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To tell the story
of the Second World War
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in 26 hours of film on television,
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00:00:41,041 --> 00:00:44,918
each film to be an essay
on an aspect of the war,
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00:00:45,003 --> 00:00:47,254
taking in, as well as the fighting,
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00:00:47,338 --> 00:00:51,925
the social and political experience
of the countries involved;
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to present Britain's war
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00:00:53,928 --> 00:00:59,725
and to compare and contrast it with the
effort and suffering of other nations;
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00:00:59,809 --> 00:01:03,687
to appeal, if we could, to different
audiences of different age groups,
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00:01:03,772 --> 00:01:06,482
presenting events to those
who experienced them
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00:01:06,566 --> 00:01:08,734
in, if possible, a new light,
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00:01:08,818 --> 00:01:10,277
and to their children,
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00:01:10,361 --> 00:01:15,574
without the crusty covering
of another generation's nostalgia;
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00:01:15,658 --> 00:01:21,538
to omit nothing of supreme consequence,
but to leave out a very great deal,
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00:01:21,623 --> 00:01:26,543
rather than try to cram everything
into the limited airtime available;
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to produce programmes worth watching
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which might also help us understand
the times in which we live:
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00:01:35,220 --> 00:01:39,723
that's what I and my colleagues
at Thames Television set out to achieve
18
00:01:39,808 --> 00:01:41,892
in The World At War.
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The series has now been sold
and seen all over the world,
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and in the U nited States,
since it was finished,
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it's never been off the screen.
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It's the making of that series
that I'm going to tell you about now.
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00:01:56,658 --> 00:01:59,034
I was seven years old in 1939,
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00:01:59,119 --> 00:02:02,246
and most of the people who worked
with me on The World At War
25
00:02:02,330 --> 00:02:03,413
were younger than l,
26
00:02:03,498 --> 00:02:07,793
born, like more than three-quarters of
all Germans and Japanese alive today,
27
00:02:07,877 --> 00:02:12,089
after the war began
or even since it ended.
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00:02:12,215 --> 00:02:15,968
Not many of us knew all that much
about the war.
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00:02:16,052 --> 00:02:17,719
Distanced by a generation,
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00:02:17,804 --> 00:02:20,681
we were not interested
in just another telling
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00:02:20,765 --> 00:02:24,810
of our parents' old soldiers' tales.
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00:02:24,894 --> 00:02:29,898
Old men forget, particularly
when it hurts to remember.
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00:02:29,983 --> 00:02:33,235
And many in Britain
had happy memories of the war.
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00:02:33,319 --> 00:02:38,323
They remembered the excitement,
the danger, the comradeship, the fun.
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00:02:38,408 --> 00:02:45,998
But Britain was bombed, not invaded,
not occupied, not fought over.
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00:02:46,082 --> 00:02:51,503
Britain's war was not Poland's war
and not Russia's war.
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00:02:51,588 --> 00:02:56,633
The Desert Rats and the Africa Corps
shared a common experience.
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00:02:56,718 --> 00:03:01,054
Theirs was a clean war;
there were no civilians in the way.
39
00:03:01,139 --> 00:03:02,931
Theirs was a very different war
40
00:03:03,057 --> 00:03:06,560
from that of Poles or Yugoslavs
or U krainians,
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00:03:06,644 --> 00:03:10,355
who met and suffered
under the Gestapo and the SS.
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00:03:11,608 --> 00:03:14,318
Most of us were British
on the production team,
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00:03:14,402 --> 00:03:19,364
but we would try to do justice
to others' grimmer experience.
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00:03:19,449 --> 00:03:23,660
There was bravery, heroism,
glory, even, in it.
45
00:03:23,745 --> 00:03:27,331
But the Second World War
caused untold suffering
46
00:03:27,415 --> 00:03:30,334
and cost many millions of lives.
47
00:03:30,418 --> 00:03:34,755
It was important that the series
should begin as we meant it to go on,
48
00:03:34,839 --> 00:03:38,050
and The World At War began like this.
49
00:03:38,134 --> 00:03:45,265
(narrator) Down this road on
a summer day in 1944, the soldiers came.
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Nobody lives here now.
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They stayed only a few hours.
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When they had gone,
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a community which had lived
for a thousand years, was dead.
54
00:04:08,873 --> 00:04:13,377
This is Oradour-sur-Glane in France.
55
00:04:14,671 --> 00:04:19,925
The day the soldiers came
the people were gathered together.
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00:04:20,009 --> 00:04:23,679
The men were taken
to garages and barns,
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00:04:23,763 --> 00:04:27,808
the women and children
were led down this road,
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and they were driven into this church.
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Here, they heard the firing
as their men were shot.
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00:04:39,612 --> 00:04:42,239
Then they were killed, too.
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00:04:43,366 --> 00:04:47,911
A few weeks later
many of those who had done the killing
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00:04:47,996 --> 00:04:51,456
were themselves dead in battle.
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00:04:55,586 --> 00:05:00,257
They never rebuilt Oradour.
lts ruins are a memorial.
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00:05:02,218 --> 00:05:06,972
lts martyrdom stands for thousand
upon thousand of other martyrdoms
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00:05:07,056 --> 00:05:09,975
in Poland, in Russia,
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00:05:10,059 --> 00:05:13,312
in Burma, in China,
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00:05:13,396 --> 00:05:15,147
in a world at war.
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We started work in April 1971.
The time was right.
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00:06:17,919 --> 00:06:21,713
Some vital witnesses were already dead
when we started
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00:06:21,798 --> 00:06:24,007
and all were getting older.
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00:06:24,092 --> 00:06:28,387
Often our researchers were told,
"lf only you'd called last week."
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00:06:28,471 --> 00:06:32,849
The fellow they were looking for
had died only the other day.
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00:06:32,934 --> 00:06:35,894
The first problem
would be what to leave out.
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There simply couldn't, wouldn't be room,
even in 26 hours of television,
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to do justice to everyone.
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I'm not a military historian.
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I asked our historical adviser,
Dr Noble Frankland,
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00:06:49,158 --> 00:06:51,827
then director
of the lmperial War Museum,
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00:06:51,911 --> 00:06:54,913
to write down for me
on one sheet of paper,
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00:06:55,039 --> 00:06:56,748
he actually used an envelope,
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00:06:56,833 --> 00:07:01,711
not more than 15 decisive campaigns
which I mustn't omit.
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00:07:02,422 --> 00:07:09,428
I wanted each film that we made to tell
only one story, as all good films do.
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00:07:09,512 --> 00:07:12,347
And I asked for a list
of only 15 military subjects
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because I had different plans for
the other dozen or so programmes.
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00:07:17,437 --> 00:07:21,189
There would be one programme
on the causes of the war.
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00:07:21,274 --> 00:07:24,276
There would be one
to deal with the results.
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00:07:24,360 --> 00:07:28,947
There would be programmes on the war
economy, the politics, the morale
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of each of the major five combatants:
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America, Britain, Germany,
Japan, Soviet Russia.
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00:07:36,747 --> 00:07:40,125
The Second World War was total war.
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In it, civilians were in the front line
in the factories and under the bombs.
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00:07:45,548 --> 00:07:50,635
And they suffered as many casualties
as did the men and women in uniform.
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00:07:50,720 --> 00:07:54,389
In the First World War,
the point is AJP Taylor's,
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00:07:54,474 --> 00:07:59,561
the news that a relative had been killed
came in the telegram from the front,
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telling a wife that she was widowed.
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00:08:02,690 --> 00:08:07,486
In the Second World War,
the news quite often went the other way.
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00:08:07,570 --> 00:08:11,448
The British soldier in Africa,
in ltaly and in France,
98
00:08:11,532 --> 00:08:13,992
would learn in a letter from home
99
00:08:14,076 --> 00:08:18,455
that his parents or his wife
had been killed in the Blitz on London,
100
00:08:18,539 --> 00:08:20,916
on Coventry, on Plymouth.
101
00:08:21,000 --> 00:08:25,086
And many a German fighting man
on the Eastern Front, say,
102
00:08:25,171 --> 00:08:27,881
must have heard
that he'd lost his family
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00:08:27,965 --> 00:08:32,052
in the fires of Hamburg,
Cologne and Dresden,
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00:08:32,136 --> 00:08:36,139
and perhaps fought on
all the harder for it.
105
00:08:37,391 --> 00:08:41,186
There would be a programme
on occupied Europe.
106
00:08:41,270 --> 00:08:45,565
The moral choices faced by those
who live under tyranny
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have a compelling fascination for me
and I think for us all.
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00:08:50,738 --> 00:08:53,949
"What would I have done?"
we ask ourselves.
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00:08:54,075 --> 00:08:56,785
"Raised my voice? Acted?"
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"Risked my life?
Risked my family's life?"
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00:09:01,374 --> 00:09:04,167
"Stayed silent? Done nothing?"
112
00:09:04,252 --> 00:09:06,378
"Collaborated, perhaps?"
113
00:09:06,462 --> 00:09:11,132
In Nazi-occupied Europe,
everyone had to choose.
114
00:09:11,217 --> 00:09:15,095
There would be a programme on what
the Nazi doctrine of racial supremacy
115
00:09:15,179 --> 00:09:16,471
did to the Jews.
116
00:09:16,556 --> 00:09:20,559
This is not a military subject, it
doesn't appear in military histories,
117
00:09:20,643 --> 00:09:22,727
but I couldn't leave it out.
118
00:09:23,771 --> 00:09:29,276
Our historical adviser made a list of
military musts on one sheet of paper.
119
00:09:29,360 --> 00:09:33,530
It read : The German attack on Poland.
120
00:09:33,614 --> 00:09:37,492
The German attack in the West,
leading to the fall of France.
121
00:09:37,577 --> 00:09:39,869
The battle for Britain.
122
00:09:39,954 --> 00:09:42,914
The German invasion of Russia.
123
00:09:42,999 --> 00:09:47,794
Pearl Harbor
and the Japanese sweep to Singapore.
124
00:09:47,878 --> 00:09:51,548
The battle of the Atlantic:
war against the U-Boat.
125
00:09:51,632 --> 00:09:54,092
The war in the western desert.
126
00:09:54,176 --> 00:09:58,597
Stalingrad :
the first massive German defeat.
127
00:09:58,681 --> 00:10:02,017
The Allied air assault on Germany.
128
00:10:02,101 --> 00:10:07,105
Russia's great victories of 1943,
particularly at Kursk,
129
00:10:07,189 --> 00:10:09,816
the biggest tank battle in history.
130
00:10:09,900 --> 00:10:13,445
It was clear, by the way,
that one object of the series
131
00:10:13,529 --> 00:10:16,281
must be to try to help people
to be aware
132
00:10:16,365 --> 00:10:18,742
of the importance of the Eastern Front.
133
00:10:18,826 --> 00:10:22,704
The vast Russian and then
the vast German losses there.
134
00:10:22,788 --> 00:10:26,708
Battles in which millions
fought on either side.
135
00:10:26,792 --> 00:10:31,755
Two-thirds of all Germans who fought
fought on the Eastern Front.
136
00:10:31,839 --> 00:10:34,299
The campaign in ltaly.
137
00:10:34,383 --> 00:10:39,679
The Allied invasion of Europe
in Normandy in June 1944.
138
00:10:39,764 --> 00:10:44,559
The land assault on Germany itself
in the battle for Berlin.
139
00:10:44,644 --> 00:10:48,021
Naval air war in the Pacific.
140
00:10:48,105 --> 00:10:52,317
American industrial might,
as well as Russian manpower,
141
00:10:52,401 --> 00:10:57,989
assured victory in both wars
in Europe and in Asia.
142
00:10:58,074 --> 00:11:00,367
The dropping of the atomic bomb.
143
00:11:01,285 --> 00:11:06,581
And each of these great themes
would have only one hour.
144
00:11:06,666 --> 00:11:09,834
Burma squeezed in
because it had been forgotten
145
00:11:09,919 --> 00:11:14,673
and because it looked different.
The film was wet with monsoon.
146
00:11:14,757 --> 00:11:19,177
But there was no room
for Abyssinia or Syria or Dakar,
147
00:11:19,261 --> 00:11:22,806
and only a mention of Dieppe
and of the Arctic convoys
148
00:11:22,890 --> 00:11:24,808
and nothing on Yugoslavia,
149
00:11:24,892 --> 00:11:31,356
where in civil war and in resistance,
1.5 million lost their lives.
150
00:11:31,440 --> 00:11:36,695
And there'd be nothing on the fate of
Europe's gypsies, all but exterminated,
151
00:11:36,779 --> 00:11:38,863
and no film on Poland,
152
00:11:38,948 --> 00:11:44,494
though according to some estimates
one in three Poles died.
153
00:11:44,578 --> 00:11:47,372
We wouldn't be able to deal
with the experiences
154
00:11:47,456 --> 00:11:50,083
of particular regiments or divisions,
155
00:11:50,167 --> 00:11:52,836
though when we'd finished,
lots of folk wrote in
156
00:11:52,920 --> 00:11:56,881
to tell us that they'd served
in the best damn flying squadron
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00:11:56,966 --> 00:12:00,844
or fighting regiment in World War ll.
158
00:12:00,928 --> 00:12:03,054
Our style would be simple.
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No narration to camera,
160
00:12:05,224 --> 00:12:11,312
no authority to fix the viewer with
his eye, as I am looking at you now.
161
00:12:11,439 --> 00:12:16,276
You can do without the piece to camera
in handling 20th-century history
162
00:12:16,360 --> 00:12:20,280
when there are plenty of visual
documents and eye witnesses available.
163
00:12:20,364 --> 00:12:24,117
You can't deal so easily
with earlier centuries.
164
00:12:24,201 --> 00:12:29,247
Nor would we venture into the dangerous
territory of reconstruction.
165
00:12:29,331 --> 00:12:34,294
If there were no visual records of an
event, we would look for eye witnesses.
166
00:12:34,378 --> 00:12:37,964
If there were none adequate
to tell the story for television,
167
00:12:38,048 --> 00:12:40,925
or if we could find
no other honest way to tell it,
168
00:12:41,010 --> 00:12:44,137
we might have to leave
the subject matter out.
169
00:12:44,221 --> 00:12:46,806
Resistance in Europe
suffered as a subject.
170
00:12:46,891 --> 00:12:49,517
There's no film of it
and we hardly touched it.
171
00:12:49,602 --> 00:12:51,686
Sea battles suffered also.
172
00:12:51,771 --> 00:12:54,939
There's very little film
of battles at sea
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and the same goes
for battles fought at night.
174
00:12:58,861 --> 00:13:01,571
We used diagrams, therefore,
and graphics
175
00:13:01,655 --> 00:13:05,784
to show what a U-boat assault
on a convoy was like.
176
00:13:05,868 --> 00:13:11,080
But our rule was, don't invent,
don't reconstruct,
177
00:13:11,165 --> 00:13:15,084
don't use material that you know
to have been reconstructed
178
00:13:15,169 --> 00:13:17,045
unless you absolutely have to,
179
00:13:17,129 --> 00:13:23,009
and don't do so even then
without saying that you're going to.
180
00:13:23,093 --> 00:13:26,888
When the Russian army
closed the ring round Von Paulus
181
00:13:26,972 --> 00:13:29,808
and the German 6th Army at Stalingrad,
182
00:13:29,892 --> 00:13:36,105
newsreel film shows two masses of troops
advancing towards each other
183
00:13:36,190 --> 00:13:40,985
in long, long Eisensteinian lines
across the snow,
184
00:13:41,070 --> 00:13:46,115
meeting to embrace with warm bear hugs
just opposite, would you believe,
185
00:13:46,200 --> 00:13:49,577
the Soviet newsreel's camera position.
186
00:13:54,333 --> 00:13:59,087
We made the point when we used the film.
For our film on the Western Desert,
187
00:13:59,171 --> 00:14:03,675
we didn't use the bits of desert victory
that were shot at Pinewood.
188
00:14:03,759 --> 00:14:07,804
We used to look very suspiciously at,
but we sometimes did use,
189
00:14:07,888 --> 00:14:11,850
battle scenes where the camera
is suspiciously steady
190
00:14:11,934 --> 00:14:18,189
or is apparently quite safe in a
supposedly dangerously exposed position.
191
00:14:18,274 --> 00:14:22,485
We met some Sherwood Foresters
who fought from El Alamein to Tunis
192
00:14:22,570 --> 00:14:24,696
and from Anzio to Rome.
193
00:14:24,780 --> 00:14:29,534
One of their most frightening encounters
though was with Pathé Gazette.
194
00:14:29,618 --> 00:14:33,663
We got pulled out the... well,
we were out of the line at the time.
195
00:14:35,624 --> 00:14:38,835
Of course, this...
I don't know what officer it was,
196
00:14:38,961 --> 00:14:42,881
but he detailed so many of us
to go to a certain place in this truck.
197
00:14:43,007 --> 00:14:45,300
And when we got there, he gave us...
198
00:14:45,384 --> 00:14:47,594
"Right," he said, "put these on."
199
00:14:47,678 --> 00:14:50,847
German green uniforms
and Jerry helmets.
200
00:14:52,016 --> 00:14:53,808
I thought, "What the hell...?"
201
00:14:53,893 --> 00:14:58,813
"What are they going to do, drop us
back over German lines or summat?"
202
00:14:58,898 --> 00:15:02,650
Anyway, he said,
"No, you're alright," he says.
203
00:15:02,735 --> 00:15:06,821
"Here you are, take these."
He gave us a box of fireworks...
204
00:15:06,906 --> 00:15:10,867
These crackers.
Firecrackers, we used to call them.
205
00:15:12,077 --> 00:15:16,873
"Go in that wood," he says,
"and act as Germans," he says.
206
00:15:16,957 --> 00:15:20,960
"And such and such platoon
will come and capture you."
207
00:15:21,045 --> 00:15:23,880
"When you see them coming,
throw these crackers."
208
00:15:23,964 --> 00:15:28,927
So when we saw them coming, we were
throwing crackers and firing blanks.
209
00:15:29,011 --> 00:15:32,472
Of course the English platoon
came and captured us
210
00:15:32,556 --> 00:15:35,725
and we had to go out in this wood
looking frightened to death
211
00:15:35,809 --> 00:15:37,352
with our hands up.
212
00:15:37,436 --> 00:15:43,191
And this fellow was up on this truck
with his camera. Pathé Gazette.
213
00:15:43,275 --> 00:15:46,945
That was British news. That was
in the cinema, that was, at home.
214
00:15:47,029 --> 00:15:49,864
The reconstruction of history on film
215
00:15:49,949 --> 00:15:53,993
is not only, unless it's clearly
labelled, deceptive in itself,
216
00:15:54,078 --> 00:15:59,123
it also devalues authentic material
used alongside it.
217
00:15:59,208 --> 00:16:00,667
There was plenty of film.
218
00:16:00,751 --> 00:16:04,712
The lmperial War Museum told us
that they had 20 million feet.
219
00:16:04,797 --> 00:16:08,341
They hoped we'd look at it all
and tell them what was in it.
220
00:16:08,467 --> 00:16:12,887
Of course we never had time to do so.
Partly because there was so much
221
00:16:12,972 --> 00:16:16,683
and partly because viewing films
stored in vaults
222
00:16:16,767 --> 00:16:22,146
was then a slow, cumbersome,
but in the end productive, process.
223
00:16:22,231 --> 00:16:25,066
The camera cannot lie.
224
00:16:25,150 --> 00:16:28,361
But those who use film,
especially in wartime,
225
00:16:28,445 --> 00:16:31,739
are no more honest than the rest of us.
226
00:16:31,865 --> 00:16:36,703
The newsreels of the Second World War
were shot by brave cameramen
227
00:16:36,787 --> 00:16:43,251
and they used bulky equipment:
35mm cameras, often on tripods.
228
00:16:43,335 --> 00:16:46,921
Many war cameramen lost their lives,
229
00:16:47,006 --> 00:16:52,051
but it's important to remember that
the material which they bravely filmed
230
00:16:52,136 --> 00:16:55,555
was edited and censored in the editing
231
00:16:55,639 --> 00:16:58,683
to make the points
the government wanted made.
232
00:16:58,767 --> 00:17:06,024
Propaganda to cheer the home front,
seduce the neutrals, frighten the enemy.
233
00:17:06,108 --> 00:17:09,027
Look now at two examples of newsreel,
234
00:17:09,111 --> 00:17:13,614
one British, one German,
in the summer of 1940.
235
00:17:13,699 --> 00:17:15,450
France has fallen.
236
00:17:15,534 --> 00:17:18,870
♪ Wenn die Soldatendurch die Stadt marschieren
237
00:17:18,954 --> 00:17:21,122
♪ Öffnen die Mädchen
238
00:17:21,206 --> 00:17:23,082
♪ Die Fenster und die Türen
239
00:17:23,167 --> 00:17:27,754
♪ Ei warum? Ei darum
240
00:17:27,880 --> 00:17:31,299
♪ Ei bloß wegen dem Schingderassa,Bumderassasa
241
00:17:31,383 --> 00:17:35,386
♪ Ei bloß wegen dem Schingderassa,Bumderassasa...
242
00:17:35,471 --> 00:17:40,433
(newsreel) Hitler in July 1940,
returning from France in triumph,
243
00:17:40,517 --> 00:17:42,769
stood at the pinnacle of his power.
244
00:17:42,853 --> 00:17:44,645
♪ Die Mädchen ach so gerne
245
00:17:44,730 --> 00:17:48,900
♪ Ei warum? Ei darum
246
00:17:48,984 --> 00:17:57,492
♪ Ei bloß wegen dem Schingderassa,Bumderassasa
247
00:18:07,211 --> 00:18:11,589
The speed and sureness of his victories
had astonished even his generals.
248
00:18:11,673 --> 00:18:15,468
Their doubts had been answered,
their opposition could be discounted.
249
00:18:19,056 --> 00:18:24,811
It was now that Hitler confided to them
it would be the Russians' turn next.
250
00:18:31,985 --> 00:18:34,362
The British were ready for invasion.
251
00:18:37,491 --> 00:18:40,910
The one-time foot-sloggers
have turned kick-starter pushers.
252
00:18:40,994 --> 00:18:43,663
Shanks's pony has given way
to a spanking motorbike.
253
00:18:43,747 --> 00:18:48,126
The left-right, left-right blokes
have both feet off the ground.
254
00:18:48,252 --> 00:18:50,920
They're part of Britain's
mighty mobile mounties,
255
00:18:51,004 --> 00:18:55,424
all keen to welcome Adolf when he drops
in for a cup of tea and a cream bun.
256
00:18:55,509 --> 00:18:58,177
A battalion of infantry on wheels
is on exercise.
257
00:18:58,262 --> 00:19:02,765
A swift-moving striking force
that will do the enemy a bit of no good.
258
00:19:02,850 --> 00:19:05,101
They learn to take the rough
with the smooth
259
00:19:05,185 --> 00:19:08,312
under conditions they might meet with
on active service.
260
00:19:08,397 --> 00:19:12,191
U p and down they go, but unlike the Hun
they're always on the level.
261
00:19:13,110 --> 00:19:16,863
"Always on the level."
"A cup of tea and a cream bun."
262
00:19:16,947 --> 00:19:21,909
I don't know what those commentaries
did to the enemy, but they frighten me.
263
00:19:21,994 --> 00:19:24,745
Although we added a commentary
to the German film
264
00:19:24,872 --> 00:19:27,081
to integrate it into our narrative,
265
00:19:27,166 --> 00:19:31,252
you can detect very clearly, I think,
the intention of each of those.
266
00:19:31,336 --> 00:19:34,130
The Germans showing Hitler triumphant.
267
00:19:34,214 --> 00:19:37,967
The German nation,
as we know now, overconfident.
268
00:19:38,093 --> 00:19:41,762
The British whistling absurdly
to keep their courage up.
269
00:19:41,847 --> 00:19:46,350
There wasn't a tank, Anthony Eden told
us, in the southeast corner of England.
270
00:19:46,435 --> 00:19:49,687
And the contrast of style is compelling.
271
00:19:49,771 --> 00:19:53,900
Nazi Germany had perfected
the art of film as propaganda,
272
00:19:53,984 --> 00:19:58,654
as a political instrument to bind
the German people to their leader.
273
00:19:58,739 --> 00:20:02,116
All the lavish skills of camera
and of editing
274
00:20:02,201 --> 00:20:06,787
that went into Triumph of the Will
went into that.
275
00:20:06,872 --> 00:20:11,209
We would use newsreels. Without them
there'd be no television series.
276
00:20:11,293 --> 00:20:13,878
But we'd try to use them critically,
277
00:20:13,962 --> 00:20:20,134
bearing in mind that the war that the
newsreels show is an acceptable war.
278
00:20:20,219 --> 00:20:23,012
They don't show blood and wounds
279
00:20:23,096 --> 00:20:28,142
and they don't bring us the cries
of pain or the stink of corpses.
280
00:20:28,936 --> 00:20:32,772
Most newsreels are taken
by winning armies.
281
00:20:32,856 --> 00:20:36,817
They show the victories,
but they don't show the cost.
282
00:20:36,902 --> 00:20:40,446
The newsreels of the Second World War,
as a matter of fact,
283
00:20:40,530 --> 00:20:45,243
show much more preparation for battle
than actual battle.
284
00:20:45,327 --> 00:20:49,872
They show our boys in victory,
their boys in defeat.
285
00:20:49,957 --> 00:20:53,542
Lots of prisoners, very few captors.
286
00:20:53,627 --> 00:21:00,549
They show the dealing of death : guns
firing, planes diving, bombs dropping.
287
00:21:00,634 --> 00:21:04,428
Newsreels do not show
the dead or dying.
288
00:21:04,554 --> 00:21:08,516
The censors mostly cut them out.
289
00:21:08,642 --> 00:21:12,270
More honest than the cut newsreel
are the cameraman's rushes,
290
00:21:12,354 --> 00:21:13,896
if you can find them.
291
00:21:13,981 --> 00:21:17,858
These are the raw material from which
the film editor under supervision
292
00:21:17,943 --> 00:21:21,070
will hack out a short, crisp,
punchy story
293
00:21:21,154 --> 00:21:23,614
with effects, music
and commentary added,
294
00:21:23,699 --> 00:21:26,158
which will eventually
reach the screen.
295
00:21:26,243 --> 00:21:30,663
Most cameramen's rushes are destroyed,
but some survive.
296
00:21:30,747 --> 00:21:33,124
After the Germans
in their years of victory,
297
00:21:33,208 --> 00:21:35,459
the best pictures
of the Second World War
298
00:21:35,544 --> 00:21:39,380
were taken by the other great nation
with an advanced film culture,
299
00:21:39,464 --> 00:21:41,007
the U nited States.
300
00:21:41,133 --> 00:21:45,469
Here are the marines
in February 1945 at lwo Jima.
301
00:21:58,984 --> 00:22:00,359
Have you noticed?
302
00:22:06,283 --> 00:22:07,491
It's silent.
303
00:22:11,580 --> 00:22:15,583
I suppose a radio journalist might have
used a microphone on this beach,
304
00:22:15,667 --> 00:22:19,503
but the cameraman
could get by perfectly without.
305
00:22:22,674 --> 00:22:26,510
Because by the time that anybody
had made any use of it,
306
00:22:26,595 --> 00:22:31,640
a commentary and music, perhaps fairly
strident music, would have been added.
307
00:22:40,067 --> 00:22:42,443
It's all a bit of a shambles, isn't it?
308
00:22:55,916 --> 00:22:57,333
It's filmed in colour.
309
00:22:57,459 --> 00:23:01,629
The Americans, particularly
in the last 18 months or so of the war,
310
00:23:01,713 --> 00:23:04,382
were filming pretty well everything
in colour.
311
00:23:42,295 --> 00:23:44,547
Look...
312
00:23:44,631 --> 00:23:47,425
Shelling there, but no bang.
313
00:23:47,509 --> 00:23:49,218
The bang goes on later.
314
00:23:50,470 --> 00:23:54,557
In our work we tried to keep something
of the roughness,
315
00:23:54,641 --> 00:23:56,851
the repetitions of this footage
316
00:23:56,935 --> 00:23:59,979
by matching it to the voices
of those that were there
317
00:24:00,063 --> 00:24:03,482
and who remembered what chaos
and what hell it had been.
318
00:24:05,026 --> 00:24:08,362
You don't see rushes on television
very often.
319
00:24:08,447 --> 00:24:10,406
Had we found more film rushes,
320
00:24:10,490 --> 00:24:13,909
we would have presented,
particularly in earlier episodes,
321
00:24:13,994 --> 00:24:15,786
a less tidy war.
322
00:24:17,289 --> 00:24:20,541
When you watch The World At War,
you're watching not my work
323
00:24:20,625 --> 00:24:23,961
but the combined skills
of many of us, about 50,
324
00:24:24,045 --> 00:24:26,338
who worked together for three years.
325
00:24:26,423 --> 00:24:29,717
Writers, producers, researchers,
graphic artists,
326
00:24:29,801 --> 00:24:33,637
film editors, sound editors
and a dubbing mixer.
327
00:24:33,722 --> 00:24:37,975
Here's what were once rushes
when that lot had finished with them.
328
00:24:38,059 --> 00:24:42,354
Any sound that you'll hear
on this next clip, we added.
329
00:24:42,439 --> 00:24:46,025
It's June 1944 in the Marianas
330
00:24:46,109 --> 00:24:50,613
and this is our version of the great
naval air battle of the Philippine Sea.
331
00:24:50,697 --> 00:24:52,907
The first shot is a phoney.
332
00:25:25,148 --> 00:25:30,986
Many Japanese pilots were comparative
novices with no battle experience.
333
00:25:33,281 --> 00:25:36,617
Their aircraft were poorly armoured.
334
00:25:38,954 --> 00:25:42,122
For the American flyers
swooping down on their opponents,
335
00:25:42,249 --> 00:25:45,209
it was as easy as shooting turkeys.
336
00:26:05,689 --> 00:26:10,317
After the first encounter, all but one
of the American planes returned.
337
00:26:36,761 --> 00:26:41,473
Rearmed and refuelled, the Americans
were ready for the next Japanese move.
338
00:26:41,558 --> 00:26:44,351
There were two more onslaughts
to be faced.
339
00:26:44,436 --> 00:26:48,230
However, the Americans
had nearly 900 carrier planes,
340
00:26:48,315 --> 00:26:51,233
twice the number of the Japanese.
341
00:26:55,363 --> 00:26:59,783
The Marianas turkey shoot
lasted just eight hours.
342
00:27:01,161 --> 00:27:06,582
In one day, Japanese naval air power
was virtually destroyed.
343
00:27:06,708 --> 00:27:11,670
The original force of 430 planes
was reduced to about 100.
344
00:27:23,183 --> 00:27:26,393
American losses
were comparatively light.
345
00:27:26,478 --> 00:27:29,688
Pilots mattered more than machines.
346
00:28:00,970 --> 00:28:05,849
I hope you can hear the contrast between
that film as it ended up on the screen
347
00:28:05,934 --> 00:28:08,018
and the rushes with which we started,
348
00:28:08,103 --> 00:28:11,855
even if we started with newsreels
from which we stripped their sound
349
00:28:11,940 --> 00:28:13,732
before we got to work again.
350
00:28:13,858 --> 00:28:19,029
Sometimes the exception : film
that needed no polishing, no cutting.
351
00:28:19,114 --> 00:28:22,574
Film that went in raw, as rushes.
352
00:28:22,659 --> 00:28:26,912
This next clip was used in a film
I made at the end of the series
353
00:28:26,996 --> 00:28:28,288
called Remember.
354
00:28:28,373 --> 00:28:31,667
Our film researcher Raye Farr
found it in some cans
355
00:28:31,751 --> 00:28:35,713
in a corner in the archive at Koblenz
that no one else had looked at.
356
00:28:35,797 --> 00:28:39,341
It's film taken by
a German cameraman in Russia
357
00:28:39,426 --> 00:28:43,762
not at the front, but filming quietly
behind the German lines.
358
00:28:43,847 --> 00:28:46,140
Again, there's no sound on it.
359
00:28:54,232 --> 00:28:56,817
We think that this remarkable cameraman
360
00:28:56,901 --> 00:29:00,446
had licence to shoot
just what interested him.
361
00:29:00,530 --> 00:29:04,324
Perhaps one day he was going to try
to make a documentary out of it.
362
00:29:11,499 --> 00:29:13,000
What seems to be happening
363
00:29:13,084 --> 00:29:16,587
is that a couple of soldiers
and a corporal in this village
364
00:29:16,671 --> 00:29:21,258
are separating men from women
and children, dividing up families.
365
00:29:34,230 --> 00:29:36,732
Either the men or perhaps the women
366
00:29:36,816 --> 00:29:40,986
are being selected
for forced labour, I think.
367
00:29:43,948 --> 00:29:46,074
Anyway, they have a pretty good idea
368
00:29:46,159 --> 00:29:48,869
that they may never
see each other again.
369
00:30:25,990 --> 00:30:29,326
If you watch carefully in a moment,
you can see a dog.
370
00:30:30,286 --> 00:30:32,830
We always used to look out for dogs
in rushes.
371
00:30:41,673 --> 00:30:45,175
There's the dog. Here it comes.
No barking.
372
00:30:49,013 --> 00:30:55,352
Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill were
dead and not available for interview.
373
00:30:55,436 --> 00:31:00,524
The field marshals had published their
memoirs and had little left to say.
374
00:31:00,608 --> 00:31:04,278
The witnesses that we sought
would be of a lower rank.
375
00:31:04,362 --> 00:31:06,280
For their personal experiences,
376
00:31:06,364 --> 00:31:10,701
we were interested in the simple serving
man and woman and in the civilian.
377
00:31:10,785 --> 00:31:14,204
They could tell us
what had happened to them.
378
00:31:14,289 --> 00:31:18,542
For our narrative,
we needed the witness to great events.
379
00:31:18,626 --> 00:31:21,128
The man at the commander's elbow,
380
00:31:21,212 --> 00:31:24,339
the fellow in the statesman's
private office.
381
00:31:24,424 --> 00:31:27,342
Our researchers turned up quite a list.
382
00:31:27,427 --> 00:31:31,889
Churchill's private secretary,
RooseveIt's and Truman's aides,
383
00:31:31,973 --> 00:31:36,184
members of Hirohito's cabinet,
Eisenhower's mistress,
384
00:31:36,311 --> 00:31:40,397
Hitler's typist, Himmler's adjutant.
385
00:31:40,481 --> 00:31:43,233
Some historians
doubt television's ability
386
00:31:43,318 --> 00:31:47,571
to handle such witnesses critically
as source material.
387
00:31:47,655 --> 00:31:49,656
Well, you have to do the best you can
388
00:31:49,741 --> 00:31:54,453
and check out what your witnesses say
against what other people have to say.
389
00:31:54,537 --> 00:31:57,789
Listen to the late John McCloy.
390
00:31:57,874 --> 00:32:00,667
America is about to defeat Japan.
391
00:32:00,752 --> 00:32:03,629
We gathered up our papers
and started to go out,
392
00:32:03,713 --> 00:32:05,672
and Mr Truman spotted me and said :
393
00:32:05,798 --> 00:32:10,802
"Mr McCloy, nobody gets out of this room
without voting or expressing himself -
394
00:32:10,929 --> 00:32:12,220
everybody else has."
395
00:32:12,305 --> 00:32:15,807
"Do you think I have
any other alternative?"
396
00:32:15,892 --> 00:32:18,894
I looked over at Colonel Stimson -
397
00:32:19,020 --> 00:32:20,562
he liked to be called Colonel,
398
00:32:20,647 --> 00:32:25,275
he'd been colonel of a regiment
in World War l, rather than Secretary.
399
00:32:25,360 --> 00:32:29,237
I looked over at Stimson
and he nodded, he said, "Go ahead."
400
00:32:29,322 --> 00:32:31,490
So I started in,
and I said that I thought
401
00:32:31,574 --> 00:32:35,035
we ought to have our heads examined
402
00:32:35,119 --> 00:32:40,666
if we didn't begin to think in terms
of a political culmination of the war
403
00:32:40,750 --> 00:32:42,960
rather than a military one.
404
00:32:43,044 --> 00:32:46,922
And I said I'd give them some terms.
405
00:32:47,006 --> 00:32:50,509
I'd send a message over to them,
I'd spell out the terms.
406
00:32:50,635 --> 00:32:54,930
And Mr Truman said, "Well, what are
your terms? What would you do?"
407
00:32:55,014 --> 00:33:00,018
I hadn't prepared for the actual
dictation of the surrender terms,
408
00:33:00,103 --> 00:33:05,148
but I said, "ln the first place,
I'd say you can have the mikado,
409
00:33:05,233 --> 00:33:07,567
but he's got to be
a constitutional monarch -
410
00:33:07,652 --> 00:33:10,779
you've got to have a representative
form of government."
411
00:33:10,905 --> 00:33:16,201
"You can have access to, but not
control over, foreign raw materials
412
00:33:16,285 --> 00:33:19,913
so you can have a viable economy."
And I spelled it out as best I could.
413
00:33:19,998 --> 00:33:23,125
And I'd say, "Besides that,
we've got a new force,
414
00:33:23,209 --> 00:33:31,174
and it's in the form of a new type of
energy that will revolutionise warfare,
415
00:33:31,300 --> 00:33:35,846
destructive beyond any contemplation."
I said I'd mention the bomb.
416
00:33:35,930 --> 00:33:40,934
Well, mentioning the bomb, even at
that late date, in that select group,
417
00:33:41,019 --> 00:33:42,811
it was like they were all shocked
418
00:33:42,895 --> 00:33:45,939
because it was such
a closely guarded secret.
419
00:33:46,024 --> 00:33:49,651
It was comparable to mentioning
Skull and Bones at Yale,
420
00:33:49,736 --> 00:33:52,612
which you're not supposed to do.
421
00:33:52,697 --> 00:33:55,490
But Mr Truman said,
"This is just the sort of thing
422
00:33:55,575 --> 00:33:58,994
I was trying to reach for -
get that all spelled out."
423
00:33:59,078 --> 00:34:03,081
At that point Stimson did come in
and joined support for my position,
424
00:34:03,166 --> 00:34:06,543
but then later on Mr Byrnes,
who was then secretary of state,
425
00:34:06,627 --> 00:34:13,216
who was not present, vetoed the idea
of offering them the mikado.
426
00:34:13,301 --> 00:34:18,305
One can only speculate
as to what would have happened
427
00:34:18,389 --> 00:34:21,808
if we had put the message
to the Japanese
428
00:34:21,893 --> 00:34:24,978
in the form that I indicated,
including the mikado.
429
00:34:25,063 --> 00:34:29,649
I always had the feeling, in view of
some of the information we've had since
430
00:34:29,734 --> 00:34:36,782
of the tendency on the part of some
of the real military hotheads in Japan,
431
00:34:36,866 --> 00:34:39,701
to think that this was perhaps
the best way out,
432
00:34:39,786 --> 00:34:44,247
that we might have been able
to avoid the dropping of the bomb.
433
00:34:44,332 --> 00:34:47,501
Mr McCloy rings true to me.
434
00:34:47,627 --> 00:34:51,338
One of our researchers, Sue McConachy,
a fluent German speaker,
435
00:34:51,422 --> 00:34:54,049
was given
the most difficult task of all,
436
00:34:54,133 --> 00:35:00,055
that of finding ex-members of the SS and
persuading them to talk to us on film.
437
00:35:00,139 --> 00:35:02,140
Her longest and hardest search
438
00:35:02,225 --> 00:35:05,060
was for Himmler's adjutant, Karl Wolff.
439
00:35:05,144 --> 00:35:09,397
This is from her account of that search,
and I'm going to quote from it.
440
00:35:09,482 --> 00:35:13,485
"Nearly a year later,
after many phone calls
441
00:35:13,569 --> 00:35:18,615
and a letter through a third party,
I finally met the old man."
442
00:35:18,699 --> 00:35:21,576
"Not in his home.
I still didn't know where that was,
443
00:35:21,661 --> 00:35:24,037
but in a hotel in Berlin."
444
00:35:24,122 --> 00:35:29,417
"He was most charming, quite unlike
the fantastic figure we'd imagined."
445
00:35:29,502 --> 00:35:34,840
"Again, the long process
of establishing trust began."
446
00:35:34,924 --> 00:35:38,426
"l visited his home several times."
447
00:35:38,511 --> 00:35:40,262
"He agreed to talk about subjects
448
00:35:40,346 --> 00:35:42,973
where he claimed
he had first-hand knowledge."
449
00:35:43,057 --> 00:35:46,768
"He wanted to explain
the ideology of the SS to us."
450
00:35:46,853 --> 00:35:49,187
"A contract was drawn up
451
00:35:49,272 --> 00:35:54,234
which gave him the option to read
a transcript of the entire interview
452
00:35:54,318 --> 00:35:58,238
to check the factually accuracy
of what he said."
453
00:35:58,322 --> 00:36:01,241
The interview was long and tricky.
454
00:36:01,325 --> 00:36:03,743
It went on all day.
455
00:36:03,870 --> 00:36:08,123
"After lunch," Sue McConachy says,
and they're filming this,
456
00:36:08,207 --> 00:36:12,043
"After lunch, I asked him to repeat
the story that he'd told me
457
00:36:12,128 --> 00:36:16,131
one evening over supper
about an incident at Minsk
458
00:36:16,215 --> 00:36:17,716
at which he'd been present,
459
00:36:17,800 --> 00:36:21,678
when a hundred people were shot
into an open grave
460
00:36:21,762 --> 00:36:27,142
as a demonstration for Himmler,
who was sick when he saw it."
461
00:36:27,268 --> 00:36:30,103
"Wolff looked a bit surprised."
462
00:36:30,188 --> 00:36:33,106
"He'd forgotten
that he'd ever mentioned that."
463
00:36:33,191 --> 00:36:36,026
"Then the film ran out."
464
00:36:36,110 --> 00:36:41,114
"l wondered if, with time to think,
he would actually tell the story again."
465
00:36:41,199 --> 00:36:42,782
"He did."
466
00:36:42,867 --> 00:36:47,913
"l was relieved," says our researcher,
"not just because I'd got the story,
467
00:36:47,997 --> 00:36:50,415
but because he'd had the time to reflect
468
00:36:50,499 --> 00:36:53,168
on what the consequences
of telling it might be
469
00:36:53,252 --> 00:36:58,506
and I could feel less responsible
if he did in fact end up in court again
470
00:36:58,591 --> 00:37:00,383
when the programme was shown."
471
00:37:01,886 --> 00:37:04,471
Every time the lie is put about
472
00:37:04,555 --> 00:37:08,391
that there was no mass slaughter
of the Jews, no Holocaust,
473
00:37:08,476 --> 00:37:12,395
I am grateful, as the world's archives
will always be,
474
00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:14,898
to Sue McConachy and her like
475
00:37:14,982 --> 00:37:20,445
for the pains that she took
to get Karl Wolff on the record.
476
00:37:20,529 --> 00:37:26,618
She spent days with ex-SS men
and nights having nightmares about them.
477
00:37:26,702 --> 00:37:31,373
She listened to them.
She didn't judge them. Nor did l.
478
00:37:31,457 --> 00:37:36,586
I decided to leave judgement on all
our witnesses to you, the viewer.
479
00:37:36,671 --> 00:37:40,048
I don't guarantee to you
that they tell the whole truth
480
00:37:40,132 --> 00:37:43,343
or even a truth that you will accept.
481
00:37:43,427 --> 00:37:46,304
Here are three very different Germans.
482
00:37:46,389 --> 00:37:51,059
One of them is Albert Speer,
Hitler's Minister for War Production,
483
00:37:51,143 --> 00:37:53,937
telling how they knew what they knew,
484
00:37:54,021 --> 00:37:58,483
what they thought they could do
to save Europe's Jews.
485
00:37:58,567 --> 00:38:03,655
Christabel Bielenberg's husband
was a conspirator against Hitler.
486
00:38:03,739 --> 00:38:07,284
He was away from home when she was
asked to give shelter to two Jews,
487
00:38:07,368 --> 00:38:09,411
and she consulted her neighbour.
488
00:38:09,495 --> 00:38:12,580
I was astonished - overcome, really -
489
00:38:12,665 --> 00:38:15,750
at the response
that I got from my neighbour
490
00:38:15,835 --> 00:38:21,423
who told me that under no circumstances
whatsoever could I house these people,
491
00:38:21,507 --> 00:38:26,636
that housing of Jews meant concentration
camp not only for me but for my husband,
492
00:38:26,721 --> 00:38:29,472
possibly also for my children.
493
00:38:30,599 --> 00:38:34,227
I can remember going through
and out into the road
494
00:38:34,312 --> 00:38:40,608
and out of the darkness came a voice -
I knew there was somebody there -
495
00:38:40,693 --> 00:38:42,777
came a voice saying :
496
00:38:42,862 --> 00:38:46,948
"Frau Doktor... Frau Bielenberg,
497
00:38:47,033 --> 00:38:49,284
haben Sie einen Schluss gefasst?"
498
00:38:49,368 --> 00:38:52,287
which means, "Have you decided?"
499
00:38:53,331 --> 00:38:57,375
And I simply couldn't say no.
500
00:38:57,460 --> 00:39:03,506
I just said, "Well, I can't
for longer than two days."
501
00:39:06,594 --> 00:39:11,848
And I let him into the cellar.
502
00:39:13,768 --> 00:39:17,896
They stayed for two days
503
00:39:17,980 --> 00:39:22,859
and on the second day
504
00:39:22,943 --> 00:39:25,570
or rather in the evening,
they must have left
505
00:39:25,654 --> 00:39:29,032
because in the morning she was gone,
506
00:39:29,116 --> 00:39:31,242
the cellar was empty,
507
00:39:31,327 --> 00:39:35,538
the little bed I'd put up
all tidily arranged
508
00:39:35,623 --> 00:39:37,916
and they had gone.
509
00:39:39,418 --> 00:39:43,463
I knew later that they were caught
510
00:39:43,547 --> 00:39:47,217
buying a ticket at a railway station
511
00:39:47,301 --> 00:39:50,428
and were transported to Auschwitz.
512
00:39:51,472 --> 00:39:55,642
And why I say this is
the most painful and terrible story
513
00:39:55,726 --> 00:39:57,435
for me to have to tell
514
00:39:57,520 --> 00:40:00,230
is because after they left,
515
00:40:00,314 --> 00:40:06,361
I realised that Hitler
had turned me into a murderer.
516
00:40:08,614 --> 00:40:11,950
One day in '44,
517
00:40:12,034 --> 00:40:16,704
Gauleiter Hanke came in my office
and told me
518
00:40:16,789 --> 00:40:22,627
that he was visiting
a concentration camp in U pper Silesia
519
00:40:22,711 --> 00:40:27,632
and warned me never to go
in a concentration camp there
520
00:40:27,716 --> 00:40:30,844
because horrible things would happen.
521
00:40:30,928 --> 00:40:35,140
This together with other hints I got
522
00:40:35,224 --> 00:40:40,812
should have made my decision
523
00:40:40,896 --> 00:40:44,065
to go to Hitler immediately
or to Himmler
524
00:40:44,150 --> 00:40:46,901
and to ask them what is going on
525
00:40:46,986 --> 00:40:50,905
and to take my own steps.
526
00:40:50,990 --> 00:40:56,661
But I didn't do it and not doing it
was, I think nowadays,
527
00:40:56,745 --> 00:40:59,998
the biggest fault in my life.
528
00:41:00,082 --> 00:41:06,463
We felt that people should know
what was going on,
529
00:41:06,547 --> 00:41:11,217
and maybe typical is this little
experience which I had one day
530
00:41:11,302 --> 00:41:15,638
standing in the line for vegetables
or something like that.
531
00:41:15,723 --> 00:41:19,017
I told my neighbours standing around me
532
00:41:19,101 --> 00:41:25,023
that now they start to kill the Jews
in the concentration camps,
533
00:41:25,107 --> 00:41:28,151
that it is not true that they
only are brought there
534
00:41:28,235 --> 00:41:32,197
and can live there as they live here,
as it was told them.
535
00:41:32,281 --> 00:41:36,284
They are killed
and they even make soap out of them.
536
00:41:36,368 --> 00:41:39,454
I know that.
537
00:41:39,538 --> 00:41:41,623
And they said, "Frau Bonhoeffer,
538
00:41:41,707 --> 00:41:44,751
if you don't stop telling
such horror stories
539
00:41:44,835 --> 00:41:48,963
you will end in a concentration camp too
and nobody of us can help you."
540
00:41:49,048 --> 00:41:55,345
"It's not true what you're telling. You
shouldn't believe foreign broadcasts."
541
00:41:55,429 --> 00:41:59,557
"They tell these things
to make enemies against Germany."
542
00:41:59,642 --> 00:42:04,521
I said, "No, that's not from broadcasts.
I know that directly from first hand."
543
00:42:04,605 --> 00:42:07,732
"You can be sure it is that way."
544
00:42:07,816 --> 00:42:11,736
And coming home
I told my husband in the evening
545
00:42:11,820 --> 00:42:16,824
and he was not at all applauding to me -
on the very contrary.
546
00:42:16,909 --> 00:42:20,537
He said, "My dear, sorry to say,
547
00:42:20,621 --> 00:42:24,541
but you are absolutely idiotic,
what you are doing."
548
00:42:24,625 --> 00:42:27,210
"Please understand,
549
00:42:27,294 --> 00:42:31,839
a dictatorship is like a snake."
550
00:42:31,924 --> 00:42:34,926
"lf you put your foot on its tail,
551
00:42:35,010 --> 00:42:38,763
as you do it, it will just bite you
552
00:42:38,847 --> 00:42:41,766
and nobody will be helped."
553
00:42:41,850 --> 00:42:43,810
"You have to strike the head."
554
00:42:44,395 --> 00:42:50,858
Each of those witnesses I think reveals
there something of his or her true self.
555
00:42:50,943 --> 00:42:55,655
We didn't judge them,
but a little bit of juxtaposition helps.
556
00:42:55,739 --> 00:43:00,118
Emmi Bonhoeffer's husband Klaus
and her brother-in-law Dietrich
557
00:43:00,202 --> 00:43:02,954
were among the staunchest
of Hitler's opponents
558
00:43:03,080 --> 00:43:06,541
and both paid for their bravery
with their lives.
559
00:43:07,668 --> 00:43:11,004
What sort of history
is The World At War?
560
00:43:11,088 --> 00:43:13,965
It's television narrative history.
561
00:43:14,049 --> 00:43:18,636
It doesn't propose different
interpretations of a course of events,
562
00:43:18,721 --> 00:43:20,847
weigh the evidence for each,
563
00:43:20,931 --> 00:43:24,934
invite you to keep all of them
in your mind while we consider them
564
00:43:25,019 --> 00:43:28,605
and eventually plump for one
and put that forward.
565
00:43:28,689 --> 00:43:30,982
The writing historian does do that
566
00:43:31,066 --> 00:43:34,193
and you the reader can go back
on the printed page,
567
00:43:34,278 --> 00:43:36,613
back if you like
to the previous chapter,
568
00:43:36,697 --> 00:43:40,116
to check something
that you didn't quite understand.
569
00:43:40,200 --> 00:43:43,870
But television, like music,
occurs in time,
570
00:43:43,954 --> 00:43:47,373
and the viewer, unless
you're looking at a video recording,
571
00:43:47,458 --> 00:43:50,043
cannot normally go back.
572
00:43:50,127 --> 00:43:54,505
The programme producer, therefore,
must tell a clear story
573
00:43:54,590 --> 00:43:56,883
that you, the viewer, can follow.
574
00:43:56,967 --> 00:44:02,388
So when we tried to answer a question
that has puzzled historians of the war,
575
00:44:02,473 --> 00:44:07,685
we made up our minds what we believed
and we gave you that.
576
00:44:07,770 --> 00:44:10,980
but it's important that you
the viewers should understand
577
00:44:11,065 --> 00:44:13,983
that we the makers
have made the selection
578
00:44:14,068 --> 00:44:18,363
and that we know that the real story
is always more complex
579
00:44:18,447 --> 00:44:20,573
than we present it as being.
580
00:44:20,658 --> 00:44:25,119
There are only 2,000 words of narration
in most episodes of The World At War.
581
00:44:25,204 --> 00:44:29,916
We know and we hope that you know
how much we've had to leave out.
582
00:44:30,000 --> 00:44:36,381
But if we tried to be clear,
we also tried not to be too simplistic.
583
00:44:36,465 --> 00:44:41,344
We wanted to hear different experiences,
different points of view.
584
00:44:41,428 --> 00:44:44,222
In the end, I think
The World At War works
585
00:44:44,306 --> 00:44:48,017
because interwoven
in one narrative line,
586
00:44:48,102 --> 00:44:52,939
it contains contrasts
and even contradictions.
587
00:44:53,023 --> 00:44:58,861
Those who bombed Germany and Japan,
for example, did their necessary job.
588
00:44:58,987 --> 00:45:03,950
Those they bombed,
many of whom were innocent, suffered.
589
00:45:04,076 --> 00:45:09,914
Hindsight enables both sides now
to see how others acted and suffered
590
00:45:09,998 --> 00:45:13,251
in a way that they never did
at the time.
591
00:45:13,335 --> 00:45:16,796
Some stories that we were told
we had to leave out,
592
00:45:16,880 --> 00:45:18,506
but they were too good to lose
593
00:45:18,590 --> 00:45:23,594
and so we made other, longer films
in which they find a place.
594
00:45:23,679 --> 00:45:29,392
Christabel Bielenberg remembers an eerie
incident of her life in Nazi Germany
595
00:45:29,518 --> 00:45:31,477
as the war neared its end
596
00:45:31,603 --> 00:45:35,148
and the horrors of what had been done
and what was still being done
597
00:45:35,232 --> 00:45:37,233
could no longer be suppressed.
598
00:45:37,317 --> 00:45:42,780
Near the end of the war I had to travel
from Berlin to the Black Forest...
599
00:45:43,782 --> 00:45:51,497
..and I happened to travel
in the same carriage as an SS man.
600
00:45:54,668 --> 00:45:56,836
A raid had just started
601
00:45:56,920 --> 00:46:01,966
and most of the people had left
the carriage when I heard this voice
602
00:46:02,092 --> 00:46:07,805
saying, "l think it's better we stay put
because the train will probably move out
603
00:46:07,890 --> 00:46:10,850
and we'll have the carriage
to ourselves."
604
00:46:10,934 --> 00:46:17,356
And indeed I had it to myself
with this SS officer
605
00:46:17,441 --> 00:46:20,943
for many hours on this train journey.
606
00:46:21,028 --> 00:46:25,531
He explained to me that he
was on his way to the front now.
607
00:46:25,616 --> 00:46:28,659
That all he wanted to do
was to get killed.
608
00:46:29,745 --> 00:46:33,372
And... but...
He had tried again and again,
609
00:46:33,457 --> 00:46:37,835
but always he'd seemed to survive
every battle he'd been in.
610
00:46:37,920 --> 00:46:45,426
He'd transferred to the Waffen SS,
which was the military arm of the SS,
611
00:46:45,511 --> 00:46:49,931
who were always in the thick
of the battle, but he'd survived.
612
00:46:50,015 --> 00:46:54,018
He told me that in Poland,
613
00:46:54,102 --> 00:46:55,978
they had...
614
00:46:59,274 --> 00:47:02,318
..he had belonged
to one of the commandos,
615
00:47:02,402 --> 00:47:07,323
which were called
the Extermination Commandos,
616
00:47:07,407 --> 00:47:13,538
and on one particular occasion, when the
Jews were standing round in a semicircle
617
00:47:13,622 --> 00:47:16,332
with the half-dug graves behind them...
618
00:47:18,085 --> 00:47:22,380
..that the machine guns had been set up
619
00:47:22,464 --> 00:47:30,471
and out of the ranks of the Jews
that were standing there
620
00:47:30,556 --> 00:47:32,849
a wonderful figure
had come towards him.
621
00:47:32,933 --> 00:47:38,020
He said, "He had long hair. I suppose
he was a priest of some kind."
622
00:47:38,105 --> 00:47:42,275
And he'd said,
"God is watching what you do."
623
00:47:43,569 --> 00:47:49,490
And he said, "We shot him down
before he returned to the semicircle."
624
00:47:49,575 --> 00:47:55,496
Another little boy,
before they'd set up this scene,
625
00:47:55,581 --> 00:48:01,586
had asked him,
"Am I standing straight enough, U ncle?"
626
00:48:01,670 --> 00:48:05,548
And he told me these things
he could never forget
627
00:48:05,632 --> 00:48:11,220
and that he only, as I said,
now wished to die.
628
00:48:11,930 --> 00:48:14,974
I travelled with that man
all through the night...
629
00:48:16,727 --> 00:48:21,105
..and as the carriage had no windows,
it was very cold,
630
00:48:21,189 --> 00:48:25,151
and I can remember waking in the night,
631
00:48:25,235 --> 00:48:30,031
strangely enough,
with my head resting on his shoulder.
632
00:48:30,115 --> 00:48:34,285
And he'd covered my knees
with his sheepskin coat.
633
00:48:35,412 --> 00:48:38,205
Next time I woke, he'd gone.
634
00:48:39,541 --> 00:48:43,711
Her head on his shoulder,
his coat covering her knees.
635
00:48:43,837 --> 00:48:47,715
You wouldn't find details like that
in most history books,
636
00:48:47,799 --> 00:48:52,303
but it's stories like that that make
popular television history possible.
637
00:48:53,472 --> 00:48:57,224
The Second World War
cost more than 50 million lives.
638
00:48:57,309 --> 00:48:59,810
It shaped the world we live in.
639
00:48:59,895 --> 00:49:03,314
The U nited States of America
came out of isolation,
640
00:49:03,398 --> 00:49:07,443
becoming the greatest power
on the world stage.
641
00:49:07,527 --> 00:49:10,529
Soviet Russia emerged
from another isolation
642
00:49:10,614 --> 00:49:13,699
to impose her grip on half of Europe.
643
00:49:13,784 --> 00:49:15,701
Germany was divided.
644
00:49:15,786 --> 00:49:19,914
There has been peace in Europe
for more than 40 years.
645
00:49:19,998 --> 00:49:21,999
The story of the Second World War
646
00:49:22,084 --> 00:49:26,212
is a story with dark beginnings
and a happy end.
647
00:49:26,296 --> 00:49:29,757
Mussolini's fascism,
Japanese militarism,
648
00:49:29,841 --> 00:49:33,344
Hitler's Nazism, were smashed.
649
00:49:33,428 --> 00:49:35,346
The right side won.
58043
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