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NARRATOR: Down this road
on a summer day in 1944,

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the soldiers came.

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Nobody lives here now.

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They stayed only a few hours.

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When they had gone,

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a community, which had lived
for a 1,000 years, was dead.

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This is Oradour-sur-Glane in France.

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The day the soldiers came
the people were gathered together.

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The men were taken to garages and barns,

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the women and children
were led down this road,

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and they were driven into this church.

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Here, they heard the firing
as their men were shot.

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Then they were killed, too.

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A few weeks later
many of those who had done the killing

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were themselves dead in battle.

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They never rebuilt Oradour.
Its ruins are a memorial.

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Its martyrdom stands for 1,000
upon 1,000 of other martyrdoms

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in Poland, in Russia,

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in Burma, in China,

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in a world at war.

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[♪ MILITARY MARCH]

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Germany, 1933.

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A huge, blind excitement
fills the streets.

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The National Socialists
have come to power

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in a land tortured by unemployment,

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embittered by loss of territory,
demoralized by political weakness.

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Perhaps this will be the new beginning.

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Most people think the Nazis
a little absurd here,

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too obsessive there.

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But perhaps the time
for thinking is over.

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Adolf Hitler did not seize power.

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He was offered it just
as his voting strength was declining.

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The politicians
who made Hitler chancellor argued,

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"We are hiring him."

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Their figurehead was
the ancient President von Hindenburg.

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Communists and Socialists
tried to take Hitler coolly.

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"This wouldn't last," they said.

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Conservative anti-Nazis
took comfort from the fact

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that their old war leader Hindenburg,
still head of state,

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was known to despise
the vulgar little corporal.

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[SPEAKING GERMAN]

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So, fertig?

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Na, jetzt wird es fertig sein.

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[ALL SHOUT OUT "HEIL!"]

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With mock solemnity,
Hitler and his lieutenants

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walked to the ceremonial opening
of parliament.

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The party's strength had been built up
by revolutionary violence.

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They had never imagined that
they could take office legally.

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When the old Reichstag building
was mysteriously gutted by fire,

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Hitler seized his chance
to suspend all civil liberties.

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His followers could hardly believe
their luck.

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The old Hindenburg, the symbol
of apparent continuity, presided

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as they turned office into power
by acts of sham legality.

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In March, when the Reichstag voted

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to allow Hitler
to govern without parliament,

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Hindenburg made no comment.

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The legal chancellor marched irresistibly

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into the role of the legal dictator.

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Hitler proclaimed the new Germany,

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and meant it to last a 1,000 years.

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The new Germany
began to round up its enemies -

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Communists, Socialists, impertinent
journalists, even Reichstag deputies.

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Antreten zum Arbeiten.

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At Oranienburg concentration camp,
just north of Berlin,

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conditions were at first crude
rather than brutal.

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At this time the camps were run
by the Sturmabteilungen - the SA.

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They bullied more than they murdered.

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From the first moment, Hitler unleashed
his promised campaign against the Jews.

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The SA organized boycotts
of Jewish-owned shops.

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The real point
was to encourage the German people

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to think and act anti-Semitic
as a matter of course.

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The outside world was horrified,

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but there were those,
including many German Jews,

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who thought the anti-Jewish campaign
the work of Nazi extremists -

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something Herr Hitler would put
a stop to when he felt more secure.

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There was to be
a cultural revolution, too.

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German culture would be purged
of the Jewish-Bolshevist taint.

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[♪ SINGING IN GERMAN]

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Books flew into the fire.

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Many of those who flung them
were students and teachers.

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And, as the sparks rose,
the intellectuals fled -

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writers and scientists -

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to give their talents
to Western Europe and America.

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A 100 years before
the German-Jewish poet, Heine,

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whose books now went into the fire,
had warned:

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"Where one burns books,
there one eventually burns people."

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[PEAL OF CHURCH BELLS]

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Some of Hitler's most earnest followers
found new ways to show loyalty -

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they married or got married
all over again under a Nazi ritual.

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The Nazis had mass support
among the unemployed,

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but less among the organized workers.

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The left wing of the party

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wanted to start a workers' movement
inside the factories,

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but Hitler took a simpler course.

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He granted the unions the May Day
holiday they had always demanded.

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Next day he abolished the unions.

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Nazi supporters
were basically middle class -

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shopkeepers ruined by the Depression,
clerks who had lost their savings,

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craftsmen squeezed out
by mass production.

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[CHANTS OF "SIEG HEIL!"]

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These were Hitler's worshipers.

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[♪ CONGREGATION SINGING]

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To this army of those
who had come down in the world

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belonged the small farmers, the peasants.

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Hitler had enlisted them
during the Depression.

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Now he told them that their blood
and soil were Germany's treasure.

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He passed laws to give them
safe possession of their fields

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and he gave them bread.

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The Treaty of Versailles in 1919

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had bitten deep into Germany's frontiers.

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Alsace-Lorraine and the Saarland
had been lost.

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East Prussia was cut off
by the new Polish state,

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Silesia cut in two,

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Danzig, a League of Nations city.

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[MAN SPEAKING IN GERMAN]

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To every patriot, Germany could not
be free while Versailles stood.

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Hitler alone seemed the savior foretold
by the monuments of the border:

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"Never, German, forget
what blind hate stole from thee."

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[♪ GERMAN NATIONAL ANTHEM]

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"Wait for the hour that avenges
the bleeding frontier crime."

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Abroad there were some
who admired the way

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this new Germany stood up for herself.

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In America we've had reports
against your new government,

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and, in most cases, this has caused
hasty demonstrations everywhere.

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I can now say to you that
the American people today realize

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these stories are untrue
and without foundation.

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I find that there's a new,
fresh vitality here in Germany

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under your great leader
and chancellor, Adolf Hitler,

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of whom I'm a great admirer.

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The new Germany will live

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for you have the best centralized
government in the world today.

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NARRATOR: In fact, the new Germany

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was a bundle of different interests
and grievances

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held together by the strap
of the National Socialist Party,

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and the buckle of the strap was Hitler.

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[HITLER SPEAKING GERMAN]

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Well, really, it was the only party
that promised to get us out of the hole.

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And their idea was principally

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that that would only be possible

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if we developed as a nation
a team spirit, a solidarity,

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and pulling all on the same rope,

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instead of quarreling
about petty differences of opinions

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in foreign politics and social politics,
and so on and so forth.

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[SPEAKS GERMAN]

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TRANSLATOR: What did he promise?

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Work and bread for the masses,

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for the millions of workers who were
unemployed and hungry at that time.

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Nowadays, in our prosperous society,

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work and bread
doesn't mean anything anymore,

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but then it was an absolutely basic need.

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And this promise,
which wouldn't make any sense today,

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then it sounded like
a promise of paradise.

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[SPEAKS GERMAN]

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TRANSLATOR: All this seemed
ideal ground for a prophet to say:

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"I will lead you to the promised land.
I will deliver you from evil."

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Anyone who said that
would be greeted with enthusiasm.

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Of course, there were people
who said this is a false prophet,

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but who was to know
whether they were right or not?

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At that time no one did.

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[♪ PEOPLE SINGING
"SILENT NIGHT" IN GERMAN]

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NARRATOR: Christmas, 1933.

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One year of Hitler's Reich.

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Peace on earth, goodwill towards men.

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The concentration camps were full,
parliament a rubber stamp,

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political parties
and trade unions abolished,

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the Jews out of the civil service,
a free press strangled,

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personal liberties destroyed.

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00:14:12,680 --> 00:14:16,960
Germany lived under
a permanent state of emergency.

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Adolf Hitler's state
was all-powerful, even almighty.

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[CHURCH BELLS RINGING]

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But he still felt threatened.

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He feared his old conservative rivals.

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He feared the army.

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00:14:44,800 --> 00:14:48,956
And he feared those sections of his own
party which were still revolutionary,

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like the leadership
of the storm troopers.

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00:14:51,960 --> 00:14:55,556
The army, too, hated the SA.

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00:14:55,640 --> 00:15:02,636
Hitler saw how he could conciliate
the generals and clear his own path.

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The head of the SA was one of
his oldest comrades, Ernst Röhm.

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On June 30, 1934, Röhm was arrested...

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[GUNSHOT]

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...and shot.

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His SA commanders
and more than 100 others

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dragged from their beds were shot, too.

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[GUNFIRE]

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Murder exploded across Germany.

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The killers were the new force
in Germany -

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the SS, Hitler's bodyguard -

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00:15:33,120 --> 00:15:36,880
which now became
his personal instrument of terror.

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Göring gave a press conference
at the propaganda ministry.

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00:15:42,360 --> 00:15:44,716
Goebbels was the minister of propaganda,

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00:15:44,800 --> 00:15:47,836
but Goebbels had wisely stayed
with Hitler at that time

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00:15:47,920 --> 00:15:50,436
because Göring hated his guts

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00:15:50,520 --> 00:15:55,036
and might have taken the opportunity
to bump him off if he'd been in Berlin.

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00:15:55,120 --> 00:15:58,756
Göring had that press conference
for the foreign press.

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00:15:58,840 --> 00:16:03,716
Before that the telephones had been
cut off to all foreign countries.

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00:16:03,800 --> 00:16:06,836
Göring came striding in and said,

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00:16:06,920 --> 00:16:10,996
"I know you boys
always like to have a story," -

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00:16:11,080 --> 00:16:16,396
he used the English word -
"I've got a story for you all right,"

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00:16:16,480 --> 00:16:22,596
and described how
that previous night and that morning

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00:16:22,680 --> 00:16:27,476
he and Hitler had acted against
dissident forces,

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00:16:27,560 --> 00:16:32,236
both of the Right and of the Left,

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00:16:32,320 --> 00:16:34,596
that Röhm had been shot,

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00:16:34,680 --> 00:16:37,916
that a second revolution
had been quashed.

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00:16:38,000 --> 00:16:44,396
He also made a rather obscure reference
to General von Schleicher

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00:16:44,480 --> 00:16:48,796
who had preceded Hitler
as German chancellor.

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00:16:48,880 --> 00:16:53,356
Then he left the room, came back again
in a few seconds and said:

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00:16:53,440 --> 00:16:56,596
"It's been suggested
that I didn't make myself quite clear

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00:16:56,680 --> 00:16:58,436
about General von Schleicher."

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00:16:58,520 --> 00:17:01,880
"He was shot dead this morning
while resisting arrest."

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00:17:02,280 --> 00:17:08,076
30 June, '34,
was a very, very important day,

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00:17:08,160 --> 00:17:14,236
because it became obvious that
this government, as a government,

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00:17:14,320 --> 00:17:16,996
started to become a murderer.

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00:17:17,080 --> 00:17:20,996
You remember that
they shot a great number of people

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00:17:21,080 --> 00:17:24,116
without any bringing them to court.

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00:17:24,200 --> 00:17:26,236
They just killed them.

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00:17:26,320 --> 00:17:33,320
And not only direct enemies of Hitler
in that moment -

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00:17:33,880 --> 00:17:38,316
not only Röhm, the head of the SA -

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00:17:38,400 --> 00:17:43,156
but also other people
who they felt were unpleasant.

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00:17:43,240 --> 00:17:46,196
And they just did it at the same time.

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00:17:46,280 --> 00:17:48,680
[♪ SOLEMN DIRGE]

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00:17:54,400 --> 00:17:57,800
NARRATOR: That summer
another rival disappeared.

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00:17:59,160 --> 00:18:04,160
President Hindenburg
died in his bed on August 2.

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00:18:06,480 --> 00:18:08,436
While the old man was still breathing

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00:18:08,520 --> 00:18:11,156
Hitler had abolished
the office of president,

225
00:18:11,240 --> 00:18:13,916
proclaiming himself
Führer and Chancellor,

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00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:16,560
head of state and government.

227
00:18:22,320 --> 00:18:24,916
And before his corpse was laid to rest,

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00:18:25,000 --> 00:18:27,760
Hitler usurped his command over the army.

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00:18:28,400 --> 00:18:31,556
The armed forces paraded
to swear a new oath.

230
00:18:31,640 --> 00:18:34,876
Where once they had sworn loyalty
to the constitution,

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00:18:34,960 --> 00:18:38,880
now they pledged themselves to Hitler,
personally, by name.

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00:18:39,520 --> 00:18:44,236
-I swear to God...
-[MEN REPEAT SENTENCE]

233
00:18:44,320 --> 00:18:47,036
...this holy oath...

234
00:18:47,120 --> 00:18:49,676
[MEN REPEAT]

235
00:18:49,760 --> 00:18:55,076
...that I am the leader
of the German Retches and people...

236
00:18:55,160 --> 00:18:59,756
[MEN REPEAT]

237
00:18:59,840 --> 00:19:01,756
...Adolf Hitler...

238
00:19:01,840 --> 00:19:03,916
[MEN REPEAT]

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00:19:04,000 --> 00:19:08,400
NARRATOR: For German officers,
an oath was almost physically real.

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00:19:11,200 --> 00:19:13,396
Hitler had trapped them.

241
00:19:13,480 --> 00:19:18,236
Now they couldn't disobey him
without disobeying the fatherland.

242
00:19:18,320 --> 00:19:21,516
-I swear...
-[MEN REPEAT]

243
00:19:21,600 --> 00:19:24,356
-Ich schwöre bei Gott...
-[MEN REPEAT]

244
00:19:24,440 --> 00:19:27,356
Ich schwöre Adolf Hitler...

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00:19:27,440 --> 00:19:29,596
Adolf Hitler.

246
00:19:29,680 --> 00:19:31,196
MEN: Adolf Hitler.

247
00:19:31,280 --> 00:19:32,556
Adolf Hitler!

248
00:19:32,640 --> 00:19:34,116
MEN: Adolf Hitler.

249
00:19:34,200 --> 00:19:35,636
Adolf Hitler!

250
00:19:35,720 --> 00:19:37,440
[TRAIN WHISTLE]

251
00:19:39,600 --> 00:19:44,116
Hitler kept up the pace. That same month
the Germans had to go again to the polls

252
00:19:44,200 --> 00:19:47,956
to approve his assumption
of state and government powers.

253
00:19:48,040 --> 00:19:50,276
By now the machinery of ballot management

254
00:19:50,360 --> 00:19:54,356
by threat, propaganda, forgery and fraud
was functioning excellently.

255
00:19:54,440 --> 00:19:56,440
[CROWD CHANT IN GERMAN]

256
00:20:00,920 --> 00:20:03,720
Hitler had a 90% Ja.

257
00:20:04,480 --> 00:20:07,880
Four million still voted Nein.

258
00:20:08,960 --> 00:20:10,356
Hitler proclaimed:

259
00:20:10,440 --> 00:20:15,840
"For the next 1,000 years, there will
be no other revolution in Germany."

260
00:20:20,480 --> 00:20:23,956
The Nazis preached the doctrine
of "folk-community",

261
00:20:24,040 --> 00:20:27,996
of learning to be Germans one of another.

262
00:20:28,080 --> 00:20:32,356
Winter Help, the main street collection
for charity, was one symbol,

263
00:20:32,440 --> 00:20:35,916
and the leaders of the party,
for the benefit of the cameras,

264
00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:38,880
showed themselves as folk comrades, too.

265
00:20:40,240 --> 00:20:42,516
Göring displayed himself -

266
00:20:42,600 --> 00:20:46,556
a war hero, a man who laughed
and enjoyed life,

267
00:20:46,640 --> 00:20:49,996
a moderating force in the party,
it was believed.

268
00:20:50,080 --> 00:20:53,276
Joseph Goebbels,
the little propaganda minister,

269
00:20:53,360 --> 00:20:56,596
whom the backstreet
called "poison dwarf".

270
00:20:56,680 --> 00:21:00,200
His sharpness was feared, but respected.

271
00:21:01,480 --> 00:21:05,636
-Warum lachen Sie?
-Die Dame spricht nicht Deutsch.

272
00:21:05,720 --> 00:21:11,516
The deputy Führer, Rudolf Hess,
a puzzling figure to the crowds.

273
00:21:11,600 --> 00:21:17,316
The Nazi way of ruling was to be remote,
but to seem not to be.

274
00:21:17,400 --> 00:21:21,076
All classes were encouraged
to relish the same meals -

275
00:21:21,160 --> 00:21:24,676
the soldier, the boss,
the worker, the banker.

276
00:21:24,760 --> 00:21:27,116
The party believed in community,

277
00:21:27,200 --> 00:21:30,276
but the industrialists stayed rich.

278
00:21:30,360 --> 00:21:33,676
They had financed the Nazis
when they seemed likely to win,

279
00:21:33,760 --> 00:21:38,316
and now they submitted to Nazi direction
without too much distaste.

280
00:21:38,400 --> 00:21:40,880
Business was picking up fast.

281
00:21:42,960 --> 00:21:46,356
The economy was reviving
when the Nazis came to power,

282
00:21:46,440 --> 00:21:48,276
but they reaped the credit,

283
00:21:48,360 --> 00:21:51,956
speeding recovery
with an enormous public works program

284
00:21:52,040 --> 00:21:53,716
for the unemployed.

285
00:21:53,800 --> 00:22:00,200
Other nations, where mass unemployment
persisted, watched Germany with envy.

286
00:22:28,160 --> 00:22:33,316
The workless built the highways -
the first motorways in the world,

287
00:22:33,400 --> 00:22:37,156
binding a still-provincial Germany
together.

288
00:22:37,240 --> 00:22:40,116
The highways were not least
for private pleasure,

289
00:22:40,200 --> 00:22:43,396
in the fascist notion
of Strength through Joy.

290
00:22:43,480 --> 00:22:46,316
And they were presented
less than a transport system

291
00:22:46,400 --> 00:22:48,876
than as a triumph of national will,

292
00:22:48,960 --> 00:22:51,076
linked with other prestigious projects,

293
00:22:51,160 --> 00:22:54,640
like the design
for the Führer's new Berlin.

294
00:23:14,360 --> 00:23:16,356
WOMAN: Full of grace and health,

295
00:23:16,440 --> 00:23:20,316
faithful and of their great duties
and tasks aware,

296
00:23:20,400 --> 00:23:24,120
sind sie glückliche Mädel
unserer großen Zeit.

297
00:23:26,920 --> 00:23:29,596
NARRATOR: These were members
of Faith and Beauty,

298
00:23:29,680 --> 00:23:32,236
older sister to
the League of German Maidens,

299
00:23:32,320 --> 00:23:34,716
the girls' equivalent
of the Hitler Youth.

300
00:23:34,800 --> 00:23:36,436
And so on.

301
00:23:36,520 --> 00:23:42,400
All young people learned party songs,
drilled and danced and belonged.

302
00:23:49,200 --> 00:23:50,760
[CHEERING]

303
00:23:52,760 --> 00:23:56,476
Each year the farmers and their wives
gathered at the Buckeberg

304
00:23:56,560 --> 00:23:59,276
to meet their Führer at harvest time.

305
00:23:59,360 --> 00:24:04,720
In 1936 those who stood and waited
for the leader numbered one million.

306
00:24:09,360 --> 00:24:10,836
The leader was late.

307
00:24:10,920 --> 00:24:13,836
He always arrived late -
it built up tension.

308
00:24:13,920 --> 00:24:16,880
[CROWD CHEER AND SHOUT "HEIL, HITLER!"]

309
00:24:23,600 --> 00:24:26,400
[♪ BAND STRIKES UP]

310
00:24:55,280 --> 00:24:58,676
Then he came,
letting the excitement spill over.

311
00:24:58,760 --> 00:25:00,356
As he marched to the rostrum,

312
00:25:00,440 --> 00:25:03,676
the masses were allowed
to see him close and even to touch him.

313
00:25:03,760 --> 00:25:07,916
Deliberately,
women were placed in the front rows.

314
00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:12,116
TRANSLATOR: When he went up the mountain,

315
00:25:12,200 --> 00:25:14,756
I couldn't understand how it was possible

316
00:25:14,840 --> 00:25:16,800
that people could shout so much.

317
00:25:18,960 --> 00:25:23,676
Yet when he came towards our group,
I too came under his spell

318
00:25:23,760 --> 00:25:28,636
and shouted "Heil!"
just like everyone else.

319
00:25:28,720 --> 00:25:33,636
But then when he was really close,
greeting people to his left and right,

320
00:25:33,720 --> 00:25:39,756
shaking their hand and exchanging
a few words, and he also shook my hand,

321
00:25:39,840 --> 00:25:44,476
I suddenly noticed that
everybody in his immediate presence

322
00:25:44,560 --> 00:25:47,600
was completely silent.

323
00:25:48,720 --> 00:25:52,276
For the first ten minutes
he wasn't a good speaker.

324
00:25:52,360 --> 00:25:58,396
He just began warming up
and finding the words.

325
00:25:58,480 --> 00:26:03,636
But then he turned out to be
a terribly good speaker, you know.

326
00:26:03,720 --> 00:26:08,196
He just...
I don't know the words in English.

327
00:26:08,280 --> 00:26:11,440
Er massierte his public!

328
00:26:12,920 --> 00:26:18,836
And the whole atmosphere

329
00:26:18,920 --> 00:26:21,280
grew more and more hysterical.

330
00:26:22,440 --> 00:26:29,440
He was interrupted nearly
after every phrase by big applause,

331
00:26:30,200 --> 00:26:34,476
and women began screaming.

332
00:26:34,560 --> 00:26:41,560
It was like a mass religious ceremony.

333
00:26:45,160 --> 00:26:47,716
Well, I listened to his speech

334
00:26:47,800 --> 00:26:54,800
and I felt that more and more
excited atmosphere in the hall

335
00:26:55,120 --> 00:27:01,236
and for some seconds again and again
I had a feeling,

336
00:27:01,320 --> 00:27:05,836
"What a pity that
I can't share that belief

337
00:27:05,920 --> 00:27:07,996
of all those thousands of people,

338
00:27:08,080 --> 00:27:12,276
that I am alone,
that I am contrary to all that."

339
00:27:12,360 --> 00:27:18,156
It was very funny. I thought,
"He is talking all the nonsense I know,

340
00:27:18,240 --> 00:27:20,316
the nonsense he always talked."

341
00:27:20,400 --> 00:27:26,396
But still, I felt it must be wonderful

342
00:27:26,480 --> 00:27:31,876
just to jump into that bubbling pot

343
00:27:31,960 --> 00:27:37,036
and be a member
of all those who are believers.

344
00:27:37,120 --> 00:27:39,720
[SIREN /UPROAR]

345
00:27:50,880 --> 00:27:54,836
WOMAN: One lady in our village,
she went to Berlin

346
00:27:54,920 --> 00:27:58,596
to a birthday reception for Adolf Hitler,

347
00:27:58,680 --> 00:28:03,516
and she came back and told us,
"The Führer shook hands with me."

348
00:28:03,600 --> 00:28:08,400
And from this time on
she was like a saint in our village.

349
00:28:18,280 --> 00:28:21,880
[♪ "ADOLF HITLER'S EDELWEISS"]

350
00:28:28,240 --> 00:28:32,756
Hitler's home life took place on a ledge
in Bavaria, at Berchtesgaden.

351
00:28:32,840 --> 00:28:35,996
These pictures are from
the home movies of Eva Braun,

352
00:28:36,080 --> 00:28:39,716
the discreet young woman
who stayed with him till his death.

353
00:28:39,800 --> 00:28:43,476
To the Berghof, for tea and tactics,
came the elect.

354
00:28:43,560 --> 00:28:45,996
Some a little ill at ease,

355
00:28:46,080 --> 00:28:47,760
some genuinely intimate.

356
00:28:49,520 --> 00:28:51,920
[♪ SONG CONTINUES]

357
00:29:27,560 --> 00:29:32,680
Even in private Hitler had to correspond
to the image sold to the public.

358
00:29:34,080 --> 00:29:36,080
Adolf with children.

359
00:29:37,320 --> 00:29:39,320
Adolf with dogs.

360
00:29:40,840 --> 00:29:43,440
Adolf with a magnifying glass.

361
00:29:50,840 --> 00:29:52,840
Adolf with friends.

362
00:29:57,480 --> 00:30:02,280
Out for a walk, like a good
Bavarian bourgeois on a Sunday.

363
00:30:09,360 --> 00:30:12,396
In this closed circle
Eva Braun posed herself

364
00:30:12,480 --> 00:30:17,280
as the girl who was
natural, healthy, joyfully physical.

365
00:30:54,640 --> 00:30:59,476
Up at the Berghof
there were jovial, friendly bodyguards

366
00:30:59,560 --> 00:31:01,556
and colder ones.

367
00:31:01,640 --> 00:31:04,916
Heinrich Himmler, lord of the SS,

368
00:31:05,000 --> 00:31:09,120
came with Heydrich,
his terrible, handsome lieutenant.

369
00:31:15,400 --> 00:31:19,156
On formal occasions,
the SS Guard turned out.

370
00:31:19,240 --> 00:31:23,436
They were the reality of the great
tyranny centered in distant Berlin,

371
00:31:23,520 --> 00:31:27,000
their hands soon to be red
with the blood of millions.

372
00:31:27,880 --> 00:31:32,116
For that reality,
Hitler would leave his chintz chair,

373
00:31:32,200 --> 00:31:35,916
his tea parties and his mistress.

374
00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:39,080
The car was waiting
at the foot of the steps.

375
00:31:43,760 --> 00:31:45,760
[♪ BRASS BAND]

376
00:31:48,840 --> 00:31:53,716
If Germany was to be strong again,
Germany must re-arm.

377
00:31:53,800 --> 00:32:00,556
A people frightened by war had to become
once more familiar with arms,

378
00:32:00,640 --> 00:32:02,396
to touch them,

379
00:32:02,480 --> 00:32:04,280
to play at soldiers.

380
00:32:23,800 --> 00:32:26,316
Germany had to train pilots.

381
00:32:26,400 --> 00:32:28,556
Versailles forbade Germany an air force,

382
00:32:28,640 --> 00:32:31,876
so the League for Air Sports used gliders

383
00:32:31,960 --> 00:32:35,720
to train men, still officially
civilians, for the future Luftwaffe.

384
00:32:37,320 --> 00:32:38,720
[EXCITED SHOUTING]

385
00:32:40,040 --> 00:32:43,476
And the army began to swell
beyond the limits set by Versailles

386
00:32:43,560 --> 00:32:46,356
from the moment Hitler became chancellor.

387
00:32:46,440 --> 00:32:49,800
In secret, it trebled its strength
in two years.

388
00:32:50,720 --> 00:32:52,720
[MEN SINGING]

389
00:33:03,680 --> 00:33:07,436
Any foreign military attaché
could see what was happening,

390
00:33:07,520 --> 00:33:09,396
but the world did nothing decisive,

391
00:33:09,480 --> 00:33:13,076
and in March 1935
Germany announced conscription -

392
00:33:13,160 --> 00:33:16,160
a peacetime army of half a million men.

393
00:33:21,880 --> 00:33:25,160
The new tanks came out into the open.

394
00:33:33,880 --> 00:33:37,360
The first Luftwaffe squadrons flew past.

395
00:33:45,280 --> 00:33:48,080
The new German navy was under way.

396
00:33:55,840 --> 00:33:58,156
Hitler kept Europe bewildered.

397
00:33:58,240 --> 00:34:03,916
Proclaiming Versailles extinct,
he proposed a limit on armaments.

398
00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:07,116
Britain, the first democracy
to make a pact with the Nazis,

399
00:34:07,200 --> 00:34:08,796
signed a naval agreement.

400
00:34:08,880 --> 00:34:11,036
Hitler was reassured.

401
00:34:11,120 --> 00:34:15,516
It might be safe to start tampering
with the hated frontiers.

402
00:34:15,600 --> 00:34:19,196
One part of Versailles
had already been undone.

403
00:34:19,280 --> 00:34:22,516
In January 1935
the territory of the Saar,

404
00:34:22,600 --> 00:34:26,436
the little coal-mining region
which had been German before 1918,

405
00:34:26,520 --> 00:34:29,876
voted overwhelmingly,
and under international supervision,

406
00:34:29,960 --> 00:34:32,600
to return to Germany.

407
00:34:39,600 --> 00:34:42,876
Next door, the Rhineland
remained a demilitarized zone.

408
00:34:42,960 --> 00:34:45,076
Beyond dispute, this was part of Germany,

409
00:34:45,160 --> 00:34:48,036
but to recover it
would directly challenge the Allies

410
00:34:48,120 --> 00:34:50,000
and, above all, France.

411
00:34:51,440 --> 00:34:57,076
The troops rode over the Rhine bridges
at dawn on March 7, 1936.

412
00:34:57,160 --> 00:35:00,636
Secretly, the commanders were ready
to bolt back across the river

413
00:35:00,720 --> 00:35:02,556
if France showed any sign of fight.

414
00:35:02,640 --> 00:35:04,640
But there was none.

415
00:35:06,560 --> 00:35:08,996
The Rhineland city of Cologne
and all Germany

416
00:35:09,080 --> 00:35:11,200
went wild with relief and delight.

417
00:35:11,760 --> 00:35:14,676
A part of German honor
had been recovered.

418
00:35:14,760 --> 00:35:17,560
Hitler had taken a chance and won.

419
00:35:19,080 --> 00:35:24,916
Two years later, Austria, Hitler's
birthplace, lay ripe for the taking.

420
00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:30,116
Austrian Nazis were rioting
for Anschluss - union with Germany.

421
00:35:30,200 --> 00:35:34,840
To prevent a plebiscite on independence,
Hitler marched in.

422
00:35:41,440 --> 00:35:44,636
The German troops were greeted
by hysterical crowds.

423
00:35:44,720 --> 00:35:49,316
Vienna suffered a Jew-baiting terror
which even Germany had not yet seen.

424
00:35:49,400 --> 00:35:52,036
Austria became a province.

425
00:35:52,120 --> 00:35:55,596
Germany's neighbors,
appalled, uncertain, unprepared,

426
00:35:55,680 --> 00:35:57,920
once again did nothing.

427
00:36:05,000 --> 00:36:08,436
Czechoslovakia
was no lost German province,

428
00:36:08,520 --> 00:36:13,996
but an independent nation, allied
to Britain, France and the Soviet Union.

429
00:36:14,080 --> 00:36:17,956
Within its northern border
lived the Sudeten Germans.

430
00:36:18,040 --> 00:36:21,556
Hitler incited this minority,
which had never been part of Germany,

431
00:36:21,640 --> 00:36:24,036
to demand union with the Reich.

432
00:36:24,120 --> 00:36:26,520
Europe prepared for war.

433
00:36:28,040 --> 00:36:30,956
But though Czechoslovakia
was ready to fight,

434
00:36:31,040 --> 00:36:33,156
Britain and France gave way.

435
00:36:33,240 --> 00:36:35,956
At Munich, in September 1938,

436
00:36:36,040 --> 00:36:38,436
Chamberlain for Britain,

437
00:36:38,520 --> 00:36:40,796
Italy's Mussolini,

438
00:36:40,880 --> 00:36:43,316
Daladier for France

439
00:36:43,400 --> 00:36:45,276
signed with Hitler the treaty

440
00:36:45,360 --> 00:36:48,036
which stripped Czechoslovakia
of the Sudetenland

441
00:36:48,120 --> 00:36:50,600
and left her broken and abandoned.

442
00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:07,076
The Germans crossed the border,

443
00:37:07,160 --> 00:37:11,440
welcomed as liberators
by the Sudeten population.

444
00:37:12,400 --> 00:37:15,476
At home, the German generals
who opposed Hitler,

445
00:37:15,560 --> 00:37:20,396
hoping that a rebuff over Czechoslovakia
would fatally injure his prestige,

446
00:37:20,480 --> 00:37:23,000
gave up their plots in despair.

447
00:37:41,600 --> 00:37:45,720
Hitler sat with his troops in the field
and planned ahead.

448
00:37:47,600 --> 00:37:50,996
The Sudetenland was easily digested.

449
00:37:51,080 --> 00:37:53,640
The next course could be taken fast.

450
00:37:56,360 --> 00:38:00,436
The shrunken Czech lands and Slovakia
lay helpless before him.

451
00:38:00,520 --> 00:38:03,720
He struck on March 15, 1939.

452
00:38:06,440 --> 00:38:09,716
The German troops reached Prague
the same day.

453
00:38:09,800 --> 00:38:12,200
There was no resistance.

454
00:38:13,800 --> 00:38:18,080
The last democracy in Central Europe
was wiped out.

455
00:38:20,760 --> 00:38:24,276
The Czechs
would never trust the West again.

456
00:38:24,360 --> 00:38:27,036
The West trusted Hitler no more,

457
00:38:27,120 --> 00:38:31,320
and realized at last
that only force would stop him.

458
00:38:41,000 --> 00:38:44,000
Berlin: more cheers, more worship.

459
00:38:45,000 --> 00:38:48,796
Yet what was in the minds
of those who cheered?

460
00:38:48,880 --> 00:38:50,796
Very few wanted wars of conquest

461
00:38:50,880 --> 00:38:52,676
or hoped, like Hitler,

462
00:38:52,760 --> 00:38:56,636
for a German empire
from the Urals to the Atlantic.

463
00:38:56,720 --> 00:39:00,796
Most thought they were taking back
what had been robbed from them

464
00:39:00,880 --> 00:39:06,196
and restoring, not destroying,
the order and unity of Europe.

465
00:39:06,280 --> 00:39:08,680
[JUBILANT SINGING]

466
00:39:17,800 --> 00:39:23,916
For these crowds it seemed that
Hitler's statesmanship could never fail.

467
00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:26,076
Others who stayed at home that night

468
00:39:26,160 --> 00:39:29,556
feared a war was coming
which might destroy Germany itself.

469
00:39:29,640 --> 00:39:33,236
But now they saw no hope
for a rising against Hitler,

470
00:39:33,320 --> 00:39:35,556
they were left with the moral question:

471
00:39:35,640 --> 00:39:40,000
"Should one resist a tyranny
without hope of success?"

472
00:39:41,080 --> 00:39:46,676
Well, I think it's difficult
first of all to make up your mind

473
00:39:46,760 --> 00:39:50,680
that you should do something
against a government.

474
00:39:51,880 --> 00:39:55,356
This is very rare, first of all.

475
00:39:55,440 --> 00:39:59,636
Secondly, if it is extremely dangerous,

476
00:39:59,720 --> 00:40:03,156
as it is in a dictatorship,

477
00:40:03,240 --> 00:40:08,080
it's even more complicated
because everybody likes his own life.

478
00:40:09,360 --> 00:40:13,996
I think everything that came to us
when we were living in Germany

479
00:40:14,080 --> 00:40:16,996
came very gradually.

480
00:40:17,080 --> 00:40:24,080
That was part, perhaps, of the way
Hitler managed these things.

481
00:40:24,320 --> 00:40:27,356
It came on us rather drip by drip,

482
00:40:27,440 --> 00:40:30,676
rather like an anesthetic,
one could almost say,

483
00:40:30,760 --> 00:40:37,760
and it was only when a specific thing
that he did hit you personally

484
00:40:38,280 --> 00:40:44,080
that you actually realized
what was going on.

485
00:40:45,360 --> 00:40:51,396
In my particular case, I think
I could say that it hit me personally

486
00:40:51,480 --> 00:40:56,476
when the Jewish doctor of my children,

487
00:40:56,560 --> 00:40:59,156
whom I'd always had, came...

488
00:40:59,240 --> 00:41:04,236
He was a very busy man, but he seemed
to be having always more time to spare.

489
00:41:04,320 --> 00:41:06,556
I remember one night

490
00:41:06,640 --> 00:41:11,436
he came and spent the night
looking after my very sick child.

491
00:41:11,520 --> 00:41:14,156
And in the morning the child was better

492
00:41:14,240 --> 00:41:18,156
and when he left he asked me,

493
00:41:18,240 --> 00:41:21,116
did I still want him
to look after my children?

494
00:41:21,200 --> 00:41:24,836
And I was tired and I said,
"Well, for goodness' sakes, why not?"

495
00:41:24,920 --> 00:41:28,076
And he told me that
his clinic, his children's clinic,

496
00:41:28,160 --> 00:41:31,716
which he had started in Hamburg
was going...

497
00:41:31,800 --> 00:41:35,196
He was going to be dismissed,
and he'd had threatening letters

498
00:41:35,280 --> 00:41:39,920
that if he laid his hands on
Aryan children, he was in for trouble.

499
00:41:42,720 --> 00:41:48,796
NARRATOR: In November 1938
a Jew shot a German diplomat in Paris.

500
00:41:48,880 --> 00:41:51,516
The Nazi leaders organized a reprisal.

501
00:41:51,600 --> 00:41:56,600
Synagogues were burned and Jewish
shops looted all over Germany.

502
00:41:57,760 --> 00:42:00,316
On that "Crystal Night",

503
00:42:00,400 --> 00:42:03,556
named for the smashed glass
sparkling in the gutters,

504
00:42:03,640 --> 00:42:07,720
thousands of Jews
were thrown into concentration camps.

505
00:42:10,400 --> 00:42:12,400
[SPEAKS GERMAN]

506
00:42:15,920 --> 00:42:18,596
TRANSLATOR: Do you want to know
how the night was?

507
00:42:18,680 --> 00:42:21,236
If you want to know, I will tell you.

508
00:42:21,320 --> 00:42:25,916
We were all shoved together,
beaten and punched

509
00:42:26,000 --> 00:42:30,080
and made to stand in ranks
and be counted and so on.

510
00:42:31,400 --> 00:42:35,476
Because I'd been a soldier
I didn't find that so very difficult,

511
00:42:35,560 --> 00:42:39,116
but the others
who didn't fall in properly,

512
00:42:39,200 --> 00:42:41,560
they were beaten right away.

513
00:42:43,280 --> 00:42:45,116
And the most terrible thing was

514
00:42:45,200 --> 00:42:47,796
when somebody grabbed hold
of a big, strong man,

515
00:42:47,880 --> 00:42:50,396
he said, "Don't grab me."

516
00:42:50,480 --> 00:42:54,160
"What? I shouldn't grab you!"
And he hit him.

517
00:42:57,720 --> 00:43:03,636
And this man was immediately
overpowered by three people - SS people.

518
00:43:03,720 --> 00:43:05,716
A block was brought.

519
00:43:05,800 --> 00:43:09,516
He was tied down to it
and the camp commander said,

520
00:43:09,600 --> 00:43:14,676
"The Jew Israel," or "The Jew Itzik," -
I can't remember exactly now -

521
00:43:14,760 --> 00:43:17,160
"is sentenced to 25 lashes."

522
00:43:20,200 --> 00:43:22,316
Then a huge man came,

523
00:43:22,400 --> 00:43:26,760
an SS man with a huge horsewhip,
and started to beat him.

524
00:43:28,480 --> 00:43:33,916
The man just groaned a bit at first,
but then he shouted, "Stop, stop!"

525
00:43:34,000 --> 00:43:36,716
The commander said,
"What do you mean, stop?"

526
00:43:36,800 --> 00:43:40,516
"We'll start all over again,
from the beginning."

527
00:43:40,600 --> 00:43:43,916
But after three more lashes
the blood was spurting,

528
00:43:44,000 --> 00:43:47,036
then he stopped and salt
was rubbed into the wounds,

529
00:43:47,120 --> 00:43:49,356
or pepper, I can't remember.

530
00:43:49,440 --> 00:43:51,516
The man was dragged away.

531
00:43:51,600 --> 00:43:54,000
We never saw him again.

532
00:43:55,800 --> 00:44:01,996
Of course, in '38,
when the synagogues were burning,

533
00:44:02,080 --> 00:44:04,436
everybody knew what was going on.

534
00:44:04,520 --> 00:44:09,236
I remember that my brother-in-law,
the husband of my sister Lena,

535
00:44:09,320 --> 00:44:14,796
when he went in the morning after
the day of the Reichskristallnacht -

536
00:44:14,880 --> 00:44:17,560
"Crystal Night", or how you say -

537
00:44:18,720 --> 00:44:21,396
he went by train to his office downtown

538
00:44:21,480 --> 00:44:24,916
and between the stations of
Savignyplatz and Zoological Garden

539
00:44:25,000 --> 00:44:30,076
there is the Jewish synagogue, ja,
and he saw that it was burning, ja?

540
00:44:30,160 --> 00:44:32,996
And he murmured, "Kulturschande."

541
00:44:33,080 --> 00:44:38,236
That is an insult for culture -
"Shame to our culture."

542
00:44:38,320 --> 00:44:42,356
Well, right away a gentleman
in front of him turned his Revers

543
00:44:42,440 --> 00:44:47,756
and showed his Parteiabzeichen -
party badge, ja?

544
00:44:47,840 --> 00:44:52,756
And took out his papers
that he was a man of the Gestapo,

545
00:44:52,840 --> 00:44:57,796
And he had to show his papers,
to give his address,

546
00:44:57,880 --> 00:45:02,280
and was ordered to come to the party
office next morning, nine o'clock.

547
00:45:12,520 --> 00:45:14,516
NARRATOR: April, 1939.

548
00:45:14,600 --> 00:45:18,360
The Wehrmacht prepares to celebrate
Hitler's 50th birthday.

549
00:45:19,440 --> 00:45:23,840
They hope for the usual
"Führer weather" - a fine day.

550
00:45:35,320 --> 00:45:38,836
The Führer drives through Berlin,
under the Brandenburg Gate

551
00:45:38,920 --> 00:45:43,400
and down the Siegesallee -
the Avenue of Victories.

552
00:45:59,320 --> 00:46:05,000
The army lining his route has increased
sevenfold in just four years.

553
00:46:15,720 --> 00:46:18,476
Among the Wehrmacht's 51 divisions,

554
00:46:18,560 --> 00:46:22,960
the new panzer units -
the instrument of blitzkrieg.

555
00:46:36,920 --> 00:46:40,196
In spite of appearances,
the high command is by no means sure

556
00:46:40,280 --> 00:46:43,280
that this army is fit for war... yet.

557
00:46:44,640 --> 00:46:47,040
Hitler is ready to overrule them.

558
00:47:06,640 --> 00:47:10,956
The word in every diplomatic
conversation that summer was Danzig.

559
00:47:11,040 --> 00:47:14,236
The free city,
with its mixed German-Polish people,

560
00:47:14,320 --> 00:47:16,076
had been separated from Germany

561
00:47:16,160 --> 00:47:20,040
and made the responsibility
of a League of Nations commissioner.

562
00:47:21,760 --> 00:47:25,876
Danzig and East Prussia
were now sundered from the Reich

563
00:47:25,960 --> 00:47:29,956
by a strip of Polish territory -
the Corridor.

564
00:47:30,040 --> 00:47:32,356
Hitler was demanding the return of Danzig

565
00:47:32,440 --> 00:47:36,156
and free access to East Prussia
across the Corridor.

566
00:47:36,240 --> 00:47:38,036
Poland refused.

567
00:47:38,120 --> 00:47:43,236
In March, 1939, Britain and France
guaranteed her frontiers.

568
00:47:43,320 --> 00:47:48,400
In August, Britain promised to fight
if Poland was attacked.

569
00:47:49,840 --> 00:47:54,036
Once again, myths about the persecution
of a German minority were used

570
00:47:54,120 --> 00:47:56,996
to build up a case
for armed intervention.

571
00:47:57,080 --> 00:48:01,076
German refugees told piteous tales
of Polish brutality.

572
00:48:01,160 --> 00:48:03,160
[SPEAKS GERMAN]

573
00:48:07,800 --> 00:48:11,276
Nazi propaganda filmed them greedily
for the cinema newsreels

574
00:48:11,360 --> 00:48:14,480
throughout July and August.

575
00:48:15,240 --> 00:48:19,116
Hitler's plan was to wipe Poland
off the map.

576
00:48:19,200 --> 00:48:21,636
But this might mean
war with Soviet Russia,

577
00:48:21,720 --> 00:48:23,360
and he was not ready for that.

578
00:48:24,360 --> 00:48:27,836
His foreign minister, Ribbentrop,
flew to Moscow on August 23

579
00:48:27,920 --> 00:48:31,196
to sign the Nazi-Soviet Pact.

580
00:48:31,280 --> 00:48:33,680
Poland's fate was sealed.

581
00:48:38,360 --> 00:48:41,556
The new alliance
stunned the unsuspecting West.

582
00:48:41,640 --> 00:48:43,640
[♪ NEWSREEL INTRO]

583
00:48:46,360 --> 00:48:48,360
Germany gloated.

584
00:48:50,880 --> 00:48:52,920
[REPORTER SPEAKING GERMAN]

585
00:48:57,880 --> 00:49:00,916
You will have read the report
about the agreement reached

586
00:49:01,000 --> 00:49:05,596
between Russia and Germany,
which has surprised the world.

587
00:49:05,680 --> 00:49:09,276
As the life of all nations depends,
in the last resort,

588
00:49:09,360 --> 00:49:12,476
upon mutual respect
for one another's rights

589
00:49:12,560 --> 00:49:17,280
and reasonable confidence that they can
each live their life in their own way,

590
00:49:18,040 --> 00:49:19,640
I would earnestly hope...

591
00:49:26,680 --> 00:49:31,476
...which cannot be retraced,
reason may yet prevail.

592
00:49:31,560 --> 00:49:33,396
NARRATOR: The German newsreels

593
00:49:33,480 --> 00:49:36,676
tried to show Britain
distracted, still uncertain.

594
00:49:36,760 --> 00:49:39,360
[REPORTER SPEAKING GERMAN]

595
00:49:46,600 --> 00:49:49,000
[REPORTER CONTINUES IN GERMAN]

596
00:49:54,280 --> 00:49:58,560
NARRATOR: One young German
left England for home.

597
00:49:59,280 --> 00:50:02,116
MAN: I had a girlfriend
whom I wanted to marry

598
00:50:02,200 --> 00:50:07,916
and I said, "Well, I'll dare go home."

599
00:50:08,000 --> 00:50:13,920
When I came to Cologne
I read the first German newspapers,

600
00:50:15,440 --> 00:50:22,440
and I knew at once that
there was great danger of a war now.

601
00:50:23,040 --> 00:50:28,920
The tone of the German press
was absolutely hysterical.

602
00:50:29,600 --> 00:50:34,196
And I thought what a fool I was.

603
00:50:34,280 --> 00:50:38,400
I had just gone home in that moment!

604
00:50:39,720 --> 00:50:44,316
NARRATOR: All over Europe
the reservists got their telegrams.

605
00:50:44,400 --> 00:50:50,560
In the last hours of peace, the soldiers
put on uniform with a tired grin.