All language subtitles for BBC.Rise.of.the.Nazis.Series.3.1080p.HDTV.x265.AAC.MVGroup.org.eng

DOG BARKS

BARKING

On 12th December 1944, some
of the Nazis' top generals

are called to a woodland location
in western Germany.

They were taken to an undisclosed,
unknown location.

They were disarmed, forced
to hand over their weapons.

It's all very, very secret.

And they're ushered
into an underground room.

Since the assassination attempt,
no-one has seen or heard

from Hitler in months.

There have even been rumours
that he had died.

Now, he tells them he has a plan.

There's going to be a decisive blow
where the Allies will be completely

defeated and will have to sue
for peace.

It's an extraordinarily bold
counterattack and it's never

going to work.

Hitler always had a capacity
to imagine things, no matter

what the reality was.

He was very capable of
self-delusion.

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.

GUNSHOT

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 autumn 1944, Germany is broken.

Germany's cities and towns
have been destroyed.

The German economy
has been destroyed.

German society has been destroyed.

The Nazis provoked a war
in which millions of Germans died.

They brought nothing
but destruction.

And now the net is tightening
on Germany.

From the west, the Americans,
the British and their allies.

From the east, the Soviets
are coming.

Any other leader would surrender.

His instinct is all or nothing.

Total victory or total defeat.

No compromise, no halfway measures.

He believes that a nation or a race
can only really survive

through perpetual conflict.

This pursuit of total war will play
out as a psychological drama

inside Hitler's inner circle.

For Hermann Goering, his punishment
for the failures in the air war

is to be sidelined.

But for all the others, there's
the dubious honour of promotions.

Albert Speer, Joseph Goebbels,

and Heinrich Himmler are all
elevated

even higher, each with a new set
of responsibilities for driving

the war forward.

Military experience, in a way,
does not matter that much to him.

What counted for him was the men
around him had a will to continue

and a fighting spirit.

In the new hierarchy,

propaganda chief Goebbels lands
the job of Minister for Total War.

He must make sure there are enough
soldiers to fight these battles.

But by now, Germany is running
out of men.

The architect Speer must provide
the weapons for the new offensive,

even though he doesn't have
the workers to keep up production.

So as these men prepare
for an impossible military task,

they must compete with each other
for the few resources

Germany has left.

There is definitely a sense
that Speer and Goebbels

are struggling for Hitler's
attention, for Hitler's favour,

and they're struggling over who is
the strategist of the final victory.

This is how power works
in Nazi Germany.

You struggle against all
of your political opponents

to please Hitler.

Speer has already been lying
to Hitler about the amount

of armaments he's been producing.

Now he must convince him
to back him further.

Speer is one of Hitler's
closest friends.

Hitler trusts him.

Speer is educated, smart
and ambitious, but also

he is as ruthless as the dictator
he serves.

Speer now is the one who comes
up with new production figures,

who tells Hitler that victory
is possible, that he is producing

even more arms, that he is producing
even more tanks and weapons.

But Speer has an obstacle.

Joseph Goebbels.

Goebbels believes that he's a man
of history, that he is one of the

key actors in the great drama
of German history.

Goebbels is suspicious of Speer.

He thinks of Speer
as an opportunist, a personal friend

of Hitler that became a
high-ranking Nazi.

Speer was not there
for what the Nazis called

"the struggle". For Goebbels,

this is not about building
the right tools for war,

for Goebbels, this is about
unleashing the racial

spirit for survival.

Goebbels pushes ahead with
the Volkssturm, or People's Storm.

A radical plan to boost Germany's
dwindling army by calling

on all men, young and old,
to join the battlefront.

No military experience required.

Goebbels at this point is trying
to persuade himself that raising

the will of the German people
in the form of this rabble,

this human leftover of military
conscription, can still win the war.

The question is - what is more
important, workers or soldiers?

Goebbels and Speer should
convince Hitler

it's time to stop.

We can't do it any more.

We can't produce more weapons.

We can't produce more workers
and soldiers because there's

no cause any more.

We've lost.

They do the opposite.

They prolong the war.

Speer's answer is to support
his factories with more women, men

and children from the concentration
camps.

One of them is
Helene Podliasky.

Helene is just one of tens
of thousands of young women who

tried to do something, right?

Anything in order to resist.

24-year-old engineer Helene
has been captured by the Gestapo

while working as an agent
for the French Resistance.

She doesn't know exactly what's
going to happen, but she knows

they are to be taken out of France,
to Germany.

You hold your breath, you close
your eyes, and you try

and imagine yourself elsewhere.

And you try and think - "Me
and my new friends,

"we're going to come out
of this somewhere else."

After several days in a cattle car,

Helene arrives at
Ravensbruck Concentration Camp

in north-eastern Germany.

Germany is the big, bad
black hole of a monster.

It's the place of no return.

At this point,

what Helene knows is that in these
concentration camps, people are shot

if they are not worked to death.

And that in many ways it is
the lucky ones who are shot,

before they are worked to death.

Helene is thinking about the next
thing to do.

The next way to resist,
the next way to be relevant.

Helene is sent to work in an
armaments factory in Leipzig.

In this aim to win the war,

Speer doesn't care about human
beings.

He doesn't care about females,
schoolgirls.

Speer is one of the most powerful
organisers of total war.

By mid-December, Goebbels
has delivered more men to fight

on the battlefront.

GOEBBELS:

The Red Army has paused its advance
in the east, so Hitler decides now

is the time to launch his surprise
attack on the west.

Hitler moves troops from the eastern
front to the Ardennes, to exploit a

weak point in the American lines.

What he's looking for is essentially
a repetition of the stunning success

of the spring of 1940, of the attack
on France.

And he kind of recreates
this in the belief

that this can repeat itself.

In the early morning of the 16th
of December 1944, German divisions

launch an artillery barrage.

Across a 105-mile front.

With Allied aircraft grounded due
to the fog, the Germans

make dramatic gains.

Hitler thought he was back in 1940.

He thought the same thing
was happening.

A bold move driven by passionate
belief in the Nazi world.

Germany was going to win the war.

Hitler was so pleased
that he phoned Goebbels to tell him

"This is the great turning
point in the war."

Goebbels is euphoric.

His faith is proven right,
and so Goebbels takes the

opportunity to persuade Hitler to
speak to the nation,

share the good news,

reaffirm their trust, reaffirm
their belief.

Because this is what Goebbels does,

he turns information into
political power.

HITLER:

Many people haven't heard
Hitler's voice for a long time.

For many Germans, this is
a reaffirmation of the hope

that they had been losing
for two years now.

So the

Ardennes offensive is an expression
of hope, an ideological

obsession over reality.

But by now, Speer
is too close to reality to believe

Goebbels' spin.

He's all too aware of a threat
coming from the eastern front.

Hitler's strategy of moving troops
westward has left it exposed,

and the Red Army will begin

its advance into Germany within
days.

This is weighing on Speer's mind
when he arrives at Hitler's

western headquarters, just after
midnight on the 1st of January 1945.

GERMAN PERIOD SONG

Speer arrived late

to find Hitler's entourage
all toasting the New Year.

Hitler, was convinced that the New
Year, 1945,

would bring ultimate victory.

Speer was thinking about, "How am
I going to get the grim realities

"of the situation recognised
by Hitler?"

Speer is too smart not to know
the war can't be won any more.

Everyone knew, by this stage,
that Hitler did not like bad news.

This is not the moment to confront

Hitler with the really desperate
situation.

Speer has not the courage
to say, "Stop the war.

"It can't go on any more."

Why?

He fears disloyalty.

He's not sure what will happen
then, if he tells Hitler the truth.

For him, like all other
high-ranking Nazis,

there is no way out.

Leaving Hitler in '44 or '45
means death.

Germany's initial success
in the Ardennes is short-lived.

The weather clears and the Allies
are able to exploit

their air superiority.

Pounding German positions
and pushing them back.

The Luftwaffe suffers crippling
losses when a quarter of their 800

planes are destroyed.

Hitler's hopes of a comeback
are shattered.

Goebbels, as the liar in chief,
is now in the most difficult

of all situations.

He's struggling because of his love
and admiration for Hitler

and he's struggling because
he's afraid of this defeat.

Goebbels focuses on deflecting
the failure from himself.

He takes advantage of a crisis
meeting at Hitler's

western headquarters, knowing
Speer will be present.

Goebbels begins to make a shock
announcement about another

mass recruitment drive
for the battlefront.

Goebbels is looking to implement
what he thinks, and his ideology

suggests, is the last chance
for Germany.

Sensing that Goebbels is trying
to steal the limelight by promising

an impossible rescue plan,

Speer snaps.

Speer says that the war
can't be won.

They are still fighting,
fighting, recruiting,

and it's totally senseless.

Goebbels jumped on him and
essentially accused him of losing

the war for Germany.

Goebbels humiliated him in front
of Hitler, to prove Speer wrong

and to put his strategy ahead.

And then Hitler has his say.

Hitler starts to ignore
Speer and address himself

to his subordinate, Saur.

"Saur will do the job," he says.

"Saur's really committed.
He will sort it all out."

And between the two of them,
Hitler and Goebbels,

they really humiliate Speer.

First of all, attacking him,
and then ignoring him. And Speer

must have felt about that small
when they did this.

Goebbels enjoyed the event, as he
seems to have told Speer afterwards,

"Why do you let an underling
speak to the Fuhrer

"like this, over your head?"

I wonder if Goebbels is twisting
the knife, enjoying his little

victory over the opportunist
Albert Speer.

The future is insecure and Speer
feels anxiety and horror.

The economy is scrambling.

The Allied Forces are closing in.

They are on the German borders.

So actually there is nothing
to quarrel about.

Speer and Goebbels
quarrel on the sinking ship.

24 hours after being snubbed,
Speer is feeling dejected.

It's only at this point
that his mind-set begins to change.

Speer is not Goebbels.

Speer doesn't want to die in final
victory,

and he thinks that for him

there might be a way to come
out of this mess.

He's thinking of what may happen
after the end of the Third Reich.

What will he do?
What can he do?

How can he save himself?

His family?

He looks for an exit strategy.

One week later, Speer's concern
about a Russian invasion

from the east becomes a reality.

A two-million-strong Red Army
crosses over the River Vistula.

This is absolutely terrifying
to the German population.

They already know what's in store
for them from media reports

orchestrated by Goebbels,
with photographs and lurid

descriptions of Red Army atrocities.

There'd been massacres.

There'd been hundreds
of thousands of rapes

of German women.

Hitler's insistence on carrying
on to the end meant death

for millions of Germans,
which could have been saved

had a compromise
peace been struck.

Desperate to show he's in control.

Hitler moves himself back
to the capital, Berlin.

In a way that's typical
of his refusal to accept reality

at this late stage of the war...

..he has the blinds turned
down on the train windows.

So he can't see the terrible scenes
of rubble, ruined buildings

through which the train is passing.

As they come into Berlin.

it's a scene of absolute
devastation.

From now on, Hitler will direct
the war from the Reich Chancellery.

But he's rapidly running
out of options.

When he finally realised
that his gamble has not paid off,

the Battle of the Bulge
is definitively lost,

Hitler has something of a breakdown.

And he confesses that it's all lost.

"We'll go down", he said,

"But we'll take a world with us."

So Hitler orders the destruction of
anything that might help the Allies.

All the facilities necessary
for the continuation of normal,

everyday life, and then crucially,
for the reconstruction of Germany

after the war, which, of course,
Hitler didn't want to think about.

Meanwhile, Speer, who's holed
up in a Hamburg hotel, is thinking

about life after the war,

more than ever, he wants to survive
and secure a future for himself.

When he gets the news about Hitler's
scorched earth policy,

it gives him an idea.

Speer knows very well that he is

responsible for millions of deaths.

And therefore, to survive the end
of the war, it is necessary...

..to deny it.

He needs another image, not
the image of Hitler's close friend,

but the image of an opponent
of Hitler.

To tell the Allied Forces,

or to tell before a court that he is
innocent.

Speer EMBARKS on a secret
campaign...

..deliberately blocking Hitler's

scorched earth orders.

He gives guns to miners
to fend off demolition squads.

This is his story, his exonerating
story to save his life.

Persuades officials not
to blow up factories.

The notion of a good Nazi
is a powerful notion.

At least someone around Hitler
tried to save lives.

This is one of Speer's
biggest lies.

He puts a stop to the detonation
of critical infrastructure.

Speer is rebranding himself.

Speer is THE spin
doctor of the Third Reich.

Such a direct betrayal of Hitler
is a dangerous strategy,

so for now, Speer must play
a double game.

Speer in public, he presents
himself as the one who is able

to continue fighting, who pushes
others to continue the war.

He says, "Don't give up."

By the end of January, the Russians
are advancing through Germany

and are almost within striking
distance of Berlin.

In response, Speer is asked
to produce more

Panzerfaust anti-tank weapons.

But they prove hopelessly
unreliable.

Reports begin to circulate
that these Panzerfaust are blowing

up in soldiers' faces and not
hitting their targets.

And officials are sent
round to investigate. As part

of their investigations,

they not only speak to the guards,
but they ask,

"Who is managing the ovens?"

And someone points them to Helene.

So she's actually interrogated
about her work.

"What is it that you do here?"

"Well, I don't really know.

"You know, there's a pointy
thing and I just make sure

"that it stays right there."

She gives him exactly the answer
that he's expecting.

And so he goes, "Good girl", pat,
pat,

and moves on to the next person.

But Helene knows exactly
what she's doing.

Using her engineering skills,
she's come up with a way

of sabotaging the Panzerfaust,
and she's recruited an underground

network of fellow prisoners
to put her plan into action.

Parts of it is about an idea
that she has of the effect

that this might have on the actual
progression of the war.

Helene figures out that she could
turn the heat all the way

down about halfway through
the process and then turn it back

up again, so that when these shells
came out red hot, they looked

and felt like they should have.

But actually, the tempering
and forging process

had been sabotaged.

And her calculation is even if only
one in ten of these missiles do not

go off, then that is slowing
down that particular regiment

by at least 10%.

And her thinking is, this is my
moment, this is my purpose.

This is the one thing that I can
finally do.

As the Allies wreak untold
destruction on Germany, Goebbels

decides it's time for the next stunt
in his campaign to please Hitler.

He releases...a movie.

Having pulled 187,000 soldiers
from the front to act as extras,

this is his most ambitious
propaganda project yet.

The movie Kolberg depicts
the heroic struggle

of this small German town
against the French army

in the Napoleonic Wars.

It is meant to persuade German
people that their blood contains

everything necessary for struggle,
resistance and victory.

Goebbels and Hitler watch
it together.

It becomes a moment of ideological,
emotional, psychological communion

over the fate of the German race,
over the historical place

of struggle and resistance
and heroism.

OPERATIC SINGING

It also gives Hitler and Goebbels
themselves hope that the final

victory can still be achieved
and that there must be a trust

in the racial will of the German
people to win.

And the message really is never
surrender, never give in.

If the authorities want you to give
in, just push them to one side.

I think Hitler felt yet again,
Goebbels had delivered the goods

in terms of propaganda.

He felt it could not fail
to inspire the German people,

just as it inspired him.

In search of salvation, Hitler's

attention turns to another
favourite.

Himmler, the diabolical architect
of the Holocaust, is promoted

to a major military role.

Himmler is Hitler's hard man.

Himmler is Hitler's man for carrying
out the most brutal assignments.

Hitler knows that he can trust
Himmler.

Hitler knows that Himmler
will not disappoint him.

As Commander in Chief of
Army Group Vistula,

Himmler is now in charge
of the eastern front.

This is a really big moment
for Himmler, who has never seen

active combat duty.

So Himmler feels elated.

He feels extremely happy.
He feels proud.

Himmler feels that the fate
of Germany is now in his hands.

Hitler thought that Himmler could do
this simply by, as it were,

cracking the whip.

Himmler sets about reinventing
himself as a military man.

His special train becomes
his new army headquarters.

He comes across as a well-groomed
man in a neat uniform,

with his shiny spectacles.

He continues to appear as someone
who is extremely self-confident,

as someone who really knows
how to lead.

But Himmler doesn't have any
military experience to speak of.

Himmler says to military commanders
that they should strike

at the flank.

He constantly talks about attack,
attack, attack.

They know that the orders given
by Himmler to attack the Soviets

are completely unrealistic.

So Himmler failed to impose
his authority as a

Commander in Chief on the commanding
officers.

Himmler, as a military amateur,
does not understand the complexity

of military combat.

In an effort to prove to Hitler
he's having some success,

Himmler resorts to what he does
know how to do - terror.

To avoid concentration camp
prisoners falling into enemy hands,

he orders they be marched away
from the oncoming armies.

Among these prisoners is
Helene Podliasky.

Helene and her comrades are feeling
all sorts of things.

Hope, for one, because clearly
the Allies are advancing.

Fear - that the Nazis may no longer
have any use for them.

Uncertainty about where
it was they were being taken.

You couldn't stop.

If you couldn't keep up the pace,
you died.

If you were starving,
you died.

There was no provision of water
or food or rest

on any of these marches.

Helene saw one of her comrades,
further down the line,

picking up a rotten apple.

GUNSHOT

It becomes clear that if they stay
on this march, the likelihood

that they're going to survive
is close to nil.

And for Helene, that's it.

It's now or never.

"We need to escape."

Helene and her group know the Allied
soldiers are now within reach.

They can hear the front line.

They just need to work out
which direction to take.

By now, Allied air raids
have intensified.

This time, Hitler is directly
in the line of fire.

His private quarters at the Reich
Chancellery, a symbol of Nazi power,

are under attack.

There was nowhere else for Hitler
to go now, but underground.

Hitler descends 15 metres
under the Chancellery gardens

to his heavily fortified hideaway.

The Fuhrerbunker.

Bombardment continues to rain
down on the area.

SUSTAINED BOMBING

For Hitler,
this is a terrible blow.

As Berlin burns, the Allied leaders,
Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin meet

in the Black Sea resort of Yalta.

Confident victory
is just around the corner,

they are making plans for what to do
with Germany after the war.

Unconditional surrender was the top
priority, the main ultimate aim

of allies east and west.

Victory would be accompanied
by dividing Germany into different

zones of occupation.

CONTEMPLATIVE PIANO MUSIC

Hitler hardly reacts at all
to the news of this meeting.

He's determined never to surrender.

It would be like a repetition
of the surrender of 1918.

And for Hitler, it's all or nothing,

it's victory or death.

With the Allies now so close, Speer
spends the next few weeks collecting

official evidence
for his exoneration story,

For his way out to save his life,

Speer really needs not only
a story, but he needs paper.

He starts by writing a memo
to Hitler calling for Germany

to be saved from the
scorched earth policy.

Speer does not write these memos
for Hitler.

He writes them for the advancing
Allied Forces,

to show them

that he did everything to stop
it, that he did everything

to save the German people.

Speer must now get his memo in front
of Hitler,

to make it official.

But he knows better than anyone
that Hitler

doesn't like to be challenged.

So he carefully choreographs
his visit to the bunker.

Speer seeks to avoid the full force
of the wrath that he knows.

Hitler will vent upon him
when he reads the memo.

Speer hands the memo over to one
of his assistants.

Speer tries to sugar the pill
by professing his undying loyalty

to Hitler, and asking for a signed
photograph as the mark

of his esteem.

But just as Speer thinks he's
safe...

There's a tap on his shoulder.

He's summoned back to see the
Fuhrer.

Hitler's seen the memo,
which is a direct challenge

to his mantra of victory or death.

Hitler was appalled by the memo.

Hitler realises that Speer is no
longer on the same wavelength.

He doesn't have the spirit
of self-sacrifice

that true Nazis have.

As far as Hitler was concerned,
this is a terrible betrayal.

This is a sin that Hitler
cannot forgive.

It was the end for him.

After seven days on the run,
Helene and her group make

it to the Mulde river.

They are now just a few miles
from the American front line,

but in the other direction

are the Germans.

So it's life or death, depending
on who they run into first.

They're exhausted.
They're hallucinating.

Every few hours, at least one
of them completely loses

the will to keep going.

But all they have to do
is to keep pushing.

They can make it to the frontier.

When the car first approaches
them, they're not sure

whether it's German soldiers.

But then, very quickly, she realises
that it's the Allies.

Helene probably thinks that this is
about liberating France

and the continent.

Helene feels that this is the point
at which Europe is going to be free.

And that if she has made it,
then many more are going to make

it and that her being alive is part
and parcel of that liberation,

of that freedom.

In the first week of March,

the Soviets are now advancing
towards the city of Kolberg.

The scene of Goebbels movie
masterpiece.

Hitler orders this symbolic
stronghold to be held at all costs.

But this time, there is to be no
heroic defence.

On the 7th of March, the town
of Kolberg fell to the Red Army.

The symbolic town which Goebbels
had devoted so many resources

to presenting us the place that held
out against the Napoleonic

invasions in 1813.

Hitler needs a scapegoat
for this humiliating defeat.

He turns on one of his most
loyal disciples.

Hitler felt that Himmler had let him
down.

He'd failed altogether to stem
the Soviet advance.

Hitler told him to his face
that he was incompetent

as a military commander.

Didn't have any experience.
Wasn't doing the job.

For Himmler,

the dressing down he receives

from Hitler is one of the low
points,

not only of his career,
but also of his life.

His world is coming to an end,
almost.

Who is Himmler without Hitler's
support?

Himmler knows that he is a nobody.

Himmler is ordered by Hitler
to strip the armbands from the

SS soldiers who have been stationed
in the east.

And five days later, Himmler
is dismissed

from his military responsibilities.

Himmler really needs to think
very carefully about where he stands

in the Nazi hierarchy, where
he will stand in future.

For over a decade, Hitler has

encouraged his circle of deputies

to compete for his favour.

But this management strategy only
works when you're winning.

With defeat now looming, Speer
has betrayed Nazi ideals

and Himmler has failed.

Hitler feels increasingly isolated,
increasingly alone.

The circle of people who Hitler
feels he can unconditionally

rely on is getting smaller and
smaller all the time.

This is no day for a birthday party.

It is deeply inappropriate
and deeply weird.

They know they're going
to be defeated.

They haven't got hope.

What they have got is champagne.

Himmler realises that Hitler
is losing the plot.

Hitler says he doesn't want
to be congratulated.

What is there to congratulate
when everything is falling apart?

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.

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,

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.

By this stage, almost every building
in Berlin has been flattened,

but there's still a partially
intact concert hall.

And in this concert hall, the Nazis
organise a final concert

by the Berlin Philharmonic.

APPLAUSE

The concert features
Wagner's Gotterdammerung,

in which the gods of Valhalla
are consumed in flames.

MUSIC: Gotterdammerung
by Richard Wagner

The last scene features a suicide
at its centre.

There's a clear implication
here that Germany, Hitler,

and as many people as possible...

..are going to end it all.

APPLAUSE

It's an extraordinary event.

And at the end of the concert,
as the audience streams out,

there are Hitler Youth handing
out cyanide capsules.

It's an invitation to the audience
to bring everything to an end,

to kill themselves as well.

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?

MUSIC CRESCENDOS

And who will betray him...

..and when?

When Adolf Hitler sweeps to power
in the 1930s,

he promises the German people
a thousand-year Reich,

a thousand years of
undisputed glory.

Seduced by this vision of
global domination,

Hitler's millions of followers
think he's invincible.

Now, at the end of April 1945,

the war Hitler started has come back
to haunt him.

Germany is on the brink of
total defeat,

and the all-powerful Fuhrer is
living in an underground bunker.

Most of Germany is occupied by
invading Allied forces,

and a two-million-strong
Soviet army

is just a mile from Hitler's
hiding place.

With the Red Army now inside Berlin,

even Hitler's most loyal deputies

have started to turn their backs
on him.

Albert Speer, once a close personal
friend of Hitler's,

believes the Allies will need him to
help rebuild Germany after the war.

Speer is looking for his own future,

his way out of the Third Reich.

He's collecting material for the
Allied forces,

to show them that he did everything
to stop the war,

to save the lives of people.

He twists the truth.

Speer now tries to appear
as Hitler's opponent.

Meanwhile, Hermann Goring,
Hitler's notional successor,

is convinced he's the one the Allies
will choose to collaborate with.

After all these years of waiting,
you think the possibility might now

arrive that I will actually
become Hitler's successor.

This is a point to which I've been
working for many years.

It's arrived at the wrong time,
of course,

but nevertheless there's still
a possibility

I can play an important role again.

While he waits to stake his claim
as leader,

Goring tries to preserve the wealth
and status he's enjoyed for so long.

The artworks, the tapestries,
the jewellery,

all the things that he's collected
as Hitler's deputy

across the years of the war
are all being packed up.

He wants to keep around him
the apparatus

that made him the great figure
he thinks he is.

Hitler believes Heinrich Himmler
is still his most loyal follower.

Himmler knows that his idol
is going to die soon.

Himmler must shape his own
future now.

What is keeping Himmler
going at this stage

is his determination to survive...

..his determination to maintain
his reputation

as one of the most powerful men
in Germany.

And he is really keen on crafting
a new role for himself

in a post-Hitler Germany.

Behind the Fuhrer's back,

Himmler is secretly making plans
for peace with Germany's enemies.

If Hitler discovers Himmler's plan,
it could cost him his life.

MUSIC: Song Of The Plains
by Boris Alexandrov

The Soviets are now taking
Berlin street by street,

hour by hour.

Brutalising the German people
as they go.

Heading to Hitler's bunker from
all directions.

DISTANT EXPLOSIONS

On 27th of April, Hitler decides
he wants to go upstairs,

into the garden, and inspect the
ruins of the Reich Chancellery.

He gets his valet, Anslinger,
to lead him up to the door

that opens out onto the garden.

EXPLOSION

But just at that moment, a Russian
shell lands in the garden.

It's clearly far too dangerous
to go.

The Russians are now surrounding
the chancellery area

and bombarding it very heavily, and
so they have to go back downstairs.

DISTANT EXPLOSIONS

By this time, he's realised
that the end is approaching.

Hitler knows he is now trapped.

With the Nazi regime disintegrating,

only his most die-hard loyalists
stay by his side.

Propaganda Chief Joseph Goebbels
is one of the last true believers.

Goebbels understands that the war
is lost.

But he still urges the German people

to fight to their utmost, to fight
to the bitter end.

This is not because they expect
victory any more,

but rather they are walking into
an apocalypse.

They want to make a historical
last stand,

they want to go down in flames
and take Europe down with them.

Nazi ideology is based
on the belief,

in a Darwinian struggle
between races,

only the strongest can survive.

Now the Germans are losing the war,

Hitler and Goebbels turn this racist
ideology against their own people.

Hitler and Goebbels had come
to believe their own propaganda

about racial struggles for survival,

and that if German people
did not win,

they did not deserve to survive.

They did not care for the lives
of German people

if they were not victorious.

Goebbels is so indoctrinated
by Nazism,

he makes a shocking choice.

The Goebbels' decision to take
their children with them

in the Hitler bunker seems crazy.

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

Goebbels was not going to leave
the side of the Fuhrer.

Magda declared very openly,

"I belong to my husband, and my
children belong to me."

Obedient as she is,

there is far more to Magda than a
doting wife.

Magda is a very committed Nazi.

All of the Goebbels' children have
names beginning with H

in a tribute to Hitler.

Hitler outright believes that she is
the model

of the perfect Aryan woman that
represents the purity,

the dedication, the devotion and the
ideological radicalism of Nazism.

She has been printed in
every magazine.

Every German would have known
her face

because she is the ideal
Nazi matron.

Goebbels hopes his family's
show of loyalty

will boost Hitler's morale.

But in reality, Germany's military
position is hopeless.

Things are so desperate in
April 1945

that Hitler issues a proclamation
that everybody should fight.

People shouldn't do deals
with the Allies,

they shouldn't raise white flags,

men, women and children
should resist until the last.

This is an invitation to die in the
interests of a future Germany,

as Hitler saw it.

Hitler believes that the most
shameful thing in German history

has been the surrender, the
capitulation of 1918,

at the end of World War I.

This time, there will be
no surrender.

While Hitler demands self-sacrifice
from his bunker in Berlin...

..in southern Germany, American
forces are just a few miles

outside the historic town
of Ansbach.

19-year-old student Robert Limpert
fears many lives

will be needlessly lost by resisting
Germany's inevitable defeat.

Robert, this person who wanted to
speak out,

he wanted to think freely.

He doesn't want to just follow the
orders of the Nazis

without questioning.

The town's commander,
Colonel Ernst Meyer,

calls on local people to fight until
the last bullet.

Few have the capacity to resist
his senseless command.

They either still support the Nazis

or are too exhausted by war
to defy him.

It's very strange.

Like, speaking about the Nazis,
I feel myself speaking about Isis.

Because it's exactly what they did.

People lose track of what they are.

People forget at one point
that they are being oppressed.

While a student at
Wurzburg University,

Robert witnessed the devastation of
the city by Allied bombers.

Robert saw all that destruction

and thought, "I have a chance
to prevent this

"from happening in my town."

He believes in the power of words.

He believes in the power
of thoughts.

Now he decides it's time to show
the people how ugly this war is.

He began distributing
those leaflets.

If caught with his
anti-Nazi propaganda,

Robert faces certain death.

But with countless lives at stake,
he cannot stand by and do nothing.

Robert has to convince the people
of Ansbach not to fight back

when the Americans arrive.

In his last line, he wrote "Death
to the Nazi executioners!"

This is the ultimate level
of resistance to the Nazis.

His opposition against the system

is putting him at the danger
of death,

that he might be killed
at any moment.

But he knows deep inside
his heart and mind

that this is what should be done.

Hitler is really now
cooped up in the bunker.

The situation is getting desperate.

The Red Army is going to be there
within hours.

In this atmosphere, discipline
begins to fall apart.

People start smoking in
Hitler's presence.

They started drinking, which he also
didn't like, as a teetotaller.

People started disrespecting him.

They didn't stand up when he entered
a room, didn't give Nazi salutes.

It's a situation in which Hitler,
in some sense, is already dead.

He's already treated as if he's
no longer the great leader.

You can smell the fear,
the sweat of people.

The toilets are blocked,

and so the stench is spreading
throughout the bunker.

There is a sense of impending doom.

This is the moment when his charisma
finally breaks and disappears.

In these darkest hours, Hitler
relies evermore

on the unconditional support
of his girlfriend, Eva Braun.

MUSIC: Piano Concerto No. 5
by Ludwig van Beethoven

Eva Braun is not a particularly
political creature.

She is not following things
in great detail.

Eva's fantasy is about her place
in Nazi history.

The clock is ticking.

Time is running out.

I now need to make sure
that I am at Hitler's side.

Most rational people would be trying
to get out of Berlin.

Eva has a different ambition.

Her life doesn't hold value
to her

unless she can achieve her
greatest ambition,

which is to secure her place in
future Nazi history,

being Hitler's loyal support
to the end.

Even if it costs her life.

Despite his rapidly
waning authority,

Hitler still holds daily
military briefings.

He now pins his hopes on the
12th Army,

but they are nowhere near Berlin.

Heather's Situation Conferences
came to focus more and more

on enormous maps he'd had made...

..with little flags that he could
move around,

each representing a division.

And he became almost obsessed
with these maps.

But the problem was each division
was severely depleted.

In reality, the little flags,
they represented nothing at all.

They were purely imaginary.

One of the generals, Keitel,
requests permission

to rejoin the remnants of the
12th Army

to make sure Hitler's demands are
carried out.

Keitel is the last of the totally
loyal generals around Hitler.

He's there at the centre of things
because Hitler trusts him

not to object to anything he orders.

Even Keitel realises that Hitler
is indulging in fantasies

so bizarre and so hopeless that it
would not make any sense

to carry out these orders.

Keitel simply disappears.

He just fled.

As the situation in Berlin worsens,

Himmler senses an opportunity to
improve his own chances of survival.

Himmler feels emboldened to press
on with plans for the future.

Himmler thinks that Hitler
is incapable at this stage

of acting decisively.

Himmler needs to take charge
from now on.

As he contemplates a new Nazi order,
Himmler allows himself to imagine

a world in which he is the
next Fuhrer.

He even considers a new name
for the Nazi Party -

the Party of National Union.

He's a man who boasts about loyalty.

He is a man who boasts
about honour.

But what really matters to Himmler
in the end is his own prestige,

it is his own position.

Himmler thinks the best way
to secure his position

in future Germany is to sound out a
peace deal with the Western Allies.

To make this bold move,
he travels 175 miles

north of Berlin to the
Baltic coast.

Himmler is meeting an intermediary,
Count Bernadotte,

who is a senior representative from
the neutral Swedish government.

Himmler tells Bernadotte
that he has authority from Hitler

to negotiate with the
Western Allies.

Himmler boasts that he will force
the German troops

fighting on the Western Front
to surrender.

This is exactly what Hitler
promised would never happen.

Going over the Fuhrer's head

is a very dangerous game
to be playing.

Himmler is not really having lots of
moral qualms.

He simply talks about business.

Himmler is determined to have a
meeting with the Supreme Commander

of the Allied Forces in Europe,
General Eisenhower.

And he is wondering whether he
should shake hands with Eisenhower

or whether he should bow.

He is acting under delusion
if he believes

that the Western Allies will
seriously negotiate with him,

the architect of the Holocaust.

In the town of Ansbach,

Robert Limpert continues his one man
campaign of resistance.

But he needs more than just leaflets
to save lives

and starts taking ever bigger risks.

To disrupt the defence of the town,

Limpert cuts telephone wires leading
from the headquarters

of the local Nazi commander,
Colonel Meyer.

It's probably his last resort.

It's an act of courage,

but at the same time, he knows...

..the step he is taking
has only one end.

Boys from the Hitler Youth
saw him...

..and they reported him immediately
to the police.

When Robert is arrested, a show
trial is quickly held.

And in two minutes, he is sentenced
to death.

They don't care about
killing him physically.

They are so afraid of what Robert
would say

if he was given the right to speak

because they know it is the power of
his words that will last.

Even at that moment, Robert
was resisting.

He somehow managed to escape.

I believe he died with some sorrow,
looking at his people.

But at the same time, satisfied
that he had done the right thing.

Meyer said, "Let him stay here
until he stinks."

They wanted to leave him hanging.

To that extent, they were trying
to dehumanise him.

But they forgot that Robert
is no more this body.

Robert is the value of what it
means to be a free man.

I believe freedom is what he
stood for.

And it's freedom, what he died for.

Tragically, the Americans arrive
in Ansbach

just a few hours after
Robert's execution.

His town surrenders without a fight.

Robert is one of 10,000 German
citizens executed by the Nazis

in a final wave of terror.

EXPLOSIONS

In Berlin, Russian shells pound
the streets surrounding the bunker.

EXPLOSION

Underground, life is becoming
increasingly squalid.

Fans supplying fresh air
are turned off

after they start sucking in
smoke and fumes

from the heavy shelling above.

The war is so close,

an emergency field hospital
is set up inside the bunker itself.

Surrounded by the dead and dying,

ever more dreadful news
reaches those trapped inside.

An Allied radio broadcast
has been intercepted.

Hitler and Goebbels are together
when Hitler's press secretary

comes in and lets them know that
the Allied press has published

attempts by Himmler to make peace
with England and the United States.

Himmler had been the truest
of the true.

Hitler used to call him
"Treu Himmler" -

"Faithful Himmler".

Now, Goebbels and Hitler
are outraged.

They see any attempt at peace
whatsoever as a betrayal.

Hitler goes incandescent
in another outburst of rage.

This is a cause of absolute despair
for Hitler.

Hitler finds this the last, final,
worst betrayal of all.

Faithful Heinrich has become
Faithless Heinrich.

"It is the greatest betrayal
in history," he says.

Stunned, Hitler takes out his fury
on one of Himmler's subordinates,

Hermann Fegelein, who he suspects
to be part of Himmler's plot.

Fegelein was close to Hitler

because he was married to
Eva Braun's sister, Gretl.

But Fegelein was also, of course,
close to Himmler.

Astonishingly, he ordered Fegelein
to be shot.

GUN COCKS

GUNSHOT

Not content with Fegelein's death
and fuelled by paranoia,

Hitler orders the unthinkable -

the execution of Himmler himself.

But Himmler is more than 100 miles
away from the Fuhrer bunker,

near Germany's Baltic coast.

Himmler is completely shocked that
Hitler, his erstwhile patron,

staunchest supporter, is now
ordering the execution of Himmler.

This is something which comes as
totally unexpected news.

He has lost almost everything.

He is absolutely shattered.

Hitler and Himmler have stood
side by side in the Nazi Party

for over 20 years.

With the news that the Allies
will not even consider negotiating

with Himmler, he realises he's
betrayed his Fuhrer for nothing.

The ties between Himmler and Hitler
are now cut for good.

With his inner circle in disarray,

Hitler makes time for one last
grand gesture.

After keeping her in the shadows
for 15 years,

Hitler is finally ready to
acknowledge his girlfriend,

Eva Braun.

When Eva Braun went to stay with him
in Berlin in the last days,

resisting all attempts to persuade
her to leave and go into hiding...

..he was, I think, grateful,
perhaps rather touched.

He decided now was the time
to give her a public thanks

for her loyalty and devotion
by marrying her.

It's hard to accept, but Hitler
did have ordinary human emotions.

He was capable of love.

He does seem to have loved
Eva Braun.

MUSIC: Oboe Concerto No 2 in D minor
by Albinoni

When Eve signs her name,
she begins writing "Braun",

before correcting it to
"Eva Hitler, nee Braun".

This is all Eva's ever wanted.

And she's really pleased
to become Frau Hitler.

She's got her eye
on the history books.

Finally, she'll be recognised
as belonging to the heart

of the Third Reich.

Eva Braun had imagined a wedding
on a grand scale -

a royal wedding...

..a celebration,
a couple of days of partying...

..cameras filming everything,
flowers and meadows.

What she gets is a plate
of cold sandwiches

in a hole 25 foot beneath
the ground.

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

The nuptials are short-lived.

Hitler leaves the celebrations
to dictate to one of his secretaries

his last public statement as Fuhrer.

Hitler's testimony's
a very depressing document.

It's full of the settling of
old scores, of revenge, hatred,

as well as expressions of loyalty
to the people who've

unquestionably followed him.

He also has diatribes full of hatred
for people who have betrayed him.

And then at the end, he has another
anti-Semitic rant against the Jews.

He accuses them of having plotted
the destruction of Germany.

Complete paranoid fantasy.

And then he says,

"And the Jewish people have had to
suffer the same fate."

And that is a confession
that he has ordered

and had carried out the Holocaust,

the mass murder of
nearly six million Jews.

MUSIC: Symphony of Sorrowful Songs
by Gorecki

ARTILLERY FIRE

With the Russians almost
at Hitler's door...

..staff in the bunker receive
dramatic news from Italy.

Hitler's ally,
dictator Benito Mussolini,

and his mistress have been killed by
communist partisans...

..their mutilated bodies
publicly strung up

outside a petrol station...

..near Milan.

Hitler's not a man who fears death.

What he did fear was to be captured,
taken prisoner, humiliated,

put on trial, subjected to the
mockery and contempt of the world.

Hitler gets the news of
Mussolini's death.

This is the last straw.

He says he's not going to suffer
the same fate.

He is going to die, as far as
he can, a dignified death.

And he wants his body and that of
Eva Hitler - as she now is -

to be burned until
they are unrecognisable,

so there's nothing left of them
to mock or defile.

Hitler assembles his staff
in the bunker on the 30th of April

and says formally goodbye to them,

shaking their hands and
thanking them for their service.

Finally, he has reached a point
where he knows it's total defeat.

In a sense, that makes him
rather calm.

The decision has been made.

There's no more hope of
turning the tide,

there's no more hope of a victory,

and so he knows he's going to
shoot himself.

And so he's reconciled
himself to his fate.

GUNSHOT

The proclamation that Hitler
had died a hero's death,

fighting at the head of his troops,
was, of course, a complete lie.

He died a squalid death
in the bunker by shooting himself

and poisoning his partner.

When Hitler dies,

for many Germans, the world is over.

It too dies.

He had loomed so enormously large
in the consciousness of the Germans

under the Third Reich that there was
an enormous wave of suicides

in Nazi Germany, one of the largest
mass deaths in history.

GUNSHOT

The defeat was total.

Germany was occupied.

There was no obvious reason
to carry on fighting.

GUNFIRE

The Fuhrer may be dead,

but he's left a crucial set of
orders to be carried out.

Hitler's private secretary
sends a message

disclosing news of his successor.

In his final testament, Hitler
has made a surprise appointment.

Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz
will be Reich president.

Doenitz may be an outside choice
for Supreme Commander,

but he is a committed Nazi.

The Navy, in complete contrast
to the Army,

had been faithful to Hitler
all the way through.

And Hitler, I think, felt that
Doenitz, as the head of the Navy,

represented the one institution
in Germany that he had trusted,

that remained loyal to him
all the way through.

Doenitz summons
the disgraced Himmler

to his temporary headquarters
in northern Germany.

Himmler sees this invitation as
a chance to salvage his reputation

among the Nazi elite.

Himmler now feels completely
liberated of any loyalties,

of any ties, of any obligations
to Hitler,

so Himmler can now do
whatever he likes.

Himmler still commands the SS
and the police.

Himmler still has a considerable
amount of power.

He is so deluded that he thinks
he will play a major role

in a post-Hitler government.

Himmler appears with armed guards
in Doenitz's office

because he wants to remind Doenitz

that the SS and Himmler
are still extremely powerful,

that they are still forces
to be reckoned with.

Fearing a violent confrontation,

Doenitz has concealed a gun
with the safety catch removed

under papers on his desk.

Doenitz knows that Himmler has been
expelled from the Nazi Party

and that Himmler is a traitor
in Hitler's eyes.

The atmosphere is extremely tense.

Himmler still thinks that he is
far more powerful than Doenitz,

who is, after all,
only a Grand Admiral,

the leader of the German Navy.

Doenitz hands Himmler a copy of
Hitler's final order,

identifying the Admiral,
not Himmler, as his successor.

After 22 years a member,

Himmler is unceremoniously dismissed
from the Nazi Party.

Himmler has always suppressed
his own feelings.

He's never shown any emotion
in public.

But now, after his fall from power,
he must be feeling a total failure.

Himmler offers his services
as a second-in-command,

but Doenitz refuses.

Himmler has always been very sure
of himself.

He's always known his identity.

He's always known the purpose
of his life.

But now he doesn't.

What is his plan B?

What is he going to do next?

One thing he knows is that
he wants to save his own neck.

Speer, keen to keep himself
at the heart of power,

also meets with Doenitz.

He, too, is shunned
and gets no official position.

For a once close friend of Hitler...

..it's a personal humiliation.

But Speer soon senses an opportunity
in this rejection...

..a chance to distance himself from
the excesses of the Nazi regime.

It's, for him, part of
his exit strategy.

Speer claims that he is
just a civilian,

he is a bystander,

he has nothing to do with
all these atrocities, with crimes.

This is important for Speer
to create a new image

as the innocent man.

With their hero dead
at his own hand,

Joseph Goebbels and his wife Magda
now face an appalling choice.

They are locked into
a terrible struggle.

They have decided to stay there
until the end

and share Hitler's fate,

and so they discuss what to do
with their children.

The Goebbels are so fervently Nazi,
so ideologically committed,

there is nothing for them
to live for.

A world without Nazism was not
a world for their own children.

Goebbels, the mastermind of
Nazi indoctrination,

is the one member of
Hitler's inner circle

who most fervently swallows
his own propaganda.

Magda writes, "The world
which will succeed the Fuhrer

"and National Socialism
is not worth living in.

"And for this reason, I have brought
the children here too.

"They are too good for the life
that will come after us,

"and a gracious God will understand

"if I myself give them release
from it."

The Goebbels' children are sedated,

before cyanide capsules
are crushed into their mouths.

Their parents then shoot themselves.

Magda didn't kill her children
because she was a monster.

Magda was a person that had been
radicalised by these ideas,

radicalised to such an extent that
she did the most unnatural thing

a mother could do
and killed her own children.

On the 7th of May 1945,
a representative of the German Army

signs Germany's
unconditional surrender.

After six years of conflict,
the war in Europe is over,

Nazism defeated.

HITLER SHOUTS IN GERMAN

When Hitler rose to power in 1933,
Germany was a liberal democracy.

Then he and his fanatical deputies
stripped the German people

of their basic freedoms to establish
a ruthless dictatorship.

Fuelled by hatred and a flawed
belief in racial superiority,

Hitler instigated a global war
that cost 60 million lives.

But as his dream of
an Aryan empire collapsed,

he turned his anger
on his own people...

..and finally himself.

The Third Reich shows us
how dangerous ideas are.

Where Hitler and the Nazis
are different

is that they wanted to ultimately
conquer the whole world.

Their ambitions were without limit.

Nazis, like all nationalists,

do not believe that there's
such a thing as humanity.

For them, we're different species
locked in a struggle for survival.

Underlying that is a total contempt
for human life.

Even though Europe is now at peace,

for some Nazis,
the story is far from over.

Goering makes no effort to run away
at the end of the war -

in fact, the opposite, really.

Goering gives himself up
to the American Army.

And I think he does so
because he still has this idea

that he'll be treated
as a senior figure now,

perhaps the most important
senior figure, after Hitler's death.

And so Goering hopes he'll be taken
to Eisenhower

and be able to talk to him
as one senior officer

to another senior officer.

Goering has no idea that, instead,

he faces trial for
crimes against humanity.

What Goering doesn't really expect
is that he will end up

in a prison cell along with
other major war criminals.

It's so bizarre.

I think he has no sense that
he is one of them.

While Goering is behind bars...

..Himmler is on the run.

Himmler's main priority now
is to get as far away

from the advancing Soviet troops
as quickly as he can.

He has really fallen from power.

But there is no evidence whatsoever
that Himmler is feeling any remorse.

He is completely unrepentant.

Himmler is carrying a fake ID,

pretending to be just
an ordinary soldier.

But his forgery is
quickly discovered.

Himmler is acutely aware of the fact

that he's one of Europe's
most wanted men.

He knows that he will be
put on trial and that

he will be, in all likelihood,
sentenced to death.

As Himmler is searched,

he bites down on a cyanide capsule
he's concealed in his mouth.

The architect of the Holocaust

and the man responsible for
the deaths of millions of people

is dead.

His death by suicide is
a rather pathetic, cowardly act.

At the same time,
Allied forces arrive

at Admiral Doenitz's headquarters
in northern Germany.

Any hopes the remaining Nazis have
of playing a role

in Germany's post-war government
are dispelled when they're arrested.

Speer is very clever.

He knows that pictures
are very powerful.

On the day of the arrest,
he shows up in civilian clothes,

in a trench coat.

All others wear uniforms.

He shows with this,

"I'm a civilian and I don't belong
to this group.

"I'm different."

He lies. He has to lie.

Even other members of Hitler's inner
circle don't lie like Speer lies.

Now, the world must seek retribution
and Germany must deal with its role

in one of the deadliest episodes
in human history.

As dozens of Nazis are rounded up
and put on trial...

..tens of thousands more are on
the run or hiding in plain sight...

..as they begin to process
what they've done....

..in the name of the Fuhrer.