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00:00Previously, on the last days of World War II, an unexpected opportunity was seized by General Eisenhower.
00:07Germany's last great defensive barrier, the Rhine, was finally crossed by Allied forces.
00:14Hitler launched his last offensive, but, exhausted and outnumbered, German troops were quickly defeated by Soviet forces.
00:22In the Pacific, American bombers unleashed a firestorm on Tokyo, destroying 16 square miles of the city.
00:30This week, B-29s attack Japan again. City after city is torched by incendiary bombs.
00:39Inside the Third Reich, desperate Nazi leaders take extreme measures to conceal their crimes.
00:46And Anne Frank, who has come to symbolise the suffering of the Holocaust, succumbs to typhus in a concentration camp.
01:00The 11th of March. Cloaked in darkness, nearly 300 B-29 bombers take off from the Marianas Islands.
01:24Their target, the Japanese city of Nagoya, the hub of Japan's aviation industry.
01:32Tactical innovator, General Curtis LeMay, has introduced new low-level night bombing tactics just two days earlier.
01:39Curtis LeMay was the kind of mean SOB that you need to win a war.
01:48I mean, you look at this guy's photograph, and he's always scowling, and he's got a cigar chomped in his mouth.
01:54He was ruthless. He was hard-driving.
01:56When he took over the 21st Bomber Command and the Marianas, one of his airmen said, this guy's going to get us all killed.
02:03There was a big moan, believe me.
02:05Like, oh, you can't, you've got to be kidding.
02:08This guy must be nuts.
02:09You know, what are you doing?
02:11It's our lives.
02:12But he was also imaginative. He was innovative.
02:15He wasn't sentimental. He would break with past practices.
02:18He was interested in what worked.
02:21And the new tactics did work.
02:23Incendiary bombs dropped from low altitudes proved deadly for the paper and wood cities of Japan.
02:28To reduce crowding over the targets, General LeMay divides his force into two groups, and attacks are set one hour apart.
02:40The bellies of the B-29s are painted black to hide them in the night sky.
02:45But tonight, the wind is light.
02:47Incendiary bombs scattered over the city fail to create the firestorms that torched the Japanese capital just 48 hours ago.
02:54Only two square miles of Nagoya are destroyed.
02:58Headlines boast, low-level strike equals that at Tokyo.
03:07But LeMay admits that the second airstrike has proved less effective.
03:12Nevertheless, he plans to continue the B-29 assault on Japan's other densely populated cities.
03:21The raids are intended to create fear in the hearts of the Japanese people and force the Imperial Command to surrender.
03:28This will make a ground invasion of Japan, which forecasters estimate could cause 200,000 U.S. casualties, unnecessary.
03:35LeMay gives the order, Osaka and Kobe will be next.
03:42The 12th of March, in an act of desperation, the Japanese government empties classrooms.
03:50All Japanese schoolchildren over the age of seven and their teachers are ordered to assist in the war effort.
03:56Some students are assigned jobs in warehouses.
03:59Others are sent to munitions factories.
04:02Twelve-year-olds are now making grenades.
04:04But for the Japanese, the worst is yet to come.
04:16The 13th of March, Osaka, Japan.
04:19The nation's second largest city.
04:21Population, three million.
04:23In the hours before dawn, three waves of super-fortresses unload 2,300 tons of bombs on the city.
04:33Eight square miles of Osaka burn.
04:363,000 people are killed and half a million left homeless.
04:39Japanese radar warning and fighter defence is inadequate.
04:50Firemen and rescue teams are overwhelmed by the destructive force of the firestorms.
04:54The U.S. bomber force that destroys Osaka returns almost unscathed.
05:07Only two aircraft are lost and 13 damaged.
05:11Now, the U.S. gears up for the final B-29 mission of the week.
05:15Their target, Kobe.
05:17The 17th of March.
05:19Kobe is Japan's sixth largest city.
05:21Population, one million.
05:23Shortly after midnight, 307 B-29s take off.
05:27They drop 2,000 tons of bombs on the city.
05:30The ensuing blaze destroys three square miles of Kobe.
05:348,000 civilians are killed.
05:37650,000 homes reduced to ash and rubble.
05:49Only three bombers are lost.
05:51But by the end of the week, the 21st Bomber Command is running low on incendiaries.
05:56LeMay launches one more assault on Nagoya's aircraft factories before halting the bombardment.
06:06Three more square miles of the city are torched.
06:09U.S. reconnaissance pilots observed the havoc wreaked upon Japan.
06:21The destruction is extraordinary.
06:23The fire bombings had pretty much leveled most of Japan's industrial cities.
06:33They were blackened wastes.
06:35You could see the fires down below.
06:37We firebombed Tokyo four times.
06:40Our plane did.
06:41In fact, you could see the fires for 50, 60 miles.
06:45At least.
06:46And you knew that you were burning out their city.
06:51You were taking out square miles at a time.
06:55LeMay's campaign is a military success.
07:00Strategists are now convinced air power alone could force a Japanese surrender.
07:05General LeMay later writes of the bombing campaign,
07:08it demoralized Japanese industry and shattered the military heart
07:12and whipped the populace into a state where they could, and would, accept the idea of surrender.
07:20We were able to bomb any place we wanted.
07:23In fact, they set the policy that we would name three cities
07:26and we say we're going to bomb one of those three
07:28so that the civilians would have a chance to get out.
07:32The firestorm was amongst the Japanese people.
07:35And to see those fires down there on the ground
07:39and doing what it did to them, it made you feel pretty guilty.
07:44And I remember a lot of times I'd come out on the runway
07:47when we were sitting there waiting for our turn to get in line and take off.
07:53And I actually felt hate for that airplane.
07:58And it was pretty, you know, pretty disturbing to know what you were doing.
08:05In Europe, the Allies advance across the right,
08:08the last natural barrier en route to Berlin.
08:14The German 7th Army desperately tries to contain the Allied bridgehead.
08:20Overhead, Allied bombers continue their raids against German factories,
08:24rail yards and infrastructure.
08:26One such target is the Krupp factories at Essen.
08:39The Krupp armaments factory was the centerpiece
08:42of German industrial munitions production.
08:45Iron, steel, it was a massive, massive complex
08:49that was absolutely central to the German war efforts.
08:53To knock it out, to damage it, to reduce its production
08:57would be a major blow to the German war effort.
09:03After churning out millions of shells,
09:06anti-aircraft guns, howitzers, tank hulls and turrets,
09:10the Krupp works are known as the Arsenal of the Reich.
09:12To maintain output, the Nazi war machine
09:15uses concentration camp inmates as slave labor.
09:19A fuse factory was established inside Auschwitz.
09:22It is estimated 70,000 prisoners died working for Krupp.
09:26The SS gave Alfred Krupp, the firm's owner,
09:3545,000 Russian civilians to work as forced labor
09:39in their steel factories.
09:40And more than 100,000 POWs worked in the coal mines.
09:49The 11th of March.
09:51Using nearly 4,700 tons of bombs,
09:53the RAF attacks the 2,000-acre Krupp works compound in Essen,
09:57the site of the main German war factories.
10:02Production at the plants grinds to a halt.
10:05900 German civilians are killed.
10:07Hitler has little means of resupplying his forces.
10:11Lacking supplies and ammunition,
10:13the German army grows increasingly desperate.
10:20Fear sweeps through the German population
10:22as they realize the vengeful Red Army will not be stopped.
10:28The 12th of March.
10:30Packed with refugees,
10:31the port of Schweinmund, north of Stettin,
10:34is hit by 1,300 Allied bombers.
10:37800 RAF bombers follow the next day.
10:40The docks are heavily damaged
10:41and hundreds of civilians are killed.
10:43As the smoke clears over the docks,
10:58Britain takes the destructive force of the bombings one step further.
11:02The same day, the RAF tests a massive new bomb
11:05in the medieval hunting grounds of the New Forest in Hampshire.
11:08At 22,000 pounds,
11:10the Grand Slam is the largest bomb yet created.
11:16As it plummets,
11:17the bomb passes through the sound barrier
11:19before burying itself deep in the ground.
11:23After nine seconds of silence,
11:25the delayed action fuses detonate,
11:27leaving a crater 130 feet wide
11:30and 30 feet deep.
11:31The elite 617 squadron,
11:34the Dambusters,
11:35is notified of the test's success.
11:41The 14th of March.
11:43Within 24 hours,
11:44the massive bomb would be bound for a target
11:46that has eluded Allied forces five times before.
11:49The Bailerfeldt Viaduct,
11:51a vital railroad nexus
11:52connecting the industrial Ruhr Valley
11:54with other major cities.
11:56The Grand Slam was developed
12:00by British aeronautical engineer
12:02Dr Barnes-Wallace of bouncing bomb fame.
12:05He developed the prototype for a 10-tonne bomb,
12:0825 and a half feet in length
12:10and, at its widest point,
12:12nearly four feet in diameter.
12:14Those assigned to assemble the bomb
12:15thought they were building a midget submarine.
12:18Others simply called it
12:19the Big Bastard.
12:23Its tail fins spin the bomb,
12:25which breaks the sound barrier
12:27as it falls,
12:28before burying itself
12:29more than 130 feet into its target.
12:33It was useful in that
12:35it could pierce great distances
12:37into the earth.
12:40It was an earthquake bomb.
12:45No aircraft, however,
12:46could carry its weight,
12:47so it was scaled down
12:49to the 12,000-pound Tallboy,
12:51which sank the battleship Turpitz in 1944.
12:53Meanwhile, the Avro Lancaster bomber
12:57was modified to carry massive loads
12:59like the Grand Slam.
13:01The Avro Lancaster is a heavy bomb.
13:04It was an outgrowth of another bomber
13:06that looked very similar to it
13:08that had two engines.
13:09So they hung two more engines on this
13:10and they became sort of
13:11the heavyweight standard of World War II,
13:14carry 24,000 pounds of bombs.
13:16By March 1945,
13:18the RAF has the plane
13:20to carry Wallace's bomb.
13:22And it has its target.
13:26300 trains cross
13:28the Balefeldt Viaduct every day,
13:30carrying supplies
13:30and reinforcements to the front.
13:32If destroyed,
13:34the German supply chain
13:35could be severely interrupted.
13:37But the viaduct was soundly built.
13:39More than a quarter of a mile long,
13:41the four-tracked viaduct
13:42has 28 arches,
13:44each with a span of 46 feet.
13:46The US 8th Air Force
13:51had already dropped
13:52more than 3,000 tons of bombs
13:54on the area
13:55during separate raids.
13:56But the viaduct
13:57had suffered only minor damage
13:59and was quickly repaired.
14:05The 14th of March, 1 p.m.
14:0816 Avro Lancasters
14:10take off from England.
14:11Two are carrying Grand Slams,
14:13the rest carry Tallboys.
14:14One of the two Lancasters
14:17carrying a Grand Slam
14:18encounters engine trouble
14:19and aborts the mission.
14:20A replacement aircraft is sent,
14:23but two more Lancasters
14:24are forced to turn back.
14:26The mission hangs in the balance.
14:284.30 p.m.
14:35Three and a half hours after take-off,
14:3714 Avro Lancasters
14:38are in position over their target.
14:41Cloud cover is low.
14:43Squadron leader Jock Calder
14:44must fly at 12,000 feet.
14:46He'd prefer to be at 20,000 feet.
14:48As Calder drops the bomb,
14:52the weight loss shoots the aircraft
14:54up 500 feet.
15:00After falling for 35 seconds,
15:02the Grand Slam makes impact.
15:04From the cockpit,
15:06all Calder can see
15:06is a spurt of mud.
15:08The earth spews dirt and smoke
15:10as the remaining Tallboys are dropped.
15:12As the smoke clears,
15:14the success of the mission
15:15is visible from the skies.
15:17Two sections of the viaduct,
15:19each more than 200 feet long,
15:21have disappeared.
15:25The Air Force made it possible
15:27to curtail the war
15:29because it made it possible
15:31to upset the infrastructure
15:32and therefore it was possible
15:34for the ground troops
15:35to move in more rapidly.
15:37The 14th of March.
15:38The loss of the Bailerfeldt Viaduct
15:40cuts German supply lines.
15:43General Patton continues his advance.
15:45His U.S. 3rd Army
15:47crosses the Moselle River
15:48near Koblenz.
15:49The U.S. 20th Corps
15:50attack from the southwest
15:52at Trier and Zarburg.
15:55The 15th of March.
15:57Attempts by the U.S. 1st Army
15:59to expand the Remargan Bridgehead
16:00meet with little success.
16:05In an attempt to secure
16:06the Rhineland
16:07and speed the advance,
16:08General Divas,
16:09commander of the 6th Army Group,
16:11launches Operation Undertone.
16:15General Alexander Patton's
16:17U.S. 7th Army
16:17is ordered to support
16:19Patton's forces in the north
16:20by attacking from the south.
16:23Two days after Undertone
16:25is launched,
16:26Supreme Allied Commander
16:27General Eisenhower intervenes.
16:30He orders Patton's 3rd Army
16:31to work its way down
16:33from the north
16:33and Patton's 7th Army
16:35to push up from the south,
16:36trapping the Germans
16:37in a pincer movement.
16:39Patch and Patton
16:40work out the details
16:42as they go along.
16:45As the Allies
16:46battle to secure
16:47the Rhineland,
16:48U.S. bombers
16:48attempt to knock out
16:49a potential source of power
16:50for the German war machine.
16:52The 15th of March.
16:57American planes drop
16:58nearly 1,300 tons of bombs
17:00on a thorium ore processing plant
17:02at Oranienberg,
17:0315 miles north of Berlin.
17:05The attack is an attempt
17:06to prevent German production
17:08of uranium.
17:09Across the Atlantic
17:16and veiled in total secrecy,
17:18scientists working
17:19on the Manhattan Project
17:20fear that Germany
17:21might have as much
17:22as a two-year lead
17:23in the development
17:24of a nuclear weapon.
17:26There was a big question
17:27in a lot of scientists' minds.
17:28Gee, we were working on this
17:29with such intensity
17:30because we were scared
17:32the Nazis were going to get it.
17:33The technology race
17:44is not limited
17:45to atomic energy.
17:47The Germans have developed
17:48superior tanks
17:49and more advanced aircraft.
17:52The Germans had introduced
17:53a revolutionary new weapon,
17:55a Wunderwaffe,
17:56they called it,
17:57and that was the
17:58Me 262 jet fighter.
18:01That was a whole new
18:03age of technology
18:05being introduced
18:06into air power
18:07and air combat.
18:09When the Allies
18:09first saw these things,
18:11they were mortified.
18:12A couple of times,
18:13I saw the jets
18:15streak drive.
18:17They were trying to scare us.
18:18They just streaked
18:19right on by.
18:20We obviously couldn't
18:21shoot them down,
18:22but they were letting us
18:23know they were up there.
18:24The jets are used
18:25to conduct air raids
18:26at Remargan
18:27to impede
18:28the Allied crossings there.
18:30I remember
18:31it came down so low,
18:32I could see the power
18:33of it in the plane.
18:34It picked me up
18:35and flew me through the air
18:37by 30 feet in the air.
18:39Though faster
18:40and more advanced
18:41than Allied aircraft,
18:42the Me 262s
18:44are not invincible.
18:46The 262s
18:47were too little.
18:48They were too late.
18:50The Americans
18:51discovered that
18:52although it was
18:53very difficult
18:53to deal with these planes
18:54when they were up in the air,
18:55they were very vulnerable
18:56at takeoff and landing.
18:57The fact is
19:01that there weren't enough
19:02to really scare us.
19:03It scared us
19:04because we knew
19:05they were fast,
19:06but we knew
19:06that we could
19:08with those P-51s
19:09maneuver
19:10and probably
19:11shoot them down.
19:12Allied forces
19:12managed to shoot down
19:14several Messerschmitt jets
19:15on their daily missions
19:16over Remargan.
19:17Nevertheless,
19:18the constant air attack
19:19and heavy traffic
19:20proves too much
19:21for one bridge.
19:22The 17th of March,
19:28the Ludendorff Bridge
19:29at Remargan
19:30suddenly collapses.
19:3125 American engineers
19:33working on the bridge
19:34are killed.
19:40Fortunately, however,
19:41they built
19:42several treadway bridges
19:43across the Rhine
19:44and those were
19:45the ones
19:46that took the heavy load
19:47after the Remargan
19:49Railroad Bridge
19:50collapsed.
19:51Several thousand troops
19:52are already
19:53across the river,
19:54poised for the final
19:55push towards Berlin.
19:56Meanwhile,
19:57about 300 miles east,
19:59the Soviets
19:59are extending
20:00their grip
20:00along the Oda River.
20:02The Red Army
20:03is also closing
20:04in on Berlin.
20:16The 13th of March,
20:18after bitter
20:19street-by-street
20:20fighting,
20:20the first
20:21Belarusian front
20:22under the command
20:23of Marshal
20:24Georgi Zhukov
20:25captures the
20:26Oda fortress
20:27of Kustrun.
20:28Kustrun is considered
20:29the gateway
20:30to Berlin.
20:31The Soviet conquest,
20:33just 70 miles east
20:34of Berlin,
20:35deals a major blow
20:36to the German
20:37defensive plan.
20:40The 14th of March,
20:42the Red Army
20:43succeeds in cutting
20:44off all communications
20:45between Königsberg,
20:46a small port city
20:47between Poland
20:48and Lithuania
20:49along the Baltic Sea,
20:51and the German forces
20:52fighting in the
20:53Bronzeberg pocket
20:54about 40 miles southwest.
20:57In Czechoslovakia,
20:59Hitler commits
20:59the remnants
21:00of the 6th Panzer Army
21:01to stem the Soviet advance,
21:04but Germany's depleted
21:05and exhausted formations
21:06are no match
21:08for the enemy.
21:08The 16th of March.
21:12Two days later,
21:13the Soviets regroup
21:14and launch
21:15a massive assault.
21:17The Soviets introduce
21:18two fresh armies
21:19to the fighting
21:19around Budapest.
21:21Piece by piece,
21:22Germany's empire
21:23in the east
21:23is falling
21:24into Soviet hands.
21:30The Soviets now
21:32hold virtually
21:33the entire
21:33Oda-Nisa river line
21:35as far south
21:35as Görlitz.
21:36The Red Army
21:37is 40 miles
21:38from Berlin.
21:39The heart
21:40of the Third Reich
21:41and Adolf Hitler
21:42are within
21:43Zhukov's grasp.
21:46As the Russians
21:47prepare to mount
21:48their final drive
21:49on Berlin,
21:50conditions inside
21:51the besieged
21:52German capital
21:53deteriorate rapidly.
21:55The 13th of March.
21:562,500 civilians
21:58die in Allied air raids.
22:00More than 100,000
22:01are now homeless.
22:02For the residents
22:04of Berlin,
22:05those final weeks,
22:06that final month
22:07must have been hell.
22:10A very dangerous
22:11place to be,
22:12obviously,
22:13with all of the
22:13shell fire going on.
22:15You see pictures
22:15of people living
22:16in apartments
22:17with no walls,
22:18people hanging up
22:19their laundry
22:19across the gaping
22:20holes in their houses
22:22and apartment buildings.
22:23So it was this
22:24very dangerous
22:25and subterranean
22:26existence.
22:27Much of Berlin
22:28was living underground,
22:29either in cellars
22:30or in the subway tunnels.
22:35Homes lie in ruins.
22:38Notes are sometimes
22:39left by the piles
22:40of rubble
22:40to tell returning
22:41soldiers where
22:42they might find
22:43their families.
22:47Concentration camps
22:48in the path
22:49of the Allied advance
22:50are ordered to relocate
22:51deeper into Germany.
22:52The SS who ran
22:57the camps
22:57began dismantling them,
22:59attempting to cover
23:00up their tracks
23:01to move the inmates
23:03out.
23:04Those that had been
23:04fortunate enough
23:05to still be alive
23:06were then sent
23:07on terrible transports,
23:09in some cases,
23:10marched or sent off
23:11in unheated boxcars
23:13to camps inside Germany.
23:15Now, camps that were
23:16meant to hold
23:1710, 12, 13,000 people
23:19were now holding
23:1940,000, 50,000,
23:2160,000.
23:22Conditions in the camp
23:23deteriorated.
23:24And, indeed,
23:25people were dying
23:27in large numbers
23:28from all sorts
23:29of diseases,
23:30scarlet fever,
23:31dysentery,
23:32pneumonia.
23:33People worked to death,
23:34starved to death
23:35in these places.
23:36They were just brutal,
23:37brutal places.
23:39Those unable to walk
23:41are often executed
23:42on the spot.
23:43The boys and old men
23:44of Hitler's home guard,
23:46the Volkssturm,
23:47are sometimes ordered
23:47to commit the murders.
23:51The Nazis continue
23:53the killing,
23:55literally right up
23:56to the last moment,
23:58with people transferred
23:59from the horrible
24:01death camps in the east
24:02to the camps
24:02inside Germany.
24:03But with the Americans
24:04and the British,
24:05just miles away,
24:06less than a day away,
24:08the SS continued,
24:10hangings, beatings,
24:11shootings.
24:12Heinrich Himmler,
24:14Hitler's loyal henchman
24:16and willing executioner,
24:17declares that prisoners
24:18will not emerge triumphantly
24:20from the ruins of Germany.
24:23Himmler was easily
24:25the most feared man
24:26in Nazi Germany.
24:29He had been a poultry farmer
24:31before he found a niche
24:32within the Nazi party.
24:33A small, difficult man
24:35given to obsessions,
24:37Heinrich Himmler
24:37was devoted to the Nazi myth
24:39of the Aryan master race.
24:42Aryans,
24:43this sort of Aryan stock,
24:44whatever that was,
24:45doesn't scientifically exist,
24:47but was embedded
24:48in Nazi ideology.
24:50Himmler wielded
24:51immense power
24:52within the Reich.
24:53He had managed
24:54to transform the SS
24:56from a relatively small,
24:57elite party organization
24:59into an organization
25:01that controlled the police,
25:03and not only of Germany,
25:05but all of occupied Europe,
25:06so that the SS really
25:09was the international police force
25:11rounding up enemies
25:12of the Reich.
25:14After setting up
25:15the first concentration camp
25:16at Dachau in 1933,
25:18Himmler greatly expanded
25:19the definition
25:20of those who qualified
25:21for internment.
25:23Himmler's SS-enforced laws
25:25and measures designed
25:26to protect and expand
25:27what Nazi pseudoscience
25:29termed the master race.
25:30The SS would move
25:32into Polish or Russian
25:34or other occupied areas
25:36and find young women
25:38who had those racial characteristics
25:41to be brought back
25:42to Germany
25:42to breed with SS men.
25:46It was pure racism.
25:49In January 1945,
25:51Hitler made Himmler
25:52commander-in-chief
25:53of an army group
25:54on the Eastern Front,
25:55although Himmler
25:56had virtually
25:56no military experience.
25:59On the one hand,
26:00he represents
26:00the cold, efficient bureaucrat
26:03that served the Third Reich.
26:05On the other hand,
26:06he is also this zealot,
26:08this ideologue,
26:09who pursues seemingly
26:11crackpot theories
26:12about the occult.
26:14But as the Third Reich
26:15disintegrates around him,
26:17Himmler would betray
26:18the one man
26:19to whom he had pledged
26:20utter loyalty.
26:22The 13th of March,
26:24against Hitler's direct orders,
26:26Himmler secretly signs
26:27an agreement with the Allies,
26:29promising a halt
26:30to camp executions.
26:31Himmler had begun negotiations,
26:33secret negotiations,
26:34very, very secret negotiations
26:36with different representatives,
26:37one from Sweden,
26:38about the possibility
26:39of a separate peace
26:41with the West.
26:43This was the hope,
26:44the slender, slender hope
26:46for some sort of survival.
26:51Offering cash
26:51and the freedom
26:52of 3,500 Jews,
26:54he seeks asylum
26:55for himself
26:56and 200 other Nazi officials.
26:58The Allies reject anything
27:00short of an unconditional surrender.
27:03The same day,
27:04Hitler leaves Berlin
27:05to inspect German troops
27:07along the Oder River.
27:08Hitler is adamant
27:09that Berlin be defended
27:11from the advancing
27:12Soviet army in the East,
27:13despite the overwhelming odds.
27:15Hitler designated several cities,
27:23especially on the Eastern Front,
27:24as fortress cities
27:25and ordered the men there
27:27to fight to the last bullet,
27:29to the last man.
27:30And while that may not
27:31have been the case,
27:33certainly those cities
27:33held out for weeks
27:35and in some cases months
27:36against superior Allied forces.
27:40Hitler, now feeble
27:41and the color of chalk,
27:43gives the command once again.
27:45No retreat.
27:47On his return to Berlin,
27:48not a word is spoken.
27:50Hitler will never leave the city again.
27:55The 16th of March.
27:57Three days later,
27:58Himmler feigns illness
27:59and retreats from the stresses
28:01of his military command
28:02to the sanatorium of Hohenlichen.
28:04As he is secretly betrayed
28:06by his most loyal henchmen,
28:08Hitler withdraws from public view
28:10to a subterranean fortress
28:1230 feet below the streets of Berlin.
28:16From his underground bastion,
28:18the Führerbunker,
28:19Hitler fights on.
28:21He has become utterly detached
28:23from reality,
28:24raving against the treachery
28:26and incompetence
28:26of everyone around him,
28:28blaming everyone but himself
28:30for Germany's predicament.
28:31Albert Speer,
28:41chief architect
28:41and minister of armament,
28:43remains one of Hitler's
28:44few trusted advisers.
28:46The previous day,
28:47Speer had sent Hitler
28:48a blunt memorandum.
28:50The final economic collapse
28:52of Germany,
28:52he writes,
28:53is inevitable.
28:54The end is near,
28:56merely four to six weeks away.
28:58As the Red Army
29:04closes in on Berlin,
29:05Hitler refuses to acknowledge
29:07the possibility
29:07that Germany will be defeated.
29:09His hope rests on armies
29:11that no longer exist
29:12and miracle weapons.
29:16The Kriegsmarine launches
29:17the first and only
29:18Mark 21 U-boat to sea action.
29:22With a giant snorkel
29:24breathing tube,
29:25the submarine is capable
29:26of making the vast voyage
29:27to Japan
29:28entirely submerged.
29:36Hitler,
29:37in his desperation,
29:38clings to the idea
29:39that another terror weapon
29:40might change the course
29:42of the war,
29:43the V-2 rocket.
29:47The V-2 is the first
29:50ballistic missile
29:52used in combat.
29:53It had a 2,000-pound warhead
29:56on the end of it.
29:58Not real good
29:59on the guidance.
30:00That is to say,
30:01they could hit a city
30:02with it,
30:02but you couldn't hit
30:04a city block.
30:07But you could sure
30:08hit London with it.
30:09And they did.
30:14Travelling at up to
30:153,500 miles per hour,
30:17Hitler hoped V-2s
30:19would rain down
30:19on his enemies,
30:20creating terror
30:21and destruction,
30:23forcing them
30:23to make peace.
30:24It subscribed
30:25a ballistic trajectory
30:27into the target,
30:28and there was no warning
30:29for when it came in.
30:31The first time
30:32you knew
30:33you were being hit
30:34with a V-2
30:34was when the warhead
30:35went off.
30:38It was more
30:39of a terror weapon
30:40than it was
30:41a weapon
30:42of military utility.
30:46Despite Allied efforts
30:47to eliminate
30:48all V-2 rocket launch sites,
30:50they are now operating
30:51from a racetrack
30:52near The Hague.
30:53The RAF is given
30:54the job of identifying
30:55and destroying
30:56the weapon's
30:57new mobile launch site.
30:59The V-2s are forced
31:00so far east
31:01that England
31:01is soon out of range.
31:05The 14th of March,
31:07Adolf Eichmann,
31:09head of the Reich's
31:09Race and Resettlement Office,
31:11continues his work
31:12of organising
31:13what is referred to as
31:14the Final Solution
31:15to the Jewish question.
31:17For 6 million
31:18European Jews,
31:19this meant death.
31:23Three years earlier,
31:25at an elegant villa
31:25on the shores
31:26of Lake Wannsee,
31:27in a suburb of Berlin,
31:29Eichmann,
31:30Reinhard Heydrich,
31:31then Chief
31:31of the Reich
31:32Main Security Office,
31:33and other mid-level
31:34Nazi bureaucrats
31:35convened.
31:37The meeting
31:37was a very important meeting.
31:38It involved something
31:39like 15 different
31:40ministries across the Reich,
31:42and it included
31:42railroad ministry
31:43and economics ministry
31:45and foreign ministry,
31:45so it was actually
31:47a fully organised
31:48bureaucratic plan
31:48to eliminate
31:49the whole Jewish population
31:50in Europe.
31:51At the Wannsee Conference,
31:53it was agreed
31:53to turn many concentration camps
31:55into extermination camps.
31:58Hitler believed
31:58that it was the historic duty
32:00of the National Socialist Movement
32:02to make sure
32:02that humanity
32:03did not take the wrong
32:04fork in the road,
32:06did not allow
32:07what they would call
32:08further racial degeneration.
32:10The Führer's order
32:12to murder
32:12an entire race
32:13of people
32:14would never
32:15be committed
32:15to paper.
32:18Some 30 camps
32:20were established.
32:21Auschwitz,
32:22Treblinka,
32:23Wolseck,
32:24Belzeck,
32:25Sobibor,
32:25and Chelmno
32:26were located in Poland.
32:29There are more
32:29in Germany.
32:32Others in Riga,
32:34Vilna,
32:35Minsk,
32:36Lwov,
32:37and Kaunus.
32:38The death camps,
32:44which were in the east
32:45like Treblinka
32:46and Sobibor,
32:46there wouldn't have been
32:47anything to see
32:47except piles of ash.
32:50The Nazis insisted
32:51that the operation
32:53of these death camps
32:53be kept secret.
32:55Secret for three reasons.
32:56One,
32:57they didn't want
32:58the Allies to know.
33:00Second,
33:01they didn't believe
33:01that even the German population
33:03would be ready
33:04for this kind
33:05of news.
33:07and third,
33:09it was important
33:09to keep the victims
33:10in the dark
33:11about what awaited them
33:12at the end
33:13of the train lines.
33:14The Nazi practice
33:16of mass murder
33:17can be traced back
33:18to its euthanasia program,
33:20designed to eliminate
33:21undesirable citizens,
33:23such as the mentally ill
33:24and physically disabled.
33:25It's a kind of extreme Darwinism.
33:33If you take Hitler's view
33:35of the world,
33:36it is in its crazy way
33:37quite coherent.
33:38And this kind of policy
33:39was actually carried out
33:40during the Nazi expansion
33:42eastward.
33:43As early as 1939,
33:45the Nazis had begun experimenting
33:46with poisonous gas.
33:48As an alternative
33:49to mass shootings,
33:51the Nazis turned
33:52into gas vans.
33:54Belzec was the first camp
33:55to have permanent
33:56gas chambers installed.
33:58Auschwitz-Birkenau
34:00would become
34:00the largest
34:01of the extermination camps.
34:07The Red Army
34:08liberated Auschwitz
34:09on the 27th of January,
34:111945.
34:11I saw children's shoes
34:17on big racks.
34:19Little boots
34:20arranged very neatly.
34:23That big for babies
34:25of 18 months
34:26or two years.
34:29Then some a bit bigger.
34:33All of them
34:35numbered
34:35and neatly arranged.
34:38Apparently they were
34:42prepared for transportation
34:44to Germany.
34:51I saw boxes
34:53of spectacle frames.
34:56Spectacles.
34:57All the people
34:58who wore them
34:59had been turned
35:00into ashes.
35:04At first,
35:05I didn't believe
35:06it was women's hair.
35:08A few tones.
35:11At that moment,
35:12at that moment
35:13I really suffered
35:18and I swore
35:19that until the end
35:21of the war
35:22I'd kill Germans.
35:27Those who did manage
35:28to survive
35:29the horrors of Auschwitz
35:30are thrust
35:31into the chaos
35:31of the East
35:32where waves
35:33of refugees
35:33are already
35:34on the road.
35:36where do they go?
35:39What do they do?
35:40And they just
35:41start walking.
35:42And so you have
35:43hundreds of thousands,
35:44millions of these
35:45displaced people
35:46who are undernourished
35:47and diseased
35:48and victims
35:49of concentration camp
35:50all milling around
35:51in Central Europe.
35:52In his Nuremberg testimony,
36:00Rudolf Hirse,
36:02former commandant
36:03of Auschwitz,
36:04would admit
36:04that between
36:04June 1941
36:06and the end
36:07of 1943,
36:08he gassed
36:09two million Jews
36:10on Himmler's orders.
36:13Rudolf Hirse,
36:14one of history's
36:15most notorious
36:16mass murderers,
36:17lived just outside
36:18the walls
36:19of the main camp
36:20at Auschwitz.
36:20He was known
36:22to count corpses
36:23with the cool dedication
36:24of a bookkeeper.
36:28It was he
36:29who ordered
36:29the use of
36:30Zyklon B
36:30at Auschwitz,
36:32a crystallized
36:32cyanide gas,
36:34lethal after just
36:35three to fifteen
36:36minutes of exposure.
36:39Hirse's gas chambers
36:40at Auschwitz
36:40were built
36:41to hold
36:41two thousand people.
36:43Hirse will be
36:50tried and sentenced
36:51to death
36:52by the Polish
36:52government
36:53in 1947.
36:55He will be hanged
36:56at the entrance
36:56to the Auschwitz
36:57gas chambers.
37:00The 11th of March.
37:02Sometime this week,
37:03a fifteen-year-old girl
37:04dies of typhus
37:05in the Bergen-Belsen
37:06concentration camp.
37:08Her name
37:09is Anne Frank.
37:10She would become
37:11a symbol
37:11of the human suffering
37:12inflicted by the Nazi regime.
37:16Anne Frank was born
37:17in 1929
37:18in Frankfurt.
37:20She was the second daughter
37:21of a Jewish couple,
37:22Otto and Edith Frank,
37:23whose families
37:24had lived in Germany
37:25for centuries.
37:27Anne was only
37:27four years old
37:28when the Nazis
37:28came to power.
37:30Her family fled
37:31to Amsterdam
37:31in 1935,
37:33but the Nazis
37:34invaded Holland
37:35in 1940.
37:45In 1942,
37:47on her twelfth birthday,
37:48Anne receives
37:49a red and white
37:49plaid-covered diary.
37:52Shortly afterwards,
37:53the family goes
37:53into hiding,
37:54living in a secret annex
37:55of Otto Frank's business.
37:58After two years,
37:59the residents
37:59of the secret annex
38:00are betrayed.
38:01And arrested
38:02by the Gestapo.
38:09It would have been
38:10very difficult
38:11for the Nazis
38:11to pick them up
38:12had it not been
38:13for the cooperation
38:14of Dutch Nazis
38:15and sympathizers.
38:20One Sunday morning
38:22in September,
38:2323 cattle cars
38:24carrying 1,109 people
38:26sets off
38:27for Auschwitz.
38:29Among them,
38:30are Anne Frank
38:30and her family.
38:32It was the last
38:33transport of Dutch Jews
38:34to leave for Auschwitz.
38:38By autumn, however,
38:40the Red Army
38:40was threatening
38:41to overrun that camp.
38:43Able-bodied prisoners
38:43were sent to camps
38:44further west.
38:46Anne and her sister
38:47were sent to Bergen-Belsen
38:49in Germany.
38:49On the 27th of January,
38:54their mother dies of exhaustion
38:56and starvation
38:57at Auschwitz,
38:58days before the Red Army
38:59liberate the camp,
39:01saving their father.
39:02Bergen-Belsen is a squalid,
39:09over-crowded hell
39:10containing more than
39:1170,000 prisoners.
39:14Drinking water is scarce.
39:16Spotted fever and typhus
39:18are endemic.
39:19The mortality rate skyrockets.
39:21And yet,
39:26at a German army camp
39:27barely two miles away,
39:29a fully stocked bakery
39:30is capable of turning out
39:3160,000 loaves of bread a day.
39:33The 15-year-old Anne Frank dies,
39:38just one of several hundred
39:40that day.
39:42She is buried with thousands
39:43of others in a mass grave.
39:48Four weeks later,
39:50on the 15th of April,
39:52the British will liberate
39:53the camp and force the guards
39:55to bury hundreds of corpses.
40:00Nearly 75% of the 140,000
40:03Dutch Jews perish in the Holocaust.
40:07Returning to Amsterdam,
40:09Otto Frank will rediscover
40:10his daughter's diary.
40:12Today, it has been translated
40:14into 67 languages
40:15and is widely read
40:17across the world.
40:23The story of this young girl,
40:26a teenager,
40:27whom everybody knows
40:28is going to die,
40:29and her reflections,
40:30has, of course,
40:31captured the world's imagination.
40:32And it tells the story
40:33of the hopelessness of people
40:35in that kind of situation.
40:39Next, on the last days
40:40of World War II,
40:42the race to Berlin is on.
40:45On the Western Front,
40:46the Allies have breached
40:47the Rhine
40:47and are now poised
40:48for the final drive
40:50into Germany.
40:50In the East,
40:55the Red Army is now
40:56just 40 miles from Berlin.
40:58The Russians are out for revenge.
41:03Germans had killed
41:0422 million Russians,
41:06laid waste to the country.
41:08This was a prize
41:09that the Russians
41:10were not going to be denied.
41:12The race for Berlin
41:15is an emerging battle
41:16of egos,
41:17will,
41:18and military might.
41:19the Corps
41:30are
41:32the
41:33of the
41:33the
41:33Bethlehem
41:35and
41:35the
41:36the
41:36Auft where
41:39of the
41:39Amen.
Recommended
41:40
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