1 00:00:01,585 --> 00:00:04,630 [foreboding music] 2 00:00:07,507 --> 00:00:09,468 - By the summer of 1944, 3 00:00:09,468 --> 00:00:11,720 the terror and tyranny of the Nazi Third Reich 4 00:00:11,720 --> 00:00:14,306 shrouds most of Europe. 5 00:00:14,306 --> 00:00:16,975 Occupied countries resist as they can. 6 00:00:17,768 --> 00:00:20,938 But with the advance of Soviet forces in the east 7 00:00:20,938 --> 00:00:24,441 and the success of the Normandy invasion in the west, 8 00:00:24,441 --> 00:00:25,817 two of the world's great cities 9 00:00:25,817 --> 00:00:28,987 organize in force and fight back. 10 00:00:29,488 --> 00:00:34,785 Even in the place of greatest horror, there is resistance. 11 00:00:37,871 --> 00:00:39,373 - All wars change the world, 12 00:00:39,373 --> 00:00:41,208 but none of them changed the world 13 00:00:41,208 --> 00:00:42,876 like the Second World War did. 14 00:00:43,585 --> 00:00:45,003 - Japan's on the march, 15 00:00:45,003 --> 00:00:46,713 Germany's on the march. 16 00:00:48,257 --> 00:00:49,424 - No one can imagine the nightmare 17 00:00:49,424 --> 00:00:51,093 they're about to unleash. 18 00:00:51,635 --> 00:00:54,596 The most destructive war in human history. 19 00:00:54,596 --> 00:00:57,474 - Suddenly, the world is turned upside down 20 00:00:57,474 --> 00:00:59,268 and all hell is let loose. 21 00:01:01,228 --> 00:01:04,230 - The West is stunned by the speed of the advance. 22 00:01:05,440 --> 00:01:08,569 - You get the Allies led by the big three: 23 00:01:08,569 --> 00:01:11,280 Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin. 24 00:01:11,280 --> 00:01:16,243 Men who are dealing with immensely complicated questions. 25 00:01:16,368 --> 00:01:20,706 - It's the biggest military operation of human history. 26 00:01:20,706 --> 00:01:22,249 - The Allies have to come together, 27 00:01:22,249 --> 00:01:25,043 not just militarily, but industrial scale. 28 00:01:25,043 --> 00:01:27,045 It's a global perspective. 29 00:01:27,045 --> 00:01:28,922 - They have to fight in every climate 30 00:01:28,922 --> 00:01:32,175 from the Arctic to the jungles of the Pacific, 31 00:01:32,175 --> 00:01:35,429 to the deserts of Africa and the depths of the ocean. 32 00:01:37,306 --> 00:01:38,599 [dramatic music] 33 00:01:38,599 --> 00:01:41,685 - But there was no certainty of victory. 34 00:01:41,685 --> 00:01:44,896 It was going to be a horrific bloodbath. 35 00:01:44,896 --> 00:01:47,190 - We see humans at their absolute worst, 36 00:01:47,190 --> 00:01:49,443 how they treat other human beings, 37 00:01:49,443 --> 00:01:51,278 and we see them at their absolute best, 38 00:01:51,278 --> 00:01:53,989 willing to give their lives that others might live. 39 00:01:53,989 --> 00:01:55,991 - World War II was a struggle 40 00:01:55,991 --> 00:01:59,077 in which there could be one victor 41 00:01:59,077 --> 00:02:00,787 and one vanquished. 42 00:02:00,787 --> 00:02:03,665 [dramatic music] 43 00:02:07,544 --> 00:02:09,963 [sirens wail] 44 00:02:17,971 --> 00:02:20,807 [dramatic music] 45 00:02:27,314 --> 00:02:31,026 [broadcaster speaks French] 46 00:02:33,236 --> 00:02:34,738 - [Tom] Since the fall of France, 47 00:02:34,738 --> 00:02:36,198 the BBC has broadcast 48 00:02:36,198 --> 00:02:38,950 daily radio programming to occupied Europe. 49 00:02:40,202 --> 00:02:44,331 Embedded within the broadcasts are coded messages. 50 00:02:44,331 --> 00:02:48,960 [broadcaster speaks French] 51 00:02:48,960 --> 00:02:50,629 - [Tom] The night before D-Day, 52 00:02:50,629 --> 00:02:53,131 the Allied invasion of Western Europe, 53 00:02:53,131 --> 00:02:55,008 the broadcast to occupied France 54 00:02:55,008 --> 00:02:57,719 includes a line from a poem by Paul Verlaine. 55 00:02:59,346 --> 00:03:02,849 [broadcaster speaks French] 56 00:03:06,144 --> 00:03:08,188 - The French resistance is waiting, 57 00:03:08,188 --> 00:03:09,606 and when the BBC announces: 58 00:03:09,606 --> 00:03:12,234 "Wound my heart with a monotonous languor," 59 00:03:12,234 --> 00:03:14,319 this is the word that they have been waiting to hear. 60 00:03:14,319 --> 00:03:16,947 The invasion is on. 61 00:03:18,865 --> 00:03:21,868 - The Allies want that resistance movement to rise up, 62 00:03:21,868 --> 00:03:23,870 to blow up German railroads, 63 00:03:23,870 --> 00:03:25,664 to ambush German patrols, 64 00:03:25,664 --> 00:03:28,875 and to disrupt the Germans in any way they can. 65 00:03:30,252 --> 00:03:31,628 - [Col. Douds] All of their planning, 66 00:03:31,628 --> 00:03:33,755 all of their networking now goes into action 67 00:03:33,755 --> 00:03:36,633 to slow the German response 68 00:03:36,633 --> 00:03:37,884 so that the Allies can win the race 69 00:03:37,884 --> 00:03:39,136 to build up and break out. 70 00:03:40,011 --> 00:03:42,722 - [Tom] So many men and women throughout France 71 00:03:42,722 --> 00:03:45,642 have risked so much to get to this night 72 00:03:46,643 --> 00:03:49,271 and the beginning of their country's liberation. 73 00:03:52,482 --> 00:03:54,443 - [Robert] After the fall of France in 1940, 74 00:03:54,443 --> 00:03:55,652 there are two Frances. 75 00:03:55,652 --> 00:03:57,362 There's the France 76 00:03:57,362 --> 00:04:00,115 that is directly occupied by the Germans, including Paris, 77 00:04:00,115 --> 00:04:03,952 and there is a puppet regime with its capital at Vichy. 78 00:04:03,952 --> 00:04:06,705 So resistance groups form in each one. 79 00:04:09,332 --> 00:04:10,834 - [Tom] From the start, 80 00:04:10,834 --> 00:04:13,587 the inspiration for French resistance to Germany 81 00:04:13,587 --> 00:04:15,213 was embodied by one man. 82 00:04:18,507 --> 00:04:22,512 A veteran of the Great War, General Charles De Gaulle. 83 00:04:23,555 --> 00:04:25,682 - [Col. Douds] Charles De Gaulle fought all the way through 84 00:04:25,682 --> 00:04:28,393 the German invasion of France in 1940. 85 00:04:29,436 --> 00:04:30,812 - Rather than surrender to the Germans, 86 00:04:30,812 --> 00:04:32,481 rather than go along with the French government, 87 00:04:32,481 --> 00:04:35,317 he arrives in Britain by himself and just says, 88 00:04:35,317 --> 00:04:37,402 "By the way, I'm now the leader of the Free French." 89 00:04:37,402 --> 00:04:38,695 He's self-appointed. 90 00:04:39,196 --> 00:04:42,282 Churchill goes, "Eh, he might be useful." 91 00:04:42,282 --> 00:04:44,242 He gives him an office, gives him a radio, 92 00:04:44,242 --> 00:04:45,744 lets him do some broadcasts. 93 00:04:46,411 --> 00:04:50,415 [Charles speaks French] 94 00:04:54,044 --> 00:04:55,212 - [Col. Douds] He's gonna announce: 95 00:04:55,337 --> 00:04:56,838 "The Vichy government is illegitimate." 96 00:04:56,838 --> 00:04:58,882 "Anybody who's in France should come over to England, 97 00:04:58,882 --> 00:05:00,509 and we're gonna start to put together an army 98 00:05:00,509 --> 00:05:02,052 that's gonna liberate ourselves. 99 00:05:02,052 --> 00:05:03,553 If you can't get here, 100 00:05:03,553 --> 00:05:05,430 you should start resisting while you're there." 101 00:05:07,015 --> 00:05:08,809 - [Robert] This is an extremely important event 102 00:05:08,809 --> 00:05:10,769 in galvanizing the French people. 103 00:05:11,686 --> 00:05:14,189 Up to that point, they'd been in a state of despondency 104 00:05:14,189 --> 00:05:17,234 at the rapid defeat at the hands of the Germans. 105 00:05:17,734 --> 00:05:21,571 Now, here was a voice, one of their own, offering them hope. 106 00:05:23,073 --> 00:05:25,909 He says, "The flame of French resistance 107 00:05:25,909 --> 00:05:28,036 "Must not be extinguished 108 00:05:28,036 --> 00:05:30,205 and will not be extinguished." 109 00:05:30,205 --> 00:05:31,706 These are words 110 00:05:31,706 --> 00:05:34,251 that French men and women were longing to hear. 111 00:05:35,669 --> 00:05:37,337 It's not only the beginning of the resistance, 112 00:05:37,337 --> 00:05:39,923 it's the beginning of the rise of Charles De Gaulle 113 00:05:39,923 --> 00:05:41,800 to political power in France. 114 00:05:44,594 --> 00:05:47,764 - Resistance pops up all over the country. 115 00:05:47,764 --> 00:05:49,683 But these groups aren't connected, 116 00:05:49,683 --> 00:05:51,685 and they all stand for different things. 117 00:05:52,853 --> 00:05:54,896 - [Dan S.] There are aristocratic Catholics, 118 00:05:54,896 --> 00:05:57,148 Communists, or Republicans. 119 00:05:57,148 --> 00:05:58,775 There are all different groups 120 00:05:58,775 --> 00:06:00,694 jockeying for position between themselves 121 00:06:00,694 --> 00:06:02,904 and fighting against the Germans as well. 122 00:06:04,656 --> 00:06:06,908 - [Tom] A cross-section of French citizens, 123 00:06:06,908 --> 00:06:10,495 teachers, lawyers, farmers, factory workers, 124 00:06:10,495 --> 00:06:12,289 take part in the resistance. 125 00:06:14,249 --> 00:06:16,585 Women play a substantial role. 126 00:06:19,629 --> 00:06:21,214 - [Robert] One of the most important activities 127 00:06:21,214 --> 00:06:22,883 of the resistance 128 00:06:22,883 --> 00:06:26,887 was a network of agents and secret codes and safe houses 129 00:06:26,887 --> 00:06:30,265 that helped smuggle downed Allied flyers 130 00:06:30,265 --> 00:06:32,976 out of France and back to safety in Britain. 131 00:06:33,810 --> 00:06:35,437 This underground railroad 132 00:06:35,437 --> 00:06:39,316 helped about 5,000 Allied flyers make it to freedom 133 00:06:39,316 --> 00:06:40,567 in the course of the war. 134 00:06:42,402 --> 00:06:45,238 - [Col. Douds] It's the potential of the Allied invasion 135 00:06:45,238 --> 00:06:46,656 eventually reaching France 136 00:06:46,656 --> 00:06:50,410 that cause volunteers to flock to the resistance. 137 00:06:52,996 --> 00:06:56,583 They're gathering equipment, supplies, weapons 138 00:06:56,583 --> 00:06:58,960 because they think: "Eventually, we will be freed. 139 00:06:58,960 --> 00:07:00,920 How do we help accelerate that?" 140 00:07:02,964 --> 00:07:05,884 [broadcaster speaks French] 141 00:07:05,884 --> 00:07:07,636 - [Tom] The night before D-Day, 142 00:07:07,636 --> 00:07:11,097 dozens of Allied agents are dropped behind German lines 143 00:07:11,097 --> 00:07:14,434 to coordinate with groups of the French resistance, 144 00:07:14,434 --> 00:07:16,895 so-called Jedburgh teams. 145 00:07:18,772 --> 00:07:19,773 - [Robert] Three-man teams 146 00:07:19,773 --> 00:07:22,484 who parachute into occupied France: 147 00:07:22,484 --> 00:07:26,029 an American, a British, and a French agent. 148 00:07:27,447 --> 00:07:29,115 - [Rebecca] They bring weapons with them. 149 00:07:29,115 --> 00:07:31,576 They'd bring a radio set so they could communicate. 150 00:07:33,203 --> 00:07:34,579 - [Robert] They coordinate activities, 151 00:07:34,746 --> 00:07:37,749 and they inform the groups what the Allies are up to. 152 00:07:39,084 --> 00:07:41,544 The Jedburghs have an ultimate goal, 153 00:07:41,544 --> 00:07:42,921 and that is to ease 154 00:07:42,921 --> 00:07:46,132 the invasion plan for June, 1944. 155 00:07:47,133 --> 00:07:49,969 [dramatic music] 156 00:07:51,388 --> 00:07:53,765 Once the Allies land in June 6th, 157 00:07:53,765 --> 00:07:55,642 the resistance becomes emboldened. 158 00:07:57,769 --> 00:08:00,939 - [Tom] But many pay a grievous price for their courage. 159 00:08:00,939 --> 00:08:03,441 Germans, with the help of French collaborators, 160 00:08:03,441 --> 00:08:06,361 hunt down anyone assisting the Allies. 161 00:08:07,445 --> 00:08:09,155 - [Col. Douds] The costs of being in the resistance 162 00:08:09,155 --> 00:08:11,908 or around the resistance are incredibly high. 163 00:08:11,908 --> 00:08:13,410 They could be arrested and put in jail, 164 00:08:13,410 --> 00:08:15,245 they could be sent to a labor camp, 165 00:08:15,245 --> 00:08:18,415 hung oftentimes without trial and in public 166 00:08:18,415 --> 00:08:20,083 as a deterrence to everyone else. 167 00:08:21,876 --> 00:08:24,796 - [Robert] The Gestapo carryout reprisals. 168 00:08:24,796 --> 00:08:26,673 "For every one of our soldiers killed, 169 00:08:26,673 --> 00:08:28,842 we will kill 50 resistance fighters." 170 00:08:32,804 --> 00:08:35,306 - [Tom] Four days after the invasion, 171 00:08:35,306 --> 00:08:37,267 near the village of Oradour-sur-Glane, 172 00:08:38,268 --> 00:08:41,520 the local resistance kills an SS battalion commander. 173 00:08:42,272 --> 00:08:46,067 Nazi retribution is swift and merciless. 174 00:08:47,360 --> 00:08:48,778 - [Col. Douds] They take all the men 175 00:08:48,945 --> 00:08:50,572 and they shove them into a bunch of barns, shoot them, 176 00:08:50,572 --> 00:08:52,240 and set the barns on fire. 177 00:08:53,491 --> 00:08:54,868 They take all the women and children 178 00:08:54,868 --> 00:08:56,161 and put them in a church 179 00:08:57,287 --> 00:08:59,122 and then burn the church to the ground, 180 00:08:59,956 --> 00:09:02,000 shooting anyone who tries to climb out. 181 00:09:02,834 --> 00:09:06,463 Collective vengeance for the act of resistance. 182 00:09:10,383 --> 00:09:11,843 - [Tom] On July 25th, 183 00:09:11,843 --> 00:09:14,929 the Americans launch a massive air and ground attack: 184 00:09:14,929 --> 00:09:16,681 Operation Cobra. 185 00:09:19,225 --> 00:09:21,186 After a month and a half of combat 186 00:09:21,186 --> 00:09:23,563 among the hedge rows of Normandy, 187 00:09:23,563 --> 00:09:27,942 the Allies now break through the German defensive perimeter. 188 00:09:30,236 --> 00:09:33,656 - [Dan S.] Paris is the center of the German occupying force. 189 00:09:33,656 --> 00:09:36,993 But the Allies were not super interested in Paris. 190 00:09:38,244 --> 00:09:40,371 - Cities are an enormous military problem. 191 00:09:40,371 --> 00:09:42,082 Do you go into Paris 192 00:09:42,082 --> 00:09:43,792 knowing that you could end up fighting an urban battle 193 00:09:43,792 --> 00:09:45,752 that you don't want to fight? 194 00:09:45,752 --> 00:09:47,921 The streets narrow your ability to maneuver. 195 00:09:47,921 --> 00:09:49,798 So fighting inside a city 196 00:09:49,798 --> 00:09:52,801 is nobody's idea of what you want to do. 197 00:09:52,801 --> 00:09:54,010 Of course, if you're French, 198 00:09:54,010 --> 00:09:55,637 the situation is completely different. 199 00:09:57,097 --> 00:10:00,517 - The French people are thinking that the Allies are 200 00:10:00,517 --> 00:10:03,686 just a few hundred kilometers from the city of Paris, 201 00:10:03,686 --> 00:10:06,481 and they believe that Paris will be next 202 00:10:06,481 --> 00:10:09,692 in the great capitals of Europe to be liberated 203 00:10:09,692 --> 00:10:10,985 from Nazi fascism. 204 00:10:12,070 --> 00:10:13,363 - [Michael] To the French, 205 00:10:13,363 --> 00:10:15,323 Paris is not just the capital of France. 206 00:10:15,323 --> 00:10:18,243 It is the most important, most symbolic city 207 00:10:18,243 --> 00:10:19,994 that you're going to liberate. 208 00:10:19,994 --> 00:10:22,330 And the man who thinks he's going to take control 209 00:10:22,330 --> 00:10:24,124 of all of this is Charles De Gaulle. 210 00:10:27,085 --> 00:10:29,921 - [Dan S.] Throughout the war, he builds up Free French forces 211 00:10:29,921 --> 00:10:32,549 in London and in Africa. 212 00:10:32,549 --> 00:10:34,759 French soldiers flock to his colors. 213 00:10:35,844 --> 00:10:37,387 And, by D-Day, 214 00:10:37,387 --> 00:10:40,682 he has something of a Free French armed force. 215 00:10:40,682 --> 00:10:44,602 And De Gaulle is astonished and appalled to hear 216 00:10:44,602 --> 00:10:48,231 that the Allies are not focusing on Paris 217 00:10:48,231 --> 00:10:50,316 as a key objective. 218 00:10:50,316 --> 00:10:51,484 Paris is like the 219 00:10:51,484 --> 00:10:53,528 beating heart of the French republic. 220 00:10:54,362 --> 00:10:56,614 There is no France without Paris. 221 00:10:56,614 --> 00:10:59,450 And De Gaulle said, "If you're not going, I'm going." 222 00:11:02,579 --> 00:11:05,081 [engines whir] 223 00:11:05,707 --> 00:11:08,042 - [Tom] Allied forces advance across France 224 00:11:08,042 --> 00:11:10,920 to force the Wehrmacht's retreat to the Rhine and beyond. 225 00:11:13,923 --> 00:11:16,384 Liberating Paris from German occupation 226 00:11:16,384 --> 00:11:19,262 is not their main strategic concern. 227 00:11:19,262 --> 00:11:22,765 But Parisians have other ideas. 228 00:11:22,765 --> 00:11:23,975 - [Michael] The problem for Paris is that, 229 00:11:23,975 --> 00:11:25,602 when the Normandy invasion happens, 230 00:11:25,602 --> 00:11:28,521 it cuts the city off from its principal food supply. 231 00:11:29,397 --> 00:11:30,565 And the Germans are trying to take 232 00:11:30,565 --> 00:11:32,400 everything that they can out of the city. 233 00:11:32,400 --> 00:11:36,362 So it's a very, very unstable, very insecure place. 234 00:11:37,614 --> 00:11:39,157 - And so there is the beginnings 235 00:11:39,157 --> 00:11:41,451 of popular uprising in Paris. 236 00:11:41,451 --> 00:11:44,996 A lot of that is being driven by the communist resistance. 237 00:11:44,996 --> 00:11:46,414 De Gaulle is quite keen to get to Paris 238 00:11:46,581 --> 00:11:50,126 because what he doesn't is Paris to become liberated 239 00:11:50,126 --> 00:11:52,837 by the communist resistance. 240 00:11:52,837 --> 00:11:54,797 He does not want to liberate France 241 00:11:54,797 --> 00:11:57,217 only for it to fall into the hands of communism. 242 00:11:59,427 --> 00:12:02,722 - [Tom] To ensure that French troops liberate Paris, 243 00:12:02,722 --> 00:12:04,682 General De Gaulle requires the support 244 00:12:04,682 --> 00:12:08,728 of the Supreme Allied Commander: General Dwight Eisenhower. 245 00:12:10,313 --> 00:12:12,190 - [Michael] De Gaulle didn't have that many cards 246 00:12:12,190 --> 00:12:13,775 to play in 1944, 247 00:12:13,775 --> 00:12:17,111 but he played them as skillfully as anybody. 248 00:12:17,111 --> 00:12:19,113 There is a French unit, the Second Armored Division, 249 00:12:19,113 --> 00:12:20,907 controlled by General Philippe Leclerc, 250 00:12:20,907 --> 00:12:22,533 that has been disobeying American orders 251 00:12:22,533 --> 00:12:24,827 to get closer and closer and closer to the city 252 00:12:24,827 --> 00:12:27,038 so that it could go into Paris if it had to. 253 00:12:28,498 --> 00:12:31,209 - And so De Gaulle became very aggressive about 254 00:12:31,209 --> 00:12:34,045 steering the Second Armored Division toward the city. 255 00:12:34,045 --> 00:12:36,923 He gave General Leclerc specific instructions 256 00:12:36,923 --> 00:12:38,883 to, "No matter what these Americans tell you, 257 00:12:38,883 --> 00:12:40,843 I need you to get to Paris." 258 00:12:42,470 --> 00:12:43,721 - [Col. Douds] As Winston Churchill would say, 259 00:12:43,721 --> 00:12:46,224 he tends to love to bite the hand that feeds him. 260 00:12:46,224 --> 00:12:47,350 You have to give him credit, though, 261 00:12:47,350 --> 00:12:49,435 for he has his eye on one thing, 262 00:12:49,435 --> 00:12:51,187 and that's a free France. 263 00:12:51,187 --> 00:12:53,314 [dramatic music] 264 00:12:53,314 --> 00:12:56,776 [artillery fires] 265 00:12:57,986 --> 00:12:59,529 - [Tom] Shortly after D-Day, 266 00:12:59,529 --> 00:13:02,240 in coordination with their Western allies, 267 00:13:02,240 --> 00:13:05,118 the Soviets throw the massed might of the Red Army 268 00:13:05,118 --> 00:13:06,369 against the Germans. 269 00:13:08,371 --> 00:13:11,416 - Operation Bagration is the gigantic Soviet offensive 270 00:13:11,416 --> 00:13:13,001 in summer of 1944. 271 00:13:13,001 --> 00:13:14,794 Roughly timed to coincide 272 00:13:14,794 --> 00:13:16,921 with the Allies landing in Normandy. 273 00:13:18,214 --> 00:13:21,801 - [Dan S.] It is just a monstrous offensive. 274 00:13:21,801 --> 00:13:25,138 About two and a half million Soviets are thrown into battle. 275 00:13:25,138 --> 00:13:28,891 Half a million Germans are killed, wounded, or captured. 276 00:13:30,768 --> 00:13:34,522 - [Robert] It erased an entire German army group from the map, 277 00:13:34,522 --> 00:13:38,359 the entire central portion of the German front in the east. 278 00:13:41,946 --> 00:13:44,657 - Now the Soviet army is moving into Poland, 279 00:13:44,657 --> 00:13:46,617 and you've gotta remember that, of course, 280 00:13:47,243 --> 00:13:49,162 Poland was the reason the war started. 281 00:13:51,122 --> 00:13:53,207 - [Tom] In the fall of 1939, 282 00:13:53,207 --> 00:13:56,961 Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin agreed to divide Poland. 283 00:13:58,337 --> 00:13:59,964 - [Simon] When Hitler took Poland, 284 00:13:59,964 --> 00:14:03,051 he treated it like the laboratory 285 00:14:03,051 --> 00:14:05,011 for his racial ideas, 286 00:14:05,845 --> 00:14:09,599 his plans to annihilate the Jewish people 287 00:14:09,599 --> 00:14:14,228 and to treat the Eastern Slavic people 288 00:14:14,228 --> 00:14:18,441 as essentially a slave race to work to death. 289 00:14:20,443 --> 00:14:24,322 Poland has been stained in blood and killing, 290 00:14:24,322 --> 00:14:26,949 crushed beneath the German jackboot, 291 00:14:26,949 --> 00:14:29,243 its soil watered with the blood 292 00:14:29,243 --> 00:14:31,829 of vast numbers of its Jewish community. 293 00:14:33,956 --> 00:14:35,291 - [Dan S.] The Poles have been 294 00:14:35,291 --> 00:14:38,961 living through hell for five years. 295 00:14:38,961 --> 00:14:40,588 If you're a resident of Warsaw, 296 00:14:40,588 --> 00:14:42,840 you are one of the most unlucky people ever to have lived. 297 00:14:46,803 --> 00:14:48,679 Throughout this horror show 298 00:14:48,679 --> 00:14:50,431 that has been inflicted upon the Poles, 299 00:14:50,431 --> 00:14:53,309 they have maintained a shadow government, 300 00:14:53,309 --> 00:14:54,602 a kind of national cohesion. 301 00:14:54,602 --> 00:14:57,146 They have a government-in-exile in London, 302 00:14:57,146 --> 00:14:58,481 and that is sending orders 303 00:14:58,481 --> 00:15:01,109 to a home army, a sort of secret army 304 00:15:01,109 --> 00:15:03,653 of underground resistance fighters in Poland. 305 00:15:06,531 --> 00:15:08,116 - The Polish Home Army was formed 306 00:15:08,116 --> 00:15:11,994 really immediately after the Germans invaded. 307 00:15:11,994 --> 00:15:14,831 There was a real sense in amongst the Polish community 308 00:15:14,831 --> 00:15:17,583 and especially the young people: "We're gonna fight." 309 00:15:17,583 --> 00:15:20,753 It was always set up as a formal military organization. 310 00:15:20,753 --> 00:15:23,172 It wasn't just an ad hoc bunch of partisans. 311 00:15:24,173 --> 00:15:26,884 They undertook intelligence gatherings of troop movements. 312 00:15:26,884 --> 00:15:28,469 They gathered information 313 00:15:28,469 --> 00:15:30,763 about the camps, about Auschwitz, and others. 314 00:15:32,974 --> 00:15:36,269 - [Tom] The Home Army is led by a former cavalry officer 315 00:15:36,269 --> 00:15:39,230 who has been fighting the Germans since 1939. 316 00:15:41,607 --> 00:15:44,068 General Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski. 317 00:15:45,194 --> 00:15:47,864 [tanks rattle] 318 00:15:48,614 --> 00:15:51,367 On July 29th, 1944, 319 00:15:51,367 --> 00:15:54,162 as the Allies are slicing through France, 320 00:15:54,162 --> 00:15:57,832 the Soviets reach the outskirts of Warsaw. 321 00:15:57,832 --> 00:16:00,168 [guns fire] 322 00:16:00,168 --> 00:16:02,670 - [Simon] The Polish Home Army is waiting for the moment 323 00:16:02,670 --> 00:16:04,547 when the Germans are about to retreat 324 00:16:04,547 --> 00:16:07,550 and just before the Soviets arrive. 325 00:16:07,550 --> 00:16:09,260 Because that is the opportunity 326 00:16:09,260 --> 00:16:13,598 to reassert Polish independence, the Polish state. 327 00:16:16,017 --> 00:16:17,435 - [Alexandra] They wanted to prove to the world 328 00:16:17,435 --> 00:16:19,187 that they stood on their own feet 329 00:16:19,187 --> 00:16:22,148 and that they fought to liberate their own country. 330 00:16:22,148 --> 00:16:24,650 They don't want to give up the Nazi dictatorship 331 00:16:24,650 --> 00:16:27,403 and just have it replaced with a Soviet dictatorship. 332 00:16:30,531 --> 00:16:34,202 - [Tom] The Polish Home Army and General Bór-Komorowski 333 00:16:34,202 --> 00:16:36,120 have long planned for this moment. 334 00:16:38,206 --> 00:16:41,876 - [Dan S.] There are weapons caches, command structures. 335 00:16:41,876 --> 00:16:43,127 There are instructions 336 00:16:43,127 --> 00:16:45,046 coming from senior officers based in London. 337 00:16:45,046 --> 00:16:46,088 There is a plan. 338 00:16:48,925 --> 00:16:51,427 - [Alexandra] Tens of thousands of Home Army troops 339 00:16:51,427 --> 00:16:53,095 will go all over the city 340 00:16:53,095 --> 00:16:54,764 and go for the most important things: 341 00:16:54,764 --> 00:16:55,973 the airports, the bridges, 342 00:16:55,973 --> 00:16:58,851 the main focal points of Nazi power. 343 00:17:00,603 --> 00:17:03,814 - [Simon] It was a moment where timing was everything. 344 00:17:03,814 --> 00:17:07,401 If they did it too soon, the Germans would crush them. 345 00:17:07,401 --> 00:17:10,363 If they did it too late, the Soviets would conquer them. 346 00:17:10,363 --> 00:17:12,906 [guns fire] 347 00:17:15,785 --> 00:17:17,203 - [Alexandra] The Red Army was coming. 348 00:17:17,203 --> 00:17:18,746 It looked as if there was just this juggernaut 349 00:17:18,746 --> 00:17:21,040 that was gonna force the Germans out of the city. 350 00:17:23,291 --> 00:17:24,961 - [Tom] Outside Warsaw, 351 00:17:24,961 --> 00:17:27,880 the Germans regroup on the banks of the Vistula River. 352 00:17:29,882 --> 00:17:31,801 - [Alexandra] The Poles hear the sounds of fighting, 353 00:17:31,801 --> 00:17:33,094 think the Red Army's gonna win, 354 00:17:33,094 --> 00:17:35,680 and they're about to come into Warsaw. 355 00:17:36,764 --> 00:17:38,891 - [Tom] General Bór-Komorowski gives the order 356 00:17:38,891 --> 00:17:40,726 to begin the uprising. 357 00:17:47,567 --> 00:17:49,443 - [Tom] The Poles have been resisting the Germans 358 00:17:49,443 --> 00:17:51,487 for almost five years. 359 00:17:51,487 --> 00:17:54,991 Now, with the Soviets on the other side of the Vistula, 360 00:17:54,991 --> 00:17:58,494 the Polish Home Army seizes its opportunity. 361 00:17:58,494 --> 00:18:00,705 - Because of the Red Army coming so quickly 362 00:18:00,705 --> 00:18:02,415 up to the gates of Warsaw, 363 00:18:02,415 --> 00:18:04,083 General Bór-Komorowski gives the order 364 00:18:04,083 --> 00:18:06,335 to start the uprising. 365 00:18:06,335 --> 00:18:08,963 - [Simon] The Polish Home Army think this is the right moment. 366 00:18:08,963 --> 00:18:10,798 The Russians are approaching, 367 00:18:10,798 --> 00:18:13,801 the Germans are clearly preparing to evacuate, 368 00:18:13,801 --> 00:18:16,554 and the Poles appear out of the sewers, 369 00:18:16,554 --> 00:18:18,931 out of the backstreets, out of the cellars, 370 00:18:18,931 --> 00:18:21,559 and they raise the flag of rebellion. 371 00:18:23,811 --> 00:18:26,147 - [Alexandra] Civilians are thrilled, they're jubilant. 372 00:18:26,147 --> 00:18:27,857 For the first time since 1939, 373 00:18:27,857 --> 00:18:29,650 they can sing the national anthem. 374 00:18:29,650 --> 00:18:32,528 They push trams over, they build barricades, 375 00:18:32,528 --> 00:18:34,280 and they make it very, very difficult 376 00:18:34,280 --> 00:18:36,157 for the Germans to fight there. 377 00:18:37,491 --> 00:18:40,453 - [Simon] It's a heroic moment, an exciting moment. 378 00:18:40,453 --> 00:18:44,373 Poland is rising like a phoenix out of the ashes. 379 00:18:47,043 --> 00:18:49,920 - [Dan S.] But the attack does not go as well as it was hoped. 380 00:18:49,920 --> 00:18:53,090 They do manage to seize the post office, 381 00:18:53,090 --> 00:18:55,801 they manage to seize an important German arsenal, 382 00:18:55,801 --> 00:18:57,928 but they don't manage to secure the airport. 383 00:18:57,928 --> 00:19:00,681 So it's up for grabs by the end of that day. 384 00:19:00,681 --> 00:19:03,643 You get this sort of twisted patchwork 385 00:19:03,643 --> 00:19:05,603 of Polish and German control, 386 00:19:05,603 --> 00:19:08,147 which ensures that there is gonna be 387 00:19:08,147 --> 00:19:10,232 the mother of all street fights. 388 00:19:10,524 --> 00:19:12,151 [guns fire] 389 00:19:12,151 --> 00:19:13,402 - [Tom] The Polish Home Army 390 00:19:13,402 --> 00:19:15,529 expected the Germans controlling Warsaw 391 00:19:15,529 --> 00:19:17,073 to be in retreat. 392 00:19:19,367 --> 00:19:21,243 [gun fires] 393 00:19:21,243 --> 00:19:24,872 Instead, the Wehrmacht attacks the Red Army at the Vistula 394 00:19:25,831 --> 00:19:27,708 and retains their grip on Warsaw. 395 00:19:32,088 --> 00:19:34,215 Adolf Hitler meets with Heinrich Himmler, 396 00:19:34,215 --> 00:19:35,925 head of the Nazi SS. 397 00:19:38,094 --> 00:19:40,429 - [Alexandra] On the night of the 1st of August, 1944, 398 00:19:40,429 --> 00:19:43,349 Himmler goes up to the Wolfsschanze, he sees Hitler, 399 00:19:43,349 --> 00:19:45,685 and Hitler's raging around. 400 00:19:45,685 --> 00:19:47,812 And Himmler goes, "You know, Mein Fuhrer, 401 00:19:47,812 --> 00:19:50,231 let's use this as a moment 402 00:19:50,231 --> 00:19:52,608 to erase Warsaw from the map. 403 00:19:52,608 --> 00:19:55,152 Because this wretched city has stood in our way 404 00:19:55,152 --> 00:19:57,613 of German expansion to the East for hundreds of years. 405 00:19:57,613 --> 00:19:59,281 So let's just do it." 406 00:20:00,241 --> 00:20:01,450 So that evening, 407 00:20:01,617 --> 00:20:03,369 they give what's called the Order for Warsaw. 408 00:20:05,454 --> 00:20:06,997 - The Germans have a plan 409 00:20:06,997 --> 00:20:10,042 to wipe Poland literally from the face of the Earth. 410 00:20:11,293 --> 00:20:13,754 One, you wanna send a message to everybody else 411 00:20:13,754 --> 00:20:15,965 that this is the cost of defying me. 412 00:20:15,965 --> 00:20:18,008 But the other reason is you want to destroy Poland 413 00:20:18,008 --> 00:20:20,302 as a national identity. 414 00:20:21,971 --> 00:20:24,682 - [Alexandra] Every combatant is to be killed. 415 00:20:24,682 --> 00:20:27,977 All men and women and children, civilians are to be killed. 416 00:20:27,977 --> 00:20:29,645 And then the city is to be looted, 417 00:20:29,645 --> 00:20:33,399 and then, glattrasiert, that means razed to the ground. 418 00:20:33,399 --> 00:20:36,110 [missiles fire] 419 00:20:37,695 --> 00:20:40,364 - [Simon] The Germans poured in ruthless shock troops 420 00:20:40,364 --> 00:20:43,117 with the express purpose of destroying them. 421 00:20:43,117 --> 00:20:47,037 The Home Army used up their caches of weapons very fast. 422 00:20:47,037 --> 00:20:49,165 [artillery fires] 423 00:20:49,165 --> 00:20:51,959 - [Anand] The Poles think the Red Army is coming. 424 00:20:51,959 --> 00:20:53,919 The whole thing depended upon the idea 425 00:20:53,919 --> 00:20:55,755 that Germans were either leaving 426 00:20:55,755 --> 00:20:59,383 or could not reinforce their existing troops within Warsaw. 427 00:21:00,843 --> 00:21:02,970 Neither of those two things turned out to be true. 428 00:21:02,970 --> 00:21:06,056 The Germans weren't leaving and the Soviets weren't coming. 429 00:21:07,641 --> 00:21:09,268 - [Simon] Stalin says, to everyone's surprise: 430 00:21:09,268 --> 00:21:11,228 "Halt the army." 431 00:21:12,396 --> 00:21:15,441 They can see across the river Warsaw is burning. 432 00:21:18,110 --> 00:21:20,446 - [Robert] Although the Soviets are right across the river, 433 00:21:20,446 --> 00:21:24,158 they make no effort to support the resistance 434 00:21:24,158 --> 00:21:25,993 in its uprising against the Germans. 435 00:21:25,993 --> 00:21:27,578 Rather, they sit across the river 436 00:21:27,578 --> 00:21:30,080 and watch the Germans crush the uprising. 437 00:21:32,041 --> 00:21:33,209 - [Dan S.] Stalin doesn't just do nothing. 438 00:21:33,375 --> 00:21:35,586 He actively interferes with the Allies' attempt 439 00:21:35,586 --> 00:21:37,755 to help the Home Army, the Polish uprising. 440 00:21:39,799 --> 00:21:41,467 - [Tom] From their air bases in Italy, 441 00:21:41,467 --> 00:21:45,429 the British and Americans try to drop supplies to the Poles. 442 00:21:46,388 --> 00:21:47,723 - [Dan S.] Churchill asks permission: 443 00:21:47,723 --> 00:21:49,850 "Can Allied planes carrying supplies 444 00:21:49,850 --> 00:21:53,521 use Soviet bases to refuel and carry out repairs?" 445 00:21:53,521 --> 00:21:54,647 Stalin says no. 446 00:21:56,357 --> 00:21:57,983 - [Simon] Stalin has always hated 447 00:21:57,983 --> 00:21:59,527 the Polish government in London, 448 00:21:59,527 --> 00:22:02,696 which he regards as bourgeois, imperialist, capitalist. 449 00:22:02,696 --> 00:22:07,117 He has a small Polish communist group. 450 00:22:07,117 --> 00:22:08,410 He is always planning 451 00:22:08,619 --> 00:22:11,914 to parachute them into Poland as his government. 452 00:22:11,914 --> 00:22:15,084 - [Alexandra] And so Stalin is content to watch the Germans 453 00:22:15,084 --> 00:22:17,086 utterly destroy the Polish Home Army, 454 00:22:17,086 --> 00:22:19,255 destroy the population of Warsaw, 455 00:22:19,255 --> 00:22:21,465 and destroy the city itself. 456 00:22:21,465 --> 00:22:23,801 - [Simon] Stalin wants to conquer Poland, 457 00:22:23,801 --> 00:22:25,386 but he wants to make sure 458 00:22:25,386 --> 00:22:29,348 that it's then turned into a communist vassal client state. 459 00:22:29,348 --> 00:22:30,933 He wants to wait 460 00:22:30,933 --> 00:22:34,562 until the Nazis have destroyed the Polish underground 461 00:22:34,562 --> 00:22:37,147 before he enters Warsaw. 462 00:22:37,147 --> 00:22:39,400 Let them do his work for him. 463 00:22:42,027 --> 00:22:46,782 Hitler sends in his most psychopathic crews 464 00:22:46,782 --> 00:22:50,536 of murderous, grotesque sadists. 465 00:22:52,454 --> 00:22:54,915 - [Alexandra] Some of them are the most brutal murderers 466 00:22:54,915 --> 00:22:56,709 of the entire Nazi regime. 467 00:22:56,709 --> 00:22:58,043 Like Oskar Dirlewanger. 468 00:22:58,043 --> 00:23:00,004 Even the SS doesn't wanna work with him. 469 00:23:01,297 --> 00:23:03,591 They go through building after building, 470 00:23:03,591 --> 00:23:05,801 then they round these people up by the thousands 471 00:23:05,801 --> 00:23:07,511 and then mow those people down. 472 00:23:09,555 --> 00:23:11,849 When 5,000, 6,000 bodies are lying there, 473 00:23:11,849 --> 00:23:14,268 then they bring in the verbrennungskommando, 474 00:23:14,268 --> 00:23:17,062 these burning commandos, to burn the bodies, 475 00:23:17,062 --> 00:23:18,856 specialists from places like Treblinka 476 00:23:18,856 --> 00:23:22,109 who've now become specialists at burning human flesh. 477 00:23:24,445 --> 00:23:27,573 They loot the entire city and then they destroy it. 478 00:23:28,949 --> 00:23:32,077 Building by building, libraries, museums, 479 00:23:32,077 --> 00:23:33,162 everything is destroyed. 480 00:23:33,871 --> 00:23:36,707 [dramatic music] 481 00:23:37,958 --> 00:23:39,877 - [Tom] The Polish Home Army surrenders. 482 00:23:41,670 --> 00:23:45,466 General Bór-Komorowski is imprisoned by the Nazis. 483 00:23:48,677 --> 00:23:49,845 - [Alexandra] By the end of the Warsaw Uprising, 484 00:23:50,012 --> 00:23:52,014 about 200,000 civilians have been killed. 485 00:23:54,266 --> 00:23:56,226 Then the remaining population 486 00:23:56,226 --> 00:23:57,895 are sent to camps like Auschwitz. 487 00:23:58,687 --> 00:24:01,482 Some are sent as slave laborers into the Reich. 488 00:24:01,482 --> 00:24:02,775 So the destruction of Warsaw 489 00:24:02,775 --> 00:24:05,069 is unique in the destruction of cities 490 00:24:05,069 --> 00:24:06,695 in the Second World War in Europe. 491 00:24:08,155 --> 00:24:09,531 - [Dan S.] In Warsaw, tragically, 492 00:24:09,531 --> 00:24:13,035 the Germans chose to meet that desire 493 00:24:13,035 --> 00:24:16,288 for Polish independence with overwhelming force. 494 00:24:18,916 --> 00:24:20,209 To kill and smash 495 00:24:20,209 --> 00:24:22,586 and eradicate Polish culture. 496 00:24:25,339 --> 00:24:27,800 To say, "No, you will not liberate yourselves. 497 00:24:27,800 --> 00:24:30,052 In fact, you have condemned yourselves." 498 00:24:30,552 --> 00:24:32,471 [soft plaintive music] 499 00:24:35,599 --> 00:24:38,435 [dramatic music] 500 00:24:38,644 --> 00:24:40,896 - [Tom] August, 1944. 501 00:24:40,896 --> 00:24:44,024 The Germans are in full retreat across France. 502 00:24:45,693 --> 00:24:47,903 They begin to evacuate Paris. 503 00:24:49,238 --> 00:24:52,491 Parisians sense a chance to recapture their city. 504 00:24:53,993 --> 00:24:55,995 But they need a spark. 505 00:24:55,995 --> 00:24:57,287 - [Marco] On the 15th of August, 506 00:24:57,454 --> 00:25:00,082 the Parisian police, which was 20,000 strong 507 00:25:00,082 --> 00:25:02,001 and had been collaborating with the Germans 508 00:25:02,001 --> 00:25:03,502 up to that moment, 509 00:25:03,502 --> 00:25:06,922 actually switches sides and raises the flag 510 00:25:06,922 --> 00:25:07,965 on their building, 511 00:25:09,133 --> 00:25:11,802 giving the sign to the rest of the city 512 00:25:11,802 --> 00:25:13,470 and of course to the partisans 513 00:25:13,470 --> 00:25:17,016 that this was the moment the uprising needed to start. 514 00:25:17,016 --> 00:25:19,977 [guns fire] 515 00:25:19,977 --> 00:25:23,230 And so the streets of Paris become a battlefield. 516 00:25:26,358 --> 00:25:27,776 [guns fire] 517 00:25:27,985 --> 00:25:30,446 The French resistance has been preparing for this moment 518 00:25:30,446 --> 00:25:32,406 for a very long time. 519 00:25:32,406 --> 00:25:35,617 [dramatic music] 520 00:25:35,617 --> 00:25:38,037 And they act against the Germans quite rapidly 521 00:25:38,037 --> 00:25:39,163 and quite successfully. 522 00:25:42,791 --> 00:25:44,752 - [Col. Douds] As this happened, Charles De Gaulle shows up 523 00:25:44,752 --> 00:25:47,171 to Supreme Allied Commander Eisenhower's headquarters 524 00:25:47,171 --> 00:25:49,131 and go, "We have to march on Paris." 525 00:25:50,883 --> 00:25:52,551 - [Michael] The Allies don't particularly like De Gaulle 526 00:25:52,551 --> 00:25:54,887 but see De Gaulle as a bulwark against communism. 527 00:25:55,929 --> 00:25:57,264 - [Dan S.] Eisenhower is smart enough to know 528 00:25:57,264 --> 00:25:58,766 that it would look really, really good 529 00:25:58,766 --> 00:26:01,685 if the first troops to enter Paris were the Free French. 530 00:26:03,562 --> 00:26:06,732 - [Marco] Eisenhower decides to allow the Free French forces 531 00:26:06,732 --> 00:26:08,859 to send one division into the city 532 00:26:08,859 --> 00:26:12,029 and to help the insurgents to free the city. 533 00:26:13,906 --> 00:26:16,533 - [Tom] Supported by the American Fourth Division, 534 00:26:16,533 --> 00:26:18,202 General De Gaulle orders 535 00:26:18,202 --> 00:26:21,413 the French Second Armored Division into Paris. 536 00:26:23,165 --> 00:26:24,666 - [Martin] Toward the bitter end, 537 00:26:24,792 --> 00:26:27,211 Adolf Hitler issues instructions to General von Choltitz, 538 00:26:27,211 --> 00:26:30,464 who was in control of Paris, to destroy the city. 539 00:26:30,464 --> 00:26:32,549 Hitler, during a phone call with von Choltitz, 540 00:26:32,549 --> 00:26:34,551 asks: "Is Paris burning?" 541 00:26:35,803 --> 00:26:37,346 And von Choltitz tells him: 542 00:26:37,346 --> 00:26:39,973 "Yes, my Fuhrer, we burned the city." 543 00:26:39,973 --> 00:26:42,684 [dramatic music] 544 00:26:44,353 --> 00:26:46,855 - [Tom] Instead, he negotiates a surrender. 545 00:26:49,108 --> 00:26:52,027 [triumphant music] 546 00:26:56,907 --> 00:26:58,200 - [Dan S.] It is the officers and men 547 00:26:58,200 --> 00:27:00,828 of that Second French Armored Division 548 00:27:00,828 --> 00:27:02,830 who first enter Paris. 549 00:27:02,830 --> 00:27:05,707 [triumphant music] 550 00:27:07,876 --> 00:27:09,378 So De Gaulle can claim 551 00:27:09,378 --> 00:27:11,839 that the French have liberated their own capital. 552 00:27:11,839 --> 00:27:12,965 And not just any old French, 553 00:27:12,965 --> 00:27:14,716 not the communist French, not the resis... 554 00:27:14,716 --> 00:27:16,885 His French army. 555 00:27:16,885 --> 00:27:19,805 [triumphant music] 556 00:27:22,015 --> 00:27:24,226 - [Marco] He is the one leading the parade 557 00:27:24,226 --> 00:27:26,645 through the streets of Paris, presenting himself 558 00:27:26,645 --> 00:27:28,188 as the legitimate leader 559 00:27:28,188 --> 00:27:29,523 of the French government. 560 00:27:29,523 --> 00:27:32,484 [triumphant music] 561 00:27:34,611 --> 00:27:36,572 - [Martin] Everyone in the city has come out now 562 00:27:36,572 --> 00:27:37,906 because they feel 563 00:27:37,906 --> 00:27:39,408 that their moment of liberation is on them. 564 00:27:42,286 --> 00:27:47,332 [guns fire] [citizens scream] 565 00:27:49,751 --> 00:27:52,921 - [Tom] But there are still German soldiers in Paris. 566 00:27:55,757 --> 00:28:00,762 [guns fire] [foreboding music] 567 00:28:04,266 --> 00:28:05,851 - [Broadcaster] General De Gaulle walked straight ahead 568 00:28:05,851 --> 00:28:08,604 into what appeared to me to be a hail of fire. 569 00:28:08,604 --> 00:28:11,356 But he went straight ahead without hesitation, 570 00:28:11,356 --> 00:28:12,691 his shoulders flung back. 571 00:28:13,942 --> 00:28:16,361 [guns fire] 572 00:28:17,613 --> 00:28:20,198 - [Tom] Most Germans have surrendered or fled. 573 00:28:20,198 --> 00:28:22,200 The last are tracked down, 574 00:28:22,200 --> 00:28:23,994 along with French collaborators. 575 00:28:26,038 --> 00:28:28,749 [crowd cheers] 576 00:28:31,919 --> 00:28:36,214 [Charles speaks French] 577 00:28:41,595 --> 00:28:44,723 [Charles speaks French] 578 00:28:48,226 --> 00:28:50,520 - [Marco] He presents the liberation of Paris 579 00:28:50,520 --> 00:28:52,648 as a story of self-liberation, 580 00:28:52,648 --> 00:28:54,650 a Paris that was able to free itself 581 00:28:54,650 --> 00:28:57,152 from the yoke of the German occupation 582 00:28:57,152 --> 00:28:59,112 without the help of the Allies. 583 00:28:59,947 --> 00:29:03,241 [Charles speaks French] 584 00:29:05,619 --> 00:29:08,914 - [Marco] However, let's say the Allied presence in the region 585 00:29:08,914 --> 00:29:10,290 also played a major role 586 00:29:10,499 --> 00:29:12,834 in convincing the Germans that it was time to go. 587 00:29:14,836 --> 00:29:16,755 - [Michael] France will enter this post-war period 588 00:29:16,755 --> 00:29:18,840 with pride and with confidence. 589 00:29:18,840 --> 00:29:20,968 It's difficult to imagine how that would've happened 590 00:29:20,968 --> 00:29:23,762 if not for the efforts of all of the resistance groups 591 00:29:23,762 --> 00:29:25,889 that fought against Nazi aggression. 592 00:29:25,889 --> 00:29:28,725 [crowd applauds] 593 00:29:33,730 --> 00:29:36,942 - [Tom] But, in Warsaw, the outcome is different. 594 00:29:36,942 --> 00:29:39,361 The city is razed by the Nazis. 595 00:29:41,613 --> 00:29:45,784 And what remains is captured and controlled by the Soviets. 596 00:29:45,784 --> 00:29:48,453 [dramatic music] 597 00:29:49,579 --> 00:29:52,290 Paris, the city of light, is saved. 598 00:29:54,251 --> 00:29:58,463 Warsaw and the hope of the Polish people is destroyed. 599 00:30:01,591 --> 00:30:04,761 [soft plaintive music] 600 00:30:10,684 --> 00:30:12,894 - [Alexandra] Resistance is important 601 00:30:12,894 --> 00:30:15,355 for the people of a nation 602 00:30:15,355 --> 00:30:17,274 who do not want to be subjugated. 603 00:30:19,192 --> 00:30:23,071 While the French and the Poles rise up against the Germans 604 00:30:23,071 --> 00:30:26,241 within the extermination camps at Auschwitz and others, 605 00:30:27,409 --> 00:30:30,037 there is also this spirit of resistance. 606 00:30:31,079 --> 00:30:34,249 [soft plaintive music] 607 00:30:35,709 --> 00:30:38,045 - [Tom] The deliberate killing of Jews by the Nazis 608 00:30:38,045 --> 00:30:39,796 began with bullets. 609 00:30:42,924 --> 00:30:44,384 Shortly after the Germans 610 00:30:44,384 --> 00:30:47,721 invaded the Soviet Union in June, 1941, 611 00:30:49,598 --> 00:30:52,642 they started to shoot Jewish children, women, and men, 612 00:30:53,810 --> 00:30:56,521 and bury them in ravines and forests. 613 00:31:00,233 --> 00:31:01,568 But eventually the Nazis 614 00:31:01,568 --> 00:31:05,363 required a more systematic method of murder. 615 00:31:06,990 --> 00:31:08,617 - There were tens of thousands of the camps 616 00:31:08,617 --> 00:31:09,451 by the end of the war. 617 00:31:09,451 --> 00:31:11,119 It's a huge infrastructure. 618 00:31:11,119 --> 00:31:14,664 But there were a very small number of death camps 619 00:31:14,664 --> 00:31:17,000 within this enormous system. 620 00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:19,669 Six death camps. 621 00:31:19,669 --> 00:31:21,630 Chelmno, which is the original death camp, 622 00:31:21,630 --> 00:31:23,548 Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, 623 00:31:23,548 --> 00:31:26,635 and then Auschwitz-Birkenau and Majdanek. 624 00:31:29,012 --> 00:31:31,765 - [Tom] As the Red Army pushes into Poland, 625 00:31:31,765 --> 00:31:34,434 the Nazis attempt to hide their great crime 626 00:31:34,434 --> 00:31:36,812 by dismantling the killing centers. 627 00:31:40,482 --> 00:31:42,025 - [James] They destroyed documents. 628 00:31:42,025 --> 00:31:43,610 They destroyed the major death camps 629 00:31:43,610 --> 00:31:46,113 at Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka. 630 00:31:46,113 --> 00:31:48,198 They get rid of the vast majority of the buildings. 631 00:31:48,198 --> 00:31:49,241 They cover them over. 632 00:31:49,241 --> 00:31:51,243 They create farmhouses on the site 633 00:31:51,243 --> 00:31:52,577 to conceal everything that they've done. 634 00:31:52,577 --> 00:31:55,413 And then as the camps come into the path 635 00:31:55,413 --> 00:31:59,126 of invading Allied armies, they evacuate them. 636 00:31:59,126 --> 00:32:02,003 [dramatic music] 637 00:32:03,547 --> 00:32:05,674 - [Tom] At Auschwitz-Birkenau, there are prisoners 638 00:32:05,674 --> 00:32:09,386 determined to document the Nazi murders. 639 00:32:09,386 --> 00:32:11,596 - [Alexandra] The extermination camp system 640 00:32:11,596 --> 00:32:13,974 includes the sorting of people. 641 00:32:13,974 --> 00:32:16,518 Some of them are left alive because they looked 642 00:32:16,518 --> 00:32:19,187 as if they were young or fit or healthy enough. 643 00:32:19,187 --> 00:32:22,399 Those people work in something called a sonderkommando. 644 00:32:22,399 --> 00:32:25,402 They are supposed to sort the clothing, 645 00:32:25,402 --> 00:32:27,445 sort the hair that's been cut off people, 646 00:32:27,445 --> 00:32:29,281 to move the corpses, 647 00:32:29,281 --> 00:32:31,867 all these terrible, terrible jobs that they're given. 648 00:32:33,410 --> 00:32:35,787 - [James] In 1944 in Auschwitz-Birkenau, 649 00:32:35,787 --> 00:32:37,038 members of the resistance movement 650 00:32:37,038 --> 00:32:39,875 managed to smuggle a camera into the camp. 651 00:32:39,875 --> 00:32:41,168 The sonderkommando, 652 00:32:41,168 --> 00:32:42,294 who were witnessing all of these things 653 00:32:42,294 --> 00:32:43,170 on a day-to-day basis, 654 00:32:43,170 --> 00:32:44,796 secure this camera, 655 00:32:44,796 --> 00:32:46,923 and their ambition is to use this camera to record 656 00:32:46,923 --> 00:32:49,926 images of what's happening within the camp 657 00:32:49,926 --> 00:32:53,972 in order for those pictures to stir the world to respond. 658 00:32:55,473 --> 00:32:58,518 - [Tom] One prisoner manages to photograph the horror. 659 00:33:00,520 --> 00:33:03,190 [clock ticks] 660 00:33:03,982 --> 00:33:06,610 [foreboding music] 661 00:33:06,610 --> 00:33:09,196 Four images of hell. 662 00:33:10,197 --> 00:33:12,073 - [James] The really extraordinary thing about them 663 00:33:12,073 --> 00:33:14,868 is that the images themselves are framed 664 00:33:14,868 --> 00:33:18,914 from within the doorway of the gas chamber building itself. 665 00:33:18,914 --> 00:33:22,709 So the images testify to the bravery 666 00:33:22,709 --> 00:33:24,294 of what this man was doing 667 00:33:24,294 --> 00:33:28,924 and the appalling depravity of the process at that stage. 668 00:33:30,258 --> 00:33:32,385 And what we see within these images 669 00:33:32,385 --> 00:33:35,639 are the burning of bodies outside the crematoria. 670 00:33:37,724 --> 00:33:39,851 And we see people being undressed, 671 00:33:39,851 --> 00:33:42,562 waiting to be brought into the gas chamber. 672 00:33:42,562 --> 00:33:45,899 [foreboding music] 673 00:33:45,899 --> 00:33:48,610 - [Alexandra] The film is put into a tube of toothpaste 674 00:33:48,610 --> 00:33:51,321 and then smuggled out to the Polish Home Army. 675 00:33:53,114 --> 00:33:56,326 This is perhaps the single most valuable 676 00:33:56,326 --> 00:34:00,288 photographic evidence to emerge from Auschwitz. 677 00:34:00,288 --> 00:34:03,375 [foreboding music] 678 00:34:03,375 --> 00:34:07,796 - The Jews fought back from 1933 to the end of the war. 679 00:34:07,796 --> 00:34:09,297 There are escapes. 680 00:34:09,464 --> 00:34:13,217 There are individual killings of guards by prisoners. 681 00:34:13,217 --> 00:34:16,304 The Jews are fighting back this entire time. 682 00:34:17,389 --> 00:34:19,975 Resistance is what gives us testimony 683 00:34:19,975 --> 00:34:21,935 of what happened in those places. 684 00:34:21,935 --> 00:34:24,728 [dramatic music] 685 00:34:26,356 --> 00:34:28,358 - [Tom] In the fall of 1944, 686 00:34:28,358 --> 00:34:33,237 Nazi Germany is retreating on all fronts except one: 687 00:34:33,237 --> 00:34:35,282 their war against the Jews. 688 00:34:36,658 --> 00:34:39,244 Auschwitz-Birkenau is now the frontline. 689 00:34:43,956 --> 00:34:46,001 - [Rebecca] Killing Jews is not a secondary byproduct 690 00:34:46,001 --> 00:34:47,043 of their military goals. 691 00:34:47,043 --> 00:34:49,004 It is their military goal. 692 00:34:51,922 --> 00:34:53,049 - [James] From Hitler's perspective, 693 00:34:53,257 --> 00:34:55,635 it's worth apportioning resources to it 694 00:34:55,635 --> 00:34:58,096 despite what's happening elsewhere. 695 00:34:58,096 --> 00:35:01,016 In fact, they accelerate the process of mass murder. 696 00:35:04,185 --> 00:35:07,480 - [Alexandra] In 1944, the Nazis decide to exterminate 697 00:35:07,480 --> 00:35:10,108 the Hungarian Jewish population. 698 00:35:10,108 --> 00:35:13,361 So a special train line is built into Auschwitz-Birkenau, 699 00:35:13,361 --> 00:35:17,157 and hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews are rounded up, 700 00:35:17,157 --> 00:35:18,575 and many of them are murdered 701 00:35:18,700 --> 00:35:21,745 within a few hours of their arriving at the camp. 702 00:35:23,872 --> 00:35:28,001 - [James] 1944 is when Auschwitz hits its 703 00:35:28,001 --> 00:35:30,045 terrible, appalling peak 704 00:35:30,045 --> 00:35:32,881 in terms of the number of people killed. 705 00:35:34,007 --> 00:35:37,010 [foreboding music] 706 00:35:38,428 --> 00:35:40,889 - [Rebecca] Requests start to come to the U.S. government 707 00:35:40,889 --> 00:35:43,058 to bomb either the rail lines, 708 00:35:43,058 --> 00:35:46,269 the gas chambers at Auschwitz, the crematoria, 709 00:35:46,269 --> 00:35:49,105 the bridges leading to these camps. 710 00:35:51,316 --> 00:35:52,734 - [Michael] The idea of bombing death camps 711 00:35:52,901 --> 00:35:55,362 is difficult operationally and it's difficult morally. 712 00:35:56,321 --> 00:35:57,656 You're going to kill the very people 713 00:35:57,656 --> 00:35:59,240 that you're trying to rescue. 714 00:36:02,035 --> 00:36:03,953 - [James] Churchill and Roosevelt's perspective: 715 00:36:03,953 --> 00:36:05,246 humanitarian concerns 716 00:36:05,246 --> 00:36:07,290 were always secondary to winning the war. 717 00:36:07,290 --> 00:36:08,249 They would say: 718 00:36:08,249 --> 00:36:10,043 "The best thing that we can do 719 00:36:10,043 --> 00:36:11,586 to help these people 720 00:36:11,586 --> 00:36:14,005 is to bring the war to an end as quickly as possible." 721 00:36:17,133 --> 00:36:19,052 - [Tom] Prisoners at Auschwitz-Birkenau 722 00:36:19,052 --> 00:36:22,097 cannot afford to wait for the war to end. 723 00:36:22,097 --> 00:36:25,850 They want to survive, they want to escape, 724 00:36:25,850 --> 00:36:27,852 and they want to stop the killing. 725 00:36:32,524 --> 00:36:35,694 [foreboding music] 726 00:36:35,694 --> 00:36:37,070 - [Tom] From the beginning, 727 00:36:37,070 --> 00:36:39,447 there has been an underground of resistance 728 00:36:39,447 --> 00:36:41,241 at Auschwitz-Birkenau 729 00:36:41,241 --> 00:36:43,243 made up of various groups of prisoners, 730 00:36:43,243 --> 00:36:45,161 including the Sonderkommando. 731 00:36:46,788 --> 00:36:48,665 - The Sonderkommando starts to realize 732 00:36:48,665 --> 00:36:50,125 that there are fewer and fewer 733 00:36:50,125 --> 00:36:52,627 of these transports coming from Hungary. 734 00:36:52,627 --> 00:36:56,589 "The extermination process is finishing, our time is coming, 735 00:36:56,589 --> 00:36:59,718 and if we don't act quickly, we're going to be killed." 736 00:37:00,760 --> 00:37:03,763 - [James] So they started to look at ways they could resist. 737 00:37:03,763 --> 00:37:05,557 They might die trying, 738 00:37:05,557 --> 00:37:07,600 there's a very good chance that they'll die trying, 739 00:37:07,600 --> 00:37:10,478 but at least they can give themselves a chance. 740 00:37:10,478 --> 00:37:13,565 Because they're determined to do whatever they can 741 00:37:13,565 --> 00:37:16,109 to meet the moment on their own terms. 742 00:37:17,318 --> 00:37:19,946 - [Rebecca] Auschwitz is a death camp, 743 00:37:19,946 --> 00:37:22,615 and it's also a forced labor facility. 744 00:37:22,615 --> 00:37:24,284 And so there were women 745 00:37:24,284 --> 00:37:26,369 who were working in the armaments factories 746 00:37:26,369 --> 00:37:27,996 nearby Auschwitz 747 00:37:27,996 --> 00:37:30,331 who had access to gunpowder. 748 00:37:32,000 --> 00:37:33,168 - [Tom] One member of the underground 749 00:37:33,168 --> 00:37:34,878 is part of a slave labor unit 750 00:37:34,878 --> 00:37:38,840 that sorts the clothing of the dead: Roza Robota. 751 00:37:38,840 --> 00:37:41,384 She makes contact with the Sonderkommando. 752 00:37:41,384 --> 00:37:44,554 They form a plan to destroy the crematoria, 753 00:37:44,554 --> 00:37:48,683 provoke a wider uprising, and attempt to escape. 754 00:37:50,268 --> 00:37:53,772 Robota enlists Jewish women working in the munitions factory 755 00:37:53,772 --> 00:37:55,565 to smuggle gunpowder: 756 00:37:56,483 --> 00:38:01,279 Ala Gertner, Regina Safirsztajn, and Esther Wajcblum. 757 00:38:01,279 --> 00:38:04,073 - [James] So they secured these explosives at enormous risk, 758 00:38:04,073 --> 00:38:05,200 and they're smuggling them through 759 00:38:05,200 --> 00:38:06,826 various kind of ingenious means. 760 00:38:06,826 --> 00:38:09,788 They create little packets of fabric that they hide them in, 761 00:38:09,788 --> 00:38:11,247 and they get them through. 762 00:38:13,500 --> 00:38:15,376 - [Rebecca] The women are collecting the gunpowder 763 00:38:15,376 --> 00:38:17,086 to hand them off to their friend Roza. 764 00:38:17,086 --> 00:38:18,797 She is going to get the gunpowder 765 00:38:18,797 --> 00:38:20,673 into the hands of the Sonderkommando, 766 00:38:20,673 --> 00:38:22,884 who are going to use it to try to blow up 767 00:38:22,884 --> 00:38:24,761 the crematoria where they're working. 768 00:38:27,680 --> 00:38:29,057 - [James] At a certain moment, 769 00:38:29,057 --> 00:38:30,725 an individual takes an improvised weapon 770 00:38:30,725 --> 00:38:33,228 and launches at a member of the SS, 771 00:38:33,228 --> 00:38:35,730 and that kickstarts the whole thing. 772 00:38:35,730 --> 00:38:38,149 [guns fire] 773 00:38:38,149 --> 00:38:40,318 There's smoke, there's noise, there's shouting, 774 00:38:40,318 --> 00:38:41,486 and there's gunfire. 775 00:38:42,946 --> 00:38:45,573 [bomb explodes] 776 00:38:45,573 --> 00:38:49,202 - [Alexandra] The resistors end up blowing up, in part, 777 00:38:49,202 --> 00:38:51,120 one of the crematoria, Crematoria IV. 778 00:38:53,122 --> 00:38:54,874 - [James] It's put permanently out of commission. 779 00:38:54,874 --> 00:38:56,125 So the Sonderkommando 780 00:38:56,125 --> 00:38:58,169 would've considered that to be a a success. 781 00:38:59,629 --> 00:39:00,964 And in another crematory building, 782 00:39:00,964 --> 00:39:03,842 the Sonderkommando force some the guards 783 00:39:03,842 --> 00:39:05,760 into one of the ovens alive. 784 00:39:09,806 --> 00:39:11,599 - [Tom] Some prisoners escape 785 00:39:11,599 --> 00:39:13,434 but are quickly caught and executed. 786 00:39:17,438 --> 00:39:19,482 - [Alexandra] The three women who have been 787 00:39:19,482 --> 00:39:20,984 stealing the gunpowder 788 00:39:20,984 --> 00:39:23,987 plus Roza Robota are to be hanged. 789 00:39:25,238 --> 00:39:28,199 And just as the noose is put around her neck, 790 00:39:28,199 --> 00:39:32,161 she yells out to the group of prisoners assembled: 791 00:39:34,038 --> 00:39:37,000 "Vengeance," or, "Sisters, avenge." 792 00:39:38,167 --> 00:39:40,003 It is a passionate message 793 00:39:40,003 --> 00:39:43,423 of resilience, resistance, and continue the fight. 794 00:39:46,885 --> 00:39:48,303 - [Tom] In December, 795 00:39:48,303 --> 00:39:50,722 the Red Army advances on Auschwitz-Birkenau. 796 00:39:51,764 --> 00:39:55,393 [foreboding music] 797 00:39:55,393 --> 00:39:58,646 The SS forced prisoners on marches into Germany. 798 00:40:02,233 --> 00:40:03,192 Thousands die. 799 00:40:04,319 --> 00:40:07,655 [foreboding music] 800 00:40:07,655 --> 00:40:11,200 On January 27th, 1945, 801 00:40:11,200 --> 00:40:15,121 Soviet soldiers arrive at the gates of Auschwitz-Birkenau. 802 00:40:17,832 --> 00:40:20,460 - [James] Auschwitz really became the center 803 00:40:20,460 --> 00:40:23,713 of the mass murder of Europe's Jews quite late in the war. 804 00:40:23,713 --> 00:40:25,048 The important thing to know 805 00:40:25,256 --> 00:40:29,344 is that 80% of the Jews murdered in the Holocaust 806 00:40:29,344 --> 00:40:30,762 were not murdered at Auschwitz, 807 00:40:30,762 --> 00:40:32,138 but elsewhere in places 808 00:40:32,305 --> 00:40:36,309 that are either forgotten or largely overlooked. 809 00:40:36,309 --> 00:40:39,187 [foreboding music] 810 00:40:40,480 --> 00:40:42,482 - [Tom] The Nazis and their collaborators 811 00:40:42,482 --> 00:40:45,401 murder six million Jews during the war. 812 00:40:46,819 --> 00:40:49,614 Millions of others die at their hands. 813 00:40:52,951 --> 00:40:55,495 But in the face of unimaginable conditions 814 00:40:55,495 --> 00:40:57,664 and inconceivable cruelty, 815 00:41:01,125 --> 00:41:03,586 some find a way to resist. 816 00:41:05,672 --> 00:41:08,049 - [Rebecca] Resistance takes so many forms. 817 00:41:08,049 --> 00:41:10,426 There's armed resistance and uprising, 818 00:41:10,426 --> 00:41:12,804 and that happens throughout Europe. 819 00:41:12,804 --> 00:41:15,306 There is spiritual resistance. 820 00:41:15,306 --> 00:41:17,642 Just the idea that you are not going to die 821 00:41:17,642 --> 00:41:19,143 just because the Nazis want you to, 822 00:41:19,143 --> 00:41:21,145 you are going to try to survive. 823 00:41:21,145 --> 00:41:24,440 You are going to document what is happening, write letters, 824 00:41:24,440 --> 00:41:27,318 write diaries, bury them in the ground 825 00:41:27,318 --> 00:41:29,237 so that someday we will be able 826 00:41:29,237 --> 00:41:30,863 to talk about what you went through. 827 00:41:34,033 --> 00:41:35,201 - [Robert] The nature of tyranny 828 00:41:35,201 --> 00:41:37,245 becomes evident in World War II. 829 00:41:37,245 --> 00:41:39,789 The Nazis and the Japanese imperialists 830 00:41:39,789 --> 00:41:41,374 are invading their neighbors, 831 00:41:41,374 --> 00:41:43,251 kidnapping, slave laborers, 832 00:41:43,251 --> 00:41:45,753 murdering those who disagree with them. 833 00:41:46,713 --> 00:41:48,131 It was a natural reaction 834 00:41:48,131 --> 00:41:50,466 on the part of the occupied peoples 835 00:41:50,466 --> 00:41:53,219 to organize some form of resistance. 836 00:41:53,219 --> 00:41:55,930 And it happens all over the world in World War II. 837 00:41:59,600 --> 00:42:02,645 - After surviving Auschwitz and Buchenwald, 838 00:42:02,645 --> 00:42:05,690 Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel said: 839 00:42:05,690 --> 00:42:08,151 "We must always take sides. 840 00:42:08,151 --> 00:42:11,362 Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. 841 00:42:11,362 --> 00:42:16,075 Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. 842 00:42:16,075 --> 00:42:18,786 Sometimes we must interfere." 843 00:42:20,121 --> 00:42:23,666 In the Pacific, President Franklin Roosevelt, 844 00:42:23,666 --> 00:42:26,586 General Douglas MacArthur, and Admiral Chester Nimitz 845 00:42:26,586 --> 00:42:28,963 meet in Pearl Harbor to draw a plan 846 00:42:28,963 --> 00:42:31,883 for the final defeat of Imperial Japan.