1 00:00:00,840 --> 00:00:03,680 (low, tense music) 2 00:00:05,920 --> 00:00:08,680 - On April 1st 1933, 3 00:00:08,840 --> 00:00:13,800 Adolf Hitler's first official act to persecute Germany's Jews 4 00:00:13,960 --> 00:00:18,440 is an attempt to sever them from all commercial life with a boycott. 5 00:00:19,440 --> 00:00:25,080 What follows over the next 12 years is an organised, sustained cruelty, 6 00:00:25,240 --> 00:00:27,880 unparalleled in human history. 7 00:00:28,720 --> 00:00:31,200 It unfolds step by step. 8 00:00:32,160 --> 00:00:34,960 When he first grasps the enormity of the evil, 9 00:00:35,120 --> 00:00:39,240 Winston Churchill calls it "the crime without a name." 10 00:00:40,560 --> 00:00:43,280 It becomes known as the Holocaust. 11 00:00:44,560 --> 00:00:47,360 (tense, dramatic music) - All wars change the world. 12 00:00:47,520 --> 00:00:51,200 But none of them changed the world like the Second World War did. 13 00:00:51,360 --> 00:00:54,600 - Japan's on the march, Germany's on the march. 14 00:00:55,800 --> 00:00:58,840 - No one can imagine the nightmare they're about to unleash. 15 00:00:59,960 --> 00:01:02,480 The most destructive war in human history. 16 00:01:02,640 --> 00:01:05,400 - Suddenly, the world is turned upside down. 17 00:01:05,560 --> 00:01:07,200 And all hell is let loose. 18 00:01:09,120 --> 00:01:12,160 - The west is stunned by the speed of the advance. 19 00:01:13,720 --> 00:01:19,040 - You get the Allies led by the big three, Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin. 20 00:01:19,200 --> 00:01:24,240 Men who are dealing with immensely complicated questions. 21 00:01:24,400 --> 00:01:28,200 - It's the biggest military operation of human history. 22 00:01:28,360 --> 00:01:30,160 - The Allies have to come together, 23 00:01:30,320 --> 00:01:33,080 not just militarily but on an industrial scale, 24 00:01:33,240 --> 00:01:34,800 it's a global perspective. 25 00:01:34,960 --> 00:01:37,040 - They have to fight in every climate 26 00:01:37,200 --> 00:01:40,120 from the Arctic, to the jungles of the Pacific, 27 00:01:40,280 --> 00:01:43,600 to the deserts of Africa and the depths of the ocean. 28 00:01:46,680 --> 00:01:49,640 - But there was no certainty of victory; 29 00:01:49,800 --> 00:01:52,520 it was going to be a horrific bloodbath. 30 00:01:53,200 --> 00:01:55,120 - We see humans at their absolute worst, 31 00:01:55,280 --> 00:01:57,400 how they treat other human beings. 32 00:01:57,560 --> 00:01:59,600 And we see them at their absolute best, 33 00:01:59,760 --> 00:02:01,696 willing to give their lives that others might live. 34 00:02:01,720 --> 00:02:07,040 - World War Two was a struggle in which there could be one victor 35 00:02:07,200 --> 00:02:08,880 and one vanquished. 36 00:02:13,200 --> 00:02:16,840 (bombs explode) (air raid sirens wail) 37 00:02:26,280 --> 00:02:29,360 (cheering) 38 00:02:37,480 --> 00:02:41,560 TOM: In early 1939, Germany has seized Austria. 39 00:02:43,280 --> 00:02:45,280 Adolf Hitler, the Fuhrer, 40 00:02:45,440 --> 00:02:48,200 wants to take even more land in Europe. 41 00:02:48,960 --> 00:02:51,000 - (speaking German) 42 00:02:51,160 --> 00:02:52,920 TOM: On January 30th, 43 00:02:53,080 --> 00:02:55,160 Hitler tells the German Reichstag 44 00:02:55,320 --> 00:02:56,840 that if war comes, 45 00:02:57,000 --> 00:02:58,920 it will not be his fault. 46 00:03:00,080 --> 00:03:02,320 The blame will lie with one people... 47 00:03:04,040 --> 00:03:05,280 the Jews. 48 00:03:06,920 --> 00:03:09,840 - (in German) 49 00:03:23,880 --> 00:03:26,720 (cheering and applause) 50 00:03:26,880 --> 00:03:30,600 TOM: Two months later, Hitler will take all of Czechoslovakia. 51 00:03:33,680 --> 00:03:35,640 On September 1st, 52 00:03:35,800 --> 00:03:39,360 he invades Poland and World War Two begins. 53 00:03:39,520 --> 00:03:42,280 (low, tense music) 54 00:03:43,280 --> 00:03:46,040 - One of the things that's critical for us to understand 55 00:03:46,200 --> 00:03:49,160 about the history of World War Two and history of the Holocaust 56 00:03:49,320 --> 00:03:52,600 is that all of these things are inextricably linked together. 57 00:03:52,760 --> 00:03:56,800 The ebb and flow of the war itself impacts the way 58 00:03:56,960 --> 00:03:59,200 the Holocaust unfolds on the ground. 59 00:04:00,720 --> 00:04:02,480 TOM: Antisemitism is central 60 00:04:02,640 --> 00:04:05,840 to Hitler's and the Nazi party's philosophy, 61 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:11,120 which he clearly stated in his book Mein Kampf, or My Struggle. 62 00:04:12,960 --> 00:04:18,640 - Mein Kampf is a manifesto slash autobiography of the young Hitler. 63 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:22,240 It contains a rough sketch for the world, 64 00:04:22,400 --> 00:04:23,720 as he would like it to be, 65 00:04:23,880 --> 00:04:27,480 and an endless documentation of all the groups of people 66 00:04:27,640 --> 00:04:30,000 he has grievances against. 67 00:04:32,280 --> 00:04:36,440 TOM: Hitler reserves his greatest grievance for Germany's Jews. 68 00:04:38,160 --> 00:04:40,920 He uses base metaphors to describe them, 69 00:04:41,080 --> 00:04:44,200 playing on long-held antisemitic tropes. 70 00:04:45,240 --> 00:04:49,640 He portrays them as exploiting or manipulating the German people. 71 00:04:51,520 --> 00:04:53,240 - In order to understand Hitler, 72 00:04:53,400 --> 00:04:55,720 one has to understand the importance of race 73 00:04:55,880 --> 00:04:58,800 that underlines every single thing that he does. 74 00:05:00,160 --> 00:05:01,960 He believes that 75 00:05:02,120 --> 00:05:06,800 the whole human race is divided into categories, 76 00:05:06,960 --> 00:05:09,880 the Aryan race is at the top of that category, 77 00:05:10,040 --> 00:05:11,640 the Jews are at the bottom. 78 00:05:12,720 --> 00:05:14,800 - Hitler is obsessed with Jews. 79 00:05:15,560 --> 00:05:19,520 He's obsessed with Jews as an eternal enemy, 80 00:05:19,680 --> 00:05:23,800 as impure racially, as non-German. 81 00:05:26,400 --> 00:05:30,960 And he believes that Germany will fulfil its destiny 82 00:05:31,120 --> 00:05:32,760 when its free of Jews. 83 00:05:34,560 --> 00:05:38,080 TOM: In 1934, Hitler appoints himself the Fuhrer, 84 00:05:38,240 --> 00:05:39,920 the leader of Germany. 85 00:05:41,160 --> 00:05:44,360 And he will quickly turn his hatred of Jews into law. 86 00:05:46,840 --> 00:05:49,040 (soft dramatic music) 87 00:05:50,600 --> 00:05:55,080 In the fall of 1935, at a Nazi gathering in Nuremberg, 88 00:05:55,240 --> 00:05:58,440 Hitler's deputy Hermann Goering unveils a sweeping set 89 00:05:58,600 --> 00:06:02,920 of legal measures targeting the country's Jewish population. 90 00:06:03,720 --> 00:06:06,760 - (in German) 91 00:06:11,920 --> 00:06:13,560 (cheers) 92 00:06:13,720 --> 00:06:15,080 - Seig heil! 93 00:06:18,120 --> 00:06:22,240 TOM: The laws prohibit marriage or sexual relations between Jews 94 00:06:22,400 --> 00:06:23,960 and non-Jews, 95 00:06:24,120 --> 00:06:27,320 and strip German Jews of their citizenship. 96 00:06:29,440 --> 00:06:31,360 - For Jews living in Germany, 97 00:06:31,520 --> 00:06:34,040 the Nuremberg laws are a huge turning point. 98 00:06:36,080 --> 00:06:39,680 It doesn't matter if you're not religious. 99 00:06:39,840 --> 00:06:42,080 Identity is now biological. 100 00:06:43,080 --> 00:06:47,200 It plants the seeds for saying Jews are a separate race 101 00:06:47,360 --> 00:06:49,200 that are polluting Germany. 102 00:06:51,000 --> 00:06:53,560 TOM: The Nazis intend to make life so difficult 103 00:06:53,720 --> 00:06:57,000 for German and Austrian Jews that they will want to emigrate. 104 00:06:58,040 --> 00:07:03,360 Around half of Germany's Jewish community of 500,000 go into exile. 105 00:07:04,600 --> 00:07:07,000 (low, tense music) 106 00:07:08,320 --> 00:07:12,200 In November 1938, the Nazis coordinate a brutal wave 107 00:07:12,360 --> 00:07:15,200 of destruction and violence across Germany. 108 00:07:16,640 --> 00:07:18,880 Jewish businesses are looted and burned. 109 00:07:21,320 --> 00:07:22,920 Synagogues razed. 110 00:07:24,040 --> 00:07:25,880 And homes left in ruin. 111 00:07:27,600 --> 00:07:29,400 Jews are killed and raped. 112 00:07:31,240 --> 00:07:35,040 The event is called in German "Kristallnacht", 113 00:07:35,200 --> 00:07:37,560 "the Night of Broken Glass." 114 00:07:39,280 --> 00:07:43,240 - The windows of Jewish shopkeepers are smashed. 115 00:07:49,680 --> 00:07:52,680 There's also incursions into their homes. 116 00:07:52,840 --> 00:07:56,000 They're kicking in the doors, they're dragging people out, 117 00:07:56,160 --> 00:08:00,520 they're beating them up, to petrify the Jewish population. 118 00:08:02,560 --> 00:08:07,680 - Police or military were instructed not to wear their uniforms 119 00:08:07,840 --> 00:08:10,840 when they went out to commit the violence on Kristallnacht 120 00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:14,440 to make it look like it was more spontaneous than it actually was. 121 00:08:15,760 --> 00:08:19,720 But it is a government-coordinated terrorist attack against Jews. 122 00:08:19,880 --> 00:08:22,000 (low, tense music) 123 00:08:25,280 --> 00:08:27,200 TOM: The morning after Kristallnacht, 124 00:08:27,360 --> 00:08:30,280 the Nazis arrest 30,000 Jewish men 125 00:08:30,440 --> 00:08:32,880 and march them off to concentration camps. 126 00:08:35,120 --> 00:08:37,280 - I think Kristallnacht is an inflection point 127 00:08:37,440 --> 00:08:40,200 because it showed the Nazi government 128 00:08:40,360 --> 00:08:42,520 that average Germans would be willing 129 00:08:42,680 --> 00:08:44,200 to go along with the violence. 130 00:08:45,400 --> 00:08:49,600 TOM: By the late 30s, Jews living within Germany and Austria 131 00:08:49,760 --> 00:08:52,080 face persecution and intimidation. 132 00:08:53,200 --> 00:08:56,320 Even worse dangers are on the horizon. 133 00:08:57,880 --> 00:09:01,000 (tense, dramatic music) (planes hum) 134 00:09:02,680 --> 00:09:04,640 (air raid siren blare) 135 00:09:04,800 --> 00:09:06,320 (clamour) 136 00:09:11,520 --> 00:09:15,120 TOM: In early September 1939, German forces invade Poland. 137 00:09:25,560 --> 00:09:28,040 In just a few weeks, the Poles are conquered. 138 00:09:30,280 --> 00:09:34,840 Poland's three million Jews are now controlled by Hitler and the Nazis. 139 00:09:37,920 --> 00:09:40,040 - When the Nazis enter Poland, 140 00:09:40,200 --> 00:09:41,760 they have no real, coherent strategy 141 00:09:41,920 --> 00:09:43,800 about what they're going to do with Jews. 142 00:09:43,960 --> 00:09:47,040 So they start to improvise pretty quickly. 143 00:09:47,200 --> 00:09:50,680 And one of the things that emerges as part of this improvisation 144 00:09:50,840 --> 00:09:52,760 is an idea about creating ghettos. 145 00:09:55,000 --> 00:09:57,360 TOM: Within days of the German occupation, 146 00:09:57,520 --> 00:10:00,320 many Polish Jews are forced into ghettos. 147 00:10:03,080 --> 00:10:04,720 Jews are ordered to wear armbands 148 00:10:04,880 --> 00:10:07,280 and are restricted on entering and leaving. 149 00:10:09,800 --> 00:10:13,440 - The decision is made in Warsaw to create a closed ghetto. 150 00:10:15,200 --> 00:10:18,040 There is movement across the gates of guards and of Poles, 151 00:10:18,200 --> 00:10:21,120 but not of the Jews themselves. They are locked into the ghetto, 152 00:10:21,280 --> 00:10:24,920 and a wall is created to restrict Jewish movement. 153 00:10:25,880 --> 00:10:29,280 It's a very visible signal of the racial segregation 154 00:10:29,440 --> 00:10:30,760 of the city of Warsaw. 155 00:10:32,080 --> 00:10:34,960 - Over 100,000 Jews who lived in other parts of Warsaw 156 00:10:35,120 --> 00:10:36,880 had to move into this area. 157 00:10:37,040 --> 00:10:40,160 It was about 1.3 square miles, so it was tiny. 158 00:10:41,840 --> 00:10:45,280 - The circumstances of the ghettos actually create the perfect 159 00:10:45,440 --> 00:10:47,680 breeding grounds for disease. 160 00:10:47,840 --> 00:10:52,040 This is exacerbated by the fact that running water is limited 161 00:10:52,200 --> 00:10:54,520 and sewage systems are not adequate, 162 00:10:54,680 --> 00:10:57,120 especially with the size of the population. 163 00:11:00,680 --> 00:11:04,880 TOM: Mendel Jakubowicz is 14 when his family is sent 164 00:11:05,040 --> 00:11:08,520 to the ghetto in Ostrowiec, Southeast Poland. 165 00:11:12,200 --> 00:11:13,760 He later writes: 166 00:11:15,240 --> 00:11:20,000 "I remember that as a small boy I used to walk the ghetto streets, 167 00:11:20,160 --> 00:11:23,720 and I could see people dying, people screaming. 168 00:11:25,760 --> 00:11:29,880 There was no food, especially for the people that had no money." 169 00:11:33,040 --> 00:11:34,800 (sombre music) 170 00:11:36,480 --> 00:11:39,320 The Jews fight to survive in the ghetto... 171 00:11:40,720 --> 00:11:43,240 and even look for opportunities to resist. 172 00:11:45,680 --> 00:11:49,000 - There were smugglers who would smuggle in food 173 00:11:49,160 --> 00:11:51,240 and smuggle out people sometimes. 174 00:11:51,400 --> 00:11:54,040 For forced labour, they would sometimes slow their work 175 00:11:54,200 --> 00:11:57,120 or make sure that whatever they were told to do 176 00:11:57,280 --> 00:12:00,080 would be broken by the time the Nazis get it. 177 00:12:00,840 --> 00:12:03,640 There was all sorts of work that they were doing 178 00:12:03,800 --> 00:12:05,640 to try to resist as long as possible. 179 00:12:07,520 --> 00:12:09,480 TOM: For the first year of the war, 180 00:12:09,640 --> 00:12:13,880 life in the ghetto is the cruel daily reality of Poland's Jews. 181 00:12:16,480 --> 00:12:18,960 But Hitler is planning a new campaign. 182 00:12:19,120 --> 00:12:23,040 And millions of people are about to descend into horror. 183 00:12:29,000 --> 00:12:31,920 (low, tense music) 184 00:12:38,960 --> 00:12:43,760 TOM: By mid-1941, Germany controls much of western Europe. 185 00:12:44,760 --> 00:12:47,080 (tense, dramatic music) 186 00:12:49,560 --> 00:12:52,800 But Hitler's true goal is to create Lebensraum, 187 00:12:52,960 --> 00:12:55,280 "living space" for the German people. 188 00:12:57,400 --> 00:12:59,360 Which will be found in the east. 189 00:13:00,800 --> 00:13:05,720 - Hitler now realised that this was the ideal moment to begin 190 00:13:05,880 --> 00:13:08,440 the secret planning of the invasion of Russia, 191 00:13:08,600 --> 00:13:12,560 the great climax of his life's work, 192 00:13:12,720 --> 00:13:15,720 the destruction of the entire Soviet Union. 193 00:13:15,880 --> 00:13:17,120 Barbarossa. 194 00:13:21,680 --> 00:13:25,400 TOM: For Operation Barbarossa, Hitler and his generals will deploy 195 00:13:25,560 --> 00:13:28,600 three army groups and three million men... 196 00:13:31,160 --> 00:13:35,800 supported by thousands of tanks and aircraft across a vast front. 197 00:13:39,960 --> 00:13:45,040 - The German preparations for Barbarossa are on a scale 198 00:13:45,200 --> 00:13:46,680 that's almost unimaginable. 199 00:13:48,520 --> 00:13:53,320 This is going to be and remains the largest invasion in human history. 200 00:13:57,360 --> 00:13:59,960 TOM: Hitler adds another mission to the plan. 201 00:14:01,000 --> 00:14:04,560 He issues a directive stating in the invasion there will be 202 00:14:04,720 --> 00:14:06,240 "special tasks." 203 00:14:07,560 --> 00:14:11,200 In charge of these will be Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS. 204 00:14:13,720 --> 00:14:15,800 - If you want to know what Hitler's thinking, 205 00:14:15,960 --> 00:14:17,760 look at what Himmler was doing. 206 00:14:17,920 --> 00:14:20,520 Because Himmler was talking to and meeting Hitler 207 00:14:20,680 --> 00:14:23,320 very, very frequently across these periods of time. 208 00:14:24,600 --> 00:14:28,720 TOM: Himmler has been a member of the Nazi Party since 1923. 209 00:14:31,000 --> 00:14:32,800 - By all appearances, 210 00:14:32,960 --> 00:14:35,120 Heinrich Himmler seems like an ordinary human being. 211 00:14:35,280 --> 00:14:38,520 He was born to a good family, went to decent schools. 212 00:14:38,680 --> 00:14:41,640 He hooks up with various kinds of occupations. 213 00:14:41,800 --> 00:14:45,120 He's a chicken farmer, sells fertilizer for a time. 214 00:14:45,280 --> 00:14:47,960 And like so many young men of his generation, 215 00:14:48,120 --> 00:14:49,760 came under Hitler's spell. 216 00:14:54,600 --> 00:14:58,440 TOM: Himmler's mobile death squads, the Einsatzgruppen, 217 00:14:58,600 --> 00:15:02,600 will follow the advancing German army into Soviet territory. 218 00:15:03,520 --> 00:15:06,440 They have orders to move into occupied communities 219 00:15:06,600 --> 00:15:09,560 and kill anyone who threatens the operation. 220 00:15:11,560 --> 00:15:14,040 - The Einsatzgruppen will follow the Wehrmacht 221 00:15:14,200 --> 00:15:15,360 in the Barbarossa campaign, 222 00:15:15,520 --> 00:15:19,200 and their task is the long-term pacification of Soviet society. 223 00:15:20,080 --> 00:15:22,280 They are, above all, targeting what they believe are 224 00:15:22,440 --> 00:15:25,200 the two key facets of the Soviet social system: 225 00:15:25,360 --> 00:15:28,280 Commissars or Communist political leaders. 226 00:15:29,240 --> 00:15:31,480 Then they particularly single out Jews. 227 00:15:33,640 --> 00:15:37,760 - The conflict now was being raised to a new level 228 00:15:37,920 --> 00:15:39,880 of ideological and racial warfare. 229 00:15:40,040 --> 00:15:44,600 The annihilation of certain groups was encouraged, 230 00:15:44,760 --> 00:15:49,320 sanctioned, and ordered. And this is a dark step. 231 00:15:49,480 --> 00:15:54,360 The world is darkening visibly as this-as this operation begins. 232 00:15:55,720 --> 00:15:59,480 (gunfire) (tense, dramatic music) 233 00:16:00,920 --> 00:16:05,160 TOM: In June 1941, the Wehrmacht smashes through Soviet defences 234 00:16:05,320 --> 00:16:07,920 and makes rapid advances across the front. 235 00:16:09,680 --> 00:16:13,800 There are over five million Jews in the Soviet Union. 236 00:16:15,400 --> 00:16:17,360 - The Jewish communities in the Soviet Union 237 00:16:17,520 --> 00:16:21,000 were very different from those in many parts of Eastern Europe, 238 00:16:21,160 --> 00:16:22,360 like Poland and Romania. 239 00:16:22,520 --> 00:16:25,800 They weren't generally communities of orthodox Jews 240 00:16:25,960 --> 00:16:28,160 with ringlets and black hats. 241 00:16:28,320 --> 00:16:31,400 Jews in the Soviet Union were assimilated 242 00:16:31,560 --> 00:16:33,520 within the general population. 243 00:16:35,800 --> 00:16:37,720 TOM: In the wake of the German army, 244 00:16:37,880 --> 00:16:41,320 the Einsatzgruppen begin their special task. 245 00:16:42,200 --> 00:16:46,040 - Einsatzgruppen didn't know enough about who was Jewish. 246 00:16:46,200 --> 00:16:49,200 So locals would volunteer or be seized in order to give them 247 00:16:49,360 --> 00:16:51,280 exactly the information they wanted. 248 00:16:54,240 --> 00:16:57,760 - There are groups within Eastern Europe of people 249 00:16:57,920 --> 00:16:59,880 who are already very anti-Semitic 250 00:17:00,040 --> 00:17:04,280 and will voluntarily sign up to be auxiliaries 251 00:17:04,440 --> 00:17:06,560 and help these units. 252 00:17:08,000 --> 00:17:11,120 An Einsatzgruppen usually would round up the Jewish population, 253 00:17:11,280 --> 00:17:13,200 they'd then assemble in a central location 254 00:17:13,360 --> 00:17:18,200 where they're guarded and then marched in groups to a killing site. 255 00:17:21,280 --> 00:17:25,120 - They would be taken to a place of execution on the edge of the town. 256 00:17:25,280 --> 00:17:29,480 They would be very often forced to dig pits for their own bodies. 257 00:17:31,040 --> 00:17:33,200 And then they would be shot into these pits. 258 00:17:38,120 --> 00:17:40,760 - Sometimes they used wooded areas or forests, 259 00:17:40,920 --> 00:17:43,920 and sometimes these executions were remarkably public. 260 00:17:44,080 --> 00:17:46,440 (sombre music) 261 00:17:53,040 --> 00:17:56,720 - They're bringing Jews to a killing site, 262 00:17:56,880 --> 00:17:59,120 often in family groups, 263 00:17:59,280 --> 00:18:00,960 forcing them to undress... 264 00:18:02,360 --> 00:18:05,760 and then making them lie down on the bodies of people 265 00:18:05,920 --> 00:18:09,480 that have already been murdered, to wait to be shot themselves. 266 00:18:11,880 --> 00:18:17,160 - This is grown men, standing, aiming at another human being. 267 00:18:17,320 --> 00:18:19,040 It could be a man. It could be a woman. 268 00:18:19,200 --> 00:18:22,720 It could be a baby. And firing a gun at them. 269 00:18:23,880 --> 00:18:26,520 And it's happening on a huge scale, 270 00:18:26,680 --> 00:18:28,440 over a huge territory. 271 00:18:30,840 --> 00:18:34,800 - Einsatzgruppen killed nearly half a million Jews 272 00:18:34,960 --> 00:18:39,440 in the Soviet Union in the first six months of Operation Barbarossa. 273 00:18:41,360 --> 00:18:45,480 - Just incredible numbers of human beings murdered 274 00:18:45,640 --> 00:18:48,080 by shooting over and over and over again. 275 00:18:49,200 --> 00:18:51,360 - There's a close relationship between 276 00:18:51,520 --> 00:18:53,920 the actual military campaign, Operation Barbarossa, 277 00:18:54,080 --> 00:18:55,480 and the Holocaust. 278 00:18:56,240 --> 00:18:58,680 The Holocaust really begins the moment they cross the border 279 00:18:58,840 --> 00:19:00,120 into the Soviet Union. 280 00:19:00,840 --> 00:19:04,800 The war enabled the entire Soviet Union to be treated 281 00:19:04,960 --> 00:19:06,960 as a killing zone. 282 00:19:07,120 --> 00:19:10,440 It meant that the lifting of norms of civilised behaviour, 283 00:19:10,600 --> 00:19:14,960 the lifting of norms of warfare, all restraints were removed. 284 00:19:15,120 --> 00:19:17,200 (low, tense music) 285 00:19:20,680 --> 00:19:25,200 TOM: The killing of Jews is reported back to Berlin every day. 286 00:19:25,360 --> 00:19:28,800 Senior Nazis discuss the next stages of Hitler's plan. 287 00:19:30,640 --> 00:19:34,680 Hitler's deputy Herman Goering writes to Reinhard Heydrich, 288 00:19:34,840 --> 00:19:38,280 the SS official responsible for executing Nazi plans 289 00:19:38,440 --> 00:19:40,240 for the Jewish population. 290 00:19:41,720 --> 00:19:45,360 - Reinhard Heydrich is one of the key figures in the SS. 291 00:19:45,520 --> 00:19:48,080 He's distinctly Aryan in his visage. 292 00:19:49,120 --> 00:19:51,360 He has icy cold blue eyes, 293 00:19:51,520 --> 00:19:54,560 and his face registered almost no emotion. 294 00:19:56,160 --> 00:19:58,640 TOM: In late July 1941, 295 00:19:58,800 --> 00:20:02,080 Goering sends an official communique to Heydrich. 296 00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:05,560 He asks him to promptly submit an 297 00:20:05,720 --> 00:20:09,920 "overall plan for the execution of the intended final solution 298 00:20:10,080 --> 00:20:11,840 of the Jewish question." 299 00:20:13,440 --> 00:20:17,920 - This is essentially the order authorising Heydrich 300 00:20:18,080 --> 00:20:20,760 to begin preparations for the final solution 301 00:20:20,920 --> 00:20:23,080 of the Jewish question in Europe. 302 00:20:24,840 --> 00:20:28,840 They're going to remove them from the world by murdering them. 303 00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:30,440 (low, ominous music) 304 00:20:32,920 --> 00:20:35,840 (low, tense music) 305 00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:39,040 (gunfire) (tense, dramatic music) 306 00:20:43,680 --> 00:20:47,080 TOM: As the German army advances across the Soviet Union, 307 00:20:47,240 --> 00:20:52,600 the Wehrmacht works with units liquidating communists and Jews, 308 00:20:52,760 --> 00:20:56,080 the SS and, particularly, the Einsatzgruppen. 309 00:21:03,280 --> 00:21:06,600 In August, SS leader Heinrich Himmler visits Minsk 310 00:21:06,760 --> 00:21:09,080 in Nazi-occupied Belorussia. 311 00:21:10,120 --> 00:21:13,160 - Himmler maintains a really close watch on what the Einsatzgruppen 312 00:21:13,320 --> 00:21:15,601 are doing, because ultimately, they're his responsibility. 313 00:21:15,720 --> 00:21:17,800 So he travels a lot around the Eastern Front. 314 00:21:19,760 --> 00:21:22,680 TOM: Himmler realises that the shootings are taking 315 00:21:22,840 --> 00:21:24,640 an emotional toll on his men. 316 00:21:25,400 --> 00:21:27,280 - It's difficult no matter who you are, 317 00:21:27,440 --> 00:21:31,200 to wake up in the morning and to shoot people all day long 318 00:21:31,360 --> 00:21:33,336 and then to try to go to bed at night and know that 319 00:21:33,360 --> 00:21:36,360 the next morning you're going to wake up and do it all over again. 320 00:21:38,800 --> 00:21:42,800 - A massacre of 100 people is set up for him so that he can see 321 00:21:42,960 --> 00:21:48,160 how difficult it is to actually watch the killing of human beings. 322 00:21:48,320 --> 00:21:50,200 Because Himmler has never had to do this before. 323 00:21:50,280 --> 00:21:52,520 He's never really seen death first hand. 324 00:21:54,480 --> 00:21:58,320 He reacts very badly to the sight of bodies being murdered 325 00:21:58,480 --> 00:21:59,520 in front of him. 326 00:21:59,680 --> 00:22:01,760 And he turns green, and he almost throws up. 327 00:22:02,920 --> 00:22:06,960 TOM: Himmler returns to Berlin to help design ways to execute 328 00:22:07,120 --> 00:22:09,360 mass killings that are more efficient. 329 00:22:14,280 --> 00:22:17,120 On the Soviet front, the killing continues. 330 00:22:21,240 --> 00:22:26,360 Babi Yar is a ravine just outside Kiev, in Ukraine. 331 00:22:28,840 --> 00:22:31,120 In September 1941, 332 00:22:31,280 --> 00:22:35,840 over 33,000 Jewish men, women and children are marched here. 333 00:22:39,560 --> 00:22:41,800 Across two days, they're all shot. 334 00:22:43,120 --> 00:22:45,600 And then buried in a mass grave. 335 00:22:47,880 --> 00:22:49,920 (low, ominous music) 336 00:22:51,320 --> 00:22:55,800 The Nazis had already developed a method of mass murder. 337 00:22:57,920 --> 00:22:59,560 At the start of the war, 338 00:22:59,720 --> 00:23:03,400 Hitler authorised the killing of patients with disabilities... 339 00:23:05,080 --> 00:23:07,680 a euthanasia programme known as T4. 340 00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:10,600 - The T4 programme, 341 00:23:10,760 --> 00:23:13,720 which is code named after Tiergarten Strasse number four, 342 00:23:13,880 --> 00:23:16,680 which is the building in Berlin that was the headquarters, 343 00:23:16,840 --> 00:23:21,360 was the programme to murder with carbon monoxide, 344 00:23:21,520 --> 00:23:24,200 physically and mentally disabled Germans, 345 00:23:24,360 --> 00:23:27,720 because they were deemed to be drains on the state. 346 00:23:29,520 --> 00:23:32,360 TOM: The T4 programme runs for two years, 347 00:23:32,520 --> 00:23:36,240 before it's officially halted in August 1941. 348 00:23:37,440 --> 00:23:41,640 - What you then have is a group of men with a particular set of skills; 349 00:23:41,800 --> 00:23:43,680 the use of gas to murder people, 350 00:23:43,840 --> 00:23:46,760 the transportation and logistics of that, 351 00:23:46,920 --> 00:23:50,640 the hiding of the evidence of that operation. 352 00:23:50,800 --> 00:23:56,480 And these people are then available to be used in another operation. 353 00:23:58,040 --> 00:24:02,680 TOM: The first extermination centre, where Jews are sent to be gassed, 354 00:24:02,840 --> 00:24:06,960 is at Chelmno, located in German-occupied Poland. 355 00:24:10,800 --> 00:24:15,080 The victims in the Chelmno centre are Jews from the ghetto 356 00:24:15,240 --> 00:24:18,440 of the Polish city of Lodz and the Romani, 357 00:24:18,600 --> 00:24:22,880 who the Nazis also regard as an inferior race. 358 00:24:24,720 --> 00:24:27,320 On December 8th, 1941, 359 00:24:27,480 --> 00:24:31,080 the first Jews are killed using gas vans. 360 00:24:32,600 --> 00:24:36,160 - They are vans where the Nazis could pipe carbon monoxide 361 00:24:36,320 --> 00:24:38,320 into the back of the bed of the truck. 362 00:24:40,600 --> 00:24:44,320 TOM: Szlama Ber Winer is a Jew from Central Poland 363 00:24:44,480 --> 00:24:46,320 who is deported to Chelmno. 364 00:24:47,520 --> 00:24:51,200 Szlama witnesses the death of his family in gas vans. 365 00:24:52,920 --> 00:24:55,040 He writes about this in a letter. 366 00:24:56,080 --> 00:24:59,760 "The leader of the guard detail was a high-ranking SS man, 367 00:24:59,920 --> 00:25:01,840 an absolute sadist and murderer. 368 00:25:02,760 --> 00:25:05,760 He ordered that eight men were to open the doors of the lorry. 369 00:25:06,920 --> 00:25:09,200 The smell of gas that met us was overpowering. 370 00:25:09,960 --> 00:25:14,480 Out of my family of about 60 people, I was the only remaining survivor. 371 00:25:15,280 --> 00:25:17,760 I was left alone in this world now." 372 00:25:21,080 --> 00:25:25,120 The war against the Jews is about to take an ominous turn, 373 00:25:25,280 --> 00:25:28,240 as the Nazis build additional killing centres 374 00:25:28,400 --> 00:25:32,240 and devise new methods to destroy a people. 375 00:25:34,680 --> 00:25:36,800 (low, tense music) 376 00:25:41,400 --> 00:25:43,120 December 1941. 377 00:25:44,840 --> 00:25:48,280 A villa overlooking Lake Wannsee in Berlin is the location 378 00:25:48,440 --> 00:25:50,200 for a gathering of officials 379 00:25:50,360 --> 00:25:53,240 representing different parts of the Nazi regime. 380 00:25:55,200 --> 00:25:58,880 The organiser of the conference is Reinhard Heydrich. 381 00:25:59,040 --> 00:26:01,320 The topic is the Jewish question. 382 00:26:02,680 --> 00:26:05,280 But the conference is postponed. 383 00:26:06,760 --> 00:26:09,360 - The conference at Wannsee was initially scheduled 384 00:26:09,520 --> 00:26:12,480 on the 9th of December, but it had to be postponed because, 385 00:26:12,640 --> 00:26:15,320 of course, on the 7th December 1941, 386 00:26:15,480 --> 00:26:18,760 the Japanese launched a massive attack on Pearl Harbor. 387 00:26:21,080 --> 00:26:24,200 (news in German) 388 00:26:27,560 --> 00:26:30,200 (low, tense music) (clamour) 389 00:26:36,600 --> 00:26:39,000 TOM: Three days after the attack at Pearl Harbor, 390 00:26:39,160 --> 00:26:42,120 Adolf Hitler declares war on the United States. 391 00:26:43,040 --> 00:26:46,040 (in German) 392 00:26:49,880 --> 00:26:53,400 TOM: Hitler has long predicted a world war, 393 00:26:53,560 --> 00:26:55,280 and now he has brought it about. 394 00:26:57,560 --> 00:27:01,320 In a speech, he accuses the Jews of manipulating 395 00:27:01,480 --> 00:27:04,160 the American President, Franklin D. Roosevelt. 396 00:27:23,040 --> 00:27:24,960 TOM: At a briefing on December 12th, 397 00:27:25,120 --> 00:27:26,880 Hitler summons Nazi Party leaders. 398 00:27:27,800 --> 00:27:29,000 In his diary, 399 00:27:29,160 --> 00:27:33,080 Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels writes what is discussed. 400 00:27:33,240 --> 00:27:36,920 "The Fuhrer is determined to make a clean sweep." 401 00:27:37,800 --> 00:27:39,920 "The world war is here; 402 00:27:40,080 --> 00:27:44,360 the destruction of Jewry must be the inevitable consequence." 403 00:27:48,280 --> 00:27:50,840 On January 20th, 1942, 404 00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:54,000 Nazi officials arrived at Lake Wannsee 405 00:27:54,160 --> 00:27:56,320 for Heydrich's rescheduled conference. 406 00:27:58,880 --> 00:28:02,200 - The SS officers are in their full formal uniforms. 407 00:28:02,360 --> 00:28:05,680 They're being served cognac and canapes. 408 00:28:06,480 --> 00:28:08,640 It looks like a very civilized gathering. 409 00:28:08,800 --> 00:28:12,040 But, of course, what's being discussed at the Wannsee conference 410 00:28:12,200 --> 00:28:13,800 is anything but civilized. 411 00:28:14,880 --> 00:28:18,000 - The Wannsee conference is a coordination meeting. 412 00:28:18,160 --> 00:28:21,160 It is not a meeting to decide 413 00:28:21,320 --> 00:28:23,800 whether or not to kill the Jews of Europe. 414 00:28:24,560 --> 00:28:27,840 It's a meeting to determine how that's going to take place 415 00:28:28,000 --> 00:28:32,200 and what the responsibilities are of all of the bureaucratic elements 416 00:28:32,360 --> 00:28:35,640 of the Nazi state in achieving this goal. 417 00:28:36,320 --> 00:28:40,240 TOM: At the conference, Heydrich lists the number of Jews 418 00:28:40,400 --> 00:28:43,360 to be exterminated by the "Final Solution." 419 00:28:45,680 --> 00:28:49,920 The list includes the Jews of the Soviet Union and eastern Europe. 420 00:28:52,080 --> 00:28:58,080 The Jews in France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Scandinavian countries. 421 00:28:59,680 --> 00:29:03,320 It also includes Jews in countries fighting alongside Germany 422 00:29:03,480 --> 00:29:05,960 such as Italy, Romania and Hungary. 423 00:29:07,160 --> 00:29:10,520 Even Jews in undefeated Great Britain and neutral Ireland 424 00:29:10,680 --> 00:29:12,200 are included. 425 00:29:13,320 --> 00:29:16,400 Grand total: over 11 million. 426 00:29:18,920 --> 00:29:23,200 The Nazis now have a plan to implement the Holocaust. 427 00:29:27,000 --> 00:29:29,400 - The Germans had succeeded in taking France, 428 00:29:29,560 --> 00:29:32,680 as well as Holland, Denmark, Norway, and so on, 429 00:29:32,840 --> 00:29:35,480 which meant that they suddenly had control over 430 00:29:35,640 --> 00:29:37,640 other massive populations of Jews. 431 00:29:39,240 --> 00:29:42,760 The fact that basically the whole of Europe outside Britain 432 00:29:42,920 --> 00:29:46,640 was now part of Hitler's Nazi empire, 433 00:29:46,800 --> 00:29:49,960 gave a feeling that things could be done 434 00:29:50,120 --> 00:29:51,960 which had never been done before. 435 00:29:53,280 --> 00:29:55,920 (low, ominous music) 436 00:29:58,200 --> 00:29:59,920 TOM: Across all of Europe, 437 00:30:00,080 --> 00:30:04,160 a whole people are targeted for annihilation. 438 00:30:14,960 --> 00:30:17,200 (low, tense music) 439 00:30:20,560 --> 00:30:22,960 TOM: Following the Wannsee Conference, 440 00:30:23,120 --> 00:30:27,000 the Nazis are working on the construction of killing centres, 441 00:30:27,160 --> 00:30:30,680 where people, most of them Jewish, will be sent to die. 442 00:30:32,360 --> 00:30:36,040 The majority are from eastern Europe and Soviet territory. 443 00:30:37,240 --> 00:30:41,800 The Nazis also begin to target the Jews of western Europe. 444 00:30:42,720 --> 00:30:46,080 - The Holocaust begins as an Eastern phenomenon. 445 00:30:46,240 --> 00:30:52,200 But soon it extends to every single corner of German controlled Europe. 446 00:30:52,360 --> 00:30:56,520 Amsterdam in the Netherlands and France and Italy 447 00:30:56,680 --> 00:30:58,840 and as far north as Scandinavia, 448 00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:02,320 Jews are being shipped to these various new establishments 449 00:31:02,480 --> 00:31:04,000 in the East and murdered. 450 00:31:05,720 --> 00:31:09,920 TOM: In the spring of 1942, Himmler visits Amsterdam 451 00:31:10,080 --> 00:31:13,200 to address a police battalion specially trained to round up 452 00:31:13,360 --> 00:31:16,280 and deport the city's Jewish population. 453 00:31:17,560 --> 00:31:22,240 A few weeks after his visit, one Jewish father, Otto Frank, 454 00:31:22,400 --> 00:31:24,920 decides his family must go into hiding. 455 00:31:27,400 --> 00:31:30,040 His daughter Anne writes in her diary: 456 00:31:31,600 --> 00:31:34,920 "Our many Jewish friends and acquaintances are being taken away 457 00:31:35,080 --> 00:31:36,480 in droves. 458 00:31:36,640 --> 00:31:39,280 Escape is almost impossible." 459 00:31:39,440 --> 00:31:41,480 (sombre music) 460 00:31:47,360 --> 00:31:51,080 In France, many Jews who fled Germany earlier 461 00:31:51,240 --> 00:31:52,920 now find themselves threatened, 462 00:31:53,080 --> 00:31:56,320 along with the country's large French Jewish population. 463 00:31:59,040 --> 00:32:03,000 Helene Berr, a young French Jewish woman, writes: 464 00:32:03,160 --> 00:32:06,800 "A wave of terror has been gripping everybody else as well 465 00:32:06,960 --> 00:32:08,480 these past few days. 466 00:32:08,640 --> 00:32:12,000 It appears that the SS have taken command in France 467 00:32:12,160 --> 00:32:14,360 and that terror must follow." 468 00:32:18,720 --> 00:32:20,160 Over the next months, 469 00:32:20,320 --> 00:32:22,720 Jewish families are deported by German forces 470 00:32:22,880 --> 00:32:24,160 and their collaborators. 471 00:32:25,080 --> 00:32:28,280 They are informed they are being resettled in Eastern Europe 472 00:32:28,440 --> 00:32:31,600 and told to bring belongings and valuables with them. 473 00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:37,360 Instead, they are being sent to the new Nazi extermination centres. 474 00:32:39,080 --> 00:32:43,280 They are crammed into airless, lightless, railway cars 475 00:32:43,440 --> 00:32:47,160 and transported hundreds of miles without food or water. 476 00:32:50,680 --> 00:32:55,200 - Modern bureaucracies and trains enabled the movement of people 477 00:32:55,360 --> 00:32:57,640 across Europe in huge numbers, 478 00:32:57,800 --> 00:33:00,480 which had really never been seen before. 479 00:33:01,680 --> 00:33:05,000 TOM: There are four major extermination centres. 480 00:33:05,160 --> 00:33:09,080 Chelmno, Treblinka, Sobibor and Belzec. 481 00:33:10,120 --> 00:33:12,600 There are two additional extermination centres, 482 00:33:12,760 --> 00:33:16,000 which also serve as forced labour camps, 483 00:33:16,160 --> 00:33:18,320 Majdanek, and Auschwitz. 484 00:33:19,800 --> 00:33:22,560 All of these centres are located in Poland. 485 00:33:24,760 --> 00:33:28,720 In the centres, the Nazis design methods to kill as many people 486 00:33:28,880 --> 00:33:33,720 in as short a time as possible, including using diesel engines. 487 00:33:36,400 --> 00:33:39,000 - The Nazis pumped carbon monoxide from these engines 488 00:33:39,160 --> 00:33:41,880 into the chambers themselves. It killed a lot of people. 489 00:33:42,040 --> 00:33:46,160 But that doesn't necessarily mean that they were as kind of efficient 490 00:33:46,320 --> 00:33:48,440 in that process as is somehow supposed. 491 00:33:48,600 --> 00:33:50,280 These were very crude places. 492 00:33:50,440 --> 00:33:52,520 They were very improvisational places, 493 00:33:52,680 --> 00:33:55,520 and they were spaces of extraordinary 494 00:33:55,680 --> 00:33:58,200 and appalling suffering. 495 00:34:00,000 --> 00:34:02,600 (low, ominous music) 496 00:34:04,480 --> 00:34:05,920 TOM: At Auschwitz, 497 00:34:06,080 --> 00:34:08,880 the Nazis use a pesticide called "Zyklon B". 498 00:34:11,440 --> 00:34:14,760 - Zyklon B is a cyanide derivative 499 00:34:14,920 --> 00:34:19,640 originally for exterminating vermin, for killing rodents in your house. 500 00:34:19,800 --> 00:34:20,920 It's a blue crystal. 501 00:34:21,080 --> 00:34:23,880 You open the can, and it emits a poison gas. 502 00:34:25,400 --> 00:34:29,000 TOM: They also begin construction on an extension to Auschwitz, 503 00:34:29,160 --> 00:34:31,280 in the neighbouring village of Birkenau. 504 00:34:32,080 --> 00:34:35,080 The site is solely dedicated to extermination 505 00:34:35,240 --> 00:34:37,080 and has several gas chambers. 506 00:34:41,160 --> 00:34:43,920 When Jews arrive at Auschwitz-Birkenau 507 00:34:44,080 --> 00:34:46,400 they are sorted into two groups: 508 00:34:46,560 --> 00:34:49,320 those who are determined fit for forced labour, 509 00:34:49,480 --> 00:34:51,080 and those who are not. 510 00:34:53,000 --> 00:34:58,160 Mendel Jakubowicz is deported from a Polish Ghetto to Auschwitz, 511 00:34:58,320 --> 00:35:00,400 he describes his arrival. 512 00:35:02,720 --> 00:35:05,360 "The SS people were walking up and down. 513 00:35:05,520 --> 00:35:07,720 I stood at attention on my toes. 514 00:35:08,800 --> 00:35:12,440 Finally, after a while, I was chosen to the right, 515 00:35:12,600 --> 00:35:14,960 some of my friends to the left." 516 00:35:16,160 --> 00:35:19,360 Mendel is selected to join a work battalion. 517 00:35:20,800 --> 00:35:23,200 His family is sent to the gas chamber. 518 00:35:25,200 --> 00:35:26,520 (low, sombre music) 519 00:35:27,400 --> 00:35:30,040 - The people who had been brought into the gas chambers 520 00:35:30,200 --> 00:35:32,760 would be separated into men and women and children. 521 00:35:32,920 --> 00:35:35,080 They'd all be herded into this room. 522 00:35:35,240 --> 00:35:38,920 They told them that they were going there to be showered. 523 00:35:39,960 --> 00:35:43,560 They would be given fabric ties, to tie their shoes together 524 00:35:43,720 --> 00:35:46,920 under the ruse that it'd be easier to find their pair afterwards. 525 00:35:48,160 --> 00:35:51,440 - The Nazis want to cram as many people into the gas chambers 526 00:35:51,600 --> 00:35:55,720 as possible because that generates this environment of high heat 527 00:35:55,880 --> 00:35:59,240 and humidity, which creates the hydrogen cyanide gas. 528 00:35:59,400 --> 00:36:02,000 (low, ominous music) 529 00:36:04,840 --> 00:36:09,760 - The scenes that followed after that defy imagination. 530 00:36:11,320 --> 00:36:14,440 Quite often you would find families or loved ones 531 00:36:14,600 --> 00:36:16,560 that were clutching each other so tightly 532 00:36:16,720 --> 00:36:20,520 that it was impossible to pull their arms apart from each other. 533 00:36:23,840 --> 00:36:25,880 TOM: The victims are cremated. 534 00:36:26,960 --> 00:36:30,240 A perpetual pall of death hangs over the area. 535 00:36:32,240 --> 00:36:34,800 - It was generally the case that people sent to death camps 536 00:36:34,960 --> 00:36:37,960 were murdered within about 45 minutes to 2 hours of arrival. 537 00:36:39,320 --> 00:36:43,480 - The creation of the extermination camps is Hitler's final solution 538 00:36:43,640 --> 00:36:45,200 to the Jewish question. 539 00:36:46,600 --> 00:36:51,320 An industrial scale system to mass murder human beings 540 00:36:51,480 --> 00:36:53,760 in their thousands every day. 541 00:36:54,840 --> 00:36:57,360 Just the pinnacle of evil. 542 00:37:01,240 --> 00:37:04,800 TOM: This is murder on an industrial scale, 543 00:37:04,960 --> 00:37:07,640 but each death is uniquely suffered. 544 00:37:08,600 --> 00:37:11,120 (soft dramatic music) 545 00:37:15,240 --> 00:37:18,000 In the summer of 1942, 546 00:37:18,160 --> 00:37:21,680 Himmler visits the extermination centre at Auschwitz-Birkenau. 547 00:37:22,680 --> 00:37:26,240 He watches enslaved prisoners working in a chemical plant. 548 00:37:27,360 --> 00:37:30,520 And sees train cars of Jews arriving to be murdered. 549 00:37:31,560 --> 00:37:33,680 Himmler later attends a dinner party, 550 00:37:33,840 --> 00:37:37,320 where he explains that the Nazis have murdered two million Jews 551 00:37:37,480 --> 00:37:39,280 and will continue to do so. 552 00:37:40,920 --> 00:37:45,160 His boasts make their way to a Western intelligence agent, 553 00:37:45,320 --> 00:37:48,600 who passes the information to a German exile 554 00:37:48,760 --> 00:37:52,440 living in neutral Switzerland - Gerhard Riegner. 555 00:37:53,800 --> 00:37:57,680 - Gerhard Riegner, who worked for the World Jewish Congress, 556 00:37:57,840 --> 00:38:01,640 learns from a German businessman that the Nazis have a plan. 557 00:38:01,800 --> 00:38:05,480 They are trying to round up, deport and murder 558 00:38:05,640 --> 00:38:07,800 the remaining Jewish communities of Europe. 559 00:38:09,080 --> 00:38:11,160 TOM: Shocked by what he hears, 560 00:38:11,320 --> 00:38:15,560 Reigner attempts to get this information to Rabbi Stephen Wise. 561 00:38:17,320 --> 00:38:20,040 - Rabbi Stephen Wise is the head of the World Jewish Congress 562 00:38:20,200 --> 00:38:23,240 and maybe the most influential American rabbi 563 00:38:23,400 --> 00:38:25,440 and maybe one of the most influential American Jews 564 00:38:25,600 --> 00:38:26,600 at the time. 565 00:38:26,760 --> 00:38:29,840 He has a relationship with President Roosevelt. 566 00:38:32,440 --> 00:38:36,160 TOM: Reigner's message gets to the U.S. State Department, 567 00:38:36,320 --> 00:38:40,320 but officials treat it like a war rumour and don't pass it on. 568 00:38:41,600 --> 00:38:46,120 - The State Department refuses to send this information to Rabbi Wise. 569 00:38:46,280 --> 00:38:49,240 They call it an "unreliable war rumour" 570 00:38:49,400 --> 00:38:50,720 and they bury it. 571 00:38:51,520 --> 00:38:53,800 - "Why are we going to get people riled up about this 572 00:38:53,960 --> 00:38:55,480 if it's just probably a war rumour? 573 00:38:55,640 --> 00:38:57,800 There's no way that the Nazis are actually doing this." 574 00:38:57,920 --> 00:38:59,280 And so, they shelve it. 575 00:38:59,440 --> 00:39:01,480 NARRATOR: But Reigner persists, 576 00:39:01,640 --> 00:39:03,840 he reaches a British member of Parliament, 577 00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:06,400 who contacts Rabbi Wise by telegram. 578 00:39:07,320 --> 00:39:10,800 The U.S. State Department now investigates the report. 579 00:39:10,960 --> 00:39:15,200 But the Roosevelt administration is not ready to take it public. 580 00:39:17,400 --> 00:39:22,640 - They had a feeling that American soldiers would not agree to fight, 581 00:39:22,800 --> 00:39:25,240 if they believed that they were being asked to fight 582 00:39:25,400 --> 00:39:27,080 for the rescue of European Jews. 583 00:39:28,040 --> 00:39:31,360 We're fighting for these ideas of democracy and idealism; 584 00:39:31,520 --> 00:39:33,120 we're not fighting for the Jews. 585 00:39:35,560 --> 00:39:37,160 TOM: After their investigation, 586 00:39:37,320 --> 00:39:40,760 the State Department allows Rabbi Wise to share the information 587 00:39:40,920 --> 00:39:43,080 about the mass murder of the Jews. 588 00:39:43,800 --> 00:39:47,960 The news spreads around the globe, and Jewish communities react. 589 00:39:49,760 --> 00:39:52,760 The world is beginning to learn the truth. 590 00:39:53,920 --> 00:39:56,640 - At the beginning of December, there's a Day of Mourning, 591 00:39:56,800 --> 00:39:59,320 not just in the United States, not just in Britain, 592 00:39:59,480 --> 00:40:00,880 but internationally. 593 00:40:01,520 --> 00:40:02,720 There are vigils. 594 00:40:02,880 --> 00:40:06,400 There are ceremonies and services in synagogues 595 00:40:06,560 --> 00:40:08,320 across the Western Hemisphere. 596 00:40:08,480 --> 00:40:11,040 And then finally on December 17th, 597 00:40:11,200 --> 00:40:13,600 the Allied governments issue what is called 598 00:40:13,760 --> 00:40:16,120 the Allied Declaration on Atrocities. 599 00:40:16,280 --> 00:40:18,680 And they are condemning in very strong language 600 00:40:18,840 --> 00:40:21,000 what the Nazis and their collaborators are doing; 601 00:40:21,160 --> 00:40:23,880 they're using phrases like "cold blooded extermination" 602 00:40:24,040 --> 00:40:25,680 and "bloody atrocities." 603 00:40:26,800 --> 00:40:29,560 - Roosevelt particularly is very concerned 604 00:40:29,720 --> 00:40:31,200 and Churchill is appalled as well. 605 00:40:31,360 --> 00:40:34,960 He says that the best thing that we can do to help Europe's Jews 606 00:40:35,120 --> 00:40:37,080 is to win this war as quickly as possible. 607 00:40:37,240 --> 00:40:40,240 And we need to divert all of our resources in service 608 00:40:40,400 --> 00:40:41,600 of doing just that. 609 00:40:43,000 --> 00:40:45,480 - They knew that these mass killings were happening. 610 00:40:45,640 --> 00:40:48,440 I don't think they could imagine quite the scale 611 00:40:48,600 --> 00:40:51,600 of the infrastructure that the Nazis had devoted to this. 612 00:40:51,760 --> 00:40:55,680 I think that the leaders had not quite grasped the extent of it. 613 00:40:58,200 --> 00:41:00,000 TOM: In 1933, 614 00:41:00,160 --> 00:41:03,560 Hitler's perverse vision was to expel the Jews from Germany. 615 00:41:04,240 --> 00:41:08,480 By 1942, he is on the verge of exterminating the entire 616 00:41:08,640 --> 00:41:10,880 Jewish population of Europe. 617 00:41:18,080 --> 00:41:20,080 After two years in hiding, 618 00:41:20,240 --> 00:41:22,200 Anne Frank and her sister are discovered 619 00:41:22,360 --> 00:41:26,880 by Dutch police officers and sent to a Nazi extermination centre. 620 00:41:27,920 --> 00:41:32,400 They eventually die of typhus, just weeks before the end of the War. 621 00:41:33,800 --> 00:41:37,200 Helene Berr is deported from Paris to Auschwitz 622 00:41:37,360 --> 00:41:39,200 and then to Bergen-Belsen, 623 00:41:39,360 --> 00:41:43,520 where she also dies from typhus in April 1945. 624 00:41:45,160 --> 00:41:50,520 Szlama Ber Winer writes a report about the gas vans at Chelmno... 625 00:41:51,600 --> 00:41:54,240 hoping to bring the truth to the world. 626 00:41:54,400 --> 00:41:58,040 But he is found by the Nazis and deported to Belzec, 627 00:41:58,200 --> 00:42:00,520 where he is murdered in the gas chambers. 628 00:42:02,480 --> 00:42:05,400 Mendel Jakubowicz survives Auschwitz 629 00:42:05,560 --> 00:42:08,080 and moves to the United States after the War. 630 00:42:09,080 --> 00:42:11,400 He changes his name to Mike Jacobs 631 00:42:11,560 --> 00:42:14,880 and founds a scrap metal business in Dallas, Texas. 632 00:42:19,080 --> 00:42:24,280 The Holocaust, the Shoah, will continue until Nazi Germany 633 00:42:24,440 --> 00:42:28,200 is defeated and the Third Reich is completely destroyed. 634 00:42:29,520 --> 00:42:34,280 In 1942, the Allies gather their forces for a massive assault 635 00:42:34,440 --> 00:42:37,120 on the Wehrmacht in North Africa. 636 00:42:37,280 --> 00:42:38,960 Subtitles by Sky Access Services