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On April 1st 1933,
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Adolf Hitler's first official act
to persecute Germany's Jews
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is an attempt to sever them from
all commercial life with a boycott.
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What follows over the next 12 years
is an organised, sustained cruelty,
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unparalleled in human history.
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It unfolds step by step.
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When he first grasps the enormity
of the evil,
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Winston Churchill calls it
"the crime without a name."
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It becomes known as the Holocaust.
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All wars change the world.
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But none of them changed the world
like the Second World War did.
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Japan's on the march,
Germany's on the march.
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No one can imagine the nightmare
they're about to unleash.
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The most destructive war
in human history.
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Suddenly, the world is
turned upside down.
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And all hell is let loose.
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The west is stunned
by the speed of the advance.
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You get the Allies led by the big
three, Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin.
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Men who are dealing with
immensely complicated questions.
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It's the biggest military
operation of human history.
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The Allies have to come together,
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not just militarily
but on an industrial scale,
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it's a global perspective.
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They have to fight
in every climate
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from the Arctic,
to the jungles of the Pacific,
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to the deserts of Africa
and the depths of the ocean.
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But there was no certainty
of victory;
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it was going to be
a horrific bloodbath.
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We see humans at
their absolute worst,
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how they treat
other human beings.
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And we see them
at their absolute best,
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willing to give their lives
that others might live.
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World War Two was a struggle
in which there could be one victor
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and one vanquished.
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In early 1939,
Germany has seized Austria.
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Adolf Hitler, the Fuhrer,
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wants to take
even more land in Europe.
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On January 30th,
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Hitler tells
the German Reichstag
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that if war comes,
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it will not be his fault.
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The blame will lie with
one people...
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...the Jews.
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Two months later, Hitler will
take all of Czechoslovakia.
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On September 1st,
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he invades Poland
and World War Two begins.
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One of the things that's critical
for us to understand
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{\an8}about the history of World War Two
and history of the Holocaust
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is that all of these things
are inextricably linked together.
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The ebb and flow of the war itself
impacts the way
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the Holocaust unfolds on the ground.
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Antisemitism is central
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to Hitler's
and the Nazi party's philosophy,
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which he clearly stated in his book
Mein Kampf, or My Struggle.
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Mein Kampf is a manifesto slash
autobiography of the young Hitler.
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{\an8}It contains a rough sketch
for the world,
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{\an8}as he would like it to be,
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and an endless documentation
of all the groups of people
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he has grievances against.
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Hitler reserves his greatest
grievance for Germany's Jews.
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He uses base metaphors
to describe them,
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playing on long-held
antisemitic tropes.
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He portrays them as exploiting
or manipulating the German people.
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In order to understand Hitler,
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{\an8}one has to understand
the importance of race
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{\an8}that underlines every single thing
that he does.
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He believes that
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the whole human race
is divided into categories,
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the Aryan race is
at the top of that category,
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the Jews are at the bottom.
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Hitler is obsessed with Jews.
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{\an8}He's obsessed with Jews
as an eternal enemy,
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as impure racially, as non- German.
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And he believes that Germany
will fulfil its destiny
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when its free of Jews.
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In 1934, Hitler appoints
himself the Fuhrer,
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the leader of Germany.
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And he will quickly turn
his hatred of Jews into law.
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In the fall of 1935,
at a Nazi gathering in Nuremberg,
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Hitler's deputy Hermann Goering
unveils a sweeping set
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of legal measures targeting
the country's Jewish population.
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Seig heil!
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The laws prohibit marriage
or sexual relations between Jews
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and non-Jews,
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and strip German Jews
of their citizenship.
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For Jews living in Germany,
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the Nuremberg laws are
a huge turning point.
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It doesn't matter
if you're not religious.
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Identity is now biological.
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It plants the seeds for saying Jews
are a separate race
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that are polluting Germany.
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The Nazis intend to make life
so difficult
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for German and Austrian Jews
that they will want to emigrate.
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Around half of Germany's Jewish
community of 500,000 go into exile.
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00:07:08,320 --> 00:07:12,200
In November 1938,
the Nazis coordinate a brutal wave
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of destruction and violence
across Germany.
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Jewish businesses are
looted and burned.
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Synagogues razed.
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And homes left in ruin.
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Jews are killed and raped.
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The event is called
in German "Kristallnacht",
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"the Night of Broken Glass."
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The windows of Jewish shopkeepers
are smashed.
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There's also incursions
into their homes.
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They're kicking in the doors,
they're dragging people out,
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they're beating them up,
to petrify the Jewish population.
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Police or military were instructed
not to wear their uniforms
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when they went out to commit
the violence on Kristallnacht
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to make it look like it was more
spontaneous than it actually was.
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But it is a government-coordinated
terrorist attack against Jews.
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The morning after Kristallnacht,
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the Nazis arrest
30,000 Jewish men
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and march them off
to concentration camps.
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I think Kristallnacht is
an inflection point
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because it showed
the Nazi government
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{\an8}that average Germans
would be willing
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{\an8}to go along with the violence.
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By the late 30s, Jews living
within Germany and Austria
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face persecution and intimidation.
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Even worse dangers
are on the horizon.
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In early September 1939,
German forces invade Poland.
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In just a few weeks,
the Poles are conquered.
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Poland's three million Jews are now
controlled by Hitler and the Nazis.
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When the Nazis enter Poland,
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they have no real,
coherent strategy
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about what they're going to do
with Jews.
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So they start to improvise
pretty quickly.
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{\an8}And one of the things that emerges
as part of this improvisation
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is an idea about creating ghettos.
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Within days of
the German occupation,
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many Polish Jews
are forced into ghettos.
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Jews are ordered to wear armbands
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and are restricted
on entering and leaving.
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The decision is made in Warsaw
to create a closed ghetto.
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There is movement across
the gates of guards and of Poles,
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but not of the Jews themselves.
They are locked into the ghetto,
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and a wall is created
to restrict Jewish movement.
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It's a very visible signal
of the racial segregation
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of the city of Warsaw.
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Over 100,000 Jews
who lived in other parts of Warsaw
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had to move into this area.
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It was about 1.3 square miles,
so it was tiny.
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The circumstances of the ghettos
actually create the perfect
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breeding grounds for disease.
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This is exacerbated by the fact
that running water is limited
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and sewage systems are not adequate,
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especially with the size
of the population.
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Mendel Jakubowicz is 14
when his family is sent
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to the ghetto in Ostrowiec,
Southeast Poland.
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He later writes:
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"I remember that as a small boy
I used to walk the ghetto streets,
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and I could see people dying,
people screaming.
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There was no food, especially
for the people that had no money."
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The Jews fight to survive
in the ghetto...
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...and even look for opportunities
to resist.
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There were smugglers
who would smuggle in food
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and smuggle out people sometimes.
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For forced labour, they would
sometimes slow their work
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or make sure that whatever they were
told to do
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would be broken
by the time the Nazis get it.
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There was all sorts of work
that they were doing
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to try to resist
as long as possible.
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For the first year of the war,
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life in the ghetto is the cruel
daily reality of Poland's Jews.
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But Hitler is planning
a new campaign.
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And millions of people are about
to descend into horror.
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By mid-1941, Germany controls
much of western Europe.
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But Hitler's true goal is to create
Lebensraum,
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"living space"
for the German people.
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Which will be found in the east.
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{\an8}Hitler now realised that this
was the ideal moment to begin
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the secret planning of the invasion
of Russia,
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the great climax of his life's work,
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the destruction
of the entire Soviet Union.
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Barbarossa.
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For Operation Barbarossa,
Hitler and his generals will deploy
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three army groups
and three million men...
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...supported by thousands of tanks
and aircraft across a vast front.
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The German preparations
for Barbarossa are on a scale
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that's almost unimaginable.
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{\an8}This is going to be and remains the
largest invasion in human history.
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Hitler adds another mission
to the plan.
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He issues a directive stating
in the invasion there will be
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"special tasks."
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In charge of these will be
Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS.
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If you want to know
what Hitler's thinking,
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look at what Himmler was doing.
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{\an8}Because Himmler was talking
to and meeting Hitler
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{\an8}very, very frequently
across these periods of time.
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Himmler has been a member
of the Nazi Party since 1923.
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By all appearances,
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{\an8}Heinrich Himmler seems like
an ordinary human being.
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{\an8}He was born to a good family,
went to decent schools.
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He hooks up with
various kinds of occupations.
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He's a chicken farmer,
sells fertilizer for a time.
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And like so many young men
of his generation,
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came under Hitler's spell.
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Himmler's mobile death squads,
the Einsatzgruppen,
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will follow the advancing
German army into Soviet territory.
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They have orders to move into
occupied communities
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and kill anyone
who threatens the operation.
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The Einsatzgruppen will follow
the Wehrmacht
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{\an8}in the Barbarossa campaign,
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{\an8}and their task is the long-term
pacification of Soviet society.
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They are, above all, targeting
what they believe are
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00:15:22,440 --> 00:15:25,200
the two key facets of
the Soviet social system:
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Commissars or
Communist political leaders.
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Then they particularly
single out Jews.
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The conflict now was being raised
to a new level
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of ideological and racial warfare.
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The annihilation of certain groups
was encouraged,
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sanctioned, and ordered.
And this is a dark step.
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00:15:49,480 --> 00:15:54,360
The world is darkening visibly
as this- as this operation begins.
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00:16:00,920 --> 00:16:05,160
In June 1941, the Wehrmacht
smashes through Soviet defences
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00:16:05,320 --> 00:16:07,920
and makes rapid advances
across the front.
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00:16:09,680 --> 00:16:13,800
There are over five million Jews
in the Soviet Union.
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00:16:15,400 --> 00:16:17,360
The Jewish communities
in the Soviet Union
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were very different from those
in many parts of Eastern Europe,
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like Poland and Romania.
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They weren't generally communities
of orthodox Jews
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with ringlets and black hats.
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Jews in the Soviet Union
were assimilated
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within the general population.
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In the wake of the German army,
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the Einsatzgruppen begin
their special task.
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Einsatzgruppen didn't know enough
about who was Jewish.
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So locals would volunteer
or be seized in order to give them
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00:16:49,360 --> 00:16:51,280
exactly the information they wanted.
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There are groups within
Eastern Europe of people
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who are already very anti-Semitic
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{\an8}and will voluntarily sign up
to be auxiliaries
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and help these units.
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An Einsatzgruppen usually would
round up the Jewish population,
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00:17:11,280 --> 00:17:13,200
they'd then assemble
in a central location
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00:17:13,360 --> 00:17:18,200
where they're guarded and then
marched in groups to a killing site.
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They would be taken to a place of
execution on the edge of the town.
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00:17:25,280 --> 00:17:29,480
They would be very often forced
to dig pits for their own bodies.
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00:17:31,040 --> 00:17:33,200
And then they would be shot
into these pits.
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00:17:38,120 --> 00:17:40,760
Sometimes they used wooded areas
or forests,
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00:17:40,920 --> 00:17:43,920
and sometimes these executions
were remarkably public.
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They're bringing Jews
to a killing site,
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00:17:56,880 --> 00:17:59,120
often in family groups,
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forcing them to undress...
244
00:18:02,360 --> 00:18:05,760
...and then making them lie down
on the bodies of people
245
00:18:05,920 --> 00:18:09,480
that have already been murdered,
to wait to be shot themselves.
246
00:18:11,880 --> 00:18:17,160
This is grown men, standing,
aiming at another human being.
247
00:18:17,320 --> 00:18:19,040
It could be a man.
It could be a woman.
248
00:18:19,200 --> 00:18:22,720
It could be a baby.
And firing a gun at them.
249
00:18:23,880 --> 00:18:26,520
And it's happening
on a huge scale,
250
00:18:26,680 --> 00:18:28,440
over a huge territory.
251
00:18:30,840 --> 00:18:34,800
Einsatzgruppen killed
nearly half a million Jews
252
00:18:34,960 --> 00:18:39,440
in the Soviet Union in the first six
months of Operation Barbarossa.
253
00:18:41,360 --> 00:18:45,480
Just incredible numbers
of human beings murdered
254
00:18:45,640 --> 00:18:48,080
by shooting
over and over and over again.
255
00:18:49,200 --> 00:18:51,360
There's a close relationship
between
256
00:18:51,520 --> 00:18:53,920
the actual military campaign,
Operation Barbarossa,
257
00:18:54,080 --> 00:18:55,480
and the Holocaust.
258
00:18:56,240 --> 00:18:58,680
The Holocaust really begins
the moment they cross the border
259
00:18:58,840 --> 00:19:00,120
into the Soviet Union.
260
00:19:00,840 --> 00:19:04,800
The war enabled the entire
Soviet Union to be treated
261
00:19:04,960 --> 00:19:06,960
as a killing zone.
262
00:19:07,120 --> 00:19:10,440
It meant that the lifting of norms
of civilised behaviour,
263
00:19:10,600 --> 00:19:14,960
the lifting of norms of warfare,
all restraints were removed.
264
00:19:20,680 --> 00:19:25,200
The killing of Jews is reported
back to Berlin every day.
265
00:19:25,360 --> 00:19:28,800
Senior Nazis discuss
the next stages of Hitler's plan.
266
00:19:30,640 --> 00:19:34,680
Hitler's deputy Herman Goering
writes to Reinhard Heydrich,
267
00:19:34,840 --> 00:19:38,280
the SS official responsible
for executing Nazi plans
268
00:19:38,440 --> 00:19:40,240
for the Jewish population.
269
00:19:41,720 --> 00:19:45,360
Reinhard Heydrich is one
of the key figures in the SS.
270
00:19:45,520 --> 00:19:48,080
He's distinctly Aryan in his visage.
271
00:19:49,120 --> 00:19:51,360
He has icy cold blue eyes,
272
00:19:51,520 --> 00:19:54,560
and his face registered
almost no emotion.
273
00:19:56,160 --> 00:19:58,640
In late July 1941,
274
00:19:58,800 --> 00:20:02,080
Goering sends
an official communique to Heydrich.
275
00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:05,560
He asks him to promptly submit
an
276
00:20:05,720 --> 00:20:09,920
"overall plan for the execution
of the intended final solution
277
00:20:10,080 --> 00:20:11,840
of the Jewish question."
278
00:20:13,440 --> 00:20:17,920
This is essentially
the order authorising Heydrich
279
00:20:18,080 --> 00:20:20,760
to begin preparations for
the final solution
280
00:20:20,920 --> 00:20:23,080
of the Jewish question in Europe.
281
00:20:24,840 --> 00:20:28,840
They're going to remove them
from the world by murdering them.
282
00:20:43,680 --> 00:20:47,080
As the German army advances
across the Soviet Union,
283
00:20:47,240 --> 00:20:52,600
the Wehrmacht works with units
liquidating communists and Jews,
284
00:20:52,760 --> 00:20:56,080
the SS and, particularly,
the Einsatzgruppen.
285
00:21:03,280 --> 00:21:06,600
In August, SS leader
Heinrich Himmler visits Minsk
286
00:21:06,760 --> 00:21:09,080
in Nazi-occupied Belorussia.
287
00:21:10,120 --> 00:21:13,160
Himmler maintains a really close
watch on what the Einsatzgruppen
288
00:21:13,320 --> 00:21:15,560
{\an8}are doing, because ultimately,
they're his responsibility.
289
00:21:15,720 --> 00:21:17,800
{\an8}So he travels a lot around
the Eastern Front.
290
00:21:19,760 --> 00:21:22,680
Himmler realises that
the shootings are taking
291
00:21:22,840 --> 00:21:24,640
an emotional toll on his men.
292
00:21:25,400 --> 00:21:27,280
It's difficult no matter
who you are,
293
00:21:27,440 --> 00:21:31,200
{\an8}to wake up in the morning
and to shoot people all day long
294
00:21:31,360 --> 00:21:33,200
and then to try to go to bed
at night and know that
295
00:21:33,360 --> 00:21:36,360
the next morning you're going to
wake up and do it all over again.
296
00:21:38,800 --> 00:21:42,800
{\an8}A massacre of 100 people is set up
for him so that he can see
297
00:21:42,960 --> 00:21:48,160
{\an8}how difficult it is to actually
watch the killing of human beings.
298
00:21:48,320 --> 00:21:50,120
Because Himmler has never
had to do this before.
299
00:21:50,280 --> 00:21:52,520
He's never really seen
death first hand.
300
00:21:54,480 --> 00:21:58,320
He reacts very badly to the sight
of bodies being murdered
301
00:21:58,480 --> 00:21:59,520
in front of him.
302
00:21:59,680 --> 00:22:01,760
And he turns green,
and he almost throws up.
303
00:22:02,920 --> 00:22:06,960
Himmler returns to Berlin
to help design ways to execute
304
00:22:07,120 --> 00:22:09,360
mass killings
that are more efficient.
305
00:22:14,280 --> 00:22:17,120
On the Soviet front,
the killing continues.
306
00:22:21,240 --> 00:22:26,360
Babi Yar is a ravine just
outside Kiev, in Ukraine.
307
00:22:28,840 --> 00:22:31,120
In September 1941,
308
00:22:31,280 --> 00:22:35,840
over 33,000 Jewish men, women
and children are marched here.
309
00:22:39,560 --> 00:22:41,800
Across two days, they're all shot.
310
00:22:43,120 --> 00:22:45,600
And then buried in a mass grave.
311
00:22:51,320 --> 00:22:55,800
The Nazis had already developed
a method of mass murder.
312
00:22:57,920 --> 00:22:59,560
At the start of the war,
313
00:22:59,720 --> 00:23:03,400
Hitler authorised the killing of
patients with disabilities...
314
00:23:05,080 --> 00:23:07,680
...a euthanasia programme
known as T4.
315
00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:10,600
{\an8}The T4 programme,
316
00:23:10,760 --> 00:23:13,720
{\an8}which is code named after
Tiergarten Strasse number four,
317
00:23:13,880 --> 00:23:16,680
which is the building in Berlin
that was the headquarters,
318
00:23:16,840 --> 00:23:21,360
was the programme
to murder with carbon monoxide,
319
00:23:21,520 --> 00:23:24,200
physically and mentally disabled
Germans,
320
00:23:24,360 --> 00:23:27,720
because they were deemed
to be drains on the state.
321
00:23:29,520 --> 00:23:32,360
The T4 programme runs
for two years,
322
00:23:32,520 --> 00:23:36,240
before it's officially halted
in August 1941.
323
00:23:37,440 --> 00:23:41,640
What you then have is a group of
men with a particular set of skills;
324
00:23:41,800 --> 00:23:43,680
the use of gas to murder people,
325
00:23:43,840 --> 00:23:46,760
the transportation
and logistics of that,
326
00:23:46,920 --> 00:23:50,640
the hiding of the evidence
of that operation.
327
00:23:50,800 --> 00:23:56,480
And these people are then available
to be used in another operation.
328
00:23:58,040 --> 00:24:02,680
The first extermination centre,
where Jews are sent to be gassed,
329
00:24:02,840 --> 00:24:06,960
is at Chelmno,
located in German-occupied Poland.
330
00:24:10,800 --> 00:24:15,080
The victims in the Chelmno centre
are Jews from the ghetto
331
00:24:15,240 --> 00:24:18,440
of the Polish city of Lodz
and the Romani,
332
00:24:18,600 --> 00:24:22,880
who the Nazis also regard
as an inferior race.
333
00:24:24,720 --> 00:24:27,320
On December 8th, 1941,
334
00:24:27,480 --> 00:24:31,080
the first Jews are killed
using gas vans.
335
00:24:32,600 --> 00:24:36,160
{\an8}They are vans where the Nazis
could pipe carbon monoxide
336
00:24:36,320 --> 00:24:38,320
{\an8}into the back of the bed
of the truck.
337
00:24:40,600 --> 00:24:44,320
Szlama Ber Winer is a Jew
from Central Poland
338
00:24:44,480 --> 00:24:46,320
who is deported to Chelmno.
339
00:24:47,520 --> 00:24:51,200
Szlama witnesses the death
of his family in gas vans.
340
00:24:52,920 --> 00:24:55,040
He writes about this in a letter.
341
00:24:56,080 --> 00:24:59,760
"The leader of the guard detail
was a high-ranking SS man,
342
00:24:59,920 --> 00:25:01,840
an absolute sadist and murderer.
343
00:25:02,760 --> 00:25:05,760
He ordered that eight men were
to open the doors of the lorry.
344
00:25:06,920 --> 00:25:09,200
The smell of gas that met us
was overpowering.
345
00:25:09,960 --> 00:25:14,480
Out of my family of about 60 people,
I was the only remaining survivor.
346
00:25:15,280 --> 00:25:17,760
I was left alone in this world now."
347
00:25:21,080 --> 00:25:25,120
The war against the Jews is about
to take an ominous turn,
348
00:25:25,280 --> 00:25:28,240
as the Nazis build additional
killing centres
349
00:25:28,400 --> 00:25:32,240
and devise new methods
to destroy a people.
350
00:25:41,400 --> 00:25:43,120
December 1941.
351
00:25:44,840 --> 00:25:48,280
A villa overlooking Lake Wannsee
in Berlin is the location
352
00:25:48,440 --> 00:25:50,200
for a gathering of officials
353
00:25:50,360 --> 00:25:53,240
representing different parts
of the Nazi regime.
354
00:25:55,200 --> 00:25:58,880
The organiser of the conference
is Reinhard Heydrich.
355
00:25:59,040 --> 00:26:01,320
The topic is the Jewish question.
356
00:26:02,680 --> 00:26:05,280
But the conference is postponed.
357
00:26:06,760 --> 00:26:09,360
The conference at Wannsee was
initially scheduled
358
00:26:09,520 --> 00:26:12,480
{\an8}on the 9th of December, but it had
to be postponed because,
359
00:26:12,640 --> 00:26:15,320
of course, on the 7th December 1941,
360
00:26:15,480 --> 00:26:18,760
the Japanese launched
a massive attack on Pearl Harbor.
361
00:26:36,600 --> 00:26:39,000
Three days after the attack
at Pearl Harbor,
362
00:26:39,160 --> 00:26:42,120
Adolf Hitler declares war
on the United States.
363
00:26:49,880 --> 00:26:53,400
Hitler has long predicted
a world war,
364
00:26:53,560 --> 00:26:55,280
and now he has brought it about.
365
00:26:57,560 --> 00:27:01,320
In a speech, he accuses
the Jews of manipulating
366
00:27:01,480 --> 00:27:04,160
the American President,
Franklin D. Roosevelt.
367
00:27:23,040 --> 00:27:24,960
At a briefing
on December 12th,
368
00:27:25,120 --> 00:27:26,880
Hitler summons Nazi Party leaders.
369
00:27:27,800 --> 00:27:29,000
In his diary,
370
00:27:29,160 --> 00:27:33,080
Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels
writes what is discussed.
371
00:27:33,240 --> 00:27:36,920
"The Fuhrer is determined
to make a clean sweep."
372
00:27:37,800 --> 00:27:39,920
"The world war is here;
373
00:27:40,080 --> 00:27:44,360
the destruction of Jewry must be
the inevitable consequence."
374
00:27:48,280 --> 00:27:50,840
On January 20th, 1942,
375
00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:54,000
Nazi officials arrived
at Lake Wannsee
376
00:27:54,160 --> 00:27:56,320
for Heydrich's
rescheduled conference.
377
00:27:58,880 --> 00:28:02,200
The SS officers are
in their full formal uniforms.
378
00:28:02,360 --> 00:28:05,680
{\an8}They're being served cognac
and canapes.
379
00:28:06,480 --> 00:28:08,640
It looks like
a very civilized gathering.
380
00:28:08,800 --> 00:28:12,040
But, of course, what's being
discussed at the Wannsee conference
381
00:28:12,200 --> 00:28:13,800
is anything but civilized.
382
00:28:14,880 --> 00:28:18,000
The Wannsee conference is
a coordination meeting.
383
00:28:18,160 --> 00:28:21,160
{\an8}It is not a meeting to decide
384
00:28:21,320 --> 00:28:23,800
{\an8}whether or not to kill
the Jews of Europe.
385
00:28:24,560 --> 00:28:27,840
It's a meeting to determine
how that's going to take place
386
00:28:28,000 --> 00:28:32,200
and what the responsibilities are
of all of the bureaucratic elements
387
00:28:32,360 --> 00:28:35,640
of the Nazi state
in achieving this goal.
388
00:28:36,320 --> 00:28:40,240
At the conference,
Heydrich lists the number of Jews
389
00:28:40,400 --> 00:28:43,360
to be exterminated
by the "Final Solution."
390
00:28:45,680 --> 00:28:49,920
The list includes the Jews of
the Soviet Union and eastern Europe.
391
00:28:52,080 --> 00:28:58,080
The Jews in France, the Netherlands,
Belgium and Scandinavian countries.
392
00:28:59,680 --> 00:29:03,320
It also includes Jews in countries
fighting alongside Germany
393
00:29:03,480 --> 00:29:05,960
such as Italy, Romania and Hungary.
394
00:29:07,160 --> 00:29:10,520
Even Jews in undefeated
Great Britain and neutral Ireland
395
00:29:10,680 --> 00:29:12,200
are included.
396
00:29:13,320 --> 00:29:16,400
Grand total: over 11 million.
397
00:29:18,920 --> 00:29:23,200
The Nazis now have a plan
to implement the Holocaust.
398
00:29:27,000 --> 00:29:29,400
The Germans had succeeded
in taking France,
399
00:29:29,560 --> 00:29:32,680
as well as Holland, Denmark, Norway,
and so on,
400
00:29:32,840 --> 00:29:35,480
which meant that they suddenly
had control over
401
00:29:35,640 --> 00:29:37,640
other massive populations of Jews.
402
00:29:39,240 --> 00:29:42,760
{\an8}The fact that basically the whole
of Europe outside Britain
403
00:29:42,920 --> 00:29:46,640
{\an8}was now part of Hitler's
Nazi empire,
404
00:29:46,800 --> 00:29:49,960
gave a feeling
that things could be done
405
00:29:50,120 --> 00:29:51,960
which had never been done before.
406
00:29:58,200 --> 00:29:59,920
Across all of Europe,
407
00:30:00,080 --> 00:30:04,160
a whole people
are targeted for annihilation.
408
00:30:20,560 --> 00:30:22,960
Following the Wannsee Conference,
409
00:30:23,120 --> 00:30:27,000
the Nazis are working on
the construction of killing centres,
410
00:30:27,160 --> 00:30:30,680
where people, most of them Jewish,
will be sent to die.
411
00:30:32,360 --> 00:30:36,040
The majority are from eastern Europe
and Soviet territory.
412
00:30:37,240 --> 00:30:41,800
The Nazis also begin to target
the Jews of western Europe.
413
00:30:42,720 --> 00:30:46,080
The Holocaust begins as
an Eastern phenomenon.
414
00:30:46,240 --> 00:30:52,200
{\an8}But soon it extends to every single
corner of German controlled Europe.
415
00:30:52,360 --> 00:30:56,520
Amsterdam in the Netherlands
and France and Italy
416
00:30:56,680 --> 00:30:58,840
and as far north as Scandinavia,
417
00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:02,320
Jews are being shipped to
these various new establishments
418
00:31:02,480 --> 00:31:04,000
in the East and murdered.
419
00:31:05,720 --> 00:31:09,920
In the spring of 1942,
Himmler visits Amsterdam
420
00:31:10,080 --> 00:31:13,200
to address a police battalion
specially trained to round up
421
00:31:13,360 --> 00:31:16,280
and deport
the city's Jewish population.
422
00:31:17,560 --> 00:31:22,240
A few weeks after his visit,
one Jewish father, Otto Frank,
423
00:31:22,400 --> 00:31:24,920
decides his family
must go into hiding.
424
00:31:27,400 --> 00:31:30,040
His daughter Anne writes
in her diary:
425
00:31:31,600 --> 00:31:34,920
"Our many Jewish friends and
acquaintances are being taken away
426
00:31:35,080 --> 00:31:36,480
in droves.
427
00:31:36,640 --> 00:31:39,280
Escape is almost impossible."
428
00:31:47,360 --> 00:31:51,080
In France, many Jews who fled
Germany earlier
429
00:31:51,240 --> 00:31:52,920
now find themselves threatened,
430
00:31:53,080 --> 00:31:56,320
along with the country's
large French Jewish population.
431
00:31:59,040 --> 00:32:03,000
Helene Berr,
a young French Jewish woman, writes:
432
00:32:03,160 --> 00:32:06,800
"A wave of terror has been gripping
everybody else as well
433
00:32:06,960 --> 00:32:08,480
these past few days.
434
00:32:08,640 --> 00:32:12,000
It appears that the SS have taken
command in France
435
00:32:12,160 --> 00:32:14,360
and that terror must follow."
436
00:32:18,720 --> 00:32:20,160
Over the next months,
437
00:32:20,320 --> 00:32:22,720
Jewish families are deported
by German forces
438
00:32:22,880 --> 00:32:24,160
and their collaborators.
439
00:32:25,080 --> 00:32:28,280
They are informed they are being
resettled in Eastern Europe
440
00:32:28,440 --> 00:32:31,600
and told to bring belongings
and valuables with them.
441
00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:37,360
Instead, they are being sent to
the new Nazi extermination centres.
442
00:32:39,080 --> 00:32:43,280
They are crammed into
airless, lightless, railway cars
443
00:32:43,440 --> 00:32:47,160
and transported hundreds of miles
without food or water.
444
00:32:50,680 --> 00:32:55,200
{\an8}Modern bureaucracies and trains
enabled the movement of people
445
00:32:55,360 --> 00:32:57,640
across Europe in huge numbers,
446
00:32:57,800 --> 00:33:00,480
which had really
never been seen before.
447
00:33:01,680 --> 00:33:05,000
There are four
major extermination centres.
448
00:33:05,160 --> 00:33:09,080
Chelmno, Treblinka,
Sobibor and Belzec.
449
00:33:10,120 --> 00:33:12,600
There are two additional
extermination centres,
450
00:33:12,760 --> 00:33:16,000
which also serve as
forced labour camps,
451
00:33:16,160 --> 00:33:18,320
Majdanek, and Auschwitz.
452
00:33:19,800 --> 00:33:22,560
All of these centres
are located in Poland.
453
00:33:24,760 --> 00:33:28,720
In the centres, the Nazis design
methods to kill as many people
454
00:33:28,880 --> 00:33:33,720
in as short a time as possible,
including using diesel engines.
455
00:33:36,400 --> 00:33:39,000
The Nazis pumped carbon monoxide
from these engines
456
00:33:39,160 --> 00:33:41,880
into the chambers themselves.
It killed a lot of people.
457
00:33:42,040 --> 00:33:46,160
{\an8}But that doesn't necessarily mean
that they were as kind of efficient
458
00:33:46,320 --> 00:33:48,440
{\an8}in that process
as is somehow supposed.
459
00:33:48,600 --> 00:33:50,280
These were very crude places.
460
00:33:50,440 --> 00:33:52,520
They were very
improvisational places,
461
00:33:52,680 --> 00:33:55,520
and they were spaces
of extraordinary
462
00:33:55,680 --> 00:33:58,200
and appalling suffering.
463
00:34:04,480 --> 00:34:05,920
At Auschwitz,
464
00:34:06,080 --> 00:34:08,880
the Nazis use a pesticide
called "Zyklon B".
465
00:34:11,440 --> 00:34:14,760
Zyklon B is a cyanide derivative
466
00:34:14,920 --> 00:34:19,640
originally for exterminating vermin,
for killing rodents in your house.
467
00:34:19,800 --> 00:34:20,920
It's a blue crystal.
468
00:34:21,080 --> 00:34:23,880
You open the can,
and it emits a poison gas.
469
00:34:25,400 --> 00:34:29,000
They also begin construction
on an extension to Auschwitz,
470
00:34:29,160 --> 00:34:31,280
in the neighbouring village
of Birkenau.
471
00:34:32,080 --> 00:34:35,080
The site is solely dedicated
to extermination
472
00:34:35,240 --> 00:34:37,080
and has several gas chambers.
473
00:34:41,160 --> 00:34:43,920
When Jews arrive at
Auschwitz-Birkenau
474
00:34:44,080 --> 00:34:46,400
they are sorted into two groups:
475
00:34:46,560 --> 00:34:49,320
those who are determined fit
for forced labour,
476
00:34:49,480 --> 00:34:51,080
and those who are not.
477
00:34:53,000 --> 00:34:58,160
Mendel Jakubowicz is deported from
a Polish Ghetto to Auschwitz,
478
00:34:58,320 --> 00:35:00,400
he describes his arrival.
479
00:35:02,720 --> 00:35:05,360
"The SS people were
walking up and down.
480
00:35:05,520 --> 00:35:07,720
I stood at attention on my toes.
481
00:35:08,800 --> 00:35:12,440
Finally, after a while,
I was chosen to the right,
482
00:35:12,600 --> 00:35:14,960
some of my friends to the left."
483
00:35:16,160 --> 00:35:19,360
Mendel is selected
to join a work battalion.
484
00:35:20,800 --> 00:35:23,200
His family is sent
to the gas chamber.
485
00:35:27,400 --> 00:35:30,040
The people who had been brought
into the gas chambers
486
00:35:30,200 --> 00:35:32,760
would be separated into men
and women and children.
487
00:35:32,920 --> 00:35:35,080
They'd all be herded into this room.
488
00:35:35,240 --> 00:35:38,920
They told them that they were
going there to be showered.
489
00:35:39,960 --> 00:35:43,560
They would be given fabric ties,
to tie their shoes together
490
00:35:43,720 --> 00:35:46,920
under the ruse that it'd be easier
to find their pair afterwards.
491
00:35:48,160 --> 00:35:51,440
The Nazis want to cram as many
people into the gas chambers
492
00:35:51,600 --> 00:35:55,720
{\an8}as possible because that generates
this environment of high heat
493
00:35:55,880 --> 00:35:59,240
and humidity, which creates
the hydrogen cyanide gas.
494
00:36:04,840 --> 00:36:09,760
The scenes that followed
after that defy imagination.
495
00:36:11,320 --> 00:36:14,440
Quite often you would find
families or loved ones
496
00:36:14,600 --> 00:36:16,560
that were clutching each other
so tightly
497
00:36:16,720 --> 00:36:20,520
that it was impossible to pull
their arms apart from each other.
498
00:36:23,840 --> 00:36:25,880
The victims are cremated.
499
00:36:26,960 --> 00:36:30,240
A perpetual pall of death
hangs over the area.
500
00:36:32,240 --> 00:36:34,800
It was generally the case
that people sent to death camps
501
00:36:34,960 --> 00:36:37,960
were murdered within about
45 minutes to 2 hours of arrival.
502
00:36:39,320 --> 00:36:43,480
The creation of the extermination
camps is Hitler's final solution
503
00:36:43,640 --> 00:36:45,200
to the Jewish question.
504
00:36:46,600 --> 00:36:51,320
An industrial scale system
to mass murder human beings
505
00:36:51,480 --> 00:36:53,760
in their thousands every day.
506
00:36:54,840 --> 00:36:57,360
Just the pinnacle of evil.
507
00:37:01,240 --> 00:37:04,800
This is murder on
an industrial scale,
508
00:37:04,960 --> 00:37:07,640
but each death is uniquely suffered.
509
00:37:15,240 --> 00:37:18,000
In the summer of 1942,
510
00:37:18,160 --> 00:37:21,680
Himmler visits the extermination
centre at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
511
00:37:22,680 --> 00:37:26,240
He watches enslaved prisoners
working in a chemical plant.
512
00:37:27,360 --> 00:37:30,520
And sees train cars of Jews
arriving to be murdered.
513
00:37:31,560 --> 00:37:33,680
Himmler later attends
a dinner party,
514
00:37:33,840 --> 00:37:37,320
where he explains that the Nazis
have murdered two million Jews
515
00:37:37,480 --> 00:37:39,280
and will continue to do so.
516
00:37:40,920 --> 00:37:45,160
His boasts make their way
to a Western intelligence agent,
517
00:37:45,320 --> 00:37:48,600
who passes the information
to a German exile
518
00:37:48,760 --> 00:37:52,440
living in neutral Switzerland -
Gerhard Riegner.
519
00:37:53,800 --> 00:37:57,680
Gerhard Riegner, who worked
for the World Jewish Congress,
520
00:37:57,840 --> 00:38:01,640
learns from a German businessman
that the Nazis have a plan.
521
00:38:01,800 --> 00:38:05,480
{\an8}They are trying to round up,
deport and murder
522
00:38:05,640 --> 00:38:07,800
the remaining Jewish communities
of Europe.
523
00:38:09,080 --> 00:38:11,160
Shocked by what he hears,
524
00:38:11,320 --> 00:38:15,560
Reigner attempts to get this
information to Rabbi Stephen Wise.
525
00:38:17,320 --> 00:38:20,040
Rabbi Stephen Wise is the head
of the World Jewish Congress
526
00:38:20,200 --> 00:38:23,240
{\an8}and maybe the most influential
American rabbi
527
00:38:23,400 --> 00:38:25,440
{\an8}and maybe one of the most
influential American Jews
528
00:38:25,600 --> 00:38:26,600
at the time.
529
00:38:26,760 --> 00:38:29,840
He has a relationship
with President Roosevelt.
530
00:38:32,440 --> 00:38:36,160
Reigner's message gets
to the U.S. State Department,
531
00:38:36,320 --> 00:38:40,320
but officials treat it like
a war rumour and don't pass it on.
532
00:38:41,600 --> 00:38:46,120
The State Department refuses to
send this information to Rabbi Wise.
533
00:38:46,280 --> 00:38:49,240
They call it
an "unreliable war rumour"
534
00:38:49,400 --> 00:38:50,720
and they bury it.
535
00:38:51,520 --> 00:38:53,800
"Why are we going to get people
riled up about this
536
00:38:53,960 --> 00:38:55,480
if it's just probably a war rumour?
537
00:38:55,640 --> 00:38:57,760
There's no way that the Nazis are
actually doing this."
538
00:38:57,920 --> 00:38:59,280
And so, they shelve it.
539
00:38:59,440 --> 00:39:01,480
But Reigner persists,
540
00:39:01,640 --> 00:39:03,840
he reaches
a British member of Parliament,
541
00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:06,400
who contacts Rabbi Wise by telegram.
542
00:39:07,320 --> 00:39:10,800
The U.S. State Department
now investigates the report.
543
00:39:10,960 --> 00:39:15,200
But the Roosevelt administration
is not ready to take it public.
544
00:39:17,400 --> 00:39:22,640
They had a feeling that American
soldiers would not agree to fight,
545
00:39:22,800 --> 00:39:25,240
if they believed that they were
being asked to fight
546
00:39:25,400 --> 00:39:27,080
for the rescue of European Jews.
547
00:39:28,040 --> 00:39:31,360
We're fighting for these ideas
of democracy and idealism;
548
00:39:31,520 --> 00:39:33,120
we're not fighting for the Jews.
549
00:39:35,560 --> 00:39:37,160
After their investigation,
550
00:39:37,320 --> 00:39:40,760
the State Department allows
Rabbi Wise to share the information
551
00:39:40,920 --> 00:39:43,080
about the mass murder of the Jews.
552
00:39:43,800 --> 00:39:47,960
The news spreads around the globe,
and Jewish communities react.
553
00:39:49,760 --> 00:39:52,760
The world is beginning
to learn the truth.
554
00:39:53,920 --> 00:39:56,640
At the beginning of December,
there's a Day of Mourning,
555
00:39:56,800 --> 00:39:59,320
not just in the United States,
not just in Britain,
556
00:39:59,480 --> 00:40:00,880
but internationally.
557
00:40:01,520 --> 00:40:02,720
There are vigils.
558
00:40:02,880 --> 00:40:06,400
There are ceremonies and services
in synagogues
559
00:40:06,560 --> 00:40:08,320
across the Western Hemisphere.
560
00:40:08,480 --> 00:40:11,040
And then finally on December 17th,
561
00:40:11,200 --> 00:40:13,600
the Allied governments issue
what is called
562
00:40:13,760 --> 00:40:16,120
the Allied Declaration
on Atrocities.
563
00:40:16,280 --> 00:40:18,680
And they are condemning
in very strong language
564
00:40:18,840 --> 00:40:21,000
what the Nazis and
their collaborators are doing;
565
00:40:21,160 --> 00:40:23,880
they're using phrases like
"cold blooded extermination"
566
00:40:24,040 --> 00:40:25,680
and "bloody atrocities."
567
00:40:26,800 --> 00:40:29,560
Roosevelt particularly is
very concerned
568
00:40:29,720 --> 00:40:31,200
and Churchill is appalled as well.
569
00:40:31,360 --> 00:40:34,960
He says that the best thing that
we can do to help Europe's Jews
570
00:40:35,120 --> 00:40:37,080
{\an8}is to win this war
as quickly as possible.
571
00:40:37,240 --> 00:40:40,240
{\an8}And we need to divert all
of our resources in service
572
00:40:40,400 --> 00:40:41,600
of doing just that.
573
00:40:43,000 --> 00:40:45,480
They knew that
these mass killings were happening.
574
00:40:45,640 --> 00:40:48,440
I don't think they could imagine
quite the scale
575
00:40:48,600 --> 00:40:51,600
of the infrastructure
that the Nazis had devoted to this.
576
00:40:51,760 --> 00:40:55,680
{\an8}I think that the leaders had not
quite grasped the extent of it.
577
00:40:58,200 --> 00:41:00,000
In 1933,
578
00:41:00,160 --> 00:41:03,560
Hitler's perverse vision was
to expel the Jews from Germany.
579
00:41:04,240 --> 00:41:08,480
By 1942, he is on the verge
of exterminating the entire
580
00:41:08,640 --> 00:41:10,880
Jewish population of Europe.
581
00:41:18,080 --> 00:41:20,080
After two years in hiding,
582
00:41:20,240 --> 00:41:22,200
Anne Frank and her sister
are discovered
583
00:41:22,360 --> 00:41:26,880
by Dutch police officers and sent
to a Nazi extermination centre.
584
00:41:27,920 --> 00:41:32,400
They eventually die of typhus, just
weeks before the end of the War.
585
00:41:33,800 --> 00:41:37,200
Helene Berr is deported from
Paris to Auschwitz
586
00:41:37,360 --> 00:41:39,200
and then to Bergen-Belsen,
587
00:41:39,360 --> 00:41:43,520
where she also dies from typhus
in April 1945.
588
00:41:45,160 --> 00:41:50,520
Szlama Ber Winer writes a report
about the gas vans at Chelmno...
589
00:41:51,600 --> 00:41:54,240
...hoping to bring
the truth to the world.
590
00:41:54,400 --> 00:41:58,040
But he is found by the Nazis and
deported to Belzec,
591
00:41:58,200 --> 00:42:00,520
where he is murdered
in the gas chambers.
592
00:42:02,480 --> 00:42:05,400
Mendel Jakubowicz survives Auschwitz
593
00:42:05,560 --> 00:42:08,080
and moves to the United States
after the War.
594
00:42:09,080 --> 00:42:11,400
{\an8}He changes his name to Mike Jacobs
595
00:42:11,560 --> 00:42:14,880
{\an8}and founds a scrap metal
business in Dallas, Texas.
596
00:42:19,080 --> 00:42:24,280
The Holocaust, the Shoah,
will continue until Nazi Germany
597
00:42:24,440 --> 00:42:28,200
is defeated and the Third Reich
is completely destroyed.
598
00:42:29,520 --> 00:42:34,280
In 1942, the Allies gather
their forces for a massive assault
599
00:42:34,440 --> 00:42:37,120
on the Wehrmacht in North Africa.
600
00:42:37,280 --> 00:42:38,960
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