All language subtitles for Inside the SS - 1x03_track3_eng

Narrator: They believed
they were the third
reich's racial elite.

Men superior to others.

Ready to do anything
for the nazi party.

They carried out a campaign
of terror across germany,

Then the rest of europe;
eliminating any opposition,

Decimating the
jewish people and massacring
civilian populations.

Over 70 years later,
some still live among us.

This is the
story of the ss,

Told from the inside.

♪ ♪

This documentary takes
us to find ss members,

Who are still alive;

To try to understand
how they became the nazi
party's killing machines.

After several
months of research,

Over twenty ss veterans were
discovered living in different

Countries across europe.

Their words often shock.

Some have broken with
nazism, others not.

This man is one of them.

92-year old kurt barkhausen.

He lives in central germany.

He was in the
death's head division,

Whose members often worked
in concentration camps.

Kurt: What counted for us?

First of all, the
purity of the person.

Who are you?
What do you want from life?

Secondly, you have
a healthy family.

After that, there
is the people.

How did our ancestors live?

What did they believe in?

What has made real
germans of us?

These were our
fundamental values.

Narrator: The seeds of
ss fanaticism were planted in

1918, when germany
lost the first world war.

The following year, the
versailles peace treaty

Took several border
regions away from germany.

Then came the nightmare
of 1920's germany...

Hyperinflation,
unemployment, poverty.

In the years to come when they
looked to justify their crimes,

The ss would often point to
the tribulations of the 1920s.

Nazism, they said, gave
them back their dignity.

They began to form
ranks behind an austrian
world war one corporal,

Adolf hitler.

A radical nationalist
who promised he
would wipe out the shame.

-We were on our knees.

We had been
poor and miserable,

And then suddenly
we were somebody again.

Narrator: No one could
imagine where this commitment
would eventually lead.

-We were delighted
with this change.

Narrator: What they did know,
was that their first targets

Would be the communists; those
"anti-germans" who the nazis

Had been fighting
in the streets since
the end of world war I.

Nazi propaganda accused them
of betraying the nation by

Overthrowing the emperor in
1918 and plotting to establish

A communist state in germany.

Ekkehard: I remember in
hamburg, when I was a child,

Seeing big
demonstrations in the street.

My father said, "if they get
into power, we're screwed".

He was talking about
the communist party.

Kurt: National socialism was
more social than communism,

And in political terms,
was devoted purely to germany.

Whereas communism
was aimed at the world and

Was largely run by jews.

Narrator: By 1933, when
the nazis came into power,

The view that the jews
were the real enemy,

"worse than the communists"
was taking hold.

For hitler, the jews had
profited from the german

People's misery.

They are hiding everywhere,
said his manifesto.

And for propaganda
minister joseph goebbels,

The hour of the great
confrontation was near.

(crowd cheering and applause)

Narrator: It was this
visceral, revengeful hatred,

Born out of 19th century
racist theories that drove

The ss' heinous
actions in the years to come.

Accompanying hitler
through this crowd are the ss,

Who since their
creation in 1925,

Had been hitler's bodyguards.

They stood out in their black
uniforms and could be seen

Everywhere alongside
the party leaders.

They wanted to be noticed,
to distinguish themselves.

-I knew it was
an elite formation.

In other words, they wouldn't
take any tom, dick and harry.

Manfred: I wanted to be
part of an elite division.

Narrator: They were the
new regime's shop window.

New recruits had to be tall.

At least five-foot
six, and young...

Under 23,
no jewish ancestry.

They had to provide
genealogical details dating

Back to the 18th century.

In the third reich, if you
wanted a successful life,

You joined the ss.

They were also known
as the black order.

A name that linked them to
germanic soldier-monks who

Colonized eastern europe
in the middle ages.

They were filled
with grandiose ideas;

That they were the
new lords of germany,

Who would oust the old
aristocratic elite who had

Always run the country.

Many responded to the call.

Ekkehard guhr was assigned
to the das reich division

Of the ss,
which committed numerous
atrocities during the war.

At the age of 17, he says,

He joined the ss
to defy his parents,

Who refused to
allow a relationship with
a young catholic girl.

-There were images in germany
where you would see a young

Man sign up for the
war for freedom,

And he would kneel before his
beloved, who would bless him.

All of those emotions, that I
don't think we can understand

Or express today,
they existed back then.

-Our motto, written on
our belt buckles, was,

"my honor is my loyalty."

It meant no cowardice
when facing the enemy.

-The ideology that himmler
had drilled into us was,

"you are nothing, your
people is everything.

Werner: You belong
to the nation.

The nation is, is, is you.

You are part of the nation.

Kurt: I wanted to prove that
I was ready to risk my life

For that ideology.

Narrator: By 1934, it wasn't
just the german political

Elites who were
being replaced;

That year himmler incited
hitler to eliminate
his competitors,

The leaders of the sa,
the nazi party militia.

They would call this massacre
the night of the long knives.

Carried out by his ss, the
bloodbath consolidated his

Position at the
heart of the regime.

At the head of several
hundred thousand ss members,

Himmler managed, in the
space of a few years,

To extend his control
to all german police.

From his young men in black
he demanded total submission.

-When you are a soldier,

You have to carry out orders.

You're not there to think.

That's how it was.

Today it's different.

At the time, we said, "leave
the thinking to the horses,

They have bigger heads".

Narrator: Most of the ss
we met were still children

In the mid-30s.

Raised in a
totalitarian state,

They were subjected to
hitler's propaganda,

Some of the most
extensive brainwashing
of the 20th century.

-The nazis made sweets for
children with swastikas on them.

I was proud to
eat those sweets.

But I was even prouder when
I was 5 years old, in school,

And we'd go on
walks or on visits and

I could wear my
swastika armband.

Ekkehard: This was all drilled
into us quite deliberately.

To the point that
in 1934, when I was 10,

That state of mind, with
the uniforms and the hitler

Salute, was quite natural.

In fact, I didn't know
anyone who was opposed to it.

Narrator: In the
youth organizations,

Budding ss members
were given military training

From an early age.

Like sparta
in ancient greece,

The state educated
the children.

Egon: We used to
like singing songs.

♪ the waves will close in on
them, the world is at peace. ♪

It means the
extermination of the jews.

They would be
drowned, wiped out.

Narrator: At the time, the
extermination of the jews was

Not on the agenda.

But the barriers were falling.

Like here, at a
carnival in nuremberg,

Where an effigy of a
jew was hanged from a float.

Or in this racist
propaganda film.

Narrator: This view of germany
as a victim of its jewish

Communities ran so deep, that
it continues to warp the minds

Of some former ss men.

-I don't know if
you would like it,

When you have a very
precise type of blood,

To accept a race that is
fundamentally different in its

Way of being, its religion and
its very conception of life.

Narrator: It was at the age of
14 that this former austrian

Ss member, herbert
von mildenburg,

Saw hitler for the first time.

-There was something in his
eyes when he looked at us,

Something fascinating.

We sang,

♪ we're not going home. ♪

♪ we're not going home
before the führer speaks. ♪

We were in heaven,
like idiot football
fans in a stadium today.

Narrator: Hitler,
the man they believed
would resurrect germany.

Eberhard: The fact was that
six million unemployed found

Work within the
space of five years.

Narrator: By increasing
aid for workers,

Providing leisure activities
previously reserved for the

Elite, and by funding massive
rearmament and major building

Projects through the
confiscation of jewish assets

And massive debt,
hitler bought the approval
of the german people.

For ss members,
like kurt barkhausen,
it was a miracle.

Kurt: It was proof that
hitler had accomplished
what he had promised.

Narrator: Repression
began in 1933.

Political opponents were
isolated from the rest of

Society as a
preventive measure.

Without trial.

The task was entrusted
first to the sa,

The nazi party
paramilitary wing,

Then eventually to the ss.

The pretext was the
burning of the reichstag,

The german parliament.

Hitler presented
it as the beginning of
a new communist revolution.

They were told communists
were a danger and should

Be removed from the community.

Kurt: I myself noticed that
the people who had previously

Expressed opposition at party
meetings had now disappeared.

Either the communists
joined our movement,

Or they continued to oppose us
and were sent to special camps,

Which were later
called concentration camps.

To the extent that there was
almost no opposition in germany.

It just wasn't
possible any more.

Narrator: November 9th 1938.

The feldherrnhalle in munich.

It was five years since
hitler's rise to power and

Less than a year before
the start of world war two.

These thousands of ss men were
about to experience one of the

Most important events
of their lives.

Soldiers: Heil hitler!

Narrator: Among them,
eberhard heder,

A future captain in
the wiking division.

-I saw hitler arrive,
very solemn and then,

"men of the ss,
recite your oath!"

-We pronounced the
words with our hearts.

-The phrase "to the death"
was a shock, of course.

Loyalty to that degree?

That's going too far.

Narrator: They would soon find
out what their vow entailed.

In September 1939,
hitler attacked poland,

Starting the second world war.

On the eve of the offensive,
the ss played a crucial role.

To justify the invasion,

The führer ordered them to
fake a polish provocation.

The ss simulated
a polish attack,

A bloody one,
on the german border.

Dirty work the ss
had done since the start
and would continue.

The ss also fought
alongside the regular army,

The wehrmacht.

If the ss sacrificed
itself on the frontline,

Paying with its blood,
explained their leaders,

It would have the
moral right to lead the
repression in germany.

To these men destined to
fight on the frontline,

Himmler gave a name, the
waffen ss, the armed ss.

800,000 men joined the
waffen ss during the war.

They saw themselves as
political soldiers and

In the eyes of the regime,
they were dependable.

Hitler could count
on them in the event of

Trouble at home or abroad.

Manfred diener, was one of
those waffen-ss, at sixteen.

For this baker's
son from thuringia,

It was an opportunity
for social advancement.

Manfred: With us there
was no "sir". "lieutenant,
sir!" or " yes captain, sir!"

In other wehrmacht units,
you needed your exams to
be an officer.

The waffen ss
made an exception.

Even if, like me, you only had a
basic school certificate,

You could become an officer.

Narrator: It was a model for
the german people to follow.

But in reality, these
young men were no longer
their own masters.

With the tattoo of
their blood group marked
under their left arms,

They had become someone else.

Once inside the black
order, there was no way out.

♪ ♪

In a short time, these young
waffen-ss men go from drilling

At their barracks, to leading
the invasion of France.

And only a few months later,
they would take part in the

Invasion of
yugoslavia, then greece,

And in June 1941, the ussr.

It was there, against
stalin's troops,

That himmler's ss would
find their special role,

As executioners.

Narrator: Summer 1941.

Hitler orders the invasion
of the soviet union,

Launching a kind of
war never seen before,

To conquer "living space"
and exterminate the

"judeo-bolsheviks,"
as he calls them.

Alongside the regular
army, the wehrmacht,

The führer now has a
force of more than 100,000

Men who have sworn loyalty
to the death... The ss.

This horrific scene was
filmed behind the lines in

German-occupied latvia.

(gunshot)

Jewish men were assassinated
and buried in the sand.

Just one of the terrible
consequences of the

Indoctrination of the 1930's.

(gunshot)

Hans friedrich was in the
first ss infantry brigade.

A few months before
his death in 2005,

He confessed on film
to his part in the murder
of several thousand jews.

Hans: They were in
such a state, of shock,

And so scared that we could
do what we wanted with them.

Try to imagine,
there's a ditch.

On one side,
there are people.

And opposite,
there are soldiers.

That was us.

And we shot.

The ones who were hit,
fell in the ditch.

I just thought, aim well.

So they'd be killed
with a single shot.

That was my only thought.

Interviewer: That was
your only thought?

You didn't have
any feelings for the jewish

Civilians you were executing?

-Nein. No.

Interviewer: And why not?

-Because my hatred for
the jews was too strong.

Narrator: Not all took
part in the extermination,

But many agreed with it.

In order to kill jews, the
nazis employed special units

They used for the
invasion of poland.

The einsatzgruppen,
detachments of killers made

Up of ss members, police and
locally-recruited auxiliaries.

Here is one of their
leaders, ss general jeckeln.

He'd be hanged by the
allies in 1946 for the murder

Of more than 100,000 people.

His method of execution,
sardine packing.

He applied it here,
in the babi yar ravine,

Where he executed
more than 30,000 jews.

They were laid on top
of one another and shot,

Then buried in
layers like sardines.

Men, women, children.

The paradox was that the
ss didn't see themselves as

Criminals, but as victims,
soldiers defending themselves.

Oskar gröning was 21 when the
ss assigned him to auschwitz.

At the time, he believed,
the jews deserved their fate.

Oskar: We were convinced, and
this was our vision of the

World, that we germans had
been betrayed by the whole

World and that
there was a huge jewish
conspiracy against us.

Children weren't our
enemies at that point.

The enemy was the blood
which flowed in them.

But the children
would grow up and become
potentially dangerous jews.

That was why the
children were included.

Narrator: In the view
of ss chief himmler,

Those who killed jews were
carrying out the work required

For the country to survive.

And so, the
massacres continued.

Narrator: As the jewish
people gradually disappeared,

The ss profited and dreamed.

Himmler had promised them
the brightest of futures.

The third reich will last a
thousand years, he tells them.

As greece fought rome,

As rome conquered
carthage and jerusalem,

So germany will crush
the judeo-bolshevik ussr.

While history
has proven himmler to
be a murderous monster,

Some of his ss followers
still see him as their hero.

Herbert: Himmler
was a decent man,

A man of honest character.

Himmler wanted the best
for the german people.

Narrator: And his
ambitions weren't limited
to those from germany.

From 1940, with the aim of
founding a german empire,

He opened the doors of
the ss to the inhabitants

Of several defeated countries.

The danes, the
norwegians, the dutch...

They were all
germanic, said himmler.

As the war continued,
the ss opened up to the

French-speaking belgians,
the french themselves and the

Italians; latin peoples, to
whom himmler gave the hope of

Entering into the nazi elite.

-Joining the waffen ss
was a promotion for us.

For me, it was an
excellent model.

The national socialist
party had done a lot of good

In germany for the
workers by giving them jobs,

Getting them involved,
building them houses
and gardens, etcetera.

We thought it
was a model, yes.

Exactly.

My dream at the tiem was
to see germany win the war.

For me germany was the
supreme nation in europe.

When I joined the waffen-ss,

I considered
myself to be one of them.

Narrator: But it
was an illusion.

None of the non-germanic,
latin or muslim slav peoples

Would ever actually
belong to the black order.

Attracted by the wages
and the family allowances,

They wore the uniform,
but were cannon-fodder.

"for every
foreigner who dies,"

Said the head
of recruitment,

"no german mother cries."

By 1942, the nazis controlled
a large part of europe and

Believed they would
soon defeat the ussr.

But there were still some
ten million european jews

Left to kill, according
to nazi calculations.

They knew they could not
exterminate that many people

With the existing
killing methods,

And troop morale was
beginning to be an issue.

So, ss leaders came
up with a solution...

Death camps.

This amateur footage shot by
ss guards shows the inside of

The posen camp, one of the
first in occupied poland.

Locking up "undesirables"
was now no longer enough,

They must be killed.

To achieve their goal, the
ss secretly tested toxic gas.

In a specially-built gas
chamber hidden behind these

Walls, they had already
eliminated 400 mentally

Ill prisoners by 1939.

Egon: Where the nazis were
very smart was with the

Extermination in the
concentration camps.

They managed to keep it
all perfectly secret.

There were a lot of
people to exterminate.

Narrator: Most would be
sent to the slaughterhouse.

Notably to auschwitz.

These photos,
taken by an ss guard,

Show the arrival
of prisoners and their
sorting by ss doctors.

On one side are the young
and healthy who will work.

On the other, those who will
be killed in the coming hours.

Once they were designated,
the ss avoided them.

The guards merely supervised
the killing process,

Dropping toxic
gas canisters into the
gas chamber via a hatch.

Then, other prisoners removed
and burned the bodies in ovens.

Most of the ss guards
in the camps experienced
a feeling of power.

And they received
benefits not available
to ss assigned elsewhere.

The camps were not
on the frontlines,

The staff were not
risking their lives,

And himmler had made sure
they'd be comfortable.

Like here, at
the reischof camp,

120 miles from auschwitz.

The auschwitz camp itself
was much sought-after.

It was here, to this
470-acre complex,

That oskar gröning was sent
as an accountant in 1942.

Oskar: The main camp at
auschwitz was like a small town,

With its gossip and rumors.

There was a grocer's
where you could buy
marrowbone to make a soup.

A canteen, a cinema.

There was a theatre, where
they regularly put shows on.

A sports club,
where I was a member.

It was joyful and lively,
like in a small town.

Narrator: This façade of
normalcy was meant to shield

The ss from the
brutality of the death camps.

But soon, the façade
would fall apart.

Narrator: In 1944, the
normandy landings bring

Allied troops to the west,

And the soviets
attack from the east,

Forcing german
retreats everywhere.

To try to shore up their
crumbling front-lines,

Hitler scales up the
deployment of the waffen-ss,

The "frontline firemen"
as they call them.

The ss know they have
everything to lose.

Since the 1930s, they've
staked everything on hitler.

If he falls,
they fall with him.

-That was what the war
was about, total war,

Where the human being
had no importance.

None.

Narrator: In France, the nazis
face a persistent insurrection.

So, they use a new kind of
terror against the french,

To dissuade them from
supporting the resistance.

Maurice: I saw
civilians hanging from
trees and lamp-posts.

They said,
"you see what we do.

If you do anything against
us, then we'll hang you.

We'll kill you!

Narrator: Certain
waffen-ss soldiers from
the das reich division

Were forcibly enrolled.

They were nothing like the
others who were volunteers.

From the alsace border
region, they were born french,

But the nazis saw
them as german.

They were called the "malgré
nous," "against our will".

In 1944, as the army withdrew,
they discovered from the

Inside the ruthless
methods of the black order.

Daniel: All those who weren't
with them were against them.

If you caught traitors,
resistance fighters,

Civilians, then you could
shoot them and that was that!

Durlewanger: You could feel the
fanaticism in their every move.

Narrator: The true
consequences of this unchecked

Fanaticism were finally seen
in 1945 when allied troops

Liberated the concentration
camps and discovered the

Massacre committed by the ss.

Six million jewish victims.

Hundreds of thousands
of political prisoners

Assassinated, along with
homosexuals, priests, roma,

And disabled people.

Only some of the
40,000 ss guards were
arrested and identified.

These men who thought they
were superior to others now

Looked very ordinary.

Some disguised
themselves as prisoners,

In striped uniforms, in an
attempt to pass unnoticed.

Most of them were identified
by the blood group tattoo

Under their arms, stamped
when they first joined the ss.

It was a mark they
could never wash off,

Even if they cut and
re-stitched their skin.

May 8th 1945.

Germany surrenders.

The ss were moved into
prisoner-of-war camps where

They would spend
months, even years.

Disguised as a police
sergeant, their leader,

Himmler, hid among the crowd.

After several
weeks of wandering,

He was arrested by the
allies and committed suicide

With a cyanide capsule.

It's a myth that members
of the ss were all punished.

Apart from a few leaders,
most slipped through the net.

Now, some former ss place
the blame on the leader

They once admired.

-Hitler betrayed me.

He pushed us into misery
when he'd promised us joy.

He perpetrated such crimes that
I can only see it as treason.

Narrator: "I'm ashamed
to be a german",

Wrote one munich citizen on
may 28th 1945 on the ruins of

The feldherrnhalle.

The place where the ss had
once sworn their allegiance.

But how to get
out of the cult?

Eberhard heder, a captain
in the wiking division,

Abandoned his racist
convictions and pursued

A career in the army of the
federal republic of germany.

Ekkehard guhr, a member of
the ss's das reich division,

Who dreamed of chivalry,
became a pastor.

Egon kuhn became
a trade unionist,

Speaking tirelessly
of the brainwashing he

Received in his youth.

But they were exceptions.

Many of those who were in
the ss would remain nostalgic,

Often joining waffen ss
veterans' associations,

Which still exist today.

Like manfred diener.

Or kurt barkhausen, whose
speeches are still used by

Extremist networks.

Herbert von mildenburg set up
businesses in south america,

While maintaining
relations with several
world war ii revisionists.

In 2015, the former
auschwitz accountant,

Ss sergeant gröning was
sentenced to four years in

Prison for complicity in
the murder of 300,000 jews.

After numerous legal appeals,

He died without
serving his time.

Captioned by cotter
captioning services.