Chaos and Consent

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0:01:12 > 0:01:16The Nazis were obsessed with images of order.

0:01:16 > 0:01:20In their museums, exhibits like this "glass man"

0:01:20 > 0:01:26showed how the perfect human body was ordered into one interlocking whole.

0:01:29 > 0:01:36And through their parades and pageants, they sought to show how one individual human being

0:01:36 > 0:01:40was but a part of the ordered national community.

0:01:44 > 0:01:49But in Germany, the Nazis only created an illusion of order.

0:02:26 > 0:02:29On January 30th, 1933,

0:02:29 > 0:02:33Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany.

0:02:38 > 0:02:42Chief among those who rejoiced at the news

0:02:42 > 0:02:48were the Nazi storm troopers, the party's paramilitary wing, led by Ernst Rohm.

0:03:07 > 0:03:10ALL SING ROUSING ANTHEM

0:03:21 > 0:03:26In '33, you thought it was the beginning of a new German

0:03:26 > 0:03:29wonderful period.

0:03:29 > 0:03:33It was a true, enthusiastic movement of the people,

0:03:33 > 0:03:38except the people who were, by their hearts, socialists

0:03:38 > 0:03:41who were, from the beginning,

0:03:41 > 0:03:46persecuted and had to emigrate or were in concentration camps.

0:03:46 > 0:03:53One knew of these camps. One said, "The communists would have done the same and this is a revolution."

0:03:53 > 0:04:00The first to be imprisoned in this revolution were the Nazis' political opponents,

0:04:00 > 0:04:07communists and socialists. They were rounded up and thrown into hastily-built concentration camps.

0:04:07 > 0:04:13Hermann Goering boasted that scores were being settled.

0:04:13 > 0:04:16All in an atmosphere of chaotic terror,

0:04:16 > 0:04:23- as one Nazi storm trooper admitted. - "Everyone is arresting everyone else, avoiding official channels,

0:04:23 > 0:04:30"threatening everyone else with protective custody, with Dachau. Every little streetcleaner

0:04:30 > 0:04:36"feels he is responsible for matters which he has never understood."

0:04:36 > 0:04:39Amongst the first to suffer was Josef Felder.

0:04:39 > 0:04:42a Social Democrat MP.

0:04:42 > 0:04:49He was sent to the newly-opened Nazi concentration camp outside Munich - Dachau.

0:05:43 > 0:05:47Josef Felder was released after 18 months.

0:05:47 > 0:05:54The majority of those imprisoned here in 1933 were released after less than a year.

0:05:54 > 0:05:57The regime here was brutal.

0:05:57 > 0:06:04Beatings and psychological torture were common. But extermination camps were not yet born.

0:06:04 > 0:06:10Concentration camps were a tool of oppression, not yet of systematic murder.

0:06:10 > 0:06:13In 1933, to many Germans,

0:06:13 > 0:06:18they were an acceptable part of the Nazi revolution.

0:06:18 > 0:06:24To be a French nobleman in the Bastille was not so agreeable either.

0:06:24 > 0:06:28So people said, "Well, this is revolution."

0:06:28 > 0:06:33A peaceful revolution, but, partly, it IS a revolution.

0:06:33 > 0:06:41And concentration camps... Everybody said, "The English invented them in South Africa with the Boers."

0:06:41 > 0:06:43So, you know, eh...

0:06:43 > 0:06:46People couldn't look ahead.

0:06:46 > 0:06:52It was impossible for somebody in '33 to look ahead to '45.

0:06:52 > 0:06:54You can't.

0:06:56 > 0:07:02It was only 12 years, but it seems to be too much to look ahead... for 12 years.

0:07:04 > 0:07:10But Germans only had to look fewer than 12 weeks into Hitler's chancellorship

0:07:10 > 0:07:15to see what the status of the Jews would be in the new Nazi state.

0:07:16 > 0:07:19On April 1st, 1933,

0:07:19 > 0:07:26the Party organised a boycott of all Jewish shops which lasted one day.

0:07:26 > 0:07:34The Nazis made the Jews scapegoats for the loss of World War One and much else besides.

0:07:38 > 0:07:43In those early months of the Nazi reign,

0:07:43 > 0:07:50German Jews also fell victim to the storm troopers' arbitrary and violent attacks.

0:07:50 > 0:07:54In 1933, the storm troopers came

0:07:54 > 0:07:58and took my father away,

0:07:58 > 0:08:04together with many other Jews in Nuremberg. They were taken to a sports stadium

0:08:04 > 0:08:06where there was a lot of grass

0:08:06 > 0:08:12and they were made to cut the grass with their teeth, by sort of eating the grass.

0:08:12 > 0:08:18I found out afterwards. My father never talked about it.

0:08:18 > 0:08:20It was to humiliate them,

0:08:20 > 0:08:25to show them that they were the lowest of the low.

0:08:25 > 0:08:28It was simply to make a gesture.

0:08:30 > 0:08:35Nazi storm troopers made other violent gestures. In 1933,

0:08:35 > 0:08:41together with sympathetic students, they organised the burning of unsuitable books,

0:08:41 > 0:08:45particularly those by Jewish authors.

0:08:49 > 0:08:57Rohm wanted his storm troopers integrated into the regular German army. The army was horrified.

0:09:39 > 0:09:45Hitler sympathised with the revolutionary zeal of Rohm and his storm troopers.

0:09:45 > 0:09:52But by the summer of 1934, he knew that their power had to be curbed,

0:09:52 > 0:09:55and not just to please the army.

0:09:55 > 0:10:00Rohm had made a more dangerous enemy than the army leadership.

0:10:00 > 0:10:08Heinrich Himmler, ambitious for power himself, and still technically working to Rohm,

0:10:08 > 0:10:12plotted his downfall. He concocted a story

0:10:12 > 0:10:17that Rohm was plotting a coup and Hitler believed him.

0:10:17 > 0:10:20On June 30th, 1934,

0:10:20 > 0:10:24while on holiday in Bavaria, he was arrested.

0:10:24 > 0:10:27Two days later, he was shot.

0:10:27 > 0:10:32The army was glad to see the power of the storm troopers moderated.

0:10:32 > 0:10:40To show their gratitude, they volunteered to swear an oath of allegiance to Hitler,

0:10:40 > 0:10:46who now, on President Hindenburg's death, was not just Chancellor, but head of state.

0:11:08 > 0:11:16Somebody was reading and we had to lift our arm, and, at the very end, say, "That's my oath."

0:11:16 > 0:11:21How seriously did you and your colleagues take this oath?

0:11:21 > 0:11:24VERY seriously.

0:11:24 > 0:11:30This accompanied me my whole life till the very end.

0:11:30 > 0:11:33I mean, oath is oath.

0:11:33 > 0:11:37There's no doubt that I can't break the oath,

0:11:37 > 0:11:42otherwise I'm meant to commit suicide if I plan something else.

0:11:42 > 0:11:48This is very serious, the oath, for a soldier.

0:11:52 > 0:11:57With Rohm dead, Hitler appeared to have restored order.

0:11:57 > 0:12:03The revolution on the streets had subsided, and, with his hold on power secure,

0:12:03 > 0:12:10Hitler would come here to relax... in the mountains above Berchetesgaden in southern Bavaria.

0:12:10 > 0:12:15In 1938, a tea house was built on top of the high Obersalzburg,

0:12:15 > 0:12:20so that Hitler and his guests could enjoy the view.

0:12:20 > 0:12:26Hitler's own house was lower down the slope, and a whole complex grew up around it.

0:12:26 > 0:12:29This was the official guest house.

0:12:35 > 0:12:39But all that remains of Hitler's own house is rubble,

0:12:39 > 0:12:44the building demolished to prevent it becoming a memorial

0:12:44 > 0:12:49and quick-growing trees planted to obscure the famous view.

0:12:51 > 0:12:56When Hitler stayed here, as well as when he was in Berlin,

0:12:56 > 0:13:00the whole Nazi regime revolved around him.

0:13:01 > 0:13:06His personality determined the way in which Germany was governed.

0:13:06 > 0:13:11His was not the daily regime of a workaholic.

0:13:11 > 0:13:17Hitler was indolent - as those who worked for him discovered.

0:13:17 > 0:13:20He normally appeared shortly before lunch,

0:13:20 > 0:13:24quickly read the newspaper cuttings, then had lunch.

0:13:24 > 0:13:28When Hitler stayed at the Obersalzburg, it was worse.

0:13:28 > 0:13:33There, he never left his room before 2pm, then went to lunch.

0:13:33 > 0:13:40He spent most afternoons taking a walk. After dinner, there were films.

0:13:40 > 0:13:46In the 12 years of his rule in Germany, Hitler produced

0:13:46 > 0:13:53the biggest confusion in government that has ever existed in a civilised state.

0:13:54 > 0:14:02I've secured important decisions from him without his ever asking to see the relevant files.

0:14:02 > 0:14:09He took the view that many things sorted themselves out on their own, if one did not interfere.

0:14:15 > 0:14:22A very different picture of Hitler was projected here, at the vast complex of stadiums

0:14:22 > 0:14:27built in Nuremberg for the party's annual rally.

0:14:29 > 0:14:34What the public saw of Hitler in Nuremberg in the 1930s,

0:14:34 > 0:14:42was a confident and strong leader whose oratory promised a new, dynamic and powerful Germany.

0:15:32 > 0:15:36He was meant to be seen as the all-powerful,

0:15:36 > 0:15:42all-knowing leader, who prevailed over a system of total order.

0:15:42 > 0:15:48But the contrast between image and reality was quite a stark one

0:15:48 > 0:15:54because, far from it being a very orderly structure of command,

0:15:54 > 0:15:58in fact it was very disorganised.

0:15:58 > 0:16:03It is a quite remarkable system, if you can call it a system,

0:16:03 > 0:16:06where there is no collective government,

0:16:06 > 0:16:11yet where the head of state doesn't spend all his time dictating.

0:16:11 > 0:16:15SUNG IN GERMAN: "Happy Days Are Here Again"

0:16:26 > 0:16:32Hitler and the Nazis created a unique and peculiar form of government.

0:16:32 > 0:16:39Hitler was surrounded by acolytes who knew that their future depended on finding a way to please him.

0:16:39 > 0:16:46They strove always to be near him, accompanying him on whatever trips took his fancy.

0:16:56 > 0:17:02Though Hitler may have had little interest in regular hours of work or policy details,

0:17:02 > 0:17:06he did have visions of what he wanted for Germany.

0:17:06 > 0:17:14As Hitler talked in an endless monologue, ambitious Nazis would listen to him closely.

0:17:15 > 0:17:23Then, on their own initiative, they tried to think of ways in which his vision could become a reality.

0:17:23 > 0:17:30They made up the detail policy themselves and said they were acting on the will of the Fuhrer.

0:17:59 > 0:18:04From the first, Hitler openly said he didn't have detailed policies.

0:18:52 > 0:18:58But Hitler WAS open in saying what he wanted FROM the German economy.

0:18:58 > 0:19:04Chiefly, the weapons to build a new German army. Rearmament became his economic priority.

0:19:08 > 0:19:14The Nazis increased the army's budget so much in their first year of power,

0:19:14 > 0:19:19that the army wasn't able to spend all of it.

0:19:21 > 0:19:26The Nazis also promised to rid Germany of unemployment.

0:19:26 > 0:19:34And they did - mainly through huge work creation schemes like the Autobahn Building Programme.

0:19:40 > 0:19:45But building armaments and Autobahns

0:19:45 > 0:19:50could only be a short-term solution to Germany's economic problems.

0:20:22 > 0:20:27It would take time for these inflationary pressures to be felt.

0:20:27 > 0:20:33For the moment, everything looked rosy, especially when, in 1936,

0:20:33 > 0:20:40Hitler ordered German troops to re-enter the demilitarised portion of Germany, the Rhineland.

0:20:40 > 0:20:47Germans saw all this as one more sign that their country was regaining its self-respect.

0:21:39 > 0:21:46The Nazis organised pageants like Die Nacht der Amazonen - The Night Of The Amazons -

0:21:46 > 0:21:49held in Munich in the 1930s -

0:21:49 > 0:21:56Celebrations in which only those the Nazis considered racially pure could participate.

0:23:50 > 0:23:57But if you didn't fit the Nazi image of the perfect German, then life was very different.

0:23:57 > 0:24:04Here, in Munich, the same city where The Night Of The Amazons was held,

0:24:04 > 0:24:12the Nazis demolished one of the biggest synagogues in Germany. They wanted the space for a car park.

0:24:12 > 0:24:20The Jews were systematically excluded from German life. The 1935 Nuremberg Laws outlawed marriage

0:24:20 > 0:24:26between Jews and other Germans and declared that Jews were not German citizens.

0:24:26 > 0:24:29Other discrimination followed.

0:24:29 > 0:24:34Wasn't it a problem for you that you were working in a system

0:24:34 > 0:24:39that allowed Jews to be pushed out of their position,

0:24:39 > 0:24:43to lose their wealth, their property?

0:24:43 > 0:24:46Surely this was a great injustice.

0:24:46 > 0:24:49How did you feel about that?

0:25:26 > 0:25:33Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda hugely exaggerated the number of Jews who were in professions.

0:25:33 > 0:25:42The Nazis never gave the reason why German Jews were concentrated in certain walks of life -

0:25:42 > 0:25:48that the Jews had been banned from other careers for hundreds of years.

0:25:49 > 0:25:58Thousands emigrated from Germany during the '30s. They realised they would not be safe during Nazi rule.

0:25:58 > 0:26:04Those who remained always risked the attentions of the Secret State Police -

0:26:04 > 0:26:07the infamous Gestapo.

0:26:08 > 0:26:15In the town of Wurzburg lies a clue to just how the Gestapo operated under the Nazis.

0:26:15 > 0:26:21Almost all Gestapo files were burnt by the Nazis as the Allies came into Germany,

0:26:21 > 0:26:26but in Wurzburg, American soldiers prevented their destruction.

0:26:26 > 0:26:29Only recently have the files been studied,

0:26:29 > 0:26:34and a surprising picture emerges of how the Gestapo functioned.

0:26:34 > 0:26:37There were only 28 SS officials

0:26:37 > 0:26:40for the entire Wurzburg region

0:26:40 > 0:26:43of nearly a million people.

0:26:43 > 0:26:48I think the Gestapo could not have operated

0:26:48 > 0:26:50without the co-operation

0:26:50 > 0:26:53of the citizens of Germany.

0:26:53 > 0:26:59By that I mean it would have been structurally impossible for them to do so.

0:26:59 > 0:27:04There were not enough Gestapo officials to go around.

0:27:04 > 0:27:12Between 80-90% of the crimes that were reported to the Gestapo came from ordinary citizens.

0:27:12 > 0:27:15The main job for the Gestapo

0:27:15 > 0:27:18was sorting out the denunciations.

0:27:19 > 0:27:23This seems to have been their preoccupation.

0:27:23 > 0:27:30The citizens of a town like Wurzburg didn't so much have to fear the Gestapo,

0:27:30 > 0:27:37as what their neighbours might TELL the Gestapo. Every German was at risk from denunciation.

0:27:37 > 0:27:42A woman who lived in this house on the outskirts of Wurzburg in 1938

0:27:42 > 0:27:48came to the Gestapo's notice when she was denounced by a relative.

0:27:48 > 0:27:55She was called Ilse Sonia Totzke, and her Gestapo file lies in the Wurzburg archive.

0:27:55 > 0:28:01After years of Gestapo harassment, she was sent to Ravensbruk Concentration Camp, where she died.

0:28:01 > 0:28:05Her crime was simple - she didn't fit in.

0:28:05 > 0:28:10She avoided her neighbours and had Jewish friends.

0:28:12 > 0:28:17She is put under very general surveillance, not by the Gestapo,

0:28:17 > 0:28:22but by the Gestapo asking her neighbours to keep an eye on her.

0:28:24 > 0:28:30What happens is that one neighbour after another, for one reason or another,

0:28:30 > 0:28:35comes forward with information, all adding up to one thing.

0:28:35 > 0:28:39She may be just too unconventional for her own good.

0:28:39 > 0:28:46What this does is that - small town mentality - people keep after her...

0:28:46 > 0:28:49they keep noticing her...

0:28:49 > 0:28:54and it's fuelled again and again by yet another denunciation.

0:28:54 > 0:28:59The denunciations in her file contain mostly gossip about her.

0:28:59 > 0:29:06That she is acting suspiciously and has shady friends, but little amounts to evidence against her.

0:29:06 > 0:29:11One denunciation hints that she may be a lesbian.

0:29:11 > 0:29:17"Miss Totzke does not seem to have normal predispositions." Typed in red,

0:29:17 > 0:29:20it is signed only "Heil Hitler."

0:29:27 > 0:29:32One denunciation is signed by a 20-year-old neighbour, Resi Kraus.

0:29:32 > 0:29:35"Since March, 1938,

0:29:35 > 0:29:40"Ilse Sonia Totzke is a resident next door to us.

0:29:40 > 0:29:43"She rarely has visitors.

0:29:43 > 0:29:50"Now and then, a woman of about 36 years old comes, and she is of Jewish appearance...

0:29:50 > 0:29:58"I would like to mention that Miss Totzke never responds to the German greeting, Heil Hitler.

0:29:58 > 0:30:02"To my mind, Miss Totzke is behaving suspiciously."

0:32:17 > 0:32:24We used to think that the population was manipulated and brainwashed from above.

0:32:24 > 0:32:27Now what we're beginning to see,

0:32:27 > 0:32:33by looking at the social history of the kind one sees in these Gestapo dossiers,

0:32:33 > 0:32:40is that the system is manipulated from below by lots of people for all kinds of reasons,

0:32:40 > 0:32:45some of them selfish, some of them - fewer - idealistic.

0:32:45 > 0:32:51We now get a dramatically different picture of what the system was like.

0:32:59 > 0:33:04Ordinary Germans could influence the Gestapo through denunciations.

0:33:04 > 0:33:06But no major policy

0:33:06 > 0:33:12could ever be successfully instituted unless Hitler blessed it.

0:33:12 > 0:33:19So for members of the Nazi elite, the search was always on for a new way of pleasing their Fuhrer.

0:33:19 > 0:33:22One way was to feed his anti-Semitism.

0:33:22 > 0:33:27Joseph Goebbels, propaganda minister and hater of Jews,

0:33:27 > 0:33:36sought to do just that. He boasted that the Nazis had managed to exclude Jews from cultural life.

0:34:05 > 0:34:11In the autumn of 1938, Goebbels saw a chance to please Hitler more when he heard

0:34:11 > 0:34:17that German diplomat Ernst von Rath, had been assassinated in Paris

0:34:17 > 0:34:22by a young Jew, Hirschel Grynszpan, angry at his family's treatment.

0:34:22 > 0:34:28The Nazi elite were in Munich for the anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch.

0:34:28 > 0:34:33Goebbels asked Hitler's permission to let loose the storm troopers

0:34:33 > 0:34:40in an act of vengeance against Germany's innocent Jews. He agreed. And so began Kristallnacht -

0:34:40 > 0:34:43the night of broken glass.

0:34:57 > 0:34:59In the early hours of the morning,

0:34:59 > 0:35:04they broke the front door down and started to smash the place up.

0:35:04 > 0:35:07Hoards of storm troopers.

0:35:07 > 0:35:10We had two lots.

0:35:10 > 0:35:16One lot smashed things up and left, and then the second lot arrived.

0:35:18 > 0:35:25Three elderly ladies were living on the first floor. One was dragged out and beaten...

0:35:25 > 0:35:30for no reason except she probably got in the way of someone.

0:35:30 > 0:35:32I was knocked about...

0:35:32 > 0:35:36and finally ended up in the cellar...

0:35:36 > 0:35:39which was where the kitchens were.

0:35:39 > 0:35:45I was being knocked about. When I came back, I went upstairs,

0:35:45 > 0:35:48and found my father dying.

0:35:48 > 0:35:50Dead.

0:35:50 > 0:35:53I tried...

0:35:53 > 0:35:57as far as I could... artificial respiration.

0:35:57 > 0:36:01I don't think I was very good at it. In any case,

0:36:01 > 0:36:04it was too late for me.

0:36:04 > 0:36:10I was absolutely in shock. It was beyond my comprehension.

0:36:10 > 0:36:18I didn't know the people, they didn't know me. They had no grudge against me. They were just...

0:36:18 > 0:36:23people who would come to do whatever they thought they should do.

0:36:23 > 0:36:29More than 800 Jews are known to have lost their lives as a result of Kristallnacht,

0:36:29 > 0:36:33and as many as 1,000 synagogues were destroyed.

0:37:52 > 0:38:00What was the reaction of the non-Jews you knew, when they heard of your circumstances?

0:38:00 > 0:38:05- Did anyone come up to you to say what they felt about it?- No.

0:38:05 > 0:38:08In fact...

0:38:09 > 0:38:16..the people passing the next morning, ordinary Germans, threw stones at the windows.

0:38:19 > 0:38:22- Nobody expressed any sympathy?- No.

0:38:27 > 0:38:34In the aftermath of Kristallnacht, Hitler's popularity did not seem to suffer.

0:38:34 > 0:38:39As he never spoke about it in public, it was possible to believe,

0:38:39 > 0:38:47for those Germans who wanted to, that the responsibility lay with the hot-headed storm troopers.

0:38:49 > 0:38:55The love affair between Hitler and his followers continued.

0:39:09 > 0:39:12MALE SINGER:

0:39:42 > 0:39:49In 1938, a new chancellory was built, symbolising the power and order of Nazi rule.

0:39:49 > 0:39:52But inside its walls,

0:39:52 > 0:39:59Hitler was still pursuing methods which could only result in administrative chaos.

0:39:59 > 0:40:04The Grand Reich Chancellory was a hive of political in-fighting.

0:40:04 > 0:40:09Rivals with ill-defined jobs fought each other for Hitler's favour.

0:40:09 > 0:40:14Hitler's working life was organised by FIVE private offices.

0:40:14 > 0:40:19The office of the Reich Chancellory, under Hans Heinrich Lammers.

0:40:19 > 0:40:24The office of Hitler's Personal Adjutant, under Wilhelm Bruckner.

0:40:24 > 0:40:29The office of the Presidential Chancellory under Otto Meissner.

0:40:29 > 0:40:35On the second floor, the office of the Chancellory of the Fuhrer, under Philip Buhler.

0:40:35 > 0:40:41And the office representing the Fuhrer's Deputy, under Martin Bormann.

0:40:41 > 0:40:46All of these different offices claimed to represent Hitler.

0:40:46 > 0:40:52A large portion of their time was spent fighting each other.

0:41:49 > 0:41:55One of the more vicious power battles was over access to the mail,

0:41:55 > 0:42:02to the thousands of letters that arrived each week addressed only to "Mein Fuhrer"

0:42:02 > 0:42:07and which begged favours or blessings from Hitler.

0:42:07 > 0:42:14There were trivial letters asking if church bells could be named after Hitler

0:42:14 > 0:42:20and serious ones from individual Jews, pleading that they were special cases

0:42:20 > 0:42:24and should be exempt from the discriminatory laws.

0:42:24 > 0:42:30Access to this mail meant access to Hitler and a chance to form Nazi policy.

0:42:30 > 0:42:33Philip Buhler, an ambitious Nazi,

0:42:33 > 0:42:38managed to gain control of the mail and exploit it to his benefit.

0:42:38 > 0:42:40In late 1938 or early 1939,

0:42:40 > 0:42:48one chance letter which Buhler's office showed to Hitler, had a devastating effect.

0:42:48 > 0:42:52It was from the father of a mentally disabled child

0:42:52 > 0:42:59who asked the Fuhrer's permission to have the child killed. Hitler agreed.

0:42:59 > 0:43:04He had already ordered the sterilisation of the disabled.

0:43:04 > 0:43:09This one letter was to be the catalyst to their murder.

0:43:09 > 0:43:14Buhler was to devise secret policy for killing disabled children

0:43:14 > 0:43:17within days of their birth.

0:43:17 > 0:43:22This form had to be filled in when a disabled baby was born.

0:43:22 > 0:43:25Three doctors read the form.

0:43:25 > 0:43:31If they thought the baby should be killed, they each marked it with a cross.

0:43:31 > 0:43:38Within months, it was no longer just babies who could be killed, but disabled children, too.

0:43:38 > 0:43:45Gerda Bernhardt's brother, Manfred, was one of more than 5,000 children who were to suffer.

0:43:45 > 0:43:49Manfred had been mentally disabled since birth.

0:44:43 > 0:44:48But Aplerbeck was one of the Nazi's special children's units.

0:44:48 > 0:44:53By now, two years after the policy had begun,

0:44:53 > 0:45:00doctors in these homes had stopped filling in Buhler's form. In a typical example

0:45:00 > 0:45:03of how policies could spiral away,

0:45:03 > 0:45:08staff here, on their own, selected the children they wanted to kill.

0:45:59 > 0:46:03The official record of deaths at Aplerbeck

0:46:03 > 0:46:08lists Manfred Bernhardt as dying of measles on June 3rd.

0:46:08 > 0:46:13In the same week, eleven other children died.

0:46:15 > 0:46:22Manfred Bernhardt was murdered because he was not wanted in the Nazis' perfect state.

0:46:22 > 0:46:29The catalyst that caused his death was a chance letter to Hitler on a subject close to his heart,

0:46:29 > 0:46:34brought to his attention by an ambitious Nazi.

0:46:34 > 0:46:37Any idea in this system

0:46:37 > 0:46:42could, with the combination of a leader who spoke in visions,

0:46:42 > 0:46:46and enthusiastic supporters anxious to please,

0:46:46 > 0:46:51grow radically to an extreme almost in an instant.

0:46:53 > 0:46:57This was the way Germany was ruled in the 1930s.

0:47:07 > 0:47:11Now the world was about to suffer the consequences

0:47:11 > 0:47:17of the radical way decisions were taken in this Hitler state.

0:48:00 > 0:48:04Ceefax Subtitles by Janice Hamilton BBC Scotland, 1997