Original subtitles

NEWSREEL: This is London calling. Here is a news flash.

The German radio has just announced that Hitler is dead.

I repeat that.

The German radio has just announced that Hitler is dead.

Adolf Hitler.

Today, we know him as the embodiment of evil,

guilty of the worst crimes known to humanity.

But it didn't start out like this.

There was a time when people worshipped him...

..went to war for him...

..and were willing to die for him.

Now, with populist leaders thriving once again...

..we're looking at Hitler from a different perspective -

..through his friends, his admirers,

his enablers.

Only then can we learn the lessons from history.

So we've unearthed interviews with the people who knew him best...

INDISTINCT SNIPPETS OF CONVERSATION

..from a former classmate,

to those who were by his side

when he tried to conquer the world.

OK. Camera's running.

BEEP

Most are Nazis.

Some complicit in war crimes.

Few can be trusted.

I do not want to excuse myself.

I just want to...

An old man has no other interest

but the truth,

the historical truth.

But when we see Adolf Hitler through their eyes,

perhaps we can grasp who he was and what made him possible.

The first time I called on him,

it was in the morning.

I walked through this very cold entrance hall,

a winding staircase,

and then somebody opens a door.

Then I came into this little room.

It was very, very narrow.

Incredibly narrow.

There was just enough to put a wall and pretend it's a room.

And there you saw him.

He wore a brown wool jacket

and felt shoes.

Er...

"Kommen Sie doch herein." Come in here.

This is the voice of Putzi Hanfstaengl,

a wealthy businessman

and a major player in the rise of Adolf Hitler.

Their first encounter comes soon

after Hitler has become leader of the far-right party the Nazis.

There are now very few people alive who knew him intimately.

But there is one such person who, night after night across many years,

played Wagnerian music for Hitler in his flat.

Now, tell me, Dr Hanfstaengl,

what first attracted you to Hitler?

When I heard this man

for the first time in a very noisy meeting, I...

In his trench coat,

and with the entire perfume of the past struggle in him,

in his language,

in his gestures,

I absolutely felt myself

irresistibly drawn to him.

The trouble was,

Germany has never been known for its orators,

and Hitler was the superb-est man to address hungering crowds.

He crushed any man with his voice.

He had a wonderful resonance up here.

And that will never be repeated in 10,000 years.

After defeat in the First World War,

Germany is at rock-bottom.

Hitler calls for a national renewal.

Putzi and his wife, Helene,

are impressed by his charisma and conviction.

They throw open their doors to him.

This is the very room where Hitler

came to visit you many times, I believe.

Yeah. Surely. It's...

Believe me, it's very often

that I think he's still in the room.

Whereabouts did he sit?

Usually at the opposite of the fire.

Yeah.

He was. What is that?

Heil! Heil! Heil!

By 1923, the Nazis are still

a minor party, one of many.

But Hitler dreams of turning it into

a national force.

Putzi, who's been to college in America,

provides inspiration

from an unlikely source.

One of the things Hitler learned

from you, I believe,

o you told him about

the cheerleaders at Harvard.

Oh, yeah. Yes.

These are essential,

I think, to get the audience

to underline your propaganda.

No?

La-la la-la!

Woowoo! Harvard!

Harvard! Harvard! Woo!

Great run!

And so it became...

He was impressed.

Oh, yeah.

One evening I played this here,

for a change, to Hitler.

Rah! Rah! Rah!

# The line of crims... #

At that moment, Hitler jumped up

and said, "Hanfstaengl, das brauchen wir!"

That's what we need for a march!

ROUSING MILITARY MUSIC

Now, with its rousing anthem and a bold Nazi banner,

disillusioned young men flocked

to the military wing of the party.

The Stormtroopers.

Like many Germans,

Hitler has been radicalised

by defeat in the First World War.

He had spent four and a half years

as a front line soldier

and had been shattered by news

of Germany's surrender.

Elisabeth Popp is one of a handful

of friends who knew Hitler

before the war.

She remembers the effect it had on him.

Hitler's bitterness has been stirred up by a popular conspiracy theory.

The war wasn't lost in battle.

Left wing politicians and Jews were to blame

for the surrender

and the humiliating peace agreement that followed.

Hitler vows to avenge this betrayal.

In November 1923,

Hitler, Putzi and the Nazis try

to overthrow the left wing government.

They stage an insurrection in a Munich beer hall.

Violence breaks out.

The revolt is put down.

But Hitler is now a wanted man.

On the day of the putsch,

when it was all over,

and a disastrous failure,

Hitler fled to your house. Yes.

Without telling me a word about it.

Why did he come to you? Yeah.

The magnetic influence of, um...

Your wife.

Female beauty.

He was injured, was he not, though?

Yes. He had a hanging shoulder.

It was... His collarbone was broken.

But when the police surrounded

the whole house

and meant there the game was up

and out becomes the revolver.

And he said, "Oh, I'll be damned if I surrender!

"I'll make an end."

And he had his revolver, and my wife, knowing the jujitsu...

I'll show you.

Do you want to do it?

You have a revolver,

and she looks up in the sky.

That is... That is the trip.

That's the way it's done.

I would like to make a straight,

direct question to you, Mr Hanfstaengl.

You or your wife were the means of saving Hitler's life.

I get the impression that you're proud of that.

But as, from our point of view, you can imagine it would have been

a very good thing if Hitler had died.

To be sure, at the time, I felt I wouldn't have done it

if I hadn't felt I was saving Germany.

I tried to save the man who appeared

to me as the one saviour.

he Hitler that Putzi and Helena recall,

is given to self-pity and melodrama.

But he also has a dream...

..and they love him for it.

To understand the appeal of Adolf Hitler,

we are seeking out his friends.

This is one of them,

filmed after the Second World War,

undergoing a denazification programme.

Winifred Wagner was the daughter-in-law

of the famous German composer Richard Wagner,

and was once one of Hitler's closest confidantes.

For decades she refused to speak publicly.

But one day in 1975, she finally breaks her silence.

Winifred Wagner - band eins.

Winifred first meets Hitler in 1923.

Hitler's charm is working for him...

..and it's about to pay dividends.

In 1924, Hitler stands trial

for his violent insurrection.

He delivers a rambling,

four-hour monologue from the witness stand,

but his supporters hang on every word.

He was the victor over the judges,

over everything. He just wiped the floor with the whole bunch.

By force of argument or...?

By force of argument, of personality,

of spark...all that.

Hitler's stand against

the establishment makes him a household name.

The judge, a Nazi sympathiser,

hands him the minimum possible sentence.

He'll spend just nine months in jail.

Far from finishing him, Hitler's legal woes

have elevated him in the eyes of his followers.

Nazi party member Ilse Hess is a regular prison visitor.

Photos smuggled out of prison keep Hitler

in the public eye, while Winifred Wagner rallies round.

Hitler's book, Mein Kampf,

is his vision for creating the perfect Germany,

and it's packed with extremist and racist views.

One idea is to sterilise the mentally ill.

Another, to eliminate so-called inferior races.

His main target Jews.

Hitler's followers go along with it,

while his propaganda team,

including journalist Joseph Goebbels, spread the word.

Working in Hitler's publicity department

is Hermann Esser.

CROWD: Heil! Heil!

Heil!

Heil! Heil! Heil!

In these early days, friends claim to remember a collaborative Hitler.

But he sees himself as a man of destiny.

Mein Fuhrer, heil! Heil!

Heil!

CAR HORN BEEPS

Hitler knows that children make

the easiest converts and the most loyal followers.

Joining the Hitler Youth in 1925 is teenager Baldur von Schirach.

Later, he'll go on to lead the organisation,

overseeing the indoctrination of millions of Germans.

This is von Schirach being released

from prison after serving 20 years for crimes against humanity.

NEWSREEL: Recording Number 2009, part one. Take one.

No-one knew better than him

where the seductive powers of the Fuhrer could lead.

DAVID FROST: Baldur von Schirach, leader of the Hitler Youth,

found a member of the inner court of Adolf Hitler is alive

and well and living here

in secluded estate in southwestern Germany.

And tonight, for the first time,

he talks fully about the years

with Hitler that led to that sentence.

Herr von Schirach,

I want to start by talking, if we can,

about Adolf Hitler as a man,

in the sense that when you first met him,

for instance, what were the qualities he had

that immediately impressed

themselves upon you?

I met him in the opera...

..and my father, who once

directed the opera in Weimar...

..was interested in Hitler...

..who was brought into our box

and presented to my father...

..because he was so well-informed about music.

And he invited him to tea for the next day.

That's how it started. Yes.

And what were the first things you noticed

about Hitler?

In the theatre,

he was dressed very correctly in a dinner jacket.

And, er...

..he was very...

..impressive in a certain shyness

that he had.

Good manners, a little bit shy.

And he really, in many ways...

..during my first start in politics...

..always advocated me

and treated me like a -

I should used this expression - a political father.

Yes. Mm.

He really did. He was capable

of acts of friendship like that.

Yes, he was very capable of friendship

and very true to his friends.

If you had to give a one sentence or two sentence summary

of Hitler's life or of Hitler...

..what would be the most important thing

you feel you would want to say about him and his life?

This, Mr Frost, is a very difficult

question to answer in one or two sentences.

I shall try it.

A man without measure.

A man with great gifts.

A man who in some ways could be

considered a genius.

But because he had no sense of measure...

..he could not succeed.

That's the answer.

It was a difficult question,

but I do not know how else I could

make a sort of summary of

this fabulous monster.

Yes.

Even after 20 years behind bars,

Hitler Youth boss Baldur von Schirach

is happy to praise his former mentor.

Others play a cannier game.

Meet Albert Speer,

another old Nazi who has done time for war crimes.

As a young architect,

he helped Hitler realise his grand ideas,

and during World War II he was head of Hitler's war machine.

NEWSREEL: Albert Speer, reel three.

CLAPPERBOARD SNAPS

Although he denies it,

he was also Hitler's best friend.

Welcome to Heidelberg Castle

for this special edition of the David Frost Show.

Herr Speer, it's so fascinating to talk to you,

who was close to this monster whom I cannot understand.

But what were his good points?

I wouldn't say you can find very many points.

Only a few points. For instance, a point which is good

for every human being is to have close friends.

He hasn't any close friends.

When did you first see Adolf Hitler, Herr Speer?

I saw him first in an audience before students in Berlin.

That was about five or a thousand students.

And he made a speech there.

A very impressive speech.

Because he was not a normal demagogue.

He usually was.

In a different interview,

Speer elaborates on this first encounter with Hitler.

FEET POUND

Like many who will go on to follow him,

Albert Speer is drawn to Hitler

at a time of desperation.

After the global financial crisis of 1929,

spiralling unemployment plunges millions into poverty.

Germany is the worst hit country in Europe.

The despair was so terrible as I can't describe it.

You had everywhere beggars. Wherever you went

in Berlin, you had beggars.

And then people came on to the courtyards

and were singing and singing just for...for a penny.

I supported Hitler because he,

after having seen all that depravity, all that poverty here,

was the only one

who could do social justice to the people here.

They were in a terrible misery.

Hitler channels people's fear and anger.

He continues to blame Germany's problems on

the First World War surrender and the humiliating peace agreement,

the Treaty of Versailles, that followed.

INTERVIEWER: Why do you suppose it was that so many Germans stood by

and let this thing happen, and even supported it?

I think the atmosphere in Germany was one of great poverty,

there's no doubt about it.

It was very distinguishable when one even came from England,

which wasn't in a very good way either.

They'd lost everything.

They'd lost the First World War,

they'd lost every bean they had in the inflation,

and Hitler gave a little piece to every one of them.

He told them they'd been dishonoured

by losing the war and had never really lost it,

and that the politicians

and the Jews were responsible for the inflation.

And he promised to give them back an army,

their honour.

He knew exactly how to speak to those kind of people.

1932 - election time in Germany.

Hitler's following is growing.

But to win power, he needs to get his message to the masses.

MARCHING TUNE PLAYS

ALL: Sieg Heil!

MUSIC DROWNS SPEECH

CHEERING

Volk! Volk!

CHEERING

CHEERING

Record numbers flock to Hitler's rallies,

keen to hear the strongman on the side of the people.

The whole atmosphere grew more and more hysterical.

Women began screaming.

It was like a mass religious ceremony.

And I feel more and more excited.

I feel I was a member of all those believers.

I could see

what effect his speech was having on the mass of people below.

And it was quite extraordinary.

They were at best expectant when he started,

but he had them in a near frenzy before long,

and he kept them there in waves again and again.

Right after this speech, we all went to the Brown House

and we went into a room and I was told by my father,

go over there on this chair, sit down and keep quiet.

Then the transcript of the speech just delivered began

to be brought into the room by messengers,

and Hitler withdrew to a desk,

sat down with Goebbels looking over his shoulder.

And I was impressed by the utterly calm,

rational, critical way

in which Hitler went through that manuscript,

with Goebbels quietly saying, "This went over very well.

"Let us play that up. This we'll cut." And so.

While Hitler plays to his base,

he gives people an enemy to fight against -

..his political opponents, the communists.

There were political marches taking place

between the Nazis on the one side,

the communists on the other.

And there were fights and deaths, shootings practically every weekend.

All of a sudden, everybody was a Nazi.

Nazis, Nazis everywhere.

Like mushrooms they just came up, you know.

Overnight, there's a swastika flag in every window except ours.

We didn't realise the seriousness of it,

but one night we saw a young man being beaten

by about 12 Nazis in uniform,

and there we were unable to do a thing.

Riding alongside Hitler

is his friend and backer, Putzi Hanfstaengl.

A few things in which are always omitted in films of today...

..that is the violence from the other side.

For instance, when we got out of the motor cars,

there are so many red people,

semi-armed and whatnot,

we'll have to storm the hall.

And then it started.

It was simply live or die.

I remember Hitler standing up there with a horsewhip -

sveet, sveet, sveet!

Beat one fellow who screamed, "Moscow!"

He beat him right across the face.

I think the ordinary person was

absolutely tired of this situation,

and was on the lookout for someone

who would come along to clean up the place.

Anything is better than

this situation that we're in at the moment.

July, 1932.

13 million Germans vote for Hitler.

Though short of a majority,

the Nazis are now the largest political party.

And after six months, Hitler is handed the levers of power.

Such is his cocktail of charisma,

stagecraft and populist message

that he's pulled off a staggering political manoeuvre.

He'd openly campaigned on a promise

to dismantle democracy and install himself as dictator.

Now, with his friends

and accomplices behind him, he's going to deliver on it.

Now, Hitler, he came into power by legal ways,

and we all expected him to become

a respectable, sensible creature.

But hardly was he in power,

he start his revolution,

and on it went, and on it went.

And the train was not only the wrong train,

but it went faster and faster and faster,

so nobody could jump off.