All language subtitles for Mysteries.of.the.Abandoned.S08E07.Hitlers.Nightmare.Palace.1080p.DISC.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H.264-DoGSO_track3_[eng]

[narrator] An industrial
powerhouse that transformed
the American skyline.

[man 1] There's a kind
of futuristic look
to this place,

but it's all old,
it's all rusted.

[narrator] A holy relic that
helped shape modern England.

[man 2] It has all
the hallmarks

of a monastic complex
and, for many today,

remains a mecca of
Christian history in Britain.

[narrator] And a gothic
building in Poland

that leaves few clues
to its past life.

that leaves few clues
to its past life.

These walls hide
an incredibly dark history,

one that is still shrouded
in mystery to this day.

[narrator] Decaying relics.

Ruins of lost worlds.

Sites haunted by the past,

their secrets waiting
to be revealed.

Near the quiet
Pennsylvanian town
of Bethlehem,

an industrial relic punches
out of the landscape.

[man 1] There's a kind
of futuristic look
to this place,

like something out
of Blade Runner has been
dropped out of the sky.

[woman 1] This isn't
just one set of pipes
or one set of chimneys.

[woman 1] This isn't
just one set of pipes
or one set of chimneys.

It's row upon row
of decaying structures.

It feels like
it stretches on for a mile.

[man 2] You enter one
of these buildings,

and inside is this bizarre
spaghetti of chains

suspending metal boxes
from the ceiling.

Like, what could
this all be for?

It's really strange.

When you came
through the gate,

it was like you were
coming into another world,

another town,
another era.

[narrator] A key development
forged in this complex

[narrator] A key development
forged in this complex

would pave the way
for the construction

of one of America's
most iconic creations.

This was a revolution
in structural engineering.

[woman 1]
It is in many regards,

responsible for so much
of New York City's skyline.

It makes New York City
in a way.

[narrator] But this site
wouldn't just build
the nation,

it would help save it.

Bethlehem Steel, once a giant
of American manufacturing

Bethlehem Steel, once a giant
of American manufacturing

that employed
30,000 men and women.

Charlene Donchez Mowers
is a historian at the site,

and well aware
of the hazards workers faced
on a daily basis.

Everything was so dangerous

you couldn't wear
a wedding ring.

Anything could get caught.

All your clothing had
to be natural fibers,

because synthetic would
melt if a spark hit it.

[narrator] The strange,
overhanging objects

[narrator] The strange,
overhanging objects

offered security,
as well as safety.

[Charlene] These baskets
that you see hanging

from the ceiling
have chains on them.

The chain would come down
and get attached

to these pipe-like things,
and they would put

their own lock on it
and then no one could touch
their things.

[narrator] This complex
had long been the lifeblood
of the community.

So, these were really
the kind of, you know,

blue-collar workers
of the USA.

[Prof. Mitchell]
A lot of the workers are
European immigrants,

[Prof. Mitchell]
A lot of the workers are
European immigrants,

especially Eastern
European immigrants,

and Latino workers.

You also have Black workers,
like my grandfather,

who came from, in many cases,
from the South.

So they actually had
a fairly diverse workforce,

and that spilled over
into steel towns

where you would have people
living side by side,

going to school
with each other.

Not always comfortably,
but living side by side.

[narrator]
Dating back to 1857,
the Bethlehem Steel Company

[narrator]
Dating back to 1857,
the Bethlehem Steel Company

was founded
to help build America.

[Rob] This place
was started by people

who wanted to make
iron railroad tracks.

This was when America
still had a frontier,

and the iron horses connected

these disparate parts
of the country.

[Prof. Jerram] With Bethlehem,
it was its position
geographically,

being able to get ore,
being able to get coal,

made it just
in the right place
at the right time.

made it just
in the right place
at the right time.

[Charlene]
This is like baking a cake.

You have to have
the key ingredients,

iron, ore, coke,
and limestone.

[narrator] Situated in
so-called Carbon County,

they had everything
they needed close by.

And the infrastructure
put in place to exploit
these resourced

was of epic proportions.

[Charlene] This blast furnace
is from the early 1900s.

Right in front of us
is an inclined plane,

Right in front of us
is an inclined plane,

and there are two
what are called skip cars,

and a skip car
is about the size of a van.

[narrator] They would take
the raw materials
up the tracks

to be weighed and tipped
into the furnace,

which reached temperatures
of over 3,000 degrees.

[Prof. Jerram] The ultimate
goal is to create your iron
as pure as possible.

And then,
it's in its liquid form

you can literally
open the gate of the furnace

you can literally
open the gate of the furnace

and this stuff pours out.

But what's great about steel
in its molten form
is you can mold it.

[narrator] Soon,
their ambitions extended
well beyond railroad tracks.

In 1907, an invention
came out of this site

that would
radically transform
the American skyline.

[Prof. Mitchell]
The Bethlehem beam
is also known

as a wide-flange beam,
and it was enabled

from a really important
revolution in rolling steel.

from a really important
revolution in rolling steel.

[narrator]
The new rolling process
produced H-shaped beams

that were light,
wide, and cheap.

[Rob] This was a revolution
in structural engineering.

And it could be used
vertically, as a column,

allowing structures
to be built taller
than ever before.

[Prof. Jerram] We know
what the US is famed for,
its skyscrapers.

And it was exactly
this engineering phenomenon

And it was exactly
this engineering phenomenon

that rocketed Bethlehem,
in terms of its supply,

to places like New York.

Some of the buildings
that they helped make

included 40 Wall Street,
the Manhattan Bank,

and the Chrysler Building,
to name a few.

[narrator]
In fact, in the 1920s,
they provided steel

for around 80%
of the city's skyline,

leading the company's
chief engineer to claim

that Bethlehem Steel
owned New York.

that Bethlehem Steel
owned New York.

But they didn't stop there.

Not only skyscrapers,
but it's these wonderful
suspension bridges,

something like
the Golden Gate Bridge,

which has this beautiful
orange color.

Eighty-three thousand
tons of steel were used

in the construction
of this bridge.

[male announcer] Bethlehem,
the major contractor,

will build the steel towers
and suspended span
of the bridge.

The sections
are loaded aboard ships

and, finally,
through the Golden Gate
into San Francisco bay.

and, finally,
through the Golden Gate
into San Francisco bay.

[narrator] This was boom-time
for Bethlehem Steel,

but it was small fry compared
with what was to come.

[Rob] In 1939, the president
of Bethlehem Steel,

Eugene Grace, was out golfing

when a caddy ran up to him
with a message.

The story goes
that Grace turned
to his colleagues and said,

"Gentlemen, we're about
to make a lot of money."

[narrator] For decades,
Bethlehem Steel,
in Pennsylvania,

helped shape
America's city skylines

with its pioneering
Bethlehem beam.

When the Second World War
broke out,

orders began flooding in
from Europe.

[Prof. Jerram] Everything
from tanks to even
big war ships

were being ordered by
the British and the French.

And, at one stage,
machine shop number two

And, at one stage,
machine shop number two

was the biggest factory floor
going in the whole world
at the time.

[Charlene] I heard that
they could produce

one of these
big ship guns a day.

At one point,
there were 800 men
over three shifts a day.

And this was a very dangerous,
smoky, smelly place.

There were machines
up and down these aisles.

You can see there
are railroad tracks,

there were overhead cranes.

[narrator] Production
was ramped up even further

[narrator] Production
was ramped up even further

when the war
was brought closer to home.

[Prof. Mitchell] Once
Pearl Harbor is attacked,

United States starts
to feel like it has
stakes in this war,

and so the threat became real.

[Prof. Jerram] I guess
you can imagine that

the ethos
of the workplace would have
dramatically shifted.

You've gone from,
essentially, creating arms
to sell abroad,

to actually creating
something to be part
of saving your nation.

[Rob] It was said that
an American could be
on a Destroyer built

[Rob] It was said that
an American could be
on a Destroyer built

at the Bethlehem Steel yard,

firing guns built
at Bethlehem Steel,

shooting
Bethlehem Steel shells,

whilst being protected by
Bethlehem Steel armor plates.

Bethlehem Steel
built over 1,100 ships
during World War Two.

It was the largest
ship builder in the world.

And having
these structures survive

really gives a sense of scale
of what big industry is like.

really gives a sense of scale
of what big industry is like.

I don't want to say
that it's responsible
for the Allied victory,

but it's critical
to the Allied victory,

and to the United States'
success in the war.

[narrator]
While Bethlehem Steel
Corporation continues

to operate elsewhere
in the world,

like many manufacturing
plants in the Rust Belt,

its days in post-war America
were numbered.

Though, unlike some,
it was a slow,
gradual decline

that ended
in the early 2000s.

that ended
in the early 2000s.

The children of workers
that filled
these factory floors

have not forgotten
the opportunities
it has afforded them.

[Charlene] I think 13 members
of my family worked

at Bethlehem Steel,
and then, my generation,

we are teachers
and doctors and lawyers.

But that gave our families
the opportunity

from being
immigrant families in 1899,

from being
immigrant families in 1899,

when my grandfather came here

and got a job
at Bethlehem Steel,
to my generation.

It's not just true
for my family,

but for many families
throughout the United States.

[narrator] Off the coast
of northeast England
is a ruin cloaked in mystery.

[Rob] This road leads you out,

seemingly to this vast expanse
of sand and nothing else.

[woman] In the right weather,
going down this road feels

like you're driving
into the North Sea

because, sometimes,
the mists obscure
the way forward.

But as the mist clears,
it becomes apparent

that this is a causeway
that takes you
to a tiny outcrop

with a castle towering
over its surroundings.

with a castle towering
over its surroundings.

[man] The castle appears
to be organically growing
out of the rock.

And in its shadow,
are the remains

of what looked like
a cathedral-like structure.

[Rob] It's right next
to a church, and surrounded
by a cemetery

with an intriguing
mix of gravestones.

So this place has
a real spiritual feel to it.

[narrator] The layout
of the stone remains

are telling and hint
at Christian roots.

are telling and hint
at Christian roots.

[Rob] When you look at it
from above, you can see

that it's been constructed
in the shape of a cross.

It feels monastic
in its design.

[man] There are
elaborate stone arches,

one of them
almost floating in the air.

Ornate masonry, sculpture.

This all points to a place
of considerable opulence
and wealth.

[narrator] Yet it fell victim
to an attack
that shook this land,

and sent shockwaves
rippling out across
the Christian world.

and sent shockwaves
rippling out across
the Christian world.

[narrator]
Dr. Frances McIntosh
specializes in the archeology

of north-eastern England,

and is an expert
on this celebrated ruin.

So we're here,
in the top end of the church,

in the... in the apse,
which is the top of the cross.

[narrator] The position
of this construction,
completed around 1150,

[narrator] The position
of this construction,
completed around 1150,

was all-important
and only exists

because of
an even older structure
that lies at its feet.

[Dr. McIntosh]
They picked this spot
for the church

because we think
this is where
the 7th century church was.

This is a real kind
of center of Christianity,

and it was
the center of the cult.

[narrator] The high altar
of that 7th-century church

held the body of the man
behind this cult.

And yet, this tomb contains
neither a body nor a coffin.

And yet, this tomb contains
neither a body nor a coffin.

And that is what we see now,
a 12th-century priory

with a cenotaph,
meaning an empty tomb.

[narrator] So who was
this cenotaph dedicated to?

And why is the body
no longer here?

This rocky outcrop
is the Holy Island
of Lindisfarne,

barely connected
to the mainland
by a causeway.

[Rob] The tide rises
so quickly here
that, on average,

[Rob] The tide rises
so quickly here
that, on average,

one car per month
still gets stranded.

But you can imagine how,
1,000 years ago,

this natural feature
would've given the place
a real mystical charm,

created a real sense
of wonder.

[narrator] It was
this sense of wonder,

coupled with its isolation,

that attracted
the attention of King Oswald
in the 7th century.

[Rob] The era
between the Romans leaving
and the Norman Conquest

[Rob] The era
between the Romans leaving
and the Norman Conquest

has really captured
the imagination of people
in recent years.

I mean, you've got series
such as The Vikings
and The Last Kingdom.

And, in fact, King Oswald
is said to have been
the inspiration

for the character Aragorn
in Lord of the Rings.

[Dominic] Oswald's
Northumberland covered
a vast amount of land,

making it the northern
powerhouse of England,

which at the time was made up
of a small handful

of warring
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

of warring
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

[Dr. Nusbacher] He's going
to let all the other rulers

on the isle of Great Britain,
and on the continent
of Europe, know

that he is a holy king
and a wealthy king.

[narrator] Oswald gifted
Lindisfarne to monks

in order to establish
a monastery

at the heart
of his political kingdom.

[Dominic] And he was driven,
like all rulers,

by the desire to have monks
praying for his soul,

and praying for the health
and welfare of his lands.

and praying for the health
and welfare of his lands.

Christianity was
a political act.

[narrator] In the 670s,
a monk named Cuthbert
joined the monastery.

[Dr. Nusbacher] Cuthbert
is himself a very holy man,

who liked a life
of spiritual contemplation.

He prefers
to live as a hermit,

and yet he's willing to act
as a spiritual guide
to kings.

and yet he's willing to act
as a spiritual guide
to kings.

[Dominic] News of Cuthbert's
holiness spread and, in 685,

the king appointed him bishop,
so he was dragged back

into the world of politics,
the court, nobles, religion.

But yet, he still retained
a reputation as a holy man,

as a seer,
as a healer, as a pastor.

[narrator] But just
a few years later,
Cuthbert died.

It's believed his body
was placed in a stone coffin

at the eastern end
of the original building.

at the eastern end
of the original building.

When his tomb was opened
11 years later,

to everyone's astonishment,
his body was found
to be intact, uncorrupted.

And it was a message
to everyone that Cuthbert
was truly divinely favored.

[Dr. McIntosh] And that's
when the cult really starts.

People start coming to pray,
to ask for miracles.

We hear of a paralyzed boy
who wore the shoes
of Cuthbert, he was healed.

A monk came here
and fell seriously ill.

He prayed by Cuthbert's grave
and was miraculously cured.

He prayed by Cuthbert's grave
and was miraculously cured.

This is where the pilgrims
would come to the high altar

to see Cuthbert's grave.

[Dominic] As a result,
powerful kings and rulers
donated lands to it,

making Lindisfarne
one of the most important
monastic sites in Britain.

[narrator] And the ruins
that extend off to the side

of the original
cross-shaped church

reflect its
increasing wealth.

[Dr. Nusbacher]
All of these buildings
were once filled with monks,

[Dr. Nusbacher]
All of these buildings
were once filled with monks,

hard at work
tilling the land,

receiving donations,
writing out manuscripts,

preserving knowledge,
praying for the souls
of their benefactors.

[narrator] It was
in this context of increasing
prestige and learning

that the monks
of this priory produced
something extraordinary.

The Lindisfarne Gospels
are one of the undoubted
treasures of the world.

It shows influences
from the Celtic world,
from the Anglo-Saxon world,

It shows influences
from the Celtic world,
from the Anglo-Saxon world,

and even
the Mediterranean world,

showing just
how international
a place Lindisfarne was.

And not only are they one
of the most beautiful
Latin Bibles

ever produced in England,

but, also,
a scribe has written
translations of the gospels

in Old English underneath,

making them one
of the earliest sources
of the Bible in Old English,

long before the Reformation.

[narrator] But the monastery's
geographical position,

once seen as a strength,
would soon become
its weakness.

once seen as a strength,
would soon become
its weakness.

[Dr. Nusbacher]
You put this monastery
on a holy island

because it would protect them
from armies coming from land.

They didn't think
for a moment

that they'd have to worry
about an army coming
from the sea.

[narrator]
Holy Island, England.

June 8th, 793 A.D.

A sizable force
of Norse Vikings come
from the sea.

So, the sea is quite far away.

Now, what we know is much
closer than the 8th century,

so when the Vikings
pulled up on the beach
in their longship,

they would have been
much closer to the monastery.

they would have been
much closer to the monastery.

Really quite the quick,
you know,

sprint up the beach
to come and attack,

so the monks would not
have had much warning.

[Dominic] According
to one of the chroniclers,

they came in
like fierce wolves.

And they murdered the monks,
and they carried others off
in chase.

[narrator] When word of
this bloody assault got out,

its impact was far-reaching.

[Dr. McIntosh]
It's the first attack
on a Christian settlement.

It's not the first attack
by the Vikings in Britain,

but it's really
quite shocking,
it shakes the Church.

but it's really
quite shocking,
it shakes the Church.

[Dominic] And it was
on such a horrific scale

that the news spread
like wildfire
across Western Europe.

[narrator] Gravestones
found on the ground

show that some felt this
was divine vengeance.

[Rob] Why did Saint Cuthbert
not intervene and prevent
such barbaric slaughter,

and protect the monks?

For many, this was a sign
that doomsday was coming.

For many, this was a sign
that doomsday was coming.

[narrator] In fact, it was
the start of the Viking Age.

The monks soon fled
and took Cuthbert's
remains with them.

This wondering
community of monks

carried Cuthbert's coffin
with them

until it was enshrined
at Durham Cathedral.

Centuries later,
when they felt it safe,

they returned
to the Holy Island.

[Dr. Nusbacher]
Twelfth-century monks

wanted Lindisfarne
to be a place of pilgrimage,

wanted Lindisfarne
to be a place of pilgrimage,

and they didn't have
Saint Cuthbert's
body anymore.

So they built an empty tomb

where Saint Cuthbert
had been buried,

and they succeeded in making
that a place of pilgrimage.

[narrator] It's believed stone
from the original church

was reused in the building
of this later incarnation,

and its layout reflects
the strength

of Cuthbert's cult
in the Middle Ages.

of Cuthbert's cult
in the Middle Ages.

The church that's built here
seems to be mirrored

or trying to copy Durham,

and it becomes almost
a second center
of the Cult of Cuthbert.

[narrator]
Corner turrets, battlements,
and cross-shaped arrow loops

reflect the later
fortification of the church.

But they can only protect
the monks for so long.

Lindisfarne continued as
an active, religious community

until Henry VIII dissolution
of the monasteries
in the 1530s,

until Henry VIII dissolution
of the monasteries
in the 1530s,

when he crushed
the Catholic Church,

shut down all the abbeys
and monasteries,
and murdered the monks.

[narrator] In the 1820s,
the central tower collapsed.

But miraculously,
not everything was destroyed.

[Dr. Nusbacher]
Well, the tower is gone

but almost magically,
one arch remains.

It is as though God
has made a promise

that this kind of ruination
won't come again.

that this kind of ruination
won't come again.

[Dominic] Lindisfarne is
one of the earliest sites

of Christian pilgrimage
in Britain.

And, for many today,
remains a mecca of Christian
history in Britain.

[narrator] In a rural
Polish village

is a conspicuous building
with a secretive past,

only recently unearthed.

only recently unearthed.

[Prof. Mitchell]
It looks like something,

from afar,
almost out of a fairytale.

It's incredibly ornate,
it's got these
beautiful windows.

[man] As you walk
along these quarters
and you peer into the doors,

you realize it's probably not
somebody's home.

It looks more like a school,
or an infirmary, a hospital.

[narrator] What this
site was designed for

was a far cry
from what it became.

was a far cry
from what it became.

[man] This place has
a really twisted history.

Its roots are grounded
in charity and kindness,

but the ultimate application
of this place

was positively diabolical.

[woman] These walls hide
an incredibly dark history,

one that is still shrouded
in mystery to this day.

[narrator] This is
Mokrzeszow Palace.

[narrator] This is
Mokrzeszow Palace.

Built in the 1880s,
it was designed as
a hospital and sanatorium.

[Alicia] It was commissioned
by the Order
of the Knights of Malta,

and this is
a Catholic organization

that is dedicated
to providing humanitarian aid
to those in need.

[narrator] Little remains
from those early days,

but not everything has gone.

[Prof. Mitchell]
Deep in the basement,
stowed far away from sight,

there's an object that
is sort of innocuous.

This item offers a vital clue
to what transpired
at this site.

[baby cries]

This baby carriage
holds the truth

of what this place really was.

[man] The Order
of the Knights of Malta

kept working in this place,
doing charitable work,

until about 1926,
when funding ran dry,

they couldn't afford
to maintain the facility.

So they sold it to
a wealthy Jewish merchant
from the area.

So they sold it to
a wealthy Jewish merchant
from the area.

But his control
of this building
would not last for long.

[narrator] In an atmosphere
of increasingly violent
antisemitism,

this Jewish merchant chose
to pack up and flee.

As local historian
Jan Niewczas recalls,

the merchant got out
in the nick of time.

[in Polish]

[narrator]
What they used it for
was a mystery

until a discovery in 2010,

when the cemetery
across the street
was being examined.

It confirmed what had
previously been only rumor.

[in Polish]

[Alicia] Interviews
with the locals also added
to this evidence.

Residents recalled seeing
German men and women
in Nazi uniforms

walking around
as couples on the property.

And others remembered
children being born here,

but not staying for long.

but not staying for long.

[narrator]
The evidence was mounting.

Everything pointed towards
the theory that this site

was used by one of Hitler's
top-secret societies.

[narrator] This is
the abandoned palace
of Mokrzeszow,

once the setting of
a secretive Nazi experiment.

In the run-up to the war,
Hitler had multiple concerns.

He didn't just want
to consolidate power,

he also wanted to purify
the German community.

[speaking German]

[speaking German]

[Prof. Wawro] This was all
about having a pure,
Germanic, Aryan race,

and producing more
and more pure Aryans

to occupy this expanding
German Third Reich.

[narrator] To achieve this,
Hitler set about
ridding society

of those
he deemed undesirable,

while also increasing
the birthrate.

[Prof. Mitchell] In terms
of filling that void,

Hitler turned
to the nation's women,
the nation's "Aryan" women.

Hitler turned
to the nation's women,
the nation's "Aryan" women.

For starters, Hitler
basically had incentives

for German couples
to have more kids.

Cash incentives, medals
for having lots of children.

Mothers who had a bunch
of kids would get a medal
from the Fuhrer.

[male announcer]
They brought together
large groups of young men

and young girls
for human breeding.

[narrator] The next step
was the Lebensborn Project,

created in December, 1935,

created in December, 1935,

by Hitler's right-hand man,
Heinrich Himmler.

[in Polish]

[narrator] It's believed
that this building was one
of those secret locations,

and the women brought here
were selected by
a special medical committee.

[in Polish]

[narrator] And it wasn't
just the women
that had to pass tests.

[in Polish]

[narrator]
For the women here,
life was of a high standard,

but their every move
was controlled.

[in Polish]

[narrator] Once born,
the children were kept here

for as little as two weeks.

And, after that,
they would be sent out
to German families,

so they would be taken away
from their birth mothers.

[babies crying]

The SS was responsible
for the adoption

and education of the children
that were bred
through this program,

and they were brought up
with strict Nazi ideology.

[Prof. Mitchell]
Hitler believed that,
if you got children early on,

[Prof. Mitchell]
Hitler believed that,
if you got children early on,

we're talking before
Hitler Youth, we're talking
in the crib, as infants.

If you could get control
of their hearts and minds,

then that was important
to Nazification,
to the Nazi future.

[narrator] But the Nazis
didn't stop at breeding
Aryan children.

They went a step further.

[Alicia]
The Lebensborn Program
was also involved

in the kidnapping
of foreign children.

[Prof. Mitchell] The children
who were kidnapped really fit

[Prof. Mitchell] The children
who were kidnapped really fit

a certain phenotypical mold
in terms of hair color,
eye color, skin color.

It's about how people look,
and whether or not
they can pass as Aryan.

It is estimated
that some 400,000 children

were kidnapped
from across Europe,

and were placed in the custody
of German families.

[narrator] Dozens
of similar structures
across Europe

were exploited for
this Germanization program,

yet most of the evidence
of what happened

yet most of the evidence
of what happened

within these palace walls
has long vanished.

And until more discoveries
are made, the details
remain a mystery.

While this palace
is now abandoned,

the Lebensborn Project
isn't just a distant memory.

Many of the children
it produced
are still alive today.

Probably one of the most
famous Lebensborn children

Probably one of the most
famous Lebensborn children

was one of the female singers
in ABBA, Frida Lyngstad.

Her mother was mated
with a SS officer.

[narrator] Frida
is just one of thousands.

And, though some
may know their past,

many grew up unaware
that they were the product

of a horrifying
eugenics experiment.

In Israel, on the edge
of the historic city
of Jerusalem,

lies a haunting ruin.

[Dr. Nusbacher]
There's an odd collection

of beautiful, old stone houses
clinging to the hillside.

[man 1] Some of the pathways
are almost obscured
by vegetation,

roofs have collapsed.

roofs have collapsed.

It's not clear
why this village is
completely empty

when the land around it
is quite densely settled.

[narrator]
This village should be
a desirable place to live.

[man 1] You see a water source
right in the middle
of the village,

something rare
in this part of the world.

It's a very arid environment.

[Dr. Nusbacher]
Jerusalem is such
a highly-developed city,

because property there
is so expensive.

This place
would be worth loads.

This place
would be worth loads.

[narrator] Dig deeper
and some aspects of
these ruins don't make sense.

[man 2] In the roofs
that are still intact,

there are
these strange holes.

Almost looks like someone
did them intentionally.

[narrator] Yacoub Odeh
used to live in this village,

and fondly remembers
the time he spent here.

and fondly remembers
the time he spent here.

[speaking English]

[narrator] This is Lifta,
a once-idyllic village

[narrator] This is Lifta,
a once-idyllic village

built around
a very precious resource.

There's actually only
two year-round springs

near Jerusalem,
here in these two valleys.

These are the places
that you can grow fruits
and vegetables,

and this was actually known
as the Garden of Jerusalem.

and this was actually known
as the Garden of Jerusalem.

[narrator] And it was
this spring that brought
the first settlers here

over 2,000 years ago.

Avi Mashiach, of the
Israel Antiquities Authority,

has carried out
a detailed investigation
of the village's past.

[narrator]
As the years passed,
Lifta grew to become

an important
agricultural center
for nearby Jerusalem.

[narrator] Life in Lifta
continued relatively
unchanged

[narrator] Life in Lifta
continued relatively
unchanged

as great empires rose
and fell around it.

But, as the 20th century
came into view,

everything would change.

[speaking English]

[narrator] After thousands
of years of occupation,

Lifta would be struck
by a great tragedy.

[narrator] Lifta, once
a thriving agricultural town
near Jerusalem.

Populated for millennia,
it was caught

in the crossfire
of a 20th-century conflict.

At the end
of the First World War,

Britain took control
of this area,

then known
as Mandatory Palestine.

When the British assumed
stewardship of the region

after the First World War,

they in effect promised
to create an Arab

and Jewish state
that would be self-governing.

But they were confronting
a serious issue,

which is that you did have
a split population.

[Jim] At the same time,
there was a growing movement

among Jews in Europe
to leave Europe,

where they often faced
various kinds of persecution,

and move to Israel and build
a new homeland there.

This was a source
of some tension.

[narrator] In the aftermath
of World War Two,

these tensions
would come to a head.

[Dr. Nusbacher]
After the Holocaust,

a lot of Jews want to move
to the Palestine Mandate.

They want to establish
the Jewish state

that they'd been promised
by the British government
way back in 1917.

that they'd been promised
by the British government
way back in 1917.

And the Arab population
were energized by new ideas

about Arab liberation,
and Jewish nationalism

and Arab nationalism clashed.

[narrator] In 1947,
as a war-weary Britain
prepared to leave the region,

large-scale violence erupted.

And Lifta was caught
in the middle.

[Dr. Nusbacher]
This little village of Lifta
is right on the road

between the mixed Arab
and Jewish city of Jerusalem,

and the largely Jewish city
of Tel-Aviv on the coast.

And once fighting
started in earnest

between the Jewish militias
and the Arab militias,

this was a war zone.

[narrator] Yacoub Odeh,
a Palestinian
former-resident,

[narrator] Yacoub Odeh,
a Palestinian
former-resident,

recalls the violent conflict
that escalated here.

[speaking English]

[narrator]
As the fighting continued,
getting ever more violent,

Yacoub and his family
fled the village.

Yacoub and his family
fled the village.

[Sascha] Like much
of Israel's recent past,

the story here
is very complicated,

and what actually happened
depends upon which side
you're talking to.

So, the Israeli
history books say that
the occupants of Lifta fled,

So, the Israeli
history books say that
the occupants of Lifta fled,

whereas when you
talk to Arabs,

they say that they were
intimidated into leaving

because of the threat
of violence.

[narrator] By February,
1948, Lifta was empty.

Shortly after, Israel
declared its independence

and took control
of this land.

The occupants were never
permitted to return.

You can see
these holes in the roof.

You can see
these holes in the roof.

They were put there
intentionally

to make the buildings
uninhabitable.

[narrator] Today, Lifta faces
an uncertain future.

[Sascha] After centuries
of existence,

this historic village
faces a new threat.

There are plans
in the works to build
luxurious accommodations,

but it's not a done deal yet.

The Israeli Antiquities Bureau
has also explored this area

The Israeli Antiquities Bureau
has also explored this area

and documented how old
some of these structures
really are,

and so now they're involved
in helping make that decision.

[narrator] And Yacoub
hasn't given up hope
of one day returning.

[Yacoub speaking English]