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These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:01,568 --> 00:00:04,318 (dramatic music) 2 00:00:05,250 --> 00:00:07,430 Germany, 1942. 3 00:00:07,430 --> 00:00:09,730 The Third Reich is at the height of its power. 4 00:00:10,750 --> 00:00:11,890 With the help of finance 5 00:00:11,890 --> 00:00:15,280 from large corporations inside and outside of Germany, 6 00:00:15,280 --> 00:00:18,020 Adolf Hitler has conquered almost half of Europe 7 00:00:18,020 --> 00:00:20,033 in less than four years. 8 00:00:20,033 --> 00:00:21,290 In the beginning of the war, 9 00:00:21,290 --> 00:00:22,880 and even later for the Americans, 10 00:00:22,880 --> 00:00:24,760 it was legal to do business with Germany. 11 00:00:24,760 --> 00:00:26,810 When Hitler takes power in 1933, 12 00:00:26,810 --> 00:00:28,410 there are a number of American corporations 13 00:00:28,410 --> 00:00:29,500 that are already heavily invested 14 00:00:29,500 --> 00:00:30,830 in the German market. 15 00:00:30,830 --> 00:00:32,700 When the politics of Germany began to change, 16 00:00:32,700 --> 00:00:34,470 they simply say, we can't withdraw 17 00:00:34,470 --> 00:00:36,750 because we would lose too much of our investment. 18 00:00:36,750 --> 00:00:38,920 And so American companies are therefore right at the heart 19 00:00:38,920 --> 00:00:41,362 of the Third Reich's industrial machinery. 20 00:00:41,362 --> 00:00:43,810 (dramatic music) 21 00:00:43,810 --> 00:00:45,460 In every country they invaded, 22 00:00:45,460 --> 00:00:48,210 the Nazis seized both state and private assets 23 00:00:48,210 --> 00:00:51,203 in order to help pay for the war expenses of the Reich. 24 00:00:52,180 --> 00:00:54,600 Much of the loot would also find its way directly 25 00:00:54,600 --> 00:00:57,771 into the pockets of Hitler and his cronies. 26 00:00:57,771 --> 00:01:00,370 You know, this is basically sort of profiteering 27 00:01:00,370 --> 00:01:01,830 in a kind of mafia style. 28 00:01:01,830 --> 00:01:03,210 This is just theft. 29 00:01:03,210 --> 00:01:05,040 Neutral countries would not only turn 30 00:01:05,040 --> 00:01:07,560 a blind eye to the looting of the continent 31 00:01:07,560 --> 00:01:09,340 but would even, in some cases, 32 00:01:09,340 --> 00:01:11,393 become complicit in the crime. 33 00:01:12,280 --> 00:01:15,040 All these countries broke international law. 34 00:01:15,040 --> 00:01:16,740 Nobody seemed to care at that time. 35 00:01:16,740 --> 00:01:18,530 They wanted to be on the side 36 00:01:18,530 --> 00:01:22,260 of who was going to be powerful in Europe. 37 00:01:22,260 --> 00:01:23,860 Millions would be enslaved 38 00:01:23,860 --> 00:01:26,310 for the growth of the Nazi war machine. 39 00:01:26,310 --> 00:01:27,890 Even the bodies of their victims 40 00:01:27,890 --> 00:01:30,385 would be turned by the Nazis into profit. 41 00:01:30,385 --> 00:01:33,470 (suspenseful music) 42 00:01:33,470 --> 00:01:37,370 Imagine how many people it takes to fill up crates 43 00:01:37,370 --> 00:01:38,850 of teeth with gold filling, 44 00:01:38,850 --> 00:01:42,010 and they would get these, they would extract the metal, 45 00:01:42,010 --> 00:01:46,000 and smelt it into bars of precious metals, 46 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:47,550 be it silver, gold, or whatnot. 47 00:01:48,550 --> 00:01:51,000 But in the end, what was it all for? 48 00:01:55,080 --> 00:01:57,350 Hitler was a war junkie. 49 00:01:57,350 --> 00:02:00,130 You know, the more he did war, the more he wanted war, 50 00:02:00,130 --> 00:02:02,200 the more he wanted a finance war. 51 00:02:02,200 --> 00:02:03,920 And as we know, you know, with all people 52 00:02:03,920 --> 00:02:07,930 in those situations, you know, things get worse and worse, 53 00:02:07,930 --> 00:02:09,158 and they did for Hitler. 54 00:02:09,158 --> 00:02:12,158 (suspenseful music) 55 00:02:24,730 --> 00:02:27,370 Paris, June the 23rd, 1940. 56 00:02:27,370 --> 00:02:29,510 Adolf Hitler walks triumphantly 57 00:02:29,510 --> 00:02:30,690 into the streets. 58 00:02:30,690 --> 00:02:32,570 The City of Lights has been covered 59 00:02:32,570 --> 00:02:34,753 by the dark blanket of Nazism. 60 00:02:36,120 --> 00:02:38,680 Inside the same wagon where the German Imperial Army 61 00:02:38,680 --> 00:02:41,630 had signed its capitulation in 1918, 62 00:02:41,630 --> 00:02:44,130 it's now the French who will submit to the whims 63 00:02:44,130 --> 00:02:45,818 of Europe's new overlord. 64 00:02:45,818 --> 00:02:48,818 (suspenseful music) 65 00:02:50,870 --> 00:02:53,950 Three days later, a group of prominent American businessmen 66 00:02:53,950 --> 00:02:55,913 are having dinner in New York City. 67 00:02:57,660 --> 00:03:01,163 They're celebrating the Nazi victory on the Western Front. 68 00:03:02,290 --> 00:03:04,300 The group is hosted by German lawyer, 69 00:03:04,300 --> 00:03:06,013 Gerhard Alois Westrick. 70 00:03:07,130 --> 00:03:09,310 So Westrick is one of the most colorful figures 71 00:03:09,310 --> 00:03:12,130 in the German economic and sort of political scene 72 00:03:12,130 --> 00:03:13,090 in this period. 73 00:03:13,090 --> 00:03:14,650 In the 1920s, he'd been an attorney 74 00:03:14,650 --> 00:03:17,514 who'd worked with a number of American companies in Germany. 75 00:03:17,514 --> 00:03:19,490 And in the 1930s, when Hitler takes power, 76 00:03:19,490 --> 00:03:21,770 he becomes really a commercial attache 77 00:03:21,770 --> 00:03:23,540 who's working on behalf of the Third Reich 78 00:03:23,540 --> 00:03:25,240 in the United States. 79 00:03:25,240 --> 00:03:28,240 In the years after Hitler was chancellor, 80 00:03:28,240 --> 00:03:32,360 from '33 to '39, the beginning of the war, 81 00:03:32,360 --> 00:03:34,240 and even later for the Americans, 82 00:03:34,240 --> 00:03:36,320 it was legal to do business with Germany. 83 00:03:36,320 --> 00:03:37,153 And Germany's one 84 00:03:37,153 --> 00:03:39,050 of the major industrial countries in the world. 85 00:03:39,050 --> 00:03:40,410 So naturally the banks 86 00:03:40,410 --> 00:03:42,510 were doing all kinds of business with them. 87 00:03:42,510 --> 00:03:45,420 In Germany, Gerhard Alois Westricks' law firm 88 00:03:45,420 --> 00:03:47,920 represents an impressive list of clients, 89 00:03:47,920 --> 00:03:52,857 including Ford, General Motors, Kodak, Texas Oil, and ITT. 90 00:03:54,250 --> 00:03:56,990 From 1938, he also served as chairman 91 00:03:56,990 --> 00:03:59,790 of ITT's German operation. 92 00:03:59,790 --> 00:04:02,150 In 1940, these deep connections 93 00:04:02,150 --> 00:04:04,140 to the American corporate establishment 94 00:04:04,140 --> 00:04:07,680 prompt Nazi foreign minister, Joachim Von Ribbentrop, 95 00:04:07,680 --> 00:04:10,970 to send Westrick on an extensive U.S. tour. 96 00:04:10,970 --> 00:04:12,320 The tour was officially referred 97 00:04:12,320 --> 00:04:14,380 to as a trade mission for the Reich, 98 00:04:14,380 --> 00:04:17,119 but the real purpose of the mission was somewhat different. 99 00:04:17,119 --> 00:04:19,770 (suspenseful music) 100 00:04:19,770 --> 00:04:22,300 Westrick makes American businessmen a fascinating offer. 101 00:04:22,300 --> 00:04:24,680 He says, look, if you can help prevent the U.S. 102 00:04:24,680 --> 00:04:25,850 from getting into the war 103 00:04:25,850 --> 00:04:27,430 and help Germany establish some sort 104 00:04:27,430 --> 00:04:28,880 of a new order in Europe, 105 00:04:28,880 --> 00:04:31,710 I can help you get your profits out of Nazi Germany. 106 00:04:31,710 --> 00:04:33,220 It's a deal that many American businessmen 107 00:04:33,220 --> 00:04:34,706 would have been very tempted by. 108 00:04:34,706 --> 00:04:35,539 (suspenseful music) 109 00:04:35,539 --> 00:04:36,372 In other words, 110 00:04:36,372 --> 00:04:38,930 Westrick was hoping that the businessmen he met 111 00:04:38,930 --> 00:04:40,560 could lobby President Roosevelt 112 00:04:40,560 --> 00:04:42,940 to help make America a neutral peace broker 113 00:04:42,940 --> 00:04:45,570 between the Reich and the European Allies, 114 00:04:45,570 --> 00:04:47,500 while canceling the supply of weapons 115 00:04:47,500 --> 00:04:49,040 to the British and the French, 116 00:04:49,040 --> 00:04:51,513 whom the Nazi's regarded as fair game. 117 00:04:52,400 --> 00:04:54,970 This proposal interested some of the businessmen 118 00:04:54,970 --> 00:04:55,900 who wanted to improve 119 00:04:55,900 --> 00:04:57,903 their long-term investments in Germany. 120 00:04:57,903 --> 00:05:00,903 (suspenseful music) 121 00:05:02,110 --> 00:05:05,020 But, as always with Hitler, there was a catch. 122 00:05:05,020 --> 00:05:06,670 In this commitment to spur investment 123 00:05:06,670 --> 00:05:09,720 and build up the industrial capacity of the country, 124 00:05:09,720 --> 00:05:12,420 Hitler had introduced tariffs and economic measures, 125 00:05:12,420 --> 00:05:14,350 designed to protect the deutschemark 126 00:05:14,350 --> 00:05:16,473 and penalized foreign investors. 127 00:05:18,400 --> 00:05:22,483 (Christopher speaking in German) 128 00:05:49,786 --> 00:05:52,500 (suspenseful music) 129 00:05:52,500 --> 00:05:55,350 Despite the challenges of moving assets and profits out 130 00:05:55,350 --> 00:05:57,780 of the Reich, several foreign would keep 131 00:05:57,780 --> 00:06:00,070 their businesses going in Germany, 132 00:06:00,070 --> 00:06:03,773 either out of economic necessity or political sympathy. 133 00:06:03,773 --> 00:06:07,040 (suspenseful music) 134 00:06:07,040 --> 00:06:09,320 To avoid the punitive export tariffs, 135 00:06:09,320 --> 00:06:11,170 some of these corporations would deal 136 00:06:11,170 --> 00:06:14,420 in a direct barter system with the Nazi state, 137 00:06:14,420 --> 00:06:15,880 supplying raw materials 138 00:06:15,880 --> 00:06:18,740 in exchange for manufactured products. 139 00:06:18,740 --> 00:06:20,880 These companies included Texas Oil, 140 00:06:20,880 --> 00:06:25,420 under its pro-Nazi chairman, Norwegian-born Torkild Rieber. 141 00:06:25,420 --> 00:06:27,670 He first gets on the radar of the American government 142 00:06:27,670 --> 00:06:30,970 because he's expressing, it seems, some sympathies 143 00:06:30,970 --> 00:06:33,050 with Nazi Germany, but more importantly, 144 00:06:33,050 --> 00:06:36,070 when Gerhard Alois Westrick comes to the United States, 145 00:06:36,070 --> 00:06:38,740 Rieber actually buys him a car and Westrick, 146 00:06:38,740 --> 00:06:41,440 on the registration for his American driver's license, 147 00:06:41,440 --> 00:06:44,840 puts the Texas Company's address as his residence. 148 00:06:44,840 --> 00:06:47,790 And so there's a clear connection between Rieber 149 00:06:47,790 --> 00:06:49,940 the Texas Company and Westrick. 150 00:06:49,940 --> 00:06:52,130 And then certainly he's very happy to do business 151 00:06:52,130 --> 00:06:53,270 with the Nazis. 152 00:06:53,270 --> 00:06:55,533 Whether or not he's ideologically attracted to Nazism 153 00:06:55,533 --> 00:06:58,470 I think is kind of a difficult question to answer, 154 00:06:58,470 --> 00:07:01,510 but certainly he sees business potential in the Reich. 155 00:07:01,510 --> 00:07:04,510 (suspenseful music) 156 00:07:08,760 --> 00:07:10,450 During the Spanish Civil War, 157 00:07:10,450 --> 00:07:12,320 Torkild Rieber and Texas Oil 158 00:07:12,320 --> 00:07:15,820 supplied Franco's nationalists with oil on credit, 159 00:07:15,820 --> 00:07:19,930 defying America's Neutrality Act of 1937. 160 00:07:19,930 --> 00:07:21,870 Following Hitler's rise to power, 161 00:07:21,870 --> 00:07:24,000 Rieber supplied the German, right with oil, 162 00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:26,010 in exchange for tankers that were built 163 00:07:26,010 --> 00:07:28,719 at the Deutsche Werft shipyard in Hamburg. 164 00:07:28,719 --> 00:07:32,510 (suspenseful music) 165 00:07:32,510 --> 00:07:34,370 But for some other American companies, 166 00:07:34,370 --> 00:07:37,350 such as automotive giants Ford and General Motors, 167 00:07:37,350 --> 00:07:40,440 this barter system wasn't so advantageous. 168 00:07:40,440 --> 00:07:43,623 Hence, Westrick's transatlantic charm offensive. 169 00:07:43,623 --> 00:07:46,310 (suspenseful music) 170 00:07:46,310 --> 00:07:47,600 The problem with the barter system 171 00:07:47,600 --> 00:07:49,560 for a lot of American automotive manufacturers 172 00:07:49,560 --> 00:07:51,320 is their products are pretty sophisticated 173 00:07:51,320 --> 00:07:53,040 and complicated things. 174 00:07:53,040 --> 00:07:55,250 Cars are not the same as steel tubing 175 00:07:55,250 --> 00:07:57,440 or even barrels of oil, in that sense. 176 00:07:57,440 --> 00:07:59,010 And so the American automotive companies 177 00:07:59,010 --> 00:08:01,650 have difficulty really getting goods out of Germany 178 00:08:01,650 --> 00:08:04,700 that they find useful for their business, in that sense. 179 00:08:04,700 --> 00:08:06,140 And so you can imagine Westrick walking 180 00:08:06,140 --> 00:08:08,170 into this room of American CEOs and saying, 181 00:08:08,170 --> 00:08:10,210 I can give you those profits that are piling up 182 00:08:10,210 --> 00:08:11,490 in your German accounts 183 00:08:11,490 --> 00:08:12,407 and Hitler's willing to release them, 184 00:08:12,407 --> 00:08:15,167 and all we need from you is some sort of a political favor. 185 00:08:15,167 --> 00:08:17,420 (suspenseful music) 186 00:08:17,420 --> 00:08:19,230 Westrick's tour of the United States 187 00:08:19,230 --> 00:08:22,400 would not go unnoticed by British intelligence. 188 00:08:22,400 --> 00:08:24,690 Their agents could easily pass their information 189 00:08:24,690 --> 00:08:26,270 to their American counterparts, 190 00:08:26,270 --> 00:08:28,650 as well as leaking it to the press. 191 00:08:28,650 --> 00:08:31,760 The American newspapers gleefully exposed the connection 192 00:08:31,760 --> 00:08:35,340 between the Nazi agent Westrick and American businessmen 193 00:08:35,340 --> 00:08:38,451 and their plans to influence President Roosevelt. 194 00:08:38,451 --> 00:08:40,910 (dramatic music) 195 00:08:40,910 --> 00:08:42,660 And there's hilarious accounts, actually, 196 00:08:42,660 --> 00:08:45,180 in New York City newspapers in this period 197 00:08:45,180 --> 00:08:47,600 where the press stakes out Westrick's home 198 00:08:47,600 --> 00:08:49,550 and begins monitoring his movements, 199 00:08:49,550 --> 00:08:51,780 really doing the FBI's job for them. 200 00:08:51,780 --> 00:08:53,677 And the American press literally hounds Westrick 201 00:08:53,677 --> 00:08:55,090 out of the country. 202 00:08:55,090 --> 00:08:56,840 He's written about in the papers so much 203 00:08:56,840 --> 00:08:58,540 that he can no longer fulfill his mission 204 00:08:58,540 --> 00:09:01,530 and eventually departs the country via steamship for Japan 205 00:09:01,530 --> 00:09:04,426 because he's become compromised by the American media. 206 00:09:04,426 --> 00:09:07,176 (dramatic music) 207 00:09:08,817 --> 00:09:12,220 (camera flashes clicking) 208 00:09:12,220 --> 00:09:13,890 Westrick's mission failed 209 00:09:13,890 --> 00:09:17,010 and he was recalled to Germany in disgrace. 210 00:09:17,010 --> 00:09:18,310 Despite his departure, 211 00:09:18,310 --> 00:09:20,640 the American businessmen who were linked with him 212 00:09:20,640 --> 00:09:23,520 would suffer long lasting negative publicity 213 00:09:23,520 --> 00:09:26,163 that would have significant ramifications. 214 00:09:29,500 --> 00:09:31,380 At a Texas Company board meeting, 215 00:09:31,380 --> 00:09:34,220 Torkild Rieber would be ordered to explain his connections 216 00:09:34,220 --> 00:09:37,623 to the Nazi regime and ultimately forced to resign. 217 00:09:40,160 --> 00:09:43,330 James D. Mooney was the next victim of this scandal. 218 00:09:43,330 --> 00:09:46,140 He also resigned his position at General Motors, 219 00:09:46,140 --> 00:09:48,940 after it was revealed that his service to the Nazi Reich 220 00:09:48,940 --> 00:09:51,400 had earned him, in 1938, 221 00:09:51,400 --> 00:09:54,373 the Order of the German Eagle, first-class. 222 00:09:56,160 --> 00:09:57,450 In that same year, 223 00:09:57,450 --> 00:09:59,870 on the occasion of his 75th birthday, 224 00:09:59,870 --> 00:10:03,293 Henry Ford was awarded the Grand Cross of the German Eagle. 225 00:10:04,450 --> 00:10:06,580 Why did the Nazi regime confer 226 00:10:06,580 --> 00:10:09,610 on both of these prominent American industrialists 227 00:10:09,610 --> 00:10:11,832 such prestigious decorations? 228 00:10:11,832 --> 00:10:14,870 (suspenseful music) 229 00:10:14,870 --> 00:10:17,640 After the Nazis took power in 1933, 230 00:10:17,640 --> 00:10:20,330 both companies had seized on the commercial opportunity 231 00:10:20,330 --> 00:10:22,863 in supporting Hitler's rearmament plants. 232 00:10:28,020 --> 00:10:30,400 Opel GM would build a new factory 233 00:10:30,400 --> 00:10:32,300 in Brandenburg an der Havel, 234 00:10:32,300 --> 00:10:35,507 to produce the Opel Blitz trucks for the Wehrmacht. 235 00:10:38,150 --> 00:10:39,740 Ford's factories in the U.S. 236 00:10:39,740 --> 00:10:42,350 would ship spare parts for heavy infantry trucks, 237 00:10:42,350 --> 00:10:45,483 which would be assembled in a new plant in nearby Berlin. 238 00:10:49,930 --> 00:10:51,800 But if these companies would ultimately 239 00:10:51,800 --> 00:10:53,900 be unable to retrieve their profits, 240 00:10:53,900 --> 00:10:56,513 why did they invest in these new factories? 241 00:10:56,513 --> 00:10:59,430 (suspenseful music) 242 00:10:59,430 --> 00:11:01,750 Probably there was no particular sympathy 243 00:11:01,750 --> 00:11:05,050 and there may have been, you know, a fear of communism 244 00:11:05,050 --> 00:11:07,000 and thinking that, well, this Hitler, 245 00:11:07,000 --> 00:11:08,800 this dictator's not such a bad guy 246 00:11:08,800 --> 00:11:11,223 because he's tough on the communists, 247 00:11:12,150 --> 00:11:14,513 or it may just have been an economic motive. 248 00:11:15,690 --> 00:11:17,900 Ideology aside, Ford and GM 249 00:11:17,900 --> 00:11:21,310 became deeply involved in the rearmament of Germany. 250 00:11:21,310 --> 00:11:23,610 Their actions were a definitive contribution 251 00:11:23,610 --> 00:11:26,140 to the insatiable Nazi war machine, 252 00:11:26,140 --> 00:11:28,110 a machine that was about to start rolling 253 00:11:28,110 --> 00:11:32,793 into the rest of Europe. (suspenseful music) 254 00:11:44,269 --> 00:11:47,965 (suspenseful music) (artillery booms) 255 00:11:47,965 --> 00:11:50,440 September 1st, 1939, 256 00:11:50,440 --> 00:11:53,350 Hitler launches his Blitzkrieg against Poland. 257 00:11:53,350 --> 00:11:56,870 Within days, Britain and France declare war on Germany, 258 00:11:56,870 --> 00:11:59,160 making the start of the deadliest conflict 259 00:11:59,160 --> 00:12:01,760 in the history of mankind. 260 00:12:01,760 --> 00:12:04,250 But the Nazis expropriation to the Reich 261 00:12:04,250 --> 00:12:07,730 of the property and industries of newly-occupied Poland 262 00:12:07,730 --> 00:12:10,520 did not sit well with everyone. 263 00:12:10,520 --> 00:12:13,190 The invasion of Poland, frankly, is not great news 264 00:12:13,190 --> 00:12:15,090 for all of Hitler's financiers. 265 00:12:15,090 --> 00:12:17,240 One of those who's probably the most sort of verbal 266 00:12:17,240 --> 00:12:19,530 against it is, of course, Fritz Thyssen, 267 00:12:19,530 --> 00:12:22,420 who has been supporting the party for a very long time. 268 00:12:22,420 --> 00:12:25,620 And he says he does not wanna take part in this plunder. 269 00:12:25,620 --> 00:12:28,370 In fact, in '37, two years before, 270 00:12:28,370 --> 00:12:30,710 he had written a letter to Hitler protesting 271 00:12:30,710 --> 00:12:33,090 against the persecution of Christians. 272 00:12:33,090 --> 00:12:36,150 And after Kristallnacht, he actually resigns 273 00:12:36,150 --> 00:12:37,600 from his Council of State 274 00:12:37,600 --> 00:12:40,140 because of the violence against the Jews. 275 00:12:40,140 --> 00:12:43,000 Of even greater concern to Nazi industrialists 276 00:12:43,000 --> 00:12:44,720 than the invasion of Poland 277 00:12:44,720 --> 00:12:46,530 was the non-aggression pact. Germany 278 00:12:46,530 --> 00:12:48,660 had secretly signed weeks before 279 00:12:48,660 --> 00:12:51,050 with their sworn ideological enemy: 280 00:12:51,050 --> 00:12:52,770 the Soviet Union. 281 00:12:52,770 --> 00:12:54,040 One curious fact is 282 00:12:54,040 --> 00:12:57,600 that the notorious Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact actually evolved 283 00:12:57,600 --> 00:13:00,250 from a trade agreement between the regimes. 284 00:13:00,250 --> 00:13:03,410 So it starts out by Russia making the move 285 00:13:03,410 --> 00:13:05,000 for the trade agreement, 286 00:13:05,000 --> 00:13:08,980 which really, and it's so implacably anti Nazi, 287 00:13:08,980 --> 00:13:10,880 they shouldn't have been doing it in the first place. 288 00:13:10,880 --> 00:13:13,760 So Hitler sees that as like, oh, hang on a minute, 289 00:13:13,760 --> 00:13:15,340 this could be sort of a green light. 290 00:13:15,340 --> 00:13:20,023 Maybe they're interested in a political agreement. 291 00:13:20,023 --> 00:13:24,106 (Christopher speaking in German) 292 00:13:40,690 --> 00:13:43,160 In exchange for these Soviet raw materials, 293 00:13:43,160 --> 00:13:46,300 Nazi Germany agreed to export manufactured products 294 00:13:46,300 --> 00:13:47,900 to the Soviet Union, 295 00:13:47,900 --> 00:13:51,805 something which appalled Germany's leading industrialists. 296 00:13:51,805 --> 00:13:53,709 (suspenseful music) 297 00:13:53,709 --> 00:13:55,777 "The very possibility of an agreement 298 00:13:55,777 --> 00:13:59,367 "between Soviet Russia and National Socialist Germany 299 00:13:59,367 --> 00:14:01,017 "seemed beyond belief. 300 00:14:01,017 --> 00:14:03,587 "I had always warned industrialists, 301 00:14:03,587 --> 00:14:06,877 "as well as military circles, against a rapprochement 302 00:14:06,877 --> 00:14:08,547 "with communist Russia. 303 00:14:08,547 --> 00:14:11,217 "For me, this regime was the enemy of Germany, 304 00:14:11,217 --> 00:14:12,817 "and of Europe, as a whole." 305 00:14:13,980 --> 00:14:16,070 Thyssen, one of the Nazi's earliest 306 00:14:16,070 --> 00:14:18,540 and most committed industrialist supporters, 307 00:14:18,540 --> 00:14:20,180 would protests through a telegram 308 00:14:20,180 --> 00:14:23,560 to his closest ally in Hitler's inner circle. 309 00:14:23,560 --> 00:14:25,533 Nazi Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goering. 310 00:14:28,030 --> 00:14:29,970 Obviously the Nazis aren't very happy with this 311 00:14:29,970 --> 00:14:32,780 and they expel him from the Nazi party. 312 00:14:32,780 --> 00:14:35,240 His industries are seized, 313 00:14:35,240 --> 00:14:38,000 and he's going to be captured 314 00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:40,090 by the Vichy government police 315 00:14:40,090 --> 00:14:42,290 and delivered to the German authorities. 316 00:14:42,290 --> 00:14:44,850 And he'll end up being locked in a cell 317 00:14:44,850 --> 00:14:47,420 and he's gonna be spending the rest of the war 318 00:14:47,420 --> 00:14:49,120 in concentration camps. 319 00:14:49,120 --> 00:14:51,518 Although, frankly, he is a privileged inmate. 320 00:14:51,518 --> 00:14:52,750 (suspenseful music) 321 00:14:52,750 --> 00:14:54,880 As for those businessmen who remained loyal 322 00:14:54,880 --> 00:14:57,210 to the Nazis through thick and thin, 323 00:14:57,210 --> 00:14:59,570 any concerns over the deal with the Soviets 324 00:14:59,570 --> 00:15:02,750 would be assuaged through a new organization established 325 00:15:02,750 --> 00:15:04,420 by Hermann Goering. 326 00:15:04,420 --> 00:15:07,590 Its purpose was to seize and liquidate the assets 327 00:15:07,590 --> 00:15:11,670 of all Polish citizens, Jews and non Jews alike, 328 00:15:11,670 --> 00:15:14,420 and transfer them over to German ownership, 329 00:15:14,420 --> 00:15:17,460 directly into the pockets of the Nazi leadership 330 00:15:17,460 --> 00:15:19,672 and their favorite partners. 331 00:15:19,672 --> 00:15:22,630 (suspenseful music) 332 00:15:22,630 --> 00:15:24,340 You've got smaller businesses 333 00:15:24,340 --> 00:15:26,470 and companies are being closed 334 00:15:26,470 --> 00:15:30,650 in order to actually give these cartels huge monopolies. 335 00:15:30,650 --> 00:15:33,170 And you've got individual bank accounts, 336 00:15:33,170 --> 00:15:38,020 you've got private real estate, personal vehicles, 337 00:15:38,020 --> 00:15:41,120 and valuables like jewelry, art, antiques. 338 00:15:41,120 --> 00:15:43,010 They can all be confiscated from many 339 00:15:43,010 --> 00:15:45,040 of the wealthier citizens in the Third Reich. 340 00:15:45,040 --> 00:15:47,770 So, you know, this is basically sort of profiteering 341 00:15:47,770 --> 00:15:49,220 in a kind of mafia style. 342 00:15:49,220 --> 00:15:51,910 This is just theft. 343 00:15:51,910 --> 00:15:54,330 Anything deemed surplus to requirements 344 00:15:54,330 --> 00:15:56,900 was sold abroad and turned into cash, 345 00:15:56,900 --> 00:15:59,820 including so-called degenerate art 346 00:15:59,820 --> 00:16:02,270 that was confiscated and officially declared 347 00:16:02,270 --> 00:16:03,400 to be destroyed. 348 00:16:03,400 --> 00:16:06,130 But what they actually did was they sold a lot of that art 349 00:16:06,130 --> 00:16:10,110 in Switzerland and they sold it through a dealer. 350 00:16:10,110 --> 00:16:14,680 They sent a dealer to New York City who set up a gallery 351 00:16:14,680 --> 00:16:19,440 on 57th Street, who ended up selling a lot of that art 352 00:16:19,440 --> 00:16:22,850 to the Museum of Modern Art in New York, 353 00:16:22,850 --> 00:16:26,000 you know, at these like bargain basement prices 354 00:16:26,000 --> 00:16:30,110 and then sending the money back to the Nazis 355 00:16:30,110 --> 00:16:33,143 who used it, you know, for their war machine. 356 00:16:34,040 --> 00:16:34,900 By this time, 357 00:16:34,900 --> 00:16:38,230 a new American company developed a revolutionary technology 358 00:16:38,230 --> 00:16:39,400 that enabled the Nazis 359 00:16:39,400 --> 00:16:42,550 to catalog all the plundered loot from Poland. 360 00:16:42,550 --> 00:16:44,410 It also used the same technology 361 00:16:44,410 --> 00:16:46,280 to create a population census 362 00:16:46,280 --> 00:16:49,000 for the entire greater German Reich. 363 00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:51,390 That company would expand its operations 364 00:16:51,390 --> 00:16:53,840 alongside the Nazi empire. 365 00:16:53,840 --> 00:16:54,970 The company was called 366 00:16:54,970 --> 00:16:59,743 the International Business Machines Corporation, or IBM. 367 00:17:01,685 --> 00:17:04,420 So in the 1920s, IBM had acquired a German company 368 00:17:04,420 --> 00:17:07,210 called Dehomag, which was essentially building machines 369 00:17:07,210 --> 00:17:09,090 somewhat similar to IBM's. 370 00:17:09,090 --> 00:17:11,110 But because of the economic circumstances of Germany 371 00:17:11,110 --> 00:17:13,890 in the 20s, was in dire financial straits. 372 00:17:13,890 --> 00:17:15,570 So IBM and Thomas Watson come in 373 00:17:15,570 --> 00:17:18,340 and acquire Dehomag at pennies on the dollar. 374 00:17:18,340 --> 00:17:21,770 And now they have a huge entrance into the German market. 375 00:17:21,770 --> 00:17:24,930 (suspenseful music) 376 00:17:24,930 --> 00:17:26,520 Having been founded in Germany 377 00:17:26,520 --> 00:17:30,180 in 1910 by Willy Heidinger to manufacture punch cards 378 00:17:30,180 --> 00:17:31,740 for tabulating machines, 379 00:17:31,740 --> 00:17:35,630 in 1923, 90% of the company was acquired 380 00:17:35,630 --> 00:17:39,040 by American businessman, Thomas J. Watson, 381 00:17:39,040 --> 00:17:41,420 who would merge it into a German subsidiary 382 00:17:41,420 --> 00:17:43,860 of his company, IBM. 383 00:17:43,860 --> 00:17:47,820 When Hitler gets nominated as chancellor in 1933, 384 00:17:47,820 --> 00:17:52,163 IBM-Dehomag offers its services to the new Nazi government. 385 00:17:53,660 --> 00:17:56,670 We have to understand the Nazis' obsession with numbers. 386 00:17:56,670 --> 00:17:59,120 So Nazis see themselves as a technocratic regime. 387 00:17:59,120 --> 00:18:01,230 They wanna know everything about their population 388 00:18:01,230 --> 00:18:02,840 and they wanna know everything about the populations 389 00:18:02,840 --> 00:18:04,660 of countries that they're going to be occupying 390 00:18:04,660 --> 00:18:06,640 and territories that they see the need 391 00:18:06,640 --> 00:18:08,040 for demographic shift in. 392 00:18:08,040 --> 00:18:10,210 IBM's technology is used in Germany 393 00:18:10,210 --> 00:18:12,210 to begin counting the population 394 00:18:12,210 --> 00:18:14,600 and arranging it in certain ways, 395 00:18:14,600 --> 00:18:16,870 for demographers, effectively. 396 00:18:16,870 --> 00:18:19,580 And so we see a very clear lineage, essentially, 397 00:18:19,580 --> 00:18:21,210 between the German government's efforts 398 00:18:21,210 --> 00:18:22,760 to begin counting its citizens 399 00:18:22,760 --> 00:18:25,190 and understanding the demographics religiously, 400 00:18:25,190 --> 00:18:27,550 and, as they would see it, racially within the country 401 00:18:27,550 --> 00:18:30,354 and the events that happened later on during the Holocaust. 402 00:18:30,354 --> 00:18:32,260 (suspenseful music) 403 00:18:32,260 --> 00:18:35,050 At a meeting in Berlin in 1937, 404 00:18:35,050 --> 00:18:38,500 IBM chairman, Thomas J. Watson, was elected president 405 00:18:38,500 --> 00:18:41,170 of the International Chamber of Commerce. 406 00:18:41,170 --> 00:18:43,170 Like Henry Ford and James D. Mooney, 407 00:18:43,170 --> 00:18:46,380 Watson was also awarded the Order of the German Eagle 408 00:18:46,380 --> 00:18:48,570 for his services to strengthening relations 409 00:18:48,570 --> 00:18:51,713 between the United States and Nazi Germany. 410 00:18:55,470 --> 00:18:58,330 But when the Nazis start invading neighboring countries, 411 00:18:58,330 --> 00:19:00,520 Watson, unlike Ford and Mooney, 412 00:19:00,520 --> 00:19:03,740 denounced Hitler's regime and returned his medal. 413 00:19:03,740 --> 00:19:05,740 When Watson actually gives back his medal, 414 00:19:05,740 --> 00:19:07,900 Dehomag is outraged because this is obviously a slap 415 00:19:07,900 --> 00:19:10,150 in the face to the German government 416 00:19:10,150 --> 00:19:11,970 and it could definitely affect their business. 417 00:19:11,970 --> 00:19:13,790 And so that's when we begin to see the separation 418 00:19:13,790 --> 00:19:15,570 between the Dehomag in Germany 419 00:19:15,570 --> 00:19:17,940 and IBM's sort of headquarters in the United States. 420 00:19:17,940 --> 00:19:20,530 And it's a separation that actually will be very timely 421 00:19:20,530 --> 00:19:22,990 for IBM because Dehomag will continue to do its work 422 00:19:22,990 --> 00:19:24,690 for the German government. 423 00:19:24,690 --> 00:19:26,300 Now, with the war raging, 424 00:19:26,300 --> 00:19:27,890 Germany turns the full focus 425 00:19:27,890 --> 00:19:30,923 of its economy and industry to military production. 426 00:19:31,890 --> 00:19:34,100 And this would initially include harnessing 427 00:19:34,100 --> 00:19:35,160 the production lines 428 00:19:35,160 --> 00:19:39,030 of the American automobile giants, Ford and GM. 429 00:19:39,030 --> 00:19:40,560 After the invasion of Poland, 430 00:19:40,560 --> 00:19:41,910 both Ford and General Motors see 431 00:19:41,910 --> 00:19:45,014 their factories gradually slipping out of their control. 432 00:19:45,014 --> 00:19:47,320 They've installed more Nazi party officials 433 00:19:47,320 --> 00:19:48,800 on their boards of directors. 434 00:19:48,800 --> 00:19:51,800 They begin to really take control of the company, 435 00:19:51,800 --> 00:19:52,890 and while they can still produce 436 00:19:52,890 --> 00:19:54,490 some profitable automobiles, 437 00:19:54,490 --> 00:19:57,780 much of GM and Ford's production in Germany 438 00:19:57,780 --> 00:20:00,560 switches over to aircraft engines for the Luftwaffe. 439 00:20:00,560 --> 00:20:02,730 And so both of these companies are making a contribution 440 00:20:02,730 --> 00:20:03,970 to the German war economy, 441 00:20:03,970 --> 00:20:05,420 and they really don't have a choice. 442 00:20:05,420 --> 00:20:07,960 You've got Opel General Motors, Opel GM, 443 00:20:07,960 --> 00:20:11,680 starting to build components for the Junkers 88 plane 444 00:20:11,680 --> 00:20:14,170 at the Rüsselsheim factory throughout the war. 445 00:20:14,170 --> 00:20:17,230 And that's gonna make enormous profits 446 00:20:17,230 --> 00:20:19,930 during the Battle of Britain when it supplies bombers. 447 00:20:21,290 --> 00:20:22,530 In a crowning irony, 448 00:20:22,530 --> 00:20:25,420 although Opel GM converted its factories in Germany 449 00:20:25,420 --> 00:20:28,880 to accommodate the increased demand of the Nazi war effort, 450 00:20:28,880 --> 00:20:31,900 GM in the U.S. refused to consider adapting 451 00:20:31,900 --> 00:20:32,970 its production lines 452 00:20:32,970 --> 00:20:35,330 to anything other than the manufacture 453 00:20:35,330 --> 00:20:37,400 of everyday motorcars. 454 00:20:37,400 --> 00:20:39,900 Some months later, Henry Ford would personally 455 00:20:39,900 --> 00:20:42,630 deny a request by Britain's Royal Air Force 456 00:20:42,630 --> 00:20:45,656 for Ford to produce aircraft engines. 457 00:20:45,656 --> 00:20:46,650 (plane rumbling) 458 00:20:46,650 --> 00:20:49,970 Another case of the involvement of American businessman 459 00:20:49,970 --> 00:20:53,940 in the German war effort would be Sosthenes Behn, the owner 460 00:20:53,940 --> 00:20:58,120 of the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation. 461 00:20:58,120 --> 00:21:01,460 ITT held shares in companies like Focke-Wulf 462 00:21:01,460 --> 00:21:03,610 that built fighter plans for the Luftwaffe. 463 00:21:04,740 --> 00:21:08,230 They also had a stake in Signalbau Huth in Berlin, 464 00:21:08,230 --> 00:21:11,093 which built communication equipment for the Wehrmacht. 465 00:21:14,870 --> 00:21:17,810 Behn would meet frequently with his German contacts, 466 00:21:17,810 --> 00:21:19,520 Gerhard Alois Westrick 467 00:21:19,520 --> 00:21:23,103 and Nazi banker Kurt Baron Von Schroeder in Switzerland. 468 00:21:24,280 --> 00:21:27,700 Certainly, if your company is under Nazi occupation, 469 00:21:27,700 --> 00:21:29,730 has a Nazi board of directors at that point, 470 00:21:29,730 --> 00:21:31,460 it's difficult to convince them to do anything 471 00:21:31,460 --> 00:21:33,190 when you're thousands of miles away. 472 00:21:33,190 --> 00:21:34,490 But it certainly seems to be the case 473 00:21:34,490 --> 00:21:36,690 that Ford and General Motors directors 474 00:21:36,690 --> 00:21:38,010 didn't take the affirmative steps 475 00:21:38,010 --> 00:21:40,750 they would have needed to in the period before the war 476 00:21:40,750 --> 00:21:41,810 to ensure that those plants 477 00:21:41,810 --> 00:21:44,000 were not available for German war production. 478 00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:47,040 And that, I think, is where the real ambiguity lies here. 479 00:21:47,040 --> 00:21:48,870 For heavy industrial businesses 480 00:21:48,870 --> 00:21:49,960 within the Reich, 481 00:21:49,960 --> 00:21:53,260 there was no option but to submit to Hitler's demands, 482 00:21:53,260 --> 00:21:56,332 which were only going to grow as time went on. 483 00:21:56,332 --> 00:21:57,200 (suspenseful music) 484 00:21:57,200 --> 00:21:59,513 What Hitler completely understands is 485 00:21:59,513 --> 00:22:00,960 that the expropriation 486 00:22:00,960 --> 00:22:03,300 of all these national financial reserves, 487 00:22:03,300 --> 00:22:05,630 these industries, these infrastructures 488 00:22:05,630 --> 00:22:07,370 in all these countries is only 489 00:22:07,370 --> 00:22:11,450 gonna solve the German deficit on a temporary basis. 490 00:22:11,450 --> 00:22:12,530 He's like a drug addict. 491 00:22:12,530 --> 00:22:14,780 He knows he's gonna have to get more and more and more 492 00:22:14,780 --> 00:22:18,049 to feed this credit habit that he's got. 493 00:22:18,049 --> 00:22:21,049 (suspenseful music) 494 00:22:29,705 --> 00:22:31,410 (suspenseful music) 495 00:22:31,410 --> 00:22:32,510 For eight months after 496 00:22:32,510 --> 00:22:34,620 the British and French declaration of war 497 00:22:34,620 --> 00:22:37,480 against Nazi Germany, the world held its breath 498 00:22:37,480 --> 00:22:40,506 and waited to see who would make the first move. 499 00:22:40,506 --> 00:22:43,506 (suspenseful music) 500 00:22:44,390 --> 00:22:47,730 On April the 9th, 1940 Hitler sent his troops 501 00:22:47,730 --> 00:22:50,530 to occupy Denmark and Norway on the pretext 502 00:22:50,530 --> 00:22:52,470 that they were protecting these countries 503 00:22:52,470 --> 00:22:54,233 from Anglo-French aggression. 504 00:22:55,240 --> 00:22:57,510 Then one month later, on May 10th, 505 00:22:57,510 --> 00:22:59,460 Germany launched a surprise invasion 506 00:22:59,460 --> 00:23:03,180 against the neutral Low Countries, Belgium and France, 507 00:23:03,180 --> 00:23:04,580 while managing to skirt around 508 00:23:04,580 --> 00:23:06,183 the well fortified Maginot Line. 509 00:23:07,660 --> 00:23:10,020 But even with the protection of the Maginot Line, 510 00:23:10,020 --> 00:23:13,560 by June 22nd, the French were bludgeoned into submission 511 00:23:13,560 --> 00:23:16,470 and forced to sign a humiliating ceasefire 512 00:23:16,470 --> 00:23:17,970 in the very same wagon 513 00:23:17,970 --> 00:23:20,150 where the Germans had signed the surrender 514 00:23:20,150 --> 00:23:22,223 at the end of the First World War. 515 00:23:23,380 --> 00:23:25,390 With all of continental Western Europe 516 00:23:25,390 --> 00:23:27,460 now under Nazi occupation, 517 00:23:27,460 --> 00:23:30,890 Hitler had a wealth of riches at his command. 518 00:23:30,890 --> 00:23:33,980 They levied quite a few taxes against the French. 519 00:23:33,980 --> 00:23:35,540 The French had to pay something 520 00:23:35,540 --> 00:23:39,880 like 20% of their gross national product to Germany. 521 00:23:39,880 --> 00:23:43,890 They also created a system within this occupied zone, 522 00:23:43,890 --> 00:23:47,560 you know, this Greater German Reich, all over Europe, 523 00:23:47,560 --> 00:23:50,720 they created a system of exchange, 524 00:23:50,720 --> 00:23:55,680 whereby they got favorable exchange to the German mark 525 00:23:55,680 --> 00:23:58,330 from whatever currency they were transferring it in. 526 00:23:58,330 --> 00:24:01,000 And this was really, they were really bad terms. 527 00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:02,640 The Nazis hit upon a simple, 528 00:24:02,640 --> 00:24:04,930 yet ingenious way, to extract the gold 529 00:24:04,930 --> 00:24:08,000 and cash reserves of the countries they occupied. 530 00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:10,430 They would actually take in gold bars. 531 00:24:10,430 --> 00:24:15,200 They would resmelt them and put the German symbol on it. 532 00:24:15,200 --> 00:24:17,340 There's so many crazy stories. 533 00:24:17,340 --> 00:24:20,980 Belgian gold being sent to safe keeping in Africa 534 00:24:20,980 --> 00:24:23,360 and the Nazis seizing the gold, 535 00:24:23,360 --> 00:24:26,090 bringing it back through Switzerland 536 00:24:26,090 --> 00:24:27,970 and resmelting the gold. 537 00:24:27,970 --> 00:24:30,500 I mean, it was a huge operation. 538 00:24:30,500 --> 00:24:32,850 It was a huge theft, but, I mean, 539 00:24:32,850 --> 00:24:34,670 that they went to that much trouble 540 00:24:34,670 --> 00:24:37,515 to conceal the theft is amazing to me. 541 00:24:37,515 --> 00:24:40,515 (suspenseful music) 542 00:24:41,730 --> 00:24:43,590 The Reich was also able to massively 543 00:24:43,590 --> 00:24:46,770 increase their industrial resources and capacity, 544 00:24:46,770 --> 00:24:48,600 as factories in the occupied territories 545 00:24:48,600 --> 00:24:50,640 were forced to accept terms 546 00:24:50,640 --> 00:24:53,901 and offers to fuel the German war machine. 547 00:24:53,901 --> 00:24:56,901 (suspenseful music) 548 00:24:59,440 --> 00:25:01,210 The whole process was orchestrated 549 00:25:01,210 --> 00:25:03,160 by leading German industrialists, 550 00:25:03,160 --> 00:25:05,950 sympathetic to the Nazi cause. 551 00:25:05,950 --> 00:25:08,580 And so when the war began, 552 00:25:08,580 --> 00:25:11,870 Krupp and two other industrialists sat around a board 553 00:25:11,870 --> 00:25:13,170 and they had those little pins 554 00:25:13,170 --> 00:25:17,560 with the red tops and green tops on them, 555 00:25:17,560 --> 00:25:20,180 and they were sticking them in the factories of France 556 00:25:20,180 --> 00:25:21,150 and the Low Countries. 557 00:25:21,150 --> 00:25:23,410 This one's mine that one's yours. 558 00:25:23,410 --> 00:25:25,050 These were the people that financed it 559 00:25:25,050 --> 00:25:27,789 and they were being rewarded to these factories. 560 00:25:27,789 --> 00:25:32,789 (woman singing in French) (upbeat music) 561 00:25:39,556 --> 00:25:43,639 (Christopher speaking in German) 562 00:26:16,918 --> 00:26:18,475 (suspenseful music) 563 00:26:18,475 --> 00:26:19,710 Tellingly, the more men 564 00:26:19,710 --> 00:26:21,740 that were sent to the battlefronts in Africa 565 00:26:21,740 --> 00:26:24,110 and in the air war against Great Britain, 566 00:26:24,110 --> 00:26:27,540 the weaker Germany's domestic workforce became. 567 00:26:27,540 --> 00:26:29,810 The Reich desperately needed a plentiful supply 568 00:26:29,810 --> 00:26:31,440 of low-cost labor. 569 00:26:31,440 --> 00:26:33,730 Being the largest country on the planet, 570 00:26:33,730 --> 00:26:35,890 the Soviet Union was the obvious source 571 00:26:35,890 --> 00:26:37,549 of men and materials. 572 00:26:37,549 --> 00:26:41,290 (suspenseful music) 573 00:26:41,290 --> 00:26:44,670 On June the 22nd, 1941, 574 00:26:44,670 --> 00:26:46,650 Hitler broke his treaty with Stalin 575 00:26:46,650 --> 00:26:49,530 and launched Operation Barbarossa. 576 00:26:49,530 --> 00:26:51,710 A new wave of economic pillaging 577 00:26:51,710 --> 00:26:54,010 and plundering followed the rapid advances 578 00:26:54,010 --> 00:26:56,623 of the Wehrmacht into Soviet territory. 579 00:26:59,150 --> 00:27:01,530 Seize the iron ore and the nickel 580 00:27:01,530 --> 00:27:03,327 in the mine of the Ukraine. 581 00:27:03,327 --> 00:27:06,120 And these, of course, were given to German industrialists. 582 00:27:06,120 --> 00:27:08,060 But Hitler said something very interesting 583 00:27:08,060 --> 00:27:10,370 about the war and the advance in Russian. 584 00:27:10,370 --> 00:27:14,470 He said, either I take Maykop and Grozny, 585 00:27:14,470 --> 00:27:15,790 or I lose the war. 586 00:27:15,790 --> 00:27:17,730 And these were the sources of oil. 587 00:27:17,730 --> 00:27:19,710 Romanian oil was not going to be enough 588 00:27:19,710 --> 00:27:21,380 to support the German war machine. 589 00:27:21,380 --> 00:27:22,213 That's why they were trying 590 00:27:22,213 --> 00:27:24,233 to develop the synthetic petroleum. 591 00:27:24,233 --> 00:27:25,670 (suspenseful music) 592 00:27:25,670 --> 00:27:28,370 I think what we can say about Operation Barbarossa 593 00:27:28,370 --> 00:27:32,220 is that it does provide some oil, for example. 594 00:27:32,220 --> 00:27:35,340 The Ukraine provides a lot of bread. 595 00:27:35,340 --> 00:27:37,110 So, you know, there is some gains, 596 00:27:37,110 --> 00:27:39,460 but, of course, it was enormously expensive 597 00:27:39,460 --> 00:27:42,180 to keep this army in the field. 598 00:27:42,180 --> 00:27:46,520 And mostly the army, you know, was still getting supplies 599 00:27:46,520 --> 00:27:48,600 from Germany itself. 600 00:27:48,600 --> 00:27:51,000 So on the balance sheet of, you know, 601 00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:54,300 how much money did they make from Operation Barbarossa? 602 00:27:54,300 --> 00:27:56,070 How much did it cost? 603 00:27:56,070 --> 00:27:59,560 At the beginning, you could say there was a profit, yeah, 604 00:27:59,560 --> 00:28:02,090 but as it started to get into a war of attrition, 605 00:28:02,090 --> 00:28:05,738 like Stalingrad and afterwards, it started to be a loss. 606 00:28:05,738 --> 00:28:08,738 (suspenseful music) 607 00:28:11,400 --> 00:28:12,960 And even as German forces 608 00:28:12,960 --> 00:28:15,570 were bidding to take control of the vast resources 609 00:28:15,570 --> 00:28:17,510 of the Soviet empire, 610 00:28:17,510 --> 00:28:22,080 on December 7th, 1941, its ally, Imperial Japan, 611 00:28:22,080 --> 00:28:24,350 launched a sneak attack of the U.S. base 612 00:28:24,350 --> 00:28:26,290 at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. 613 00:28:26,290 --> 00:28:27,240 Four days later, 614 00:28:27,240 --> 00:28:30,100 Hitler declared war against the United States. 615 00:28:30,100 --> 00:28:32,030 Although this would sever trading relations 616 00:28:32,030 --> 00:28:33,570 between the two nations, 617 00:28:33,570 --> 00:28:35,920 many American industrialists were powerless 618 00:28:35,920 --> 00:28:38,830 to stop their subsidiary operations in Germany 619 00:28:38,830 --> 00:28:41,880 from producing and trading with the Nazi Reich. 620 00:28:41,880 --> 00:28:43,330 So most of the American subsidiaries 621 00:28:43,330 --> 00:28:44,900 simply continue their operations 622 00:28:44,900 --> 00:28:48,140 as they existed in on December 1st, 1941. 623 00:28:48,140 --> 00:28:51,400 There's really no major change that we see taking place. 624 00:28:51,400 --> 00:28:53,440 Partially, this is because the German companies 625 00:28:53,440 --> 00:28:56,210 themselves have largely broken free of American control 626 00:28:56,210 --> 00:28:57,060 at that point. 627 00:28:57,060 --> 00:28:58,960 The Nazi party has installed loyalists 628 00:28:58,960 --> 00:29:00,880 onto their boards of directors. 629 00:29:00,880 --> 00:29:03,240 They have mandated these companies engage 630 00:29:03,240 --> 00:29:05,600 in the war effort in some way. 631 00:29:05,600 --> 00:29:08,000 So a lot of these companies simply don't have a choice. 632 00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:10,130 If they wanted to shut down their operations in Europe, 633 00:29:10,130 --> 00:29:11,735 they couldn't have, at that stage. 634 00:29:11,735 --> 00:29:12,760 (suspenseful music) 635 00:29:12,760 --> 00:29:14,730 But there would be some American companies 636 00:29:14,730 --> 00:29:17,890 that would willfully continue to deal with the Nazi Reich 637 00:29:17,890 --> 00:29:19,250 in a clear violation 638 00:29:19,250 --> 00:29:21,590 of the U.S. Trading with the Enemy Act. 639 00:29:21,590 --> 00:29:23,483 Companies like Standard Oil. 640 00:29:26,110 --> 00:29:30,630 A small, but dangerous minority of industrial managers, 641 00:29:30,630 --> 00:29:32,830 who perhaps hold out for extra profits, 642 00:29:32,830 --> 00:29:36,260 call for business as usual. 643 00:29:36,260 --> 00:29:38,340 So by early 1942, the U.S. government 644 00:29:38,340 --> 00:29:40,570 is increasingly concerned that American companies 645 00:29:40,570 --> 00:29:42,530 are not only doing business with the Reich, 646 00:29:42,530 --> 00:29:44,360 but that they're helping the German war effort. 647 00:29:44,360 --> 00:29:46,670 And of course, that accusation is correct. 648 00:29:46,670 --> 00:29:48,510 And so begin looking at all of this involvement, 649 00:29:48,510 --> 00:29:50,380 all of this corporate involvement in the Reich, 650 00:29:50,380 --> 00:29:52,420 and they pinpoint Standard Oil as one of the companies 651 00:29:52,420 --> 00:29:54,990 that is probably still doing an appreciable amount 652 00:29:54,990 --> 00:29:57,603 of business to help the German war effort. 653 00:29:57,603 --> 00:30:00,603 (suspenseful music) 654 00:30:01,470 --> 00:30:02,400 At that time, 655 00:30:02,400 --> 00:30:05,680 the president of Standard Oil, James Walter C. Teagle, 656 00:30:05,680 --> 00:30:08,400 was also a director of the American subsidiaries 657 00:30:08,400 --> 00:30:09,840 of IG Farben. 658 00:30:09,840 --> 00:30:13,273 The combined companies were known as Standard I.G. 659 00:30:14,330 --> 00:30:15,380 They're sharing patents 660 00:30:15,380 --> 00:30:17,491 and essentially helping IG Farben increase 661 00:30:17,491 --> 00:30:20,170 the octane content of its gasoline. 662 00:30:20,170 --> 00:30:21,790 Now, this is incredibly important later on 663 00:30:21,790 --> 00:30:25,963 for the Luftwaffe and other German military establishments. 664 00:30:28,490 --> 00:30:30,340 After the Pearl Harbor attack, 665 00:30:30,340 --> 00:30:32,310 the U.S. Navy approached Standard Oil 666 00:30:32,310 --> 00:30:34,490 to provide synthetic materials, vital 667 00:30:34,490 --> 00:30:36,350 for the American war effort. 668 00:30:36,350 --> 00:30:39,660 Incredibly, even after America's declaration of war 669 00:30:39,660 --> 00:30:42,060 against Japan and Nazi Germany, 670 00:30:42,060 --> 00:30:44,360 Walter C. Teagle refused to renege 671 00:30:44,360 --> 00:30:47,047 on his existing deals with IG Farben. 672 00:30:47,047 --> 00:30:50,047 (suspenseful music) 673 00:30:51,600 --> 00:30:53,830 A congressional investigation was launched 674 00:30:53,830 --> 00:30:56,300 and the chairman of the presiding special committee, 675 00:30:56,300 --> 00:30:59,983 Senator Harry S. Truman, accused the corporation of treason. 676 00:31:01,060 --> 00:31:03,620 And so Teagle makes a deal with the American government. 677 00:31:03,620 --> 00:31:05,850 Effectively Standard Oil is such a big player 678 00:31:05,850 --> 00:31:07,250 on the American economic scene 679 00:31:07,250 --> 00:31:08,170 that you don't wanna punish it 680 00:31:08,170 --> 00:31:10,820 during the Second World War, or so he argues. 681 00:31:10,820 --> 00:31:12,730 And so Teagle agrees to give up his position 682 00:31:12,730 --> 00:31:15,770 at Standard Oil a year before he's supposed to retire 683 00:31:15,770 --> 00:31:17,520 and, effectively, the U.S. government agrees 684 00:31:17,520 --> 00:31:19,940 that they won't pursue what they could have really done 685 00:31:19,940 --> 00:31:22,570 against Standard Oil, which is antitrust cases 686 00:31:22,570 --> 00:31:24,850 or other forms of punishment for the company. 687 00:31:24,850 --> 00:31:26,650 Standard's is not the only oil company 688 00:31:26,650 --> 00:31:29,320 that will enter this type of activity in Germany. 689 00:31:29,320 --> 00:31:31,860 The Texas Company will continue to make shipments 690 00:31:31,860 --> 00:31:33,300 to Germany throughout the 1930s, 691 00:31:33,300 --> 00:31:36,000 and even after the start of the Second World War. 692 00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:38,320 A Texas oil man named William Rhodes Davis actually 693 00:31:38,320 --> 00:31:41,210 began selling cut rate Mexican oil to the Third Reich 694 00:31:41,210 --> 00:31:43,500 and continues doing it as long as he can 695 00:31:43,500 --> 00:31:45,770 until the British blockade cuts off his tankers 696 00:31:45,770 --> 00:31:47,640 from getting to German ports. 697 00:31:47,640 --> 00:31:49,590 And so we see the American oil industry 698 00:31:49,590 --> 00:31:51,100 is able and willing to provide 699 00:31:51,100 --> 00:31:52,530 this incredibly critical resource 700 00:31:52,530 --> 00:31:55,770 to the Third Reich, even after the war has begun. 701 00:31:55,770 --> 00:31:57,040 But in other cases, 702 00:31:57,040 --> 00:31:59,770 the U.S. government successfully froze the assets 703 00:31:59,770 --> 00:32:02,430 of many companies that dealt with the Nazis, 704 00:32:02,430 --> 00:32:03,830 severing important links 705 00:32:03,830 --> 00:32:06,410 in the German industrial supply lines. 706 00:32:06,410 --> 00:32:08,390 Now, fighting a war on two fronts 707 00:32:08,390 --> 00:32:09,759 against two of the world's largest 708 00:32:09,759 --> 00:32:12,060 and best resourced countries, 709 00:32:12,060 --> 00:32:13,920 Hitler needed his friends in industry 710 00:32:13,920 --> 00:32:15,996 and finance more than ever. 711 00:32:15,996 --> 00:32:18,996 (suspenseful music) 712 00:32:28,013 --> 00:32:30,571 (suspenseful music) 713 00:32:30,571 --> 00:32:32,470 Autumn, 1942. 714 00:32:32,470 --> 00:32:35,730 The war begins to change for Hitler and the Nazis. 715 00:32:35,730 --> 00:32:38,190 In Russia the Red Army counter attacks 716 00:32:38,190 --> 00:32:39,027 against the Wehrmacht 717 00:32:39,027 --> 00:32:42,580 and the myth of German military supremacy is shattered 718 00:32:42,580 --> 00:32:46,403 in devastating defeats at Stalingrad and Leningrad. 719 00:32:47,500 --> 00:32:49,080 In the early years of the war, 720 00:32:49,080 --> 00:32:51,880 Hitler could count on the Soviet Union and U.S. companies 721 00:32:51,880 --> 00:32:55,240 for the raw materials to feed his war machine. 722 00:32:55,240 --> 00:32:58,620 But now, as his armies were bogged down in the east, 723 00:32:58,620 --> 00:33:01,000 he could only rely on a few close allies 724 00:33:01,000 --> 00:33:03,713 and fellow fascist regimes for those things. 725 00:33:04,730 --> 00:33:08,360 The Portuguese were a neutral country, 726 00:33:08,360 --> 00:33:13,360 but run by Antonio Salazar, who was a fascist dictator. 727 00:33:15,090 --> 00:33:20,090 So the Nazis were buying wool from an other important 728 00:33:20,950 --> 00:33:24,364 resources that they needed for their war machine. 729 00:33:24,364 --> 00:33:28,531 (Christopher speaking in German) 730 00:33:39,680 --> 00:33:42,190 You've also got chromite from Turkey, 731 00:33:42,190 --> 00:33:45,220 and then you've got Spanish and Portuguese ports 732 00:33:45,220 --> 00:33:46,053 that are being used 733 00:33:46,053 --> 00:33:48,820 for shipments destined to the Third Reich. 734 00:33:48,820 --> 00:33:52,090 And these are being conducted by American corporations, 735 00:33:52,090 --> 00:33:55,440 using neutral flags on their ships. 736 00:33:55,440 --> 00:33:58,323 So, you know, it looks neutral, but it ain't neutral. 737 00:33:59,220 --> 00:34:01,240 Even after the Pearl Harbor attack, 738 00:34:01,240 --> 00:34:03,190 less scrupulous American businessmen 739 00:34:03,190 --> 00:34:05,920 would hold secret meetings with German trade delegations 740 00:34:05,920 --> 00:34:08,870 in these so-called neutral countries 741 00:34:08,870 --> 00:34:10,700 where they would establish shell companies 742 00:34:10,700 --> 00:34:12,560 in a bid to continue to benefit 743 00:34:12,560 --> 00:34:15,520 from the growth of the Nazi war machine. 744 00:34:15,520 --> 00:34:18,670 Some influential players in American industry and commerce 745 00:34:18,670 --> 00:34:21,670 saw Imperial Japan, rather than Germany, 746 00:34:21,670 --> 00:34:23,620 as their real enemy. 747 00:34:23,620 --> 00:34:25,330 So they just did this in secret 748 00:34:25,330 --> 00:34:27,810 by setting up all these LLCs, 749 00:34:27,810 --> 00:34:29,805 but all of these shell companies 750 00:34:29,805 --> 00:34:32,830 that you couldn't trace back to the Nazis, 751 00:34:32,830 --> 00:34:34,950 but that they were controlled by them. 752 00:34:34,950 --> 00:34:38,577 And that's how they hid what they were doing. 753 00:34:38,577 --> 00:34:39,410 (suspenseful music) 754 00:34:39,410 --> 00:34:40,960 But if visits to nearby Spain 755 00:34:40,960 --> 00:34:43,100 and Portugal provided the perfect cover 756 00:34:43,100 --> 00:34:45,910 for business meetings between Nazi government officials 757 00:34:45,910 --> 00:34:49,320 and their Western industrial and commercial counterparts, 758 00:34:49,320 --> 00:34:51,600 the most popular stopping off point to hide 759 00:34:51,600 --> 00:34:53,040 their own stolen loot 760 00:34:53,040 --> 00:34:55,350 was undoubtedly neighboring Switzerland. 761 00:34:55,350 --> 00:34:57,410 So you had a lot of high-ranking Nazis 762 00:34:57,410 --> 00:34:59,410 with Swiss bank accounts. 763 00:34:59,410 --> 00:35:03,210 Hitler had a bank account at the Union Bank of Switzerland 764 00:35:03,210 --> 00:35:06,300 where he deposited the royalties to "Mein Kampf." 765 00:35:06,300 --> 00:35:07,260 I mean, go figure. 766 00:35:07,260 --> 00:35:09,060 Like everybody was using Swiss banks. 767 00:35:09,060 --> 00:35:09,963 It was a thing. 768 00:35:09,963 --> 00:35:14,046 (Christopher speaking in German) 769 00:35:38,616 --> 00:35:40,940 The SS, the most brutal and pervasive 770 00:35:40,940 --> 00:35:42,790 of all the Nazi Party militias, 771 00:35:42,790 --> 00:35:44,600 played a key role in the plundering 772 00:35:44,600 --> 00:35:46,930 and pillaging of occupied countries, 773 00:35:46,930 --> 00:35:49,320 which drastically impaired the productivity 774 00:35:49,320 --> 00:35:50,740 of their economies. 775 00:35:50,740 --> 00:35:51,610 For the most part, 776 00:35:51,610 --> 00:35:55,890 the SS was in charge of the systematic pillaging. 777 00:35:55,890 --> 00:35:58,410 Once the Wehrmacht had passed through a country, 778 00:35:58,410 --> 00:36:01,737 the civilian administration reverted to the SS 779 00:36:01,737 --> 00:36:03,540 and the operations in the rear 780 00:36:03,540 --> 00:36:07,070 and the SS would be in charge of looting, let's say. 781 00:36:07,070 --> 00:36:11,690 But also suppressing partisans or whatnot, 782 00:36:11,690 --> 00:36:14,180 including rounding up suspect populations, 783 00:36:14,180 --> 00:36:17,050 above all the Jews, and sending them to their death. 784 00:36:17,050 --> 00:36:19,230 Just as the deportations were starting, 785 00:36:19,230 --> 00:36:21,090 in the fall of 1941, 786 00:36:21,090 --> 00:36:24,790 they introduced the 11th decree to the Reich Citizenship Law 787 00:36:24,790 --> 00:36:27,320 and this meant that when Jews were deported 788 00:36:27,320 --> 00:36:29,430 and crossed the borders of the German Reich, 789 00:36:29,430 --> 00:36:31,570 their property was legally confiscated 790 00:36:31,570 --> 00:36:34,200 the moment they left the borders of the German Reich. 791 00:36:34,200 --> 00:36:37,330 In this way was automatic legal confiscation 792 00:36:37,330 --> 00:36:40,350 as soon as the trains left and crossed the border. 793 00:36:40,350 --> 00:36:43,340 Between 1942 and 1945, 794 00:36:43,340 --> 00:36:45,240 millions of Jews would be identified 795 00:36:45,240 --> 00:36:47,920 and sent to concentration and death camps. 796 00:36:47,920 --> 00:36:50,920 The logistics and coordination of that process 797 00:36:50,920 --> 00:36:54,210 was assisted by the tabulating technology provided 798 00:36:54,210 --> 00:36:57,890 by IBM's German subsidiary, Dehomag. 799 00:36:57,890 --> 00:36:59,130 Most of the camps were built 800 00:36:59,130 --> 00:37:01,450 for the sole purpose of extermination, 801 00:37:01,450 --> 00:37:06,450 with the use of Zyklon B gas pellets provided by IG Farben. 802 00:37:06,450 --> 00:37:08,210 Before meeting their demise, 803 00:37:08,210 --> 00:37:10,870 the prisoners would be disposed of any possessions 804 00:37:10,870 --> 00:37:12,490 they were able to carry with them, 805 00:37:12,490 --> 00:37:14,740 which would be melted down and processed 806 00:37:14,740 --> 00:37:17,320 for return to the Nazi Reich. (suspenseful music) 807 00:37:17,320 --> 00:37:21,063 So it was a grim process of collecting assets 808 00:37:22,920 --> 00:37:26,440 or valuables the Jews managed to take 809 00:37:26,440 --> 00:37:29,010 with them to the concentration camps. 810 00:37:29,010 --> 00:37:31,270 Everything was taken from them, 811 00:37:31,270 --> 00:37:33,370 including anything they could hide 812 00:37:33,370 --> 00:37:35,810 in any kind of body cavities. 813 00:37:35,810 --> 00:37:38,630 Their gold teeth were extracted. 814 00:37:38,630 --> 00:37:40,200 I mean, hair, everything, 815 00:37:40,200 --> 00:37:41,960 the Nazis took advantage of everything. 816 00:37:41,960 --> 00:37:44,480 I mean, skin was used to make lamps. 817 00:37:44,480 --> 00:37:48,690 I mean, it's really, really kind of gross, 818 00:37:48,690 --> 00:37:53,111 but nothing was wasted. 819 00:37:53,111 --> 00:37:56,111 (suspenseful music) 820 00:37:57,450 --> 00:37:58,710 There are a number of different ways 821 00:37:58,710 --> 00:38:01,390 the Nazis exploited Jewish property. 822 00:38:01,390 --> 00:38:05,120 A lot was used obviously for the Nazi party's coffers, 823 00:38:05,120 --> 00:38:08,790 and especially to bump up the war economy. 824 00:38:08,790 --> 00:38:10,580 And they were particularly concerned 825 00:38:10,580 --> 00:38:12,400 for anything they could use for foreign currency. 826 00:38:12,400 --> 00:38:16,370 So diamonds, fur coats, also stocks and shares, 827 00:38:16,370 --> 00:38:18,910 and these were marketed in Switzerland 828 00:38:18,910 --> 00:38:20,940 or Sweden through intermediaries 829 00:38:20,940 --> 00:38:23,111 so that they could get hard currency for their war effort. 830 00:38:23,111 --> 00:38:24,140 (suspenseful music) 831 00:38:24,140 --> 00:38:26,030 This widespread process of theft 832 00:38:26,030 --> 00:38:28,940 and murder was particularly prolific in Poland, 833 00:38:28,940 --> 00:38:32,250 where the systematic extermination of over 3 million Jews, 834 00:38:32,250 --> 00:38:35,960 between October, 1941 and November 1945, 835 00:38:35,960 --> 00:38:37,810 code named Aktion Reinhard, 836 00:38:37,810 --> 00:38:41,830 was overseen by SS and police leader, Odilo Globocnik. 837 00:38:45,450 --> 00:38:46,759 According to documentation 838 00:38:46,759 --> 00:38:51,759 from Aktion Reinhard, Globocnik sent 178 million Reichsmark 839 00:38:51,840 --> 00:38:53,840 to the Reich treasury 840 00:38:53,840 --> 00:38:55,300 which was all the money collected 841 00:38:55,300 --> 00:38:57,260 from the Aktion Reinhard camps. 842 00:38:57,260 --> 00:39:00,190 This included receipts from hair 843 00:39:00,190 --> 00:39:02,150 that was was recycled, 844 00:39:02,150 --> 00:39:05,120 from all sorts of clothing and shoes 845 00:39:05,120 --> 00:39:07,720 and even gold bars and other valuable items 846 00:39:07,720 --> 00:39:10,290 that were sent to the Reichsbank in Berlin 847 00:39:11,630 --> 00:39:12,930 An equally significant 848 00:39:12,930 --> 00:39:15,540 and inhumane contribution by the SS 849 00:39:15,540 --> 00:39:17,800 was the way they organized the slave labor force 850 00:39:17,800 --> 00:39:21,660 for the benefit of the German economy and its war effort. 851 00:39:21,660 --> 00:39:25,360 In the mid 1930s, the SS Reichsführer, Heinrich Himmler, 852 00:39:25,360 --> 00:39:29,090 formed a close relationship with architect, Albert Speer. 853 00:39:29,090 --> 00:39:31,560 Speer had a very close bond with Hitler 854 00:39:31,560 --> 00:39:34,000 and designed numerous projects for his vision 855 00:39:34,000 --> 00:39:36,170 of the Thousand-Year Reich. 856 00:39:36,170 --> 00:39:39,560 Those projects included the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, 857 00:39:39,560 --> 00:39:43,800 the Nuremberg Party Rally Grounds, the Reich's Chancellery, 858 00:39:43,800 --> 00:39:46,660 and the design for Hitler's Hall of Glory, 859 00:39:46,660 --> 00:39:49,843 where he intended to celebrate his victory in World War II. 860 00:39:51,050 --> 00:39:54,800 In March, 1942, Adolf Hitler surprised everyone 861 00:39:54,800 --> 00:39:56,340 by nominating Albert Speer 862 00:39:56,340 --> 00:40:00,250 to the post of minister of armaments and war production. 863 00:40:00,250 --> 00:40:01,780 Well, what's interesting about Speer 864 00:40:01,780 --> 00:40:04,270 is he's a kind of technocrat, you know, 865 00:40:04,270 --> 00:40:07,000 he's one of these guys so he learns on the job. 866 00:40:07,000 --> 00:40:09,400 And he becomes ready excellent in this role 867 00:40:09,400 --> 00:40:10,850 of armaments minister, 868 00:40:10,850 --> 00:40:15,713 and armament production under Speer doubles within one year. 869 00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:18,560 Able-bodied German workers 870 00:40:18,560 --> 00:40:22,290 had been routinely conscripted to fight on the front lines. 871 00:40:22,290 --> 00:40:25,890 This created a shortage of workers in the armament industry. 872 00:40:25,890 --> 00:40:29,490 Speer relied on the SS to provide both materials and labor 873 00:40:29,490 --> 00:40:32,470 from the prison camps to maintain the production lines 874 00:40:32,470 --> 00:40:34,483 crucial to the Nazi war effort. 875 00:40:35,330 --> 00:40:38,590 As a result, the main concentration and death camps 876 00:40:38,590 --> 00:40:41,866 were situated close to major industrial hubs. 877 00:40:41,866 --> 00:40:45,340 (melancholy music) 878 00:40:45,340 --> 00:40:47,680 Farben went to Himmler, 879 00:40:47,680 --> 00:40:49,760 and this is after the fall of Poland, 880 00:40:49,760 --> 00:40:51,610 and they said there's a spot right here, 881 00:40:51,610 --> 00:40:52,960 and they pointed to the map, 882 00:40:52,960 --> 00:40:55,080 three rivers converge. 883 00:40:55,080 --> 00:40:58,150 There's a source of coal nearby. 884 00:40:58,150 --> 00:41:02,660 We intend to build the largest synthetic rubber 885 00:41:02,660 --> 00:41:05,920 and synthetic petroleum plant in the world here. 886 00:41:05,920 --> 00:41:07,873 You supply us with slave labor. 887 00:41:08,900 --> 00:41:10,550 That was the origin of Auschwitz. 888 00:41:10,550 --> 00:41:11,383 (melancholy music) 889 00:41:11,383 --> 00:41:12,420 A strict distinction was made 890 00:41:12,420 --> 00:41:14,820 between forced and slave labor. 891 00:41:14,820 --> 00:41:16,730 Slave labor consists of the work 892 00:41:16,730 --> 00:41:18,310 of concentration camp prisoners 893 00:41:18,310 --> 00:41:19,340 and others who were treated 894 00:41:19,340 --> 00:41:20,840 like concentration camp prisoners, 895 00:41:20,840 --> 00:41:22,410 and especially all Jews, 896 00:41:22,410 --> 00:41:26,010 as they faced almost certain death working for the Nazis. 897 00:41:26,010 --> 00:41:29,560 Forced labor refers mainly to the Eastern laborers 898 00:41:29,560 --> 00:41:30,590 and also Western laborers 899 00:41:30,590 --> 00:41:32,800 who were brought to Germany to work in factories. 900 00:41:32,800 --> 00:41:35,820 The rate of death among those forced laborers 901 00:41:35,820 --> 00:41:38,733 was only about 10%, mainly from Allied air raids. 902 00:41:39,700 --> 00:41:41,970 This meant that German companies involved 903 00:41:41,970 --> 00:41:43,320 in producing armaments, 904 00:41:43,320 --> 00:41:44,970 whether German domestic companies, 905 00:41:44,970 --> 00:41:47,760 or former subsidiaries of American companies, 906 00:41:47,760 --> 00:41:52,030 needed to pay the SS for use of forced or slave labor. 907 00:41:52,030 --> 00:41:55,100 As the German war effort grew weaker and more vulnerable, 908 00:41:55,100 --> 00:41:58,358 so this labor became more and more expendable. 909 00:41:58,358 --> 00:41:59,191 (melancholy music) 910 00:41:59,191 --> 00:42:00,640 Initially, prisoners would be marched 911 00:42:00,640 --> 00:42:02,090 from the concentration camps 912 00:42:02,090 --> 00:42:03,960 to nearby factories and were used there 913 00:42:03,960 --> 00:42:05,840 and would march back at the end of the day, 914 00:42:05,840 --> 00:42:07,670 but this proved to be quite inefficient. 915 00:42:07,670 --> 00:42:09,100 And, as the war went on, 916 00:42:09,100 --> 00:42:11,980 increasingly sections of concentration camps 917 00:42:11,980 --> 00:42:14,967 or sub-camps were set up in various large factories 918 00:42:14,967 --> 00:42:17,170 and the prisoners remained there all the time, 919 00:42:17,170 --> 00:42:18,730 working for those companies. (suspenseful music) 920 00:42:18,730 --> 00:42:20,410 We know that, in 1945, 921 00:42:20,410 --> 00:42:23,010 when the Allies come in and liberate the Opel plant 922 00:42:23,010 --> 00:42:24,620 and the Ford plant in Cologne, 923 00:42:24,620 --> 00:42:27,490 they find starving and shivering slave laborers there 924 00:42:27,490 --> 00:42:28,610 who have not only had been forced 925 00:42:28,610 --> 00:42:30,730 into manufacturing aircraft parts 926 00:42:30,730 --> 00:42:32,220 and other war supplies 927 00:42:32,220 --> 00:42:33,930 for the Third Reich against their will, 928 00:42:33,930 --> 00:42:35,870 but have also been subjected to Allied bombing, 929 00:42:35,870 --> 00:42:36,860 because the Allies see 930 00:42:36,860 --> 00:42:38,810 that these are essential production facilities 931 00:42:38,810 --> 00:42:41,300 that need to be taken out of circulation. 932 00:42:41,300 --> 00:42:42,133 But in the end, 933 00:42:42,133 --> 00:42:44,870 slave labor caused many industries to lose money 934 00:42:44,870 --> 00:42:48,380 because the quality and pace of production suffered. 935 00:42:48,380 --> 00:42:49,920 It's not more profitable. 936 00:42:49,920 --> 00:42:51,300 It's less efficient. 937 00:42:51,300 --> 00:42:54,100 A German manager didn't think in terms of profit 938 00:42:54,100 --> 00:42:57,520 from slave labor, they thought in productivity costs 939 00:42:57,520 --> 00:42:59,690 and the productivity costs are much higher 940 00:42:59,690 --> 00:43:03,580 for an unskilled, unmotivated slave laborer. 941 00:43:03,580 --> 00:43:05,670 Even if you pay them much less 942 00:43:05,670 --> 00:43:07,520 than for a skilled German worker, 943 00:43:07,520 --> 00:43:08,850 especially on an assembly line 944 00:43:08,850 --> 00:43:11,059 for something like airframe manufacture. 945 00:43:11,059 --> 00:43:12,670 (suspenseful music) 946 00:43:12,670 --> 00:43:14,680 Despite Albert Speer's best efforts, 947 00:43:14,680 --> 00:43:17,240 the challenges to German production and supply lines 948 00:43:17,240 --> 00:43:19,120 became insurmountable. 949 00:43:19,120 --> 00:43:21,970 As the German losses on the Eastern Front quickly grew 950 00:43:21,970 --> 00:43:24,930 and the prosperity and success the Germans once enjoyed 951 00:43:24,930 --> 00:43:26,650 became a distant memory, 952 00:43:26,650 --> 00:43:29,240 support for Nazi warmongering and fanaticism 953 00:43:29,240 --> 00:43:32,495 from within Germany was, at last, on the wane. 954 00:43:32,495 --> 00:43:35,495 (suspenseful music) 955 00:43:44,970 --> 00:43:47,090 Economic historians are now clear, 956 00:43:47,090 --> 00:43:49,660 wars don't actually make money. 957 00:43:49,660 --> 00:43:51,760 And the reason they don't make money is 958 00:43:51,760 --> 00:43:54,790 they cost a huge amount to stage. 959 00:43:54,790 --> 00:43:57,160 So you've gotta build all these weapons 960 00:43:57,160 --> 00:44:00,340 and it's not really a great idea, 961 00:44:00,340 --> 00:44:02,180 is it, to build a huge airplane 962 00:44:02,180 --> 00:44:04,000 and then it crashes from the sky 963 00:44:04,000 --> 00:44:06,900 or a tank that gets blown up or ammunition 964 00:44:06,900 --> 00:44:09,010 which just goes out of the gun and is lost 965 00:44:09,010 --> 00:44:10,590 and can't be used again. 966 00:44:10,590 --> 00:44:12,920 So there's an enormous cost in wars 967 00:44:12,920 --> 00:44:16,040 and the longer they go on, the more they cost. 968 00:44:16,040 --> 00:44:17,540 So in the end, you could say 969 00:44:17,540 --> 00:44:21,040 that you need a lot of money, capital, actually, 970 00:44:21,040 --> 00:44:23,360 not just being able to occupy countries. 971 00:44:23,360 --> 00:44:25,040 You need a lot of capital. 972 00:44:25,040 --> 00:44:27,390 And, in the long run, the Americans 973 00:44:27,390 --> 00:44:29,780 and the British had more capital 974 00:44:29,780 --> 00:44:31,290 so they could go on financing 975 00:44:31,290 --> 00:44:34,543 this war forever more, if you like. 976 00:44:36,440 --> 00:44:38,970 And the Americans, British, and Soviets 977 00:44:38,970 --> 00:44:40,160 would soon have the means 978 00:44:40,160 --> 00:44:42,610 and momentum to launch their final assault 979 00:44:42,610 --> 00:44:45,200 into the Reich and force Nazi Germany 980 00:44:45,200 --> 00:44:47,480 to a final desperate reckoning, 981 00:44:47,480 --> 00:44:51,540 for which they had neither the soldiers nor the resources. 982 00:44:51,540 --> 00:44:54,687 Hitler's hourglass was running out of sand. 983 00:44:54,687 --> 00:44:56,242 (dramatic music) 984 00:44:56,242 --> 00:44:59,325 (suspenseful music) 73411

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