Original subtitles

Away from the terrors of World War II,

away from the battlefields,

away from the Concentration Camps.

Adolf Hitler made his commands secluded away

deep in the Bavarian Alps.

Hitler, his family, and closest allies hid away

issuing orders for armies across Europe

while they relaxed, dined,

and enjoyed an otherworldly peace.

There's something chilling about the horror

of the Nazis being shrouded

in mundane moments with a family,

but here captured on film and restored

to incredible quality,

these are Hitler's home movies.

Destined to become Hitler's eventual wife,

Eva Braun was born into a poor family

in Munich in 1912.

She had a Catholic education alongside

her two sisters, Ilse and Gretl.

Eva and her sister Gretl were very close

spending a lot of time together,

the girls had a lot of hobbies

such as swimming and skiing.

At age 17, she took a job working

for Heinrich Hoffmann,

the official photographer of the Nazi Party.

Working alongside him in his shop,

Eva discovered her passion for photography

and film, teaching herself

how to use a camera and process the film.

It was working alongside Hoffmann

that introduced her to Hitler.

He regularly visited the shop and took interest in her

despite being 23 years her senior,

they went on several dates

that were kept secret,

avoiding being seen together in public.

The seriousness of Hitler's feelings for Eva,

were questionable.

- Hitler met Eva Braun in October 1929,

she was working as an assistant

for the photographer in his studio,

the photographer Heinrich Hoffmann,

so Hitler visited and it said that he devoured her

with his eyes on this first meeting,

and they're sort of very much that sense

that she really adored him.

Then he would take her out on outings

to the opera to dinner for a drive that kind

of thing as she quickly

became very infatuated with him.

Working for Hoffmann allowed her to travel

with the Nazi Party,

meaning she could get closer to Hitler

and be seen around him in public,

but never alone.

- She's a very, very difficult character

to put one's finger on, why?

Because she was very much kept

in the background by Hitler,

because Hitler was very keen not to lose favor

with German women,

by seeming, you know, by cutting himself off

with his own wife, or a girlfriend.

What's remarkable about his appeal

is that he was absolutely adored

by so many women.

I think this is extraordinary

when you look at Hitler today,

that is not a physically

particularly impressive specimen.

Not I suggest a figure that many women

would find particularly attractive.

But a lot of women did find them attractive

because he was powerful,

but also because I think that he brought out

a sense of needing to be mothered,

and people felt that, you know,

the viewer looks after us,

but we can also look after him as well.

And this is why he deliberately and not

until the very last few days of his life,

why he never really wanted

to be publicly associated with a woman,

I get married or have a girlfriend,

because he sort of felt that he was married

to all German women, and indeed,

the German people at large.

Eva was growing increasingly

attached to Hitler.

With no attention being shown towards her,

this influenced her first suicide attempt

predicted to be around the 10th or 11th

of August 1932, she shot herself in the chest

with her father's pistol.

Thankfully, the wounds were not fatal.

This was suggested to be an outcry

for Hitler's attention.

After this, he began to commit himself

to her more,

and they became supposedly lovers

by the end of that year,

she often stayed overnight

at his Munich apartments, whilst he was in town.

Eva was a very mysterious character,

always being in the background of all affairs,

and rarely seen in public,

the normality of their relationship was unclear.

- On the 30th of January 1933,

Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany,

but of a coalition government.

So there were just three Nazi posts

in that coalition government.

- It's very tempting to think that

when Hitler comes to power in early 1933,

that his grip on power is absolutely total.

In fact, you know,

he has a very uneven shaky start,

he's still quite worried about public opinion.

So what he does is a mixture

of passing various laws that give him more

and more power, like The Enabling Act,

that actually makes him immensely powerful.

But also, he takes advantage of various events

like The Reichstag Fire,

in which the German parliament building burns down.

Now, it's highly likely but never proven whether

or not he's actually burned it down themselves.

But certainly, in a sense,

it doesn't matter what happens is,

is that Hitler and the Nazis took advantage

of the Reichstag burning down to show

that there was a communist plot against

what the Nazis described

as still being a democratic government

and enabled them to seize more power,

you know, by emergency decree.

- Very quickly, he turned Germany

into a one-party state.

So first of all, he made sure to eliminate

the influence and power

of the German political left,

so the Socialist Party

and the Communist Party for a start,

were banned over a short amount

of time as well.

The Nazi Party was the only legal party to.

- Eventually, January 33, he becomes chancellor.

Now don't forget chancellor in Germany,

and this still remains today is not at the time,

the head of state, the head of state is the president.

So it's the chancellor, though,

who has the real executive power.

By enlarge the opinion of Hitler

within Nazi Germany

from the years he was in power from 33,

all the way through to 1945.

I mean, it vary considerably.

Now, of course, you know,

like a lot of political leaders coming into power.

You know, when he started,

he was really very popular.

Yes, there were certainly people

who had misgivings about him.

But certainly within the first few years

in which he was in power,

and it seemed like the economy was going well,

you know, the majority of people in Germany,

I think it's fair to say, really liked Hitler.

And they thought that actually,

he is transforming our nation.

We are on our knees.

And now just a few years later, you know,

we're almost on top of the world.

So yes, by and large, to begin with public opinion

of Hitler was incredibly positive.

But of course, this starts to change

when things go wrong.

At the beginning of the war,

he's invading countries left, right, and center,

militarily, things are going brilliantly.

So, therefore, everyone loves the leader.

But what happens next is, of course,

Russian campaign goes badly, and of course,

that when the Allies invade Northern France

on D-day, June 1944,

and those forces punch their way into Germany

and the Russians are punching drum

the other way. Of course, people's opinion about Hitler,

you know, is by and large, negative.

The big problem for the public, of course,

is they can't express that negativity,

because it's a dictatorship.

But certainly, by the end of the war, you know,

January 45, through to the capitulation in May,

public opinion of Hitler is at rock bottom.

- Hitler's relationship with her was very much kept

from public view, and just known among

the very, very private inner circle

Hitler likes to hide Eva from the public,

as he wanted the German people to see him

as a focus leader who was committed only

to his nation.

He also had the favor of many German women,

and was worried his popularity may decrease

if he was thought to be betrothed.

According to a fragments of her diary

and the account of biographers,

her second suicide attempt occurred

in May 1935, she took an overdose

of sleeping pills when Hitler failed to make time

for her in his life.

This prompted Hitler to provide Eva

and her sister Gretl

with an apartment in Munich that year.

- It's very unclear as to what sort

of relationship that Hitler actually have

with Eva Braun, how sexualized it was, again,

it's impossible to say, but the fact is,

it clearly was not a normal kind of relationship.

It it wasn't boyfriend and girlfriend.

I suppose today, we might call it arm candy in some way,

but it wasn't public arm candy,

because Hitler would never go around in public

with Eva Braun in the same way

as politicians today will go around

with their wife, or their husband,

or boyfriend, or girlfriend.

So it's a sort of relationship that sort

of thinks he should probably have

to make him feel normal.

But actually, I don't think it's a relationship

that Hilter her really needs.

The Berghof

a retreat situated in the over Salzburg mountains

above the town of Berchtesgaden.

Hitler owned a small house here, and in 1934,

he began renovations to extend the property

and make it a fortress

for his closest party members.

Chosen for its isolated location,

Hitler increasingly spent more

and more time up in the mountains

as it was secluded from all other aspects

of his life, he could relax here

and escape from his stressful role

as the dictator of Germany.

Spending most of his time

at this hidden retreat only added to the fear

or myth, but also left many questioning

his dedication to Germany in later years.

Why was he hiding from his nation?

When would he make

another public appearance?

Hitler had control over who could gain access

to The Berghof, meaning only his closest

and most trusted party members

would be invited to join him

for dinners and meetings.

A large wing was added to the house

and several additional buildings were constructed,

the entire area was fenced off,

and remaining houses on the mountains

were purchased by the Nazi Party

and eventually demolished.

Hitler had a private guarded road,

he would travel along

to reach this extensive retreat.

Inclusive members of the Nazi Party

would gather here for events

or to discuss business spending time

with Hitler himself.

Hitler would not rise until 2 p.m.,

and often wouldn't sleep until after 4 a.m.

He controlled the country

from this mountain retreat slowly appearing less

and less in public.

- In September 39, Hitler invades Poland,

along with Stalin, Stalin,

also Soviet Russia also invades Poland

at the same time.

But what the world remembers is the fact

that Hitler invaded Poland.

And a couple of days later,

the British declare war on Germany.

- The German population because

of Hitler's popularity,

and even though they had experienced

the horrors of the First World War

and the trench warfare of the First World War,

and all of the shellshock

and everything that went with it,

because he was so popular,

they might have been delighted to go to war

in September 1939.

But they went along with it.

Really one of the high points

of Hitler's popularity was, you know,

the image of the Nazis taking over Paris.

All of these attacks were very sort of quick

and easy victories for that for the Nazis,

and they just fed Hitler's success and popularity.

In August 1939,

just before the Second World War broke out,

an alliance was made between Nazi Germany

and the Soviet Union.

And this seems very strange

because we've already said how Hitler hated

anything to do with Bolshevism, Communism,

and indeed the indeed,

the USSR was his ultimate enemy.

The idea of eradicating socialism and Bolshevism

from the earth was Hitler's one

of Hitler's main priorities.

So it seemed a bit anomalous

that they would make a pack like that,

but of course, he was just trying to pave the way

and make the circumstance right for the war

and that the situation of Poland

so would be easy as the attack on Poland was,

but then we saw as well how Hitler's very happy

to tear up a treaty when it doesn't suit him.

So on the 22nd of June 1941,

the Nazis invaded the USSR

with Operation Barbarossa.

- Stalin's had this packed with Hitler for years,

and he's thinking Hitler's never going to invade.

Oh dear.

Hitler goes straight in June 1941,

and again, the Blitzkrieg Operation Barbarossa,

as it was called in this instance,

was tremendously successful.

And initially, the forces just went through Russia

like a knife through butter,

and they slaughtered, pillaged in their wake.

This was an absolutely a dazzling piece

of offensive warfare.

Hitler is always mindful of public opinion,

I think it's always important to remember

that Hitler does always worry

about what the German people think about him.

He doesn't just sort of seize power in 33

and then not care. Yeah, he wants to be liked,

he wants to be popular. He is a political leader after all,

and all political leaders,

democratic or fascist or otherwise want

to be liked. Now the best way to make yourself like just

to project an image that the people can identify

with or respect or admire.

And what he does is he uses propaganda

and photography and film to show him

as this kind of almost sort of messianic figure.

- The Nazi regime absolutely hated the Jews

and wanted to get rid of them

from the very beginning.

So we see that with some of the earlier policies,

but as we get into the wartime period,

of course, the policies become more

and more radicalized more and more extreme.

So this idea that the essentially the Nazis created

this idea of a Jewish question

or a Jewish problem that needed a solution.

And throughout the course of the Third Reich,

they put into place a variety

of different measures to try to deal

with their so-called Jewish problem,

Hitler's plans for the Jews.

And when he decided to slaughter them,

still remain a topic of a lot

of historical controversy

because there is no piece of paper that says,

kill all Jews signed a Hitler.

But I think that what is absolutely clear,

is that in conversation, he would have said to his,

you know, top leaders,

we need to start killing these people.

You know, Hitler was smart enough

to know this shouldn't be on a piece of paper.

The initial idea is that the Jews

are rounded up into ghettos,

and from those ghettos,

they can then be sent to concentration camps,

where they can be worked and worked to death.

And you see these camps all

over occupied Poland,

and all over Germany itself,

suddenly around the time of Barbarossa 41.

It starts to get actually elimination list,

and you have what's called Action Reinhardt

and which you got the establishment

of for actual death camps

in what was occupied Poland.

After the attempted assassination

on Hitler's life, he would rarely leave The Berghof.

Again, Eva's interest in photography

and film is beneficial today,

giving us an inside look at the personal life

of Adolf Hitler behind the propaganda

and hard exterior.

Whilst Hitler was enjoying his quiet life

in the mountains, his beloved Empire was falling.

Eva was described by her cousin as one

of the most unhappy people

she had ever met living a sheltered life

alone didn't fit with her personality.

After her sister married one of the SS generals,

she was able to spend more time with her

and their friends, but could never get

over her consistent separation from Hitler.

She would spend time at The Berghof

when Hitler was there.

Public displays of affection were nonexistent

even in the enclosed worlds of The Berghof,

leaving her feeling neglected.

Although the relationship is said to have lasted

16 years, it live was never publicly committed

to Eva keeping her at arm's length

on the rare occasions

she would accompany him somewhere.

With the war closing in on Germany,

the political strain

on Hitler increases significantly,

rumors of more assassinations and attempts

on his life mean Hitler's stopped visiting The Berghof

for a treat after July 1944.

- There were lots of plots to kill Hitler.

And of course, you know,

today we wish at least just one

of them had actually worked.

- This was codenamed Operation Valkyrie.

So on the 20th of July, 1944,

Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg made a serious attempt

on the Furies life by bringing a bomb

into the briefing room where Hitler was

placing under his desk

and hoping the intention

of Operation Valkyrie

was that it would kill Hitler.

- They don't want to get rid of Hitler,

because he's evil.

That may be part of it. They want to get rid of Hitler

because they think he's fighting the war badly.

And they just are fed up with him.

And indeed, Hitler is fighting the war badly

because he's a terrible, terrible strategist.

Bomb goes off,

and the whole building basically destroyed

in no way anybody can survive.

But miracle upon miracle,

Hitler survives because this oak table is so heavy.

So over-engineered that actually,

it absorbs so much of the blast

that Hitler gets away with,

I think a perforated eardrum, some torn trousers,

and a bit of shock.

He survives is absolutely huge blast

and people look at the building.

I mean, how can anybody have survived

that he's incredibly lucky.

And as a result, of course, the bomb plot fails.

And all the people who are involved

the conspirators are rounded up.

Some of them are executed summarily some

of them are famously strung up and hanged

with piano wire, and filmed

and their executions are supposedly watched

by Hitler repeatedly.

This is a really, really devastating blow

for any resistance in the Third Reich.

It comes just a month and a bit adter D-DAY.

And of course, as the allied forces

both Russian American British Canadian French

punch their way into the heart of the Third Reich.

You know, the resistance never quite manages

to take advantage of that.

In 1940, the first half of 1945

is probably this is the darkest six months

in Germany's history because it's being invaded

by the Russians, the Red Army from the east

and you've got the other allies coming through

from the west.

And it's the Russians who reach Berlin first.

And when they reach Berlin,

it's a city and rubble, it's a city in flames.

It's a city in chaos.

It's a city in which squads

and marauding loyal Nazis are going

around hanging people

who are not taking part in the resistance

to the city. It's a city in which you then got

some Nazis committing suicide.

It is the most benighted appalling place

you can imagine. And you've got the Soviet Army,

literally raping and pillaging this city.

This is the ultimate expression of conquering

of people by raping its women.

And it's been going on for millennia,

and the Russians do it in a big way.

Hitler's last days in the fear a bunker,

under The Reich chancellery in the center of Berlin,

you know, are kind of terrible,

and have a Shakespearean tragedy

as the thunder, Russian artillery all around them.

And they're deep, deep inside this sort

of concrete, underground fortress.

Everybody's sort of kind of going mad,

and especially Hitler, who then gets married

to his long term girlfriend, Eva Braun,

in this sort of kind of bizarre ceremony.

And then just a few days later,

Hitler on the 30th of April 1945,

decides to take his own life and Eva Braun

is going to do the same thing with him

or Eva Hitler, as of course she became.

And so he goes into his little kind of living room

with his new bride,

nice way to spend your honeymoon

and they poison and shoot themselves.

It's thought that Hitler's done both.

He takes a little glass ampoule little canister

of cyanide and also shoots himself

and Eva Braun commits suicide

by poisoning herself. Their bodies are then removed

by some loyal SS man, his adjutant

and they are taken out in what passes now

for a garden in the right chancery

because it's just a kind of pockmarked hellhole

of artillery shells.

And there they are, their bodies are burned.

I mean, this great kind of almost like

it's a Viking pyre like a Viking longship going up.

And, you know, basically very little of it remains

there is a bit of jaw bone

in an archive in Moscow,

the teeth of which absolutely

match Hitler's dental records.

So there's no doubt that Hitler died.

A lot of people like to say that Hitler escaped off the war.

It is total nonsense. Hitler 100% died in Berlin on the 30th

of April 1945.

And with it, so did Nazism or at least it did

for a while.

The over Salzburg was bombed

by hundreds of British RAF heavy bombers,

at least two bombs struck The Berghof,

and did significant damage,

by which point Hitler fled to his bunker.

On his birthday in 1945,

Hitler took Eva to the falling Reich Chancellery

for his birthday celebrations

with what was left of his inner circle.

The other Nazis saw this as an indication

that the end was near,

as he always kept her hidden away

from public events, but on this day,

chose to allow her to attend.

30th of April, 1945,

Hitler comes to terms

with the fact that Germany is losing the war

and is beyond repair.

He hadn't made a public appearance

or speech in months, his victories are long gone,

needing a mixture of drugs to keep him sane.

On this day, he finally agrees to marry Eva Braun

just hours before their suicide.

The pair tie the knot

with what's left of Hitler's loyal advisors

as witness.

Hours later, Hitler and his new wife retreat

to his private apartments within the bunker,

he hands her a cyanide capsule,

and he holds his pistol the pair die

by suicide leaving Germany in ruins,

Hitler would rather die than flee Germany

and to be seen as weak.

- Once the Red Army came

into German territory in 1945,

then Hitler's position as this infallible ruler

and leader really not only became to be called

into question, but really came to its end,

because the Soviet troops were very vengeful.

They were retaliating

for all the terrible brutalities and atrocities

that the Nazis and the German army had put

into place in in Soviet territory.

What it meant was that they were coming closer

and closer and they're on their journey westwards to Berlin

and eventually,

Hitler and a very small inner circle around him

had to retreat to his bunker,

his underground bunker.

- This is a war brought about by Hitler.

And this is a war that Hitler has fought

for too long, and he's fighting it to the death

and he's fighting it to the death of the people

who he supposedly loves.

And he no longer loves them by the end

of the war, and he says that basically,

the German people don't deserve him.

The German people don't deserve Germany

and everybody should fight to the death

because basically, you know,

they don't deserve to be alive

because they failed him

classic narcissistic thinking the world is for him,

you know, he's not there for the world.

- Finally, after many years

of being Hitler's long-term partner,

Hitler married Eva Braun that night,

it was to be a very short-lived marriage

because two days later,

they both committed suicide together.

- Their bodies are burned

in this great kind of almost like it's a Viking pyre,

like the Viking longship going up.

- On the seventh of May, 1945,

Germany surrendered

and once that had happened,

the atrocities of the Nazi regime came

to popular attention.

- Ultimately, when it was shown quite

how evil Nazism was,

and the German people fully appreciated it,

then, yes, the opinion

of Hitler was not quite so positive.

Hitler's home movies

give us a terrifying glimpse

into how a normal family can look,

while their twisted ideology destroys lives.

For every frame captured by Eva Braun,

hundreds of innocent lives were being lost.

The true scale of the tragedy of World War II

would not be revealed until

the Allies discovered and liberated

the concentration camps across Europe.

But it is a tragedy that will never be forgotten.