Original subtitles

Subtitles Edited By: .: Pedyspider :.

>> narrator: it was 1938.

This footage, never before seen,

Was shot by an american family

Vacationing in germany.

Their home movie captured the

Glory of hitler's third reich.

One nation.

One people.

United behind one leader.

And poised to conquer the world.

>> woman: no longer does a german

Need to be ashamed to be german.

We once again have our honor.

>> narrator: but in the end,

The third reich would bring

Every german eternal shame.

>> man: you mark my words...

If we are defeated...

We will be given no quarter.

We will be starved to death

Or butchered.

That will be the fate of every german...

Whether he is a nazi or not.

>> narrator: these are their words...

Their films.

This is the fall...

Of the third reich.

It was september of 1938.

For weeks, germans like else klamroth

And her family

Have lived under the threat of war.

At the time of her daughter

Wibke's birth, hitler demanded

That a portion of czechoslovakia

Be returned to germany.

Instead of fighting,

On september 29, the european

Powers gave it to him.

Now, wibke's father wouldn't be

Going to war after all.

>> klamroth: hitler has won a

Massive victory without a battle.

Faith and admiration of our

Great fuhrer have strengthened

And deepened even when i thought

That was no longer possible.

>>ebermayer: nobody wants war.

Everyone is doing so well.

We're earning money!

We have a car...

A refrigerator...

A record player.

What is the point of war?

>> man: "do you remember germany

In the days before adolf hitler?

Tens of thousands of factories

Had closed their gates.

Millions of workers lost their jobs.

Now the nations around us look

With amazement when they see the

Unprecedented economic growth

That has occurred in germany

Over the past five years.

The german miracle.

>> narrator: the miracle was

Being financed in part by land

And raw material stolen from

Other countries.

But if you were german, what

Mattered to you was that there

Was regular work and even

State-subsidized leisure.

>> woman: it was our first real holiday.

Six meals a day; lots of courses at lunch

Served by uniformed waiters.

There was music, dancing,

New films and lectures.

Before only the rich could do that.

>> narrator: but not everyone

Experienced the german miracle.

This cruise liner, the st. louis,

Took workers and nazi

Party leaders on excursions to

Italy, norway and the west indies.

Soon, the st. louis would take

Another group of germans on a

Very different kind of voyage.

On november 9, the nazis

Unleashed a 2-day orgy of

Violence on jewish businesses,

Places of worship and jews themselves.

This is one of the few existing

Films of what came to be known

As kristallnacht,

Or 'night of broken glass.'

Here in the town of buehl,

Firemen are seen ignoring the

Burning synagogue and working

Instead to save the aryan homes

And businesses next door.

Meanwhile, the residents of

Buehl stand and watch.

>> fritzch: today, the morning

After, i watched my fellow

Passengers on the train.

Only a few people looked up out

The window to see the burning

Synagogues.

>> friedrich: everyone's

Expression seems somehow to be

Asking forgiveness.

But if everyone is ashamed,

Who smashed those windows?

>> narrator: in may of 1939,

The st. louis sailed from germany

With nearly 1,000 jewish refugees.

3 weeks later, they were turned away

By cuba, the united states and canada.

The st. louis returned to europe.

Within the year, most of its

Passengers would once again be

Under nazi rule.

>> narrator: it was the 20th of april, 1939--

In berlin.

Hitler's 50th birthday.

And this would be the biggest

Birthday celebration in the

History of mankind.

The spectacle here was rivaled

Only by the passion

Of the fuhrer's followers.

>> reck-malleczewen: i witnessed

The festivities.

I heard the clamor...

Saw the enraptured faces of the women.

Through it all, this moronic

Roar of "heil!"

Hysterical females, adolescents

In a trance, an entire people in

The spiritual state of whirling dervishes.

These people...

Are insane.

>> woman: dear fuehrer...

I wish you for the completion

Of your 50th year of life,

God's greatest blessing.

I have never been among those

Who write letters.

But now, the constant thought--i

Should be the fuehrer's wife.

>> girl: i want to give

Uncle hitler something

On his birthday.

But i don't have anything.

Mommy had to write this since

I'm only 4 years old.

>> narrator: it was the summer of 1939.

Here in a small town near

Chemnitz, the wuestner family

Was filming their son konrad and

His little brother in their garden.

The title card here reads,

"konrad wants to go to the party

Rally in nuremberg."

300 miles away, this hitler

Youth troop was filming their

Bike trip to the polish border.

It's likely that they, too, were

Looking forward to the annual

Party rally.

But within days of this trip.

Hitler canceled it.

This year's theme would have

Been "rally of peace."

Instead, germany would wage war

Directly across this border.

During the summer of 1939,

If you went to the movies

In germany, you would have seen

Propaganda films like this:

(man speaking german)

The nazis claimed that the poles

Were terrorizing ethnic germans

Near the border.

In truth, 21 of these attacks

Had been staged by the nazis themselves,

To justify war.

(radio tuning)

>> male reporter: we interrupt

This broadcast...

(crowd cheering)

The fuhrer, who has just arrived

To address the reichstag,

Which has been called in

Extraordinary session...

(man shouting in german)

(radio) ...for the first time this

Evening has shot at regular

Soldiers upon our territory.

(man shouting in german)

(radio) for from now on,

Bomb will be met by bomb.

(crowd chanting)

If you were german, you knew

That this, finally, would mean

War with england and france.

Another world war.

But you may have also believed,

Like hans georg klamroth, that

You had no choice but to defend

German blood and german honor.

>> klamroth: dear else, if i

Survive these hours, i shall

Certainly think of them every day.

It would be a pity if were to die,

And sad for you and the children.

But what are we compared to the

Greatness of destiny?

(train whistle)

>> narrator: it was september 4, 1939...

The third day of germany's

Assault on poland.

But that morning, across germany,

People awoke to an enemy threat

In their own backyards.

(airplane taking off)

Some time in the night,

British bombers had flown into

German airspace and dropped 13 tons

Of propaganda leaflets on the

People below.

(whistle)

>> man: warning!

From england to the german people:

The truth has been withheld from you.

You cannot win this war.

We will not relent.

Pass this leaflet on.

>> narrator: meanwhile, in poland,

German bombers were

Leveling cities.

Warsaw, poland.

American filmmaker julian bryan

Was the last western journalist

Left in the city during the

Nazis' siege.

He would later smuggle this film

Out of the country.

>> bryan: one day, i had a

Chance to take pictures of 20

Or more german soldiers.

I asked them why they were

Inflicting such terrible

Tortures upon the polish people.

they answered as one, "wir

mussen."

"we must."

>> narrator: the german onslaught

Lasted for 18 days,

Before poland finally surrendered.

From warsaw, hans georg klamroth

Wrote his wife...

>> klamroth: shocking destruction

Of the city.

If they had surrendered sooner,

It wouldn't have happened.

But the poles are very proud,

They hate us, and i can't blame them.

(metal clanking)

At any rate, we're grateful that

The war hasn't come to our

Country, and i hope it never will.

(men singing in german)

>> man: and now for england.

I haven't the slightest idea of

What will happen to me.

This much i do know--

Germany will prevail.

Even if europe has to be turned

Into ruins and ashes.

We are the children of the gods,

And they are most merciful.

>> narrator: it was june 1940.

In only six weeks, germany

Had conquered the netherlands,

Norway, denmark, and belgium.

>> fuchs: dear madi, it is wonderful

What our soldiers are achieving.

Today, we can be proud to be

German sons and daughters.

Love, karl.

>> narrator: but as the nazis

Spread through europe, so did

Stories of their atrocities.

Slave labor.

Deportations.

Massacres.

It was reported that storks

Migrating from holland to

South africa had messages taped to

Their legs reading, "help us:

The nazis are killing us all."

By mid-june, germany had also

Conquered france.

(woman singing in german)

Across europe, german troops

Like these enjoyed the spoils of

Their success.

Some, like walter lenger, filmed them.

Others, like karl fuchs,

Wrote home about them.

>> fuchs: dear mother, i've seen

Quite a bit of france so far.

But again and again i say to myself,

There's nowhere as beautiful

And clean as our great

German fatherland.

Yours, karl.

>> narrator: from the occupied countries,

German troops shipped home

Wines, cheeses, paintings

And jewelry.

From poland...

They shipped home

People...

To be used as slaves.

>> man: germans: the pole must

Never be your comrade.

He is inferior to each german,

On his farm or in his factory.

(pig squeals)

Be just, but never forget that you

Are a member of the master race.

(woman singing in german)

>> wolff-monckenberg: is it possible

That one can get used to war?

We still have our comforts and warmth.

We have enough to eat.

And occasionally, we even have

Hot water.

>> sievert: when i think how

Terrified we were of air raids

Before the war,

You could almost call them harmless.

War is not so bad if it goes on

Like this.

>> narrator: but it would not go

On like this for long.

The fall of the third reich

Would begin in the east.

(radio crackling)

(men singing on radio)

>> dolker-rehder: by chance, my husband

Turns the radio on this morning.

We are at war with russia.

(shell whistles, explodes)

>> narrator: it was the 22nd of june, 1941,

And 3 million german troops

Were invading the soviet union.

>> dolker-rehder: it's the seventh conflict

In one-and-a-half years...

Poland, norway,

Holland, belgium, france,

Africa, yugoslavia, greece.

Well, our people are so patient

And strong.

We're now taking on russia as well.

No one doubts

That we will win there, too.

>> narrator: wilhelm bleitner

Filmed this footage of his

Unit, the 29th infantry division,

And their march toward

The soviet city of stalingrad.

He and his comrades expected

That the soviet union would

Surrender in less than 5 months.

>> fuchs: dearly beloved madi,

Today was a day of pride

For us all.

Victoriously, we marched

Into lithuania.

Yesterday i knocked off

A russian tank.

If i get in another attack,

I'll receive my first battle stripes.

War is half as bad as it sounds,

And one thing is plain as day...

All of us believe in an early victory.

Yours, karl.

(men singing in german)

>> reinhardt: dear mrs. fuchs,

I have the sad duty to inform you

That karl was killed

On the field of battle.

I hope it will be a small

Consolation for you, when i tell

You that he gave his life

So that our fatherland may live.

Signed, lieutenant reinhardt,

Company commander.

>> narrator: 5 days after karl fuch's death,

Wilhelm bleitner filmed this scene

Somewhere along the eastern front.

The sign reads: "these beasts

Of russian regiment 239,

Mutilated and killed

Already-wounded german soldiers."

Karl fuchs died knowing only the

Glory of the third reich.

Not what would follow.

>> narrator: it was summer, 1941...

And these german troops were

Among the 3 million spreading east

Across the soviet union.

(marching band playing)

(locomotive whistle blows)

(men singing in german)

In letters home and on film,

They documented triumph after triumph.

>> reese: our destiny is pushing us.

There is nothing but victorious

Encirclements, advances,

And extraordinary numbers

Of captives and booty from

The russian campaign.

Our victory is never in doubt.

>> narrator: some of the men who

Brought their cameras

Also documented something else.

The films you are about to see

Depict violence and murder.

Viewer discretion is advised.

(indistinct german voices, laughter)

This home movie shows germans

Stationed in the east...

Enjoying their time on leave.

The rest of the film on this

Reel was shot in zolochiv, ukraine.

Here, those same germans oversaw

The extermination of 3 to 4

Thousand jews.

This is libau, latvia.

An off-duty german naval officer

Stationed near here filmed these

Jews being led to a trench

Outside of town.

(gunshot)

The killings continued until the

Trench was full.

And then another trench was dug.

>> kretschner: beloved wife,

Dear children...

You needn't worry that we are

Living badly here.

We have to eat and drink well

Because of the nature of our work.

I do not want to write about it

Any further.

It would only make your heart heavy,

Needlessly.

>> narrator: this footage was

Filmed by a german soldier,

Home on leave

From the eastern front.

Family members who had served there

Rarely talked about what they had seen

And done in the east.

But willy reese, a 21-year-old soldier,

Wrote this when he returned

To germany:

>> reese: marched into russia.

Murdered the jews.

Strangled the women.

Killed the children.

Everyone knows what we bring.

>> narrator: it was the spring of 1942.

And if you were german, life

During wartime wasn't much

Different than life before.

(woman singing in german)

But that was about to change.

>> fischer: above, in front, behind,

Hell has broken loose.

>> narrator: there had been air raids before,

But not like this.

From his bedroom window,

Peter fischer filmed as 1,000 british

Bombers laid siege to cologne.

It was the largest air raid

Of the war to date.

The next day, fischer had to

Hide his camera to film the

Devastation of his city.

Documenting scenes like these

Was outlawed by the nazis.

>> fischer: men, women and children

Lie dead under these ruins.

The first of them are now being

Recovered and laid out

On the sidewalks.

>> narrator: but cologne

Was only the beginning.

By now, the united states

Had joined england

In the war against germany.

Days later, the allies followed

The cologne air raid

With another run.

This time, they dropped tens of

Thousands of warning leaflets

Over german towns.

>> man: we are bombing germany

City by city and ever more terribly,

To make it impossible for you

To go on with the war.

Let the nazis drag you down to

Disaster with them, if you will.

That is for you to decide.

We are coming by day and by night.

>> narrator: it was june of 1942.

If you were one of the 45,000 germans

Made homeless by the

Allied air raids on cologne,

You would have been processed here,

In this refugee center

Outside the city.

You'd be given food, medical

Treatment, and a shower.

You might also receive personal

Items left behind by jews

Who had been your neighbors.

The same week that the nazis

Were caring for the people in

This refugee camp, the world

First learned about other german

Camps in eastern europe.

There, hundreds of thousands of

Jews were being systematically

Exterminated.

(locomotive whistle blows)

>> man: my mother saw the jews

Transported from the station.

Their baggage was loaded

Separately into a freight train.

But when the train with the people left,

The freight car with the baggage

Stayed there.

It didn't go with them.

(children laughing and shouting)

(choir singing: "o tannenbaum")

>> narrator: it was the holiday season, 1942.

Joseph eckstaller filmed his

Children, franz and liesl,

Decorating the christmas tree.

(woman singing in german)

Christmas came with sacrifice

This year.

Food rations had been tightened.

Butter, meat, sugar and coffee

Were replaced with imitation foods...

Some made with potato meal or

Wood pulp.

But for german troops in the east,

It was much, much worse.

(men shouting, distant gunfire & horns)

>> groscurth: all the horses have been eaten.

In the tenth year

Of our glorious reich,

We are standing before

One of the greatest

Catastrophes in history.

(whistle of shell)

>> narrator: for 6 months,

The germans had been fighting

The red army for control of

The soviet city of stalingrad.

(shells whistling, explosions)

(rumble and squeak of track vehicle)

(explosion)

(boom of artillery)

By december, the soviets had

Surrounded the german troops...

And severed their supply lines.

(whistle of falling bombs)

At home, germans were told that

Their soldiers would rather die

Than surrender.

(choir singing "stille nacht"...)

>> clark: at the moment, heroic battles

Are taking place near stalingrad.

Our 6th army is surrounded there.

Will they have time to shoot themselves

At the last moment?

("stille nacht" ends)

>> narrator: on christmas day alone,

1,280 german soldiers

Died in stalingrad.

Five weeks later, germans heard

This broadcast:

(static)

(man speaking german)

In truth, 91,000 german soldiers

Had surrendered against hitler's orders.

86,000 of these men would die.

And the rest would not return to germany,

Until 1955.

After stalingrad,

The germans began to doubt

The nazis' promise of total victory.

Only a few suspected their true fate...

Total defeat.

>> narrator: it was the spring of 1943.

This propaganda film series was

Produced to celebrate the third reich

At the height of its

Dominance in europe.

(airplane engine)

(heroic music)

But if you were german,

Your life looked nothing like this.

(bomb whistle)

(multiple bomb whistles)

(people shouting in distance)

(shoveling and sound of elephant lowing)

(bomb whistle)

The berlin zoo was only one of

The city's bombing casualties.

In 1943, the allies increased

The tonnage of bombs they

Dropped on germany

25 times.

(whistle of bomb)

The british bombed by night.

The americans, in broad daylight.

(bombs whistling)

(piano, and bombs whistling)

(explosion)

(airplane engines)

(melancholy song in german)

>> mockneberg: sirens...

Anti-aircraft guns...

Long lists of the fallen...

Gas and murder...

Mud and ice...

Human beings burned alive...

And charred corpses...

And yet, we are told of a

Golden future and final victory.

(woman singing operatically)

>> narrator: but most now realized,

No matter what the nazis promised,

They were going to lose the war.

(lively music playing)

And so many began behaving

Like they had nothing to lose.

(ocean waves)

(marine motor)

(diving fighter)

(klaxon and indistinct voices)

>> fromke: it's impossible.

There can't be that many ships

In the world.

(series of booms)

>> narrator: here in the outskirts

Of berlin...

These teenagers fled the war and

The ruins of the city,

For a moment in the sun.

600 miles away,

The largest invasion

In the history of the world

Was underway.

Like everyone else in germany,

These teenagers would soon be

At the mercy

Of the approaching allies.

But they were about to find out

That not all of germany's enemies

Would be...merciful.

(indistinct voices)

(dramatic music)

(man speaking german)

In this newsreel,

The nazis claimed that here,

In the german village of nemmersdorf,

62 women and young girls were raped,

And murdered,

By the red army.

If you were german,

You knew now what to expect...

When the red army

Reached your doorstep.

>> man: the hour of revenge

Has struck.

Do not count days.

Do not count miles.

Count only the number of germans

You have killed.

Kill the german.

This is the cry of your russian earth.

Kill the german.

>> narrator: august, 1944.

This is hans georg klamroth.

These are his home movies.

He was an officer, a husband,

And a father.

And for ten years, hanz georg

Was also a loyal nazi.

But as the war dragged on,

He'd become convinced that hitler

Was leading germany to its doom.

And so, in the summer of 1944,

When he learned of a plot

To assassinate the fuhrer,

He told no one.

Hans georg klamroth

Was sentenced to death

By hanging.

He wrote his wife:

"teach the children to pray.

I know now what it means."

Hours later,

As he slowly strangled to death,

His pants were pulled down

Around his ankles--for hitler's cameras.

His family took one small comfort...

That he did not live to see

What would become of germany.

(airplane engine)

It was the early fall of 1944...

And the allies were now closing in...

On germany.

(planes flying overhead)

(distant gunfire)

In the east, there was chaos.

Millions of terrified german civilians

Fled from their homes

Ahead of the advancing red army.

>> woman: we took as many of

Our belongings as possible...

And found our way out of town

Amidst a headless mass

Of fleeing people.

Behind us, the town was in flames.

>> narrator: evacuation plans

For german civilians were...

Inadequate, at best.

Hitler expected his people

To stand their ground

And fight to the death

For the fatherland.

The country's last line

Of defense would be

Little boys and old men.

(german march playing)

(man speaking german)

The recruitment age would soon

Be lowered to 13.

March 22, 1945.

Allied ground troops were only

Weeks from germany's capital.

Hitler made his final appearance

On film.

>> schwanenfluegel: the radio announced

That hitler had come

Out of his safe,

Bomb-proof bunker

To talk with the boys

Who had 'volunteered'

To die for their fuhrer

In defense of berlin.

What a cruel lie.

These boys had no choice.

Boys who are found hiding

Are hanged as traitors

As a warning to the others.

>> narrator: 300 miles west,

American troops were taking

Friedrich kellner's hometown.

>> kellner: for the first time,

We behold americans.

Their soldiers are

Outstandingly equipped...

And remarkably well-fed.

After a long oppression,

Finally, the release.

For our area then,

The war is over.

>> narrator: but not all germans were

So resigned to their defeat.

Many simply couldn't imagine a germany

After the third reich.

Mass suicide occurred across germany

On a scale never before seen

In western europe.

(indistict voices, and footsteps)

100 miles from berlin,

American troops filmed this scene.

>> man: the town of leipzig fell,

And we were there.

There was no burgermeister left.

He and half the city hall

Had committed suicide

At a drinking party the night before.

(pipe organ playing)

>> narrator: the last days of the third reich

Began on april 20th,

Hitler's 56th birthday.

More than a million red army soldiers

Were circling berlin.

Fewer than 100,000 german forces

Would defend the city.

>> friedrich: beyond question,

Berlin is in danger.

We're cut off from the world,

At the mercy of the oncoming catastrophe,

And we're afraid.

>> narrator: if you lived in berlin,

In april, of 1945,

You had no running water,

No electricity, no food.

And the last battle of the war

Was being fought outside

Your front door.

(gunfire, screams)

>> friedrich: and then, suddenly,

The shooting and bombing stopped.

What is left of berlin is now

Completely under the control

Of the red army.

>> narrator: after eight days of battle,

The soviet occupation began.

>> schwanenfluegel: that night,

A horde of red army soldiers

Stormed into the apartment house

Next to ours.

Then, we heard women

Screaming for help.

(static)

>> friedrich: the war is over.

At that moment, the peace begins for us.

>> narrator: but first,

All of germany's people,

Perpetrators, victims,

And bystanders alike,

Would be confronted with the

Crimes of the third reich.

(indistinct voices, gasoline engine)

>> narrator: it was april 29, 1945,

Eight days before germany's surrender.

Shortly after 9:30 a.m.,

The 45th thunderbird division

Of the 7th army filmed their arrival

At the town of dachau.

By now, these men had seen

511 days of combat.

But what they were about to see

Was beyond description.

>> man: the first thing we came to was

A railroad track leading

Out of the camp...

With a lot of open box cars on it.

As we crossed the track,

The most horrible sight

I have ever seen.

>> levin: we had known.

The world had vaguely heard.

But until now, none of us had

Looked on this.

It was as though we had

Penetrated at last

To the center of the black heart,

To the very crawling inside

Of the vicious heart.

(gate cranking open)

>> koberwitz: the day is over.

This april 29, 1945.

I will celebrate it for the rest

Of my life as my second birthday...

As the day that gifted me life anew.

>> narrator: there were more than

20,000 camps like dachau,

Throughout the third reich.

In towns like orhdurf,

Flossenberg and weimar,

German men, women and children

Had lived and worked,

Sometimes right next door.

Now they were being told

They had to go inside.

Here, in dachau, where the

Majority had voted against hitler

In 1933, the townspeople

Told the americans:

"wir sind aberall belogen worden."

"we have all been lied to."

Man: they are liars.

And guilty as sin.

The people are to blame

For their cowardice.

>> narrator: across germany,

The allies forced

Local nazi party members

To bury the dead.

(woman shouting in german)

If you were german,

You understood that

The world held you

Personally responsible

For the crimes of the third reich.

>> monkenberg: they accuse

All of us, without exception,

Of being fully responsible.

But we hated the regime

From the very beginning.

Now our longed-for deliverance

Means only that we are despised,

And hated.

It serves us right.

Nobody can escape

This...collective guilt.

>> narrator: at the time of surrender,

More than 11 million germans

Were prisoners of war.

(indistinct voices)

At least a million would die in captivity

Of hunger...

Exposure...

And neglect.

As the borders of europe were redrawn,

12 to 14 million ethnic germans

Were expelled from their homes.

It was the largest movement

Of any single ethnic population

In modern history.

What awaited them in germany:

Nowhere to live...

And little to eat.

Millions died.

Those who survived would live

On near-starvation rations

For three more years.

Despite all this,

If you were german,

There was only one thing left to do...

Rebuild.

>> monkenberg: all i know is that

We germans are finished.

I can't change that.

I just have to swallow it.

There will be hard work

And short rations.

But the sun is still in the sky.

One thing's for sure:

My life has certainly been full.

All too full.