- 6 weeks ago
For educational purpose
Using archive footage and interviews with former SS members who some denounce their acts while others attempt to justify their war crimes all loyal to Hitler.
Using archive footage and interviews with former SS members who some denounce their acts while others attempt to justify their war crimes all loyal to Hitler.
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LearningTranscript
00:07They believed they were the Third Reich's racial elite, men superior to others, ready
00:17to do anything for the Nazi party.
00:22They carried out a campaign of terror across Germany, then the rest of Europe, eliminating
00:32any opposition, decimating the Jewish people, and massacring civilian populations.
00:42Over 70 years later, some still live among us.
00:50This is the story of the SS, told from the inside.
01:17This documentary takes us to find SS members who are still alive, to try to understand
01:24how they became the Nazi party's killing machines.
01:29After several months of research, over 20 SS veterans were discovered living in different
01:35countries across Europe.
01:38Their words often shock.
01:41Some have broken with Nazism, others not.
01:46This man is one of them, 92-year-old Kurt Bockhausen.
01:53He lives in central Germany.
01:55He was in the Death's Head Division, whose members often worked in concentration camps.
02:06What counted for us?
02:08First of all, the purity of the person.
02:12Who are you?
02:13What do you want from life?
02:18Secondly, you have a healthy family.
02:22After that, there is the people.
02:27How did our ancestors live?
02:31What did they believe in?
02:34What has made real Germans of us?
02:40These were our fundamental values.
02:45The seeds of SS fanaticism were planted in 1918.
02:49When Germany lost the First World War.
02:53The following year, the Versailles Peace Treaty took several border regions away from Germany.
03:01Then came the nightmare of 1920s Germany.
03:07Hyperinflation, unemployment, poverty.
03:11In the years to come when they look to justify their crimes, the SS would often point to the
03:17tribulations of the tribulations of the 1920s.
03:23Naziism, they said, gave them back their dignity.
03:29They began to form ranks behind an Austrian World War I corporal, Adolf Hitler.
03:35A radical nationalist who promised he would wipe out the shame.
03:41We were on our knees.
03:44We had been poor and miserable, and then suddenly we were somebody again.
03:53No one could imagine where this commitment would eventually lead.
04:04What they did know was their first targets would be the communists, those anti-Germans who the Nazis had been
04:13fighting in the streets since the end of World War I.
04:19Nazi propaganda accused them of betraying the nation by overthrowing the emperor in 1918 and plotting to establish a communist
04:28state in Germany.
04:36Nazi .
04:40I remember in Hamburg when I was a child seeing big demonstrations in the street.
04:45Nazi .
04:46Nazi .
04:48My father said, if they get into power, we screwed.
04:53He was talking about the Communist Party.
05:03national socialism was more social than communism
05:08and in political terms was devoted purely to germany whereas communism was aimed at the world
05:19he was largely run by Jews by 1933 when the Nazis came into power the view that the Jews were
05:30the
05:30real enemy worse than the communists was taking hold for Hitler the Jews had profited from the
05:40German people's misery they're hiding everywhere said his manifesto and for the propaganda minister
05:49Joseph Goebbels the hour of the great confrontation was near
06:23it was this visceral revengeful hatred born out of 19th century racist theories
06:31that drove the SS's heinous actions in the years to come
06:43accompanying Hitler through this crowd are the SS who since their creation in 1925 had been Hitler's
06:52bodyguards they stood out in their black uniforms and could be seen everywhere alongside the party
07:00leaders they wanted to be noticed to distinguish themselves I knew it was an elite formation
07:13in in other words they wouldn't take any Tom Dick and Harry I wanted to be part of an elite
07:21division
07:27they were the new regimes shop window new recruits had to be tall at least five foot six
07:38and young under 23
07:45no Jewish ancestry they had to provide genealogical details dating back to the 18th century
07:57in the Third Reich if you wanted a successful life
08:02you joined the SS they were also known as the Black Order a name that linked them to Germanic soldier
08:16monks who colonized Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages
08:23they were filled with grandiose ideas that they were the new lords of Germany who would oust the old
08:30aristocratic elite who would always run the country many responded to the call
08:41Eckhart Gure was assigned to the dos reich division of the SS which committed numerous atrocities during
08:49the war at the age of 17 he says he joined the SS to defy his parents who refused to
09:00allow a relationship with a young catholic girl
09:07there were images in Germany where you would see a young man sign up for the war for freedom
09:13and he would kneel before his beloved who would bless him
09:20all of those emotions that I don't think we can understand or express today they existed back then
09:31our motto written on our belt buckles was my honor is my loyalty
09:39it meant no cowardice when facing the enemy
09:46the ideology that Himmler had drilled into us was you are nothing your people is everything
09:59you belong to the nation
10:01you belong to the nation
10:03the nation is
10:03is
10:05is you
10:06you are
10:07you are part of the nation
10:09I wanted to prove
10:14that I was ready to risk my life
10:16for that ideology
10:18so a skill
10:26by 1934 it wasn't just the German political elites who were being replaced
10:32that year Himmler incited Hitler to eliminate his competitors
10:37the leaders of the SA the Nazi party militia
10:41they would call this massacre the night of the long knives
10:48carried out by his SS
10:50the bloodbath consolidated his position at the heart of the regime
10:56at the head of several hundred thousand SS members
10:59Himmler managed in the space of a few years
11:03to extend his control to all German police
11:06from his young man in black he demanded total submission
11:13when you are a soldier you have to carry out orders
11:17you're not there to think
11:19that's how it was
11:23today it's different
11:26at the time we said
11:28leave the thinking to the horses
11:30they have bigger heads
11:36most of the SS we met were still children in the mid thirties
11:43raised in a totalitarian state
11:45they were subjected to hitlers propaganda
11:50some of the most extensive brainwashing of the 20th century
11:58the Nazis hadn't yeah so god if a kid
12:00the Nazis made sweets for children with swastikas on them
12:04I was proud to eat those sweets
12:08that I was even prouder when I was five years old
12:13in kindergarten school
12:15and we'd go on walks or on visits
12:19and I could wear my swastika armband
12:25this was all drilled into us quite deliberately
12:30to the point that in 1934 when I was ten
12:36that state of mind
12:39with the uniforms and the Hitler salute
12:42was quite natural
12:49in fact I didn't know anyone who was opposed to it
13:01in the youth organizations budding SS members were given military training from an early age
13:08like Sparta in ancient Greece
13:11the state educated the children
13:17we used to like singing songs
13:20the waves will close in on them
13:23the world is at peace
13:25it means the extermination of the Jews
13:28they would be drowned
13:30wiped out
13:33at the time
13:35the extermination of the Jews was not on the agenda
13:39but the barriers were falling
13:41like here at a carnival in Nuremberg
13:45where an effigy of a Jew was hanged from a float
13:52or in this racist propaganda film
13:55this view of Germany as a victim of its Jewish communities ran so deep
14:23that it continues to warp the minds of some former SS men
14:28I don't know if you would like it
14:34when you have a very precise type of blood
14:38to accept a race that is fundamentally different in its way of being
14:45its religion
14:46and its very conception of life
14:50it was at the age of 14
14:53that this former Austrian SS member
14:55Herbert von Mildenburg
14:57saw Hitler for the first time
15:02there was something in his eyes
15:05when he looked at us
15:06something fascinating
15:12we sang
15:14we sang
15:14we're not going home
15:17we're not going home
15:19before the Führer speaks
15:26we were in heaven
15:29like idiot football fans in a stadium today
15:41Hitler
15:42the man they believed would resurrect Germany
15:55the fact was that six million unemployed
16:01found work within the space of five years
16:08by increasing aid for workers
16:10providing leisure activities previously reserved for the elite
16:16and by funding massive rearmament and major building projects
16:21through the confiscation of Jewish assets and massive debt
16:24Hitler bought the approval of the German people
16:31for SS members like Kurt Barkhausen
16:35it was a miracle
16:38it was proof that Hitler had accomplished what he had promised
16:55the repression began in 1933
17:00political opponents were isolated from the rest of society
17:04as a preventative measure
17:06without trial
17:09the task was entrusted first to the SA
17:12the Nazi party paramilitary wing
17:15then eventually to the SS
17:18the pretext was the burning of the Reichstag
17:21the German parliament
17:25Hitler presented it as the beginning of a new communist revolution
17:32they were told communists were a danger
17:35and should be removed from the community
17:39I myself noticed
17:42that the people who had previously expressed opposition at party meetings
17:47had now disappeared
17:50either the communists joined our movement
17:54or they continued to oppose us
17:57and were sent to special camps
17:59which were later called concentration camps
18:06to the extent that there was almost no opposition in Germany
18:11it just wasn't possible anymore
18:19November 9th 1938
18:23the Feldherrnhalle in Munich
18:29it was five years since Hitler's rise to power
18:32and less than a year before the start of World War II
18:38these thousands of SS men
18:40were about to experience
18:42one of the most important events of their lives
18:58among them
19:00Eberhard Heder
19:01a future captain in the Viking division
19:08I saw Hitler arrive
19:10very solemn
19:14and then
19:15men of the SS recite your oath
19:32and the
19:34we are
19:34we pronounce the words with our hearts
19:37Oh
19:50The phrase to the death was a shock, of course.
19:56Loyalty to that degree, that's going too far.
20:06They would soon find out what their vow entailed.
20:13In September 1939, Hitler attacked Poland, starting the Second World War.
20:24On the eve of the offensive, the SS played a crucial role.
20:31To justify the invasion, the Führer ordered them to fake a Polish provocation.
20:38The SS simulated a Polish attack, a bloody one, on the German border.
20:47Dirty work the SS had done since the start and would continue.
20:57The SS also fought alongside the regular army, the Wehrmacht.
21:05If the SS sacrificed itself on the front line, paying with its blood, explained their leaders,
21:11it would have the moral right to lead the repression in Germany.
21:20To these men destined to fight on the front line, Himmler gave a name.
21:26The Waffen-SS.
21:28The Armed-SS.
21:34800,000 men joined the Waffen-SS during the war.
21:40They saw themselves as political soldiers, and in the eyes of the regime, they were dependable.
21:48Hitler could count on them in the event of trouble at home, or abroad.
21:59Manfred Diener was one of those Waffen-SS at 16.
22:05For this baker's son from Thuringia, it was an opportunity for social advancement.
22:13With us, there was no sir, lieutenant sir, or yes, captain sir, and so on.
22:23In other Wehrmacht units, you needed your exams to be an officer.
22:29The Waffen-SS made an exception.
22:32Even if, like me, you only had a basic school certificate, you could become an officer.
22:41It was a model for the German people to follow.
22:47But in reality, these young men were no longer their own masters.
22:53With a tattoo of their blood group marked under their left arms, they had become someone else.
23:01Once inside the Black Order, there was no way out.
23:23In a short time, these young Waffen-SS men go from drilling at their barracks to leading the invasion of
23:32France.
23:34And only a few months later, they would take part in the invasion of Yugoslavia, then Greece,
23:43and in June 1941, the USSR.
23:50It was there, against Stalin's troops, that Himmler's SS would find their special role as executioners.
24:13The Civil War
24:14Summer 1941
24:16Hitler orders the invasion of the Soviet Union,
24:20launching a kind of war never seen before,
24:23to conquer living space and exterminate the Judeo-Bolsheviks, as he calls them.
24:35Alongside the regular army, the Wehrmacht,
24:38the Führer now has a force of more than 100,000 men
24:41who have sworn loyalty to the death,
24:46the SS.
24:53This horrific scene was filmed behind the lines in German-occupied Latvia.
25:00Jewish men were assassinated and buried in the sand.
25:06Just one of the terrible consequences of the indoctrination of the 1930s.
25:18Hans Friedrich was in the 1st SS Infantry Brigade.
25:23A few months before his death in 2005,
25:27he confessed on film to his part in the murder of several thousand Jews.
25:38They were in such a state.
25:42of shock
25:45and
25:46so scared
25:48that we could do
25:50what we wanted with them.
25:54Try to imagine,
25:56there's a ditch.
26:00On one side,
26:02there are people.
26:03At opposite,
26:04there are soldiers.
26:06And that was us.
26:07And we shot.
26:10The ones who were hit
26:12fell in the ditch.
26:25I just thought,
26:28aim well.
26:33So they'd be killed
26:34with a single shot.
26:38That was my only thought.
26:41That was your only thought.
26:43You didn't have any feelings for the Jewish civilians you were executing.
26:52No.
26:54And why not?
26:56Because my hatred for the Jews was so strong.
27:04Not all took part in the extermination.
27:07But many agreed with it.
27:13In order to kill Jews,
27:15the Nazis employed special units they used for the invasion of Poland,
27:20the Einsatzgruppen.
27:24Detachments of killers
27:26made up of SS members,
27:28police,
27:29and locally recruited auxiliaries.
27:33Here is one of their leaders,
27:36SS General Jekylln.
27:40He'd be hanged by the Allies in 1946
27:43for the murder of more than 100,000 people.
27:49His method of execution?
27:52Sardine packing.
27:55He applied it here,
27:57in the Baba Yar Ravine,
27:59where he executed more than 30,000 Jews.
28:04They were laid on top of one another
28:07and shot,
28:08then buried in layers
28:10like sardines.
28:15Men.
28:17Women.
28:19Children.
28:26The paradox was that the SS
28:28didn't see themselves as criminals,
28:31but as victims.
28:33Soldiers defending themselves.
28:37Oskar Gronig was 21
28:39when the SS assigned him to Auschwitz.
28:43At the time,
28:45he believed the Jews deserve their fate.
28:48We were convinced,
28:51and this was our vision of the world,
28:53that we Germans had been betrayed by the whole world,
28:57and that there was a huge Jewish conspiracy against us.
29:03Children weren't our enemies at that point.
29:07The enemy was the blood which flowed in them.
29:10The children would grow up
29:12and become potentially dangerous Jews.
29:17That was why the children were included.
29:23In the view of the SS chief Himmler,
29:26those who killed Jews
29:27were carrying out the work required
29:29for the country to survive.
29:31And so,
29:34the massacres continued.
29:50As the Jewish people gradually disappeared,
29:54the SS profited and dreamed.
30:00Himmler had promised them the brightest of futures.
30:09The Third Reich will last a thousand years,
30:12he tells them.
30:15As Greece fought Rome.
30:18As Rome conquered Carthage and Jerusalem.
30:22So,
30:23Germany will crush the Judeo-Boshevik USSR.
30:30While history has proven Himmler
30:32to be a murderous monster,
30:34some of his SS followers
30:36still see him as their hero.
30:45Himmler was a decent man.
30:49A man of honest character.
30:53Himmler wanted the best for the German people.
30:58And his ambitions weren't limited
31:00to those from Germany.
31:03From 1940,
31:05with the aim of founding a German empire,
31:07he opened the doors of the SS
31:10to the inhabitants
31:11of several defeated countries.
31:14The Danes,
31:16the Norwegians,
31:17the Dutch.
31:19They were all Germanic,
31:21said Himmler.
31:25As the war continued,
31:27the SS opened up
31:28to the French-speaking Belgians,
31:30the French themselves,
31:32and the Italians.
31:33Latin peoples
31:35to whom Himmler gave the hope
31:37of entering into the Nazi elite.
31:45Joining the Waffen-SS
31:47was a promotion for us.
31:49For me,
31:50it was an excellent model.
31:53The National Socialist Party
31:56had done a lot of good
31:57in Germany for the workers
32:00by giving them jobs,
32:02getting them involved,
32:04building them houses
32:05and gardens, etc.
32:07We thought it was a model, yes.
32:10Exactly.
32:12My dream at the time
32:13was to see Germany win the war.
32:15For me,
32:16Germany was the supreme nation in Europe.
32:18When I joined the Waffen-SS,
32:20I considered myself
32:21to be one of them.
32:24But it was an illusion.
32:28None of the non-Germanic,
32:30Latin or Muslim Slav peoples
32:32would ever actually belong
32:34to the Black Order.
32:37Attracted by the wages
32:39and the family allowances,
32:41they wore the uniform,
32:43but were cannon fodder.
32:48For every foreigner who dies,
32:51said the head of recruitment,
32:53no German mother cries.
32:58By 1942,
33:01the Nazis controlled
33:02a large part of Europe
33:03and believed
33:04they would soon defeat the USSR.
33:07But there were still
33:08some 10 million European Jews
33:10left to kill,
33:12according to Nazi calculations.
33:15They knew they could not
33:17exterminate that many people
33:18with the existing killing methods,
33:21and troop morale
33:22was beginning to be an issue.
33:25So SS leaders
33:26came up with a solution.
33:30Death camps.
33:35This amateur footage
33:36shot by SS guards
33:38shows the inside
33:39of the Pozen camp,
33:41one of the first
33:42in occupied Poland.
33:44Locking up undesirables
33:46was now no longer enough.
33:49They must be killed.
33:52To achieve their goal,
33:55the SS secretly
33:56tested toxic gas.
33:59In a specially built gas chamber
34:02hidden behind these walls,
34:04they had already eliminated
34:06400 mentally ill prisoners
34:08by 1939.
34:12Where the Nazis
34:14were very smart
34:15was with the extermination
34:17in the concentration camps.
34:19They managed to keep it
34:20all perfectly secret.
34:23There were a lot of people
34:25to exterminate.
34:29Most would be sent
34:30to the slaughterhouse,
34:32notably to Auschwitz.
34:37These photos taken by an SS guard
34:40show the arrival of prisoners
34:42and their sorting
34:44by SS doctors.
34:48On one side are the young
34:50and healthy who will work.
34:52On the other,
34:54those who will be killed
34:56in the coming hours.
34:59Once they were designated,
35:02the SS avoided them.
35:04The guards merely
35:05supervised the killing process,
35:07dropping toxic gas canisters
35:09into the gas chamber
35:10via a hatch.
35:13Then,
35:14other prisoners
35:15removed and burned
35:16the bodies
35:17in ovens.
35:26Most of the SS guards
35:27in the camps
35:28experienced a feeling
35:30of power.
35:34And they received benefits
35:36not available to SS
35:38assigned elsewhere.
35:41The camps were not
35:42on the front lines.
35:44The staff were not
35:45risking their lives.
35:46and Himmler had made sure
35:49they'd be comfortable.
35:50Like here,
35:52at the Reischhof camp,
35:53120 miles from Auschwitz.
35:58The Auschwitz camp itself
36:00was much sought after.
36:03It was here,
36:05to this 470-acre complex,
36:08that Oskar Gronick
36:09was sent as an accountant
36:10in 1942.
36:14The main camp
36:15at Auschwitz
36:16was like a small town
36:17with its gossip and rumours.
36:21There was a grocer's
36:22where you could buy
36:23Mariborne to make a soup.
36:24There was a canteen,
36:29a cinema.
36:32There was a theatre
36:33where they regularly
36:35put shows on.
36:36a sports club
36:38where I was a member.
36:40It was joyful
36:41and lively,
36:42like in a small town.
36:45This facade of normalcy
36:47was meant to shield
36:48the SS
36:49from the brutality
36:50of the death camps.
36:52But soon,
36:54the facade
36:55would fall apart.
37:06In 1944,
37:08the Normandy landings
37:09bring Allied troops
37:10to the west.
37:11And the Soviets
37:12attack from the east,
37:14forcing German retreats
37:16everywhere.
37:18To try to shore up
37:19their crumbling front lines,
37:21Hitler scales up
37:23the deployment
37:23of the Waffen-SS,
37:25the front-line firemen,
37:27as they call them.
37:31The SS know
37:33they have everything
37:34to lose.
37:39Since the 1930s,
37:41they've staked
37:41everything on Hitler.
37:46If he falls,
37:48they fall with him.
37:52That was what
37:54the war was about.
37:55Total war
37:56where the human being
37:57had no importance.
37:59None.
38:01In France,
38:02the Nazis face
38:03a persistent insurrection.
38:05So they use
38:06a new kind of terror
38:08against the French
38:08to dissuade them
38:10from supporting
38:11the resistance.
38:14I saw civilians
38:17hanging from trees
38:18and lampposts.
38:19They said,
38:21you see what we do?
38:22If you do anything
38:23against us,
38:24then we'll hang you.
38:26We'll kill you.
38:28Certain Waffen-SS soldiers
38:30from the
38:31Das Reich division
38:32were forcibly enrolled.
38:34They were nothing like
38:36the others who were
38:37volunteers.
38:38from the Alsace border region,
38:41they were born French,
38:42but the Nazis
38:43saw them as German.
38:45They were called
38:46the Malgrenou,
38:49against our will.
38:52In 1944,
38:54as the army withdrew,
38:55they discovered
38:56from the inside
38:57the ruthless methods
38:59of the Black Order.
39:02All those who went with them
39:04were against them.
39:05If you caught traitors,
39:07resistance fighters,
39:08civilians,
39:08then you could shoot them
39:10and that was that.
39:12you could feel
39:13the fanaticism
39:14in their every move.
39:18The true consequences
39:20of this unchecked fanaticism
39:22were finally seen
39:23in 1945
39:24when Allied troops
39:26liberated the
39:27concentration camps
39:28and discovered
39:30the massacre
39:31committed by the SS.
39:35Six million Jewish victims
39:40hundreds of thousands
39:41of political prisoners
39:43assassinated,
39:44along with homosexuals,
39:47priests,
39:47Roma,
39:48and disabled people.
39:56Only some of the
39:5740,000 SS guards
39:59were arrested
40:00and identified.
40:02These men
40:03who thought
40:03they were superior
40:04to others
40:05now looked
40:06very ordinary.
40:09Some disguised
40:10themselves as prisoners
40:11in striped uniforms
40:13in an attempt
40:15to pass unnoticed.
40:24Most of them
40:25were identified
40:26by the blood group
40:27tattoo under their arms,
40:30stamped when they
40:31first joined the SS.
40:34It was a mark
40:35they could never
40:36wash off.
40:38even if they cut
40:40and re-stitch
40:41their skin.
40:48May 8, 1945.
40:53Germany surrenders.
40:57The SS were moved
40:59into prisoner of war camps
41:00where they would spend
41:01months,
41:02even years.
41:09disguised as a police sergeant,
41:11their leader Himmler
41:12hid among the crowd.
41:15After several weeks
41:16of wandering,
41:17he was arrested
41:18by the Allies
41:19and committed suicide
41:21with a cyanide capsule.
41:27It's a myth
41:28that members
41:28of the SS
41:29were all punished.
41:32Apart from a few leaders,
41:34most slipped
41:35through the net.
41:39Now,
41:39some former SS
41:41place the blame
41:42on the leader
41:43they once admired.
41:44Hitler betrayed me.
41:53He pushed us
41:55into misery
41:56when he promised
41:58us joy.
42:02He perpetrated
42:03such crimes
42:04that I can only
42:06see it as treason.
42:13I'm ashamed
42:14to be a German,
42:15wrote one Munich citizen
42:16on May 28, 1945,
42:19on the ruins
42:20of the Feldhelm Halle,
42:22the place
42:23where the SS
42:24had once sworn
42:25their allegiance.
42:35But how
42:36to get out
42:36of the cult?
42:44Eberhard Heder,
42:46a captain
42:47in the Viking division,
42:48abandoned
42:49his racist convictions
42:51and pursued
42:52a career
42:53in the army
42:53of the Federal
42:54Republic of Germany.
43:01Ekerhard Goer,
43:03a member
43:03of the SS's
43:04Dachrecht division,
43:06who dreamed
43:07of chivalry,
43:09became a pastor.
43:15Egon Kuhn
43:16became a trade unionist,
43:18speaking tirelessly
43:20of the brainwashing
43:21he received
43:22in his youth.
43:26But they were
43:27exceptions.
43:28Many of those
43:30who were in the SS
43:31would remain nostalgic,
43:33often joining
43:34Waffen-SS
43:35veterans' associations,
43:37which still exist
43:39today,
43:39like Manfred Diener
43:42or Kurt Bockhausen,
43:45whose speeches
43:46are still used
43:47by extremist networks.
43:52Herbert von Mildenberg
43:54set up businesses
43:55in South America
43:57while maintaining
43:59relations with
43:59several World War II
44:01revisionists.
44:06In 2015,
44:08the former
44:08Auschwitz accountant,
44:09SS Sergeant Gronig,
44:11was sentenced
44:12to four years
44:13in prison
44:13for complicity
44:15in the murder
44:15of 300,000 Jews.
44:18After numerous
44:20legal appeals,
44:21he died
44:22without serving
44:23his time.
44:23to be continued...
44:26to be continued...
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