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Narrator: They believed they were the third reich's racial elite.
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Men superior to others.
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Ready to do anything for the nazi party.
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They carried out a campaign of terror across germany,
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Then the rest of europe; eliminating any opposition,
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Decimating the jewish people and massacring civilian populations.
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Over 70 years later, some still live among us.
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This is the story of the ss,
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Told from the inside.
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♪ ♪
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This documentary takes us to find ss members,
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Who are still alive;
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To try to understand how they became the nazi party's killing machines.
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After several months of research,
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Over twenty ss veterans were discovered living in different
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Countries across europe.
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Their words often shock.
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Some have broken with nazism, others not.
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This man is one of them.
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92-year old kurt barkhausen.
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He lives in central germany.
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He was in the death's head division,
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Whose members often worked in concentration camps.
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Kurt: What counted for us?
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First of all, the
purity of the person.
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Who are you?
What do you want from life?
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Secondly, you have
a healthy family.
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After that, there
is the people.
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How did our ancestors live?
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What did they believe in?
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What has made real
germans of us?
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These were our
fundamental values.
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Narrator: The seeds of ss fanaticism were planted in
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1918, when germany lost the first world war.
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The following year, the versailles peace treaty
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Took several border regions away from germany.
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Then came the nightmare of 1920's germany...
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Hyperinflation, unemployment, poverty.
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In the years to come when theylooked to justify their crimes,
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The ss would often point to the tribulations of the 1920s.
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Nazism, they said, gave them back their dignity.
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They began to form ranks behind an austrian world war one corporal,
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Adolf hitler.
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A radical nationalist who promised he would wipe out the shame.
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-We were on our knees.
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We had been
poor and miserable,
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And then suddenly
we were somebody again.
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Narrator: No one could imagine where this commitment would eventually lead.
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-We were delighted
with this change.
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Narrator: What they did know, was that their first targets
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Would be the communists; those "anti-germans" who the nazis
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Had been fighting in the streets since the end of world war I.
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Nazi propaganda accused them of betraying the nation by
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Overthrowing the emperor in 1918 and plotting to establish
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A communist state in germany.
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Ekkehard: I remember in
hamburg, when I was a child,
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Seeing big
demonstrations in the street.
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My father said, "if they get
into power, we're screwed".
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He was talking about
the communist party.
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Kurt: National socialism was
more social than communism,
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And in political terms,
was devoted purely to germany.
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Whereas communism
was aimed at the world and
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Was largely run by jews.
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Narrator: By 1933, when the nazis came into power,
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The view that the jews were the real enemy,
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"worse than the communists" was taking hold.
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For hitler, the jews had profited from the german
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People's misery.
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They are hiding everywhere, said his manifesto.
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And for propaganda minister joseph goebbels,
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The hour of the great confrontation was near.
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(crowd cheering and applause)
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Narrator: It was this visceral, revengeful hatred,
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Born out of 19th century racist theories that drove
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The ss' heinous actions in the years to come.
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Accompanying hitler through this crowd are the ss,
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Who since their creation in 1925,
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Had been hitler's bodyguards.
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They stood out in their black uniforms and could be seen
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Everywhere alongside the party leaders.
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They wanted to be noticed, to distinguish themselves.
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-I knew it was
an elite formation.
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In other words, they wouldn't
take any tom, dick and harry.
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Manfred: I wanted to be
part of an elite division.
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Narrator: They were the new regime's shop window.
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New recruits had to be tall.
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At least five-foot six, and young...
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Under 23, no jewish ancestry.
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They had to provide genealogical details dating
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Back to the 18th century.
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In the third reich, if you wanted a successful life,
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You joined the ss.
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They were also known as the black order.
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A name that linked them to germanic soldier-monks who
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Colonized eastern europe in the middle ages.
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They were filled with grandiose ideas;
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That they were the new lords of germany,
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Who would oust the old aristocratic elite who had
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Always run the country.
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Many responded to the call.
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Ekkehard guhr was assigned to the das reich division
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Of the ss, which committed numerous atrocities during the war.
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At the age of 17, he says,
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He joined the ss to defy his parents,
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Who refused to allow a relationship with a young catholic girl.
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-There were images in germany
where you would see a young
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Man sign up for the
war for freedom,
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And he would kneel before his
beloved, who would bless him.
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All of those emotions, that I
don't think we can understand
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Or express today,
they existed back then.
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-Our motto, written on
our belt buckles, was,
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"my honor is my loyalty."
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It meant no cowardice
when facing the enemy.
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-The ideology that himmler
had drilled into us was,
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"you are nothing, your
people is everything.
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Werner: You belong
to the nation.
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The nation is, is, is you.
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You are part of the nation.
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Kurt: I wanted to prove that
I was ready to risk my life
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For that ideology.
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Narrator: By 1934, it wasn't just the german political
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Elites who were being replaced;
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00:10:32,065 --> 00:10:36,334
That year himmler incited hitler to eliminate his competitors,
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The leaders of the sa, the nazi party militia.
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They would call this massacre the night of the long knives.
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Carried out by his ss, the bloodbath consolidated his
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Position at the heart of the regime.
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At the head of several hundred thousand ss members,
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Himmler managed, in the space of a few years,
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To extend his control to all german police.
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From his young men in black he demanded total submission.
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-When you are a soldier,
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You have to carry out orders.
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You're not there to think.
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That's how it was.
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Today it's different.
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At the time, we said, "leave
the thinking to the horses,
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They have bigger heads".
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Narrator: Most of the ss we met were still children
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In the mid-30s.
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Raised in a totalitarian state,
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They were subjected to hitler's propaganda,
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Some of the most extensive brainwashing of the 20th century.
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-The nazis made sweets for
children with swastikas on them.
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I was proud to
eat those sweets.
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But I was even prouder when
I was 5 years old, in school,
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And we'd go on
walks or on visits and
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I could wear my
swastika armband.
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Ekkehard: This was all drilled
into us quite deliberately.
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To the point that
in 1934, when I was 10,
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That state of mind, with
the uniforms and the hitler
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Salute, was quite natural.
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In fact, I didn't know
anyone who was opposed to it.
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Narrator: In the youth organizations,
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Budding ss members were given military training
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From an early age.
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Like sparta in ancient greece,
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The state educated the children.
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Egon: We used to
like singing songs.
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♪ the waves will close in on them, the world is at peace. ♪
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It means the
extermination of the jews.
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They would be
drowned, wiped out.
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Narrator: At the time, the extermination of the jews was
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Not on the agenda.
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But the barriers were falling.
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Like here, at a carnival in nuremberg,
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Where an effigy of a jew was hanged from a float.
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Or in this racist propaganda film.
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Narrator: This view of germany as a victim of its jewish
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Communities ran so deep, that it continues to warp the minds
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Of some former ss men.
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-I don't know if
you would like it,
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When you have a very
precise type of blood,
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To accept a race that is
fundamentally different in its
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Way of being, its religion and
its very conception of life.
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Narrator: It was at the age of 14 that this former austrian
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Ss member, herbert von mildenburg,
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Saw hitler for the first time.
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-There was something in his
eyes when he looked at us,
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Something fascinating.
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We sang,
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♪ we're not going home. ♪
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♪ we're not going home before the führer speaks. ♪
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We were in heaven,
like idiot football
fans in a stadium today.
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Narrator: Hitler, the man they believed would resurrect germany.
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Eberhard: The fact was that
six million unemployed found
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Work within the
space of five years.
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Narrator: By increasing aid for workers,
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Providing leisure activities previously reserved for the
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Elite, and by funding massive rearmament and major building
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Projects through the confiscation of jewish assets
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And massive debt, hitler bought the approval of the german people.
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For ss members, like kurt barkhausen, it was a miracle.
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Kurt: It was proof that
hitler had accomplished
what he had promised.
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Narrator: Repression began in 1933.
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Political opponents were isolated from the rest of
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Society as a preventive measure.
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Without trial.
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The task was entrusted first to the sa,
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The nazi party paramilitary wing,
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Then eventually to the ss.
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00:17:17,971 --> 00:17:20,905
The pretext was the burning of the reichstag,
203
00:17:21,007 --> 00:17:24,008
The german parliament.
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00:17:24,778 --> 00:17:28,246
Hitler presented it as the beginning of a new communist revolution.
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They were told communists were a danger and should
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Be removed from the community.
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Kurt: I myself noticed that
the people who had previously
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00:17:42,962 --> 00:17:47,398
Expressed opposition at party
meetings had now disappeared.
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00:17:50,703 --> 00:17:54,038
Either the communists
joined our movement,
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00:17:54,140 --> 00:17:59,043
Or they continued to oppose us
and were sent to special camps,
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00:17:59,145 --> 00:18:03,114
Which were later
called concentration camps.
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00:18:06,419 --> 00:18:10,154
To the extent that there was
almost no opposition in germany.
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It just wasn't
possible any more.
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Narrator: November 9th 1938.
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The feldherrnhalle in munich.
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00:18:28,241 --> 00:18:31,709
It was five years since hitler's rise to power and
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00:18:31,811 --> 00:18:35,646
Less than a year before the start of world war two.
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00:18:37,183 --> 00:18:41,119
These thousands of ss men were about to experience one of the
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00:18:41,221 --> 00:18:44,889
Most important events of their lives.
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00:18:49,496 --> 00:18:53,331
Soldiers: Heil hitler!
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Narrator: Among them, eberhard heder,
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A future captain in the wiking division.
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00:19:07,680 --> 00:19:13,684
-I saw hitler arrive,
very solemn and then,
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00:19:14,888 --> 00:19:17,522
"men of the ss,
recite your oath!"
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00:19:33,773 --> 00:19:36,574
-We pronounced the
words with our hearts.
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-The phrase "to the death"
was a shock, of course.
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Loyalty to that degree?
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00:19:58,331 --> 00:20:01,199
That's going too far.
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Narrator: They would soon find out what their vow entailed.
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00:20:12,212 --> 00:20:16,514
In September 1939, hitler attacked poland,
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Starting the second world war.
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On the eve of the offensive, the ss played a crucial role.
233
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To justify the invasion,
234
00:20:32,599 --> 00:20:37,001
The führer ordered them to fake a polish provocation.
235
00:20:37,303 --> 00:20:40,338
The ss simulated a polish attack,
236
00:20:40,440 --> 00:20:44,709
A bloody one, on the german border.
237
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Dirty work the ss had done since the start and would continue.
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00:20:57,190 --> 00:21:01,025
The ss also fought alongside the regular army,
239
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The wehrmacht.
240
00:21:04,430 --> 00:21:07,431
If the ss sacrificed itself on the frontline,
241
00:21:07,533 --> 00:21:10,234
Paying with its blood, explained their leaders,
242
00:21:10,336 --> 00:21:15,339
It would have the moral right to lead the repression in germany.
243
00:21:19,512 --> 00:21:22,647
To these men destined to fight on the frontline,
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00:21:22,749 --> 00:21:28,853
Himmler gave a name, the waffen ss, the armed ss.
245
00:21:32,492 --> 00:21:37,295
800,000 men joined the waffen ss during the war.
246
00:21:39,465 --> 00:21:42,099
They saw themselves as political soldiers and
247
00:21:42,201 --> 00:21:46,537
In the eyes of the regime, they were dependable.
248
00:21:47,307 --> 00:21:49,540
Hitler could count on them in the event of
249
00:21:49,642 --> 00:21:53,177
Trouble at home or abroad.
250
00:21:58,518 --> 00:22:02,920
Manfred diener, was one of those waffen-ss, at sixteen.
251
00:22:04,724 --> 00:22:07,258
For this baker's son from thuringia,
252
00:22:07,360 --> 00:22:11,262
It was an opportunity for social advancement.
253
00:22:13,132 --> 00:22:18,869
Manfred: With us there
was no "sir". "lieutenant,
sir!" or " yes captain, sir!"
254
00:22:22,308 --> 00:22:27,178
In other wehrmacht units,
you needed your exams to
be an officer.
255
00:22:28,348 --> 00:22:31,615
The waffen ss
made an exception.
256
00:22:31,718 --> 00:22:35,519
Even if, like me, you only had a
basic school certificate,
257
00:22:35,621 --> 00:22:39,290
You could become an officer.
258
00:22:40,993 --> 00:22:45,296
Narrator: It was a model for the german people to follow.
259
00:22:46,065 --> 00:22:50,801
But in reality, these young men were no longer their own masters.
260
00:22:52,105 --> 00:22:56,273
With the tattoo of their blood group marked under their left arms,
261
00:22:56,376 --> 00:22:59,710
They had become someone else.
262
00:23:00,646 --> 00:23:05,249
Once inside the black order, there was no way out.
263
00:23:15,261 --> 00:23:19,263
♪ ♪
264
00:23:22,268 --> 00:23:26,604
In a short time, these young waffen-ss men go from drilling
265
00:23:26,706 --> 00:23:31,108
At their barracks, to leading the invasion of France.
266
00:23:33,780 --> 00:23:36,547
And only a few months later, they would take part in the
267
00:23:36,649 --> 00:23:40,951
Invasion of yugoslavia, then greece,
268
00:23:42,855 --> 00:23:47,425
And in June 1941, the ussr.
269
00:23:49,262 --> 00:23:52,296
It was there, against stalin's troops,
270
00:23:52,398 --> 00:23:56,734
That himmler's ss would find their special role,
271
00:23:57,270 --> 00:24:00,604
As executioners.
272
00:24:12,385 --> 00:24:15,753
Narrator: Summer 1941.
273
00:24:15,855 --> 00:24:19,356
Hitler orders the invasion of the soviet union,
274
00:24:19,459 --> 00:24:23,027
Launching a kind of war never seen before,
275
00:24:23,129 --> 00:24:26,163
To conquer "living space" and exterminate the
276
00:24:26,265 --> 00:24:30,334
"judeo-bolsheviks," as he calls them.
277
00:24:33,739 --> 00:24:36,340
Alongside the regular army, the wehrmacht,
278
00:24:36,442 --> 00:24:39,810
The führer now has a force of more than 100,000
279
00:24:39,912 --> 00:24:45,416
Men who have sworn loyalty to the death... The ss.
280
00:24:52,758 --> 00:24:55,326
This horrific scene was filmed behind the lines in
281
00:24:55,428 --> 00:24:58,028
German-occupied latvia.
282
00:24:58,764 --> 00:25:00,164
(gunshot)
283
00:25:00,333 --> 00:25:03,367
Jewish men were assassinated and buried in the sand.
284
00:25:05,505 --> 00:25:07,738
Just one of the terrible consequences of the
285
00:25:07,840 --> 00:25:10,474
Indoctrination of the 1930's.
286
00:25:12,979 --> 00:25:15,546
(gunshot)
287
00:25:17,617 --> 00:25:22,219
Hans friedrich was in the first ss infantry brigade.
288
00:25:22,788 --> 00:25:25,890
A few months before his death in 2005,
289
00:25:25,992 --> 00:25:31,195
He confessed on film to his part in the murder of several thousand jews.
290
00:25:37,904 --> 00:25:42,306
Hans: They were in
such a state, of shock,
291
00:25:45,545 --> 00:25:50,014
And so scared that we could
do what we wanted with them.
292
00:25:53,486 --> 00:25:57,588
Try to imagine,
there's a ditch.
293
00:26:00,192 --> 00:26:01,992
On one side,
there are people.
294
00:26:02,094 --> 00:26:05,362
And opposite,
there are soldiers.
295
00:26:05,464 --> 00:26:06,997
That was us.
296
00:26:07,099 --> 00:26:09,333
And we shot.
297
00:26:09,435 --> 00:26:13,871
The ones who were hit,
fell in the ditch.
298
00:26:24,550 --> 00:26:29,186
I just thought, aim well.
299
00:26:32,391 --> 00:26:36,060
So they'd be killed
with a single shot.
300
00:26:38,197 --> 00:26:40,364
That was my only thought.
301
00:26:40,866 --> 00:26:42,399
Interviewer: That was
your only thought?
302
00:26:42,501 --> 00:26:44,034
You didn't have
any feelings for the jewish
303
00:26:44,136 --> 00:26:47,471
Civilians you were executing?
304
00:26:50,943 --> 00:26:53,544
-Nein. No.
305
00:26:53,646 --> 00:26:54,979
Interviewer: And why not?
306
00:26:55,081 --> 00:26:58,549
-Because my hatred for
the jews was too strong.
307
00:27:03,422 --> 00:27:07,091
Narrator: Not all took part in the extermination,
308
00:27:07,193 --> 00:27:10,728
But many agreed with it.
309
00:27:12,231 --> 00:27:16,533
In order to kill jews, the nazis employed special units
310
00:27:16,636 --> 00:27:19,570
They used for the invasion of poland.
311
00:27:19,672 --> 00:27:24,775
The einsatzgruppen, detachments of killers made
312
00:27:24,877 --> 00:27:29,913
Up of ss members, police and locally-recruited auxiliaries.
313
00:27:32,652 --> 00:27:37,354
Here is one of their leaders, ss general jeckeln.
314
00:27:39,358 --> 00:27:43,327
He'd be hanged by the allies in 1946 for the murder
315
00:27:43,429 --> 00:27:47,197
Of more than 100,000 people.
316
00:27:48,401 --> 00:27:52,936
His method of execution, sardine packing.
317
00:27:54,640 --> 00:27:58,075
He applied it here, in the babi yar ravine,
318
00:27:58,644 --> 00:28:02,413
Where he executed more than 30,000 jews.
319
00:28:03,749 --> 00:28:06,617
They were laid on top of one another and shot,
320
00:28:08,054 --> 00:28:12,189
Then buried in layers like sardines.
321
00:28:14,260 --> 00:28:19,329
Men, women, children.
322
00:28:25,371 --> 00:28:28,405
The paradox was that the ss didn't see themselves as
323
00:28:28,507 --> 00:28:33,944
Criminals, but as victims, soldiers defending themselves.
324
00:28:36,382 --> 00:28:40,651
Oskar gröning was 21 when the ss assigned him to auschwitz.
325
00:28:42,621 --> 00:28:47,091
At the time, he believed, the jews deserved their fate.
326
00:28:49,095 --> 00:28:51,428
Oskar: We were convinced, and
this was our vision of the
327
00:28:51,530 --> 00:28:54,565
World, that we germans had
been betrayed by the whole
328
00:28:54,667 --> 00:28:59,069
World and that
there was a huge jewish
conspiracy against us.
329
00:29:01,941 --> 00:29:04,975
Children weren't our
enemies at that point.
330
00:29:06,178 --> 00:29:09,613
The enemy was the blood
which flowed in them.
331
00:29:09,815 --> 00:29:13,550
But the children
would grow up and become
potentially dangerous jews.
332
00:29:16,689 --> 00:29:20,023
That was why the
children were included.
333
00:29:22,228 --> 00:29:24,828
Narrator: In the view of ss chief himmler,
334
00:29:24,930 --> 00:29:27,931
Those who killed jews were carrying out the work required
335
00:29:28,033 --> 00:29:31,769
For the country to survive.
336
00:29:31,937 --> 00:29:36,306
And so, the massacres continued.
337
00:29:49,789 --> 00:29:53,090
Narrator: As the jewish people gradually disappeared,
338
00:29:53,192 --> 00:29:56,794
The ss profited and dreamed.
339
00:29:59,231 --> 00:30:03,834
Himmler had promised them the brightest of futures.
340
00:30:08,507 --> 00:30:12,676
The third reich will last a thousand years, he tells them.
341
00:30:15,080 --> 00:30:18,081
As greece fought rome,
342
00:30:18,184 --> 00:30:21,451
As rome conquered carthage and jerusalem,
343
00:30:22,054 --> 00:30:26,223
So germany will crush the judeo-bolshevik ussr.
344
00:30:29,695 --> 00:30:33,931
While history has proven himmler to be a murderous monster,
345
00:30:34,033 --> 00:30:39,203
Some of his ss followers still see him as their hero.
346
00:30:44,310 --> 00:30:48,545
Herbert: Himmler
was a decent man,
347
00:30:48,647 --> 00:30:51,381
A man of honest character.
348
00:30:52,084 --> 00:30:55,586
Himmler wanted the best
for the german people.
349
00:30:57,189 --> 00:31:01,291
Narrator: And his ambitions weren't limited to those from germany.
350
00:31:02,728 --> 00:31:06,430
From 1940, with the aim of founding a german empire,
351
00:31:07,099 --> 00:31:10,000
He opened the doors of the ss to the inhabitants
352
00:31:10,102 --> 00:31:13,704
Of several defeated countries.
353
00:31:14,039 --> 00:31:17,708
The danes, the norwegians, the dutch...
354
00:31:18,644 --> 00:31:22,512
They were all germanic, said himmler.
355
00:31:24,383 --> 00:31:27,351
As the war continued, the ss opened up to the
356
00:31:27,453 --> 00:31:31,521
French-speaking belgians, the french themselves and the
357
00:31:31,624 --> 00:31:36,360
Italians; latin peoples, to whom himmler gave the hope of
358
00:31:36,462 --> 00:31:40,063
Entering into the nazi elite.
359
00:31:44,603 --> 00:31:48,338
-Joining the waffen ss
was a promotion for us.
360
00:31:48,440 --> 00:31:52,109
For me, it was an
excellent model.
361
00:31:53,479 --> 00:31:56,346
The national socialist
party had done a lot of good
362
00:31:56,448 --> 00:32:00,284
In germany for the
workers by giving them jobs,
363
00:32:01,220 --> 00:32:05,422
Getting them involved,
building them houses
and gardens, etcetera.
364
00:32:06,859 --> 00:32:08,759
We thought it
was a model, yes.
365
00:32:08,861 --> 00:32:11,194
Exactly.
366
00:32:11,297 --> 00:32:14,731
My dream at the tiem was
to see germany win the war.
367
00:32:14,900 --> 00:32:17,434
For me germany was the
supreme nation in europe.
368
00:32:17,536 --> 00:32:19,403
When I joined the waffen-ss,
369
00:32:19,505 --> 00:32:21,972
I considered
myself to be one of them.
370
00:32:23,709 --> 00:32:26,376
Narrator: But it was an illusion.
371
00:32:27,212 --> 00:32:31,448
None of the non-germanic, latin or muslim slav peoples
372
00:32:31,550 --> 00:32:35,052
Would ever actually belong to the black order.
373
00:32:36,522 --> 00:32:39,923
Attracted by the wages and the family allowances,
374
00:32:40,025 --> 00:32:43,093
They wore the uniform, but were cannon-fodder.
375
00:32:48,233 --> 00:32:49,666
"for every foreigner who dies,"
376
00:32:49,768 --> 00:32:52,102
Said the head of recruitment,
377
00:32:52,204 --> 00:32:56,006
"no german mother cries."
378
00:32:58,077 --> 00:33:02,612
By 1942, the nazis controlled a large part of europe and
379
00:33:02,715 --> 00:33:05,983
Believed they would soon defeat the ussr.
380
00:33:06,552 --> 00:33:09,653
But there were still some ten million european jews
381
00:33:09,755 --> 00:33:12,990
Left to kill, according to nazi calculations.
382
00:33:14,693 --> 00:33:17,594
They knew they could not exterminate that many people
383
00:33:17,696 --> 00:33:20,197
With the existing killing methods,
384
00:33:20,299 --> 00:33:22,733
And troop morale was beginning to be an issue.
385
00:33:24,470 --> 00:33:27,304
So, ss leaders came up with a solution...
386
00:33:29,341 --> 00:33:32,743
Death camps.
387
00:33:34,513 --> 00:33:38,215
This amateur footage shot by ss guards shows the inside of
388
00:33:38,317 --> 00:33:43,353
The posen camp, one of the first in occupied poland.
389
00:33:43,822 --> 00:33:48,091
Locking up "undesirables" was now no longer enough,
390
00:33:48,193 --> 00:33:51,495
They must be killed.
391
00:33:52,164 --> 00:33:56,666
To achieve their goal, the ss secretly tested toxic gas.
392
00:33:59,071 --> 00:34:02,005
In a specially-built gas chamber hidden behind these
393
00:34:02,107 --> 00:34:06,309
Walls, they had already eliminated 400 mentally
394
00:34:06,412 --> 00:34:10,781
Ill prisoners by 1939.
395
00:34:12,785 --> 00:34:14,785
Egon: Where the nazis were
very smart was with the
396
00:34:14,887 --> 00:34:18,255
Extermination in the
concentration camps.
397
00:34:18,490 --> 00:34:21,725
They managed to keep it
all perfectly secret.
398
00:34:22,795 --> 00:34:25,796
There were a lot of
people to exterminate.
399
00:34:28,367 --> 00:34:31,301
Narrator: Most would be sent to the slaughterhouse.
400
00:34:31,403 --> 00:34:34,538
Notably to auschwitz.
401
00:34:37,042 --> 00:34:39,776
These photos, taken by an ss guard,
402
00:34:39,878 --> 00:34:44,548
Show the arrival of prisoners and their sorting by ss doctors.
403
00:34:47,352 --> 00:34:51,555
On one side are the young and healthy who will work.
404
00:34:52,257 --> 00:34:56,760
On the other, those who will be killed in the coming hours.
405
00:34:59,164 --> 00:35:02,099
Once they were designated, the ss avoided them.
406
00:35:03,102 --> 00:35:06,103
The guards merely supervised the killing process,
407
00:35:06,338 --> 00:35:10,407
Dropping toxic gas canisters into the gas chamber via a hatch.
408
00:35:12,211 --> 00:35:17,948
Then, other prisoners removedand burned the bodies in ovens.
409
00:35:25,290 --> 00:35:30,627
Most of the ss guards in the camps experienced a feeling of power.
410
00:35:34,333 --> 00:35:38,668
And they received benefits not available to ss assigned elsewhere.
411
00:35:40,506 --> 00:35:43,406
The camps were not on the frontlines,
412
00:35:43,509 --> 00:35:46,209
The staff were not risking their lives,
413
00:35:46,311 --> 00:35:49,613
And himmler had made sure they'd be comfortable.
414
00:35:50,182 --> 00:35:52,482
Like here, at the reischof camp,
415
00:35:52,584 --> 00:35:55,785
120 miles from auschwitz.
416
00:35:57,956 --> 00:36:01,258
The auschwitz camp itself was much sought-after.
417
00:36:02,928 --> 00:36:07,030
It was here, to this
470-acre complex,
418
00:36:07,132 --> 00:36:11,902
That oskar gröning was sent
as an accountant in 1942.
419
00:36:14,173 --> 00:36:16,907
Oskar: The main camp at
auschwitz was like a small town,
420
00:36:17,309 --> 00:36:20,544
With its gossip and rumors.
421
00:36:20,746 --> 00:36:24,014
There was a grocer's
where you could buy
marrowbone to make a soup.
422
00:36:27,186 --> 00:36:31,788
A canteen, a cinema.
423
00:36:31,990 --> 00:36:35,725
There was a theatre, where
they regularly put shows on.
424
00:36:36,295 --> 00:36:39,863
A sports club,
where I was a member.
425
00:36:40,032 --> 00:36:43,633
It was joyful and lively,
like in a small town.
426
00:36:45,003 --> 00:36:47,470
Narrator: This façade of normalcy was meant to shield
427
00:36:47,573 --> 00:36:51,141
The ss from the brutality of the death camps.
428
00:36:52,244 --> 00:36:56,513
But soon, the façade would fall apart.
429
00:37:05,424 --> 00:37:08,024
Narrator: In 1944, the normandy landings bring
430
00:37:08,126 --> 00:37:09,993
Allied troops to the west,
431
00:37:10,829 --> 00:37:12,395
And the soviets attack from the east,
432
00:37:13,098 --> 00:37:16,566
Forcing german retreats everywhere.
433
00:37:17,169 --> 00:37:20,370
To try to shore up their crumbling front-lines,
434
00:37:20,505 --> 00:37:23,840
Hitler scales up the deployment of the waffen-ss,
435
00:37:24,643 --> 00:37:27,344
The "frontline firemen" as they call them.
436
00:37:30,916 --> 00:37:33,750
The ss know they have everything to lose.
437
00:37:38,023 --> 00:37:42,525
Since the 1930s, they've staked everything on hitler.
438
00:37:45,564 --> 00:37:48,798
If he falls, they fall with him.
439
00:37:51,336 --> 00:37:54,404
-That was what the war
was about, total war,
440
00:37:55,407 --> 00:37:57,841
Where the human being
had no importance.
441
00:37:58,243 --> 00:37:59,976
None.
442
00:38:00,312 --> 00:38:03,613
Narrator: In France, the nazisface a persistent insurrection.
443
00:38:04,416 --> 00:38:07,717
So, they use a new kind of terror against the french,
444
00:38:08,220 --> 00:38:11,521
To dissuade them from supporting the resistance.
445
00:38:14,660 --> 00:38:18,161
Maurice: I saw
civilians hanging from
trees and lamp-posts.
446
00:38:18,964 --> 00:38:21,564
They said,
"you see what we do.
447
00:38:21,667 --> 00:38:24,467
If you do anything against
us, then we'll hang you.
448
00:38:25,270 --> 00:38:27,570
We'll kill you!
449
00:38:27,673 --> 00:38:31,107
Narrator: Certain waffen-ss soldiers from the das reich division
450
00:38:31,209 --> 00:38:33,643
Were forcibly enrolled.
451
00:38:33,745 --> 00:38:37,113
They were nothing like the others who were volunteers.
452
00:38:37,582 --> 00:38:41,151
From the alsace border region, they were born french,
453
00:38:41,520 --> 00:38:44,321
But the nazis saw them as german.
454
00:38:44,423 --> 00:38:48,825
They were called the "malgré nous," "against our will".
455
00:38:51,330 --> 00:38:54,698
In 1944, as the army withdrew, they discovered from the
456
00:38:54,800 --> 00:38:59,135
Inside the ruthless methods of the black order.
457
00:39:01,606 --> 00:39:04,174
Daniel: All those who weren't
with them were against them.
458
00:39:04,576 --> 00:39:06,409
If you caught traitors,
resistance fighters,
459
00:39:06,511 --> 00:39:09,813
Civilians, then you could
shoot them and that was that!
460
00:39:11,483 --> 00:39:14,951
Durlewanger: You could feel the
fanaticism in their every move.
461
00:39:17,456 --> 00:39:19,756
Narrator: The true consequences of this unchecked
462
00:39:19,858 --> 00:39:24,894
Fanaticism were finally seen in 1945 when allied troops
463
00:39:24,996 --> 00:39:27,931
Liberated the concentration camps and discovered the
464
00:39:28,033 --> 00:39:32,068
Massacre committed by the ss.
465
00:39:34,506 --> 00:39:37,874
Six million jewish victims.
466
00:39:39,144 --> 00:39:41,511
Hundreds of thousands of political prisoners
467
00:39:41,613 --> 00:39:46,850
Assassinated, along with homosexuals, priests, roma,
468
00:39:47,719 --> 00:39:50,820
And disabled people.
469
00:39:55,160 --> 00:40:00,530
Only some of the 40,000 ss guards were arrested and identified.
470
00:40:01,166 --> 00:40:04,434
These men who thought they were superior to others now
471
00:40:04,536 --> 00:40:07,971
Looked very ordinary.
472
00:40:08,073 --> 00:40:10,907
Some disguised themselves as prisoners,
473
00:40:11,009 --> 00:40:16,413
In striped uniforms, in an attempt to pass unnoticed.
474
00:40:23,321 --> 00:40:27,157
Most of them were identified by the blood group tattoo
475
00:40:27,259 --> 00:40:32,395
Under their arms, stamped when they first joined the ss.
476
00:40:33,565 --> 00:40:37,300
It was a mark they could never wash off,
477
00:40:37,569 --> 00:40:41,638
Even if they cut and re-stitched their skin.
478
00:40:47,879 --> 00:40:51,681
May 8th 1945.
479
00:40:52,050 --> 00:40:55,018
Germany surrenders.
480
00:40:56,087 --> 00:40:59,322
The ss were moved into prisoner-of-war camps where
481
00:40:59,424 --> 00:41:03,193
They would spend months, even years.
482
00:41:07,966 --> 00:41:10,467
Disguised as a police sergeant, their leader,
483
00:41:10,569 --> 00:41:13,770
Himmler, hid among the crowd.
484
00:41:13,972 --> 00:41:16,206
After several weeks of wandering,
485
00:41:16,308 --> 00:41:20,176
He was arrested by the allies and committed suicide
486
00:41:20,278 --> 00:41:23,313
With a cyanide capsule.
487
00:41:25,951 --> 00:41:29,252
It's a myth that members of the ss were all punished.
488
00:41:30,922 --> 00:41:34,724
Apart from a few leaders, most slipped through the net.
489
00:41:37,963 --> 00:41:41,798
Now, some former ss place the blame on the leader
490
00:41:41,900 --> 00:41:44,033
They once admired.
491
00:41:44,135 --> 00:41:46,536
-Hitler betrayed me.
492
00:41:53,011 --> 00:41:57,046
He pushed us into misery
when he'd promised us joy.
493
00:42:01,486 --> 00:42:07,490
He perpetrated such crimes that
I can only see it as treason.
494
00:42:12,230 --> 00:42:13,897
Narrator: "I'm ashamed to be a german",
495
00:42:13,999 --> 00:42:18,902
Wrote one munich citizen on may 28th 1945 on the ruins of
496
00:42:19,004 --> 00:42:21,170
The feldherrnhalle.
497
00:42:21,273 --> 00:42:25,675
The place where the ss had once sworn their allegiance.
498
00:42:34,252 --> 00:42:38,488
But how to get out of the cult?
499
00:42:43,395 --> 00:42:47,397
Eberhard heder, a captain in the wiking division,
500
00:42:47,499 --> 00:42:50,533
Abandoned his racist convictions and pursued
501
00:42:50,635 --> 00:42:55,405
A career in the army of the federal republic of germany.
502
00:43:00,478 --> 00:43:04,113
Ekkehard guhr, a member of the ss's das reich division,
503
00:43:05,650 --> 00:43:10,320
Who dreamed of chivalry, became a pastor.
504
00:43:13,792 --> 00:43:16,960
Egon kuhn became a trade unionist,
505
00:43:17,062 --> 00:43:19,562
Speaking tirelessly of the brainwashing he
506
00:43:19,664 --> 00:43:22,765
Received in his youth.
507
00:43:25,470 --> 00:43:27,770
But they were exceptions.
508
00:43:27,872 --> 00:43:31,207
Many of those who were in the ss would remain nostalgic,
509
00:43:31,910 --> 00:43:36,312
Often joining waffen ss veterans' associations,
510
00:43:36,414 --> 00:43:39,315
Which still exist today.
511
00:43:39,417 --> 00:43:41,017
Like manfred diener.
512
00:43:41,119 --> 00:43:45,989
Or kurt barkhausen, whose speeches are still used by
513
00:43:46,091 --> 00:43:49,025
Extremist networks.
514
00:43:51,563 --> 00:43:56,032
Herbert von mildenburg set up businesses in south america,
515
00:43:56,701 --> 00:44:00,203
While maintaining relations with several world war ii revisionists.
516
00:44:05,043 --> 00:44:08,311
In 2015, the former auschwitz accountant,
517
00:44:08,413 --> 00:44:11,381
Ss sergeant gröning was sentenced to four years in
518
00:44:11,483 --> 00:44:16,319
Prison for complicity in the murder of 300,000 jews.
519
00:44:17,789 --> 00:44:20,089
After numerous legal appeals,
520
00:44:20,191 --> 00:44:22,125
He died without serving his time.
521
00:44:22,227 --> 00:44:24,560
Captioned by cotter
captioning services.
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