1 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:04,800 2 00:00:04,880 --> 00:00:06,200 ? 3 00:00:06,280 --> 00:00:08,960 - On April 1, 1933, 4 00:00:09,040 --> 00:00:11,640 Adolf Hitler's first official act, 5 00:00:11,720 --> 00:00:14,440 to persecute Germany's Jews, 6 00:00:14,520 --> 00:00:17,760 is an attempt to sever them from all commercial life 7 00:00:17,840 --> 00:00:19,720 with a boycott. 8 00:00:19,800 --> 00:00:22,200 What follows over the next 12 years 9 00:00:22,280 --> 00:00:25,640 is an organized, sustained cruelty 10 00:00:25,720 --> 00:00:28,960 unparalleled in human history. 11 00:00:29,040 --> 00:00:32,280 It unfolds step by step. 12 00:00:32,360 --> 00:00:35,240 When he first grasps the enormity of the evil, 13 00:00:35,320 --> 00:00:40,760 Winston Churchill calls it, "The crime without a name." 14 00:00:40,840 --> 00:00:44,720 It becomes known as the Holocaust. 15 00:00:44,800 --> 00:00:45,920 16 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:48,040 - All wars changed the world, 17 00:00:48,120 --> 00:00:49,680 but none of them changed the world 18 00:00:49,760 --> 00:00:51,880 like the Second World War did. 19 00:00:51,960 --> 00:00:53,480 - Japan is on the march. 20 00:00:53,560 --> 00:00:56,280 Germany is on the march. 21 00:00:56,360 --> 00:00:57,720 No one can imagine the nightmare 22 00:00:57,800 --> 00:01:00,120 they're about to unleash, 23 00:01:00,200 --> 00:01:02,640 the most destructive war in human history. 24 00:01:02,720 --> 00:01:05,680 - Suddenly, the world is turned upside down, 25 00:01:05,760 --> 00:01:07,600 and all hell is let loose. 26 00:01:07,680 --> 00:01:09,360 ? 27 00:01:09,440 --> 00:01:13,640 - The West is stunned by the speed of the advance. 28 00:01:13,720 --> 00:01:16,760 - You get the Allies led by the Big Three, 29 00:01:16,840 --> 00:01:19,480 Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, 30 00:01:19,560 --> 00:01:22,160 men who were dealing with immensely 31 00:01:22,240 --> 00:01:24,800 complicated questions. 32 00:01:24,920 --> 00:01:29,000 - It's the biggest military operation of human history. 33 00:01:29,240 --> 00:01:30,680 -The Allies have to come together 34 00:01:30,760 --> 00:01:32,120 not just militarily, 35 00:01:32,240 --> 00:01:33,560 but industrial scale 36 00:01:33,720 --> 00:01:35,800 it's a global perspective. 37 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:37,760 - They have to fight in every climate 38 00:01:37,840 --> 00:01:41,160 from the Arctic to the jungles of the Pacific 39 00:01:41,240 --> 00:01:44,840 to the deserts of Africa and the depths of the ocean. 40 00:01:44,920 --> 00:01:47,480 ? 41 00:01:47,560 --> 00:01:50,360 - But there was no certainty of victory. 42 00:01:50,440 --> 00:01:53,800 It was going to be a horrific bloodbath. 43 00:01:53,880 --> 00:01:55,800 - We see humans at their absolute worst, 44 00:01:55,880 --> 00:01:58,320 how they treat other human beings. 45 00:01:58,400 --> 00:01:59,960 And we see them at their absolute best, 46 00:02:00,040 --> 00:02:02,320 willing to give their lives that others might live. 47 00:02:02,400 --> 00:02:05,400 - World War II was a struggle in which there could be 48 00:02:05,480 --> 00:02:08,840 one victor and one vanquished. 49 00:02:08,920 --> 00:02:13,360 ? 50 00:02:13,680 --> 00:02:21,000 51 00:02:26,520 --> 00:02:29,320 52 00:02:29,400 --> 00:02:36,680 ? 53 00:02:37,720 --> 00:02:39,880 - In early 1939, 54 00:02:39,960 --> 00:02:43,360 Germany has seized Austria. 55 00:02:43,440 --> 00:02:45,520 Adolf Hitler, the Fuhrer, 56 00:02:45,600 --> 00:02:49,080 wants to take even more land in Europe. 57 00:02:49,160 --> 00:02:51,360 - 58 00:02:51,440 --> 00:02:55,320 - On January 30th, Hitler tells the German Reichstag 59 00:02:55,400 --> 00:03:00,280 that if war comes, it will not be his fault. 60 00:03:00,360 --> 00:03:04,400 The blame will lie with one people, 61 00:03:04,480 --> 00:03:07,320 the Jews. 62 00:03:24,120 --> 00:03:27,000 63 00:03:27,080 --> 00:03:28,480 - Two months later, 64 00:03:28,560 --> 00:03:31,120 Hitler will take all of Czechoslovakia. 65 00:03:31,200 --> 00:03:33,880 ? 66 00:03:33,960 --> 00:03:38,040 On September 1st, he invades Poland, 67 00:03:38,120 --> 00:03:40,360 and World War II begins. 68 00:03:40,440 --> 00:03:43,320 ? 69 00:03:43,400 --> 00:03:45,480 - One of the things that's critical for us 70 00:03:45,560 --> 00:03:47,640 to understand about the history of World War II 71 00:03:47,720 --> 00:03:49,400 and the history of the Holocaust 72 00:03:49,480 --> 00:03:52,800 is that all of these things are inextricably linked together. 73 00:03:52,880 --> 00:03:56,000 The ebb and flow of the war itself 74 00:03:56,080 --> 00:04:01,000 impacts the way the Holocaust unfolds on the ground. 75 00:04:01,080 --> 00:04:03,440 - Anti-Semitism is central to Hitler's 76 00:04:03,520 --> 00:04:06,080 and the Nazi Party's philosophy, 77 00:04:06,160 --> 00:04:08,280 which he clearly stated in his book 78 00:04:08,360 --> 00:04:11,920 "Mein Kampf," or "My Struggle." 79 00:04:13,240 --> 00:04:17,480 - "Mein Kampf" is a manifesto, slash, autobiography 80 00:04:17,560 --> 00:04:20,080 of the young Hitler. 81 00:04:20,160 --> 00:04:22,120 It contains a rough sketch for the world 82 00:04:22,200 --> 00:04:26,200 as he would like it to be, and an endless documentation 83 00:04:26,280 --> 00:04:30,400 of all the groups of people he has grievances against. 84 00:04:30,480 --> 00:04:32,440 ? 85 00:04:32,520 --> 00:04:37,880 - Hitler reserves his greatest grievance for Germany's Jews. 86 00:04:37,960 --> 00:04:41,280 He uses base metaphors to describe them, 87 00:04:41,360 --> 00:04:44,960 playing on long-held anti-Semitic tropes. 88 00:04:45,040 --> 00:04:48,440 He portrays them as exploiting or manipulating 89 00:04:48,520 --> 00:04:51,360 the German people. 90 00:04:51,440 --> 00:04:53,240 - In order to understand Hitler, 91 00:04:53,320 --> 00:04:55,960 one has to understand the importance of race 92 00:04:56,040 --> 00:05:00,080 that underlines every single thing that he does. 93 00:05:00,160 --> 00:05:04,240 He believes that the whole human race 94 00:05:04,320 --> 00:05:06,800 is divided into categories. 95 00:05:06,880 --> 00:05:10,160 The Aryan race is at the top of that category. 96 00:05:10,240 --> 00:05:12,680 The Jews are at the bottom. 97 00:05:12,760 --> 00:05:15,640 - Hitler is obsessed with Jews. 98 00:05:15,720 --> 00:05:19,680 He's obsessed with Jews as an eternal enemy, 99 00:05:19,760 --> 00:05:24,360 as impure racially, as non-German. 100 00:05:24,440 --> 00:05:26,640 ? 101 00:05:26,720 --> 00:05:31,080 And he believes that Germany will fulfill its destiny 102 00:05:31,160 --> 00:05:34,720 when it's free of Jews. 103 00:05:34,800 --> 00:05:38,720 - In 1934, Hitler appoints himself the Fuhrer, 104 00:05:38,800 --> 00:05:41,600 the leader of Germany. 105 00:05:41,680 --> 00:05:45,640 And he will quickly turn his hatred of Jews into law. 106 00:05:45,720 --> 00:05:48,520 107 00:05:48,600 --> 00:05:50,680 ? 108 00:05:50,760 --> 00:05:55,200 In the fall of 1935 at a Nazi gathering in Nuremberg, 109 00:05:55,280 --> 00:05:56,960 Hitler's deputy, Hermann Goring, 110 00:05:57,040 --> 00:06:00,240 unveils a sweeping set of legal measures 111 00:06:00,320 --> 00:06:03,080 targeting the country's Jewish population. 112 00:06:12,880 --> 00:06:13,920 113 00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:18,160 114 00:06:18,240 --> 00:06:21,680 - The laws prohibit marriage or sexual relations 115 00:06:21,760 --> 00:06:24,640 between Jews and non-Jews 116 00:06:24,720 --> 00:06:29,680 and stripped German Jews of their citizenship. 117 00:06:29,760 --> 00:06:33,040 - For Jews living in Germany, the Nuremberg Laws 118 00:06:33,120 --> 00:06:36,320 are a huge turning point. 119 00:06:36,400 --> 00:06:40,160 It doesn't matter if you're not religious. 120 00:06:40,240 --> 00:06:43,480 Identity is now biological. 121 00:06:43,560 --> 00:06:45,760 It plants the seeds for saying Jews 122 00:06:45,840 --> 00:06:51,280 are a separate race that are polluting Germany. 123 00:06:51,360 --> 00:06:53,920 - The Nazis intend to make life so difficult 124 00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:55,800 for German and Austrian Jews 125 00:06:55,880 --> 00:06:58,320 that they will want to emigrate. 126 00:06:58,400 --> 00:07:02,320 Around half of Germany's Jewish community of 500,000 127 00:07:02,400 --> 00:07:04,720 go into exile. 128 00:07:04,800 --> 00:07:08,320 129 00:07:08,400 --> 00:07:11,040 In November 1938, the Nazis coordinate 130 00:07:11,120 --> 00:07:16,640 a brutal wave of destruction and violence across Germany. 131 00:07:16,720 --> 00:07:21,600 Jewish businesses are looted and burned, 132 00:07:21,680 --> 00:07:24,640 synagogues razed, 133 00:07:24,720 --> 00:07:28,080 and homes left in ruin. 134 00:07:28,160 --> 00:07:31,360 Jews are killed and raped. 135 00:07:31,440 --> 00:07:35,320 The event is called in German, "Kristallnacht," 136 00:07:35,400 --> 00:07:39,560 "The Night of Broken Glass." 137 00:07:39,640 --> 00:07:43,360 - The windows of Jewish shopkeepers are smashed. 138 00:07:43,440 --> 00:07:49,720 ? 139 00:07:49,800 --> 00:07:53,280 There's also incursions into their homes. 140 00:07:53,360 --> 00:07:54,560 They're kicking in the doors. 141 00:07:54,640 --> 00:07:56,320 They're dragging people out. 142 00:07:56,400 --> 00:08:00,880 They're beating them up to petrify the Jewish population. 143 00:08:00,960 --> 00:08:02,880 ? 144 00:08:02,960 --> 00:08:06,480 - Police or military were instructed 145 00:08:06,560 --> 00:08:09,360 not to wear their uniforms when they went out 146 00:08:09,440 --> 00:08:11,320 to commit the violence on Kristallnacht, 147 00:08:11,400 --> 00:08:13,560 to make it look like it was more spontaneous 148 00:08:13,640 --> 00:08:15,920 than it actually was. 149 00:08:16,000 --> 00:08:18,280 But it is a government-coordinated 150 00:08:18,360 --> 00:08:19,920 terrorist attack against Jews. 151 00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:25,480 ? 152 00:08:25,560 --> 00:08:27,640 - The morning after Kristallnacht, 153 00:08:27,720 --> 00:08:30,640 the Nazis arrest 30,000 Jewish men 154 00:08:30,720 --> 00:08:35,200 and march them off to concentration camps. 155 00:08:35,280 --> 00:08:37,680 - I think Kristallnacht is an inflection point, 156 00:08:37,760 --> 00:08:40,480 because it showed the Nazi government 157 00:08:40,560 --> 00:08:43,160 that average Germans would be willing 158 00:08:43,240 --> 00:08:45,680 to go along with the violence. 159 00:08:45,760 --> 00:08:48,960 - By the late '30s, Jews living within Germany 160 00:08:49,040 --> 00:08:53,560 and Austria face persecution and intimidation. 161 00:08:53,640 --> 00:08:58,040 Even worse dangers are on the horizon. 162 00:08:58,120 --> 00:09:00,920 163 00:09:01,000 --> 00:09:02,760 ? 164 00:09:02,840 --> 00:09:05,920 165 00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:11,560 ? 166 00:09:11,640 --> 00:09:15,400 In early September 1939, German forces invade Poland. 167 00:09:15,480 --> 00:09:18,440 168 00:09:18,520 --> 00:09:20,440 ? 169 00:09:20,520 --> 00:09:23,640 170 00:09:23,720 --> 00:09:26,080 ? 171 00:09:26,160 --> 00:09:30,560 In just a few weeks, the Poles are conquered. 172 00:09:30,640 --> 00:09:33,760 Poland's 3 million Jews are now controlled 173 00:09:33,840 --> 00:09:36,760 by Hitler and the Nazis. 174 00:09:36,840 --> 00:09:38,320 ? 175 00:09:38,400 --> 00:09:40,200 - When the Nazis enter Poland, 176 00:09:40,280 --> 00:09:42,280 they have no real coherent strategy about 177 00:09:42,360 --> 00:09:44,520 what they're going to do with Jews. 178 00:09:44,600 --> 00:09:47,960 So they start to improvise pretty quickly. 179 00:09:48,040 --> 00:09:49,760 And one of the things that emerges 180 00:09:49,840 --> 00:09:51,800 as part of this improvisation is an idea 181 00:09:51,880 --> 00:09:52,880 about creating ghettos. 182 00:09:52,960 --> 00:09:55,240 ? 183 00:09:55,320 --> 00:09:58,000 - Within days of the German occupation, 184 00:09:58,080 --> 00:10:01,520 many Polish Jews are forced into ghettos. 185 00:10:01,600 --> 00:10:03,160 ? 186 00:10:03,240 --> 00:10:05,440 Jews are ordered to wear armbands 187 00:10:05,520 --> 00:10:08,280 and are restricted on entering and leaving. 188 00:10:08,360 --> 00:10:10,280 ? 189 00:10:10,360 --> 00:10:11,920 - The decision is made in Warsaw 190 00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:15,280 to create a closed ghetto. 191 00:10:15,360 --> 00:10:18,080 There is movement across the gates of guards and of Poles, 192 00:10:18,160 --> 00:10:19,800 but not of the Jews themselves. 193 00:10:19,880 --> 00:10:21,520 They are locked into the ghetto. 194 00:10:21,600 --> 00:10:26,280 And a wall is created to restrict Jewish movement. 195 00:10:26,360 --> 00:10:29,960 It's a very visible signal of the racial segregation 196 00:10:30,040 --> 00:10:32,880 of the city of Warsaw. 197 00:10:32,960 --> 00:10:35,480 - Over 100,000 Jews who lived in other parts of Warsaw 198 00:10:35,560 --> 00:10:37,360 had to move into this area. 199 00:10:37,440 --> 00:10:42,200 It was about 1.3 square miles, so it was tiny. 200 00:10:42,280 --> 00:10:44,520 - The circumstances of the ghettos 201 00:10:44,600 --> 00:10:48,080 actually create the perfect breeding grounds for disease. 202 00:10:48,160 --> 00:10:52,400 This is exacerbated by the fact that running water is limited 203 00:10:52,480 --> 00:10:55,120 and sewage systems are not adequate, 204 00:10:55,200 --> 00:10:57,800 especially with the size of the population. 205 00:10:57,880 --> 00:11:00,800 206 00:11:00,880 --> 00:11:04,080 - Mendel Yakubovich is 14 207 00:11:04,160 --> 00:11:07,280 when his family is sent to the ghetto in Ostrowiec, 208 00:11:07,360 --> 00:11:09,920 Southeast Poland. 209 00:11:10,000 --> 00:11:12,560 ? 210 00:11:12,640 --> 00:11:15,240 He later writes, 211 00:11:15,320 --> 00:11:17,600 "I remember that as a small boy, 212 00:11:17,680 --> 00:11:20,160 "I used to walk the ghetto streets, 213 00:11:20,240 --> 00:11:25,680 "and I could see people dying, people screaming. 214 00:11:25,760 --> 00:11:28,880 "There was no food, especially for the people 215 00:11:28,960 --> 00:11:31,280 that had no money." 216 00:11:31,360 --> 00:11:36,640 ? 217 00:11:36,720 --> 00:11:40,800 The Jews fight to survive in the ghetto 218 00:11:40,880 --> 00:11:43,320 and even look for opportunities to resist. 219 00:11:43,400 --> 00:11:46,320 ? 220 00:11:46,400 --> 00:11:49,400 - There were smugglers who would smuggle in food 221 00:11:49,480 --> 00:11:51,600 and smuggle out people sometimes. 222 00:11:51,680 --> 00:11:54,520 For forced labor, they would sometimes slow their work 223 00:11:54,600 --> 00:11:57,640 or make sure that whatever they were told to do 224 00:11:57,720 --> 00:12:01,520 would be broken by the time the Nazis get it. 225 00:12:01,600 --> 00:12:03,840 There was all sorts of work that they were doing 226 00:12:03,920 --> 00:12:07,760 to try to resist as long as possible. 227 00:12:07,840 --> 00:12:09,960 - For the first year of the war, 228 00:12:10,040 --> 00:12:12,640 life in the ghetto is the cruel daily reality 229 00:12:12,720 --> 00:12:14,640 of Poland's Jews. 230 00:12:14,720 --> 00:12:16,520 ? 231 00:12:16,600 --> 00:12:19,720 But Hitler is planning a new campaign, 232 00:12:19,800 --> 00:12:24,160 and millions of people are about to descend into horror. 233 00:12:29,600 --> 00:12:33,800 ? 234 00:12:33,880 --> 00:12:35,960 - By mid-1941, 235 00:12:36,040 --> 00:12:39,400 Germany controls much of Western Europe. 236 00:12:39,480 --> 00:12:42,280 237 00:12:42,360 --> 00:12:44,400 ? 238 00:12:44,480 --> 00:12:47,480 But Hitler's true goal is to create Lebensraum, 239 00:12:47,560 --> 00:12:52,040 "living space," for the German people, 240 00:12:52,120 --> 00:12:55,440 which will be found in the East. 241 00:12:55,520 --> 00:12:57,240 - Hitler now realized 242 00:12:57,320 --> 00:13:01,240 that this was the ideal moment to begin the secret planning 243 00:13:01,320 --> 00:13:03,560 of the invasion of Russia, 244 00:13:03,640 --> 00:13:07,280 the great climax of his life's work, 245 00:13:07,360 --> 00:13:10,480 the destruction of the entire Soviet Union, 246 00:13:10,560 --> 00:13:12,200 Barbarossa. 247 00:13:12,280 --> 00:13:16,280 ? 248 00:13:16,360 --> 00:13:19,520 - For Operation Barbarossa, Hitler and his generals 249 00:13:19,600 --> 00:13:22,000 will deploy three army groups 250 00:13:22,080 --> 00:13:25,800 and 3 million men 251 00:13:25,880 --> 00:13:28,680 supported by thousands of tanks and aircraft 252 00:13:28,760 --> 00:13:31,160 across a vast front. 253 00:13:31,240 --> 00:13:34,480 ? 254 00:13:34,560 --> 00:13:39,480 - The German preparations for Barbarossa are on a scale, 255 00:13:39,560 --> 00:13:43,280 it's almost unimaginable. 256 00:13:43,360 --> 00:13:45,160 This is going to be and remains 257 00:13:45,240 --> 00:13:48,280 the largest invasion in human history. 258 00:13:48,360 --> 00:13:51,720 259 00:13:51,800 --> 00:13:55,520 - Hitler adds another mission to the plan. 260 00:13:55,600 --> 00:13:58,560 He issues a directive stating, in the invasion, 261 00:13:58,640 --> 00:14:02,200 there will be special tasks. 262 00:14:02,280 --> 00:14:05,080 In charge of these will be Heinrich Himmler, 263 00:14:05,160 --> 00:14:08,240 head of the SS. 264 00:14:08,320 --> 00:14:10,480 - If you want to know what Hitler's thinking, 265 00:14:10,560 --> 00:14:12,920 look at what Himmler was doing, because Himmler 266 00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:16,800 was talking to and meeting Hitler very, very frequently 267 00:14:16,880 --> 00:14:19,200 across these periods of time. 268 00:14:19,280 --> 00:14:23,760 - Himmler has been a member of the Nazi Party since 1923. 269 00:14:23,840 --> 00:14:25,800 ? 270 00:14:25,880 --> 00:14:27,760 - And by all appearances, Heinrich Himmler seems 271 00:14:27,840 --> 00:14:29,800 like an ordinary human being. 272 00:14:29,880 --> 00:14:33,200 He was born to a good family, went to decent schools. 273 00:14:33,280 --> 00:14:36,520 He hooks up with various kinds of occupations. 274 00:14:36,600 --> 00:14:40,000 He's a chicken farmer, sells fertilizer for a time, 275 00:14:40,080 --> 00:14:42,920 and like so many young men of his generation 276 00:14:43,000 --> 00:14:44,400 came under Hitler's spell. 277 00:14:44,480 --> 00:14:47,320 278 00:14:47,400 --> 00:14:49,120 ? 279 00:14:49,200 --> 00:14:53,160 - Himmler's mobile death squads, the Einsatzgruppen, 280 00:14:53,240 --> 00:14:55,640 will follow the advancing German army 281 00:14:55,720 --> 00:14:58,120 into Soviet territory. 282 00:14:58,200 --> 00:15:01,120 They have orders to move into occupied communities 283 00:15:01,200 --> 00:15:04,480 and kill anyone who threatens the operation. 284 00:15:04,560 --> 00:15:06,600 ? 285 00:15:06,680 --> 00:15:08,760 - The Einsatzgruppen will follow the Wehrmacht 286 00:15:08,840 --> 00:15:11,080 in the Barbarossa campaign, and their task 287 00:15:11,160 --> 00:15:14,480 is the long-term pacification of Soviet society. 288 00:15:14,560 --> 00:15:16,200 They are above all targeting what 289 00:15:16,280 --> 00:15:18,360 they believe are the two key facets 290 00:15:18,440 --> 00:15:20,280 of the Soviet social system, 291 00:15:20,360 --> 00:15:23,960 commissars or communist political leaders, 292 00:15:24,040 --> 00:15:27,960 and they particularly single out Jews. 293 00:15:28,040 --> 00:15:31,160 - The conflict now was being raised 294 00:15:31,240 --> 00:15:34,560 to a new level of ideological and racial warfare. 295 00:15:34,640 --> 00:15:37,160 The annihilation of certain groups 296 00:15:37,240 --> 00:15:41,240 was encouraged, sanctioned, and ordered. 297 00:15:41,320 --> 00:15:44,120 And this is a dark step. 298 00:15:44,200 --> 00:15:46,600 The world is darkening visibly 299 00:15:46,680 --> 00:15:50,400 as this operation begins. 300 00:15:50,480 --> 00:15:53,240 301 00:15:53,320 --> 00:15:55,480 ? 302 00:15:55,560 --> 00:15:58,600 - In June 1941, the Wehrmacht smashes through 303 00:15:58,680 --> 00:16:01,520 Soviet defenses and makes rapid advances 304 00:16:01,600 --> 00:16:04,640 across the front. 305 00:16:04,720 --> 00:16:09,880 There are over 5 million Jews in the Soviet Union. 306 00:16:09,960 --> 00:16:12,520 - The Jewish communities in the Soviet Union 307 00:16:12,600 --> 00:16:14,960 were very different from those in many parts 308 00:16:15,040 --> 00:16:17,400 of Eastern Europe, like Poland and Romania. 309 00:16:17,480 --> 00:16:20,520 They weren't generally communities of Orthodox Jews 310 00:16:20,600 --> 00:16:22,880 with ringlets and black hats. 311 00:16:22,960 --> 00:16:26,400 Jews in the Soviet Union were assimilated 312 00:16:26,480 --> 00:16:30,360 within the general population. 313 00:16:30,440 --> 00:16:32,760 - In the wake of the German army, 314 00:16:32,840 --> 00:16:37,000 the Einsatzgruppen begin their special task. 315 00:16:37,080 --> 00:16:40,800 - Einsatzgruppen didn't know enough about who was Jewish, 316 00:16:40,880 --> 00:16:43,120 so locals would volunteer or be seized 317 00:16:43,200 --> 00:16:46,920 in order to give them exactly the information they wanted. 318 00:16:47,000 --> 00:16:48,720 319 00:16:48,800 --> 00:16:51,480 - There are groups within Eastern Europe 320 00:16:51,560 --> 00:16:54,800 of people who are already very anti-Semitic 321 00:16:54,880 --> 00:16:59,200 and who will voluntarily sign up to be auxiliaries 322 00:16:59,280 --> 00:17:02,280 and help these units. 323 00:17:02,360 --> 00:17:04,600 An Einsatzgruppen usually would round up 324 00:17:04,680 --> 00:17:06,040 the Jewish populations, 325 00:17:06,120 --> 00:17:08,000 they're then assembled at a central location, 326 00:17:08,080 --> 00:17:09,840 where they're guarded, 327 00:17:09,920 --> 00:17:13,080 and then marched in groups to a killing site. 328 00:17:13,160 --> 00:17:16,160 ? 329 00:17:16,240 --> 00:17:18,560 - And they would be taken to a place of execution 330 00:17:18,640 --> 00:17:20,160 on the edge of the town. 331 00:17:20,240 --> 00:17:22,520 They would be very often forced to dig pits 332 00:17:22,600 --> 00:17:25,160 for their own bodies. 333 00:17:25,240 --> 00:17:28,120 And then they would be shot into these pits. 334 00:17:28,200 --> 00:17:32,600 ? 335 00:17:32,680 --> 00:17:35,480 - Sometimes they used wooded areas or forests, 336 00:17:35,560 --> 00:17:38,960 and sometimes these executions were remarkably public. 337 00:17:39,040 --> 00:17:46,240 ? 338 00:17:48,080 --> 00:17:51,400 - They're bringing Jews to a killing site, 339 00:17:51,480 --> 00:17:56,880 often in family groups, forcing them to undress, 340 00:17:56,960 --> 00:18:00,480 and then making them lie down on the bodies of people 341 00:18:00,560 --> 00:18:04,040 that have already been murdered to wait to be shot themselves. 342 00:18:04,120 --> 00:18:06,680 ? 343 00:18:06,760 --> 00:18:09,640 - This is grown men standing, 344 00:18:09,720 --> 00:18:12,560 aiming at another human being that could be a man, 345 00:18:12,640 --> 00:18:15,760 it could be a woman, it could be a baby, 346 00:18:15,840 --> 00:18:18,960 and firing a gun at them. 347 00:18:19,040 --> 00:18:23,440 And it's happening on a huge scale over a huge territory. 348 00:18:23,520 --> 00:18:25,400 ? 349 00:18:25,480 --> 00:18:28,320 - Einsatzgruppen killed nearly half 350 00:18:28,400 --> 00:18:31,000 of a million Jews in the Soviet Union 351 00:18:31,080 --> 00:18:34,280 in the first six months of Operation Barbarossa. 352 00:18:34,360 --> 00:18:36,440 ? 353 00:18:36,520 --> 00:18:39,400 - Just incredible numbers of human beings 354 00:18:39,480 --> 00:18:43,760 murdered, you know, by shooting over and over and over again. 355 00:18:43,840 --> 00:18:45,960 - There's a close relationship between 356 00:18:46,040 --> 00:18:49,040 the actual military campaign, Operation Barbarossa, 357 00:18:49,120 --> 00:18:50,800 and the Holocaust. 358 00:18:50,880 --> 00:18:53,480 The Holocaust really begins the moment they cross the border 359 00:18:53,560 --> 00:18:55,480 into the Soviet Union. 360 00:18:55,560 --> 00:18:58,720 The war enabled the entire Soviet Union 361 00:18:58,800 --> 00:19:01,600 to be treated as a killing zone. 362 00:19:01,680 --> 00:19:04,160 It meant that the lifting of norms 363 00:19:04,240 --> 00:19:07,640 of civilized behavior, the lifting of norms of warfare, 364 00:19:07,720 --> 00:19:09,720 all restraints were removed. 365 00:19:09,800 --> 00:19:12,640 366 00:19:12,720 --> 00:19:15,320 ? 367 00:19:15,400 --> 00:19:16,800 - The killing of Jews 368 00:19:16,880 --> 00:19:19,840 is reported back to Berlin every day. 369 00:19:19,920 --> 00:19:25,520 Senior Nazis discuss the next stages of Hitler's plan. 370 00:19:25,600 --> 00:19:27,640 Hitler's deputy, Hermann Goring, 371 00:19:27,720 --> 00:19:29,560 writes to Reinhard Heydrich, 372 00:19:29,640 --> 00:19:33,120 the SS official responsible for executing Nazi plans 373 00:19:33,200 --> 00:19:36,680 for the Jewish population. 374 00:19:36,760 --> 00:19:40,120 - Reinhard Heydrich is one of the key figures in the SS. 375 00:19:40,200 --> 00:19:44,000 And he's distinctly Aryan in his visage. 376 00:19:44,080 --> 00:19:46,080 He has icy cold blue eyes, 377 00:19:46,160 --> 00:19:50,640 and his face registered almost no emotion. 378 00:19:50,720 --> 00:19:54,240 - In late July 1941, Goring sends 379 00:19:54,320 --> 00:19:57,560 an official communiqu� to Heydrich. 380 00:19:57,640 --> 00:20:01,600 He asks him to promptly submit an overall plan 381 00:20:01,680 --> 00:20:05,040 for the execution of the intended Final Solution 382 00:20:05,120 --> 00:20:08,440 of the Jewish question. 383 00:20:08,520 --> 00:20:12,360 - This is essentially the order authorizing Heydrich 384 00:20:12,440 --> 00:20:15,960 to begin preparations for the Final Solution 385 00:20:16,040 --> 00:20:19,640 of the Jewish question in Europe. 386 00:20:19,720 --> 00:20:21,360 They are going to remove them 387 00:20:21,440 --> 00:20:23,480 from the world by murdering them. 388 00:20:27,480 --> 00:20:29,400 389 00:20:29,480 --> 00:20:31,480 390 00:20:31,560 --> 00:20:33,200 ? 391 00:20:33,280 --> 00:20:37,040 - As the German army advances across the Soviet Union, 392 00:20:37,120 --> 00:20:39,320 the Wehrmacht works with units 393 00:20:39,400 --> 00:20:42,360 liquidating communists and Jews, 394 00:20:42,440 --> 00:20:44,360 the SS, and particularly, 395 00:20:44,440 --> 00:20:46,520 the Einsatzgruppen. 396 00:20:46,600 --> 00:20:52,480 ? 397 00:20:52,560 --> 00:20:55,160 In August, SS leader Heinrich Himmler 398 00:20:55,240 --> 00:20:59,760 visits Minsk in Nazi-occupied Belorussia. 399 00:20:59,840 --> 00:21:01,920 - Himmler maintains a really close watch 400 00:21:02,000 --> 00:21:03,960 on what the Einsatzgruppen are doing, because ultimately, 401 00:21:04,040 --> 00:21:05,520 they're his responsibility. 402 00:21:05,600 --> 00:21:09,320 So he travels a lot around the Eastern Front. 403 00:21:09,400 --> 00:21:12,240 - Himmler realizes that the shootings are taking 404 00:21:12,320 --> 00:21:14,880 an emotional toll on his men. 405 00:21:14,960 --> 00:21:17,000 - It's difficult, no matter who you are, 406 00:21:17,080 --> 00:21:20,520 to wake up in the morning and to shoot people all day long, 407 00:21:20,600 --> 00:21:22,440 and then to try to go to bed at night 408 00:21:22,520 --> 00:21:24,080 and know that the next morning you're going to wake up 409 00:21:24,160 --> 00:21:25,920 and do it all over again. 410 00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:28,720 ? 411 00:21:28,800 --> 00:21:31,640 - A massacre of 100 people is set up for him 412 00:21:31,720 --> 00:21:33,760 so that he can see how difficult it is 413 00:21:33,840 --> 00:21:38,000 to actually watch the killing of human beings, 414 00:21:38,080 --> 00:21:40,000 because Himmler has never had to do this before. 415 00:21:40,080 --> 00:21:43,040 He's never really seen death firsthand. 416 00:21:43,120 --> 00:21:44,160 417 00:21:44,240 --> 00:21:46,600 He reacts very badly to the sight 418 00:21:46,680 --> 00:21:49,280 of bodies being murdered in front of him, 419 00:21:49,360 --> 00:21:52,640 and he turns green, and he almost throws up. 420 00:21:52,720 --> 00:21:54,520 - Himmler returns to Berlin 421 00:21:54,600 --> 00:21:58,000 to help design ways to execute mass killings 422 00:21:58,080 --> 00:22:00,560 that are more efficient. 423 00:22:00,640 --> 00:22:04,200 ? 424 00:22:04,280 --> 00:22:07,640 On the Soviet Front, the killing continues. 425 00:22:07,720 --> 00:22:11,800 ? 426 00:22:11,880 --> 00:22:17,040 Babi Yar is a ravine just outside Kyiv in Ukraine. 427 00:22:17,120 --> 00:22:18,960 ? 428 00:22:19,040 --> 00:22:21,080 In September 1941, 429 00:22:21,160 --> 00:22:25,720 over 33,000 Jewish men, women, and children are marched here. 430 00:22:25,800 --> 00:22:29,080 ? 431 00:22:29,160 --> 00:22:33,040 Across two days, they are all shot 432 00:22:33,120 --> 00:22:37,400 and then buried in a mass grave. 433 00:22:37,480 --> 00:22:40,920 ? 434 00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:44,160 The Nazis had already developed a method 435 00:22:44,240 --> 00:22:47,240 of mass murder. 436 00:22:47,320 --> 00:22:49,560 At the start of the war, 437 00:22:49,640 --> 00:22:54,480 Hitler authorized the killing of patients with disabilities, 438 00:22:54,560 --> 00:22:58,840 a euthanasia program known as T4. 439 00:22:58,920 --> 00:23:02,080 - The T4 program, which is code named 440 00:23:02,160 --> 00:23:03,760 after Tiergartenstrasse Number 4, 441 00:23:03,840 --> 00:23:06,280 which is the building in Berlin that was the headquarters, 442 00:23:06,360 --> 00:23:11,000 was the program to murder with carbon monoxide 443 00:23:11,080 --> 00:23:14,080 physically and mentally disabled Germans 444 00:23:14,160 --> 00:23:19,000 because they were deemed to be drains on the state. 445 00:23:19,080 --> 00:23:21,920 - The T4 program runs for two years 446 00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:27,040 before it's officially halted in August 1941. 447 00:23:27,120 --> 00:23:29,760 - What you then have is a group of men 448 00:23:29,840 --> 00:23:31,520 with a particular set of skills-- 449 00:23:31,600 --> 00:23:33,600 the use of gas to murder people, 450 00:23:33,680 --> 00:23:36,440 the transportation and logistics of that, 451 00:23:36,520 --> 00:23:40,400 the hiding of the evidence of that operation, 452 00:23:40,480 --> 00:23:43,520 and these people are then available 453 00:23:43,600 --> 00:23:47,480 to be used in another operation. 454 00:23:47,560 --> 00:23:51,080 - The first extermination center where Jews are sent 455 00:23:51,160 --> 00:23:54,240 to be gassed is at Chelmno 456 00:23:54,320 --> 00:23:57,960 located in German-occupied Poland. 457 00:23:58,040 --> 00:24:00,280 ? 458 00:24:00,360 --> 00:24:03,240 The victims in the Chelmno Center 459 00:24:03,320 --> 00:24:06,440 are Jews from the ghetto of the Polish city of L�dz 460 00:24:06,520 --> 00:24:10,280 and the Romani, who the Nazis also regard 461 00:24:10,360 --> 00:24:14,320 as an inferior race. 462 00:24:14,400 --> 00:24:17,120 On December 8, 1941, 463 00:24:17,200 --> 00:24:22,320 the first Jews are killed using gas vans. 464 00:24:22,400 --> 00:24:24,520 - They are vans where the Nazis could 465 00:24:24,600 --> 00:24:28,040 pipe carbon monoxide into the back of the bed of the truck. 466 00:24:28,120 --> 00:24:30,400 ? 467 00:24:30,480 --> 00:24:34,040 - Szlama Ber Winer is a Jew from Central Poland 468 00:24:34,120 --> 00:24:37,240 who is deported to Chelmno. 469 00:24:37,320 --> 00:24:41,400 Szlama witnesses the death of his family in gas vans. 470 00:24:41,480 --> 00:24:43,040 ? 471 00:24:43,120 --> 00:24:45,720 He writes about this in a letter. 472 00:24:45,800 --> 00:24:47,560 "The leader of the guard detail 473 00:24:47,640 --> 00:24:49,800 "was a high-ranking SS man, 474 00:24:49,880 --> 00:24:52,240 "an absolute sadist and murderer. 475 00:24:52,320 --> 00:24:54,640 "He ordered that eight men were to open the doors 476 00:24:54,720 --> 00:24:56,440 "of the lorry. 477 00:24:56,520 --> 00:24:59,560 "The smell of gas that met us was overpowering. 478 00:24:59,640 --> 00:25:02,000 "Out of my family of about 60 people, 479 00:25:02,080 --> 00:25:05,000 "I was the only remaining survivor. 480 00:25:05,080 --> 00:25:07,360 I was left alone in this world now." 481 00:25:07,440 --> 00:25:10,600 ? 482 00:25:10,680 --> 00:25:14,960 The war against the Jews is about to take an ominous turn 483 00:25:15,040 --> 00:25:18,000 as the Nazis build additional killing centers 484 00:25:18,080 --> 00:25:22,320 and devise new methods to destroy a people. 485 00:25:22,400 --> 00:25:23,960 ? 486 00:25:28,200 --> 00:25:30,760 487 00:25:30,880 --> 00:25:33,160 ? 488 00:25:33,240 --> 00:25:36,360 - December 1941. 489 00:25:36,440 --> 00:25:39,200 A villa overlooking Lake Wannsee in Berlin 490 00:25:39,280 --> 00:25:42,040 is the location for a gathering of officials 491 00:25:42,120 --> 00:25:46,640 representing different parts of the Nazi regime. 492 00:25:46,720 --> 00:25:48,680 The organizer of the conference 493 00:25:48,760 --> 00:25:50,920 is Reinhard Heydrich. 494 00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:54,400 The topic is the Jewish question. 495 00:25:54,480 --> 00:25:58,480 But the conference is postponed. 496 00:25:58,560 --> 00:26:01,520 - The Conference of Wannsee was initially scheduled on the 9th 497 00:26:01,600 --> 00:26:04,320 of December, but it had to be postponed because, of course, 498 00:26:04,400 --> 00:26:07,320 on the 7th of December, 1941, 499 00:26:07,400 --> 00:26:10,520 the Japanese launched a massive attack on Pearl Harbor. 500 00:26:10,600 --> 00:26:12,440 501 00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:16,160 - 502 00:26:19,320 --> 00:26:21,920 503 00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:24,640 504 00:26:24,720 --> 00:26:26,920 ? 505 00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:28,400 all: Heil! 506 00:26:28,480 --> 00:26:30,720 - Three days after the attack at Pearl Harbor, 507 00:26:30,800 --> 00:26:34,440 Adolf Hitler declares war on the United States. 508 00:26:41,600 --> 00:26:45,080 - Hitler has long-predicted a World War, 509 00:26:45,160 --> 00:26:47,320 and now he has brought it about. 510 00:26:47,400 --> 00:26:49,400 511 00:26:49,480 --> 00:26:52,040 In a speech, he accuses the Jews 512 00:26:52,120 --> 00:26:54,400 of manipulating the American president, 513 00:26:54,480 --> 00:26:56,560 Franklin D. Roosevelt. 514 00:27:14,760 --> 00:27:16,480 - At a briefing on December 12th, 515 00:27:16,560 --> 00:27:19,440 Hitler summons Nazi Party leaders. 516 00:27:19,520 --> 00:27:22,800 In his diary, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels 517 00:27:22,880 --> 00:27:25,440 writes what is discussed. 518 00:27:25,520 --> 00:27:29,400 "The Fuhrer is determined to make a clean sweep. 519 00:27:29,480 --> 00:27:31,440 "The World War is here. 520 00:27:31,520 --> 00:27:33,360 "The destruction of Jewry 521 00:27:33,440 --> 00:27:37,720 must be the inevitable consequence." 522 00:27:37,800 --> 00:27:39,600 ? 523 00:27:39,680 --> 00:27:43,080 On January 20, 1942, 524 00:27:43,160 --> 00:27:45,520 Nazi officials arrived at Lake Wannsee 525 00:27:45,600 --> 00:27:48,600 for Heydrich's rescheduled conference. 526 00:27:48,680 --> 00:27:50,400 ? 527 00:27:50,480 --> 00:27:53,960 - The SS officers are in their full formal uniforms. 528 00:27:54,040 --> 00:27:58,080 They're being served cognac and canapes. 529 00:27:58,160 --> 00:28:00,480 It looks like a very civilized gathering, 530 00:28:00,560 --> 00:28:02,760 but of course, what's being discussed 531 00:28:02,840 --> 00:28:06,480 at the Wannsee Conference is anything but civilized. 532 00:28:06,560 --> 00:28:09,920 - The Wannsee Conference is a coordination meeting. 533 00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:13,600 It is not a meeting to decide 534 00:28:13,680 --> 00:28:16,320 whether or not to kill the Jews of Europe. 535 00:28:16,400 --> 00:28:19,680 It's a meeting to determine how that's going to take place 536 00:28:19,760 --> 00:28:21,960 and what the responsibilities are 537 00:28:22,040 --> 00:28:25,240 of all of the bureaucratic elements of the Nazi state 538 00:28:25,320 --> 00:28:27,800 in achieving this goal. 539 00:28:27,880 --> 00:28:30,880 - At the conference, Heydrich lists 540 00:28:30,960 --> 00:28:33,400 the number of Jews to be exterminated 541 00:28:33,480 --> 00:28:37,400 by the Final Solution. 542 00:28:37,480 --> 00:28:40,320 The list includes the Jews of the Soviet Union 543 00:28:40,400 --> 00:28:43,680 and Eastern Europe, 544 00:28:43,760 --> 00:28:46,960 the Jews in France, the Netherlands, 545 00:28:47,040 --> 00:28:51,320 Belgian, and Scandinavian countries. 546 00:28:51,400 --> 00:28:53,160 It also includes Jews in countries 547 00:28:53,240 --> 00:28:55,560 fighting alongside Germany, 548 00:28:55,640 --> 00:28:58,840 such as Italy, Romania, and Hungary. 549 00:28:58,920 --> 00:29:01,360 Even Jews in undefeated Great Britain 550 00:29:01,440 --> 00:29:05,000 and neutral Ireland are included. 551 00:29:05,080 --> 00:29:08,160 Grand total: over 11 million. 552 00:29:08,240 --> 00:29:10,800 ? 553 00:29:10,880 --> 00:29:16,960 The Nazis now have a plan to implement the Holocaust. 554 00:29:17,040 --> 00:29:19,440 555 00:29:19,520 --> 00:29:21,680 - The Germans had succeeded in taking France, 556 00:29:21,760 --> 00:29:25,080 as well as Holland, Denmark, Norway, and so on, 557 00:29:25,160 --> 00:29:27,080 which meant that they suddenly had control 558 00:29:27,160 --> 00:29:31,400 over other massive populations of Jews. 559 00:29:31,480 --> 00:29:35,200 The fact that basically the whole of Europe outside Britain 560 00:29:35,280 --> 00:29:39,240 was now part of Hitler's Nazi empire 561 00:29:39,320 --> 00:29:42,280 gave a feeling that things could be done 562 00:29:42,360 --> 00:29:45,440 which had never been done before. 563 00:29:45,520 --> 00:29:50,480 ? 564 00:29:50,560 --> 00:29:54,400 - Across all of Europe, a whole people 565 00:29:54,480 --> 00:29:57,400 are targeted for annihilation. 566 00:29:57,480 --> 00:30:00,760 ? 567 00:30:00,840 --> 00:30:02,200 568 00:30:06,200 --> 00:30:07,680 569 00:30:07,760 --> 00:30:09,520 - Following the Wannsee Conference, 570 00:30:09,600 --> 00:30:12,080 the Nazis are working on the construction 571 00:30:12,160 --> 00:30:14,360 of killing centers, where people, 572 00:30:14,440 --> 00:30:18,680 most of them Jewish, will be sent to die. 573 00:30:18,760 --> 00:30:23,520 The majority are from Eastern Europe and Soviet territory. 574 00:30:23,600 --> 00:30:28,920 The Nazis also begin to target the Jews of Western Europe. 575 00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:32,840 - The Holocaust begins as an Eastern phenomenon, 576 00:30:32,920 --> 00:30:36,200 but soon, it extends to every single corner 577 00:30:36,280 --> 00:30:38,560 of German-controlled Europe. 578 00:30:38,640 --> 00:30:43,080 Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and France, and Italy, 579 00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:45,440 and as far north as Scandinavia, 580 00:30:45,520 --> 00:30:47,520 Jews are being shipped to these various 581 00:30:47,600 --> 00:30:52,320 new establishments in the east and murdered. 582 00:30:52,400 --> 00:30:54,760 - In the spring of 1942, 583 00:30:54,840 --> 00:30:58,280 Himmler visits Amsterdam to address a police battalion 584 00:30:58,360 --> 00:31:00,400 specially trained to round up and deport 585 00:31:00,480 --> 00:31:03,760 the city's Jewish population. 586 00:31:03,840 --> 00:31:06,000 A few weeks after his visit, 587 00:31:06,080 --> 00:31:08,760 one Jewish father, Otto Frank, 588 00:31:08,840 --> 00:31:11,240 decides his family must go into hiding. 589 00:31:11,320 --> 00:31:13,720 ? 590 00:31:13,800 --> 00:31:17,920 His daughter Anne writes in her diary, 591 00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:20,120 "Our many Jewish friends and acquaintances 592 00:31:20,200 --> 00:31:22,960 "are being taken away in droves. 593 00:31:23,040 --> 00:31:26,600 Escape is almost impossible." 594 00:31:26,680 --> 00:31:33,600 ? 595 00:31:33,680 --> 00:31:37,440 In France, many Jews who fled Germany earlier 596 00:31:37,520 --> 00:31:39,320 now find themselves threatened, 597 00:31:39,400 --> 00:31:43,320 along with the country's large French Jewish population. 598 00:31:43,400 --> 00:31:45,480 ? 599 00:31:45,560 --> 00:31:49,680 H�l�ne Berr, a young French Jewish woman, writes, 600 00:31:49,760 --> 00:31:52,520 "A wave of terror has been gripping everybody else 601 00:31:52,600 --> 00:31:55,120 "as well these past few days. 602 00:31:55,200 --> 00:31:58,760 "It appears that the SS have taken command in France 603 00:31:58,840 --> 00:32:01,280 and that terror must follow." 604 00:32:01,360 --> 00:32:05,040 ? 605 00:32:05,120 --> 00:32:07,440 Over the next months, Jewish families 606 00:32:07,520 --> 00:32:11,440 are deported by German forces and their collaborators. 607 00:32:11,520 --> 00:32:13,400 They are informed they are being resettled 608 00:32:13,480 --> 00:32:16,480 in Eastern Europe and told to bring belongings 609 00:32:16,560 --> 00:32:19,600 and valuables with them. 610 00:32:19,680 --> 00:32:22,160 Instead, they are being sent to the new 611 00:32:22,240 --> 00:32:25,600 Nazi extermination centers. 612 00:32:25,680 --> 00:32:29,720 They are crammed into airless, lightless railway cars 613 00:32:29,800 --> 00:32:31,800 and transported hundreds of miles 614 00:32:31,880 --> 00:32:34,120 without food or water. 615 00:32:34,200 --> 00:32:37,000 ? 616 00:32:37,080 --> 00:32:40,520 - Modern bureaucracies and trains enabled 617 00:32:40,600 --> 00:32:45,000 the movement of people across Europe in huge numbers, 618 00:32:45,080 --> 00:32:48,040 which had really never been seen before. 619 00:32:48,120 --> 00:32:51,440 - There are four major extermination centers, 620 00:32:51,520 --> 00:32:56,440 Chelmno, Treblinka, Sobibor, and Belzec. 621 00:32:56,520 --> 00:32:59,160 There are two additional extermination centers, 622 00:32:59,240 --> 00:33:02,560 which also serve as forced labor camps, 623 00:33:02,640 --> 00:33:06,040 Majdanek and Auschwitz. 624 00:33:06,120 --> 00:33:11,120 All of these centers are located in Poland. 625 00:33:11,200 --> 00:33:12,680 In the centers, 626 00:33:12,760 --> 00:33:15,080 the Nazis designed methods to kill as many people 627 00:33:15,160 --> 00:33:17,640 in as short a time as possible, 628 00:33:17,720 --> 00:33:20,040 including using diesel engines. 629 00:33:20,120 --> 00:33:22,880 ? 630 00:33:22,960 --> 00:33:25,400 - And the Nazis pumped carbon monoxide from these engines 631 00:33:25,480 --> 00:33:28,280 into the chambers themselves and killed a lot of people, 632 00:33:28,360 --> 00:33:30,640 but that doesn't necessarily mean 633 00:33:30,720 --> 00:33:32,640 that they were as kind of efficient 634 00:33:32,720 --> 00:33:34,960 in that process as is somehow supposed. 635 00:33:35,040 --> 00:33:36,880 These were very crude places. 636 00:33:36,960 --> 00:33:39,000 They were very improvisational places, 637 00:33:39,080 --> 00:33:42,240 and they were spaces of extraordinary 638 00:33:42,320 --> 00:33:44,640 and appalling suffering. 639 00:33:44,720 --> 00:33:47,520 640 00:33:47,600 --> 00:33:51,160 ? 641 00:33:51,240 --> 00:33:55,160 - At Auschwitz, the Nazis use a pesticide called Zyklon B. 642 00:33:55,240 --> 00:33:57,800 ? 643 00:33:57,880 --> 00:34:01,440 - Zyklon B is a cyanide derivative 644 00:34:01,520 --> 00:34:03,880 originally for exterminating vermin, 645 00:34:03,960 --> 00:34:05,800 for killing rodents in your house. 646 00:34:05,880 --> 00:34:07,360 It's a blue crystal. 647 00:34:07,440 --> 00:34:11,680 You open the can, and it emits a poison gas. 648 00:34:11,760 --> 00:34:15,360 - They also begin construction on an extension to Auschwitz 649 00:34:15,440 --> 00:34:18,400 in the neighboring village of Birkenau. 650 00:34:18,480 --> 00:34:21,600 The site is solely dedicated to extermination 651 00:34:21,680 --> 00:34:24,680 and has several gas chambers. 652 00:34:24,760 --> 00:34:27,680 ? 653 00:34:27,760 --> 00:34:31,080 When Jews arrive at Auschwitz-Birkenau, 654 00:34:31,160 --> 00:34:32,960 they are sorted into two groups, 655 00:34:33,040 --> 00:34:35,760 those who are determined fit for forced labor 656 00:34:35,840 --> 00:34:38,800 and those who are not. 657 00:34:38,880 --> 00:34:42,840 Mendel Yakubovich is deported from a Polish ghetto 658 00:34:42,920 --> 00:34:45,080 to Auschwitz. 659 00:34:45,160 --> 00:34:47,600 He describes his arrival. 660 00:34:47,680 --> 00:34:49,360 ? 661 00:34:49,440 --> 00:34:51,960 "The SS people were walking up and down. 662 00:34:52,040 --> 00:34:55,280 "I stood at attention on my toes. 663 00:34:55,360 --> 00:34:59,280 "Finally, after a while, I was chosen to the right, 664 00:34:59,360 --> 00:35:02,360 "some of my friends to the left." 665 00:35:02,440 --> 00:35:07,120 "Mendel is selected to join a work battalion. 666 00:35:07,200 --> 00:35:10,360 His family is sent to the gas chamber." 667 00:35:10,440 --> 00:35:13,360 ? 668 00:35:13,440 --> 00:35:16,480 - The people who were being brought into the gas chambers 669 00:35:16,560 --> 00:35:19,200 would be separated into men and women and children. 670 00:35:19,280 --> 00:35:21,760 They'd all be herded into this room. 671 00:35:21,840 --> 00:35:26,440 They told them that they were going there to be showered. 672 00:35:26,520 --> 00:35:30,200 They would be given fabric ties to tie their shoes together 673 00:35:30,280 --> 00:35:31,680 under the ruse that it would be easier 674 00:35:31,760 --> 00:35:34,480 to find their pair afterwards. 675 00:35:34,560 --> 00:35:37,040 - The Nazis want to cram as many people 676 00:35:37,120 --> 00:35:38,760 into the gas chamber as possible, 677 00:35:38,840 --> 00:35:41,560 because that generates this environment 678 00:35:41,640 --> 00:35:43,440 of high heat and humidity, 679 00:35:43,520 --> 00:35:45,640 which creates the hydrogen cyanide gas. 680 00:35:45,720 --> 00:35:51,080 ? 681 00:35:51,160 --> 00:35:54,360 - The scenes that followed after that 682 00:35:54,440 --> 00:35:57,600 defy imagination. 683 00:35:57,680 --> 00:36:00,880 Quite often you would find families or loved ones 684 00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:02,960 that were clutching each other so tightly 685 00:36:03,040 --> 00:36:06,080 that it was impossible to pull their arms apart 686 00:36:06,160 --> 00:36:08,120 from each other. 687 00:36:08,200 --> 00:36:10,240 ? 688 00:36:10,320 --> 00:36:13,160 - The victims are cremated. 689 00:36:13,240 --> 00:36:18,480 A perpetual pall of death hangs over the area. 690 00:36:18,560 --> 00:36:21,360 - It was generally the case that people sent to death camps 691 00:36:21,440 --> 00:36:23,080 were murdered within about 45 minutes 692 00:36:23,160 --> 00:36:25,400 to 2 hours of arrival. 693 00:36:25,480 --> 00:36:28,360 - The creation of the extermination camps 694 00:36:28,440 --> 00:36:31,160 is Hitler's Final Solution to the Jewish question-- 695 00:36:31,240 --> 00:36:33,000 ? 696 00:36:33,080 --> 00:36:37,880 --an industrial-scale system to mass murder human beings 697 00:36:37,960 --> 00:36:41,480 in their thousands every day. 698 00:36:41,560 --> 00:36:43,680 Just the pinnacle of evil. 699 00:36:43,760 --> 00:36:47,520 ? 700 00:36:47,600 --> 00:36:51,720 - This is murder on an industrial scale. 701 00:36:51,800 --> 00:36:54,680 But each death is uniquely suffered. 702 00:36:58,840 --> 00:37:00,800 703 00:37:00,880 --> 00:37:03,840 ? 704 00:37:03,920 --> 00:37:06,440 - In the summer of 1942, 705 00:37:06,520 --> 00:37:08,720 Himmler visits the extermination center 706 00:37:08,800 --> 00:37:11,120 at Auschwitz-Birkenau. 707 00:37:11,200 --> 00:37:15,640 He watches enslaved prisoners working in a chemical plant 708 00:37:15,720 --> 00:37:20,000 and sees train cars of Jews arriving to be murdered. 709 00:37:20,080 --> 00:37:22,120 Himmler later attends a dinner party, 710 00:37:22,200 --> 00:37:24,720 where he explains that the Nazis have murdered 711 00:37:24,800 --> 00:37:29,360 2 million Jews and will continue to do so. 712 00:37:29,440 --> 00:37:33,800 His boasts make their way to a Western intelligence agent 713 00:37:33,880 --> 00:37:37,080 who passes the information to a German exile 714 00:37:37,160 --> 00:37:42,040 living in neutral Switzerland, Gerhart Riegner. 715 00:37:42,120 --> 00:37:46,160 - Gerhart Riegner, who worked for the World Jewish Congress, 716 00:37:46,240 --> 00:37:48,720 learns from a German businessman 717 00:37:48,800 --> 00:37:50,240 that the Nazis have a plan. 718 00:37:50,320 --> 00:37:52,880 They are trying to round up, deport, 719 00:37:52,960 --> 00:37:56,160 and murder the remaining Jewish communities of Europe. 720 00:37:56,240 --> 00:37:57,680 ? 721 00:37:57,760 --> 00:37:59,880 - Shocked by what he hears, 722 00:37:59,960 --> 00:38:02,440 Riegner attempts to get this information 723 00:38:02,520 --> 00:38:05,800 to Rabbi Stephen Wise. 724 00:38:05,880 --> 00:38:07,600 - Rabbi Stephen Wise is the head 725 00:38:07,680 --> 00:38:10,520 of the World Jewish Congress and maybe the most influential 726 00:38:10,600 --> 00:38:13,320 American rabbi and maybe one of the most influential 727 00:38:13,400 --> 00:38:14,920 American Jews at the time. 728 00:38:15,000 --> 00:38:18,520 He has a relationship with President Roosevelt. 729 00:38:18,600 --> 00:38:20,880 ? 730 00:38:20,960 --> 00:38:24,600 - Riegner's message gets to the U.S. State Department, 731 00:38:24,680 --> 00:38:27,480 but officials treat it like a war rumor 732 00:38:27,560 --> 00:38:29,960 and don't pass it on. 733 00:38:30,040 --> 00:38:33,800 - The State Department refuses to send this information 734 00:38:33,880 --> 00:38:35,480 to Rabbi Wise. 735 00:38:35,560 --> 00:38:39,800 They call it an unreliable war rumor, and they bury it. 736 00:38:39,880 --> 00:38:41,800 - Why are we going to get people riled up about this 737 00:38:41,880 --> 00:38:44,000 if it's just probably a war rumor? 738 00:38:44,080 --> 00:38:46,360 There's no way that the Nazis are actually doing this. 739 00:38:46,440 --> 00:38:48,360 And so they shelve it. 740 00:38:48,440 --> 00:38:50,080 - But Riegner persists. 741 00:38:50,160 --> 00:38:52,320 He reaches a British member of Parliament 742 00:38:52,400 --> 00:38:55,560 who contacts Rabbi Wise by telegram. 743 00:38:55,640 --> 00:38:59,200 The U.S. State Department now investigates the report, 744 00:38:59,280 --> 00:39:01,600 but the Roosevelt administration 745 00:39:01,680 --> 00:39:05,800 is not ready to take it public. 746 00:39:05,880 --> 00:39:09,080 - They had a feeling that American soldiers 747 00:39:09,160 --> 00:39:12,520 would not agree to fight if they believed that they 748 00:39:12,600 --> 00:39:16,360 were being asked to fight for the rescue of European Jews. 749 00:39:16,440 --> 00:39:20,000 We're fighting for these ideas of democracy and idealism. 750 00:39:20,080 --> 00:39:21,840 We're not fighting for the Jews. 751 00:39:21,920 --> 00:39:23,800 ? 752 00:39:23,880 --> 00:39:26,720 - After their investigation, the State Department 753 00:39:26,800 --> 00:39:29,160 allows Rabbi Wise to share the information 754 00:39:29,240 --> 00:39:32,360 about the mass murder of the Jews. 755 00:39:32,440 --> 00:39:34,520 The news spreads around the globe, 756 00:39:34,600 --> 00:39:38,160 and Jewish communities react. 757 00:39:38,240 --> 00:39:42,480 The world is beginning to learn the truth. 758 00:39:42,560 --> 00:39:44,200 - The beginning of December, 759 00:39:44,280 --> 00:39:46,160 there's a day of mourning, not just in the United States, 760 00:39:46,240 --> 00:39:49,760 not just in Britain, but internationally. 761 00:39:49,840 --> 00:39:51,200 There are vigils. 762 00:39:51,280 --> 00:39:55,040 There are ceremonies and services in synagogues 763 00:39:55,120 --> 00:39:57,320 across the Western Hemisphere. 764 00:39:57,400 --> 00:39:59,720 And then finally, on December 17th, 765 00:39:59,800 --> 00:40:02,120 the Allied governments issue what is called 766 00:40:02,200 --> 00:40:04,640 the Allied Declaration on Atrocities. 767 00:40:04,720 --> 00:40:06,840 And they are condemning in very strong language 768 00:40:06,920 --> 00:40:09,440 what the Nazis and their collaborators are doing. 769 00:40:09,520 --> 00:40:12,480 They are using phrases like "cold-blooded extermination" 770 00:40:12,560 --> 00:40:15,160 and "bloody atrocities." 771 00:40:15,240 --> 00:40:17,200 - Roosevelt particularly is very concerned, 772 00:40:17,280 --> 00:40:19,640 and Churchill is appalled as well. 773 00:40:19,720 --> 00:40:22,240 He says the best thing that we can do 774 00:40:22,320 --> 00:40:24,560 to help Europe's Jews is to win this war 775 00:40:24,640 --> 00:40:26,720 as quickly as possible, and we need to divert 776 00:40:26,800 --> 00:40:31,240 all of our resources in service of doing just that. 777 00:40:31,320 --> 00:40:34,360 - They knew that these mass killings were happening. 778 00:40:34,440 --> 00:40:35,800 I don't think they could imagine 779 00:40:35,880 --> 00:40:37,880 quite the scale of the infrastructure 780 00:40:37,960 --> 00:40:40,240 that the Nazis had devoted to this. 781 00:40:40,320 --> 00:40:41,560 I think that the leaders 782 00:40:41,640 --> 00:40:43,640 had not quite grasped the extent of it. 783 00:40:43,720 --> 00:40:46,520 ? 784 00:40:46,600 --> 00:40:49,480 - In 1933, Hitler's perverse vision 785 00:40:49,560 --> 00:40:52,640 was to expel the Jews from Germany. 786 00:40:52,720 --> 00:40:56,400 By 1942, he is on the verge of exterminating 787 00:40:56,480 --> 00:41:00,480 the entire Jewish population of Europe. 788 00:41:00,560 --> 00:41:06,520 ? 789 00:41:06,600 --> 00:41:09,960 After two years in hiding, Anne Frank and her sister 790 00:41:10,040 --> 00:41:12,640 are discovered by Dutch police officers 791 00:41:12,720 --> 00:41:16,320 and sent to a Nazi extermination center. 792 00:41:16,400 --> 00:41:18,440 They eventually die of typhus 793 00:41:18,520 --> 00:41:22,080 just weeks before the end of the war. 794 00:41:22,160 --> 00:41:25,880 H�l�ne Berr is deported from Paris to Auschwitz 795 00:41:25,960 --> 00:41:27,960 and then to Bergen-Belsen, 796 00:41:28,040 --> 00:41:33,480 where she also dies from typhus, April 1945. 797 00:41:33,560 --> 00:41:36,360 Szlama Ber Winer writes a report 798 00:41:36,440 --> 00:41:40,080 about the gas vans at Chelmno 799 00:41:40,160 --> 00:41:42,800 hoping to bring the truth to the world. 800 00:41:42,880 --> 00:41:46,480 But he is found by the Nazis and deported to Belzec, 801 00:41:46,560 --> 00:41:50,560 where he is murdered in the gas chambers. 802 00:41:50,640 --> 00:41:53,880 Mendel Yakubovich survives Auschwitz 803 00:41:53,960 --> 00:41:57,400 and moves to the United States after the war. 804 00:41:57,480 --> 00:41:59,960 He changes his name to Mike Jacobs 805 00:42:00,040 --> 00:42:05,080 and founds a scrap metal business in Dallas, Texas. 806 00:42:05,160 --> 00:42:07,680 ? 807 00:42:07,760 --> 00:42:10,000 - The Holocaust, the Shoah, 808 00:42:10,080 --> 00:42:13,880 will continue until Nazi Germany is defeated 809 00:42:13,960 --> 00:42:17,920 and the Third Reich is completely destroyed. 810 00:42:18,000 --> 00:42:21,920 In 1942, the Allies gather their forces 811 00:42:22,000 --> 00:42:27,200 for a massive assault on the Wehrmacht in North Africa.