All language subtitles for hindenburg.the.cover.up.s01e01.1080p.hdtv.h264-cbfm[eztv.re]_track3_[eng]

MAN: When I rode on the Hindenburg
on that day,

it was good weather,
so there were no clouds around it,

so I saw the Earth.

It was the most luxurious way
to transport passengers.

MAN: Both the Titanic
and Hindenburg stories

do share a certain sense of hubris.

People thinking that they could
build a ship that was invulnerable.

MAN: This wasn't just
a military accident.

This was a civilian disaster.

WOMAN: This was the first time
that a disaster

had ever been recorded
as it was happening.

RECORDING NARRATOR:
Oh, the humanity.

The delay in landing
put pressure on the crew.

The obvious question is,
what happened?

(SHOUTING, SCREAMING)

This is terrible. This is one of
the worst catastrophes in the world.

You're watching this gigantic
aircraft burning,

and you know that
it's filled with people.

WOMAN: My name is Viola Pruss,

and I'm the great-granddaughter
of Max Pruss,

the commander of the Hindenburg
on its final flight.

He and others just jumped out
of the...the cabin onto the ground.

His upper body and his face
were terribly burned.

He was in hospital
for many, many months after this.

Many people at the time
were members of the Nazi Party,

as was my great-grandfather.

(CHEERING)

MAN: It would have been
incredibly embarrassing

politically for the Germans

to have had a German airship
destroyed by sabotage

on an American military base.

MAN: You can see the flame
that pretty much

completely consumed the tail.

MAN: There was somebody onboard
that had the intention

to do something to the Hindenburg,

because it flew with a big swastika.

MAN: There's a portrait
of Adolf Hitler.

He was definitely a presence
on the ship.

The Germans said,
"We'll go back to Germany,

"and we'll sort it out ourselves."

They arrested my dad,
took him down Gestapo headquarters.

My dad figured
that was the end of it.

Captain Pruss, for the rest
of his life, believed

that it was Joseph Spah
who sabotaged the Hindenburg.

Hitler says something.

They go and they get the guy,
and that's the end of them.

Hitler had many of his rivals
eliminated.

Just disappear.

MAN: The investigation of the FBI
alludes to conspiracy.

MAN: This is an absolute
treasure trove.

Folder 13. Box 18.

Oh, whoa, look at this.

MAN: Charles Rosenthal is the one
who told the Hindenburg, "Land now."

So much happened right here
in this house.

MAN: You would think that this
took place somewhere in Germany.

This took place in New York City.

MAN: These things are death traps.

We actually were exposed to
the fragility of technology.

MAN: Yeah, look at these.

No matter how hard you try not to,
facts get exaggerated.

Actually, this fabric itself
tells the story.

MAN: Totally gone in 34 seconds.

The only possible explanation
was sabotage.

WOMAN: We're finally starting to see
some answers in our research.

He was leaning out a gondola window
filming

and threw the camera down
on the ground.

For the first time,
we're looking at long-lost footage

of the crash shot from inside
the Hindenburg.

MAN: This was not an act of God.

This was a cover-up.

Something will happen
to the Hindenburg,

and indeed it did happen.

NARRATOR: May 6th, 1937,

minutes after the Hindenburg's
deadly disaster.

The colossal Nazi airship lies
a smouldering hulk of twisted metal.

Sirens blare as naval officers
and first responders

search for life amid the flames.

Shaken and terrified,

WLS Chicago reporter Herb Morrison
is at the airfield.

RECORDING NARRATOR:
I've sort of recovered

from the terrific explosion

and the terrific crash that occurred

just as it was being pulled down
the mooring mast.

There's still smoking and flaming

and crackling and banging
down there.

WOMAN: My name's Holly McClelland
and I'm a researcher and archivist.

I've found the full unredacted
version of Morrison's tapes.

So many accounts from that day
have been passed down

and details have been lost
or changed.

But this,
this is a first-hand account,

and it was recorded exactly
as it was spoken.

The explosion occurred in the tail,
in the fin,

the part that was highest

after it had nosed in to go down
to the mooring mast.

Within mere hours
of Herb Morrison's historic

and oft-analysed words
being recorded,

the Nazi government puts together
a German investigation commission.

They will head to New York
on an ocean liner

to join an American commission that
has already begun investigating.

Dan Grossman has been
one of the world's

most recognised airship historians
for over 30 years.

MAN: As soon as the Germans
arrived in America,

they raced to Lakehurst,

and the Germans and Americans began
working together

to interview witnesses,
study meteorological charts,

conduct experiments,

and conduct hearings
to try to figure out what happened.

Among the German Commission

is the famed airship pilot
Dr Hugo Eckener,

the head of the company
that built Hindenburg.

Dr Eckener was an economist
and a journalist.

He became a business leader
of the Zeppelin Company.

He became the public face in Germany
and around the world of zeppelins.

I am convinced
under all weather conditions,

even on the most unfavourable,

we will...they'll be able
to make the flight

and all regularity on safety.

Hugo Eckener had always viewed
the zeppelin as a sign of

international goodwill,
international peace.

It was an ambassador
between nations.

He took his airship around the world

and thought that airships and travel
and greater communication

would unite the world.

In the early 1900s,
there's a race to rule the skies.

Guillaume De Syon is a historian

and author of the book
Zeppelin! Germany and the Airship.

The early 1900s until World War II,

there were two paths to flight.

One was the airplane,
a little bit like this one,

the other one was the airship.

While they are renowned
for their speed,

airplanes are viewed by the public
as expensive flying deathtraps.

NARRATOR: Down there in
mountain snow lie 19 persons dead.

Altogether 135 lives have been lost
in the last two years.

Between 1930 and 1939,

there are over 30 recorded crashes
of commercial airplanes

around the world.

Airships, with their size, stability,
luxury, and comfort,

have the advantage over airplanes.

The Germans are at the cutting edge
of aviation.

For Hugo Eckener, the head
of the German Zeppelin Company,

the future will always be airships.

Germany in 1937.

The country has been taken over
by fascism.

Hitler has declared himself Fuhrer.

Dissidents are being silenced,
Jews are persecuted and killed.

The Second World War is imminent.

After Hitler and the Nazis
solidify power,

they nationalise the Zeppelin Company

and create a new airline,
the Deutsche Zeppelin-Reerderei,

known as the DZR.

The Zeppelin Company
will build the airships.

The DZR will operate them.

At the helm of the DZR,

the Nazis place one of their most
loyal airshipmen,

Captain Ernst Lehmann.

GROSSMAN: Ernst Lehmann was
a very experienced airshipman,

but when he really brought
to the Zeppelin enterprise

was that he was very willing
to be accommodating

to the Nazi leadership in Berlin.

And that's why they put him
in a position

where he was the pre-eminent person
running the German airline

that operated Hindenburg.

The Nazis could not remove Eckener.
He was too important a person.

However, they could proverbially
kick him upstairs,

give him a seemingly important
post of responsibility

but one that had, in fact,
far smaller outreach.

May 3rd, 1937.

Hindenburg is preparing to depart
the Rhein-Main airfield

from Frankfurt

for its first North American flight
of the 1937 season.

It's business as usual
for the crewmen.

The only difference - this time
there's a crowded control car.

In total there are six qualified
Zeppelin captains in the control car.

Captain Ernst Lehmann

and Captain Anton Wittemann

are onboard as observers.

Captain Albert Sammt,

Captain Heinrich Bauer,

and Captain Walter Ziegler

are also onboard as watch officers.

Max Pruss as the Hindenburg's
official commander.

PRUSS: Growing up,
my grandmother had

pictures of the Hindenburg and
of Max in my grandfather's office.

So I would play in there
and I would walk in there

and I would always see
those pictures.

And I just remember
vividly looking at them.

There's this one photo
that I loved all my life,

and it's the Hindenburg
over Rio de Janeiro,

and it's just palm trees and
this airship zeppelin in the sky.

And it's quite a beautiful photo.

In Germany,
Nazis are firmly in control.

Hitler has initiated more assertive
military manoeuvres,

including the remilitarisation
of the Rhineland,

a daring violation of
the Treaty of Versailles.

Nearly 4,000 prisoners are sent

to fully operational
concentration camps.

Despite a growing anti-Nazi sentiment
around the world and in the US,

Hindenburg sets off
for the 1937 season

displaying glaring red and white
swastikas on its tail.

MAN: By 1937, the Zeppelin Company
was receiving

more and more bomb threats
against the Hindenburg.

MAN: One person from Milwaukee,
Wisconsin,

had written a letter to
the German ambassador in Washington

that something will happen

on the first flight of
the Hindenburg to the United States,

and indeed it did happen.

Ernst Lehmann tucks the letter into
the pocket of his flight jacket.

He makes no mention of it
to Captain Max Pruss.

In standard procedure,

the Nazi government sends
SS officers to inspect the ship

the day before take-off.

The Hindenburg passes
Nazi inspection.

Boarding proceeds as usual.

RUSSELL: The Hindenburg
primarily catered to

wealthy business travellers

who needed to get across the ocean
quickly.

The Hindenburg could fly from
Frankfurt to Lakehurst, New Jersey,

in about two and a half days.

Business travellers loved this.

You had to be of means to be able
to afford the premium fare

on the Hindenburg.

It was $450 one way in 1937
across the North Atlantic,

which was comparable to a
first-class cabin on the Queen Mary.

This was about $8,000 or $9,000
in modern money.

In October of 1936,
during Hindenburg's first season,

72 affluent guests are invited
for a day-long cruise

over New England's fall foliage.

The exhibition cruise,
known as the Millionaire's flight,

features powerful financiers

like Winthrop W. Aldrich,
Nelson Rockefeller,

US and German government officials,
naval officers,

and other industry leaders.

Hugo Eckener and Ernst Lehmann
steer the ship

as the celebrity passengers dine

on swallow nest soup,
cold Rhine salmon, tenderloin steak,

chateau potatoes,
beans a la Princesse,

Carmen salad, and iced melon.

Picture actors,
celebrities of various kinds,

a few politicians,

and generally captains of industry

all coming together.

So it's an elite among the elite.

Seven months after the Millionaire's
flight, by May of 1937,

an emboldened Adolf Hitler
and the Nazi government

have begun full-scale militarisation,
ready for war.

Moments before Hindenburg departs
Frankfurt on its final flight,

one more passenger
boards the airship.

Joseph Spah, travelling
with his dog Ulla,

will become the focus of a sabotage
investigation after the disaster.

One of the few people
that survived the Hindenburg

was my dad,
and we were there to meet him.

My mother, my older brother,
myself, and my sister.

Born in Strasburg, Germany,

Joseph Spah emigrates
to the United States at a young age,

where he begins performing
as a contortionist

and then as a vaudeville acrobat

under the stage name Ben Dova.

In 1937, Joseph Spah performs
in cities across Europe

for over six months.

His agent got him on a date

to appear at the Radio City
Music Hall in New York City,

which was a big deal.

Spah settles in the passenger deck

while his dog is loaded
into the belly of the ship.

At 8:16pm, Max Pruss shouts,
"Up ship."

Hindenburg lifts off.

GROSSMAN: Hindenburg,
in order to compete

with the first-class
transatlantic liners of the day,

like Normandy and Queen Mary,

had to give its passengers
a high degree of comfort.

There were cabins.

There was a lounge,
there was a smoking room.

There was a bar.

There was, of course, a dining room.

All the things that
a passenger would expect

on a transatlantic voyage.

But it also provided two things
you couldn't get on a ship.

One, of course, was speed.

It was twice as fast as any ship.

But the other is
you didn't get seasick.

Hindenburg's smoothness
and interior amenities

provides an unmatched
luxury experience

for its wealthy passengers.

Throughout the three-day journey,
passengers read in the lounge,

write postcards in the writing room,

mingle on the promenade,

and some even spend the whole trip
at the bar or in the smoking room.

Apparently, some passengers
spent the entire trip,

two and a half days
to the United States,

maybe two days back to Frankfurt,

in the smoking room.

Located on B deck
at the bottom of the ship,

Hindenburg's smoking room
is separated

from the rest of the passenger cabins

by a double-door airlock.

It is pressurised so no hydrogen
enters the room.

GROSSMAN: People who had
to cross the Atlantic

were often rightfully terrified

that they were going to spend
five days green with seasickness

on a ship tossing around
the North Atlantic,

and Hindenburg's secret weapon,
in terms of attracting passengers,

wasn't that it was more luxurious
than Queen Mary, because it wasn't.

It's that it was faster

and you didn't have to worry about
getting sick.

And that made a lot of difference
to people.

1am, May 4th, 1937,

Hindenburg's four 16-cylinder
Daimler-Benz engines

roar over the Atlantic.

The ship has just left
the European mainland

after crossing over the Netherlands
and the English Channel.

Max Pruss steers the ship
west-south-west

at a cruising speed of 76 miles per
hour and an altitude of 650 feet.

With wealthy passengers
counting on them,

timeliness is everything
on this flight.

RUSSELL: As the flight progressed,

they encountered headwinds.
over the North Atlantic.

And by the second day out,

it became obvious that
they were not going to make

their 6am landing time
on Thursday, May 6th.

The weather was always going to be
the intangible

that the designers of Hindenburg
could not foresee.

From the very beginning,

it would be the biggest consideration
when it came to designing airships.

Summer 1898.

Near the small town
of Friedrichshafen

on the banks of Lake Constance,

Germany's quest to rule the skies
officially begins.

Retired military officer
Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin

begins designing
the world's first airship.

GROSSMAN:
He came to the United States

during the American war
between the states,

during the American Civil War,

and was attached to the Union army
as an observer

so he could learn
about military tactics

and then take his knowledge
home to Germany.

But while he was in
the United States,

he had an opportunity to see
a balloon rise,

and he was captivated.

He saw his zeppelin
as a weapon of war.

Count von Zeppelin presents his idea
to the Society of German Engineers.

They essentially laughed at him.

It was a completely wacky idea.

Two years later, in July of 1900,

Count von Zeppelin
and his own team of engineers

make the airship dream a reality.

It was an amazing achievement at
a time when there were no airplanes.

There was really no way
for a human being to fly

from one place to another
on purpose.

And then Count von Zeppelin created
this aircraft that could do that.

It was three years before
the Wright brothers first flew.

And there was a lot
of national pride.

This was almost a purely
German invention.

The first of these was
400 feet long.

And then they got progressively
larger and more impressive.

The government offers
Count von Zeppelin

a contract for his airships

on one condition -

he must fly his airship round trip
for 24 hours

from Mainz in western Germany
to Friedrichshafen in the South.

The first two thirds of the flight
went fairly well.

He had to do a couple of landings.

But it is on the...

..what was what would have been
the second-to-last landing

that his airship was pushed
by the wind into a pear tree

and caught fire and exploded,

and thereby ruined the hopes
of Count Zeppelin

for a government contract.

Lo and behold,
things didn't quite go that way.

By the next morning,

money had just begun to pour
into his offices in Friedersdorf

to the tune of 6 million marks,

which was about $42 million
in modern money.

And this was completely spontaneous.

The people of Germany did not want
this venture to fail.

With newfound support,

Count von Zeppelin opens the first
airship construction facility,

the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin.

Count von Zeppelin was
a retired military general.

So when he conceived of his airship,

he thought of it immediately
as an air weapon.

By the time World War I
tears through Europe,

German airships completely
revolutionise warfare.

GROSSMAN: These were scary,
dangerous things

to be flying over your town.

The British called Zeppelins
baby killers

as part of a very aggressive
and understandable

anti-German propaganda effort.

Zeppelins started hitting cities,
they often missed their targets.

And so instead of hitting
what might have been

a legitimate strategic target,
a factory,

they hit homes.

And these homes are not meant to
withstand any kind of explosion.

The result is that you have
entire families wiped out.

Imagine how terrifying it would have
been for an English family,

perhaps living in the country,

knowing that they're far away
from the front.

They have no worry about
an army invading them.

They feel safe.
They're on an island.

They've been safe on their island
for hundreds of years.

And yet all of a sudden,
for the first time in history...

..they would hear a sound in the sky

and they would go out
in their garden and look up

and they could see this
gigantic thing flying in the air.

And they knew that it could drop
bombs on them and their house.

This was brand-new,

and you could imagine
how terrifying it was.

At the height of
the First World War,

the British and the French
set their sights on producing

better and faster airplanes.

Equipped with incendiary bullets,

Allied planes begin shooting down
German airships.

This was exactly what the Germans
did not want

because, of course, their airships
were filled with hydrogen.

And if you shot a burning bullet
into one,

chances were it was going to
go up in flames

and everybody aboard was going to...
was going to die.

Before the end of the war,
Count von Zeppelin dies.

The fate of the airship industry

falls firmly in the hands
of his best apprentice,

Dr Hugo Eckener.

Germany suffers a crushing defeat
in World War I.

As the country sinks into depression,
the Zeppelin Company sinks with it.

DE SYON: The situation in Germany
after World War One is desperate.

It's no longer an empire.

The Kaiser has abdicated.

A young republic has been declared
with wonderful potential.

However, they are also unstable.

There are a lot of people who are
unhappy about losing the war.

Under one of the most controversial
armistice treaties in history,

known as the Treaty of Versailles,

Allied countries force Germany
to reduce the size of its military,

accept blame for the war,

and pay crippling war reparations,

which include handing over
their beloved airships.

GROSSMAN: One of the conditions
of Versailles

was that Germans could never
operate airships again.

The British, the Americans,
the French, they never wanted

German strategic airship bombers
over their cities again.

And they wanted to destroy
the German airship industry.

The Zeppelin Company is allowed
to continue building airships

on the condition that they hand them
over to the Allied powers.

The first five years that followed
World War I

are very difficult for Germany.

Not only do they face the havoc of

the immediate post-World War I era,

they go through a hyperinflation
in 1922, '23.

And so in that context of
gloom, doom,

all of a sudden an airship flies
in 1924.

In October 1924, the first airship
since the Great War, the ZR-3,

also known as the USS Los Angeles,

makes the 81-hour journey
across the Atlantic.

The German crew hands the airship
over to the US Navy.

Hugo Eckener keeps
the Zeppelin Company afloat

and helps put Friedrichshafen
on the map.

Still, left without funds
from the bankrupt Weimar Republic,

he goes on a nationwide tour,

raising money for his next project,

the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin,
what he calls a machine of peace.

In the 1920s, when the airships
began to fly again,

it was a great, hopeful sign

to a people who had been
badly defeated that,

"Hey, we can still do
something great."

And there was a tremendous
national pride,

especially when LZ 127,
the Graf Zeppelin,

started flying in the 1920s

and did things like
flying around the world,

at a time when
airplanes couldn't do that,

carrying passengers across oceans.

And the Germans were able
to look at this and think,

"Yeah, we can do some stuff."

Like, it gave them
a new sense of pride.

Eckener captains
the Hindenburg's predecessor,

the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin,

on many of
its most impressive journeys,

including its first
intercontinental flight,

its celebrated flight
around the world,

and its first Arctic flight.

Alongside him is the young
American airshipman

commander Charles Rosendahl.

To distant corners of the globe,

they take messages
of unity and peace,

and their unwavering belief in
airships as the future of aviation.

Germany sort of became
zeppelin crazy.

And the man who at that point
was most associated with zeppelins,

who was Hugo Eckener,

became one of the most famous men
in the entire world.

When Graf Zeppelin
flew around the world,

it was international headlines.

People in movie theatres
all around the world -

around the world -

from Asia to South America
to North America to Russia,

all of these places,

they would go to the movie theatre
and they would see the ship flying

and the headlines would talk about
the ship's progress

as it crossed the ocean.

It was amazing that an aircraft
carrying passengers

could fly around the world,

so the success of Graf Zeppelin
in crossing the Atlantic Ocean

received not only so much attention
in the United States,

but so much affection
and so much interest

that Americans gave Eckener
and his crew

a ticker tape parade
in New York City.

That's only done for big events,
right?

It was done for Charles Lindbergh
when he crossed the Atlantic.

But that's how big a deal Eckener
and the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin

were at the time, even in America,

even though it was a German airship
with a German crew.

With dreams of uniting the world
through air travel,

Hugo Eckener becomes a national hero
in Germany,

the most famous man
in the Weimar Republic.

Meanwhile,
a young World War I veteran

turned bloodthirsty politician

named Adolf Hitler

starts gaining popularity.

Hitler did not like Eckener
very much.

Eckener was a conservative,

arch conservative even,

but he was not a Nazi.

Eckener became so famous

that he even ran for
the presidency of Germany in 1932.

He withdrew when a member of
his own party, Marshall Hindenburg,

chose to run again for president.

But Hitler never forgot the affront

that someone else besides him
would want to be president.

Of course, as far as
Hitler was concerned,

the more important thing
was to become chancellor.

The president in Germany
is nominally in charge of the army,

but it is the chancellor
who runs the show.

By 1930, the mood in Germany is grim.

The Zeppelin Company
is running low on funds.

Meanwhile, in the United States,
construction has begun

on what will become
the world's tallest structure,

the Empire State Building.

Adorned with a towering mooring mast
for the purpose of docking airships.

Its true purpose,
historians believe,

is to raise the building's height,

ensuring its status
as the world's tallest building

over its rival,
the Chrysler Building.

In March 1931, Hugo Eckener,

the world's most respected
airshipman,

visits the newly completed
Empire State Building.

He leaves sceptical of
the dirigible docking project,

saying zeppelin landings require
dozens of ground crewmen

and ropes securing both the bow
and stern of the ship.

He calls it impractical.

When the building is completed
in May,

the winching device meant
for securing zeppelins

has not been installed.

No airship ever successfully docks
on the Empire State Building.

Today, the 200-foot spire is still
referred to as the mooring mast.

Back in Germany, Eckener begins plans
for the LZ 129,

an airship even bigger
than the Graf Zeppelin.

By 1931, the project LZ 129
is in the works,

but it's going to linger.

Why?

Because Germany is hit full-thrust
by the world economic depression.

GROSSMAN: It certainly hit Germany
very badly

and there just was no money
for this sort of thing.

But then, of course,
the National Socialists,

the Nazis, took over in 1933.

January 30th, 1933.

Adolf Hitler is appointed
Chancellor of Germany

after a series of electoral victories
by the Nazi Party.

He joins a coalition government

alongside President
Paul von Hindenburg.

The Zeppelin Company,

under the tutelage of
the world-famous Hugo Eckener,

languishes.

Left without funding
by an ailing Weimar republic,

Eckener struggles to complete
the construction

of the latest and biggest airship
yet, the LZ 129,

what will soon become known
as Hindenburg.

When Hitler comes into power,

he establishes a dictatorship
within four months.

By spring 1933,
he is dictator of Germany,

but he still has to resolve
quite a few things.

And his method of ruling
is often by

pitting his closest associates
against each other

to see what one can do for him
and the other can do for him.

And so you often see in the history
of Nazi Germany these tugs of war

between Hitler's closest associates.

This is the case between
Goebbels and Goring.

June 30th 1934.

Nazi SS soldiers
march across Germany,

killing hundreds
of Hitler's opponents.

This bloody purge of Nazi rivals
goes down in history

as the Night of the Long Knives.

Hitler's most famous critic,
Dr Hugo Eckener,

is commanding the Graf Zeppelin

on a flight back from South America
at the time.

He returns to Germany unscathed.

It is a dangerous time to be critical
of the Nazi Party.

But Eckener is saved by his
popularity with the German people.

Hitler knows eliminating him
would mean political suicide.

Instead, his Nazi advisors
see a great opportunity

for the airship as a propaganda tool.

Hermann Goring, who is the head
of the nascent Luftwaffe,

the German Air Force,

doesn't particularly like
the airship,

but he feels that he must control
all things

that are aviation related.

The other person who sees
a potential in the airship

is Dr Goebbels, who was Hitler's
minister of propaganda.

They all wanted to be
Hitler's favourite.

They all wanted power,

manoeuvring within this court

that all circled around
Adolf Hitler at the head.

In a power play to impress Hitler,

Joseph Goebbels,
the Minister of Propaganda,

donates 2 million marks

to continue the construction
of the Hindenburg airship.

Not to be outdone, Hermann Goring of
the Air Ministry donates 9 million.

And so just as Goebbels thinks
he's going to

supply the budget
to build the Hindenburg,

Goring, in quick succession,
by 1935,

establishes something called
Deutsche Zeppelin Reerderei,

the DZR,

which is essentially an airship
airline, but it's under his control.

Five years after its inception,

construction of the mammoth airship
is finally complete.

Both Joseph Goebbels and
Hermann Goering go down in history

as Adolf Hitler's
most loyal accomplices.

They are the masterminds behind
a growing Nazi war machine.

By the time the coming
Second World War ends,

Goebbels and Goring
will have overseen the murder

of over 6 million Jews

as well as millions of
Allied soldiers.

After rising to power,

the Nazis nationalise
the Zeppelin Company,

replacing Hitler's outspoken rival
Dr Hugo Eckener with Nazi loyalists.

March 1936.

In an act of defiance against
the Treaty of Versailles,

a bold Adolf Hitler
sends Nazi troops

to the demilitarised strip of land
between Germany and France

known as the Rhineland.

As a way of legitimising the move,
Hitler holds a referendum,

a single-question vote
for the German people.

These elections in 1936 are a way

of reaffirming the power
of the Nazi Party.

The ballot that everybody got

simply had a Hitler's name and
a circle that you could put an X in.

That was your ballot.

That was your ballot
for the entire election.

Essentially, you either voted yes
or you did not check anything off.

Well, on top of that, the Nazis,
for the most part,

took unmarked ballots
and counted them as yes votes.

Since these elections are staged,
there's no alternative to vote for.

How do you whip up enthusiasm?

One way is to have, for example,
the Hindenburg and the Graf Zeppelin

fly around Germany,

and aboard the Hindenburg
in particular,

there is a live broadcast of radio.

It actually is actually
a brilliant propaganda coup.

Nazi officials order
a three-day propaganda flight

of Germany's two premier airships.

Hugo Eckener refuses to participate.

Ernst Lehmann steps up
to fulfil Nazi orders.

Despite strong, shifting winds
the day of the first flight,

Lehmann mans the helm
of the brand-new Hindenburg airship.

As he guides it out of the hangar
to rally support for the Fuhrer,

a gust of wind crushes the ship's
lower tail fin against the ground.

Hugo Eckener was furious,

and was overheard publicly
yelling at Ernst Lehmann,

"How could you jeopardise
our beautiful new ship

"for this Sheisse Fahrt?"

Or Shit Flight.

After temporary repairs,

Hindenburg sets off
for a tour of Germany

alongside its sister ship
the Graf Zeppelin.

And so, as the airship flies around
on election day,

people hear that the crew is voting

and that the votes are being counted
on board.

By nightfall, the Nazi Party secures
an overwhelming victory.

And in many ways, people forget that
they are living in a dictatorship.

It's the kind of notion that
Germany is back.

It has, in fact, recovered.

It has reclaimed its armed forces.

And so, people feel positively
towards Adolf Hitler,

regardless of the other things
that he's already doing,

testing the waters internationally,
beginning his persecution of Jews.

All these things
are sort of set aside

for the average German

because he is enjoying
a symbol of the past,

something that his father
or even grandfather got to enjoy.

Five months later,

the Nazis once again send Hindenburg
on a propaganda mission.

The official inauguration
of the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games.

100,000 Germans fill
Berlin's Olympic stadium

as Adolf Hitler stands
and salutes the crowd,

officially inaugurating
the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games.

Eager to prove Aryan dominance,
600 German athletes dressed in white

march down the track
and salute the Fuhrer.

Chants of "Seig Heil!"
rain down from the crowd.

And the Hindenburg airship
glides over the stadium.

With swastikas on its tail,

the greatest symbol of Nazi power
is displayed before the world.

The Nazi government definitely
wanted to use Hindenburg

as a symbol of the

national resurgence
that the Nazis felt

that they themselves represented.

And Hindenburg flew over
the 1936 Berlin Olympics,

which was a huge propaganda event,

to show the world

that a defeated Germany was now
back on the world stage

and was now a great power
under their leader, Adolf Hitler.

And Hindenburg and the Zeppelins
were used to reinforce that message.

Following orders from
Joseph Goebbels,

Ernst Lehmann turns
the German airship enterprise

into a Nazi propaganda machine.

Still, Hugo Eckener's dream of using
airships for commercial travel

is alive and well.

By 1937, the Graf Zeppelin has
completed 590 successful flights

to major cities in Europe,
the Middle East,

North and South America.

Hindenburg has completed over
50 flights in its first season alone.

They transported 35,000 passengers.

Nobody ever broke anything.

Nobody ever got hurt by anything.

People sometimes think Hindenburg
crashed on its maiden voyage

but in fact it crashed
on its 63rd flight

and it had had many
successful flights before then,

including ordinary
passenger airline flights

between Germany and North America,

Lakehurst and Germany,

and South America, Rio de Janeiro.

As Hindenburg prepares
for the 1937 season,

the American public grows wary
of an aggressive Nazi regime.

When the Hindenburg flew over
the upper east coast in 1936

and early 1937,

it did so flying the swastika
over an American public

that was less and less tolerant
of Nazi imagery.

May 5th 1937.

The Hindenburg turns south-west
towards Lakehurst

after passing Newfoundland.

Now 12 hours behind schedule,

the ship continues
to battle headwinds.

RECORDING NARRATOR: For better than
two and a half days,

they've been speeding through the
skies over miles and miles of water

here to America.

It was due to land at Lakehurst
this morning at dawn,

but we learned after our arrival
at Newark

that adverse wind conditions
had been encountered

over the area
surrounding Newfoundland

which slowed the speed of
the ship considerably.

If you are a machine founded
on being speedy, or speedier,

then a transatlantic ocean liner,

then you want to be there on time,

because of course,
people have planes to catch

that are waiting for them,

or they have to be in New York City
for dinner.

These are...
This is an important clientele.

So it's possible that the delay
in landing put pressure on the crew.

As crewmen scramble
to make up for lost time,

Ernst Lehmann reveals a secret to
his colleague and fellow observer

Captain Anton Wittemann.

At some point during the flight,
Lehmann mentioned to Wittemann,

"Hey, we got this letter
from the United States

"warning of a plot
against the Hindenburg."

The fact that this letter,

a clear warning that Hindenburg could
in fact meet its doom in America

was never shown
to the captain of the ship,

was never mentioned publicly
by the Nazis,

and is absent from
over 1,000 pages of testimonies

by the US Department of Commerce,

provides fuel to the theory

that there was a cover-up involving
both German and US officials.

It has been reported that
Rosendahl cautioned Wittemann

to keep the information to himself.

It was a tremendous pressure

on the people on Hindenburg's
control car,

the officers running the ship,

to get this ship on the ground, turn
it around and take it off again.

There was commercial pressure.

The world was watching.

"Hey, is this Zeppelin thing
really going to work?

"Is it going to run on time?
Can we depend on it?"

There was political pressure.

This thing was a symbol
of Nazi pride.

There was an awful lot
of passenger pressure as well.

Throughout the flight,

crewmembers notice Joseph Spah
enters the main hull of the ship

to feed his dog
on several occasions.

Passengers are prohibited from
entering the interior of the ship

unaccompanied.

RUSSELL: And so
Mr Spah would ask the stewards,

"Hey, I need to go back
and feed my dog."

Well, they couldn't always be
at his beck and call.

And so, he started just going back
there by himself to feed his dog.

Storm clouds prove to be
a tremendous obstacle

as the foul weather puts Hindenburg's
outer covering to the test.

Many airships had been
struck by lightning

without being destroyed.

Of course, you need a combination
of flowing electricity

and also hydrogen to ignite.

So there were many airships
that had been struck by lightning,

just as many aircraft
have been struck by lightning.

But there was no circuit to close,

and so it didn't really wind up
causing much harm.

7 million cubic feet
of flammable hydrogen

rests inside 16 gas cells,

all protected by a thick outer cover.

Everyone knew that hydrogen
was an extremely dangerous gas

to use as a lifting gas in airships

because it's highly flammable.

But at the beginning
of the airship enterprise,

there simply was no choice.

It was the only lifting gas
that was practically available.

When Hugo Eckener lays out his plans
for LZ 129,

the ship is originally designed
for helium,

a rare gas that can only be found
in large quantities

in the United States.

In 1927, the United States deems
helium a strategic material,

banning its export
to other countries.

The Hindenburg was filled
with hydrogen and...

..the advantages that you could
carry more passengers.

But of course,
it was more dangerous.

The new Nazi government didn't
exactly want to let the world know

"We can't do something."

Their whole message is,

"We're Germans.
We can do anything we want."

The idea that we have to go
hat in hand to the Americans

and ask for something
that we don't have?

That was not an appealing idea
for people at the Zeppelin Company

to try to sell
to their Nazi masters in Berlin.

And the Germans,
after 30 years of experience,

thought they could keep
this tiger in its tank.

Dr Horst Schirmer's father,
Dr Max Schirmer,

was one of Hindenburg's
aeronautical designers.

Horst recalls as a mere 4-year-old

accompanying his father
into the hangar

containing the newly completed
Hindenburg,

and witnessing the astonishing
power of hydrogen gas.

SCHIRMER: It weighed
plus/minus 111 tons,

and you get under the ship

and I asked to lift it up,

which he did, I followed his advice,
got under this ship.

I didn't understand what...

..how much a ship should weigh
when it is weighed out,

actually zero.

It's close to zero.

So I was under the ship
and lifted it up

and he said, "Let it go."

And the ship came back to my hands,
and he lifted again.

It was fascinating to me.

And I kept...I didn't understand
why this was all happening.

At Lakehurst,
conditions remain unsettled.

Hindenburg is still 12 hours late.

At the Biltmore Hotel in New York,

wealthy passengers, many heading
to the coronation of King George VI,

are waiting for a bus
to Newark Airport,

where they will take an American
Airlines DC3 airplane to Lakehurst

and finally board Hindenburg
headed for Europe.

The timeline is shrinking.

So it's possible that the delay
in landing put pressure on the crew.

And based on their experience,

they thought that possibly
they could cut corners.

What corners exactly where cut?
This is what's unclear.

Meanwhile, in the control car,

Max Pruss tells the crew
he plans to have the ship ready

for its return flight to Frankfurt
by midnight.

It will be the fastest turnaround for
any passenger zeppelin in history.

At approximately 6pm,

Hindenburg circles around New Jersey
avoiding storms.

Captain Pruss waits anxiously
for a break in the clouds.

RECORDING NARRATOR: Now, we've been
told that the airship

is going to make an attempted
landing in the rain.

Finally he got the message,
"Come in as fast as you can."

The weather has cleared enough.

That landing is appropriate.

The Titanic of the skies,

two and half times the length
of a Boeing 747

and loaded with
highly flammable hydrogen,

is about to meet its end

in a spectacular, fiery disaster
that will shake the entire world.

But will the true cause
of the calamity

be covered up
for more than 80 years?