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This programme contains
discriminatory language
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and scenes which some viewers
may find upsetting from the start.
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If I say the word "holocaust",
what springs to mind?
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Imagine something like this.
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A concentration camp.
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Barbed wire.
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Trainloads of victims.
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Gas chambers and crematoria.
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Places like Auschwitz,
and its system of mass murder.
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I think most of us assumed
that this was always
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the pre-determined destination,
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designed from the outset in some
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great master plan of extermination.
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But it wasn't.
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There was no master plan for this.
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Its origins were chaotic
and spontaneous.
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And improvised mass executions.
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It's believed that more than
a million Jews were murdered
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in thousands of random killings
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that erupted
all across Eastern Europe...
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..in a holocaust of bullets.
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Largely lost and forgotten
for more than 80 years,
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this first chapter of the greatest
crime in history is now being fully
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revealed for the first time,
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thanks to newly-discovered
aerial photographs,
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and advances in
forensic detection,
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finding lost victims,
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uncovering the
true scale of the killing.
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It began in earnest in the midst
of Hitler's invasion
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of the Soviet Union in June 1941.
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Atrocities grew in scale
and savagery.
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Until, just six months later,
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bullets gave way to gas in the first
death camps of the "Final Solution."
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My name is James Bulgin.
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I'm a historian and Holocaust
specialist
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at the Imperial War Museum.
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And this film tells a story
that has never been fully told,
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of the crucial six months
that ignited the Holocaust.
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If you're going to search
for the events that started
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the Holocaust,
Cambridge University Library
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might seem
a strange place to look.
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But a researcher here thinks
he can find that start point,
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using Second World War
aerial archives.
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Ah, James.
Good to see you.
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Right, well, let me show you
what we've been putting together.
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This is a map of the German
reconnaissance and air survey
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photography taken during
the Second World War.
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It represents something like
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1.5 million photographs taken
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by the Germans, primarily
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over Central and Eastern Europe.
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But if we're looking for
the ramshackle beginnings
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of the Holocaust, as it were,
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the sort of ad hoc,
the start of it all,
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one of the things that's really
clear with air photography
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is that almost every action
leaves a trace.
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So they were capturing the evidence
of their own crimes.
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They were photographing
the evidence of their own crimes.
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And there's a good example of this.
Possibly...
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To me, this is the beginning of the
entire sort of horrific process.
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This is Gargzdai in Lithuania.
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It's literally a stone's throw
from the German border...
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That's the border here?
..which is running there.
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Proper border town.
A proper border town.
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And this is a village where
the Jewish inhabitants...
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It was about 20%, 30% Jewish
before the war.
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..they would have lived in the
houses of
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the two Jewish streets here,
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and the synagogue was here.
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And on the 22nd of June, 1941,
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of course, the Germans pushed east.
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And within literally 24 hours
of coming over the border,
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the Germans had destroyed
the houses.
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And if you look, you can see
this whole area here
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was burned during that day.
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It's so striking to me that these
forces come through here
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from this direction.
And, I mean, literally, what,
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within a few hundred metres
of the German border?
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They come through and they... This
this, this incident happens here,
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so quickly, so soon, so close.
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Absolutely. Well, look at this.
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If you look here, you can just see
Yep.
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You can see it more clearly
in this other photograph,
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which picks it out in snow.
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And you can see it just there.
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It's not part of the agricultural
landscape. It's not a path.
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I think this is a trench.
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We have a certain amount of sort of
testimony from the time, to sort of
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indicate that this is precisely
where the Jewish men
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had been marched up the street
in which they had lived,
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and were then shot to death
and buried in that trench.
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So I've been...I've been...I've
been circling this question.
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How do we get to this huge, vast,
catastrophic act
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of mass violence
and mass murder?
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And it's possible, likely
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that this is where it began.
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It's very likely.
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If Chris has found a possible
start point for the Holocaust,
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why is it in the Soviet Union,
as late as 1941?
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Hitler had always envisaged a world
free of his two great enemies -
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Jews and Communists.
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By 1940, he had conquered half
of Europe and had millions of Jews
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rounded up and put in ghettos.
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His intention had always
been to get rid of them entirely,
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but there was no
concrete plan for how to do it.
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Then, in June 1941, he set out
to destroy his other great enemy.
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Bolshevik communism.
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Hitler had always branded
communism a Jewish conspiracy.
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So his invasion of the Soviet Union
offered the perfect opportunity
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to target both enemies at once.
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Gargzdai, on the border of
Soviet Lithuania and Nazi Germany,
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was right on the
front line of that invasion.
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The Wehrmacht, as they swept
into this whole area, were charged
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with this instruction from Hitler
and the commanders of the army
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that this was a war of annihilation.
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They were coming through
this space to decimate it.
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The order was for communism
to be eradicated.
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No specific order was given
to kill Jews.
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Yet, there is a monument here in
Gargzdai,
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exactly where Chris's photos
showed a trench.
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So, on the 24th of June, two days
after the German invasion
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of the Soviet Union,
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the commander in this area, a man
whose name was Bormann,
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instructed that 200 Jews
should be rounded up
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and that they should
be brought here...
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..and they should be shot.
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I tend to think of military
orders within the German army
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at this period as all coming
from the top.
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The people at the top telling
the people on the ground what to do.
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But that's not what happens here.
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And that's really important,
because actually what happens
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is people on the ground, like
Bormann, take their own initiative.
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Hitler has always wanted
to remove Jews from Europe,
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and here these men take
the initiative to interpret
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that in the most radical
way possible, to interpret
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that as an instruction to murder.
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And this starts
a process of mass murder
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that spreads like wildfire
across this whole territory.
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And the numbers grow,
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and they grow and they grow.
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Hitler's head of security was
SS Chief Heinrich Himmler.
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Himmler had created special killing
squads, called Einsatzgruppen,
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to follow in the wake of the army
and eradicate
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Hitler's political enemies.
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Capitalising on Bormann's
initiative, his deputy, Heydrich,
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issued an instruction that any Jew
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working for the communist state
must be shot.
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Four Einsatzgruppen teams were ready
to carry out that order
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across all newly-conquered
Soviet territory.
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I'm following Einsatzgruppen A
from Gargzdai into Latvia,
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in a town called Liepaja.
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Here, there was another fierce
battle for control of the city.
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In the aftermath of the battle,
the SS Einsatzgruppen
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went in search of Hitler's enemies.
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And we can see what they did
with them, in a unique piece of film
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shot by a German serviceman.
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In the opening of this film here,
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we see a pit -
looks to be freshly dug -
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and then the Einsatzgruppen soldiers
are milling around, waiting.
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And there's this really hideous
sense of anticipation.
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And then we see why.
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We see a truck arrive and people
being loaded off the back of it.
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We can see it's clearly Jews.
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We know they're Jews because
they're wearing patches
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on their front and their back,
and the people doing
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the shooting are Germans.
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But around them, we see
spectators around here.
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We see members of the Navy here,
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military here, and amongst
them, just people.
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They're there in huge numbers.
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They're smoking. They're talking.
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They're clamouring to get a closer
look to see what's about to happen.
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Group after group come,
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and the people stay
and they watch it.
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Here we can see this man just
looking into the camera, suggests
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that he can see that he's being
filmed as this is happening.
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He knows that this has been
captured
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and that people will be
watching this moment when he's gone.
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It's horr....it's horrible.
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It's almost as if shooting Jews
has become a spectator sport.
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What we see in this film
is where we are a few weeks
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after the invasion.
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So the Wehrmacht start to push
further into Soviet territory.
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The Einsatzgruppen are coming
behind them, and they're finding
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more and more Jewish communities
to target, and they're keeping
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a running total of it as they go.
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They want to be able to report
those figures,
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up to Heydrich and Himmler. And
Heydrich and Himmler are saying,
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"No, no, no, we want more, more,
more. Why haven't you done more?"
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The commanders of the Einsatzgruppen
sometimes
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get chastised for not
killing more people.
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There's this impetus, this force
to constantly find
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more Jews to kill.
And we see that recorded here.
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We see the date.
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So, 22nd of August '41, 544 people.
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23rd of August '41, 7,525 people.
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And now they include Judinnen and
Judenkinder - women and children.
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It's only taken a few weeks from
those first murders at Gargzdai
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for this to accelerate.
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And there's a tally at the bottom.
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At the bottom of this document here,
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by the start of September 1941,
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it says 47,614 people.
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That's 47,614 human beings.
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The Nazis wanted to do more than
just kill their victims.
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They wanted to erase them
from memory.
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The graves of many tens of thousands
have never been found.
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And that matters to Dr Harry Jol.
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So much so, he's devoted
his career to finding them.
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You can't just hide the bodies.
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The bodies will be found.
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I'm trained as a physical
geographer, a geomorphologist,
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00:14:12,600 --> 00:14:17,480
and people such as myself and
academics and others need to say,
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00:14:17,480 --> 00:14:22,120
"Let's take our tools that we use
for other research projects,
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00:14:22,120 --> 00:14:24,920
"and let's apply them to the
Holocaust."
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We need to put closure to this.
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It does line up brilliantly.
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Fish-smoking building with the five
smokestacks,
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would be just beyond that modern
building on the other side of it.
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So we can't see the pit from here,
but if we back up...
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Harry works with fellow
US academic Dr Phil Reeder.
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There's the pit.
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And every summer for the last seven
years, they've been bringing teams
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of students to Eastern Europe
in search of Holocaust victims.
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We have a different perspective
on it now, but if we look up
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where the two students are,
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they're standing
where the crowd was standing...
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Today they're looking
for the men in the film.
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But then, as they run, look,
there's a lighthouse.
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You can see the lighthouse
Yep, that's it.
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The film gives them landmarks
they can locate
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on historic air photos of the site,
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allowing them to triangulate
where the men were shot,
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and where they
should start their search.
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But here is that road where
they would have taken people here.
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And then we see
all those cars parked,
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and where
they're actually dropped off.
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So I think that's a good spot
for, in the video,
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where they're getting
out of the trucks.
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There's actually
Yeah.
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And because you can see the people
up on this side, and people
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up on this side, and then they would
run to the pit over here.
243
00:15:42,320 --> 00:15:45,960
So the pit, to me, is right
out here in front of us.
244
00:15:45,960 --> 00:15:49,160
Or at least that's the place
Yeah.
245
00:15:55,920 --> 00:15:59,480
Judaic law forbids any physical
disturbance of the dead,
246
00:15:59,480 --> 00:16:02,720
so they're digging with radio waves.
247
00:16:04,760 --> 00:16:07,640
Ground-penetrating radar gives
them the ability to image
248
00:16:07,640 --> 00:16:11,680
any large feature buried
in the earth, like a mass grave.
249
00:16:14,320 --> 00:16:18,680
After a few hours, they find
what appears to be a buried trench.
250
00:16:18,680 --> 00:16:22,440
But it's facing the wrong way
to be the one in the film.
251
00:16:22,440 --> 00:16:26,000
It's literally
in that direction, right?
252
00:16:26,000 --> 00:16:28,880
So it's almost 90 degrees off
what we were expecting,
253
00:16:28,880 --> 00:16:31,920
looking at the photos and taking
Right.
254
00:16:31,920 --> 00:16:35,480
So maybe means that there multiple
trenches and, you know, the video
255
00:16:35,480 --> 00:16:36,960
is just one point in time,
256
00:16:36,960 --> 00:16:39,400
where that particular trench
is being used.
257
00:16:40,640 --> 00:16:42,560
So there could be trenches
everywhere.
258
00:16:45,280 --> 00:16:47,640
After multiple passes
of the GPR,
259
00:16:47,640 --> 00:16:50,360
another trench appears
beneath the tarmac...
260
00:16:51,560 --> 00:16:55,000
..and this one lines up exactly
with the film.
261
00:16:58,320 --> 00:17:00,840
As we take a look at this trench,
it's pretty impressive.
262
00:17:00,840 --> 00:17:02,680
You know, this is 38 metres long.
263
00:17:02,680 --> 00:17:05,840
You know, this is probably the first
or second time I've ever seen
264
00:17:05,840 --> 00:17:08,960
Yeah, I mean,
it stands out very clearly.
265
00:17:08,960 --> 00:17:12,480
I mean, from all the time spent
watching the video, it fits
266
00:17:12,480 --> 00:17:15,120
very well with what we imagine
the angle would be of the trench
267
00:17:15,120 --> 00:17:16,760
coming in towards the fortress.
268
00:17:16,760 --> 00:17:20,760
And, you know, they were basically
brought into the trench and fell
269
00:17:20,760 --> 00:17:26,520
against this side
Yep.
270
00:17:26,520 --> 00:17:29,280
All the pieces of the puzzle
Yeah.
271
00:17:29,280 --> 00:17:32,880
But at the same time, there's more
Most certainly.
272
00:17:35,720 --> 00:17:38,040
The men in the film
have finally been found.
273
00:17:40,880 --> 00:17:42,960
But it's clear there were
more people shot and
274
00:17:42,960 --> 00:17:45,600
buried here
than anyone ever realised.
275
00:17:47,560 --> 00:17:50,160
And further along
the same stretch of coast,
276
00:17:50,160 --> 00:17:52,080
a few months after Liepaja's men,
277
00:17:52,080 --> 00:17:56,320
thousands of women and children were
shot and buried in the sands.
278
00:18:00,280 --> 00:18:04,320
No-one knows exactly how many,
or where their bodies lie.
279
00:18:12,520 --> 00:18:15,360
It's only since the fall of the
Soviet Union that mass graves
280
00:18:15,360 --> 00:18:17,680
like these, lost for over 80 years,
281
00:18:17,680 --> 00:18:21,280
are being forensically
investigated for the first time.
282
00:18:23,560 --> 00:18:26,600
But pioneers like Harry and Phil
are just scratching the surface
283
00:18:26,600 --> 00:18:28,160
of a monumental task.
284
00:18:34,560 --> 00:18:39,440
In Latvia, there are more than
70 suspected Holocaust sites.
285
00:18:39,440 --> 00:18:41,920
Most are yet to be fully explored.
286
00:18:43,120 --> 00:18:45,800
The same is true in neighbouring
Lithuania, with more than
287
00:18:45,800 --> 00:18:47,680
200 suspected sites.
288
00:18:50,520 --> 00:18:52,960
What seems extraordinary
is that there was
289
00:18:52,960 --> 00:18:56,640
a single Einsatzgruppen team of
fewer than a thousand men to account
290
00:18:56,640 --> 00:18:59,120
for an estimated
quarter of a million deaths
291
00:18:59,120 --> 00:19:00,720
across both countries.
292
00:19:05,200 --> 00:19:07,720
There's only one way
that was possible,
293
00:19:07,720 --> 00:19:11,560
and it's one of the most disturbing
aspects of this entire story.
294
00:19:12,880 --> 00:19:15,600
Widespread local complicity.
295
00:19:19,240 --> 00:19:21,640
And there is evidence of that
happening here,
296
00:19:21,640 --> 00:19:24,400
in the Lithuanian town of Alytus.
297
00:19:26,640 --> 00:19:31,280
So we're just driving into the town
now, from exactly the same direction
298
00:19:31,280 --> 00:19:36,800
that the Germans came in
on the 22nd of June in 1941.
299
00:19:36,800 --> 00:19:40,160
So, from the very start of
the invasion, this is where
300
00:19:40,160 --> 00:19:42,160
they were coming from.
301
00:19:42,160 --> 00:19:45,560
And behind them were these
Einsatzgruppen soldiers,
302
00:19:45,560 --> 00:19:48,680
with this task
of looking for the town's Jews.
303
00:19:50,800 --> 00:19:54,720
They found them in the town
and the surrounding villages.
304
00:19:54,720 --> 00:19:57,160
And according to Nazi records,
305
00:19:57,160 --> 00:20:00,880
nearly 2,500 Jews were rounded up
306
00:20:00,880 --> 00:20:03,800
and brought to be murdered
in the nearby forest.
307
00:20:05,360 --> 00:20:09,000
Here we arrive at the end of the
town, and the very same road
308
00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:12,560
driven on through the centre
of Alytus becomes...
309
00:20:13,640 --> 00:20:16,120
You can see here,
it's becoming...
310
00:20:16,120 --> 00:20:20,600
It's a dirt track.
And now we're in forest.
311
00:20:20,600 --> 00:20:25,000
And what I find really,
really chilling,
312
00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:27,360
and really unnerving,
313
00:20:27,360 --> 00:20:29,000
is the fact that
it's walking distance
314
00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:30,880
from the middle of the town.
315
00:20:35,080 --> 00:20:39,640
But who brought the thousands of
Jews here, and who killed them?
316
00:20:44,840 --> 00:20:49,520
Because the SS have fewer than a
dozen men stationed in this area.
317
00:20:54,440 --> 00:20:56,840
I'm here to meet the leader
of Lithuania's
318
00:20:56,840 --> 00:20:58,360
surviving Jewish community.
319
00:21:00,080 --> 00:21:02,960
Faina Kukliansky believes
her grandmother was killed
320
00:21:02,960 --> 00:21:04,080
in this forest...
321
00:21:05,560 --> 00:21:08,720
..and she may have discovered
who the killers were.
322
00:21:10,760 --> 00:21:14,280
My grandparents were
quite educated people,
323
00:21:14,280 --> 00:21:17,920
and my grandmother
was a doctor in the hospital.
324
00:21:21,480 --> 00:21:25,480
Then the war started, and my
grandmother was taken
325
00:21:25,480 --> 00:21:30,560
from the street and imprisoned
by the local people.
326
00:21:30,560 --> 00:21:33,480
She's held prisoner by local people?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
327
00:21:33,480 --> 00:21:34,920
And then what happened?
328
00:21:34,920 --> 00:21:38,560
And what happened after that,
nobody knows.
329
00:21:38,560 --> 00:21:42,680
But in any way,
she did not come back.
330
00:21:48,120 --> 00:21:52,480
I asked the
Genocide Centre of Lithuania
331
00:21:52,480 --> 00:21:56,680
to do the research
for me, especially on Alytus.
332
00:21:58,280 --> 00:22:01,560
And it's written here clearly
333
00:22:01,560 --> 00:22:06,120
that in 1941, in August,
334
00:22:06,120 --> 00:22:09,080
there were mass killing
335
00:22:09,080 --> 00:22:14,080
of Jewish children and women.
336
00:22:14,080 --> 00:22:18,920
The victims were asked to go
into the pits, to jump
337
00:22:18,920 --> 00:22:21,400
into the pits, to lie.
338
00:22:21,400 --> 00:22:23,080
Then they were shot.
339
00:22:26,440 --> 00:22:31,160
All the people who used to work
in the prison took part,
340
00:22:31,160 --> 00:22:36,680
together with the
students of Alytus school.
341
00:22:36,680 --> 00:22:39,600
So this is local school students...
Of the school.
342
00:22:39,600 --> 00:22:42,120
..participating in the shooting?
Yeah.
343
00:22:42,120 --> 00:22:45,000
And together, they came together
344
00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:47,520
with policemen with guns.
345
00:22:47,520 --> 00:22:51,360
And that confirms that - what my
uncle used to tell me -
346
00:22:51,360 --> 00:22:56,440
that probably his classmates
killed his mother.
347
00:22:59,800 --> 00:23:02,760
Faina, that is such a difficult
thing to comprehend.
348
00:23:02,760 --> 00:23:06,640
The idea that it was
your parents' friends from school
349
00:23:06,640 --> 00:23:09,320
who were some of the ones who were
actively participating
350
00:23:09,320 --> 00:23:12,160
in this process. They must have
known her. They must have...
351
00:23:12,160 --> 00:23:16,720
Her son was studying with
Lithuanians in a Lithuanian school.
352
00:23:16,720 --> 00:23:20,160
Doesn't matter that they were
citizens of Lithuania,
353
00:23:20,160 --> 00:23:22,240
that they live in the same city.
354
00:23:22,240 --> 00:23:25,000
But it should be Judenrein,
355
00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:27,560
"Jews should be killed."
356
00:23:27,560 --> 00:23:29,280
And they were killing.
357
00:23:29,280 --> 00:23:32,200
So her only crime was being Jewish?
358
00:23:32,200 --> 00:23:34,760
Yeah. Well, that's enough.
359
00:23:40,280 --> 00:23:43,600
Zinaida Kukliansky and more than
2,000 other Jews
360
00:23:43,600 --> 00:23:45,160
were murdered here...
361
00:23:46,360 --> 00:23:48,840
..not solely by Nazis,
362
00:23:48,840 --> 00:23:51,720
but also by their fellow citizens.
363
00:23:54,160 --> 00:23:57,200
No-one knows where
any of them are buried.
364
00:23:58,800 --> 00:24:02,960
There is a cluster of monuments here
in the forest, but they were put up
365
00:24:02,960 --> 00:24:06,320
relatively recently, and no-one
knows if they mark
366
00:24:06,320 --> 00:24:08,240
any actual burials.
367
00:24:10,480 --> 00:24:13,880
I do not know
where my grandmother is.
368
00:24:13,880 --> 00:24:18,560
I would like very much to know,
where is her remains?
369
00:24:20,440 --> 00:24:24,640
The sculptures, I think
it's more like art pieces,
370
00:24:24,640 --> 00:24:27,680
not like the
document pieces.
371
00:24:27,680 --> 00:24:31,520
And I do not see any information
372
00:24:31,520 --> 00:24:34,400
here about the people.
373
00:24:34,400 --> 00:24:37,800
When were they killed?
How many people were killed?
374
00:24:37,800 --> 00:24:40,680
Where the women are.
Where the children are.
375
00:24:40,680 --> 00:24:44,600
Who are they? We are missing that.
376
00:24:44,600 --> 00:24:47,960
We just do not know
where they are.
377
00:24:47,960 --> 00:24:51,040
OK.
378
00:24:51,040 --> 00:24:52,920
On up.
379
00:24:52,920 --> 00:24:56,280
Faina has invited Harry and Phil
down from Liepaja to try
380
00:24:56,280 --> 00:24:57,640
and put that right.
381
00:24:59,400 --> 00:25:02,240
But this forest holds a puzzle.
382
00:25:03,720 --> 00:25:06,400
We know, in August, September 1941,
383
00:25:06,400 --> 00:25:08,920
we had approximately 2,000 Jews
384
00:25:08,920 --> 00:25:12,080
being executed and buried
at this site.
385
00:25:12,080 --> 00:25:15,600
Flags in - red, white.
386
00:25:15,600 --> 00:25:18,560
The idea that they're here is
interesting.
387
00:25:20,560 --> 00:25:22,360
But where are they buried?
388
00:25:22,360 --> 00:25:24,800
Are they all buried at this
location,
389
00:25:24,800 --> 00:25:29,040
or are they buried at other
locations within this larger forest?
390
00:25:29,040 --> 00:25:32,320
And so our job is
to try to find those sites.
391
00:25:40,800 --> 00:25:45,280
The murders in Alytus's forests
troubled me for another reason.
392
00:25:45,280 --> 00:25:47,880
The element of local collaboration.
393
00:25:49,360 --> 00:25:53,680
And what happened here was just
the tip of the iceberg.
394
00:25:53,680 --> 00:25:57,240
A truth some Lithuanians are
determined to lay bare.
395
00:26:00,080 --> 00:26:03,920
I'm heading to a small town just
20km from Alytus to meet
396
00:26:03,920 --> 00:26:08,320
a prominent author and Holocaust
researcher called Ruta Vanagaite.
397
00:26:10,200 --> 00:26:14,720
Ruta introduces me
to 94-year-old Ona.
398
00:26:18,280 --> 00:26:20,520
Hello.
399
00:26:23,360 --> 00:26:26,160
Ona grew up here among the town's
Jewish population,
400
00:26:26,160 --> 00:26:30,840
and she is the last known surviving
witness to their mass murder.
401
00:26:33,120 --> 00:26:37,960
We go with her in my car, OK?
Perfect. It's very nice to meet you.
402
00:26:41,160 --> 00:26:42,640
Is that comfortable?
403
00:26:52,840 --> 00:26:55,720
She's going to show
where they used to live.
404
00:27:18,520 --> 00:27:20,720
The massacre Ona witnessed
took place on
405
00:27:20,720 --> 00:27:24,680
September 9th, 1941.
406
00:27:24,680 --> 00:27:26,920
Not in the dark of a large forest,
407
00:27:26,920 --> 00:27:29,280
but in the open fields
in front of
408
00:27:29,280 --> 00:27:31,680
the house she lived in as a child.
409
00:27:33,560 --> 00:27:37,200
So, what happened on that day?
410
00:27:43,400 --> 00:27:46,320
There were a lot of
people being marched down the hill.
411
00:27:46,320 --> 00:27:50,240
And when did you see the first
people coming past?
412
00:27:54,360 --> 00:27:56,760
They heard the screaming.
413
00:27:56,760 --> 00:27:59,160
A cry and screaming.
414
00:28:07,080 --> 00:28:10,160
We looked through the windows only,
"What's going on?"
415
00:28:10,160 --> 00:28:13,520
There were hundreds of people
being marched here.
416
00:28:15,520 --> 00:28:17,880
My mum started crying, and
everybody...
417
00:28:17,880 --> 00:28:20,040
The screaming was the first thing
that she heard,
418
00:28:20,040 --> 00:28:21,560
before she saw anything?
419
00:28:25,400 --> 00:28:30,200
And then we heard the shooting.
And who was in the column? The Jews?
420
00:28:37,280 --> 00:28:39,280
They were mostly old people.
421
00:28:41,200 --> 00:28:42,760
And later on, children.
422
00:28:44,760 --> 00:28:47,280
And children were being shot
in another place.
423
00:28:47,280 --> 00:28:50,440
And when you heard the shots,
you realised what was happening?
424
00:28:53,800 --> 00:28:55,080
Yes.
425
00:29:27,080 --> 00:29:29,560
This past is in my head.
426
00:29:36,440 --> 00:29:40,280
This is Butrimonys, where most
of the victims lived.
427
00:29:40,280 --> 00:29:44,520
Its historic heart lies empty
because, that September day,
428
00:29:44,520 --> 00:29:46,760
740 Jews,
429
00:29:46,760 --> 00:29:49,480
80% of the town's population,
430
00:29:49,480 --> 00:29:51,040
were murdered.
431
00:29:52,640 --> 00:29:55,640
The question is, who by?
432
00:29:56,840 --> 00:29:59,440
The killers were Lithuanian killers
433
00:29:59,440 --> 00:30:02,160
from Alytus, coming
to get rid of the Jews.
434
00:30:02,160 --> 00:30:04,680
So we're talking about Lithuanians
Yes, yes.
435
00:30:04,680 --> 00:30:06,520
..other Lithuanians?
But they are not...
436
00:30:06,520 --> 00:30:09,360
Those, the killers were not
neighbours of those Jews, but those,
437
00:30:09,360 --> 00:30:11,640
the policemen and the partisans
were neighbours of
438
00:30:11,640 --> 00:30:14,480
And the
whole process throughout has been
439
00:30:14,480 --> 00:30:16,960
managed by these people's
neighbours, the people doing the
440
00:30:16,960 --> 00:30:19,880
Yes, the preparation was
managed by people's neighbours.
441
00:30:19,880 --> 00:30:22,280
But killing was done by somebody
coming from outside.
442
00:30:22,280 --> 00:30:25,200
From another
town nearby. And they're the ones
443
00:30:25,200 --> 00:30:26,440
Yes.
444
00:30:26,440 --> 00:30:29,000
They're the ones with their fingers
on the triggers?
445
00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:32,480
And after the shooting, the
neighbours are taking the property.
446
00:30:32,480 --> 00:30:34,600
Wow, that's quite a thought,
isn't it?
447
00:30:34,600 --> 00:30:36,720
And then they move into
the houses around here,
448
00:30:36,720 --> 00:30:39,520
presumably they take over the town,
and all the Jews are gone.
449
00:30:39,520 --> 00:30:42,480
Yes. In one night.
In one night.
450
00:30:44,520 --> 00:30:47,120
It's clear that the Holocaust
here was much more
451
00:30:47,120 --> 00:30:49,280
than just
a series of spontaneous acts.
452
00:30:51,600 --> 00:30:55,120
It was rapidly evolving
into organised ethnic cleansing
453
00:30:55,120 --> 00:30:56,920
on a massive scale.
454
00:31:04,520 --> 00:31:08,360
In Alytus' forest, Harry and Phil
think they may have stumbled on the
455
00:31:08,360 --> 00:31:10,600
biggest mass grave
they've ever seen.
456
00:31:11,880 --> 00:31:14,840
It's getting more pronounced here,
Yeah.
457
00:31:16,600 --> 00:31:20,720
I mean, obviously we're walking
in a lower area
458
00:31:20,720 --> 00:31:24,280
that has, what, to our left,
a mound of stuff.
459
00:31:24,280 --> 00:31:26,000
Yeah, let's climb up.
460
00:31:27,680 --> 00:31:32,040
Wow. I mean, that's
human-built.
461
00:31:33,440 --> 00:31:36,080
Most definitely human-built.
Wow.
462
00:31:36,080 --> 00:31:39,280
I mean, I mean, it's macabre,
but I mean, the idea
463
00:31:39,280 --> 00:31:42,360
that where you are was where
the trench would be, and here
464
00:31:42,360 --> 00:31:44,120
you would be lining up people
465
00:31:44,120 --> 00:31:47,600
being shot, falling into the trench
where you are,
466
00:31:47,600 --> 00:31:49,880
then burying, with that sediment
467
00:31:49,880 --> 00:31:53,880
that you have, and then continuing
Right.
468
00:31:53,880 --> 00:31:56,160
..for, potentially, months.
469
00:31:56,160 --> 00:31:57,520
Right here.
470
00:31:59,080 --> 00:32:01,720
This is a trench where you could
Yeah.
471
00:32:01,720 --> 00:32:05,120
This is one that is not,
you can say, limited in...
472
00:32:05,120 --> 00:32:09,080
The discovery is the result of
resolute detective work,
473
00:32:09,080 --> 00:32:13,840
because the trench is nowhere near
any of the Holocaust monuments.
474
00:32:15,680 --> 00:32:18,640
So we checked out the area
of the monuments.
475
00:32:18,640 --> 00:32:22,280
All the data indicated, really,
that there was nothing there.
476
00:32:22,280 --> 00:32:25,400
So I went back to the air photos
to try to find something
477
00:32:25,400 --> 00:32:30,320
that potentially fits where a large
number of bodies could be buried.
478
00:32:30,320 --> 00:32:35,440
And this is a 1944 Luftwaffe
air photograph of this area.
479
00:32:35,440 --> 00:32:40,440
And if we zoom in, what's
interesting about it is this is
480
00:32:40,440 --> 00:32:42,880
the road that we come
in on, and these two roads
481
00:32:42,880 --> 00:32:44,560
that are coming off of it.
482
00:32:44,560 --> 00:32:47,400
And this particular road
is essentially a road to nowhere.
483
00:32:47,400 --> 00:32:51,480
So it's a road that goes into the
middle of a forest and stops?
484
00:32:51,480 --> 00:32:54,520
And stops. I would... Yes, I would
agree with that.
485
00:32:54,520 --> 00:32:58,720
But there is testimony of a family
member, soon after her father
486
00:32:58,720 --> 00:33:00,600
and brother were murdered,
487
00:33:00,600 --> 00:33:02,880
of visiting this site and seeing
488
00:33:02,880 --> 00:33:05,440
the evidence of trenches
that were so fresh,
489
00:33:05,440 --> 00:33:07,200
that they were stained with blood.
490
00:33:07,200 --> 00:33:09,680
So that's what was
Yes.
491
00:33:09,680 --> 00:33:12,240
That's what prompted us
to start to look
492
00:33:12,240 --> 00:33:14,320
in this particular area.
493
00:33:14,320 --> 00:33:16,120
And we'll have two people going on
this.
494
00:33:16,120 --> 00:33:18,400
And then one person will be moving
the line.
495
00:33:18,400 --> 00:33:22,520
And when, upon closer inspection, we
found a series of trenches leading
496
00:33:22,520 --> 00:33:26,440
up to, at least visually,
potentially the largest trench,
497
00:33:26,440 --> 00:33:28,280
and this may be a mass grave,
498
00:33:28,280 --> 00:33:30,000
or a series of mass graves,
499
00:33:30,000 --> 00:33:33,080
where there are tens of thousands
of people buried.
500
00:33:36,160 --> 00:33:40,160
The evidence is compelling,
but it's only circumstantial.
501
00:33:40,160 --> 00:33:44,160
The only way they can be sure
they've found a mass burial
502
00:33:44,160 --> 00:33:46,440
is to look beneath the surface,
503
00:33:46,440 --> 00:33:49,080
as they did so effectively at
Liepaja.
504
00:33:50,840 --> 00:33:54,480
So what we've done at this site
is we've started collecting a grid
505
00:33:54,480 --> 00:33:56,000
with ground-penetrating radar.
506
00:33:56,000 --> 00:33:59,440
And now I'll show you a time slice
as we go down into the subsurface.
507
00:33:59,440 --> 00:34:02,920
And remarkably, you know, we
never know what we're going to get,
508
00:34:02,920 --> 00:34:05,320
we see this feature right here.
509
00:34:05,320 --> 00:34:08,600
This is what we are interpreting
as a burial trench.
510
00:34:08,600 --> 00:34:11,080
So, because that's anomalous
within the rest of this here,
511
00:34:11,080 --> 00:34:13,960
it's clearly something distinctive.
Right, it's rectangular.
512
00:34:13,960 --> 00:34:17,920
And so now we can start calculating
the dimensions of a trench here.
513
00:34:17,920 --> 00:34:21,240
And it's not just here. It goes
all the way up to where this linear
514
00:34:21,240 --> 00:34:23,480
feature goes,
and goes all the way down...
515
00:34:23,480 --> 00:34:25,560
Right down to the end, there?
..right down to...
516
00:34:25,560 --> 00:34:28,560
Almost to the end, and it does a
right-hand turn down there.
517
00:34:28,560 --> 00:34:33,600
And there's... So, I mean, we can't
even start doing the calculations.
518
00:34:33,600 --> 00:34:35,800
We were just looking
at the data right now.
519
00:34:35,800 --> 00:34:38,320
This is a large feature.
It's huge.
520
00:34:38,320 --> 00:34:40,920
All the way to there, to all the
way to there? And then...
521
00:34:40,920 --> 00:34:44,320
And then we have seven to four...
seven to 11 metres here,
522
00:34:44,320 --> 00:34:46,560
on the tapes here. But take a look.
523
00:34:46,560 --> 00:34:50,440
All the trees have been taken out
at seven metres, and they're gone
524
00:34:50,440 --> 00:34:53,120
all the way to 11 metres. All the
Walking past
525
00:34:53,120 --> 00:34:55,800
every day, I wouldn't...I wouldn't
have noticed this detail.
526
00:34:55,800 --> 00:34:58,520
How do you...? I wouldn't have
noticed. But now you point it out,
527
00:34:58,520 --> 00:35:01,320
it seems so obvious that clearly
some...something
528
00:35:01,320 --> 00:35:02,960
has happened to this earth.
529
00:35:02,960 --> 00:35:07,320
Something has disrupted
the continuity of this space.
530
00:35:07,320 --> 00:35:09,640
When we take... I mean,
I just take a look out here.
531
00:35:09,640 --> 00:35:11,800
We thought there was going
to be nothing out here.
532
00:35:11,800 --> 00:35:15,840
And we see some, you know, linear
features and things like that. I...
533
00:35:15,840 --> 00:35:18,600
You know, I'm shocked when I walk
around now. I'm looking at things
534
00:35:18,600 --> 00:35:21,400
and it's like, potentially,
we are sitting on thousands
535
00:35:21,400 --> 00:35:24,040
of executed Jews at that site.
536
00:35:26,720 --> 00:35:29,160
We could work here for
years and years...
537
00:35:29,160 --> 00:35:31,880
.
Yeah.
538
00:35:37,360 --> 00:35:41,400
Just the experience of being here
today has been a really stark
539
00:35:41,400 --> 00:35:45,960
reminder of the point about taking
Jewish individuals into a site
540
00:35:45,960 --> 00:35:48,080
like this and murdering them.
541
00:35:50,880 --> 00:35:55,840
When the Nazis come into these
territories, they find, in various
542
00:35:55,840 --> 00:35:58,800
different ways and in various
different capacities, different
543
00:35:58,800 --> 00:36:02,000
people who are
prepared to support it,
544
00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:05,480
to support it. Sometimes to allow
it to happen, but sometimes
545
00:36:05,480 --> 00:36:07,720
to become directly involved,
546
00:36:07,720 --> 00:36:10,160
to become the people who are...
547
00:36:10,160 --> 00:36:12,960
..the people with their fingers
on the trigger.
548
00:36:16,240 --> 00:36:19,360
It's so important to remember
that the Nazis were at the centre
549
00:36:19,360 --> 00:36:22,000
of this, but they didn't act alone.
550
00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:26,160
They required the active
participation of hundreds
551
00:36:26,160 --> 00:36:27,960
of thousands of people.
552
00:36:27,960 --> 00:36:30,480
They couldn't have done it
without that.
553
00:36:38,880 --> 00:36:42,080
Like a lot of formerly-occupied
Eastern European nations,
554
00:36:42,080 --> 00:36:44,800
modern Lithuania
has a history problem...
555
00:36:47,800 --> 00:36:51,160
..because the truth of its role
in the Holocaust is finally coming
556
00:36:51,160 --> 00:36:53,360
out of the ground,
557
00:36:53,360 --> 00:36:55,560
and it's being
obliged to face up to it
558
00:36:55,560 --> 00:36:58,120
by writers like Ruta Vanagaite.
559
00:36:58,120 --> 00:37:01,840
In another 50 years, the people
will come to terms with it.
560
00:37:01,840 --> 00:37:04,600
Ruta, this is something
that you've gone to great lengths
561
00:37:04,600 --> 00:37:08,160
to investigate. What happened
when you did that?
562
00:37:08,160 --> 00:37:10,760
My book about the Holocaust
was published.
563
00:37:10,760 --> 00:37:14,160
It became a bestseller,
but the reaction was very violent.
564
00:37:14,160 --> 00:37:18,400
Some people accepted it, but the
majority of my nation didn't accept
565
00:37:18,400 --> 00:37:21,280
and I became, like,
enemy of the country,
566
00:37:21,280 --> 00:37:25,760
because I was, like,
defaming my own people,
567
00:37:25,760 --> 00:37:29,400
and they called me a Jewish whore.
568
00:37:29,400 --> 00:37:33,360
So, in the end, when people
were attacking me
569
00:37:33,360 --> 00:37:37,760
and spitting at me on the street,
I endured,
570
00:37:37,760 --> 00:37:40,920
and in the long run, I had to leave
the country for a while until
571
00:37:40,920 --> 00:37:44,200
they forgive... Not forgive me,
but forget me a little.
572
00:37:44,200 --> 00:37:48,320
So speaking out came at great
personal cost to you?
573
00:37:48,320 --> 00:37:51,560
I don't regret. Yes, it did,
but I don't regret.
574
00:37:51,560 --> 00:37:54,040
Had I known that it would be such
a violent reaction,
575
00:37:54,040 --> 00:37:56,920
I would have done it anyway because
I spoke for the victims.
576
00:37:56,920 --> 00:38:00,160
This is my army,
those 200,000 murdered people.
577
00:38:00,160 --> 00:38:02,640
This is my army.
They gave me a lot of strength.
578
00:38:02,640 --> 00:38:05,360
And if you published the book today,
do you think you would get
579
00:38:05,360 --> 00:38:06,760
the same reaction?
580
00:38:06,760 --> 00:38:09,240
There won't... It wouldn't be
published. No way.
581
00:38:09,240 --> 00:38:11,280
No way.
582
00:38:11,280 --> 00:38:14,320
And nobody after me, nobody would
write a book about the Holocaust,
583
00:38:14,320 --> 00:38:16,720
because people know that
you'll lose your friends,
584
00:38:16,720 --> 00:38:18,960
and you get...you become
a public enemy.
585
00:38:18,960 --> 00:38:22,360
So what is said, when this comes
up in conversation, what is said?
586
00:38:22,360 --> 00:38:25,440
It is a defence
reaction. It is self-defence.
587
00:38:25,440 --> 00:38:28,560
So they always say, "It wasn't us.
Yes, kind of.
588
00:38:28,560 --> 00:38:32,840
I mean, I told my friend that
I am coming to see Butrimonys
589
00:38:32,840 --> 00:38:35,800
with a BBC crew and she said,
590
00:38:35,800 --> 00:38:38,880
"What? Are you going to tell the
whole world again,
591
00:38:38,880 --> 00:38:43,240
"and defame our country and tell
everybody that, you know,
592
00:38:43,240 --> 00:38:46,000
"we kill the Jews, Lithuanians
kill the Jews?"
593
00:38:46,000 --> 00:38:47,520
I said, "Yes."
594
00:38:47,520 --> 00:38:48,880
She said, "Why?"
595
00:38:48,880 --> 00:38:50,720
I said, "Because they did."
596
00:38:52,040 --> 00:38:55,680
We are bloody uneducated.
Uneducated.
597
00:38:55,680 --> 00:38:57,600
The school hasn't educated us.
598
00:38:57,600 --> 00:39:00,520
Our parents didn't educate us.
599
00:39:00,520 --> 00:39:02,880
Our grandparents were too afraid
to speak about it.
600
00:39:02,880 --> 00:39:06,200
Who could tell us about
what happened?
601
00:39:06,200 --> 00:39:10,440
So, for the moment,
Holocaust subject is closed.
602
00:39:10,440 --> 00:39:12,320
I don't know for how long.
603
00:39:17,800 --> 00:39:21,920
80 years ago, many Lithuanians
welcomed the invading Nazis
604
00:39:21,920 --> 00:39:25,680
for what seemed at the time
to be a very sound reason -
605
00:39:25,680 --> 00:39:29,560
because the Nazis were liberating
them from communism.
606
00:39:31,840 --> 00:39:34,480
The same nationalist response
manifested across all
607
00:39:34,480 --> 00:39:38,680
the Baltic states, as well as
large parts of Ukraine.
608
00:39:47,280 --> 00:39:52,400
Everywhere, nationalists fanned
the flames of anti-communism,
609
00:39:52,400 --> 00:39:55,840
and the Nazis pushed the myth of
that communism
610
00:39:55,840 --> 00:39:57,600
as a Jewish conspiracy.
611
00:40:04,120 --> 00:40:08,080
As Hitler's invasion of the USSR
reached its fullest extent,
612
00:40:08,080 --> 00:40:12,080
coercion and complicity across
territories under Nazi control
613
00:40:12,080 --> 00:40:16,000
allowed the SS to initiate nearly
2,000 atrocities
614
00:40:16,000 --> 00:40:18,040
across seven countries
615
00:40:18,040 --> 00:40:21,560
from the Baltic to the Black Sea,
616
00:40:21,560 --> 00:40:25,000
scaling up their murderous ambition
in village after village,
617
00:40:25,000 --> 00:40:27,120
town after town.
618
00:40:33,680 --> 00:40:37,840
As victim numbers grew, the SS
developed a system for ensuring
619
00:40:37,840 --> 00:40:41,400
maximum efficiency
and minimal panic.
620
00:40:43,760 --> 00:40:46,120
It began with a calming ruse.
621
00:40:46,120 --> 00:40:49,760
Jews were told to assemble
with money, belongings
622
00:40:49,760 --> 00:40:51,440
and warm clothing.
623
00:40:53,240 --> 00:40:57,400
So they waited patiently,
expecting to be deported.
624
00:40:58,680 --> 00:41:01,520
Then they were led away in groups,
625
00:41:01,520 --> 00:41:04,360
often by local police, to be shot.
626
00:41:13,920 --> 00:41:17,160
When the Germans took
the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv,
627
00:41:17,160 --> 00:41:19,520
in late September 1941,
628
00:41:19,520 --> 00:41:22,960
they claimed their biggest
Soviet city so far,
629
00:41:22,960 --> 00:41:25,840
with tens of thousands of Jews.
630
00:41:28,520 --> 00:41:32,560
And SS Commander Friedrich Jeckeln
saw the chance to perfect
631
00:41:32,560 --> 00:41:35,600
mass murder on a monumental scale.
632
00:41:38,720 --> 00:41:41,760
He issued the standard order
to the city's Jews to assemble.
633
00:41:48,560 --> 00:41:51,920
Then he had them escorted
out of town by local police,
634
00:41:51,920 --> 00:41:54,080
along this road,
635
00:41:54,080 --> 00:41:56,680
to a 30m-deep,
636
00:41:56,680 --> 00:41:59,480
half-kilometre-long
ravine called Babyn Yar.
637
00:42:04,280 --> 00:42:08,320
Here, they were stripped naked,
ready for the waiting guns.
638
00:42:25,560 --> 00:42:28,600
Jeckeln's plan
was carefully engineered.
639
00:42:28,600 --> 00:42:31,560
Yet Dina Pronicheva survived it.
640
00:43:20,720 --> 00:43:23,760
These are the belongings
of those who didn't escape.
641
00:43:26,120 --> 00:43:30,880
On 29th and 30th September 1941,
642
00:43:30,880 --> 00:43:37,280
Jeckeln's men shot 33,771 men,
women and children.
643
00:43:41,360 --> 00:43:44,800
1,700 people an hour...
644
00:43:46,880 --> 00:43:48,640
..for two days.
645
00:43:54,560 --> 00:44:00,040
Babyn Yar was the biggest single
massacre of the Holocaust thus far.
646
00:44:00,040 --> 00:44:03,280
Yet it would become just one
notable landmark
647
00:44:03,280 --> 00:44:06,040
in a continental killing spree.
648
00:44:22,200 --> 00:44:25,800
By the end of 1941, over
a million people have been killed
649
00:44:25,800 --> 00:44:27,800
under the hail of bullets
that the Nazis
650
00:44:27,800 --> 00:44:29,880
and their collaborators
have thrown at them.
651
00:44:29,880 --> 00:44:32,880
We've got 25,000 murdered
here in Riga.
652
00:44:32,880 --> 00:44:35,440
50,000 murdered here in Kaunas.
653
00:44:35,440 --> 00:44:38,200
70,000 here in Ponary.
654
00:44:38,200 --> 00:44:40,560
We've got, in Minsk, 30,000.
655
00:44:40,560 --> 00:44:42,760
In Kyiv, 34,000.
656
00:44:42,760 --> 00:44:46,200
In Kamianets-Podilskyi,
we've got 25,000.
657
00:44:46,200 --> 00:44:48,440
And down in Odesa,
we've got 30,000.
658
00:44:48,440 --> 00:44:50,520
Hundreds of thousands of Jews,
659
00:44:50,520 --> 00:44:52,760
and thousands more between
all of these places.
660
00:44:52,760 --> 00:44:55,640
But it doesn't start as a plan
of total annihilation.
661
00:44:55,640 --> 00:44:59,080
That's something that evolves as
part of these operations here.
662
00:44:59,080 --> 00:45:02,520
What they've been able to do
here conceptualises something
663
00:45:02,520 --> 00:45:05,880
within their...within their minds,
they hadn't previously anticipated
664
00:45:05,880 --> 00:45:07,880
in this way, they can kill them.
665
00:45:07,880 --> 00:45:10,480
They can kill them, and they can
kill them, all of them,
666
00:45:10,480 --> 00:45:12,000
across the whole territory.
667
00:45:12,000 --> 00:45:14,880
But the largest number of Jews
still alive are here
668
00:45:14,880 --> 00:45:17,640
in occupied Poland.
They're living in ghettos.
669
00:45:17,640 --> 00:45:19,720
They're living in terrible
conditions.
670
00:45:19,720 --> 00:45:22,520
They suffered appallingly
during this period, but there's
671
00:45:22,520 --> 00:45:26,160
been no central plan to
annihilate them until now.
672
00:45:26,160 --> 00:45:29,920
And that's what changes
at the end of 1941.
673
00:45:39,840 --> 00:45:43,200
But when the Nazis set out to murder
the millions of Jews languishing
674
00:45:43,200 --> 00:45:44,760
in their ghettos...
675
00:45:47,480 --> 00:45:50,160
..they did not use
millions of bullets.
676
00:45:55,640 --> 00:45:58,360
By the end of 1941,
677
00:45:58,360 --> 00:46:02,200
after more than
a million individual murders,
678
00:46:02,200 --> 00:46:04,680
mass shooting had become
unsustainable.
679
00:46:07,840 --> 00:46:10,120
And when we look at these photos,
680
00:46:10,120 --> 00:46:13,080
we start to understand why that is.
681
00:46:13,080 --> 00:46:15,800
You can see here these young men
682
00:46:15,800 --> 00:46:18,480
are facing other human beings
683
00:46:18,480 --> 00:46:20,520
and killing them,
684
00:46:20,520 --> 00:46:25,040
and they're seeing
what they're doing,
685
00:46:25,040 --> 00:46:27,720
first-hand, face-to-face.
686
00:46:29,800 --> 00:46:32,840
And what senior Nazis become really
concerned about is
687
00:46:32,840 --> 00:46:37,080
the mental health of the people that
are doing it - never the people
688
00:46:37,080 --> 00:46:41,200
that are being killed,
the people that are doing it -
689
00:46:41,200 --> 00:46:44,880
because they know that that's
690
00:46:44,880 --> 00:46:49,200
something which is going
to be impossible for them
691
00:46:49,200 --> 00:46:50,920
to deal with.
692
00:46:50,920 --> 00:46:54,040
They talk about it
as a burdening of the soul.
693
00:46:56,040 --> 00:46:59,440
There's reports here of these
soldiers getting nausea,
694
00:46:59,440 --> 00:47:02,080
nervous tension during the
massacres.
695
00:47:02,080 --> 00:47:04,760
In many cases, killers suffered
vomiting attacks
696
00:47:04,760 --> 00:47:08,960
or developed severe eczema
or other psychosomatic disorders.
697
00:47:08,960 --> 00:47:13,480
You know, there's this sense
that this whole generation
698
00:47:13,480 --> 00:47:17,440
will be corrupted forever,
irreconcilably corrupted
699
00:47:17,440 --> 00:47:20,800
by what they've been asked to do
in the name of the Reich.
700
00:47:22,800 --> 00:47:25,480
The other big factor was location.
701
00:47:29,880 --> 00:47:33,560
Everything that's happened so far,
everything that I've looked at
702
00:47:33,560 --> 00:47:36,280
has happened a long way from the
heart of Germany.
703
00:47:36,280 --> 00:47:39,480
It's in this kind of...this
Wild East in the Nazi imagination.
704
00:47:39,480 --> 00:47:42,120
It's a different place where
different things can happen,
705
00:47:42,120 --> 00:47:43,480
different permissibility.
706
00:47:43,480 --> 00:47:47,280
We see here that absolutely
indescribable scene of carnage,
707
00:47:47,280 --> 00:47:49,800
and it's so public
and it's so barbaric,
708
00:47:49,800 --> 00:47:51,560
and it's completely grotesque.
709
00:47:51,560 --> 00:47:56,480
And even the Nazis find this
kind of scene unconscionable.
710
00:47:56,480 --> 00:48:00,120
Killing hundreds of thousands,
millions of people is something
711
00:48:00,120 --> 00:48:01,200
that they can accept,
712
00:48:01,200 --> 00:48:04,320
but from their perspective,
as things develop, there are ways
713
00:48:04,320 --> 00:48:06,760
that it should be done,
and this isn't it.
714
00:48:13,760 --> 00:48:18,240
And so they need to find
a new means of mass murder
715
00:48:18,240 --> 00:48:21,920
that can be scaled up,
that can be efficient,
716
00:48:21,920 --> 00:48:24,200
that can be secret,
717
00:48:24,200 --> 00:48:29,480
and that can be civilised,
in their mind,
718
00:48:29,480 --> 00:48:32,400
much more closely aligned with
this new Germany
719
00:48:32,400 --> 00:48:34,400
that Hitler wants to create.
720
00:48:37,040 --> 00:48:41,120
One of the men tasked with finding
those new civilised ways of killing
721
00:48:41,120 --> 00:48:44,360
was an SS major called
Herbert Lange.
722
00:48:48,040 --> 00:48:51,120
And this forest, called
Kazimierz Biskupi,
723
00:48:51,120 --> 00:48:52,760
in the west of Poland,
724
00:48:52,760 --> 00:48:56,000
is what Lange was given
to use as a laboratory.
725
00:49:04,200 --> 00:49:08,000
A team of researchers from across
Poland is attempting to find
726
00:49:08,000 --> 00:49:11,080
the evidence left behind
by Lange's experiments.
727
00:49:13,920 --> 00:49:16,280
Traces of mass graves
can be seen in
728
00:49:16,280 --> 00:49:18,720
the Nazis' own aerial photographs.
729
00:49:22,240 --> 00:49:25,080
Agnieszka Nieradko
hopes they will help locate
730
00:49:25,080 --> 00:49:27,120
extraordinary events described
731
00:49:27,120 --> 00:49:28,880
in eyewitness testimony.
732
00:49:35,760 --> 00:49:38,320
This is part of our team.
733
00:49:38,320 --> 00:49:39,760
Sebastian.
734
00:49:39,760 --> 00:49:42,440
Sebastian Rozycki,
University of Technology.
735
00:49:42,440 --> 00:49:43,720
Nice to meet you.
736
00:49:43,720 --> 00:49:45,280
Hello.
737
00:49:45,280 --> 00:49:46,840
Hello.
738
00:49:46,840 --> 00:49:49,720
Institute of Geophysics,
Polish Academy of Sciences.
739
00:49:49,720 --> 00:49:52,720
Nice to meet you,
too. Thank you.
740
00:49:52,720 --> 00:49:55,240
So, what have we found here?
741
00:49:57,080 --> 00:50:01,800
OK, so, that. This is this
This bit here?
742
00:50:01,800 --> 00:50:05,200
This is, yes. And you have a
rectangular shape,
743
00:50:05,200 --> 00:50:09,160
and it could be the mass grave
we are looking for.
744
00:50:09,160 --> 00:50:12,400
Just where we're standing now,
Yes.
745
00:50:12,400 --> 00:50:16,160
From one perspective, it can look
like just a regular mass grave
746
00:50:16,160 --> 00:50:19,880
from the wartime. However,
747
00:50:19,880 --> 00:50:23,240
we know from a single testimony
748
00:50:23,240 --> 00:50:25,880
we have of a pre-war vet,
749
00:50:25,880 --> 00:50:30,760
Polish vet, who was brought here as
a prisoner, political prisoner,
750
00:50:30,760 --> 00:50:33,560
he was brought here with
30 other Poles,
751
00:50:33,560 --> 00:50:38,600
forced to assist the Germans
in killing Jewish people
752
00:50:38,600 --> 00:50:40,600
from a neighbouring ghetto.
753
00:50:40,600 --> 00:50:44,680
So people were
brought in carts here, alive,
754
00:50:44,680 --> 00:50:49,080
and the pits were already
waiting for them.
755
00:50:49,080 --> 00:50:50,640
They were not shot.
756
00:50:50,640 --> 00:50:52,560
They were just...
757
00:50:52,560 --> 00:50:55,840
They were just covered
with quicklime
758
00:50:55,840 --> 00:50:58,440
and burned inside the pit.
759
00:50:58,440 --> 00:51:02,120
And so they dug pits,
put quicklime into the pits?
760
00:51:02,120 --> 00:51:04,960
Brought containers with water...
761
00:51:04,960 --> 00:51:08,200
Brought people inside,
brought containers with water,
762
00:51:08,200 --> 00:51:10,240
and put the water inside,
763
00:51:10,240 --> 00:51:15,840
what make...what made the quicklime
Boil.
764
00:51:15,840 --> 00:51:19,920
With...? Boiling people in...?
Yes. Inside.
765
00:51:19,920 --> 00:51:23,800
And this is what we know from this
testimony of a Polish vet.
766
00:51:23,800 --> 00:51:27,920
He was here from the very
beginning until the end,
767
00:51:27,920 --> 00:51:31,760
forced afterwards with other
Poles to bury the victims.
768
00:51:33,080 --> 00:51:35,480
So, right where we are here,
769
00:51:35,480 --> 00:51:40,280
there was a pit
in which people boiled alive?
770
00:51:40,280 --> 00:51:42,160
Correct.
771
00:51:42,160 --> 00:51:43,800
Do we know how long it took?
772
00:51:43,800 --> 00:51:45,920
According to Sienkiewicz,
several hours.
773
00:51:48,440 --> 00:51:53,120
We think that is an experimental
killing site here.
774
00:51:53,120 --> 00:51:54,920
Yeah.
775
00:51:54,920 --> 00:51:57,240
They were just trying out
different ways...?
776
00:51:57,240 --> 00:52:00,480
Yeah, different ways
of killing people.
777
00:52:05,920 --> 00:52:10,880
It's believed Lange killed 3,000
Jews here in a series of trials,
778
00:52:10,880 --> 00:52:13,720
which included not
just lime pits,
779
00:52:13,720 --> 00:52:16,160
but mobile gas vans.
780
00:52:19,560 --> 00:52:23,600
It was just a pure technical
rehearsal of which method
781
00:52:23,600 --> 00:52:27,720
would be the most effective,
efficient, as if the Nazis
782
00:52:27,720 --> 00:52:31,600
were just getting ready for
the big task that was ahead,
783
00:52:31,600 --> 00:52:34,800
meaning killing
the European Jewry.
784
00:52:34,800 --> 00:52:39,600
So clearly there's an intention
being consolidated
785
00:52:39,600 --> 00:52:43,560
from within the heart of the Nazi
hierarchy, you know, from Hitler,
786
00:52:43,560 --> 00:52:46,000
from the top down, there's
this idea, this intention
787
00:52:46,000 --> 00:52:50,360
is becoming more and more and more
determined towards a Final Solution,
788
00:52:50,360 --> 00:52:52,720
which is about complete
annihilation.
789
00:52:52,720 --> 00:52:54,840
But, of course, as an intention,
790
00:52:54,840 --> 00:52:57,880
that is meaningless without the
means of achieving it.
791
00:52:57,880 --> 00:53:00,840
And that's what we see here.
The actual practical means
792
00:53:00,840 --> 00:53:02,480
of achieving this, taking this...
793
00:53:02,480 --> 00:53:04,720
This is what it meant, this is how
I understand it.
794
00:53:04,720 --> 00:53:07,800
They are testing, they are trying,
they are drawing conclusions.
795
00:53:07,800 --> 00:53:10,880
Lime, quicklime is expensive,
796
00:53:10,880 --> 00:53:14,400
gas in wagons was also inconvenient,
797
00:53:14,400 --> 00:53:17,680
so it just drives Lange to a
natural conclusion
798
00:53:17,680 --> 00:53:19,480
that it doesn't work.
799
00:53:19,480 --> 00:53:23,240
"We need to think about something
This is it.
800
00:53:23,240 --> 00:53:25,520
And of course, the thing is,
you know, we're talking
801
00:53:25,520 --> 00:53:28,680
about experimentation, but this
is... The people that are being
802
00:53:28,680 --> 00:53:31,280
experimented on are real people.
Yes.
803
00:53:31,280 --> 00:53:33,640
That's something
we can't forget.
804
00:53:37,120 --> 00:53:39,800
Agnieszka's team continues to
search the forest
805
00:53:39,800 --> 00:53:41,760
for more of Lange's victims.
806
00:53:45,960 --> 00:53:49,760
But Lange himself concluded that the
answer he was looking for
807
00:53:49,760 --> 00:53:51,840
did not lie in forests.
808
00:53:53,200 --> 00:53:57,360
He'd found the most efficient
killing agent was gas,
809
00:53:57,360 --> 00:54:01,360
but it needed to be used in a
completely different location.
810
00:54:06,520 --> 00:54:08,800
What Lange realised, in fact,
811
00:54:08,800 --> 00:54:12,240
was that the future of
mass murder lay in the past...
812
00:54:14,360 --> 00:54:17,800
..in an old SS prison called
Fort VII.
813
00:54:20,840 --> 00:54:27,480
Here, in 1939, Lange had been part
of a project called Aktion T4.
814
00:54:29,560 --> 00:54:33,440
T4 was created to purge
the Third Reich of the disabled -
815
00:54:33,440 --> 00:54:37,440
what the Nazis called
"life unworthy of life".
816
00:54:45,480 --> 00:54:49,600
And the key to T4's efficiency,
Lange recalled, had been to bring
817
00:54:49,600 --> 00:54:52,120
the victims to the means of killing,
818
00:54:52,120 --> 00:54:56,240
inside a special secure facility.
819
00:54:56,240 --> 00:55:01,120
In this quiet, old fort, Lange
had improvised a whole new concept
820
00:55:01,120 --> 00:55:02,720
in mass murder.
821
00:55:13,200 --> 00:55:15,800
What may be the world's
first gas chamber.
822
00:55:24,480 --> 00:55:26,480
People were led up here.
823
00:55:26,480 --> 00:55:29,120
The doors were closed behind them.
824
00:55:29,120 --> 00:55:30,880
When they were all in,
825
00:55:30,880 --> 00:55:35,120
clay was put around the edges
outside to seal it off,
826
00:55:35,120 --> 00:55:38,440
and then tubes were put
through openings in the door.
827
00:55:38,440 --> 00:55:44,000
Through those tubes, carbon monoxide
was pumped from sealed bottles,
828
00:55:44,000 --> 00:55:45,720
and people would wait outside.
829
00:55:47,760 --> 00:55:49,840
When there was no more noise inside,
830
00:55:49,840 --> 00:55:53,520
people outside knew that everyone
in here was dead.
831
00:55:55,960 --> 00:56:00,280
By the end of 1941, it's become
clear that Hitler's ambition
832
00:56:00,280 --> 00:56:02,720
is to murder every single Jew
833
00:56:02,720 --> 00:56:06,360
across Nazi-occupied
and Nazi-allied Europe.
834
00:56:06,360 --> 00:56:09,760
And in order to do that,
he needs the necessary scale.
835
00:56:10,840 --> 00:56:13,680
And that's what this offers.
836
00:56:13,680 --> 00:56:15,400
It needs development,
837
00:56:15,400 --> 00:56:19,280
and it's the development of that
idea which is what leads us
838
00:56:19,280 --> 00:56:20,840
to the death camps.
839
00:56:35,800 --> 00:56:39,440
So these urns contain ashes
840
00:56:39,440 --> 00:56:42,360
from different camps across Europe.
841
00:56:44,360 --> 00:56:47,800
The one directly in
front of me is from Chelmno.
842
00:56:47,800 --> 00:56:52,000
Chelmno is where Herbert Lange went
directly from here, and it became
843
00:56:52,000 --> 00:56:53,840
the first death camp.
844
00:56:53,840 --> 00:56:56,560
And from that, a network was
developed that led
845
00:56:56,560 --> 00:56:59,000
to the murder of millions of people.
846
00:57:00,000 --> 00:57:03,480
And it all started...here,
847
00:57:03,480 --> 00:57:05,280
in this room.
848
00:57:27,880 --> 00:57:33,000
From early 1942, millions of Jews
were taken from all across
849
00:57:33,000 --> 00:57:35,120
Nazi-occupied Europe
850
00:57:35,120 --> 00:57:38,480
and sent to extermination
camps like this one...
851
00:57:41,040 --> 00:57:44,200
..to become no more
than ash and memory.
852
00:57:48,640 --> 00:57:50,640
It took just
six months to get here
853
00:57:50,640 --> 00:57:53,280
from the first bullets fired
in the east.
854
00:57:54,640 --> 00:57:56,400
How did that happen?
855
00:58:06,960 --> 00:58:10,640
Of course, there was Hitler's
poisonous ideology,
856
00:58:10,640 --> 00:58:13,400
but it needed more than ideology.
857
00:58:15,560 --> 00:58:18,920
It needed tens of thousands
of ordinary people...
858
00:58:20,440 --> 00:58:23,280
..to betray a neighbour,
859
00:58:23,280 --> 00:58:26,680
or turn their backs and say nothing,
860
00:58:26,680 --> 00:58:29,840
to help round up and rob,
861
00:58:29,840 --> 00:58:32,040
to sign an order,
862
00:58:32,040 --> 00:58:33,920
pull a trigger
863
00:58:33,920 --> 00:58:35,960
or open a valve.
864
00:58:41,280 --> 00:58:46,920
To see others as sufficiently
different from them to be killed.
68723
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