All language subtitles for Forbidden.History.S07E02.Terror.of.Nazi.Propaganda.1080p.DSCP.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-BTN_track3_[eng]

[narrator] In the years
leading up to World War II,

Hitler and the Nazi Party
had one main objective.

To brainwash the German people
into the Nazi way of thinking.

[Lynn Picknett] The Nazi Party
was aimed at oppression.

It was aimed at conquering.

No matter what your role
in life, you were part
of this enormous war machine.

[narrator] This would
be achieved

using innovative methods
and the latest technology.

They were being fed
Nazi propaganda
through a fire hose.

[narrator] The Nazis
were relentless in promoting
their warped worldview.

The rapturous
tens of thousands in the crowd
hailed Hitler

almost as
kind of a religious figure.

[narrator] Even vacations
were repurposed

for state-sponsored
indoctrination.

This is what
the Nazis were creating.

An entire city
for Germans workers
to go on holiday

under Nazi control.

[narrator] How far
did Hitler go to corrupt
the German population?

And how successful
were his schemes

in transforming a nation
into a finely-tuned
war machine?

On the peaceful island
of Rugen,

is the largest surviving
monument to Hitler's
brainwashing project.

This island sits 130 miles
north of Berlin,

off Germany's Baltic coast.

These sandy beaches
have long been
a popular vacation spot.

Historian Nick Jackson
is an expert on this location

and what Hitler planned
to do with it.

[Nick Jackson] It was,
and is today,

one of the more expensive
domestic holiday resorts.

For the last
couple hundred years,

it's been Northern Germany's
premier holiday destination.

[narrator] But
this idyllic island
hides a much darker past.

Years before
the outbreak of war
and soon after ceasing power,

the Nazis exploited
this coast's popularity
for their own twisted ends.

Here they built
a giant vacation compound

that would come to be known
as the Colossus of Prora .

[Jackson] So,
Prora is this absolutely
enormous complex

that covers
almost three miles in length,

which is still, you know,
one of the single largest
building complexes

of the modern age.

[Dr. Luke Daly-Groves]
Hitler himself
absolutely loved architecture

and he really liked for things
to be built
on a gigantic scale

because this suited his aims
for global domination.

At Prora, there would have
been cafés, a cinema,
bowling alleys,

two swimming pools,
including a heated one
with a wave machine.

There are many things
people know
about the Nazi Party,

but one thing they don't know
is that for a short while
before the Second World War,

it was the largest travel
and tour operator
in the world.

[narrator] This huge building
was designed
to hold 20,000 people.

But the guests here
would not have had much time
for relaxation

because when it came
to the Nazi Party,

there was always
an ulterior motive.

The main crux of the building
is we are allowing you to have
an enjoyable holiday.

That makes you, um,
keen on the regime.

And it also relaxes you
because you're gonna
be expected to work

on behalf of, uh,
of your country

and certainly, um,
work on behalf of producing
a country

that is capable
of fulfilling
Hitler's military dreams

of dominating Europe.

You are going to be expected
to die for that idea.

[Lynn Picknett] It would have
been wall-to-wall
Nazi indoctrination,

one way or another.

Whether it was actual speeches
given to them,
or the songs they sang,

or the music they listened to,

everything was geared
to heightening
the sense of Nazis.

By controlling their holidays,
the Nazi Party was able
to keep an eye on

and keep control
over ordinary citizens.

There were spies
within these camps.

And if they picked up
on anyone speaking ill
of Hitler

or of the Nazi Party,
then they would be turned in
and there would be grave,

if not deadly, consequences
for those people.

[narrator] Prora was
one of five gigantic, coastal,
brainwashing complexes

planned by the Nazis.

But indoctrination was not
the only purpose
this site's designers

had in mind.

Possibly at the, um,
insistence of Hitler himself,

nearly all
mid-30s Nazi buildings
are designed for two purposes.

One is theatrical performances
and rewards
for the German people.

But on the other hand,
given that, um, war is always
planned in Hitler's future,

the size of these rooms
and the design of the building
was also partially conceived

for it to function, as it did,
as a military hospital.

[narrator] Prora sits
crumbling today,

a decaying testament
to the Nazis
mass brainwashing program.

In the German capital
of Berlin,

evidence of the Nazi's
indoctrination program
is harder to find.

But in the vibrant suburb
of Wedding,
one man knows exactly

how serious the Nazis were
about training
the German population for war

because his family
paid the price
for dissent firsthand.

Tommy Spree has managed
the Anti-War Museum
for almost 40 years.

This is the, uh, worldwide,
first museum
that was ever founded

against violence, against war.

Founded by my grandfather
Ernst Friedrich.

Ernst Friedrich
was a conscientious objector
in the First World War,

and after the war,
he gets involved in all sorts
of political movements,

including, most famously,
pacifism.

[Spree] And he wanted to show
how disastrous
this First World War was.

People in Germany thought
a war like that
would never happen again.

This world war would be
the war to end all wars.

When Hitler came to power
in 1933,
it took only four weeks

till the private army
of Hitler
called the Brown Shirts

stormed the museum
and they changed
this house of peace

into a torturing chamber.

[Daly-Groves] Hitler
absolutely hated pacifists.

In 1928, he referred
to a nasty pacifist sewage,

which he claims was poisoning
the German people.

[Tony McMahon]
Hitler's rise to power
was essentially violent.

He had no time for pacifism.

And those who resisted
the drive to war
were more than likely

going to end up
in a concentration camp.

[Daly-Groves] People who
were political prisoners
of the Nazis at this time,

were often subjected
to gruesome torture
and horrific treatment.

But Friedrich
being the remarkable man
that he was,

at his release,
he actually manages
to flee Germany

and he goes on to fight
for the French Resistance
in the Second World War.

[narrator] The Anti-War Museum
founded by Ernst Friedrich

and now operated
by his grandson,

is filled with examples
of Nazi propaganda.

This is, uh, an original
air raid shelter.

Everyone had
his or her own kitchen chair.

And you had to sit
on that chair,
it was controlled.

The Germans have always
been very good in controlling.

The Nazi air raid
construction program
started in the mid 1930's

and easily outstripped
similar Allied projects.

You have to remember that
this was a totalitarian state.

That the Nazis controlled
all the communications at all.

And so they were able
to brainwash the German people
into believing

that war was
not only inevitable,

but the German people
were superior
and would undoubtedly win.

[Spree] Of course brainwashing
took place

because of course they wanted,
er, German boys
to join the German Army.

And if people in Germany
had read Hitler's book
Mein Kampf, my battle,

they then would have realized
that Hitler meant war
and that Hitler wanted

to overrun, well,
the whole of Europe.

People like Hitler,
people who want wars,
they always lie

to their own society.

[narrator] But Hitler's
extreme worldview

and the strategies he used
to promote it
would prove so successful

that even the war-weary people
of Germany
would willingly join his cause

in the most bloody conflict
the world has ever seen.

[narrator] In the lead-up
to World War II,

Hitler was doggedly focused
on preparing the German people
to go to war.

He needed a master manipulator
to spread the Nazi message

and oversee
the propaganda machine.

And he had just the man
for the job.

[Daly-Groves] Power
in Nazi Germany
to a large extent

depended on closeness
to the Fuhrer.

Joseph Goebbels was
very close to Hitler,

which meant
that his Ministry
of Propaganda

was one of the most powerful
organizations in Nazi Germany.

Everything that you saw
and heard in Germany
was filtered through Goebbels.

[narrator] When Hitler
seized power in 1933,
he installed Goebbels as head

of the Reich Ministry
of Public Enlightenment
and Propaganda.

His headquarters were
in lavish offices
in central Berlin.

So, this was in essence
the nerve center
of the Nazi regime.

Everything from this building
was designed with a purpose
to influence and manipulate

the German people
into viewing the world through
the ideological lens

of the Nazi regime.

Goebbels served essentially
as Hitler's chief PR officer

and his job was largely
to bring the German people
along with the Nazi Party.

And he marshalled
all the resources of popular
media available to him.

The methods Goebbels used

included both traditional
and emerging media.

[Dominic] The Nazis weren't
a political party
in the traditional sense.

They were a cult,
it was a movement.

And in order to garner
the levels of support
they needed,

they had to engage
in mass levels
of propaganda effectively.

And they did that
by employing technology
and constant messaging.

So they used the radio
ceaselessly and very,
very meticulously.

[Matt] After shortly
taking office,

it was important to Goebbels
that they create
a affordable radio,

uh, for all Germans
to have access to.

And this is where we get
the concept
of the Volksempfanger,

the people's radio.

It was to cost no more
than 35 Reichsmarks,

um, and some 70%
of German households
had access

or had a radio in their homes.

But, of course,
this had a very
sinister side as well.

Not only was Goebbels
in control of the news, papers
and the films,

but by having access
to people's homes,

ah, he was able
to indoctrinate
the German people,

really 24 hours a day.

[narrator] The propaganda
ministry grew steadily
from 350 employees in 1933

to 2,000 employees by 1939.

With a budget of close
to $1 billion
in today's money.

But Goebbels
and his propaganda ministry

was only one pillar
of the great Nazi
brainwashing machine.

The party sought to control
every aspect of people's
leisure time

through a program known
as Kraft durch Freude
or Strength through Joy.

[Dominic] It ran
from 1933 to 1939.

It was their leisure wing,
if you like, but they used
it as a propaganda tool

because whilst entertaining
people in the library,
in concerts, in theaters,

on holidays, they were
dripping Nazi ideology
all the time.

The ultimate goal
was to try and create
a racial people's community,

in which regional and class
divisions would be destroyed
in pursuit of national aims.

Which for Hitler,
included war.

Strength through Joy
was a program engineered

to make the average German
person love the Nazi Party
and feel loved by it.

[Tony] You did not take
a holiday
without the Nazi state

having its beady eye
trained on you.

And to such an extent,
everybody had to take
their holidays

through this organization.

It became the biggest
travel agency in the world.

[narrator] In addition
to the vacations people were
to enjoy at Prora,

the Strength through Joy
organization offered
other leisure activities, too.

Strength through Joy
wasn't just land based
holiday resorts.

Um, it actually began
with a concept of giving
people cruises.

So, I mean, it still has
an idea of glamor
about it today.

So running from this quay,
it would've been two piers.

One of them was 2,600 feet
out into the Baltic Sea,
the water's deeper there.

And that would've been used
by larger, um, boats
bringing passengers

to the Prora holiday resort.

[Dominic] Hitler
and his cronies had grown up
in the golden age

of streamliners
like the Titanic
and the Lusitania.

For them, this was
the ultimate glamor
of travel and transport.

And so, they wanted
a Nazi cruise ship.

And, originally, they were
gonna call it
the Adolf Hitler.

It was vast, it was beautiful,
it was modern, it was slick.

In the end, it was named
the Wilhelm Gustloff
after a dead Swiss KDF leader.

But this was to be the Nazi's
flagship of luxury travel.

[crowd cheering]

[narrator] The crown jewel
of the Strength through Joy
movement,

this ship was 684 feet long
and could carry almost
2,000 passengers and crew.

But life on board would've
been tightly controlled.

So the day would start
around 6:30 in the morning

where they'd be woken up
by a trumpet which would
signal that it's time

to have exercise on deck.

They'd have breakfast
at around 7:30.

Then they would sing
Nazi songs.

People would be allowed
to choose what sort of daily
entertainment

they wanted to do
and often this involved
day trips to locations

which always suited
Nazi foreign policy.

So places like Italy
which was allied
with Nazi Germany.

And there was always
a sort of sinister purpose
behind, uh, these trips

because, ultimately,
they were designed
to make people think

about racial differences
and to emphasize
racial difference

between Germans and the places
that they were visiting.

[Tony] You're stuck
in the middle of the sea.

You're bombarded
with Hitler-right propaganda.

And if you try to swim
to shore, you'd have probably
ended up in a Gestapo cell.

[narrator] The Nazi regime
used the Strength through Joy
organization

to enter every corner
of German public
and private life.

But as Hitler's desire
for war was close
to becoming a reality,

Nazi propaganda would
extend its reach outside
of Germany for the first time.

[crowd chanting]

[narrator] The Nazi Party's
quest to fully indoctrinate

the nation of Germany
was unceasing,

as they prepared the people
to fight and die
for Hitler's ideals.

In addition to taking
over the airwaves, newspapers
and even vacations,

the Nazis also tried to insert
their warped world view
into high culture.

On the outskirts of Berlin,
one structure that was key
to this effort still stands.

This huge amphitheater
is the largest surviving
example

of a Nazi approved
meeting place or Thingplatz.

[Nick] By 1936,
when this venue opened,

Joseph Goebbels'
propaganda ministry
controlled everything.

What you hear on the radio,
what you see in the cinema,

what you see in, ah, a place
like Thingplatz,
uh, like this.

[narrator] Now known
as the Waldbuhne
or Forest Stage,

this venue was used
in Nazi Germany
for plays and operas,

which were performed
in front of 20,000 people.

Its design is based
on a classical Greek theater.

Because the golden age
of ancient Greece and Rome
played an important part

in the Third Reich's
propaganda.

[Nick] So I think a nice
example of this are these
two characters here.

These two male figures
represent the male power,

so there's a fertility, uh,
and hence, sort of racial
element to it.

But also, a martial element
because one, here on the left
is holding a sword,

the other a torch.

And then, you always
have the feminine
representing

the more emotional
and the muse is laying

on the other side
of the gateway.

[Janina] Nazi art
and sculpture was working
in the service of the state.

The German public
were being bombarded

with images
of Aryan perfection.

So, sculptures that show
the perfect physical form,

posters that show
idealized visions

of Germany's position
as the great nation.

[narrator] The Nazis
controlled how these theaters
were built,

and also what was performed
on stage.

[Tony] The Nazis exercised
complete control
over the theater,

and this could be quite
surreal and unpleasant
at times.

So for example,
they admired Shakespeare,
but not all his plays.

So for example, Othello,
because it had a Black
protagonist, was banned.

But The Merchant of Venice,
where they could take
the character of Shylock,

and turn him
into this grossly exaggerated

Jewish figure
to kind of terrify audiences.

They liked that.

They turned
The Merchant of Venice

into an instrument
of anti-Semitism.

[narrator] The Waldbuhne
opened in 1936

as one of the venues
for the Olympic Games,
which were held in Berlin.

These games remain
in public consciousness,

as the event that saw
African American
Jesse Owens

triumph in the face
of Hitler's overt racism.

What is not remembered
is how aggressively
the Nazi Party used

the Olympics
as a propaganda opportunity.

So the Third Reich
could be seen in a good light
by the rest of the world.

[Nick] So this is the main
public entrance to the 1936
Olympic stadium.

They would be here
for that great extravaganza

in those, uh, two weeks
in August, 1936
would take place.

[Tony] Hitler, at first,
didn't appreciate

the propaganda potential
of the Olympics.

And it really took Goebbels
to point that out to him.

But it was a way of proving

the muscular superiority
of the Aryan race.

It was a way of also putting
Germany very much
at the center of Europe

with the torch,
the Olympic torch,

finding its way
through all these countries
to Berlin.

Berlin as the new Olympia.

[narrator] Berlin had been
awarded the Olympics
in 1931.

Two years before Hitler
became chancellor.

As the truth about Hitler
and his Nazi Party
slowly began to surface,

enthusiasm for the Berlin
games waned.

There were rumors
of a boycott.

Hitler's festival
of propaganda nearly blew up
in his face.

Hitler would back down, um,
as a result of that pressure
because Hitler is propaganda.

His entire persona,
having staked his own
personality and success,

ah, and the regime
that followed him
on the Olympics,

could not afford to have
the Olympics taken away.

[narrator] Hitler was so eager
to show off

in front of the international
community, that he even
allowed the Jewish fencer,

Helene Mayer, to compete.

She won silver
for Nazi Germany.

And in another propaganda
triumph for Hitler,
she performed the Nazi salute.

[Nick] During
the 1936 Olympics,
Berlin completely changed.

Vicious anti-Semitic slogans
that covered not just Berlin,

but other German towns
were deliberately removed.

Slogans such as: Jews,
the road to Palestine doesn't
lead, um, through our town.

International newspapers
that had been banned,

now suddenly appeared
to be on sale.

Jazz is played again
in night clubs.

[Luke] Over a million
people came to Berlin

to see or participate
in the 1936 Olympics.

And were treated to the most
outrageous spectacle
of Nazism imaginable.

The Berlin Olympics
was a spectacular

international propaganda
success for the Nazis.

There was comparisons
with imperial Rome

and even some
Black Americans commented

on the friendliness of Germans
that they encountered.

It was a watershed moment
in the normalization of Nazism
throughout the world,

and particularly
in the United States.

A New York Times reporter
who was sent to cover
the games,

reported on the rapturous

tens of thousands in the crowd
who really hailed Hitler

almost as kind of
an religious figure.

[Nick Jackson]
Many of those visitors
were taken in

by this well-organized,
friendly Olympics.

But that is just
the propaganda facade.

And behind that,
grow the shadows
of reality.

In the forest north of Berlin,
at the same time this Olympics
was taking place,

concentration camp
Sachsenhausen was being built.

Tens of thousands
of people in Nazi Germany
have been arrested.

Thousands had already
been murdered in cold blood.

[narrator] Galvanized by
the international propaganda
success of the Olympics,

in the next three years,
Hitler would take
the German people

closer and closer
to the war he always craved.

[narrator] The Nazi
Strength Through Joy
organization

sought to control every aspect
of the German people's
leisure time.

But it also used
new technology

to give the population skills
which could be crucial
in the war to come.

[Dominic Selwood]
One sphere in which the Nazis
were genuine pioneers

was in realizing
that technology was there
to be used

and could be used
to keep them in power

and to enhance
their war effort.

And they deployed technology
very successfully

in both civilian
and military contexts.

[narrator] In Prague,
capital of Czech Republic,

Ondrej Brom and his friend,
Andre Massoud, have restored
an antique German car.

Bizarrely, it's one of the
oldest existing remnants

of the Strength Through Joy
organization.

[in local dialect]

The owner of the car was
Paul Lincke, a German composer
from Berlin.

And it was given to him
by the Nazi regime.

[operatic music playing]

[narrator] Paul Lincke
was considered the father
of the Berlin opera

and was widely admired
in 1930s Germany.

His music was held in such
high regard by the Nazi Party,

that he was deemed
to be worthy of the gift
of a Strength Through Joy car,

or KdF-Wagen.

[in local dialect]

[Dr. Karen Bellinger]
The KdF-Wagen was part
of this whole effort

of the Nazi party
to ingratiate themselves

with the people,
to win them over,

by providing
leisure opportunities
they had never had before.

And... And this was just
one more way

in which they promised
to make life better.

The KdF-Wagen, known as
the Strength Through Joy Car,

was a program introduced
by the Nazis

to allow the German people
access to mobility.

The Nazis looked onto
the Americans

and the Model T Ford
with great envy.

And Hitler wanted to produce
a car which was affordable
for your average German.

[narrator] In the early 1930s,
only 1 in 50 Germans
owned a car.

Hitler sought to change this

and enlisted
the Czech-born engineer,
Ferdinand Porsche,

to design a car
to rival Ford's Model T

and mobilize
the German people.

Hitler came with the idea that
a car should be created

to be affordable
for the masses.

Hitler came with the idea.
Porsche created it.

It was designed actually
to carry a family of five.

Two adults in the front
and two or three kids
in the back.

[narrator] The KdF-Wagen
would cost 990 Reichsmarks,

equivalent to 31 weeks pay
for the average German worker
in 1936.

To buy one,
workers had to join

a special Strength Through Joy
savings program.

However, the concept of a car
for everyone was not unique
to the Nazis.

Before Hitler was in power,
and the early years
of Nazi rule,

there were all sorts
of different people

and companies and designs
working on a variation

of what was called
"a people's car."

[Tony McMahon]
What was then Czechoslovakia

launched a car called
the Tatra 97 in 1934.

And if you look at the designs
and the actual car itself,

it looks very suspiciously
like the KdF-Wagen.

And I think it's...
It's almost certain

that the Germans
basically stole the idea
from the Czechs.

[Selwood] What the KdF-Wagen
had done in terms of people's
concept and understanding

was to really get
the idea going that people
should be in machines.

And this actually translated
well into a war context

because people were thinking
of transport as a mechanized,
modern thing,

which of course
was absolutely integral
to the idea of blitzkrieg.

[narrator] Blitzkrieg,
translated as "lightning war,"

would become
the German military doctrine

of using fast mechanized force
to punch through enemy lines.

But to be successful on land,
blitzkrieg also needed support
from the skies.

This led to the creation
of a project which would
be ambitious even today,

let alone by 1930s standards.

The Nazis loved this idea
of branding everything
"The People's..."

So you had
"The People's Cars,"
"People's Radios,"

"People's Fridges,"
even "People's Gasmasks."

Uh, incredibly,
they even tried to develop
a "People's Airplane,"

a kind of light-aircraft
that people could aspire
to own.

[narrator] This program
was known as
the Volksflugzeug.

Again, Hitler took his
inspiration for this scheme
from Henry Ford.

The Ford Flivver
had set the standard

for mass-produced,
affordable, personal aircraft.

It's hard to see how
this could have worked.

I mean, it sounds like
a recipe for disaster

having millions of people
owning light aircraft.

But, possibly, what the Nazis
were trying to do

was to train
the future fighter pilots

that they were going to need
in a wartime scenario.

[narrator] Even though
the Volksflugzeug was popular,

they were too expensive
to be within the reach
of the average German citizen.

So the Nazi top brass
prioritized military designs
instead,

abandoning
"The People's Plane."

With Europe
on the verge of war,

the German population
would be forced

to come to terms
with the difference between
the Nazi Party's promises,

and what
it actually delivered.

[narrator] Hitler
and the Nazi Party sought
to control the German People

in a variety
of underhanded ways

from the first moment
they seized power
in 1933.

But when the war
was officially declared
in 1939,

the German people
began to realize that

many of the Strength
Through Joy projects

were little more than
propaganda in disguise.

[Dr. Luke Daly-Groves]
The Nazis made
all sorts of promises

about how things
would be better once
the war was won,

and the KdF-Wagen was one
of these promises.

[narrator] The KdF-Wagen
would never reach

the millions of families
it had been designed
to benefit.

The KdF-Wagen was a bit
of a disaster for the Nazis

because you have
300,000 German workers

set up savings plans
to try and pay for their car,

only to find that none
of them were rolling off
of the production line.

There were about 200
that were made before
the Second World War started,

and then production
was basically switched
to wartime mode.

[narrator] Factories set up
to build the KdF-Wagen

were immediately repurposed
to produce the German Army's
Jeep equivalent,

the Kübelwagen.

Like the KdF-Wagen project,

the partially completed
Colossus of Prora
was abandoned.

By the end of 1940, '41,
it was clear

that this building would
never be finished.

And it was used,
as was originally conceived,
as a military hospital.

But the original purpose
of the building,

3 miles of happy, holiday home

for the Strength Through Joy
movement,

that dream just evaporated,

um, as the building
just lay unfinished.

[narrator] Parts
of the Colossus of Prora
still lie abandoned,

exposed to the elements,

a testament
to the hubris of the Nazi
brainwashing operation.

[narrator] By 1944,
as the tide of the war

started to turn
against Germany,

the true face
of the Nazi regime
was exposed.

The forest next to
the purported
bastion of culture,

the Waldbuhne in Berlin,
became a place of barbarity.

[Nick Jackson] So just outside
the Waldbuhne itself,
this is the perimeter.

During the Nazi period,
military courts would condemn

in total over the 12 years,
some 30,000 to be executed.

Though most vividly
and most tragically is that
at the end of the war,

hundreds were brought here
and shot in this valley
as deserters.

"I am too cowardly,"
say the signs around
these dead people's necks.

"I'm too cowardly to defend
the fatherland and its women
and children."

[Dr. Luke Daly Groves]
The Nazis built the Waldbuhne
to be a place of culture,

and it's actually
quite fitting

because that ultimately
is what Nazi culture
was all about:

violence and human suffering.

[narrator] In the bitter
January of 1945,

as Russian troops
entered German territory,

one of the greatest disasters
of modern times
was to take place.

It would occur on the flagship
of the Strength
Through Joy program,

the Wilhelm Gustloff.

[Tony McMahon] East Prussia
was the first part of Germany

to fall under
the Soviet invasion.

And the population there
was in a state of panic.
They were dying to get out

because they knew that
a very angry Soviet army

was coming with
vengeance on its mind.

[narrator] The Wilhelm
Gustloff, whose glamor
was used

to brainwash citizens
prior to the war,

was now drafted
into service as
an emergency transport ship.

We fast-forward to 1945,
not far from here to the east

in the town today of Gdansk
or then Danzig,

the Wilhelm Gustloff
was evacuating troops.

It was evacuating members
of building operations.

It was evacuating
thousands of civilians

away from the ever-encroaching
Red Army as they were heading
towards Berlin.

[Groves] It's difficult to say
just how many people

were on board
the Wilhelm Gustloff,

but one estimate puts it
at about ten and a half
thousand people.

And of these people,
around 9,000 were civilians.

But there were also
military personnel on board
and Nazi party officials,

which made the ship
a military target.

[narrator] The ship's peace
time capacity was limited to
2,000 crew and passengers.

This dangerously overloaded
ship departed amid
freezing conditions.

[Groves] The Wilhelm Gustloff
had to set sail with
an inadequate escort

due to shortages
during the war.

And this got even worse
during the journey because of
the freezing cold weather.

Equipment was malfunctioning

and some of the boats
which were supposed to be
escorting it had to turn back.

[narrator] Unescorted,
overcrowded and unintended
for combat use,

the Wilhelm Gustloff
was a prime target

as it sailed
across the freezing sea.

It was a disaster
waiting to happen.

[explosion]

[narrator] When World War II
came to German soil,

it brought chaos
to the local people.

It was during this period that
one of the greatest losses
of life in history occurred.

In 1945, the Wilhelm Gustloff
was fleeing the Red Army,

overloaded with over
10,000 passengers.

Among the fleeing civilians,
troops and navy personnel,

there were four ship's
captains onboard.

[Groves] The Wilhelm Gustloff
received a message
which said that

it was on a collision course
with a minesweeper.

And the captains had
a disagreement about

whether they should
switch the lights on to try
and avoid collision.

In the end, they did
switch the lights on,

and this got them spotted
by a Soviet submarine

and ultimately,
sealed the fate of the ship.

[narrator] The Soviet
submarine S-13 stalked
the ship for two hours.

In the dead of night,
the submarine fired
all of its torpedoes.

[Groves] The Wilhelm Gustloff
was struck by three torpedoes
fired from a Soviet submarine.

Um, the first two killed
many people instantly,

but the third torpedo
knocked out the engine room

which basically knocked
the lights out on the ship,
plunging it into darkness.

It would have been
absolutely horrific.

There was screams.
Uh, there was
people panicking.

People were even
trampled to death.

[explosion]

[narrator] The Gustloff sank
in under an hour,

in temperatures
well below freezing.

It's estimated that
about 9,600 people died
in... In that incident.

Easily the worst maritime
disaster in history.

And when you consider
the cruel irony

that this was intended
to be a pleasure cruiser.

This was intended to be
somewhere where German workers

could come to relax
under the Third Reich,

and it ended up being
a vessel of death.

[Lynn Picknett]
It's extraordinary that
this story is so little known.

Because so many people died.

It was the great maritime
disaster in history.

But nobody really
wanted to know.

Nobody wanted
to think of the Nazis
as human or as suffering.

Nobody cared
about Nazi suffering.

[narrator] The sinking of this
floating palace of propaganda,

overloaded with
terrified civilians
is a sad testament

to the madness
of the Nazi regime.

But fortunately,
this was a regime
that was soundly defeated.

Both on the battlefield
and in the consciousness
of the German people.

[all shouting]
Sieg heil! Sieg heil!

One thing the world
has to be grateful for

is the fact that
although it seemed

as if an entire population
had been brainwashed,

de-Nazification happened
rather quickly.

[Dominic Selwood] The Nazis
relied on an unprecedented
level of propaganda.

And they developed
a very sophisticated way
for rolling it out.

But the problem
with propaganda
is that it's not true,

and eventually people
see through it.

[Dr. Karen Bellinger]
I personally see what
the Nazi party accomplished

in those six years leading up
to the outbreak of war,

as an absolutely chilling
cautionary tale

for all of us faced with
populous messaging

and government
in the modern world.

Be careful what you wish for
and think about what underlies

promises that a government
makes in an effort to win over
support for its policies.

It's terrifyingly easy
for an evil, maniacal leader

to exert mass manipulation
over an entire population.

And I think we've seen it
elsewhere throughout history

and unfortunately,
probably will continue to.

[narrator] Germany has had
over 70 years to come to terms

with these dark
and painful times.

But what is to become
of the largest relic
of the Nazi regime?

There has been support
for demolishing it,

but instead, the colossus
of Prora is being renovated
into modern housing units.

[Jackson] A reuse
of the building

looking forward to the future
is an interesting expression

of how Germany deals with

the darkest part
of its history.

The building is now
being repurposed,

perhaps even fulfilling
its function
as a holiday venue.

And um, it's now
turned round, if you like.

And these new apartments look
not just onto the Baltic Sea,

but into the 21st century.