Two men with an extraordinary destiny. The most terrible dictators of the 20th century. Everything opposed them, and yet... For decades, it was a well-kept secret. Behind the facade of their radical antagonism, the two men had more in common than we think. Though they never met, their complicity and their collaboration remain the black hole of modern history.
Categoria
😹
DiversãoTranscrição
00:00May 1st, 1941. Stalin, the undisputed master of the vast Soviet empire, attends the traditional
00:20May Day labor parade. An astonishing detail marks these festivities. Among the most prestigious
00:31guests are uniformed Nazi officers. Hitler has sent a delegation to Moscow. The scene
00:40seems surreal. What does this rare image conceal? Widely considered polar opposites, the two
00:50dictators had more in common than we might think. Their exchanges, their complicity,
00:55and their mutual fascination remain one of the most closely guarded secrets of the post-war
01:00period. But the unholy alliance between the communist giant and the Nazi Third Reich is
01:08on its last legs. In less than two months, this devil's pact will become a clash of
01:14the tyrants. Hitler and Stalin face off in the deadliest conflict in history at the cost
01:22of 30 million lives. Only one will emerge as victor. Their alliance stunned the world.
01:36Their clash would change it forever.
02:06May 1st, 1941. Stalin, the undisputed master of the vast Soviet empire, attends the traditional
02:16May Day labor parade. An astonishing detail marks these festivities. Among the most prestigious
02:26guests are uniformed Nazi officers. Hitler has sent a delegation to Moscow. The scene
02:34seems surreal.
02:53January 30th, 1933. Hitler is elected Chancellor of the Reich. He owes his success to himself,
03:02or so he believes. Hitler is unaware that Stalin, who has ruled over the Soviet Union
03:11for four years, maneuvered behind the scenes to help him come to power. The master of the
03:23Kremlin prefers a fascist Germany to a democratic Europe united against him. By ordering the
03:33German communists to run against the left in the 1933 elections, he knew he was increasing
03:38Hitler's chances of gaining power. Stalin is playing with fire. He has not read Mein
03:48Kampf, the Führer's ideological program published in 1925. And yet in it, Hitler had
03:57spelled out his intent to crush the Soviet Union and repopulate it with Germans.
04:16Stalin believes an alliance is possible with a nascent dictator. They have common enemies,
04:23France and Great Britain. And despite their diametrically opposed ideologies, the two
04:31have much in common. Cosseted by loving mothers, raised in hatred of their fathers, both came
04:48from humble, lower-middle-class upbringings. Self-taught men who earned their stripes as
04:58street-fighting revolutionaries. Hitler found his calling in the butchery of the Great War,
05:11Stalin in the revolution of 1917. Both are true gang leaders who secured their dictatorships
05:22by placing their men in the key posts of power. In Hitler's entourage, the gang revolved
05:34around three men. Heinrich Himmler, the regime's chief of police. Infatuated with the occult,
05:43the former chicken farmer became head of the SS, Hitler's protection squad. Joseph Goebbels,
05:53nicknamed the Cripple on account of his club foot, the gang's intellectual. A failed writer
06:01whose manuscripts were rejected by Berlin's publishers, he masterminded the Reich's propaganda
06:06machine. Hermann Goering, a First World War hero known for his acts of bravery as a Luftwaffe
06:15pilot ace. Mundane, cocaine addict, and minister without portfolio, he created the Gestapo
06:25as soon as Hitler came to power. In 1933, the inner circle welcomed two new figures
06:33into its fold. Reinhard Heydrich, the perfect Aryan who so fascinated Hitler. A fanatic
06:42and model of icy determination who took charge of the Third Reich's repressive apparatus.
06:48And Martin Bormann, who headed the Nazi party chancellery, the Fuhrer's personal secretary.
07:06Stalin's gang changed constantly. At its core were the men who had known him during the heroic
07:15days of the revolution of 1917. General Voroshilov, Kaganovich, known as the Locomotive, and Kalinin,
07:28nicknamed Papa. The historic members were rivaled by those who had helped consolidate the party
07:37in the 1920s. The loyal Molotov, the regime's future number two. The Armenian Mikoyan, a
07:46versatile apparatchik. And the former metal worker Nikita Khrushchev, son of Ukrainian
07:53peasants whom Stalin named leader of the Ukrainian party organization. Lavrentiy Beria, future
08:03head of the ruthless NKVD, the political police and forerunner of the KGB, joined the circle
08:09in the 1930s. They were all mass murderers, responsible for the extermination through
08:20famine of between two and five million Ukrainian peasants in the early 30s, and the incessant
08:26purges that marked Stalin's reign.
08:38After a day's work at the Kremlin, Stalin got his gang together most evenings around
08:43his dining room table. His henchmen would try to outdo each other with one-liners and
08:50dirty jokes to amuse the tyrant. But they were no match for him at these vodka-fueled
08:57evenings of camaraderie.
09:10In 1933, the stance to adopt vis-à-vis Hitler is the subject of heated debate.
09:17The gang's members are worried about his anti-communism and blatant militarism.
09:26If Hitler represents a threat, retorts Stalin, what better way to eliminate it than by allying
09:32ourselves with him? An alliance with Hitler would also enable them to make a united stand
09:39against France and Great Britain, their common enemies.
09:45Hitler has just come to power when Stalin secretly dispatches envoys to Berlin to make contact.
09:54The attempt ends in failure. For the time being, Hitler refuses to have any dealings
10:01with Stalin. There are more pressing matters.
10:08First and foremost, the Fuhrer must reassure his army and consolidate his power. For this,
10:20he has to get rid of the SA, the paramilitary organization that played a key role in Hitler's
10:26rise to power.
10:31This will be known as the Night of the Long Knives.
10:35On June 30, 1934, Hitler orders the systematic murder of the SA's members. Their leader,
10:42Ernst Röhm, one of the Fuhrer's first loyal supporters, is not spared.
10:50The purge lasts several days and leaves hundreds dead.
11:05At the Kremlin, Stalin is impressed by the massacre.
11:12He gushes to Anastas Mikoyan.
11:18Have you heard what happened in Germany? Some fellow that Hitler.
11:23Splendid. That's a deed of some skill.
11:27Stalin saw in Hitler a leader as great as himself. Both men believed only in terror.
11:45Since his accession in 1929, the master of the Kremlin has developed the Gulag system
11:52of special camps, shooting huge numbers and banishing hundreds of thousands of so-called
11:57class enemies to the margins of his empire.
12:08The Gulag is a source of inspiration for Hitler.
12:14He remarks,
12:16Stalin is my darling.
12:20If I had a spacious Siberia at my disposal, as Moscow has,
12:25then I wouldn't need any concentration camps.
12:29Who in the world talks about the millions of victims of Bolshevism?
12:32In the spring of 1933, after just a few months in power,
12:37Hitler orders a ruthless crackdown on the communists, the Jews of Bavaria, and the Democrats.
12:50They are deported to the camps of the Kremlin,
12:53where they are forced to work for the Soviet Union.
12:55They are deported to the camps of Ruranienburg and Dachau.
13:06Stalin's entourage protests about this crackdown that has wiped out the German Communist Party.
13:15Stalin dismisses their objections.
13:18He is prepared to sacrifice the German communists to the Germans.
13:25He plans for a pact with Hitler.
13:34But how can he persuade the Fuhrer, who has refused all dialogue with him so far?
13:41Stalin must make gestures of goodwill.
13:46He is aware of Hitler's fanatical anti-Semitism.
13:50He orders the Jewish journalists working for Pravda,
13:54the official organ of the Soviet Communist Party,
13:57to sign their articles with Russian pseudonyms.
14:00No need to excite Hitler, he remarks.
14:14This has no impact whatsoever.
14:16In 1936, despite Stalin's renewed attempts at rapprochement, Hitler does not budge.
14:30The Chancellor of the Reich plans to invade the USSR.
14:37And an opportunity to weaken the master of the Kremlin has just presented itself.
14:42In the summer of 1936, the ambitious Reinhard Heydrich brings Hitler some sensational news.
14:50A plot against Stalin is being planned in Moscow.
14:56Mikhail Tukhachevsky, the Red Army's most brilliant marshal,
15:01is leading a group of soldiers determined to take down Stalin.
15:04Is Hitler willing to back the coup?
15:08He hesitates.
15:11A putsch in Moscow might give his own generals ideas.
15:18Heydrich suggests an alternative.
15:22If we have to invade the USSR,
15:25we have to do it by force.
15:28We have to do it by force.
15:31If we have to invade the USSR,
15:34the main objective will be to decapitate its army.
15:39For this, all we have to do is inform Stalin of Marshal Tukhachevsky's betrayal.
15:48Hitler is persuaded.
15:51Heydrich fabricates a case against the Soviet officer.
16:01The dossier ends up on Stalin's desk.
16:04But he is not surprised.
16:09He knows full well the plot is a fabrication.
16:14He made the whole thing up.
16:19Hitler thought he could manipulate Stalin.
16:21The opposite has occurred.
16:23Stalin was out to get Tukhachevsky.
16:30The very popular chief marshal
16:33had repeatedly warned the Soviets about the dangers of Nazi Germany
16:37and the strategy of rapprochement with the Fuhrer.
16:45The master of the Kremlin had been trying to discredit Tukhachevsky ever since.
16:50Hitler unintentionally handed him to Stalin on a plate.
17:02Tukhachevsky is arrested and executed on June 12, 1937.
17:09But Stalin's appetite for purges is insatiable.
17:13The Red Army has become too powerful for him.
17:15Some 40,000 soldiers, also accused of spying for foreign powers,
17:20meet the same fate as Tukhachevsky.
17:26In 1938, 90% of the Red Army's generals
17:30and 80% of its colonels died in the series of purges
17:34that became known as the Great Terror.
17:37Although he was expecting to see heads roll,
17:40Hitler is surprised by the extent of repression
17:43which has literally decimated Stalin's army.
17:47To his inner circle, he remarks,
17:50Stalin must be off his rocker.
17:55Stalin is a man of his word.
17:58He is a man of his word.
18:01He is a man of his word.
18:03Stalin must be off his rocker.
18:06This is the danger we must eliminate when the time comes.
18:14On December 22, 1937, Goebbels writes in his diary,
18:19spoke at length with the Fuhrer,
18:22Stalin and his eunuchs are sick, must be eradicated.
18:34But invading the USSR is not yet on the agenda.
18:39Hitler's priority, his great obsession, is the Jews.
18:47The Nuremberg race laws have already excluded them from German society.
18:53Hitler has been thinking about throwing out the 500,000 German Jews since 1924,
18:59but he now has a more radical solution.
19:04The extermination of the Jews of Europe.
19:16Kristallnacht is a trial run.
19:21On the night of November 9, 1938, a vast pogrom is organized.
19:27Between 2,000 and 2,500 Jews are murdered.
19:31200 synagogues are burned down.
19:357,500 Jewish-owned businesses were ransacked.
19:4130,000 people were arrested and deported,
19:45like here at Buchenwald concentration camp.
19:51For Hitler, the Jews were the last hope.
19:56For Hitler, the idea is to gauge the reaction of the German public
20:00and of his foreign enemies.
20:08Although countries around the world roundly condemn Kristallnacht,
20:12no concrete action is taken to curb the repression of German Jews.
20:17Stalin does not speak out against Kristallnacht.
20:27By the end of the 1930s, the two dictators have crushed all opposition.
20:34Their emblems bedeck avenues and buildings.
20:37Their portraits are everywhere.
20:46They can indulge their narcissism on the streets of Berlin.
20:50But they can't do it on the streets of Berlin.
20:53They can indulge their narcissism unchecked.
21:02Hitler, a failed artist, fancies himself as an aesthete.
21:11He has a passion for classical art and architecture.
21:16In his eyes, contemporary art is Jewish and degenerate.
21:23He shuts himself away for hours on end
21:26with the fiercely ambitious architect Albert Speers
21:30to study the plans and mock-ups of his monumental projects.
21:37Remodeling Berlin.
21:40This is his most ambitious plan of all.
21:44Germania, he gasped to the architect,
21:47the capital of a great city.
21:49He gasped to the architect,
21:51the capital of a greater German world empire
21:54that will last a thousand years
21:56will only be comparable with ancient Egypt, Babylon and Rome.
22:04Hitler gives Speer the sketches he has made himself,
22:08including that of a gigantic people's hall topped by a 274-meter dome.
22:14Despite the Führer's flawed architectural plans,
22:17Speer has to ensure his dreams become a reality.
22:27But Hitler's dreams are somewhat tarnished
22:30when he hears that Stalin's new palace of the Soviets
22:33will be taller than his domed people's hall.
22:44Do you know who I am?
22:47I am a successful worker
22:50in the construction of the Moscow metro.
22:57Like Hitler, the Soviet dictator suffers from delusions of grandeur.
23:03He, too, wants to remodel his capital.
23:08The mock-ups made by the regime's architects
23:10reveal a futuristic city not dissimilar to Fritz Lang's metropolis.
23:21To build his palace of the Soviets,
23:24designed to be the world's biggest structure,
23:27Stalin demolished Moscow's largest cathedral
23:31for nothing.
23:34Like Hitler's people's hall,
23:36his palace of the Soviets would never be built.
23:41In Berlin, Hitler overtakes his Soviet counterpart.
23:48He complains to architect Albert Speer
23:51that the Reich Chancellery is too cramped.
23:56Hitler wants a palace more imposing than the Kremlin.
24:02I need grand halls and salons
24:05that will make an impression on foreign visitors,
24:07especially on the smaller dignitaries.
24:12The cost of the project is immaterial,
24:15but it must be completed very quickly
24:18and yet still be of solid construction.
24:31The Chancellery is built in record time.
24:37Four thousand workmen toil around the clock.
24:45In January 1939,
24:48the new Reich Chancellery is ready for its occupant.
24:59Everything is oversized.
25:03The doors are three times as high as in a reasonably sized building.
25:08The Führer's own office is four thousand square meters in size.
25:19The pomp surrounding Hitler's power
25:22is in perfect harmony with its icy atmosphere,
25:26a symbol of his tyranny.
25:38The Reich Chancellery
25:48These monumental projects go hand in hand
25:51with the dictator's colonialization plans.
25:57Hitler and Stalin see colonialization
26:00as a means to expand their territory
26:03and perpetuate their power.
26:08Stalin uses the inmates of the Gulag
26:11to settle the most hostile regions of his empire
26:14and extract their resources.
26:18Eastern Siberia in particular
26:21is home to the largest gold and tin deposits in the world.
26:27To meet manpower needs,
26:30arbitrary mass arrests take place in every town and city
26:33in the Soviet Union.
26:36The prisoners are deported to the farthest reaches of Russia
26:39and reduced to slaves.
27:01Hitler had formulated his colonial aims in Mein Kampf.
27:06Lebensraum, or living space,
27:09would be erected on the ruins of the Soviet Union,
27:12as these propaganda images illustrate.
27:28The expansion of the Aryan race into Russia
27:31will necessitate the annihilation of the Soviet Union.
27:33And Russia will necessitate the annihilation
27:36of undesirable peoples.
27:47As for Stalin's monumental projects in Moscow,
27:50Hitler swears to put an end to them
27:53by killing two birds with one stone.
27:57Our invasion of the USSR, confides to his henchmen,
28:00will be the end of their building once and for all.
28:10Meanwhile, Hitler wants to unite
28:13all German-speaking people in a greater Germany.
28:17He has his eye on the Sudetenland,
28:20an area of Czechoslovakia with a predominantly German population.
28:25Czechoslovakia's allies, Britain and France,
28:27agree to let Germany take it over in order to avoid war.
28:33A treaty is signed in Munich on September 30, 1938.
28:42Stalin is not even consulted.
28:51He sees this as a diplomatic slap in the face
28:54and a warning shot.
28:58Because Hitler's cannons no longer face west,
29:01the USSR is in his sights.
29:08For the first time, Stalin understands that Hitler is a threat.
29:20Ten years after it was published,
29:23Stalin decides to have Mein Kampf translated.
29:26He can no longer ignore the Nazis' ambitions
29:29to colonize the Soviet Union.
29:33And to prevent them, he must find common ground with Hitler.
29:45The gang is summoned to an emergency meeting.
29:50Gathered round the dining room table
29:52are the main members of the Politburo.
29:57Kaganovich, Molotov, Zhdanov, Vorochilov and Mikoyan.
30:11Stalin is furious.
30:14The British and French want to encourage Hitler to attack the USSR.
30:18What's your plan? ask his comrades anxiously.
30:23To ensure Hitler comes to the negotiating table
30:26of his own accord, replies Stalin.
30:36Some dare to object.
30:40A heated debate ensues.
30:43By the time the gang leaves around midnight,
30:46Stalin has imposed his strategy.
30:55March 10th, 1939.
30:58To everyone's surprise, Stalin flatters Hitler
31:01at the 18th Communist Party Congress.
31:07He declares that the West will not be able
31:10He declares that the Western democracies
31:13are the warmongers, not Hitler.
31:19Portrayed as a man of peace, the Chancellor of the Reich
31:22is exonerated from all responsibility.
31:33Back in Berlin, Ribbentrop,
31:36the German foreign minister, has heard Stalin.
31:40He seizes this opportunity to convince Hitler
31:43that a pact with the USSR would be in the Reich's interests.
31:52For once, Hitler pricks up his ears.
31:56He wants to take over Poland as soon as possible,
31:59knowing Stalin has his eye on it as well.
32:04A non-aggression pact with the USSR
32:06would enable the two tyrants to share the country.
32:11Let's test the waters and see where it gets us, he declares.
32:21To please the Führer, Stalin suddenly dismisses Litvinov,
32:24his commissar for foreign affairs,
32:27because he is in favor of an alliance
32:30with France and Great Britain, and also because he is Jewish.
32:37Molotov is appointed in his stead.
32:42Stalin immediately advises him to go further.
32:45You should purge your commissariat of Jews,
32:48clean out that synagogue.
32:53In the summer of 1939,
32:56after six years of fruitless negotiations,
32:59Stalin's efforts pay off.
33:02Contact is finally established between the two tyrants.
33:07But just as the talks are about to commence,
33:10Stalin goes silent.
33:14In a position of strength for once,
33:17he makes the most of it.
33:22In his fortress in the Bavarian Alps,
33:25Hitler grows impatient.
33:29The invasion of Poland is planned before the onset of winter.
33:32To have free reign,
33:34the Führer must finalize a pact with Stalin without delay.
33:45On August 20, 1939, exasperated,
33:48Hitler sends a personal telegram to his Soviet counterpart.
33:55He insists Stalin receives Ribbentrop.
33:58Stalin again plays hard to get.
34:03He waits until the following day
34:06to let Hitler know he agrees to the meeting.
34:28August 23, 1939.
34:31Ribbentrop, the German foreign minister, arrives in Moscow.
34:43No one knows at the Kremlin apart from Molotov.
34:51To divert attention,
34:54Stalin has organized a duck hunt for the gang's other members.
34:58Ribbentrop is greeted by Molotov and Stalin in person.
35:16Hitler's anti-communist Germany
35:19and Stalin's anti-fascist Russia get along famously.
35:22The non-aggression pact is signed in record time.
35:27But most importantly, it contains a secret protocol.
35:33Following Hitler's planned invasion of Poland,
35:36the two dictators will share the territory.
35:41Stalin will also gain control of the Baltic states.
35:52The signing is celebrated with champagne and vodka.
35:57Stalin raises his glass and says,
36:00I should like to drink to the Fuhrer's health.
36:03He is an astonishing man.
36:06For many years now, we have been pouring buckets of shit
36:09over each other's heads.
36:12We must gradually accustom public opinion
36:15to the new relationship resulting from this treaty.
36:18As Ribbentrop makes to leave,
36:21Stalin is quiet and whispers in his ear,
36:24I give you my word of honor that the Soviet Union
36:27will not cheat on its partner.
36:33For his closest associates, who find out afterwards,
36:36the news comes as a huge shock.
36:39What?
36:42We've formed an alliance with the fascist enemy?
36:46It's a game to see who can fool whom, Stalin assures them.
36:51I know what Hitler's up to.
36:54He thinks he's outsmarted me, but actually,
36:57it's I who have tricked him.
37:00You'll see. We'll manage to avoid war for some time yet.
37:07At the Berghof, the champagne is cracked open as well.
37:15On the terrace, the court gazes at the sun
37:18illuminating the mountain.
37:21The last act of the twilight of the gods
37:24could not have been staged more effectively, remarks Speer.
37:28It looks as if it is bathed in blood, adds Hitler.
37:35Then turning to Goebbels, he says,
37:38this time things will not take their course without violence.
37:46One thing worries Hitler, though.
37:48It is rumored Stalin is Jewish.
37:52This is why he asks Ribbentrop for photographs
37:55taken at the signing.
38:00Hitler studies Stalin's face carefully,
38:03particularly his earlobes,
38:06supposedly a sign of Jewish racial identity.
38:11He sees they are not ingrown and Jewish.
38:14Hitler is reassured,
38:17maybe even charmed by his archenemy.
38:22That Stalin is a handsome brute, he declares,
38:25but I have to admit he is a devil of a man.
38:35The Führer is over the moon.
38:38Poland is now within his grasp.
38:40As for Stalin, he is waiting for the hostilities to commence
38:44to get his piece of the cake.
39:11September 1, 1939.
39:14The Wehrmacht enters Poland.
39:19Hitler has betrayed the Munich Agreement.
39:24This time France and Great Britain
39:27do not abandon their Polish ally.
39:30Their declaration of war on Germany
39:33marks the beginning of World War II.
39:41The fateful hour of 11 has struck
39:44and Britain's final warning to Hitler having been ignored,
39:47a state of war once more exists
39:50between Great Britain and Germany.
39:56Arriving at Westminster to hear the ominous decision,
39:59statesmen set a good example, now universally followed,
40:02by carrying their gas masks.
40:05Mr Churchill, as in 1914, is First Lord of the Admiralty.
40:11Hitler is shaken.
40:14He had not expected such a reaction
40:17from France and Great Britain.
40:22They will have to be dealt with seriously,
40:25brought to their knees.
40:29Stalin's strategy has paid off.
40:33An alliance with Hitler
40:36against the Western democracy.
40:38Stalin respects the pact to the letter.
40:41He supplies the raw materials demanded by Germany,
40:44but not only.
40:48One of the clauses of the German-Soviet pact
40:51guaranteed that German citizens who fled Nazism
40:54and who took refuge in the USSR
40:57would be sent back to Germany.
41:01The Soviets hand over 60,000 citizens of the Reich
41:04to Hitler.
41:07Mainly Jews.
41:10Yet Hitler had only asked for 20,000.
41:14Once back in Germany, they are all executed.
41:23The Fuhrer even comes across a flattering article
41:26in the pages of the Soviet daily Izvestia.
41:32Did Stalin himself write it?
41:37In any case, comments Goebbels,
41:40the Russians have kept all of their promises so far.
41:47On September 17, 1939,
41:50some two weeks after the start of the German invasion,
41:53the Red Army invades eastern Poland
41:56and the Baltic states.
41:59Defeated, Poland is soon carved up,
42:02plundered and slaughtered.
42:07The German-Soviet honeymoon
42:10is extensively staged by the two sides' propaganda machines.
42:15The old enemies meet at the border
42:18of their respective spheres of influences,
42:21exchanging smiles and handshakes.
42:27Joint military exercises
42:30with units of the Wehrmacht and the Red Army
42:33are even held on the borders of Poland.
42:37On December 21, 1939,
42:40as Pravda reports,
42:43Hitler sends his best wishes
42:46to his Soviet partner for his 60th birthday.
42:52Stalin promptly thanks him.
42:55He ends his telex with these words.
42:58The Soviet-German friendship,
43:01sealed with blood,
43:03has every reason to be long and lasting.
43:12May 10, 1940.
43:15Hitler attacks France.
43:34After just six weeks of fighting,
43:37France, one of the world's major military powers, surrenders.
43:45Stalin is worried.
43:49While the German army was busy on the Western Front,
43:52the USSR was safe.
43:56This lightning victory over France
43:59could encourage Hitler to turn his eyes eastwards
44:01again and attack Soviet Russia.
44:32From the balcony of the Reich Chancellery in Berlin,
44:35the Führer relishes his victory.
44:46Great Britain has not surrendered.
44:49But thanks to the devastating Luftwaffe air raids,
44:52it no longer poses a threat.
44:57Hitler is free to focus his attention once more
44:59on invading Eastern Europe.
45:14Spring, 1941.
45:17Hitler is back at the Berghof, far from the battlefields.
45:24His inner circle of Nazi leaders
45:26has joined him with their wives and children.
45:35Eva Braun, Hitler's mistress,
45:38immortalizes these moments with an 8mm camera.
45:57The Führer happily poses with Blondie,
46:00his German shepherd,
46:03but refuses to be filmed with his favorite dog,
46:06a black Scottish terrier,
46:09more suitable for a female companion
46:12than a man of his position.
46:16I cannot be seen in public with any dog
46:19other than a wolf dog.
46:22It is but a step from the sublime to the ridiculous,
46:24he says, by way of justification.
46:33The Germans are unaware of Eva Braun's existence.
46:38Hitler carefully cultivates his image as a single man,
46:41devoted to his country and mission.
46:47Although he admires Eva Braun's athletic figure,
46:50he reduces her to a decorative role
46:52and belittles her intelligence.
47:00To the architect Speer he confides,
47:04A highly intelligent man should take a primitive and dumb woman.
47:11Imagine if on top of everything else
47:14I had a woman who interfered with my work.
47:16Nevertheless, the Führer grew fond of his mistress
47:19without ever loving her.
47:30Hitler was only in love once in his life.
47:33Her name was Geli Rebal.
47:36She was his niece.
47:41In the late 1920s,
47:43when she was just a teenager,
47:46he had no qualms about being seen in public with her.
47:54But Hitler's possessiveness ended up destroying her.
48:03Locked up in his apartment, she sunk into depression.
48:14Geli Rebal eventually committed suicide
48:17with Hitler's own pistol.
48:29That night, on the Berghof's terrace,
48:32was Hitler thinking about the fact
48:35he was united in grief with Stalin?
48:38Stalin lost his wife, too.
48:41Nadia Alliluyeva took her own life
48:44because she could not stand living with him anymore.
48:51Geli died in 1931.
48:54Nadia in 1932.
49:01Hitler and Stalin share the same tragedy,
49:04but the comparison of their lives
49:07ends there.
49:10Hitler intends to renege on the German-Soviet pact.
49:13It's a game of deception.
49:21March 30, 1941.
49:24Hitler addresses the Reich army chiefs.
49:29The pact initially concluded with Russia
49:32does not mean we should have any moral reservations
49:34about attacking it.
49:37Stalin signed it with the aim of pushing Germany into war
49:40and forcing his Bolshevism upon us
49:43once he had bled us dry.
49:48It is now possible to crush Russia.
49:52It would be a crime against the future of the German people
49:55if I did not seize this opportunity.
50:05Hitler has every reason to be confident.
50:09In the space of just three years,
50:12he has conquered Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland,
50:15Denmark, Norway, Belgium,
50:19Holland, France and Yugoslavia.
50:27He is in no doubt that he can defeat the USSR,
50:30which he has coveted since the 1920s.
50:35Stalin had counted on lasting peace with Hitler.
50:41The wake-up call is all the more brutal.
50:48Hitler relied on an element of surprise,
50:52and the surprise would be total.
50:59The invasion of the Soviet Union,
51:01codenamed Operation Barbarossa,
51:04is launched on the night of June 22, 1941.
51:32At 4.30 a.m. Moscow time,
51:35Army Headquarters is inundated with telexes.
51:41Marshal Zhukov, chief of the Red Army's general staff,
51:44immediately realizes it is a large-scale invasion.
51:56The Soviet Union is in a state of panic.
51:59He calls Stalin at his dacha.
52:04Germany has attacked us.
52:08We cannot cope.
52:13On the other end of the line, Stalin is visibly shaken.
52:19After a long silence, he replies,
52:22Summon the Politburo to the Kremlin.
52:29The Soviet Union is in a state of panic.
52:40Glassy-eyed and with slumped shoulders,
52:43Stalin takes his seat among his loyal supporters at 5.45 a.m.
52:49Hitler doesn't know yet, he still thinks.
52:52It must be the doing of seditious German generals.
52:58The facts.
53:01The German ambassador has confirmed the news.
53:04It is war.
53:07Stalin sinks into his armchair.
53:11The German-Soviet pact was nothing but a smokescreen.
53:18Stalin refused to see the warning signs of the invasion.
53:23Until the very last minute, he placed his trust in Hitler.
53:26His alter ego.
53:29His best enemy.
53:55The end.
54:25To be continued.