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The Allies have landed in Italy,

which is occupied by the Germans.

where Mussolini is still in control,

the American, British, Canadian and French armies

are held up by the solid German defense belt along the Gustav line,

in the area of Monte Cassino.

Perched on top of the mountain

is historical St Benedict's monastery.

The Allies think that the Germans have turned this 1.400 year old monument into a lookout post.

More than 200 allied bombers will drop over 500 tons of bombs on the monastery.

In Word War 2, nothing is sacred.

It turns everything into an inferno.

World War II The Apocalypse

Episode 6 (final episode): Retreat and Surrender

March 15, 1944

March 15, 1944 The Allies launch their attack.

But the German paratroopers push them back.

The German shock troops are now firmly entrenched in the ruined monastery.

Nothing was achieved by the bombing.

These scenes were filmed by the American director John Houston who was sent to this front in Italy.

He would later say:

It was a massacre in the freezing cold

And yet Churchill had called Italy "the soft underbelly" of Europe.

By moving in from the South via Italy,

Churchill's aim was to take Berlin before the Russians could.

The Red Army continues to advance steadily from the East.

Kiev is liberated.

The German Wehrmacht army pulls out of the Ukraine,

obeying Hitler's orders to systematically destroy everything.

Ukraine

In Italy, several months later, the Wehrmacht is still holding the Gustav line...

and Monte Cassino.

The French General Juin proposes to surprise the Germans,

who have left those slopes, thought to be too steep, undefended.

The rugged soldiers of the North African and Polish regiments however,

managed to climb up the mountain and put the allies on the road to Rome.

Rome June 5, 1944

Rome June 5, 1944 As the Wehrmacht retreats,

it once again leaves a path of destruction behind it.

But, together with Mussolini and his remaining fascists,

the Germans will retain control of northern Italy and its industries.

They are the target of attacks by Italian partisans,

and they retaliate with indiscriminate violence.

Great Britain June 5, 1944 At the same time in southern England

Great Britain June 5, 1944 the allied war machine assembled for the Normandy landings,

the allied war machine assembled for the Normandy landings,

is gearing up.

On the evening of the 5th of June, the paratroopers get ready to leave...

decked out in their Indian style war paint and haircut

to make themselves feel brave.

The supreme commander of the allied forces, General Eisenhower, comes to tell them:

Dwight D. Eisenhower The supreme commander of the allied forces, General Eisenhower, comes to tell them:

"You are about to embark upon the great crusade!"

The plan is to land on 5 beaches,

along a 100 km stretch on the Normandy coast,

from the Seine to the Contentin peninsula,

where the German Atlantic war defences are the weakest.

At midnight on June the 5th,

British gliders and Dakotas full of British, American and Canadian paratroopers,

slip silently in land over the Normady region.

The paratroopers were the first to set foot in occupied France.

Their mission, to secure the flanks of the landing zone.

The allied fleet is on its way.

It is the biggest armada ever assembled.

Nearly 5.000 landing ships and assault craft.

Yet it is not detected by the Germans,

who are prevented from carrying out reconnaissance flights by the stormy weather.

Bombardment and shelling from the battleships pound the coast,

but completely miss their targets on the beach codenamed "Omaha".

The German bankers remain intact.

June 6, 1944

The first assault wave of American troops is getting ready to tackle the German defences...

on "Omaha" beach.

Among them is American writer Ernest Hemingway,

who is a war correspondent. He writes:

As we moved in towards land in the grey, early light,

the coffin-shaped steel boats took solid green sheets of water

that fell on the helmeted heads of the troops, packed shoulder to shoulder

in a stiff, awkward, uncomfortable, lonely companionship of men going to a battle.

Omaha Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer

Another war reporter, the photographer Robert Capper,

is also caught up in this inferno. He says:

It was the ugliest beach in the whole world.

Exhausted from the water and the fear, we lay flat on a small strip of wet sand.

Over 2.000 American soldiers will loose their lives here.

As the tide rolls in, the soldiers are trapped

between the sea and gunfire from the German blockhouses.

Eisenhower had prepared a communique in case the landing failed.

In a hand-written letter, he said:

"My decision to attack at this place was based on the best information available."

"If there is any blame or fault attached to the attempt...

...it is mine alone."

But a small group succeeds in climbing up under enemy fire

and neutralising the German cannons with the help of the Royal Airforce's fighter bombers.

Juno Bernieres-sur-Mer

Juno Bernieres-sur-Mer In the meantime the Canadian troops have landed on Juno beach

In the meantime the Canadian troops have landed on Juno beach.

There is indeed very little resistance,

Gold Arromanches only a few shots that do not deter the British

on the next beach along.

The few German defenders who survive the bombardments

finally surrender.

Sword Ouistreham British and French commandoes land on the 5th beach.

The allies plan to land 326.000 men,

in just one week, a daily average of 10.000 men,

3.200 vehicles and 15.000 tons of supplies are ferried across.

In order to accomplish this a harbor is needed,

but the allies decided to stay away from the big ports,

which were too well defended

and to land on the beaches of Normandy.

Instead they brought their harbors with them.

Gigantic construction kits called "Mulberries".

146 concrete caissons, 61 meters long and weighing 6.000 tons

were assembled to create break waters and piers,

where the "Liberty" ships as they were called, could unload their cargo.

American shipyards had turned out one of these ships (Liberty) every day.

In less than three years,

the war industry had turned the United States into a superpower.

The country has mobilised more than 11 milion men.

Its armies are now in France, Italy, North Africa and Asia.

The power of the United States is such that just a few days after the Normandy landings in Europe,

it's able to assemble a second fleet on the other side of the world,

in the Pacific...

...in order to attack the Mariana Islands which are under Japanese control.

Having taken the island of Tarawa the year before,

the Americans now want to use the island of Saipan, as a base for bombers taking off at Japan

Some 127.500 troops, 2/3 of them marines, prepare for combat.

15 aircraft carriers and 900 planes will crush the Japanese airforce

in an air battle which will come to be known as the "Great Marianas Turkey Shoot".

A fatal blow is also dealt to the Japanese Imperial Navy.

After which Japan's defences in Saipan are battered.

Saipan

Saipan But when the marines land on this tiny island,

But when the marines land on this tiny island,

which is only 9 km wide,

one of the bloodiest battles of the war begins.

Over 15.000 Americans and at least 27.000 Japanese,

will be killed or wounded.

A month and a half after D-Day the fighting is still fierce.

The Allies are advancing but Eisenhower is worried.

Hitler is determined to contain the Allies in Normandy

in order to protect the launch ramps for his weapon of terror,

the V-1, which he fires at London from northern France.

It is the first cruise missile ever to be used.

The V-1 is a flying bomb with a pulse-jet engine and 1 ton explosive warhead.

This small, swift, pilotless aircraft is difficult to intercept and shoot down.

London

London The British call them "buzz bombs" because they make a motorcycle noise

that alerts Londoners to their arrival.

By the time the V-1s reach the capital city,

their fuel is used up and their engines die out.

Londoners never know where they will fall.

Nearly 20.000 of these missiles were launched against England and continental Europe,

killing 11.000 people.

But even under these conditions,

the British retain their pluck and their composure.

If the V-1s fail to demoralise the British,

their purpose was also to boost the morale of the Germans.

Germany their purpose was also to boost the morale of the Germans.

Germany For years they have had to live in underground shelters.

For years they have had to live in underground shelters.

American bombers by day and British bombers by night,

demolish Germany's cities under a carpet of bombs.

American planes dropped 1.4 million tons of bombs.

Allied bombing led to around 600.000 casualties, 7 million homeless.

Such is the outcome of the strategic bombing campaign,

who's purpose is to destroy the industrial and human potential,

behind Germany's wartime effort.

The Wolf's Lair East Prussia

In the Fuhrer's headquarters, the Wolf's Lair,

beneath the obligatory smiles many of Hitler's officers are deeply troubled.

Especially those from the old Prussian military aristocracy.

In the past year, many of them have joined a plot

to get rid of Hitler.

One of these officers, Colonel Count Claus von Stauffenberg,

places a bomb under Hitler's desk during a conference in the Wolf's Lair.

July 20, 1944

July 20, 1944 It is this heavy table that saves Hitler.

It is this heavy table that saves Hitler.

It deflects the blast that would eventually kill 4 men and wound 20 others.

Of the failed assassination attempt, Hitler says:

Having now escaped death I am more than ever convinced

that the great cause which I served will be brought through its present perils

and that everything can be brought to a good end.

Hitler is only slightly injured, a bruised arm,

his eardrums punctured, his hair singed,

but the incident deeply traumatizes him,

affecting his mental state, intensified his cruelty and his paranoia.

He unleashes his revenge.

The main conspirators are tried,

5.000 suspects arrested, 200 of them executed

and their familes deported.

He has no second thoughts about executing his marshals.

Because he agreed to replace Hitler at the head of the army,

Rommel is forced to commit suicide.

Hitler hypocritically gives him a state funeral.

Henceforth, power is in the hands of the SS.

Nothing can save Germany now.

The Russians continue to advance in the East.

The "Great Patriotic War" as they call it, has taken a new turn for them.

The Red Army is suddenly able to strike with a force that amazes all sides.

An endless supply of men,

even after the extremely costly battles of Moscow and Stalingrad.

The offensive in Belarus in the summer of 1944,

is one of the biggest battles of the 2nd World War.

The eastern front is 1.000 km wide

but the Russians are able to push forward hundreds of kilometers within 2 months,

destroying 17 German army divisions.

The Wehrmacht retreats towards East Prussia,

leaving behind many thousands of casualties.

Some 50.000 captured Germans would be paraded through Moscow.

Normandy August 6, 1944

Normandy August 6, 1944 In the west the Allies are gaining the upper hand.

For the Wehrmacht, the situation is deteriorating.

50.000 German soldiers are taken prisoner in the Falaise pocket,

or as the Germans call it: Stalingrad in Normandy.

It is a much needed victory for the Allies.

The Allies tighten their noose with a new landing in Provence.

Saint Tropez August 15, 1944 The reassembled French army plays a major part in this landing.

Africans, Moroccans, Algerians, Tunisians, French colonials

and young Frenchmen who are part of the free French forces,

aid the liberation in Provence.

It takes them just 2 weeks to liberate the entire coast, up to Marseille.

Marseille

The resistance movement comes out of the shadows

and participates in the liberation, as it would do in Paris.

Paris August 19, 1944

Paris rises up.

Barricades are erected across the city.

Most of the German army has retreated to the east.

But 20.000 men remain behind,

under the command of General von Choltitz,

who has reveived orders from Hitler to destroy the city.

Violent fighting breaks out.

On the 4th day of the insurrection,

a French unit, General Leclerc's Second Armoured Division,

arrives from Normandy and the capital is finally liberated,

Leclerc arrives from Normandy and the capital is finally liberated,

Leclerc the next morning.

The Germans surrender

and General von Choltitz is taken to Leclerc's headquarters in the Montparnasse train station.

Choltitz and General von Choltitz is taken to Leclerc's headquarters in the Montparnasse train station.

Choltitz

Hitler has just called and asked his famous question:

"Brennt Paris?"

"Is Paris burning?"

Choltitz preferred to turn himself in.

This highly disciplined officer from the airborne regiment,

disobeyed Hitler's order to fight to the last man.

Then De Gaulle arrives with eloquent words for history:

Paris has been offended, Paris has been shattered,

Paris has been tortured,

but Paris has been liberated!

While France and Belgium are progressively liberated and the Red Army awaits outside Warsaw,

on the other side of the globe, the American General MacArthur

is returning to the Philippines.

After escaping from the Japanese siege 3 years earlier, McArthur said:

I shall return.

His return is sumptuously staged by his public relation staff.

Philippines October 20, 1944 His return is sumptuously staged by his public relation staff.

Philippines October 20, 1944 complete with his legendary "Popeye" corn cob pipe

complete with his legendary "Popeye" corn cob pipe

Douglas MacArthur

Douglas MacArthur he proclaims:

People of the Phillipines, I have returned!

The hour of your redemption is here!

But it would take 4 months to liberate the Phillipines.

Manila, the capital,

will be the second most devastated city of the war,

Manila will be the second most devastated city of the war,

Manila after Warsaw.

The savagery and the cruelty of these combats,

can be explained by the American troops discovery,

of the mass execution of hostages.

And the camps with the surviving U.S prisoners from 1941.

Everywhere in the Pacific, the war is marked with this type of savagery.

Everywhere the same confusion of marines trapped on the beaches of these infernal islands.

The same suicidal obstinacy of the Japanese.

For them surrendering is the ultimate disgrace.

The Americans are no longer taking any risks.

They follow the instinct to shoot first and ask no questions.

Along with imperialism, another underlying cause of WW2 is racism.

liberated by the Russian offensive of January 1945.

Hatred of the Jews, exterminating them was as Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf, his mission.

He sent 1 million Jews to their death in the gas chambers of Auschwitz.

Six million died of starvation, brutal treatment, were shot,

and burned in the crematoriums in Majdanak, in Sobibor, in Treblinka.

The Russians find a few hundred survivors, tattooed for life.

They also intercept the trains full of deportees.

The Nazis continue to give priority to these death trains,

even over the munitions convoys.

They make their trips to the approximately 100 concentration camps,

that are still operating at the beginning of 1945.

Millions of Jews, political activists, opponents...

christians, homosexuals, gypsies have been deported to these camps

and 5 million of them have died of hunger, abuse and exhaustion.

Like the slaves in the Dora tunnel,

the underground factory where the Nazis are assembling another secret weapon,

the V-2.

The first ballistic missile

with a one-ton explossive warhead, that has a range of 300 kilometers.

From the German coast 1.500 of them are launched against London

and 2.000 against Belgium adding to the devastation and the civilian casualties.

The Allies greatest fear is that it might one day carry a nuclear charge.

Los Alamos New Mexico, USA

Los Alamos New Mexico, USA The eminent scientist Einstein himself

had warned Roosevelt about the urgency of getting ahead of the Germans.

Huge funds were provided and a team of scientists secretly went to work...

...on the first atomic bomb.

A bomb that uses a metal, Uranium that makes it possible to split the atom.

It is expected to have the power of 20.000 tons of TNT,

more than 2.000 times more powerful than the largest bomb used to date.

In addition to lethal radioactive fallout.

The designated target was Berlin.

But this first atomic bomb would not be finished in time for Germany.

In Germany, are there any factories still standing

that would be capable of producing such a weapon?

Even synthetic fuel is becoming scarce.

The carpet bombing, carried out day and night by the Allies

continues to devaste German cities.

The Allied bombers will destroy Dresden,

an important center of communications for the German armies on the eastern front.

and one of the biggest industrial cities in the Reich.

Dresden February 13, 1945

Dresden February 13, 1945 Until now, it has remained untouched.

Dresden, known as the "Florence of the Elbe"

was one of Europe's finest medieval cities.

Phosphorous bombs create a fire typhoon,

in which an estimated 25.000 people are burned to death.

The city continues to blaze for 7 days.

Churchill had said:

We will make the German people taste and gulp a sharper dose

of the miseries they have showered upon mankind.

Their cities are dying and now Goebbels and the Nazis

want to send all Germans from 16 to 60 years old to their deaths,

as part of the Volkssturm, the people's militia.

They shout:

I vow to fight courageously for my homeland,

swear to die for Adolf Hitler.

Hitler says:

There must not be any weakening of Germany.

His generals, those who survive the massive purge, following the July 20th assassination attempt,

no logner dare to oppose the Fuhrer.

They obeyed his order, which seemed obsured

to launch an attack in the West in the Ardenne during winter.

They would have preferred to devote all of their efforts to fighting the Russians.

Hitler was hoping to recapture the port of Antwerp

in order to stop the Allies from unloading their equipment,

which would enable them to move into Germany.

Bastogne Belgium

But the German offensive in the Ardenne, failed.

Due to the extraordinary defense put up by the American paratroopers in Bastogne,

to the intervention of General Patton's tanks

and to the overwhelming power of the Allied airforces.

As for the Russians in the East, they are crossing the German border.

Millions of Germans flee in panic from the approaching Soviet troops

especially the German women who fear the mass rapes that are being perpetrated.

There is no dissention between the western Allies and the Russians.

Moreover, in Churchill's mind the problem with Germany is practically over.

He is now thinking about how to divide up the occupation zones.

He and Roosevelt meet in the Crimea for an important conference with Stalin.

Yalta, Russia February 4, 1945

Concerned about the increasing losses being suffered in the Pacific,

Roosevelt has come to press Stalin to join the war effort against Japan.

Stalin has made Roosevelt come all the way out to the Crimea,

which takes a toll on the ailing president's health.

He is drawn and emaciated, he barely has the strength to hold out his arm.

Roosevelt smokes cigarette after cigarette. He is very frail.

He will pass away a few weeks later.

His main priority is Japan.

At the same time he does not have the strength to oppose Stalin,

who liberates but also occupies the Baltic states,

Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Silesia and Prussia.

And there is no way to make him leave.

The only one who tries to negotiate is Churchill.

Finally he gets Stalin to promise to hold free elections in Poland,

a promise that will never be kept

and to give up Greece, which will leed to civil war.

The Greek communist partisans will rise up and Stalin will let them be massacred.

One of the goals of this conference is the founding of the organisation of the United Nations,

which would soon be convened in San Francisco.

The U.N.'s mission will be to seek a peacul settlement for all disputes

and to protect human rights.

This picture heralds the beggining of the Cold War...

The war in the Pacific, continues.

The marines raise the American flag on top of Mount Suribachi,

Iwo Jima February 23, 1945 the volcano that dominates the island of Iwo Jima.

The battle took the lives of 7.000 Americans and 20.000 Japanese.

It is now possible for the Boeing B29 "Super Fortress" bombers,

taking off from Iwo Jima and other islands in the Pacific

to reach Japan.

Humans have invented something even more vicious than the phosphorus used in Dresden

Napalm, gasoline mixed with incendiary jelly.

1.700 tons dropped on little houses made of wood and paper.

Tokyo March 9, 1945 1.700 tons dropped on little houses made of wood and paper.

Tokyo March 9, 1945

The Japanese are victims of their fanatical military leaders,

who plunge them into this inferno and who wanted to pursue the war.

In spite of the 80.000 victims and the 1 million homeless,

from this air raid over Tokyo.

Berchtesgaden

Berchtesgaden

Hitler was at his chalet in the Bavarian Alps,

along with his dog "Blondie", of whom he seemed to be fonder than any human being.

He predicted:

The next war will not end like the 1st World War.

There will be no 11th of November.

It will be either victory or annihilation.

Perhaps this vertiginous feeling of all or nothing,

is what kept him from marrying his mistress, Eva Braun.

He said:

I'm already married to Germany.

The Soviet forces have surrounded Berlin.

But Hitler refuses to admin defeat.

He says:

It will be the opposite of Stalingrad.

Berlin April 17, 1945

Berlin April 17, 1945 But his remaining soldiers, overwhelmed by the Russian rocket launchers

But his remaining soldiers, overwhelmed by the Russian rocket launchers

surrender one after the other.

Beneath the ruins of the chancellory in his underground bunker,

Hitler rants and raves and manoeveurs his imaginary armies.

The last of his faithful followers take advantage of a lull

Garden of the Chancellery April 20, 1945 to come out and celebrate his birthday on April the 20th.

Hitler is 56 years old.

He consoles these Hitler Youth,

who have been chosen because their parents have just been killed in the bombing of Dresden.

As the Americans advance westward, they capture thousands of these Hitler youths

sent to the front to replace the soldiers who have been killed.

The Americans can hardly believe their eyes.

These boys-soldiers are afraid of nothing.

They have undergone years of brainwashing.

Hatred and racism have been indoctrinated into them.

The old men in the Volkssturm who were also captured

have no words of comfort for them.

The Americans meet up with the Russians on the Elbe near the Torgau bridge.

Torgau April 25, 1945

Torgau April 25, 1945 East meets West.

The final act of the alliance.

The atmosphere is friendly... ...for the cameras.

Stalin's portrait is superbly displayed,

but Roosevelt's is draped in black mourning crape.

He died on April the 12th.

One of America's most renowned generals, George S. Patton, is furious.

George S. Patton He thinks the Americans should have entered Berlin before the Russians.

Patton, the man with the pistols in his belt,

who drove his tanks through Africa,

through Normandy, through the Ardenne.

He says to Eisenhower:

The 9th Army is 60 miles from Berlin.

Not to go all the way there is a historic error whose consequences will be very grave.

Eisenhower says nothing.

The only thing that matters to him is to eliminate Hitler and the Nazis.

A few days earlier, Patton had called him up urgently,

wanting him to witness the horrors of the concentration camp at Buchenwald.

Eisenhower had the inhabitants of the nearby city of Weimar

taken there in trucks so that they could no longer say they did not know,

in order to show them that such things did exist,

so that they would be able to testify in Germany.

To say that they had seen the tattoos collected from the corpses of the deported.

The lampshades made of human skin.

The shrunken-head paperweights.

Then, in accordance with the Yalta agreements,

Eisenhower withdrew his troops from Buchenwald,

which was located in the Soviet zone.

Stalin immediately puts the camp back to work.

It will become part of his prison system,

where people suspected of hostility towards his regime will be imprisoned.

Berlin April 30, 1945

Berlin April 30, 1945 In Berlin the Russians are 300 meters away from the Fuhrer's bunker.

In Berlin the Russians are 300 meters away from the Fuhrer's bunker.

Hitler kills his pet dog Blondie, after marrying Eva Braun.

She swallows a cyanide pill.

Hitler shoots himself in the head.

Goebbels and his wife also committed suicide.

Before that, Magda Goebbels had poisoned her six children.

In her last letter, she wrote:

That we can end our lives together with the Fuhrer is a blessing,

for which we never dared to hope.

May 2, 1945 The Soviets will raise their red flag over the Reichstag.

The main Nazi leaders will be captured.

Goering Like Goering, one of Hitler's most diabolical accomplices.

Like Goering, one of Hitler's most diabolical accomplices.

In Italy, Mussolini is executed by Partisans and his body is lynched by the crowd.

Mussolini In Italy, Mussolini is executed by Partisans and his body is lynched by the crowd.

In Italy, Mussolini is executed by Partisans and his body is lynched by the crowd.

Everywhere in Europe a wave of revenge

is unleashed against those who in one way or another

collaborated with the devils.

In Berlin, Anna Pavlovna directs traffic at the Brandenburg Gate.

To defeat Nazi Germany Russia paid a very high price.

20 million civilians and soldiers were killed.

Nearly 15% of the population of the Soviet Union.

Soviet General Georgy Zhukov has himself filmed in the ruins

Georgy Zhukov Soviet General Georgy Zhukov has himself filmed in the ruins

Georgy Zhukov of the Grand Grand Chancellery of the Reich,

of the Grand Grand Chancellery of the Reich,

the very symbol of Hitler's delusions of grandeur.

And finally in Hitler's office...

...with the famous globe that Charlie Chaplin paradded

in his movie the "Great Dicator".

Hitler had ordered the SS to burn his body.

The Soviets will get rid of the bones in order to prevent any kind of hero-worship.

May 8, 1945

Wehrmacht commander Marshal Keitel signs the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany

in front of the General Zhukov, his mortal enemy and the Allied officers.

The British Air Marshal Tedder, the American General Spaatz

and the French General de Lattre de Tassigny.

Keitel will later be tried at the international Nuremberg trials.

He will be hanged like many other war criminals.

Berlin

To stop the Nazis, Germany had to be annihilated.

Will it also be necessary to annihilate Japan?

Okinawa

In the Pacific, the suicide pilots that the Japanese call "kamikaze",

nosedive their planes into the American fleet.

Clutching on to their power, the military chiefs in Tokyo

sacrifice what remains of their country's youth and their aircraft

in order to prevent the Americans from landing in Japan.

In the end, the United States decide against an invasion of Japan

which it thinks will cost the country a million lives.

Hiroshima August 6, 1945

Hiroshima August 6, 1945 Instead, it detonates the atomic inferno.

The first 2 nuclear bombs ever exploded kill in one second over 100.000 people.

Nagasaki August 9, 1945

Nagasaki August 9, 1945 And finally enable the emperor, Hirohito

to seek peace without loosing face.

The atom bomb had to be dropped before these Japanese soldiers and officers

would finally consent to perform this act

which is entirelly contrary to the Bushido, their code of honour.

A few Japanese soldiers take to the Jungle.

Some never even learn of their country's defeat.

The last of these will come out of hiding and turn himself in...

...in 1975!

September 2, 1945

In Tokyo bay onboard the USS Missouri,

the representatives of the Allied nations from China, Great Britain, Russia and France

are filled with emotion.

They have the privilege of attending the signing of the Japanese surrender,

that marks the end of WW2.

General McArthur represents the victors.

Mamoru Shigemitsu

Mamoru Shigemitsu The Japanese minister of foreign affairs

in a top hat walks with a limp,

having lost a leg in a bomb attach in China

will sign on behalf of the emperor with whom he had met the day before.

He had told him:

We must make of this day of mourning

the first day of the birth of a new Japan.

In that way, we can go to the ceremony with our heads held high.

McArthur concludes with these historic words:

It is my earnest hope and indeed the hope of all mankind...

that from this solemn occasion...

a better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage of the past...

Hiroshima

This war took the lives of some 50 million people.

Most of them innocent civilians

in an outbreak of pure violence.

Thousands of victims suffered for many years afterwards

Nagasaki Thousands of victims suffered for many years afterwards

from the appauling after-effects of nuclear radiation.

Or from the terrible loss of parents or children,

exterminated in the Nazi camps.

This series is dedicated to the victims of all forms of totalitarianism.

Let us be grateful to the cameramen

the unarmed heroes, who recorded these combats for posterity.

And to all who filmed the war in all of its atrocity and its familiarity.

They introduced us to Rose

Rose Gowlland They introduced us to Rose

Rose Gowlland who on the last day of the Apocalypse wrote:

The end,

on a bomb...

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