All language subtitles for Rise of the Nazis 1080p BBC

GERMAN SINGING

..with elections, parliament,
and the rule of law.

Just four years later,

freedom of speech is over.

Most of the political opposition
is in jail

and the government
is in the hands of murderers.

This is the story
of how democracy died.

To piece together how it happened,

historians and experts
have examined those four years,

each from a different
individual perspective.

You cajole, you influence,
you...manipulate.

They'll take us inside the minds
of those that fought fascism...

They've realised that these people
are after your heads.

They want to annihilate you
from existence altogether.

..and the Nazis themselves.

Himmler genuinely believed that he
would create a racially pure Germany

where the Aryan race
would reign supreme.

The moments when history
hung in the balance

and the world's worst atrocities
could have been prevented.

Mass murder was no problem.

But it was important
to be socially acceptable.

Do people care about the truth?

There's a black hole
in the heart of Europe.

Germany, a once-great nation,
is on its knees.

The people, having endured
years of economic hardship,

are looking for change.

But no-one knows what kind of change
they will choose.

NEWSREEL: Another milestone
is marked

in Germany's political history.

The 1930 general election
should have brought clarity.

But it didn't.

It's a total mess,

the vote split between
14 different parties.

The Communists.

The Social Democrats.

The Centre Party is just about able

to put together a moderate coalition
government, but it's a weak one.

The only party who are happy,
who make substantial gains,

are the Nazis.

Just a few years ago, the Nazis
were violent revolutionaries.

But their revolution failed...

..and Hitler was sent to prison.

But out of that failure,

Hitler devised a new strategy
for the Nazis -

to pretend to be
a legitimate political party

and destroy democracy from within.

For years, though, they were
seen as the lunatic fringe.

Until now.

In 1930,
the Nazis have 18% of the vote...

MUSIC: Moonlight Sonata
by Beethoven

..and that captures the interest
of this man.

Germany's ultimate
political operative -

a right-wing aristocratic general,

Kurt von Schleicher.

It has been noted by many people
that "Schleicher"...

Schleichen in German
means to sneak, to creep.

So in English he would be
the creeper or the sneaker,

which strangely is a very accurate
denomination for what he did...

..and for what he was.

If you see politics as a game,

a schleicher is a master
in the play of power.

GERMAN SINGING

Von Schleicher's profession
is to observe...

..everybody.

And the Nazis
appear like deus ex machina,

or like a jack in the box.

It's something
which was not foreseen,

it's saying, "We offer you this."

"Here we are,
and we offer you a part

"of the German working class
on a silver plate."

The Nazis have a kind of
street cred.

And Schleicher is cynical enough

and he thinks to be clever enough
to say,

"This is a horse
that we are going to ride."

Schleicher wants to use the Nazis
to solve a big problem -

the threat posed
to the aristocratic elite

from the increasingly powerful
forces of the left.

So Schleicher cooks up a plan.

He wants to replace
the current chancellor,

supported by a moderate coalition,

with his own right-wing choice.

But to do this he needs two things -

the backing of the Nazis
in the Reichstag...

..and the support of Germany's
head of state.

The man who has the power
to hire and fire a chancellor.

So Schleicher has to persuade
President Hindenburg,

an 82-year-old war hero,

to work with the Nazis.

Hindenburg was trying to...

make sense of this rather chaotic
and complex situation.

You want the book? Yeah.

He's not really a politician at all,

is my reading on his character.

Soldiering, er,

particularly in wartime conditions,

is an exercise -
amongst other things - in command.

Politics are somewhat different,

particularly in a democracy.

And I could see him saying,

"Oh, God, I wish for the
simplicities of military command."

Which, of course,
were not open to him.

He had to do the best he could.

Others tried to manipulate him,
of course.

If we look at politics as a game,

as Schleicher does,

Hindenburg simply is
what in chess would be the king.

Everything comes down to
who is close to Hindenburg,

who is close to the king,
is close to power.

So Schleicher was one of
the closest persons,

if not the closest person
to the president,

is trying to influence

and to engineer
meeting with the Nazis.

So Schleicher persuades
the president

to take a meeting
with Adolf Hitler.

Neither of them have any idea
who they're dealing with.

TRAD JAZZ MUSIC

Hitler is living with his niece,

Geli Raubal,

who it's rumoured
he was having sex with.

Right.

Yep.

Hitler was a...a narcissist.

Obsessed with power.

Belief that he was a man of destiny.

And all of these things
grew over time.

He was increasingly ruthless.

He was filled with hate,
particularly against the Jews.

He was, in the end,
a man of violence.

Hitler's niece Geli is found dead.

She's shot herself in the chest
with Hitler's revolver.

There are moments in Hitler's life
when he completely loses control.

You can think, for example,
of towards the end of his life,

in the bunker in 1945,

when he completely goes to pieces.

And this also happens with the death
of his half-niece, Geli Raubal,

his girlfriend of the time.

Not necessarily because he loved her
and he was shocked and so on

but because he thinks his whole
political career is finished.

But just as he thinks
it might all be over,

only three weeks
after her suicide...

..Schleicher has organized
an audience for Hitler

with President Hindenburg.

The key question
is to sell the concept

that Hitler could be used
to build a right-wing coalition

which is based on a common hatred

and on common enemies
that they have.

For Hitler,
this is a moment when he realises

that he has arrived.

He's now become part of
the political game.

Hitler no doubt
had his own personal feelings.

But I suspect Hindenburg's
looking down his nose at Hitler.

Now, mind you, being a somewhat
snobbish dimension to this.

Von Hindenburg is an aristocrat,

he is a general,

indeed, he is the president
of his country.

Hitler fought in the first war
as a corporal.

And Hitler's time
in the German army

was not marked by
any particular distinction.

He was rather dismissive

of what he called
"this Austrian corporal".

Hitler thinks it's gone
pretty well, really.

He comes away from it thinking
that Hindenburg now knows

who he is, for one thing,
and that in due course,

Hindenburg would be prepared
under some circumstances

to appoint him as Reich-Chancellor.

Hindenburg concludes
Hitler is best suited

for the office of postmaster, quote,

"so that he can lick me from behind
on my stamps," unquote.

So it wasn't...a very deep
impression that Hitler made.

This is not how things are.
An upstart.

Schleicher at this moment
is annoyed.

"These people are very precious.
We need them."

We would like to do politics
only with, you know,

general staff-trained officers
like in the good old times,

but unfortunately we do live
in a republican democratic reality.

So Schleicher thinks
if plan A goes wrong,

you should have a plan B.

DRUMMING

GERMAN SINGING

While Hitler is the leader
of the Nazis' political party,

they also have a paramilitary wing
called the Stormtroopers.

These disenfranchised men are used

to dish out violence on the streets
to their enemies.

But in a way that the Nazi Party
can deny involvement in.

All part of Hitler's secret agenda
to wage war

against the Nazis' political rivals.

In this too,
Schleicher sees an opportunity.

Maybe he can persuade Hindenburg
to work with the Nazis

as a way of harnessing
these Stormtroopers.

For Schleicher,

the Stormtroopers
are precious elements,

as he calls the Stormtroopers,

because the left-wing insurgency -

which is communism, socialism,
the unions -

probably has to be broken
with force

and these people represent this
force and they have this power.

The German army
is weak and depleted,

an issue that the old man
cares about.

Maybe they could use the
Stormtroopers to bolster the ranks.

Schleicher definitely knows
which buttons

to press with Hindenburg.

Hindenburg regards it
as his duty as president

to see Germany back
as a great power.

So Schleicher
is saying to Hindenburg,

the Nazis, with the Stormtroopers,
represent a fresh start.

I mean, as a soldier,

that would have resounded with him
without doubt,

in my view.

With the president on board,

he now needs to persuade Hitler

to join his right-wing coalition
government as the junior partner.

Hitler really is not somebody
who's going to enter

any kind of coalition government
unless he's at its head.

That would violate
the leadership principle.

It would kind of undermine
his charisma, his image

and his self-image
as the man who is in charge.

So Hitler says no.

What Hitler wants
is another election,

in which he hopes
to do even better.

So Schleicher offers another deal.

He'll bring elections forward

on condition Hitler doesn't vote
down his right-wing coalition.

In this moment he perceives him
as a servant,

someone who was going to play
a supporting role

in the system which would be run
by aristocrats like himself.

He thinks he can somehow
blackmail the Nazis,

he can put pressure on the Nazis,

and that sooner or later,
they are going to eat from his hand.

Whatever he thinks Hitler's
extracted as a condition

of the support of the Nazis,
that elections should be held,

Schleicher imagined he was
manipulating Hitler,

whereas in fact,
it's the other way round.

So while Schleicher
plots his next chancellor,

Hitler sets about winning
the hearts and minds

of the German people.

He portrayed himself
as a man of the people.

He wasn't a toff, he wasn't
a member of the elites.

He was a man who projected himself
as an ordinary bloke,

as it were, and that, I think,

managed to unite
many different kinds of people.

While Hitler's support grows,

some realise that he's not
the respectable politician he seems.

And one man tries to prove it
in court.

GERMAN OPERATIC MUSIC

Hans Litten is anxious.

He saw the rise of what he believes

is going to be
a very dangerous movement.

Litten is a lawyer who is powered
by the idea that law is important.

He doesn't see law as
just a set of rules.

He sees it as being the thing
that will make the difference

in creating a better society -

a foundation,
a rock on which it can be built.

He is talking about human rights
at a time when very few people did.

And he takes on his cases
as though life depended on it.

Litten sees what the Stormtroopers
are doing on the streets.

When they attack a nightclub
full of communists,

dozens are injured,
and four Stormtroopers are charged.

GAVEL BANGS

Litten wants to join the dots
back to the Nazi Party itself.

Hitler is saying
that he believes in law,

he believes in
a rules-based society,

and he would never himself speak
of violence, or using violence.

But Hans Litten, he understood what
fascism was about,

he understood what Nazism
was about.

And so he thinks,
"How do we make this case

"of use in a bigger struggle?"

And he decides that
a summons should be issued

to get Hitler before the court.

When Hitler enters the court,

the Stormtroopers who are on trial
stand up in the dock

and raise their hands
in the Hitler salute.

And they show their dedication
to their leader.

Hitler is absolutely in control.

Hitler went there prepared to say
something very well-rehearsed,

and says that
he had no knowledge at all

of what these Stormtroopers
would do.

This was a rogue group.

How often have we heard
great leaders

saying that somehow
this was an out-of-control group

and that this has nothing
to do with THEM?

And Litten slowly but surely
starts to unpick that.

Hitler is cross-examined
for three hours.

Who are the Stormtroopers?

What is expected of them?

Tell me the truth.

As Hitler continues to deny
Stormtrooper violence

is official Nazi policy,
Litten produces a pamphlet.

It's a quick guide to Nazi ideology
for new Stormtrooper recruits.

In it, there's a line that says

if the Nazis can't come to power
by democratic means...

Litten plays his trump card,

and he presents it to Hitler.

"Look at this.

"You're telling us
you are a democrat?

"That you're running
a democratic party?

"Look what your pamphlets say."

It must have been so exhilarating.

You know, there's nothing
more satisfying than

a good cross-examination,
if you're a lawyer.

SHOUTING IN GERMAN

And then he gets angry.

From this position of
calm leadership,

he becomes the rather frothing man

that we know
he was capable of being.

By keeping at it,
slowly and patiently,

he wore down the veneer.

And although, you know,
this was not about, you know,

a witness saying, "I'm guilty,"

you just know that someone
has been reduced in size.

And I think Hitler was.

A reporter secretly takes
this photograph.

The sense you have
in looking at the photograph...

Hitler knows that his performance
was not good.

That Litten had exposed
to the public

what this man was really like.

Hans Litten, he was exactly the sort
of man who Hitler rather despised.

A Jewish lawyer, a clever man,
an intellectual.

They were traitors. They were tools
of a world Jewish conspiracy.

Vermin, they were less than nothing.

And so it was a great victory
for Litten,

but by God had he made an enemy
in the Fuhrer.

Back in the halls of power,

Schleicher goes to work
to bring down the chancellor.

Schleicher's political game operates
on different levels at once.

He conspires with
the military elite.

He uses his influence with media
and big business.

He spreads gossip to weaken
the chancellor's standing

in political circles...

..telling everyone the Chancellor
has failed to get Germany

out of its political
and economic mess.

And all the while, he continues
to work on Hindenburg...

..the only man
who can fire a chancellor...

..convincing him that to keep
the current chancellor in power

is bad for his reputation.

Schleicher knows about how much
Hindenburg likes his own reputation.

This is another button
that he can push.

The chancellor is a failure,

too much under the spell
of the socialists.

He should go.

Well, I think the evidence is clear,

the chancellor cannot go on.

It could be very important
for the future stability of Germany.

This is Schleicher at his best.

These are ways to rule a country

which are based on conspiracy,
intrigue.

This is not what a republic
is meant to be.

And so within weeks of
his deal with Hitler,

Schleicher has persuaded
the President

to fire the Chancellor
and accept Schleicher's choice

for a new chancellor.

JAUNTY MUSIC PLAYING

What sort of person
is Franz von Papen?

Well, he claims
he's completely surprised

that anyone should imagine him
becoming Chancellor of the Reich.

But on the other hand,
I find that quite hard to believe,

that he hasn't imagined himself
in that position.

You get the impression of
a little bit of a popinjay.

He's always terribly well-dressed.

He always has a flower
in his buttonhole.

He's always immaculately turned out.

And outwardly very charming.

You know, he knew how to play...
in a very Germanic way,

he knew how to play the gentleman,

although he has the reputation
of someone

with a degree of incompetence.

Schleicher, at this point,
is looking for a man

who would basically
do what he tells him to do,

someone that he could manipulate.

Well, if we try to think
with Schleicher's mind

in this moment, this is a very,
very understandable choice.

I would even say
it was a very good choice.

The idea that Papen
is sort of useful idiot

for other people around him
is clearly nonsense.

It's Schleicher's men,
it's Schleicher's cabinet.

It's going to be
Schleicher's politics.

Kurt von Schleicher
thought he could exploit him.

Of course,
the reality is that he is...

..for want of a better word,
prone to subterfuge.

He is cunning.

And because they need
the Nazis' support,

they turn a blind eye to
the Stormtroopers' violence.

GUNSHOTS

I certainly don't get the impression
that Papen is particularly moved

by what's happening on the streets.

You know, he is a man who...

..does not see
the morality of his position.

And as far as he's concerned,

if there's a brawl between the
Nazis and the communists,

the people he wants to lose
in that brawl

will be the communists
and not the Nazis.

For Papen, the Nazis
are the ticket to power.

So Schleicher finally has
what he wants -

a right-wing government,

a malleable chancellor,

and his political opponents
on the run.

The destiny of Germany
is in his hands.

I do think that in this moment
he is...

..full of himself,
and he likes what he does.

And I think he's quite proud
and he feels this is going well.

I think he feels
this is successful.

And where he goes wrong, Schleicher,

is to not see that the Nazis,
and particularly Hitler,

were playing their own game,

and were not going to accept

the rules set out
by General Schleicher.

CHEERING THROUGHOUT

Sieg!
CROWD: Heil!

On Election Day, 1932,

all the key players cast their vote.

Hitler, von Papen,

and President Hindenburg.

Hitler realises that
if he tells a very simple message,

it doesn't matter
if they're true or not.

The point is that you have to keep
repeating them,

keep hammering them in.

Make Germany great again.

Restore the economy.

They are empty slogans,

but they're carrying a message that,

although vague,
is very powerful.

Heil!

Heil! Heil!

The results send shock waves
through Germany.

The Nazis' vote
has gone from 18 to 37%.

Now, with the largest party
in the Reichstag,

suddenly Hitler is too big
for even Schleicher to control.

So Hitler thinks
now's the time to strike.

Now Hitler makes his big move
and demands to be Chancellor.

Schleicher is worried Hitler

is simply not
playing by the rules

that Schleicher has foreseen.

Hitler was a gambler.

As he said, "I always go for broke."

And the more he believed in himself,

the more he was encouraged
by his media followers

to believe in himself,

the more he was disinclined
to compromise.

Talking to Hitler,
which at the beginning

was like talking to a servant,

now becomes talking to someone
who comes with his own claims.

So Schleicher's position
starts to weaken

and things start to become
shaky and slippery.

So Schleicher responds with
an even bigger move.

He knows that
in the German constitution

there is a clause that says
the President can suspend parliament

and rule by presidential decree.

Schleicher and Papen
now persuade Hindenburg

to pull that lever
and exercise his emergency powers.

Hindenburg is rather horrified
by the idea

of Hitler as Chancellor.

The jumped-up little corporal
from somewhere in Austria.

So Chancellor Papen
heads to the Reichstag

with the authority of the president
to suspend Parliament.

He just has to get
the Speaker's attention

and then dissolve the Reichstag.

That is all he needs to do,
in theory.

But there's a new Speaker
who has just been appointed.

Goering is very keen to be
Hitler's fixer...

..because it makes him
an important political figure.

But to be Hitler's fixer
you've got, in the end,

to deliver what Hitler wants.

And in a moment
captured in this photograph...

..when Papen tries to get
the Speaker's attention

to dissolve the Reichstag,

Goering looks the other way,

and instead calls a vote of
no confidence in Papen's government.

Goering looks at them, reads them,
laughs, and says,

"Sorry, your government's finished."

But Papen has no intention
of leaving,

and decides to try
to cling to power.

Papen can rely on certain people.

After all, it is Schleicher
who makes Papen Chancellor.

Papen thought very highly
of Schleicher.

Schleicher is ruthless when
it comes to...political loyalties.

And he has the capacity
to change coalitions,

to change people as other people
would change shoes or socks,

when the situation forces it,
needs it.

He persuades the President
they need a new chancellor.

It is a disaster for us.

Papen is a very stupid man.
And that he simply should go.

So...marching orders.

Which Hindenburg, I suspect,

would have found quite difficult.

But there's one thing Schleicher

hasn't quite factored
into his calculations

that will come back to bite him.

When Hindenburg as President

sacks von Papen as Chancellor,

Hindenburg gives him a photograph.

And the superscription
to the photograph, in German,

"Ich hatt' einen Kameraden."

"I had a comrade."

And I find the use of the past tense
rather poignant there.

It meant an awful lot to Papen,

because it was a gauge
of the sympathy of the President.

That Hindenburg was not entirely
in his heart,

he was not happy
at what had happened.

Of course, everybody could see that
Hindenburg developed an almost...

..romantic feeling of love
for him, for Papen.

I think that's going a little far.

Hindenburg is not that demonstrative
a man in my view.

But certainly a degree of
comradeship.

So despite the fact that
he was sent packing by Hindenburg,

Papen believes that
this is a monstrous betrayal.

And from that moment onwards,
Papen will do anything

in order to bring down Schleicher
and bring himself back to power.

For lawyer Hans Litten, the fight
against the Nazis goes on.

After the case
where he cross-examined Hitler,

he became, you know,
public enemy number one.

It's the classic thing that happens

to somebody who stands up
to be counted.

People distanced themselves
from him,

death threats,
he's viciously assaulted.

Litten is feeling, I think,

what all lawyers feel
when they suddenly find themselves

at the hard end of
society's criticisms.

And yet at the same time, he knows
that this is something that matters.

Despite the harassment,
Litten is winning.

He gets Stormtroopers convicted

for the killing
of a communist activist.

He successfully defends
anti-fascists

against charges of murder.

Litten did enjoy successes.

There is no doubt that Litten
is a thorn in the side of the Nazis.

It's his persistence,
it's his determination,

his sense that he is not
going to give up on this.

He keeps trying to call Nazism
to book through the courts,

because he feels that to succumb
and to quietly skulk off

would be to allow, somehow,
Nazism to win.

And so he keeps going.

Now, Litten's investigations
begin to reveal a conspiracy

between the Nazis and the police.

In one incident, Stormtroopers
clash with anti-fascists

in a neighbourhood called Felseneck.

When a communist called
Fritz Klemke is shot dead,

the Stormtroopers responsible
are brought to trial,

claiming self-defence.

What Litten uncovers is explosive.

A policeman went into a tavern

and deliberately left his gun
on the bar.

A Stormtrooper picked it up,
carried out the murder,

and then slipped it back
to the policeman.

When you have the collusion
of police providing weaponry

and in fact being involved
themselves

in the commission of crime,

bringing that to light
was very important.

Having plotted the removal of
two chancellors in less than a year,

Kurt von Schleicher
feels back in control.

Now, in his boldest move yet,

Schleicher persuades Hindenburg
that the next chancellor

should be himself.

His first objective -

end Hitler's political ambitions.

At this moment, Schleicher starts to
consider different options.

Even plans, it seems, to arrest Nazi
leaders, to strike against them.

So he is considering options.

He's always considering options.

His career, at this point,
requires it.

The fall of Chancellor Papen

coincides with yet another
general election.

And with the German economy picking
up, the Nazi vote falls back.

It looks like Hitler
got close to being Chancellor,

but not close enough.

And years of constant campaigning

has left the Nazi Party
close to bankruptcy.

By late 1932, Goering clearly
feels the Nazi Party

is facing something of a crisis.

He knows that this is a leader

who's stubbornly committed
to becoming Chancellor or nothing.

And for Goering, I think that's,

you know, it's a difficult circle
to square.

And I think there are moments
when Goering is really thinking,

"How the hell
am I going to do this?"

Is Hitler's stubbornness
going to make the party fall apart?

Hitler has always refused
to join any coalition

unless HE is Chancellor.

But many in the Nazi Party
are getting impatient

and want a slice of power.

Schleicher sees this

and offers rebel Nazis
a part in his government,

weakening Hitler further.

So at this moment,
it seems that this is successful.

He feels that he starts
having all the tools in his hand

to open the doors
to the Nazi castle.

And to get into it, or to get...

Actually, he tries to steal
from Hitler.

He tries to get a part
of the support

that Hitler has
from the German people.

By the end of 1932...

..Hitler was at his wits' end
as to what to do.

He didn't seem to be able
to get any more votes.

The Nazis began to run out of money.

People began to desert them.

The Nazi Party is weak,
it's declining,

so there's general feeling
of crisis.

It should have been the beginning
of the end for the Nazi Party.

With his chances of power
slipping away,

Hitler makes
a clandestine journey...

..in a desperate
last throw of the dice.

He definitely looks down on Hitler.

Hitler is another sort of animal,
as far as he's concerned.

Papen is looking at Hitler
to see if this man can be useful

in getting his revenge
against Schleicher.

Papen offers Hitler a deal
to join forces,

using Hitler's
parliamentary strength

and Papen's friendship
with President Hindenburg

to find a way to power.

He sees Hitler as his means
of getting back into power.

Hitler does not represent to him
the ideal form of government.

Franz von Papen finds the ideal
form of government Franz von Papen.

For the first time in his political
career, Hitler makes a compromise.

An agreement is made
that the Nazis and Papen

will form a coalition government.

Compromise wasn't really
in his repertory.

It was either total victory
or total defeat.

But I think he was convinced
that the von Papen deal

would bring the legitimacy with
which he could then take over power.

Between Papen and Hitler,

at least one thing is agreed -

Schleicher must go.

This famous meeting, which is
supposed to be a secret meeting,

but it's not that secret,
because it leaks out immediately

and Schleicher has knowledge of it.

And strangely,
he reacts in a manner

where he does not really
feel threatened by it

and it seems that he even thinks,

"Oh, this is little Franz
doing something for me,

"trying to negotiate with the Nazis

"to bring Nazi support
to my government."

He does not yet understand

to what extent Papen
has turned against him.

Now, Franz von Papen
shows his true colours

as a cunning political player
in his own right...

..using his position
as Hindenburg's new favourite

to present a radical idea.

He should be Vice Chancellor.

And the Chancellor
should be Adolf Hitler.

It's an idea he has

that the only way to destroy
the National Socialists

is to give them a bit of power.

"Let's give them a chance
in government

"to show how dreadful they are,

"and then the people
will lose their interest in them."

These are desperate times,

and desperate schemes
are dreamed up.

The decision rests with Hindenburg.

How is it that Hindenburg,

from his initial, rather lofty
position regarding Hitler -

the upstart, the Austrian corporal -

to contemplating Hitler
as a potential chancellor?

How do you explain the volte face?

It's quite a journey, that one.

Schleicher and von Papen
and "my reputation".

The rise of the Communists.

Eventually, Hindenburg comes to the
conclusion that von Papen is right.

There was no other answer.

He'd run out of options
at this point.

Schleicher is out.

He has no remaining cards to play.

Hindenburg dismisses Schleicher
at the end of January, 1933.

What he says to him
as a last sentence is,

"General, and now let's see
how the hare is going to run

"with God's help."

The hare is Hitler.

The Nazis are close to power.

Hans Litten is starting to realise

that Germany's legal system
is riddled with Nazi sympathisers.

As his case against the police and
the Stormtroopers comes together,

the system begins to shut him down.

Crucial evidence
mysteriously disappears.

The Nazi conspiracy
is wider than Litten realised.

Here we have state collusion
in murder.

He presents it to the judge,

and the judge accuses Litten
of lying.

Hans Litten is seeing how
the rule of law is now a pretence.

It becomes the ultimate evidence
to him

that the whole system
is becoming Nazified.

Berlin's chief prosecutor
informs him that

the case against the Stormtroopers
is being dropped

for lack of evidence.

For Litten, watching this is hell.

He sees that the destruction
of democracy

is taking place before his eyes,

and no-one is stopping it.

CROWD CHEERING

NEWSREEL: An excited crowd gathers
outside the presidential palace on

learning that Hindenburg has sent
for Hitler to form a government.

HE SPEAKS GERMAN

And so Hitler has,
for the first time,

power.

On that evening, Hitler has
this unshakeable self-belief.

One way or another, he is going to
become Germany's dictator.

People like Schleicher, Papen
and Hindenburg

thought that they could use him,
that he'd be easily manipulated.

They were, of course, wrong.

We go back to this time
over and over and again,

because it informs
our current world.

It informs our current world
on a number of planes,

but particularly
it is a warning to us

to prevent things like this
from happening again.

And we ask, why was it
that there were no people around

who could actually prevent
this terrible descent?

Here we are in the '30s.

Violence is taking place
and society becoming divided.

Do people see
what's really happening?

The story of German politics
between 1930 and 1933

is the story of the decline and fall
of a democracy.

And that's why we're so fascinated,

because we know
what happened afterwards.

Germans at the time didn't know
what was going to happen.

But we know now, looking back,

what a terrible turning point
it was.

And of course, democracy
is under challenge and under threat

in many countries at the moment.

We're looking for parallels.

That period does have lessons for us

if we want to preserve and defend
democracy in our own day.

The moment when his murderer
points the gun on him

and asks him,
"Are you General Schleicher?",

he might have realised
that he created a monster.

And whatever was going to come,

it would finish everything
which was there before.

GUNSHOTS

Hitler still doesn't have
supreme power.

4,000 communists arrested
in one night.

Himmler gives a press conference

announcing the opening
of this concentration camp.

What kind of people ARE these?

The camp's in the small town
of Dachau.

It's January 1933

and Germany has a new Chancellor.

He refuses to engage
in the boring day-to-day detail

of running a country.

He has no interest in the opinions
of experts and refuses

to read briefings.

Instead, he tasks his team
with a simple assignment.

Destroy democracy
and make him dictator.

Destroying democracy will take
just six months.

To piece together how it happened,
historians and experts have examined

this period, each from a different
individual perspective.

You cajole, you influence,
you manipulate.

They'll take us inside the minds
of those that fought fascism...

They realised these people
are after your head.

They want to annihilate you
from existence altogether.

..and the Nazis themselves.

Himmler genuinely believed
that he would create a racially pure

Germany, where the Aryan race
would reign supreme.

The moments when history hung
in the balance and the world's worst

atrocities could have
been prevented.

Mass murder was no problem.

But it was important
to be socially acceptable.

Do people care about the truth?

At the start of 1933,

Hitler is the Chancellor of Germany,

the equivalent of Prime Minister.

But he still has a Parliament
beneath him that could block him...

..a head of state
who could fire him...

..and a legal system that could
prosecute the Nazis

if they break the law.

So, Hitler now wants those below him
to dismantle the German state,

pitting senior Nazis
against each other.

Hitler allowed his subordinates
to fight it out amongst themselves,

even encouraged it, because he
believed in a Darwinian principle,

or what he understood
as the Darwinian principle,

of the survival of the fittest.

Hitler's regime was a mass
of competing individuals,

and competing centres of power,
which Hitler deliberately kept

competing with one another.

He believed that if he appointed
three people to do the same job,

the most ruthless, the most Nazi,
the most able one

would come to the top.

Hermann Goring has ambitions
to be a big wheel,

second, perhaps, to Hitler.

He needs to be noticed.

People often ask me,
"You've written a biography

"of Goring, did you ever fall
in love with your subject?"

You know, people who write
biographies generally do.

And I always say, "No, I never fell
in love with my subject."

He's so different from
the other leading Nazis.

You know, he is jovial,
amusing, flamboyant,

likes the good life.

He'll have a good joke, he has
a drink, his picture is often

in popular magazines.

He is the kind of person
who nowadays would invite

Hello Magazine in
to look at his house.

But, on the other hand,

he is callous, brutal, ambitious.

This is a man, who, at the end,

signs the order in July 1941

for the Final Solution
to the Jewish question.

The Nazis' first move
appears democratic.

Hitler calls a general election
to try to get

more seats in Parliament.

Goring sees an opportunity
to impress Hitler

by delivering victory.

But, to do that, he'll need to
take on the Social Democrats

and the Communists.

The Communist leader
is Ernst Thalmann.

Ernst Thalmann is definitely
a charismatic guy and he's a leader

of the German Communist Party,

which was the largest communist
party outside of Soviet Russia.

And he is red as hell.

He speaks to a deep sense
of resentment and anger

amongst the German working classes.

Goring hates Marxism
and everything it represents.

He's a German patriot.

He's very committed to Germany,
with a capital G.

He thinks the left
will destroy Germany,

it will do to Germany what
the Bolsheviks did to Russia.

While the communists are preparing
to fight an election,

Goring has other ideas.

He wants to arrest them
and lock them up.

But to arrest the democratically
elected opposition,

Goring will need
a very good reason.

So, he plays on public fears,

casting the communists
as enemies of the people.

Then he raids the Communist Party
HQ, looking for evidence

of a violent uprising.

Well, of course, they find
plenty of Marxist literature

which is about the revolution.

That's what Marxism is,
it's about having a revolution.

But there isn't any hard and fast
evidence of a Communist coup

or revolutionary plan.

And they don't find the smoking gun.

Even though he'd put in all this
work to demonising communists,

presenting them
as an existential threat,

he can't say he's found evidence
that an armed uprising is imminent.

He's got to say the armed
uprising has started,

and that's where
the Reichstag Fire comes in.

Goring's working late in his
office when, suddenly, people

rush in and tell him,
"The Reichstag's on fire."

Goring gets up and rushes
to the building.

In fact, he tries to enter
the building until he's restrained.

Here's the Reichstag,
where he holds office,

if you like,
is going up in flames.

A photographer captures
Hitler and Goring

after they rush to the scene.

Goring knows this is exactly
the opportunity he needs.

"Communists, they've done this,
I've told you they were going

"to do it. If you wanted proof
of the threat posed by communism,

"here it is,
the flames in front of you."

Hitler finally endorses completely
what it is that Goring is doing.

We're going to wipe out
these vermin.

Communists have had it.

For Goring, it's a moment of
real political excitement.

He makes the most of it.

He is the one who is
going to act, boldly,

decisively, he's going
to be Hitler's fixer.

Goring has the green light to round
up the Nazis' political opponents.

To provide the muscle,
he teams up with the Nazis'

paramilitary wing,
the Storm Troopers.

Commanded by the brawling,
brutal adventurer, Ernst Rohm.

Ernst Rohm was a trained officer.

Very stern and very rough.

Rohm was a ruthless fighter
against democracy.

We have to get rid of this kind
of political system

to fight these, what they called,
inner enemies -

communists, social democrats.

It was quick.

Immediate.

The scale of this operation...

..is insane.

4,000 communists arrested
in one night.

And it was traumatic.

Suddenly, the communists realised
these people are after your heads,

and they don't just want to squeeze
you out of the electoral terrain,

they want to annihilate you
from existence altogether.

For Goring, the violence
he unleashes doesn't seem

to worry him very much.

There's that famous Goring comment,

"You can't make an omelette
without breaking eggs.

You don't have
a normal moral compass.

You know, you can't
do this to people.

He has an inverted moral compass.

What the communists
are doing is wicked,

and what they're doing is restoring
order and protecting Germany.

And that's moral.

Social networks, political networks,
networks of publishing

were evaporated overnight.

Bear in mind, this is all
still happening during

an election campaign.

The next day, the arrests continue.

Hitler moves to make them
appear legal.

He goes to the head of state,
President Hindenburg,

convincing him to sign
the Reichstag Fire Decree.

It gives the Nazis
emergency powers...

..to arrest and imprison
without charge,

to restrict civil liberties,
ban free speech,

and the right to protest.

Within weeks,
over 25,000 arrests made.

Many are beaten and tortured.

Ernst Thalmann escapes.

But one of his comrades
is captured and is tortured,

and his hiding place is given up.

Your leadership is being arrested.

Your active campaigners,
your activists are all being

taken up by the state.

Where do you go?

In a climate of fear,

just under 44% of Germans vote Nazi.

Less than three weeks later,

the Nazis push the Enabling Act
through Parliament,

a law that suspends democracy,

allowing Hitler to govern

without needing approval
from Parliament.

HE SPEAKS IN GERMAN

CHEERING

SINGING OF THE
GERMAN NATIONAL ANTHEM

All this is signed off
by President Hindenburg.

I suspect Hindenburg is feeling
he's getting backed into a corner.

The Reichstag burns,

Hitler is able to persuade
not only Hindenburg,

but a large proportion
of the German population

that this is the first sign
of communist insurrection.

I mean, it was, if you like,

almost the birth certificate
of the Nazi regime,

with all its horrors.

With the Reichstag suspended,
the first laws are passed

to restrict the freedoms of Jews.

A Jewish baker is found dead,

a swastika carved into his chest.

Goring gets his reward.

More power and more prestige.

He is Prussia Minister
of the Interior,

Germany's most powerful state.

He's given control
of the Air Force and becomes master

of the German forests.

He'll get new uniforms,

a country estate and a pet lion.

HE SPEAKS IN GERMAN TO LION

But, whilst Goring has managed to
lock up

the Nazis' political rivals...

..the next step of Germany's
moral dissent is taken by someone

further down the pecking order.

In a regional office in Munich

is the relatively unknown
Heinrich Himmler.

In early 1933, Himmler wants to
cultivate links with Hitler

to get known by Hitler
more and more.

Himmler wants power,

but, in early 1933,

it doesn't look likely at all
that Himmler will ever rise

to the top of the Nazi party.

Himmler looked completely
boring, unmanly.

Uncharismatic, dull, pedantic,
bespectacled nerd.

This photograph is really emblematic
of Himmler's personality

as a really insecure man who feels
that he doesn't have much

of a soldierly, masculine face,

so he needs to cover his chin.

Himmler's view of Goring
was initially quite negative,

because he thought that
Goring was old guard,

that Goring was baroque,

that Goring was the direct rival.

For Goring, Himmler's not somebody
he is yet going to be aware of

as a potential rival or a threat.

He becomes a very big figure,
of course,

later on in the dictatorship.

Himmler is head of the SS,
a paramilitary group of fanatical

Nazis who see themselves
as Hitler's most loyal soldiers.

The black-shirted, jack-booted SS

is very much a product
of Himmler's ideas.

Aryan supremacy, hatred of
parliamentary democracy,

the dispensation of violence
against anyone standing in the way

of the Nazis.

Extreme anti-Semitism.

He was a micro-manager.

SS members had to seek Himmler's
permission if they wanted to marry.

His ambition is to make
the SS the central institution

in Nazi Germany in charge
of political repression.

More conservative Nazis believed
that the best way to control

political opponents was by using
the law to lock them up.

Himmler thought that even more
radical measures were required.

Himmler now follows Goring's lead,

and he uses new laws to start
arresting Nazi opponents.

The instrument Himmler used
was called, euphemistically,

protective police custody.

Protective police custody meant
that prisoners could be locked up

in the hundreds of thousands
over the course of 1933,

without having the chance
to speak to a judge,

without having the chance
to speak to a lawyer.

Himmler used protective police
custody quite indiscriminately

to extend his power,
to extend the power of the SS.

Then Himmler needs somewhere
to put all these prisoners.

And he's found
a solution to that, too.

Himmler gives a press conference.

In his dull voice,
the topic of this press conference

is the opening of a camp
where political prisoners

can be re-educated.

He says that this camp
has a capacity of about 5,000.

He claims that rabble-rousers
who are subverting the power

of the state would be housed there.

Especially communists,
social democrats, trade unionists.

He says that law and order
will reign supreme within this camp.

The camp's in
the small town of Dachau.

Himmler and the SS
are quickly taking control

of Bavaria's justice system.

But right at the bottom
of that system is someone

who is about to fight back.

Josef Hartinger was a 39-year-old
deputy prosecutor.

Part of this generation
that was going to make

a strong, democratic Germany.

People talk about Oskar Schindler,
he saved 1,000 lives.

And if there'd been 1,000 people
like Schindler,

there never would have been
a Holocaust.

Well, had there been 100 people
like Josef Hartinger,

not only would there not have been
a Holocaust,

there may not have been
a Third Reich.

Hartinger is sitting at his desk,
shortly after 9:00 in the morning.

His phone rings.

There's a call from
the concentration camp in Dachau,

that four detainees have been shot
trying to escape.

Under Germany's criminal code,
it is Hartinger's job

as deputy state prosecutor
to investigate the deaths.

So, he sets off to Dachau,

with medical examiner, Moritz Flamm.

Hartinger knows there's
a detention centre there.

The fact that someone tried
to escape is certainly

a possibility.

But he's not going to
assume anything, let's see

what it looks like
when we get there.

There's a big wall there
with an iron gate

in front of it.

He sees several Storm Troopers,

these brown uniforms,

with black SS kepis on.

And firearms.

What he doesn't see
is actually more important.

He doesn't see any Bavarian police.

They wear these green uniforms,
and the SS had been assigned

as auxiliaries
to the Bavarian police.

So, SS men there, but no police.

The camp itself is a former
munitions facility,

overgrown, boarded up buildings.

Fairly desolate.

And he sees these prisoners
being marched around in groups.

They drive up to
the commandant's headquarters,

and the camp commandant is there.

Wackerle, he's a poster boy SS man.

Blonde-haired, blue-eyed,
black uniform, shiny boots.

And here you have Josef Hartinger,
this slightly paunchy,

middle-aged, balding guy.

The commandant leads
Hartinger and Flamm

to where the prisoners died.

He explains that the four men
were on a work detail,

but they tried to escape,
running for the trees.

They were shot from a distance

after ignoring the guards'
commands to stop.

He's taken to a shed,
where the bodies have simply

been thrown on the ground
like slaughtered animals.

And Hartinger looks at this
and just says...

.."This is not the way
you treat a human being."

What kind of people are these,
that would do this to someone?

Hartinger and Flamm,
as they are going back,

are kind of reviewing
everything that was there.

The treatment of these three bodies,

of these dead young people,

Wackerle himself.

And, then, as Hartinger said
was most troubling of all,

he said, "How is it that all four
of these men were Jews?"

And he says, "There is
something very wrong here.

"And we are going to fix it.

"We will set this right."

Hartinger vows to bring murder
charges against the Dachau SS.

But this means
going up against Himmler,

just as his power is growing.

Because, for Himmler,
Dachau is only the beginning.

And he's slowly bringing every state
in Germany under SS control.

Himmler takes up a considerable
amount of his time to travel,

to schmooze.

He knew how to flatter them.

He would talk in a soft voice,
he would appear polite.

He offers them an honorary rank
in the SS, which gave them the right

to wear a smart SS uniform.

Many Nazi and state leaders
at that time are extremely vain,

so, they are more than pleased
when someone like Himmler makes them

an honorary member of what is
turning out to be the elite corps

of the National Socialist state.

He would place people into his debt
by giving them expensive gifts.

To win people over for his cause,
he believed that he had to be

a decent human being.

Being decent meant, for example,
to kiss the hand of a woman.

But being decent could also mean
the mass murder of millions of Jews.

Himmler is extremely methodical...

..calculating...

..and patient.

Himmler is amassing a police empire
controlled by the SS...

..turning the SS into one of
the most powerful institutions

in the Nazi state.

At Dachau, Hartinger is doing
some detective work.

Examining the bodies,
he discovers the prisoners were shot

in the back of the head.

It's clear the men have been
systematically murdered

because they are Jews.

Dr Flamm looks at Wackerle
and he says,

"Your guards are very good shots
with their pistols."

And Hartinger expands his inquiries,

investigating reported suicides,

and other failed escape attempts
at Dachau.

Hartinger and Flamm keep driving
back out to Dachau,

collecting evidence...

..taking depositions in
a very careful, methodical way.

Forensic details, name, age,

profession, the SS men responsible.

Hartinger said,
"I could see the hatred

"in the SS officers' eyes."

One of the detainees allegedly
had committed suicide

by hanging himself.

But when Flamm does the autopsy,

it turns out that the man
in fact had been beaten to death

and then his corpse was hanged.

Another one, the SS guard had shot
allegedly from eight to ten metres.

But, when Flamm
conducts the autopsy,

it turns out he had been shot
point-blank.

This is late May.

He finally has two cases

that can demonstrate

that these people were murdered.

Hartinger has the evidence
to implicate

the Commandant of Dachau
in the murders.

Charges that could ruin
Himmler's plans.

But it's more than trying to bring
a single SS man to justice.

He knows Wackerle
is ordering these killings,

but Wackerle is ultimately
a deputy of Heinrich Himmler.

And I think Hartinger is out
to indict the entire system.

Himmler's fear is that
investigations by the legal system,

by state prosecutors, will reveal
the horrific truth about Dachau.

That Dachau is not a camp
where political prisoners

are being detained,
are being re-educated,

that Dachau is a place of murder,
that Dachau is a place of savage

brutality and murderous violence.

This is Himmler's fear.

Now Hartinger takes
the file to his boss.

"I finally have everything we need,
the indictments are ready to sign."

And his boss
looks at him and says...

.."I'm not signing.

"I'm not signing anything."

And Hartinger's just stunned.

Hartinger's boss,
the senior prosecutor...

..is under Himmler's spell.

Hartinger, at that moment,
is left with a choice.

He has a wife and a five-year-old
daughter, he has his whole career

ahead of him by simply
doing what his boss says.

This is over.

Step back from it.

He knows what's right,
and he knows what's wrong.

And that's what actually
matters to him.

And he goes back to his office...

..and he starts writing.

It's an astonishing act.

And, at that moment, Hartinger is
truly alone in the world.

Hartinger's file is taken
to the investigating judge.

And it goes up the chain
to the Governor of Bavaria.

But, at the same time,
Hartinger's boss tips off Himmler

about what's going on.

Himmler is presented with evidence
that Josef Hartinger has filed

investigations against
Dachau SS guards.

If news of the murders
at Dachau break,

Himmler is facing a huge problem.

The SS does not have the right,
under German law,

to kill political opponents.

So, Himmler needs to find a strategy
to ensure that these legal

investigations do not go anywhere.

The investigations started
by Hartinger seem like a threat

to the SS, as its power base
is rapidly increasing,

not only in Bavaria,
but also across Germany.

Himmler has to react rather swiftly.

He must try even harder to give
the concentration camps

under SS control
an even stronger legal veneer.

As Hartinger's file heads
up the chain of command,

Himmler tries to fix the problem.

Films like this one
make people believe

that concentration camps
are humanely run.

Whilst, in secret, the SS
finds more elaborate ways

to cover up new murders.

And Dachau's commandant,
Wackerle, is fired.

Hartinger's file
goes all the way to Berlin.

Those at the top of the justice
system can see that what's happening

at Dachau is illegal.

The astonishing thing is Hartinger
expects that he could be killed.

And he isn't.

More astonishing is that
the killings stop in Dachau

for the entire month of June,

for the entire month of July.

So, Hartinger, at that point,

assumes that he actually
has scored a victory.

He's won this.

It was this fight between him
and the Commandant,

between the power of the Nazis

and the power of the law,

and, ultimately,
Hartinger won that battle.

Thanks to Hartinger,
German law has a chance

to shut down Dachau.

But Himmler has one more
lever to pull.

Hitler is not someone
who is accustomed

to regular habits at work.

He doesn't have a systematic
manner of governing.

Lunch was often served with a delay
of two hours because the Nazi leader

had got out of bed so late.

It would have been, I think,
pretty boring to be in his company.

Because he just went on, and on,
and on, in endless monologues.

Hitler didn't like bureaucratic
detail, to read too many files.

Hitler thought he was above the law.

The law was a series of artificial
restrictions on his freedom

of action, on behalf of Germany.

He was expressing
the soul and the inner wishes

of the German people.

Of course, as defined by himself.

Himmler found out very quickly
how to read Hitler's personality,

how to please Hitler,
how to work with Hitler.

Himmler would have very rarely dared
to interrupt Hitler.

And, then, towards the end
of their conversations,

which weren't really conversations
but monologues by Hitler talking

at Himmler, Himmler would
have made a proposal.

Himmler knows exactly which button
to push with Hitler.

Himmler, cleverly,
exploits Hitler's dislike

for the judiciary,
disregard for legal norms

and values, legal constraints
on Nazi power.

Himmler also knows that Hitler
lives in fear of assassination,

even convinced his kitchen staff
is trying to poison him.

Sensing an opportunity
to impress Hitler,

Himmler provides him with
hand-picked SS men to act

as a personal bodyguard,

showing Hitler there is now one man
and one organisation

above all others that he can trust
without question.

Himmler's main characteristic
was his unconditional

loyalty to Hitler.

Remember, he's a very young man.

He's only in his early 30s
when the Nazis come to power.

And Hitler used to refer
to Heinrich Himmler

as "the loyal Heinrich,"
"der treue Heinrich."

He ran the SS as an organisation
that was well structured

and well set up.

And this got the approval of Hitler.

He was very much inclined to give
Himmler what he wanted.

Himmler managed to persuade Hitler
to make sure that no SS member

would end up behind prison bars
for torturing and killing

prisoners at Dachau.

And to block the legal
investigations.

Hartinger, his plan
has been compromised.

All the evidence
that he has collected,

the forensic reports,
eyewitness testimony,

the deposition.

All of this evidence
is in the hands of the Nazis.

And Hartinger's lost all of it.

It ends up in Munich,
they don't know what to do with it,

so, the head Nazi there literally
just opens his desk drawer,

puts the files in there,
closes it and locks it.

And that was that.

At Dachau, the killing of Jewish
prisoners starts up again.

Except, now, no-one complains.

German law is becoming meaningless.

By managing the crisis
created by the Dachau murders,

Himmler proves himself to be
an extremely skilful operator.

He proves himself to be a brilliant
Nazi, as perverse as this may sound,

and Hitler is almost certainly
impressed by this.

Now Himmler and the SS feel
emboldened to use utmost violence

to kill concentration camp
prisoners.

Himmler and the SS know that what
they are doing is not legal

under the prevailing
German criminal code.

But the ultimate source of the law
for Himmler and the SS,

what is right,
what is wrong, is Hitler.

The Nazis are transforming
German life.

Women are encouraged
to abandon their careers

and become mothers and housewives.

Newspapers can no longer
criticise the government.

A new ministry for propaganda sells
Hitler's vision to the public.

Meanwhile, Himmler is now
at top table.

And not everyone
appreciates his rise.

For Goring, Himmler
suddenly becomes a figure

that has to be taken seriously.

And, so, he's got to be
pretty wary of Himmler.

Goring's grip may well
be under threat.

But Goring is making
some moves of his own,

designed to ensure that no-one
can move against him

without him knowing.

Goring has created
the Research Bureau,

a top-secret surveillance
organisation that uses

new phone-tapping technology.

It starts with only a few men,

but it will go on
to employ thousands.

Goring signs off on every wiretap,
and reads the transcripts.

He gets a kind of pleasure from it.

He's amused by it,
amused by what people say about him,

of course, and quite entertained.

But, at the same time, of course,

he's a reasonably
vengeful politician,

he doesn't forget the kind of things
people say about him.

There is one famous occasion
where he calls in

a number of heads
of big business and says,

"You know, I want you to do this."

And they say, "No, no,
we don't want to do this."

And he says,
"Well, you've got to do this,

"because I've got tape recordings
here of your meetings,

"and these tape recordings
are very incriminating.

"So, you either do what I tell you,
or you're in trouble."

One politician who bad-mouths
the Nazis is found dead.

To act on the information gathered
by the Research Bureau,

a new branch of the secret
police is created -

the Gestapo.

The Gestapo use a new measure -

preventative arrest -

to disappear Jewish people,

gay people, intellectuals,

and anyone suspected
of anti-Nazi feeling.

Himmler feels that the Gestapo
should be brought under his control.

Part of his plan to take over
all German police.

But getting his hands on Goring's
secret police won't be easy.

Himmler sees Goring as a rival
to Himmler's master plan

to put all German police forces
across all states under his control.

Himmler very much thinks that Goring
is stepping onto SS territory,

onto Himmler's own territory,
by setting up the Gestapo.

It is very difficult for Himmler
to simply say to Goring,

"I want to take over the Gestapo"
because Goring is not known

as someone who
gives up power easily.

Imagine a scene where Himmler,
trying to schmooze Goring

into giving him control
over the Gestapo.

For Goring, control of the police
force in Prussia and the Gestapo

is very important.

Goring doesn't really
have any other roles

that are particularly significant,
and so he's very keen

that he be able
to retain this position.

Goring clearly communicates
to Himmler

that Himmler should
mind his own business.

Goring doesn't compromise.

So Himmler starts developing some
personal animosity against Goring.

They do not agree at all.

Goring is going to be a very
difficult person to dislodge.

And, so, Hitler's inner circle
are at each other's throats,

whilst also trying to impress him.

This internal conflict
within the Nazi party will soon

reach a bloody conclusion.

But, for Hitler, whilst his aims
are being achieved,

this rivalry will
seem insignificant.

And, with his team dismantling
the system for him,

he can just sit back and watch.

Hitler spends increasing amounts
of time in his summer retreat

in the Alps, in Berchtesgaden.

He retreats there sometimes
for weeks or even months on end.

He spends a lot of time,
far into the night,

watching old movies,
does not get up particularly early

in the morning.

And, of course, he has
a relationship with Eva Braun,

whom he keeps absolutely secret
from the rest of the world.

In just six months
from becoming Chancellor...

..Hitler has destroyed
the political opposition...

..opened Dachau...

..subverted the legal system...

..created the Gestapo...

..and begun to pollute the minds
of the German people

with the Nazis' racist doctrine
of anti-Semitism.

And there are lessons for us
to learn from that crisis.

How easily you can move to a stage
of totalitarian dictatorship.

Democracy is fragile,
because in order for it to be truly

democratic, in the purest sense,
it leaves itself open to being

taken over by fundamentally
anti-democratic forces.

Democracies require, first of all,
popular support and popular belief

in institutions, such as a free
press, an independent judiciary,

and democratic elections.

The echoes that we find
in our own time of the Nazis'

seizure of power are in
a number of different areas.

Emergency powers, for example,
emergency decrees,

state of emergency,
that allowed them to put their own

plans into action without
any serious opposition.

The rise of the Nazis
was not inevitable.

There were many warning signs.

Democracy was a relatively
new form of political rule

in the 1920s and 1930s.

People simply didn't know
that the institutions of democracy,

that democracy, as such,
was extremely frail,

that democracy constantly
needed defending.

And this is a story
that is still worth retelling,

a story that institutions,
the institutions of democracy,

should not be taken for granted.

That democracy needs vigorous
defence against forces

of the populist far right.

Hitler can't actually call himself
the leader until Hindenburg,

the President, is dead.

Rohm was too powerful.

Hitler feared this kind of power.

Himmler hopes very much that Hitler
will finally act and eliminate Rohm.

In late 1933,

Chancellor Adolf Hitler is one step
away from total power.

Only Germany's elderly president,
Paul von Hindenburg,

stands in his way -

the one man with the power to sack a
Chancellor -

so it's vital for Hitler to keep
him onside.

Believe it or not,
Hitler can be charming...

..and he exercised this charm on
Hindenburg,

I think, to probably quite good
effect.

Von Hindenburg, he, perhaps against
his better judgment,

becomes a little impressed by
Hitler.

This is the story of how Hitler went
from Chancellor

to all-powerful dictator.

To piece together how it happened,
historians and experts have examined

this period - each from a different
individual perspective.

You cajole, you influence,

you manipulate.

They'll take us inside the minds of
those that fought fascism...

They realised that these people are
after your heads.

They want to annihilate you from
existence altogether.

..and the Nazis themselves.

Himmler genuinely believed that he
would create a racially pure

Germany, where the Aryan race would
reign supreme.

The moments when history hung in the
balance

and the world's worst atrocities

could have been prevented.

Mass murder was no problem...

GUNSHOTS AND SCREAMS

..but it was important to be
socially acceptable.

Do people care about the truth?

Adolf Hitler will go on to oversee
the murder of millions of people.

But, in 1933,

he is the outwardly respectable
Chancellor of Germany,

the equivalent of Prime Minister.

But, just under a year into the job,

he's finding being in government a
difficult balancing act.

He has two very different audiences
to please...

..the aristocratic elite,

the president,

the generals

and his Vice Chancellor.

They're uneasy about the Nazis,
seeing them as thuggish

and worrying they could destabilise
the whole system.

On the other hand,
Hitler has his base,

the Stormtroopers, the paramilitary
wing of the Nazis.

Over two million angry young men.

They're waiting for Hitler

to deliver the Nazi revolution he
promised.

None more so than the leader of the
Stormtroopers.

For Rohm, the aim was a revolution
in Germany

to change the political system.

Ernst Rohm was a trained officer.

He was military and ruthless.

Rohm is an adventurer.

He is not really a politician.

Hitler owes Rohm a lot and he knows

that Rohm is one of his oldest
comrades.

Hitler promised Rohm that they would
get rid of the old elites,

that they would get rid of the rich

and they would change the whole
system.

Hitler couldn't hold his promises.

Unleashing violence against their
left wing enemies,

Rohm's Stormtroopers have been
useful to Hitler -

but now they could become a threat.

Their violent attacks are upsetting
the public.

As Chancellor, Hitler wants things
to appear calm.

Rohm's actions pose a problem for
Hitler because Hitler

needed to persuade the elites.

He needed to persuade the
conservative establishment.

He needed to persuade Hindenburg
that he was to be trusted,

that he was a solid bourgeois
statesman.

Hitler got increasingly concerned
about Rohm's discontent,

as it were, and about his whole kind
of persona as a rough,

soldierly, violent type.

But Hitler needs to placate Rohm
and,

in a move that risks upsetting the
aristocratic elites,

he brings the revolutionary Rohm
into the political fold,

giving him a job in the cabinet.

He's minister without portfolio.

But Rohm isn't satisfied.

He feels he and his millions of
Stormtroopers were promised more.

Rohm doesn't want to command
auxiliaries.

He wanted an army.

He saw himself as a commander,
the commander of the new Nazi army.

These are promises Hitler made
before he became Chancellor.

In his view, Hitler...

..betrays his friends.

So, running out of patience,

Rohm makes a wild and bold move.

He goes behind Hitler's back and
tries to take control of the army

from the aristocratic generals,

men who report directly to the army
supreme commander,

President Hindenburg.

I suspect Hindenburg is pretty
horrified at this.

The armed forces are the servants
of that state and of its people...

..on a apolitical basis,

and there is no room for political
manoeuvring

by the armed forces of any state.

They were just a load of bully boys
and were, by no means,

an army which could, for example,
attack France and prevail.

I mean, it is unthinkable.

That was the job of the army
proper.

So Hitler can't afford to upset the
generals and the president.

But, with Rohm, it's more than
politics -

it's personal.

Rohm opened gates for Hitler.

Rohm was the one who had influence.

Hitler is a frequent visitor to the
Rohm family,

Rohm's mother and his sister,
Eleonore,

so they became friends.

And therefore Rohm is someone who
supports Hitler

not only politically, but, at the
same time, personally.

And when Hitler's niece and rumoured
lover killed herself,

it was Rohm he wanted with him at
the graveside.

Hitler is stuck between the
president and his friend.

When it comes to dealing with Rohm,

Hermann Goring has no such qualms.

For Goring, the problem with Rohm,
I think,

is that Rohm has ambitions to be a
second, perhaps,

to Hitler. You know, that's what
Goring wants to be.

Is it possible, perhaps, that Rohm
is thinking of launching some kind

of revolution, even putting Hitler
to one side?

Now, for Goring, that would be
unthinkable.

He's got to find a way of persuading
Hitler that, you know,

this is a point at which he's got to
break that friendship with Rohm.

He's got to recognise that Rohm is
not just a companion

but he's a threat,

so all that Goring has got to do is
to show Hitler evidence

that Rohm is not loyal.

So Goring orders his secret
surveillance organisation,

the Research Bureau, to go after
Rohm...

..building a file of everything Rohm
says or does.

And Hitler publicly forces Rohm to
back down from his demands

for the Stormtroopers to take over
Germany's army.

He summons Rohm and the army leaders
to a meeting,

where he makes it clear that the
army,

and not the Stormtroopers,

are Germany's military force.

It's a devastating blow for Rohm.

He's even forced to shake hands

with the defence minister -
General Blomberg.

Shaking hands with Blomberg meant
nothing to Rohm.

He, er, saw...

..the Nazi Party, the Nazi militia,

now in the driver's seat.

Afterwards, Rohm makes a series of
thinly veiled threats.

"Hitler is a ridiculous corporal

"and should go on leave."

Rohm very openly criticised Hitler

for his decision to go with an army,

therefore he was, kind of,
a dangerous person

because Rohm didn't let go.
He doesn't accept it.

And he was a danger to this whole
notion of Hitler as Fuhrer.

Goring now makes a shrewd move in
his plot against Rohm.

He enlists the help of his rival -

Heinrich Himmler.

Over the past year,

Himmler has taken over police forces
across Germany,

but the biggest and most powerful
remains outside his control.

In April, Goring gives Himmler
the thing he wants most -

his Gestapo.

In exchange, Goring plans to harness
Himmler's terror network

to bring down Rohm.

Himmler is pleased.

He's now inspector of the Gestapo,
so he's almost there,

on his way to taking over control of
all German police forces.

One character trait about Himmler
that is the most important one

is his absolute careerism and his
ruthlessness -

his ambition, his drive,
to make it to the top.

Here is someone who prioritises
rational procedures over emotions -

over human feelings.

As head of the Stormtroopers,

Rohm is Himmler's superior,
a man he'd once hero worshipped.

But Himmler now dreams of destroying
the Stormtroopers

and making his own SS Germany's only
paramilitary force.

Himmler, in public, had to display
some loyalty towards Rohm.

Behind the scenes,

Himmler had no qualms about getting
rid of Rohm.

Himmler is collecting evidence
against Rohm,

putting Rohm into a really bad
light,

in terms of Rohm's private life,

in terms of Rohm's political
activities.

Himmler makes sure that it reaches
Hitler's desk.

Himmler hopes very much that Hitler
will finally act

and eliminate Rohm.

Rohm has an Achilles heel

that Goring and Himmler are keen to
exploit.

He is openly gay at a time when it's
illegal.

He frequented Berlin's famous gay
club, The Eldorado,

sipping cocktails with men dressed
in drag.

Rohm lived a different life than all
others.

He was a homosexual

and he lived this kind of life

more and more openly.

He met with male prostitutes.

In the view of his comrades,

he was not normal.

Since the Nazis came to power,

they have strictly enforced the
socially conservative laws -

meaning Rohm could face imprisonment
for his sexuality.

Defying his colleagues,
Rohm has joined an organisation

campaigning for gay rights.

The Nazis wanted to transform
society.

Everything should be clean, Aryan...

Er, no prostitutes.

No smoking, women...

..and Rohm...

..dismissed this.

It shows the stern character of Rohm
that he openly

lived his homosexuality.

In a letter, he said, "I know it's a
criminal act in Germany,

"but, then, I'm a criminal and they
have to take me like this."

Rohm obviously felt very secure

because he was such a close friend
to Hitler.

For years, Rohm's sexuality has been
an open secret.

Hitler even defended Rohm when the
press tried to expose him.

Hitler wasn't particularly bothered
by Rohm's homosexuality.

He, as it were, forgave him because
of his services

to the movement and his obvious
loyalty to Hitler.

Hitler didn't really want to know
about people's private lives,

I think.

Hitler had a certain kind of loyalty
to old comrades,

which he certainly felt towards
Rohm.

But now Hitler sees that Rohm's
sexuality

could be a way to bring him down.

Meanwhile, Rohm is making his own
moves.

In early 1934,

Rohm stages Stormtrooper manoeuvres
across Germany.

Stormtrooper membership is growing
fast

and Rohm now commands around four
million men.

He publicly calls for revolution.

Unable to bring Rohm to heel,

Hitler's ability to pass himself
off as a respectable statesman

is under threat.

The elites that surround President
Hindenburg are getting nervous.

The aristocratic Vice Chancellor
Franz von Papen

helped Hitler get into power.

Now he's dealing with the
consequences.

Papen has been uneasy...

..because of the...

..the general lawlessness

is now becoming the talking point of
the civilised world.

These Stormtroopers are intimidating
diplomats,

people who are going to report back
to their own country.

It is a troubling thing for him to
see that this will essentially

end up by damaging Germany's
reputation in the outside world.

Then news comes through that the
president is on his last legs

and won't live much longer.

Hitler wants President Hindenburg to
name him successor before he dies

so he can take complete control of
Germany.

If the ruling class wants to stop
that from happening,

it's now or never.

And the next move comes from an
unlikely player.

Inside the Vice Chancellor's office
is Papen's speech writer,

Edgar Jung,

a right wing intellectual, who is
secretly plotting Hitler's downfall.

Jung belongs to the educated upper
bourgeois

and he grows up steeped in their
values.

He sees himself as belonging to the
class that should be ruling.

He sees himself as a potential
Minister of the Interior,

if not a Chancellor of a future
Germany.

So, when the Nazis first come in,
Jung is absolutely delighted.

He sees them as a very convenient
vehicle for change.

They are very strong leadership.

They are bringing a new
authoritarian sense

of direction to Germany.

1933, '34 is a very bad year for
Germany.

There is still huge amounts of
violence,

with the Stormtroopers on the
streets.

There isn't the immediate economic
miracle they had hoped for.

The honeymoon period for the Nazis
is over.

I think Jung feels a real sense of
responsibility and guilt

for enabling someone like this to
then entrench themselves

at the leadership,
at the very highest levels

of his country's politics.

Deep within Papen's Vice
Chancellery,

Jung and others have formed a
resistance cell.

He's working with people who have
got connections in intelligence.

They are trying to warn people
before they get arrested,

they're trying to get people out of
the country when possible,

they're trying to get people out of
prison when they have been arrested.

Politically, they're manoeuvring
inside the Reichstag,

so they're doing really quite
important

and very dangerous political work.

Jung had even made a plan to
assassinate Hitler...

..but abandoned it in case it
damaged his own political ambitions.

Instead, Jung plans to get Hitler
removed from power.

He'll write a high profile speech
for Papen

that will expose the violent truth
about Rohm,

the Stormtroopers and Nazi rule.

The speech should be enough to force
Hindenburg to get rid of Hitler...

..but it all hinges on getting Papen
to deliver it.

Jung realises that this is a good
moment,

both because we have public
discontent,

we have the threat of violence
turning into something more,

perhaps a political putsch...

..and we have Hindenburg's
deteriorating health.

It's the time to act and,
conveniently, at this moment,

Papen gets an invitation from the
University of Marburg

to give a speech, which is perfect.

Jung is an intellectual and he's a
communicator,

and he puts pen to paper,
and what he drafts is basically

his alternative manifesto,

or at least his alternative path for
Germany.

Jung doesn't trust Papen to deliver
the speech,

but he has some insurance policies.

He distributes advanced copies to
the press...

..and gets Goebbels' propaganda
ministry

to agree to a live radio broadcast

so that Hindenburg can listen from
his estate.

And Jung doesn't give Papen the
speech

until he is on his way to Marburg.

Papen is travelling towards Marburg
in Hesse, in central Germany,

to give a speech to some 600 people.

Papen, as a leading representative,
the Vice Chancellor,

is a representative of the
government

sent out, essentially, to do...

..call it what you will, marketing
or PR for the government.

And he reads the speech,

the words that are being put into
his mouth, and he is alarmed.

He says that this speech could cost
him his head.

But the speech has already been sent
out, and therefore some members

of the press already have the
speech. He can't go back on it,

so he reluctantly agrees to deliver
the speech.

Jung knows that Papen...

..maybe he won't have the backbone
to give the talk word-for-word,

as he's written it, but then also
maybe he hasn't got the intellect

or the backbone to replace it with
something else.

It's all very last-minute, so he's
really on tenterhooks

to see what is delivered.

RADIO HISSES

Jung is listening to the radio,
incredibly anxious.

"What's going to happen?"

PAPEN'S VOICE ON RADIO

And Papen begins to deliver the
speech.

And he gives is pretty much as
given.

Because he gets on a roll,
he responds to his audience.

This is revolutionary stuff.

It is a very dramatic speech,
as well.

He uses this incredibly strong
language,

so he talks about it being time to
silence the fanatics

and, er, make room for the work of
serious men to do the serious work.

There's thunderous applause in the
hall and Papen adores being adored,

and so he gets on a real roll

and he delivers the whole thing
word for word.

Jung can hardly believe it.

He's banging his hand repeatedly
on the table,

saying, "He bought it!
He bought it!"

So he's absolutely delighted.

Some of the Stormtroopers quite
pointedly walk out of the room,

but essentially it's a huge success.

Papen seems to be delighted.

There's a wonderful photograph of
him walking down the steps

of the hall afterwards and he really
looks like

the cat that's got the cream.

He was the object of the adulation
of the crowd

and that sort of thing probably goes
to his head a little bit.

The Marburg speech sent shock waves
across Germany

and the public rally in support of
Papen,

who sees an opportunity to become
President himself.

To topple Hitler,

all Papen needs to do now is seize
the momentum and get to Hindenburg.

But when the Nazis order news of the
speech to be banned,

Papen's ego is bruised and he
decides to first visit Hitler.

Papen is furious and goes to
complain to Hitler,

threatening to resign as
Vice Chancellor of the Reich.

That was a big problem for him.

There's a danger that Von Papen
would go to see Hindenburg

and get his blessing to become his
successor.

So this is not the moment Hitler
wants to see a rebellion

within his own cabinet.

Danger was that the army would link
up with Von Papen

and the Conservatives because they
saw very much eye-to-eye.

The senior generals themselves are
political conservatives,

they weren't Nazis at this stage,

and the danger was there'd be some
kind of Conservative coup.

Hitler convinces Papen to delay his
visit to see Hindenburg,

suggesting they make the trip
together instead.

He manages to run rings around Papen
because Papen suddenly loses

that ability to see the urgency of
the situation -

that he needs to get to East Prussia
to talk to Hindenburg.

If he moved at precisely that
moment,

he might be able to do something.

But, as it is, he loses that chance
and fails to seize the moment

which might have been actually
instrumental

in bringing Hitler down.

Hitler has played Papen cleverly.

Going behind his back,

Hitler arranges to meet with the
president at his country estate.

Hitler himself hotfoots it up to
Neudeck, in East Prussia,

to go and see Hindenburg and find
out what sort of state

his health's in and whether he's
likely to fall off the perch
quickly,

or whether they need to do something
about it fast.

Hindenburg and his generals issue
an ultimatum to Hitler to bring

the revolutionary troublemakers
under control or face martial law

and the transfer of power to the
army.

Hindenburg is pointing to the
Stormtroopers and saying,

"Enough is enough."

Hitler, now seeing that he is
slightly pinched on both sides,

both by the rebellious nature of
Papen...

..and the fact that the President,
who can dismiss him,

is looking angrily at him about the
Stormtroopers,

Hitler then decides to act.

And now Jung has created the crisis
and the man that capitalises

on the crisis is not Papen,

it's not Jung, it's Hitler.

And suddenly he realises that there
is more to this man,

that there is a real potential
problem here.

Papen has missed a historic
opportunity to stop Hitler.

Realising his life may now be in
danger, Jung starts planning

to flee the country.

Jung should have realised
immediately

that his plan is unravelling

and that potentially he himself
is personally in danger.

British intelligence has uncovered
that he is likely to be arrested

and he is warned by a British
journalist and a member

of the Reichstag that his arrest is
likely to be imminent.

Eventually, he concedes that perhaps
it is safer for him probably to get

to Switzerland at this point.

Hitler needs to now decide how to
deal with the two impending

threats to his power,

Rohm and the Stormtroopers, and the
aristocratic right

that could still yet persuade
Hindenburg to get rid of him.

Ready for this moment,

Himmler and the SS have been busy
inventing evidence...

..planting the seed of an idea that
Rohm and the elites have in fact

joined forces to launch a coup
against Hitler.

Himmler is working tirelessly in
June 1934...

..cos Himmler knows that this is a
now or never moment for himself,

for the SS, to win the upper hand
against the Stormtroopers

and to retaliate against members of
the conservative elite

who have expressed criticism of the
Nazis -

people like Jung, people like Papen.

Himmler created this dossier about
Rohm's alleged putsch plans

against Hitler. Rohm is planning a
putsch aided by the former

German Chancellor, Von Schleicher,
one of the archenemies of Hitler.

Himmler really manages to construct
this image of a conspiracy,

of a coalition between the
conservative right

and the Stormtroopers.

There was no such coalition.

All of these charges were completely
trumped up.

All of these charges are completely
trumped up.

Meanwhile, Himmler's Gestapo agents
burst into Jung's apartment

just as his bags are packed for
Switzerland.

When they arrest him, they do a
thorough search of his apartment

and they discover papers negotiating
the fee

he would get for writing that speech
from Papen,

so that is their evidence.

It's now clear that he is
the author of the Marburg speech.

He goes to the bathroom and he
actually scribbles "Gestapo"

on the bathroom cabinet - to warn
his friends what has happened.

With Jung in custody, Papen finally
understands what's at stake

and just who he's dealing with.

Papen hears that Edgar Jung has been
arrested and flies to Berlin

and demands an audience with Hitler.

Hitler refuses to see him.

At this point,
Papen sees the urgency

of visiting Hindenburg and arranges
to meet him

in Neudeck, in East Prussia.

This is a critical moment.

Hindenburg's health has taken a turn
for the worse.

If Papen is to stop Hitler, he must
get to Hindenburg immediately.

But news of Papen's meeting reaches
Himmler, who is readying the SS

to strike against the aristocracy
and the Stormtroopers.

Himmler summons SS leaders and he
tells them that the Stormtroopers

are planning a putsch. Robust action
must be taken swiftly, ruthlessly

and decisively, so Himmler and the
SS are beginning to prepare lists

of Stormtroopers who are to be
arrested, who are to be executed.

But even as the time to act draws
near,

Hitler seems to remain loyal to
Rohm.

And Rohm promises to lie low.

He takes leave at the Bavarian
lakeside resort of Tegernsee.

Rohm leaves Berlin for Bavaria,
Tegernsee,

where he stays in a nice hotel,

and Rohm feels...

..not very well.

He had has problems with his health
and he is...

..very thoughtful during this time.

He is very, kind of, remote and this
is definitely not a time for him

to party or to celebrate.
He seems to think about his future.

Opposition inside and outside
the Nazi Party

must now be annihilated...

..but Goring and Himmler still need
word from Hitler

before they can move against their
enemies.

On the 28th of June,

Hitler and Goring go to the wedding
of a local Gauleiter.

It's a normal ceremony for Hitler to
attend.

The conspirators have devised a plan

to psychologically prepare Hitler
to take action.

In the middle of the wedding,

there's a moment of drama.

Himmler arrives and this is the
point at which

they're going to tell Hitler about
the dangers that he's facing.

Himmler comes in with the news
that Papen...

..is about to see
President von Hindenburg

on his estate in East Prussia.

This raises the alarm for Hitler.

Hitler is extremely concerned that,
if he doesn't act swiftly

against the Stormtroopers, now that
he knows that Papen

will be seen by Hindenburg,
then Hindenburg might stop

supporting the Nazi regime, that
Hitler might lose some of his power,

that the army might be given some
more power.

To give him a final push, Hitler is
shown documents that allege Rohm

and the Stormtroopers are plotting
against him.

I think, for Hitler, it's a
difficult moment, psychologically,

to confront the fact that Rohm could
be...

..guilty of plotting against Hitler,
plotting against the regime.

Having two people there prodding
him, providing him with

what was in fact rather spurious
evidence

about the possibility of a coup,

is, for Hitler, really necessary,
you know?

He needs to have his indecision
ended.

He needs somebody to prod him...

..but then it needs to be his
decision.

So, he's prodded and prodded and
prodded

and suddenly says, "Yes, that's it."

You know, "I've had enough."

And what follows is, you know,
can be described only,

really, as mafia politics.

Hitler travels through the night to
personally arrest Rohm at his hotel.

Rohm doesn't expect Hitler coming,

practically with all members of the
inner circle,

to arrest him.

As far as we know,
Rohm was really stunned.

He was very quiet during this time
of arrest.

Rohm just sat there and it seems

as if Rohm still feels very
confident...

..that there is no danger for him,
personally.

Meanwhile, Goring and Himmler are
poised for action in Berlin.

Goring and Himmler have returned to
Berlin from Essen, from the wedding.

They lock themselves away in the
Leipzig Palace,

they surround it with armed guards,
just in case there really is

an attack from the Stormtroopers.

Himmler, in this situation,
is very cool.

He's very calculated.

He is patient.

He knows that he needs to wait for
the order

of the Fuhrer to come through.

At 10.00am, Goring and Himmler
receive the code word.

Then, throughout Germany,
sealed orders are opened by SS men -

revealing lists of their victims.

Goring is the kind of impresario of
the drama and Himmler, once again,

is the obedient secretary,

carrying everything out that needs
to be carried out.

Himmler is coordinating the arrests
and executions in Berlin

together with Goring. They go
through lists, they go through lists

of who's to be arrested,
of who is to be shot.

The killing begins.

GUNSHOTS

Former Chancellor Kurt von
Schleicher is murdered at home,

alongside his wife.

Rebel Nazis, who once threatened to
split the party,

are also taken care of.

The men in Papen's office are also
on the list.

Papen is arrested and placed under
house arrest.

He can't do anything to act,
to save the members

of his own department, and various
people in his entourage

are, essentially, murdered.
He is lucky, in many respects,

to survive with his life.

All we know with Jung is that he is
executed.

The place of death is left
unrecorded,

which is a mark of disrespect,
as well,

and sometime later his family
receive his ashes

and his empty wallet.

That is the end of Jung.

It sounds very bizarre to us,
but Himmler is guided

by a different moral compass.

Himmler believes that it is
necessary for the survival

of the Nazi regime to act so
ruthlessly against the people

on the list of those to be arrested,
of those to be executed.

For Himmler, it is an office job
routine.

For at least 100 people
who were murdered

in the aftermath of the Night of the
Long Knives...

..this was the end of their lives.

By the evening of June the 30th,

dozens have been executed.

Any possible conservative or
Stormtrooper rebellion

has been crushed.

Still alive, though, is Hitler's
friend -

Ernst Rohm.

almost as if nothing had happened.

It curiously resembled, I think,
the way that some murderers,

when they've murdered somebody,
they wash their hands,

they change their clothes, they want
to put all that behind them

and then they can walk out into the
streets -

as if nothing had happened.

This is a really incongruous scene.

Imagine that some of the bloodiest
murders in the history

of the Third Reich have taken place
on the previous day.

Now, Hitler has invited members of
the Reich cabinet

and their wives to a party.

Himmler and Goring learned that Rohm
has not been executed.

He's an old companion, old fighter,

and he just can't bring himself to
order Rohm to be murdered.

So it's one of those occasions where
Hitler hesitates and he needs

other people to prod him again into
making that decision.

And for Goring and Himmler,
it's really important.

You know, the whole thing was to
get rid of Rohm!

So they've got to get Hitler to make
the decision

that Rohm must be executed, too.

As with other major decisions,

Hitler has waited for the crucial
moment to play his hand.

Hitler was always prepared to use
violent action in the end.

He didn't have any hesitation about
having people shot, killed,

murdered, robbed, beaten up or
tortured -

it didn't really matter to him.

In that sense, the so-called Rohm
putsch,

the murder of scores of people

he regarded as traitors to the
cause,

that wasn't particularly something
that he felt was bad.

He felt, by this stage, he was above
the law.

In a sense, he'd always felt he was
above the law.

Hitler's decision is to offer Rohm

the honourable way out.

At Stadelheim Prison,

Rohm is forced to make a terrible
choice.

For Rohm, it must have been
astonishing, then,

to see Theodor Eicke, who is the

commander of the
Dachau concentration camp.

A pistol is put into Rohm's cell,

together with a copy of the
Volkischer Beobachter Nazi
newspaper,

with stories about the Rohm purge,

about Rohm's alleged conspiracy.

I wouldn't see Rohm as a victim.

He himself, and he says this very
openly,

he himself would kill people,
would kill his enemies.

Killing was no problem for Rohm.

Rohm does not want to shoot himself.

So, after ten minutes,

the commander of the Dachau camp,
Theodor Eicke,

storms into Rohm's cell and shoots
him at close range.

GUNSHOT

This is the end of the Night of the
Long Knives.

This is the end of Rohm.

This is the end of the leader of the
Stormtroopers,

who was, until then, Hitler's
closest ally,

Hitler's closest supporter.

Hitler was always relieved after
he'd made up his mind

on a difficult issue and taken
action -

that gave him a sense of relief and
fulfilment.

He knew, he felt in his bones,
that he had solved

a really difficult problem.

This is it.

This is the end of this period of
seizing power

and establishing power.

Now we can move forward as one
united government, state,

people under my command.

Goring finally achieves his
ambition.

As a reward for his brutality,

Hitler promotes him and names him as
his successor.

He will go on to oversee many of the
Nazis' worst atrocities.

Later on, at Nuremberg, when Goring
is on trial for war crimes,

he's asked about Rohm, "What did you
think? Why did you do it?"

He said, "Well, he was in my way."

For Goring, you know,
it wasn't a question

I think he would have understood.

You know, "Did you have a guilty
conscience afterwards?"

"No, of course not."

After the Night of the Long Knives,

Hitler makes the SS a
fully autonomous organisation.

Under Himmler's watch,

it becomes one of the most feared
institutions in Germany,

presiding over the systematic murder
of minorities,

homosexuals and Jews.

One of the keys to understanding
Himmler's personality

and Himmler's career is by
reflecting about the word "decency".

Himmler thought that he had always
been acting decently,

that, in organising the Night of
Long Knives

had been decent, that killing Jews
during the Second World War

had been decent. This is abhorrent.

Himmler thought that he had done the
right thing

for the survival of the Germanic
race.

By crushing the Stormtroopers,

Hitler wins the support of most of
the German public,

the army, the elites,

and President Hindenburg.

Hindenburg was always frightened of
instability.

So, when action is taken in this
way, erm...

..I suppose, I don't know,
a fit of relief or something

and pens a letter to Hitler, saying,
basically, "Well done."

Having won Hindenburg's approval,

Hitler presents a new piece of
legislation

combining the offices of President
and Chancellor

to take effect on Hindenburg's
death.

A day later, Hindenburg is on his
deathbed.

When Hitler goes to pay his
respects,

he finds Hindenburg drifting in and
out of consciousness,

addressing him as "Your Majesty".

I'm dubious about his ability to
make rational judgment

as he approached his death.

Might explain some of the very
difficult questions

regarding his shift

vis-a-vis Hitler and the Nazi Party.

In his last rational moments,

what did he think of when he thought
about Germany's future?

Difficult to answer that one.

He would want to vindicate his own
decisions,

but he may be disturbed by...

..what has happened since Hitler
took office.

So he might have died a...

..rather troubled man.

And so Hitler now had nothing left
to restrain him.

TRIUMPHANT MUSIC IS PLAYED

CANNONS FIRE