happen.
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00:16:40,374 --> 00:16:45,712
And, indeed, after a quarter of an hour
the bell rang and I opened the door
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00:16:45,796 --> 00:16:49,424
and the local policeman
with a dog came
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00:16:49,508 --> 00:16:57,515
and with him a nice young man
in civilian clothes.
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00:16:57,599 --> 00:16:59,851
They asked for Mrs Leidig
and I said,
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00:16:59,977 --> 00:17:03,646
"She's not in but she will come
in a few minutes. Please come in."
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00:17:03,731 --> 00:17:09,152
And then we started a conversation
and they asked what I was doing here.
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00:17:09,236 --> 00:17:13,698
I said we were good neighbours
and when I need her help,
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00:17:13,782 --> 00:17:17,285
then she comes to me
and when she needs my help,
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00:17:17,369 --> 00:17:19,537
when she has to go shopping
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00:17:19,621 --> 00:17:23,916
and her daughter might come home
that time and have her lunch,
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00:17:24,001 --> 00:17:28,171
then I sit here and wait for
her daughter to prepare her lunch.
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00:17:28,255 --> 00:17:32,550
"You see, we realise here
what the Führer wants,
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00:17:32,634 --> 00:17:36,262
real Volksgemeinschaft
and good neighbourship,
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00:17:36,346 --> 00:17:41,434
Gemeinnuntz geht vor Eigennutz and
help each other," and so on and so on.
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00:17:41,518 --> 00:17:45,521
I started some phrases
and so we came into the conversation
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00:17:45,606 --> 00:17:49,275
and I spoke about the school
which was so wonderful
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00:17:49,359 --> 00:17:54,113
and I asked the policeman if his
daughter also went to that school.
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00:17:54,198 --> 00:18:00,203
And he said yes. I said, "lsn't it
a wonderful spirit in that school,
214
00:18:00,287 --> 00:18:04,165
the nice songs they learn
and the discipline?"
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00:18:04,249 --> 00:18:09,879
"l think it's really nice for the
children today what they experience."
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00:18:09,963 --> 00:18:16,469
And that way we talked and talked
and after a while, half an hour or so,
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00:18:16,553 --> 00:18:20,264
they felt
they shouldn't wait any longer.
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00:18:20,390 --> 00:18:25,561
And... as they were about to leave,
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00:18:25,646 --> 00:18:28,815
they looked through the ajar door
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00:18:28,899 --> 00:18:33,736
and saw on the night table
near the bed of Mrs Leidig
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00:18:33,821 --> 00:18:39,742
a thick book with a red binder, ja?
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00:18:39,827 --> 00:18:43,412
And that gentleman
in civilian clothes said,
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00:18:43,497 --> 00:18:47,125
"Oh, I see
there is also Mein Kampf by Hitler."
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00:18:47,209 --> 00:18:52,421
I said, "Of course. ls there any German
house where you can 't find Mein Kampf?"
225
00:18:52,506 --> 00:18:56,801
And so they left.
And when I had closed the door
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00:18:56,885 --> 00:19:01,556
I looked at that book and it was
Knauer's Conversation, a dictionary.
227
00:19:03,058 --> 00:19:09,689
Well! But I didn't feel well
after having lied so much.
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00:19:09,773 --> 00:19:11,858
It was a bad feeling.
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00:19:11,942 --> 00:19:15,736
And... of course,
it was necessary to help her out.
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00:19:15,821 --> 00:19:20,616
But I remembered what a friend
of mine had said once,
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00:19:20,701 --> 00:19:25,163
"What is freedom? Freedom means
you are not forced to lie."
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00:19:27,624 --> 00:19:32,211
(narrator) In the spring of 1940,
the German armies marched again,
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00:19:32,296 --> 00:19:34,380
this time against France.
234
00:19:35,507 --> 00:19:37,967
The generals expected a fierce struggle.
235
00:19:38,051 --> 00:19:41,637
The German people
feared a long bloody war.
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00:19:44,558 --> 00:19:46,934
In six weeks the campaign was over.
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00:19:47,019 --> 00:19:49,312
It was a lovely, sunny afternoon.
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00:19:49,396 --> 00:19:51,314
We went out to a coffee garden
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00:19:51,398 --> 00:19:52,565
out in the woods.
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00:19:52,649 --> 00:19:55,109
And about three or four o'clock -
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00:19:55,194 --> 00:19:59,113
it was very crowded because it was
a sunny, lovely day -
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00:19:59,198 --> 00:20:02,491
the loudspeakers were turned up
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00:20:02,576 --> 00:20:06,078
and a special announcement
came with a great fanfare,
244
00:20:06,205 --> 00:20:09,498
"Now France has capitulated."
245
00:20:09,583 --> 00:20:11,667
Now Hitler had done it.
246
00:20:11,752 --> 00:20:18,090
And the whole crowd rose
and they jumped on the... chairs
247
00:20:18,175 --> 00:20:23,471
and the German national hymn
and the Horst Wessel Lied was being sung
248
00:20:23,597 --> 00:20:27,975
and everybody was crying
and singing and raising their hands.
249
00:20:28,060 --> 00:20:32,355
I was totally paralysed by that
and stood there with my hands down.
250
00:20:32,439 --> 00:20:36,234
And then Dietrich shouted at me,
"Will you raise your hand?"
251
00:20:36,318 --> 00:20:40,863
And then slowly I did. After that
we went out of the coffee garden
252
00:20:40,948 --> 00:20:43,574
totally disturbed and he said to me,
253
00:20:43,659 --> 00:20:47,995
"You were crazy not to put up your hand.
Now we have to do something different,
254
00:20:48,080 --> 00:20:50,873
not just protesting
by not raising the hand."
255
00:20:50,958 --> 00:20:54,460
We had to show, in order to plot,
how good Germans,
256
00:20:54,544 --> 00:20:57,046
how good maybe even Nazis, we were.
257
00:21:04,388 --> 00:21:06,681
(laughter)
258
00:21:07,724 --> 00:21:10,559
(cheering)
259
00:21:10,644 --> 00:21:14,647
(Tucking) I just went shopping
when somebody told me,
260
00:21:14,731 --> 00:21:16,816
"Don't you hear the noise?"
261
00:21:16,900 --> 00:21:21,654
And then I saw part of the army
coming back just near us,
262
00:21:21,738 --> 00:21:27,201
so I bought a bowl of cherries
and ran there.
263
00:21:27,286 --> 00:21:29,787
We all were so glad.
264
00:21:29,871 --> 00:21:32,290
We had heard so much
of the First World War
265
00:21:32,374 --> 00:21:37,003
with those dreadful battles
and the many dead.
266
00:21:37,087 --> 00:21:42,925
I felt a sort of national pride
that we ended the war so quick.
267
00:21:43,051 --> 00:21:45,720
(cheering)
268
00:22:08,076 --> 00:22:10,161
(singing in German)
269
00:22:14,916 --> 00:22:17,543
(narrator) Triumph beyond belief.
270
00:22:23,258 --> 00:22:24,508
(whistle)
271
00:22:24,593 --> 00:22:28,929
(narrator) As the booty rolled home
to the Reich, Germans exalted.
272
00:22:29,014 --> 00:22:33,142
Their Führer had sought no more
than simple justice for his people.
273
00:22:33,226 --> 00:22:36,437
He had made them
masters of Western Europe.
274
00:22:36,521 --> 00:22:40,816
Their one remaining enemy, Britain,
had been driven from the continent.
275
00:22:40,901 --> 00:22:43,319
Surely they must make peace soon.
276
00:22:46,156 --> 00:22:48,199
The masters began to rule,
277
00:22:48,283 --> 00:22:52,578
taking whatever they wanted
or thought they needed for the Reich.
278
00:22:53,705 --> 00:22:57,750
The conquered enemies themselves
delivered up the loot.
279
00:23:00,003 --> 00:23:03,172
The war was as good as over.
280
00:23:03,256 --> 00:23:10,846
(woman singing in German)
281
00:24:15,912 --> 00:24:18,414
(screaming)
282
00:24:22,836 --> 00:24:27,631
(narrator) The Nazis rewarded those
who had helped to make victory possible.
283
00:24:27,716 --> 00:24:29,842
At the Krupp armaments factory
284
00:24:29,926 --> 00:24:34,513
the Führer's Award to lndustry
for Outstanding Achievement.
285
00:24:35,682 --> 00:24:39,935
German industry had grown rich
building Hitler's war machine.
286
00:24:40,020 --> 00:24:43,939
lts captains looked forward
to a new European future.
287
00:24:44,024 --> 00:24:46,108
(applause)
288
00:24:46,860 --> 00:24:48,903
It was a job well done.
289
00:24:53,241 --> 00:24:55,910
Heil Hitler.
290
00:24:55,994 --> 00:24:58,370
(man) Just about August,
291
00:24:58,455 --> 00:25:03,959
it was ordered that a lot of
production was stopped or minimised.
292
00:25:04,044 --> 00:25:07,338
And there was a kind of a euphoria
293
00:25:07,422 --> 00:25:10,716
that the war was, so to say, over.
294
00:25:10,800 --> 00:25:12,843
I didn't believe in that at all.
295
00:25:12,928 --> 00:25:16,388
No, I thought I knew the British
296
00:25:16,473 --> 00:25:21,435
and I had the opinion
that they would see this thing through.
297
00:25:23,897 --> 00:25:27,525
(narrator) The British did fight on
in the only way they could.
298
00:25:27,609 --> 00:25:32,696
A handful of aircraft dropped bombs
on cities at night, blindly.
299
00:25:42,541 --> 00:25:46,961
That winter Germans
mourned their first few civilian dead.
300
00:25:56,304 --> 00:25:58,639
The war was not over.
301
00:26:00,141 --> 00:26:03,686
Secretly, from the first moment
of victory in the West,
302
00:26:03,770 --> 00:26:05,271
Hitler had been planning
303
00:26:05,355 --> 00:26:10,150
the greatest historical confrontation
the world would ever see.
304
00:26:13,863 --> 00:26:15,906
On April 20, 1941,
305
00:26:15,991 --> 00:26:20,536
he celebrated his birthday
with his commanders in the field.
306
00:26:23,915 --> 00:26:25,583
The decision had been taken.
307
00:26:29,546 --> 00:26:32,798
The time was ripe to conquer
and destroy the enemy
308
00:26:32,882 --> 00:26:34,633
which had always obsessed him,
309
00:26:34,718 --> 00:26:39,305
the enemy he feared and loathed
above all others.
310
00:26:39,389 --> 00:26:42,266
Hitler believed that his destiny
was to lead his people
311
00:26:42,392 --> 00:26:46,395
into an apocalyptic struggle
with the Soviet U nion.
312
00:26:46,479 --> 00:26:49,148
The victors would dominate the world.
313
00:26:49,232 --> 00:26:52,026
"When the great confrontation began,"
he said,
314
00:26:52,110 --> 00:26:54,445
"the world would hold its breath."
315
00:26:56,114 --> 00:27:02,786
On June 22, 1941,
Goebbels broadcast to the German people.
316
00:27:03,538 --> 00:27:06,040
German people.
317
00:27:06,124 --> 00:27:10,210
At this moment
an advance is in progress
318
00:27:10,295 --> 00:27:18,302
which stretches beyond anything
the world has ever seen.
319
00:27:18,553 --> 00:27:23,974
(narrator) The German people, too,
held their breath.
320
00:27:28,396 --> 00:27:34,193
1941. The third year of the war
for the German Reich.
321
00:27:34,277 --> 00:27:37,279
Street collections for Nazi charities.
322
00:27:40,075 --> 00:27:43,619
Giving money to show solidarity
with the men at the front.
323
00:27:46,456 --> 00:27:48,707
(laughter)
324
00:27:50,669 --> 00:27:54,838
As winter approached,
the collections became more serious.
325
00:27:54,923 --> 00:27:58,258
U niformed party officials
went from house to house.
326
00:28:01,846 --> 00:28:05,599
In December they were grim and earnest.
327
00:28:05,684 --> 00:28:07,559
Germany's leaders had promised
328
00:28:07,644 --> 00:28:11,438
the war with the Soviet U nion
would be over by Christmas.
329
00:28:11,523 --> 00:28:13,732
There was no hope of that now.
330
00:28:13,817 --> 00:28:18,153
lnstead there was a call
for warm clothes, boots, skis,
331
00:28:18,238 --> 00:28:21,782
to keep the army in Russia
from freezing.
332
00:28:21,866 --> 00:28:26,912
(Tucking) We went to bring our skis
and pullovers and...
333
00:28:26,996 --> 00:28:28,622
I didn't have a fur coat,
334
00:28:28,707 --> 00:28:30,666
so I couldn't bring it.
335
00:28:30,750 --> 00:28:35,379
And we heard that
the soldiers were only dressed
336
00:28:35,463 --> 00:28:39,675
in their original summer uniform,
337
00:28:39,759 --> 00:28:43,345
and winter,
we knew winter was very hard,
338
00:28:43,430 --> 00:28:46,181
so we hoped they would get it.
339
00:28:48,059 --> 00:28:52,062
(narrator) No great sacrifice to give up
an old fur wrap or a pair of skis
340
00:28:52,147 --> 00:28:54,898
to save a son or brother
from the Russian winter.
341
00:28:54,983 --> 00:28:58,527
It was the fact that they were needed
at all that was so ominous.
342
00:28:59,028 --> 00:29:01,488
The war would be long and hard,
343
00:29:01,573 --> 00:29:04,533
and there was more ominous news
to come.
344
00:29:06,453 --> 00:29:08,579
On December 11, 1941,
345
00:29:08,663 --> 00:29:11,874
Hitler declared war
on the U nited States.
346
00:29:11,958 --> 00:29:15,836
He had not conquered Russia,
he couldn't invade Britain,
347
00:29:15,920 --> 00:29:19,673
and now he made an enemy of
the world's greatest industrial power.
348
00:29:20,508 --> 00:29:23,552
His generals
couldn't believe their ears.
349
00:29:29,768 --> 00:29:33,270
(music)
350
00:29:33,354 --> 00:29:35,856
Official confidence was boundless.
351
00:29:35,940 --> 00:29:40,736
1942 would be another year of
German triumphs, Germany victories.
352
00:29:40,820 --> 00:29:42,738
(chorus sings)
353
00:30:17,816 --> 00:30:21,610
Few victories, no triumphs.
354
00:30:21,694 --> 00:30:25,447
First the British, then the Americans
sent their bombers over Germany.
355
00:30:25,532 --> 00:30:27,950
Sometimes a thousand at a time.
356
00:30:45,844 --> 00:30:50,889
1942 was the year
the war came home to Germany.
357
00:31:00,900 --> 00:31:04,069
Like the Londoners
they had bombed a year before,
358
00:31:04,153 --> 00:31:06,947
Germans discovered they could take it.
359
00:31:07,031 --> 00:31:10,158
Death from the skies
seemed to spur morale.
360
00:31:19,752 --> 00:31:22,713
Factory buildings were shattered.
361
00:31:28,177 --> 00:31:32,389
But they could be re-built,
and they were.
362
00:31:32,473 --> 00:31:35,434
In spite of the bombs,
production increased.
363
00:31:37,353 --> 00:31:40,898
Every worker sent to the army
had to be replaced.
364
00:31:40,982 --> 00:31:44,109
One way was with forced labour
from the conquered lands.
365
00:31:44,193 --> 00:31:47,195
Frenchmen or Poles or U krainians.
366
00:31:47,280 --> 00:31:50,324
(Stern) I saw those girls
367
00:31:50,408 --> 00:31:55,662
and I knew
they were the same age that I was,
368
00:31:55,747 --> 00:31:59,708
and I was thinking about,
"ls this right
369
00:31:59,792 --> 00:32:04,796
that the girls
must come to Germany to work?"
370
00:32:04,881 --> 00:32:08,508
"They are pupils like I am a pupil."
371
00:32:08,593 --> 00:32:13,430
"And maybe this is wrong."
372
00:32:13,514 --> 00:32:15,849
But finally -
373
00:32:15,934 --> 00:32:18,393
very often happened this -
374
00:32:18,478 --> 00:32:22,522
I thought, "It's war now,
375
00:32:22,607 --> 00:32:24,733
and they are our enemies."
376
00:32:24,817 --> 00:32:27,194
I personally have always thought
377
00:32:27,278 --> 00:32:29,655
that it was a crazy and wrong idea,
378
00:32:29,739 --> 00:32:32,741
an insane idea really.
379
00:32:32,825 --> 00:32:36,286
It was sensible to let them work
where they lived.
380
00:32:36,371 --> 00:32:41,833
There was no necessity
to bring them into our country.
381
00:32:41,918 --> 00:32:46,296
We could have called up
382
00:32:46,381 --> 00:32:49,424
much more women than we did
383
00:32:49,509 --> 00:32:52,219
and had our own people
working on the armaments.
384
00:32:54,764 --> 00:32:58,266
(narrator) German civilians
were not ordered into war production.
385
00:32:58,351 --> 00:33:02,104
lnstead, housewives and Hitler Youth
were told to volunteer
386
00:33:02,230 --> 00:33:05,357
and newsreels were told
to show them happily at work.
387
00:33:05,441 --> 00:33:07,109
(German newsreel)
388
00:33:32,051 --> 00:33:36,930
(narrator) It took courage to resist
the constant pressure to "volunteer".
389
00:33:37,015 --> 00:33:41,727
(Beese speaking German)
390
00:33:41,811 --> 00:33:47,024
(translator) In 1942 my children were
summoned to work in a munitions factory
391
00:33:47,108 --> 00:33:48,984
instead of going on holiday.
392
00:33:49,068 --> 00:33:51,403
I forbade it.
393
00:33:51,487 --> 00:33:56,241
So my daughter said at school,
"My mother won't agree to it."
394
00:33:56,325 --> 00:34:02,122
And we went off on our bicycles
to the Liepnitzsee near Bernau.
395
00:34:05,376 --> 00:34:08,378
When we came home,
five weeks later,
396
00:34:08,463 --> 00:34:12,090
we were visited
by three Nazi Party officials
397
00:34:12,175 --> 00:34:16,094
who informed me that my children
were to be taken away from me
398
00:34:16,179 --> 00:34:19,473
because of upbringing
hostile to the state.
399
00:34:21,559 --> 00:34:25,312
My daughter was not to be allowed
to take her exams,
400
00:34:25,396 --> 00:34:29,900
she was to be sent to
a National Socialist family,
401
00:34:29,984 --> 00:34:35,906
and my son was to go off to
a National Socialist school in Silesia.
402
00:34:39,494 --> 00:34:44,539
Now, as I was not completely ignorant
of legal procedure,
403
00:34:44,624 --> 00:34:48,710
I asked them to produce
a court order in writing first.
404
00:34:50,963 --> 00:34:53,215
They balked at that.
405
00:34:53,299 --> 00:34:55,759
Then, since there was
nothing else I could do,
406
00:34:55,843 --> 00:34:59,971
and they kept calling me
a Marxist, I said,
407
00:35:00,056 --> 00:35:02,974
"Very well. You mean to say
that the Führer was lying
408
00:35:03,059 --> 00:35:08,021
when he said not long ago that there
are no Marxists in Germany any more?"
409
00:35:08,106 --> 00:35:11,316
"Then tomorrow morning,
I'll go to the Chancellery
410
00:35:11,442 --> 00:35:13,652
and present myself to the Führer."
411
00:35:13,736 --> 00:35:17,030
"After all, he's my Führer, too,
not just yours."
412
00:35:17,115 --> 00:35:21,952
"And I'll ask him if you have the right
to take my children away from me."
413
00:35:23,246 --> 00:35:28,291
Well, they said I couldn't do that.
What could I be thinking of?
414
00:35:28,376 --> 00:35:31,378
So then they went off rather perplexed
415
00:35:31,462 --> 00:35:33,839
and a quarter of an hour later
416
00:35:33,923 --> 00:35:37,217
two slips of paper were stuck through
the letter box
417
00:35:37,301 --> 00:35:40,387
and on them were numbers
for my children,
418
00:35:40,471 --> 00:35:45,392
who were thus meant
to be members of the Hitler Youth.
419
00:35:45,476 --> 00:35:47,561
I threw the slips away.
420
00:35:47,645 --> 00:35:52,149
My children were old enough to say for
themselves whether they wanted to join.
421
00:35:52,275 --> 00:35:55,694
And I said to them,
"lf they still force you,
422
00:35:55,778 --> 00:35:59,948
then the uniforms will be hung
on the steps outside the front door."
423
00:36:00,032 --> 00:36:03,910
"ln my home there will be
no Hitler Youth uniforms."
424
00:36:03,995 --> 00:36:06,538
But no one came back.
They'd had enough of us.
425
00:36:06,622 --> 00:36:09,791
(hooter)
426
00:36:11,669 --> 00:36:14,087
(narrator) The raids kept on.
427
00:36:14,172 --> 00:36:18,175
War workers learned to maintain
production even during attacks.
428
00:36:18,259 --> 00:36:20,010
Machines could be left running
429
00:36:20,094 --> 00:36:23,430
under the eyes of key workers
sheltering on the shop floor.
430
00:36:27,977 --> 00:36:30,937
Their workmates
took refuge in cellars and bunkers.
431
00:36:31,606 --> 00:36:34,482
(air-raid siren)
432
00:36:39,739 --> 00:36:43,408
When American planes attacked,
they bombed by day.
433
00:36:43,492 --> 00:36:45,660
The British bombed by night.
434
00:36:45,745 --> 00:36:51,333
Both had the same purpose - to destroy
Germany's capacity and will to fight.
435
00:36:51,417 --> 00:36:55,128
(Tucking) Sometimes you went
to the cellar three times a day.
436
00:36:55,213 --> 00:37:00,926
It was so difficult to lead
your ordinary life,
437
00:37:01,010 --> 00:37:07,307
to do your housework or to feed
your children or to go shopping.
438
00:37:09,435 --> 00:37:12,979
(narrator) At Christmas there was
a special effort by everyone.
439
00:37:14,649 --> 00:37:17,567
The short-wave radio
brought greetings to the homeland
440
00:37:17,652 --> 00:37:20,320
from the troops
fighting on the distant fronts.
441
00:37:20,404 --> 00:37:23,323
(German radio broadcast)
442
00:37:31,457 --> 00:37:34,459
This is a U-boat base in the Atlantic.
443
00:37:37,255 --> 00:37:40,715
This is the Mediterranean
frontline and Africa.
444
00:37:48,975 --> 00:37:53,061
(♪ "Silent Night")
445
00:38:03,656 --> 00:38:05,657
(narrator) Home for Christmas.
446
00:38:09,412 --> 00:38:12,038
A cold winter and rumours of disaster.
447
00:38:15,668 --> 00:38:19,963
2,000 miles away, a German army,
a quarter of a million men,
448
00:38:20,047 --> 00:38:23,675
freezing, bleeding, starving to death.
449
00:38:24,385 --> 00:38:29,639
In February the last survivors of
Stalingrad surrendered to the Russians.
450
00:38:29,724 --> 00:38:35,353
The defeat of Stalingrad was a kind of
451
00:38:35,438 --> 00:38:38,982
underground shock for the nation.
452
00:38:39,066 --> 00:38:43,987
But nobody really accepted it
by really reflecting about it.
453
00:38:44,071 --> 00:38:46,114
It was a kind of shock you experience
454
00:38:46,198 --> 00:38:49,200
but you forget it
as soon as possible again.
455
00:38:49,285 --> 00:38:52,078
You don't reflect,
you were not allowed to reflect.
456
00:38:52,163 --> 00:38:53,830
All your reflections about it
457
00:38:53,914 --> 00:38:56,624
were put into a certain direction
458
00:38:56,709 --> 00:38:59,127
by Josef Goebbels, by the papers,
459
00:38:59,211 --> 00:39:00,420
by the broadcasts,
460
00:39:00,504 --> 00:39:04,507
and the influence of that propaganda
was rather effective, I think.
461
00:39:06,218 --> 00:39:08,845
Do you want total war?
462
00:39:08,929 --> 00:39:11,931
(cheering)
463
00:39:12,933 --> 00:39:15,268
(narrator) This was the Sportpalast,
464
00:39:15,353 --> 00:39:17,354
February 10, 1943.
465
00:39:18,189 --> 00:39:22,192
Are you determined
466
00:39:22,276 --> 00:39:25,320
to follow the Führer
in the struggle for victory
467
00:39:25,404 --> 00:39:30,909
no matter how hard
the personal sacrifices?
468
00:39:33,537 --> 00:39:36,790
(narrator) A hand-picked
audience of Nazi supporters.
469
00:39:43,756 --> 00:39:46,132
(crowd chanting)
470
00:39:56,310 --> 00:39:59,270
(Goebbels) Then let our cry be -
471
00:39:59,355 --> 00:40:05,485
people arise and storm break forth!
472
00:40:10,908 --> 00:40:13,993
(narrator)
Their optimism a triumph of their will.
473
00:40:19,500 --> 00:40:23,169
Now at last, some women
were mobilised for war work.
474
00:40:24,547 --> 00:40:28,299
(♪ "Rakoczy March" - Berlioz)
475
00:40:35,724 --> 00:40:39,894
In the factories
a kind of people's community -
476
00:40:39,979 --> 00:40:45,316
sacrificing and sharing, not for
each other, but for a war machine.
477
00:40:49,488 --> 00:40:52,699
The concerts took place
among the half-built tanks.
478
00:41:44,960 --> 00:41:48,421
Germans were surprised
that so few bombs fell on factories
479
00:41:48,547 --> 00:41:51,216
and so many on houses.
480
00:41:51,300 --> 00:41:55,428
They didn't understand that the British
were bombing that way on purpose.
481
00:41:55,513 --> 00:41:58,598
If enough houses were destroyed
and enough people killed,
482
00:41:58,682 --> 00:42:00,725
German civilian morale would break
483
00:42:00,851 --> 00:42:04,020
and they would turn on their leaders
and the war would end.
484
00:42:05,523 --> 00:42:07,440
(woman speaking German)
485
00:42:07,525 --> 00:42:11,110
(translator)
The reaction was first of all fear.
486
00:42:16,242 --> 00:42:19,160
And after the first terror had passed,
487
00:42:19,245 --> 00:42:21,329
then people began to grumble,
488
00:42:21,413 --> 00:42:28,545
some about the English, others about
the Nazis, depending on their views.
489
00:42:30,839 --> 00:42:36,511
But I must say, opinions really didn't
matter at all in times of distress
490
00:42:36,595 --> 00:42:38,972
because everyone helped everyone else.
491
00:42:40,391 --> 00:42:43,184
The help from neighbours was enormous,
492
00:42:43,269 --> 00:42:46,813
which had nothing at all
to do with political beliefs.
493
00:43:10,879 --> 00:43:13,464
(Bielenberg) If you were
all under the same bombs
494
00:43:13,549 --> 00:43:17,594
it didn't really matter whether your
neighbour was a Nazi or what they were.
495
00:43:17,678 --> 00:43:21,431
You went in, helped save their children,
496
00:43:21,515 --> 00:43:23,975
helped...
497
00:43:24,059 --> 00:43:26,227
remove their furniture if you like,
498
00:43:26,312 --> 00:43:29,564
and suddenly you discovered
they were Nazis.
499
00:43:30,232 --> 00:43:33,109
(narrator) lndustrial towns
were the hardest hit.
500
00:43:33,193 --> 00:43:36,279
After each raid,
there was first aid for stricken cities.
501
00:43:36,363 --> 00:43:38,364
(speaking German)
502
00:43:40,534 --> 00:43:45,330
(translator) The Nazi Party,
really they organised all the work.
503
00:43:45,414 --> 00:43:47,582
Everything was done through the party.
504
00:43:48,375 --> 00:43:52,295
Setting up feeding stations,
fire-fighting units.
505
00:43:52,379 --> 00:43:55,423
That was all under the control
of the party.
506
00:43:58,177 --> 00:44:01,179
(narrator) One of the first priorities
was food.
507
00:44:01,263 --> 00:44:03,931
With gas mains shattered
and water pipes wrecked,
508
00:44:04,058 --> 00:44:06,267
townspeople couldn't cook for themselves
509
00:44:06,352 --> 00:44:08,728
even if they still had a roof
over their heads.
510
00:44:13,942 --> 00:44:18,029
Special rations were sometimes
distributed to survivors.
511
00:44:22,451 --> 00:44:25,078
(man speaking German)
512
00:44:25,162 --> 00:44:27,914
(translator) Cheese and butter
were distributed
513
00:44:27,998 --> 00:44:29,582
and everyone gobbled them up.
514
00:44:29,667 --> 00:44:32,752
They tried to distract people
from the misery
515
00:44:32,836 --> 00:44:35,963
and many people thought,
"It's over now."
516
00:44:36,048 --> 00:44:40,134
They were told,
"lt won't happen like that again."
517
00:44:40,219 --> 00:44:43,471
They didn't entirely believe that
but they hoped it was true.
518
00:44:46,809 --> 00:44:49,769
(narrator) In July and August, 1943,
519
00:44:49,853 --> 00:44:53,231
Hamburg was bombed day and night
for over a week.
520
00:44:54,566 --> 00:44:57,819
No single city
had ever been bombed like that before.
521
00:44:59,446 --> 00:45:02,824
Storms of fire swept the city.
522
00:45:09,498 --> 00:45:12,375
Scorching heat killed thousands.
523
00:45:13,043 --> 00:45:15,920
(Witter speaking German)
524
00:45:16,004 --> 00:45:18,631
(translator) You have to imagine
it was very hot.
525
00:45:18,716 --> 00:45:21,259
On the streets in the summer
it was hot.
526
00:45:21,343 --> 00:45:23,261
The fires made it hotter still
527
00:45:23,387 --> 00:45:26,305
and in the bunkers it was just as hot
528
00:45:26,390 --> 00:45:30,727
because the ventilation system
had completely broken down.
529
00:45:30,811 --> 00:45:34,147
Hot, hot. It didn't cool off in there.
530
00:45:36,150 --> 00:45:40,194
And most people fled out of the bunkers
and out of the cellars
531
00:45:40,279 --> 00:45:42,196
and these great communal shelters
532
00:45:42,281 --> 00:45:44,574
right out into the streets.
533
00:45:47,411 --> 00:45:50,872
Because inside the bunkers
many people had gone mad.
534
00:45:50,998 --> 00:45:53,291
They were screaming
and they were confused.
535
00:45:53,375 --> 00:45:55,501
They just wanted to get out.
536
00:45:56,378 --> 00:45:59,797
And many of the air-raid wardens
wouldn't let them out.
537
00:45:59,882 --> 00:46:01,924
So that many people also suffocated
538
00:46:02,009 --> 00:46:04,135
in the bunkers or in the cellars.
539
00:46:04,261 --> 00:46:06,721
Some strong people
forced a way to the outside
540
00:46:06,805 --> 00:46:09,182
but outside everything was burning.
541
00:46:14,313 --> 00:46:17,857
(narrator) The British fired the city
by night with incendiaries.
542
00:46:17,941 --> 00:46:21,319
During the day
Americans bombed with high explosives,
543
00:46:21,403 --> 00:46:23,905
disrupting rescuers and fire-fighters.
544
00:46:47,346 --> 00:46:50,681
Three quarters of Hamburg was destroyed.
545
00:46:50,766 --> 00:46:53,351
Over 40,000 people were killed.
546
00:47:09,535 --> 00:47:11,994
(speaking German)
547
00:47:18,085 --> 00:47:22,129
(translator) I came to the house and
all the houses nearby had collapsed.
548
00:47:24,299 --> 00:47:26,217
Next to the house was a doorway
549
00:47:26,301 --> 00:47:28,886
and there were bodies lying there.
550
00:47:29,471 --> 00:47:33,391
I looked for my grandfather
but I couldn't find him at first.
551
00:47:33,475 --> 00:47:37,270
My grandmother was
quite a heavy-set woman, rather fat.
552
00:47:40,941 --> 00:47:43,192
There lay a fat dead woman
without a head
553
00:47:43,277 --> 00:47:47,697
and I wondered who it might be
and came to the conclusion it was her.
554
00:47:51,118 --> 00:47:53,411
I didn't find my grandfather
until later,
555
00:47:53,495 --> 00:47:56,455
in a hospital, the Harbour hospital.
556
00:47:56,540 --> 00:48:01,460
Many unidentified bodies had been
brought there, and parts of bodies,
557
00:48:01,545 --> 00:48:05,006
because everything
had to be taken away, even pieces.
558
00:48:06,842 --> 00:48:10,595
There were basins there
and in the basins were bits of bodies,
559
00:48:10,679 --> 00:48:12,680
and I looked through all of them
560
00:48:12,764 --> 00:48:17,643
and in one basin there lay a stomach
with a watch peeking out
561
00:48:17,728 --> 00:48:20,438
and it was my grandfather's watch.
562
00:48:20,522 --> 00:48:23,024
So that's all there was left of him.
563
00:48:23,108 --> 00:48:26,277
That was the remains of my grandfather.
564
00:48:29,865 --> 00:48:32,575
(narrator)
Bewildered and panic-stricken,
565
00:48:32,659 --> 00:48:36,412
nearly a million people fled Hamburg
in three days.
566
00:48:49,968 --> 00:48:53,429
People were shocked and stunned.
567
00:49:02,397 --> 00:49:06,108
Those that remained in the city
gathered in the parks
568
00:49:06,193 --> 00:49:10,237
or wandered aimlessly
through the broken streets.
569
00:49:11,239 --> 00:49:12,907
(Witter speaking German)
570
00:49:12,991 --> 00:49:15,743
(translator)
The soldiers going back to the front
571
00:49:15,827 --> 00:49:17,620
reported what it was like here.
572
00:49:17,704 --> 00:49:20,665
And that was dangerous
because the troops realised now
573
00:49:20,791 --> 00:49:23,668
that things were not going at all well
on the home front.
574
00:49:23,752 --> 00:49:27,505
For the war leadership
that was problematic and dangerous.
575
00:49:29,549 --> 00:49:33,052
(narrator) Germans prepared
for grim times ahead.
576
00:49:33,136 --> 00:49:35,763
Children were evacuated from the cities.
577
00:49:35,847 --> 00:49:39,392
They were Germany's blood
and Germany's future.
578
00:49:44,314 --> 00:49:46,607
In the eastern lands,
safe from the bombs,
579
00:49:46,692 --> 00:49:51,028
they could escape from the war,
for a while.
580
00:49:53,573 --> 00:49:56,867
(German children singing)
581
00:50:06,920 --> 00:50:08,629
(boat hooter)
582
00:50:16,805 --> 00:50:21,225
As the Reich came under siege,
some Germans came home.
583
00:50:29,901 --> 00:50:34,405
Badly wounded soldiers,
ex-prisoners sent back by the Allies.
584
00:50:40,245 --> 00:50:43,539
The new slogan was "Total war".
585
00:50:46,084 --> 00:50:49,837
That made more sense now
than "Strength through joy"
586
00:50:49,921 --> 00:50:53,424
or "A healthy body means a sound mind".
587
00:51:11,943 --> 00:51:16,322
The young men still offered themselves
eagerly for the Führer and Fatherland.
588
00:51:17,199 --> 00:51:19,950
But their Führer
was nowhere to be seen.
589
00:51:20,035 --> 00:51:25,122
lnstead there was Heinrich Himmler to
tell them victory could still be theirs.
590
00:51:26,124 --> 00:51:29,210
(band plays march)
591
00:51:39,554 --> 00:51:43,974
If they should fail, Bolshevik hordes
would sweep across Europe.
592
00:51:44,601 --> 00:51:48,687
If they won,
Western civilisation would be saved.
593
00:51:53,276 --> 00:51:55,861
Goebbels was more down to earth.
594
00:51:55,946 --> 00:51:59,156
He visited the ruined cities,
kept spirits up,...
595
00:52:00,951 --> 00:52:03,452
..told the Germans to hang on.
596
00:52:03,537 --> 00:52:06,831
(singing in German)
597
00:53:03,096 --> 00:53:05,222
(narrator) 1944.
598
00:53:05,307 --> 00:53:07,975
The fifth year of the war.
599
00:53:08,059 --> 00:53:11,353
In the bombed cities,
Germans still carried on.
600
00:53:11,438 --> 00:53:14,982
People had enough food to eat
and clothes to wear,
601
00:53:15,066 --> 00:53:17,401
but their future was dark.
602
00:53:18,445 --> 00:53:22,156
The German armies were in retreat
on every front.
603
00:53:22,240 --> 00:53:24,617
But people still trudged along
to rallies
604
00:53:24,701 --> 00:53:29,538
to hear Nazi speakers boast of
wonder weapons that would turn the tide.
605
00:53:39,466 --> 00:53:44,094
U nless they came soon, Germany would
be a nation of widows and orphans.
606
00:53:48,683 --> 00:53:51,727
There had been an attempt
to end the fighting.
607
00:53:51,811 --> 00:53:54,813
Military conspirators,
convinced the war was lost,
608
00:53:54,898 --> 00:53:56,899
tried to kill Hitler and make peace.
609
00:53:56,983 --> 00:53:59,276
They failed.
610
00:53:59,361 --> 00:54:01,070
The war went on.
611
00:54:01,154 --> 00:54:05,908
There was a new slogan -
"Now we mean it, fight on to victory".
612
00:54:08,620 --> 00:54:11,622
Suddenly the enemy
was almost at the gates.
613
00:54:11,706 --> 00:54:16,710
The men were all at the front.
Boys dug anti-tank ditches.
614
00:54:23,260 --> 00:54:26,929
Teenagers and old men
were taught to use the Panzerfaust -
615
00:54:27,013 --> 00:54:29,765
the wonder weapon
that would stop the tanks.
616
00:54:31,643 --> 00:54:34,853
(translation)..behind them
marches the Hitler Youth.
617
00:54:34,938 --> 00:54:38,440
All are ready
to fulfil the German oath.
618
00:54:38,525 --> 00:54:43,529
I may die, but be a slave
and see Germany enslaved,
619
00:54:43,613 --> 00:54:45,739
that I can never do.
620
00:54:45,824 --> 00:54:47,199
(cheering)
621
00:54:48,535 --> 00:54:51,537
(narrator) A slogan, a gun
and a pat on the back,
622
00:54:51,621 --> 00:54:54,123
and off they went
to fight the Russians.
623
00:54:56,126 --> 00:54:58,502
(band plays march)
624
00:55:10,974 --> 00:55:13,934
By December, Germans
were outnumbered five to one
625
00:55:14,019 --> 00:55:17,521
on the Eastern Front
and eight to one in the West.
626
00:55:17,605 --> 00:55:22,901
Some believed that with new wonder
weapons, victory would still be theirs.
627
00:55:31,995 --> 00:55:35,122
Hitler demanded
that his armies stand and fight.
628
00:55:36,207 --> 00:55:39,585
Again and again
they were forced to retreat.
629
00:55:44,174 --> 00:55:47,551
The Germans were the refugees now.
630
00:55:49,554 --> 00:55:54,600
The master race was fleeing
back within the borders of the Reich.
631
00:56:04,027 --> 00:56:10,407
Near the end of the war I had to travel
from Berlin to the Black Forest
632
00:56:10,492 --> 00:56:13,285
and I happened to travel
633
00:56:13,370 --> 00:56:18,499
in the same carriage as an SS man.
634
00:56:21,503 --> 00:56:25,130
A raid had just started
and the train moved.
635
00:56:25,215 --> 00:56:27,341
Most of the people had left the carriage
636
00:56:27,467 --> 00:56:32,179
when I heard this voice saying,
"l think it's better we stay put,
637
00:56:32,263 --> 00:56:34,807
because the train will probably move out
638
00:56:34,891 --> 00:56:37,643
and we'll have the carriage
to ourselves."
639
00:56:37,727 --> 00:56:40,312
And indeed I had it to myself
640
00:56:40,397 --> 00:56:47,861
with this SS officer
for many hours on this train journey.
641
00:56:47,946 --> 00:56:51,865
He explained to me
that he was on his way to the front now,
642
00:56:51,950 --> 00:56:56,453
that all he wanted to do
was to get killed,
643
00:56:56,538 --> 00:57:00,249
and... but...
he had tried again and again
644
00:57:00,333 --> 00:57:04,670
but always he'd seemed to survive
every battle he'd been in.
645
00:57:04,754 --> 00:57:08,382
He'd transferred to the Waffen SS,
646
00:57:08,466 --> 00:57:12,428
which was the military arm of the SS,
647
00:57:12,512 --> 00:57:16,807
who were always in the thick
of the battle, but he'd survived.
648
00:57:16,891 --> 00:57:22,980
He told me that in Poland they had...
649
00:57:25,984 --> 00:57:29,194
He had belonged to one of the commandos
650
00:57:29,279 --> 00:57:34,116
which were called
the extermination commandos,
651
00:57:34,200 --> 00:57:36,118
and on one particular occasion
652
00:57:36,202 --> 00:57:40,372
when the Jews were standing round
in a semicircle,
653
00:57:40,457 --> 00:57:44,710
with the half-dug graves behind them,
654
00:57:44,836 --> 00:57:48,964
that the machine guns had been set up
655
00:57:49,048 --> 00:57:57,055
and out of the ranks of the Jews
that were standing there,
656
00:57:57,140 --> 00:57:59,600
a wonderful figure had come towards him.
657
00:57:59,684 --> 00:58:04,980
He said, "He had long hair.
I suppose he was a priest of some kind."
658
00:58:05,064 --> 00:58:10,277
"And he said,
'God is watching what you do."'
659
00:58:10,361 --> 00:58:16,325
And he said. "We shot him down
before he returned to the semicircle."
660
00:58:16,409 --> 00:58:22,289
Another little boy,
before they had set up this scene,
661
00:58:22,373 --> 00:58:28,337
had asked him,
"Am I standing straight enough, U ncle?"
662
00:58:28,421 --> 00:58:32,299
And he told me these things
he could never forget
663
00:58:32,383 --> 00:58:38,597
and that he only, as I say,
now wished to die.
664
00:58:38,681 --> 00:58:41,850
I travelled with that man
all through the night...
665
00:58:43,394 --> 00:58:47,940
..and as the carriage had no windows,
it was very cold,
666
00:58:48,024 --> 00:58:51,944
and I can remember waking in the night,
667
00:58:52,070 --> 00:58:56,740
strangely enough,
my head resting on his shoulder,
668
00:58:56,824 --> 00:59:01,995
and he'd covered my knees
with his sheepskin coat.
669
00:59:02,080 --> 00:59:05,249
The next time I woke, he'd gone.
670
00:59:10,171 --> 00:59:13,048
(narrator) By the beginning of 1945
671
00:59:13,132 --> 00:59:16,468
the war was being fought
inside the Reich.
672
00:59:18,930 --> 00:59:22,307
Even as troops moved in
to help defend Germany's cities,
673
00:59:22,392 --> 00:59:24,977
their inhabitants fled.
674
00:59:33,570 --> 00:59:36,822
Breslau,
the great German city in the East,
675
00:59:36,906 --> 00:59:39,324
lay in the path of the Soviet army.
676
00:59:39,409 --> 00:59:42,911
When it came under siege Hitler
expected its people to set an example
677
00:59:42,996 --> 00:59:44,746
to the rest of the Reich.
678
00:59:44,831 --> 00:59:47,124
They must not surrender.
679
00:59:50,545 --> 00:59:52,838
They must fight the Russians
to the death
680
00:59:52,922 --> 00:59:54,756
and when they could fight no more,
681
00:59:54,841 --> 00:59:58,510
destroy everything
rather than capitulate.
682
00:59:59,971 --> 01:00:03,640
That was Hitler's message
to his people now.
683
01:00:13,109 --> 01:00:15,777
The troops pulling back
before the Soviet army
684
01:00:15,862 --> 01:00:18,196
had retreated 2,000 miles,
685
01:00:18,281 --> 01:00:20,240
butchering and burning as they went.
686
01:00:36,341 --> 01:00:41,970
The army and the Waffen SS
had fought a war of extermination.
687
01:00:42,055 --> 01:00:46,808
Now, exhausted,
they faced Russian vengeance.
688
01:00:50,396 --> 01:00:52,898
(Kehrl)
They didn't have enough ammunition,
689
01:00:52,982 --> 01:00:55,192
they didn't have enough gasoline,
690
01:00:55,276 --> 01:00:59,029
they didn't have enough of anything,
you know.
691
01:00:59,113 --> 01:01:02,074
It was only, well,
692
01:01:02,158 --> 01:01:04,701
an imitation of a war.
693
01:01:04,786 --> 01:01:07,287
There wasn't really any war any more
694
01:01:07,413 --> 01:01:10,415
and there wasn't any possibility
whatsoever
695
01:01:10,541 --> 01:01:17,172
that there could be
even a halfway decent end.
696
01:01:17,256 --> 01:01:20,133
(artillery fire in background)
697
01:01:27,225 --> 01:01:29,226
You were waiting maybe for food,
698
01:01:29,310 --> 01:01:31,561
or you were waiting for ammunition
699
01:01:31,646 --> 01:01:33,730
or you were waiting for orders,
700
01:01:33,856 --> 01:01:37,567
but most of the time you didn't know
if you were behind the front line,
701
01:01:37,652 --> 01:01:41,488
if you were in the front line
or what was going on.
702
01:01:44,450 --> 01:01:47,953
End of February, we were...
703
01:01:49,914 --> 01:01:52,958
..all, all of our platoon,
704
01:01:53,042 --> 01:01:56,878
were taken to a point
705
01:01:56,963 --> 01:02:01,049
where hundreds of boys
and hundreds of soldiers were
706
01:02:01,134 --> 01:02:04,886
and we were driven by cars
back to Cologne.
707
01:02:04,971 --> 01:02:08,724
It was about 40 kilometres,
708
01:02:08,808 --> 01:02:11,059
It was a long drive for hours.
709
01:02:11,144 --> 01:02:15,981
I mean, usually you always moved
only three or four kilometres,
710
01:02:16,065 --> 01:02:17,733
but we didn't know where.
711
01:02:17,817 --> 01:02:22,279
They said, "Yes, you go to movie."
We said, "That's fine, see movie."
712
01:02:22,363 --> 01:02:26,533
But the only thing we saw
were newsreels,
713
01:02:26,617 --> 01:02:29,327
or it wasn't newsreel.
714
01:02:29,412 --> 01:02:32,456
They were special films
715
01:02:32,540 --> 01:02:39,087
and they showed us towns and villages
in East Germany
716
01:02:39,172 --> 01:02:45,761
conquered by the Russians,
and we saw the dead bodies of civilians.
717
01:02:46,304 --> 01:02:47,512
(German newsreel)
718
01:03:10,787 --> 01:03:15,624
(narrator) Special films and newsreels
to horrify soldiers, and civilians too.
719
01:03:29,430 --> 01:03:35,769
And then somebody in a Nazi uniform,
we called them Politische Leiter,
720
01:03:35,853 --> 01:03:40,148
he came and had a speech,
maybe a ten-minute speech
721
01:03:40,233 --> 01:03:44,611
and said, "Look. That is what happened
when the enemy conquered Germany."
722
01:03:44,695 --> 01:03:47,364
"Therefore you have to defend your home
723
01:03:47,448 --> 01:03:50,867
and you have to obey...
you have to do your duty."
724
01:03:50,952 --> 01:03:55,956
"This is what happens to all Germans
when the Russians conquer Germany."
725
01:03:56,040 --> 01:04:00,794
(narrator) Rape and massacre.
726
01:04:00,878 --> 01:04:06,007
Fight on or die horribly.
There seemed no other choice.
727
01:04:08,219 --> 01:04:10,387
Children enlisted.
728
01:04:12,139 --> 01:04:13,807
Total war turned to nightmare.
729
01:05:33,387 --> 01:05:37,891
Unser Führer, Adolf Hitler!
Sieg heil! Sieg heil!
730
01:05:37,975 --> 01:05:40,602
Sieg heil!
731
01:05:40,686 --> 01:05:44,397
(narrator) Hitler still demanded
total loyalty from his people,
732
01:05:44,482 --> 01:05:46,942
but he did not return it.
733
01:05:47,026 --> 01:05:51,696
If they would not bring him the victory
he believed in, they deserved to perish.
734
01:05:51,781 --> 01:05:53,073
(speaking German)
735
01:05:53,157 --> 01:05:55,617
(translator)
The people had done everything
736
01:05:55,701 --> 01:06:00,163
the leaders had demanded of them,
more than was humanly possible.
737
01:06:00,247 --> 01:06:03,249
And I just could not understand.
738
01:06:03,334 --> 01:06:06,461
If the people at the top
knew the war was lost,
739
01:06:06,545 --> 01:06:11,758
that there was no sense in fighting
any longer, why did they keep fighting?
740
01:06:11,884 --> 01:06:15,470
Why did they want to ruin
the last remains of Germany?
741
01:06:15,554 --> 01:06:18,264
How could any government be so criminal?
742
01:06:21,102 --> 01:06:25,480
(narrator) Faced with their conquerors,
Germans wanted to survive.
743
01:06:33,322 --> 01:06:36,533
What they had done
to so many others for so long,
744
01:06:36,617 --> 01:06:38,410
was done to them.
745
01:07:02,810 --> 01:07:05,145
They tried to explain.
746
01:07:05,229 --> 01:07:07,105
No one listened.
747
01:07:31,380 --> 01:07:36,301
Their conquerors brought fire
and death, and moved on.
748
01:07:42,767 --> 01:07:45,560
The lucky ones were captured.
749
01:07:48,689 --> 01:07:50,190
Humiliated.
750
01:08:21,597 --> 01:08:25,391
Some were less lucky.
They met their victim's vengeance.
751
01:08:32,775 --> 01:08:35,443
Death on every roadside.
752
01:08:42,409 --> 01:08:45,787
We suddenly realised
that we were eingekesselt,
753
01:08:45,871 --> 01:08:50,792
which meant that we were surrounded
by Allies on all sides
754
01:08:51,210 --> 01:08:54,629
and there were three divisions,
German divisions, locked in,
755
01:08:54,713 --> 01:08:59,259
and that they had chosen our particular
valley as a route of escape.
756
01:08:59,343 --> 01:09:02,345
So the very end of the war,
757
01:09:02,429 --> 01:09:06,432
suddenly, a very quiet
Black Forest village
758
01:09:06,517 --> 01:09:12,355
became a scene of such activity
as one could hardly believe.
759
01:09:12,439 --> 01:09:17,235
Our own little inn was occupied
by the three generals
760
01:09:17,319 --> 01:09:25,326
and a stream of military vehicles
streamed up the valley.
761
01:09:25,494 --> 01:09:27,453
By that time, with no petrol,
762
01:09:27,538 --> 01:09:32,458
some vehicles were being drawn
by Alsatian dogs,
763
01:09:32,543 --> 01:09:37,005
some of them, horses, donkeys, oxen.
764
01:09:37,089 --> 01:09:44,262
Anything that you could get.
It was a very slow-moving... army.
765
01:09:46,390 --> 01:09:48,057
And...
766
01:09:48,142 --> 01:09:55,190
But the extraordinary thing
was, this army still stuck to its rules.
767
01:09:55,274 --> 01:09:58,693
And in our inn,
768
01:09:58,777 --> 01:10:03,990
where the generals were,
769
01:10:04,074 --> 01:10:11,247
one evening a boy was led in
to be court-martialled
770
01:10:11,332 --> 01:10:14,250
in the little dining room
771
01:10:14,335 --> 01:10:20,715
where the officers,
where the generals were housing.
772
01:10:20,799 --> 01:10:24,344
At the same time they insisted
773
01:10:24,470 --> 01:10:30,391
or asked a local man to arrange
to do all the telephone wires.
774
01:10:30,517 --> 01:10:36,856
He was an electrician. And he refused
and said he wouldn't work on Sunday.
775
01:10:36,941 --> 01:10:41,361
And these two, the boy and the man,
776
01:10:41,445 --> 01:10:44,489
were condemned by court martial,
777
01:10:44,573 --> 01:10:50,536
were led up the hill behind our inn
and were shot.
778
01:10:53,332 --> 01:10:55,500
(narrator) The death camps were opened.
779
01:10:55,584 --> 01:10:58,670
Germans were confronted
with evidence of terrible things
780
01:10:58,754 --> 01:11:01,005
done in their country, in their name.
781
01:11:17,314 --> 01:11:20,066
These had been men and women
judged unworthy
782
01:11:20,150 --> 01:11:23,319
to be members
of the people's community.
783
01:11:30,619 --> 01:11:33,788
(speaking German)
784
01:11:39,920 --> 01:11:44,007
(translator) We heard the terrible
things that happened in the camps
785
01:11:44,091 --> 01:11:47,677
from the beginning to the end,
till the liberation.
786
01:11:57,730 --> 01:12:01,482
I can't tell you the source,
787
01:12:01,567 --> 01:12:06,821
but word got to us and we believed it,
we in the resistance.
788
01:12:09,825 --> 01:12:13,119
But I believe that the public,
if they had been told
789
01:12:13,203 --> 01:12:16,122
or if they had heard about it somehow,
790
01:12:16,206 --> 01:12:18,791
they would not have believed it,
791
01:12:18,876 --> 01:12:21,502
because it was so terrible,
792
01:12:21,587 --> 01:12:24,464
that if a person was himself decent,
793
01:12:24,590 --> 01:12:30,136
he could not possibly believe
that other people could be so bestial.
794
01:12:30,220 --> 01:12:36,100
The first time I heard what was
happening in Germany with the Jews,
795
01:12:36,185 --> 01:12:40,980
it was the British Broadcasting, BBC,
796
01:12:41,065 --> 01:12:43,816
at two o'clock. (sings BBC signal)
797
01:12:45,027 --> 01:12:50,198
And I must say I couldn't believe it.
798
01:12:50,282 --> 01:12:53,034
And I was thinking
you heard so many things,
799
01:12:53,118 --> 01:12:57,080
Goebbels said so many things, Germans
say so many propaganda things,
800
01:12:57,206 --> 01:13:01,918
and now the British
also say they have war,
801
01:13:02,002 --> 01:13:06,339
and they have war and they have
propaganda and they have propaganda.
802
01:13:06,423 --> 01:13:08,674
So I didn't know what I should believe.
803
01:13:11,678 --> 01:13:13,805
(narrator) But it was true.
804
01:13:27,778 --> 01:13:32,031
All over the country Germans
were made not to just look at,
805
01:13:32,116 --> 01:13:34,742
but to re-bury the broken bodies.
806
01:13:34,868 --> 01:13:37,870
To touch, to handle them.
807
01:13:37,955 --> 01:13:39,705
That way perhaps
808
01:13:39,790 --> 01:13:41,749
they would never forget.
809
01:13:51,677 --> 01:13:54,345
(explosions)
810
01:13:58,142 --> 01:14:00,726
By April, the war was nearly over.
811
01:14:00,811 --> 01:14:05,481
Only Berlin, where Hitler was,
still fought on.
812
01:14:05,566 --> 01:14:08,234
He commanded his city
to fight to the death.
813
01:14:09,528 --> 01:14:13,948
A quarter of a million Germans died
obeying his last orders.
814
01:14:14,032 --> 01:14:15,867
Hitler committed suicide.
815
01:14:15,951 --> 01:14:19,871
I was working
in the American headquarters
816
01:14:19,955 --> 01:14:21,581
when there was a special news
817
01:14:21,665 --> 01:14:23,541
on the wireless
818
01:14:23,625 --> 01:14:26,461
that Hitler had committed suicide.
819
01:14:26,545 --> 01:14:28,546
And...
820
01:14:28,630 --> 01:14:31,340
l... even tears came to my eyes,
821
01:14:31,425 --> 01:14:35,928
but not on the person, Hitler.
822
01:14:36,013 --> 01:14:42,435
I was so disappointed that he was
such a lousy... such a rotten coward.
823
01:14:42,519 --> 01:14:47,106
He had started the war.
Millions of dead people.
824
01:14:47,191 --> 01:14:50,485
Everything was lost, in ruins.
825
01:14:50,569 --> 01:14:54,113
Then he wanted to give up
all responsibility
826
01:14:54,239 --> 01:14:58,826
and he just committed suicide,
just like his mouthpiece, Goebbels.
827
01:14:58,911 --> 01:15:03,706
I still hear Goebbels in my ears, "Do
you want the total war?" The yelling!
828
01:15:03,790 --> 01:15:07,585
(narrator) When Hitler died
there was no one,
829
01:15:07,669 --> 01:15:10,421
nothing to fight for.
830
01:15:11,548 --> 01:15:15,092
(Wortmann) I wouldn't like
to go through all that again.
831
01:15:15,177 --> 01:15:17,053
Everything was shattered.
832
01:15:17,137 --> 01:15:19,680
I'd lost a brother,
I've lost some uncles.
833
01:15:19,765 --> 01:15:22,892
I have seen thousands
of displaced persons,
834
01:15:22,976 --> 01:15:27,063
Russians, Polish,
walking through my village.
835
01:15:27,147 --> 01:15:31,150
Others coming from East Prussia,
or Silesia.
836
01:15:31,235 --> 01:15:33,402
They had lost their home.
837
01:15:33,487 --> 01:15:37,365
I've seen young soldiers
dying in the church.
838
01:15:37,449 --> 01:15:41,869
I have seen young pupils,
14-year-old boys,
839
01:15:41,954 --> 01:15:47,792
they got flame-throwers
and hand grenades
840
01:15:47,876 --> 01:15:52,421
during the last days of the war
to fight the American tanks.
841
01:15:52,506 --> 01:15:54,966
And it was such a complete madness.
842
01:15:55,050 --> 01:15:59,887
And Hitler didn't care
about the people.
843
01:15:59,972 --> 01:16:04,016
He sacrificed them all
just for his madness.
844
01:16:18,824 --> 01:16:20,741
(speaking German)
845
01:16:22,035 --> 01:16:23,369
(translator) In Dachau
846
01:16:23,453 --> 01:16:24,704
we were forced to look
847
01:16:24,788 --> 01:16:27,790
at the so-called gassing installations.
848
01:16:30,502 --> 01:16:33,713
They really put on a great show
for us there.
849
01:16:33,797 --> 01:16:35,881
They took camp inmates as models
850
01:16:35,966 --> 01:16:40,386
and put them across a table
to show how they were beaten.
851
01:16:40,470 --> 01:16:42,972
They showed us
normal shower installations
852
01:16:43,056 --> 01:16:47,143
that were supposed to be
gas installations.
853
01:16:48,645 --> 01:16:53,858
Showed us two ovens used for the 6,000
people who were supposedly gassed.
854
01:16:57,738 --> 01:17:03,242
But there were enough people in prison
with us who knew Dachau intimately,
855
01:17:03,327 --> 01:17:05,620
who told us
that this was all a big show,
856
01:17:05,704 --> 01:17:09,749
intended to generate a campaign
of hatred against Germany.
857
01:17:13,420 --> 01:17:16,839
In Dachau, people worked.
858
01:17:16,923 --> 01:17:19,383
In Dachau, no one was gassed.
859
01:17:22,095 --> 01:17:25,514
The two ovens were there
to burn those who died naturally.
860
01:17:25,599 --> 01:17:30,186
There were several thousands in the camp
and it did happen sometimes.
861
01:17:32,689 --> 01:17:34,940
The whole business was laughable to us
862
01:17:35,025 --> 01:17:37,652
and proved to us
that it was just a show going on.
863
01:18:01,927 --> 01:18:05,680
In any case it was never intended
to kill the Jews.
864
01:18:08,767 --> 01:18:13,104
That was a development which came
when the war was at its peak,
865
01:18:13,188 --> 01:18:16,357
which cannot be justified,
and which, God have mercy,
866
01:18:16,441 --> 01:18:19,110
made many enemies for us after the war.
867
01:18:21,613 --> 01:18:25,741
And the result? Hardly anyone nowadays
thinks of the positive achievements
868
01:18:25,826 --> 01:18:29,036
brought to Germany and to Europe
by Hitler.
869
01:18:35,127 --> 01:18:39,255
(narrator) Germans had followed
Adolf Hitler for 12 years.