All language subtitles for Inside.the.SS.S01E01.Hitlers.Evil.Elite.720p.WEBRip.x264-CAFFEiNE

♪ ♪

Narrator: They were,
they thought, the third
reich's racial elite.

Men superior to others.

Ready to do anything for the
triumph of national socialism.

Men hitler could
count on to the death.

To apply their racial theories,
they were prepared to eliminate
their adversaries,

To decimate the jewish people,

To massacre
civilian populations.

Over 70 years later,
some of them are
still living among us.

Kurt: One people,
one reich, one führer!

That was our motto.

Eberhard: I felt anti-semitic.

Herbert: We wanted
a pure state.

No jews in the third reich!

Narrator: This is the
story of ss fanaticism,
bloodlust and terror.

(theme music plays)

Told from the inside.

Central germany.

1933.

Hitler has been in power
for several months.

Here is one of the
first movies shot by the
ss, the schutz-staffeln,

Or protection squadrons.

Recognizable by the skulls on
their caps and the lightning
flash initials on their flags.

They were not afraid of death,

They said: Neither inflicting
it, nor suffering it.

All volunteers to join what,
according to their criteria,

Was a grouping
of superior nazis.

Werner völkner is a
former member of the ss
death's head division.

He was nine when
hitler came to power.

(singing in german)

Narrator: He still
knows by heart the nazi
party's official song,

The horst wessel lied.

-Yes.

Narrator: Born in berlin
in 1924, this german lives
in the south of England,

Where he married and made
a new life for himself.

At the end of world war ii,
he spent several years in
allied prisoner-of-war camps

Because he had been in the ss.

-The wehrmacht went like this.

No, this.

And the ss went like this.

-What fascinated me
was the military aspect.

Sharp!

Standing to attention.

When I said good morning,
I clicked my heels.

I nodded and said,
"heil hitler!"

It was really great.

-The outlook on life
was: Well, get the job
done and finished with.

Narrator: This documentary
takes us to find ss members
who are still alive,

To try to understand
the incomprehensible.

After several months of
research, we discovered over
twenty ss veterans living in

Different countries
across europe.

Words that often shock.

Some have broken with
nazism, others not.

This man is one of them.

Kurt barkhausen, aged 92.

He lives in central germany.

He too was in the death's head
division, whose members often
worked in concentration camps.

-What counted for us?

First of all, the
purity of the person.

Who are you?

What do you want from life?

Secondly: You have
a healthy family.

You are married.

Having children is a gift of
god, a guarantee of happiness.

After that,
there is the people.

How did our ancestors live?

What did they believe in?

What has made real
germans of us?

These were our
fundamental values.

Narrator: A vanished world,
so little like our own,
but at the same time so near:

Only 80 years separate
us from these young men who
embraced fanaticism.

To justify themselves,
all point to 1918, when germany
lost the first world war.

The versailles peace
treaty took several border
regions away from germany.

-The versailles treaty was
a humiliation for germany.

A supreme humiliation.

Narrator: On top of the
perceived humiliation came the
nightmare of 1920's germany:

Unemployment, poverty.

In the years to come,
when they looked to
justify their crimes,

The ss would often point to
the tribulations of the 1920s.

Nazism, they said, gave
them back their dignity.

They began to form
ranks behind an austrian
world war I corporal,

Adolf hitler.

A radical nationalist
who promised them he
would wipe out the shame.

-We were on our knees.

We had been poor and
miserable, and then suddenly
we were somebody again.

Narrator: Where this
commitment would lead
them, the ss didn't know.

-We were delighted
with this change.

Narrator: What they did know
was that their first targets
would be the communists.

Those "anti-germans"
as they called them.

They'd been fighting
them in the streets
since the end of the war.

They accused them of betraying
the nation and overthrowing
the emperor with their

1918 revolution, while the
german army carried on the
fight against the allies.

-Why did we have
to fight them?

Because they wanted to
build a workers' state, with
workers from every country,

Including america.

Ekkehard: I remember in
hamburg, when I was a child,
seeing big demonstrations

In the street.

My father said,
"if they get into
power, we're screwed."

He was talking
about the communist party.

-National socialism was
more social than communism,
and in political terms,

Was devoted purely to germany.

Whereas communism was
aimed at the world and
was largely run by jews.

Narrator: The abhorrent
view that the jews
were the real enemy,

"worse than the communists"
they said, was taking hold.

For hitler, the jews
had profited from the
german people's misery.

"they're hiding everywhere,"
said his manifesto.

"behind the communists
who seized power
in russia in 1917.

Behind the capitalists
in new york who pull the
strings of the world economy."

For propaganda minister
joseph goebbels,

The hour of the great
confrontation was near.

(cheering and applause)

Narrator: It was a
visceral, revengeful hatred,
bottled up for too long,

Born out of 19th
century racist theories.

A sinister indication
of what was to come.

Look at the ss men
here in the hall.

It was they who,
within less than ten years,
would take the leading role

In assassinating jews
in their millions.

Narrator: Since their
creation in 1925, the ss had
been hitler's bodyguards.

They stood out in their
dashing black uniforms and
could be seen everywhere

Alongside the party leaders.

They wanted to be noticed,
to distinguish themselves.

Werner: I knew it
was an elite formation.

In other words,
they wouldn't take any
tom, dick and harry.

-I wanted to be part
of an elite division.

Narrator: They were the
new regime's shop window:
New recruits had to be tall,

At least five-foot six,
and young: Under 23.

No jewish ancestry.

They had to provide
genealogical details dating
back to the 18th century.

Strength, prestige, virility.

In the third reich, if
you want a successful career,
if you want a successful life,

You join the ss.

-Women were very
interested by the idea of
getting to know ss men and

Making friends with them.

They were obviously
ideal fellows.

The ss were very
much in demand.

Marrying a member of the
ss was an honor, of course!

Narrator: They were also
known as the black order.

A name that linked
them to the knights of the
middle ages when germanic

Soldier-monks colonized
eastern europe.

They were filled with
grandiose ideas: That they
were the new lords of germany,

Entrusted with replacing the
old aristocratic elite that
had always run the country.

Ekkehard guhr is a
protestant minister.

His ss unit, the das reich
division, committed numerous
atrocities during the war.

At the age of 17, he
says, he joined the ss
to defy his parents,

Who refused to allow
a relationship with a
young catholic girl.

-There were images in germany
where you would see a young
man sign up for the war for

Freedom, and he would
kneel before his beloved,
who would bless him.

All of those emotions
that I don't think we can
understand or express today,

They existed back then.

-Our motto, written
on our belt buckles, was:
"my honor is my loyalty".

It meant: No cowardice
when facing the enemy.

-The ideology that
himmler had drilled into
us was: You are nothing,

Your people is everything.

-You belong to the nation.

The nation is you.

You are part of the nation.

-I wanted to prove
that I was ready to risk
my life for that ideology.

Narrator: A clan,
the intrepid new man, able to
remove pity from their hearts.

The racial spearhead
of the german people,
as they saw themselves.

This is heinrich
himmler, their chief.

One of the greatest
criminals of all time.

He was from munich's
cultivated middle classes,
anti-semitic, anti-communist,

Anti-christian;
one of the first nazis.

And one of the most ambitious.

Narrator: In 1934, himmler
incited hitler to eliminate
his former brothers-in-arms:

The leaders of the sa,
the nazi party militia.

They would call this
fratricidal massacre the
night of the long knives.

Carried out by his ss,
this bloodbath consolidated
his position at the heart

Of the regime.

At the head of several
hundred thousand ss members,

He managed in the
space of a few years,

To extend his control
to all german police.

From his young men in black
he demanded total submission.

-When you are a soldier,
you have to carry out orders.

You're not there to think.

That's how it was.

Today it's different.

At the time, we said: Leave
the thinking to the horses,
they have bigger heads.

-We weren't telling
jokes and having a laugh.

Attention!
Quick March!

Left! Right!

-An order was an order.

If somebody gave me an
order to do then I'd do it.

Narrator:
"blood and soil,"
himmler's new creed.

In exchange for their
obedience, the ss reichsführer
offered his men a new

Imaginary world of
german mythology and
racial superiority.

Pursuing the slightest trace
of exploitable german history,
he created a religion that

Could replace christianity:

A religion based
on race, with its particular
beliefs and rituals.

Here, a child's
baptism, with no priest.

The minister is an
ss officer and the crucifix
has been replaced by a

Portrait of hitler.

-The atmosphere and the
ceremonial mythology
I found fascinating.

I've never forgotten it.

Narrator: The ss were promised
healthy, smiling wives.

Before their weddings, the
women were sent on courses
to nazi party schools.

Narrator: The wedding
plans had to be approved
by the ss racial service.

In devoting themselves
to their husbands and
to the procreation of

Future ss members,

These women
would be joining an order
of knights and becoming

Nazi combatants themselves.

To rise in the ranks of
the ss, a member had to be
married by the age of 26,

Have his first child by 28,
then another every two years,
with at least four in all.

Unprecedented in any previous
political organization,
himmler controlled the private

Lives of its members.

"do not be afraid of
death", he told them.

"the individual dies,
but through his children, his
people will grow beyond life."

Most of the ss we've
met were still children
in the mid-30s.

Raised in a totalitarian
state, they were subjected
to hitler's propaganda,

Some of the most
extensive brainwashing
of the twentieth century.

This man, egon kuhn,
a left-wing activist and
trade unionist in hanover,

Is a former ss man from
the wiking division.

His radicalization,
now totally repudiated,
began at infant school.

-The nazis made sweets
for children with
swastikas on them.

I was proud to
eat those sweets.

But I was even prouder when
I was 5 years old, in school,
and we'd go on walks

Or on visits and I could wear
my swastika armband.

-This was all drilled into
us quite deliberately.

To the point that
in 1934, when I was
10, that state of mind,

With the uniforms
and the hitler salute,
was quite natural.

In fact, I didn't know
anyone who was opposed to it.

Narrator: Children
were being conditioned with
insidious fascist ideology and

Hideously anti-semitic
racism on a daily basis.

For hitler, they were
to be regarded as future
soldiers of the reich,

With the best of them
destined to join the ss.

-My parents were devastated.

I deeply hated jews.

I would never have sat
next to a jew at school!

Never.

They were quite simply
not of our race.

Jews were an abomination.

Crooks, traitors, lazy,

Obsessed with money,
cut-throats.

-Well they were alien
to the german people!

Narrator: In the youth
organizations, budding ss
members were given military

Training from an early age.

Like in sparta in
ancient greece, the state
educated the children.

-We used to like
singing songs.

The waves will close in on
them, the world is at peace.

It means the
extermination of the jews.

They would be
drowned, wiped out.

Narrator: At the time, the
extermination of the jews
was not on the agenda.

But the barriers were falling.

Like here,
at a carnival in nuremberg,
where an effigy of a jew

Was hanged from a float.

Or in this vile racist
propaganda film.

Narrator: This twisted view
of germany as a victim of
its jewish communities ran

So deep that it

Continues to warp the
minds of some former ss men.

Even today their abhorrently
racist views have
not been diminished by time.

-I don't know if you
would like it, when you have
a very precise type of blood,

To accept a race that is
fundamentally different
in its way of being,

Its religion and its
very conception of life.

And that they would be
as prevalent in society
as true-blood germans

Who were born here.

Narrator: This austrian ss
member, never committed any
crimes himself, he says.

But on his shelves, like a
shrine to nazi bloodlust are
his old dagger and a cruel

Caricature of an
east european jew.

"they're still our enemies",
he says, off camera.

To avoid being sued,
he uses a metaphor.

-When you have good apples,
and you mix them with pears,

Then you end up with
neither apples nor pears,
that's all!

Narrator: It was at the age of
14 that herbert von mildenburg
saw hitler for the first time.

-There was something in
his eyes when he looked at
us, something fascinating.

We sang,

♪ we're not going home,
we're not going home,
before the führer speaks. ♪

We were in heaven,

Like idiot football
fans in a stadium today.

Narrator: Hitler, the man
who would resurrect germany.

-It was intoxicating!

Eberhard: The fact was
that six million unemployed
found work within the

Space of five years.

Narrator: By increasing aid
for workers, providing leisure
activities previously reserved

For the elite, and by funding
massive rearmament and major
building projects through the

Confiscation of jewish
assets and massive debt,
hitler bought the approval

Of the german people.

For the ss we met,
it was a miracle.

-It was proof that
hitler had accomplished
what he'd promised.

The man had guts.

He wasn't a coward.

-Would you say that hitler
was the man of your life?

-Yes, 100%.

100%.

Narrator: Ss fanaticism,
born out of humiliation,

Fascination with a savior and

An unshakable feeling
of superiority.

In just a few years,
this infernal spiral led
germany, the land of goethe,

Kant and beethoven,
over the brink.

An entire people
faced oblivion.

-There was a form of
ideological blindness.

I think the deeply
destructive nature of national
socialism was masked at the

Time by the success it had.

Narrator: Repression
began in 1933.

Political opponents
were isolated from
the rest of society as

A preventive measure.

Without trial.

The task was entrusted
to the sa, then the ss.

The pretext was the
burning of the reichstag,
the german parliament.

Hitler presented it as
the beginning of a new
communist revolution.

The communists
want to bring down the
state, they were told.

-They were considered a
danger to the community.

Well, they were taken
out of the community
and the community could

Get on with their lives.

-I myself noticed
that the people who had
previously expressed

Opposition at party meetings
had now disappeared.

Either the communists
joined our movement, or they
continued to oppose us and

Were sent to special
camps, which were later
called concentration camps.

To the extent that
there was almost no
opposition in germany.

It just wasn't
possible any more.

Narrator: Herta bothe,
from a modest family
in northern germany,

Is a former member of the ss.

At the age of 21, she
interrupted her nursing
training to look for work.

She was offered a job as
a women's prison guard.

Herta: I had an appointment
at the employment agency.

With a mr. Bruschafer.

He said: "miss bothe,
you're going to be a guard
at a concentration camp."

I said, "what's a
concentration camp?"

"it's a camp, and
you'll be guarding women."
"oh, I can't do that."

"if you refuse, you'll be sent
to the camp yourself."

My god! What could I do?

So I went.

Narrator: They were
not yet death camps,
only internment camps.

But the ss inflicted on the
prisoners a regime of terror.

-They had to stay outdoors,
in both summer and winter.

Interviewer: Among the
ones standing in the cold,
did some fall down?

Herta: Yes, some fell down,

From blows, or had to stay
on their knees, I don't know.

-What did you do when
you saw such brutality?

-I turned away.
I didn't look.
I couldn't watch that.

Narrator: Herta bothe,
who would be sentenced to ten
years in prison after the war,

Has little to say
about the brutality.

This photo re-construction
made by prisoners after the
liberation shows one of the

Most common forms of
torture at the time.

With his hands tied behind
his back, attached to a rope,

A prisoner has
to stand on a stool.

When he falls from
exhaustion, he is suspended
by his arms and his

Shoulders are dislocated.

But who cared about torture?

Public opinion saw the ss
as bringing deviants back
to the straight and narrow.

These prisoners in striped
uniforms were filmed
close to the dachau camp.

The filmmaker, a baker
who supplied the camp staff,
owned various objects made

By the prisoners, such
as these candlesticks,

This rocking
horse and these beds.

He filmed his friends,
including ss camp officers.

This is the swimming
pool where guards
could relax after work.

Who could imagine
that the prisoners behind the
watchtower you can see in the

Distance were
going through hell?

On the eve of world war ii,
the ss camps had silenced
all opposition.

It seemed the camps
were opposed by no one.

-If I'm told to guard
prisoners and I'm told to

Go up on a tower
there is a machine gun,

And somebody tries to
escape, you shoot them.

Of course, I would!

Narrator: November 9th 1938.

The feldherrnhalle in munich.

Less than a year before the
start of world war ii and
the beginning of the carnage.

These thousands of ss men
are about to live one of
the most important events

Of their lives.

Narrator: Among them:

Eberhard heder,
a future captain in
the wiking division.

Eberhard:
The square was packed.

Stands were filled
with spectators on
the right and left.

The oath ceremony
began at midnight.

I saw hitler arrive,
very solemn.

And then, "men of the ss,
recite your oath!"

-We pronounced the
words with our hearts.

-The phrase "to the death"
was a shock, of course.

Loyalty to that degree?

That's going too far.

Narrator: But it was too late.

The first large-scale
massacre of jews took
place that very night.

It would be known
as kristallnacht.

Throughout the country,
nazi activists murdered
almost 100 jews,

Smashed shop windows and
set synagogues on fire.

These home movies show firemen
arriving at a fire and ss
men at the bottom of the frame

Smiling and preventing
them from putting it out.

Himmler had given the order
to let the synagogues burn,
without setting fire to

"german buildings"
as he called them.

-I saw how the
windows had been smashed,
the shop windows.

I saw jews being taken away
and I saw jews badly treated.

At that time,
I didn't understand why.

-I felt anti-semitic, yes,
but not in the sense that
people give the word today,

Which implies the
extermination of the jews.

Narrator: They would soon find
out what their vow entailed.

In September 1939,
hitler attacked poland,

Starting the
second world war.

On the eve of the offensive,
the ss played a crucial role.

To justify the invasion,
the führer ordered them to
fake a polish provocation.

The ss simulated
a polish attack, a bloody
one, on the german border.

Dirty work the ss
had done since the start
and would do to the end.

The ss also took part
in fighting alongside the
regular army, the wehrmacht.

If the ss sacrificed
itself on the frontline,
paying with its blood,

Explained their leaders,
it would have the
moral right to lead the

Repression in germany.

To these men destined
to fight on the front line,
himmler gave a name:

The waffen ss,
the armed ss.

800,000 men joined the
waffen ss during the war.

They saw themselves
as political soldiers and
in the eyes of the regime,

They were dependable.

Hitler could count
on them in the event of
trouble at home or abroad.

(speaking in german)

Ekkehard: At the time, there
was a recruitment advert
for armored divisions.

The waffen ss were
armored troops.

And for me the term "armored
troops" was fascinating.

Narrator: Here is one of
those waffen-ss, manfred
diener, aged sixteen.

For this baker's
son from thuringia,
it was an opportunity

For social advancement.

-With us there was no "sir".

"lieutenant, sir!"

Or " yes captain, sir!"

-The relations between
soldiers and officers
were completely different.

An ss officer couldn't order
a soldier to dig a hole;
he had to do it himself.

And there was also the fact
that, at school, the ones
who volunteered during their

Penultimate school year
graduated without having
to sit their exams.

-In other wehrmacht
units, you needed your
exams to be an officer.

The waffen ss
made an exception.

Even if, like me, you only
had a basic school certificate,
you could become an officer.

Narrator: It was an
ideal world, a fantasy.

A model for the german
people to follow.

In reality, these young
men were no longer
their own masters.

With the tattoo of their
blood group indelibly
marked under the left arm,

They had become someone else.

Once inside the black order,
there was no way back.

♪ ♪

Here they are again, the
young waffen-ss men we saw on
a drill at their barracks are

Now at the vanguard of
the invasion of France.

As in poland, ss soldiers
committed war crimes.

A few months later, they
would take part in the invasion
of yugoslavia, then greece,

And above all, in
June 1941, the ussr.

It was there, against stalin's
troops, that himmler's ss
would find their special role.

The ss chief had given
them the order to liquidate
jews, communists and anyone

Suspected of
opposing the reich.

For the men in black, the
ultimate horror of genocide
would be their legacy.

Captioned by cotter
captioning services.