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(band plays military tattoo)
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(man speaking German)
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00:01:09,040 --> 00:01:11,920
(narrator) April 20, 1939.
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Adolf Hitler's 50th birthday.
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A giant military display.
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00:02:07,200 --> 00:02:10,200
On parade the army looked invincible,
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but it had never been tried in battle.
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00:02:14,120 --> 00:02:17,480
Its generals didn't think
it would be ready for war for years.
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00:02:17,560 --> 00:02:22,360
Not enough weapons, not enough fuel,
not enough experience.
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00:02:28,520 --> 00:02:32,600
One unit had been tested in combat:
the Condor Legion,
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Air Force volunteers
returned from the Spanish Civil War.
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(cheering)
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Airmen who had bombed Spanish cities,
killed Spanish people.
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(cheering)
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(starter gun fires)
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(translation) A world record
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00:02:50,120 --> 00:02:53,160
and three new German record
performances have been achieved.
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(narrator) Another test
for next year's Olympic Games.
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War threatened.
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Germans cheered their sportsmen
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and hoped that Hitler would win
another bloodless victory.
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(applause)
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(woman) I think that one could say
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at that period in August
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there was the same doubt
as to whether war would come,
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whether it could be avoided,
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and a general hope and wish
that it would.
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Hitler had got away
without a war that far
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and there was great hope
that he would get what he wanted
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without a war this time.
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(narrator) But Hitler was eager for war.
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His army had been ordered into position,
ready to attack Poland.
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The German people did not know this.
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(Bielenberg) The general feeling
about a war in Germany
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amongst the ordinary public
was one of great horror,
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there's no doubt about that.
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And it mustn't be forgotten
they'd lost the First World War
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and war was a really… traumatic,
terrible feeling for them
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that another war would break out.
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(fanfare)
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(narrator) Germans saw this newsreel
during the last week of August 1939.
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(translation) Germany is ready
to assert her right and her freedom
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by all means.
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A strong Wehrmacht,
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invincible on the water,
on the land and in the air,
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protecting Germany's borders,
her honour and her security.
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The German people live under
the protection of the German sword.
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(man) The tone of the German press
was absolutely hysterical.
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It was much more so than a year ago,
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00:05:01,520 --> 00:05:04,600
when the Czechoslovakian crisis
had been.
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And I had the feeling,
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“Now Hitler means it in earnest.”
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“And he's preparing the nation
by that sort of press,
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propaganda and news,
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he's preparing the nation for war.”
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(men sing in German)
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(narrator) Last scenes
from that last peacetime newsreel.
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(men sing in German)
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We were very young then.
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But we didn't feel happy.
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A year before,
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when Chamberlain came to Munich,
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my father made a speech
and we drank a glass of champagne.
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We were so glad
there was no war coming.
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And when it really came
I was engaged to be married,
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my husband and father
went with the soldiers.
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It was a dreadful feeling.
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(engines start)
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With my girlfriends I went by bicycle
through the other villages,
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because we were quite sure
anything must happen now.
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Maybe bombs will come also.
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And nothing happened
and we were very much astonished.
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And we thought, “What is that war?”
Later we knew.
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(narrator)
Not all Germans believed they would win.
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00:07:16,960 --> 00:07:21,040
Some even welcomed the idea of defeat.
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00:07:21,120 --> 00:07:27,240
(man) When the war started, we thought
very soon Hitler would come to his end.
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00:07:27,320 --> 00:07:30,320
So our attitude
to the starting of the war
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was a little bit ambiguous.
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On the one hand, we were horrified
by now another war.
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On the other hand, we thought all our
hopes now lay in the defeat of Hitler.
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By becoming politically interested
in opposition,
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we had to become so disloyal
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to our own country's government,
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even in the war.
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In the beginning of the war
in our group
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it was such a matter of course,
we didn't really discuss it,
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it was a matter of course that
we wished the defeat of Hitler's armies.
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Which is a horrible thing
to say for somebody
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00:08:05,720 --> 00:08:11,680
who has not gone through this kind
of disloyalty to your own country.
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(narrator)
Loyalty was defined by the government
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and reinforced
by the propaganda machine.
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Any criticism of the war
was forbidden.
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The press relentlessly
drove the message home.
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00:08:23,440 --> 00:08:26,400
(man) A person
who has never lived in a dictatorship
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00:08:26,480 --> 00:08:30,480
can't understand
the power of propaganda.
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If you just hear always the same,
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if you always read
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in every newspaper the same,
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and if you have very few possibilities
for other information,
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then you become very impressed
by the things which you are told.
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00:08:52,760 --> 00:08:58,400
And it's very difficult to make up
your own mind and be critical.
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(brass band plays)
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(narrator) Loyal Germans
had little to be critical about.
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00:09:08,040 --> 00:09:12,120
The military campaign
against Poland was over in a month.
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00:09:17,320 --> 00:09:19,680
Here was victory's first fruits,
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00:09:19,760 --> 00:09:23,240
a display of real guns
captured from a real enemy.
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(man speaking German)
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00:09:25,600 --> 00:09:28,120
(narrator) Children loved it.
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(men sing in German)
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I myself was quite happy
when I was called up
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early in 1940 for the army.
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And that suddenly left behind
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all the oppression I had every day.
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Being a soldier,
you don't read newspapers,
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you don't listen to the radio,
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you're not always under the stress
of the propaganda,
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which was pointed at you every hour
during the Nazi time.
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And I felt quite suddenly in the army,
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as much as I disliked being a soldier,
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I suddenly felt much healthier
than I did in the years before.
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(singing in German)
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(narrator) Everything for the soldier.
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00:10:39,120 --> 00:10:43,040
Radio was the link between them
and the folk back home.
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Germans were forbidden
to listen to foreign broadcasts
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and risked going to prison if they did.
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Authorities had trouble
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finding enough wholesome
German material for them instead.
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(translation) Go.
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(narrator) When Jewish subversive music
had been eliminated
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there wasn't much left
but Die Fledermaus.
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00:11:09,960 --> 00:11:12,760
(all sing in German)
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(narrator) It was performed again…
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…and again…
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00:11:31,960 --> 00:11:33,960
…and again.
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A web of fear and denunciation
enveloped people in Germany.
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If you went to a party
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it was the duty of your host
to warn anybody coming to that party
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if there was one person there
whom he did not trust
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00:12:01,040 --> 00:12:03,040
or did not know about.
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And when that happened
the whole conversation changed
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and the whole party altered
its atmosphere, really,
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to beware of this one person.
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(engine chugs)
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(woman speaking German)
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(translator) We really were completely
surrounded by unseen evil spirits
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who watched what you did
and then denounced you.
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For instance, once I took in
the baby of a school friend.
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Both the father and mother
were leading communists
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and were taken away.
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I had the baby less than an hour
and they came to search my house
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to find out about the child.
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I told them openly,
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“It's the child of my friend who was
rounded up as a communist leader.”
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But then the mother sent me some baby
things and they learnt about that too.
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My home was searched to find out
what was in the boxes. Baby clothes.
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They really couldn't take the baby
away from me.
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Perhaps a year later
they might have taken the baby.
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We lived in Grunewald in a little house
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with three little children,
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the eldest boy was seven
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and the others were smaller.
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And near to us lived a lonely woman
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with her about nine-year-old daughter
or so.
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And this Mrs Leidig was interested
in spiritualistic matters
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and she always had clairvisions
and so on.
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And after the attempt on Hitler
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00:13:49,920 --> 00:13:55,080
in 1939 in Munich, ja,
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next morning
she said to her little daughter,
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00:13:58,840 --> 00:14:03,960
“You see, I knew before
that that would happen.”
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00:14:04,040 --> 00:14:10,720
And little Helga proud on her mother,
of her mother,
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00:14:10,800 --> 00:14:15,000
told that in school to her classmate…
classmates.
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00:14:15,080 --> 00:14:19,240
And one of these girls
told that at home to her father.
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And that father was a party member.
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00:14:22,800 --> 00:14:30,120
And he felt the chance to win
some Ansehen in the party.
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00:14:30,200 --> 00:14:32,760
The next morning
the little girl came to school
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and said to Helga, “I told my father
what you said about your mother,
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that she knew what would happen.”
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“And now they will come
and take your mother.”
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00:14:43,880 --> 00:14:47,400
“You will see, she comes in prison.”
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00:14:47,480 --> 00:14:52,120
And Helga, of course, desperate
and in tears, didn't know what to do.
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00:14:52,200 --> 00:14:55,480
She couldn't call home
because the Leidigs had no telephone.
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00:14:55,560 --> 00:14:59,160
So she called me and I said,
“I don't know what to do,
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00:14:59,240 --> 00:15:03,240
but come to my house and I will go
over and see what I can do.”
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00:15:03,320 --> 00:15:07,880
And I went over and I told Mrs Leidig
who didn't know anything about this
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and was extremely… desperate.
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And we arranged that at first
she should go out for some hours
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and I offered to stay in her house
and die Leute zu empfangen,
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see who will come
and speak with them,
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to receive them if they came.
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00:15:31,400 --> 00:15:33,720
It wasn't clear
if they really would come,
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because it was children's talk, yes?
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And she went out and I went over
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00:15:39,200 --> 00:15:42,400
and took my little daughter
of five years
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and my knitting work
and sat in her living room
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expecting what would happen.
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And, indeed, after a quarter of an hour
the bell rang and I opened the door
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00:15:55,400 --> 00:15:58,880
and the local policeman
with a dog came
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00:15:58,960 --> 00:16:06,640
and with him a nice young man
in civilian clothes.
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00:16:06,720 --> 00:16:08,880
They asked for Mrs Leidig
and I said,
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00:16:08,960 --> 00:16:12,520
“She's not in but she will come
in a few minutes. Please come in.”
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00:16:12,600 --> 00:16:17,800
And then we started a conversation
and they asked what I was doing here.
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00:16:17,880 --> 00:16:22,160
I said we were good neighbours
and when I need her help,
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00:16:22,240 --> 00:16:25,560
then she comes to me
and when she needs my help,
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00:16:25,640 --> 00:16:27,760
when she has to go shopping
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00:16:27,840 --> 00:16:31,960
and her daughter might come home
that time and have her lunch,
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00:16:32,040 --> 00:16:36,040
then I sit here and wait for
her daughter to prepare her lunch.
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00:16:36,120 --> 00:16:40,200
“You see, we realise here
what the Führer wants,
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00:16:40,280 --> 00:16:43,800
real Volksgemeinschaft
and good neighbourship,
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00:16:43,880 --> 00:16:48,760
Gemeinnuntz geht vor Eigennutz and
help each other,” and so on and so on.
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00:16:48,840 --> 00:16:52,680
I started some phrases
and so we came into the conversation
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00:16:52,760 --> 00:16:56,280
and I spoke about the school
which was so wonderful
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00:16:56,360 --> 00:17:00,920
and I asked the policeman if his
daughter also went to that school.
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00:17:01,000 --> 00:17:06,760
And he said yes. I said, “Isn't it
a wonderful spirit in that school,
214
00:17:06,840 --> 00:17:10,560
the nice songs they learn
and the discipline?”
215
00:17:10,640 --> 00:17:16,040
“I think it's really nice for the
children today what they experience.”
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00:17:16,120 --> 00:17:22,360
And that way we talked and talked
and after a while, half an hour or so,
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00:17:22,440 --> 00:17:26,000
they felt
they shouldn't wait any longer.
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00:17:26,080 --> 00:17:31,080
And… as they were about to leave,
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00:17:31,160 --> 00:17:34,200
they looked through the ajar door
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00:17:34,280 --> 00:17:38,920
and saw on the night table
near the bed of Mrs Leidig
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00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:44,680
a thick book with a red binder, ja?
222
00:17:44,760 --> 00:17:48,200
And that gentleman
in civilian clothes said,
223
00:17:48,280 --> 00:17:51,760
“Oh, I see
there is also Mein Kampf by Hitler.”
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00:17:51,840 --> 00:17:56,840
I said, “Of course. Is there any German
house where you can't find Mein Kampf?”
225
00:17:56,920 --> 00:18:01,040
And so they left.
And when I had closed the door
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00:18:01,120 --> 00:18:05,600
I looked at that book and it was
Knauer's Conversation, a dictionary.
227
00:18:07,040 --> 00:18:13,400
Well! But I didn't feel well
after having lied so much.
228
00:18:13,480 --> 00:18:15,480
It was a bad feeling.
229
00:18:15,560 --> 00:18:19,200
And… of course,
it was necessary to help her out.
230
00:18:19,280 --> 00:18:23,880
But I remembered what a friend
of mine had said once,
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00:18:23,960 --> 00:18:28,240
“What is freedom? Freedom means
you are not forced to lie.”
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00:18:30,600 --> 00:18:35,000
(narrator) In the spring of 1940,
the German armies marched again,
233
00:18:35,080 --> 00:18:37,080
this time against France.
234
00:18:38,160 --> 00:18:40,520
The generals expected a fierce struggle.
235
00:18:40,600 --> 00:18:44,040
The German people
feared a long bloody war.
236
00:18:46,840 --> 00:18:49,120
In six weeks the campaign was over.
237
00:18:49,200 --> 00:18:51,400
It was a lovely, sunny afternoon.
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00:18:51,480 --> 00:18:53,320
We went out to a coffee garden
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00:18:53,400 --> 00:18:54,520
out in the woods.
240
00:18:54,600 --> 00:18:56,960
And about three or four o'clock—
241
00:18:57,040 --> 00:19:00,800
it was very crowded because it was
a sunny, lovely day—
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00:19:00,880 --> 00:19:04,040
the loudspeakers were turned up
243
00:19:04,120 --> 00:19:07,480
and a special announcement
came with a great fanfare,
244
00:19:07,560 --> 00:19:10,760
“Now France has capitulated.”
245
00:19:10,840 --> 00:19:12,840
Now Hitler had done it.
246
00:19:12,920 --> 00:19:19,000
And the whole crowd rose
and they jumped on the… chairs
247
00:19:19,080 --> 00:19:24,160
and the German national hymn
and the Horst Wessel Lied was being sung
248
00:19:24,240 --> 00:19:28,480
and everybody was crying
and singing and raising their hands.
249
00:19:28,560 --> 00:19:32,680
I was totally paralysed by that
and stood there with my hands down.
250
00:19:32,760 --> 00:19:36,400
And then Dietrich shouted at me,
“Will you raise your hand?”
251
00:19:36,480 --> 00:19:40,840
And then slowly I did. After that
we went out of the coffee garden
252
00:19:40,920 --> 00:19:43,440
totally disturbed and he said to me,
253
00:19:43,520 --> 00:19:47,680
“You were crazy not to put up your hand.
Now we have to do something different,
254
00:19:47,760 --> 00:19:50,440
not just protesting
by not raising the hand.”
255
00:19:50,520 --> 00:19:53,880
We had to show, in order to plot,
how good Germans,
256
00:19:53,960 --> 00:19:56,360
how good maybe even Nazis, we were.
257
00:20:03,400 --> 00:20:05,600
(laughter)
258
00:20:06,600 --> 00:20:09,320
(cheering)
259
00:20:09,400 --> 00:20:13,240
(Tucking) I just went shopping
when somebody told me,
260
00:20:13,320 --> 00:20:15,320
“Don't you hear the noise?”
261
00:20:15,400 --> 00:20:19,960
And then I saw part of the army
coming back just near us,
262
00:20:20,040 --> 00:20:25,280
so I bought a bowl of cherries
and ran there.
263
00:20:25,360 --> 00:20:27,720
We all were so glad.
264
00:20:27,800 --> 00:20:30,160
We had heard so much
of the First World War
265
00:20:30,240 --> 00:20:34,680
with those dreadful battles
and the many dead.
266
00:20:34,760 --> 00:20:40,360
I felt a sort of national pride
that we ended the war so quick.
267
00:20:40,440 --> 00:20:43,040
(cheering)
268
00:21:04,480 --> 00:21:06,480
(singing in German)
269
00:21:11,040 --> 00:21:13,560
(narrator) Triumph beyond belief.
270
00:21:19,040 --> 00:21:20,240
(whistle)
271
00:21:20,320 --> 00:21:24,480
(narrator) As the booty rolled home
to the Reich, Germans exalted.
272
00:21:24,560 --> 00:21:28,520
Their Führer had sought no more
than simple justice for his people.
273
00:21:28,600 --> 00:21:31,680
He had made them
masters of Western Europe.
274
00:21:31,760 --> 00:21:35,880
Their one remaining enemy, Britain,
had been driven from the continent.
275
00:21:35,960 --> 00:21:38,280
Surely they must make peace soon.
276
00:21:40,960 --> 00:21:42,960
The masters began to rule,
277
00:21:43,040 --> 00:21:47,160
taking whatever they wanted
or thought they needed for the Reich.
278
00:21:48,240 --> 00:21:52,120
The conquered enemies themselves
delivered up the loot.
279
00:21:54,280 --> 00:21:57,320
The war was as good as over.
280
00:21:57,400 --> 00:22:04,680
(woman singing in German)
281
00:23:07,080 --> 00:23:09,480
(screaming)
282
00:23:13,680 --> 00:23:18,320
(narrator) The Nazis rewarded those
who had helped to make victory possible.
283
00:23:18,400 --> 00:23:20,440
At the Krupp armaments factory
284
00:23:20,520 --> 00:23:24,920
the Führer's Award to Industry
for Outstanding Achievement.
285
00:23:26,040 --> 00:23:30,120
German industry had grown rich
building Hitler's war machine.
286
00:23:30,200 --> 00:23:33,960
Its captains looked forward
to a new European future.
287
00:23:34,040 --> 00:23:36,040
(applause)
288
00:23:36,760 --> 00:23:38,720
It was a job well done.
289
00:23:42,880 --> 00:23:45,440
Heil Hitler.
290
00:23:45,520 --> 00:23:47,800
(man) Just about August,
291
00:23:47,880 --> 00:23:53,160
it was ordered that a lot of
production was stopped or minimised.
292
00:23:53,240 --> 00:23:56,360
And there was a kind of a euphoria
293
00:23:56,440 --> 00:23:59,600
that the war was, so to say, over.
294
00:23:59,680 --> 00:24:01,680
I didn't believe in that at all.
295
00:24:01,760 --> 00:24:05,080
No, I thought I knew the British
296
00:24:05,160 --> 00:24:09,920
and I had the opinion
that they would see this thing through.
297
00:24:12,280 --> 00:24:15,760
(narrator) The British did fight on
in the only way they could.
298
00:24:15,840 --> 00:24:20,720
A handful of aircraft dropped bombs
on cities at night, blindly.
299
00:24:30,160 --> 00:24:34,400
That winter Germans
mourned their first few civilian dead.
300
00:24:43,360 --> 00:24:45,600
The war was not over.
301
00:24:47,040 --> 00:24:50,440
Secretly, from the first moment
of victory in the West,
302
00:24:50,520 --> 00:24:51,960
Hitler had been planning
303
00:24:52,040 --> 00:24:56,640
the greatest historical confrontation
the world would ever see.
304
00:25:00,160 --> 00:25:02,120
On April 20, 1941,
305
00:25:02,200 --> 00:25:06,600
he celebrated his birthday
with his commanders in the field.
306
00:25:09,840 --> 00:25:11,440
The decision had been taken.
307
00:25:15,240 --> 00:25:18,360
The time was ripe to conquer
and destroy the enemy
308
00:25:18,440 --> 00:25:20,120
which had always obsessed him,
309
00:25:20,200 --> 00:25:24,560
the enemy he feared and loathed
above all others.
310
00:25:24,640 --> 00:25:27,440
Hitler believed that his destiny
was to lead his people
311
00:25:27,520 --> 00:25:31,360
into an apocalyptic struggle
with the Soviet Union.
312
00:25:31,440 --> 00:25:34,040
The victors would dominate the world.
313
00:25:34,120 --> 00:25:36,800
“When the great confrontation began,”
he said,
314
00:25:36,880 --> 00:25:39,120
“the world would hold its breath.”
315
00:25:40,720 --> 00:25:47,080
On June 22, 1941,
Goebbels broadcast to the German people.
316
00:25:47,840 --> 00:25:50,240
German people.
317
00:25:50,320 --> 00:25:54,240
At this moment
an advance is in progress
318
00:25:54,320 --> 00:26:02,160
which stretches beyond anything
the world has ever seen.
319
00:26:02,240 --> 00:26:07,440
(narrator) The German people, too,
held their breath.
320
00:26:11,680 --> 00:26:17,240
1941. The third year of the war
for the German Reich.
321
00:26:17,320 --> 00:26:20,200
Street collections for Nazi charities.
322
00:26:22,880 --> 00:26:26,280
Giving money to show solidarity
with the men at the front.
323
00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:31,160
(laughter)
324
00:26:33,040 --> 00:26:37,040
As winter approached,
the collections became more serious.
325
00:26:37,120 --> 00:26:40,320
Uniformed party officials
went from house to house.
326
00:26:43,720 --> 00:26:47,360
In December they were grim and earnest.
327
00:26:47,440 --> 00:26:49,240
Germany's leaders had promised
328
00:26:49,320 --> 00:26:52,960
the war with the Soviet Union
would be over by Christmas.
329
00:26:53,040 --> 00:26:55,160
There was no hope of that now.
330
00:26:55,240 --> 00:26:59,360
Instead there was a call
for warm clothes, boots, skis,
331
00:26:59,440 --> 00:27:02,880
to keep the army in Russia
from freezing.
332
00:27:02,960 --> 00:27:07,800
(Tucking) We went to bring our skis
and pullovers and…
333
00:27:07,880 --> 00:27:09,440
I didn't have a fur coat,
334
00:27:09,520 --> 00:27:11,400
so I couldn't bring it.
335
00:27:11,480 --> 00:27:15,880
And we heard that
the soldiers were only dressed
336
00:27:15,960 --> 00:27:20,040
in their original summer uniform,
337
00:27:20,120 --> 00:27:23,560
and winter,
we knew winter was very hard,
338
00:27:23,640 --> 00:27:26,280
so we hoped they would get it.
339
00:27:28,080 --> 00:27:31,920
(narrator) No great sacrifice to give up
an old fur wrap or a pair of skis
340
00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:34,640
to save a son or brother
from the Russian winter.
341
00:27:34,720 --> 00:27:38,120
It was the fact that they were needed
at all that was so ominous.
342
00:27:38,600 --> 00:27:40,960
The war would be long and hard,
343
00:27:41,040 --> 00:27:43,880
and there was more ominous news
to come.
344
00:27:45,720 --> 00:27:47,760
On December 11, 1941,
345
00:27:47,840 --> 00:27:50,920
Hitler declared war
on the United States.
346
00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:54,720
He had not conquered Russia,
he couldn't invade Britain,
347
00:27:54,800 --> 00:27:58,400
and now he made an enemy of
the world's greatest industrial power.
348
00:27:59,200 --> 00:28:02,120
His generals
couldn't believe their ears.
349
00:28:08,080 --> 00:28:11,440
(music)
350
00:28:11,520 --> 00:28:13,920
Official confidence was boundless.
351
00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:18,600
1942 would be another year of
German triumphs, Germany victories.
352
00:28:18,680 --> 00:28:20,480
(chorus sings)
353
00:28:54,160 --> 00:28:57,800
Few victories, no triumphs.
354
00:28:57,880 --> 00:29:01,480
First the British, then the Americans
sent their bombers over Germany.
355
00:29:01,560 --> 00:29:03,880
Sometimes a thousand at a time.
356
00:29:21,040 --> 00:29:25,840
1942 was the year
the war came home to Germany.
357
00:29:35,480 --> 00:29:38,520
Like the Londoners
they had bombed a year before,
358
00:29:38,600 --> 00:29:41,280
Germans discovered they could take it.
359
00:29:41,360 --> 00:29:44,320
Death from the skies
seemed to spur morale.
360
00:29:53,560 --> 00:29:56,400
Factory buildings were shattered.
361
00:30:01,640 --> 00:30:05,680
But they could be re-built,
and they were.
362
00:30:05,760 --> 00:30:08,600
In spite of the bombs,
production increased.
363
00:30:10,440 --> 00:30:13,840
Every worker sent to the army
had to be replaced.
364
00:30:13,920 --> 00:30:16,920
One way was with forced labour
from the conquered lands.
365
00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:19,880
Frenchmen or Poles or Ukrainians.
366
00:30:19,960 --> 00:30:22,880
(Stern) I saw those girls
367
00:30:22,960 --> 00:30:28,000
and I knew
they were the same age that I was,
368
00:30:28,080 --> 00:30:31,880
and I was thinking about,
“Is this right
369
00:30:31,960 --> 00:30:36,760
that the girls
must come to Germany to work?”
370
00:30:36,840 --> 00:30:40,320
“They are pupils like I am a pupil.”
371
00:30:40,400 --> 00:30:45,040
“And maybe this is wrong.”
372
00:30:45,120 --> 00:30:47,360
But finally—
373
00:30:47,440 --> 00:30:49,760
very often happened this—
374
00:30:49,840 --> 00:30:53,720
I thought, “It's war now,
375
00:30:53,800 --> 00:30:55,880
and they are our enemies.”
376
00:30:55,960 --> 00:30:58,200
I personally have always thought
377
00:30:58,280 --> 00:31:00,560
that it was a crazy and wrong idea,
378
00:31:00,640 --> 00:31:03,560
an insane idea really.
379
00:31:03,640 --> 00:31:06,960
It was sensible to let them work
where they lived.
380
00:31:07,040 --> 00:31:12,240
There was no necessity
to bring them into our country.
381
00:31:12,320 --> 00:31:16,560
We could have called up
382
00:31:16,640 --> 00:31:19,560
much more women than we did
383
00:31:19,640 --> 00:31:22,240
and had our own people
working on the armaments.
384
00:31:24,680 --> 00:31:28,040
(narrator) German civilians
were not ordered into war production.
385
00:31:28,120 --> 00:31:31,720
Instead, housewives and Hitler Youth
were told to volunteer
386
00:31:31,800 --> 00:31:34,840
and newsreels were told
to show them happily at work.
387
00:31:34,920 --> 00:31:36,520
(German newsreel)
388
00:32:00,440 --> 00:32:05,120
(narrator) It took courage to resist
the constant pressure to “volunteer”.
389
00:32:05,200 --> 00:32:09,720
(Beese speaking German)
390
00:32:09,800 --> 00:32:14,800
(translator) In 1942 my children were
summoned to work in a munitions factory
391
00:32:14,880 --> 00:32:16,680
instead of going on holiday.
392
00:32:16,760 --> 00:32:19,000
I forbade it.
393
00:32:19,080 --> 00:32:23,640
So my daughter said at school,
“My mother won't agree to it.”
394
00:32:23,720 --> 00:32:29,280
And we went off on our bicycles
to the Liepnitzsee near Bernau.
395
00:32:32,400 --> 00:32:35,280
When we came home,
five weeks later,
396
00:32:35,360 --> 00:32:38,840
we were visited
by three Nazi Party officials
397
00:32:38,920 --> 00:32:42,680
who informed me that my children
were to be taken away from me
398
00:32:42,760 --> 00:32:45,920
because of upbringing
hostile to the state.
399
00:32:47,880 --> 00:32:51,520
My daughter was not to be allowed
to take her exams,
400
00:32:51,600 --> 00:32:55,920
she was to be sent to
a National Socialist family,
401
00:32:56,000 --> 00:33:01,640
and my son was to go off to
a National Socialist school in Silesia.
402
00:33:05,120 --> 00:33:09,960
Now, as I was not completely ignorant
of legal procedure,
403
00:33:10,040 --> 00:33:13,960
I asked them to produce
a court order in writing first.
404
00:33:16,120 --> 00:33:18,280
They balked at that.
405
00:33:18,360 --> 00:33:20,720
Then, since there was
nothing else I could do,
406
00:33:20,800 --> 00:33:24,760
and they kept calling me
a Marxist, I said,
407
00:33:24,840 --> 00:33:27,640
“Very well. You mean to say
that the Führer was lying
408
00:33:27,720 --> 00:33:32,480
when he said not long ago that there
are no Marxists in Germany any more?”
409
00:33:32,560 --> 00:33:35,640
“Then tomorrow morning,
I'll go to the Chancellery
410
00:33:35,720 --> 00:33:37,880
and present myself to the Führer.”
411
00:33:37,960 --> 00:33:41,120
“After all, he's my Führer, too,
not just yours.”
412
00:33:41,200 --> 00:33:45,840
“And I'll ask him if you have the right
to take my children away from me.”
413
00:33:47,080 --> 00:33:51,920
Well, they said I couldn't do that.
What could I be thinking of?
414
00:33:52,000 --> 00:33:54,880
So then they went off rather perplexed
415
00:33:54,960 --> 00:33:57,200
and a quarter of an hour later
416
00:33:57,280 --> 00:34:00,480
two slips of paper were stuck through
the letter box
417
00:34:00,560 --> 00:34:03,520
and on them were numbers
for my children,
418
00:34:03,600 --> 00:34:08,320
who were thus meant
to be members of the Hitler Youth.
419
00:34:08,400 --> 00:34:10,400
I threw the slips away.
420
00:34:10,480 --> 00:34:14,800
My children were old enough to say for
themselves whether they wanted to join.
421
00:34:14,880 --> 00:34:18,200
And I said to them,
“If they still force you,
422
00:34:18,280 --> 00:34:22,280
then the uniforms will be hung
on the steps outside the front door.”
423
00:34:22,360 --> 00:34:26,080
“In my home there will be
no Hitler Youth uniforms.”
424
00:34:26,160 --> 00:34:28,560
But no one came back.
They'd had enough of us.
425
00:34:28,640 --> 00:34:31,720
(hooter)
426
00:34:33,520 --> 00:34:35,840
(narrator) The raids kept on.
427
00:34:35,920 --> 00:34:39,760
War workers learned to maintain
production even during attacks.
428
00:34:39,840 --> 00:34:41,520
Machines could be left running
429
00:34:41,600 --> 00:34:44,800
under the eyes of key workers
sheltering on the shop floor.
430
00:34:49,120 --> 00:34:51,960
Their workmates
took refuge in cellars and bunkers.
431
00:34:52,640 --> 00:34:55,400
(air-raid siren)
432
00:35:00,440 --> 00:35:03,960
When American planes attacked,
they bombed by day.
433
00:35:04,040 --> 00:35:06,120
The British bombed by night.
434
00:35:06,200 --> 00:35:11,560
Both had the same purpose—to destroy
Germany's capacity and will to fight.
435
00:35:11,640 --> 00:35:15,200
(Tucking) Sometimes you went
to the cellar three times a day.
436
00:35:15,280 --> 00:35:20,760
It was so difficult to lead
your ordinary life,
437
00:35:20,840 --> 00:35:26,880
to do your housework or to feed
your children or to go shopping.
438
00:35:28,920 --> 00:35:32,320
(narrator) At Christmas there was
a special effort by everyone.
439
00:35:33,880 --> 00:35:36,720
The short-wave radio
brought greetings to the homeland
440
00:35:36,800 --> 00:35:39,360
from the troops
fighting on the distant fronts.
441
00:35:39,440 --> 00:35:42,240
(German radio broadcast)
442
00:35:50,040 --> 00:35:52,920
This is a U-boat base in the Atlantic.
443
00:35:55,600 --> 00:35:58,920
This is the Mediterranean
frontline and Africa.
444
00:36:06,840 --> 00:36:10,760
(♪ “Silent Night”)
445
00:36:20,920 --> 00:36:22,800
(narrator) Home for Christmas.
446
00:36:26,440 --> 00:36:28,960
A cold winter and rumours of disaster.
447
00:36:32,440 --> 00:36:36,560
2,000 miles away, a German army,
a quarter of a million men,
448
00:36:36,640 --> 00:36:40,120
freezing, bleeding, starving to death.
449
00:36:40,800 --> 00:36:45,840
In February the last survivors of
Stalingrad surrendered to the Russians.
450
00:36:45,920 --> 00:36:51,320
The defeat of Stalingrad was a kind of
451
00:36:51,400 --> 00:36:54,800
underground shock for the nation.
452
00:36:54,880 --> 00:36:59,600
But nobody really accepted it
by really reflecting about it.
453
00:36:59,680 --> 00:37:01,640
It was a kind of shock you experience
454
00:37:01,720 --> 00:37:04,600
but you forget it
as soon as possible again.
455
00:37:04,680 --> 00:37:07,360
You don't reflect,
you were not allowed to reflect.
456
00:37:07,440 --> 00:37:09,040
All your reflections about it
457
00:37:09,120 --> 00:37:11,720
were put into a certain direction
458
00:37:11,800 --> 00:37:14,120
by Josef Goebbels, by the papers,
459
00:37:14,200 --> 00:37:15,360
by the broadcasts,
460
00:37:15,440 --> 00:37:19,280
and the influence of that propaganda
was rather effective, I think.
461
00:37:20,920 --> 00:37:23,440
Do you want total war?
462
00:37:23,520 --> 00:37:26,400
(cheering)
463
00:37:27,360 --> 00:37:29,600
(narrator) This was the Sportpalast,
464
00:37:29,680 --> 00:37:31,600
February 10, 1943.
465
00:37:32,400 --> 00:37:36,240
Are you determined
466
00:37:36,320 --> 00:37:39,240
to follow the Führer
in the struggle for victory
467
00:37:39,320 --> 00:37:44,600
no matter how hard
the personal sacrifices?
468
00:37:47,120 --> 00:37:50,240
(narrator) A hand-picked
audience of Nazi supporters.
469
00:37:56,920 --> 00:37:59,200
(crowd chanting)
470
00:38:08,960 --> 00:38:11,800
(Goebbels) Then let our cry be—
471
00:38:11,880 --> 00:38:17,760
people arise and storm break forth!
472
00:38:22,920 --> 00:38:25,920
(narrator)
Their optimism a triumph of their will.
473
00:38:31,200 --> 00:38:34,720
Now at last, some women
were mobilised for war work.
474
00:38:36,040 --> 00:38:39,640
(♪ “Rakoczy March”—Berlioz)
475
00:38:46,760 --> 00:38:50,760
In the factories
a kind of people's community—
476
00:38:50,840 --> 00:38:55,960
sacrificing and sharing, not for
each other, but for a war machine.
477
00:38:59,960 --> 00:39:03,040
The concerts took place
among the half-built tanks.
478
00:39:53,160 --> 00:39:56,480
Germans were surprised
that so few bombs fell on factories
479
00:39:56,560 --> 00:39:59,160
and so many on houses.
480
00:39:59,240 --> 00:40:03,200
They didn't understand that the British
were bombing that way on purpose.
481
00:40:03,280 --> 00:40:06,240
If enough houses were destroyed
and enough people killed,
482
00:40:06,320 --> 00:40:08,280
German civilian morale would break
483
00:40:08,360 --> 00:40:11,440
and they would turn on their leaders
and the war would end.
484
00:40:12,880 --> 00:40:14,720
(woman speaking German)
485
00:40:14,800 --> 00:40:18,240
(translator)
The reaction was first of all fear.
486
00:40:23,160 --> 00:40:25,960
And after the first terror had passed,
487
00:40:26,040 --> 00:40:28,040
then people began to grumble,
488
00:40:28,120 --> 00:40:34,960
some about the English, others about
the Nazis, depending on their views.
489
00:40:37,160 --> 00:40:42,560
But I must say, opinions really didn't
matter at all in times of distress
490
00:40:42,640 --> 00:40:44,960
because everyone helped everyone else.
491
00:40:46,320 --> 00:40:49,000
The help from neighbours was enormous,
492
00:40:49,080 --> 00:40:52,480
which had nothing at all
to do with political beliefs.
493
00:41:15,560 --> 00:41:18,040
(Bielenberg) If you were
all under the same bombs
494
00:41:18,120 --> 00:41:22,000
it didn't really matter whether your
neighbour was a Nazi or what they were.
495
00:41:22,080 --> 00:41:25,680
You went in, helped save their children,
496
00:41:25,760 --> 00:41:28,120
helped…
497
00:41:28,200 --> 00:41:30,280
remove their furniture if you like,
498
00:41:30,360 --> 00:41:33,480
and suddenly you discovered
they were Nazis.
499
00:41:34,120 --> 00:41:36,880
(narrator) Industrial towns
were the hardest hit.
500
00:41:36,960 --> 00:41:39,920
After each raid,
there was first aid for stricken cities.
501
00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:41,920
(speaking German)
502
00:41:44,000 --> 00:41:48,600
(translator) The Nazi Party,
really they organised all the work.
503
00:41:48,680 --> 00:41:50,760
Everything was done through the party.
504
00:41:51,520 --> 00:41:55,280
Setting up feeding stations,
fire-fighting units.
505
00:41:55,360 --> 00:41:58,280
That was all under the control
of the party.
506
00:42:00,920 --> 00:42:03,800
(narrator) One of the first priorities
was food.
507
00:42:03,880 --> 00:42:06,440
With gas mains shattered
and water pipes wrecked,
508
00:42:06,520 --> 00:42:08,680
townspeople couldn't cook for themselves
509
00:42:08,760 --> 00:42:11,040
even if they still had a roof
over their heads.
510
00:42:16,040 --> 00:42:19,960
Special rations were sometimes
distributed to survivors.
511
00:42:24,160 --> 00:42:26,720
(man speaking German)
512
00:42:26,800 --> 00:42:29,440
(translator) Cheese and butter
were distributed
513
00:42:29,520 --> 00:42:31,040
and everyone gobbled them up.
514
00:42:31,120 --> 00:42:34,080
They tried to distract people
from the misery
515
00:42:34,160 --> 00:42:37,160
and many people thought,
“It's over now.”
516
00:42:37,240 --> 00:42:41,160
They were told,
“It won't happen like that again.”
517
00:42:41,240 --> 00:42:44,360
They didn't entirely believe that
but they hoped it was true.
518
00:42:47,520 --> 00:42:50,400
(narrator) In July and August, 1943,
519
00:42:50,480 --> 00:42:53,720
Hamburg was bombed day and night
for over a week.
520
00:42:55,000 --> 00:42:58,120
No single city
had ever been bombed like that before.
521
00:42:59,680 --> 00:43:02,920
Storms of fire swept the city.
522
00:43:09,320 --> 00:43:12,080
Scorching heat killed thousands.
523
00:43:12,720 --> 00:43:15,480
(Witter speaking German)
524
00:43:15,560 --> 00:43:18,080
(translator) You have to imagine
it was very hot.
525
00:43:18,160 --> 00:43:20,600
On the streets in the summer
it was hot.
526
00:43:20,680 --> 00:43:22,520
The fires made it hotter still
527
00:43:22,600 --> 00:43:25,440
and in the bunkers it was just as hot
528
00:43:25,520 --> 00:43:29,680
because the ventilation system
had completely broken down.
529
00:43:29,760 --> 00:43:32,960
Hot, hot. It didn't cool off in there.
530
00:43:34,880 --> 00:43:38,760
And most people fled out of the bunkers
and out of the cellars
531
00:43:38,840 --> 00:43:40,680
and these great communal shelters
532
00:43:40,760 --> 00:43:42,960
right out into the streets.
533
00:43:45,680 --> 00:43:49,000
Because inside the bunkers
many people had gone mad.
534
00:43:49,080 --> 00:43:51,320
They were screaming
and they were confused.
535
00:43:51,400 --> 00:43:53,440
They just wanted to get out.
536
00:43:54,280 --> 00:43:57,560
And many of the air-raid wardens
wouldn't let them out.
537
00:43:57,640 --> 00:43:59,600
So that many people also suffocated
538
00:43:59,680 --> 00:44:01,720
in the bunkers or in the cellars.
539
00:44:01,800 --> 00:44:04,200
Some strong people
forced a way to the outside
540
00:44:04,280 --> 00:44:06,560
but outside everything was burning.
541
00:44:11,440 --> 00:44:14,880
(narrator) The British fired the city
by night with incendiaries.
542
00:44:14,960 --> 00:44:18,200
During the day
Americans bombed with high explosives,
543
00:44:18,280 --> 00:44:20,680
disrupting rescuers and fire-fighters.
544
00:44:43,160 --> 00:44:46,360
Three quarters of Hamburg was destroyed.
545
00:44:46,440 --> 00:44:48,920
Over 40,000 people were killed.
546
00:45:04,440 --> 00:45:06,800
(speaking German)
547
00:45:12,640 --> 00:45:16,520
(translator) I came to the house and
all the houses nearby had collapsed.
548
00:45:18,600 --> 00:45:20,440
Next to the house was a doorway
549
00:45:20,520 --> 00:45:23,000
and there were bodies lying there.
550
00:45:23,560 --> 00:45:27,320
I looked for my grandfather
but I couldn't find him at first.
551
00:45:27,400 --> 00:45:31,040
My grandmother was
quite a heavy-set woman, rather fat.
552
00:45:34,520 --> 00:45:36,720
There lay a fat dead woman
without a head
553
00:45:36,800 --> 00:45:41,040
and I wondered who it might be
and came to the conclusion it was her.
554
00:45:44,280 --> 00:45:46,520
I didn't find my grandfather
until later,
555
00:45:46,600 --> 00:45:49,440
in a hospital, the Harbour hospital.
556
00:45:49,520 --> 00:45:54,240
Many unidentified bodies had been
brought there, and parts of bodies,
557
00:45:54,320 --> 00:45:57,640
because everything
had to be taken away, even pieces.
558
00:45:59,400 --> 00:46:03,000
There were basins there
and in the basins were bits of bodies,
559
00:46:03,080 --> 00:46:05,000
and I looked through all of them
560
00:46:05,080 --> 00:46:09,720
and in one basin there lay a stomach
with a watch peeking out
561
00:46:09,800 --> 00:46:12,440
and it was my grandfather's watch.
562
00:46:12,520 --> 00:46:14,920
So that's all there was left of him.
563
00:46:15,000 --> 00:46:18,040
That was the remains of my grandfather.
564
00:46:21,440 --> 00:46:24,080
(narrator)
Bewildered and panic-stricken,
565
00:46:24,160 --> 00:46:27,760
nearly a million people fled Hamburg
in three days.
566
00:46:40,760 --> 00:46:44,080
People were shocked and stunned.
567
00:46:52,640 --> 00:46:56,240
Those that remained in the city
gathered in the parks
568
00:46:56,320 --> 00:47:00,200
or wandered aimlessly
through the broken streets.
569
00:47:01,160 --> 00:47:02,760
(Witter speaking German)
570
00:47:02,840 --> 00:47:05,480
(translator)
The soldiers going back to the front
571
00:47:05,560 --> 00:47:07,240
reported what it was like here.
572
00:47:07,320 --> 00:47:10,200
And that was dangerous
because the troops realised now
573
00:47:10,280 --> 00:47:13,080
that things were not going at all well
on the home front.
574
00:47:13,160 --> 00:47:16,760
For the war leadership
that was problematic and dangerous.
575
00:47:18,720 --> 00:47:22,080
(narrator) Germans prepared
for grim times ahead.
576
00:47:22,160 --> 00:47:24,680
Children were evacuated from the cities.
577
00:47:24,760 --> 00:47:28,160
They were Germany's blood
and Germany's future.
578
00:47:32,880 --> 00:47:35,080
In the eastern lands,
safe from the bombs,
579
00:47:35,160 --> 00:47:39,320
they could escape from the war,
for a while.
580
00:47:41,760 --> 00:47:44,920
(German children singing)
581
00:47:54,560 --> 00:47:56,160
(boat hooter)
582
00:48:04,000 --> 00:48:08,280
As the Reich came under siege,
some Germans came home.
583
00:48:16,600 --> 00:48:20,920
Badly wounded soldiers,
ex-prisoners sent back by the Allies.
584
00:48:26,520 --> 00:48:29,680
The new slogan was “Total war”.
585
00:48:32,120 --> 00:48:35,720
That made more sense now
than “Strength through joy”
586
00:48:35,800 --> 00:48:39,120
or “A healthy body means a sound mind”.
587
00:48:56,920 --> 00:49:01,120
The young men still offered themselves
eagerly for the Führer and Fatherland.
588
00:49:01,960 --> 00:49:04,600
But their Führer
was nowhere to be seen.
589
00:49:04,680 --> 00:49:09,560
Instead there was Heinrich Himmler to
tell them victory could still be theirs.
590
00:49:10,480 --> 00:49:13,480
(band plays march)
591
00:49:23,400 --> 00:49:27,640
If they should fail, Bolshevik hordes
would sweep across Europe.
592
00:49:28,240 --> 00:49:32,160
If they won,
Western civilisation would be saved.
593
00:49:36,560 --> 00:49:39,040
Goebbels was more down to earth.
594
00:49:39,120 --> 00:49:42,200
He visited the ruined cities,
kept spirits up…
595
00:49:43,920 --> 00:49:46,320
…told the Germans to hang on.
596
00:49:46,400 --> 00:49:49,560
(singing in German)
597
00:50:43,520 --> 00:50:45,560
(narrator) 1944.
598
00:50:45,640 --> 00:50:48,200
The fifth year of the war.
599
00:50:48,280 --> 00:50:51,440
In the bombed cities,
Germans still carried on.
600
00:50:51,520 --> 00:50:54,880
People had enough food to eat
and clothes to wear,
601
00:50:54,960 --> 00:50:57,240
but their future was dark.
602
00:50:58,240 --> 00:51:01,800
The German armies were in retreat
on every front.
603
00:51:01,880 --> 00:51:04,160
But people still trudged along
to rallies
604
00:51:04,240 --> 00:51:08,880
to hear Nazi speakers boast of
wonder weapons that would turn the tide.
605
00:51:18,360 --> 00:51:22,840
Unless they came soon, Germany would
be a nation of widows and orphans.
606
00:51:27,240 --> 00:51:30,160
There had been an attempt
to end the fighting.
607
00:51:30,240 --> 00:51:33,120
Military conspirators,
convinced the war was lost,
608
00:51:33,200 --> 00:51:35,120
tried to kill Hitler and make peace.
609
00:51:35,200 --> 00:51:37,400
They failed.
610
00:51:37,480 --> 00:51:39,120
The war went on.
611
00:51:39,200 --> 00:51:43,720
There was a new slogan—
“Now we mean it, fight on to victory”.
612
00:51:46,360 --> 00:51:49,240
Suddenly the enemy
was almost at the gates.
613
00:51:49,320 --> 00:51:54,120
The men were all at the front.
Boys dug anti-tank ditches.
614
00:52:00,400 --> 00:52:03,920
Teenagers and old men
were taught to use the Panzerfaust—
615
00:52:04,000 --> 00:52:06,640
the wonder weapon
that would stop the tanks.
616
00:52:08,440 --> 00:52:11,520
(translation) …behind them
marches the Hitler Youth.
617
00:52:11,600 --> 00:52:14,920
All are ready
to fulfil the German oath.
618
00:52:15,000 --> 00:52:19,840
I may die, but be a slave
and see Germany enslaved,
619
00:52:19,920 --> 00:52:21,960
that I can never do.
620
00:52:22,040 --> 00:52:23,360
(cheering)
621
00:52:24,600 --> 00:52:27,520
(narrator) A slogan, a gun
and a pat on the back,
622
00:52:27,600 --> 00:52:30,000
and off they went
to fight the Russians.
623
00:52:31,920 --> 00:52:34,200
(band plays march)
624
00:52:46,160 --> 00:52:49,000
By December, Germans
were outnumbered five to one
625
00:52:49,080 --> 00:52:52,440
on the Eastern Front
and eight to one in the West.
626
00:52:52,520 --> 00:52:57,600
Some believed that with new wonder
weapons, victory would still be theirs.
627
00:53:06,320 --> 00:53:09,320
Hitler demanded
that his armies stand and fight.
628
00:53:10,360 --> 00:53:13,560
Again and again
they were forced to retreat.
629
00:53:18,000 --> 00:53:21,240
The Germans were the refugees now.
630
00:53:23,160 --> 00:53:28,000
The master race was fleeing
back within the borders of the Reich.
631
00:53:37,000 --> 00:53:43,160
Near the end of the war I had to travel
from Berlin to the Black Forest
632
00:53:43,240 --> 00:53:45,920
and I happened to travel
633
00:53:46,000 --> 00:53:50,920
in the same carriage as an SS man.
634
00:53:53,800 --> 00:53:57,280
A raid had just started
and the train moved.
635
00:53:57,360 --> 00:53:59,400
Most of the people had left the carriage
636
00:53:59,480 --> 00:54:04,040
when I heard this voice saying,
“I think it's better we stay put,
637
00:54:04,120 --> 00:54:06,560
because the train will probably move out
638
00:54:06,640 --> 00:54:09,280
and we'll have the carriage
to ourselves.”
639
00:54:09,360 --> 00:54:11,840
And indeed I had it to myself
640
00:54:11,920 --> 00:54:19,080
with this SS officer
for many hours on this train journey.
641
00:54:19,160 --> 00:54:22,880
He explained to me
that he was on his way to the front now,
642
00:54:22,960 --> 00:54:27,320
that all he wanted to do
was to get killed,
643
00:54:27,400 --> 00:54:30,960
and… but…
he had tried again and again
644
00:54:31,040 --> 00:54:35,200
but always he'd seemed to survive
every battle he'd been in.
645
00:54:35,280 --> 00:54:38,760
He'd transferred to the Waffen SS,
646
00:54:38,840 --> 00:54:42,640
which was the military arm of the SS,
647
00:54:42,720 --> 00:54:46,840
who were always in the thick
of the battle, but he'd survived.
648
00:54:46,920 --> 00:54:52,760
He told me that in Poland they had…
649
00:54:55,640 --> 00:54:58,720
He had belonged to one of the commandos
650
00:54:58,800 --> 00:55:03,440
which were called
the extermination commandos,
651
00:55:03,520 --> 00:55:05,360
and on one particular occasion
652
00:55:05,440 --> 00:55:09,440
when the Jews were standing round
in a semicircle,
653
00:55:09,520 --> 00:55:13,600
with the half-dug graves behind them,
654
00:55:13,680 --> 00:55:17,680
that the machine guns had been set up
655
00:55:17,760 --> 00:55:25,640
and out of the ranks of the Jews
that were standing there,
656
00:55:25,720 --> 00:55:27,880
a wonderful figure had come towards him.
657
00:55:27,960 --> 00:55:33,040
He said, “He had long hair.
I suppose he was a priest of some kind.”
658
00:55:33,120 --> 00:55:38,120
“And he said,
‘God is watching what you do.’”
659
00:55:38,200 --> 00:55:43,880
And he said. “We shot him down
before he returned to the semicircle.”
660
00:55:43,960 --> 00:55:49,640
Another little boy,
before they had set up this scene,
661
00:55:49,720 --> 00:55:55,440
had asked him,
“Am I standing straight enough, Uncle?”
662
00:55:55,520 --> 00:55:59,240
And he told me these things
he could never forget
663
00:55:59,320 --> 00:56:05,280
and that he only, as I say,
now wished to die.
664
00:56:05,360 --> 00:56:08,360
I travelled with that man
all through the night…
665
00:56:09,880 --> 00:56:14,240
…and as the carriage had no windows,
it was very cold,
666
00:56:14,320 --> 00:56:18,080
and I can remember waking in the night,
667
00:56:18,160 --> 00:56:22,680
strangely enough,
my head resting on his shoulder,
668
00:56:22,760 --> 00:56:27,720
and he'd covered my knees
with his sheepskin coat.
669
00:56:27,800 --> 00:56:30,800
The next time I woke, he'd gone.
670
00:56:35,560 --> 00:56:38,320
(narrator) By the beginning of 1945
671
00:56:38,400 --> 00:56:41,560
the war was being fought
inside the Reich.
672
00:56:43,960 --> 00:56:47,200
Even as troops moved in
to help defend Germany's cities,
673
00:56:47,280 --> 00:56:49,760
their inhabitants fled.
674
00:56:58,000 --> 00:57:01,080
Breslau,
the great German city in the East,
675
00:57:01,160 --> 00:57:03,520
lay in the path of the Soviet army.
676
00:57:03,600 --> 00:57:06,960
When it came under siege Hitler
expected its people to set an example
677
00:57:07,040 --> 00:57:08,720
to the rest of the Reich.
678
00:57:08,800 --> 00:57:10,960
They must not surrender.
679
00:57:14,280 --> 00:57:16,480
They must fight the Russians
to the death
680
00:57:16,560 --> 00:57:18,320
and when they could fight no more,
681
00:57:18,400 --> 00:57:21,920
destroy everything
rather than capitulate.
682
00:57:23,320 --> 00:57:26,840
That was Hitler's message
to his people now.
683
00:57:35,920 --> 00:57:38,480
The troops pulling back
before the Soviet army
684
00:57:38,560 --> 00:57:40,800
had retreated 2,000 miles,
685
00:57:40,880 --> 00:57:42,760
butchering and burning as they went.
686
00:57:58,200 --> 00:58:03,560
The army and the Waffen SS
had fought a war of extermination.
687
00:58:03,640 --> 00:58:08,240
Now, exhausted,
they faced Russian vengeance.
688
00:58:11,680 --> 00:58:14,080
(Kehrl)
They didn't have enough ammunition,
689
00:58:14,160 --> 00:58:16,280
they didn't have enough gasoline,
690
00:58:16,360 --> 00:58:19,960
they didn't have enough of anything,
you know.
691
00:58:20,040 --> 00:58:22,880
It was only, well,
692
00:58:22,960 --> 00:58:25,400
an imitation of a war.
693
00:58:25,480 --> 00:58:27,880
There wasn't really any war any more
694
00:58:27,960 --> 00:58:30,880
and there wasn't any possibility
whatsoever
695
00:58:30,960 --> 00:58:37,360
that there could be
even a halfway decent end.
696
00:58:37,440 --> 00:58:40,200
(artillery fire in background)
697
00:58:47,000 --> 00:58:48,920
You were waiting maybe for food,
698
00:58:49,000 --> 00:58:51,160
or you were waiting for ammunition
699
00:58:51,240 --> 00:58:53,240
or you were waiting for orders,
700
00:58:53,320 --> 00:58:56,920
but most of the time you didn't know
if you were behind the front line,
701
00:58:57,000 --> 00:59:00,680
if you were in the front line
or what was going on.
702
00:59:03,520 --> 00:59:06,880
End of February, we were…
703
00:59:08,760 --> 00:59:11,680
…all, all of our platoon,
704
00:59:11,760 --> 00:59:15,440
were taken to a point
705
00:59:15,520 --> 00:59:19,440
where hundreds of boys
and hundreds of soldiers were
706
00:59:19,520 --> 00:59:23,120
and we were driven by cars
back to Cologne.
707
00:59:23,200 --> 00:59:26,800
It was about 40 kilometres,
708
00:59:26,880 --> 00:59:29,040
It was a long drive for hours.
709
00:59:29,120 --> 00:59:33,760
I mean, usually you always moved
only three or four kilometres,
710
00:59:33,840 --> 00:59:35,400
but we didn't know where.
711
00:59:35,480 --> 00:59:39,800
They said, “Yes, you go to movie.”
We said, “That's fine, see movie.”
712
00:59:39,880 --> 00:59:43,880
But the only thing we saw
were newsreels,
713
00:59:43,960 --> 00:59:46,560
or it wasn't newsreel.
714
00:59:46,640 --> 00:59:49,560
They were special films
715
00:59:49,640 --> 00:59:55,880
and they showed us towns and villages
in East Germany
716
00:59:55,960 --> 01:00:02,320
conquered by the Russians,
and we saw the dead bodies of civilians.
717
01:00:02,800 --> 01:00:04,000
(German newsreel)
718
01:00:26,280 --> 01:00:30,960
(narrator) Special films and newsreels
to horrify soldiers, and civilians too.
719
01:00:44,200 --> 01:00:50,280
And then somebody in a Nazi uniform,
we called them Politische Leiter,
720
01:00:50,360 --> 01:00:54,480
he came and had a speech,
maybe a ten-minute speech
721
01:00:54,560 --> 01:00:58,760
and said, “Look. That is what happened
when the enemy conquered Germany.”
722
01:00:58,840 --> 01:01:01,400
“Therefore you have to defend your home
723
01:01:01,480 --> 01:01:04,760
and you have to obey…
you have to do your duty.”
724
01:01:04,840 --> 01:01:09,640
“This is what happens to all Germans
when the Russians conquer Germany.”
725
01:01:09,720 --> 01:01:14,280
(narrator) Rape and massacre.
726
01:01:14,360 --> 01:01:19,280
Fight on or die horribly.
There seemed no other choice.
727
01:01:21,400 --> 01:01:23,480
Children enlisted.
728
01:01:25,160 --> 01:01:26,760
Total war turned to nightmare.
729
01:02:43,080 --> 01:02:47,400
Unser Führer, Adolf Hitler!
Sieg heil! Sieg heil!
730
01:02:47,480 --> 01:02:50,000
Sieg heil!
731
01:02:50,080 --> 01:02:53,640
(narrator) Hitler still demanded
total loyalty from his people,
732
01:02:53,720 --> 01:02:56,080
but he did not return it.
733
01:02:56,160 --> 01:03:00,640
If they would not bring him the victory
he believed in, they deserved to perish.
734
01:03:00,720 --> 01:03:01,960
(speaking German)
735
01:03:02,040 --> 01:03:04,400
(translator)
The people had done everything
736
01:03:04,480 --> 01:03:08,760
the leaders had demanded of them,
more than was humanly possible.
737
01:03:08,840 --> 01:03:11,720
And I just could not understand.
738
01:03:11,800 --> 01:03:14,800
If the people at the top
knew the war was lost,
739
01:03:14,880 --> 01:03:19,880
that there was no sense in fighting
any longer, why did they keep fighting?
740
01:03:19,960 --> 01:03:23,440
Why did they want to ruin
the last remains of Germany?
741
01:03:23,520 --> 01:03:26,120
How could any government be so criminal?
742
01:03:28,800 --> 01:03:33,040
(narrator) Faced with their conquerors,
Germans wanted to survive.
743
01:03:40,520 --> 01:03:43,640
What they had done
to so many others for so long,
744
01:03:43,720 --> 01:03:45,440
was done to them.
745
01:04:08,800 --> 01:04:11,080
They tried to explain.
746
01:04:11,160 --> 01:04:12,960
No one listened.
747
01:04:36,200 --> 01:04:40,960
Their conquerors brought fire
and death, and moved on.
748
01:04:47,160 --> 01:04:49,800
The lucky ones were captured.
749
01:04:52,800 --> 01:04:54,280
Humiliated.
750
01:05:24,400 --> 01:05:28,040
Some were less lucky.
They met their victim's vengeance.
751
01:05:35,120 --> 01:05:37,640
Death on every roadside.
752
01:05:44,360 --> 01:05:47,600
We suddenly realised
that we were eingekesselt,
753
01:05:47,680 --> 01:05:52,400
which meant that we were surrounded
by Allies on all sides
754
01:05:52,800 --> 01:05:56,080
and there were three divisions,
German divisions, locked in,
755
01:05:56,160 --> 01:06:00,520
and that they had chosen our particular
valley as a route of escape.
756
01:06:00,600 --> 01:06:03,480
So the very end of the war,
757
01:06:03,560 --> 01:06:07,400
suddenly, a very quiet
Black Forest village
758
01:06:07,480 --> 01:06:13,080
became a scene of such activity
as one could hardly believe.
759
01:06:13,160 --> 01:06:17,760
Our own little inn was occupied
by the three generals
760
01:06:17,840 --> 01:06:25,800
and a stream of military vehicles
streamed up the valley.
761
01:06:25,880 --> 01:06:27,560
By that time, with no petrol,
762
01:06:27,640 --> 01:06:32,360
some vehicles were being drawn
by Alsatian dogs,
763
01:06:32,440 --> 01:06:36,720
some of them, horses, donkeys, oxen.
764
01:06:36,800 --> 01:06:43,680
Anything that you could get.
It was a very slow-moving… army.
765
01:06:45,720 --> 01:06:47,320
And…
766
01:06:47,400 --> 01:06:54,160
But the extraordinary thing
was, this army still stuck to its rules.
767
01:06:54,240 --> 01:06:57,520
And in our inn,
768
01:06:57,600 --> 01:07:02,560
where the generals were,
769
01:07:02,640 --> 01:07:09,560
one evening a boy was led in
to be court-martialled
770
01:07:09,640 --> 01:07:12,400
in the little dining room
771
01:07:12,480 --> 01:07:18,640
where the officers,
where the generals were housing.
772
01:07:18,720 --> 01:07:22,120
At the same time they insisted
773
01:07:22,200 --> 01:07:27,920
or asked a local man to arrange
to do all the telephone wires.
774
01:07:28,000 --> 01:07:34,120
He was an electrician. And he refused
and said he wouldn't work on Sunday.
775
01:07:34,200 --> 01:07:38,440
And these two, the boy and the man,
776
01:07:38,520 --> 01:07:41,440
were condemned by court martial,
777
01:07:41,520 --> 01:07:47,240
were led up the hill behind our inn
and were shot.
778
01:07:49,920 --> 01:07:52,000
(narrator) The death camps were opened.
779
01:07:52,080 --> 01:07:55,040
Germans were confronted
with evidence of terrible things
780
01:07:55,120 --> 01:07:57,280
done in their country, in their name.
781
01:08:12,920 --> 01:08:15,560
These had been men and women
judged unworthy
782
01:08:15,640 --> 01:08:18,680
to be members
of the people's community.
783
01:08:25,640 --> 01:08:28,720
(speaking German)
784
01:08:34,600 --> 01:08:38,520
(translator) We heard the terrible
things that happened in the camps
785
01:08:38,600 --> 01:08:42,040
from the beginning to the end,
till the liberation.
786
01:08:51,680 --> 01:08:55,280
I can't tell you the source,
787
01:08:55,360 --> 01:09:00,400
but word got to us and we believed it,
we in the resistance.
788
01:09:03,280 --> 01:09:06,440
But I believe that the public,
if they had been told
789
01:09:06,520 --> 01:09:09,320
or if they had heard about it somehow,
790
01:09:09,400 --> 01:09:11,880
they would not have believed it,
791
01:09:11,960 --> 01:09:14,480
because it was so terrible,
792
01:09:14,560 --> 01:09:17,320
that if a person was himself decent,
793
01:09:17,400 --> 01:09:22,760
he could not possibly believe
that other people could be so bestial.
794
01:09:22,840 --> 01:09:28,480
The first time I heard what was
happening in Germany with the Jews,
795
01:09:28,560 --> 01:09:33,160
it was the British Broadcasting, BBC,
796
01:09:33,240 --> 01:09:35,880
at two o'clock. (sings BBC signal)
797
01:09:37,040 --> 01:09:42,000
And I must say I couldn't believe it.
798
01:09:42,080 --> 01:09:44,680
And I was thinking
you heard so many things,
799
01:09:44,760 --> 01:09:48,600
Goebbels said so many things, Germans
say so many propaganda things,
800
01:09:48,680 --> 01:09:53,240
and now the British
also say they have war,
801
01:09:53,320 --> 01:09:57,440
and they have war and they have
propaganda and they have propaganda.
802
01:09:57,520 --> 01:09:59,720
So I didn't know what I should believe.
803
01:10:02,600 --> 01:10:04,640
(narrator) But it was true.
804
01:10:18,040 --> 01:10:22,120
All over the country Germans
were made not to just look at,
805
01:10:22,200 --> 01:10:24,720
but to re-bury the broken bodies.
806
01:10:24,800 --> 01:10:27,680
To touch, to handle them.
807
01:10:27,760 --> 01:10:29,480
That way perhaps
808
01:10:29,560 --> 01:10:31,440
they would never forget.
809
01:10:40,960 --> 01:10:43,520
(explosions)
810
01:10:47,160 --> 01:10:49,640
By April, the war was nearly over.
811
01:10:49,720 --> 01:10:54,200
Only Berlin, where Hitler was,
still fought on.
812
01:10:54,280 --> 01:10:56,840
He commanded his city
to fight to the death.
813
01:10:58,080 --> 01:11:02,320
A quarter of a million Germans died
obeying his last orders.
814
01:11:02,400 --> 01:11:04,160
Hitler committed suicide.
815
01:11:04,240 --> 01:11:08,000
I was working
in the American headquarters
816
01:11:08,080 --> 01:11:09,800
when there was a special news
817
01:11:09,880 --> 01:11:11,520
on the wireless
818
01:11:11,600 --> 01:11:14,320
that Hitler had committed suicide.
819
01:11:14,400 --> 01:11:16,320
And…
820
01:11:16,400 --> 01:11:19,000
I… even tears came to my eyes,
821
01:11:19,080 --> 01:11:23,360
but not on the person, Hitler.
822
01:11:23,440 --> 01:11:29,640
I was so disappointed that he was
such a lousy… such a rotten coward.
823
01:11:29,720 --> 01:11:34,080
He had started the war.
Millions of dead people.
824
01:11:34,160 --> 01:11:37,360
Everything was lost, in ruins.
825
01:11:37,440 --> 01:11:40,840
Then he wanted to give up
all responsibility
826
01:11:40,920 --> 01:11:45,360
and he just committed suicide,
just like his mouthpiece, Goebbels.
827
01:11:45,440 --> 01:11:50,040
I still hear Goebbels in my ears, “Do
you want the total war?” The yelling!
828
01:11:50,120 --> 01:11:53,760
(narrator) When Hitler died
there was no one,
829
01:11:53,840 --> 01:11:56,480
nothing to fight for.
830
01:11:57,520 --> 01:12:00,960
(Wortmann) I wouldn't like
to go through all that again.
831
01:12:01,040 --> 01:12:02,840
Everything was shattered.
832
01:12:02,920 --> 01:12:05,320
I'd lost a brother,
I've lost some uncles.
833
01:12:05,400 --> 01:12:08,440
I have seen thousands
of displaced persons,
834
01:12:08,520 --> 01:12:12,440
Russians, Polish,
walking through my village.
835
01:12:12,520 --> 01:12:16,360
Others coming from East Prussia,
or Silesia.
836
01:12:16,440 --> 01:12:18,520
They had lost their home.
837
01:12:18,600 --> 01:12:22,320
I've seen young soldiers
dying in the church.
838
01:12:22,400 --> 01:12:26,640
I have seen young pupils,
14-year-old boys,
839
01:12:26,720 --> 01:12:32,320
they got flame-throwers
and hand grenades
840
01:12:32,400 --> 01:12:36,760
during the last days of the war
to fight the American tanks.
841
01:12:36,840 --> 01:12:39,200
And it was such a complete madness.
842
01:12:39,280 --> 01:12:43,920
And Hitler didn't care
about the people.
843
01:12:44,000 --> 01:12:47,880
He sacrificed them all
just for his madness.
844
01:13:02,040 --> 01:13:03,880
(speaking German)
845
01:13:05,160 --> 01:13:06,440
(translator) In Dachau
846
01:13:06,520 --> 01:13:07,800
we were forced to look
847
01:13:07,880 --> 01:13:10,680
at the so-called gassing installations.
848
01:13:13,280 --> 01:13:16,360
They really put on a great show
for us there.
849
01:13:16,440 --> 01:13:18,440
They took camp inmates as models
850
01:13:18,520 --> 01:13:22,760
and put them across a table
to show how they were beaten.
851
01:13:22,840 --> 01:13:25,240
They showed us
normal shower installations
852
01:13:25,320 --> 01:13:29,240
that were supposed to be
gas installations.
853
01:13:30,680 --> 01:13:35,680
Showed us two ovens used for the 6,000
people who were supposedly gassed.
854
01:13:39,400 --> 01:13:44,680
But there were enough people in prison
with us who knew Dachau intimately,
855
01:13:44,760 --> 01:13:46,960
who told us
that this was all a big show,
856
01:13:47,040 --> 01:13:50,880
intended to generate a campaign
of hatred against Germany.
857
01:13:54,440 --> 01:13:57,720
In Dachau, people worked.
858
01:13:57,800 --> 01:14:00,160
In Dachau, no one was gassed.
859
01:14:02,760 --> 01:14:06,040
The two ovens were there
to burn those who died naturally.
860
01:14:06,120 --> 01:14:10,480
There were several thousands in the camp
and it did happen sometimes.
861
01:14:12,920 --> 01:14:15,080
The whole business was laughable to us
862
01:14:15,160 --> 01:14:17,680
and proved to us
that it was just a show going on.
863
01:14:40,960 --> 01:14:44,520
In any case it was never intended
to kill the Jews.
864
01:14:47,480 --> 01:14:51,680
That was a development which came
when the war was at its peak,
865
01:14:51,760 --> 01:14:54,800
which cannot be justified,
and which, God have mercy,
866
01:14:54,880 --> 01:14:57,440
made many enemies for us after the war.
867
01:14:59,840 --> 01:15:03,800
And the result? Hardly anyone nowadays
thinks of the positive achievements
868
01:15:03,880 --> 01:15:06,920
brought to Germany and to Europe
by Hitler.
869
01:15:12,760 --> 01:15:16,720
(narrator) Germans had followed
Adolf Hitler for 12 years.