1 00:00:43,285 --> 00:00:48,120 In the mountains of Southern Bavaria, on the slopes of the Obersalzberg, 2 00:00:48,290 --> 00:00:52,727 Adolf Hitler built his retreat - the Berghof. 3 00:00:56,732 --> 00:01:01,169 He would relax by watching feature films, on one subject in particular. 4 00:01:22,424 --> 00:01:24,483 - So it's war. - Unless we're quick. 5 00:01:24,660 --> 00:01:29,256 From China to Afghanistan, they're making one great confederacy. 6 00:01:40,042 --> 00:01:42,169 Good Lord! A machine gun! 7 00:01:54,122 --> 00:01:56,647 (HEAVY GUNFIRE) 8 00:02:10,439 --> 00:02:14,671 To Hitler, British rule of India was perfect proof of Aryan superiority. 9 00:02:25,487 --> 00:02:28,422 Later, in 1941, he said, 10 00:02:28,590 --> 00:02:34,119 "Let's learn from the English, who, with 250,000 men in all, 11 00:02:34,329 --> 00:02:36,456 "including 50,000 soldiers, 12 00:02:36,631 --> 00:02:39,794 "governed 400 million Indians. 13 00:02:40,168 --> 00:02:44,628 "What India was for England, the territories of Russia will be for us." 14 00:02:50,112 --> 00:02:52,580 Yet, in 1939, Hitler ended up at war 15 00:02:52,748 --> 00:02:56,707 with the country he most admired - Great Britain - 16 00:02:56,885 --> 00:03:01,515 and allied to the country he most wanted to colonise - Russia. 17 00:03:01,690 --> 00:03:07,287 How did he end up fighting what was, from his point of view, the wrong war? 18 00:03:11,533 --> 00:03:13,763 (SINGING) 19 00:03:24,813 --> 00:03:29,614 On 30th January, 1933, the same day Hitler became Chancellor, 20 00:03:29,785 --> 00:03:33,186 the Nazis paraded by torchlight in Berlin. 21 00:03:41,163 --> 00:03:46,100 After the years of unemployment, inflation and political uncertainty, 22 00:03:46,301 --> 00:03:50,601 Hitler promised Germany would be reborn, national pride restored. 23 00:03:50,772 --> 00:03:53,206 Germany would be a world power again, 24 00:03:53,408 --> 00:03:58,209 her foreign policy decided in a new way - by the desires of one man. 25 00:03:59,247 --> 00:04:03,206 Every true German, especially the Nazi Storm Troopers, 26 00:04:03,385 --> 00:04:06,786 now had to be obedient to the will of their Fuhrer. 27 00:04:08,356 --> 00:04:12,315 - Alles ist Reich! - (CHEERING) 28 00:04:57,906 --> 00:05:00,602 - Sieg! - Heil! 29 00:05:01,643 --> 00:05:04,203 - Sieg! - Heil! 30 00:05:05,413 --> 00:05:07,881 (SINGING BEGINS) 31 00:05:32,541 --> 00:05:35,840 Under Hitler, the German armed forces would have 32 00:05:36,011 --> 00:05:40,812 all the guns, tanks and planes they needed - and more besides. 33 00:06:21,723 --> 00:06:25,955 These armaments were paid for by a series of sophisticated loans 34 00:06:26,294 --> 00:06:28,387 which mortgaged Germany's future. 35 00:06:28,597 --> 00:06:33,500 The plan was masterminded by Reich Minister of Economics Hjalmar Schacht. 36 00:06:52,754 --> 00:06:57,714 Hitler wasn't interested in how Schacht worked this apparent economic miracle. 37 00:06:57,859 --> 00:07:01,818 In a typical example of how he dealt with subordinates, 38 00:07:01,997 --> 00:07:06,957 he simply told Schacht to get on with the job any way he liked. He later said, 39 00:07:07,135 --> 00:07:12,095 "I never had a conference with Schacht to see what means were at our disposal. 40 00:07:12,440 --> 00:07:17,104 "I restricted myself to saying this is what I require and what I must have." 41 00:07:22,617 --> 00:07:28,351 Hitler was obsessed with the survival of the fittest. Goebbels' propaganda films 42 00:07:28,523 --> 00:07:33,859 reflected this obsession. Hitler believed human beings were simply animals 43 00:07:34,062 --> 00:07:38,021 and that the strongest animal would always win. 44 00:07:38,400 --> 00:07:43,360 If his subordinates were strong enough, they would succeed without his help. 45 00:08:13,435 --> 00:08:18,395 Just as it was with animals, so it was with great men and whole countries. 46 00:08:18,573 --> 00:08:23,033 Hitler believed the entire world was locked in a permanent struggle 47 00:08:23,211 --> 00:08:25,839 in which the stronger must prevail. 48 00:08:26,014 --> 00:08:30,974 This was the theory he developed in "Mein Kampf", the book he wrote in 1924. 49 00:08:31,152 --> 00:08:35,953 In it he also wrote that the Germans were a nation who needed to expand. 50 00:08:36,124 --> 00:08:41,084 Like the British, they needed colonies. He was clear where they should find them. 51 00:08:41,429 --> 00:08:46,059 "We are putting an end to the perpetual German march south and west 52 00:08:46,234 --> 00:08:48,862 "and turning our eyes towards the east. 53 00:08:49,037 --> 00:08:53,599 "And when we speak of a new land in Europe today, 54 00:08:53,875 --> 00:08:58,835 "we must principally bear in mind Russia and the border states subject to her. 55 00:08:58,947 --> 00:09:02,405 "Destiny itself seems to wish to point the way for us here." 56 00:09:02,617 --> 00:09:06,053 In the years immediately after he became Chancellor, 57 00:09:06,254 --> 00:09:11,055 though he never publicly said he wanted to conquer the East, 58 00:09:11,226 --> 00:09:16,459 Hitler repeated his country's central problem - Germany wasn't big enough. 59 00:09:57,639 --> 00:10:00,267 Deutschland, Sieg Heil! 60 00:10:01,209 --> 00:10:04,440 Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! 61 00:10:04,646 --> 00:10:09,174 Hitler did openly announce one foreign policy goal. 62 00:10:10,451 --> 00:10:15,184 He wanted, as he saw it, to "right the wrong of the Versailles Treaty" 63 00:10:15,356 --> 00:10:19,554 by which Germany had lost territory at the end of World War One 64 00:10:19,727 --> 00:10:22,662 and was restricted to an army of 100,000. 65 00:10:23,031 --> 00:10:27,491 At that time, young people were enthusiastic and optimistic 66 00:10:27,669 --> 00:10:31,628 and believed in Hitler and thought it was wonderful 67 00:10:31,806 --> 00:10:38,177 to overcome the consequences of Versailles. We were in a very high mood. 68 00:10:49,490 --> 00:10:55,019 To help overcome Versailles, the Germans looked to the English. 69 00:10:55,230 --> 00:11:00,190 England and Englishmen were widely admired by the German ruling classes. 70 00:11:00,368 --> 00:11:05,328 They embraced what they took to be the ideals of the English gentleman - 71 00:11:05,540 --> 00:11:08,270 country estates and fox hunting. 72 00:11:19,254 --> 00:11:23,486 I always hoped... I always hoped that England - 73 00:11:23,658 --> 00:11:26,126 I'm talking to you as an Englishman - 74 00:11:26,294 --> 00:11:30,594 that England would see what Germany was planning to do, 75 00:11:30,765 --> 00:11:36,761 was building up too much, and would agree in sharing Europe, or whatever. 76 00:11:40,808 --> 00:11:45,245 Whilst the English may not have wanted to share Europe with the Germans, 77 00:11:45,446 --> 00:11:50,247 they did think some accommodation should be reached with their former enemy. 78 00:11:54,689 --> 00:11:57,157 The general view in Britain was 79 00:11:57,325 --> 00:12:02,456 that the French had imposed, and we had obviously been connected with it, 80 00:12:02,630 --> 00:12:06,760 too harsh a settlement on Germany in 1918 81 00:12:06,935 --> 00:12:10,234 and that this should be rectified. 82 00:12:11,839 --> 00:12:17,300 And to that extent there was a slight feeling we ought to have done better. 83 00:12:17,478 --> 00:12:22,916 If you call that a sentiment of guilt, all right. I'm not sure it was guilt, quite. 84 00:12:27,522 --> 00:12:32,482 The first fruits of Hitler's attempt to woo the British came in June, 1935, 85 00:12:32,660 --> 00:12:37,290 when a naval agreement was signed between Germany and Britain 86 00:12:37,465 --> 00:12:42,562 allowing Germany to rebuild her fleet beyond the level permitted by Versailles. 87 00:12:42,737 --> 00:12:47,697 Hitler said the day the agreement was signed was the happiest of his life. 88 00:12:54,382 --> 00:12:59,342 Hitler sought to capitalise by sending the Nazi who negotiated the deal, 89 00:12:59,520 --> 00:13:01,647 Joachim von Ribbentrop, 90 00:13:01,823 --> 00:13:07,193 to London as German Ambassador in the summer of 1936. 91 00:13:07,395 --> 00:13:10,853 The task was 100% 92 00:13:11,199 --> 00:13:15,898 to find a German-British alliance, 93 00:13:17,238 --> 00:13:22,938 because he had arranged before, quite well, the naval agreement. 94 00:13:23,277 --> 00:13:25,643 And that should be crowned 95 00:13:25,813 --> 00:13:30,375 by a German-English entente, agreement. 96 00:13:30,551 --> 00:13:34,282 And he... At the beginning, he worked on this. 97 00:13:35,656 --> 00:13:38,250 Ribbentrop was not a success in Britain. 98 00:13:38,426 --> 00:13:44,194 Not only did the British not want a treaty of alliance with Nazi Germany, 99 00:13:44,399 --> 00:13:46,697 Ribbentrop himself committed faux pas, 100 00:13:46,901 --> 00:13:51,361 like giving a Nazi salute to King George VI. 101 00:13:52,707 --> 00:13:57,371 No, Ribbentrop was regarded as not a gentleman, you know. 102 00:13:57,545 --> 00:14:02,448 And he wanted to be considered a gentleman. He was VON Ribbentrop, 103 00:14:02,683 --> 00:14:04,913 not just one of the rough Nazis. 104 00:14:05,253 --> 00:14:09,713 But I don't think that went down at all well even in circles which, 105 00:14:09,891 --> 00:14:13,850 on the whole, felt we must get on with the Germans. 106 00:14:14,028 --> 00:14:17,020 His mission was rather disastrous. 107 00:14:19,300 --> 00:14:23,760 Sometimes he shouted, sometimes he was furious, 108 00:14:23,938 --> 00:14:26,566 he threw pencils at the secretaries. 109 00:14:26,741 --> 00:14:31,678 So, privately, he behaved very simple and stupidly 110 00:14:31,779 --> 00:14:36,739 and very pompous. And the British don't like this - pompous people - 111 00:14:36,918 --> 00:14:41,014 and he was very outspoken and very loud voice. 112 00:14:43,491 --> 00:14:45,789 Goebbels said of Ribbentrop, 113 00:14:45,960 --> 00:14:50,920 "He bought his name, he married his money and swindled his way into office." 114 00:14:52,567 --> 00:14:59,564 Count Ciano, the Italian Foreign Minister, revealed that Mussolini had remarked, 115 00:14:59,740 --> 00:15:03,574 "You only have to look at his head to see that he has a small brain." 116 00:15:03,778 --> 00:15:08,579 Ribbentrop was loathed by almost all the other leading Nazis. 117 00:15:08,749 --> 00:15:11,377 They thought him a humourless upstart. 118 00:15:11,552 --> 00:15:14,020 And yet Hitler supported him. 119 00:15:14,355 --> 00:15:18,917 Hitler one day said, when Ribbentrop wasn't present, 120 00:15:19,127 --> 00:15:21,925 "With Ribbentrop it is so easy. 121 00:15:23,431 --> 00:15:25,729 "He's always radical. 122 00:15:25,900 --> 00:15:31,361 "Meanwhile, all the other people I have, they come here, they have problems, 123 00:15:31,539 --> 00:15:35,498 "they are afraid, they think we should take care, 124 00:15:35,676 --> 00:15:39,976 "and then I have to blow them up, to get strong. 125 00:15:40,148 --> 00:15:44,949 "And Ribbentrop was blowing the whole day and I had to do nothing, 126 00:15:45,119 --> 00:15:49,579 "I had to brake, give brakes there. Much better." 127 00:15:49,790 --> 00:15:54,557 (NARRATOR) Ribbentrop had a great insight into how to deal with Hitler. 128 00:15:54,795 --> 00:15:57,025 He knew that Hitler always smiled kindly 129 00:15:57,365 --> 00:16:01,995 on a person who came to him with a radical solution to any problem. 130 00:16:02,170 --> 00:16:07,130 Even if he didn't adopt the suggestion, he still praised the person who made it. 131 00:16:09,377 --> 00:16:14,371 This was an insight a more intelligent member of Hitler's regime didn't have. 132 00:16:14,582 --> 00:16:19,383 Hjalmar Schacht thought Hitler would listen to reason when he told him 133 00:16:19,554 --> 00:16:22,022 the German economy was overheating 134 00:16:22,190 --> 00:16:25,785 and armament production should be scaled down. 135 00:16:49,951 --> 00:16:53,887 Instead, Hitler was furious with his Economics Minister. 136 00:16:54,055 --> 00:16:56,580 Schacht was sidelined. 137 00:16:58,459 --> 00:17:01,917 The economy was now put in the hands of a man who, 138 00:17:02,096 --> 00:17:05,657 though ignorant of economic theory, was certainly a proven radical... 139 00:17:07,868 --> 00:17:10,166 Herman Goring. 140 00:17:26,887 --> 00:17:29,117 (CHEERING) 141 00:17:34,095 --> 00:17:38,896 He was, you would say, a jolly good fellow. Ajolly good fellow. 142 00:17:39,066 --> 00:17:41,057 Loved to show off. 143 00:17:41,269 --> 00:17:44,067 And loved rings and diamonds 144 00:17:44,238 --> 00:17:48,868 and had had funny hobbies. Loved paintings. 145 00:17:49,076 --> 00:17:53,911 And loved to live in luxury in Karinhall, which was near Berlin 146 00:17:54,115 --> 00:17:56,242 in the Schorfeide, 147 00:17:56,584 --> 00:18:01,453 where he built some kind of castle for hunting purposes. 148 00:18:01,656 --> 00:18:05,183 That was more than a castle, just wonderful. 149 00:18:05,559 --> 00:18:09,495 And, upstairs in the attic, he had 150 00:18:09,697 --> 00:18:14,157 an electric train built, various trains running around. 151 00:18:14,502 --> 00:18:19,132 He played there like a child. Loved, loved to be there. 152 00:18:19,940 --> 00:18:22,738 So therefore, besides being 153 00:18:22,943 --> 00:18:27,243 a true, dependable vassal to Hitler, 154 00:18:27,615 --> 00:18:29,981 he was a big child. 155 00:19:15,496 --> 00:19:18,056 What did Hitler want his new army for? 156 00:19:18,499 --> 00:19:21,059 At first it seemed the answer might be 157 00:19:21,235 --> 00:19:24,500 just to overturn the worst consequences of Versailles. 158 00:19:24,705 --> 00:19:29,506 In 1936, Hitler moved his troops into the demilitarised Rhineland. 159 00:19:29,710 --> 00:19:32,338 There was little international protest. 160 00:19:33,514 --> 00:19:38,144 Then at a secret meeting in November, 1937, he told his generals 161 00:19:38,319 --> 00:19:40,617 that Germany must expand to survive 162 00:19:40,788 --> 00:19:45,748 and announced that Germany's problem could be solved only by the use of force. 163 00:19:46,093 --> 00:19:50,723 Austria and Czechoslovakia were named by Hitler as the first targets. 164 00:19:51,799 --> 00:19:54,267 Leading generals were not enthusiastic. 165 00:19:54,535 --> 00:19:59,495 They offered sober objections to Hitler's ideas, not the applause he wanted. 166 00:20:00,741 --> 00:20:05,701 In three months, the War Minister and Commander of the Army were removed 167 00:20:05,880 --> 00:20:08,348 after personal scandals. 168 00:20:08,549 --> 00:20:13,316 Hitler took the opportunity to appoint the most radical Nazi of all 169 00:20:13,554 --> 00:20:18,287 as Commander-in-Chief of the German armed forces - himself. 170 00:20:24,832 --> 00:20:29,633 It was in the mountains above Berchtesgaden in Southern Bavaria 171 00:20:29,804 --> 00:20:34,605 that Hitler liked to dream of Germany's forthcoming greatness. 172 00:20:35,676 --> 00:20:40,545 He later said that his greatest ideas came to him in these mountains. 173 00:20:43,350 --> 00:20:45,750 In the afternoon he would go on walks 174 00:20:45,953 --> 00:20:50,583 between the great peaks of the Obersalzberg. 175 00:20:52,259 --> 00:20:56,923 He would return to the Berghof, a house run for him by Herbert Dohring, 176 00:20:57,264 --> 00:21:01,894 a member of Hitler's own personal guard, the SS Leibstandarte. 177 00:21:36,403 --> 00:21:39,839 At the Berghof, Hitler indulged himself 178 00:21:40,207 --> 00:21:44,667 by planning the great cities he would build in his new Germany. 179 00:21:44,845 --> 00:21:49,839 Herbert Dohring would constantly be folding and unfolding huge building plans 180 00:21:50,217 --> 00:21:52,685 so his master could dream his dreams. 181 00:21:52,853 --> 00:21:55,651 Sometimes it seemed Hitler did little else. 182 00:22:22,950 --> 00:22:27,751 When not dreaming of future German cities or of German expansion, 183 00:22:27,922 --> 00:22:30,789 Hitler would watch feature films - 184 00:22:30,991 --> 00:22:33,619 at the Berghof, always two a night. 185 00:22:35,996 --> 00:22:38,464 He preferred escapist entertainment 186 00:22:38,699 --> 00:22:43,261 and Goebbels always made sure there was plenty on hand. 187 00:23:35,255 --> 00:23:37,985 At the Berghof in the spring of 1938, 188 00:23:38,158 --> 00:23:43,095 Hitler saw an opportunity to take the first step in achieving a cherished dream - 189 00:23:43,263 --> 00:23:47,563 to bring other German-speaking people under his rule. 190 00:23:49,536 --> 00:23:54,064 He capitalised on political instability in neighbouring Austria, 191 00:23:54,274 --> 00:23:58,608 a country which had already come hugely under Nazi influence. 192 00:23:58,946 --> 00:24:02,905 After checking that no foreign power would interfere, 193 00:24:03,083 --> 00:24:07,520 he ordered German troops to cross the border. 194 00:24:08,555 --> 00:24:11,251 (CHEERING) 195 00:24:12,493 --> 00:24:15,121 (BAND PLAYS) 196 00:24:17,097 --> 00:24:22,296 The majority of Austrians welcomed the Germans into their country. 197 00:24:22,503 --> 00:24:27,372 They too had suffered as their empire was dismantled at the end of WWI. 198 00:24:29,576 --> 00:24:33,979 Now, united with Germany, they were a power once again. 199 00:24:48,996 --> 00:24:53,626 It was one of the nicest days of my life when we entered Austria. 200 00:24:53,967 --> 00:24:56,197 I was with Hitler in the sixth car. 201 00:24:56,403 --> 00:24:58,871 I had tears in my eyes. 202 00:24:59,039 --> 00:25:03,408 All my dreams of reuniting Austria with Germany. 203 00:25:03,577 --> 00:25:08,605 Don't forget, Austria was ruling Germany during 600 years. 204 00:25:08,982 --> 00:25:13,612 So for me, after the defeat of the year '18 and Versailles, 205 00:25:13,954 --> 00:25:16,422 for us it was a dream. 206 00:25:26,133 --> 00:25:31,594 I suppose a lot of people in England would say, "They are Germans after all." 207 00:25:31,972 --> 00:25:34,440 You know, if that's what they really want. 208 00:25:34,608 --> 00:25:38,635 But it was, after all, a pretty nasty sort of takeover. 209 00:25:53,393 --> 00:25:56,191 (CHANTING) Sieg Heil! 210 00:26:27,060 --> 00:26:29,392 I think we cried. 211 00:26:29,563 --> 00:26:32,191 Tears were running down our cheeks. 212 00:26:32,432 --> 00:26:36,528 When we looked to our neighbours, it was the same. 213 00:26:38,038 --> 00:26:43,499 And when Hitler came to me, I nearly forgot to give him the hand. 214 00:26:44,478 --> 00:26:46,605 I just looked at him... 215 00:26:46,780 --> 00:26:49,248 ...and I saw good eyes. 216 00:26:49,716 --> 00:26:52,310 And in my heart I promised him, 217 00:26:54,288 --> 00:26:56,586 "I always will be faithful to you." 218 00:26:57,457 --> 00:26:59,721 I kept my promise. 219 00:27:01,028 --> 00:27:03,622 All my free time, besides school, 220 00:27:03,831 --> 00:27:06,299 I gave to the work 221 00:27:06,466 --> 00:27:08,991 because he had called us. 222 00:27:09,169 --> 00:27:12,104 "You all..." He had said that to us. 223 00:27:13,073 --> 00:27:18,443 "You all shall help me build up my empire 224 00:27:19,546 --> 00:27:22,777 "to be a good empire 225 00:27:23,116 --> 00:27:25,584 "with happy people 226 00:27:25,752 --> 00:27:28,653 "who are thinking 227 00:27:28,822 --> 00:27:32,121 "and promising to be good people." 228 00:27:33,293 --> 00:27:37,457 (NARRATOR) But this was not going to be a "good empire". 229 00:27:37,598 --> 00:27:42,160 Heinrich Himmler, Commander of the SS, was one of the first Nazis into Austria. 230 00:27:42,369 --> 00:27:47,329 Like Hitler, Himmler thought himself a radical and a visionary. 231 00:27:51,511 --> 00:27:56,073 This former Bavarian chicken farmer made Wevelsburg Castle 232 00:27:56,250 --> 00:27:58,548 the spiritual home of the SS - 233 00:27:58,719 --> 00:28:03,679 the elite group which had emerged from Hitler's own personal bodyguard. 234 00:28:08,862 --> 00:28:11,490 (SOLDIERS SINGING) 235 00:28:22,643 --> 00:28:28,513 Himmler believed these were the superior beings who would crush Germany's enemies. 236 00:28:40,160 --> 00:28:45,097 Himmler fantasised that the leaders of the SS would meet in this room, 237 00:28:45,265 --> 00:28:47,563 like the Knights of the Round Table, 238 00:28:47,734 --> 00:28:52,364 subordinate only to their own King Arthur - Adolf Hitler. 239 00:28:52,572 --> 00:28:57,839 Here they would plan how to rule over their own empire. 240 00:28:58,845 --> 00:29:01,313 Himmler said in 1938, 241 00:29:02,582 --> 00:29:07,542 "Germany's future is either a greater Germanic empire or a nothing. 242 00:29:07,654 --> 00:29:12,114 "I believe that if we in the SS are doing our duty 243 00:29:12,292 --> 00:29:17,252 "the Fuhrer will create this greater Germanic empire, this Germanic Reich, 244 00:29:17,431 --> 00:29:21,629 "the biggest empire ever created by mankind on Earth." 245 00:29:21,835 --> 00:29:26,465 In Austria, the first territory of this new Greater Germany, 246 00:29:26,640 --> 00:29:30,940 the SS and the other Nazis revealed how they intended to rule - 247 00:29:31,311 --> 00:29:33,609 with intolerance and cruelty. 248 00:29:33,780 --> 00:29:38,581 Just as in Germany, the Nazis made the Jews their scapegoats. 249 00:29:38,752 --> 00:29:42,882 You were completely outlawed, no protection anywhere. 250 00:29:43,256 --> 00:29:48,216 Anybody could come up to you and do what they want, and that's it. 251 00:29:48,428 --> 00:29:53,388 Austrian Jews were forced to perform a variety of tasks to humiliate them, 252 00:29:53,633 --> 00:29:56,261 like scrubbing the streets clean. 253 00:29:57,404 --> 00:29:59,702 I once had to scrub the streets as well. 254 00:29:59,873 --> 00:30:04,674 Can't remember anything except that I saw in the crowd 255 00:30:04,845 --> 00:30:08,440 a well-dressed young woman 256 00:30:08,648 --> 00:30:11,276 and she was holding up a little girl - 257 00:30:11,451 --> 00:30:15,911 a blonde, lovely girl, you know, with these curls, 258 00:30:16,256 --> 00:30:22,354 and she was smiling, so that she could see better how that, maybe, 259 00:30:22,562 --> 00:30:26,862 a 20-year-old kicked an old Jew who fell down. 260 00:30:28,268 --> 00:30:31,635 They all laughed and she laughed as well. 261 00:30:31,805 --> 00:30:37,505 Sort of, how happy, that was a wonderful entertainment. 262 00:30:37,711 --> 00:30:41,909 The Austrian Jews were so persecuted that many simply fled, 263 00:30:42,282 --> 00:30:47,845 after, of course, the SS had robbed them of most of their money. 264 00:30:49,923 --> 00:30:54,553 17-year-old Walter Kammerling was seen off at Vienna Station 265 00:30:54,728 --> 00:30:56,855 by his parents. 266 00:30:57,030 --> 00:30:59,362 It's a nightmare situation. 267 00:30:59,566 --> 00:31:03,866 I remember leaving Austria. It was like in a haze. 268 00:31:04,037 --> 00:31:08,997 It was only days after that it struck me, when I wanted to talk to my parents 269 00:31:09,342 --> 00:31:11,537 and they weren't here. 270 00:31:13,713 --> 00:31:15,943 After the Nazi takeover of Austria, 271 00:31:16,283 --> 00:31:20,913 Adolf Hitler returned to Berlin to a tumultuous welcome. 272 00:31:28,562 --> 00:31:33,022 He was more popular now than he had ever been before. 273 00:31:34,835 --> 00:31:39,295 His new Reich contained over 80 million Germans. 274 00:31:39,473 --> 00:31:44,433 The humiliations of Versailles were almost forgotten, but not quite. 275 00:31:46,012 --> 00:31:50,972 In this euphoric mood, Hitler turned his eyes towards Czechoslovakia. 276 00:31:52,018 --> 00:31:56,819 He focused his demands on the Sudeten Germans in the border areas, 277 00:31:56,990 --> 00:32:01,791 proclaiming that they too, as Germans, should be under his rule. 278 00:32:03,029 --> 00:32:07,989 But not all German generals went along with Hitler's ambitious expansion plans. 279 00:32:08,335 --> 00:32:12,965 Some, like General Beck, were frightened that he was leading Germany 280 00:32:13,140 --> 00:32:17,634 into another world war. They secretly communicated this to the British. 281 00:32:17,844 --> 00:32:22,474 From then on, of course, Beck and that group of generals - 282 00:32:22,649 --> 00:32:25,447 they didn't represent all the generals - 283 00:32:25,619 --> 00:32:29,749 kept in touch with us by underground means. 284 00:32:29,923 --> 00:32:34,724 They used to come through me and it was the sort of thing of, 285 00:32:34,895 --> 00:32:39,764 "If only you and the French will stand up to Hitler, then we'll do something." 286 00:32:39,866 --> 00:32:44,826 And we said, "Hadn't you better start doing something and we can help?" 287 00:32:45,005 --> 00:32:49,135 But as Hitler went on having success after success, 288 00:32:49,476 --> 00:32:54,880 the possibility of this group of generals getting rid of him became less and less. 289 00:32:57,584 --> 00:33:00,018 As Germany threatened Czechoslovakia, 290 00:33:00,387 --> 00:33:05,017 the British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, tried to prevent war. 291 00:33:05,192 --> 00:33:07,660 The crisis grew as twice he met Hitler 292 00:33:07,827 --> 00:33:12,457 and on each occasion Hitler increased his demands. 293 00:33:14,601 --> 00:33:20,062 Finally, Chamberlain left for one last meeting on 29th September, 1938. 294 00:33:22,108 --> 00:33:24,804 When I was a little boy, 295 00:33:25,845 --> 00:33:28,075 I used to repeat, 296 00:33:29,115 --> 00:33:33,916 "If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again." 297 00:33:34,087 --> 00:33:36,555 That's what I am doing. 298 00:33:38,858 --> 00:33:41,088 When I come back, 299 00:33:41,428 --> 00:33:43,896 I hope I may be able to say, 300 00:33:44,064 --> 00:33:47,556 as Hotspur says in "Henry IV", 301 00:33:48,134 --> 00:33:53,663 "Out of this nettle danger, we pluck this flower safety." 302 00:33:54,874 --> 00:33:57,434 (CHEERING) 303 00:34:07,887 --> 00:34:12,085 Chamberlain sat alongside Ribbentrop, now German Foreign Minister, 304 00:34:12,459 --> 00:34:17,624 as the motorcade made its way to the conference hall in Munich. 305 00:34:29,009 --> 00:34:33,946 Finally, an agreement was reached, brokered by Mussolini and Goring. 306 00:34:36,116 --> 00:34:38,744 Hitler could have the Sudetenland 307 00:34:38,918 --> 00:34:43,719 as long as he promised this was his final territorial demand. 308 00:34:43,923 --> 00:34:46,585 Chamberlain, naturally, 309 00:34:46,793 --> 00:34:51,594 knew public opinion in Britain. That's not the Foreign Office's job. 310 00:34:51,765 --> 00:34:56,566 He knew public opinion in the Dominions, which mattered a good deal, 311 00:34:56,736 --> 00:34:59,204 and felt, I think quite rightly, really, 312 00:34:59,539 --> 00:35:03,168 that public opinion would not understand 313 00:35:04,210 --> 00:35:09,671 getting involved as an ally of France, so to speak, in a war with Germany 314 00:35:09,849 --> 00:35:14,809 in Europe, to prevent Germans being attached to other Germans. 315 00:35:16,222 --> 00:35:18,918 But Hitler was still disgruntled. 316 00:35:19,125 --> 00:35:24,085 Shortly after the agreement was signed, he was saying he had been tricked. 317 00:35:25,065 --> 00:35:29,934 I heard that... say... the day after the Munich conference, 318 00:35:30,070 --> 00:35:32,538 by some people who had been 319 00:35:32,706 --> 00:35:37,268 in the same hotel with Hitler or with his surrounding people, 320 00:35:37,610 --> 00:35:41,569 adjutants and so on, and Ribbentrop and so on, 321 00:35:41,748 --> 00:35:47,550 and they said that Hitler had the idea that he had failed to get his war, 322 00:35:47,721 --> 00:35:51,157 that he had taken... 323 00:35:59,132 --> 00:36:04,092 One German soldier took a home movie camera as he entered the Sudetenland 324 00:36:04,304 --> 00:36:09,264 and filmed scenes reminiscent of the victorious German entry into Austria 325 00:36:09,609 --> 00:36:11,975 just six months previously. 326 00:36:19,285 --> 00:36:22,152 German army officers were ecstatic, too. 327 00:36:25,125 --> 00:36:29,789 They now controlled the Czech border defences - the barbed wire, 328 00:36:30,029 --> 00:36:34,557 pillboxes and minefields with which the Czechs had sought to defend their country. 329 00:36:38,037 --> 00:36:43,270 The rest of Czechoslovakia now lay naked in front of the German Army 330 00:36:43,643 --> 00:36:46,339 and their Commander-in-Chief, Adolf Hitler. 331 00:36:50,917 --> 00:36:58,221 Hitler asked the ageing President Hacha of Czechoslovakia to Berlin in 1939 for talks. 332 00:37:00,193 --> 00:37:04,653 Hitler humiliated Hacha by keeping him waiting. 333 00:37:04,831 --> 00:37:10,030 He was busy that evening watching one of Goebbels' romantic comedies - 334 00:37:10,170 --> 00:37:12,638 "A Hopeless Case". 335 00:37:37,230 --> 00:37:40,324 - Papa, Papa! - Jenny! 336 00:38:01,387 --> 00:38:04,083 (SHIP'S HORN BLOWS) 337 00:38:13,633 --> 00:38:18,195 Hitler eventually saw Hacha at 1.15 in the morning. 338 00:38:18,371 --> 00:38:23,331 He announced that in a few hours' time German troops would invade his country. 339 00:38:23,510 --> 00:38:29,506 At 4 a.m., the distraught Hacha signed over the Czech people into Hitler's "care". 340 00:38:30,250 --> 00:38:33,219 As dawn broke, Hitler held a celebration. 341 00:38:33,386 --> 00:38:36,617 Manfred von Schroeder was there. 342 00:38:36,756 --> 00:38:41,716 That was a sort of private party and a sort of victory party with champagne. 343 00:38:41,895 --> 00:38:44,329 Hitler had his mineral water. 344 00:38:44,531 --> 00:38:49,491 It was amazing to see how he behaved when he was among his friends, alone, 345 00:38:49,669 --> 00:38:52,729 and hadn't to behave like a statesman. 346 00:38:52,939 --> 00:38:56,238 So he was sitting first of all like this. 347 00:38:57,677 --> 00:39:00,737 Everything here open, hair's like this. 348 00:39:00,914 --> 00:39:03,542 Drinking his mineral water. 349 00:39:03,716 --> 00:39:08,517 And then the interesting thing - talking like this the whole time. 350 00:39:08,688 --> 00:39:13,648 In the meantime, he dictated to two secretaries a proclamation to Germany 351 00:39:13,826 --> 00:39:18,286 and another proclamation to the Czechoslovak people 352 00:39:18,464 --> 00:39:23,265 and a letter to Benito Mussolini to be transmitted by the Prince of Hesse. 353 00:39:23,436 --> 00:39:25,734 All at the same time. 354 00:39:25,905 --> 00:39:31,275 I was a youngster of 24, so that's how a genius looks at home, you know? 355 00:39:32,712 --> 00:39:36,978 The German troops who assembled to cross into the Czech Republic 356 00:39:37,350 --> 00:39:40,251 were about to take a momentous step. 357 00:39:41,321 --> 00:39:43,789 This boundary post marks the old border 358 00:39:43,957 --> 00:39:48,417 between the Sudetenland and the rest of Czechoslovakia. 359 00:39:48,595 --> 00:39:53,396 By crossing this line, Hitler showed that his claim that he wanted only 360 00:39:53,566 --> 00:39:56,558 to unite German speakers was a sham. 361 00:39:56,769 --> 00:40:02,401 This country had never been German and had no German-speaking majority. 362 00:40:04,978 --> 00:40:07,606 This was an invasion. 363 00:41:11,310 --> 00:41:15,406 Gone were the cheering faces of Austria and the Sudetenland. 364 00:41:15,615 --> 00:41:20,416 This time the German military parade was watched by a silent crowd. 365 00:41:35,935 --> 00:41:38,995 Hitler visited Prague and its castle, 366 00:41:39,205 --> 00:41:41,503 the old residence of the Czech kings, 367 00:41:41,674 --> 00:41:46,634 less than 24 hours after he had first made his demands to President Hacha. 368 00:41:47,947 --> 00:41:51,906 Looking over Prague, Hitler was full of joy. 369 00:41:52,952 --> 00:41:57,582 But not all Nazi supporters were as pleased as their Fuhrer. 370 00:42:02,328 --> 00:42:07,095 That changed the whole history. It was clear Hitler was an imperialist 371 00:42:07,300 --> 00:42:11,669 and wanted to conquer whatever he wanted to conquer. 372 00:42:12,038 --> 00:42:15,007 It had nothing more to do 373 00:42:15,208 --> 00:42:19,167 with the self-determination of the German people. 374 00:42:19,345 --> 00:42:24,681 That was the sort of task one could accept, but this was really terrible. 375 00:42:27,653 --> 00:42:32,488 And, of course, this came as a great shock to Chamberlain 376 00:42:32,692 --> 00:42:37,493 because he thought at least Hitler would consult him before doing anything. 377 00:42:37,697 --> 00:42:40,359 It opened Chamberlain's eyes. 378 00:42:40,500 --> 00:42:45,460 It was rather like Saul on the road to Damascus, in some ways. 379 00:42:46,973 --> 00:42:51,273 The British knew that Hitler's next demand would be 380 00:42:51,444 --> 00:42:56,404 for the return of former German territory in Poland. Chamberlain pledged to resist. 381 00:42:56,582 --> 00:43:00,040 If an attempt were made 382 00:43:02,688 --> 00:43:05,156 to change the situation by force, 383 00:43:06,626 --> 00:43:11,256 in such a way as to threaten Polish independence, 384 00:43:13,533 --> 00:43:15,660 why, then, 385 00:43:16,002 --> 00:43:19,961 that would inevitably start a general conflagration 386 00:43:20,173 --> 00:43:23,199 in which this country would be involved. 387 00:43:24,443 --> 00:43:29,039 Hitler demanded the return of Danzig to Germany, 388 00:43:29,215 --> 00:43:33,515 a city that sat in the so-called Polish corridor of land 389 00:43:33,686 --> 00:43:36,655 between East Prussia and Germany. 390 00:43:38,224 --> 00:43:43,025 As the crisis intensified, Hitler retreated to the Berghof. 391 00:44:22,068 --> 00:44:26,027 Hitler's dream of a grand alliance with Britain lay in ruins. 392 00:44:26,205 --> 00:44:31,165 In its place he faced war with Britain and France if he invaded Poland. 393 00:44:31,344 --> 00:44:35,508 He needed a radical solution to his problems. 394 00:44:35,715 --> 00:44:40,311 (NEWSREEL) Von Ribbentrop leaving Berlin for Moscow ushers in 395 00:44:40,519 --> 00:44:45,547 a new, incomprehensible chapter in German diplomacy. 396 00:44:45,725 --> 00:44:50,685 What can Russia have in common with Germany to throw over the peace front? 397 00:44:55,801 --> 00:45:00,761 Since spring 1939, on the back of trade negotiations with the Soviet Union, 398 00:45:01,107 --> 00:45:05,737 the Nazis had been making tentative moves towards an alliance. 399 00:45:07,146 --> 00:45:11,776 On 23rd August, 1939, Ribbentrop signed a non-aggression pact 400 00:45:12,118 --> 00:45:17,078 with the Soviet Union, which protected Hitler from fighting a war on two fronts. 401 00:45:18,124 --> 00:45:22,584 A secret part of the pact guaranteed Stalin a share in the spoils 402 00:45:22,762 --> 00:45:25,230 once Hitler invaded Poland. 403 00:45:25,398 --> 00:45:29,767 Hitler was now allied to his ideological enemy. 404 00:45:30,136 --> 00:45:34,095 At the same moment as the pact was being signed in Moscow, 405 00:45:34,273 --> 00:45:39,233 Hitler stood with his guests on the Berghof terrace and stared at the sky. 406 00:46:14,747 --> 00:46:17,272 A Hungarian woman in Hitler's entourage 407 00:46:17,483 --> 00:46:21,317 looked at the sky and spoke to her Fuhrer. 408 00:46:53,419 --> 00:46:58,322 On 1st September, 1939, Germany invaded Poland.