- 6/9/2025
Battle Lines: Divide and Conquer takes you deep into the heart of World War II, where strategy, power, and political ambition collide. Witness the intense battles, shifting alliances, and the brutal tactics used to dominate Europe. A gripping historical documentary that reveals the true cost of war and the divide it left behind.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00THE END
00:30THE END
01:00Six years of hard training and actual battle experience in Spain and Poland had made the German army look invincible.
01:29But what about the British and French? First, let's take up the British.
01:37They started from scratch, but both at home and abroad an army was growing. For not only Britain had declared war, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa.
01:53The whole British Commonwealth of Nations was also determined on victory over Hitlerism and all it stands for.
02:00And Britain had one weapon that was ready, the Royal Navy. Shortly after war was declared, it had swept German shipping from the high seas.
02:09And units of the British fleet were deployed at Suez, Malta, Gibraltar, in the Channel, and in the North Sea, blockading Germany.
02:21World conquest was impossible without running smack up against the rock called Britain.
02:28How to strike at that little island? That was the question.
02:33Between Britain and Germany stood not only France, but the little countries of Luxembourg, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.
02:42The people of these small neutral countries were peaceful, hardworking, and free.
02:49They knew they were in the middle and feared violation of their neutrality.
02:54Hitler knew this. He also knew that if they united with the Allies, they would form a solid democratic wall against Nazi aggression,
03:03and their conquest would be far more difficult. So before striking with his armies, he used another weapon, the propaganda barrage, to confuse, to make them lose faith, to divide and conquer.
03:19To lull the fears of the little neutrals, propaganda minister Goebbels told them Germany didn't want a war at all.
03:25It was Britain and France that caused all the trouble. Then it was Hitler's turn.
03:32In a speech on October 6, 1939, he made them all kinds of specific promises.
03:39To the Danes, he said, we have concluded a non-aggression pact with Denmark.
03:45To the Norwegians, he said, Germany never had any conflict with the northern states and has none today.
03:53To the Dutch, he said, the New Reich has endeavored to continue the traditional friendship with Holland.
04:00And to the Belgians, he announced, the Reich has put forth no claim which might in any way be regarded as a threat to Belgium.
04:09And while Hitler was making these promises, his generals were cold-bloodedly picking out the first victim, Norway.
04:17And why did they pick Norway?
04:20Its many steep inlets or fjords would make excellent U-boat bases, from which raiders could prey on British supply lines.
04:32Also, it would give the Nazis vital air bases.
04:36This is Stapa Flo, British naval base.
04:39And this, the blockade fleet.
04:41At this time, the German-based bombers couldn't reach them.
04:45Possession of bases on Norway's western shore would bring these vital British defenses under easy bomber attack.
04:52But he couldn't take Norway without also taking tiny Denmark, the springboard for his attack.
04:59So, at dawn on April 9, 1940, the German army rolled across the neutral borders of Little Denmark.
05:11And in a matter of hours, it occupied the entire country.
05:16By nightfall, Denmark is erased as a nation, and the Danes go into slavery.
05:22Although only six months before, Hitler had announced,
05:26we have concluded a non-aggression pact with Denmark.
05:29The Danes will not forget.
05:35Meanwhile, in Norway, peaceful-looking German merchant ships like these had sneaked inside Norway's neutral waterway
05:41and tied up at all principal ports.
05:44That is, they looked like merchant ships.
05:47But if the Norwegians had had X-ray eyes, this is what they would have seen.
05:52The Trojan horse of ancient Greece brought up to date with new and deadlier weapons.
05:57At the precise moment that the Nazis overran Denmark, these quiet-looking ships sprang to life.
06:05At the same time, Nazi warships, discovered along the entire coastline, started steaming up the Norwegian fjords.
06:23Ships, transports, tanks, men, planes, all flung themselves simultaneously upon a defenseless country.
06:35Airborne infantry seized every strategic Norwegian airport.
06:40The whole job was made easier by treacherous fifth columnists, led by Major Quisling, who seized power and issued orders to suppress resistance.
06:50Nazi warships steamed past silent guns that could have blasted them out of the water.
06:55This was one of the most amazing acts of treachery the world has ever known.
07:00It brought Major Quisling international fame, making his very name synonymous with the word traitor.
07:08By the afternoon of April 9th, the Germans were in complete control of all seven ports where they had landed in the morning.
07:15For the first time in more than 200 years, the people of Norway saw an invading army parading through their cities.
07:35Many of these Nazi soldiers, strutting as conquerors in 1940, had last seen Norway some 20 years earlier.
07:43When, as refugee German children, they had been raised and cared for by kind Norwegians.
07:50Now these same Germans were back to repay that kindness with terror and destruction.
07:57Once they had occupied the capital, the Nazis quickly fanned out in all directions.
08:02But loyal Norwegian troops stopped one German column between Hamar and Elvera.
08:13So the Germans brought up their bombers.
08:27The Norwegians were forced to flee to the north under constant and unopposed air attack.
08:52It was here that Captain Robert Lozze, an American military attache, was killed.
08:58The first American soldier to lose his life in this war.
09:02Meanwhile, the Nazis had spread all over the country.
09:06Small patrols occupied every strategic village.
09:10Parachute troops landed high in the mountains.
09:22Unopposed bombing raids sent defenseless civilians fleeing in stark terror.
09:28They hadn't wanted war.
09:56They had done everything to avoid it.
10:00Hoping they could escape the Nazi scourge, they had compromised and tragically failed to unite with the other democracies.
10:08And now they faced the scourge defenseless and alone.
10:12For before the Allies could come to their aid, the Germans were in control of all principal ports.
10:18Regardless of this, British, French, and Polish contingents plunged in and made several landings along the Norwegian coast.
10:28They landed forces north and south of Trondheim and attempted an encircling movement on the city under constant, heavy, and almost entirely unopposed air attack.
10:44For the scene of action was out of range of British fighter planes.
10:48So they brought up aircraft carriers.
10:51But these are at a disadvantage when opposed by land-based planes.
10:56The Allies, therefore, were badly battered from the air.
10:59Finally, suffering heavy losses, they withdrew from a hopeless situation.
11:03Further to the north, at Narvik, they met with better success, inflicting heavy naval losses on the Nazis.
11:13They made landings and held the town for nearly two months.
11:42Incidentally, they also took their first prisoners of the present war.
11:58Again, the Nazis' overwhelming air superiority proved a deciding factor.
12:07The Allies were forced to withdraw under terrific air bombardment.
12:11The Allies were forced into theskins with additional metals, including soldiers who were forced to withdraw from the campers.
12:14They were forced to withdraw from escape.
12:15The Nazis' backstory of the Japanese people from the U.S.
12:19They were forced to withdraw frområden.
12:20So they were forced to withdraw from their weapons of the ship's鳥 of the city.
12:22They were forced to withdraw from their lands, but they were forced to withdraw from there.
12:24But those were forced to withdraw from the Russian people from their landings on their hands.
12:29We'll see you next time.
12:59they're ruins they're dead even though six months before Hitler had said Germany
13:06never had any conflict with the northern states and has none today
13:14the Norwegians will not forget and Hitler Hitler had another victory it
13:21hijacked two more countries the world wondered and sometimes marveled at this
13:26man's efficiency
13:30gangster Dillinger was efficient too
13:39when a man or a nation throws away all regard for the laws of God and man he is
13:44bound at first to be more efficient than his victims society had a police force to
13:48deal with gangster Dillinger but it had no police force to deal with gangster Hitler
13:53so he clubbed Norway into submission and got what he wanted bases for use
13:58against Britain now he had the northern claw of an enormous pincer movement the
14:03drive-through France would give him the southern claw blockade by U-boats coupled
14:08with mass bombing attacks would weaken the British for final invasion then with
14:12Britain gone Germany could reach out in all directions for world conquest
14:16his next move must obviously be through France to get his southern claw through France how was she
14:32the German armies without warning had smashed across neutral Belgium invaded France reached the river Marne only a few miles from Paris
14:37out of the French capital poured the French reserves riding out to battle the enemy in every vehicle that could move the famous taxi cab army note well it was riding out to battle
14:44in the center of the French lines stood the ninth French army commanded by a then comparatively unknown general
14:51on September 5th 1935 the German armies without warning had smashed across neutral Belgium
14:54and the German armies without warning had smashed across neutral Belgium invaded France
14:57reached the river Marne only a few miles from Paris
14:59out of the French capital poured the French reserves riding out to battle the enemy in every vehicle that could move the famous taxi cab army
15:04in the center of the French lines stood the ninth French army commanded by a then comparatively unknown general
15:11on September 5th 1914 he is reputed to have said my right is driven in my center is giving way the situation is excellent I attack
15:34he did attack the German on stop was checked and Paris was saved that comparatively unknown general later became commander-in-chief of all the allied armies and presided for signing of the armistice
16:03with the defeated Germans on November 11 1918 to this general the French people erected the monument
16:10to Marshal Ferdinand Foch whose motto was attack always attack still later the war weary French people erected another monument this one to a minister of war Andre Maginot
16:30between the ideas symbolized by these two statues may well lie the military story of the fall of a great nation
16:37in fascist time the proud spirit of France demanded nothing less than victory and placed its faith in the attack
16:45in Maginot's time the spirit no longer proud asked only to avoid defeat and placed its faith in concrete
16:52so the French built the mighty chain of fortresses called the Maginot Line
16:58these tremendous bastions were built deep into the French land
17:05they were connected by underground passages and railways guarding France's eastern borders facing Germany
17:13and when France was finally forced to declare war against the rising Nazi menace the French troops instead of attacking were marched into their modern caves to wait for the Nazi blitz to smash itself against the Maginot Line
17:20and their generals headed by Marshal Pater proudly announced whoever makes the first move in this war will be hurt
17:27and their generals headed by Marshal Pater proudly announced whoever makes the first move in this war will be hurt
17:35Hitler didn't go near the Maginot Line that was France's strong point
17:55that was France's strong point instead he attacked the weak point Hitler knew that the French had tried to avoid war instead of preparing for it
18:03instead of preparing for it.
18:05That knowledge was one of his greatest weapons.
18:09He knew they had planes, but he knew they were antiquated.
18:13He knew they had tanks, but he knew they were few in number
18:16and lightly armored.
18:18But most important of all, he knew that France
18:21had become a cynical and disillusioned nation.
18:25What made this change in the French spirit?
18:28In the first place, between 1914 and 1918,
18:31the French suffered more than six million casualties
18:34in the heroic defense of their land against German invasion.
18:39The flower of an entire generation was lost
18:42with its stimulus of new blood, new determination, new ideals.
18:49Secondly, the failure of the League of Nations
18:51to which the French had pinned their hopes of peace,
18:55the corruption of many in high places,
18:58the greed of special interests,
19:00all it combined to shake the faith of the French people
19:03and their democratic ideals.
19:06And when a people loses its faith in its own ideals,
19:09it is ripe for the insidious words of the devil.
19:15France still looked like an imposing castle,
19:18but Hitler's political termites have so gnawed away
19:20the binding of national unity that the castle was ready to crumble.
19:24And during those months of military inactivity
19:47that we called the Phony War, a ceaseless barrage
19:51of German propaganda crossed the still waters of the Rhine
19:54to affect the soldiers in the Maginot Line.
19:59Why do you fight, asked the banners.
20:05Poems and friendly notes were sent over by balloons.
20:09French tunes were played by German bands.
20:12The British will fight to the last drop of French blood.
20:24You have been deceived.
20:26This was an imperialistic war for Britain.
20:30We Germans want nothing of France.
20:33What is happening to your wives back home, soldiers?
20:37The British are stationed in your villages.
20:43Yes, France was ready to be plucked.
20:46The whole force of the Nazi might was turned toward the west.
20:50How would they strike this time?
20:53Through Alsace-Lorraine as in 1870?
20:56Through the Low Countries as in 1914?
21:00What was the 1940 model conquest?
21:03The French considered the Maginot Line utterly impregnable
21:05and therefore believed the Germans would again try
21:08to swing through the Low Countries as in 1914.
21:12But even after Hitler's rape of Scandinavia,
21:15Holland and Belgium, hoping against hope,
21:17still clung to their neutrality.
21:20So the French masked 78 divisions here
21:23along the border of Belgium.
21:2517 were in the Maginot Line.
21:28Ten divisions here in case Mussolini got bowled.
21:31Three and a half as a safeguard against Spain.
21:34The British had ten divisions here.
21:38The Allied strategy in the event of an attack
21:40against the Low Countries was to swing their armies
21:43like a gate into Belgium, the hinge being the north end
21:47of the Maginot Line.
21:49This all-important hinge was protected by the forest
21:52of the Ardennes, a hilly and thickly wooded area,
21:56honeycombed with streams, its roads narrow trails,
21:59its bridges too weak for military vehicles.
22:03French strategists estimated the forest
22:05of the Ardennes impassable for armored forces.
22:09As you will see, this was one of the costliest estimates
22:12in all military history.
22:14That was the situation on May 9, 1940.
22:17The hour of trial had come.
22:37The people of the democracies prayed for strength
22:40to meet the coming hurricane of terror.
22:42While across the Rhine...
22:48While across the Rhine,
23:07a delirious madness possessed the German nation.
23:18The German nation,
23:25the German nation,
23:34Hitler is Germany like Germany, that doesn't belong to us!
23:41The, you get conformed!
24:04He's fighting!
24:06He's fighting!
24:08He's fighting!
24:09The tag had come.
24:39Without even bothering to declare war, the German armies launched a coordinated attack across the neutral borders of Luxembourg, Belgium, and Holland, from the Maginot Line north to the sea.
25:05The action along the entire front was simultaneous, so for purposes of clarity, let's take up one country at a time. First, let's see what happened in Holland.
25:16Massive ground forces smashed through the improvised and hastily erected border defenses, but the main attack was to come from the air, far behind the defense lines.
25:42And now, they are far behind the defense lines.
26:12Over 10,000 troops were landed in this manor.
26:42Before the stunned citizens of Rotterdam even knew they were at war, these troops, aided by well-trained fifth columnists, quickly captured the airport in outlying sections of the city.
26:59Meantime, Nazi armored columns were racing across the country, their progress speeded by other fifth columnists who prevented the destruction of vital dikes and bridges.
27:09These forces effected a meeting with the parachutists landed in Rotterdam.
27:15The Dutch were doomed to defeat.
27:22On the fourth day of the invasion, the Nazis gave the Dutch general an ultimatum.
27:26All Dutch resistance must cease or Rotterdam will be bombed flat.
27:31The Dutch general had little choice.
27:41To save the lives of innocent civilians, he accepted the German terms.
27:46But after the unconditional surrender, the Nazis bombed the city anyway.
27:56Fights of unopposed German bombers flew low over the center of Rotterdam and methodically bombed it into a heap of rubble.
28:04Fights of rubble.
28:05fights of rubble.
28:11Let's go.
28:41Let's go.
29:11Let's go.
29:41Let's go.
30:11Let's go.
30:13Let's go.
30:15Let's go.
30:17Let's go.
30:49Let's go.
30:51Let's go.
30:53Let's go.
30:55Let's go.
30:57Let's go.
30:59Let's go.
31:01Let's go.
31:03Let's go.
31:05Let's go.
31:07Let's go.
31:09Let's go.
31:11Let's go.
31:13Let's go.
31:15Let's go.
31:17Let's go.
31:19Let's go.
31:21Let's go.
31:23Let's go.
31:25Let's go.
31:27Let's go.
31:29Let's go.
31:31Let's go.
31:33Let's go.
31:35Let's go.
31:37Let's go.
31:39Let's go.
31:41Let's go.
31:43Let's go.
31:45Let's go.
31:47Let's go.
31:49Let's go.
31:51Let's go.
31:57Let's go.
31:59Let's go.
32:01Let's go.
32:31You will notice that this assault engineer knows exactly where to put his high explosive charge in order to destroy the blockhouse.
32:42Fort Eben Amal withstood the Nazi attack exactly two days, and the German armies rolled on.
33:05Meantime, an hour and a half after the German invasion began, allied troops crossed the French and Belgian border to meet the advancing Germans.
33:17As they raced across Belgium to take up their defense positions, they met an obstacle they hadn't counted on.
33:35Refugees.
33:47And the refugee choked roads didn't get that way by accident.
33:59The Nazis methodically bombed little towns and villages, otherwise devoid of any military value.
34:05Not so much to kill as to drive the inhabitants out onto the highway.
34:13Then by expert machine gunning, the Nazis would herd them along in terror-stricken flight and hopelessly entangle the advancing allied armies.
34:23Refugees used as a weapon of war, a new law in inhumanity.
34:41.
34:42On the other hand have a robot in happening, the Nazis were's potentially hit by accident.
34:47I was chased by Jabba Mindy.
34:49baribraryites were rued.
34:51?
34:52The Nazis were run by Kabul.
34:53He tolduary service to be base不能 and
35:08Oh, my God.
35:38Oh, my God.
36:08No school today, the sign says.
36:17The children are otherwise occupied.
36:19No, no school today.
36:34Although only six months before, Hitler had announced,
36:59the Reich has put forth no claim which might in any way be regarded as a threat to Belgium.
37:06The Belgians will not forget.
37:09And what about the Allies?
37:15They were convinced that the German attack on Belgium and Holland was the main thrust,
37:20and according to plan, it swung their armies like a gate into Belgium.
37:24But the attack on Belgium and Holland was only a feint.
37:29The main German attack was to be centered where the Allies least expected it,
37:33through the Ardennes forest.
37:34For this decisive blow, they had secretly assembled the mightiest striking force the world had ever seen,
37:41including 45,000 armored vehicles.
37:44At the same time that the Nazi armies were plunging into Holland and Belgium,
38:00this column started to move.
38:02Well-trained engineer battalions went first.
38:04Well-trained engineer battalions went first.
38:06Well-trained engineer battalions went first.
38:30They were opposed only by scattered Allied patrols.
38:44They were opposed only by scattered Allied patrols.
38:46They cleared pathways for the times to follow.
39:16They cleared the fire.
39:46the Germans' armored force reached the Meuse River
39:50two days faster than the French thought
39:52any troops could get through.
39:54By all rules, the Germans should have paused here
39:57to bring up heavy artillery before attempting
39:59to force the river, but the Nazis had a new type
40:02of artillery, diatharmes, and then they blasted
40:07the French positions across the Meuse.
40:09With feverish haste, the Germans laid a barrage
40:14across the river with anything and everything
40:16that would shoot.
40:39This tremendous concentration of firepower
40:57continued all through the night.
41:09By the following day, top troops were able
41:17to get across the river.
41:39These shock crews sold the bridgehead
41:41until the engineers brought up tauntons
41:43and built bridges.
41:44These shock crews sold the bridgehead
41:46until the engineers brought up tauntons
41:47and built bridges.
42:09Then, without wasting a moment, across these bridges,
42:28the main armored force of the German military machine
42:31rolled through the sedan, but the all-important breakthrough
42:35into a dismayed and flat-footed France.
42:39There went the old ball game for the allies.
42:44From here on, it was only a matter of how long.
42:48Watch the map as one of our intelligence officers
42:51explained the details of the German breakthrough.
42:54You speak of the breakthrough at Sudan,
42:57but actually, the break was along a wide front,
43:00extending for 50 miles from Namur in Belgium to Sudan.
43:04Further north, the Allied armies had swung
43:06like a gate into these positions.
43:09The German armies had swept over Holland,
43:12broken the line of the Albert Canal,
43:15and for all anyone knew, were preparing to smash
43:18against the Allied front with all their power.
43:21That was the situation, dangerous but obscure,
43:24on the evening of May 13th.
43:27On the 14th and 15th, it became clear that the German breakthrough
43:32south of Namur was in the greatest strength,
43:34and that the French 9th Army, attacked while moving into position,
43:39had been shattered.
43:40Without doubt, this was the point of mortal danger,
43:43and the French high command ordered the abandonment of these positions,
43:48although they had not yet been attacked.
43:51Those positions were abandoned solely because of the situation
43:55developing along the Meurs near Sudan.
43:58In the meantime, the French 7th Army had been ordered
44:03to make its historic forced march far to the south
44:09into the area threatened by the rapidly advancing German spearheads.
44:14This army was not used to attack the German flank,
44:18but rather was used as a plug to restore the broken front.
44:23Throughout, the Allies had placed their fate not in offense,
44:26but in defense, and the defense was doomed to failure
44:30because it was confronted with an entirely new technique in warfare,
44:34the plane, tank, infantry team in action.
44:38The world was staggered by the speed with which
44:41the German armored columns moved.
44:43What was the secret that enabled armies
44:46to move so far so rapidly?
44:48The secret lay in the organization of the striking spearhead.
44:52Armored forces came first, closely followed by motorized divisions
44:57which peeled off, forming solid walls,
45:01and through the corridor, thus formed,
45:04raced the supply trucks to feed the ever-lengthening column.
45:10It was obvious that if the Allied situation
45:13was to be restored, the German column would have to be cut.
45:18On May 17th, General de Gaulle attacked the German flank
45:22and captured a few prisoners,
45:25but his light-mechanized forces were like a pin
45:28pricking the side of a rhinoceros.
45:31A subsequent attack met with even less success.
45:38The means for a really successful counterattack
45:41against the German corridor simply did not exist.
45:45Where numbers of divisions were required,
45:48only handfuls of companies and battalions were available.
45:54A valiant attempt to cut the German corridor
45:59was made by a group of slow-moving British tanks
46:03just south of Ara.
46:05But lack of sustained striking power
46:09doomed this valiant unit to destruction.
46:12On May 21st, the German spearhead
46:16reached the channel port of Abbeville.
46:18Protecting their flank along the Somme,
46:23the Germans fanned out to the north and east.
46:26This was to be the perfect battle of annihilation.
46:30On May 28th, the Belgian army,
46:33compressed into a small space
46:36and weary of battle, lay down its arms.
46:39That left the desperate French and British defenders
46:42with their backs to the sea
46:44at the small channel port of Dunkirk.
46:50One of the greatest disasters in history
46:51seemed in the making.
46:53An entire British army faced annihilation.
46:56But out of the fog and the mist
46:58shrouding the channel came a strange armada
47:01of Navy craft, fishing boats, pleasure yachts,
47:05anything that would float.
47:07The seagoing people of Britain
47:09had come to rescue their army.
47:11High overhead British fighter planes
47:14fought the Luftwaffe to a standstill.
47:27While below, small, alive suicide units
47:30held the Germans back long enough
47:32for the miracle of Dunkirk to take place.
47:49211,500 British troops,
47:52plus 112,500 French and Belgian were rescued.
47:58Over 300,000 battle-tested men,
48:00grimly determined to go back again
48:02with new tools, new weapons
48:04with which to blast the hated Nazis
48:06out of this world.
48:08For free men are like rubber balls.
48:10The harder they fall, the higher they bounce.
48:15Leaving the British by this time
48:16was a man who had been bouncing all his life,
48:18Winston Churchill, who had tried for years
48:21to warn the world about Germany.
48:25Meantime, the situation that faced France
48:27was as nearly hopeless as a military situation can be.
48:31Two-fifths of the French army was lost.
48:34There were fewer than 50 divisions left
48:36to defend the front almost 200 miles long,
48:40running from the northern end
48:41of the Maginot Line to the sea.
48:44And behind that thin front line,
48:46there were no reserves.
48:50The despairing people of Paris
48:51sent their children south,
48:54praying that some miracle
48:56would keep them from harm.
49:08The hopeless men of the French army
49:09without adequate arms or equipment
49:11braced themselves for the coming blow.
49:14The first blow fell on June 5th.
49:17The French resistance was determined,
49:19but by June 8th,
49:20the left flank army had been shattered
49:22and a general withdrawal was ordered
49:24to the line of the Mon and the Seine.
49:28On June 9th,
49:29the German main attack came.
49:32Within two days,
49:33the German armored and motorized divisions
49:36roared out into the open terrain.
49:38With this breakthrough,
49:40the issue of the Battle of France was decided,
49:42and from that time on,
49:44there was official talk of an armistice.
49:46Now, what about the famous Maginot Line?
49:52Let's go back and take a look.
49:55On June 14th,
49:56the Germans launched two attacks
49:58against the Maginot Line.
50:00In both cases,
50:01penetrations were affected.
50:03But we must remember
50:04that this was against fortifications
50:06defended by men devoid of hope.
50:10In the meantime, Mussolini,
50:12now thinking it's safe,
50:14sent his division racing across the border.
50:20The hand that held the dagger
50:23has struck it into the back of its neighbor.
50:28organized resistance in France
50:40was no longer possible.
50:41The government faced two alternatives.
50:44Retire to North Africa
50:46and carry on from there,
50:47or give up the struggle.
50:49France's leaders were old and tired,
50:52and the oldest and most tired
50:54was Marshal Pétain,
50:56egged on by men like Laval,
50:58who saw in a German victory
51:00his chance for personal power.
51:02On June 16th,
51:04Pétain asked for an armistice.
51:06The news is carried to Hitler,
51:09who received this word
51:10of a great nation's fall
51:11in a characteristic manner.
51:13Also characteristic were his terms
51:18for the armistice.
51:19It must be signed in the coach
51:21where Marshal Foch met the defeated Germans
51:23in the last war.
51:25The French delegation arrived
51:46to pay the final price
51:48of French disunity
51:50and the treachery
51:51of some of its leaders.
51:52The final price,
51:57a price that for centuries to come
52:01the French won't forget.
52:03More than three-fifths
52:08of their country
52:09was to be blacked out
52:10by a military occupation.
52:12The remainder was to be controlled
52:14by a French government
52:15acceptable to Hitler.
52:17A tax of 400 million francs a day
52:21was to be imposed on the French people
52:24to support the German army of occupation.
52:27Nearly two million French prisoners of war
52:30were to be taken into Germany
52:32and kept there as hostages
52:34to work as slaves
52:36or rot of hunger,
52:38tuberculosis,
52:39or other diseases
52:40in concentration camps.
52:42Men deliberately and permanently
52:45separated from their families
52:47in order to decrease the French birth rate
52:50and thus eliminate France
52:52as a world power
52:53in future generations.
52:55French civilians, men, women, and children
52:59must slave on farmer and factory
53:02for the Nazi master race
53:05or starve.
53:07There will be a class
53:08of subject alien races.
53:11We need not hesitate
53:12to call them slaves.
53:15French children were to grow up
53:17on such inadequate food
53:19that many would reach the age of 12
53:21before they grew new teeth.
53:24And for any attempts to protest
53:26against these restrictions,
53:28thousands of innocent French civilians
53:30would be executed.
53:35This was the price the French were to pay
53:39as they signed the armistice.
53:42And the master of the master race
53:44must go to Paris
53:46to tour the streets
53:47of what was once the city of light.
53:50You notice no cheering crowds here
53:53to welcome in the new order.
53:56When the people of Paris come to the streets again,
54:06it is to hear the voice of dictators
54:09telling them what they must do,
54:12how they must live,
54:15what they must say,
54:18what they must think,
54:21telling them how to be slaves.
54:24Gone is the Republic of France.
54:27Gone is free speech
54:28and a free representative government.
54:30Gone is liberty, equality, fraternity.
54:37These French, with their ears they listen,
54:40but their minds and their hearts,
54:42these are down on the Mediterranean
54:44where the battle colors of the regiments
54:46are being taken to Africa,
54:47out of the Nazi grasp.
54:50The people weep as their glory departs,
54:53for they don't as yet know
54:54that France has hope, a rallying point.
54:58Charles de Gaulle,
55:00a soldier in the great tradition of Foch,
55:02is not surrendering.
55:04He will continue to fight,
55:06gathering about him loyal Frenchmen
55:08from all over the world
55:10to become the Free French Army,
55:12the Fighting French.
55:14Yes, the people weep as they watch their colors go,
55:18not knowing that two years later,
55:20those same flags would again be unfurled
55:23in North Africa,
55:25alongside the stars and stripes,
55:28alongside the Union Jackets.
55:31Once more, their leaders,
55:32General de Gaulle and the famous,
55:34united in the common cause
55:36with the leaders of their allies.
55:38Once more, the red, white, and blue of France
55:40is raised on high.
55:42For out of the ashes of the defeat
55:44and the humiliation of France,
55:46her soul has been born again.
55:50...
55:52...
55:54...
55:56...
55:59...
56:14...
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