- 5/15/2025
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00:00During the 1930s, the ownership of cine cameras became widespread across Germany.
00:14This was welcomed by the Nazis because it allowed ordinary people to record their thousand-year
00:19Reich.
00:22With history being made all around them, many Germans couldn't wait to load their cine
00:27cameras and begin filming.
00:34Others preferred to record their thoughts in the time-honored form of the personal diary.
00:45After many decades of these diaries and films being hidden away, they are starting to find
00:50a light of day as new generations come to terms with Germany's Nazi past.
00:59What emerges is a unique insight into life under the swastika, a record that starts with
01:05optimism bordering on hubris.
01:08Few know it yet, but by the end of 1941, Nazi Germany is teetering on the brink of catastrophe.
01:20Christmas traditions are precious for Germans, who gave the world the Christmas tree and
01:36some of its favourite carols, a time for family, frivolity and fun.
01:42These are glimpses of small human moments in between the grand sweep of war.
01:48This is the Berscher family from Berlin, putting on a Christmas display, lovingly captured
01:54by husband Hans.
02:06The traditions of the Christmas tree that is a tradition you share as a German and that's
02:12something very problematic too.
02:14When you see it used in the same context that you're familiar with, it feels almost
02:20like everything was misappropriated by the Nazis and it's your own culture that you
02:25share with them because it's the most important family gathering of the year.
02:31I don't know, they look very pleased with themselves in a staged way to me.
02:37It looks like there was a certain purpose somehow to this film.
02:41I think when you look at photographs or films from that period, you get these in-between
02:47moments that make you realise seemingly banal scenes of celebrating Christmas.
02:53You understand that not everything about that time was about Nazi ideology or the war, that
02:59of course people lived their lives and because of that it was probably not always apparent
03:06to them that many decisions they made on an everyday basis were political decisions.
03:12The gender roles, woman is knitting something, man is reading in the train set, everything's
03:25under control, is meant to signify that there was money there to be able to give something
03:31like that as a Christmas gift.
03:35The gingerbread house that I think every German has fond feelings for in some way and it's
03:42uncomfortable to see that reflected on the children's face that lived at that time.
03:50So I think the intimacy of these private moments really make you connect to these people but
03:55in an uncomfortable way.
03:57People chose to live in a certain way, that rings true today as well.
04:04So the gifts are a little bit questionable here too, helmet and the soldiers, swastika
04:12flag.
04:16You know, a movie that's staged like a home movie but it's propaganda, I mean it's pure
04:22propaganda in a way.
04:25This clearing the snow, pushing the handcart, of course the weather is a huge factor in
04:45the whole war, particularly when the Germans go eastward because it's wonderful in the
04:52summer but once you start getting these terribly cold winters, it's so difficult for people
04:58to survive without coal, without food.
05:01And as the war starts to bite, not only are the peoples of Eastern and Central Europe
05:06affected but the Germans themselves come to be affected.
05:09It's not the case here, people are still well fed, energetic, little kids are helping, clearing
05:15up the snow.
05:19Although many of the people look healthy, the population's view of the war is changing.
05:2450-year-old Hans Eggers lives in Hamburg and by February 1942 his diary is preoccupied
05:32with food and the weather rather than military successes.
05:38It is minus 40 degrees today and we have restrictions on the supply of electricity and gas.
05:45Our nutrition has become worse, hard frozen cabbages and turnips are all we have for lunch.
05:52Most of the grain is wintered out, many potatoes are frozen in the rents, some are not harvested
05:58even in autumn because there was a lack of manpower.
06:03We've all become skinny as dogs.
06:08This looks like the Winterhilfer collection for fur coats because the troops on the Eastern
06:12Front, Hitler thought it was going to be such a quick victory, he didn't provision
06:17the troops for winter weather and so they had a call for fur coats and winter equipment
06:24so there's skis and sleds going, those will be going off to the front for the soldiers,
06:28Wehrmacht soldiers freezing outside of Moscow.
06:31A lot of the soldiers commented on getting these fur coats and finding things like lipsticks
06:39inside the pockets, clothes being loaded onto the back of lorries to be sent off for
06:45the troops outside Moscow because they'd gotten to almost within the tram lines in Moscow
06:50but they couldn't get any further and then the weather intervened and they were absolutely
06:57in dire straits, frozen, the snow, their supply lines vastly overextended but the number of
07:03soldiers out in the Eastern Front who were dying or being terribly affected by frostbite
07:08for example, toes and fingers and ears being frozen off, this was a terrible, terrible
07:13winter.
07:14There's still time to play in the snow, have some fun and some are just going to go skiing
07:23down the sidewalk of their town, southern Germany somewhere.
07:32For Victor Klemperer, a Jew living in Dresden, the cold and lack of food are part of the
07:37daily horror of life under the Nazis.
07:44Klemperer has avoided deportation so far thanks to his marriage to Aryan wife Ava but many
07:51of his friends are not so lucky.
07:56Before a deportee goes, the Gestapo seals up everything he leaves behind.
08:01It is all forfeit.
08:03One day evening, before he was evacuated, Paul Cridle brought me a pair of shoes that
08:08fit me perfectly and are most welcome given the dreadful condition of my own.
08:14The latest transport includes many of the elderly, weak and sick.
08:18It is unlikely that many will still be alive on arrival.
08:27Across the Reich, thousands of Jews await their fate but one German married to a half
08:33Jewish woman hatches an astonishing plan to persuade Nazi officials to change the racial
08:38status of his wife.
08:43This is Helmut Mackemer, who is also a prolific filmmaker.
08:48To do this, he must win an Iron Cross first class, a medal that according to an obscure
08:53bit of Nazi law, might entitle his family to be re-certified as German.
09:01I think the story of Mackemer is essentially one of, in a sense, a bewildered human being
09:09who is married to the daughter of a Jew and can't find a way out other than to go to the
09:19front and try to become a highly decorated soldier in the belief that this will protect
09:27his family at home, even though by implication he would be up to his neck in the slaughter
09:34of innocent people.
09:37His division is sent to Ukraine.
09:39The fighting here is not only savage, it soon includes the murder of tens of thousands of
09:44non-combatants, many of them Jews.
09:48So one of the interesting things about this footage is its provenance and in particular
09:54the fact that the doctor who made it didn't have to serve, he was already old enough not
10:02to have to volunteer, but chose to, partly to protect his Jewish wife.
10:07He couldn't know whether the marriage would be dissolved.
10:10In fact, the Nazis never got around to dissolving marriages.
10:14They put a lot of pressure on Aryan partners to divorce their Jewish partners, but they
10:20didn't actually dissolve marriages and yet there was a constant fear that they would do so.
10:26He essentially sees himself as a patriotic German who is shadowed by the fear of being
10:35classified as being Jewish or as being somehow connected to being Jewish.
10:45Dr Mackemer throws himself into his dual mission, saving the wounded and rescuing his family.
10:55This is my father now, who is just giving narcosis to a wounded man, you know, he is
11:03moving in pain.
11:05This must be a scene within the truck for wounded people, where a young man with a bloody
11:13arm is being treated.
11:17Just imagine, my father was a trained eye doctor, but of course he had also basic training
11:22in the work of general physicians.
11:28And you see so many helping soldiers.
11:34And that is the wounded man who is now happy.
11:39Well, well done.
11:43So he gets out of the truck.
11:46The next is coming.
11:49If he would be a very brave and successful medic and soldier, he might have a chance
11:57to get his so-called Gnadenerlass by the Führer.
12:06That would mean that his wife and his children would not be treated as Jews.
12:16A chance to save his wife, who was half Jewish, and his children, for instance myself.
12:36So, everything looks very peaceful.
12:52The feelings of the people look quite relaxed.
13:04So this is nearly the end of the story, because after he had received in early May 1942 this
13:16Eisener Kreuz Erster Klasse, and was extremely happy, a few days later he was killed in his
13:28car while he was driving across the battlefield in order to collect wounded soldiers.
13:37And the enemy, that is the other Soviet side, was lucky just to set a grenade near to his
13:48car and he was dead instantly.
13:54That was on the birthday, the fifth birthday of my youngest brother, Peter, on the 18th
14:02May of 1942.
14:08The wooden crosses of those German soldiers who had fallen, as we say, who had died in
14:19combat.
14:31In the middle there is the captain of the company, who is talking to the soldiers.
14:38Oh, now I see what it's about, they are just saying goodbye to some dead comrades.
14:48It happens that I saw my mother sitting at the desk of my father, in front of her a white
14:57piece of paper, and she was crying.
15:00I never had, excuse me, I never had seen my mother crying, so I was shocked.
15:12And she was hitting her fists in desperation on the table.
15:19And this was the moment I never forget, that I knew my father is dead.
15:41In due course his bravery earns a posthumous declaration from Hitler's office, declaring
15:46that his wife, Erna, has been reclassified as an Aryan German.
15:52It is the only known instance of this ever happening.
16:03I have a high appreciation of his decision to risk his life, to protect his wife and
16:16his children.
16:18It would have been very easy for him just to get divorced from his family, from his
16:26wife.
16:28And in fact, many Germans did this.
16:33And so I think he was a very brave and loving father, that he was willing to risk his life
16:45for us.
16:48Mackemer saves his family, but seems unquestioning about the racial hatred that underlies it.
16:54He is also part of an invading army which brought untold misery and death.
17:08Just dead corpse.
17:17Horrible.
17:21Dead, frozen corpse.
17:33I think that's enough.
17:44Back in Germany, the cruelty of Nazi racial hatred is affecting Klemperer in shocking
17:49new ways.
17:52Jews with the star are forbidden to keep pets.
17:56This is the death sentence for Muschel, whom we have had for over 11 years.
18:02He is to be taken to the vet tomorrow, so that he is spared the ordeal of being fetched
18:08and put down with the others.
18:10The little creature plays happily and does not know it will die tomorrow.
18:14Is there someone out there who knows?
18:17Tomorrow, you will die.
18:24In November 1942, a major deportation of Dresden Jews begins.
18:31Klemperer is not on the lists, but these Jews being moved into a transit camp include
18:37many of his friends.
18:40They can communicate while they await trains to the east.
18:51They are taking people to the Jews' camp at Hellerberg.
18:55The Geneva said this kind of evacuation is so shameless, because everything happens so
19:00openly.
19:01Eisenman called it catastrophic, unimaginably crowded and barbarically primitive, especially
19:08the latrines, but also the narrow beds.
19:11The carpenters who build barracks for Polish prisoners of war stated they were luxury hotels
19:17compared to this Jews' camp of sand and mud.
19:30Although we don't know who shot this footage, it has to have been filmed by a German in
19:36authority.
19:37The camera angles from above, he obviously has some privileged vantage point.
19:43We get to see the luggage labelled as Jews were forced to give themselves either Sarah
19:49or Israel as a given name.
19:54Jew with his star on.
19:58Suitcases.
20:03You know, when we think of Dresden as being the innocent place that was bombed needlessly
20:09in February 1945, it's often forgotten that it was an absolute hotbed of Nazism.
20:14Over 130 factories producing war material as well, a major rail hub.
20:19And also the way they dealt with their Jewish population was as brutal as anywhere really.
20:25Yeah, it's just so wrong, isn't it?
20:28You know, you're looking at these families with their kids.
20:30I mean, Jesus.
20:34Looking quite clearly distressed.
20:39Oh dear, you wonder how many of these living people in this footage,
20:45you wonder how much longer they were.
20:53Their shoes have been stolen from them and they're being replaced with wooden clogs.
21:00So get rid of your shoes.
21:01We'll have those, thank you very much.
21:03Put on these cheap wooden shoes instead.
21:05You know, you're lesser citizens.
21:07In fact, you're not even citizens at all.
21:09You're outcasts.
21:11It's really grotesque.
21:13Checking for lice.
21:19In Bielefeld, Minden, in November 1941,
21:23within ten days of the first Jews being deported,
21:26rumours came back as to what had happened to them.
21:29Those who had been able to work had been put to work in former Soviet factories
21:33and those who couldn't work,
21:35the oddly, women with small children
21:38and the ill had all been summarily executed.
21:44God, it's just so undignified, isn't it?
21:48Germans watching on and laughing.
21:53Jewish men just being made to stand naked together,
21:57boys and adults together.
21:59This is deeply humiliating for them
22:01because, of course, you know, you live in a society
22:03where it's not OK to be naked.
22:06You know, for these older gentlemen to be there like that,
22:08that would have been deeply humiliating.
22:15All wearing their wooden clogs, struggling to walk in them
22:19because they don't fit properly.
22:23They're too big.
22:26You know, it's muddy, it's wet, it's cold.
22:31You know, it's little details like that that often get forgotten
22:34when you're thinking about the Holocaust.
22:37It's really disturbing.
22:40You know, you just think about the death camps,
22:42you forget about the processes of deep humiliation,
22:45degradation that is going on in the process
22:48up to them arriving in concentration camps and death camps.
22:54Horrible.
23:01Across Europe, millions of Jews now live under Nazi occupation
23:05and dread the day their names appear on the deportation lists.
23:11Some have gone into hiding,
23:13notably Anne Frank in Amsterdam,
23:15the most famous diarist of the war.
23:20But less than a mile away from where she writes,
23:23another group of Dutch Jews are also in hiding from the Germans.
23:27Cooped up for months on end,
23:29they turn to the cine-camera to stave off despair and boredom.
23:34The filmmaker is called Harry Schwab.
23:40This is obviously Jews wearing the Star of David,
23:47beautifully dressed, doing an acting,
23:51acting, play-acting.
23:54This is a Jewish group in hiding in Amsterdam
23:59living above a cafe of the man who's hiding them.
24:03And they're putting on a play.
24:05It's recreating life as if it was normal life.
24:09Welcoming guests into their supposed cafe or house,
24:14cutting out ration coupons.
24:16So this is normal life for those who are not in hiding in Amsterdam.
24:20And actually it's very, very comfortable.
24:22I'm struck at the beautiful clothes, hairstyles,
24:27the humour, playing cards, the food,
24:30the sorts of things that would seem to be unthinkable
24:32in Eastern Europe at this point.
24:35There's a certain amount of normalcy even to it.
24:38This is the idea is to alleviate boredom,
24:42to have some fun despite all the horrible things that are going on.
24:46Now you have to hide because the time has come
24:50to wake up and go into your hiding place.
24:54So here's an amazing piece of footage
24:57of a hidden door behind a closet
25:01and you roll it back in front of the hiding place.
25:05And there's another hiding place
25:07in the cupboard or oven,
25:10in the kitchen.
25:12It's all fake so people can hide
25:16and avoid being discovered by the SS.
25:20Which of course, despite the humour in this
25:25and despite the sort of jolly nature of it all,
25:29you know that death hangs over each and every one of these people
25:33if they're discovered.
25:35So although they can make light of it,
25:37they can amuse themselves, try to hide.
25:40Amuse themselves, try to make it look as if things are okay.
25:44They all know, can tell in their faces.
25:47It was 1942, 1943.
25:50How many more years do they have to live like this
25:52till the war ends?
25:56But despite the jolliness of it,
26:00you can see
26:03there's the mimicking the Heil Hitler sign,
26:07the Nazi sign mimicking
26:09the crazy idiots who are following Hitler
26:13like dolls.
26:17Picture of Hitler.
26:21Incredible footage.
26:26Four months into 1943,
26:28the Jews hiding above Café Alcazar
26:31are betrayed by pro-fascist Dutch collaborators
26:34who scour Amsterdam for hidden Jews
26:36on behalf of the Gestapo.
26:40All but two of the people in Harry Swab's film
26:43are captured in this way.
26:46The Nazis pay the Dutch collaborators
26:48a bounty worth £47.50
26:51for each countryman they betray.
27:00Meanwhile in Russia,
27:01the war has taken a catastrophic turn
27:03for the Germans.
27:09In Stalingrad,
27:10they are surrounded and starved of supplies
27:12by Soviet forces.
27:19After a three-month siege,
27:2091,000 men of the 6th Army surrender
27:24and begin a descent into hell.
27:31Fewer than 6,000 of these men
27:33will ever return to Germany
27:35and the last of them not until 1956.
27:45The surrender at Stalingrad
27:46is the first major defeat on the Eastern Front
27:49and it sends shockwaves throughout the Reich
27:52as Hans Eggers notes in his diary.
27:56Stalingrad has fallen
27:58and the 6th Army has been destroyed.
28:00The whole Eastern Front
28:01is apparently in strong retreat.
28:04This year will be a very difficult one for us.
28:06The total mobilisation of all workers
28:08in the homeland is ordered.
28:10Men up to the age of 65
28:12and women up to the age of 45
28:14are called upon to do war-related work.
28:20From that moment on
28:21and following the fall of Stalingrad,
28:23Joseph Goebbels does this very infamous speech
28:26in the Sport Palace
28:27where he goes,
28:28you know, what is it you want?
28:29What we need is total war.
28:36Suddenly everything that the Germans are doing
28:39has to be in this war of survival
28:43and it is painted in those sort of cataclysmic terms.
28:46It is the 1,000 year Reich
28:48and you survive
28:49and you can somehow,
28:50somehow find the will,
28:52the triumph of the will,
28:53Nazi slogan,
28:54to kind of somehow fight back
28:58or it's Armageddon.
29:00And instead of going into the Soviet Union
29:02to be victorious,
29:03this is now even more
29:06a battle of survival
29:07for the very nature
29:09of the Teutonic Aryan German peoples.
29:12And that is how it's depicted.
29:13So there is this huge psychological blow
29:16where suddenly those in Germany are thinking,
29:19yikes,
29:20we are really up the creek without a paddle.
29:25For Nazi leadership
29:26it is a turning point.
29:28It is time the German people
29:30share the truth about their plight.
29:39It's an important moment in March 1943
29:41where Goebbels writes down in his diary
29:43that he's talked to Göring
29:45and they've agreed together
29:47that it's not a bad thing
29:49for the German people
29:50to know what has happened to the Jews
29:52because they will realise
29:54that they've burned their bridges
29:56and as he reflects,
29:58a society which has nowhere to retreat to
30:01will resist and fight
30:03all the more fanatically.
30:05And that idea of holding out
30:07and fighting fanatically
30:09is the touchstone for Goebbels
30:11of what a successful war effort amounts to
30:13and he continues with this
30:15right to the very end until 1945.
30:21The total war speech comes at a time
30:23when ordinary German civilians
30:25have few reminders
30:26of how dire things have become.
30:30In the early years of the war
30:32the British bombing
30:33inflicted little damage
30:35but as it intensifies
30:37during 1943
30:39the authorities call up
30:40those born in 1926 and 27
30:42to man the guns.
30:44Young boys of just
30:4615 and 16 years old.
30:48These child soldiers
30:50come from near Leipzig.
30:52It is May 1943.
30:54The Wehrmacht
30:56assumes boys
30:58will be less effective than adults
31:00so initially allocate
31:02100 boys to replace 70 men.
31:09The boys turn out
31:11to be far more energetic
31:13than their elders
31:15and before long
31:17are in sole charge of flat batteries.
31:22Children like these
31:24are about to face Armageddon.
31:40Hamburg was quite simply
31:42the worst ever series of raids
31:44on a single city
31:47in the western world.
31:49Colour footage of
31:51buildings burning
31:53I mean 42,600 people
31:55killed in Hamburg
31:57over a number of raids at the very end of July
31:593,500 heavy bombers
32:0280% of the
32:04second city in Germany
32:06completely destroyed.
32:12Just horrendous.
32:14Wow, look at that.
32:17Firemen
32:19trying to subdue the fires
32:21but
32:23you know
32:25in Britain it's all about the blitz
32:27and the bombing of the east end
32:29but it's just absolutely nothing compared to this.
32:33Wow.
32:37This is unique film footage
32:39that Hans Brunsvik shot
32:41of the Hamburg firestorm
32:43and these images became
32:45famous as
32:47a set of atrocities
32:49that had been inflicted
32:51on the German population
32:53by not just
32:55the RAF
32:57but by
32:59the Jewish lobby
33:01operating in Washington and London
33:05in the words of Goebbels
33:07the Jewish terror attacks
33:09and this idea that this is terror bombing
33:11that these are terror raids
33:15finds its ultimate
33:17confirmation in Hamburg
33:19as these dazed evacuees
33:21from the city
33:23spread their stories
33:25as they're evacuated
33:27in open trains in the summer heat
33:29the city of 1.2 million
33:31Germany's second largest city
33:33800,000 of its
33:35inhabitants flee.
33:41This is a shell
33:43absolutely ruined
33:47look at that
33:49I mean
33:51that's like Manchester
33:53being 80% destroyed
33:55or something
33:57it's just totally
33:59unimaginable
34:01lots of refugees
34:03standing around
34:05bewildered
34:07sitting on boxes
34:09wounded man bandages
34:11around his head
34:13trucks going out
34:15wow
34:17it's amazing
34:19it's sort of
34:21exodus of people
34:23I mean how do you cope
34:25with that
34:27you're dead lying where they are
34:29oh dear
34:31wow
34:33it's just
34:35unbelievable
34:38wow
34:40yeah it's pretty gruesome
34:44I mean lots and lots of dead bodies
34:50it becomes
34:52extremely political
34:54because people
34:56quite quickly ask themselves
34:58the question why
35:00is this happening to us
35:02and they don't just talk
35:04about the British air raids
35:06they also talk
35:08about this as
35:10retaliation
35:12for what they have done to the Jews
35:14and this
35:16picks up a crucial
35:18element of official
35:20propaganda which has been peddled since
35:22the spring of 1943
35:24that the Jews
35:26abroad
35:28who've somehow captured
35:30the governments of Churchill
35:32and Roosevelt
35:34are pushing for a war of annihilation against Germany
35:38this is repeated by Goebbels
35:40it's repeated by Goering
35:42Goering makes a famous speech
35:44a few months after the Humboldt raids
35:46in which he says
35:48do not imagine if we are defeated
35:50that they will make any distinction
35:52between Nazis and
35:54non-Nazis
35:56between people who supported these things
35:58and people who didn't
36:00and he says this is not the second world war
36:03Hamburg is destroyed
36:05as if an earthquake
36:07had passed over it
36:09the violence and heat of the conflagration
36:11was so great
36:13that many people left the cellars
36:15and were killed by the rain
36:17of the phosphorous bombs
36:19the streets are full of buried
36:21and burned people
36:23thousands more are still lying in the cellars
36:25burnt
36:27suffocated or crushed
36:29Hamburg
36:31is finished for many years
36:33the fire chief
36:35who organized the filming
36:37wasn't just recording
36:39the enormity of the firestorm
36:41he was telling Germans
36:43they are now victims too
36:49what Germans have done to the Jews
36:51is clearly on the moral deficit
36:53it's not something to be proud of
36:55and yet people talk about it
36:57because they do think
37:00the Allied bombing of German cities
37:02which they also think is a moral aberration
37:04is something which goes beyond the pale
37:06and so
37:08the bit of the rhetoric
37:10that works
37:12is the idea that these are Jewish terror attacks
37:14and that only
37:16Jewish terror could explain
37:18why German civilians are exposed
37:20to what they have to endure in Hamburg
37:22it's only in the spring and summer
37:24of 1943 as the war comes home
37:26to German cities
37:29in these most extraordinary
37:31and destructive form
37:33of aerial bombing
37:35that they start to see themselves as caught up
37:37in an impossible
37:39cycle of destruction
37:45for millions of Germans
37:47a sense of their own suffering
37:49deflects questions of guilt
37:51for what had been done to the Jews
37:53by the middle
37:55of the war
37:57for the average German
37:59worker
38:01the hardships
38:03that they were experiencing
38:05and the danger if they were living
38:07in a city like Hamburg
38:09or Berlin
38:11was very significant
38:13they were probably more caught up
38:15in the day to day struggle
38:17to survive
38:19they were probably largely indifferent
38:22to what was happening to Jews
38:24I think to a significant degree
38:26if they reflected
38:28on it, many of them would still
38:30be buying into
38:32the anti-semitic tropes
38:34that they had probably grown up with
38:36and thought that the Jews
38:38probably have this coming
38:40or this is good because then we can get
38:42their stuff
38:44and of course one of the big
38:46issues around deporting
38:48the Jews was
38:51the economic value of what they left behind
38:53and that ordinary
38:55German citizens
38:57could benefit from that by
38:59taking the furniture or
39:01taking over the flat or the house or whatever
39:03so in my imagination
39:05the dominant
39:07attitude would be
39:09I don't really care
39:11I've got enough problems of my own here
39:13and the Jews were never
39:15very good and we're glad to see
39:17the back of them
39:21By 1944
39:23making home movies is no longer possible
39:25or even desired
39:27but even this later on
39:29the borders of the Reich stretch across
39:31Europe and for some
39:33life under occupation
39:35is just about tolerable
39:38Ferdinand Bignon
39:48Ferdinand Bignon
39:50filmed this near the town of Thierville
39:52in Normandy
39:54Bignon was a member
39:56of the pictorialism photographic movement
39:58whose members regarded
40:00photography as an art form
40:08The Atlantic Coast
40:14Well large parts of the Atlantic Coast
40:16is a pretty comfortable place to be
40:18if you're German it's pretty cushy
40:20these are rich agricultural areas
40:22and because of the transport systems
40:24are so impaired by 1944
40:26completely dependent on trains
40:28there's not much petrol
40:30there's not much trucks going around
40:32a lot of the food that's been developed has to be eaten there
40:34there's nowhere else for it to go
40:36it's not being shuffled off to Paris
40:38or to the main cities or anything like that
40:40so being on the coast is cushy
40:42you're going to get much better fed than you would
40:44if you were back home in Germany
40:46and there's not an awful lot going on
40:48unless you're unfortunate enough to be
40:50in Normandy itself
40:52you're sort of ok
40:5490% of the Atlantic wall
40:56was never involved in combat
41:00If you're French there
41:02again you're not going that hungry
41:05food is staying there
41:07you're a secondary citizen compared to German troops
41:09and occupation troops
41:11but it's perfectly possible to keep your head down
41:13and survive
41:15and battle it out frankly
41:27Normandy up until the beginning of June 1944
41:29is not a bad place to be
41:31cut off from the rest of France
41:34yes you're occupied
41:36but again if you keep your head down
41:38it's sort of ok
41:40there's rising civil war of course
41:42because the French forces
41:44of the interior, the resistance movement
41:46is growing because they know there's a light
41:48at the end of the tunnel
41:50and because of the obligatory work orders
41:52which means young men have to go and do
41:54labour service in Germany
41:56and lots of people don't want to do that
41:58so the alternative is to run to the hills
42:00and join the Maki, join the resistance
42:02the choices are few and far between
42:04and it's getting tougher and tougher
42:06but if you're a sort of ordinary person
42:08you can mind your Ps and Qs
42:10and you can keep your head down
42:12and you're sort of going to be ok
42:14and it is absolutely the case
42:16that while the Germans are hogging a lot of food
42:18because of this lack of transport
42:20a lot of food has to stay in Normandy
42:22and actually it's as good a place as any
42:28In April 1944
42:31a group of young men arrived in the area
42:37Joe Darmes is a member
42:39of an elite German paratroop regiment
42:43here to strengthen the defences
42:45along the Atlantic wall
42:49The positions were built in such a way
42:51that you could stand up in the pit
42:53and be well camouflaged
42:55protected from shrapnel and covered with wood and earth
42:57to hide our position
43:00One day in May we were told Field Marshal Rommel
43:02would be inspecting the position
43:04a moment of excitement would break up
43:06the monotony of the daily routine
43:08we were all excited at the thought
43:10of meeting a greatness like Rommel
43:12and to answer his questions in the right way
43:14but he stormed through the positions
43:16like a driven man
43:18and we only caught a brief glimpse
43:20he still had a huge amount to deal with that day
43:22we were only the first stop
43:24Little did Joe Darmes
43:26or the Bignon family know
43:28they are on the front line
43:30of one of the most monumental moments
43:32of the war
43:34Despite all our efforts
43:36at camouflage today
43:38we got a visit from a very threatening
43:40combat aircraft of the Royal Air Force
43:42It was a three fuselage aircraft
43:44of the newest type
43:46with the characteristics
43:48of a fighter plane
43:50and the firepower of a bomber
43:53It flew over the positions at low altitude
43:57We could see the guns in the nose
43:59and rockets on the wings simultaneously
44:01opening fire
44:03Only a timely jump into the cover
44:05of a sunken part saved us
44:09I learned later the plane
44:11was the terror of all infantrymen
44:13a lightning of the aircraft builder Lockheed
44:19The Bignon family filmed these same fighter planes
44:22P-38 Lightnings
44:26On the 6th of June 1944
44:28Joe Darmes is dug in
44:30just 5 miles from the D-Day beaches
44:40He is soon in action
44:52Suddenly there was enough fire
44:54from an unknown donor
44:56who had us covered from behind
44:58with strong rifle fire
45:00forcing us into full cover
45:02The projectiles flew in close
45:04just above our heads
45:06Peter couldn't stop himself
45:08from hissing into my ear
45:10Those aren't German carbines
45:14After overcoming a second of shock
45:16I had to act decisively
45:18and without waiting for any instructions
45:21I fired a .22 from the ground
45:23and simply shot from my hip
45:25with several bursts of fire
45:27into the undergrowth from which the shots came
45:29From the other side came icy silence
45:31which we used to find better cover
45:33It was impossible to make out
45:35who we were facing
45:45Darmes' regiment fight bitterly
45:47to hold back the Allies
45:49They have no time to film themselves
45:51but this official footage
45:53shows his unit in bleak and desperate combat
45:55with Allied forces
45:59By the time Darmes' regiment
46:01leaves Normandy
46:03they are reduced from 4,600 men
46:05to just 500
46:19Back in Thierville
46:21Ferdinand Bignon has his camera out again
46:23filming secretly
46:25as the Germans finally start to retreat
46:37After four years of occupation
46:39liberation is finally upon them
46:49Ferdinand Bignon
46:51no longer has to film in secret
47:01He and his family
47:03are at the roadside
47:05exchanging kisses and flowers
47:07with their British liberators
47:19The end
47:45Back in Germany
47:48The invasion brings a new round of propaganda
47:52But Hans Egger's diary shows
47:54he is no longer convinced
47:58The long-awaited invasion of the West began
48:00According to an official statement
48:02of the army leadership
48:04it will end with a complete destruction
48:06of the enemy
48:08The battle in Normandy is raging
48:10In the night
48:12from the 15th to the 16th
48:14we have begun as retaliation
48:17We shower southern England and London
48:19with new high-explosive devices
48:21both events
48:23which have been told are coming many times
48:25and whose occurrence has often been doubted
48:27have now become fact
48:31How will both have an effect?
48:33In Dresden
48:35Victor Klemperer hangs on
48:37one of just a handful of Jews left in the city
48:41He too watches the invasion
48:43but longs for a very different outcome
48:47The English have held on for three days
48:49and are near Caen and Bayeux
48:51The landing itself, therefore
48:53is successful
48:55But how will it go now?
48:57And at what pace?
48:59I can no longer hope for anything
49:01I can hardly imagine
49:03living to see the end of this torture
49:05of these years of slavery
49:11With the Allies closing in
49:13some in Germany were working
49:15In July 1944
49:21In July 1944
49:23an attempt is made on Hitler's life
49:25at his Wolf's Lair headquarters
49:29The bomb plot fails
49:31Worse, it hardens many Germans' support
49:33for the Nazi regime
49:39Fanaticism like this means Klemperer
49:41is in mortal danger
49:44Time is running out
49:48Worn out and depressed
49:50because I had been running around
49:52as the bearer of deportation notices
49:54Waltman told me
49:56that those being deported on Thursday
49:58were being sent to their deaths
50:00and the rest of us will be disposed of
50:02in the same way
50:04in a week's time
50:06Then a major air raid warning sounded
50:08If only they could destroy everything
50:10said Frau Stühle bitterly
50:14This raid on Dresden
50:16is a rerun of the horrors of Hamburg
50:1825,000 are left dead
50:26But for Klemperer
50:28the chaos of the raid offers salvation
50:32At first I covered the Jewish star
50:34with a blanket
50:36then I removed it from my coat
50:38I had no choice
50:40Wearing the star
50:43I was spotted and killed
50:45After that I sat in restaurants
50:47I used both train and tram
50:49As a Jew in the Third Reich
50:51all of it punishable by death
50:55I constantly told myself
50:57surely nobody could recognize me
50:59especially as we were going
51:01further and further away from Dresden
51:05Klemperer and wife Eva
51:07lose themselves amid the refugee columns
51:09fleeing Dresden
51:11and head west
51:17During the spring of 1945
51:19the regime enlists
51:21all ages to join the fighting
51:25Hans Eggers, now age 54
51:27is one of those called up
51:31Although I'm rejected by the Wehrmacht
51:33as completely unfit
51:35because of my war injury
51:37I'm called up to the Volkssturm
51:40The situation is now such
51:42that we must expect English troops hourly
51:54This footage, shot north east of Berlin
51:56is amongst the last taken
51:58from the German side in the war
52:02It is filmed by a newsreel cameraman
52:04called Gerhard Garms
52:07He knows none of what he films
52:09will make it onto the newsreels
52:13Instead, he records
52:15the last-ditch stand
52:17as an epitaph to a regime
52:19in its death throes
52:21These last battles on the Oderfront
52:23were really the last
52:25Soviet attacks into
52:27Germany before
52:29the final assault on Berlin
52:32It's really, really interesting
52:34why it is that
52:36German people keep fighting
52:38as long as they do
52:40There's a number of reasons
52:42First of all, there is
52:44the iron will of the Fuhrer
52:46who has this unbelievable hold
52:48over the people
52:54And this is really the last
52:56sort of last stand of the Germans
52:58the sort of desperate attempt
53:00by the Soviets from breaking through
53:02in toward Berlin
53:04This very young boy
53:06must be 14 if he's even that
53:10This tragedy of these very old men
53:12and very young boys
53:14by now were being called out
53:16because Himmler had created
53:18this so-called Volkssturm
53:20which was made up of young kids
53:22and men who were
53:24in their 50s and 60s
53:27The second thing is
53:29what choices this kind of fight on
53:31and somehow
53:33come to some settlement
53:35But the alternative is Armageddon
53:37It is the end of everything you know
53:39Destruction, defeat
53:41marauding Ivans
53:43coming across from the East
53:47These very young kids
53:49It's tragic
53:51that the Germans just didn't stop
53:53They just kept on calling up
53:56anybody they can find
53:58by this point
54:00A lot of them didn't even have uniforms
54:02they just had armbands
54:04and old guys who really couldn't fight
54:06And this is just the very end
54:08of the war
54:10The Germans were so short of fuel
54:12and ammunition
54:14that everything they fired
54:16and everywhere they went
54:18had to be so carefully planned out
54:20because they simply couldn't spare
54:22any men or material at this point
54:26And the third reason
54:28is sort of fanaticism
54:30It's this fanaticism
54:32of a certain proportion of the population
54:34who will just keep fighting to the end
54:36and ensure that everyone else
54:38does as well
54:40So you have ludicrous situations
54:42of Nazis in towns
54:44that are about to be overrun
54:46executing people who they consider
54:48to be traitors
54:50even though they're about to be overrun
54:52by the Allies half an hour later
54:54It doesn't make any sense at all
54:56So I think it's a combination of factors
54:58that keeps them fighting
55:00I think the biggest factor of all
55:02is fear
55:04It is fear of the alternative
55:06and that's what keeps them going
55:08Hans Eggers is under no illusions
55:10about what this means
55:12Berlin seems to be on the verge
55:14of collapse
55:16About 85% of the Reich
55:18is in enemy hands
55:20Every resistance is meaningless
55:23and useless
55:31By the 28th of April 1945
55:33Victor and Eva Klemperer
55:35are taken in by a family
55:37in a village outside Munich
55:41Suddenly the familiar
55:43sound of artillery fire
55:45became explosions very close by
55:47Eva even heard
55:49the whistle of bullets
55:52We sat cowering in the corner of the kitchen
55:54which seemed the safest
55:56A last small group
55:58of soldiers put up resistance
56:00for a few minutes
56:02before even they fled
56:04The American attack
56:06had rolled over our village
56:08The war
56:10was behind us
56:12Klemperer died peacefully
56:14in 1960
56:16aged 78
56:18His diaries were published
56:20In 1995
56:22they became a literary sensation
56:26Hitler dreamed of building an empire
56:28He encouraged his people
56:30to film every step along the way
56:34What they filmed
56:36was only ever intended
56:38to be viewed by victorious Germans
56:40Instead, what they chronicled
56:42was their country's descent
56:44into the abyss
56:50The Allies take Germans
56:52from the towns near the camps
56:54to see what has been done in their name
56:58Fittingly, there is a cine-camera
57:00on hand to record the moment
57:06It is not enough these German civilians
57:08confront Nazi crimes
57:12Posterity must see them doing it
57:15When the camps were uncovered
57:17and these terrible scenes
57:19were revealed
57:21of mass death
57:23and people starving
57:25and so on
57:27I think the effect on the Allies
57:29was very profound
57:31and they wanted to confront
57:33the local population
57:35with these realities
57:37But also
57:39this has to be recorded
57:41and one thing
57:44if you're a German citizen
57:46watching a column of people
57:48going off to a railway station
57:50and you know that
57:52they're never coming back
57:54but it's a very different thing
57:56to confront
57:58the immediate physical evidence
58:00of what was done to these people
58:02after they got on that train
58:04and were taken away
58:06The Germans knew a lot
58:08but they didn't know
58:10that last bit
58:13What went on in these camps
58:15and they needed to know that
58:43This film is dedicated to all the people who lost their lives during the Nazi occupation
58:45and to all the people who are still suffering
58:47from the Nazi occupation
58:49and to all the people
58:51who are still suffering
58:53from the Nazi occupation
58:55and to all the people
58:57who are still suffering
58:59from the Nazi occupation
59:01and to all the people
59:03who are still suffering
59:05from the Nazi occupation
59:07and to all the people
59:09who are still suffering
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