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I know this is hard to believe,
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00:03:23,930 --> 00:03:25,663
that in such short a time,
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00:03:26,499 --> 00:03:30,980
are those who are prepared
to forget the Holocaust.
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00:03:30,980 --> 00:03:33,970
And others even prepared to deny it.
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00:03:34,920 --> 00:03:37,140
I unfortunately,
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00:03:37,140 --> 00:03:38,870
cannot forget it.
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For me, it is yesterday.
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00:03:41,880 --> 00:03:42,960
I was there,
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a young man, just married.
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A architect by profession,
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a member of a large Jewish family,
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00:03:51,440 --> 00:03:53,750
looking forward to the future.
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00:03:53,750 --> 00:03:56,410
Who could imagine that 40 years later,
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00:03:56,410 --> 00:04:01,380
only my wife and I would
be here to talk about it?
15
00:04:01,380 --> 00:04:06,380
89 members of both families
wiped out without a trace,
16
00:04:07,320 --> 00:04:09,283
a part of them here.
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00:04:11,110 --> 00:04:13,090
Listen well, my friends.
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00:04:13,090 --> 00:04:16,100
What you are about to hear and see,
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00:04:16,100 --> 00:04:17,800
is a true story.
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00:04:17,800 --> 00:04:19,270
Believe me,
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00:04:19,270 --> 00:04:21,063
it can happen again.
22
00:04:27,840 --> 00:04:29,670
And it came to pass,
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00:04:29,670 --> 00:04:31,860
when they were in the field,
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00:04:31,860 --> 00:04:34,933
that Cain rose up and slew his brother.
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00:04:36,550 --> 00:04:38,403
And the Lord said unto Cain,
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"Where is Abel, thy brother?"
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And he said,
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"I know not.
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00:04:48,727 --> 00:04:50,527
"Am I my brother's keeper?"
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00:04:55,960 --> 00:04:57,580
100 years ago,
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00:04:57,580 --> 00:05:01,310
the majority of the world's
Jews lived in Europe.
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00:05:01,310 --> 00:05:04,450
In the Polish provinces
of the Russian Empire,
33
00:05:04,450 --> 00:05:06,250
in the Austro-Hungarian Empire,
34
00:05:06,250 --> 00:05:07,503
and in the German Empire.
35
00:05:08,580 --> 00:05:11,820
To be sure, it was a world
of poverty and hardship.
36
00:05:11,820 --> 00:05:15,550
But it was also a world
of scholars and poets,
37
00:05:15,550 --> 00:05:17,990
of impressionable matchmakers,
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00:05:17,990 --> 00:05:19,223
and philosophers.
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00:05:20,170 --> 00:05:22,310
It was a world where each week,
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00:05:22,310 --> 00:05:26,170
men and women confronted
new perils and hazards,
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00:05:26,170 --> 00:05:28,090
and where each Sabbath,
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00:05:28,090 --> 00:05:30,770
they sat with their
children around a table,
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00:05:30,770 --> 00:05:32,893
surrounded by song and joy.
44
00:05:34,530 --> 00:05:38,080
It was a world of synagogues
and houses of study,
45
00:05:38,080 --> 00:05:41,350
where young and old crowded
together by the candlewick,
46
00:05:41,350 --> 00:05:43,333
to study late into the night.
47
00:05:44,250 --> 00:05:46,960
Where mothers and grandmothers
rocked their loved ones
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00:05:46,960 --> 00:05:50,463
to sleep with lullabies of hope and faith.
49
00:05:51,370 --> 00:05:55,350
Where a neighbor's joy was
her shtetl's day of rejoicing,
50
00:05:55,350 --> 00:05:57,783
and where his pain was its day of sorrow.
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00:06:32,141 --> 00:06:37,010
It was a world where the price
for respect was good deeds,
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00:06:37,010 --> 00:06:41,223
but where the right to
friendship had no prerequisites.
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00:06:42,200 --> 00:06:47,200
Such a world were these
10,000 tiny dots on the map.
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00:06:57,354 --> 00:07:02,080
Belz, where the Hasid hurried
to be at his rabbi's table.
55
00:07:02,080 --> 00:07:06,845
Vilna, where the ordinary
cobbler conversed in the Talmud.
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00:07:43,238 --> 00:07:44,965
Pinsk and Lodz,
57
00:07:44,965 --> 00:07:47,040
where vendors rose at the crack of dawn
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00:07:47,040 --> 00:07:48,510
on Monday and Thursday,
59
00:07:48,510 --> 00:07:51,410
to hurry their wares to the marketplace.
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00:07:51,410 --> 00:07:52,830
There was Warsaw,
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00:07:52,830 --> 00:07:54,530
where writers leisurely sipped tea,
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00:07:54,530 --> 00:07:56,623
and interpreted the life of the times.
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00:07:58,550 --> 00:08:01,370
Vienna, her parks and broad streets,
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00:08:01,370 --> 00:08:03,070
bustling with artists,
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00:08:03,070 --> 00:08:04,610
etching out moments of memory,
66
00:08:04,610 --> 00:08:09,610
and violinists transforming
cafes into symphonic halls.
67
00:08:12,027 --> 00:08:14,040
Yet in every century,
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00:08:14,040 --> 00:08:17,490
the non-Jewish world
looked with suspicion,
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00:08:17,490 --> 00:08:19,663
on this people set apart.
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00:08:20,950 --> 00:08:24,370
Men who needed scapegoats
for their own failure,
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00:08:24,370 --> 00:08:26,243
turned readily against the Jew.
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00:08:28,630 --> 00:08:30,560
In the earliest days of Christianity,
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00:08:30,560 --> 00:08:32,200
St. John Chrysostom,
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00:08:32,200 --> 00:08:34,410
frustrated by the Jews'
refusal to convert,
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00:08:34,410 --> 00:08:36,953
called them the most miserable of men.
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00:08:38,370 --> 00:08:41,030
The great theologian, Martin Luther,
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00:08:41,030 --> 00:08:44,827
encountering the same
steadfastness, declared,
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00:08:44,827 --> 00:08:47,627
"Their synagogues should be set on fire,
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00:08:47,627 --> 00:08:51,287
"their homes should likewise
be broken down and destroyed.
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00:08:51,287 --> 00:08:53,887
"Let us drive them out of
the country for all time."
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00:08:55,700 --> 00:08:57,400
In every country,
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00:08:57,400 --> 00:08:59,783
the Jews were the convenient enemy.
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00:09:00,810 --> 00:09:02,300
To the illiterate,
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00:09:02,300 --> 00:09:03,980
they were knowledgeable.
85
00:09:03,980 --> 00:09:06,490
To the peasants, wealthy.
86
00:09:06,490 --> 00:09:08,423
To the rich, clever.
87
00:09:09,490 --> 00:09:12,500
The Romans saw them as political rivals.
88
00:09:12,500 --> 00:09:16,630
The inquisitors saw
them as Christ killers.
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00:09:16,630 --> 00:09:18,680
The Cossacks saw them as
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00:09:18,680 --> 00:09:21,540
squeezing out the wealth of the land.
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00:09:21,540 --> 00:09:23,930
To them, he was different.
92
00:09:23,930 --> 00:09:25,930
Different in his looks,
in his mode of dress,
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00:09:25,930 --> 00:09:27,080
in his beliefs,
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00:09:27,080 --> 00:09:29,581
in the observance of his holy days.
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00:10:15,890 --> 00:10:18,880
Small wonder then that
the 9.5 million Jews
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00:10:18,880 --> 00:10:22,610
who still lived in Europe at
the end of the First World War,
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00:10:22,610 --> 00:10:26,170
looked forward with great
hope to the new world.
98
00:10:26,170 --> 00:10:27,720
The world of democratic Europe,
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00:10:27,720 --> 00:10:29,980
the world President Wilson promised
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00:10:29,980 --> 00:10:32,938
would be made safe for democracy.
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00:10:36,724 --> 00:10:38,910
The First World War had
been a war to end war.
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00:10:46,130 --> 00:10:49,740
The 20th century promised to
be the century of progress.
103
00:10:49,740 --> 00:10:52,920
Industry and invention would
bring new wealth for all.
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00:10:52,920 --> 00:10:55,330
Science would open up
vistas of better life,
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00:10:55,330 --> 00:10:57,020
of comfort and of ease.
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00:10:57,020 --> 00:10:59,950
The motor car, the telephone,
radio and airplane.
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00:10:59,950 --> 00:11:03,220
These were to be the instruments
of progress and equality.
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00:11:03,220 --> 00:11:05,730
Art, architecture, music, literature,
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00:11:05,730 --> 00:11:08,570
which would reflect
the advance of culture.
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00:11:08,570 --> 00:11:10,120
The League of Nations promised
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00:11:10,120 --> 00:11:13,040
an international forum for grievances,
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00:11:13,040 --> 00:11:15,320
complete with its own court of law.
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00:11:15,320 --> 00:11:19,640
The rule of law was to offer
protection to every citizen,
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00:11:19,640 --> 00:11:22,480
whatever his origin or beliefs.
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00:11:22,480 --> 00:11:24,350
Hopes of security and success
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00:11:24,350 --> 00:11:26,700
were however swiftly shattered,
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00:11:26,700 --> 00:11:29,000
as the post-war years advanced,
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00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:30,610
and economic difficulties grew,
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00:11:30,610 --> 00:11:33,263
culminating in the early
30's in mass unemployment.
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00:11:40,730 --> 00:11:44,290
Many focused their resentment on the Jews,
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00:11:44,290 --> 00:11:47,603
who became a symbol of the
forces they sought to oppose.
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00:11:48,650 --> 00:11:51,170
Nowhere was this more
obvious than in Germany,
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00:11:51,170 --> 00:11:53,793
where extremists sought
to overthrow democracy.
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00:11:54,747 --> 00:11:58,050
"Why We Are Against The Jews",
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00:11:58,050 --> 00:12:01,393
that was the title one lecturer
gave to his talk in 1920.
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00:12:02,580 --> 00:12:05,087
This man's proposal was he said,
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00:12:05,087 --> 00:12:08,457
"The removal of the Jews from
the midst of our people."
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00:12:09,810 --> 00:12:10,643
His name?
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00:12:12,270 --> 00:12:13,240
Adolf Hitler.
130
00:12:17,141 --> 00:12:19,957
"It is the German duty," he declared,
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00:12:19,957 --> 00:12:23,003
"to arouse, whip up and incite,
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00:12:23,859 --> 00:12:26,957
"the instinctive repugnance of the Jews,
133
00:12:26,957 --> 00:12:28,807
"to an even higher pitch."
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00:12:30,082 --> 00:12:32,530
The political party which
Hitler took over in Germany,
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00:12:32,530 --> 00:12:34,993
quickly attracted like-minded followers.
136
00:12:35,870 --> 00:12:38,320
The Nazis were going to cleanse Germany,
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00:12:38,320 --> 00:12:42,590
by restoring the supremacy
of the Aryan race,
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00:12:42,590 --> 00:12:45,670
and rescuing the German Teutonic people,
139
00:12:45,670 --> 00:12:49,840
from cancerous species
of Jews, gypsies, blacks,
140
00:12:49,840 --> 00:12:53,453
and other non-Aryan subcultures.
141
00:12:54,400 --> 00:12:56,460
Many Germans dismissed him at first,
142
00:12:56,460 --> 00:12:59,180
as an Austrian upstart with crazy ideas,
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00:12:59,180 --> 00:13:01,130
ideas which would never take hold,
144
00:13:01,130 --> 00:13:04,120
in an enlightened society like Germany.
145
00:13:04,120 --> 00:13:06,490
His initial successes
were at first ignored,
146
00:13:06,490 --> 00:13:09,413
then not sufficiently resisted.
147
00:13:10,410 --> 00:13:12,820
When the severe economic
crisis came to Germany,
148
00:13:12,820 --> 00:13:14,173
it was too late.
149
00:13:15,060 --> 00:13:17,040
With 20 million queuing up for food,
150
00:13:17,040 --> 00:13:21,900
and six million out of work it
was tantalizing and exciting,
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00:13:21,900 --> 00:13:24,423
to be called the master race.
152
00:13:25,430 --> 00:13:29,500
By January 1933, the German
people had succumbed.
153
00:13:30,980 --> 00:13:33,834
Adolf Hitler became their Fuhrer.
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00:13:46,266 --> 00:13:48,920
Hatred was a main
feature of Hitler's programs.
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00:13:48,920 --> 00:13:50,960
Hatred of the Jews,
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00:13:50,960 --> 00:13:53,150
hatred of the Slavs, hatred of gypsies,
157
00:13:53,150 --> 00:13:56,340
and other so-called inferior people.
158
00:13:56,340 --> 00:13:58,740
Even of the mentally and
physically handicapped.
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00:13:59,900 --> 00:14:01,590
While millions cheered Hitler,
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00:14:01,590 --> 00:14:04,750
as he offered to make Germany great again,
161
00:14:04,750 --> 00:14:06,260
to rebuild the German army,
162
00:14:06,260 --> 00:14:08,880
to end unemployment, to
win back German territory,
163
00:14:08,880 --> 00:14:11,100
and extend the German orbit of power
164
00:14:11,100 --> 00:14:12,393
over the whole continent,
165
00:14:13,340 --> 00:14:15,350
they also cheered,
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00:14:15,350 --> 00:14:17,910
when he promised to drive the Jews,
167
00:14:17,910 --> 00:14:20,568
and others from German life.
168
00:14:41,380 --> 00:14:44,520
Hitler and his Nazi followers,
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00:14:44,520 --> 00:14:47,990
lost no time in carrying out
their anti-Semitic program.
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00:14:47,990 --> 00:14:50,830
Starting in April 1933,
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00:14:50,830 --> 00:14:52,310
anyone with Jewish parents,
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00:14:52,310 --> 00:14:54,513
or even with a single Jewish grandparent,
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00:14:55,460 --> 00:14:57,993
was defined as a non-Aryan.
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00:14:59,140 --> 00:15:01,730
German doctors, dentists,
lawyers, architects,
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00:15:01,730 --> 00:15:04,120
professors, actors and musicians,
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00:15:04,120 --> 00:15:05,693
who happened to be Jews,
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00:15:06,620 --> 00:15:10,400
could no longer work
with their fellow Aryans.
178
00:15:10,400 --> 00:15:14,200
Worse, concentration camps were set up.
179
00:15:14,200 --> 00:15:16,780
As early as March 1933 the Nazis opened
180
00:15:16,780 --> 00:15:20,120
Dachau concentration camp
a few miles from Munich,
181
00:15:20,120 --> 00:15:22,670
and immediately filled it
with their German opponents.
182
00:15:22,670 --> 00:15:25,970
Social democrats, communists,
Jehovah's Witnesses,
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00:15:25,970 --> 00:15:29,400
homosexuals, prominent Jews,
184
00:15:29,400 --> 00:15:31,123
and those who opposed the regime.
185
00:15:37,510 --> 00:15:39,667
Special notices declared,
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00:15:39,667 --> 00:15:42,787
"Whoever buys from a Jew is
a traitor to his people."
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00:15:44,130 --> 00:15:46,650
Yet those same Jews had fought bravely
188
00:15:46,650 --> 00:15:48,497
in the First World War,
189
00:15:48,497 --> 00:15:49,650
in the ranks of the German army,
190
00:15:49,650 --> 00:15:53,703
and been a part of German
life for more than 1000 years.
191
00:15:54,660 --> 00:15:56,800
They had contributed immensely,
192
00:15:56,800 --> 00:16:00,630
to the development of German
science, German technology,
193
00:16:00,630 --> 00:16:04,753
above all, German medicine.
194
00:16:09,150 --> 00:16:10,263
Books were burned.
195
00:16:11,390 --> 00:16:13,540
Some of the finest
German music was banned.
196
00:16:14,717 --> 00:16:16,867
"Intellect rots the character."
197
00:16:17,730 --> 00:16:20,160
Himmler told the Germans.
198
00:16:20,160 --> 00:16:21,667
Goering said,
199
00:16:21,667 --> 00:16:23,567
"When I hear the word culture,
200
00:16:23,567 --> 00:16:24,857
"I reach for my gun."
201
00:16:47,440 --> 00:16:48,530
Throughout Germany,
202
00:16:48,530 --> 00:16:50,280
schoolchildren were taught
203
00:16:50,280 --> 00:16:51,860
that the Jewish people in their midst
204
00:16:51,860 --> 00:16:53,943
were the worst of all enemies.
205
00:16:54,830 --> 00:16:57,750
All the power of the state
lent itself to this test.
206
00:16:57,750 --> 00:16:59,530
Schoolbooks were published,
207
00:16:59,530 --> 00:17:02,443
filled with crude anti-Jewish cartoons.
208
00:17:08,120 --> 00:17:11,908
A special children's board
game was produced, entitled,
209
00:17:11,908 --> 00:17:13,747
"Juden Raus!"
210
00:17:13,747 --> 00:17:15,177
"Jews Out!"
211
00:17:16,460 --> 00:17:17,713
The instructions read,
212
00:17:18,747 --> 00:17:22,027
"If you manage to kick out six Jews,
213
00:17:22,027 --> 00:17:24,167
"you are the winner without question."
214
00:17:26,110 --> 00:17:28,620
What children played adults acted,
215
00:17:28,620 --> 00:17:31,900
boycotts, beatings, warnings
not to buy Jewish goods,
216
00:17:31,900 --> 00:17:35,060
punishments for having a
Jewish boyfriend or girlfriend,
217
00:17:35,060 --> 00:17:39,380
led in 1935 to a competition
among towns and villages,
218
00:17:39,380 --> 00:17:41,770
to drive out their Jews altogether,
219
00:17:41,770 --> 00:17:43,770
to declare themselves;
220
00:17:43,770 --> 00:17:47,213
Jew-free.
221
00:17:59,400 --> 00:18:01,610
The success of this campaign was witnessed
222
00:18:01,610 --> 00:18:04,890
by a Dutch motorcyclist
who driving across Germany,
223
00:18:04,890 --> 00:18:06,800
recorded with his camera,
224
00:18:06,800 --> 00:18:10,423
the seemingly endless
placards on town signs.
225
00:18:16,750 --> 00:18:21,063
Briefly, these signs
were taken down in 1936,
226
00:18:22,020 --> 00:18:25,520
so that visitors to the
Olympic Games held in Berlin,
227
00:18:25,520 --> 00:18:27,269
would not be shocked.
228
00:19:11,814 --> 00:19:15,292
Hitler hoped that the
games would be a triumph,
229
00:19:15,292 --> 00:19:17,883
for his so-called Aryan master race.
230
00:19:18,880 --> 00:19:21,370
A black American runner, Jesse Owens,
231
00:19:21,370 --> 00:19:22,203
upset his dream.
232
00:19:23,882 --> 00:19:24,780
Now they're away and Jesse Owens
233
00:19:24,780 --> 00:19:27,248
comes down there with Ralph
Metcalfe, Frank Wykoff...
234
00:19:28,907 --> 00:19:29,943
Jesse Owens starts moving,
235
00:19:29,943 --> 00:19:30,776
he's a yard or two out in front,
236
00:19:30,776 --> 00:19:32,930
Metcalfe is coming second up on him.
237
00:19:32,930 --> 00:19:34,777
It's Owens, Metcalfe and Osendarp.
238
00:19:34,777 --> 00:19:36,680
Hitler left the
stadium in a fury,
239
00:19:36,680 --> 00:19:40,360
to avoid having to hand
Owens his gold medals.
240
00:19:40,360 --> 00:19:43,057
Only 10 years earlier he
had written in "Mein Kampf",
241
00:19:43,057 --> 00:19:45,097
"The Jews were responsible for bringing
242
00:19:45,097 --> 00:19:47,017
"the negros into the Rhineland,
243
00:19:47,017 --> 00:19:51,507
"with the ultimate idea of
bastardizing the white race."
244
00:19:53,390 --> 00:19:54,973
In March 1938,
245
00:19:55,910 --> 00:19:57,690
Hitler entered Vienna,
246
00:19:57,690 --> 00:20:00,640
declaring Austria to be a part
of the greater German Reich.
247
00:20:13,959 --> 00:20:17,790
Eichmann, the head of the
Jewish section of the SS,
248
00:20:17,790 --> 00:20:18,623
established his office in the city
249
00:20:18,623 --> 00:20:22,003
together with a number of
Austrian collaborators.
250
00:20:24,810 --> 00:20:29,210
In July 1938, at an international
conference held at Evian,
251
00:20:29,210 --> 00:20:30,680
on the shores of Lake Geneva,
252
00:20:30,680 --> 00:20:33,790
32 nations, including Britain
and the United States,
253
00:20:33,790 --> 00:20:35,790
discussed the problem
of those who were trying
254
00:20:35,790 --> 00:20:38,603
to escape from Nazi persecution.
255
00:20:39,700 --> 00:20:42,210
Most delegates expressed
their country's sympathy
256
00:20:42,210 --> 00:20:43,610
for the would-be refugees,
257
00:20:43,610 --> 00:20:46,190
but none of the major powers was prepared
258
00:20:46,190 --> 00:20:48,360
to increase its immigration quota,
259
00:20:48,360 --> 00:20:50,120
or to find the money needed,
260
00:20:50,120 --> 00:20:52,980
to help finance so large an exodus.
261
00:20:52,980 --> 00:20:54,530
On the day the conference ended,
262
00:20:54,530 --> 00:20:57,327
a German newspaper declared in triumph,
263
00:20:57,327 --> 00:21:00,487
"Jews for sale, who wants them?
264
00:21:00,487 --> 00:21:01,320
"No one."
265
00:21:02,450 --> 00:21:05,110
As if to drive that point home,
266
00:21:05,110 --> 00:21:07,477
Hitler told the German people,
267
00:21:07,477 --> 00:21:10,157
"We on our part are ready
to put all these criminals
268
00:21:10,157 --> 00:21:13,147
"at the disposal of these
countries for all I care,
269
00:21:13,147 --> 00:21:14,617
"even on luxury liners."
270
00:21:15,975 --> 00:21:20,690
The settlement of the
Czechoslovakian problem,
271
00:21:20,690 --> 00:21:22,470
which has now been achieved,
272
00:21:22,470 --> 00:21:26,750
is only the prelude to
a larger settlement,
273
00:21:26,750 --> 00:21:30,520
in which all Europe may find peace.
274
00:21:30,520 --> 00:21:32,600
This morning,
275
00:21:32,600 --> 00:21:37,600
I had another talk with the
German chancellor, Herr Hitler.
276
00:21:39,925 --> 00:21:41,093
And here is the paper,
277
00:21:42,340 --> 00:21:46,363
which bears his name
upon it, as well as mine.
278
00:21:47,590 --> 00:21:50,640
We regard the agreement signed last night,
279
00:21:50,640 --> 00:21:53,350
and the Anglo-German naval agreement,
280
00:21:53,350 --> 00:21:57,020
as symbolic of the desire
of our two peoples,
281
00:21:57,020 --> 00:21:59,528
never to go to war with one another again.
282
00:22:02,288 --> 00:22:04,127
The Mercury Theatre
on the Air,
283
00:22:04,127 --> 00:22:07,144
in "The War of the Worlds" by HG Wells.
284
00:22:07,144 --> 00:22:08,960
In the 39th year
of the 20th century
285
00:22:08,960 --> 00:22:10,510
came the great disillusionment.
286
00:22:12,370 --> 00:22:13,570
Near the end of October,
287
00:22:15,150 --> 00:22:16,193
business was better,
288
00:22:17,220 --> 00:22:18,393
war scare was over,
289
00:22:19,400 --> 00:22:20,823
more men were back at work,
290
00:22:21,728 --> 00:22:23,053
sales were picking up.
291
00:22:54,032 --> 00:22:55,746
This from foreign correspondent,
292
00:22:55,746 --> 00:22:57,840
C. Brooks Peters at the Berlin bureau,
293
00:22:57,840 --> 00:23:01,620
reporting to The New York
Times office in New York City.
294
00:23:01,620 --> 00:23:03,940
Here in Berlin it is 9:30 am,
295
00:23:03,940 --> 00:23:07,020
November 10th, 1938.
296
00:23:07,020 --> 00:23:10,500
I have just spent eight and
a half horrendous hours,
297
00:23:10,500 --> 00:23:13,630
following Nazi stormtroopers
on what probably will
298
00:23:13,630 --> 00:23:17,680
turn out to be the worst
pogrom in Western history.
299
00:23:17,680 --> 00:23:20,224
I have just come from the Fasanenstrasse,
300
00:23:20,224 --> 00:23:23,100
where one of the most revered
synagogues in Germany,
301
00:23:23,100 --> 00:23:25,830
is totally engulfed in flames.
302
00:23:25,830 --> 00:23:30,060
The fire was started by the
Nazis shortly before dawn.
303
00:23:30,060 --> 00:23:32,800
The deliberate firing of the
synagogue and the pogrom,
304
00:23:32,800 --> 00:23:36,550
were in retaliation for
the assassination in Paris
305
00:23:36,550 --> 00:23:39,253
of a German diplomat, Ernst Vom Rath,
306
00:23:39,253 --> 00:23:44,250
by a 17-year-old Polish
Jew, Herschel Grynszpan.
307
00:23:44,250 --> 00:23:45,618
Similar looting, vandalism,
308
00:23:45,618 --> 00:23:48,400
and burning in synagogues
have taken place,
309
00:23:48,400 --> 00:23:51,123
Jewish men have been murdered
and Jewish women raped.
310
00:23:52,050 --> 00:23:54,467
As the leading German
rabbi, Dr. Leo Baeck,
311
00:23:54,467 --> 00:23:57,187
has just said to me on the phone,
312
00:23:57,187 --> 00:24:00,581
"After this, the future is grim.
313
00:24:00,581 --> 00:24:02,597
"We have no place to go.
314
00:24:02,597 --> 00:24:04,620
"Nobody wants us."
315
00:24:04,620 --> 00:24:09,070
In March 1939,
the Germans occupied Prague.
316
00:24:09,070 --> 00:24:13,180
10s of thousands of Czech Jews
were caught in the Nazi trap,
317
00:24:13,180 --> 00:24:15,050
as well as many Jews who had earlier fled
318
00:24:15,050 --> 00:24:17,150
from Germany and Austria.
319
00:24:17,150 --> 00:24:17,983
At the same time,
320
00:24:17,983 --> 00:24:20,180
the barriers against
Jews seeking to escape
321
00:24:20,180 --> 00:24:21,280
were all strengthened.
322
00:24:22,180 --> 00:24:24,320
The Swiss government had
already asked the Germans
323
00:24:24,320 --> 00:24:28,220
to stamp the letter J
in all Jewish passports.
324
00:24:28,220 --> 00:24:30,610
Now the British asked
the Yugoslav government
325
00:24:30,610 --> 00:24:32,200
to do likewise,
326
00:24:32,200 --> 00:24:35,340
in order to enable these
refugees to be prevented
327
00:24:35,340 --> 00:24:37,279
from proceeding to Palestine.
328
00:24:39,010 --> 00:24:41,363
Now was the new world more hospitable?
329
00:24:42,420 --> 00:24:46,283
In May 1939, more than 900
refugees bound for Cuba,
330
00:24:47,140 --> 00:24:48,643
were refused entry there.
331
00:24:49,520 --> 00:24:52,803
And rebuffed also by the United
States and Latin America,
332
00:24:53,780 --> 00:24:56,480
they were forced to return to Europe.
333
00:24:56,480 --> 00:24:58,060
This ship,
334
00:24:58,060 --> 00:24:59,300
the St. Louis,
335
00:24:59,300 --> 00:25:01,930
was not the only ship of refugees,
336
00:25:01,930 --> 00:25:03,670
that could not find a haven.
337
00:25:03,670 --> 00:25:04,580
In the United States,
338
00:25:04,580 --> 00:25:06,550
during the first 10 years of Nazi Germany,
339
00:25:06,550 --> 00:25:10,660
there were to be over
400,000 unfulfilled places,
340
00:25:10,660 --> 00:25:13,063
within US immigration quotas.
341
00:25:14,130 --> 00:25:15,853
Each place unfilled,
342
00:25:16,750 --> 00:25:20,383
was a sentence of death
for a European Jew.
343
00:25:26,050 --> 00:25:28,300
Germany has invaded Poland,
344
00:25:28,300 --> 00:25:32,850
and has bombed many towns.
345
00:25:32,850 --> 00:25:34,793
On September 1st, 1939,
346
00:25:35,810 --> 00:25:38,380
the German armies invaded Poland,
347
00:25:38,380 --> 00:25:40,430
replacing threats and bombast,
348
00:25:40,430 --> 00:25:42,893
with tanks and bombs.
349
00:25:44,320 --> 00:25:47,050
The German advance into Poland was swift,
350
00:25:47,050 --> 00:25:49,290
Poles and Jews alike,
351
00:25:49,290 --> 00:25:50,850
brutal.
352
00:25:50,850 --> 00:25:52,410
Warsaw was bombed from the air,
353
00:25:52,410 --> 00:25:54,393
and thousands of civilians were killed.
354
00:26:00,750 --> 00:26:02,680
Within 24 hours,
355
00:26:02,680 --> 00:26:05,993
the first anti-Jewish
atrocities took place.
356
00:26:08,700 --> 00:26:12,997
I am speaking
to you from the cabinet room
357
00:26:12,997 --> 00:26:14,377
at 10 Downing Street.
358
00:26:16,340 --> 00:26:20,586
This morning, the British
ambassador in Berlin,
359
00:26:20,586 --> 00:26:23,277
tended the German government a final note,
360
00:26:25,077 --> 00:26:29,390
stating that unless we heard
from them by 11 o'clock,
361
00:26:30,400 --> 00:26:32,530
that they were prepared at once,
362
00:26:32,530 --> 00:26:35,253
to withdraw their troops from Poland,
363
00:26:35,253 --> 00:26:38,473
a state of war would exist between us.
364
00:26:40,260 --> 00:26:42,410
I have to tell you now,
365
00:26:42,410 --> 00:26:44,813
that no such undertaking
has been received.
366
00:26:46,170 --> 00:26:48,140
And that consequence is,
367
00:26:48,140 --> 00:26:51,123
this country is at war with Germany.
368
00:26:54,130 --> 00:26:55,820
In Lodz,
369
00:26:55,820 --> 00:26:59,220
before setting torch to the
famous Wolynska synagogue,
370
00:26:59,220 --> 00:27:02,370
the Nazis forced its revered rabbi, Segal,
371
00:27:02,370 --> 00:27:04,600
to put on his prayer shawl,
372
00:27:04,600 --> 00:27:08,110
and then ordered him to
burn the holy Torahs,
373
00:27:08,110 --> 00:27:09,860
in the presence of his congregates.
374
00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:15,040
In Mielec, the Jews were
locked inside their synagogue,
375
00:27:15,040 --> 00:27:16,673
which was then set on fire.
376
00:27:17,950 --> 00:27:20,080
Those who managed to break out were shot,
377
00:27:20,080 --> 00:27:22,453
by the surrounding ring
of German soldiers.
378
00:27:30,380 --> 00:27:33,580
Polish doctors and professors
were arrested and murdered,
379
00:27:33,580 --> 00:27:36,980
villagers were shot dead
on the slightest pretext.
380
00:27:36,980 --> 00:27:39,680
Himmler issued orders
to close all schools.
381
00:27:39,680 --> 00:27:41,917
In explaining his action, he declared,
382
00:27:41,917 --> 00:27:43,987
"A Pole is a slave.
383
00:27:43,987 --> 00:27:45,607
"It is enough for him to write his name,
384
00:27:45,607 --> 00:27:47,137
"and count up to 10."
385
00:27:51,763 --> 00:27:53,172
In daylight raids,
386
00:27:53,172 --> 00:27:57,290
between 350 and 400 enemy
aircraft were launched,
387
00:27:57,290 --> 00:28:00,488
in two attacks against London
and South East England.
388
00:28:00,488 --> 00:28:03,537
Never in the field
of human conflict,
389
00:28:03,537 --> 00:28:06,619
was so much owed by so many,
390
00:28:06,619 --> 00:28:07,452
to so few.
391
00:28:09,070 --> 00:28:11,490
In October the
first ghetto was established
392
00:28:11,490 --> 00:28:14,143
in Nazi-occupied Poland, at Piotrkow.
393
00:28:15,010 --> 00:28:16,403
From all over Poland,
394
00:28:17,300 --> 00:28:19,803
Jews were forced to move into the ghettos.
395
00:28:21,870 --> 00:28:25,113
Totally isolated from the
rest of the population,
396
00:28:26,010 --> 00:28:28,160
the Jews of the ghettos,
397
00:28:28,160 --> 00:28:31,286
were forced to live under
terrible conditions.
398
00:28:31,286 --> 00:28:33,710
Allowed only a minimum of food,
399
00:28:33,710 --> 00:28:35,513
forced to do punitive labor,
400
00:28:36,360 --> 00:28:38,420
they existed as prisoners,
401
00:28:38,420 --> 00:28:41,143
totally at the mercy
of their Nazi captives.
402
00:28:43,230 --> 00:28:45,480
There is no pen wielded by man,
403
00:28:47,070 --> 00:28:48,920
which can write even the 1000th part,
404
00:28:50,252 --> 00:28:52,669
of the horror that is Lublin.
405
00:28:54,350 --> 00:28:58,300
In the early days of the Nazi occupation,
406
00:28:58,300 --> 00:29:01,273
stormtrooper, Commander Globocnik,
407
00:29:02,200 --> 00:29:05,173
forced a group of pious Jews to line up,
408
00:29:06,320 --> 00:29:08,650
and watch the burning of the books,
409
00:29:08,650 --> 00:29:11,543
of the great Yeshiva of Lublin.
410
00:29:12,867 --> 00:29:15,117
"Sing, Jews.
411
00:29:15,117 --> 00:29:18,040
"Sing a Hasidic ditty."
412
00:29:18,040 --> 00:29:21,853
He shrieked, as the
army band began playing.
413
00:29:22,950 --> 00:29:25,187
The Jews remained silent.
414
00:29:25,187 --> 00:29:26,867
"Attack them!
415
00:29:26,867 --> 00:29:29,317
"Force them up against the wall.
416
00:29:29,317 --> 00:29:32,377
"Gunners, aim your machine guns.
417
00:29:32,377 --> 00:29:35,507
"Sing, you dirty Jews, or you will die."
418
00:29:38,180 --> 00:29:41,883
A cracking, melancholy
voice broke the silence.
419
00:29:43,908 --> 00:29:47,957
It was the voice of a man
singing a Hasidic folk song.
420
00:29:58,347 --> 00:30:02,363
"Let us be reconciled,
our heavenly Father.
421
00:30:03,387 --> 00:30:05,447
"Let us be reconciled."
422
00:30:07,070 --> 00:30:08,543
But nobody would join him.
423
00:30:09,640 --> 00:30:10,963
The singing stopped.
424
00:30:12,420 --> 00:30:14,363
Then after what seemed hours,
425
00:30:15,300 --> 00:30:18,593
the same tune broke forth once again.
426
00:30:19,470 --> 00:30:22,180
Somebody else was singing.
427
00:30:22,180 --> 00:30:24,320
It was the same melody,
428
00:30:24,320 --> 00:30:25,770
but the words were different.
429
00:30:35,717 --> 00:30:39,123
"We shall outlive them, heavenly Father.
430
00:30:40,007 --> 00:30:41,853
"We shall outlive them."
431
00:30:43,510 --> 00:30:44,930
Then,
432
00:30:44,930 --> 00:30:48,240
a sea of voices bellowed forth,
433
00:30:48,240 --> 00:30:53,240
joining together in what seemed
an impossible wild dream.
434
00:30:53,910 --> 00:30:55,410
Feet stamping,
435
00:30:55,410 --> 00:30:57,310
arms locked,
436
00:30:57,310 --> 00:31:00,440
the Jews of Lublin danced.
437
00:31:00,440 --> 00:31:01,930
At first,
438
00:31:01,930 --> 00:31:03,253
Globocnik delighted.
439
00:31:04,530 --> 00:31:07,320
But as he witnessed their enthusiasm,
440
00:31:07,320 --> 00:31:08,893
he stumbled upon their secret.
441
00:31:09,740 --> 00:31:12,173
But the Jews of Lublin went on singing.
442
00:31:13,696 --> 00:31:16,203
They were terribly beaten.
443
00:31:16,203 --> 00:31:20,065
But they had defied their oppressors.
444
00:31:20,065 --> 00:31:23,803
, they sang.
445
00:31:25,097 --> 00:31:27,293
"We shall outlive them."
446
00:31:31,520 --> 00:31:32,680
From the ghettos,
447
00:31:32,680 --> 00:31:36,500
the Germans took able-bodied men and boys,
448
00:31:36,500 --> 00:31:37,969
for forced labor.
449
00:31:57,620 --> 00:31:59,440
Those in the ghettos were forced to wear
450
00:31:59,440 --> 00:32:02,739
a white armband with a
blue Star of David on it.
451
00:32:07,534 --> 00:32:09,650
To leave the ghetto was declared a crime,
452
00:32:09,650 --> 00:32:13,088
to smuggle bread into
the ghetto was a crime,
453
00:32:13,088 --> 00:32:16,023
and the punishment for
these so-called crimes,
454
00:32:16,930 --> 00:32:18,313
was nearly always death.
455
00:32:21,490 --> 00:32:24,350
The Jews, of course, were
not the Nazis' only victims.
456
00:32:24,350 --> 00:32:28,360
Beginning in October 1939, and
continuing throughout 1940,
457
00:32:28,360 --> 00:32:30,500
the Nazis has already killed more than
458
00:32:30,500 --> 00:32:33,640
70,000 Germans and Austrians,
459
00:32:33,640 --> 00:32:35,773
judged unfit to live.
460
00:32:36,730 --> 00:32:40,570
Such as the chronically
sick and mentally retarded,
461
00:32:40,570 --> 00:32:45,153
they were gassed in six special
euthanasia institutions.
462
00:32:46,080 --> 00:32:49,050
The euthanasia program
became the training ground
463
00:32:49,050 --> 00:32:50,940
for the SS personnel,
464
00:32:50,940 --> 00:32:54,720
who would later use their
newly-acquired skills,
465
00:32:54,720 --> 00:32:57,193
in managing the Nazi death camps.
466
00:32:58,280 --> 00:33:00,060
In May 1940,
467
00:33:00,060 --> 00:33:01,557
without a declaration of war,
468
00:33:01,557 --> 00:33:04,490
the German armies attacked
three neutral countries,
469
00:33:04,490 --> 00:33:06,560
Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg,
470
00:33:06,560 --> 00:33:08,490
and invaded France.
471
00:33:08,490 --> 00:33:12,620
A further 500,000 troops,
472
00:33:12,620 --> 00:33:14,163
now came under Nazi rule.
473
00:33:19,100 --> 00:33:20,850
The news from France,
474
00:33:21,760 --> 00:33:22,853
is very bad.
475
00:33:24,510 --> 00:33:29,510
And I grieve for the
gallant French people,
476
00:33:29,680 --> 00:33:31,740
who have fallen into
477
00:33:31,740 --> 00:33:36,100
this terrible misfortune.
478
00:33:36,100 --> 00:33:41,100
Nothing will alter our
feelings towards them,
479
00:33:42,590 --> 00:33:43,623
or our faith,
480
00:33:44,650 --> 00:33:48,563
that the genius of France will rise again.
481
00:33:51,420 --> 00:33:53,400
Despite decades of equality
482
00:33:53,400 --> 00:33:55,040
enjoyed by Jews in these countries,
483
00:33:55,040 --> 00:33:58,533
within months their
rights were taken away.
484
00:33:59,410 --> 00:34:02,300
These new measures were often
supported and encouraged
485
00:34:02,300 --> 00:34:05,350
by extremist elements
in the local population.
486
00:34:05,350 --> 00:34:06,910
Small fascist groups,
487
00:34:06,910 --> 00:34:09,850
who now emerged as the
bully boys and tyrants,
488
00:34:09,850 --> 00:34:11,830
under Nazi protection,
489
00:34:11,830 --> 00:34:13,890
and who were quickly to prove themselves,
490
00:34:13,890 --> 00:34:15,773
among the cruelest of oppressors.
491
00:34:18,250 --> 00:34:21,900
Other non-Jews, though few in number,
492
00:34:21,900 --> 00:34:24,130
refused to stand idly by,
493
00:34:24,130 --> 00:34:26,720
while Jews were being tormented.
494
00:34:26,720 --> 00:34:28,290
In Belgium,
495
00:34:28,290 --> 00:34:30,350
on Simchat Torah,
496
00:34:30,350 --> 00:34:33,540
Cardinal van Roey ordered the
chimes of Antwerp Cathedral,
497
00:34:33,540 --> 00:34:37,430
to play the "Hatikvah".
498
00:34:48,860 --> 00:34:50,160
In Holland,
499
00:34:50,160 --> 00:34:53,580
a schoolteacher asked his
students to help the Jews,
500
00:34:53,580 --> 00:34:55,944
by wearing the Star of David.
501
00:34:58,350 --> 00:35:01,860
On June 22nd, 1941,
502
00:35:01,860 --> 00:35:04,680
the Germans invaded the Soviet Union.
503
00:35:04,680 --> 00:35:07,440
Their ally for the past two years.
504
00:35:07,440 --> 00:35:10,500
Special commando units
known as Einsatzgruppen,
505
00:35:10,500 --> 00:35:13,440
followed closely behind the armies,
506
00:35:13,440 --> 00:35:16,793
murdering the Jews of
every town and village.
507
00:36:04,620 --> 00:36:08,122
For six months the German armies advanced.
508
00:36:13,820 --> 00:36:15,220
We were driven,
509
00:36:15,220 --> 00:36:16,863
we were already undressed,
510
00:36:17,760 --> 00:36:21,673
the clothes were removed and
taken away, Father was beaten.
511
00:36:22,630 --> 00:36:24,040
We prayed,
512
00:36:24,040 --> 00:36:26,223
we begged with my father to undress,
513
00:36:27,170 --> 00:36:28,873
but he would not undress.
514
00:36:29,830 --> 00:36:32,433
He did not want to stand naked.
515
00:36:34,160 --> 00:36:37,233
Then they tore off the
clothing of the old man,
516
00:36:38,120 --> 00:36:39,053
and he was shot.
517
00:36:40,140 --> 00:36:43,010
I saw it with my own eyes.
518
00:36:43,010 --> 00:36:45,210
And then they took my mother,
519
00:36:45,210 --> 00:36:47,547
and we said, "Let us go before her."
520
00:36:48,940 --> 00:36:50,183
But they shot her too.
521
00:36:51,390 --> 00:36:54,130
And then there was my grandmother.
522
00:36:54,130 --> 00:36:56,353
She was 80 years old,
523
00:36:56,353 --> 00:36:58,693
and she had two children in her arms.
524
00:37:00,015 --> 00:37:01,883
Then my father's sister,
525
00:37:02,970 --> 00:37:06,430
she also had children in her arms,
526
00:37:06,430 --> 00:37:08,690
and was shot on the spot.
527
00:37:08,690 --> 00:37:10,420
My younger sister,
528
00:37:10,420 --> 00:37:13,220
she prayed with the
Germans, she asked to run.
529
00:37:13,220 --> 00:37:17,130
Naked, she went up to the
Germans with one of her friends.
530
00:37:17,130 --> 00:37:18,610
They were embracing each other,
531
00:37:18,610 --> 00:37:20,750
and she asked to be spared.
532
00:37:20,750 --> 00:37:22,373
He looked into their eyes,
533
00:37:23,240 --> 00:37:25,470
and he shot the two of them.
534
00:37:25,470 --> 00:37:27,760
They fell together in their embrace,
535
00:37:27,760 --> 00:37:29,593
my sister and her young friend.
536
00:37:30,550 --> 00:37:32,023
And then my turn did come.
537
00:37:33,417 --> 00:37:35,920
"Whom shall I shoot first?"
538
00:37:35,920 --> 00:37:39,740
The German asked, "Whom do
you want me to shoot first?"
539
00:37:39,740 --> 00:37:40,803
I did not answer.
540
00:37:42,160 --> 00:37:44,653
I felt him take the child from my arms.
541
00:37:45,500 --> 00:37:48,033
The child cried out and
was shot immediately.
542
00:37:49,000 --> 00:37:52,020
And then he shot at me.
543
00:37:52,020 --> 00:37:53,440
Then I fell to the ground,
544
00:37:53,440 --> 00:37:56,120
into the pit amongst the bodies.
545
00:37:56,120 --> 00:37:57,313
I thought I was dead,
546
00:37:58,440 --> 00:38:01,673
that this was the feeling
which comes after death.
547
00:38:02,920 --> 00:38:07,303
Then I felt that I was choking,
people falling over me.
548
00:38:08,250 --> 00:38:10,900
Bodies pulling at me with their hands,
549
00:38:10,900 --> 00:38:14,400
biting at my legs, pulling me down, down.
550
00:38:14,400 --> 00:38:16,500
And yet with the last of my strength,
551
00:38:16,500 --> 00:38:18,710
I came up at the top of
the grave, and when I did,
552
00:38:18,710 --> 00:38:22,740
I wanted to see the end of
this stretch of dead bodies,
553
00:38:22,740 --> 00:38:24,750
but I could not!
554
00:38:24,750 --> 00:38:29,750
It was impossible, they were
lying, not all of them dead,
555
00:38:30,660 --> 00:38:35,660
but in their last sufferings,
naked shock, but not dead.
556
00:38:36,030 --> 00:38:37,153
Children crying,
557
00:38:38,506 --> 00:38:39,339
"Mother!
558
00:38:40,587 --> 00:38:41,420
"Father!"
559
00:38:47,910 --> 00:38:49,967
People often ask,
560
00:38:49,967 --> 00:38:53,920
"Why did the Jews go like
sheep to the slaughter?"
561
00:38:53,920 --> 00:38:56,300
Sheep to the slaughter?
562
00:38:56,300 --> 00:38:58,050
How can they know what it was like?
563
00:38:59,000 --> 00:39:01,940
Crowded together in a way that
even animals are not treated,
564
00:39:01,940 --> 00:39:04,460
weakened by months of hardship and hunger,
565
00:39:04,460 --> 00:39:07,420
locked up in sealed wagons
without food, weapons,
566
00:39:07,420 --> 00:39:09,340
without friends.
567
00:39:09,340 --> 00:39:13,870
Knowing that even if
one escaped the Nazis,
568
00:39:13,870 --> 00:39:16,643
who was there that would
welcome them who cared?
569
00:39:17,750 --> 00:39:19,093
Who would lift a finger?
570
00:39:20,475 --> 00:39:22,163
And yet despite all this,
571
00:39:23,940 --> 00:39:27,503
there was not a single ghetto
without its Jewish partisans,
572
00:39:28,370 --> 00:39:31,610
and not a single forest
that did not harbor
573
00:39:31,610 --> 00:39:33,523
Jewish resistance fighters.
574
00:39:35,007 --> 00:39:36,827
"Sheep to the slaughter."
575
00:39:38,320 --> 00:39:42,203
What do those who use the
phrase know about honor?
576
00:39:43,390 --> 00:39:45,210
About the thousands of parents,
577
00:39:45,210 --> 00:39:47,870
who would not desert their little ones?
578
00:39:47,870 --> 00:39:50,463
Who stayed behind to
embrace them, cuddle them?
579
00:39:51,330 --> 00:39:54,023
To exchange glances with
them just one more time?
580
00:39:55,662 --> 00:39:59,460
What do they know about reverence?
581
00:39:59,460 --> 00:40:02,840
About those who gave up
their daily ration of food,
582
00:40:02,840 --> 00:40:06,250
so that a father, a grandmother, a rabbi,
583
00:40:06,250 --> 00:40:08,043
might live another day?
584
00:40:09,510 --> 00:40:12,260
What do they know of a people who refused
585
00:40:12,260 --> 00:40:14,713
to believe in the death of mankind?
586
00:40:15,820 --> 00:40:19,493
Who in the forsaken places called hell,
587
00:40:20,720 --> 00:40:22,213
organized schools,
588
00:40:23,070 --> 00:40:25,373
prayed and studied Talmud.
589
00:40:26,660 --> 00:40:28,580
Wrote poems,
590
00:40:28,580 --> 00:40:29,923
composed lyrics,
591
00:40:30,880 --> 00:40:33,430
sang songs of today,
592
00:40:33,430 --> 00:40:34,333
of eternity,
593
00:40:35,600 --> 00:40:36,613
of tomorrow.
594
00:40:38,170 --> 00:40:39,003
Even,
595
00:40:40,028 --> 00:40:41,853
when there was to be no tomorrow.
596
00:40:44,550 --> 00:40:45,923
My dear Moshela,
597
00:40:47,300 --> 00:40:51,193
on July 25th, a terrible
slaughter took place here,
598
00:40:52,230 --> 00:40:54,180
as in all of the cities.
599
00:40:54,180 --> 00:40:55,173
A mass murder.
600
00:40:56,720 --> 00:41:00,000
Only 350 persons remained.
601
00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:01,733
850 perished.
602
00:41:02,570 --> 00:41:05,533
Like pups, they were
thrown into cesspools,
603
00:41:06,430 --> 00:41:09,203
live children thrown into ditches.
604
00:41:11,410 --> 00:41:12,683
I shall not write much.
605
00:41:15,030 --> 00:41:18,343
I think that someone may
survive accidentally,
606
00:41:19,837 --> 00:41:22,600
and that he would tell of our tortures,
607
00:41:22,600 --> 00:41:23,700
and of our bloody end.
608
00:41:25,210 --> 00:41:26,633
We await death daily,
609
00:41:27,850 --> 00:41:29,893
and we mourn our dear ones.
610
00:41:31,410 --> 00:41:32,243
Moshela,
611
00:41:33,600 --> 00:41:35,523
no one is left of your people.
612
00:41:36,875 --> 00:41:39,290
But I envy them.
613
00:41:39,290 --> 00:41:40,173
I am finishing.
614
00:41:42,052 --> 00:41:43,502
But it's impossible to write.
615
00:41:44,560 --> 00:41:46,243
I cannot convey our suffering.
616
00:41:48,731 --> 00:41:49,564
Be well.
617
00:41:51,430 --> 00:41:53,663
The only thing you can do for us,
618
00:41:54,820 --> 00:41:57,383
is to wreak revenge upon our murderers.
619
00:41:58,940 --> 00:42:00,103
We cry out to you.
620
00:42:01,387 --> 00:42:02,220
Avenge.
621
00:42:03,853 --> 00:42:04,713
I kiss you all.
622
00:42:07,460 --> 00:42:09,610
I'm saying goodbye to
you before our death.
623
00:42:11,255 --> 00:42:12,088
Zlata.
624
00:42:14,640 --> 00:42:17,240
The Einsatzgruppen
murdered as many as
625
00:42:17,240 --> 00:42:19,873
a million Jews in 15 months.
626
00:42:21,290 --> 00:42:23,970
But the Nazis knew that these
methods could not be used
627
00:42:23,970 --> 00:42:26,690
to kill Jews elsewhere in Europe,
628
00:42:26,690 --> 00:42:29,543
where anti-Semitism was
not as deeply rooted.
629
00:42:30,940 --> 00:42:34,760
They therefore decided to set
up centers for mass killing,
630
00:42:34,760 --> 00:42:37,773
to which the Jews from all
over Europe could be deported.
631
00:42:43,900 --> 00:42:45,500
By the end of 1941,
632
00:42:45,500 --> 00:42:47,263
the first death camp,
633
00:42:48,110 --> 00:42:49,650
situated at Chelmno,
634
00:42:49,650 --> 00:42:52,943
a small village in German-occupied
Poland, was opened.
635
00:42:55,067 --> 00:42:57,755
Yesterday,
636
00:42:57,755 --> 00:42:58,838
December 7th,
637
00:43:00,250 --> 00:43:04,125
1941,
638
00:43:04,125 --> 00:43:06,042
a date which will live,
639
00:43:06,997 --> 00:43:09,940
in infamy.
640
00:43:09,940 --> 00:43:12,690
United States of America,
641
00:43:12,690 --> 00:43:15,163
was suddenly and deliberately attacked,
642
00:43:16,420 --> 00:43:18,760
by naval and air forces,
643
00:43:18,760 --> 00:43:21,033
of the empire of Japan.
644
00:43:22,330 --> 00:43:23,970
Four days after
the Japanese attack
645
00:43:23,970 --> 00:43:25,150
on Pearl Harbor,
646
00:43:25,150 --> 00:43:27,850
Germany declared war on the United States.
647
00:43:27,850 --> 00:43:31,390
The Jews of Poland felt that
they were no longer alone.
648
00:43:31,390 --> 00:43:32,940
First Churchill and Stalin,
649
00:43:32,940 --> 00:43:33,800
and now Roosevelt--
A state of war.
650
00:43:33,800 --> 00:43:35,630
Were committed to the defeat of Hitler.
651
00:43:35,630 --> 00:43:37,810
Has existed--
The destruction of Nazism.
652
00:43:37,810 --> 00:43:39,980
But in the whole history
653
00:43:39,980 --> 00:43:41,408
of false dawns.
Between the United States,
654
00:43:41,408 --> 00:43:43,400
and the Japanese Empire.
The news that
655
00:43:43,400 --> 00:43:46,750
the United States was
now at war was perhaps,
656
00:43:46,750 --> 00:43:48,537
the falsest dawn of all.
657
00:43:50,180 --> 00:43:51,610
My brother and I were hiding
658
00:43:51,610 --> 00:43:52,990
by the old cemetery,
659
00:43:52,990 --> 00:43:54,313
next to the gravel pit.
660
00:43:55,240 --> 00:43:56,863
Suddenly we were startled awake.
661
00:43:57,980 --> 00:43:59,200
In the distance,
662
00:43:59,200 --> 00:44:02,260
we could hear the rumble of
field wagons approaching,
663
00:44:02,260 --> 00:44:05,420
and the voices of a
great number of people.
664
00:44:05,420 --> 00:44:08,140
Some seemed to be crying,
665
00:44:08,140 --> 00:44:10,460
and some were shouting orders.
666
00:44:10,460 --> 00:44:13,500
And over all this were shots,
667
00:44:13,500 --> 00:44:15,793
and screaming and more screaming.
668
00:44:16,680 --> 00:44:21,110
The sounds came from the
roadway leading to the cemetery.
669
00:44:21,110 --> 00:44:23,293
The terrible procession was coming here.
670
00:44:24,750 --> 00:44:27,680
The woman and children of Eisiskes,
671
00:44:27,680 --> 00:44:31,600
were being herded along the
road by the Lithuanian police.
672
00:44:31,600 --> 00:44:34,683
Whipped and beaten to move faster.
673
00:44:35,680 --> 00:44:37,317
Farm wagons were loaded with children,
674
00:44:37,317 --> 00:44:40,760
and with the dead and
dying bodies of women,
675
00:44:40,760 --> 00:44:42,633
who had rebelled at their captivity.
676
00:44:43,990 --> 00:44:45,750
Then began a day,
677
00:44:45,750 --> 00:44:46,843
I can never forget.
678
00:44:48,570 --> 00:44:50,610
Over the cries and moans,
679
00:44:50,610 --> 00:44:53,970
of this mass of defenseless creatures,
680
00:44:53,970 --> 00:44:56,100
police barked orders,
681
00:44:56,100 --> 00:44:57,310
then pushed and prodded,
682
00:44:57,310 --> 00:44:59,623
to separate the women from their children.
683
00:45:00,680 --> 00:45:04,230
Benjamin and I desperately
scanned the lines of women
684
00:45:04,230 --> 00:45:07,410
to find our mother,
grandmother, and sister,
685
00:45:07,410 --> 00:45:09,210
but we couldn't see them.
686
00:45:09,210 --> 00:45:11,030
There was my aunt,
687
00:45:11,030 --> 00:45:12,720
and my cousin,
688
00:45:12,720 --> 00:45:13,893
and that neighbor lady,
689
00:45:14,800 --> 00:45:16,703
but we couldn't see our own family.
690
00:45:18,090 --> 00:45:22,013
The women were taken
in groups of 100 or so.
691
00:45:22,013 --> 00:45:24,023
Down the path, into the gravel pit.
692
00:45:25,330 --> 00:45:27,480
They were made to strip naked,
693
00:45:27,480 --> 00:45:29,173
and pile their clothing nearby.
694
00:45:30,380 --> 00:45:32,430
The young were separated from the others,
695
00:45:33,520 --> 00:45:35,023
and dragged into the bushes,
696
00:45:35,860 --> 00:45:40,320
to be raped, and raped again, by soldier,
697
00:45:40,320 --> 00:45:41,860
after soldier,
698
00:45:41,860 --> 00:45:44,950
and policeman, after policeman.
699
00:45:44,950 --> 00:45:47,030
Then they were dragged off,
700
00:45:47,030 --> 00:45:49,123
marched to the bottom of the gravel pit,
701
00:45:50,010 --> 00:45:51,853
lined up and coldly shot to death.
702
00:45:53,230 --> 00:45:55,543
I clung to the edge of the cemetery wall.
703
00:45:56,620 --> 00:45:58,300
I wanted to hide,
704
00:45:58,300 --> 00:45:59,270
to run screaming,
705
00:45:59,270 --> 00:46:01,690
to make this hideous thing end,
706
00:46:01,690 --> 00:46:04,070
didn't they know what they were doing?
707
00:46:04,070 --> 00:46:06,870
These were human lives, these were people,
708
00:46:06,870 --> 00:46:09,610
not animals to be slaughtered.
709
00:46:09,610 --> 00:46:12,970
My mouth opened to scream but I could not.
710
00:46:12,970 --> 00:46:17,840
I wanted to close my eyes,
but they would not close.
711
00:46:17,840 --> 00:46:19,740
I didn't want to look,
712
00:46:19,740 --> 00:46:21,860
but I couldn't stop looking.
713
00:46:21,860 --> 00:46:24,630
I saw the Lithuanians
shoot the breasts off
714
00:46:24,630 --> 00:46:26,240
some of the women,
715
00:46:26,240 --> 00:46:28,143
and shoot others in the genitals.
716
00:46:29,020 --> 00:46:32,670
Saw them leave others with
arms and legs mutilated,
717
00:46:32,670 --> 00:46:34,083
to die in agony.
718
00:46:34,930 --> 00:46:36,230
And some to smother,
719
00:46:36,230 --> 00:46:38,683
as the next load of bodies fell upon them.
720
00:46:39,870 --> 00:46:44,230
I saw my aunt die in a volley of gunfire.
721
00:46:44,230 --> 00:46:47,284
I saw my beautiful cousin,
722
00:46:47,284 --> 00:46:49,240
raped and raped,
723
00:46:49,240 --> 00:46:53,850
until death must have been
the only thing she longed for.
724
00:46:53,850 --> 00:46:56,910
I heard hopeless screams for mercy,
725
00:46:56,910 --> 00:47:01,110
shrieks of terror, and agony and gunfire.
726
00:47:01,110 --> 00:47:02,330
I felt
727
00:47:02,330 --> 00:47:03,520
each bullet
728
00:47:03,520 --> 00:47:04,897
enter my brain.
729
00:47:06,820 --> 00:47:08,673
My fingers slipped from the wall,
730
00:47:09,597 --> 00:47:13,253
and I fell beside my
brother, retching in sorrow.
731
00:47:14,137 --> 00:47:17,317
"Don't watch anymore, Leon," he pleaded.
732
00:47:17,317 --> 00:47:18,357
"Stay here."
733
00:47:19,370 --> 00:47:21,650
I wanted to but I couldn't.
734
00:47:21,650 --> 00:47:26,327
Weeping, Benjamin sat on
me, trying to hold me down.
735
00:47:26,327 --> 00:47:30,087
"No." I whispered, and fought to get up.
736
00:47:30,087 --> 00:47:32,717
"I've got to, I've got to."
737
00:47:33,580 --> 00:47:36,710
And I returned to the wall.
738
00:47:41,110 --> 00:47:43,100
On July 31st, 1941,
739
00:47:43,100 --> 00:47:47,020
Goering had ordered Heydrich
to begin the preparations
740
00:47:47,020 --> 00:47:51,410
for the Final Solution
of the Jewish Question.
741
00:47:51,410 --> 00:47:54,670
Six months later, on January 20th, 1942,
742
00:47:54,670 --> 00:47:56,780
15 high-ranking German officials met
743
00:47:56,780 --> 00:48:00,100
in the Berlin suburb of
Wannsee to implement it.
744
00:48:00,100 --> 00:48:03,010
Eight of them were PhDs.
745
00:48:03,010 --> 00:48:04,793
It was Heydrich who addressed them.
746
00:48:05,737 --> 00:48:06,857
"The Jews," he said,
747
00:48:06,857 --> 00:48:10,207
"should first be separated by sex.
748
00:48:10,207 --> 00:48:13,197
"So that no more Jewish
children would be born.
749
00:48:13,197 --> 00:48:14,777
"Once separated,
750
00:48:14,777 --> 00:48:17,327
"they should be put to
work in labor columns.
751
00:48:17,327 --> 00:48:18,957
"Where," he explained,
752
00:48:18,957 --> 00:48:20,667
"doubtless a large part will fall away
753
00:48:20,667 --> 00:48:23,033
"through natural reduction.
754
00:48:24,637 --> 00:48:26,847
"The survivors," he said,
755
00:48:26,847 --> 00:48:29,793
"the inevitable final remainder,
756
00:48:31,097 --> 00:48:34,437
"would have to be dealt
with appropriately,
757
00:48:34,437 --> 00:48:37,547
"to prevent them from
becoming," what he called,
758
00:48:37,547 --> 00:48:40,993
"the germ cell of a
new Jewish development.
759
00:48:41,897 --> 00:48:43,237
"The arrangements," he explained,
760
00:48:43,237 --> 00:48:45,397
"would be coordinated by Eichmann."
761
00:48:48,240 --> 00:48:49,887
Eichmann would say about the meeting,
762
00:48:49,887 --> 00:48:52,077
"I can't remember in detail,
763
00:48:52,077 --> 00:48:54,067
"but they spoke about methods of killing,
764
00:48:54,067 --> 00:48:57,137
"about liquidation, about extermination."
765
00:48:58,280 --> 00:49:01,490
In the second part,
everyone spoke out of turn.
766
00:49:01,490 --> 00:49:03,750
People would go around,
butler's attitudes,
767
00:49:03,750 --> 00:49:05,463
and give out liquor.
768
00:49:07,170 --> 00:49:08,770
The Wannsee Conference over,
769
00:49:08,770 --> 00:49:10,890
plans went ahead with the establishment of
770
00:49:10,890 --> 00:49:15,520
a massive concentration camp
complex at Auschwitz-Birkenau,
771
00:49:15,520 --> 00:49:18,970
to which Jews from all
over Europe would be sent.
772
00:49:18,970 --> 00:49:21,350
At Treblinka the commandant had a facade
773
00:49:21,350 --> 00:49:25,060
of a railway station erected
to deceive the victims.
774
00:49:25,060 --> 00:49:28,720
At Auschwitz, arrivals were
greeted by an orchestra.
775
00:49:28,720 --> 00:49:30,940
A completely new use
of the German language
776
00:49:30,940 --> 00:49:34,930
was devised to create a sense of security.
777
00:49:34,930 --> 00:49:38,800
Deportation had become resettlement.
778
00:49:38,800 --> 00:49:42,583
Selection for death had
become special treatment.
779
00:49:43,650 --> 00:49:45,590
Gas chambers,
780
00:49:45,590 --> 00:49:47,854
had become showers.
781
00:50:01,340 --> 00:50:04,160
The Nazi program was
intensified with the murder
782
00:50:04,160 --> 00:50:05,400
by Czech resistance fighters,
783
00:50:05,400 --> 00:50:07,463
of SS General Reinhard Heydrich.
784
00:50:09,110 --> 00:50:13,300
Not only were more Jews
seized, deported and murdered,
785
00:50:13,300 --> 00:50:16,090
including 3000 men, women and children,
786
00:50:16,090 --> 00:50:17,403
from Theresienstadt,
787
00:50:18,600 --> 00:50:20,300
but in the Czech village of Lidice,
788
00:50:20,300 --> 00:50:24,720
all 1800 Czech males,
789
00:50:24,720 --> 00:50:26,130
were murdered.
790
00:50:26,130 --> 00:50:27,810
And the village burnt to the ground.
791
00:50:54,100 --> 00:50:55,610
The last,
792
00:50:55,610 --> 00:50:58,550
the very last.
793
00:50:58,550 --> 00:51:02,103
So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow.
794
00:51:03,850 --> 00:51:07,370
Perhaps if the sun's tears would sing,
795
00:51:07,370 --> 00:51:12,160
against a white stone,
796
00:51:12,160 --> 00:51:13,430
such,
797
00:51:13,430 --> 00:51:15,500
such a yellow,
798
00:51:15,500 --> 00:51:17,040
is carried lightly,
799
00:51:17,040 --> 00:51:18,183
way up high.
800
00:51:20,130 --> 00:51:20,973
It went away,
801
00:51:22,160 --> 00:51:25,853
I'm sure because it wished
to kiss the world goodbye.
802
00:51:29,170 --> 00:51:32,283
For seven weeks I've lived in here.
803
00:51:33,300 --> 00:51:35,363
Penned up inside this ghetto.
804
00:51:36,400 --> 00:51:38,423
But I have found my people here.
805
00:51:45,130 --> 00:51:47,013
The dandelions call to me,
806
00:51:48,093 --> 00:51:50,613
and the white chestnut
candles in the court.
807
00:51:52,310 --> 00:51:54,713
Only I never saw another butterfly.
808
00:51:56,120 --> 00:51:57,970
That butterfly,
809
00:51:57,970 --> 00:51:59,323
was the last one.
810
00:52:01,240 --> 00:52:04,287
Butterflies don't live in here,
811
00:52:04,287 --> 00:52:05,454
in the ghetto.
812
00:52:18,150 --> 00:52:20,510
Whole Jewish
communities were told
813
00:52:20,510 --> 00:52:23,970
that they were being sent to
new regions to become farmers,
814
00:52:23,970 --> 00:52:27,343
and to work on some project
essential for Germany.
815
00:52:28,860 --> 00:52:31,173
Some were made to pay for their tickets.
816
00:52:32,130 --> 00:52:33,700
Others had the price of their tickets
817
00:52:33,700 --> 00:52:37,243
deducted from the value of
their confiscated property.
818
00:52:38,620 --> 00:52:42,483
Everything was done to lull
them into a sense of security.
819
00:52:43,640 --> 00:52:44,640
Or at least of hope.
820
00:52:46,150 --> 00:52:48,300
The deportations to Auschwitz,
821
00:52:48,300 --> 00:52:50,707
began three weeks after those to Belzec.
822
00:52:51,830 --> 00:52:53,350
From as far west as France,
823
00:52:53,350 --> 00:52:54,870
from as far north as Norway,
824
00:52:54,870 --> 00:52:57,350
from as far south as Greece,
825
00:52:57,350 --> 00:53:00,200
the trains bearing their human cargo,
826
00:53:00,200 --> 00:53:02,053
converged on Auschwitz.
827
00:53:03,280 --> 00:53:06,960
For two, three, four, five days,
828
00:53:06,960 --> 00:53:09,373
sometimes for as long as two weeks,
829
00:53:10,620 --> 00:53:12,123
these trains crossed Europe,
830
00:53:13,594 --> 00:53:15,720
on their way to the gas chambers.
831
00:53:15,720 --> 00:53:20,020
A young German
engineer, Kurt Gerstein,
832
00:53:20,020 --> 00:53:22,143
who witnessed the gassing at Belzec,
833
00:53:23,190 --> 00:53:26,800
later described the actions
of the SS commandant,
834
00:53:26,800 --> 00:53:28,450
Christian Wirth,
835
00:53:28,450 --> 00:53:29,513
and his victims.
836
00:53:30,870 --> 00:53:33,223
As the Jews were driven from the trains,
837
00:53:34,090 --> 00:53:35,880
they went through a portal,
838
00:53:35,880 --> 00:53:38,253
inscribed with the Hebrew inscription,
839
00:53:39,467 --> 00:53:42,123
"This is the gate of the Lord,
840
00:53:43,037 --> 00:53:45,997
"into which the righteous shall enter."
841
00:53:47,600 --> 00:53:50,197
Gerstein wrote of what he saw.
842
00:53:50,197 --> 00:53:51,577
"A Jewess of about 40,
843
00:53:51,577 --> 00:53:53,157
"with eyes like fire,
844
00:53:53,157 --> 00:53:55,487
"curses the murderers.
845
00:53:55,487 --> 00:53:57,867
"Wirth an SS officer himself,
846
00:53:57,867 --> 00:54:01,367
"strikes her across the face
several times with a whip,
847
00:54:01,367 --> 00:54:03,543
"as she disappears into the gas chamber.
848
00:54:04,937 --> 00:54:06,333
"Many pray.
849
00:54:08,147 --> 00:54:10,963
"The SS men squeeze
people into the chambers.
850
00:54:12,337 --> 00:54:15,247
"Fill them up well, orders Wirth.
851
00:54:15,247 --> 00:54:18,217
"About seven to 800 people,
852
00:54:18,217 --> 00:54:21,143
"in an area of 93 square meters,
853
00:54:22,067 --> 00:54:23,587
"the doors close,
854
00:54:23,587 --> 00:54:25,963
"but the diesel engine is not functioning.
855
00:54:27,107 --> 00:54:29,467
"50 minutes pass by.
856
00:54:29,467 --> 00:54:30,713
"70 minutes.
857
00:54:31,617 --> 00:54:34,703
"The people in the death
chambers remain standing.
858
00:54:35,937 --> 00:54:38,173
"Their weeping is heard.
859
00:54:39,847 --> 00:54:43,553
"SS Sturmbannführer, Dr. Pfannenstiel,
860
00:54:44,517 --> 00:54:49,517
"lecturer in hygiene at
Marburg University remarks;
861
00:54:50,147 --> 00:54:52,137
"Just like a synagogue."
862
00:54:57,850 --> 00:54:58,740
In the meantime,
863
00:54:58,740 --> 00:55:02,113
knowledge of the death
camps had reached the West.
864
00:55:03,070 --> 00:55:07,383
But this news was treated almost
as if it was insignificant.
865
00:55:08,770 --> 00:55:10,790
Thus on July 2nd, 1942,
866
00:55:10,790 --> 00:55:14,250
The New York Times carried on page six,
867
00:55:14,250 --> 00:55:17,170
a report stating that
more than one million Jews
868
00:55:17,170 --> 00:55:18,663
had been exterminated.
869
00:55:20,250 --> 00:55:22,040
While on page one of the same issue,
870
00:55:22,040 --> 00:55:25,150
the Times' story gave greater coverage
871
00:55:25,150 --> 00:55:27,143
of Governor Lehman's tennis shoe,
872
00:55:28,200 --> 00:55:30,300
which was given to the scrap rubber drive.
873
00:55:32,070 --> 00:55:33,470
In October 1943,
874
00:55:33,470 --> 00:55:36,000
during the deportations
from Rome to Auschwitz,
875
00:55:36,000 --> 00:55:38,830
the German ambassador,
Baron von Weizsacker,
876
00:55:38,830 --> 00:55:40,677
cabled the German Foreign Ministry,
877
00:55:40,677 --> 00:55:43,067
"Although under pressure from all sides,
878
00:55:43,067 --> 00:55:45,917
"the Pope has not let himself be drawn
879
00:55:45,917 --> 00:55:48,797
"into any demonstrative censure,
880
00:55:48,797 --> 00:55:51,047
"of the deportation of Jews from Rome."
881
00:55:52,364 --> 00:55:54,460
Supreme Commander,
882
00:55:54,460 --> 00:55:57,530
General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
883
00:55:57,530 --> 00:55:59,530
People of Western Europe,
884
00:56:00,670 --> 00:56:03,267
a landing was made this
morning on the coast of France,
885
00:56:03,267 --> 00:56:06,343
by troops of the Allied
Expeditionary Force.
886
00:56:07,350 --> 00:56:11,080
This landing is part of the
concerted United Nations plan,
887
00:56:11,080 --> 00:56:12,830
for the liberation of Europe.
888
00:56:12,830 --> 00:56:15,630
The Hungarian
deportations began in May 1944,
889
00:56:15,630 --> 00:56:18,340
on the eve of the Normandy landings.
890
00:56:18,340 --> 00:56:21,070
Despite urgent demands
for trains and transport,
891
00:56:21,070 --> 00:56:23,870
the Germans continued
systematically to uproot
892
00:56:23,870 --> 00:56:27,170
and destroy the Jewish
communities of Europe.
893
00:56:27,170 --> 00:56:28,420
From Slovakia,
894
00:56:28,420 --> 00:56:31,290
Rabbi Weissmandl wrote
to Jewish organizations
895
00:56:31,290 --> 00:56:32,387
in Switzerland,
896
00:56:32,387 --> 00:56:35,207
"We cannot understand how
you can eat and drink,
897
00:56:35,207 --> 00:56:37,027
"how you can sleep in your beds at night,
898
00:56:37,027 --> 00:56:38,267
"how you can go for walks,
899
00:56:38,267 --> 00:56:40,857
"and I have the impression
you do these things.
900
00:56:40,857 --> 00:56:44,287
"And this responsibility
rests on your shoulders.
901
00:56:44,287 --> 00:56:46,453
"And we've been screaming for months.
902
00:56:47,687 --> 00:56:49,957
"And you still have not done anything."
903
00:56:51,690 --> 00:56:54,090
Several appeals were made of
the British and Americans,
904
00:56:54,090 --> 00:56:57,570
to disrupt the traffic, to bomb
the gas chambers themselves,
905
00:56:57,570 --> 00:57:00,070
but no such bombing took place.
906
00:57:00,070 --> 00:57:02,980
Even though factories on the
very outskirts of Auschwitz,
907
00:57:02,980 --> 00:57:05,300
and throughout the Auschwitz region,
908
00:57:05,300 --> 00:57:07,360
were bombed repeatedly.
909
00:57:07,360 --> 00:57:10,390
Specific help for the Jews,
910
00:57:10,390 --> 00:57:13,023
was very low on the priority scale.
911
00:57:19,030 --> 00:57:21,050
It all seemed futile.
912
00:57:21,050 --> 00:57:22,543
Nobody cared about us.
913
00:57:23,450 --> 00:57:25,453
We were the world's extra baggage.
914
00:57:26,360 --> 00:57:29,060
We had given hope until one day,
915
00:57:29,060 --> 00:57:30,620
we heard this fantastic story
916
00:57:30,620 --> 00:57:35,560
about a prominent Swedish
diplomat, Raoul Wallenberg,
917
00:57:35,560 --> 00:57:40,083
who had come to Hungary on
a mission to save the Jews.
918
00:57:41,020 --> 00:57:43,023
Soon this man became our Moses.
919
00:57:43,920 --> 00:57:47,150
Every day, at great personal risk,
920
00:57:47,150 --> 00:57:50,470
he delivered people from
the hands of the Nazis.
921
00:57:50,470 --> 00:57:52,290
He talked to us,
922
00:57:52,290 --> 00:57:55,260
and showed that there was
one human being who cared,
923
00:57:55,260 --> 00:57:57,887
one angel in this hell.
924
00:57:57,887 --> 00:58:00,323
"I came to save a nation," he said.
925
00:58:01,290 --> 00:58:04,200
He would print his own Swedish passports,
926
00:58:04,200 --> 00:58:07,040
then run off to the train depots,
927
00:58:07,040 --> 00:58:09,513
the trains that were
leaving for Auschwitz,
928
00:58:10,730 --> 00:58:12,920
and he would reach out
to the desperate group
929
00:58:12,920 --> 00:58:14,830
of outstretched arms,
930
00:58:14,830 --> 00:58:16,913
giving them their tickets to life.
931
00:58:17,750 --> 00:58:21,650
He saved 30,000 people.
932
00:58:21,650 --> 00:58:22,653
One man.
933
00:58:24,120 --> 00:58:26,473
And then after the liberation of Budapest,
934
00:58:27,560 --> 00:58:29,143
the Russians kidnapped him.
935
00:58:30,360 --> 00:58:32,087
That is the irony of it all.
936
00:58:32,980 --> 00:58:34,973
This noble human being,
937
00:58:35,830 --> 00:58:38,170
who did so much for others,
938
00:58:38,170 --> 00:58:39,823
may be rotting there somewhere,
939
00:58:40,980 --> 00:58:41,813
all alone.
940
00:58:43,850 --> 00:58:46,160
Meanwhile, as
each train of Hungarian Jews
941
00:58:46,160 --> 00:58:47,640
arrived at Auschwitz,
942
00:58:47,640 --> 00:58:50,883
the so-called selection took place.
943
00:58:51,760 --> 00:58:53,913
One survivor has described it thus.
944
00:58:55,747 --> 00:58:57,483
"We walk forward slowly.
945
00:58:58,347 --> 00:59:02,547
"An SS man stood a few
dozen meters in front of us.
946
00:59:02,547 --> 00:59:03,987
"As we passed in front of him,
947
00:59:03,987 --> 00:59:06,647
"he made a sign with his stick,
948
00:59:06,647 --> 00:59:09,167
"to some to go to the left,
949
00:59:09,167 --> 00:59:11,183
"and to others to go to the right.
950
00:59:12,847 --> 00:59:16,097
"To the left, he directed
all the old people.
951
00:59:16,097 --> 00:59:18,017
"All the children who
were without parents,
952
00:59:18,017 --> 00:59:20,627
"sometimes he directed
a mother to the right,
953
00:59:20,627 --> 00:59:23,053
"and her child to the left.
954
00:59:23,987 --> 00:59:26,917
"If the mother refused to leave her child,
955
00:59:26,917 --> 00:59:29,363
"both of them were sent to the left.
956
00:59:32,048 --> 00:59:35,850
"To the left was the road
to the gas chambers."
957
00:59:35,850 --> 00:59:39,550
At Auschwitz, medical experiments
were carried out on Jews,
958
00:59:39,550 --> 00:59:41,000
and non-Jews,
959
00:59:41,000 --> 00:59:43,133
against all the rules of medical ethics.
960
00:59:44,470 --> 00:59:47,410
German doctors, such as Dr. Josef Mengele,
961
00:59:47,410 --> 00:59:49,720
a product of the world's
finest university system,
962
00:59:49,720 --> 00:59:52,553
carried out barbaric experiments.
963
00:59:53,700 --> 00:59:56,690
Women had their breasts
and thighs removed.
964
00:59:56,690 --> 00:59:59,730
They also took women for
artificial insemination.
965
00:59:59,730 --> 01:00:01,953
Gypsies were forced to drink sea water.
966
01:00:02,970 --> 01:00:05,370
Brutal experiments were
carried out on twins,
967
01:00:05,370 --> 01:00:07,780
attempts were made to change
the color of their eyes,
968
01:00:07,780 --> 01:00:11,330
in order to find ways of
increasing the pure racial stock
969
01:00:11,330 --> 01:00:12,723
of the German people.
970
01:00:14,060 --> 01:00:17,080
The diary of professor Johann Kremer,
971
01:00:17,080 --> 01:00:18,850
an SS doctor at Auschwitz,
972
01:00:18,850 --> 01:00:20,923
contained the following entries.
973
01:00:22,707 --> 01:00:23,943
"September 2nd.
974
01:00:25,227 --> 01:00:27,023
"After what I've seen today,
975
01:00:28,007 --> 01:00:30,713
"Dante's Inferno seems almost a comedy.
976
01:00:32,377 --> 01:00:33,343
"September 5th.
977
01:00:35,217 --> 01:00:36,383
"Horror of horrors.
978
01:00:37,697 --> 01:00:39,650
"Thilo was right when he told me that
979
01:00:40,687 --> 01:00:42,653
"we were at the world's anus.
980
01:00:45,047 --> 01:00:46,243
"September 6th.
981
01:00:47,541 --> 01:00:49,417
"Had an excellent lunch today,
982
01:00:49,417 --> 01:00:51,587
"tomato soup, half a
chicken and roast potatoes,
983
01:00:51,587 --> 01:00:53,487
"cake and delicious vanilla ice cream.
984
01:00:56,827 --> 01:00:58,343
"Himmler taught them well.
985
01:00:59,977 --> 01:01:03,047
"To have stuck it out,
he told his SS officers,
986
01:01:03,047 --> 01:01:06,433
"and at the same time to
have remained decent men.
987
01:01:07,697 --> 01:01:10,407
"That is what made it hard.
988
01:01:10,407 --> 01:01:13,267
"This is a page of glory in our history,
989
01:01:13,267 --> 01:01:14,767
"which has never been written,
990
01:01:15,687 --> 01:01:17,137
"and never is to be written."
991
01:01:22,620 --> 01:01:26,620
As the crematoria were being
kept busy around the clock,
992
01:01:26,620 --> 01:01:29,360
other forms of barbarism
continued relentlessly,
993
01:01:29,360 --> 01:01:32,160
not only against Jews,
but against non-Jews.
994
01:01:32,160 --> 01:01:34,320
In France, in July 1944,
995
01:01:34,320 --> 01:01:38,660
more than 600 inhabitants of
the French village of Oradour,
996
01:01:38,660 --> 01:01:40,440
were seized, locked in the church,
997
01:01:40,440 --> 01:01:42,083
and the church set on fire.
998
01:01:43,340 --> 01:01:44,173
Throughout Europe,
999
01:01:44,173 --> 01:01:46,470
the Germans deported
gypsies to the death camps.
1000
01:01:46,470 --> 01:01:51,470
More than 200,000 of Europe's
700,000 gypsies were murdered.
1001
01:01:51,490 --> 01:01:53,393
But it was against Jews,
1002
01:01:54,430 --> 01:01:55,493
and Jews alone,
1003
01:01:57,140 --> 01:02:00,063
that the full fury of
Nazi hatred was focused.
1004
01:02:01,450 --> 01:02:03,913
For it was the Jews as a people,
1005
01:02:04,750 --> 01:02:08,540
not only Jewish lives, but Jewish life,
1006
01:02:08,540 --> 01:02:11,040
that they were determined
to destroy for all time.
1007
01:02:12,490 --> 01:02:14,620
In my heart
I was still convinced,
1008
01:02:14,620 --> 01:02:16,500
that the only refuge for us,
1009
01:02:16,500 --> 01:02:18,793
was to join the partisans in the forest.
1010
01:02:19,797 --> 01:02:21,703
"I've got to go," I told Papa,
1011
01:02:22,680 --> 01:02:25,397
who I knew, deep down, shared my view.
1012
01:02:25,397 --> 01:02:27,477
"Okay," he finally said.
1013
01:02:27,477 --> 01:02:28,747
"We'll leave Radun."
1014
01:02:29,650 --> 01:02:31,350
Then if there's no other way,
1015
01:02:31,350 --> 01:02:32,603
we'll go to the forest.
1016
01:02:33,490 --> 01:02:35,410
They went to tell Mother.
1017
01:02:35,410 --> 01:02:38,623
I believe she'd always known
it would one day come to this.
1018
01:02:39,500 --> 01:02:41,500
But we were not prepared for her answer.
1019
01:02:42,337 --> 01:02:43,853
"No," she said.
1020
01:02:44,940 --> 01:02:46,627
You'll have to go without me.
1021
01:02:46,627 --> 01:02:49,017
"Grandmother could never make the journey.
1022
01:02:49,017 --> 01:02:51,800
"I must stay here to look after her."
1023
01:02:51,800 --> 01:02:53,527
We begged her to change her mind,
1024
01:02:53,527 --> 01:02:55,173
but she remained adamant.
1025
01:02:56,297 --> 01:02:58,677
"You go and save yourselves," she said.
1026
01:02:58,677 --> 01:03:00,817
"This is my decision.
1027
01:03:00,817 --> 01:03:03,357
"You are not responsible.
1028
01:03:03,357 --> 01:03:05,557
"You must go and live.
1029
01:03:05,557 --> 01:03:07,667
"But please understand,
1030
01:03:07,667 --> 01:03:09,853
"Grandmother has no one but me.
1031
01:03:10,737 --> 01:03:13,163
"My obligation is to stay with her.
1032
01:03:14,120 --> 01:03:16,520
For four days we argued.
1033
01:03:16,520 --> 01:03:17,943
But we could not sway her.
1034
01:03:19,130 --> 01:03:21,130
She wanted to come,
1035
01:03:21,130 --> 01:03:25,453
but nothing could deter her
from the obligation she felt.
1036
01:03:26,740 --> 01:03:28,620
Our parting will remain,
1037
01:03:28,620 --> 01:03:30,093
forever on my mind,
1038
01:03:30,930 --> 01:03:31,923
and conscience.
1039
01:03:33,430 --> 01:03:36,263
We hugged and kissed
goodbye, again and again.
1040
01:03:37,380 --> 01:03:40,363
And at the door, I turned to look back,
1041
01:03:41,540 --> 01:03:44,623
to take one last mental
picture of my dear mother.
1042
01:03:46,180 --> 01:03:47,483
I can still see her,
1043
01:03:48,507 --> 01:03:51,443
her dark wavy hair now prematurely gray,
1044
01:03:52,810 --> 01:03:56,133
but her beautiful, strong
features unchanged.
1045
01:03:57,320 --> 01:04:00,193
I was torn between my fear of dying,
1046
01:04:01,060 --> 01:04:05,780
and my conviction that
I was betraying her.
1047
01:04:05,780 --> 01:04:07,683
Letting her down when she needed me.
1048
01:04:09,200 --> 01:04:11,180
100 times I told myself to stay,
1049
01:04:11,180 --> 01:04:15,043
100 times my terror forced
me to leave my adored mother.
1050
01:04:16,190 --> 01:04:19,210
The one to whom I had
turned with my troubles,
1051
01:04:19,210 --> 01:04:21,133
ever since I was a tiny child.
1052
01:04:22,450 --> 01:04:24,393
And who with a single kiss,
1053
01:04:25,300 --> 01:04:26,673
made me whole again.
1054
01:04:28,390 --> 01:04:29,263
To this day,
1055
01:04:30,390 --> 01:04:32,780
I still wonder if we had insisted more,
1056
01:04:33,890 --> 01:04:36,470
or begged just a little longer,
1057
01:04:36,470 --> 01:04:37,970
maybe she would have relented.
1058
01:04:39,770 --> 01:04:44,540
My only comfort is the prayer
that in those last moments,
1059
01:04:44,540 --> 01:04:47,693
before she and grandmother
were led into the gas chamber,
1060
01:04:48,930 --> 01:04:52,160
she found consolation in the
thought that her husband,
1061
01:04:52,160 --> 01:04:53,833
and children were still alive.
1062
01:04:54,810 --> 01:04:59,530
Alive to carry on the
tradition and commitment,
1063
01:04:59,530 --> 01:05:01,203
for which she gave her life.
1064
01:05:03,460 --> 01:05:06,740
A year earlier,
in the spring of 1943,
1065
01:05:06,740 --> 01:05:08,580
the remnants of the Warsaw ghetto
1066
01:05:08,580 --> 01:05:10,563
had themselves risen in revolt.
1067
01:05:11,450 --> 01:05:14,040
Poorly armed, but strong in spirit,
1068
01:05:14,040 --> 01:05:14,873
their commander,
1069
01:05:14,873 --> 01:05:19,017
24-year-old Mordechai
Anielewicz proclaimed--
1070
01:05:19,017 --> 01:05:20,817
"I don't know what to tell you.
1071
01:05:20,817 --> 01:05:22,587
"Something has happened that is beyond
1072
01:05:22,587 --> 01:05:24,777
"our most daring dream.
1073
01:05:24,777 --> 01:05:28,787
"The Germans have been driven
out of the ghetto twice.
1074
01:05:28,787 --> 01:05:30,147
"For three days,
1075
01:05:30,147 --> 01:05:32,693
"the Germans have been
trapped in the flames.
1076
01:05:33,607 --> 01:05:36,423
"Tonight we are changing
to guerrilla warfare.
1077
01:05:37,337 --> 01:05:40,237
"I can't describe our present conditions,
1078
01:05:40,237 --> 01:05:41,823
"only a few will survive.
1079
01:05:42,807 --> 01:05:45,446
"Everybody else will
perish sooner or later.
1080
01:05:46,577 --> 01:05:47,843
"Our fate is sealed.
1081
01:05:48,857 --> 01:05:51,347
"In all the bunkers you
can't light a candle,
1082
01:05:51,347 --> 01:05:53,747
"as they might be near.
1083
01:05:53,747 --> 01:05:55,147
"Goodbye,
1084
01:05:55,147 --> 01:05:56,283
"dear friend.
1085
01:05:57,747 --> 01:06:00,723
"The last wish of my
life has been fulfilled.
1086
01:06:01,717 --> 01:06:05,637
"I have been privileged to see
Jewish defense in the ghetto,
1087
01:06:05,637 --> 01:06:08,313
"in all its greatness and glory.
1088
01:06:33,090 --> 01:06:34,290
In many other ghettos,
1089
01:06:34,290 --> 01:06:36,380
men and women, often unarmed,
1090
01:06:36,380 --> 01:06:39,993
also revealed the highest
achievement of the human spirit.
1091
01:06:40,980 --> 01:06:43,920
There were revolts even
in the death camps.
1092
01:06:43,920 --> 01:06:46,833
Revolts against overwhelming odds.
1093
01:06:47,760 --> 01:06:50,283
Individuals showed extraordinary bravery.
1094
01:06:51,410 --> 01:06:53,690
Rosa Robata was 21,
1095
01:06:53,690 --> 01:06:57,040
as she watched her family
taken to the gas chambers,
1096
01:06:57,040 --> 01:07:01,783
in a selection at
Birkenau, November, 1942.
1097
01:07:02,700 --> 01:07:05,380
Her opportunity to avenge,
1098
01:07:05,380 --> 01:07:06,763
came two years later.
1099
01:07:08,200 --> 01:07:09,720
She and a group of girls,
1100
01:07:09,720 --> 01:07:13,870
working with her at the Krupp
munitions plant at Auschwitz,
1101
01:07:13,870 --> 01:07:16,570
arranged that they smuggle out dynamite,
1102
01:07:16,570 --> 01:07:19,053
to the resistance
organization in the camp.
1103
01:07:20,270 --> 01:07:24,170
Then on October 7th, 1944,
1104
01:07:24,170 --> 01:07:28,903
everyone at Auschwitz heard
and saw something unbelievable.
1105
01:07:29,840 --> 01:07:32,110
One of the crematoria,
1106
01:07:32,110 --> 01:07:36,010
in which the bodies of so many
of their mothers, fathers,
1107
01:07:36,010 --> 01:07:39,100
and young had been burned,
1108
01:07:39,100 --> 01:07:41,309
was blown to pieces.
1109
01:07:43,410 --> 01:07:45,660
Five SS men were killed.
1110
01:07:45,660 --> 01:07:49,340
600 people escaped.
1111
01:07:49,340 --> 01:07:52,453
Most were hunted down
and shot in a few days.
1112
01:07:53,760 --> 01:07:58,390
In an investigation that
led to the arrest of Rosa,
1113
01:07:58,390 --> 01:08:03,123
the SS used all their sadistic
methods of torture on her.
1114
01:08:04,470 --> 01:08:06,233
She betrayed no one.
1115
01:08:07,396 --> 01:08:08,940
Her last words,
1116
01:08:08,940 --> 01:08:13,110
scribbled on a piece of paper
just before she was hanged,
1117
01:08:13,110 --> 01:08:18,000
in front of the assembled
inmates of Auschwitz, were,
1118
01:08:21,287 --> 01:08:22,687
"Be strong,
1119
01:08:22,687 --> 01:08:23,977
"and brave."
1120
01:08:27,400 --> 01:08:29,043
By the end of 1944,
1121
01:08:30,240 --> 01:08:35,240
a further four million
had perished at Chelmno,
1122
01:08:35,250 --> 01:08:36,800
Auschwitz,
1123
01:08:36,800 --> 01:08:38,330
Sobibor,
1124
01:08:38,330 --> 01:08:39,570
Belzec,
1125
01:08:39,570 --> 01:08:41,060
Treblinka,
1126
01:08:41,060 --> 01:08:41,893
and Majdanek.
1127
01:08:43,830 --> 01:08:45,870
No country wanted them.
1128
01:08:45,870 --> 01:08:48,500
Even the countries of
which they were citizens,
1129
01:08:48,500 --> 01:08:50,440
would not protect them.
1130
01:08:50,440 --> 01:08:51,473
Their only crime,
1131
01:08:52,940 --> 01:08:53,963
they were Jews.
1132
01:08:55,220 --> 01:08:56,920
There was no state of Israel then.
1133
01:08:58,310 --> 01:09:02,363
More than one third of the
Jewish people were murdered.
1134
01:09:05,130 --> 01:09:07,360
As the Red Army approached Auschwitz,
1135
01:09:07,360 --> 01:09:09,423
at the end of January 1945,
1136
01:09:10,510 --> 01:09:11,853
the camp was evacuated.
1137
01:09:13,680 --> 01:09:16,463
Among the emaciated people sent westwards,
1138
01:09:17,500 --> 01:09:18,623
was Anne Frank,
1139
01:09:19,811 --> 01:09:21,253
who was taken to Belsen.
1140
01:09:22,950 --> 01:09:25,113
There she perished at the age of 16.
1141
01:09:28,005 --> 01:09:31,380
The first camp to be reached
by the Western allies,
1142
01:09:31,380 --> 01:09:35,260
Ohrdruf, was liberated
on the 4th of April 1945,
1143
01:09:35,260 --> 01:09:38,083
by the United States 4th Armored Division.
1144
01:09:39,140 --> 01:09:42,010
General Eisenhower was so
shocked by what he saw,
1145
01:09:42,010 --> 01:09:44,800
that he sent photographs
of the camp to Churchill,
1146
01:09:44,800 --> 01:09:47,000
and asked for a dozen leaders of Congress,
1147
01:09:47,000 --> 01:09:49,040
and a dozen prominent newspaper editors,
1148
01:09:49,040 --> 01:09:50,910
to fly at once to Europe,
1149
01:09:50,910 --> 01:09:53,000
to see the camps for themselves.
1150
01:09:53,000 --> 01:09:54,630
Alongside the Jews,
1151
01:09:54,630 --> 01:09:58,210
had died other victims of Nazi atrocities.
1152
01:09:58,210 --> 01:09:59,930
Gypsies, homosexuals,
1153
01:09:59,930 --> 01:10:02,160
political prisoners from
every nation in Europe,
1154
01:10:02,160 --> 01:10:04,573
including 60,000 Germans.
1155
01:10:06,710 --> 01:10:10,590
The Nazis made strenuous
efforts to conceal their crimes.
1156
01:10:10,590 --> 01:10:13,710
But there were too many suitcases, shoes,
1157
01:10:13,710 --> 01:10:16,713
shaving brushes, wedding
rings, spectacles,
1158
01:10:17,760 --> 01:10:19,960
children's clothes,
1159
01:10:19,960 --> 01:10:20,793
dolls,
1160
01:10:22,229 --> 01:10:23,313
and prayer shawls.
1161
01:10:25,490 --> 01:10:27,750
This is what the Germans did.
1162
01:10:27,750 --> 01:10:29,419
Let there be no mistake about it,
1163
01:10:29,419 --> 01:10:32,050
did deliberately and slowly,
1164
01:10:32,050 --> 01:10:35,470
to doctors, authors, lawyers, musicians,
1165
01:10:35,470 --> 01:10:38,030
to professional people of every kind,
1166
01:10:38,030 --> 01:10:40,050
whom they'd turned into animals,
1167
01:10:40,050 --> 01:10:42,640
behind the line of their people.
1168
01:10:42,640 --> 01:10:46,480
This day at Belsen, was the
most horrible of my life.
1169
01:10:46,480 --> 01:10:47,910
I saw it all.
1170
01:10:47,910 --> 01:10:49,453
The furnace where thousands of people
1171
01:10:49,453 --> 01:10:51,490
have been burned alive.
1172
01:10:51,490 --> 01:10:53,640
Only stunned before they were packed
1173
01:10:53,640 --> 01:10:56,020
three at a time into the flames.
1174
01:10:56,020 --> 01:10:59,890
The pit, 15 feet deep and
as big as a tennis court,
1175
01:10:59,890 --> 01:11:03,040
piled to the top at one
end with naked bodies.
1176
01:11:03,040 --> 01:11:05,760
The British bulldozer digging a new pit
1177
01:11:05,760 --> 01:11:08,850
for the hundreds of bodies
lying all over the camp.
1178
01:11:08,850 --> 01:11:10,570
Days after death,
1179
01:11:10,570 --> 01:11:12,650
untouched and unburied.
1180
01:11:12,650 --> 01:11:15,060
What could a
Christian understand
1181
01:11:15,060 --> 01:11:17,460
by such terrible sights?
1182
01:11:17,460 --> 01:11:20,260
It was the German Protestant
theologian pastor,
1183
01:11:20,260 --> 01:11:23,167
Martin Niemoller, who said as a Christian,
1184
01:11:23,167 --> 01:11:26,067
"When they came for the
Jews, I was not a Jew,
1185
01:11:26,067 --> 01:11:28,387
"so I did not protest.
1186
01:11:28,387 --> 01:11:30,207
"When they came for trade unionists,
1187
01:11:30,207 --> 01:11:32,967
"I did not belong to the trade union.
1188
01:11:32,967 --> 01:11:35,983
"When they came for Catholics,
I was not a Catholic.
1189
01:11:36,817 --> 01:11:38,203
"When they came for me,
1190
01:11:39,760 --> 01:11:41,537
"there was no one left to protest."
1191
01:11:43,940 --> 01:11:46,910
It was 10 o'clock
in the morning,
1192
01:11:46,910 --> 01:11:50,180
with a bright sun shining down,
1193
01:11:50,180 --> 01:11:53,743
to help us to celebrate
the moment of liberation.
1194
01:11:54,680 --> 01:11:57,860
The American tanks entered the camp,
1195
01:11:57,860 --> 01:12:00,720
and every prisoner
struggled to get to them.
1196
01:12:02,300 --> 01:12:06,313
I was about 150 yards from the first tank.
1197
01:12:08,770 --> 01:12:11,283
The soldiers who had come with it,
1198
01:12:11,283 --> 01:12:15,510
were surrounded by prisoners
sinking into their arms,
1199
01:12:15,510 --> 01:12:18,260
crying and laughing at the same time,
1200
01:12:18,260 --> 01:12:22,440
exalted beyond the ordinary feeling.
1201
01:12:22,440 --> 01:12:25,510
I covered the first 100 yards,
1202
01:12:25,510 --> 01:12:28,590
but then I collapsed on the ground.
1203
01:12:28,590 --> 01:12:31,810
I was lying there trying to get up again,
1204
01:12:31,810 --> 01:12:33,170
panting and staring,
1205
01:12:33,170 --> 01:12:38,170
fascinated at the American
flag fluttering on the tank.
1206
01:12:38,520 --> 01:12:42,490
I could not take my eyes
from the stars of the flag.
1207
01:12:42,490 --> 01:12:46,760
A symbol, not only of
the state of the union,
1208
01:12:46,760 --> 01:12:51,250
but of all the things we had
lost in the Nazi Holocaust.
1209
01:12:51,250 --> 01:12:54,900
Every star had acquired
a meaning of its own.
1210
01:12:54,900 --> 01:12:56,840
One was the star of hope,
1211
01:12:56,840 --> 01:13:00,020
one that of justice, of tolerance,
1212
01:13:00,020 --> 01:13:02,430
of friendship, of brotherly love,
1213
01:13:02,430 --> 01:13:04,853
of understanding and so on.
1214
01:13:04,853 --> 01:13:05,933
A little later,
1215
01:13:05,933 --> 01:13:10,200
we saw prisoners from
other blocks marching by,
1216
01:13:10,200 --> 01:13:12,620
carrying their national flags,
1217
01:13:12,620 --> 01:13:16,460
Czechs, Poles, Italians and many others,
1218
01:13:16,460 --> 01:13:20,970
they had secretly prepared
them for the day of liberation.
1219
01:13:20,970 --> 01:13:22,377
I looked around me.
1220
01:13:22,377 --> 01:13:25,047
"If we are all Jews," I asked,
1221
01:13:25,047 --> 01:13:27,680
"Why don't have we a flag?"
1222
01:13:27,680 --> 01:13:31,010
I was longing for such symbol of liberty,
1223
01:13:31,010 --> 01:13:34,030
and national dignity for us Jews.
1224
01:13:34,030 --> 01:13:36,470
One of us had a blue shirt,
1225
01:13:36,470 --> 01:13:39,690
I had one which had once been white,
1226
01:13:39,690 --> 01:13:40,880
we took them off,
1227
01:13:40,880 --> 01:13:45,750
another prisoner managed to
make them into something like
1228
01:13:45,750 --> 01:13:48,070
a blue and white flag.
1229
01:13:48,070 --> 01:13:50,883
We were much too weak to attempt a parade,
1230
01:13:51,780 --> 01:13:53,510
like the other nationalities,
1231
01:13:53,510 --> 01:13:56,530
and so we just sat there in the sun,
1232
01:13:56,530 --> 01:14:00,510
holding up and waving our makeshift flag.
1233
01:14:00,510 --> 01:14:04,860
Jews from other blocks
came over to us and cried.
1234
01:14:04,860 --> 01:14:06,883
Some of them kissed the flag,
1235
01:14:07,820 --> 01:14:11,533
a symbol of hope amidst
the dead and the dying.
1236
01:14:29,430 --> 01:14:33,330
On the 8th of May
1945, Germany surrendered.
1237
01:14:33,330 --> 01:14:35,849
In all our long history,
1238
01:14:35,849 --> 01:14:39,873
we have never seen a
greater day than this.
1239
01:14:49,830 --> 01:14:51,330
God bless you all.
1240
01:14:52,470 --> 01:14:56,302
♪ Wider still and wider ♪
1241
01:14:56,302 --> 01:15:01,302
♪ Shall thy bounds be set ♪
1242
01:15:01,515 --> 01:15:05,182
♪ God, who made thee mighty ♪
1243
01:15:07,237 --> 01:15:09,510
We may allow ourselves,
1244
01:15:09,510 --> 01:15:11,843
a brief period of rejoicing.
1245
01:15:12,946 --> 01:15:14,203
Today is victory in Europe's day.
1246
01:15:16,430 --> 01:15:21,430
♪ How shall we extol thee ♪
1247
01:15:23,619 --> 01:15:26,869
♪ Who are born of thee ♪
1248
01:15:35,980 --> 01:15:38,540
As the bells of victory rang out
1249
01:15:38,540 --> 01:15:42,160
over liberated Europe, thousands
of Nazis were arrested.
1250
01:15:42,160 --> 01:15:46,380
Trials began of those accused
of crimes against humanity.
1251
01:15:46,380 --> 01:15:48,733
Most of those accused denied their guilt.
1252
01:15:49,740 --> 01:15:52,373
Hermann Wilhelm Goering.
1253
01:15:57,120 --> 01:15:58,453
Rudolf Hess.
1254
01:16:00,653 --> 01:16:04,040
That will be entered as
a plea of not guilty.
1255
01:16:04,040 --> 01:16:06,449
Joachim von Ribbentrop.
1256
01:16:10,561 --> 01:16:11,811
Wilhelm Keitel.
1257
01:16:15,685 --> 01:16:17,102
Alfred Rosenberg.
1258
01:16:21,866 --> 01:16:22,783
Hans Frank.
1259
01:16:26,137 --> 01:16:28,078
Wilhelm Frick.
1260
01:16:29,871 --> 01:16:32,022
Julius Streicher.
1261
01:16:33,667 --> 01:16:35,847
"We did not know.
1262
01:16:35,847 --> 01:16:37,903
"We were following orders,
1263
01:16:38,797 --> 01:16:41,183
"we were only small cogs.
1264
01:16:42,047 --> 01:16:44,167
"Bureaucrats doing our jobs."
1265
01:16:45,160 --> 01:16:49,573
Eichmann said that when he
was tried and hanged in 1961.
1266
01:16:50,610 --> 01:16:52,930
Three of those responsible
for the deportations
1267
01:16:52,930 --> 01:16:55,210
from France to Auschwitz argued the same,
1268
01:16:55,210 --> 01:16:57,300
when they were brought
to trial in Cologne,
1269
01:16:57,300 --> 01:16:59,163
in the autumn of 1979.
1270
01:17:00,380 --> 01:17:02,290
Surely Dr. Josef Mengele,
1271
01:17:02,290 --> 01:17:05,380
the infamous Angel of Death,
1272
01:17:05,380 --> 01:17:09,470
responsible for the death and
torture of 400,000 people,
1273
01:17:09,470 --> 01:17:11,363
would say no less if he were found?
1274
01:17:12,960 --> 01:17:14,503
No one?
1275
01:17:14,503 --> 01:17:16,003
This was possible?
1276
01:17:17,660 --> 01:17:19,493
Not those who perpetrated it?
1277
01:17:20,990 --> 01:17:22,723
Not those who kept silent?
1278
01:17:24,150 --> 01:17:25,903
Not the heads of state?
1279
01:17:26,930 --> 01:17:28,900
And church leaders,
1280
01:17:28,900 --> 01:17:31,253
who lacked the moral courage to stop it?
1281
01:17:32,500 --> 01:17:34,363
It just happened?
1282
01:17:35,820 --> 01:17:37,493
A freak accident,
1283
01:17:38,330 --> 01:17:39,630
along the road of history?
1284
01:17:51,020 --> 01:17:53,520
We washed our bodies,
1285
01:17:53,520 --> 01:17:54,823
and we grew clean.
1286
01:17:55,840 --> 01:17:58,510
We purified our souls,
1287
01:17:58,510 --> 01:17:59,723
and we grew quiet.
1288
01:18:02,190 --> 01:18:04,845
Death does not terrify us,
1289
01:18:04,845 --> 01:18:06,233
we go out to meet him.
1290
01:18:07,310 --> 01:18:09,743
We served God while we were alive,
1291
01:18:10,810 --> 01:18:13,603
and now we can best serve our people,
1292
01:18:14,600 --> 01:18:17,743
by refusing to be taken alive.
1293
01:18:19,990 --> 01:18:21,933
We made a covenant in our hearts,
1294
01:18:23,000 --> 01:18:24,363
all the 93.
1295
01:18:25,730 --> 01:18:27,930
Together we learned,
1296
01:18:27,930 --> 01:18:30,010
and together we will meet our end.
1297
01:18:33,140 --> 01:18:36,223
As I write these words,
the hour is upon us.
1298
01:18:37,323 --> 01:18:40,123
Barely enough time to write this prayer.
1299
01:18:45,750 --> 01:18:46,663
Brethren,
1300
01:18:47,630 --> 01:18:49,093
wherever you are,
1301
01:18:49,980 --> 01:18:52,223
honor the Torah we lived by,
1302
01:18:53,120 --> 01:18:55,330
and the psalms we loved.
1303
01:18:55,330 --> 01:18:57,170
Read them for us,
1304
01:18:57,170 --> 01:18:59,160
as well as you.
1305
01:18:59,160 --> 01:19:03,263
And some day when the beast
has hunted his last prey,
1306
01:19:04,480 --> 01:19:08,473
we hope that somebody will
say the Qaddish for us.
1307
01:19:09,490 --> 01:19:11,040
93
1308
01:19:11,040 --> 01:19:12,630
daughters,
1309
01:19:12,630 --> 01:19:13,537
of Israel.
1310
01:19:34,385 --> 01:19:37,968
Oh, there are voices
of the past.
1311
01:19:39,170 --> 01:19:41,383
Links of a broken chain,
1312
01:19:42,220 --> 01:19:44,369
wings,
1313
01:19:44,369 --> 01:19:47,443
that can bear me back to
times which cannot come again.
1314
01:19:50,140 --> 01:19:51,537
Yet God forbid,
1315
01:19:52,993 --> 01:19:55,190
that I should lose the echoes,
1316
01:19:56,500 --> 01:19:57,333
that remain.
1317
01:20:03,750 --> 01:20:06,920
Here between the cracks
of this sacred wall,
1318
01:20:06,920 --> 01:20:11,290
a wall soaked with the
tears of my ancestors,
1319
01:20:11,290 --> 01:20:14,053
I do place the last testament.
1320
01:20:15,010 --> 01:20:19,233
Final message of the victims
to the whole of mankind.
1321
01:20:20,850 --> 01:20:23,167
I have never forgotten you.
92711
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