- anteontem
On the night of February 27, 1933, the German Parliament building burned down, and democracy went along with it. In just a few hours, then a few days, the fates of an entire country and of all of Europe were upended. The Reichstag Fire was used as a pretext to establish Adolf Hitler’s dictatorship. But who set fire to it? The Dutch Marinus Van der Lubbe alone? The communists with him? Or the Nazis? Investigations into who the true arsonist or arsonists were have never reached a conclusion. Ninety years after the event, it is time to shed light on this last crucial mystery of the 20th century.
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00:00February 27th, 1933. Berlin, Germany. 9.17 p.m. Black smoke veils the night sky over the German capital.
00:21The Reichstag, the German parliament building, is burning. The beating heart of democracy.
00:30Police cordons quickly block the roads around the Reichstag.
00:41Flames rise up to its 75-metre-high dome, before warning of the terrible fire that would soon sweep through all of Germany.
00:49Hitler has been in power 29 days. 29 days, which have so far been insufficient for him to impose his dictatorship.
01:05But in a single night, the Reichstag fire will give him the means to do so.
01:09The culmination of a bitter struggle between Nazis and Communists.
01:24Five men were designated as culprits. One of them, the youngest, was discovered alone inside the burning Reichstag and placed in the prisoner's dock for a show trial.
01:33Miraculously preserved recordings of the trial have enabled us to reconstruct the proceedings through the voices of both the accused and the accusers.
01:43Almost a century later, questions remain.
01:58Who started the Reichstag fire?
02:02And how did it provide the death blow to German democracy?
02:061928, five years before the fire.
02:331928, five years before the fire.
02:36The golden years of Berlin.
02:40The young Weimar Republic was ten years old.
02:44Ten years of euphoria and hope.
02:46Ten years of fear and anxiety and simmering revolutions.
02:51At the end of World War I, its proclamation from a window of the Reichstag had coincided with Germany's defeat.
02:58A few streets north of the Brandenburg Gate, at one end of the famous Avenue Unter den Linden, the German Parliament Building stood in the heart of the capital.
03:10Germany was no longer an empire, Germany was no longer an empire, but a republic, albeit fragile and under attack from all sides.
03:20Ten years after the Great War, partying had replaced gloom and doom.
03:30Austrian novelist and biographer, Stefan Zweig wrote, the post-war period was supposed to be different to the pre-war one.
03:38Berlin was transformed into the Babylon of the world.
03:44Bars, amusement parks and honky-tonks sprang up like mushrooms, a time of enthusiastic energy and misleading shams.
03:54A unique blend of impatience and fanaticism, anything extravagant and uncontrollable knew a golden age.
04:02Even the Rome of Suetonius had never known such orgies as the pervert balls of Berlin, where hundreds of men, costumed as women, and hundreds of women as men, danced under the benevolent eyes of the police.
04:24In 1928, the police already had a lot on their plate.
04:29Groups of militiamen provoked the revolutions of tomorrow.
04:35The recruits were aged between 20 and 30 on average.
04:40The idle, many of them orphans, discovered an element of military life in their commitment.
04:46They found fulfillment in fighting for a cause or a party.
04:49The Sturmabteilung, or brown shirts, was the answer for drifting German youths in search of adventure.
04:57War had claimed the lives of their older brothers and fathers.
05:01They had grown up frustrated at not taking part in it and no longer having the right to bear arms.
05:11There were almost as many Nazi brown shirts as there were soldiers in the regular army.
05:16A hundred thousand men.
05:19A blood-packed tied Hitler to his brown shirts.
05:36The Fuhrer had promised them.
05:39We will hang the Marxists of Berlin from lampposts, and we will burn down the Reichstag.
05:44But since his failed coup d'etat in 1923, Hitler's wish was to obtain power by legal means.
06:01The brown shirts were forced to restrain themselves and appear to uphold the law.
06:18But they dreamed of a swift revolution and pointed the finger at communists and Jews for all of Germany's ills.
06:25We will hang the Jews for all of us.
06:27Democracy was promised the same deadly fate.
06:29Democracy was promised the same deadly fate.
06:40Five years before the fire, the Nazis were still on the fringes of power.
06:44Twelve of them managed to become elected members of parliament.
06:51Joseph Goebbels declared,
06:57We enter the Reichstag like wolves entering the sheepfold to fight democracy with its own weapons.
07:06In 1928, the Nazis were well behind their main rival.
07:12In 1928, the Nazis were well behind their main rival.
07:15The communists had five times more members of parliament.
07:21Berlin was the reddest city in Europe after Moscow.
07:27A growing strength in Germany's continuing power struggle.
07:42Enough to worry the elite.
07:48Inspired by the example of Russia, the German communists were also waiting for the great night.
07:55Lenin called it the fire of revolution spreading across the world.
08:08They had already attempted to overthrow the government in 1919.
08:19On May 1st, 1929, thousands of communists gathered together.
08:25International workers' day turned into a confrontation with 13,000 policemen.
08:40In the eyes of many Germans, the communists seem to pose a bigger threat than the Nazis.
08:45The two opposing parties went head-to-head in a fierce battle to control working-class districts.
09:00Rival groups clashed.
09:04In the winter of 1930, Horst Wessel, a brown shirt shot by a communist, was elevated to martyr status.
09:14A song, written to glorify him, became the Nazi hymn.
09:20Written to glorify him, became the Nazi hymn.
09:23A climate of civil war reigned in Germany.
09:42Successive governments failed to bring about order.
09:45Democracy resisted.
09:48But often, with derisory means.
09:51In Prussia, Nazis and communists were forbidden to wear uniforms.
09:57The worst of punishments for the ultra-proud brown shirts.
10:07Despite these difficulties, Hitler could at least rejoice at his results.
10:14With unemployment skyrocketing, Red Fear was the driver of incredible Nazi progress in elections.
10:25At the following election, the number of Nazi members of parliament rose from 12 to 107,
10:31making it the second political party in Germany.
10:35They defied the law by wearing their banned uniform, their parliamentary immunity protecting them from any legal proceedings.
10:53In the Reichstag itself, to provoke their communist opponents, they sang the Horst Wessel anthem.
11:00The communist members chanted in reply,
11:10Proletariat, wake up!
11:12Proletariat, wake up!
11:15Proletariat, wake up!
11:21Proletariat, wake up!
11:27The main right-wing party hostile to the Nazis came up with the idea of a prophetic image.
11:36This political right-wing was embodied by the aged President Hindenburg, who had trouble descending the Reichstag steps.
11:54who had trouble descending the Reichstag steps.
12:03The hero of the Great War maintained an unstable balance
12:07between Democrats and supporters of an authoritarian regime.
12:11But his term was coming to a close.
12:16Hindenburg distrusted Hitler,
12:18whom he nicknamed the Bohemian Corporal,
12:21an underling who was not even German, but Austrian.
12:24In return, Hitler referred to him as the old man.
12:36At 84 years old, Hindenburg kept the Weimar Republic under control
12:40while waiting the return of the authoritarian regime he longed for.
12:45At 42, Hitler now felt equal to the great man
12:49and promised an alternative future for Germany.
12:53With his brown revolution, a Third Reich.
13:04On February 25th, 1932,
13:08he obtained German nationality
13:09so he could stand in the presidential election and be elected,
13:13thus circumventing the Reichstag.
13:15He embarked on an audacious campaign,
13:22which would make him famous across Germany.
13:27Thanks to radio broadcasts, his voice became familiar.
13:30An aristocrat, August von Kegeneck, remembered,
13:39democracy was unloved.
13:43Hitler made light work of contesting and ridiculing this form of power.
13:47His accent made people laugh.
13:49But soon, his energy and boldness drew admiration
13:52from a society nostalgic for past grandeur.
13:55Hitler's rallies brightened up the monotone life of provincial towns for an afternoon.
14:16Whole families of Germans flocked there to hail him.
14:19Enthusiastic German women also turned out in numbers,
14:26having been given the vote under the Weimar Republic.
14:33Hitler wasn't elected president,
14:35but he came out of the election stronger.
14:37Despite his recent efforts,
14:45he next set out to conquer the Reichstag,
14:47this time aiming for the post of chancellor.
14:51Two frantic weeks of flying,
14:54during a lightning campaign where he visited six different towns in the same day,
14:59rattling off the same number of times,
15:01his speech which he had learned by heart.
15:0334 parties.
15:08Wir sind intolerant.
15:10Ich habe mir ein Ziel gesteht,
15:13nämlich die 30 Parteien aus Deutschland hinauf zu fliegen.
15:18Wir haben ein Ziel uns gewählt und verbetteret von Nacht,
15:23es reucht sich nur fies ins Graf hinein.
15:26Wir sind ein Ziel.
15:38The Nazi Party was flying high,
15:41but Hitler wasn't appointed chancellor.
15:45Once again, Hindenburg barred his way.
15:53Baron Franz von Pappen was appointed instead.
15:56His opportunistic dream was to reconcile the elite and the working class.
16:06Von Papen offered Hitler the post of vice-chancellor.
16:10Hitler refused.
16:17The wolves had entered the sheepfold, with 230 members of parliament, almost 40% of the Reichstag.
16:23The Nazis' presence weakened the nationalists and centrists who made a pact with them.
16:34This allowed 39-year-old Hermann Goering, a close ally of Hitler, to become president of the Reichstag.
16:46The intense, belligerent Goering, a World War I fighter pilot,
16:51cultivated the image of a worldly, well-mannered man, well-established among Berlin high society.
16:59Ironically, it was the leader of the communists in parliament, Ernst Turgler,
17:03who read out the results of the vote.
17:05Abgegeben sind 587 Stimmen.
17:13Hiervoll erhielten der Abgeordnete Goering 367 Stimmen.
17:22Meine Damen und Herren, danke ich für das Vertrauen.
17:27Auch die Ehre der Geschichte des deutschen Volkes wird in mir einen berufenen Hüter finden.
17:47Beyond the walls of the Reichstag, Nazis and Communists clashed violently.
17:52In a matter of weeks, more than a hundred lives were lost.
18:10Hitler was putting his latest strategy into action.
18:13He accused the communists when he was the instigator of the upsurge in violence with his rampant brown shirts.
18:20Civil unrest and the vetoing of laws made the country ungovernable.
18:29Instability resulted in dissolution after dissolution.
18:34In the parliamentary election, the third in a year, votes were evenly shared.
18:40On election day, a transport strike was organized by the communists.
18:44To add to the confusion, the Nazis took part.
18:55Even the Nazis lost ground, dropping to 196 seats in the Reichstag.
19:01After two weeks of secret meetings and intrigue, Van Pappen managed to change Hindenburg's mind.
19:11He believed he could control Hitler.
19:13On January 30, 1933, to widespread surprise, the bohemian corporal was appointed chancellor.
19:31The political class eagerly awaited Hitler's failure.
19:43Van Pappen would be vice-chancellor, the inferior post that Hitler had refused.
19:48As an informed observer, the French ambassador to Berlin wrote,
19:58The prisoner whom the barons boasts to have enclosed in the chancellery under their watchful eye is stronger than they are.
20:08Those who brought in Hitler have been hoisted with their own petard.
20:11The Führer could only form a coalition government, including just two Nazis,
20:18Wilhelm Frick, as Reich Minister of the Interior,
20:22and Hermann Goering, already President of the Reichstag, as the new Minister, President of Prussia.
20:29By filling these strategic posts, the Nazis effectively controlled all of the German police.
20:34On the night of his victory, the chancellor organized a torchlight procession.
20:49Supposedly a heartfelt tribute to the old man, President Hindenburg.
20:54It was as if all Germany was marching past his window.
20:58In fact, 15,000 Berlin brownshirts were marching in circles.
21:04At 10.30 p.m., the procession went out of control.
21:09A group of brownshirts veered off toward a communist bastion.
21:12Gunfire rang out.
21:23A brownshirt and an intervening police officer were killed on the spot.
21:29The first two deaths of Hitler's regime.
21:34The new chancellor turned the event into a national tragedy.
21:46Everything pointed to the brownshirts.
21:49But the Nazis claimed they were the victims, and the communists were designated as guilty.
21:58Goering took advantage to unite the police forces and the brownshirts.
22:01He urged them to find and bring down enemies of the state.
22:19It was Act I in seizing total power.
22:22Act II was Hitler's dissolving of the Reichstag.
22:39Another election was set for the month of March, the 4th that year.
22:43Against a backdrop of intimidation and persecution of all opponents.
22:54Department 1, soon to be renamed the Gestapo, compiled lists of all Nazi opponents.
23:01They were placed under surveillance and forbidden from campaigning.
23:04At a packed Berlin sport palace, a huge banner proclaimed,
23:24Free Germany from Marxism.
23:26For his first speech as chancellor, Hitler wore the Nazi combatant uniform, the brown shirt.
23:43At a high ask for president of war.
23:45Londra, Hitler, Hitler 쪽.
23:46die stand the first attempt.
23:46Thing is now known for the Nazi hub.
23:47He was cast a feeling东西, but to speak other wars.
23:48That extent, Hitler won't be named to worship.
23:49Provide the speech as chancellor, Hitler won't be named.
24:04The time of War.
24:05This war would not be known for the sake of camp.
24:08But he was intending to finally his career.
24:11until finally this appearance of German life would be defeated.
24:25A menacing Goebbels raised the specter of a Jewish and communist conspiracy.
24:41A few days before the election,
24:44the President and the President and the President
24:48will also be reminded of that
24:51as much as we all think,
24:53the hour of the end of the terror,
24:56will be defeated.
24:59A few days before the election,
25:02the President and the President
25:05of the United States
25:08Hitler crisscrossed Germany.
25:13His victory was far from certain.
25:18The Weimar Republic had already had four governments in the past year.
25:22Negotiations with the right-wing and centrists were drawn out.
25:26The new Chancellor was sitting on an ejector seat.
25:30But his old friend,
25:32Ernst Hanfstengel felt that Hitler had a plan up his sleeve.
25:41Hanfstengel wrote,
25:45For weeks, Hitler had been intractable.
25:50He listened only to suggestions that fed his own growing exaltation
25:54and ignored all my advice.
25:59Rumors of a Nazi plot to conserve power began to spread.
26:09Joseph Goebbels seemed to be in on it.
26:12In his journal, he noted,
26:15Discussed the election campaign with Hitler.
26:19For now, no countermeasures.
26:21First, everything must go up in flames.
26:25February 27th, 1933.
26:41A freezing day in Berlin.
26:46On that winter morning,
26:47the Reichstag and its surrounds were calm.
26:55The German parliament building had stood up to all changes of government.
27:02The dissolution of February 1st had practically emptied the building.
27:09For a month, the Reichstag was an empty shell.
27:14The cradle of German democracy was hibernating,
27:17waiting to come back to life.
27:19The tape recordings of the witnesses at the Reichstag fire trial
27:26would enable us to reconstruct events just as they were experienced.
27:31At 8pm, Hitler took advantage of an unexpected break in his campaign schedule,
27:34to dine at Goebbels' home.
27:48I can tell you the whole situation,
27:50in which I was surprised by the news of the Reichstag.
27:54At the evening of this day,
27:57the captain was at home at home.
28:00The captain was at home at home.
28:01The captain was at home at home.
28:02The captain was at home at home.
28:03The captain was at home at home at home.
28:05The槍 was at home at home.
28:06The captain was at home at home at home.
28:07The captain was at home at home at home.
28:08So he was at home at home.
28:09The men and my wife were at home at home.
28:12And his wife at home.
28:17Goebbels' wife Magda was adamant that everything should be perfect for the dinner.
28:22She invited their old friend Ernst Hafstengel,
28:26affectionately known as Puts and an excellent pianist.
28:30pianist.
28:33His music had a calming effect on the Fuhrer.
28:43But Putsi had caught cold and was feverish, so he preferred to stay in bed.
28:51He was being put up by Göring in his official residence opposite the Reichstag.
28:588.30 p.m. inside the Reichstag.
29:06The communist parliamentarian Ernst Torgler had just ended a meeting with other party members
29:12before heading to the restaurant Aschinger near Friedrichstrasse station.
29:21He was the last parliamentarian to leave the building.
29:258.45 p.m.
29:29The lighting technician made his rounds of the building.
29:32Five minutes later, the post-sorter finished his shift.
29:37Inside the Reichstag, all was calm.
29:40In an hour, the night watch would begin.
29:479.05 p.m.
29:48Theology student Hans Flotter left the nearby library and skirted round the Reichstag.
29:5710.05 p.m.
29:59The police student Hans Flotter left the way to my apartment.
30:0211.10 p.m.
30:0311.10 p.m.
30:0412.10 p.m.
30:0512.10 p.m.
30:0612.10 p.m.
30:0712.10 p.m.
30:0812.10 p.m.
30:0912.10 p.m.
30:1012.10 p.m.
30:1113.10 p.m.
30:2112.10 p.m.
30:25They were the first witnesses to see the flames from outside the building.
30:40They also saw shadows.
30:44The security guard drew his weapon and fired in the general direction without hitting anyone.
30:51The fire alarm was set off.
30:59At 9.14pm, four fire trucks headed to the scene.
31:07At around the same time, three police officers left the Brandenburg Gate Police Station.
31:13Here is the corner of the Sinsal Street, the corner of the Sinsal Street.
31:21In the Sinsal Street, there was the last window of the Sinsal Street to the fire.
31:30After the hour, it was 9.17pm.
31:35I don't know yet, how in the middle of the Sinsal Street came out of the Sinsal Street.
31:51It was 9.00pm.
31:53I was in the middle of the Sinsal Street.
32:07I was in the middle of the Sinsal Street.
32:11I was in the middle of the Sinsal Street.
32:23With its five entrances and six stories, the Reichstag was a vast maze and difficult to
32:28enter.
32:30In the confusion, a group entered through door two, broken down on Göring's orders.
32:36Another group climbed a ladder and attempted to enter through a window, right next to the
32:41one used by the shadow seen by the first eyewitnesses.
32:47It's hard to imagine a man breaking in here with his bare hands.
32:55A firefighter explained.
32:57It was impossible to break the window panes with an elbow or a kick, because they were too
33:01thick.
33:089.20pm.
33:13On the other side of the building, a security guard opened door five to three police officers
33:18who had just arrived.
33:28On the ground was a smoldering
33:58jacket.
34:01The group split up to find its owner.
34:05The security guard and one of the policemen headed to the Bismarck room in the north of
34:09the building.
34:10It was all dark, as if from the right out of the corridor of 56, I was held up.
34:21And there I stood, maybe 1,5 meters, with a man who was just dressed with shoes and shoes.
34:31In a fit of rage, the security guard punched the man in the ribs.
34:54In a fit of rage, the security guard punched the man in the ribs.
35:16In the man's pockets, a few matches and a Dutch passport.
35:21The time of arrest was recorded as 9.22 p.m., only 14 minutes after the sighting by the
35:27first eyewitnesses.
35:29At the same time, the firefighters were surprised by the rapid spread of the fire.
35:39Twenty hoses were used to try to save the debating chamber.
36:08At 9.27 p.m., the dome above the plenary chamber finally shattered in an explosion heard all
36:15across Berlin.
36:22Opposite, in the presidential palace where he was a guest, Hofstengel attested, I leapt out
36:29of bed, ran to the window looking into the square, and saw the entire building engulfed
36:34flames.
36:35I immediately called Goebbels himself.
36:39I don't know exactly what time it was.
36:40I don't know exactly what time it was.
36:43The director of the press of the NSDAP, Dr.
36:46Hanstengel, told me about this phone and said, I sit in the room of the Reister
36:53and I see the flames of the fire from the cupola.
36:58The driver himself couldn't believe it in the first glance, and this announcement for
37:02us all.
37:069.45 p.m., Hitler and Goebbels arrived by car.
37:12Photographers captured the scene.
37:16Goering was already there.
37:18Hitler prophesied.
37:19Hitler prophesied.
37:20This is the dawning of a new era in 17
37:43Hitler prophesied.
37:47This is the dawning of a new era in German history.
37:51This fire is just the beginning.
37:59Within the hour, Göring announced on radio.
38:13During this fight, all the available forces were mobilized.
38:19It will be my most important task...
38:22...to rot out of our people.
38:31The word spread rapidly across Berlin.
38:34The Communists had set fire to the Reichstag.
38:37Crowds began to flock toward the parliament building.
38:43The fire was still burning.
38:5750,000 brownshirts and police officers were dispatched across Berlin and other big cities.
39:09Ironically, the Fuhrer justified this action...
39:12...with a decree established by previous chancellors...
39:14...to arrest Nazis in case of a crisis.
39:22The fire justified terror.
39:24Pre-established lists of opponents accelerated the round-ups.
39:30Under the supervision of Berlin brownshirt leader Graf von Helldorf.
39:36The Nazi leader's strong arm in the capital.
39:404,000 communists and sympathizers were arrested that night.
39:46And 45,000 more in the days that followed.
39:52Including 81 members of parliament.
39:54Who evoked their parliamentary immunity.
39:56But in vain.
39:58The president of the communist group Ernst Torgler.
40:02The last to leave the Reichstag on the evening of the 27th...
40:04...went to explain himself to the police.
40:06He was arrested on the spot.
40:08He was arrested on the spot.
40:20He was arrested on the spot.
40:22I want to show you the first words.
40:24I will be grateful to the truth.
40:26I am completely ungrateful.
40:28...that I am completely ungrateful.
40:30...that I have not to do with this criminal war-up.
40:32...that I am completely ungrateful.
40:34I am completely ungrateful.
40:36I am completely ungrateful.
40:40I would like to prove that my party...
40:46...will bring me in any relationship with this criminal war-up.
40:58The firefighters finally had the blaze under control.
41:01Most of the Reichstag was intact, but the plenary chamber was totally ravaged.
41:14The crime scene was examined by a fire expert.
41:22One person could have been at least 20-25 minutes, if the material is ready.
41:36It has yet been confirmed that coal miners with Napsaline were burned with self-incentred electricity,
41:46and they were put on a petroleum- or fuel-pensin-getrinked supply.
41:55Uncertainty reigned. How could one man set off a fire of such a scale?
42:06At Berlin police headquarters, an unknown 24-year-old was the focus of attention.
42:20He was the key to the mysterious fire.
42:26Marinus van der Lubbe, a sight-impaired, unemployed man from Holland.
42:31The Nazis had already designated him as part of the armed branch of a communist plot.
42:42The guidelines given to the investigators were clear.
42:46Van der Lubbe was immediately handed over to me.
42:52I had the impression of a communist before me.
42:58But the questioning wasn't cut and dry.
43:03Marinus came across as much as an idealist as a marginal.
43:07With his shaky German and his contradictions,
43:10he admitted to acting alone to wake up the working class.
43:15But he denied being a communist, as he would repeat throughout the trial.
43:21Were you before, after your view, communist?
43:28No, not.
43:30Were you at a ship?
43:32No.
43:34Was that the intention of bringing this fire to revolution?
43:40No.
43:41No.
43:42No.
43:50Oh, no.
43:55After 3 days of questioning, the investigators gave their conclusion.
44:00The fire was the work of a lone wolf.
44:03A compulsive pyromaniac.
44:04maniac. Their report contradicted the version of the Nazi party and its experts.
44:13Informed of the results of the investigation, Hitler said,
44:17tears would have been spared if the accused had been hanged on the spot.
44:22Göring shed light on this statement.
44:34Only because I said, we only have one. It must be a whole show.
44:41And maybe I need the man as a piece.
44:49Van der Loebe's face was posted in every police station in Germany and in the press.
44:56The staging was meticulous.
44:58Bare-chested to fit with the moment of arrest, or in his jacket and cap, a box of matches in hand.
45:10Everything was done to convince public opinion of the young Dutchman's guilt.
45:18The German people were even encouraged to participate in the investigation.
45:22Rewards of up to 20,000 marks were offered to anyone giving information about his accomplices.
45:32Suddenly, there were witnesses galore.
45:35Accusing a neighbour.
45:37A co-worker.
45:38The false leads were taken seriously.
45:57And resulted in further round-ups, which were carried out at a frantic pace.
46:01A brown-shirt section leader gave his account.
46:09I chose the most fearless men in my section and formed a flying squad.
46:14Once and for all, we had to wipe the lewd smiles off the faces of the Bolshevik murderers
46:20and protect Germany from the bloody terror of their rampant hordes.
46:23Goering recommended them to use their service weapons zealously.
46:31I have to make sure that if you shoot, then I shoot.
46:36If there was a deadly threat, then I shot him.
46:41I wanted to hit these communist soldiers with a gun.
46:45That they don't let us go further.
46:53A young German, Gunther Gallisch, recalled,
47:03The entire nation was handcuffed.
47:06The police and its representatives could enter your home without a warrant, by pure force.
47:12The notion of unlawful entry was erased from legal vocabulary.
47:15In Berlin, Communist Party headquarters, once searched and stripped bare,
47:27became an arbitrary detention center, among many others.
47:40Improvised camps sprang up.
47:42On requisition sites large enough to detain hundreds of unfortunate men and run by the brown shirts.
48:01The chief of the political police recounted,
48:04Interrogations began and ended with beatings.
48:07Every few hours, dozens of men had beaten their victims with iron bars, rubber batons and whips.
48:19Broken teeth and bones bore witness to this torture.
48:23When we entered, living skeletons covered in pus-filled wounds were lying next to each other on their putrefied mattresses.
48:30But these unofficial camps drew less indignation than the still smoking remains of the Reichstag.
48:45The people of Berlin were urged to visit the disaster site, by the hundreds,
48:50escorted by brown shirts eager to give the official version.
48:53But not all visitors were convinced.
49:01The Reichstag fire smelled of a carefully orchestrated seizure of power.
49:06The French ambassador to Berlin wrote,
49:11The French ambassador to Berlin wrote,
49:14I cannot fathom how the dozen men needed to start a fire of such intensity
49:19were able to enter and leave the parliament building heaped with material without being seen.
49:24Most of my colleagues agree with the very plausible hypothesis of a Nazi plot.
49:33They cleared up burns the sollte.
49:36BOB RATTAN
49:39John
49:41Us
49:45John
49:47The Soviet Union
49:49George
49:53cowardly
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