All language subtitles for [English] Hitler A Strategy of Failure How Nazi Germany Lost World War II Full WW2 Documentary [Do

(tense music)

(Hitler speaks in foreign language)

(Hitler continues speaking
in foreign language)

- [Narrator] Adolf Hitler
is more closely associated

with World War II than
any other individual,

despite the fact that there
were dozens of world leaders

involved in the conflict.

Is such recognition deserved,

or was he only a small cog
in a far larger machine?

(tense music continues)

Was Adolf Hitler personally
responsible for triggering

the largest, darkest
conflict in human history?

(dramatic music)

(dramatic music continues)

(dramatic music continues)

Adolf Hitler, future
Fuhrer of Nazi Germany,

was born in April, 1889 in
a small Austrian village

near the German border.

His father, Alois, a cold
and aloof civil servant,

largely ignored his son,

while his mother Clara doted on him.

In school, Adolf proved to
be a moody, mediocre student.

When his father scolded him

for his poor performance in class,

Adolf would go to his mother for comfort.

Even as a child, Hitler knew
how to manipulate people

to get what he wanted.

At the age of 18, Adolf moved to Vienna,

ostensibly to enroll in
the Academy of Fine Arts.

When his application was rejected,

he drifted from job to job,

living off a small inheritance
left to him by his mother.

Much of his time was spent
in bars and coffee houses

frequented by radical philosophers.

Here, in the supercharged atmosphere

of turn of the century politics,

he heard and absorbed
theories about racial purity,

anti-Semitism, and fanatical nationalism.

Years later, Hitler would recall,

"Vienna was a hard school for me,

but it taught me the most
influential lesson in life."

In 1914, with World War
I looming on the horizon,

Hitler moved to Munich,

where he enlisted in the German Army.

When war came, Adolf Hitler
found his first real interest.

Serving as a courier in
the frontline trenches,

he was wounded once and decorated twice.

The horrible excitement
of war, the tension,

thrilled him more than
anything he'd ever known.

When the war ended in November, 1918,

Germany was left humiliated,
bankrupt, and leaderless,

by the crushing peace terms imposed on it

by the victorious French,
English, Americans, and Italians.

(gentle music)

Personally embittered
by the loss of the war

and his thrilling years at the front,

Hitler eventually found
work as a police spy,

assigned to infiltrate the
radical political groups

that were forming all over Germany.

Of the many groups he
spied on, some communist,

some ultra right-wing, the
one he found most intriguing

was the German Workers' Party.

In September 1919, Hitler
resigned from the police

and became a full-time party member.

Plotting and planning
with his new friends,

his leadership abilities soon
placed him at the forefront

of the tiny movement.

In 1920, the party renamed itself

the National Socialist
German Workers' Party,

the acronym Nazi serving
as their popular name.

(singing in foreign language)

Now the head of the party in all but name,

Hitler helped compose a 25-point program

laying out their goals and aims.

(singing in foreign language continues)

Integral to this program was
rebuilding a shattered Germany,

renouncing the peace treaty

that brought the country to its knees,

and wreaking vengeance on the countries

which had imposed the unfair peace.

(singing in foreign language continues)

Unannounced, but often discussed,

were the same theories of racial purity,

including a hatred of Jews and Slavs,

particularly Poles and Russians,

that Hitler had learned a
decade earlier in Vienna.

(singing in foreign language continues)

By 1923, Hitler, now the
undisputed party leader,

organized a personal bodyguard

known as the Schutzstaffel, or SS.

Backed by the Nazi Party, the SS,

and an army of street thugs

known as the Brownshirts, or SA,

Hitler and former World War
I general Eric Ludendorff

launched an attempted
takeover of the government

in November, 1923.

(guns firing)

Known as the Beer Hall
Putsch, the uprising failed.

Hitler was wounded, and along
with other conspirators,

was tried and sentenced
to nine months in prison.

(tense music)

Never one to waste time,
Hitler used his incarceration

to dictate his personal
political manifesto.

One of the philosophies he expounded,

was that to keep a nation unified,

people must be made to
believe they had two enemies,

one inside of the country
and another outside,

both working to destroy the nation.

But while Hitler was
organizing his thoughts,

the virtually leaderless
Nazi Party was falling apart.

On his release in 1925, the
book he had written in prison,

"Mein Kampf," or my
struggle, was published,

while Hitler undertook
the job of reorganizing

the Nazi Party.

Playing on waves of discontent and fear

that was surging through Germany,

Hitler quickly identified
the two enemies he would use

to unify the people.

(tense music continues)

An upsurge of antisemitism
sweeping the nation

made the Jews an obvious
choice for an internal enemy.

While fear of being
taken over by communists

who'd so recently seized
control in Russia,

provided a perfect external enemy.

Hitler's fiery rhetoric,

which skillfully played on the
fears of the German people,

brought hundreds, and then
thousands of new members

into the party.

With their new backing,

the Nazi Party quickly
gained a minority standing

in the National Assembly, the Bundestag.

In the 1932 elections,

Hitler ran a close second
in the presidential race

against the 85-year-old
Paul von Hindenburg,

garnering 30% of the
votes to Hindenburg's 50%.

In an attempt to placate
the rabble-rousing Nazis,

Hindenburg offered Hitler
the office of chancellor,

and gave cabinet posts to
three other Nazi Party members.

All might have gone well,
except that in August, 1934,

Hindenburg died at the age of 87.

(dramatic music)

Seizing the moment, Hitler,

who already had near dictatorial power,

announced that he was combining the posts

of chancellor and president
into a single office.

He would now simply be
known as the leader,

or in German, Fuhrer.

(dramatic music continues)

Also included in the new office

was the position of commander-in-chief
of the armed forces.

And all members of the military

were required to take a personal
oath of loyalty to Hitler.

(soldiers chanting in foreign language)

(soldiers continue chanting
in foreign language)

(soldiers continue chanting
in foreign language)

To placate those in the
country who were worried about

the power of their new Fuhrer,

Hitler insisted that Germany
only needed two forces

to make it great again.

Himself and the people.

To prove his point,

he set out on a massive
rebuilding of the economy,

mostly through illegal
construction of armaments

and enlargement of the military.

While the people were busy rebuilding

their shattered nation,

Hitler and his inner circle laid plans

to expand Germany's borders,

and settle accounts with
enemies both old and new,

real and imagined.

(dramatic music)

Hitler's overall plan was simple.

First, reclaim territories
stripped from Germany

at the end of the First World War,

and do so by whatever means necessary.

Secondly, he would bring
down the wrath of God

on France and England,

for the way they dealt with
Germany at the end of the war.

And finally, eliminate
the entire population

of Poland and Russia,

to give the new Germany
endless room to expand.

But big plans take time.

While the German economy remained fragile,

the outside world must
not become suspicious.

To the world,

Hitler spoke endlessly
about his peaceful aims.

He stressed his goals of
unity, peace, and work.

He also sought the favor of
old friends like Austria,

and of old enemies, like France,
Poland, and Great Britain.

Through a combination of
placating and bullying,

he managed to negotiate peace treaties

with both Poland and France.

For nations who'd been at war with Germany

only 15 years earlier,

and were fully aware
that Hitler was violating

the peace treaty left and right,

it was a stunning political victory.

By keeping Europe's leaders

alternately charmed and terrified,

Hitler gave himself the opportunity

to make his first big move.

(dramatic music)

In a deft political maneuver,

he engineered a popular vote

in the coal-rich Saar region,
long a part of Germany.

(dramatic music continues)

The Saar had been ceded to
France following World War I.

The vote to rejoin
Germany was overwhelming.

And before the end of 1935,

Germany had annexed the first
of its lost territories.

(dramatic music continues)

(dramatic music continues)

By similar manipulation,

the entire Austrian nation was convinced

that it would be far better off

as a part of Hitler's Germany.

(dramatic music continues)

(dramatic music continues)

In March, 1938, all of Austria was annexed

to the growing Nazi empire.

Only six months later, Hitler
demanded that the Sudetenland,

a vast tract that had been
ceded to Czechoslovakia

after World War I, be returned.

Insisting that this would be

"My last territorial demand in Europe,"

Hitler made it clear that
if the demand was not met,

there would be dire consequences.

The demand was also a test.

The great powers of Europe,

all of whom had larger
armies than Germany,

had every right to refuse.

But fear of igniting another war

convinced them that it was
better to play along with Hitler

than fight over the
future of Czechoslovakia.

British Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain said

it would ensure peace in our time.

In response, Hitler called Chamberlain

"A tea drinking old woman."

- This morning I had another talk

with the German Chancellor Herr Hitler,

and here is the paper which
bears his name upon it,

as well as mine.

(crowds cheering)

- [Narrator] Only when
Hitler made his next demand,

did he encounter resistance.

Dansig, a major port on the Baltic Sea,

had been handed over to Germany's new

peace treaty ally, Poland,
at the end of the war.

The Poles flatly refused to
return Dansig to Germany.

Hitler proclaimed Poland's refusal

an outrage designed to incite war.

In fact, it was just the
opportunity he'd been looking for.

While publicly stating he was looking for

a peaceful solution to
the Polish situation,

Hitler made his real intentions
clear by insisting that

the entire Czech nation
surrender itself to Germany.

Knowing that France and England
would not come to its aid,

and terrified of a full-scale invasion,

the Czech government capitulated.

With the Czechs serving as an
example of his determination,

Hitler said that if Poland
would not see reason,

it might be necessary to
settle accounts for good.

While the tense Polish situation simmered,

Hitler's foreign minister
negotiated a non-aggression pact

with the Soviet Union.

(tense music)

Although the Slavic people
of Poland and Russia

were both on Hitler's long-term hit list,

he could not afford trouble
with Russia at the moment.

With the cooperation of Russia assured,

on August the 31st,
1939, Hitler announced,

"Since the situation in
Poland has become intolerable,

I have decided upon a solution by force."

The next day, September 1st,

the German Army invaded Poland

without the formality of declaring war.

It had been a calculated risk

that could drag Germany
into a state of war

with major European powers.

And it was a nervous Adolf Hitler

who announced the invasion to his nation.

The attack on Poland
demonstrated a new type of tactic

designed for quick, deep
penetration of enemy territory,

aimed more at confusing the enemy

than holding fortified positions.

The tactic was known as
blitzkrieg, lightning war.

(dramatic music)

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Although the Germans quickly overran

mile after mile of Polish territory,

and rounded up tens of
thousands of Polish civilians,

particularly Jews, Great Britain
and France couldn't decide

if this was really a war or not.

Certainly, it wasn't worth
becoming involved in.

They politely honored their
commitments to Poland,

and declared war on
Germany, but tellingly,

they did nothing.

(crowds shouting)

In only 28 days,

a shattered Poland became
a satellite of Germany.

(tense music)

Elated by the easy victory,

Hitler remained wary of
France and Great Britain.

Eventually they might still press the war

and spoil his plans.

On October 9th, 1939,

the Fuhrer issued War Directive 6,

which stated in part,

"Should it become evident
that England and France

are not disposed to end the war,

I have decided to go on the offensive."

Six weeks later he added,

"The defeat of England is
essential to final victory."

Clearly and simply,
Hitler was spelling out

the future of Europe.

With his long-term goals,

and the methods needed to
achieve them now clear,

the following spring,

Hitler ordered his armies to
attack Denmark and Norway.

(guns booming)

It was a short, nasty fight,

and Germany was the unquestioned victor.

(upbeat music)

(upbeat music continues)

(upbeat music continues)

When Hitler told his generals

they should now move
into Belgium and Holland,

on their way to settling
accounts with France,

they insisted that such a move
would inevitably drag England

into the war.

Hitler agreed.

It was exactly what he wanted.

(tense music)

According to War Directive
10, from February, 1940,

he intended to deny Holland
and Belgium to the English,

and thereby pave the
way for the destruction

of the Anglo-French military.

(tense music continues)

(tense music continues)

(tense music continues)

Three months later,

German armies overran the Low Countries,

and attacked France

along its north and northeastern borders.

(tense music continues)

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Although the British sent a
massive expeditionary force

to France's aid,

the Belgians and French refused
to cooperate sufficiently,

or react quickly enough
to prevent disaster.

(dramatic music)

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Within weeks, the allies were driven back

toward the French coast,

and Hitler had his next
move well prepared.

On May the 24th, he proclaimed,

"The next objective is to
annihilate the French, English,

and Belgium forces, which
are surrounded in Flanders,

and seize the channel coast in this area."

With British and French
forces surrounded at Dunkirk,

Hitler made his first major mistake.

(tense music)

There was little doubt
that tens of thousands

of French and British
troops could be wiped out

if the battle were forced quickly enough,

but Hitler's generals
each wanted the honor

of the coup de grace.

The army insisted they
had cornered the enemy,

and it was their right to finish the job.

Air Marshall Hermann Goering insisted

it could be done more
efficiently by the Luftwaffe.

Hitler vacillated, possibly
believing that the British

could still be persuaded to sue for peace.

Certainly, he would prefer to have

the might of the British
Empire as a friend,

rather than an enemy.

(tense music)

Whatever the reason, the moment was lost.

Before the Germans could
finish their grizzly work,

340,000 British and French troops

had been evacuated across the channel.

Still putting the best
face on a bad situation,

Hitler was elated at
the collapse of France.

What Imperial Germany
had not been able to do

in the four years of the First World War,

he had done in six weeks.

(tense music continues)

In June, 1940, Hitler's empire
reached its greatest extent.

Germany controlled 323,000
square miles of territory,

and held more than 100 million
people in its iron grasp.

(tense music continues)

Hitler even made
additional peace overtures

to Great Britain, but
the new prime minister,

Winston Churchill, was
unwilling to listen.

England was more committed
to fighting than ever before.

Furious at nearly everyone but himself,

Hitler swore vengeance on Britain.

The summer offensive would
be directed almost entirely

against the intransigent
little island kingdom.

(tense music)

(tense music continues)

In May, 1940,

Hitler ordered history's most
massive bombing campaign.

He would destroy the Royal Air Force,

the last weapon with which
the English could prevent

a German landing on British shores.

(plane engines roaring)

(plane engines roaring)

(plane engines roaring)

(dramatic music)

In two war directives,

Hitler stated the English
air force must be so reduced

morally and physically,

that it is unable to deliver any attack

against a German crossing of the channel.

The Luftwaffe is to overpower
the English air force

in the shortest possible time.

Attacks are to be directed
against flying units,

their ground installations,
supply organizations,

and the aircraft manufacturing industry.

(dramatic music continues)

Although the Battle of Britain

was well on its way to success,

for reasons that remain obscure,

Hitler changed the
direction of the attack.

Military targets were largely ignored

in favor of terror
bombing civilian targets.

London, Coventry, Birmingham,
Liverpool, and other cities,

were bombed mercilessly
for days and nights on end.

(dramatic music continues)

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The devastation and death were awful,

but the diversion gave the
Royal Air Force time to rebuild

and mount a counteroffensive.

For the second time in
less than six months,

Hitler had badly miscalculated.

(dramatic music)

(dramatic music continues)

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The counteroffensive drove
German fighters and bombers

away from both civilian
and military targets,

and took a massive toll on the Luftwaffe.

(guns booming)

(explosion booming)

(plane whining)

(explosion booming)

(plane roaring)

On September 15th, 1940,

the RAF scored its largest
victory against the onslaught.

Having lost more than 180
planes in four months,

the Luftwaffe was permanently crippled.

Germany would have to find other means

of dealing with Britain.

Had the attack continued to
concentrate on military targets,

Britain would've had little
option but to sue for peace.

Ultimately, a neutralized United Kingdom

would've denied the allies a launching pad

for an invasion of Europe.

But either Hitler failed to realize this,

or he believed himself so invincible

that no power on earth could
successfully stand against him.

(fire crackling)

Of all the mistakes a politician can make,

believing in their own rhetoric
is undoubtedly the worst.

But flushed with one
success after another,

this is exactly the trap
into which Hitler fell.

He was the Fuhrer.

He had remolded Germany to his will.

No leader, no army, no nation on earth,

could stand in his way.

Or so he thought.

Although the British situation
was a continuing irritation,

it did nothing to dampen
Hitler's enthusiasm

for his plan to expand
German territory into Russia.

There is little doubt that given time,

Russian dictator Joseph Stalin
would've attacked Germany.

Certainly Hitler was a threat,
but Russia was not ready.

(dramatic music)

Russian industry was weak,

and the army suffered
from a lack of leadership,

largely due to massive
purges of the high command

carried out during the mid to late 1930s.

(dramatic music continues)

For the time being, Stalin
was happy to let Germany

wear itself out elsewhere.

Fully aware that war with Russia
was only a matter of time,

Hitler decided he would strike first.

When his generals insisted
that Germany was overstretched,

he reminded them, none too gently,

that it was he who had
engineered the attacks on Poland,

Norway, Denmark, Belgium,
Holland, and France.

His vision made Germany great.

He led the nation.

If the generals did not follow his lead,

they were cowards and would be replaced.

Besides, in Hitler's mind, the
Russians were decadent Slavs,

less than human.

In Hitler's words,

one good kick, and the whole
rotten facade will collapse.

The attack on the Soviet Union

would commence the following spring, 1941.

But the invasion was delayed

while German armies were busy overrunning

Greece and Yugoslavia,

and did not begin until the end of June.

Even had Russia collapsed quickly,

the country is so vast that
it would've taken many months

to ferret out the entire army.

Fancying himself a fine
military historian,

Hitler should've known that others,

like Napoleon Bonaparte,
had tried to conquer it,

and had all come to grief

in the vast and icy Russian landscape.

But this fight was not about
military practicalities.

It was about ideology.

The Germans believed themselves superior

to the Russian Slavs.

They owed it to their future

to populate Russia with a purer race.

(dramatic music)

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When the invasion of Russian
territory finally began

on June the 22nd, 1941,

the initial phases seemed
to prove Hitler right.

(dramatic music)

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The Russians put up a poor fight.

Thousands dying where they stood,

underarmed and undertrained.

(dramatic music continues)

The rest simply pulled back,

giving up thousands of
square miles of their country

to the Germans.

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Curiously, in mid August,
Hitler decided that Moscow

was no longer his prime objective.

The main army would redeploy
northward, and take Leningrad.

Thousands of weary soldiers
were moved thousands of miles

to besiege a relatively unimportant city,

because Hitler wanted to wipe
it from the face of the earth.

The generals knew it was a mistake.

Time was of the essence,
but at this stage,

no one dared argue with the Fuhrer.

As summer turned to autumn
and the rain set in,

German troops and equipment
became mired in a sea of mud.

(dramatic music continues)

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It should not have taken a genius

to see what Stalin was doing.

He was playing for time, waiting
for Russia's greatest ally.

Winter.

(wind howling)

(downbeat music)

Weeks later, temperatures dropped,

and the mud turned to ice.

Snow buried the roads, farms,
forests, and entire armies.

(downbeat music continues)

Thousands of miles from home,

ill-equipped for a protracted war,

and without winter clothes, the
Nazi blitzkrieg froze solid,

often within sight of such
major objectives as Moscow,

Leningrad, and Stalingrad.

(downbeat music continues)

The generals pleaded with Hitler
to allow them to pull back.

He adamantly refused.

Not one inch of conquered
territory would be surrendered.

(downbeat music continues)

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There were places in the Soviet Union

where the Germans could've made allies.

Many states, like Belarus
and the oil-rich Ukraine,

resented Stalin's harsh rule,

and initially greeted the
Germans as liberators.

But the ideology of "Mein Kampf"

refused to recognize the worth
of these potential allies.

Consequently, they were
brutalized and murdered.

By December, Russian forces had redeployed

for the first counteroffensive.

(downbeat music continues)

(guns booming repeatedly)

(downbeat music continues)

(downbeat music continues)

Half-starved German armies
were on the edge of revolt,

and only harsh disciplinary
measures kept them in position.

But there was no holding
back the Russian armies.

It was a desperate situation
and was getting worse.

If Russia seemed like
an ominous foretelling,

the situation elsewhere was no better.

(plane engines roaring)

(plane engines roaring)

(plane engines roaring)

(plane engines roaring)

On December 7th, 1941,

only days before the first
Russian counteroffensive began,

Germany's ally, Japan,

had attacked the U.S.
naval base at Pearl Harbor.

(explosions booming)

(explosions booming)

(explosions booming)

(dramatic music)

(explosions booming)

(guns booming)

(explosions booming)

Hitler was furious

at not having been consulted
prior to the attack,

but decided to back the Japanese

by declaring war on the U.S.

Why he did this remains a mystery.

He had never had a problem
backing out of treaties

with his allies before.

It was, however, certain,

that Germany and the U.S.
would go to war at some point.

America had been piling up

men and supplies in England for months,

and their intent to mount
an invasion of Europe

was plain to everyone.

(dramatic music)

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Increasingly frustrated
that the war was not going

according to plan, Hitler took
direct control of the army.

If the generals could not or
would not win the battles,

he would have to do it himself.

(downbeat music)

Convinced he was faced
with enemies on all sides,

and on his own staff, he turned
his attention to an enemy

who could not fight back.

The Jews.

In January, 1942, the Final
Solution was initiated.

Concentration camps were thrown up

all over Germany and Poland,

and millions of civilians were
marched off to their deaths.

(downbeat music continues)

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(downbeat music continues)

(gentle music)

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(explosions booming)

(explosions booming repeatedly)

(wind howling)

Germany was now facing
unsustainable demands

on its limited military manpower.

Huge armies were tied
down on the Russian Front.

Thousands were being rushed
to the Atlantic coast

to defend against the
future allied invasion.

(tense music)

And thousands more were
employed in rounding up

Jews, communists, gypsies,

and other supposed enemies of the state.

(tense music continues)

It was a drain no army could withstand.

(tense music continues)

Surprisingly, despite
the cost in manpower,

the spring of 1942 went well for Germany.

The armies seemed to be
holding back the Russians.

There was no sign of an allied invasion.

And the death camps were busy
ensuring the racial purity

of the Reich.

(tense music continues)

But it was a temporary respite.

By summer, the British Air Force,

supported by the Americans,

launched massed air
raids on German territory

and Germany itself.

(tense music continues)

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(bombs whining)

(explosions booming)

By early November, German
forces in North Africa

had been resoundingly beaten
by British and American forces.

And days later,

an entire Russian army
attacked German forces

which had spent months
besieging Stalingrad.

Hitler, ever optimistic,

but increasingly divorced from reality,

declared Russia eliminated

as a political and military factor.

It was a spectacular misstatement.

(dramatic music)

(dramatic music continues)

(dramatic music continues)

By Midsummer 1943, British
and American troops,

encouraged by their
successes in North Africa,

invaded Sicily, inciting the Italians

to overthrow Hitler's closest
ally, Benito Mussolini.

Shuffling his dwindling armies

in an attempt to shore
up the Italian front,

Hitler became acutely aware
of just how great a threat

the Americans and British now posed.

In War Directive 51,

issued on the 3rd of
November, 1943, he stated,

"Everything indicates
that the enemy will launch

an offensive against the Western front,

at the latest in spring.

Should they breach our defenses,

the consequences would be unpredictable."

(tense music)

As a hedge against the
invasion, in May, 1944,

Hitler launched the first of
his vaunted secret weapons,

which he insisted would
turn the tide of war.

(tense music continues)

(tense music continues)

(tense music continues)

(tense music continues)

The first V-1 flying bomb landed
on London on May the 16th,

but with the allied invasion
only five weeks away,

it would prove a case
of too little too late.

(trucks rumbling)

(motorbike roaring)

(vehicles rumbling)

(motorbike revving)

(vehicles revving)

Always nervous and highly
strung, by spring 1944,

Hitler was rapidly deteriorating,

physically and mentally.

Stomach ulcers sapped his strength,

and made him increasingly edgy.

(tense music)

In meetings and conferences,

his behavior became
erratic and often violent.

He flew into uncontrollable rages,

accusing staff members of
being incompetent traitors,

unfaithful to him and to Germany.

Unilaterally, Hitler ordered
the movement of entire armies

from one location to another,

in a desperate and
often irrational attempt

to stave off the inevitable.

(dramatic music)

When the invasion of
Normandy finally came,

on June the 22nd, 1944,
it quickly became evident

that the Atlantic wall coastal
defenses would not hold.

The high command insisted

that the only hope of stopping the allies

was a massive air attack

aimed at both those
forces already on shore,

and troop transport ships
still in the channel.

It was a logical move,

and exactly what Hitler had
called for the previous November

in Directive 51.

But for reasons that may never be known,

no action was taken.

Later, Hitler blamed Goering,

saying the air marshal
had been taking a nap,

and left orders not to be disturbed.

But considering the
landings took seven days,

this is hardly creditable.

In any case, there was no longer any way

to save Nazi Germany from defeat.

The generals and commanders
had lost faith in their Fuhrer.

The armies were stretched
beyond their limits,

and the Luftwaffe was in shambles.

Privately, some generals talked
of approaching the allies

behind Hitler's back,

in the hope of staving off total disaster.

(dramatic music)

(dramatic music continues)

As U.S. and U.K. forces surged
through France and Belgium,

the Russians were preparing
for their final push

from the Polish border toward Berlin.

The last phases of the war
brought the full horror

of what they had unleashed
home to the German people.

(dramatic music continues)

(dramatic music continues)

City after city was bombed day and night,

virtually without pause.

(dramatic music continues)

Refugees clogged the roads,

making it ever more difficult
for the military to move.

(dramatic music continues)

Finally, in a desperate
attempt to save their country

from complete destruction,

a group of high-ranking
officers made a pact

to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

In March, 1943, a bomb
placed on his personal plane

had failed to explode.

But this time, they would not fail.

On the 20th of July, 1944,

a suitcase bomb placed
under a conference table

where Hitler was addressing
staff officers went off,

practically tearing the building apart.

But, somehow, Hitler walked away

with little more than scratches,

and an unquenchable thirst for revenge.

More than 5,000 men who'd been involved,

or were suspected of being
involved in the plot,

were executed in the most horrible manner

the Gestapo could devise.

Films of their suffering
were served to Hitler

along with his dinner for weeks on end.

Now fearing almost everyone
outside his inner circle,

Hitler rarely appeared in public.

Increasingly he directed
what was left of his forces

from a bunker deep beneath
Berlin's Chancellery building.

(downbeat music)

But by September,

when the Americans
crossed the German border

and entered the heartland of the Reich,

even Hitler had to admit

"The impossibility of bringing
up adequate reinforcements,

do not allow us to determine
a line which can be held."

He could only demand that the army dispute

every inch of ground by
stubborn delaying action.

By the time the Russians
crossed the border

in January, 1945, Germany was exhausted.

Every male between the ages of 16 and 65

had been called into service.

And the nation was reduced to ruin.

Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden, Cologne,

and dozens of other cities,

were little more than
vast fields of rubble.

Furious that the Germans
had neither the will

nor the strength to conquer
the world, in March, 1945,

Hitler ordered the destruction

of everything left standing in Germany.

(explosions booming repeatedly)

If he could not rule Germany,

there would be no Germany
left for anyone else to rule.

As a final tribute to the
officers who'd fought so hard,

in early April, Hitler
told his surviving troops,

"Anyone ordering you to retreat

will be immediately shot on the spot,

no matter what rank he may hold."

The Fuhrer's orders had
become so irrational

that only the most fanatical Nazis

bothered to listen to them.

Most officers were too busy

trying to save their men's lives,

to concern themselves
with Hitler's insanity.

While troops and civilians

scurried to surrender to the allies,

rather than be taken by the Russians,

and bureaucrats burned every
record they could find,

Hitler wandered the
corridors of his bunker

whistling a tune from a Walt Disney movie,

"Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?"

On April the 30th, 10 days
after his 56th birthday,

Adolf Hitler, Fuhrer of Nazi
Germany, committed suicide.

Eight days later, Germany
surrendered unconditionally.

The stunned citizens of Berlin

wandered aimlessly amongst the ruins.

For them, almost six years of war

had left them with little
more than rubble, fear,

and a foreboding
uncertainty of their future.

(downbeat music)

Had Germany won the war,

the credit would certainly
have gone to Adolf Hitler.

He had planned for it,
plotted it out in detail,

and directly or indirectly

been responsible for the
death of 35 million people.

(dramatic music)

(gentle music)