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This is the site of the largest mass murder
in the history of the world
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- Auschwitz.
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1.1 million people died here.
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More than the total British and American
losses in the whole of the Second World War.
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This is the story of the evolution of Auschwitz
and the mentality of the perpetrators.
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It's a history, based in part on documents
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and plans only discovered since
the opening of archives in Eastern Europe,
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and informed by interviews
with people who were there,
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including former members of the SS.
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And if you ask yourself if this is really
necessary you say to yourself,
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"Yes, of course, we have been told that
these are our enemies and there is a war on."
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But the horrors of Auschwitz
did not occur in isolation.
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The camp evolved alongside the Nazi plan
for the conquest of Eastern Europe.
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A war of destruction unlike
any other in modern times.
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One in which innocent civilians were
murdered by special killing squads.
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"The order said - they are to be shot."
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"And for me, that was binding"
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As the war developed
Nazi decision makers conceived
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one of the most infamous
policies in all history.
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What they called the 'Final Solution'
- the extermination of the Jews.
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And at Auschwitz they journeyed
down the long
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and crooked road to mass
murder to create this
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- the building which symbolised their crime
- a factory of death.
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"They were, the people screaming
- all the people, you know
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- they didn't know what to do,
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scratching the walls,
crying until the gas took effect.
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If I close my eyes,
the only thing I see is standing up
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- women with children in,
in their hands, there."
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What follows is the surprising
story of the birth of Auschwitz,
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and the Nazi policy of mass extermination.
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With Auschwitz initially built
for an altogether
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different purpose than
the gassing of the Jews.
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And the Nazis evolving
their wider policy of killing in ways
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that defy the popular myth of the SS as
robotic killers who simply acted under orders.
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In the spring of 1940,
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Captain Rudolf Hoss of
the SS journeyed through Poland
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to take up the job of Commandant of
a new Nazi concentration camp.
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Hoss was travelling to the outskirts of
the town of Auschwitz.
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In the midst of territory snatched
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by Hitler during his invasion of Poland
the previous year.
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Here Hoss would create
this concentration camp.
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The very first Auschwitz,
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which was later known as
the Stammlager or Auschwitz 1.
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But when Hoss first arrived
in April 1940 few of these buildings existed.
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This infamous concentration camp began life as
a collection of dilapidated former
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Polish army barracks set around
a huge horse breaking yard.
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'The task wasn't easy.
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In the shortest possible time,
I had to create a camp for 10,000 prisoners
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using the existing complex of buildings
which were well constructed
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but were completely run down
and swarming with vermin.'
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And this first Auschwitz was built
not to hold Polish Jews
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who were to be confined elsewhere in ghettos,
but chiefly Polish political prisoners,
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anyone the Nazis considered
a threat to their occupation.
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'True opponents of the state had
to be securely locked up.
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Only the SS were capable of protecting
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the National Socialist State
from all internal danger.
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All other organisations lacked
the necessary toughness.'
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The Nazi occupation of Poland was
to be brutal.
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They wanted to make
the Poles a nation of slaves
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and it was to help them achieve this aim
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that the Nazis first
built places like Auschwitz,
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modelled on concentration camps
they'd already established in Germany.
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Hoss who had worked in concentration camps
since 1934 knew
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that his task was to create a place
that would strike terror into the Poles.
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But the gas chambers for which Auschwitz was
to become infamous were not yet conceived.
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Hoss even adopted the cynical motto of Dachau
concentration camp in Germany
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- Arbeit Macht Frei - "Work makes you free"
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- and emblazoned
it on the new gates of Auschwitz.
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The Polish prisoners now arriving
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at the new camp were subject to
appalling treatment from the SS.
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Over half the 23,000 Poles first sent to
Auschwitz were dead within twenty months.
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Jerzy Bielecki was imprisoned in Auschwitz
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because the Nazis suspected
he was in the Polish resistance.
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Once there the SS sentenced
him to hanging torture,
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a punishment favoured in
other concentration camps as well,
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where the prisoner was made to carry
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his full body weight on arms pulled back
into an unnatural position.
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"He wanted to hang me on the hook,
he said stand up on your toes.
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Finally he hooked me and then he kicked
the stool away without any warning.
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I just felt Jesus Mary
oh my God the terrible pain.
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My shoulders were breaking out
from the joints,
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both arms were breaking out from the joints.
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I'd been moaning and he just said shut up
you dog you deserve it, you have to suffer.
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Appallingly violent as life was at Auschwitz,
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the camp itself was not yet a major priority
in the Nazi scheme of things,
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so much so that in those early days Hoss was
forced to go scrounging for basic supplies.
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"Since I could expect no help from
the inspectorate of concentration camps,
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I had to make do as best
I could and help myself.
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I had to drive as far as 60 miles to
Zakopane and Rabka just to get some kettles.
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I didn't even know where
I could get 100 metres of barbed wire,
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so I just had to pilfer the badly
needed barbed wire."
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After a day of pilfering Hoss returned home to
a house on the edge of the concentration camp.
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Here he lived as he thought a Nazi conqueror
should and treated the prisoners as his serfs.
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'Every week and a half or so,
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a junior officer from the guard company
would come and take me to his house
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and I would cut Hoss's hair,
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"kein Wort".
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He wouldn't say a word to me and
I wouldn't say a word, because I was afraid.
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'Weren't you ever tempted to stick
the scissors in his neck?'
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It could have happened.
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I had a razor in my hand I could have
grabbed him and slit his throat.
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It could have happened.
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But I'm a living, thinking being.
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Do you know what would have happened?
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My whole family would have been destroyed,
half of the camp would have been destroyed,
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and in his place someone else would have come.
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While Hoss lived in comfort
the prisoners struggled to survive.
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Deprived of adequate sustenance
they evolved their own code of conduct,
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and one of the worst crimes an inmate
could commit was to take another's food.
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'What was done to get rid of such people?
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They were liquidated.
The prisoners killed them at night.
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They put a blanket over his face
and kept it there until he stopped breathing.
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And no one would ask questions.
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In the morning the block elder would report
- so many dead. Fair enough.'
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And you didn't feel anything?
This was normal?
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'Absolutely. It was completely normal.
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Except for a kind of flash
- subconscious perhaps:
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God, and still things such
as this are happening.
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And still things such as this.
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But these things couldn't be helped.
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In other words, "don't think about it.
It's been and gone.
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Now think about where to go to work,
to survive the following day,
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just to survive the following day.
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Watch your bread, so that no-one steals it,
so that you get to eat some breakfast.
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Go to work and try to find a lighter job."
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This is what you were preoccupied with,
and this was a constant vigilance.
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"Be vigilant. You have to survive."
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Presiding over the horror of prison life
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at Auschwitz in 1940 were Hoss
and around 300 members of the SS.
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They held comradeship evenings for themselves
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and their families to foster
a sense of solidarity.
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But as Hoss reveals, it was a charade.
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"Palitzsch, the roll call leader,
was the most cunning and slippery creature
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I had ever got to know
and experience during my long
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and diverse service in
various concentration camps.
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He literally walked over bodies
to satisfy his hunger for power.
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Fritzsch, the first camp officer,
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was short-witted yet stubborn
and always quarrelsome,
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even though he was trying to
present himself as a good comrade
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and also talked a lot about comradeship
when he was off duty.
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His behaviour was, in reality,
anything but comradely."
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Hoss' memoirs reveal him to be a hard-hearted,
petty-minded man,
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always wanting to shift responsibility
for his mistakes onto others.
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And in his own admission Auschwitz was,
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from the first, a concentration camp
where great brutality was practised.
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Despite this, during 1940 the camp
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he ran was almost a backwater
in Nazi occupied Poland.
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All that was about to change.
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The crucial reason for the transformation of
Auschwitz was simple - its location.
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The area around the camp was
rich in natural resources.
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This part of Poland possessed
a plentiful supply of fresh water,
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lime and most importantly of all
for what was to come, coal.
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Within 20 miles of Auschwitz lay
a network of mines
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with access to some of the richest
coal seams in Europe.
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Towards the end of 1940,
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these were just the resources
that scientists at IG Farben,
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the giant German industrial conglomerate,
were looking for.
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They'd been experimenting for years in
how to make synthetic rubber and fuel,
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essential raw materials
for the German war effort.
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Water, lime and coal were the most
important ingredients they needed.
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Now they found that Auschwitz
was just the right place to site
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their new factory in the East.
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Heinrich Himmler,
Commander of the SS,
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now visited Auschwitz
for the very first time.
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He had heard the news
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that IG Farben with its huge financial
resources was interested in coming to the area.
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Himmler was accompanied
on his tour of inspection by Hoss,
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the regional Nazi leader - the Gauleiter -,
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and other senior members of the SS.
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Himmler told them that he wanted
Auschwitz tripled in capacity
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from 10,000 to 30,000 prisoners
- the camp would be a backwater no longer,
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but the biggest concentration camp
in the Nazi state.
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But as Hoss witnessed,
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the local Nazi leader had problems
with Reichsfuhrer Himmler's plans.
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"The Gauleiter raised objections
and the County President
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tried to put a stop to the plan by pointing
to the unresolved drainage issue.
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But the Reichsfuhrer would have none of it."
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Unsurprisingly, Himmler got his way.
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A whole series of plans was drawn up
over the succeeding months and years,
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detailing the grandeur, almost megalomania of
the new Nazi vision for Auschwitz.
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Hidden for decades,
the detailed drawings surfaced only shortly
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before the death of
the original German architect.
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The Nazi dream was that the money
IG Farben were bringing to the area
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would fund the creation of
a new town of Auschwitz,
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a model German settlement in the East.
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Ethnic Germans would now live here,
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with those who currently lived in the town
thrown out of their homes and deported.
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Plans were made for a gigantic Nazi party
headquarters and a host of other new buildings.
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And nearby, down the Sola River,
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the concentration camp
itself was to be transformed.
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Prisoners would work as slave labour
at the IG Farben factory nearby,
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the SS would sell IG Farben raw materials
and a huge new 'Kommandantur',
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a central administrative building,
would be built.
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A special apartment was even to be
constructed for Himmler himself.
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Auschwitz was to be
his home away from home.
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Plans were drawn up for suitable
furniture for the Reichsfuhrer.
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From his sofa to his occasional table,
from his armchair to the hangings on the wall.
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Himmler's vision for the new Auschwitz
was certainly grandiose.
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But it was the epic plans that Adolf Hitler
was working on at the same time
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which would transform Auschwitz in ways
that dwarfed anything Himmler had contemplated.
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Hitler intended not just to reorganise
a concentration camp and a town,
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but to reshape entire countries.
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For, during the spring of 1941,
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Hitler worked on plans to
invade the Soviet Union.
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This decision would in turn act as the catalyst
for radical change in the function of Auschwitz.
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00:18:37,216 --> 00:18:40,083
Before the end of 1941 Hitler expected
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German troops to be parading
through Moscow's Red Square.
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The Nazis hated the Soviet Union.
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It was the home of Communism -
an ideology they both feared and despised.
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The Nazi's believed that it ought not to be
hard to defeat Stalin and his Red Army.
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They were - in civilisation terms
- not as far on as the West.
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You just have to imagine the following:
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France - a civilised nation
with flushing toilets.
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00:19:29,568 --> 00:19:34,528
Russia - predominantly toilet behind the house.
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In Berlin that Spring of 1941,
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00:19:41,213 --> 00:19:44,740
this view that the Soviet Union was peopled
with inferior human beings,
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00:19:44,917 --> 00:19:46,976
pervaded Nazi strategic thinking.
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00:19:52,224 --> 00:19:53,885
Nazi economic planners worked out
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how the German army could be fed once
the invasion was launched.
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And in the process they thought
it legitimate to plan mass starvation.
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Every word spoken here is taken
from Nazi memoranda
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and minutes of economic committees held just
before the war against the Soviet Union began.
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So even before the war started,
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00:21:08,834 --> 00:21:12,827
the Nazis envisaged the extermination of
large sections of the Soviet population.
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This was to be a war of annihilation.
226
00:21:25,851 --> 00:21:28,342
In the weeks after their invasion
of the Soviet Union
227
00:21:28,687 --> 00:21:31,349
the Germans took 3 million Soviet prisoners.
228
00:21:32,457 --> 00:21:38,123
Within 9 months 2 million of them were dead,
many starved to death in German captivity.
229
00:21:44,703 --> 00:21:47,729
Any Soviet political officers, or commissars,
230
00:21:47,906 --> 00:21:51,899
found amongst the Red Army prisoners
on the front line were to be shot.
231
00:21:54,379 --> 00:21:57,871
But some who slipped through were
sent to concentration camps
232
00:21:58,684 --> 00:22:02,279
- which is how Auschwitz first became
involved in the war in the East.
233
00:22:07,025 --> 00:22:09,084
On this spot in July 1941,
234
00:22:09,294 --> 00:22:12,058
Soviet prisoners were forced
to work in gravel pits.
235
00:22:13,432 --> 00:22:16,333
From behind a nearby fence,
a Polish inmate of Auschwitz,
236
00:22:16,501 --> 00:22:19,026
Jerzy Bielecki,
watched what happened to them.
237
00:22:21,540 --> 00:22:24,839
'The Prisoner Overseers beat them mercilessly,
kicked them, clubbed them;
238
00:22:25,010 --> 00:22:28,309
they would fall to the ground,
it was a macabre scene.
239
00:22:29,514 --> 00:22:31,709
I had never in my life seen
anything like it.
240
00:22:31,917 --> 00:22:36,047
Neither did I later on, even though I remained
in the camp for a long time after.
241
00:22:42,327 --> 00:22:44,989
I saw an SS-man, a junior officer,
242
00:22:45,464 --> 00:22:50,060
walking around the gravel pit with a pistol
in his hand... It was sadism.
243
00:22:51,136 --> 00:22:55,402
"You dogs! You damned communists!
You pieces of shit!"
244
00:22:55,774 --> 00:22:57,537
Horrible words like these.
245
00:22:58,744 --> 00:23:05,673
And from time to time he would direct the pistol
downwards and shoot: pow... pow pow.'
246
00:23:06,485 --> 00:23:10,319
It wasn't just the Soviet prisoners of war
who were to suffer as the Nazis moved East;
247
00:23:10,989 --> 00:23:12,889
it was the Soviet Jews as well.
248
00:23:13,658 --> 00:23:17,754
The Nazis, hardened anti-Semites,
believed that the combination of Slavs,
249
00:23:17,929 --> 00:23:20,864
Jews and Communism was particularly dangerous.
250
00:23:24,603 --> 00:23:27,800
There were connections
between Jews and Bolsheviks,
251
00:23:28,607 --> 00:23:33,476
there was sufficient evidence for the fact
that there were connections between the two.
252
00:23:36,014 --> 00:23:39,381
The Nazis spouted any number of
similar prejudices about the Jews.
253
00:23:40,051 --> 00:23:43,418
Even claiming there was an international
Jewish conspiracy against them
254
00:23:43,889 --> 00:23:46,983
and that the Jews had somehow
lost Germany the 1st World War.
255
00:23:48,727 --> 00:23:50,888
Their delusions knew no bounds.
256
00:24:13,952 --> 00:24:16,614
From the moment the Germans first
invaded the Soviet Union,
257
00:24:17,155 --> 00:24:19,817
Nazi special units operating
throughout the countryside
258
00:24:19,991 --> 00:24:24,758
and towns had shot many male Jews
including Communists,
259
00:24:24,930 --> 00:24:28,696
civic leaders and even
those just of military age.
260
00:24:30,802 --> 00:24:36,399
They'd also encouraged locals to rise up
against the Jews as is happening here
261
00:24:36,575 --> 00:24:39,772
in this rare footage
from the Ukraine in July 1941.
262
00:24:56,528 --> 00:25:00,726
After a series of meetings between Hitler
and Himmler in the summer of 1941
263
00:25:01,633 --> 00:25:04,534
there was an escalation in
the persecution of the Soviet Jews.
264
00:25:13,278 --> 00:25:16,406
New units were committed
to special duties in the East,
265
00:25:17,082 --> 00:25:19,880
among them the 1st SS Infantry Brigade.
266
00:25:30,795 --> 00:25:32,023
In a typical action,
267
00:25:32,497 --> 00:25:35,466
they approached the town of Ostrog
in the western part of the Ukraine
268
00:25:35,634 --> 00:25:37,625
on August 4th 1941,
269
00:25:38,503 --> 00:25:42,371
where over ten thousand Jews from
the surrounding area had been gathered together.
270
00:25:46,578 --> 00:25:50,207
Among them were 11 year old
Vasyl Valdeman and his family.
271
00:25:50,916 --> 00:25:52,213
They were now at risk.
272
00:25:52,617 --> 00:25:55,279
The Nazi killing squads in the East
had now began to target
273
00:25:55,453 --> 00:25:57,648
Jewish women and children as well as men.
274
00:25:59,224 --> 00:26:01,215
We knew something
would be done to us here.
275
00:26:01,927 --> 00:26:05,090
When we saw people hit
and driven along here with spades,
276
00:26:05,397 --> 00:26:09,458
even small children realised
why people were carrying the spades.
277
00:26:11,503 --> 00:26:13,903
One of the members of
the 1st SS Infantry Brigade
278
00:26:14,072 --> 00:26:15,972
at the time was Hans Friedrich.
279
00:26:16,942 --> 00:26:20,901
He claims not to recall exactly
which actions he took part in that summer,
280
00:26:21,713 --> 00:26:25,274
but he does admit to participating in killings
like the one in Ostrog.
281
00:26:28,753 --> 00:26:38,719
They were so utterly shocked and frightened,
you could do with them what you wanted.
282
00:26:48,373 --> 00:26:53,037
Kids were crying, the sick were crying,
the elderly were praying to God.
283
00:26:53,445 --> 00:26:55,743
Not on their knees but seated or lying down.
284
00:26:56,748 --> 00:27:01,344
It was very tough to go through it all,
hearing all this wailing and crying.
285
00:27:04,556 --> 00:27:09,755
Then they had everyone get up and said 'Go',
and as soon as people started moving,
286
00:27:10,061 --> 00:27:12,222
they selected people for shooting,
for execution.
287
00:27:14,532 --> 00:27:19,162
The selected Ukrainian Jews were taken out
to this spot and a pit was dug.
288
00:27:20,171 --> 00:27:22,469
In scenes which were repeated
right across the areas
289
00:27:22,641 --> 00:27:26,042
of the Soviet Union occupied
by the Nazis, men,
290
00:27:26,211 --> 00:27:29,772
women and children were ordered to
strip and prepare to die.
291
00:27:43,461 --> 00:27:49,798
Try to imagine there is a ditch, with people on
one side, and behind them soldiers.
292
00:27:52,370 --> 00:27:55,396
That was us and we were shooting.
293
00:27:56,975 --> 00:28:00,069
And those who were hit fell down
into the ditch.
294
00:28:07,419 --> 00:28:10,320
Could you tell me what you were thinking
and feeling when you were shooting?
295
00:28:12,490 --> 00:28:13,320
Nothing.
296
00:28:15,160 --> 00:28:16,092
I only thought,
297
00:28:20,265 --> 00:28:21,562
'Aim carefully'
298
00:28:25,003 --> 00:28:27,028
so that you hit properly.
299
00:28:30,408 --> 00:28:31,568
That was my thought.
300
00:28:37,982 --> 00:28:39,244
This was your only thought?
301
00:28:39,417 --> 00:28:41,715
During all that time you had
no feelings for the people,
302
00:28:41,886 --> 00:28:43,547
the Jewish civilians that you shot?
303
00:28:47,859 --> 00:28:48,450
No.
304
00:28:48,626 --> 00:28:50,116
And why not?
305
00:28:51,663 --> 00:28:54,598
Because my hatred towards
the Jews is too great.
306
00:29:00,305 --> 00:29:04,298
And I admit my thinking on this point is unjust,
I admit this.
307
00:29:09,848 --> 00:29:14,285
But what I experienced from my earliest youth
when I was living on a farm,
308
00:29:15,086 --> 00:29:18,180
what the Jews were doing to us
- well that will never change.
309
00:29:19,224 --> 00:29:22,022
That is my unshakeable conviction.
310
00:29:25,597 --> 00:29:29,363
As he grew up in the 1930's in
an atmosphere of vicious anti-Semitism,
311
00:29:30,435 --> 00:29:31,800
Hans Friedrich came to believe
312
00:29:31,970 --> 00:29:35,167
that local Jewish traders had
cheated him and his family.
313
00:29:40,979 --> 00:29:43,345
What in God's name did the people
you shot have to do
314
00:29:43,515 --> 00:29:46,177
with those people who supposedly
treated you badly at home?
315
00:29:48,586 --> 00:29:50,349
They simply belonged to the same group!
316
00:29:51,923 --> 00:29:55,256
What else?
What else did they have to do with it?
317
00:29:55,927 --> 00:29:58,589
Nothing, but to us they were Jews!
318
00:30:05,170 --> 00:30:09,300
Though I was a small boy at that time,
I understood what Nazis were.
319
00:30:10,175 --> 00:30:14,509
I had no idea before but afterwards
I was thinking all the time
320
00:30:14,946 --> 00:30:19,178
- what makes those people be so cruel,
what makes them beasts?'
321
00:30:22,353 --> 00:30:24,116
The killings went on into the evening.
322
00:30:24,989 --> 00:30:29,016
Vasyl Valdeman and his mother managed to escape
and hide in a nearby village.
323
00:30:30,028 --> 00:30:34,124
But the SS killed his father,
grandfather and two uncles.
324
00:30:37,302 --> 00:30:40,703
That's how it was - the first execution
- the most horrible one.
325
00:30:41,272 --> 00:30:42,466
It wasn't the last one.
326
00:30:42,707 --> 00:30:44,675
There were three more large executions after
327
00:30:44,843 --> 00:30:48,643
that with 2000 to 3000 people shot
at every one of them.
328
00:30:49,113 --> 00:30:52,446
More people were executed afterwards
in smaller scale ones
329
00:30:52,684 --> 00:30:56,848
and this is how the Jewish community of
Ostrog was annihilated.'
330
00:31:03,027 --> 00:31:06,224
At the same time as the mass shootings of
Jews in the Soviet Union,
331
00:31:06,698 --> 00:31:09,724
there was also an escalation in the killing of
Auschwitz prisoners.
332
00:31:13,338 --> 00:31:17,035
For the first time inmates of Auschwitz were
to be killed by gassing.
333
00:31:17,709 --> 00:31:21,042
But not in the way for which the camp was
eventually to become notorious.
334
00:31:24,649 --> 00:31:26,913
Hoss received news that doctors
from the so called
335
00:31:27,085 --> 00:31:29,713
Adult Euthanasia Programme
would visit the camp.
336
00:31:30,555 --> 00:31:33,080
They were looking for those prisoners
who could no longer work.
337
00:31:41,599 --> 00:31:43,897
Members of the Nazis'
Adult Euthanasia Programme
338
00:31:44,068 --> 00:31:47,333
had up to now been targeting the mentally
and physically disabled.
339
00:31:48,273 --> 00:31:52,107
A section of the population who had long been
demonised by Nazi propaganda.
340
00:32:24,609 --> 00:32:27,737
In 1939, Hitler had authorised a scheme by
341
00:32:27,912 --> 00:32:30,403
which severely disabled children
could be murdered.
342
00:32:32,717 --> 00:32:37,450
Then once the war began, this killing was
extended to disabled adults as well.
343
00:32:43,494 --> 00:32:45,052
The selection was straightforward.
344
00:32:45,797 --> 00:32:48,493
A doctor would examine a report
on the patient and then
345
00:32:48,666 --> 00:32:51,100
if he thought they were suitable candidates
for the scheme,
346
00:32:51,636 --> 00:32:53,570
he would mark the form with a red cross.
347
00:32:56,107 --> 00:32:58,598
Two other doctors separately marked
identical forms
348
00:32:59,344 --> 00:33:02,211
and a majority vote decided
the patient's fate.
349
00:33:04,282 --> 00:33:08,412
The doctors met neither each other,
nor the patient, before reaching their verdict.
350
00:33:10,121 --> 00:33:15,115
Those selected to die were taken to special
institutions inside Germany like this one,
351
00:33:15,660 --> 00:33:17,628
the Sonnenstein Clinic near Dresden.
352
00:33:25,069 --> 00:33:27,765
There were six centres like this
spread throughout Germany.
353
00:33:28,639 --> 00:33:33,303
And in them, a new method of killing
had been devised using a subterfuge
354
00:33:33,478 --> 00:33:35,571
that would eventually be adopted at Auschwitz.
355
00:33:36,914 --> 00:33:39,109
The disabled were told
they were going to have a shower.
356
00:33:40,418 --> 00:33:43,581
They were taken into a room from
which hung pipes and showerheads.
357
00:33:46,457 --> 00:33:48,391
But the pipes were not connected to water.
358
00:33:51,763 --> 00:33:55,130
They led out through the walls to
bottles of carbon monoxide gas.
359
00:33:56,434 --> 00:34:02,339
Once the room was sealed, the carbon monoxide
was turned on and the patients murdered.
360
00:34:04,776 --> 00:34:10,009
Around 70,000 disabled people had been killed
in this way by the summer of 1941.
361
00:34:11,749 --> 00:34:15,651
Himmler wanted the Adult Euthanasia Scheme
to be extended to concentration camps,
362
00:34:16,487 --> 00:34:19,285
which is why a special unit
came to Auschwitz that summer.
363
00:34:21,659 --> 00:34:23,354
'During an evening roll call,
364
00:34:23,928 --> 00:34:27,796
we were told that all the sick among us
could go away for treatment...
365
00:34:28,933 --> 00:34:32,960
that they could leave to be cured,
and that they were to sign up.
366
00:34:35,339 --> 00:34:38,331
Of course, it was said that they would be
going for treatment.
367
00:34:39,110 --> 00:34:41,806
And, in the camp,
some people believed it...'
368
00:34:46,984 --> 00:34:50,545
So the first Auschwitz prisoners to be gassed
were not killed in the camp
369
00:34:51,222 --> 00:34:53,520
but transported to gas chambers in Germany.
370
00:34:54,892 --> 00:34:57,224
And they were selected not
because they were Jews
371
00:34:57,962 --> 00:34:59,793
but because they could no longer work.
372
00:35:02,100 --> 00:35:07,504
There were 575 people and they walked
like some kind of funeral procession,
373
00:35:07,905 --> 00:35:13,605
because some walked, others were carried
on stretchers - a kind of melancholy march.
374
00:35:14,812 --> 00:35:20,079
And the inmates standing nearby were saying
farewell to their relatives and friends.
375
00:35:23,121 --> 00:35:25,248
All of them were worn out prisoners.
376
00:35:25,423 --> 00:35:27,448
There were no healthy people among them.
377
00:35:27,925 --> 00:35:30,450
Male nurses carried some on stretchers.
378
00:35:30,628 --> 00:35:34,894
It was terribly macabre.
It was a procession of spectres.
379
00:35:51,649 --> 00:35:54,277
Two weeks after the sick were
taken from Auschwitz,
380
00:35:54,986 --> 00:35:57,454
Heinrich Himmler visited the Soviet Union.
381
00:36:01,058 --> 00:36:03,686
A visit that was to be of great significance
in the development
382
00:36:03,861 --> 00:36:06,022
of the Nazis' Extermination Programme.
383
00:36:07,498 --> 00:36:10,262
The discovery in the 1990's of
Himmler's appointment diary
384
00:36:10,434 --> 00:36:14,564
for this crucial period allows
his precise movements to be tracked.
385
00:36:19,377 --> 00:36:22,744
He drove to the outskirts of Minsk
and on the morning of Friday,
386
00:36:22,914 --> 00:36:28,978
August 15th 1941, he watched an execution of
Jews and alleged partisans.
387
00:36:30,988 --> 00:36:33,286
The sight must have been similar
to this execution,
388
00:36:33,824 --> 00:36:38,386
filmed around the same time on the sand-dunes
of Liepaja in Latvia.
389
00:36:51,842 --> 00:36:56,609
After the shooting, SS General Erich von dem
Bach-Zelewski told Himmler
390
00:36:56,781 --> 00:36:58,874
there was a problem with the SS killers.
391
00:37:18,202 --> 00:37:22,502
Bach-Zelewski knew that all over
the Soviet Union in the summer of 1941
392
00:37:22,673 --> 00:37:25,107
the Nazis and their collaborators were
murdering women
393
00:37:25,276 --> 00:37:28,768
and children at close range
and in cold blood.
394
00:37:35,453 --> 00:37:38,286
Himmler realised he had to find
a better way of killing
395
00:37:39,290 --> 00:37:41,349
- better for the murderers, not their victims.
396
00:37:49,033 --> 00:37:52,764
Which is why SS Lieutenant Dr. Albert Widmann
of the Technical Institute
397
00:37:52,937 --> 00:37:56,031
of the Criminal Police travelled
into Eastern Europe.
398
00:37:58,542 --> 00:38:01,010
Widmann and his colleagues had been
involved in the experiments
399
00:38:01,178 --> 00:38:04,545
which had led to the use of bottled
carbon monoxide to kill the disabled.
400
00:38:09,153 --> 00:38:13,453
But he knew that it would be expensive and
difficult to send canisters of carbon monoxide
401
00:38:13,624 --> 00:38:16,718
all the way to the new killing
locations far from Germany.
402
00:38:18,863 --> 00:38:20,854
So he had to find a new way forward.
403
00:38:24,802 --> 00:38:27,168
Which is why he drove into
the Soviet Union followed
404
00:38:27,338 --> 00:38:30,034
by a truck carrying boxes of high explosive.
405
00:38:34,745 --> 00:38:38,841
Widmann reported to Artur Nebe,
commander of one of the killing squads,
406
00:38:39,216 --> 00:38:41,650
at his headquarters
in the Lenin House in Minsk.
407
00:39:08,279 --> 00:39:11,908
'The bunker had totally collapsed,
there was total silence.
408
00:39:15,052 --> 00:39:18,488
Body parts were scattered on the ground
and hanging in the trees.
409
00:39:19,990 --> 00:39:23,926
And the next day we collected the body parts
and threw them back into the bunker.
410
00:39:25,162 --> 00:39:28,495
Those parts that were too high
in the trees were just left there.'
411
00:39:31,268 --> 00:39:34,567
After this horror,
Widmann and his SS colleagues tried
412
00:39:34,739 --> 00:39:38,106
another method of mass murder
- this one suggested by
413
00:39:38,275 --> 00:39:42,177
what had happened to Artur Nebe of
the SS earlier on in the year.
414
00:39:44,515 --> 00:39:47,109
Nebe had driven home drunk
from a party in Berlin
415
00:39:47,618 --> 00:39:50,781
and passed out in his garage
with the car engine still running.
416
00:39:55,126 --> 00:39:59,392
As a result the carbon monoxide from
the exhaust gasses had nearly killed him.
417
00:40:02,900 --> 00:40:04,663
Learning from Nebe's experience,
418
00:40:05,202 --> 00:40:09,901
Widmann and his colleagues now conducted
experiments in the Soviet Union, like this one.
419
00:40:14,879 --> 00:40:18,542
This film is believed to show patients
from a Soviet hospital being locked in a room
420
00:40:18,716 --> 00:40:21,810
which was connected to the exhaust pipes
of a car and a lorry.
421
00:40:25,990 --> 00:40:30,723
The Nazis had now developed a cheaper method
of killing people with carbon monoxide than
422
00:40:30,895 --> 00:40:33,887
that previously used
in the adult euthanasia scheme.
423
00:40:44,909 --> 00:40:48,811
Around the same time as these gassing
experiments were being conducted in the East,
424
00:40:49,547 --> 00:40:53,449
the authorities at Auschwitz were innovating
new ways of murder as well.
425
00:40:58,722 --> 00:41:03,853
Whilst Hoss was away from the camp,
his deputy Karl Fritzsch had a radical idea,
426
00:41:04,762 --> 00:41:07,162
one of the most significant
in the history of Auschwitz.
427
00:41:09,233 --> 00:41:11,895
With the SS in the camp still
relying on shooting to kill
428
00:41:12,069 --> 00:41:15,505
Soviet prisoners unable to work,
maybe, he thought,
429
00:41:16,207 --> 00:41:18,767
another method of killing lay right
in front of him.
430
00:41:20,878 --> 00:41:23,472
In Auschwitz, clothes infected with lice
431
00:41:23,647 --> 00:41:27,344
and other insects were disinfected
with crystallised prussic acid,
432
00:41:27,751 --> 00:41:29,810
mass produced under the trade name
433
00:41:30,287 --> 00:41:31,447
Zyklon B.
434
00:41:37,928 --> 00:41:40,920
Gas! Gas!
435
00:41:59,950 --> 00:42:01,884
Once released from their sealed container,
436
00:42:02,319 --> 00:42:06,153
Zyklon B crystals dissolved in the air
to create a lethal gas.
437
00:42:13,430 --> 00:42:18,424
Fritzsch chose Block 11 in Auschwitz to
conduct his first experiment with Zyklon B.
438
00:42:21,238 --> 00:42:23,502
This was the most feared location in the camp.
439
00:42:24,208 --> 00:42:25,698
A prison within a prison.
440
00:42:26,577 --> 00:42:32,743
The place where the SS sent inmates to be
punished - interrogated, tortured, even executed.
441
00:42:39,924 --> 00:42:43,917
In Block 11 were standing cells where prisoners
would be crammed together
442
00:42:44,094 --> 00:42:49,657
scarcely even able to breathe and starvation
cells where inmates would be locked up,
443
00:42:50,034 --> 00:42:52,696
deprived of food and left until they died.
444
00:42:53,938 --> 00:42:56,964
Everyone in Auschwitz knew of
the reputation of Block 11.
445
00:43:00,177 --> 00:43:02,941
'I personally was afraid of
walking past Block 11.
446
00:43:03,514 --> 00:43:05,311
Personally, I was afraid.
447
00:43:06,116 --> 00:43:08,983
Although it was closed off,
I was really scared to walk past there.
448
00:43:09,587 --> 00:43:13,148
Whether it was the avenue when
I was walking there, or what... I was afraid.
449
00:43:13,857 --> 00:43:15,518
Block 11 meant death.'
450
00:43:19,964 --> 00:43:23,024
On a day in late August
or early September 1941,
451
00:43:23,767 --> 00:43:27,999
Fritzsch ordered that the basement of Block 11
be prepared for the use of Zyklon B.
452
00:43:29,206 --> 00:43:33,006
Doors and windows were sealed
- the whole block locked down.
453
00:43:36,080 --> 00:43:39,538
'Our attention was drawn
- many of my colleagues saw this
454
00:43:40,384 --> 00:43:43,410
- by SS men running around with gas masks.
455
00:43:45,255 --> 00:43:48,520
The windows of the bunker had been
covered up with sand,
456
00:43:53,631 --> 00:43:54,962
and in the bunker
457
00:43:55,432 --> 00:44:02,861
- the cells of the bunker, in the cellar
- Soviet prisoners of war were assembled.
458
00:44:06,944 --> 00:44:09,845
And it turned out the following day
that the SS
459
00:44:10,514 --> 00:44:13,711
- actually, it was Palitzsch in particular
who attracted attention
460
00:44:14,284 --> 00:44:16,479
because he was running around like crazy.
461
00:44:20,057 --> 00:44:24,551
It turned out that the gas hadn't worked
properly and that many of the prisoners,
462
00:44:24,728 --> 00:44:26,355
the people, were still alive.
463
00:44:27,131 --> 00:44:31,693
So they increased the dosage,
added more crystals and finished the job.'
464
00:44:38,008 --> 00:44:41,774
'The prisoners dragged it all away on
carts known as Rollwagons.
465
00:44:42,579 --> 00:44:46,208
They took them to the crematorium,
because the crematorium was already being used,
466
00:44:46,917 --> 00:44:51,786
you could see smoke from the chimney...
So it was... an open secret.
467
00:44:55,259 --> 00:44:56,726
How does a person feel?
468
00:44:57,795 --> 00:45:00,195
One becomes indifferent
in the midst of all that.
469
00:45:00,764 --> 00:45:03,528
Today it's your turn,
tomorrow it will be mine.'
470
00:45:07,037 --> 00:45:10,302
Once Hoss came back to the camp,
he learnt about the experiment.
471
00:45:18,248 --> 00:45:21,911
'When I returned, Fritzsch reported to me
about how he had used the gas.
472
00:45:23,353 --> 00:45:26,982
He used it again to kill the next
transport of Russian prisoners of war.'
473
00:45:33,530 --> 00:45:36,966
As Hoss returned home to his wife
and four children in his house
474
00:45:37,134 --> 00:45:39,830
on the edge of the camp, he felt pleased.
475
00:45:51,548 --> 00:45:55,245
'I must admit that this gassing had
a calming effect on me,
476
00:45:56,086 --> 00:45:59,214
I was always horrified of executions
by firing squads.
477
00:46:00,023 --> 00:46:04,517
Now, I was relieved to think
that we would be spared all these bloodbaths.'
478
00:46:09,733 --> 00:46:10,927
Hoss was wrong.
479
00:46:14,538 --> 00:46:17,132
He was about to oversee
an even greater bloodbath.
480
00:46:22,346 --> 00:46:26,783
By building a camp here on this patch
of swampy ground a mile
481
00:46:26,950 --> 00:46:30,852
and a half away from the town
of Auschwitz at a place
482
00:46:31,021 --> 00:46:36,084
the Poles called Brzezinka
and the Germans Birkenau.
46456
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