Original subtitles

Well, this is the last recording of Hitler on film.

He's come out of the bunker, into the Chancellery garden,

and is congratulating members of the Hitler Youth, some

of whom seem very young indeed,

ten or 11, on their fighting prowess.

His left arm, which he keeps behind his back,

is shaking uncontrollably.

It's a pathetic scene.

This is what the Third Reich has been reduced to - a bunch of 20

kids who should not be there,

and who were sacrificing

themselves quite needlessly.

But here's Hitler congratulating them,

because the adults are beginning to betray him.

These are the people on whom he now relies.

Children.

This is the story of the collapse of the Third Reich.

As the allied troops close in on Germany.

Our interest is the psychology of that collapse,

as those at the heart of the regime cling to power.

It's the worst in human nature you see during the collapse

of the Third Reich.

To help us tell the story,

we've asked historians and experts

to take us inside the minds of each

one of the key protagonists,

as they are forced to confront failure.

The cycle of thinking, at that time, wouldn't allow anyone to think

that what's happening is wrong.

Being picked up, shot, disappeared...

They are walking into an apocalypse on purpose.

Ultimately, who will stay loyal to Hitler?

And who will betray him?

And when?

By early April 1945, Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime

is on the brink of collapse.

In the West, American troops have crossed the Rhine.

The British are closing in from the North.

The French, from the south.

From the east, a vast Soviet army has paused to regroup,

just 40 miles from Berlin.

Allied aircraft now control the skies over Germany...

..launching devastating air raids almost at will.

Factories, airfields and railways lie in ruins.

With Berlin under daily bombardment,

Hitler is in permanent refuge in his heavily-fortified bunker...

..a series of 30 cramped rooms covering 3,000 square metres.

It includes living quarters, a canteen, dog kennels

and a telephone exchange.

From the subterranean conference room,

Hitler attempts to co-ordinate Germany's military operations.

The bombing is absolutely devastating.

Berlin is almost completely destroyed.

But Hitler didn't really know the details

of what was going on above ground.

And part of the reason for that is because the people around him

are afraid to tell him.

They know that people who give Hitler bad news are likely

to be shouted out, dismissed, or declared to be cowards.

They might even be shot.

As Hitler's world becomes increasingly bizarre,

he and his propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, look for signs

that fate will somehow intervene.

They study astrological charts,

and Goebbels reads Hitler stories

of incredible comebacks from German folklore.

Goebbels and Hitler are fixated with being men of history.

Men of destiny.

And Goebbels writes in his diary that,

"It is necessary to model ourselves on the heroes of the German past."

Hitler is particularly attached to the figure of Frederick the Great.

Because Frederick, like Hitler, had to fight against Russia and,

for quite a while, it looked like he was going to lose.

And he was saved by Providence.

Frederick's great rival, Empress Elisabeth of Russia, died

just in time to give Prussia a chance to win.

Goebbels fed Hitler's hope that for Nazi Germany, Providence

might provide like it did for Frederick the Great.

In some ways, Goebbels is now doing propaganda not only to German

people, but also to the Fuhrer,

shoring up the Fuhrer's psychology.

With the Soviets so close to Berlin,

and the Fuhrer losing his grip on reality,

Hitler's inner circle must consider their next moves.

Joseph Goebbels has placed himself firmly at the Fuhrer's side

in this hour of need.

But other senior Nazis take different approaches.

Albert Speer is still playing a dangerous double game.

On the surface loyal, while secretly undermining Hitler's orders,

in the hope of currying favour with the Allies,

when the war is over.

Hermann Goring, Hitler's designated successor, has been disgraced

and has retreated to his country estate.

Stripped of any real authority,

Goring has found his own way of coping.

Goring is something of a fantasist, living in a fairy tale world.

He has a large toy train set, set up in the attic, where he even

has a little model bomber that comes on, and drops bombs

on the trains below.

Just like a child playing.

But on the other hand, I think Goring is actually a much

more realistic figure than many of those around Hitler.

He does recognise that the war is over.

In the real world, things are not going to work out

the way he would like.

Heinrich Himmler has had a breakdown,

after being reprimanded by Hitler

for failing to hold the eastern front.

He has checked himself into a sanatorium outside Berlin

to focus on his health.

Himmler is physically shattered.

For him, the dressing down is like a kick in the teeth.

He feels extremely fragile because he knows that his position

as Reich leader of the SAS,

as Hitler's most loyal paladin, is at stake.

Who is Himmler without Hitler?

A nobody.

Himmler can't break with Hitler,

because breaking with Hitler

would break Himmler as a person.

Meanwhile, Hitler continues to live as a recluse in the bunker.

Hitler had never had an orderly kind of nine-to-five day.

But increasingly, his routine becomes

quite cut off from the real world.

He gets up later and later, goes to bed later and later, living

perpetually in artificial light.

So day and night are almost reversed in the bunker.

It's a kind of upside down routine that he has.

The once-charismatic Fuhrer now avoids public engagements.

He no longer makes speeches on the radio or in person.

So it falls to Goebbels, his most trusted deputy,

to be the face of the regime.

Goebbels travels in Germany.

He tries to encourage troops.

He gives speeches to cheer them up.

In many ways, Goebbels is having to nurse both Nazi Germany

and the leader of Nazi Germany.

These are desperate times and Goebbels knows that.

And so he must have seen this dire state of German troops,

the unpreparedness, and how unlikely it was that these troops

could defeat the Soviets.

This is very difficult for Goebbels,

as reality hits him that the war cannot be won.

Goebbels doesn't confront Hitler with the reality of the war,

to preserve Hitler's psyche.

At this point, Goebbels is essentially waiting for a miracle

to save Nazi Germany.

For destiny.

For Providence to provide salvation.

To the whole free world,

the stunning news has come that Franklin Roosevelt is dead.

Death in the hour of victory,

like President Lincoln before him.

Goebbels is returning to Berlin from the front line

when the news arrives.

As he hears the news of Roosevelt's death, he immediately feels,

"This is the chance we've been waiting for.

"This is the miracle that will save us."

Goebbels can call Hitler with great news.

For once, Goebbels has the chance to cheer up Hitler, in a period

of total catastrophe.

Hitler's absolutely overjoyed.

He goes down the corridor in the bunker telling everybody.

"Everything will now change.

"This is going to be the great turning point."

He will be able to divide the Allies.

The Americans surely will lose interest in continuing with the war.

Just like their hero, Frederick the Great

had been saved by the death of the Empress of Russia,

they thought that maybe this was the parallel.

This was history providing for Goebbels and Hitler.

Who are now locked in a cycle together where the two of them need

each other to continue to believe that the final victory

is still possible.

Just four days after President Roosevelt's death, the Red Army

launch a huge offensive.

This shatters the illusions that Hitler was entertaining

about somehow the Allies being divided, the Americans giving up,

the Soviets losing the support of the West.

The Russians begin to encircle Berlin.

Despite Germany's hopeless position,

Hitler issues an order to fight to the last.

"Anyone trying to save their miserable skins,"

he says, "..is a traitor and will be arrested and executed."

Right up until the end,

Hitler is issuing orders that everyone is to keep fighting.

They should sacrifice themselves.

They should allow themselves to be shot.

They should place themselves in the way of the guns.

For Hitler, it's all or nothing. It's victory or death.

News of the Soviet offensive soon reaches Hitler's inner circle.

Himmler is in a sanatorium as the world is falling apart.

And he is thinking about how the Third Reich

is about to lose the war.

He's increasingly unsure about what to do next.

Himmler still knows that his entire position exists,

his entire livelihood exists because Hitler trusts him.

Himmler never says anything in public against Hitler.

But for the first time in his life,

Himmler is a divided man.

Now that the chips are down, he's thinking very carefully

about his top priority,

about how to come out of the war,

how to save his own neck,

how to position himself in a scenario

where Hitler is perhaps no longer the undisputed leader

of the Third Reich.

Stuck in this dilemma,

an unlikely adviser comes to the rescue.

A physiotherapist trained in ancient Tibetan medicine.

Himmler is spending a lot of time with Felix Kersten,

who is Himmler's personal masseur.

Himmler is suffering from severe stomach cramps.

His pain increases as the Allies are closing in on Germany.

And he is using his masseur as a sounding board.

He starts exploring with Kersten potential scenarios

for how to reach out to the Western Allies to try to negotiate

a post-Hitler Germany.

Himmler lets Kersten travel to neutral Sweden on his behalf,

to find an intermediary who can sound out the Allied

leaders in secret.

It seems simply unimaginable,

absurd that the head of an organisation

that declares, "Our honour is our loyalty to Hitler,"

that was the SS mantra.

That this man,

the supposedly most loyal henchman of Hitler starts relaxing.

Acting behind Hitler's back.

Hitler occasionally leaves the bunker to take walks

with his girlfriend, Eva Braun,

in the Chancellery Gardens.

She has moved into the bunker to be with him.

Eva Braun presents him with the comfort that he wants.

She provides affirmation to him.

She supports his delusions.

And this mustn't be underestimated, the importance

of that stabilising domestic force.

She is his cup of tea. His packet of crisps, at the end of a hard day.

Eva Braun first met Adolf Hitler over 15 years ago

when she was just 17.

An aspiring model and actress...

..she was working as an assistant for Hitler's official photographer.

She is a young woman who likes athletics, who likes

going to the movies, who like skiing.

It's hard to imagine what this young woman

who daydreams about film stars, sees in this man.

But what it is, is.. ..is power.

But most of the German people don't know Hitler has a girlfriend.

Hitler wants to conceal his relationship.

Because he feels that he has great authority as the unmarried leader

of his nation.

In a sense, he's married to Nazi Germany.

This is very isolating for her.

And the more she's concealed, the more desperate she is that one

day all will be revealed,

and she'll be shown to be this incredibly loyal,

humble and hugely important support to the Fuhrer.

Germany is losing the war, but it doesn't cross Eva Braun's mind

to desert Hitler.

Her great mission in life is to become the First Lady

of the Third Reich.

Realising that Germany can no longer win the war,

Himmler's masseur

Felix Kersten, begins to explore the possibility of negotiating

with the Allies.

Kersten suggests Himmler, the architect of the Holocaust,

could offer to release imprisoned Jews as a gesture

of his humanitarianism and goodwill.

Kersten speaks to the World Jewish Congress who suggests

a Jewish intermediary. Norbert Masur.

So Masur faces a moral dilemma.

Should he negotiate with Himmler to save Jewish prisoners?

In the moment Norbert Masur gets that call,

it's an immediate response that he's ready to do it.

There's no hesitation whatsoever.

This lack of fear or anxiety in that moment is almost surprising.

But for him, it just seems such a clear, unquestionable thing to do.

It's a tremendous act of courage.

Just hours later, Norbert Masur boards a plane from Stockholm

to Berlin, for one of the most extraordinary meetings

of the Second World War.

Masur, a German-born Jew, left his homeland before the Nazis

came to power in the 1930s.

He hasn't been back for a decade.

Masur really sees a country on the run.

He sees a scared population that's defeated.

He's really observing now first-hand the end of this war,

seeing a very different Germany, a defeated regime.

Masur is driven by the Gestapo to Felix Kersten's country estate,

not far from the infamous Ravensbruck concentration camp.

In the time Masur has been away, six million Jewish people

have been murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators,

including members of his own family.

The Allies have liberated several concentration camps, and the scale

of the genocide is now becoming known to a horrified, wider world.

Masur was under no illusions about what this regime had done.

He's clearly aware of the fact that this could be his last mission.

The idea that you're going to find yourself, in a few hours,

face-to-face with the person singularly responsible for this kind

of death and destruction...

..it's really very dangerous.

Something could also go terribly wrong.

That same evening, while Masur waits patiently for Himmler,

Joseph Goebbels takes to the airwaves

to rally the German people, for one

last great effort on the Fuhrer's behalf.

It's just a few hours before Hitler's 56th birthday.

In a rare moment of quiet, Hitler escapes the bunker to inspect

the battered remains of the iconic Reich Chancellery building.

The last known photographs of him ever taken.

By now, Germany is almost cut in two.

Only a narrow corridor of land

divides the British and Americans from the Soviets.

And with the Soviets just ten miles from central Berlin,

there are just two shrinking passages in and out of the city.

Berlin is now on the front line.

And is openly described as the Reich's funeral pyre.

Its population of three million is suffering, and they've lost

their faith in their leaders' empty promises.

Pride and patriotism have turned to resentment and desperation.

They fear for their lives,

and have little access to food or fresh water.

Hitler's inner circle receive an invitation

that few of them want but cannot refuse.

It's Hitler's birthday.

On Hitler's birthday,

Eva Braun is very concerned that he gets a birthday cake,

so she ensures that one is baked for him that morning.

It seems quite bizarre that Eva Braun is concerned

with such small details.

And yet for her, this makes absolute sense, because what she wants

is to maintain appearances to the end.

Even in the dying days,

she is loyal to the ultimate degree, beside Adolf Hitler.

This is no day for a birthday party.

Berlin is being shelled by the Soviets.

Bombs are falling on the city.

It is deeply inappropriate and deeply weird.

With some of them already betraying Hitler,

his inner circle must now travel across Germany to the bunker.

The Soviets are attacking Berlin, the Allies are bombing the city

to smithereens, and all of the Nazi hierarchy, all these big figures,

travel to pay their tribute to the Fuhrer on his birthday.

It becomes, in some ways, I think, an act of loyalty.

For discredited Luftwaffe chief Hermann Goring,

it's awkward, as he's been so publicly humiliated. As Hitler's

nominated successor, he has long harboured fantasies of taking

over the Third Reich.

After months and months when he's been on the outside,

it's impossible to take seriously any longer

the idea that Goring might become the Fuhrer if anything happened

to Hitler, because nobody seems to obey him.

They have no respect for him at all.

They don't regard him as the legitimate heir of the Fuhrer.

Himmler has also been invited in from the cold.

He knows what's happening on the outskirts of Berlin.

Even in the worst moment in the history of the Third Reich,

when defeat is imminent...

..top Nazi leaders are unable to confront Hitler with the truth.

They simply do not have the guts,

because they all owe their positions of power to Hitler.

This tells you so much about the mind-set of the Nazis.

They're all trying to come out of the war alive.

They are, essentially, cowards.

When they arrive, Hitler is nowhere to be seen.

The Fuhrer is refusing to get out of bed.

Hitler says he doesn't want to be congratulated.

It's all completely meaningless.

What is there to congratulate when everything is falling apart?

It is Eva Braun who is sent to collect him,

to stir him back into life.

Eva Braun is riding high at this point.

She is at the height of her power.

She is the only one that can, not just have access to Hitler

in his bedroom,

but can also bring him back out to face the world.

It shows the consolidation of her power and she loves this.

While the inner circle wait for their Fuhrer, he receives

his daily pick-me-up.

By April, Hitler's having 28 different medications per day.

Amphetamines to try and bolster his physical and mental state,

and keep him going in a situation which was hugely stressful

and where he doesn't have a lot of sleep.

He can't stand the thought of meeting his staff, who must also

surely know that everything is lost.

He's come right to the end of his tether.

The meeting is uneasy, uncomfortable...

..and, for the first time, perhaps for many attendees, there's doubt

as to Hitler's capability.

Goebbels is assessing, particularly, Goring and Himmler.

What are they doing?

Are they loyal? Are they useful?

Are they what we need?

Will they betray the Fuhrer?

Himmler is greatly shocked when he sees Hitler,

because Hitler is a wreck.

Trembling, looks much older than 56.

Himmler realises that Hitler is losing the plot.

Little does Hitler know,

Faithful Heinrich, as he affectionately calls him,

is already making plans behind his back.

Himmler is feeling stressed out.

Where do his loyalties lie now?

Himmler certainly doesn't want to stay in the bunker.

He's trying to get out as soon as possible, but he feels

that he cannot leave before other Nazi bigwigs leave, because Himmler

fears that if he leaves before others, other Nazi leaders

will talk behind his back,

and say something critical about him to Hitler.

Before Himmler can make his excuses,

Hitler urges everyone

into his Situation Room, to discuss their next moves.

Hitler has always dominated strategy meetings,

but now he looks to them for answers.

Himmler and others suggest that Hitler should go southwards

to lead Germany from there.

Hitler has none of it.

This is a turning point.

Himmler thinks this is the moment where everything changes.

Hitler is written off as Germany's leader.

When they've had their conference,

most of them make their excuses and leave rather hurriedly.

When Himmler leaves the bunker...

..he probably knows that this is the last time he is meeting Hitler.

His mentor.

His staunchest supporter.

His idol.

He is somewhat nostalgic, but he also knows that now

is the time to make alternative plans

for his, Himmler's, own future.

Himmler escapes the party and immediately heads north.

The head of the SS has arranged another meeting that night.

Just after the party, Himmler drives through the night to the estate

of Felix Kersten, his masseur, to meet with Norbert Masur.

During the course of the evening, Mazer received a telephone call

that Himmler would not come until around 2:30am in the morning.

He's sitting in that place waiting for Himmler,

agitated at the thought that, in a few minutes,

he would be face-to-face with one

of the worst murderers of the Jewish people.

It is an extremely tense, eerie atmosphere.

There isn't a single word of apology by Himmler towards Masur.

There isn't a single word of regret.

What is going on here?

Masur is really sitting there and not allowing himself

to burden himself with the horrors of the entire Holocaust,

not allowing his pulse

to start to pace at a faster rate,

to maintain his calm throughout.

Masur is forced to listen to Himmler's lies.

And Himmler totally downplays the severity of the Holocaust.

For Himmler, it has been a moral duty to murder the Jews.

For Himmler, these Jewish prisoners are not really human beings.

They are simply bargaining chips.

This is the moment where Masur really wants to reach

across the table and grab his counterpart by the throat.

He really worries that his resolve to stay calm

and collected, might crumble.

So what Masur does is negotiate the release of as many inmates

of these concentration camps as he can.

In the end, Himmler concedes that 1,000 Jews will be released

from the Ravensbruck concentration camp, to the Red Cross.

For him, it perversely is an act of generosity, an act of goodwill.

Himmler, mass murderer,

he thinks that by releasing some Jewish prisoners, he may well clean

up his reputation, that the Western Allies will actually start

listening to him.

Meanwhile, in Berlin, Hitler has long gone to bed.

His girlfriend, Eva Braun, takes the party upstairs

to her old apartment in the Reich Chancellery building.

Hitler's birthday party provides a huge opportunity for release.

The pressure in the bunker, the smell, the atmosphere,

the knowledge of almost certain death is incredibly oppressive.

They absolutely know they're going to be defeated.

They haven't got hope.

What they have got is champagne.

Eva leads a gang of revellers for one last dance.

They've only got one record which they play over and over again.

And it's quite a manic scene, really.

Eva is determined to be at the centre, at the heart of things.

One thing that she can affect now is the mood and the atmosphere,

the environment of the people she's with.

And she's always loved a party.

But the party atmosphere is soon interrupted by the sound

of artillery shells landing all around the Reich Chancellery.

Hitler decides on this desperate moment,

on one last throw of the dice.

To launch a huge assault on the besieging Red Army.

He makes it clear that anybody who disobeys his orders

for this final assault is going to be shot.

And he sits back and waits for the reports of the victory.

Hitler has very few believers left by now.

Everyone in the bunker knows that Nazi Germany has been defeated,

that they have lost.

But Hitler is determined to fight on until the bitter end.

And the human cost of this is tens of thousands of lives.

But Eva Braun is one of the key enablers keeping him going.

To prepare for the arrival of the Red Army,

Eva Braun practises her shooting in the Chancellery Gardens.

She is resolute and determined, and she is absolutely confident

that she can play the role to the end.

She has agency and she makes active choices to support the regime,

and to support the leader of that murderous criminal regime.

She absolutely is culpable.

She is a Nazi.

Hitler is expecting to hear of stunning victories around Berlin.

And is told that the attack never took place.

The troops weren't there.

The whole plan was simply a fantasy.

He breaks down completely.

And has a half an hour rant, screaming and shouting at them.

By the end, Hitler was commanding troops that didn't actually exist.

But he sees it in terms of lack of bravery,

lack of commitment, lack of will.

Hitler believes that everyone has betrayed him.

There will be a complete defeat, and Germany will go down with him.

He's going to kill himself.

He's going to end it all.

Hitler's staff are appalled by this outburst.

The only thing they can think of doing is telephoning Goebbels

and asking him to come along straight away to calm Hitler down.

He goes into Hitler's bedroom, finds him exhausted, dishevelled.

The very picture of defeat.

In many ways, this is a moment of liberation for Goebbels,

because Hitler gives up on the delusion that the war

can still be won.

Goebbels decides himself to stay in Berlin in the bunker, and share

the Fuhrer's fate with him.

Hitler starts preparing for the Red Army's arrival,

instructing staff to destroy top secret documents

from his private safe.

And in a moment of magnanimity towards his staff, Hitler grants

permission for them to leave the Fuhrer bunker to flee

for their lives.

He's now seeing the rats leaving the sinking ship.

He has this feeling of being left alone and deserted

by his closest comrades.

There's no point in in carrying on.

Hitler's outburst only encourages those of his disciples

who have decided to save themselves.

When Himmler receives the news of Hitler's meltdown,

Himmler feels emboldened.

He feels a certain sense of liberation.

He knows that Hitler is going to die within the next few days.

He feels that his decision to enter into negotiations with the Western

Allies is now more urgent than ever before.

As Himmler thinks about life without Hitler, he entertains

the idea that he could be the next leader of Germany.

At this moment, you can see the true colours of Himmler.

As a ruthless, selfish egomaniac who cares only about himself.

Himmler wants to create a new role for himself

in a post-Hitler Germany.

This, while the war is still raging on all fronts.

This, while Nazi terror is still going on.

This, while Hitler is still alive.

Now is the time, Himmler believes, for himself to step up.

As Himmler makes plans to save his own skin,

there is news from Stockholm.

Following Norbert Masur's negotiations with Himmler,

1,000 prisoners from the Ravensbruck concentration camp

have been released.

There is a Jewish principle in Hebrew called Pidyon Shvuyim.

It means the redemption of prisoners, which is that the act

of saving a soul is the act of saving humanity.

There are not just 1,000 plus people who are alive thanks to him.

But they're the descendants,

and their descendants' descendants,

who are alive, thanks to him.

The heroes of wars are very often people such as Norbert Masur, people

who rise to the moment and rise to the occasion and do

the right thing.

This is the BBC Home Service.

Here is the news.

Berlin is tonight completely surrounded by Russian armies.

That is the good news.

There are signs that the Germans are on the run.

And the Germans say Hitler is still inside the city.

With Berlin completely encircled by the Allies, the Fuhrer remains

over 15 metres underground in his concrete bunker, accompanied

only by a few secretaries and die-hard loyalists.

On the 25th of April, Russians succeed in cutting off

communications to the bunker.

Telephone wires are cut.

All that Hitler has got left is radio, and even

that is problematic.

They become ever more isolated.

By this time, you can hear the Russian guns and shells

from inside the bunker, deep underground.

The Russians are clearly coming.

The Red Army is moving in.

It's only a matter of days, perhaps even hours, to the end.

There's no more talk of forces coming with relief from outside.

So it looks as if the Nazis are preparing to write off

both their Fuhrer and their capital.

The Red Army is already nearing the Reich Chancellery,

threatening it.

The Goebbels' decision to take their children in the bunker seems

crazy, but in their own logic, it made a lot of sense.

It's an act of courage.

It's probably his last resort.

This is a grim event, but she's facing a grim reality.

The clock is ticking.

Time is running out.