Original subtitles

Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil!

These are some of the most infamous men

of the Nazi regime.

The Führer, Adolf Hitler.

Hitler was utterly ruthless. Anything that stood in his way

he could justify to himself that it was worth getting rid of.

The Fighter Ace, Hermann Goering.

A bon vivant, he liked women, he liked wine,

he liked drugs.

The Spin Doctor, Joseph Goebbels.

The ultimate sycophant, just tells Hitler always what he wants to hear

and makes Hitler feel great about himself.

Head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler.

He enjoyed the trappings of power.

He enjoyed his relationship with Hitler,

and he would do whatever it took to ensure that that continued.

The Gatekeeper, Martin Bormann.

He was a ruthless man.

He had blood on his hands.

He was the sort of man that Hitler needed to do his dirty work.

Each name conjures its own special nightmare.

But could they work together

to bring the grand Nazi vision to fruition?

Or would their toxic and dangerous self-interest

cause dysfunction and ruin?

Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil!

The Nazi leadership was ambitious,

it was ruthless, it was cutthroat.

It was absolutely backstabbing.

And you couldn't trust anyone as much as look at them.

What is the pathway to promotion?

How do you assume a leadership role in the Third Reich?

It's by telling Hitler to no small extent what he wants to hear.

Without question, it is inherently dysfunctional.

Hitler's leadership

was often contradictory and self-serving.

Intentionally handing out

confusing and overlapping duties to his underlings.

Keeping them busy fighting among themselves,

rather than plotting against him, was part of his ploy.

Well, Hitler's management style was

notoriously shambolic.

I mean, here was a guy who went to bed early,

or else stayed up all night watching movies,

invariably slept past noon,

had a notoriously short attention span,

didn't listen to briefings, didn't read stuff,

always operated on his gut

and, uh, thought his gut was superior

to the professional views of others

who were really reading intelligence reports

and doing real analysis of problems.

So it tended to be he would try to reinforce his prejudices.

If he wanted to do something, he would find reasons to do it

or find people who would tell him it was doable,

and he would ignore or purge critics.

And the toxic attitude poisoned any chance

of a proper functioning elite.

"Stay on the good side of Hitler or else"

was an excellent policy.

Failure meant a swift fall from favor.

And in Nazi Germany,

this could be very bad for your health.

One of the tactics that Hitler used is,

not only in Germany but within his own government,

is dividing and ruling,

setting one sector of society up against another,

one department up against another,

one individual up against another.

Always making sure that

neither faction really knew where they stood.

If individuals are jostling for position, they are perhaps

not creating any opposition to Hitler.

But the upsides were very alluring.

To make it into his inner circle

brought with it security,

immense power,

and often wealth.

To get there was not so much a matter of abilities,

more a need to demonstrate slavish devotion,

and a ruthless drive to make it through the ranks.

One man who excelled in the traits

that went to making a successful Nazi

was Hermann Goering.

Goering was a bon vivant, you know.

He liked women, he liked wine,

he liked drugs, he liked partying,

he liked ceremony, he liked decorative uniforms,

uh, and he loved art and real estate.

Goering was flamboyant, vain,

and downright weird.

He built a palace in a hunting reserve,

dressed in period clothes,

and tried to have extinct animals

reengineered back to life

so he could hunt them like in the good old days of German mythology.

Being hopelessly hooked on morphine,

which he originally started taking for injuries

suffered in the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923,

may explain some of this behavior.

Goering had the talent to rub people up the wrong way

throughout his life.

He was arrogant, he was vain, he was bombastic.

And if you didn't know him too personally,

people were often sort of drawn into his personality

and they found him charming.

But once you actually realized that you had to work with him,

you knew you were dealing with, you know,

a morphine addict who was inconsistent,

who had mood swings.

Goering was deserving of his top spot,

but equally, he condemned himself

to his fall from grace.

Despite often looking like one,

Goering was no clown.

When he put his mind to it,

he was as efficiently evil

as the next Nazi,

and he caught Hitler's eye.

Goering had been a commander of the Flying Circus Squadron

in World War I,

under the famous Baron von Richthofen,

the Red Baron,

and had proved his skill with 22 kills to his name.

Goering had all the star power

and the swagger of being a fighter ace

in the First World War.

Hitler really latched onto that.

He needed that sort of sense of gravitas

and almost flamboyance

to make the National Socialist Movement stand out.

It was a wedding of convenience for the two,

you know, Hitler had the star power

and Goering had this sort of sense of

needing to restore Germany to its greatness,

particularly as he had seen the German Air Force

be utterly smashed to pieces and demoralized

after the First World War.

And he had sworn to restore German aviation to the skies.

So Hitler was the man to do it with him.

Goering rose quickly through the ranks.

In 1923,

Hitler placed him in charge of the Sturmabteilung, or SA,

which Goering quickly shaped into a large

and powerful organization of agitators and thugs.

Operating way outside the law,

they were essentially Hitler's bully boys,

targeting any opposition to the Nazi agenda.

Goering's arrogance made him hugely unpopular

with the men under his command.

But it emboldened the burgeoning Nazi Party

to attempt to seize power by force.

By 1923,

the party had grown confident enough

to attempt a brazen coup.

The National Socialists made a stand under Hitler

at a beer hall in Munich

with a plan to overthrow the federal government.

But the plan failed.

Sixteen party members were killed.

And Goering was badly wounded.

Goering suffered with that wound for the rest of his life.

It created this morphine addiction that made him balloon in weight.

And ultimately, it did change his personality,

you know, even though he had been seen as a bit of a difficult man,

and an arrogant man, he was a smart man.

And the morphine sort of blunted that intelligence.

The plot may have failed catastrophically,

but for one old friend of Hitler's,

it had its advantages.

Ernst Rohm, who had been front and center during the failed putsch,

displaced the incapacitated Goering as head of the SA.

Under his command,

Rohm saw the numbers swell to almost three million strong.

But trouble was brewing.

The signature backstabbing and double-crossing

that was to define the Nazi inner circle

was about to show its ugly face.

In July 1932,

the Nazis won the election,

due in no small way

to the intimidation by the SA.

Hitler was now chancellor,

and Goering was named as president of the Reichstag

and his right-hand man.

All seemed to be going well for the Nazis,

but the factions and power centers within

were beginning to attack each other.

An early trigger for the internal wars

was the rise of the SA.

Many worried it had become too big,

and the leader, Ernst Rohm,

was publicly moving away from Hitler's ideology.

Hitler was always concerned

that there might be factions within the Nazi Party

that could challenge his own leadership.

And we see him really trying to consolidate his power base

and removing those enemies

that could potentially pose a challenge

to his leadership and his supremacy.

Rohm and the SA

were a powerful potential force

that he would find very difficult to control.

To keep the SA in check,

Hitler created the SS Security Service,

and then expanded the Gestapo,

the infamous secret state police,

placing them both under Heinrich Himmler.

This new version of organized thuggery

could now counteract the power of the SA

and their leader, Ernst Rohm.

Nazi leaders Hermann Goering,

Deputy Nazi Chief Rudolf Hess,

Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels,

and SS Leader Heinrich Himmler

began to coalesce around a deadly plan,

to rid themselves of Ernst Rohm for good.

In 1934,

the cabal began their campaign against Rohm.

They planted rumors and fake evidence

that Rohm was planning an overthrow of the regime.

Swirling talk of homosexuality

was also given plenty of air.

Neither Rohm nor the SA

ever planned to seize power in Germany.

But the truth never got in the way of a good Nazi conspiracy.

Despite Rohm being one of his oldest friends,

Hitler seized the opportunity

and charged Himmler and the SS

with carrying out a massive

and deadly purge of the SA officials,

including Rohm.

It was to be swift and merciless.

It would become known

as the Night of the Long Knives.

Hitler was utterly ruthless.

Anything that stood in his way

he could justify to himself

that it was worth getting rid of.

So if Rohm and the SA

had to be exterminated, then why not do it?

On June the 28th, 1934,

the knives were sharpened for a bloody and brutal evening,

as the regime prepared to turn viciously on itself.

Hitler ordered Rohm and the SA leaders

to gather at a Bavarian spa

where SS units surprised,

disarmed, and arrested them.

After being taken to prison,

most were shot on the spot without trial.

SA supporters took to the streets in protest,

while an enraged Hitler ordered a swathe

of mass arrests and killings.

Thousands were arrested.

The next day, on orders from Hitler,

Rohm was shot in his cell.

His last words were "Heil Hitler."

After the Night of the Long Knives

and the death of Rohm, we see Hitler

make a very bold statement that he was no longer

willing to put up with those that threatened his power base.

He became a dictator, he became a tyrant,

because of course, he had to stamp on that opposition

that might otherwise oust him from power.

The Nazis had shown they were prepared to murder their own

to achieve their goals.

From now on, nothing was out of bounds.

Nothing too extreme.

Lawlessness and brutality

was now a weapon of the regime.

Fear had taken root in his circle of leaders.

No one ever felt safe again.

This was a ruthlessness

that he not only exposed the party to,

but also the nation to, the idea

that there was only one leader for Germany.

He was building himself an edifice

from which he couldn't be toppled.

Hitler's next target was the army.

Two top commanders

who felt the cold grip of Nazi infighting

where War Minister Werner von Blomberg

and Fritsch, the head of the Wehrmacht.

Hitler had sat down in 1937 with his military leaders,

chief among them, Bloomberg, the Minister of War,

and Fritsch, the Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht,

and he kind of outlined his aggressive plans

for German expansion,

uh, principally in Eastern Europe, then even the Soviet Union.

These guys were really alarmed,

and they began to push back inside the German military saying,

you know, "Hitler might be off his rocker," you know what I mean,

these are pretty ambitious plans

and Hitler gets wind of these rumblings inside the German Army,

and he decides, "I got to get rid of these guys.

I need to put in placemen who will be loyal to me

and will carry out my orders without hesitation."

And so he kind of trumps up a couple of scandals.

The first scandal involved von Blomberg.

In January 1938,

he married 26-year-old typist Erna Gruhn.

With Hermann Goering as best man,

and Hitler himself as the witness.

But the course of true love never did run smooth,

particularly in Nazi Germany.

Some pornographic images of Blomberg's new wife surfaced,

together with evidence that she had once been a prostitute.

Blomberg's days as Minister of War were numbered,

and Hitler had the perfect replacement.

A man with craven ambition,

who could be relied upon to do his bidding,

Hermann Goering.

It's very clear that Hitler wanted to ensure

that he placed at the head of the military

individuals that he could manipulate.

Hitler ordered Blomberg to annul the marriage

in order to avoid scandal

and preserve the integrity of the army.

When he refused,

Goering threatened to publicly expose

Blomberg's wife's sordid past.

Finally, Blomberg gave up

and resigned all posts.

Flush with their success at destroying Blomberg,

Hitler and Goering now turn their attention

to Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht, Werner von Fritsch.

The next fall is Fritsch, you know, the Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht,

uh, then Hitler concocts this wholly outrageous story

that Fritsch is a closeted homosexual,

and he's bringing dishonor on the Prussian and German officer corps.

And so Fritsch who, you know, demands a military court of honor

says this is not true

is forced in turn to resign his post,

and Hitler then moves in as Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht.

With both Blomberg and Fritsch gone,

Goering was able to cement his position

as the man who could get things done for Hitler.

His star was on the rise

with his Luftwaffe dominating the blitzkrieg attacks

on Poland and France.

Goering was rewarded by Hitler

and appointed his successor

as Führer of all Germany.

Goering was now the highest ranking soldier in Germany,

answering only to Hitler, which of course

made the rest of the Nazi Party leadership

insanely jealous.

Early on in the war,

the successes in Poland and in the French campaign,

this gives Goering a kind of

elite status among the inner circle.

Hitler is purposefully manipulating his inner circle.

And as loyal as these men are, and they are not just loyal,

they are real sycophants.

I mean, it is adulation to Hitler,

partly because they understand that the more Hitler gives them,

the greater their prestige.

So they're always seeking Hitler's favor.

And this is the reason why

Goering lasts so long within the Nazi regime,

is for what he provided within that inner sanctum,

what he provided Hitler with in terms of confidence and advice.

It was his trust. It was his loyalty.

And that is what Hitler demanded, perhaps above all else.

It would prove a precarious position

with Goering having to constantly look over his shoulder

for the knives of his rivals.

They would not hesitate to bring him down

at the first sign of weakness.

Increasingly throughout the war,

Hitler was concerned at Goering's military capability,

which meant that there was a significant question mark

surrounding Goering as the war progressed.

That started during Dunkirk,

when the evacuation took place,

despite the attentions of the Luftwaffe.

The Luftwaffe couldn't produce the sort of strategic victories

that Goering suggested that it could.

As the war goes on and his star begins to decline,

partly because of his obvious failures,

Goering defaults back into his morphine addiction,

becomes ever more problematic, and he kind of falls away from the scene.

But if Goering was Hitler's closest confidant

in the military leadership, his most trusted party man

was undoubtedly Minister for Propaganda and Enlightenment

Joseph Goebbels.

Adolf Hitler's fanatic little Propaganda Minister

Paul Joseph Goebbels.

The most Nazi of all the Nazis.

He was fanatical, loyal to his Führer, and power-mad.

Goebbels had immense power because Hitler's image

depended upon Goebbels manipulation of information

and the development of Hitler as an heroic figure.

All of the leading Nazis, whether we're talking about, you know,

Goebbels, Bormann, Himmler, Goering,

they all figure out early on that Hitler's a weak man,

and that Hitler's easily manipulated.

Goebbels, because he's a... The ultimate sycophant,

just tells Hitler always what he wants to hear

and makes fit... Hitler feel great about by himself,

and he's always at Hitler's side

and he's always spouting Nazi propaganda, he's a key player.

Propaganda Minister Goebbels told them

Germany didn't want a war at all.

Goebbels had proved his mastery of the media

and the Nazi marketing

as he rose through the ranks of the Nazi Party.

He adapted recent developments in advertising

with use of catchy slogans,

eye-catching posters,

and cryptic headlines,

to further the Nazi Party cause in image.

He penetrated the very fabric of German society,

taking the voice of the Nazis

directly into lounge rooms

by making radios cheap and readily available.

They were even handed out free on his birthday.

Like Hitler, he practiced his speeches

in front of the mirror,

perfecting his body language

to convey power,

with highly choreographed hand gestures

and vocal infections.

He always knew how to make an entrance

to give the most emotional impact.

He used the old trick

of keeping the audience waiting,

then hitting them with everything.

With his striking eyes and attractive voice,

Goebbels was the undisputed Nazi pin-up boy

and a prolific womanizer,

despite a clubbed foot

which had prevented him from enlisting as a fighting soldier.

With the outbreak of war,

Goebbels began using his propaganda machine

to shape messages and control information

about what was happening on the fighting fronts.

His word spread as gospel throughout Germany.

In 1943, Goebbels was appointed Minister for Total War,

after pressuring Hitler to adopt the policy

which included measures like closing non-essential businesses,

conscripting women into the labor force,

and enlisting more men into the Wehrmacht.

The whole idea of a... Of a total war idea,

it's a wonderful propaganda message.

It shows the ability of Goebbels

to seize a moment

to say it is now very clear

that the war is being lost, that we've suffered a great setback,

and we need to respond to this.

We need to respond to this by seizing the moment

and allowing people to believe, "Oh, we do have excess capacity,

oh, the war is now seriously gonna be fought by Germany.

Now, we're going to take the other hand out from behind our back

and fight this war."

As with every new maneuver

and promotion within the Nazi hierarchy,

someone was going to end up feeling overlooked and threatened.

This time, it was Goering.

Goebbels was pushing for changes

in armaments production and industry,

which put him directly in conflict with Goering.

After his failures at the Battle of Britain

and inability to reduce losses on the Eastern Front,

his precious Luftwaffe was about to be given

a vote of no confidence

as armaments for his aircraft were reduced.

Goering was starting to feel disrespected

and marginalized.

When total war becomes a reality

in 1944 lead by Goebbels,

we see that Goering is beside himself

with rage that he isn't given the responsibility

that he had expected,

that he had demanded,

that he had put a great deal of thought into,

and felt that those that were responsible for it

didn't have the experience

to produce a total war economy.

And he was probably right.

Central to the Nazi vision

of a total war economy

was a fearful and utterly subservient population.

Together, with hundreds of thousands of slave laborers,

this would be the job of the feared

Reich state security police force,

the SS,

led by another of Hitler's trusted inner circle,

Heinrich Himmler.

Himmler was one of Hitler's

most trusted allies.

He was given probably

more ability to go his own way

than other peers.

Being in control of the national administration

was a huge responsibility

and provided him with a huge power base.

Also, having responsibility for the SS if you like,

the party's own political military force.

Himmler's SS death squads

were to become universally feared throughout Europe,

and were responsible for the deaths of millions

of Poles and Slavs in the East.

Nazi commanders were well advised to keep on the right side of Himmler.

Falling out with him, as some commanders did,

meant a swift removal from power or worse.

His power derived from the trust of the Führer.

He was very loyal to Hitler, and Hitler was very loyal to him.

There's no doubt that the nature

of his responsibility

for internal security

meant that he could use that power base

to turn upon his enemies very, very quickly,

and very quickly remove them, and he did that on many occasions.

And so there's no doubt that the inner sanctum

around Hitler were wary of Himmler,

because he himself was incredibly ruthless.

He was given free rein

to carry out his diabolical mission,

orchestrating and administrating the extermination of the Jews,

and anyone who was not of so-called pure Aryan blood.

Himmler was responsible for the creation and management

of the death camps during World War II,

at the behest of his political mentor and sponsor,

Adolf Hitler.

Himmler begins, you know, studying the progress

of the Aryan race,

and its contrast with other races.

Impelled in part by Hitler

because of his own sort of ambiguous past,

but also by Himmler

who begins to, you know, encumber Nazi Germany

with a particular evil that finds its fullest expression

in the Holocaust, the Final Solution.

Himmler it seems was untouchable

in the Führer's eyes.

Even after the attempted assassination of Hitler

by senior army commanders in 1944,

the infamous von Stauffenberg plot,

he went unpunished

for his failure to detect and diffuse the plot in advance.

It was a massive embarrassment for Himmler.

To soothe his shame,

he promptly rounded up

and executed thousands of suspects

as his way of demonstrating

his loyalty to Hitler

and restoring the reputation of the SS.

Though he was in thrall of his Führer,

Himmler, like other ambitious Nazi officials,

had aspirations to succeed Hitler as Germany's leader.

One man he suspected of standing in his way

was Albert Speer, the original architect

of the great Berlin buildings and monuments

to the glory of the Reich.

Speer so impressed Hitler

with his architectural visions of a new Berlin,

that he appointed him to the critical post

of Minister for Armaments and Munitions.

Now, some people say he was a part of the inner circle,

but he was an architect,

who Hitler enjoyed having conversations

about new design.

He wasn't a powerbroker,

but therein lies the decision.

He's a new player.

Hitler doesn't allow any one man to assume too much power,

and he's absolutely loyal to Hitler.

Therefore, he becomes the perfect person in this system to assume that position.

We see a tremendous dysfunction in Hitler's inner circle

because the people who are running things

are not necessarily appointed because of their competence.

Speer appealed to Hitler's vanity,

that Hitler thought he and Speer

were fellow architects

and artists and creative geniuses.

And, uh, so he loves spending time with Speer

and looking over plans for a new Reich Chancellery or the...

A new imperial capital of Berlin.

Hitler was so admiring of Speer

that Himmler considered him an especially dangerous rival,

both in the administration of the Reich

and as a potential successor to Hitler.

As a means of getting Speer onside,

Himmler offered him the prestigious rank

of SS Obergruppenführer,

but Speer was having none of it.

The last thing he needed was to be under Himmler's watchful eye.

He knew it would be hard to say no

when Himmler wanted a say in armaments production.

He begins to rework the German armaments industry.

He's now competing for resources,

and the underlings of the Third Reich

are all seeking to both protect their own empires

and make Speer look bad.

Speer then looks to Goebbels,

Goebbels has got his own competition with Himmler,

and they become natural allies.

But that means that the central focus

of the inner circle are not necessarily focused

on the best outcome for the war,

but on protecting private interests.

After the war, Speer was spared execution

and spent 20 years in prison.

During which time, he wrote accounts of his experience

in Hitler's inner circle.

According to Speer, the powerful men

under Hitler, including Joseph Goebbels,

Hermann Goering, and Heinrich Himmler,

were from earlier on jostling for favor

and watching each other

like a pack of childish pretenders to the throne.

But perhaps, the greatest threat to all of them

was Hitler's personal secretary,

Martin Bormann.

From the start, he made himself seen insignificant

while imperceptibly building his influence,

until he was arguably

the second most powerful man of the Nazi Reich,

referred to by some as the secret leader.

I see Bormann as the doorman that would only allow entry

into the inner sanctum of the Nazi Party

if you could add value,

if you were loyal, if you were to be trusted.

He was a ruthless man.

He had blood on his hands.

He was the sort of man that Hitler needed to do his dirty work.

And as a result of that, he was a trusted confidant.

The first sign of Bormann's ruthlessness and brutality

came immediately after World War I,

when he worked closely

with a nationalistic paramilitary group, the Freikorps,

whose tactics could get very nasty indeed.

Bormann enjoyed getting involved in the more robust

activities of the Freikorps.

In 1928, he joined the National Socialists

and was welcomed in to the SS

by Himmler himself.

Bormann creatively managed

Hitler's finances with various schemes,

such as extracting royalties

from Hitler's book and his image on postage stamps,

as well as setting up the impressive sounding,

but actually very shady Adolf Hitler Endowment Fund

of German Industry,

which was really a thinly veiled extortion operation

on behalf of Hitler to collect more money

from German industrialists.

No wonder Hitler loved him.

He took charge of all Hitler's paperwork,

appointments, and personal finances.

By now, Hitler's trust in Bormann

and his worldview was so overwhelming,

in one meeting, he's said to have yelled,

"To win this war, I need Bormann."

Bormann was now the final word before Hitler

in pretty much everything to do

with keeping the country running.

If you wanted to get to Hitler,

you had to get through Bormann first.

Bormann is the head of the Reich Chancellery,

and essentially what that gives him

is the ability to control access to Hitler.

He also is a repository of a lot of knowledge.

The various state leaders around Germany,

they talked to him,

and this gives him an indirect power with Hitler.

He selectively can take a lot of information that is coming

across his desk and use it to manipulate the message to Hitler.

And this is a real problem for any of the other, uh, rivals.

Very few of them have in that sense a direct access to Hitler.

So Bormann becomes very much a gatekeeper.

And he proved to be a master

of intricate political maneuvering.

He was able to effectively nullify

any power plays by the big names.

He ruthlessly and skillfully

sabotaged the agendas of all of them

when he sensed any kind of threat to his power.

The inner sanctum themselves

were always fighting for time with Hitler.

Martin Bormann seemed to be able

to get Hitler on his own,

talk into his ear,

and influence him perhaps more

than any other member of the close team

that developed around Hitler.

And as a result of that,

he was seen as someone who was dangerous.

In February 1943,

the German defeat at Stalingrad

triggered a crisis in the regime.

True to form, Bormann exploited the military disaster,

with his moves sparking a massive power struggle

within the inner circle.

Bormann had a proposal to which Hitler agreed.

The creation of a three-man committee

with representatives from the state,

the army, and the party,

which would harness the country's productivity

for the benefit of the war effort.

The Committee of Three was an attempt by the Germans

in the middle of World War II

to really make more efficient

the German use of resources and production

for this multi-front war effort.

And the idea was you'd have a representative of industry,

a representative of the Nazi Party,

and a representative of the German military,

who would all sit around a table and decide

what plans had to get funded

and where resources would go.

The Committee of Three members

were Hans Lammers,

influential chief of the Reich Chancellery

who worked alongside Bormann,

Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel from the armed forces,

and of course, Martin Bormann.

Hitler seemed to like the idea of the committee,

as none of the members posed any threat

to his leadership nor would they disagree with him.

The committee was to propose the best independent course of action

regardless of the views of the respective ministries,

with Hitler to make the final decisions,

which did not suite some people at all.

The Committee of Three were immediately brought under attack

by sort of the Nazi hierarchy, people like Goering,

people like Himmler, people like Goebbels,

people like Speer, who all resented

their intruding onto their little turfs.

And so the Committee of Three, which was meant to rationalize

the German response to World War II,

ended up being a complete fizzle.

Despite the Committee of Three,

administrative chaos

continued to dog the German war effort.

Ultimate responsibility for this dysfunctionality

lay with Hitler

and his control freakish behavior,

as Goebbels well knew,

referring to it in his diary as a crisis of leadership.

But Goebbels was too much under Hitler's spell

ever to challenge his power.

As the war turned steadily against Germany,

as desperation and doubt seeped into the atmosphere,

those in the inner circle began to viciously turn on each other.

Blame went in circles, and the air around Hitler's table

became more toxic and unproductive than ever.

And the mighty would begin their inevitable falls from grace.

Goering is increasingly marginalized by Himmler

because he sees all of Goering's vulnerabilities,

lack of a work ethic,

his buffoonish behavior, his drug addiction,

and he basically increasingly sidelines Goering

in Hitler's eyes by the end of the war.

There's no question that the inner circle

becomes almost unworkable,

and I think it's illustrative of the dysfunction in the inner circle

that someone who has suffered as many defeats,

uh, both on the battlefield and personally as Goering,

that he stays in that role, that he's never replaced.

And that's just, well, it's absurd.

Even though he was marginalized

in the final months of the war,

Goering would have one last shot at the top.

When it was reported to Goering

that Hitler had essentially lost his mind

and was planning suicide,

he decided to try to assert his claim to the leadership

based on the agreement Hitler had signed

naming him as his successor.

Goering sent a very carefully worded telegram,

requesting to take command of the Reich forces

as per the agreement.

But it was intercepted by Bormann,

who took full advantage of Hitler's paranoia

to brand Goering a traitor.

Hitler replied to Goering, with much help from Bormann,

threatening him with treason and execution

unless he resigned all posts.

Well, at the end of the war, you know,

Goering always thought he had been anointed by Hitler

as, you know, Deputy Führer, you know.

So he thought that he had the chops to take over the job,

and he made the mistake of, you know, volunteering

to take over because, "I know you're in Berlin,

I know you're in the bunker, Führer,"

and, oh, that really angered Hitler.

Hitler... that was the final straw for Hitler.

He'd already been souring on Goering

and then, when Goering tried to sort of move

and take over the Führer's office while Hitler was,

you know, hunkering in the bunker waiting to blow his brains out,

he said no and Hitler takes the job away from Goering

and gives it to Donitz in a fit of spite.

Goering resigned and started heading westwards

with his family to surrender to the Americans,

which was a good move.

Bormann had ordered his execution anyway if Berlin fell.

Next to make a rash grab for power

was Heinrich Himmler.

Himmler was second only to Goebbels

in loyalty to the Führer,

but he threw what remained away when, in May 1945,

he attempted to broker a peace deal with the Allies,

behind Hitler's back.

Well, you begin to see just how many cracks there are

only at the very end,

when it's become clear that in spite of all the promises,

even among the men who were supposedly the most loyal, Goering and Himmler,

that they would seek to open negotiations with the Allies

once it becomes clear that there's going to be a post-Hitler Germany.

For Hitler, it is the final betrayal,

and I guess in some ways it also shows how these men...

At the end of the day, they're ultimately self-interested.

The Allies refused his generous terms

and for Himmler, the game was up.

As a final insult to the Holocaust mastermind,

Heinrich Himmler was officially branded a traitor

and, along with Goering, stripped of all Nazi rank and power.

Not that it mattered.

Germany was moments away from losing the war,

and Himmler was days away from committing suicide

after being captured by the Allies.

Only Goebbels remained steadfast in his loyalty.

And with the suicide of Hitler and the fall of Germany imminent,

he became chancellor.

He served less than a day

before he and his wife poisoned their six children

and themselves.

Martin Bormann had proven ruthless

and conniving right to the end

and having had the satisfaction

of defrocking his great nemesis Goering,

tried to make a run for it.

Although mystery long remained over his whereabouts,

he was later confirmed killed by Soviet artillery

as he made his last desperate bid for freedom.

The walls were literally coming down around them,

and they were still exacting revenge

and intent on settling scores with one another

until the bitter end.

Right from the beginning,

the seeds were sewn

for the destruction of the Reich from within.

Self-glorification and personal power

for these craven sociopaths

had proved more important

than actually winning the war.