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00:00On the staff of Army Group Center on the Eastern Front near Borisov,
00:27there are officers whose determination to change course has been growing since 1941.
00:39Forty-year-old Colonel Henning Fontresco comes from a Prussian military family.
00:48He enlisted at 16 and was a lieutenant in the First World War.
00:53He was a member of an elite unit, the 9th Potsdam Infantry Regiment,
00:58and he's highly respected by his fellow officers.
01:02He was that kind of person.
01:05The minute he came into a room, he became the centre of attention.
01:08Not because of what he said or because he was elegantly dressed or anything like that,
01:13but because of his manner, his clarity of expression, his analytical mind.
01:18And when he assessed a situation and gave his opinion, it was a pleasure, linguistically and in its content.
01:24A well-rounded personality, highly educated and highly intelligent.
01:28He was really very fascinating.
01:33Behind closed doors, Fontresco speaks frankly to his fellow officers.
01:37From the initial vague ideas about removing Hitler, a sophisticated plan emerges.
01:50Heinz Drussel also joined the 9th Potsdam Infantry Regiment in 1939,
01:56and he's later stationed in Russia.
01:59Like Tresco, he's a devout Christian.
02:03One day, he wanders off from his unit during a break and walks into the countryside.
02:07I came to a forest, and looked down into a valley that was encircled by hills.
02:19And I saw a mass grave, perhaps three or four meters wide, and 60 or 70 meters in length.
02:27The grave was filled with corpses, all dressed in clothing that was typical of Jewish people.
02:46More of them were kneeling, and behind them were soldiers in German uniforms
02:51with pistols or submachine guns in their hands.
02:57Directly below me, a little boy was standing.
03:02I would estimate him to be about six years old.
03:07He kept reaching for the person kneeling to his right.
03:12And the soldier, standing behind him, kept hitting his arm down rather brutally.
03:23When the boy reached to the right again,
03:25the man took his gun, shot the child in the back of the head,
03:30and kicked him into the grave.
03:43It was a turning point.
03:45The Nazi regime had forfeited any claim to his allegiance.
03:49Heinz Drussel doesn't see Russians and Ukrainians as the enemy,
03:55but as warm-hearted people,
03:57an experience shared by many other German soldiers.
04:03Not long after, Heinz Drussel is escorting a captured Red Army commissar to the rear.
04:09According to the commissar order,
04:11he will be shot in violation of international law.
04:13When we got to a place where we couldn't be seen from anywhere,
04:24and a path went off into the forest to the left,
04:29I said to him,
04:29Naljevo, left, go left.
04:32And he did.
04:35Was he...
04:36I thought about this a lot later.
04:38Was he thinking,
04:41Now's the moment when you're going to be killed.
04:44But I called to him,
04:45Don't be afraid.
04:47I'm not a murderer.
04:49I'm a human being.
04:57Tiny acts of resistance.
04:59Carelessness,
05:00misunderstanding orders,
05:02or ignoring them.
05:03And for a handful of officers on the Eastern Front,
05:10resistance means full-scale conspiracy,
05:13with all its consequences.
05:15Henning von Tresco's circle is soon discussing just one topic.
05:19How can Adolf Hitler be deposed?
05:21Or removed?
05:24But as long as the Wehrmacht is still winning victories,
05:26most remain loyal followers,
05:29against their better judgment.
05:31Why are so few prepared to take a stand?
05:33The files of the British Secret Service in London.
05:44Until recently,
05:46these files,
05:47discovered by historian Sönke Neitzel,
05:50were top secret.
05:53They're transcripts
05:54of private conversations
05:56between German generals and staff officers
05:58held prisoner by the British.
06:00The secretly recorded conversations
06:03make it clear
06:04why so few of the generals
06:06were prepared to oppose Hitler.
06:08They say it themselves.
06:11We have Hitler to thank for our success.
06:13He gave us our jobs,
06:15and we can't turn against him now.
06:17It was certainly significant
06:18that these people received no promotions
06:20during the time of the Reichswehr,
06:22during the Weimar Republic.
06:23and their careers
06:25only took off
06:26when Hitler came to power.
06:29They start getting promoted
06:30in the mid-30s,
06:31and then they make general.
06:32They join the ranks of the generals,
06:34and that impresses them,
06:35and they're grateful,
06:36and that makes them loyal.
06:37The Nazi state
06:43has purchased their loyalty.
06:46Trent Park, near London.
06:48All the German generals
06:49captured in the West
06:50are held here.
06:52The building is luxuriously appointed,
06:55and every centimeter
06:56is monitored by hidden microphones.
06:59A rear admiral
07:00and a colonel
07:01can speak freely here.
07:02They're high-ranking officers,
07:04but they don't see themselves
07:05as responsible for anything.
07:06That's what I mean.
07:09That's just what
07:10the senior Wehrmacht officers
07:11failed to say
07:12with one voice.
07:14We refuse to take part
07:15in these atrocities.
07:18They are a disgrace
07:19to the name of Germany.
07:21The view that did
07:22didn't fare too well.
07:25But if they had all just done so
07:26at the right time,
07:29for historians,
07:31it will be one of the great puzzles
07:32of world history,
07:33the fact that something like this
07:35was actually possible.
07:36This is a historic guilt
07:40of the German generals
07:41that together
07:42they didn't prevent
07:43these atrocities
07:44which began with the war.
07:46Bock, Mannstein,
07:47Leib, Rundstedt,
07:48they share the most guilt
07:50because surely
07:50only the upper echelands
07:52were in a position
07:53to defy the supreme commander.
07:55That should have happened
07:56in 1933,
07:581934,
07:59when it all began.
08:00when it all began.
08:05Most of the officers
08:05had no inkling
08:06of the coming disaster.
08:08On the contrary,
08:09on Potsdam Day,
08:10the 9th Infantry Regiment
08:12paraded for Hitler
08:12and his henchmen.
08:14They hoped that Hitler,
08:15the strong man,
08:16would give the army
08:17more money
08:18and more influence.
08:19Even Henning Fontresco
08:30had first welcomed
08:31Hitler's takeover.
08:33Many senior officers
08:34like him
08:34were carried away
08:35with enthusiasm
08:36for a new beginning.
08:38Only later
08:39do they realize
08:40that Hitler
08:40is capable of anything.
08:43The prisoners
08:43in Trent Park
08:44speak quite openly
08:45about this.
08:46The British Secret Service
08:51transcribe
08:51every single conversation.
08:54It's a colossal task,
08:55for in their enforced idleness,
08:57the prisoners talk
08:58all the time.
09:02Not knowing
09:03they're being recorded,
09:04they admit
09:05to their initial enthusiasm
09:06for Hitler.
09:09How healthy
09:10National Socialism
09:11was in the beginning.
09:13We worked like
09:13pack horses
09:14for the Nazis.
09:16A pity
09:16those boys
09:18had to commit
09:18such atrocities.
09:21At the beginning
09:22I always used to say
09:23oh it won't be that bad.
09:25You can't make an omelet
09:26without breaking eggs.
09:28I used to think
09:29they were just minor flaws.
09:31The oath to the Fuhrer
09:33was another flaw.
09:35Since 1934
09:36soldiers of the Wehrmacht
09:37had to pledge
09:38their allegiance
09:39direct to Hitler.
09:40It was both subservient
09:41and unconstitutional.
09:43Yet the Wehrmacht's leaders
09:44had suggested it themselves.
09:47The oath had
09:47far-reaching consequences.
09:49It made it difficult
09:50for most soldiers
09:51to question Hitler's orders.
09:54The captured generals
09:56also discussed
09:57the importance
09:57of the oath to Hitler.
09:58Do you still feel
10:03bound
10:03by the oath of allegiance?
10:07Yes.
10:08Well
10:08the oath of allegiance
10:11applies as long
10:12as the Fuhrer lives.
10:17Do you consider
10:18the Fuhrer
10:19mentally stable?
10:21You cannot allow
10:22a subordinate
10:23to determine
10:24whether his superior
10:24is mentally intact
10:25or not.
10:28Servility
10:29in the highest ranks
10:30of the army.
10:32The oath of allegiance
10:33meant something
10:34for a long time
10:35even for members
10:36of the resistance.
10:39The oath formed
10:40a very strong bond
10:41which was of course
10:43its purpose.
10:45And there were
10:46countless numbers
10:47of people
10:47who considered
10:48themselves bound
10:49by it
10:49to the very end.
10:50On the other hand
10:54one can only say
10:56to those people
10:57that an oath
10:57is a pledge
10:58made by both parties
10:59to each other.
11:01And Hitler
11:01broke his oath
11:02repeatedly
11:03with his crimes.
11:08Walter von StĂĽlpnagel
11:09took part
11:10in the war
11:10against the Soviet Union
11:11as a young lieutenant.
11:14His father
11:15General Karl Heinrich
11:16von StĂĽlpnagel
11:17has opposed
11:18Hitler's warmongering
11:19since the Sudeten crisis
11:20of 1938
11:21even if he still
11:23uses the Hitler salute.
11:25For him
11:25Hitler is a gambler
11:27leading Germany
11:28to disaster.
11:35In the summer
11:36of 1941
11:37General von StĂĽlpnagel
11:39faces a decision.
11:41He must show
11:41his true colours.
11:43Is he just furious
11:44about Hitler's
11:45military ignorance
11:45or is he appalled
11:47by the war crimes?
11:49StĂĽlpnagel
11:50is commander
11:50of the 17th Army
11:52which is invading
11:53Galicia.
11:56The Jews
11:57above all
11:58are the victims
11:58of the Wehrmacht's
11:59occupation.
12:01Behind the front lines
12:02the special task forces
12:03of the SS
12:04engage in genocide.
12:08Historian
12:08Christian Streit
12:09has documented
12:10how StĂĽlpnagel's
12:1117th Army command
12:12cooperated closely
12:13with the death squads.
12:14StĂĽlpnagel issued
12:18orders that
12:19fanned
12:20anti-Semitic
12:20feelings.
12:22At first
12:26StĂĽlpnagel
12:27toughened up
12:28orders that
12:28already existed.
12:30For instance
12:31when partisans
12:32were captured
12:33they were to be
12:34shot immediately.
12:35and acts of
12:40sabotage
12:41or even
12:41passive resistance
12:43should be
12:43crushed by
12:44so-called
12:45collective
12:45punishment.
12:46But significantly
12:54StĂĽlpnagel
12:56directed this
12:56order
12:57particularly
12:58at the
12:59Jewish population.
13:03He ordered
13:03that when
13:04reprisals
13:05were being
13:05planned
13:06they should
13:06seek out
13:07communists
13:07and Jews
13:08especially
13:10the Jewish
13:10Komsomol
13:11members
13:12of the
13:13Communist Party's
13:14youth
13:14organization.
13:15they should
13:19be considered
13:20instigators
13:20of guerrilla
13:21warfare
13:22and should
13:23be hunted
13:23down.
13:27Jewish
13:28Bolshevism
13:29a common
13:30enemy that
13:31unites the
13:31Wehrmacht
13:32and Nazi
13:32fanatics.
13:34StĂĽlpnagel
13:34gives the
13:35SS
13:35considerably
13:36more freedom
13:37of action
13:37than they
13:37should have
13:38had
13:38according
13:39to the
13:39original
13:39agreements.
13:43StĂĽlpnagel's
13:44orders step
13:45up the
13:45persecutions.
13:47He asks
13:47the SS
13:48to conduct
13:48reprisals
13:49against the
13:50Jews and
13:51demands an
13:51intensified war
13:52against
13:53international
13:54Jewry.
13:56The reprisals
13:58continue to
13:58increase in
13:59scale.
14:00Random
14:00sweeps and
14:01executions
14:01escalate
14:02into
14:03systematic
14:03genocide.
14:11But at the
14:12beginning of
14:12October 1941
14:14StĂĽlpnagel
14:15takes sick
14:16leave.
14:17He considers
14:17Hitler's
14:18assessments of
14:19the military
14:19situation to be
14:20completely
14:21unrealistic.
14:22He sees his
14:23soldiers being
14:23sent to their
14:24deaths without
14:25reason.
14:28StĂĽlpnagel is
14:28replaced as the
14:29commander of the
14:3017th Army.
14:31There is no
14:32written explanation
14:33for his
14:34decision.
14:36My father
14:37couldn't come to
14:39terms with the
14:40entire leadership
14:41of the war and
14:42so he had
14:42himself relieved
14:43from his post
14:44for two reasons.
14:46For strategic
14:47reasons and for
14:49political reasons.
14:51Was General
14:52von StĂĽlpnagel's
14:53conscience troubling
14:54him or was it
14:55just a difference
14:55of military opinion?
14:56He considered the
15:01treatment of the
15:02Ukrainian people to
15:03have been completely
15:04wrong.
15:05The Ukrainians had
15:06greeted German
15:07troops as
15:07liberators only to
15:09realize that Hitler
15:10would treat them in
15:10just the same way as
15:12he treated the
15:12Russians, as
15:13subhuman.
15:15And that's when my
15:16father said, I
15:17don't want to be
15:18part of this.
15:20Russians and
15:21Ukrainians are
15:22regarded as
15:23subhuman and
15:25especially Jews.
15:28Karl-Heinz von
15:29StĂĽlpnagel, the
15:29general who only a
15:30few weeks earlier
15:31had stepped up the
15:32persecution of the
15:33Jews, would soon
15:34join the ranks of
15:35the resistance.
15:37More than a
15:38million Jewish
15:39people are murdered
15:40in the Soviet
15:40Union, mainly by
15:42Himmler's SS.
15:47Colonel Henning
15:47von Tresco is now
15:49operations officer in
15:50Army Group
15:50Center.
15:55He's responsible
15:59for over a million
16:00soldiers.
16:01His strategic
16:02planning is meant
16:03to contribute to a
16:04rapid victory over
16:04the Soviet Union.
16:06But terrible crimes
16:08are committed in his
16:08sphere of
16:09responsibility.
16:11What is Tresco's
16:12attitude at this
16:13point in time?
16:14Historians cannot
16:15agree.
16:17Johannes Hörter has
16:18discovered documents
16:19that prove that
16:20Tresco knew about
16:21the murders.
16:22Did he try to do
16:24anything to prevent
16:25them?
16:26Could he have done
16:26anything?
16:32This series of
16:33reports from July
16:341941 lists in great
16:37detail the executions
16:38of Jews behind the
16:39front lines.
16:41They all cross Tresco's
16:42desk and their sign
16:44with his initials,
16:451AT, Tresco,
16:48operations officer.
16:50Some of Tresco's
16:51co-conspirators also
16:52initialed the
16:53documents.
16:54The documents I have
17:00found proved beyond a
17:01shadow of a doubt that
17:02at that time they were
17:04fully aware that
17:05hundreds and thousands
17:06of Jewish men were
17:07being shot.
17:09And they didn't do
17:12anything about it,
17:13even though they
17:14could have.
17:16For at that time it
17:17was still possible to
17:19limit the freedom of
17:20movement of Himmler's
17:21death squads.
17:22But they chose not to
17:25do so.
17:30Borisov in white
17:31Russia.
17:32During the advance,
17:33this was the temporary
17:34headquarters of Army
17:35Group Center, where
17:37Henning Fontresco
17:38played a key role.
17:43Over 50% of the
17:45population are Jewish,
17:47about 10,000 people.
17:48The ruined synagogue is
17:52the only sign of this
17:53today.
17:56In October 1941,
17:58Gottfried Reinhold,
17:59stationed here on a
18:00work detail, hears
18:01shocking rumours.
18:02Jews are being executed
18:11over there.
18:13I've got to go and see
18:14that.
18:16I still remember.
18:16I was devastated that
18:22someone could say that.
18:23one night in the ghetto,
18:27they round everybody up.
18:32I saw a truck with
18:36elderly people climbing
18:37into it, not really
18:39complaining, you could say.
18:41They must have guessed
18:42what was coming.
18:44And they were all driven
18:45there to some square or
18:48other, and they were all
18:49shot.
18:50under consent.
18:52Hardly anyone from the
18:53ghetto survived.
18:56Only little Yuri
18:56Saharievich managed to
18:58hide.
19:03From the stories my
19:04grandmother told me, I
19:07know that my mother was
19:08taken away from the
19:09ghetto.
19:14They took her in the
19:15night, and the next
19:18morning, they shot her.
19:24On October the 21st and
19:2522nd, 1941, at least
19:277,000 Jews were shot in
19:29Borisov, and many more
19:31died on the way to the
19:32execution sites.
19:36I saw a baby in the
19:38ditch beside the road
19:40that had been shot.
19:42All this happened at
19:47Colonel Henning von
19:48Tresco's front door.
19:49He knew about it.
19:52The persecution of the
19:53Jews has crossed the line
19:54to systematic genocide.
19:57Apparently, Tresco only
19:58now begins to take the
19:59crimes of the SS
20:00seriously.
20:02From here, it's a
20:03straight line to the
20:04assassination plans against
20:05Hitler.
20:08After studying the
20:09documents, this is what
20:10Johannes HĂĽrter believes the
20:12evidence shows.
20:17One of my conclusions is
20:19that they accepted the
20:20murder of the Jews at the
20:21beginning, but that
20:23changed in the fall of
20:251941, when the SS units
20:28begin killing women and
20:29children, too, on a
20:31massive scale.
20:36It's at that point that
20:38the moral outrage, the
20:39moral conscience, becomes
20:41stronger, and become a
20:45powerful motive for their
20:47opposition to Hitler.
20:55Others judge Tresco's
20:56behavior less critically.
20:58Historian Johannes Tuchel is
21:00head of the memorial to the
21:01German resistance.
21:02His job includes researching the
21:04military resistance.
21:05He believes too much
21:07importance has been placed on
21:08the new Tresco documents.
21:10This isn't the sequential diary of
21:17Henning von Tresco.
21:18These are highly speculative items.
21:22We have single documents, individual
21:24reports, on which there is a T Tresco's initial,
21:28next to a 1A, the initials of his position.
21:31That means he knew something.
21:34But please, show me the documents from which you can conclude that he approved of these things,
21:41supported them, or did anything more than just know about them.
21:45Finally, Tresco and a few of his comrades realized that the executions have taken on a new dimension.
21:55The claims that these measures have a military justification no longer hold water.
22:00It's simply about the extermination of the Jews.
22:07The conspirators have come a long way, from support for Hitler, to opposition, and then to resistance.
22:17In 1942, Tresco takes a momentous decision.
22:21Hitler must be assassinated.
22:23He and his co-conspirators first attempt to win the support of the field marshals.
22:29One of the most prominent, Erich von Mahnstein, is approached several times to join the conspiracy.
22:44His reply is devastating.
22:46Prussian field marshals do not mutiny.
22:50The generals held as prisoners of war in England see it as a missed opportunity,
22:55as the transcripts of their conversations show.
22:58When these civilians at home say to me,
23:04you generals are to blame, I just say,
23:08us? We didn't use him?
23:11It isn't our fault he became the legal supreme commander.
23:15We can't just inside mutiny.
23:17But then, who would mutiny?
23:31Only one active field marshal will listen.
23:34Field Marshal GĂĽnther von Kluge, Tresco's superior officer, commanding general of Army Group Centre.
23:40In March 1943, Hitler is expected on a visit to the front.
23:49It was clear that when Hitler came to the front, his security cordon would be largely ineffective.
23:55He could only travel with a few people, so it must be possible to kill him.
24:01So we thought about how best to do it.
24:04It was clear that he had to be shot.
24:07The plan was that during lunch in the officers' mess, when Hitler was to address all the staff officers,
24:15my brother would give the signal and then the officers who wanted to take part in the assassination would stand up and shoot at Hitler together.
24:24I'd kept Kluge informed. He'd agreed, even though it was dangerous for him, of course, because he would be sitting directly next to Hitler.
24:3524-year-old Philip von Böselager, seen here on the right, is one of the chosen assassins.
24:42However, one's conscience alone doesn't always provide the whole answer.
24:46Kluge called it off at the last moment.
24:49Originally, Himmler was supposed to accompany Hitler, but he cancelled at the last minute, and that's why Kluge called off the assassination,
24:55because he was afraid that it might otherwise result in a civil war between the SS and the army.
25:02Later the same day, Tresco's people make a second assassination attempt.
25:06A bomb is smuggled on board Hitler's plane.
25:12It's disguised to the bottle of liqueur.
25:14It's supposed to explode on his return flight from Smolensk to the FĂĽhrer headquarters.
25:19But the detonator fails in the freezing temperatures of the cargo hold.
25:23There are more assassination attempts, but they all fail.
25:27Missed opportunities.
25:31In the summer of 1943, the Wehrmacht is losing almost 15,000 soldiers a week on the Eastern Front.
25:36The superiority of the Soviets is becoming more and more obvious.
25:42The last German offensive near Kursk is abandoned.
25:46There is more and more senseless sacrifice.
25:50How can one escape this horror?
25:53Those who follow their conscience without compromising pay a heavy price.
25:57Heinz Drussel sees what happens to a comrade.
26:08A young soldier from Vienna, about 20 years old.
26:16He had been at the front for three days when he went to his ordnance officer,
26:21handed in all his weapons and told him he wasn't going to take part in this war.
26:30He's court-martialed.
26:36Drussel, who was a law student before the war, tries to get him to change his mind.
26:40I said to him, think of your mother.
26:47He answered, my mother will understand me.
26:51I am a person who was raised to respect human life.
26:58And if I take part in this war, then I'm compromising my beliefs.
27:04Please tell my mother exactly what happened.
27:16Drussel's efforts are in vain.
27:19His final suggestion, shoot into the air instead, isn't an option for the young soldier.
27:25He's sentenced to death.
27:26At 4 a.m. they came to get him, and I was allowed to go with him.
27:37He refused to be blindfolded and said a heartfelt goodbye to me.
27:48And then he was shot.
27:56Cases like the Viennese soldier, where men refuse to take up arms, are rare.
28:18The Wehrmacht fights on.
28:20Very few recognize the criminal nature of this war of annihilation.
28:23The propaganda talks only of victories, especially in the early years.
28:28The Wehrmacht had unbelievable successes that they showed in the newsreels.
28:34We saw huge prisoner of war camps with hundreds of thousands of captured Russians.
28:39600,000 near Kiev, stretching all the way to the horizon.
28:44And then the cold Russian winter arrived.
28:47We knew that people couldn't survive at 35 below zero in the open.
28:50There were hundreds of thousands of them, millions.
28:54And that was a life-changing experience for me.
28:57I said to myself, no, I don't want to be part of this war.
29:00I don't want to be part of the crimes.
29:02I don't want to kill anyone.
29:03I simply want to live.
29:05Ludwig Baumann is a sailor serving on the French Atlantic coast.
29:10The killing, horror and hardship of the Eastern Front are a long way from occupied France.
29:17Occupation troops and units transferred from the Russian Front for a rest, enjoy peaceful times here.
29:24Part of the reality of World War II.
29:26But Ludwig Baumann can't forget the brutal face of war in the East.
29:36For many, desertion is the only way to resist.
29:40Ludwig Baumann and a friend dare to do what others see as impossible or dishonorable.
29:46We broke into the armory and took handguns and ammunition.
29:52Then we left the ship.
29:54It was a sort of floating barracks that we could leave in the evening.
29:58The French were waiting around the corner with a truck.
30:02We got in the truck and they drove us to the border and then drove back that night.
30:07They flee to unoccupied Vichy France.
30:14They don't need to use their weapons.
30:17But they don't get far.
30:19At the frontier they walk straight into a German border patrol.
30:23Ludwig Baumann and his friend are court-martialed for desertion.
30:29We were sentenced to death in Bordeaux.
30:34The trial took 40 minutes.
30:35I was tortured during the interrogation and then in my cell on death row
30:41because I didn't betray my French friends and neither did my friend.
30:46After seven weeks my sentence was reduced to 12 years in prison.
30:52But they didn't tell us because there were other charges against us.
30:57I was on death row for 10 months.
31:01My hands and feet were chained night and day.
31:03Every morning when the guards changed I thought, they're coming to get us.
31:12And when they passed the cell I knew I was safe for another day.
31:16It was so dreadful that the trauma is still with me today.
31:20waiting on death row.
31:28German deserters share this fate with many Frenchmen.
31:32With the French resistance so active against German occupying forces,
31:36suspects are regularly brought before the courts.
31:40Death sentences are frequently passed even on the innocent.
31:43And hostages are frequently executed in retaliation for the attacks of the resistance.
31:48These so-called measures of atonement are announced on posters.
31:55Corporal Kurt Helke finds them deeply disturbing.
31:57In any case, these announcements, or rather the reports of the executions of the French resistance fighters,
32:13who were labeled terrorists, troubled me deeply.
32:16They made me think about what was happening, whether or not I could square it in my own mind, with my own beliefs, if I could condone it.
32:29For the time being, Kurt Helke continues to do his duty in Paris.
32:38But the time is coming when he will have to make a decision.
32:45It could rebound on me any day.
32:48I could find myself standing in front of a group of Frenchmen who are fighting for their freedom,
32:53and I would have to shoot them.
32:55That was intolerable.
32:56Almost 4,000 hostages are executed in France, and almost 70,000 Frenchmen are deported to concentration camps.
33:06Crimes against the civilian population didn't only take place in the occupied Soviet Union.
33:15Since the middle of February 1942, Karl Heinrich von Ströcknagel has been military commander in France.
33:20The same general, educated in the humanities, who joined the plot against Hitler in 1938, and who resigned his post in the Eastern Front in 1941.
33:30But he still dutifully serves the Hitler regime.
33:37For some months, until an SS officer in Paris takes over the task in June 1942, he's also responsible for the execution of hostages.
33:44He signs death sentences and has Jews deported.
33:50Karl Heinrich von Ströcknagel's son comments on the controversial role his father played.
33:57According to Hitler's instructions, 570 hostages should have been shot in those three months.
34:10Only 177 were shot.
34:13Kurt Helke finally makes a definite choice.
34:18As a teletype operator at the Navy's Western Command in Paris, he and two comrades form a resistance cell.
34:25The group has ties to the French resistance.
34:28Helke is given pamphlets calling for an end to the war.
34:31He distributes them everywhere German soldiers are to be found.
34:34We handed them out however we could, in soldiers' barracks and soldiers' cinemas.
34:48We left them in vehicles and in parked trucks.
34:54If the window was a bit open, we would throw them in.
34:58And because the Metro was used a lot by the soldiers, we put them in the Metro.
35:10Opposition from below.
35:13A handful of men and women who can't guess that General Karl Heinrich von Ströcknagel, their commanding officer in Paris, is pursuing goals similar to theirs.
35:21Even while he's still responsible for the execution of French hostages, he's in contact with the resistance within the Wehrmacht.
35:30They are still plotting Hitler's overthrow in spite of all the failures.
35:35And the driving force of the conspiracy is Colonel Henning von Tröcknagel.
35:42In the summer of 1943, he's temporarily transferred to Berlin.
35:46In the capital city, he makes further contacts with the civilian resistance and like-minded officers.
35:55Since September 1943, Klaus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg is one of them.
36:00He's a staff officer in the reserve army, based in their central Berlin headquarters, the Bendler bloc.
36:05All of the troops that are not at the front belong to the reserve army, among them the powerful occupying forces in France.
36:15At this time, Tresco's office is also located in the Bendler bloc.
36:20In the staff of the reserve army, Stauffenberg is responsible for writing emergency orders for the entire force.
36:26The code word Valkyrie will trigger their dispatch from Berlin, as emergency measures to quell domestic unrest.
36:35Stauffenberg and Tresco change the orders.
36:38The new version authorizes the reserve army to march against the SS and every party office, even in the occupied territories, should Hitler be assassinated.
36:47In June 1944, Allied troops land in Normandy.
37:01Military defeat is imminent.
37:03The conspirators are forced to act.
37:08Henning von Tresco is promoted to Major General and is transferred back to the Eastern Front in command of a division.
37:14In his new position, he's unable to intervene in the plot in Berlin.
37:19But since the invasion, he's been urging the others to act.
37:23There's not much time left.
37:25There are still far too few conspirators.
37:28But that's not what matters to Tresco.
37:31He says,
37:33The assassination must take place, whatever the cost.
37:37The essential point is not the practical aim,
37:40but that the German resistance dared to take the decisive gamble before the world and before history.
37:50Words of a lonely hero.
37:53But there is a practical aim.
37:55Only Hitler's death can secure a truce with the Western allies and allow the Eastern Front to be held.
38:00Hitler is at his headquarters, the Wolf's Lair.
38:04Stauffenberg decides to plant the bomb himself.
38:07Then he'll fly back to Berlin to direct the coup d'etat.
38:11At Trent Park, German generals and colonels speak openly about Stauffenberg.
38:16In the wake of the assassination attempt, they're torn between admiration and surprise.
38:25What a man.
38:27A noble, decent human being.
38:34A man with principles.
38:36The model of a decent, intelligent, general staff officer.
38:40A man with the welfare of his troops at heart.
38:42One couldn't have wished for a better and more intelligent staff officer.
38:48It was a pleasure to have worked with a man like him, back then.
38:5720th of July, 1944.
38:59Hitler's headquarters, shortly before 1pm.
39:01Staufenberg, the would-be assassin, returns to Berlin.
39:04From his office in the Bendler block, he means to issue orders to arrest all of Hitler's main party cronies.
39:174.30pm, the Valkyrie order is dispatched to every office of the Wehrmacht with the following declaration.
39:24The FĂĽhrer, Adolf Hitler, is dead.
39:27In this hour of extreme danger, the government of the Reich has imposed a state of emergency,
39:32in order to maintain law and order.
39:35In Paris, General von Strucknagel waits impatiently for news.
39:40He's in the know and ready to follow the conspirators.
39:43In his area of jurisdiction, he plans to disarm the SS and the rest of Hitler's loyal power base.
39:47He's just waiting for the signal to act.
39:55But Hitler is alive, as all the conspirators in Berlin now know.
40:03In Paris, von Strucknagel begins to take the measures called for in the Valkyrie order,
40:08arresting the SS and the party's security service, the SD.
40:11The coup d'etat is supposed to function just like this in every military district of the Reich.
40:21Strucknagel's superior is the man who was ready to go along with assassination plans a year before,
40:27Field Marshal Gunther von Kluge, now Commander-in-Chief West.
40:30Together with Caesar von Hofacker, Stauffenberg's cousin, Strucknagel goes to Kluge's headquarters on the evening of July the 20th.
40:47If the coup succeeds, at least in Paris, it could be the beginning of the end of the Nazi regime.
40:52My father and Hofacker had a meeting with Kluge, who in the meantime knew for sure that Hitler was alive.
41:07My father and Hofacker tried to persuade him to join them.
41:13But then came that famous sentence of his,
41:17Yes, if only the bastard were dead.
41:20Gunther von Kluge turns them down.
41:24Perhaps he believes that a coup can only lead to chaos,
41:27or perhaps he wants to save his own skin.
41:29In the course of the war, Kluge had been entirely ready to move towards the opposition, or even the resistance.
41:41But they had to be successful.
41:44He didn't want to go down in history as a traitor.
41:48That is a motive among these high-ranking generals that one shouldn't underestimate.
41:54It wasn't just Kluge.
42:01All the field marshals refused to participate in the resistance when it counted.
42:05Together they could have saved millions of lives lost in the final months of the war.
42:10There were as many victims in the last ten months of the war as there had been in the previous five years.
42:15The Wehrmacht, as an instrument of resistance, would remain the dream of a handful of hopeful conspirators.
42:30It was because there were too few people opposing Hitler.
42:35If you think about the other questions that have been asked,
42:39why didn't the Prussian officers do it better?
42:43My counter-argument is this.
42:46How could they do it better when there were so few of them?
42:54And yet for a long time, it seemed as if the esprit de corps, the bond between the generals and senior officers,
43:00might achieve something against Hitler and his followers.
43:03No one betrayed the conspirators, even though very many people were in the know.
43:13However, within the Wehrmacht, that loyalty was only enough to guarantee silence, not to act.
43:19Some of the officers at Trent Park expressed their surprise at this lack of resolve.
43:25Most of the army knew about the 20th of July, you know?
43:29No, no.
43:31It was discussed incredibly often.
43:38No, I don't believe that.
43:40They even consulted the commanders of the individual armies beforehand.
43:47The situation of the plotters in Berlin is hopeless.
43:50Later in the evening of July the 20th, Stauffenberg and three of his co-conspirators are executed at the Bendler block.
44:07Fire!
44:08Fire!
44:18Henning Fontresco, long the leader of the resistance within the Wehrmacht, learns only the next morning that the coup d'etat has failed.
44:25In the papers he left behind, he wrote,
44:36I played for high stakes.
44:39If you lose a trick like that, you have to take the consequences.
44:46Henning Fontresco was no saint but a child of his times.
44:48Above all, he wanted to serve his country, first as a supporter of Hitler, then as his bitter adversary.
44:56He was the exception among the generals.
44:59Many of them were against Hitler when defeat became inevitable, but few chose active resistance.
45:05And only a small number of individuals became conspirators on moral grounds because of the millions of murders.
45:12Men like Henning Fontresco.
45:16When his conscience forced him to, he put his life on the line.
45:19He knew that he had at least made his mark.
45:25Karl Heinrich von StĂĽlpnagel is dismissed.
45:31By the time he finally, openly, took the side of the assassins, accepting the risks involved, it was already too late.
45:36Beside the mass near Verdun, StĂĽlpnagel reaches for his service pistol.
45:49The suicide attempt fails.
45:51StĂĽlpnagel is blinded.
45:53He's nursed back to health and is executed by hanging at Plötzensee in Berlin, like many of the other conspirators.
46:00Hitler takes bloody revenge.
46:04Almost 200 conspirators are executed, among the many officers from the 9th Potsdam Infantry Regiment.
46:13The resistance to Hitler has failed.
46:16And those officers who close their eyes to the crimes of the Nazi regime can do nothing to prevent the final defeat.
46:22But by then the war has claimed millions more lives.
46:25And you can see the final part of Wehrmacht at the same time tomorrow on the History Channel, part of Frontline.
46:38Next today, the battlefield detectives investigate how Israel defeated the combined forces of Egypt, Syria and Jordan during the Six-Day War.
46:46The Six-Day War
46:47The Six-Day War
46:50The Six-Day War
46:51The Six-Day War
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