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(narrator) Down this road
on a summer day in 1944,
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the soldiers came.
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Nobody lives here now.
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They stayed only a few hours.
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When they had gone,
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a community, which had lived
for a thousand years, was dead.
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This is Oradour-sur-Glane in France.
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The day the soldiers came
the people were gathered together.
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The men were taken
to garages and barns,
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the women and children
were led down this road,
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and they were driven into this church.
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Here, they heard the firing
as their men were shot.
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Then they were killed, too.
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A few weeks later
many of those who had done the killing
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were themselves dead in battle.
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They never rebuilt Oradour.
Its ruins are a memorial.
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Its martyrdom stands for thousand
upon thousand of other martyrdoms
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in Poland, in Russia,
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in Burma, in China,
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in a world at war.
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(♪ military march)
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Germany, 1933.
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A huge, blind excitement
fills the streets.
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The National Socialists
have come to power
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in a land tortured by unemployment,
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embittered by loss of territory,
demoralised by political weakness.
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Perhaps this will be the new beginning.
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Most people think the Nazis
a little absurd here,
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too obsessive there.
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But perhaps the time
for thinking is over.
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Adolf Hitler did not seize power.
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He was offered it just
as his voting strength was declining.
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The politicians
who made Hitler chancellor argued,
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“We are hiring him.”
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Their figurehead was
the ancient President von Hindenburg.
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00:03:33,880 --> 00:03:36,920
Communists and Socialists
tried to take Hitler coolly.
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00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:39,040
“This wouldn't last,” they said.
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Conservative anti-Nazis
took comfort from the fact
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that their old war leader Hindenburg,
still head of state,
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00:03:45,920 --> 00:03:48,880
was known to despise
the vulgar little corporal.
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00:03:48,960 --> 00:03:50,960
(speaking German)
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So, fertig?
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Na, jetzt wird es fertig sein.
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(all shout out “Heil!”)
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With mock solemnity,
Hitler and his lieutenants
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walked to the ceremonial opening
of parliament.
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The party's strength had been built up
by revolutionary violence.
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They had never imagined that
they could take office legally.
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When the old Reichstag building
was mysteriously gutted by fire,
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Hitler seized his chance
to suspend all civil liberties.
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His followers could hardly believe
their luck.
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The old Hindenburg, the symbol
of apparent continuity, presided
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as they turned office into power
by acts of sham legality.
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In March, when the Reichstag voted
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to allow Hitler
to govern without parliament,
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Hindenburg made no comment.
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The legal chancellor
marched irresistibly
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into the role of the legal dictator.
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Hitler proclaimed the new Germany,
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and meant it to last a thousand years.
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The new Germany
began to round up its enemies—
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Communists, Socialists, impertinent
journalists, even Reichstag deputies.
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Antreten zum Arbeiten.
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At Oranienburg concentration camp,
just north of Berlin,
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conditions were at first crude
rather than brutal.
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At this time the camps were run
by the Sturmabteilungen—the SA.
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They bullied more than they murdered.
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From the first moment, Hitler unleashed
his promised campaign against the Jews.
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The SA organised boycotts
of Jewish-owned shops.
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The real point
was to encourage the German people
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to think and act anti-Semitic
as a matter of course.
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The outside world was horrified,
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but there were those,
including many German Jews,
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who thought the anti-Jewish campaign
the work of Nazi extremists—
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something Herr Hitler would put
a stop to when he felt more secure.
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There was to be
a cultural revolution, too.
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German culture would be purged
of the Jewish-Bolshevist taint.
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(♪ singing in German)
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Books flew into the fire.
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Many of those who flung them
were students and teachers.
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And, as the sparks rose,
the intellectuals fled—
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writers and scientists—
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to give their talents
to Western Europe and America.
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A hundred years before
the German-Jewish poet, Heine,
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whose books now went into the fire,
had warned:
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“Where one burns books,
there one eventually burns people.”
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(peal of church bells)
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Some of Hitler's most earnest followers
found new ways to show loyalty—
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they married or got married
all over again under a Nazi ritual.
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00:08:07,000 --> 00:08:10,240
The Nazis had mass support
among the unemployed,
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but less among the organised workers.
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The left wing of the party
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wanted to start a workers' movement
inside the factories,
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but Hitler took a simpler course.
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He granted the unions the May Day
holiday they had always demanded.
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Next day he abolished the unions.
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Nazi supporters
were basically middle class—
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shopkeepers ruined by the Depression,
clerks who had lost their savings,
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00:08:36,720 --> 00:08:39,520
craftsmen squeezed out
by mass production.
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(chants of “Sieg Heil!”)
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These were Hitler's worshippers.
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(♪ congregation singing)
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To this army of those
who had come down in the world
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belonged the small farmers,
the peasants.
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Hitler had enlisted them
during the Depression.
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Now he told them that their blood
and soil were Germany's treasure.
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He passed laws to give them
safe possession of their fields
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and he gave them bread.
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The Treaty of Versailles in 1919
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had bitten deep
into Germany's frontiers.
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Alsace-Lorraine and the Saarland
had been lost.
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East Prussia was cut off
by the new Polish state,
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Silesia cut in two,
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Danzig, a League of Nations city.
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(man speaking in German)
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To every patriot, Germany could not
be free while Versailles stood.
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Hitler alone seemed the saviour foretold
by the monuments of the border:
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“Never, German, forget
what blind hate stole from thee.”
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(♪ German national anthem)
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“Wait for the hour that avenges
the bleeding frontier crime.”
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Abroad there were some
who admired the way
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this new Germany stood up for herself.
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In America we've had reports
against your new government,
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and, in most cases, this has caused
hasty demonstrations everywhere.
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I can now say to you that
the American people today realise
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these stories are untrue
and without foundation.
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I find that there's a new,
fresh vitality here in Germany
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under your great leader
and chancellor, Adolf Hitler,
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of whom I'm a great admirer.
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The new Germany will live
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for you have the best centralised
government in the world today.
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(narrator) In fact, the new Germany
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was a bundle of different interests
and grievances
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held together by the strap
of the National Socialist Party,
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and the buckle of the strap was Hitler.
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(Hitler speaking German)
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Well, really, it was the only party
that promised to get us out of the hole.
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And their idea was principally
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that that would only be possible
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if we developed as a nation
a team spirit, a solidarity,
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and pulling all on the same rope,
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instead of quarrelling
about petty differences of opinions
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in foreign politics and social politics,
and so on and so forth.
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(speaks German)
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(translator) What did he promise?
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Work and bread for the masses,
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for the millions of workers who were
unemployed and hungry at that time.
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Nowadays, in our prosperous society,
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work and bread
doesn't mean anything any more,
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but then it was
an absolutely basic need.
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And this promise,
which wouldn't make any sense today,
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then it sounded like
a promise of paradise.
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(speaks German)
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(translator) All this seemed
ideal ground for a prophet to say:
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“I will lead you to the promised land.
I will deliver you from evil.”
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Anyone who said that
would be greeted with enthusiasm.
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Of course, there were people
who said this is a false prophet,
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but who was to know
whether they were right or not?
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At that time no one did.
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(♪ people singing
“Silent Night” in German)
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(narrator) Christmas, 1933.
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One year of Hitler's Reich.
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Peace on earth,
goodwill towards men.
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The concentration camps were full,
parliament a rubber stamp,
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political parties
and trade unions abolished,
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the Jews out of the civil service,
a free press strangled,
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personal liberties destroyed.
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Germany lived under
a permanent state of emergency.
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Adolf Hitler's state
was all-powerful, even almighty.
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(church bells ringing)
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But he still felt threatened.
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He feared his old conservative rivals.
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He feared the army.
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And he feared those sections of his own
party which were still revolutionary,
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like the leadership
of the storm troopers.
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The army, too, hated the SA.
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Hitler saw how he could conciliate
the generals and clear his own path.
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The head of the SA was one of
his oldest comrades, Ernst Röhm.
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On June 30, 1934, Röhm was arrested…
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(gunshot)
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…and shot.
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His SA commanders
and more than 100 others
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dragged from their beds were shot, too.
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(gunfire)
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Murder exploded across Germany.
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The killers were the new force
in Germany—
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the SS, Hitler's bodyguard—
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which now became
his personal instrument of terror.
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Göring gave a press conference
at the propaganda ministry.
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Goebbels was the minister of propaganda,
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but Goebbels had wisely stayed
with Hitler at that time
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because Göring hated his guts
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and might have taken the opportunity
to bump him off if he'd been in Berlin.
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Göring had that press conference
for the foreign press.
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Before that the telephones had been
cut off to all foreign countries.
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Göring came striding in and said,
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00:15:56,040 --> 00:16:00,120
“I know you boys
always like to have a story,”—
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00:16:00,200 --> 00:16:05,520
he used the English word—
“I've got a story for you all right,”
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00:16:05,600 --> 00:16:11,720
and described how
that previous night and that morning
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00:16:11,800 --> 00:16:16,600
he and Hitler had acted against
dissident forces,
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00:16:16,680 --> 00:16:21,360
both of the Right and of the Left,
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that Röhm had been shot,
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that a second revolution
had been quashed.
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00:16:27,120 --> 00:16:33,520
He also made a rather obscure reference
to General von Schleicher
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00:16:33,600 --> 00:16:37,920
who had preceded Hitler
as German chancellor.
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00:16:38,000 --> 00:16:42,480
Then he left the room, came back again
in a few seconds and said:
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00:16:42,560 --> 00:16:45,720
“It's been suggested
that I didn't make myself quite clear
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00:16:45,800 --> 00:16:47,560
about General von Schleicher.”
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00:16:47,640 --> 00:16:51,000
“He was shot dead this morning
while resisting arrest.”
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00:16:51,400 --> 00:16:57,200
30 June, '34,
was a very, very important day,
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00:16:57,280 --> 00:17:03,360
because it became obvious that
this government, as a government,
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00:17:03,440 --> 00:17:06,120
started to become a murderer.
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00:17:06,200 --> 00:17:10,120
You remember that
they shot a great number of people
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00:17:10,200 --> 00:17:13,240
without any bringing them to court.
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00:17:13,320 --> 00:17:15,360
They just killed them.
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00:17:15,440 --> 00:17:22,920
And not only direct enemies of Hitler
in that moment—
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00:17:23,000 --> 00:17:27,440
not only Röhm, the head of the SA—
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00:17:27,520 --> 00:17:32,280
but also other people
who they felt were unpleasant.
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00:17:32,360 --> 00:17:35,320
And they just did it at the same time.
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(♪ solemn dirge)
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00:17:43,520 --> 00:17:46,920
(narrator) That summer
another rival disappeared.
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00:17:48,280 --> 00:17:53,280
President Hindenburg
died in his bed on August 2.
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While the old man was still breathing
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00:17:57,640 --> 00:18:00,280
Hitler had abolished
the office of president,
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00:18:00,360 --> 00:18:03,040
proclaiming himself
Führer and Chancellor,
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00:18:03,120 --> 00:18:05,680
head of state and government.
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00:18:11,440 --> 00:18:14,040
And before his corpse was laid to rest,
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00:18:14,120 --> 00:18:16,880
Hitler usurped his command
over the army.
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00:18:17,520 --> 00:18:20,680
The armed forces paraded
to swear a new oath.
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00:18:20,760 --> 00:18:24,000
Where once they had sworn loyalty
to the constitution,
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00:18:24,080 --> 00:18:28,000
now they pledged themselves to Hitler,
personally, by name.
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00:18:28,640 --> 00:18:33,360
—Ich schwöre bei Gott…
—(men repeat sentence)
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00:18:33,440 --> 00:18:36,160
…diesen heiligen Eid…
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00:18:36,240 --> 00:18:38,800
(men repeat)
235
00:18:38,880 --> 00:18:44,200
…dass ich den Führer
des Deutschen Reiches und Volkes…
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00:18:44,280 --> 00:18:48,880
(men repeat)
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00:18:48,960 --> 00:18:50,880
…Adolf Hitler…
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00:18:50,960 --> 00:18:53,040
(men repeat)
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00:18:53,120 --> 00:18:57,520
(narrator) For German officers,
an oath was almost physically real.
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00:19:00,320 --> 00:19:02,520
Hitler had trapped them.
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00:19:02,600 --> 00:19:07,360
Now they could not disobey him
without disobeying the fatherland.
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00:19:07,440 --> 00:19:10,640
—Ich schwöre…
—(men repeat)
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00:19:10,720 --> 00:19:13,480
—Ich schwöre bei Gott…
—(men repeat)
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00:19:13,560 --> 00:19:16,480
Ich schwöre Adolf Hitler…
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00:19:16,560 --> 00:19:18,720
Adolf Hitler.
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00:19:18,800 --> 00:19:20,320
(men) Adolf Hitler.
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00:19:20,400 --> 00:19:21,680
Adolf Hitler!
248
00:19:21,760 --> 00:19:23,240
(men) Adolf Hitler.
249
00:19:23,320 --> 00:19:24,760
Adolf Hitler!
250
00:19:24,840 --> 00:19:26,560
(train whistle)
251
00:19:28,720 --> 00:19:33,240
Hitler kept up the pace. That same month
the Germans had to go again to the polls
252
00:19:33,320 --> 00:19:37,080
to approve his assumption
of state and government powers.
253
00:19:37,160 --> 00:19:39,400
By now the machinery
of ballot management
254
00:19:39,480 --> 00:19:43,480
by threat, propaganda, forgery and fraud
was functioning excellently.
255
00:19:43,560 --> 00:19:45,560
(crowd chant in German)
256
00:19:50,040 --> 00:19:52,840
Hitler had a 90% Ja.
257
00:19:53,600 --> 00:19:57,000
Four million still voted Nein.
258
00:19:58,080 --> 00:19:59,480
Hitler proclaimed:
259
00:19:59,560 --> 00:20:04,960
“For the next thousand years, there will
be no other revolution in Germany.”
260
00:20:09,600 --> 00:20:13,080
The Nazis preached the doctrine
of “folk-community”,
261
00:20:13,160 --> 00:20:17,120
of learning to be Germans
one of another.
262
00:20:17,200 --> 00:20:21,480
Winter Help, the main street collection
for charity, was one symbol,
263
00:20:21,560 --> 00:20:25,040
and the leaders of the party,
for the benefit of the cameras,
264
00:20:25,120 --> 00:20:28,000
showed themselves as folk comrades, too.
265
00:20:29,360 --> 00:20:31,640
Göring displayed himself—
266
00:20:31,720 --> 00:20:35,680
a war hero, a man who laughed
and enjoyed life,
267
00:20:35,760 --> 00:20:39,120
a moderating force in the party,
it was believed.
268
00:20:39,200 --> 00:20:42,400
Joseph Goebbels,
the little propaganda minister,
269
00:20:42,480 --> 00:20:45,720
whom the backstreet
called “poison dwarf”.
270
00:20:45,800 --> 00:20:49,320
His sharpness was feared,
but respected.
271
00:20:50,600 --> 00:20:54,760
—Warum lachen Sie?
—Die Dame spricht nicht Deutsch.
272
00:20:54,840 --> 00:21:00,640
The deputy Führer, Rudolf Hess,
a puzzling figure to the crowds.
273
00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:06,440
The Nazi way of ruling was to be remote,
but to seem not to be.
274
00:21:06,520 --> 00:21:10,200
All classes were encouraged
to relish the same meals—
275
00:21:10,280 --> 00:21:13,800
the soldier, the boss,
the worker, the banker.
276
00:21:13,880 --> 00:21:16,240
The party believed in community,
277
00:21:16,320 --> 00:21:19,400
but the industrialists stayed rich.
278
00:21:19,480 --> 00:21:22,800
They had financed the Nazis
when they seemed likely to win,
279
00:21:22,880 --> 00:21:27,440
and now they submitted to Nazi direction
without too much distaste.
280
00:21:27,520 --> 00:21:30,000
Business was picking up fast.
281
00:21:32,080 --> 00:21:35,480
The economy was reviving
when the Nazis came to power,
282
00:21:35,560 --> 00:21:37,400
but they reaped the credit,
283
00:21:37,480 --> 00:21:41,080
speeding recovery
with an enormous public works programme
284
00:21:41,160 --> 00:21:42,840
for the unemployed.
285
00:21:42,920 --> 00:21:49,320
Other nations, where mass unemployment
persisted, watched Germany with envy.
286
00:22:17,280 --> 00:22:22,440
The workless built the autobahns—
the first motorways in the world,
287
00:22:22,520 --> 00:22:26,280
binding a still-provincial Germany
together.
288
00:22:26,360 --> 00:22:29,240
The autobahns were not least
for private pleasure,
289
00:22:29,320 --> 00:22:32,520
in the fascist notion
of Strength through Joy.
290
00:22:32,600 --> 00:22:35,440
And they were presented
less than a transport system
291
00:22:35,520 --> 00:22:38,000
than as a triumph of national will,
292
00:22:38,080 --> 00:22:40,200
linked with other prestigious projects,
293
00:22:40,280 --> 00:22:43,760
like the design
for the Führer's new Berlin.
294
00:23:03,480 --> 00:23:05,480
(woman) Full of grace and health,
295
00:23:05,560 --> 00:23:09,440
believing and of their great duties
and tasks aware,
296
00:23:09,520 --> 00:23:13,240
they are lucky girls
our heyday.
297
00:23:16,040 --> 00:23:18,720
(narrator) These were members
of Faith and Beauty,
298
00:23:18,800 --> 00:23:21,360
older sister to
the League of German Maidens,
299
00:23:21,440 --> 00:23:23,840
the girls' equivalent
of the Hitler Youth.
300
00:23:23,920 --> 00:23:25,560
And so on.
301
00:23:25,640 --> 00:23:31,520
All young people learnt party songs,
drilled and danced and belonged.
302
00:23:38,320 --> 00:23:39,880
(cheering)
303
00:23:41,880 --> 00:23:45,600
Each year the farmers and their wives
gathered at the Buckeberg
304
00:23:45,680 --> 00:23:48,400
to meet their Führer at harvest time.
305
00:23:48,480 --> 00:23:53,840
In 1936 those who stood and waited
for the leader numbered one million.
306
00:23:58,480 --> 00:23:59,960
The leader was late.
307
00:24:00,040 --> 00:24:02,960
He always arrived late—
it built up tension.
308
00:24:03,040 --> 00:24:06,000
(crowd cheer and shout “Heil, Hitler!”)
309
00:24:12,720 --> 00:24:15,520
(♪ band strikes up)
310
00:24:44,400 --> 00:24:47,800
Then he came,
letting the excitement spill over.
311
00:24:47,880 --> 00:24:49,480
As he marched to the rostrum,
312
00:24:49,560 --> 00:24:52,800
the masses were allowed
to see him close and even to touch him.
313
00:24:52,880 --> 00:24:57,040
Deliberately,
women were placed in the front rows.
314
00:24:57,120 --> 00:25:01,240
(translator)
When he went up the mountain,
315
00:25:01,320 --> 00:25:03,880
I couldn't understand
how it was possible
316
00:25:03,960 --> 00:25:05,920
that people could shout so much.
317
00:25:08,080 --> 00:25:12,800
Yet when he came towards our group,
I too came under his spell
318
00:25:12,880 --> 00:25:17,760
and shouted “Heil!”
just like everyone else.
319
00:25:17,840 --> 00:25:22,760
But then when he was really close,
greeting people to his left and right,
320
00:25:22,840 --> 00:25:28,880
shaking their hand and exchanging
a few words, and he also shook my hand,
321
00:25:28,960 --> 00:25:33,600
I suddenly noticed that
everybody in his immediate presence
322
00:25:33,680 --> 00:25:36,720
was completely silent.
323
00:25:37,840 --> 00:25:41,400
For the first ten minutes
he wasn't a good speaker.
324
00:25:41,480 --> 00:25:47,520
He just began warming up
and finding the words.
325
00:25:47,600 --> 00:25:52,760
But then he turned out to be
a terribly good speaker, you know.
326
00:25:52,840 --> 00:25:57,320
He just…
I don't know the words in English.
327
00:25:57,400 --> 00:26:00,560
Er massierte his public!
328
00:26:02,040 --> 00:26:07,960
And the whole atmosphere
329
00:26:08,040 --> 00:26:10,400
grew more and more hysterical.
330
00:26:11,560 --> 00:26:19,240
He was interrupted nearly
after every phrase by big applause,
331
00:26:19,320 --> 00:26:23,600
and women began screaming.
332
00:26:23,680 --> 00:26:31,680
It was like a mass religious ceremony.
333
00:26:34,280 --> 00:26:36,840
Well, I listened to his speech
334
00:26:36,920 --> 00:26:44,160
and I felt that more and more
excited atmosphere in the hall
335
00:26:44,240 --> 00:26:50,360
and for some seconds again and again
I had a feeling,
336
00:26:50,440 --> 00:26:54,960
“What a pity that
I can't share that belief
337
00:26:55,040 --> 00:26:57,120
of all those thousands of people,
338
00:26:57,200 --> 00:27:01,400
that I am alone,
that I am contrary to all that.”
339
00:27:01,480 --> 00:27:07,280
It was very funny. I thought,
“He is talking all the nonsense I know,
340
00:27:07,360 --> 00:27:09,440
the nonsense he always talked.”
341
00:27:09,520 --> 00:27:15,520
But still, I felt it must be wonderful
342
00:27:15,600 --> 00:27:21,000
just to jump into that bubbling pot
343
00:27:21,080 --> 00:27:26,160
and be a member
of all those who are believers.
344
00:27:26,240 --> 00:27:28,840
(siren / uproar)
345
00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:43,960
(woman) One lady in our village,
she went to Berlin
346
00:27:44,040 --> 00:27:47,720
to a birthday reception
for Adolf Hitler,
347
00:27:47,800 --> 00:27:52,640
and she came back and told us,
“The Führer shook hands with me.”
348
00:27:52,720 --> 00:27:57,520
And from this time on
she was like a saint in our village.
349
00:28:07,400 --> 00:28:11,000
(♪ “Adolf Hitler's Edelweiss”)
350
00:28:17,360 --> 00:28:21,880
Hitler's home life took place on a ledge
in Bavaria, at Berchtesgaden.
351
00:28:21,960 --> 00:28:25,120
These pictures are from
the home movies of Eva Braun,
352
00:28:25,200 --> 00:28:28,840
the discreet young woman
who stayed with him till his death.
353
00:28:28,920 --> 00:28:32,600
To the Berghof, for tea and tactics,
came the elect.
354
00:28:32,680 --> 00:28:35,120
Some a little ill at ease,
355
00:28:35,200 --> 00:28:36,880
some genuinely intimate.
356
00:28:38,640 --> 00:28:41,040
(♪ song continues)
357
00:29:16,680 --> 00:29:21,800
Even in private Hitler had to correspond
to the image sold to the public.
358
00:29:23,200 --> 00:29:25,200
Adolf with children.
359
00:29:26,440 --> 00:29:28,440
Adolf with dogs.
360
00:29:29,960 --> 00:29:32,560
Adolf with a magnifying glass.
361
00:29:39,960 --> 00:29:41,960
Adolf with friends.
362
00:29:46,600 --> 00:29:51,400
Out for a walk, like a good
Bavarian bourgeois on a Sunday.
363
00:29:58,480 --> 00:30:01,520
In this closed circle
Eva Braun posed herself
364
00:30:01,600 --> 00:30:06,400
as the girl who was
natural, healthy, joyfully physical.
365
00:30:43,760 --> 00:30:48,600
Up at the Berghof
there were jovial, friendly bodyguards
366
00:30:48,680 --> 00:30:50,680
and colder ones.
367
00:30:50,760 --> 00:30:54,040
Heinrich Himmler, lord of the SS,
368
00:30:54,120 --> 00:30:58,240
came with Heydrich,
his terrible, handsome lieutenant.
369
00:31:04,520 --> 00:31:08,280
On formal occasions,
the SS Guard turned out.
370
00:31:08,360 --> 00:31:12,560
They were the reality of the great
tyranny centred in distant Berlin,
371
00:31:12,640 --> 00:31:16,120
their hands soon to be red
with the blood of millions.
372
00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:21,240
For that reality,
Hitler would leave his chintz chair,
373
00:31:21,320 --> 00:31:25,040
his tea parties and his mistress.
374
00:31:25,120 --> 00:31:28,200
The car was waiting
at the foot of the steps.
375
00:31:32,880 --> 00:31:34,880
(♪ brass band)
376
00:31:37,960 --> 00:31:42,840
If Germany was to be strong again,
Germany must re-arm.
377
00:31:42,920 --> 00:31:49,680
A people frightened by war had to become
once more familiar with arms,
378
00:31:49,760 --> 00:31:51,520
to touch them,
379
00:31:51,600 --> 00:31:53,400
to play at soldiers.
380
00:32:12,920 --> 00:32:15,440
Germany had to train pilots.
381
00:32:15,520 --> 00:32:17,680
Versailles forbade Germany an air force,
382
00:32:17,760 --> 00:32:21,000
so the League for Air Sports
used gliders
383
00:32:21,080 --> 00:32:24,840
to train men, still officially
civilians, for the future Luftwaffe.
384
00:32:26,440 --> 00:32:27,840
(excited shouting)
385
00:32:29,160 --> 00:32:32,600
And the army began to swell
beyond the limits set by Versailles
386
00:32:32,680 --> 00:32:35,480
from the moment
Hitler became chancellor.
387
00:32:35,560 --> 00:32:38,920
In secret, it trebled its strength
in two years.
388
00:32:39,840 --> 00:32:41,840
(men singing)
389
00:32:52,800 --> 00:32:56,560
Any foreign military attaché
could see what was happening,
390
00:32:56,640 --> 00:32:58,520
but the world did nothing decisive,
391
00:32:58,600 --> 00:33:02,200
and in March 1935
Germany announced conscription—
392
00:33:02,280 --> 00:33:05,280
a peacetime army of half a million men.
393
00:33:11,000 --> 00:33:14,280
The new tanks came out into the open.
394
00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:26,480
The first Luftwaffe squadrons flew past.
395
00:33:34,400 --> 00:33:37,200
The new German navy was under way.
396
00:33:44,960 --> 00:33:47,280
Hitler kept Europe bewildered.
397
00:33:47,360 --> 00:33:53,040
Proclaiming Versailles extinct,
he proposed a limit on armaments.
398
00:33:53,120 --> 00:33:56,240
Britain, the first democracy
to make a pact with the Nazis,
399
00:33:56,320 --> 00:33:57,920
signed a naval agreement.
400
00:33:58,000 --> 00:34:00,160
Hitler was reassured.
401
00:34:00,240 --> 00:34:04,640
It might be safe to start tampering
with the hated frontiers.
402
00:34:04,720 --> 00:34:08,320
One part of Versailles
had already been undone.
403
00:34:08,400 --> 00:34:11,640
In January 1935
the territory of the Saar,
404
00:34:11,720 --> 00:34:15,560
the little coal-mining region
which had been German before 1918,
405
00:34:15,640 --> 00:34:19,000
voted overwhelmingly,
and under international supervision,
406
00:34:19,080 --> 00:34:21,720
to return to Germany.
407
00:34:28,720 --> 00:34:32,000
Next door, the Rhineland
remained a demilitarised zone.
408
00:34:32,080 --> 00:34:34,200
Beyond dispute,
this was part of Germany,
409
00:34:34,280 --> 00:34:37,160
but to recover it
would directly challenge the Allies
410
00:34:37,240 --> 00:34:39,120
and, above all, France.
411
00:34:40,560 --> 00:34:46,200
The troops rode over the Rhine bridges
at dawn on March 7, 1936.
412
00:34:46,280 --> 00:34:49,760
Secretly, the commanders were ready
to bolt back across the river
413
00:34:49,840 --> 00:34:51,680
if France showed any sign of fight.
414
00:34:51,760 --> 00:34:53,760
But there was none.
415
00:34:55,680 --> 00:34:58,120
The Rhineland city of Cologne
and all Germany
416
00:34:58,200 --> 00:35:00,320
went wild with relief and delight.
417
00:35:00,880 --> 00:35:03,800
A part of German honour
had been recovered.
418
00:35:03,880 --> 00:35:06,680
Hitler had taken a chance and won.
419
00:35:08,200 --> 00:35:14,040
Two years later, Austria, Hitler's
birthplace, lay ripe for the taking.
420
00:35:14,120 --> 00:35:19,240
Austrian Nazis were rioting
for Anschluss—union with Germany.
421
00:35:19,320 --> 00:35:23,960
To prevent a plebiscite on independence,
Hitler marched in.
422
00:35:30,560 --> 00:35:33,760
The German troops were greeted
by hysterical crowds.
423
00:35:33,840 --> 00:35:38,440
Vienna suffered a Jew-baiting terror
which even Germany had not yet seen.
424
00:35:38,520 --> 00:35:41,160
Austria became a province.
425
00:35:41,240 --> 00:35:44,720
Germany's neighbours,
appalled, uncertain, unprepared,
426
00:35:44,800 --> 00:35:47,040
once again did nothing.
427
00:35:54,120 --> 00:35:57,560
Czechoslovakia
was no lost German province,
428
00:35:57,640 --> 00:36:03,120
but an independent nation, allied
to Britain, France and the Soviet Union.
429
00:36:03,200 --> 00:36:07,080
Within its northern border
lived the Sudeten Germans.
430
00:36:07,160 --> 00:36:10,680
Hitler incited this minority,
which had never been part of Germany,
431
00:36:10,760 --> 00:36:13,160
to demand union with the Reich.
432
00:36:13,240 --> 00:36:15,640
Europe prepared for war.
433
00:36:17,160 --> 00:36:20,080
But though Czechoslovakia
was ready to fight,
434
00:36:20,160 --> 00:36:22,280
Britain and France gave way.
435
00:36:22,360 --> 00:36:25,080
At Munich, in September 1938,
436
00:36:25,160 --> 00:36:27,560
Chamberlain for Britain,
437
00:36:27,640 --> 00:36:29,920
Italy's Mussolini,
438
00:36:30,000 --> 00:36:32,440
Daladier for France
439
00:36:32,520 --> 00:36:34,400
signed with Hitler the treaty
440
00:36:34,480 --> 00:36:37,160
which stripped Czechoslovakia
of the Sudetenland
441
00:36:37,240 --> 00:36:39,720
and left her broken and abandoned.
442
00:36:54,120 --> 00:36:56,200
The Germans crossed the border,
443
00:36:56,280 --> 00:37:00,560
welcomed as liberators
by the Sudeten population.
444
00:37:01,520 --> 00:37:04,600
At home, the German generals
who opposed Hitler,
445
00:37:04,680 --> 00:37:09,520
hoping that a rebuff over Czechoslovakia
would fatally injure his prestige,
446
00:37:09,600 --> 00:37:12,120
gave up their plots in despair.
447
00:37:30,720 --> 00:37:34,840
Hitler sat with his troops in the field
and planned ahead.
448
00:37:36,720 --> 00:37:40,120
The Sudetenland was easily digested.
449
00:37:40,200 --> 00:37:42,760
The next course could be taken fast.
450
00:37:45,480 --> 00:37:49,560
The shrunken Czech lands and Slovakia
lay helpless before him.
451
00:37:49,640 --> 00:37:52,840
He struck on March 15, 1939.
452
00:37:55,560 --> 00:37:58,840
The German troops reached Prague
the same day.
453
00:37:58,920 --> 00:38:01,320
There was no resistance.
454
00:38:02,920 --> 00:38:07,200
The last democracy in Central Europe
was wiped out.
455
00:38:09,880 --> 00:38:13,400
The Czechs
would never trust the West again.
456
00:38:13,480 --> 00:38:16,160
The West trusted Hitler no more,
457
00:38:16,240 --> 00:38:20,440
and realised at last
that only force would stop him.
458
00:38:30,120 --> 00:38:33,120
Berlin: more cheers, more worship.
459
00:38:34,120 --> 00:38:37,920
Yet what was in the minds
of those who cheered?
460
00:38:38,000 --> 00:38:39,920
Very few wanted wars of conquest
461
00:38:40,000 --> 00:38:41,800
or hoped, like Hitler,
462
00:38:41,880 --> 00:38:45,760
for a German empire
from the Urals to the Atlantic.
463
00:38:45,840 --> 00:38:49,920
Most thought they were taking back
what had been robbed from them
464
00:38:50,000 --> 00:38:55,320
and restoring, not destroying,
the order and unity of Europe.
465
00:38:55,400 --> 00:38:57,800
(jubilant singing)
466
00:39:06,920 --> 00:39:13,040
For these crowds it seemed that
Hitler's statesmanship could never fail.
467
00:39:13,120 --> 00:39:15,200
Others who stayed at home that night
468
00:39:15,280 --> 00:39:18,680
feared a war was coming
which might destroy Germany itself.
469
00:39:18,760 --> 00:39:22,360
But now they saw no hope
for a rising against Hitler,
470
00:39:22,440 --> 00:39:24,680
they were left with the moral question:
471
00:39:24,760 --> 00:39:29,120
“Should one resist a tyranny
without hope of success?”
472
00:39:30,200 --> 00:39:35,800
Well, I think it's difficult
first of all to make up your mind
473
00:39:35,880 --> 00:39:39,800
that you should do something
against a government.
474
00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:44,480
This is very rare, first of all.
475
00:39:44,560 --> 00:39:48,760
Secondly, if it is extremely dangerous,
476
00:39:48,840 --> 00:39:52,280
as it is in a dictatorship,
477
00:39:52,360 --> 00:39:57,200
it's even more complicated
because everybody likes his own life.
478
00:39:58,480 --> 00:40:03,120
I think everything that came to us
when we were living in Germany
479
00:40:03,200 --> 00:40:06,120
came very gradually.
480
00:40:06,200 --> 00:40:13,360
That was part, perhaps, of the way
Hitler managed these things.
481
00:40:13,440 --> 00:40:16,480
It came on us rather drip by drip,
482
00:40:16,560 --> 00:40:19,800
rather like an anaesthetic,
one could almost say,
483
00:40:19,880 --> 00:40:27,320
and it was only when a specific thing
that he did hit you personally
484
00:40:27,400 --> 00:40:33,200
that you actually realised
what was going on.
485
00:40:34,480 --> 00:40:40,520
In my particular case, I think
I could say that it hit me personally
486
00:40:40,600 --> 00:40:45,600
when the Jewish doctor of my children,
487
00:40:45,680 --> 00:40:48,280
whom I'd always had, came…
488
00:40:48,360 --> 00:40:53,360
He was a very busy man, but he seemed
to be having always more time to spare.
489
00:40:53,440 --> 00:40:55,680
I remember one night
490
00:40:55,760 --> 00:41:00,560
he came and spent the night
looking after my very sick child.
491
00:41:00,640 --> 00:41:03,280
And in the morning the child was better
492
00:41:03,360 --> 00:41:07,280
and when he left he asked me,
493
00:41:07,360 --> 00:41:10,240
did I still want him
to look after my children?
494
00:41:10,320 --> 00:41:13,960
And I was tired and I said,
“Well, for goodness' sakes, why not?”
495
00:41:14,040 --> 00:41:17,200
And he told me that
his clinic, his children's clinic,
496
00:41:17,280 --> 00:41:20,840
which he had started in Hamburg
was going…
497
00:41:20,920 --> 00:41:24,320
He was going to be dismissed,
and he'd had threatening letters
498
00:41:24,400 --> 00:41:29,040
that if he laid his hands on
Aryan children, he was in for trouble.
499
00:41:31,840 --> 00:41:37,920
(narrator) In November 1938
a Jew shot a German diplomat in Paris.
500
00:41:38,000 --> 00:41:40,640
The Nazi leaders organised a reprisal.
501
00:41:40,720 --> 00:41:45,720
Synagogues were burned and Jewish
shops looted all over Germany.
502
00:41:46,880 --> 00:41:49,440
On that “Crystal Night”,
503
00:41:49,520 --> 00:41:52,680
named for the smashed glass
sparkling in the gutters,
504
00:41:52,760 --> 00:41:56,840
thousands of Jews
were thrown into concentration camps.
505
00:41:59,520 --> 00:42:01,520
(speaks German)
506
00:42:05,040 --> 00:42:07,720
(translator) Do you want to know
how the night was?
507
00:42:07,800 --> 00:42:10,360
If you want to know, I will tell you.
508
00:42:10,440 --> 00:42:15,040
We were all shoved together,
beaten and punched
509
00:42:15,120 --> 00:42:19,200
and made to stand in ranks
and be counted and so on.
510
00:42:20,520 --> 00:42:24,600
Because I'd been a soldier
I didn't find that so very difficult,
511
00:42:24,680 --> 00:42:28,240
but the others
who didn't fall in properly,
512
00:42:28,320 --> 00:42:30,680
they were beaten right away.
513
00:42:32,400 --> 00:42:34,240
And the most terrible thing was
514
00:42:34,320 --> 00:42:36,920
when somebody grabbed hold
of a big, strong man,
515
00:42:37,000 --> 00:42:39,520
he said, “Don't grab me.”
516
00:42:39,600 --> 00:42:43,280
“What? I shouldn't grab you!”
And he hit him.
517
00:42:46,840 --> 00:42:52,760
And this man was immediately
overpowered by three people—SS people.
518
00:42:52,840 --> 00:42:54,840
A block was brought.
519
00:42:54,920 --> 00:42:58,640
He was tied down to it
and the camp commander said,
520
00:42:58,720 --> 00:43:03,800
“The Jew Israel,” or “The Jew Itzik,”—
I can't remember exactly now—
521
00:43:03,880 --> 00:43:06,280
“is sentenced to 25 lashes.”
522
00:43:09,320 --> 00:43:11,440
Then a huge man came,
523
00:43:11,520 --> 00:43:15,880
an SS man with a huge horsewhip,
and started to beat him.
524
00:43:17,600 --> 00:43:23,040
The man just groaned a bit at first,
but then he shouted, “Stop, stop!”
525
00:43:23,120 --> 00:43:25,840
The commander said,
“What do you mean, stop?”
526
00:43:25,920 --> 00:43:29,640
“We'll start all over again,
from the beginning.”
527
00:43:29,720 --> 00:43:33,040
But after three more lashes
the blood was spurting,
528
00:43:33,120 --> 00:43:36,160
then he stopped and salt
was rubbed into the wounds,
529
00:43:36,240 --> 00:43:38,480
or pepper, I can't remember.
530
00:43:38,560 --> 00:43:40,640
The man was dragged away.
531
00:43:40,720 --> 00:43:43,120
We never saw him again.
532
00:43:44,920 --> 00:43:51,120
Of course, in '38,
when the synagogues were burning,
533
00:43:51,200 --> 00:43:53,560
everybody knew what was going on.
534
00:43:53,640 --> 00:43:58,360
I remember that my brother-in-law,
the husband of my sister Lena,
535
00:43:58,440 --> 00:44:03,920
when he went in the morning after
the day of the Reichskristallnacht—
536
00:44:04,000 --> 00:44:06,680
“Crystal Night”, or how you say—
537
00:44:07,840 --> 00:44:10,520
he went by train to his office downtown
538
00:44:10,600 --> 00:44:14,040
and between the stations of
Savignyplatz and Zoological Garden
539
00:44:14,120 --> 00:44:19,200
there is the Jewish synagogue, ja,
and he saw that it was burning, ja?
540
00:44:19,280 --> 00:44:22,120
And he murmured, “Kulturschande.”
541
00:44:22,200 --> 00:44:27,360
That is an insult for culture—
“Shame to our culture.”
542
00:44:27,440 --> 00:44:31,480
Well, right away a gentleman
in front of him turned his Revers
543
00:44:31,560 --> 00:44:36,880
and showed his Parteiabzeichen—
party badge, ja?
544
00:44:36,960 --> 00:44:41,880
And took out his papers
that he was a man of the Gestapo,
545
00:44:41,960 --> 00:44:46,920
and he had to show his papers,
to give his address,
546
00:44:47,000 --> 00:44:51,400
and was ordered to come to the party
office next morning, nine o'clock.
547
00:45:01,640 --> 00:45:03,640
(narrator) April, 1939.
548
00:45:03,720 --> 00:45:07,480
The Wehrmacht prepares to celebrate
Hitler's 50th birthday.
549
00:45:08,560 --> 00:45:12,960
They hope for the usual
“Führer weather”—a fine day.
550
00:45:24,440 --> 00:45:27,960
The Führer drives through Berlin,
under the Brandenburg Gate
551
00:45:28,040 --> 00:45:32,520
and down the Siegesallee—
the Avenue of Victories.
552
00:45:48,440 --> 00:45:54,120
The army lining his route has increased
sevenfold in just four years.
553
00:46:04,840 --> 00:46:07,600
Among the Wehrmacht's 51 divisions,
554
00:46:07,680 --> 00:46:12,080
the new panzer units—
the instrument of blitzkrieg.
555
00:46:26,040 --> 00:46:29,320
In spite of appearances,
the high command is by no means sure
556
00:46:29,400 --> 00:46:32,400
that this army is fit for war… yet.
557
00:46:33,760 --> 00:46:36,160
Hitler is ready to overrule them.
558
00:46:55,760 --> 00:47:00,080
The word in every diplomatic
conversation that summer was Danzig.
559
00:47:00,160 --> 00:47:03,360
The free city,
with its mixed German-Polish people,
560
00:47:03,440 --> 00:47:05,200
had been separated from Germany
561
00:47:05,280 --> 00:47:09,160
and made the responsibility
of a League of Nations commissioner.
562
00:47:10,880 --> 00:47:15,000
Danzig and East Prussia
were now sundered from the Reich
563
00:47:15,080 --> 00:47:19,080
by a strip of Polish territory—
the Corridor.
564
00:47:19,160 --> 00:47:21,480
Hitler was demanding
the return of Danzig
565
00:47:21,560 --> 00:47:25,280
and free access to East Prussia
across the Corridor.
566
00:47:25,360 --> 00:47:27,160
Poland refused.
567
00:47:27,240 --> 00:47:32,360
In March, 1939, Britain and France
guaranteed her frontiers.
568
00:47:32,440 --> 00:47:37,520
In August, Britain promised to fight
if Poland was attacked.
569
00:47:38,960 --> 00:47:43,160
Once again, myths about the persecution
of a German minority were used
570
00:47:43,240 --> 00:47:46,120
to build up a case
for armed intervention.
571
00:47:46,200 --> 00:47:50,200
German refugees told piteous tales
of Polish brutality.
572
00:47:50,280 --> 00:47:52,280
(speaks German)
573
00:47:56,920 --> 00:48:00,400
Nazi propaganda filmed them greedily
for the cinema newsreels
574
00:48:00,480 --> 00:48:03,600
throughout July and August.
575
00:48:04,360 --> 00:48:08,240
Hitler's plan was to wipe Poland
off the map.
576
00:48:08,320 --> 00:48:10,760
But this might mean
war with Soviet Russia,
577
00:48:10,840 --> 00:48:12,480
and he was not ready for that.
578
00:48:13,480 --> 00:48:16,960
His foreign minister, Ribbentrop,
flew to Moscow on August 23
579
00:48:17,040 --> 00:48:20,320
to sign the Nazi-Soviet Pact.
580
00:48:20,400 --> 00:48:22,800
Poland's fate was sealed.
581
00:48:27,480 --> 00:48:30,680
The new alliance
stunned the unsuspecting West.
582
00:48:30,760 --> 00:48:32,760
(♪ newsreel intro)
583
00:48:35,480 --> 00:48:37,480
Germany gloated.
584
00:48:40,000 --> 00:48:42,040
(reporter speaking German)
585
00:48:47,000 --> 00:48:50,040
You will have read the report
about the agreement reached
586
00:48:50,120 --> 00:48:54,720
between Russia and Germany,
which has surprised the world.
587
00:48:54,800 --> 00:48:58,400
As the life of all nations depends,
in the last resort,
588
00:48:58,480 --> 00:49:01,600
upon mutual respect
for one another's rights
589
00:49:01,680 --> 00:49:06,400
and reasonable confidence that they can
each live their life in their own way,
590
00:49:07,160 --> 00:49:08,760
I would earnestly hope…
591
00:49:15,800 --> 00:49:20,600
…which cannot be retraced,
reason may yet prevail.
592
00:49:20,680 --> 00:49:22,520
(narrator) The German newsreels
593
00:49:22,600 --> 00:49:25,800
tried to show Britain
distracted, still uncertain.
594
00:49:25,880 --> 00:49:28,480
(reporter speaking German)
595
00:49:35,720 --> 00:49:38,120
(reporter continues in German)
596
00:49:43,400 --> 00:49:47,680
(narrator) One young German
left England for home.
597
00:49:48,400 --> 00:49:51,240
(man) I had a girlfriend
whom I wanted to marry
598
00:49:51,320 --> 00:49:57,040
and I said, “Well, I'll dare go home.”
599
00:49:57,120 --> 00:50:03,040
When I came to Cologne
I read the first German newspapers,
600
00:50:04,560 --> 00:50:12,080
and I knew at once that
there was great danger of a war now.
601
00:50:12,160 --> 00:50:18,040
The tone of the German press
was absolutely hysterical.
602
00:50:18,720 --> 00:50:23,320
And I thought what a fool I was.
603
00:50:23,400 --> 00:50:27,520
I had just gone home in that moment!
604
00:50:28,840 --> 00:50:33,440
(narrator) All over Europe
the reservists got their telegrams.
605
00:50:33,520 --> 00:50:39,680
In the last hours of peace, the soldiers
put on uniform with a tired grin.