Original subtitles

- [Narrator] A remote mountain castle in Germany

holds dark secrets.

- It's almost like you'd expect knights from a time gone by

to come crashing through the door at any moment.

- [Narrator] Upon closer inspection,

this isn't a castle at all.

- Why was it designed structurally to look this way?

- [Narrator] What nefarious plans

did the Nazis have in store?

- They don't want just to topple the democratic system,

but they want to destroy it from the inside.

- [Narrator] And then nearly 900 miles away,

strange creatures are found in a primeval forest.

- This is a forest that would have looked like

that which covered Europe a thousand years ago.

- [Narrator] Rumors of top secret projects

and strange experiments give way to horrifying truths.

- Some of the medical and biological experiments

the Nazis undertook were truly horrifying, pure evil.

- [Narrator] What did the Nazis want

with this ancient forest,

and what may still be lurking in its shadows?

[suspenseful music]

1945, US troops capture Vogelsang Castle,

a strange medieval structure on the top of a mountain

in Germany's Westphalia region.

The Nazis have long since fled the area.

- The decor is all very strange.

You've got the great big castle-like walls,

these brutish sculptures and reliefs

of knights and Nordic gods.

What dark plans do the Nazis have here at Vogelsang?

- [Narrator] As the Americans inspect this bizarre complex,

it becomes apparent it is not medieval at all.

- It's chilling because it's built from scratch

as this ancient medieval castle

harking back to this this ancient time.

- But when you scratch beneath the surface

you soon see that that's not at all what this place is.

The grand stone exterior that gives it

this strong medieval appearance,

is actually just a facade that's stuck on

to great concrete slabs, and all of that's

just for show on the outside.

- Picking those stones and laying them out is very onerous.

It's a big task to do that.

And it takes a lot of skill with masonry

to integrate that seamlessly,

to make it look like that's the bones of the structure,

that that stone is how this whole thing's built,

but it's not.

And that's really expensive to do.

Why would you do that?

- Like so much of Nazi Germany,

not all the architectural embellishments

served a practical purpose.

It's unmistakable that a lot of are there

to imbue the German people with a sense of superiority.

- There's nothing really here

apart from the few small villages

and an immense amount of forest.

So why would they build such a huge project

seemingly in the middle of nowhere?

- [Narrator] The Nazis begin by removing the local farmers

in the area and claiming the land for this awing structure.

- So the dictatorships, they don't have

to ask for any permissions, so the Nazis just took the land.

- Germany has plenty of buildings,

and the Nazis certainly weren't adverse

to taking them over for their own needs.

So why go to all the extra effort, all the extra cost

of constructing these new buildings.

- [Narrator] Engineering a project of this size

on top of a mountain in a remote region

presents a multitude of challenges.

- And you'd have to carve out your own road,

clear away the forests, and bring everything in by truck.

- They would've had to basically build a city

for all the workers that they had to truck in.

It boggles the mind. It's just that

the scope of it is almost unimaginable.

- Mountains aren't great spots to build things.

You're subject to landslides,

So a lot of construction on hillsides

revolves around geotechnical investigations.

A lot of foresight has to go into this.

- You have to build flat areas

upon which you can then build a structure on.

But you can't construct on an upper level

until you've stabilized that slope as well.

If you have a terrace and you put some heavy equipment

on this upper portion, it could make the soil

underneath it unstable and provide it to slip down.

- We have a very weird inherent heuristic

that higher is better.

This actually harkens back to the predator in us.

So a predator would stand on a high place

to overlook a large area of land, to look for resources,

look for prey, food, mates.

By placing Vogelsang at the top of this hill,

you're really showing the people who are in those spaces

feeling like they've conquered something.

They're conquers, they're predators,

they're at the apex, they're in charge.

- [Narrator] It's not just the location that was used

to get the message of domination across.

It was also evident in every detail of the architecture.

- How much the building appeals to you affects your mood.

It affects your cognition.

It affects your behavior.

It affects how you act and how you think.

- Depending on the types of materials that you pick,

the types of lighting that you engage,

the way that you traverse and move through different levels,

it all impacts your feeling about this space.

- [Narrator] Vogelsang's design

echoes the Nazis' insidious intentions for this facility.

- They're all sharp corners.

The windows are the same.

It's short and squat for the most part.

It was very ordered, structured and utilitarian.

So it felt like a place that wanna get into,

and you'd wanna get out of.

It's a space that reduces your creativity.

It increases your stress levels.

But at the same time, suppressing your thought processes.

- We do know that the Nazis were very wary

of the spirit of critical thinking

that might cause people to question

some of the precepts of Nazi ideology.

- The human mind likes a certain level of complexity.

We know that if you want to punish somebody,

you put them in a space that is very uniform,

that has very little complexity.

So you see the same color everywhere.

You see simple walls.

You don't see a lot of architectural features.

Prisons work like this.

- [Narrator] Vogelsang's architecture

was intended to keep its occupants docile and subservient.

Could this be part of an education program

to warp the minds of its students?

A collection of statues found on Vogelsang's grounds

provide further ins to this location's purpose.

- As you moved through this structure,

you recognized that these aren't sculptures

that are inviting you to sit and eat and enjoy and relax.

It's more about strength and determination.

- Your eyes are driven to things that are important.

These spaces are affecting you on an unconscious level.

They're putting you in a certain state of mind.

It's already biased you a certain way.

- The monumental nature of these structures

is designed to make the individual feel small,

but also ideally to make the individual

feel like they are working together towards a common goal,

and that collectively they are all powerful

like the giant sculptures that you see on the site.

- This is something that wanted to communicate

a Nazi superiority.

But then you notice that there's nothing

really very defensive about it at all.

So if it wasn't the military,

then who was occupying these buildings?

- [Narrator] Perhaps a clue can be found

in the inscription on this ominous sculpture.

- The torchbearer is designed to show strength.

- It's enormous. You can see it from miles away.

- [Narrator] While the inscription is scratched out today,

it used to bear a frightening message.

"You are the torch bearers of the nation.

"You carry forth the light of spirit

"in the fight for Adolf Hitler."

- We know that the Nazis had huge ambitions

to establish the Third Reich

as a regime that would last a thousand years.

Now could this complex have been part of that plan?

And if so, who was it that attended these buildings,

and what were they doing here?

- If you look at 1933, national socialism

just came into power.

It still has to fight its opponents

from its own perspective.

So and therefore the idea comes on the one hand

that they need men, and on the other hand

with the racist ideology in the background,

they want to train a new elite, a new German man.

- [Narrator] Vogelsang would become home

to the Nazis' grand plan to greet

the next generation of Nazi elite.

Germany has taken great effort to create

a medieval-looking castle in the Westphalia region.

Statues and reliefs of knights, swastikas and eagles

are built into the structure.

Within these walls, the Nazis would cement their plans

to groom the next generation of Nazi elite.

- Hitler saw the Nazi reign as being

the Thousand Year Glorious Reich.

So if you're gonna have a Thousand Year Reich,

you need a place to train the next fanatical generation.

And if you're talking about you're the masters of the earth,

you need projects befitting that scale,

something jaw dropping that people look at and go,

"Oh my goodness."

- So they deliberately used methods and materials

that brought age into the structure to say,

"We've been here for a long time.

"We're going to be here for a long time.

"We're going to draw on that ancient strength and wisdom

"and bring it forward."

- [Narrator] Vogelsang Castle

was to be a Nazi training school

where students came to be known as squires.

- There are only men here, and those men that were selected

they would have to be physically, not only able,

but no what the Nazis would call a malfunction,

so not even glasses were allowed here.

They should have been married before they came here.

And they would have been in their mid-20s.

- Most of them were generally working class.

They were deeply convinced that this was their future.

They were diehard Nazis,

and they didn't have to be programmed,

and they had already subscribed to the notion

of the Thousand Year Reich.

So they saw themselves as the guardians of the future.

- The Germans considered themselves all to be superhuman

and higher up than any other race.

And the people who were trained in the Vogelsang program

were there to be the best of the best.

- [Narrator] Robert Ley was the architect

behind this intensive training program,

and was also one of Hitler's most fervent supporters.

- On many respects he's the poster child of Nazism.

He's a fanatical Nazi.

He doesn't come from privilege and elite.

He comes from a troubled background of working class,

and even lower working class background.

So at least in Hitler's logic,

he represents the true face of the German people,

not these intellectual elites, but rather your everyday man.

And in a lot of ways was a perfect choice

to develop a program which was all about polishing Nazis.

- Ley was also the head of the German Labor Front

and given charge of smashing the trade unions

and destroying independent workers' organizations

that challenged Nazi authority.

- [Narrator] In Ley's program,

Vogelsang wouldn't stand alone

to create the new Nazi elite.

There were to be four Order Castles to realize Ley's vision.

- Squires would first visit Castle Krossinee,

located in Pomerania to learn history

as Germany saw it.

It was here squires would be taught to be racially superior.

Next, squires would visit Vogelsang

where they were subjected to intensive sports programs

and learn the value of bravery and heroism.

The third castle, Sonthofen, located in Bavaria

would test their physical acumen and endurance,

which was so intensive

it resulted in many accidental deaths.

The fourth castle was Marienburg,

but its construction was halted

by the outbreak of World War II.

It's here squires were to learn Nazi foreign policy

to further the national socialist agenda.

- The idea of constructing four separate Order Castles

at huge cost, and then designing a process

to put squires through all four of them,

you don't go to all that trouble

unless you're intending the outcome of that

to be hugely significant to your operations.

- When the Nazis come to power,

it's not necessarily a given

that they will be accepted in the long run

as the legitimate government of Germany.

They're not aristocrats.

They don't have ties to the old royalist circles.

They are trying to create a set of stories and myths

around themselves that could serve as a justification

for their role as the rulers of German society.

- For the Nazis, it's quite clear

that they don't want just to topple the democratic system,

but they want to destroy it from the inside.

- [Narrator] Ley's curriculum would look beyond science

to validate the Nazi leadership role over Germany.

- In all academic or scientific research

you test, you come to conclusions, you present,

now it gets peer-reviewed,

and then you might settle on an accepted truth.

The Nazis already had their truth,

and they needed science to prove it, pseudoscience.

- There was in the eyes of the Nazis,

a superior gene within them, which they wanted to secure

and basically to give on for future generations.

So with this social dominance thought,

they tried to get rid of everything out of society

what they thought would be inferior.

They took bits and pieces of every medieval time basically,

put them together in order to create

some kind of an artificial reference point within the past

to support the racist standpoint

that the Aryans where of pure northern blood.

- When we think about the Nazi desire

to recast German workers as members of the Nazi party,

and the idea of just taking over a small building

and putting them in there would not impress

upon the recruits or impress upon German society

how important it was for people to participate actively

in the reordering and the remaking of society on Nazi lines.

- Drawing you into a fabricated history,

it's presenting you with a falsified aged structure

to attempt to emphasize your longevity.

- Like a piece in a jigsaw puzzle,

it fits perfectly into it.

The Nazis are fulfilling the dream of an imagined past.

- For people back in the 1930s,

this was scientific evidence.

This was based on a Darwinian view of the world

that some people were better than others.

And clearly Vogelsang was very much a part

of that racial idea.

It was meant to be this incubator

that this Petri dish for the best of the best,

the elite of the elite, the most superhuman

of all of the best humans, the Aryan race.

- It's amazing how many people were affected by it.

How many people were swept along

by this wave of symbolism and sense of superiority.

- A big part of national socialist ideology

is the societies and even the people within society,

they are in a constant struggle against each other

and only the strongest would survive.

So therefore, for the Nazis it was really important

to have a constant struggle, even between organizations

or within an educational system.

- All of the senior Nazi leaders, Robert Ley included,

they're all jostling for power.

They're all trying to justify their position.

They're trying to build a power base.

And for Robert Ley to have this training school,

this finishing school for future Nazi leaders,

well that would have made him more important.

- [Narrator] For the Nazis, this grueling training program

should reflect its image of an ideal society.

- We know that sports were really, really important,

which means that they got up in the morning,

the first thing they did was sports,

then they would go to the lecture,

and then they had sports again in the afternoon,

and then they would have to do the homework, and so on.

- The fear was always if you're educating them,

you're possibly allowing in a critical thinking function

that could cause people to start asking awkward questions

about the regime, that you were better off

putting them in a lot of physical activities

and telling them how to improve their bodies

rather than their minds to be good members of Nazi society.

It emphasized teamwork amongst the recruits.

It tested their physical abilities,

and it prepared them potentially for combat.

- [Narrator] Squires were all handpicked,

and upon arriving at Vogelsang,

they would receive a chilling message.

- The cadets at the school were greeted by Robert Ley,

and he warned them that if they walked away

from this project at any point in those four years,

their career in the Nazi party,

their future in Nazi Germany would be finished.

In fact, he threatened them that he would destroy them.

- [Narrator] Even Vogelsang's mountaintop location

seems to echo Ley's warning.

- As a squire would be starting down at the bottom

of all of these structures that are moving upwards.

And so you see it dominating over you.

You see a very powerful structure.

But you also see a goal that you can climb for yourself.

You see that there are steps

and a way to get to the top to where you wanna be.

So it starts off dominating you.

But at the same time you get an unconscious feeling

that you can make it to the top and dominate yourself,

dominate others yourself as a result of it.

- The idea of Clemens Klotz, the architect,

is to show that the Nazis could rule over nature.

Which means if you stand at the top, you have this feeling

that basically nature is laying to your feet.

And if you're at the bottom,

you feel inferior and you wanna go up.

- [Narrator] Even the layout of the fortifications

on Vogelsang's grounds planted Germany's vision

of total domination.

- If you look at it, it has a hierarchy within itself.

At the bottom, you have the swimming pool at the gym,

and the track fields, you have sports,

and comradeship was the next level on top of that.

So the open air stage, and you have the barracks.

And the third level of the building that was just started

but never finished, the so-called house of knowledge.

It's the ideology on top.

It's frightening.

- Imagine if you're a Nazi party member

and you've been handpicked by Robert Ley himself

to join this program.

From your point of view, it's the golden ticket.

You're gonna rise to the highest ranks of the Nazi party.

Maybe even one day become the next fuhrer.

- [Narrator] What dark secret oaths

were taken by the squires to ensure their loyalty?

What rituals would be needed

to firmly seal their membership into this cult?

Under the vision of Robert Ley,

Nazi Germany has developed an extensive training program

to groom the next generation of Nazi elite.

- For the average squire involved in the program,

who was really committed ideologically,

being at the center of the start of the Thousand Year Reich,

must've been a giddy, exciting experience.

- [Narrator] What kind of dark rituals were held here

to create such blind loyalty?

The strange, seemingly out of place watchtower

on Vogelsang's ground may hold the answer.

- The watchtower is a tall imposing structure,

that's overlooking everything.

It was a symbol of engineering feat

and construction ability to build this tall tower

out of concrete.

And for it to be even taller than this hill,

it's indicative of control and perspective over everything.

- The idea of building a watchtower

as part of this complex just feels very odd

and actually quite misplaced.

These were not defensive buildings.

What were you watching out for?

- [Narrator] The watchtower was not only out of place,

it also had an atypical interior.

- Normally you would expect that there to be multiple levels

and lots of open windows and spaces higher up.

But the Watchtower is actually functionally used

a very different way where all the activities

were happening down at the ground floor.

And light was filtering down through all the levels

of the watch tower to the bottom.

The aesthetics of the space are affecting your mind

very differently than the rest.

So what's done there?

- [Narrator] Once the squires entered the room

inside of the watchtower,

an entire new level of dark and ominous trials await.

- The cult room is probably the creepiest place

across the entire complex.

We have records of torch-lit ceremonies,

rallies, and parades.

Well, it's not that big, but stood in there,

it would feel incredibly imposing.

- If you were looking to make a cult,

Oldenburg would be the right place.

You've got these statues holding flames.

You've got the names of the Nazi party members

who were killed in the Putsch.

And their names are read out, and the cadets there,

the squires have to shout, "Here,"

as if they're recreating them again,

as if their names will be etched in stone

and part of the Thousand Reich mythology forever.

It's the perfect place to start a cult.

- So the cult room reminds me of a room

where you would go to worship

or to have a meaningful religious experience.

There was a real emphasis

on celebrating and mourning the dead,

reminding the living that the dead had not died in vain,

and that if the living were to die,

they would have died in the service to the Reich.

This is in a way, a political religion

where you would go to have a bonding experience

with your fellow Nazis, but also find your purpose

in the collective and in celebrating the rituals

that bind you together very closely as a group.

- This space is really set to crank up the emotional state

and the cognitive state of the people inside of it.

It adds a level of this is something secret

because people can't really see.

There's a small number of people

who'd be in the space at the time.

And you're getting into this idea that it's special

and secret while your arousal levels are going up

that would put you in a positive frame of mind,

make you feel like you were special,

and it would feel stronger to you than it would

in a large open rectangular space.

- People keep telling you,

"You are born to rule over others.

"You are superior to everybody else.

"You are the new human.

"You are the new German."

I think it's not that hard to imagine

that people start to believe that themselves.

- [Narrator] In this room, a statue stands tall

over every cult member.

- It's an imposing sculpture.

It has the physique that is basically unrealistic

for a human figure.

It is in a position of power, of standing tall

in the Heil position, imposing its will on you

in that room that is ritualized and lit

and built in a way, and finished in a way

that is about power and submission as well.

- It feels to me that if I had spent any time here

when it was operational, there's a very intimidating feel

about the whole place.

And it seems to me that if you didn't go along with it,

then you'd probably feel quite isolated

surrounded by all this strong symbolism.

- There's giant eagles, there's giant torches,

there's giant Nazi swastikas.

Everything seems to be super-sized.

- [Narrator] In addition to the cult room,

massive stone sculptures

of the Teutonic Knights on the Vogelsang grounds

help bolster perceptions of superiority.

- The symbols of the knights that are around Vogelsang

are symbols of a time of individuals being powerful,

and individuals working with that power for a cause.

So when you have individuals walking around

in a place like that, and you see a symbol

of a powerful knight,

you can imagine yourself being such a person.

And it's trying to set you up in that mind frame.

- [Narrator] Dating back to the 12th century,

the German Teutonic Knights protected Christian crusaders

in the Holy Land throughout the middle ages.

- I mean, the irony here of course,

is that the Teutonic Knights are deeply embedded

and affiliated with Catholicism,

which the really hardcore Nazis were very hostile towards,

but they try to co-opt some of the stories

about the Teutonic Knights to fit into the mythologies

that they're trying to create about the ideal community.

- [Narrator] In one of the rooms above the fireplace

a stone carving appears to depict the god Odin.

- Here it's actually a depiction of the so-called wild hunt.

It's a Germanic belief that the gods Odin

that they would ride across the sky

with the souls of the dead.

What you see here is how they try to use death

as something that is desirable for the men.

Something that is the ultimate sacrifice

that they could give to create some kind of a cult of death

in order to support national socialism.

- [Narrator] But the tides of war are changing,

and the Third Reich is now engaged in an all-out war.

Suddenly there's no real use for the Order Castles.

The squires are repurposed for Germany's war effort.

- The program is essentially up-ended by the war.

- Main part of those men that were trained here

are either drafted, or most of them

they volunteer to the Wehrmacht,

so they want to fight on the front.

- It's not surprising that some of them

were tried with some of the worst crimes of the regime

because they were indoctrinated to believe

that this was in fact part of their mission.

- For all the bluster of creating this master race

and the elite of the elite,

the truth is that these were mid-level, lower-level people.

They weren't particularly important to the Nazi war machine.

And that says a lot about the failure of this project.

- [Narrator] Because Vogelsang was never intended

to be a defensive structure,

it is easily captured by US troops.

At one time, it would become the home of the Belgian army.

- It's actually a very dark legacy.

And when I think about walking through the complex

and looking at the sculptures,

and looking at the grand buildings,

and the way it was designed, it's very important I think

to keep those nefarious intentions in mind,

and the deep racism that underpins so much

of the learning that took place there.

- [Narrator] The Order Castles are just

one step in the Nazi effort to reshape the world.

900 miles away in an ancient forest at the edge of Poland,

Germany is twisting science in order to realize

a horrifying vision.

In an ancient forest at the edge of Poland,

something secret and ominous is taking place.

Villagers evicted, fences put up, military scouts

and a high ranking Nazi leader visits.

- There's no question that locals must've wondered

what on earth is going on.

They're living in one of the most remote

and rural places in all of Europe.

And all of a sudden Nazis in black leather

are showing up and are building facilities,

putting up fencing, driving people out of their homes.

- Why is there suddenly so much secret activity

going on in this forest when it doesn't really feel

like there's any real strategic importance to this place,

and as far as we're aware, there's no military equipment

being brought in.

What could the Nazis have wanted with this forest?

- The forest itself, it's a bit different

from any other forest I've ever been to.

The first thing I noticed immediately

is the fact that this is a primeval forest,

so it hasn't been managed by humans

in the same way that most forests you ever visit have.

- This is a forest that would have looked

like that which covered Europe a thousand years ago,

before much of it was cut down.

- [Narrator] Why would the Nazis take such great effort

in securing this region?

- Humans have always had a bit of a dual relationship

when it comes to the forest.

I mean on the one hand it can be nurturing,

beautiful, resourceful.

On the other hand, it can also be dark,

mysterious and dangerous.

- [Narrator] The Nazis tapped into a strong emotional link

between Germans and the land.

- For the Germans, the forest is actually critical

when they look back at the mythology

of the Germanic tribes that were able to, for example,

defeat the Romans where other tribes

had truly no chance of doing so.

So the forest for them is important

because it's the last remaining part

of the forest that used to cover the whole of Europe.

And this directly links back to the ancient Germanic tribes

that Hitler is trying to re-imagine in this new Third Reich.

- When we think about the slogans of the Nazi period,

one of them is of course adhering to the notion

of blood and soil.

The Nazi desire to harken back to a Germanic

sort of rural agrarian past is a big part

of the romantic side of Nazi imagery,

the celebration of the pastoral, of the rural,

of the traditional.

They wanted to celebrate German farmers,

and they wanted to encourage Germans

to get back to the land.

- [Narrator] While the Bialowieza Forest

sprawls across Poland and Belarus today,

then it was under Soviet control.

- As I walked around the towns and villages

around the forest, I was struck by how beautiful they were.

They're generally gorgeous places.

But when the Germans arrived,

it would have been very different.

The lands itself had actually been occupied

by the Soviet army in 1939 in the secret pact

that Russia and Germany had signed with each other.

- [Narrator] In 1941, Germany invades Russia,

and wastes no time in sending in Nazi troops

to infiltrate the Bialowieza Forest

sending there horrifying plans into motion.

- The first thing they do is they ethnically

cleanse the land, the local peasants, Jews, Poles, Slavs,

whoever's there, the German troops would have been

pulling people out of their homes, executing them,

and there's multiple accounts of slave labor teams

being used to build the roads for the Germans.

One step out of line, shot instantly.

- That was just the beginning of the dark purposes

for this particular forest.

- [Narrator] Witnesses report members of the Luftwaffe,

Germany's air force, scouting and patrolling here.

Could the Nazis be planning an airbase?

In July of 1941, Hermann Goring,

a member of Hitler's inner circle, arrives in the area.

- Goring is the commander of the Luftwaffe,

Germany's air force.

- Goring had quite a number of properties,

and quite an insatiable desire, really,

for living a certain kind of life,

aspirational to what we might consider

the life of a German aristocrat.

And so the traditional activities of an aristocrat,

which would have been hunting, and shooting,

and weekends at the country estate,

Goring would have been very drawn

to this kind of a lifestyle.

So to that end, he became very interested

in hunting, in animals,

and in these large forested properties

where he could have a certain amount of freedom to live

what was in fact, a very luxurious lifestyle.

- [Narrator] This wasn't the first time Goring

had been to the Bialowieza Forest.

- So in the 1930s, Hermann Goring was invited

as a German government official

to come here and hunt with Polish government officials.

They were having intergovernmental talks

and thinking to himself,

"I wouldn't mind having a palace to myself,"

and this probably was part of his plan.

- [Narrator] Hitler goes even further,

giving Goring much more power and control over the forest.

- To cap it all off, because Hermann Goring

is known as this chief's huntsman of the Third Reich,

they even put the German Forestry Division

underneath the Luftwaffe,

and they bring these units and people straight to this site.

This is obviously a priority.

- Now it could just be that Goring and his men

want a nice bit of private forest to hunt in.

But take a deeper look at what's going on.

- [Narrator] This untouched primeval forest

wasn't enough for Goring.

In his vision, the forest should look just as it had

when the mythologized Teutonic Knights roamed them.

- The Nazis were actually redesigning this forest,

removing certain species of trees

and replanting more of others

so that it would fit their vision

of what a pure ancient German forest should look like.

- That forest lasted because it was diverse,

because it had new species in it.

And to destroy all the plants that were in there

that didn't fit their picture of what it looked like

in the 1600s, this forest could have been eradicated.

- [Narrator] Zoologists and other scientists

are quickly brought onto the project

as it goes down a darker path.

- Why are Nazi scientists and zoologists

combing the world for animal samples?

- The project itself is spearheaded

by a zoologist from the Berlin Zoo, Lutz Heck.

He's key in making this thing happen.

- [Narrator] Lutz Heck wouldn't work alone.

His brother, Heinz Heck, would join him

in this dark endeavor.

- The Heck brothers even traveled to France and Spain

and looked at ancient cave paintings

from thousands of years ago.

- [Narrator] Goring makes his next move,

a secret deal to the unsuspecting Canadian government

to export animals to Germany

where the Heck brothers are waiting.

- He's also stealing animals from whichever zoos

or private collections he finds in the conquered countries

that Germany has taken over and he's bringing them all back

to his own personal fiefdom.

There's something a little bit chilling,

a little bit creepy about this forest

that you wouldn't automatically feel

if you were anywhere else.

Then when you find out what the Nazis are planning here,

it's literally the epicenter of something much bigger.

- Lutz Heck, this zoologist and scientist

is going to bring back extinct species,

and bring back a giant aurochs, this massive bull.

He's gonna bring back large prehistoric wolves

that once roamed the European landscape

thousands of years ago.

And they're gonna recreate this Germanic Jurassic Park.

- [Narrator] It's an ominous and dark experiment

only the Nazis could begin to explore.

An ancient forest attracts mysterious attention

from one of the Nazi elite.

Zoologists and biologists begin to formulate

top secret projects here.

What nefarious plans do the Nazis have with this place?

- Sometimes I think it's easy to laugh at Hermann Goring.

He seems this ridiculous character,

but he was anything but.

This extent of his savagery,

the cruelty with which he was known to rule his lands.

And there's something quite disturbing

about the depth of his vision for this particular area.

- [Narrator] Germany expends great effort

to conceal their plans, fencing off the entire forest.

- This forest was picked for a reason.

They're in the middle of preparing for World War II.

And then they're in the middle of World War II,

and they're building fantastical, and outlandish

and incredibly expensive projects all over the continent.

- For Lutz Heck, this is more than just a job.

This is his personal and national priority.

He's even on record as saying

that, "Returning this dull and strange land

"to a Germanic one must be our highest priority."

- [Narrator] The Heck brothers go to great lengths

to make this vision a reality.

- You do hear about strange animal experimentation,

experimentation for medical needs,

but this is something else.

This is a whole new level.

- [Narrator] In order to realize these massive aurochs,

Lutz Heck utilizes a frightening technique, back breeding.

- And when you talk about back breeding,

you have this idea of the species in mind.

In this case it's the aurochs.

So what you do is you start to look

at other similar species that you may think are related.

And then you start to look at those features that they have.

And if they're close to matching the feature

of the original species that you want to recreate,

and they start to breed them one by one.

And eventually you get closer and closer

to that original species.

- The idea of being able to back breed these animals

to restore these ancient traits,

it's a bit like they imagine themselves

as Dr. Frankenstein able to bring back

any animal they please.

- [Narrator] The Heck brothers breed Spanish fighting bulls,

and French fighting cattle

in an attempt to realize the mythic auroch.

- Key to all of this is this obsession

that Hermann Goring has with hunting.

So this Heck horse and the bison to bring them all back

for one specific purpose,

to be hunted by these Germanic spearman,

it's quite a disturbing idea

and it seems to be quite powerful

because it connects this modern Third Reich

to ancient German tribes.

- This is the ultimate round of hunting,

bare chested Nazi men in a primeval forest

like Teutonic Knights hunting extinct massive species.

This is absolute madness.

- [Narrator] The Nazis believed these animals

had been polluted over time and should be restored

to their former existence.

- Let's be absolutely clear.

This is no conservation project.

This is really horrible and nasty ideology.

- There was an attempt by some of the scientific thinkers

to justify what they believed was their natural superiority.

You had to overcome and conquer nature.

- It allowed the Germans to tie it into these myths

they had concocted of these Aryan superman,

of this blood soil linkage to Teutonic Knights

that long ago there was this great Germanic tribe

which was the most powerful on earth,

which simply wasn't the case.

- One of the first things the Germans do

when they enter power is introduce these racial purity laws

which are all about proving

that some humans were better than others.

Some animals are better than others.

It's all continuation of the same policy.

- Some of the medical and biological experiments

the Nazis undertook were truly horrifying and pure evil.

- [Narrator] Though the war rages all around the continent,

the Heck brothers delve deeper

into their mad science experiment,

shedding any fear or hesitation.

Under the instruction of Hermann Goring,

the Heck brothers have worked towards bringing back

extinct species to create a hunting ground for the Nazis.

- This is like something out of science fiction or fantasy,

like the Island of Dr. Moreau.

The very idea of tinkering with biology

to bring back extinct animals

does have moral and ethical implications.

But in the hands of the Nazis, well, it makes you shudder.

- [Narrator] But this isn't a science fiction film,

it's real, and after many attempts,

the Heck brothers succeed.

- I think it's easy to dismiss

some of the weirder conspiracies

about what the Nazis were trying to do,

but this is very real.

This is an actual project which had legs.

They were breeding these aggressive Spanish fighting bulls.

They were making progress.

The animals weren't obviously the original animals,

but they were making things happen

and that's quite disturbing.

- [Narrator] But the war turns against Nazi Germany.

- The forestry projects that they're pouring money into

comes out of a disbelief that they could in fact,

actually lose this war.

For many of them, they have become so convinced

that they are in fact a superior people,

that they can't imagine that they're actually

gonna lose the war.

- [Narrator] The Nazis were so committed

to their own supremacy,

that when the allies approached the region,

they made a horrifying decision.

- The Germans issue the orders to shoot down

as many animals as they can find.

It's all part of their scorched earth policy

to leave nothing for the Soviets.

For them, this was the end of the world.

This was their own personal Valhalla.

- [Narrator] The Nazi atrocities led to many mass graves

in the Bialowieza Forest.

- As morbid of the thought of that many people

dying in a forest, all that organic matter

will go back into the nutrients of the soil,

which could lead to a lot of different life

that would allow that forest to continue on.

- [Narrator] Today, scientists are examining

a plant's ability to produce memories.

Through calcium-based signaling in their cells,

plants are able to change their behavior

based on past experiences.

With such a dark and unusual past,

what might we discover one day in this forest of secrets?

- In the way that humans have used that forest

over the last 500 years has definitely shaped history.

But it's definitely soaked in blood and death

of a lot of people.

- If you walk through the forest today,

you won't actually understand what the Germans

are planning here because they left no real traces.

But that doesn't mean that this forest doesn't hold secrets.

- [Narrator] The Nazis deemed themselves

to be masters of science and technology,

but they went too far with their attempt to twist nature,

and proved not to be masters at all.

- It's the recurring human flaw that we can control nature.

Say there's an invasive species.

And we bring in another species

to introduce into that area that we know will kill it.

Well, that introduced species can all of a sudden be able

to dominate that area.

You're starting to mess with nature

where you have no understanding of what can happen.

- [Narrator] While the Bialowieza Forest

is a protected site today,

we might consider what could still be lurking in the forest.

- As I was walking through the forest today,

a thought came to me.

What's terrifying about this whole project

is not what we know about what the Nazis were doing

with genetic engineering and back breeding.

It's about what we don't know,

what they might've been doing

that hasn't yet come to light,

and what they might've been planning for the future.

- As an engineer, I'm always impressed

by the lengths that scientists and engineers will go to

in order to achieve a desired result, a desired outcome.

But the lengths that the Nazis were prepared to go to,

to strip away any ethical or moral limitations

to achieve the vision of the world as they saw it,

both the natural world and the humans that live on it

is absolutely horrifying.

[suspenseful music]