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By the summer of 1944,
the terror and tyranny

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of the Nazi Third Reich
shrouds most of Europe.

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Occupied countries
resist as they can.

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But with the advance of
Soviet forces in the east,

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and the success of the Normandy
invasion in the west,

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two of the world's great cities

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organize in force and fight back.

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Even in the place of
greatest horror,

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there is resistance.

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All wars change the world,

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but none of them
changed the world

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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:

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Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin.

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Men who are dealing with

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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 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

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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 II was a struggle

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in which there could be
one victor...

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...and one vanquished.

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Since the fall of France,
the BBC has broadcast

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daily radio programming
to occupied Europe.

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Embedded within the broadcasts
are coded messages.

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The night before D-Day,
the Allied invasion

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of Western Europe,

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the broadcast to occupied France

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includes a line from a poem
by Paul Verlaine.

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The French resistance is waiting,

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and when the BBC announces:

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"Wound my heart with
a monotonous languor,"

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this is the word that they
have been waiting to hear:

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the invasion is on.

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The Allies want that
resistance movement to rise up,

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to blow up German railroads, to

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ambush German patrols,
and to disrupt the Germans

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in any way they can.

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All of their planning,

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all of their networking
now goes into action

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to slow the German response

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so that the Allies
can win the race

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to build up and break out.

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So many men and women
throughout France

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have risked so
much to get to this night

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and the beginning of
their country's liberation.

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After the
fall of France in 1940,

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there are two Frances.

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There's the France
that is directly occupied by

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the Germans, including Paris,

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and there is a puppet regime
with its capital at Vichy.

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So resistance
groups form in each one.

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From the start, the
inspiration for French resistance

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to Germany
was embodied by one man.

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A veteran of the Great War,

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General Charles De Gaulle.

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Charles De Gaulle

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fought all the way
through the German invasion

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of France in 1940.

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Rather than
surrender to the Germans,

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rather than go along
with the French government,

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he arrives in Britain by himself

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and just says, "By the way,

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I'm now
the leader of the Free French."

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He's self-appointed.

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Churchill goes,
"Eh, he might be useful."

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He gives him an office,
gives him a radio,

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lets him do some broadcasts.

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He's gonna announce:

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"The Vichy
government is illegitimate."

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Anybody who's in France
should come over to England,

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and we're gonna start
to put together an army

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that's gonna liberate ourselves.

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If you can't get here,
you should start

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resisting while you're there."

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This is an
extremely important event

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in galvanizing
the French people.

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Up to that point, they'd been
in a state of despondency

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at the rapid defeat at
the hands of the Germans.

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Now, here was a voice,

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one of their own,
offering them hope.

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He says,
"The flame of French resistance

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Must not be extinguished,
and will not be extinguished."

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These are words
that French men and women

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were longing to hear.

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It's not only the beginning
of the resistance,

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it's the beginning of the rise
of Charles De Gaulle

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to political power in France.

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Resistance pops
up all over the country.

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But these groups aren't connected,

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and they all stand
for different things.

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There are
aristocratic Catholics,

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Communists, Republicans.

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There are all different
groups jockeying for position

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between themselves
and fighting against

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the Germans as well.

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A cross-section
of French citizens,

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teachers, lawyers,
farmers, factory workers,

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take part in the resistance.

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Women play a substantial role.

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One of the
most important activities

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of the resistance was
a network of agents

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and secret codes
and safe houses

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that helped smuggle downed
Allied flyers out of France

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and back to safety in Britain.

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This underground railroad helped
about 5,000 Allied flyers

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make it to freedom
in the course of the war.

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It's the
potential of the Allied invasion

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eventually reaching
France that cause volunteers

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to flock to the resistance.

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They're gathering equipment,
supplies, weapons

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because they think:
"Eventually, we will be freed.

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How do we help accelerate that?"

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The night before D-Day,

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dozens of Allied agents are
dropped behind German lines

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to coordinate with groups
of the French resistance,

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so-called "Jedburgh teams."

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Three-man teams

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who parachute into occupied

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an American, a British,
and a French agent.

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They
bring weapons with them.

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They'd bring a radio set
so they could communicate.

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They coordinate activities,

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and they inform the groups
what the Allies are up to.

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The Jedburghs have an ultimate
goal, and that is to

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ease the invasion plan
for June, 1944.

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Once the Allies
land in June 6th,

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the resistance
becomes emboldened.

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But many pay a grievous
price for their courage.

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Germans, with the help
of French collaborators,

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hunt down anyone
assisting the Allies.

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The costs
of being in the resistance

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or around the resistance
are incredibly high.

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They could be
arrested and put in jail,

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they could be sent to
a labor camp, hung,

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oftentimes without trial
and in public

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as a deterrence
to everyone else.

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The Gestapo
carryout reprisals.

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"For every one of
our soldiers killed,

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we will kill 50
resistance fighters."

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Four days after the invasion,

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near the village of
Oradour-sur-Glane,

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the local resistance kills
an SS battalion commander.

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Nazi retribution is
swift and merciless.

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They take all the men and they

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shove them into
a bunch of barns,

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shoot them,
and set the barns on fire.

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They take all the
women and children

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and put them in a church

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and then burn the church
to the ground,

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shooting anyone
who tries to climb out.

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Collective vengeance
for the act of resistance.

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On July 25th,
the Americans launch

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a massive air and ground attack:

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Operation Cobra.

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After a month
and a half of combat

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among the hedgerows
of Normandy,

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the Allies now break through

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the German defensive perimeter.

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Paris is the center
of the German occupying force.

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But the Allies were not
super interested in Paris.

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Cities are an enormous
military problem.

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Do you go into Paris
knowing that you could

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end up fighting an urban battle
that you don't want to fight?

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The streets narrow
your ability to maneuver.

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So fighting inside a city
is nobody's idea

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of what you want to do.

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Of course, if you're French, the
situation is completely different.

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The French people are
thinking that the Allies are

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just a few hundred
kilometers from the city of Paris,

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and they believe
that Paris will be next

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in the great capitals of
Europe to be liberated

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from Nazi fascism.

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To the French, Paris
is not just the capital of France.

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It is the most important,
most symbolic city

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that you're going to liberate.

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And the man who thinks
he's going to take control

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of all of this is
Charles De Gaulle.

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Throughout the war,

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he builds up Free French
forces in London and in Africa.

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French soldiers
flock to his colors.

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And, by D-Day,
he has something of

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a Free French armed force.

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And De Gaulle is astonished
and appalled

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to hear that the Allies are not

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focusing on Paris
as a key objective.

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Paris is like the beating
heart of the French republic.

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There is no France
without Paris.

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And De Gaulle said,
"If you're not going, I'm going."

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Allied forces
advance across France

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to force the Wehrmacht's retreat
to the Rhine and beyond.

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Liberating Paris
from German occupation

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is not their main
strategic concern.

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But Parisians have other ideas.

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The problem
for Paris is that,

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when the Normandy invasion
happens,

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it cuts the city off from
its principal food supply.

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And the Germans are
trying to take everything

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that they can out of the city.

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So it's a very, very unstable,
very insecure place.

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And so there is the beginnings

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of popular uprising in Paris.

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A lot of that is being driven
by the communist resistance.

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De Gaulle is quite
keen to get to Paris,

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because what he doesn't
is Paris to

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become liberated by
the communist resistance.

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He does not want
to liberate France

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only for it to fall into
the hands of communism.

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To ensure that
French troops liberate Paris,

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General De Gaulle
requires the support

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of the Supreme
Allied Commander:

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General Dwight Eisenhower.

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De Gaulle
didn't have that many cards

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to play in 1944,

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but he played them
as skillfully as anybody.

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There is a French unit,
the Second Armored Division,

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controlled by General
Philippe Leclerc, that

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has been disobeying American
orders to get closer

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and closer and closer to
the city so that it could

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go into Paris if it had to.

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And so De Gaulle
became very aggressive about

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steering the Second
Armored Division toward the city.

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He gave General
Leclerc specific

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00:12:12,720 --> 00:12:15,000
instructions to, "No matter what
these Americans tell you,

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I need you to get to Paris."

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As Winston
Churchill would say,

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he tends to love to bite
the hand that feeds him.

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You have to give
him credit, though,

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for he has his eye on one thing,

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and that's a free France.

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Shortly after D-Day,
in coordination with

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their Western allies,
the Soviets throw

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00:12:38,520 --> 00:12:41,360
the massed might of the Red
Army against the Germans.

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00:12:43,080 --> 00:12:44,280
Operation Bagration is

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00:12:44,440 --> 00:12:46,000
the gigantic Soviet offensive

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00:12:46,160 --> 00:12:47,720
in summer of 1944.

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00:12:47,880 --> 00:12:49,160
Roughly timed to coincide

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00:12:49,320 --> 00:12:51,360
with the Allies
landing in Normandy.

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00:12:52,480 --> 00:12:55,400
It is just
a monstrous offensive.

257
00:12:55,560 --> 00:12:57,520
About two and a half million

258
00:12:57,680 --> 00:12:59,160
Soviets are thrown into battle.

259
00:12:59,320 --> 00:13:02,720
Half a million Germans are killed,
wounded, or captured.

260
00:13:04,360 --> 00:13:07,840
It erased an entire
German army group from the map,

261
00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:11,880
the entire central portion of
the German front in the east.

262
00:13:14,960 --> 00:13:17,720
Now the Soviet army
is moving in to Poland,

263
00:13:17,880 --> 00:13:19,960
and you've gotta remember that,
of course,

264
00:13:20,120 --> 00:13:22,440
Poland was the reason
the war started.

265
00:13:24,080 --> 00:13:27,840
In the fall of 1939,
Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin

266
00:13:28,000 --> 00:13:29,880
agreed to divide Poland.

267
00:13:31,040 --> 00:13:32,760
When Hitler took Poland,

268
00:13:32,920 --> 00:13:37,840
he treated it like the laboratory
for his racial ideas,

269
00:13:38,000 --> 00:13:41,520
his plans to annihilate
the Jewish people

270
00:13:41,680 --> 00:13:46,200
and to treat the
Eastern Slavic people

271
00:13:46,360 --> 00:13:50,120
as essentially a slave
race to work to death.

272
00:13:52,240 --> 00:13:55,800
Poland has been
stained in blood and killing,

273
00:13:55,960 --> 00:13:58,320
crushed beneath
the German jackboot,

274
00:13:58,480 --> 00:14:00,960
its soil watered with the blood of

275
00:14:01,120 --> 00:14:03,120
vast numbers of its
Jewish community.

276
00:14:05,160 --> 00:14:09,160
The Poles have been
living through hell for five years.

277
00:14:09,320 --> 00:14:11,960
If you're a resident of Warsaw,
you are one of the most

278
00:14:12,120 --> 00:14:13,880
unlucky people
ever to have lived.

279
00:14:17,480 --> 00:14:19,800
Throughout this
horror show that has been

280
00:14:19,960 --> 00:14:22,120
inflicted upon the Poles,
they have maintained

281
00:14:22,280 --> 00:14:25,480
a shadow government,
a kind of national cohesion.

282
00:14:25,640 --> 00:14:27,240
They have a government-in-exile
in London,

283
00:14:27,400 --> 00:14:30,040
and it is sending orders
to a home army,

284
00:14:30,200 --> 00:14:32,000
a sort of
secret army of underground

285
00:14:32,160 --> 00:14:34,400
resistance fighters in Poland.

286
00:14:36,080 --> 00:14:39,200
The Polish Home Army
was formed really

287
00:14:39,360 --> 00:14:41,520
immediately after
the Germans invaded.

288
00:14:41,680 --> 00:14:42,760
There was a real sense,

289
00:14:42,920 --> 00:14:44,560
in amongst the Polish community,

290
00:14:44,720 --> 00:14:46,880
and especially the young
people: "We're gonna fight."

291
00:14:47,040 --> 00:14:50,320
It was always set up as a
formal military organization.

292
00:14:50,480 --> 00:14:52,440
It wasn't just an ad hoc
bunch of partisans.

293
00:14:53,400 --> 00:14:55,920
They undertook intelligence
gatherings of troop movements.

294
00:14:56,080 --> 00:14:58,280
They gathered
information about the camps,

295
00:14:58,440 --> 00:15:00,360
about Auschwitz, and others.

296
00:15:01,720 --> 00:15:04,840
The Home Army is
led by a former cavalry officer

297
00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:07,680
who has been fighting
the Germans since 1939...

298
00:15:10,120 --> 00:15:12,640
General Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski.

299
00:15:16,840 --> 00:15:19,280
On July 29th, 1944,

300
00:15:19,440 --> 00:15:21,520
as the Allies are
slicing through France,

301
00:15:21,680 --> 00:15:25,120
the Soviets reach
the outskirts of Warsaw.

302
00:15:28,200 --> 00:15:30,120
The Polish Home Army
is waiting for the moment

303
00:15:30,280 --> 00:15:31,920
when the Germans
are about to retreat

304
00:15:32,080 --> 00:15:34,880
and just before
the Soviets arrive.

305
00:15:35,040 --> 00:15:36,720
Because that is the opportunity

306
00:15:36,880 --> 00:15:40,600
to reassert Polish independence,
the Polish state.

307
00:15:43,160 --> 00:15:44,760
They
wanted to prove to the world

308
00:15:44,920 --> 00:15:46,560
that they stood
on their own feet

309
00:15:46,720 --> 00:15:48,600
and that they fought to
liberate their own country.

310
00:15:48,760 --> 00:15:51,360
They don't want to give
up the Nazi dictatorship

311
00:15:51,520 --> 00:15:54,160
and just have it replaced
with a Soviet dictatorship.

312
00:15:56,640 --> 00:16:00,200
The Polish Home Army
and General Bór-Komorowski

313
00:16:00,360 --> 00:16:02,600
have long planned
for this moment.

314
00:16:04,520 --> 00:16:07,680
There are weapons caches,
command structures.

315
00:16:07,840 --> 00:16:09,960
There are instructions
coming from senior officers

316
00:16:10,120 --> 00:16:12,560
based in London.
There is a plan.

317
00:16:14,120 --> 00:16:16,800
Tens of thousands
of Home Army troops

318
00:16:16,960 --> 00:16:18,600
will go all over the city

319
00:16:18,760 --> 00:16:20,360
and go for the
most important things:

320
00:16:20,520 --> 00:16:21,880
the airports, the bridges,

321
00:16:22,040 --> 00:16:24,080
the main focal
points of Nazi power.

322
00:16:25,800 --> 00:16:28,680
It was a moment where
timing was everything.

323
00:16:28,840 --> 00:16:32,000
If they did it too soon,
the Germans would crush them.

324
00:16:32,160 --> 00:16:35,680
If they did it too late,
the Soviets would conquer them.

325
00:16:40,440 --> 00:16:41,720
The Red Army was coming.

326
00:16:41,880 --> 00:16:43,720
It looked as if there
was just this juggernaut

327
00:16:43,880 --> 00:16:46,200
that was gonna force
the Germans out of the city.

328
00:16:47,480 --> 00:16:50,320
Outside Warsaw,
the Germans regroup

329
00:16:50,480 --> 00:16:52,520
on the banks of the Vistula River.

330
00:16:53,600 --> 00:16:55,800
The Poles hear
the sounds of fighting,

331
00:16:55,960 --> 00:16:57,120
think the Red Army's gonna win,

332
00:16:57,280 --> 00:16:59,280
and they're about to
come into Warsaw.

333
00:17:00,360 --> 00:17:02,760
General Bór-Komorowski
gives the order

334
00:17:02,920 --> 00:17:04,880
to begin the uprising.

335
00:17:17,400 --> 00:17:19,360
The Poles have
been resisting the Germans

336
00:17:19,520 --> 00:17:21,040
for almost five years.

337
00:17:21,200 --> 00:17:24,160
Now, with the Soviets on
the other side of the Vistula,

338
00:17:24,320 --> 00:17:27,680
the Polish Home Army
seizes its opportunity.

339
00:17:27,840 --> 00:17:30,040
Because of the Red Army
coming so quickly

340
00:17:30,200 --> 00:17:31,680
up to the gates of Warsaw,

341
00:17:31,840 --> 00:17:35,320
General Bór-Komorowski gives
the order to start the uprising.

342
00:17:35,480 --> 00:17:37,840
The Polish Home Army
think this is the right moment.

343
00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:40,720
The Russians are approaching,
the Germans are clearly

344
00:17:40,880 --> 00:17:43,240
preparing to evacuate,
and the Poles

345
00:17:43,400 --> 00:17:46,400
appear out of the sewers,
out of the backstreets,

346
00:17:46,560 --> 00:17:49,960
out of the cellars, and
they raise the flag of rebellion.

347
00:17:52,080 --> 00:17:54,280
Civilians
are thrilled, they're jubilant.

348
00:17:54,440 --> 00:17:56,080
For the first time since 1939,

349
00:17:56,240 --> 00:17:57,680
they can sing
the national anthem.

350
00:17:57,840 --> 00:18:00,400
They push trams over,
they build barricades,

351
00:18:00,560 --> 00:18:02,240
and they make it very,
very difficult

352
00:18:02,400 --> 00:18:03,840
for the Germans to fight there.

353
00:18:05,160 --> 00:18:08,000
It's a heroic moment,
an exciting moment.

354
00:18:08,160 --> 00:18:11,600
Poland is rising like a phoenix
out of the ashes.

355
00:18:14,480 --> 00:18:17,120
But the attack does
not go as well as it was hoped.

356
00:18:17,280 --> 00:18:19,880
They do manage to
seize the Post Office,

357
00:18:20,040 --> 00:18:22,960
they manage to seize
an important German arsenal,

358
00:18:23,120 --> 00:18:25,040
but they don't manage
to secure the airportS.

359
00:18:25,200 --> 00:18:27,360
So it's up for grabs
by the end of that day.

360
00:18:27,520 --> 00:18:30,320
You get this sort of
twisted patchwork

361
00:18:30,480 --> 00:18:32,360
of Polish and German control,

362
00:18:32,520 --> 00:18:34,640
which ensures that
there is gonna be

363
00:18:34,800 --> 00:18:36,440
the mother of all street fights.

364
00:18:38,720 --> 00:18:40,880
The Polish Home Army
expected the Germans

365
00:18:41,040 --> 00:18:43,360
controlling Warsaw
to be in retreat.

366
00:18:47,120 --> 00:18:50,440
Instead, the Wehrmacht attacks
the Red Army at the Vistula...

367
00:18:51,600 --> 00:18:53,600
...and retains their
grip on Warsaw.

368
00:18:57,400 --> 00:18:59,640
Adolf Hitler meets
with Heinrich Himmler,

369
00:18:59,800 --> 00:19:02,200
head of the Nazi SS.

370
00:19:02,880 --> 00:19:05,720
On the night
of the 1st of August, 1944,

371
00:19:05,880 --> 00:19:07,520
Himmler goes up to
the Wolfsschanze,

372
00:19:07,680 --> 00:19:10,680
he sees Hitler,
and Hitler's raging around.

373
00:19:10,840 --> 00:19:13,280
And Himmler goes,
"You know, Mein Fuhrer,

374
00:19:13,440 --> 00:19:17,320
let's use this as a moment to
erase Warsaw from the map.

375
00:19:17,480 --> 00:19:19,920
Because this wretched city
has stood in our way

376
00:19:20,080 --> 00:19:22,200
of German expansion to
the East for hundreds of years.

377
00:19:22,360 --> 00:19:23,600
So let's just do it."

378
00:19:24,640 --> 00:19:27,800
So that evening, they give what's
called "the Order for Warsaw."

379
00:19:29,440 --> 00:19:31,080
The Germans have a plan to

380
00:19:31,240 --> 00:19:32,840
wipe Poland literally

381
00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:34,280
from the face of the Earth.

382
00:19:35,200 --> 00:19:37,480
One, you wanna send a message
to everybody else

383
00:19:37,640 --> 00:19:39,280
that this is
the cost of defying me.

384
00:19:39,440 --> 00:19:41,800
But the other reason is
you want to destroy Poland

385
00:19:41,960 --> 00:19:43,880
as a national identity.

386
00:19:45,600 --> 00:19:47,720
Every
combatant is to be killed.

387
00:19:47,880 --> 00:19:49,520
All men and women and children,

388
00:19:49,680 --> 00:19:50,920
civilians are to be killed.

389
00:19:51,080 --> 00:19:52,760
And then the city
is to be looted,

390
00:19:52,920 --> 00:19:55,760
and then "glattrasiert,"
that means razed to the ground.

391
00:20:00,160 --> 00:20:03,040
The Germans
poured in ruthless shock troops

392
00:20:03,200 --> 00:20:05,120
with the express purpose
of destroying them.

393
00:20:05,280 --> 00:20:08,760
The Home Army used up
their caches of weapons very fast.

394
00:20:11,680 --> 00:20:13,960
The Poles
think the Red Army is coming.

395
00:20:14,120 --> 00:20:16,120
The whole thing
depended upon the idea

396
00:20:16,280 --> 00:20:17,760
that Germans were either leaving

397
00:20:17,920 --> 00:20:19,440
or could not reinforce

398
00:20:19,600 --> 00:20:21,400
their existing troops within Warsaw.

399
00:20:22,280 --> 00:20:24,840
Neither of those two things
turned out to be true.

400
00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:26,240
The Germans weren't leaving

401
00:20:26,400 --> 00:20:28,400
and the Soviets weren't coming.

402
00:20:28,560 --> 00:20:30,600
Stalin says,
to everyone's surprise:

403
00:20:30,760 --> 00:20:32,480
"Halt the army."

404
00:20:33,600 --> 00:20:37,320
They can see across the river:
Warsaw is burning.

405
00:20:39,080 --> 00:20:41,360
Although the Soviets
are right across the river,

406
00:20:41,520 --> 00:20:43,880
they make no effort to support

407
00:20:44,040 --> 00:20:46,760
the resistance in its uprising
against the Germans.

408
00:20:46,920 --> 00:20:48,440
Rather, they sit across the river

409
00:20:48,600 --> 00:20:50,920
and watch the Germans
crush the uprising.

410
00:20:52,320 --> 00:20:53,840
Stalin
doesn't just do nothing;

411
00:20:54,000 --> 00:20:56,000
he actively interferes
with the Allies' attempt

412
00:20:56,160 --> 00:20:58,280
to help the Home Army,
the Polish uprising.

413
00:20:59,640 --> 00:21:01,760
From their air bases in Italy,

414
00:21:01,920 --> 00:21:06,040
the British and Americans try
to drop supplies to the Poles.

415
00:21:06,200 --> 00:21:08,000
Churchill asks permission:

416
00:21:08,160 --> 00:21:11,080
"Can Allied planes carrying supplies
use Soviet bases

417
00:21:11,240 --> 00:21:13,320
to refuel and carry out repairs?"

418
00:21:13,480 --> 00:21:15,120
Stalin says no.

419
00:21:15,920 --> 00:21:17,280
Stalin has always hated

420
00:21:17,440 --> 00:21:19,280
the Polish government in London,

421
00:21:19,440 --> 00:21:22,160
which he regards as bourgeois,
imperialist, capitalist.

422
00:21:22,320 --> 00:21:26,280
He has a small
Polish communist group.

423
00:21:26,440 --> 00:21:28,760
He is always planning
to parachute them

424
00:21:28,920 --> 00:21:30,160
in to Poland as his government.

425
00:21:31,120 --> 00:21:34,000
And so Stalin is
content to watch the Germans

426
00:21:34,160 --> 00:21:36,000
utterly destroy
the Polish Home Army,

427
00:21:36,160 --> 00:21:38,000
destroy the population of Warsaw,

428
00:21:38,160 --> 00:21:40,000
and destroy the city itself.

429
00:21:40,160 --> 00:21:42,320
Stalin
wants to conquer Poland,

430
00:21:42,480 --> 00:21:43,840
but he wants to make sure

431
00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:47,520
that it's then turned into
a communist vassal client state.

432
00:21:47,680 --> 00:21:50,920
He wants to wait
until the Nazis have

433
00:21:51,080 --> 00:21:52,880
destroyed the Polish underground

434
00:21:53,040 --> 00:21:55,000
before he enters Warsaw.

435
00:21:55,160 --> 00:21:57,240
Let them do his work for him.

436
00:21:59,800 --> 00:22:04,360
Hitler sends in his
most psychopathic crews

437
00:22:04,520 --> 00:22:08,280
of murderous, grotesque sadists.

438
00:22:10,080 --> 00:22:12,480
Some of them
are the most brutal murderers

439
00:22:12,640 --> 00:22:13,960
of the entire Nazi regime.

440
00:22:14,120 --> 00:22:15,440
Like Oskar Dirlewanger.

441
00:22:15,600 --> 00:22:17,080
Even the SS doesn't
wanna work with him.

442
00:22:18,440 --> 00:22:20,600
They go through
building after building,

443
00:22:20,760 --> 00:22:22,800
and they round these
people up by the thousands

444
00:22:22,960 --> 00:22:24,600
and then mow those people down.

445
00:22:26,320 --> 00:22:28,600
When 5,000,
6,000 bodies are lying there,

446
00:22:28,760 --> 00:22:30,960
then they bring in the
Verbrennungskommando,

447
00:22:31,120 --> 00:22:33,240
these burning commandos,
to burn the bodies,

448
00:22:33,400 --> 00:22:34,960
specialists from places
like Treblinka

449
00:22:35,120 --> 00:22:38,440
who've now become specialists
at burning human flesh.

450
00:22:40,280 --> 00:22:44,760
They loot the entire city
and then they destroy it.

451
00:22:44,920 --> 00:22:47,280
Building by building,
libraries,

452
00:22:47,440 --> 00:22:49,320
museums, everything is destroyed.

453
00:22:53,120 --> 00:22:56,720
The Polish Home Army
surrenders.

454
00:22:56,880 --> 00:23:01,440
General Bór-Komorowski
is imprisoned by the Nazis.

455
00:23:03,080 --> 00:23:04,760
By the end of
the Warsaw Uprising,

456
00:23:04,920 --> 00:23:07,720
about 200,000
civilians have been killed.

457
00:23:09,120 --> 00:23:10,920
Then the remaining population

458
00:23:11,080 --> 00:23:13,000
are sent to camps like Auschwitz.

459
00:23:13,320 --> 00:23:15,960
Some are sent as slave laborers
into the Reich.

460
00:23:16,120 --> 00:23:17,920
So the destruction of Warsaw is

461
00:23:18,080 --> 00:23:19,760
unique in the destruction of cities

462
00:23:19,920 --> 00:23:21,200
in the Second World War in Europe.

463
00:23:22,320 --> 00:23:24,280
In Warsaw, tragically,

464
00:23:24,440 --> 00:23:27,320
the Germans chose
to meet that desire

465
00:23:27,480 --> 00:23:31,120
for Polish independence
with overwhelming force...

466
00:23:32,680 --> 00:23:36,400
...To kill and smash
and eradicate Polish culture.

467
00:23:39,040 --> 00:23:41,560
To say, "No,
you will not liberate yourselves.

468
00:23:41,720 --> 00:23:44,000
In fact,
you have condemned yourselves."

469
00:23:50,680 --> 00:23:52,680
August, 1944.

470
00:23:52,840 --> 00:23:56,160
The Germans are in
full retreat across France.

471
00:23:57,600 --> 00:23:59,720
They begin to evacuate Paris.

472
00:24:00,840 --> 00:24:04,280
Parisians sense a chance
to recapture their city.

473
00:24:05,440 --> 00:24:07,520
But they need a spark.

474
00:24:07,680 --> 00:24:09,880
On the 15th of August,
the Parisian police,

475
00:24:10,040 --> 00:24:12,320
which was 20,000 strong
and had been

476
00:24:12,480 --> 00:24:14,560
collaborating with the Germans
up to that moment,

477
00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:16,680
actually switches sides

478
00:24:16,840 --> 00:24:19,000
and raises the flag
on their building,

479
00:24:19,160 --> 00:24:22,800
giving the sign to
the rest of the city

480
00:24:22,960 --> 00:24:24,240
and, of course,
to the partisans,

481
00:24:24,400 --> 00:24:27,280
that this was the moment
the uprising needed to start.

482
00:24:30,800 --> 00:24:34,240
And so the streets of
Paris become a battlefield.

483
00:24:37,760 --> 00:24:40,680
The French resistance has
been preparing for this moment

484
00:24:40,840 --> 00:24:42,480
for a very long time.

485
00:24:45,200 --> 00:24:47,600
And they act against
the Germans quite rapidly

486
00:24:47,760 --> 00:24:49,080
and quite successfully.

487
00:24:51,680 --> 00:24:53,160
As this happened,

488
00:24:53,320 --> 00:24:55,320
Charles De Gaulle shows up
to Supreme Allied Commander

489
00:24:55,480 --> 00:24:56,720
Eisenhower's headquarters

490
00:24:56,880 --> 00:24:59,080
and go, "We have
to march on Paris."

491
00:24:59,240 --> 00:25:01,360
The Allies
don't particularly like De Gaulle,

492
00:25:01,520 --> 00:25:04,520
but see De Gaulle as a bulwark
against communism.

493
00:25:04,680 --> 00:25:06,120
Eisenhower
is smart enough to know

494
00:25:06,280 --> 00:25:07,800
that it would look really,
really good

495
00:25:07,960 --> 00:25:10,640
if the first troops to enter
Paris were the Free French.

496
00:25:12,120 --> 00:25:15,040
Eisenhower decides
to allow the Free French forces

497
00:25:15,200 --> 00:25:17,080
to send one division into the city

498
00:25:17,240 --> 00:25:20,480
and to help the insurgents
to free the city.

499
00:25:22,040 --> 00:25:24,280
Supported by the
American Fourth Division,

500
00:25:24,440 --> 00:25:26,840
General De Gaulle
orders the French

501
00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:29,080
Second Armored Division into Paris.

502
00:25:30,520 --> 00:25:32,040
Toward the bitter end,

503
00:25:32,200 --> 00:25:33,760
Adolf Hitler
issues instructions

504
00:25:33,920 --> 00:25:36,160
to General von Choltitz,
who was in control of Paris,

505
00:25:36,320 --> 00:25:37,640
to destroy the city.

506
00:25:37,800 --> 00:25:39,800
Hitler, during a phone
call with von Choltitz,

507
00:25:39,960 --> 00:25:41,520
asks: "Is Paris burning?"

508
00:25:42,760 --> 00:25:44,520
And von Choltitz tells him:

509
00:25:44,680 --> 00:25:46,360
"Yes, my Fuhrer,
we burned the city."

510
00:25:51,040 --> 00:25:54,360
Instead,
he negotiates a surrender.

511
00:26:03,240 --> 00:26:04,960
It is the officers
and men of that

512
00:26:05,120 --> 00:26:08,520
Second French Armored
Division who first enter Paris.

513
00:26:14,080 --> 00:26:16,280
So De Gaulle can claim
that the French have

514
00:26:16,440 --> 00:26:17,560
liberated their own capital.

515
00:26:17,720 --> 00:26:19,760
And not just any old French,
not the communist French,

516
00:26:19,920 --> 00:26:21,840
not the resis...
HIS French army.

517
00:26:27,720 --> 00:26:29,640
He is the one
leading the parade

518
00:26:29,800 --> 00:26:31,320
through the streets of Paris,

519
00:26:31,480 --> 00:26:34,360
presenting himself as the legitimate
leader of the French government.

520
00:26:39,600 --> 00:26:41,560
Everyone in
the city has come out now

521
00:26:41,720 --> 00:26:44,640
because they feel that their
moment of liberation is on them.

522
00:26:53,960 --> 00:26:57,280
But there are still
German soldiers in Paris.

523
00:27:07,880 --> 00:27:09,840
General De
Gaulle walked straight ahead

524
00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:11,920
into what appeared to me
to be a hail of fire.

525
00:27:12,080 --> 00:27:14,720
But he went straight ahead
without hesitation,

526
00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:16,640
his shoulders flung back.

527
00:27:20,200 --> 00:27:23,000
Most Germans
have surrendered or fled.

528
00:27:23,160 --> 00:27:25,240
The last are tracked down,

529
00:27:25,400 --> 00:27:27,400
along with French collaborators.

530
00:27:50,160 --> 00:27:52,200
He presents
the liberation of Paris

531
00:27:52,360 --> 00:27:54,320
as a story of self-liberation,

532
00:27:54,480 --> 00:27:56,440
a Paris that was
able to free itself

533
00:27:56,600 --> 00:27:59,000
from the yoke of
the German occupation

534
00:27:59,160 --> 00:28:00,520
without the help of the Allies.

535
00:28:07,040 --> 00:28:08,560
However, let's say,

536
00:28:08,720 --> 00:28:10,120
the Allied presence in the region

537
00:28:10,280 --> 00:28:11,640
also played a major role in

538
00:28:11,800 --> 00:28:14,000
convincing the Germans
that it was time to go.

539
00:28:15,680 --> 00:28:17,400
France will
enter this post-war period

540
00:28:17,560 --> 00:28:19,360
with pride and with confidence.

541
00:28:19,520 --> 00:28:21,560
It's difficult to imagine
how that would've happened

542
00:28:21,720 --> 00:28:24,240
if not for the efforts of all
of the resistance groups

543
00:28:24,400 --> 00:28:26,280
that fought against
Nazi aggression.

544
00:28:33,680 --> 00:28:36,000
But, in Warsaw,
the outcome is different.

545
00:28:36,960 --> 00:28:39,720
The city is razed by the Nazis.

546
00:28:41,160 --> 00:28:43,160
And what remains is captured

547
00:28:43,320 --> 00:28:45,000
and controlled by the Soviets.

548
00:28:48,960 --> 00:28:52,040
Paris, the city of light,
is saved.

549
00:28:53,240 --> 00:28:56,160
Warsaw, and the hope of
the Polish people,

550
00:28:56,320 --> 00:28:58,120
is destroyed.

551
00:29:16,200 --> 00:29:18,760
Resistance is important

552
00:29:18,920 --> 00:29:20,480
for the people of a nation

553
00:29:20,640 --> 00:29:23,120
who do not want
to be subjugated.

554
00:29:24,400 --> 00:29:26,560
While the French and the Poles

555
00:29:26,720 --> 00:29:28,360
rise up against the Germans

556
00:29:28,520 --> 00:29:32,040
within the extermination
camps at Auschwitz and others,

557
00:29:32,200 --> 00:29:35,360
there is also this
spirit of resistance.

558
00:29:40,080 --> 00:29:42,720
The deliberate
killing of Jews by the Nazis

559
00:29:42,880 --> 00:29:45,240
began with bullets.

560
00:29:47,160 --> 00:29:48,840
Shortly after the Germans

561
00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:51,920
invaded the Soviet Union
in June, 1941...

562
00:29:53,480 --> 00:29:56,800
...they started to shoot Jewish
children, women, and men...

563
00:29:57,800 --> 00:30:00,640
...and bury them in
ravines and forests.

564
00:30:03,560 --> 00:30:05,800
But eventually the Nazis
required

565
00:30:05,960 --> 00:30:09,360
a more systematic method
of murder.

566
00:30:10,280 --> 00:30:12,080
There were tens of
thousands of the camps

567
00:30:12,240 --> 00:30:14,200
by the end of the war.
It's a huge infrastructure.

568
00:30:14,360 --> 00:30:17,800
But there were a very
small number of death camps

569
00:30:17,960 --> 00:30:19,920
within this enormous system.

570
00:30:20,080 --> 00:30:22,200
Six death camps.

571
00:30:22,360 --> 00:30:24,040
Chelmno,
which is the original death camp,

572
00:30:24,200 --> 00:30:26,520
Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka,

573
00:30:26,680 --> 00:30:28,120
and then Auschwitz-Birkenau

574
00:30:28,280 --> 00:30:29,720
and Majdanek.

575
00:30:31,520 --> 00:30:33,480
As the Red Army
pushes into Poland,

576
00:30:33,640 --> 00:30:36,680
the Nazis attempt to
hide their great crime

577
00:30:36,840 --> 00:30:39,520
by dismantling
the killing centers.

578
00:30:42,680 --> 00:30:43,960
They destroyed documents.

579
00:30:44,120 --> 00:30:45,720
They destroyed
the major death camps

580
00:30:45,880 --> 00:30:47,680
at Belzec, Sobibor,
and Treblinka.

581
00:30:47,840 --> 00:30:49,800
They get rid of the vast
majority of the buildings.

582
00:30:49,960 --> 00:30:51,320
They cover them over.

583
00:30:51,480 --> 00:30:52,800
They create farmhouses on the site

584
00:30:52,960 --> 00:30:54,480
to conceal everything
that they've done.

585
00:30:54,640 --> 00:30:56,840
And then as the camps
come into the path

586
00:30:57,000 --> 00:31:00,160
of invading Allied armies,
they evacuate them.

587
00:31:04,560 --> 00:31:06,560
At Auschwitz-Birkenau,
there are prisoners

588
00:31:06,720 --> 00:31:10,080
determined to
document the Nazi murders.

589
00:31:10,240 --> 00:31:12,320
The extermination
camp system

590
00:31:12,480 --> 00:31:14,640
includes the sorting of people.

591
00:31:14,800 --> 00:31:16,200
Some of them are left alive

592
00:31:16,360 --> 00:31:19,440
because they looked as if they
were young or fit or healthy enough.

593
00:31:19,600 --> 00:31:22,160
Those people work in something
called a Sonderkommando.

594
00:31:22,320 --> 00:31:25,480
They are supposed
to sort the clothing,

595
00:31:25,640 --> 00:31:27,800
sort the hair that's
been cut off people,

596
00:31:27,960 --> 00:31:30,360
to move the corpses,
all these terrible,

597
00:31:30,520 --> 00:31:32,200
terrible jobs
that they're given.

598
00:31:33,320 --> 00:31:35,200
In 1944 in
Auschwitz-Birkenau,

599
00:31:35,360 --> 00:31:36,800
members of the resistance movement

600
00:31:36,960 --> 00:31:39,040
manage to smuggle
a camera into the camp.

601
00:31:39,200 --> 00:31:41,520
The Sonderkommando,
who were witnessing

602
00:31:41,680 --> 00:31:43,200
all of these things
on a day-to-day basis,

603
00:31:43,360 --> 00:31:44,960
secure this camera,
and their ambition is to

604
00:31:45,120 --> 00:31:47,720
use this camera to
record images of

605
00:31:47,880 --> 00:31:49,600
what's happening within the camp

606
00:31:49,760 --> 00:31:52,920
in order for those pictures
to stir the world to respond.

607
00:31:54,040 --> 00:31:57,720
One prisoner
manages to photograph the horror.

608
00:32:05,640 --> 00:32:07,080
Four images of hell.

609
00:32:08,360 --> 00:32:10,800
The really
extraordinary thing about them

610
00:32:10,960 --> 00:32:12,960
is that the images
themselves are framed

611
00:32:13,120 --> 00:32:14,640
from within the doorway

612
00:32:14,800 --> 00:32:16,800
of the gas chamber building itself.

613
00:32:16,960 --> 00:32:20,080
So the images testify
to the bravery

614
00:32:20,240 --> 00:32:22,120
of what this man was doing

615
00:32:22,280 --> 00:32:24,560
and the appalling depravity

616
00:32:24,720 --> 00:32:26,920
of the process at that stage.

617
00:32:27,960 --> 00:32:29,840
And what we see
within these images

618
00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:33,480
are the burning of bodies
outside the crematoria.

619
00:32:35,040 --> 00:32:37,120
And we see people being undressed,

620
00:32:37,280 --> 00:32:39,160
waiting to be brought
into the gas chamber.

621
00:32:42,800 --> 00:32:45,320
The film is
put into a tube of toothpaste

622
00:32:45,480 --> 00:32:48,200
and then smuggled out
to the Polish Home Army.

623
00:32:49,640 --> 00:32:53,160
This is perhaps
the single most valuable

624
00:32:53,320 --> 00:32:56,120
photographic evidence
to emerge from Auschwitz.

625
00:32:59,560 --> 00:33:02,280
The Jews fought back from 1933

626
00:33:02,440 --> 00:33:03,680
to the end of the war.

627
00:33:03,840 --> 00:33:05,120
There are escapes.

628
00:33:05,280 --> 00:33:08,880
There are individual killings
of guards by prisoners.

629
00:33:09,040 --> 00:33:11,960
The Jews are fighting
back this entire time.

630
00:33:12,960 --> 00:33:15,560
Resistance is what
gives us testimony

631
00:33:15,720 --> 00:33:17,200
of what happened
in those places.

632
00:33:21,520 --> 00:33:23,520
In the fall of 1944,

633
00:33:23,680 --> 00:33:26,400
Nazi Germany is retreating
on all fronts...

634
00:33:26,560 --> 00:33:27,840
except one:

635
00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:30,200
their war against the Jews.

636
00:33:31,480 --> 00:33:35,080
Auschwitz-Birkenau
is now the front line.

637
00:33:38,160 --> 00:33:40,760
Killing Jews is not
a secondary by-product

638
00:33:40,920 --> 00:33:43,760
of their military goals:
It is their military goal.

639
00:33:46,120 --> 00:33:47,960
From Hitler's
perspective, it's worth

640
00:33:48,120 --> 00:33:49,760
apportioning resources to it

641
00:33:49,920 --> 00:33:52,080
despite what's
happening elsewhere.

642
00:33:52,240 --> 00:33:55,920
In fact, they accelerate
the process of mass murder.

643
00:33:57,440 --> 00:34:00,640
In 1944,
the Nazis decide to

644
00:34:00,800 --> 00:34:03,400
exterminate the Hungarian
Jewish population.

645
00:34:03,560 --> 00:34:06,440
So a special train line is
built into Auschwitz-Birkenau,

646
00:34:06,600 --> 00:34:08,360
and hundreds of thousands of

647
00:34:08,520 --> 00:34:10,240
Hungarian Jews are rounded up,

648
00:34:10,400 --> 00:34:11,760
and many of them are murdered

649
00:34:11,920 --> 00:34:14,680
within a few hours of
their arriving at the camp.

650
00:34:16,800 --> 00:34:19,720
1944 is
when Auschwitz hits

651
00:34:19,880 --> 00:34:22,640
its terrible, appalling peak

652
00:34:22,800 --> 00:34:25,520
in terms of the number
of people killed.

653
00:34:30,080 --> 00:34:32,720
Requests start to
come to the U.S. government

654
00:34:32,880 --> 00:34:35,360
to bomb either the rail lines,

655
00:34:35,520 --> 00:34:38,080
the gas chambers at Auschwitz,
the crematoria,

656
00:34:38,240 --> 00:34:41,320
the bridges leading
to these camps.

657
00:34:42,800 --> 00:34:44,960
The idea of
bombing death camps

658
00:34:45,120 --> 00:34:47,760
is difficult operationally
and it's difficult morally.

659
00:34:47,920 --> 00:34:49,400
You're going to kill the very people

660
00:34:49,560 --> 00:34:51,000
that you're trying to rescue.

661
00:34:53,080 --> 00:34:55,400
Churchill and
Roosevelt's perspective:

662
00:34:55,560 --> 00:34:57,920
humanitarian concerns
were always secondary

663
00:34:58,080 --> 00:34:59,760
to winning the war.
They would say:

664
00:34:59,920 --> 00:35:02,320
"The best thing that we
can do to help these people

665
00:35:02,480 --> 00:35:05,840
is to bring the war to an
end as quickly as possible."

666
00:35:07,680 --> 00:35:10,160
Prisoners at
Auschwitz-Birkenau cannot

667
00:35:10,320 --> 00:35:12,080
afford to wait for the war to end.

668
00:35:12,240 --> 00:35:15,680
They want to survive,
they want to escape,

669
00:35:15,840 --> 00:35:19,120
and they want to
stop the killing.

670
00:35:24,640 --> 00:35:26,440
From the beginning,
there has been

671
00:35:26,600 --> 00:35:29,560
an underground of resistance
at Auschwitz-Birkenau

672
00:35:29,720 --> 00:35:32,240
made up of various
groups of prisoners,

673
00:35:32,400 --> 00:35:34,080
including the Sonderkommando.

674
00:35:35,360 --> 00:35:37,480
The Sonderkommando
starts to realize that

675
00:35:37,640 --> 00:35:39,440
there are fewer and fewer
of these transports

676
00:35:39,600 --> 00:35:40,960
coming from Hungary.

677
00:35:41,120 --> 00:35:44,920
"The extermination process is
finishing; our time is coming,

678
00:35:45,080 --> 00:35:47,240
and if we don't act quickly,
we're going to be killed."

679
00:35:48,600 --> 00:35:51,360
So they started to
look at ways they could resist.

680
00:35:51,520 --> 00:35:53,200
They might die trying,

681
00:35:53,360 --> 00:35:54,480
there's a very good chance

682
00:35:54,640 --> 00:35:55,720
that they'll die trying, but

683
00:35:55,880 --> 00:35:57,760
at least they can
give themselves a chance.

684
00:35:57,920 --> 00:36:00,480
Because they're determined
to do whatever they can

685
00:36:00,640 --> 00:36:03,120
to meet the moment
on their own terms.

686
00:36:04,400 --> 00:36:06,280
Auschwitz is
a death camp,

687
00:36:06,440 --> 00:36:09,360
and it's also a forced
labor facility.

688
00:36:09,520 --> 00:36:11,600
And so there were women

689
00:36:11,760 --> 00:36:13,200
who were working in the armaments

690
00:36:13,360 --> 00:36:14,600
factories nearby Auschwitz

691
00:36:14,760 --> 00:36:17,320
who had access to gunpowder.

692
00:36:18,760 --> 00:36:20,000
One member
of the underground

693
00:36:20,160 --> 00:36:22,840
is part of a slave labor unit
that sorts the clothing

694
00:36:23,000 --> 00:36:25,280
of the dead: Roza Robota.

695
00:36:25,440 --> 00:36:27,440
She makes contact
with the Sonderkommando.

696
00:36:27,600 --> 00:36:30,320
They form a plan to
destroy the crematoria,

697
00:36:30,480 --> 00:36:32,800
provoke a wider uprising,

698
00:36:32,960 --> 00:36:34,480
and attempt to escape.

699
00:36:35,840 --> 00:36:38,040
Robota enlists Jewish women

700
00:36:38,200 --> 00:36:41,160
working in the munitions factory
to smuggle gunpowder:

701
00:36:42,040 --> 00:36:43,240
Ala Gertner,

702
00:36:43,400 --> 00:36:45,040
Regina Safirsztajn,

703
00:36:45,200 --> 00:36:46,560
and Esther Wajcblum.

704
00:36:46,720 --> 00:36:49,520
So they secured these
explosives at enormous risk,

705
00:36:49,680 --> 00:36:50,960
and they're smuggling
them through

706
00:36:51,120 --> 00:36:53,920
various kind of ingenious means.
They create little packets of

707
00:36:54,080 --> 00:36:56,840
fabric that they hide them in,
and they get them through.

708
00:36:58,320 --> 00:37:00,120
The women
are collecting the gunpowder

709
00:37:00,280 --> 00:37:02,120
to hand them off
to their friend Roza.

710
00:37:02,280 --> 00:37:03,760
She is going to
get the gunpowder

711
00:37:03,920 --> 00:37:05,560
into the hands of the
Sonderkommando,

712
00:37:05,720 --> 00:37:07,640
who are going to
use it to try to blow up

713
00:37:07,800 --> 00:37:09,240
the crematoria
where they're working.

714
00:37:11,920 --> 00:37:14,520
At a certain moment,
an individual takes

715
00:37:14,680 --> 00:37:17,320
an improvised weapon and
launches at a member of the SS,

716
00:37:17,480 --> 00:37:19,400
and that kick-starts
the whole thing.

717
00:37:22,040 --> 00:37:24,480
There's smoke,
there's noise, there's shouting,

718
00:37:24,640 --> 00:37:26,120
and there's gunfire.

719
00:37:29,120 --> 00:37:32,640
The resistors
end up blowing up, in part,

720
00:37:32,800 --> 00:37:35,080
one of the crematoria,
Crematoria IV.

721
00:37:36,480 --> 00:37:38,360
It's put permanently
out of commission.

722
00:37:38,520 --> 00:37:40,120
So the Sonderkommando
would've considered

723
00:37:40,280 --> 00:37:41,560
that to be a success.

724
00:37:42,640 --> 00:37:44,840
And in another crematory building,
the Sonderkommando

725
00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:48,720
force some the guards
into one of the ovens alive.

726
00:37:52,240 --> 00:37:54,200
Some prisoners escape,

727
00:37:54,360 --> 00:37:56,520
but are quickly
caught and executed.

728
00:37:59,760 --> 00:38:01,640
The three
women who have been

729
00:38:01,800 --> 00:38:03,320
stealing the gunpowder,

730
00:38:03,480 --> 00:38:06,200
plus Roza Robota
are to be hanged.,

731
00:38:07,120 --> 00:38:09,360
And just as the noose
is put around her neck,

732
00:38:09,520 --> 00:38:13,800
she yells out to the group
of prisoners assembled:

733
00:38:15,280 --> 00:38:18,360
"Vengeance,"
or, "Sisters, avenge."

734
00:38:19,680 --> 00:38:23,080
It is a passionate message
of resilience, resistance,

735
00:38:23,240 --> 00:38:25,080
and continue the fight.

736
00:38:28,080 --> 00:38:30,400
In December,
the Red Army advances

737
00:38:30,560 --> 00:38:32,360
on Auschwitz-Birkenau.

738
00:38:35,720 --> 00:38:39,560
The SS forced prisoners
on marches into Germany.

739
00:38:42,120 --> 00:38:44,280
Thousands die.

740
00:38:47,960 --> 00:38:50,840
On January 27th, 1945,

741
00:38:51,000 --> 00:38:55,480
Soviet soldiers arrive at the
gates of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

742
00:38:57,360 --> 00:39:00,400
Auschwitz
really became the center

743
00:39:00,560 --> 00:39:03,480
of the mass murder of Europe's
Jews quite late in the war.

744
00:39:03,640 --> 00:39:07,160
The important thing to
know is that 80%

745
00:39:07,320 --> 00:39:08,640
of the Jews murdered
in the Holocaust

746
00:39:08,800 --> 00:39:10,320
were not murdered at Auschwitz,

747
00:39:10,480 --> 00:39:12,360
but elsewhere in places
that are either

748
00:39:12,520 --> 00:39:14,600
forgotten or largely overlooked.

749
00:39:19,520 --> 00:39:21,560
The Nazis
and their collaborators

750
00:39:21,720 --> 00:39:24,240
murder six million Jews
during the war.

751
00:39:25,560 --> 00:39:28,840
Millions of others
die at their hands.

752
00:39:31,240 --> 00:39:33,800
But in the face of
unimaginable conditions

753
00:39:33,960 --> 00:39:36,280
and inconceivable cruelty...

754
00:39:39,240 --> 00:39:42,120
...some find a way to resist.

755
00:39:43,240 --> 00:39:45,440
Resistance
takes so many forms.

756
00:39:45,600 --> 00:39:47,800
There's armed
resistance and uprising,

757
00:39:47,960 --> 00:39:50,280
and that happens
throughout Europe.

758
00:39:50,440 --> 00:39:52,560
There is spiritual resistance.

759
00:39:52,720 --> 00:39:55,080
Just the idea that
you are not going to die

760
00:39:55,240 --> 00:39:56,680
just because
the Nazis want you to,

761
00:39:56,840 --> 00:39:58,040
you are going to try to survive.

762
00:39:58,200 --> 00:39:59,880
You are going to document

763
00:40:00,040 --> 00:40:02,240
what is happening,
write letters, write diaries,

764
00:40:02,400 --> 00:40:03,920
bury them in the ground

765
00:40:04,080 --> 00:40:06,320
so that someday we will be able to

766
00:40:06,480 --> 00:40:08,120
talk about what
you went through.

767
00:40:10,840 --> 00:40:13,880
The nature of tyranny
becomes evident in World War II.

768
00:40:14,040 --> 00:40:15,320
The Nazis and the Japanese

769
00:40:15,480 --> 00:40:18,000
imperialists
are invading their neighbors,

770
00:40:18,160 --> 00:40:19,840
kidnapping, slave laborers,

771
00:40:20,000 --> 00:40:21,840
murdering those
who disagree with them.

772
00:40:22,840 --> 00:40:24,400
It was a natural reaction

773
00:40:24,560 --> 00:40:26,400
on the part of
the occupied peoples

774
00:40:26,560 --> 00:40:29,080
to organize some
form of resistance.

775
00:40:29,240 --> 00:40:32,000
And it happens
all over the world in World War II.

776
00:40:35,360 --> 00:40:38,080
After surviving
Auschwitz and Buchenwald,

777
00:40:38,240 --> 00:40:40,880
Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel said:

778
00:40:41,040 --> 00:40:43,320
"We must always take sides.

779
00:40:43,480 --> 00:40:46,520
Neutrality helps the oppressor,
never the victim.

780
00:40:46,680 --> 00:40:49,080
Silence encourages the tormentor,

781
00:40:49,240 --> 00:40:50,960
never the tormented.

782
00:40:51,120 --> 00:40:53,800
Sometimes we must interfere."

783
00:40:54,720 --> 00:40:57,960
In the Pacific, President
Franklin Roosevelt,

784
00:40:58,120 --> 00:41:00,760
General Douglas MacArthur,
and Admiral Chester Nimitz

785
00:41:00,920 --> 00:41:04,440
meet in Pearl Harbor to draw
a plan for the final defeat

786
00:41:04,600 --> 00:41:07,126
- of Imperial Japan.
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