0:00:41 > 0:00:47GERMAN SPEECH ON RADIO
0:00:47 > 0:00:50CRACKLE AND HISS
0:00:53 > 0:00:58It's like a...like a fire, like a blazing fire,
0:00:58 > 0:01:04the news spreading across Germany - Adolf Hitler, Chancellor of the Reich.
0:01:04 > 0:01:08A million hearts burning up with joy.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11We can see banners glowing blood-red,
0:01:11 > 0:01:16and in the centre of each one the symbol of our hope, the crooked cross,
0:01:16 > 0:01:19the swastika - look at that!
0:01:22 > 0:01:25January 30th, 1933.
0:01:25 > 0:01:30Nazi Brown Shirts salute their Fuhrer, their leader, Adolf Hitler.
0:01:33 > 0:01:39His rise seemed the answer to many people's dreams.
0:01:39 > 0:01:43We will have a new Germany!
0:01:43 > 0:01:49We can see thousands of blazing torches streaming up the Wilhelmstrasse,
0:01:49 > 0:01:54long columns of Brown Shirts, victors in a painful struggle.
0:01:54 > 0:01:59The Brown Shirts were the foot soldiers of the Nazi movement.
0:01:59 > 0:02:06Years later, one of them, Fritz Muehlebach, described his memories of that extraordinary night.
0:02:06 > 0:02:10We were - I don't know - just laughing, you know.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13We sang. We shouted "Heil!" till we were hoarse.
0:02:13 > 0:02:17I mean - Adolf Hitler, leader of Germany. We couldn't believe it!
0:02:17 > 0:02:21When the news came through on the radio, we ran to a meeting house.
0:02:21 > 0:02:25They were handing out torches.
0:02:25 > 0:02:30When we marched, the police guarded OUR path. After so many years, the streets were finally ours.
0:02:30 > 0:02:34Yeah! Heil Hitler! Heil Hitler!
0:02:34 > 0:02:38- Sieg!- Heil!- Sieg!- Heil!- Sieg!- Heil!
0:02:38 > 0:02:45But not every German joined the Brown Shirts in their celebration that night.
0:02:45 > 0:02:51For they knew that now in power, the Nazis would allow no opposition
0:02:51 > 0:02:58and all those that stood against them, Hitler had promised to destroy.
0:03:02 > 0:03:04Our enemies say,
0:03:04 > 0:03:09we Nazis are intolerant, that we are somehow un-German,
0:03:09 > 0:03:14because we refuse to cooperate with other political parties.
0:03:14 > 0:03:21I want to make one thing quite clear. They're right. We ARE intolerant!
0:03:21 > 0:03:25And I have set myself one task -
0:03:25 > 0:03:29namely, to drive those other parties out of Germany!
0:03:29 > 0:03:32LOUD CHEERING
0:03:36 > 0:03:38LAUGHTER
0:03:38 > 0:03:46Hitler's rise to power would cause death and suffering on a scale rarely seen in history.
0:03:46 > 0:03:48Yet on January 30th, 1933,
0:03:48 > 0:03:53many millions of Germans welcomed Adolf Hitler as their saviour.
0:03:56 > 0:03:57Why?
0:03:59 > 0:04:04CRIES OF "HEIL HITLER!" AND "SIEG HEIL!"
0:04:11 > 0:04:14Three years earlier, 1930.
0:04:14 > 0:04:21Fritz Muehlebach returns to the northern dock town of Hamburg after a spell at sea
0:04:21 > 0:04:25and finds Germany in a terrible state.
0:04:25 > 0:04:28There was no work to be had -
0:04:28 > 0:04:32Germany, the worst-hit country in a worldwide depression.
0:04:32 > 0:04:38In the streets, chaos, and the police unable to keep order.
0:04:38 > 0:04:40From every direction,
0:04:40 > 0:04:44parties promised they had the solution.
0:04:44 > 0:04:50Communist, Social Democrat, Nazi - 35 parties in all.
0:04:52 > 0:05:00But right from the start, it was Hitler's Nazis that caught Fritz Muehlebach's eye.
0:05:04 > 0:05:09They were like, smarter than the other parties. Communists, Social Democrats.
0:05:09 > 0:05:14The Nazis had uniforms and their boots were like jackboots - always shining.
0:05:14 > 0:05:17It was impressive.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20And then, one night I'm down the docks,
0:05:20 > 0:05:24and I sees this fight - well, this fella getting beaten up.
0:05:24 > 0:05:27I goes in to help him, gets meself a torn ear.
0:05:27 > 0:05:33It turns out he's this Brown Shirt. He says, why don't you come along to a meeting?
0:05:33 > 0:05:34That's how I got started.
0:05:37 > 0:05:42Over the next few months, Fritz went to many Nazi party meetings.
0:05:42 > 0:05:44He heard speakers,
0:05:44 > 0:05:48he watched slide shows, he read pamphlets.
0:05:48 > 0:05:52And he shared a room with the Brown Shirt he'd rescued.
0:05:52 > 0:05:57From Werther, he learned why, according to the Nazis, Germany was in such a mess.
0:05:57 > 0:06:02He learned how, according to the Nazis, Germany would recover.
0:06:04 > 0:06:10Hey! I've got something for you. Have you ever read the Bible?
0:06:11 > 0:06:13The Bible? No.
0:06:13 > 0:06:15Well, you should. Here.
0:06:16 > 0:06:20- "My Struggle."- Yeah. My Struggle.
0:06:20 > 0:06:24By Adolf Hitler. Well, it's my Bible, anyway.
0:06:24 > 0:06:271924, Landsberg Prison, he wrote that.
0:06:27 > 0:06:33They locked him up for speaking the truth. Can you believe that? And in prison, he writes this.
0:06:33 > 0:06:35And now, I give it to you.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38So - enjoy.
0:06:41 > 0:06:44"My Struggle" - "Mein Kampf".
0:06:44 > 0:06:49It's a mishmash of autobiography, history and racist venom.
0:06:49 > 0:06:56It covers everything from Hitler's blind hatred of the Jews to his love of boxing.
0:06:56 > 0:07:00But like no other source, it explains the roots of Nazism.
0:07:00 > 0:07:04It dates the decline of Germany from 1918,
0:07:04 > 0:07:07the surrender that ended the First World War.
0:07:14 > 0:07:17'The German army will cease fire immediately
0:07:17 > 0:07:25'and then surrender, in good condition, 5,000 field guns, 25,000 machine guns, 3,000 trench mortars,
0:07:25 > 0:07:27'1,700 aeroplanes...'
0:07:30 > 0:07:37I'd never cried since the day I'd stood at my mother's grave,
0:07:37 > 0:07:40but now I couldn't help it.
0:07:40 > 0:07:45Was it all in vain, the deaths of two million heroes?
0:07:45 > 0:07:49I dug my burning head into my pillow and wept.
0:07:54 > 0:07:57Back home in Germany, revolution.
0:07:58 > 0:08:03The Kaiser, Germany's all-powerful ruler, had fled.
0:08:03 > 0:08:06In his place, democracy -
0:08:06 > 0:08:10politicians chosen by popular vote.
0:08:10 > 0:08:14For many soldiers defeated at the front, Hitler amongst them,
0:08:14 > 0:08:20it seemed this revolution back home had cost Germany the war.
0:08:20 > 0:08:23I mean, do you think the army couldn't have won that war?
0:08:23 > 0:08:26They were stabbed in the back.
0:08:26 > 0:08:31Right. Betrayed by cowards, politicians, Jews back home.
0:08:31 > 0:08:36They didn't care for our honour, and all the shame our country's suffered since.
0:08:36 > 0:08:41The criminals of November 1918. It's them who's caused it all.
0:08:41 > 0:08:50In 1919, these same so-called criminals signed the Versailles peace treaty on Germany's behalf.
0:08:50 > 0:08:53They accepted war guilt.
0:08:53 > 0:08:57They agreed to pay out vast sums for war damage,
0:08:57 > 0:09:02despite the desperate state of Germany's war-torn economy.
0:09:04 > 0:09:06When years of suffering followed -
0:09:06 > 0:09:09inflation, food shortages, hunger -
0:09:09 > 0:09:14many Germans were quick to point the finger of blame.
0:09:14 > 0:09:20- The factory owners.- Right! Fat cats! Bleeding the workers dry!
0:09:20 > 0:09:25We say no-one earns more than 1,000 marks a month. No-one!
0:09:25 > 0:09:30- The Jews.- Right. The old enemy.
0:09:30 > 0:09:34When they do something, they don't do it for Germany - do you see?
0:09:34 > 0:09:36They're not Germans!
0:09:36 > 0:09:40- Who else?- The parties. - The parties!
0:09:40 > 0:09:44Politicians, right. What is this democracy?
0:09:44 > 0:09:49We never used to have democracy. We had strong leaders!
0:09:49 > 0:09:53The Kaiser, eh? We never voted for him!
0:09:53 > 0:09:56And was Germany ever so weak under the Kaiser?
0:09:56 > 0:09:59I spit on freedom.
0:09:59 > 0:10:02It's the patriotic thing to do!
0:10:04 > 0:10:07What was happening was like...
0:10:07 > 0:10:12I don't know - like fog, you know, clearing.
0:10:12 > 0:10:14Suddenly, it all made sense.
0:10:14 > 0:10:18I mean, we never talked about politics when I was a kid.
0:10:18 > 0:10:21But Werther, well, he'd go on for hours.
0:10:21 > 0:10:24And it was all so right!
0:10:24 > 0:10:29You've got all these parties, and no one party's got enough votes to rule.
0:10:29 > 0:10:32So, they do deals. They're always selling out.
0:10:32 > 0:10:37But the Nazis, right from the start, they're saying that's not the German way.
0:10:37 > 0:10:42Right from the start, the Nazis wanted an end to democracy.
0:10:42 > 0:10:47They wanted all power back in the hands of one man -
0:10:47 > 0:10:51and that one man, they felt, should be Adolf Hitler.
0:10:51 > 0:10:55He'd drifted from the army to politics.
0:10:55 > 0:10:59He'd gathered support in the beer halls of Munich.
0:10:59 > 0:11:02But his time was not yet right.
0:11:02 > 0:11:09When 4,000 Nazi Brown Shirts rose in rebellion in November 1923,
0:11:09 > 0:11:13their weapons arrived without firing pins.
0:11:13 > 0:11:16Hitler was imprisoned, wrote Mein Kampf,
0:11:16 > 0:11:20and the first chapter of Nazi history was over.
0:11:21 > 0:11:25MUSIC: "Mack The Knife"
0:11:28 > 0:11:31Germany in the late 1920s.
0:11:34 > 0:11:37Music, theatre, cinema,
0:11:37 > 0:11:39cabaret...
0:11:41 > 0:11:46Enormous energy, eaten up seeking serious pleasure.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52These were the years Fritz spent at sea.
0:11:52 > 0:11:57Not that the good times were for working-class lads like him.
0:11:58 > 0:12:03Meanwhile, Hitler saw the nightclubs and found them shameful.
0:12:03 > 0:12:07He began to see himself as some hero of old,
0:12:07 > 0:12:12his mission, to slay the monster of democracy.
0:12:12 > 0:12:14Our public life today
0:12:14 > 0:12:17encourages this wallowing in pleasure.
0:12:17 > 0:12:20We must clean away this filth,
0:12:20 > 0:12:26this plague, and we must clean it away ruthlessly and without wavering.
0:12:29 > 0:12:37Hitler's problem was simply persuading Germans they needed some knight in shining armour.
0:12:37 > 0:12:41But then, on October 24th, 1929,
0:12:41 > 0:12:45Wall Street crashed.
0:12:45 > 0:12:50The worldwide depression that followed hit Germany hardest of all.
0:12:53 > 0:13:00With some satisfaction, Hitler realised his day had come.
0:13:00 > 0:13:01Such contentment.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05Never in my life did I feel such contentment,
0:13:05 > 0:13:12to see hard reality open the eyes of so many millions of Germans, deceived for so long.
0:13:16 > 0:13:21In three years, German production halved.
0:13:21 > 0:13:25Thousands of small businesses collapsed.
0:13:25 > 0:13:30Unemployment rose to six and a half million.
0:13:30 > 0:13:3617 million - a third of the population - were supported by the dole.
0:13:40 > 0:13:45I'd just got back from sea. Laid off. It was terrible.
0:13:45 > 0:13:48You looked around at all that misery.
0:13:48 > 0:13:52Men just hanging round on street corners.
0:13:52 > 0:13:58Queues down the labour exchange. You thought, "This is hopeless. I won't get a job."
0:13:58 > 0:14:04'Those in work had had their wages cut. It was just depression.
0:14:04 > 0:14:08- 'Everywhere.'- What is it?
0:14:10 > 0:14:12Horse.
0:14:15 > 0:14:17'Just total depression.
0:14:17 > 0:14:21'And it wasn't just the workers. Those with money and savings -
0:14:21 > 0:14:25'middle-class folk - were frightened they'd lose everything.
0:14:25 > 0:14:29'Prices going up, banks closing their doors...
0:14:31 > 0:14:35'And when they looked at the government to do something...'
0:14:35 > 0:14:38nothing.
0:14:38 > 0:14:41Social Democrats have walked out of Parliament.
0:14:41 > 0:14:45They say they can't agree to cut the dole.
0:14:45 > 0:14:49How can we afford to pay every man the dole? It's nonsense.
0:14:49 > 0:14:52So we have a new government. Every day we have a new government.
0:14:55 > 0:15:00Who would have democracy, when it makes us so weak?
0:15:00 > 0:15:07In the face of depression, and with democracy on the point of collapse,
0:15:07 > 0:15:10the German people looked for new solutions.
0:15:12 > 0:15:17In working-class areas, where the poverty was worst,
0:15:17 > 0:15:20the Communists attracted six million new members.
0:15:20 > 0:15:27They called on workers to rise and take over factories, banks and businesses.
0:15:27 > 0:15:30It had happened in Russia in 1917.
0:15:30 > 0:15:36The Russian middle classes - factory owners, bankers, landowners,
0:15:36 > 0:15:41had been wiped out or forced to flee abroad.
0:15:42 > 0:15:49Not surprisingly, most middle-class Germans saw Communism as the worst threat of all.
0:15:49 > 0:15:51We'll keep it under our pillow.
0:15:51 > 0:15:55If the Communists should come for us at night...
0:15:55 > 0:15:57well...
0:16:00 > 0:16:03Into this confusion,
0:16:03 > 0:16:06the Nazis emerged as something new.
0:16:08 > 0:16:13The years since prison had changed Adolf Hitler.
0:16:16 > 0:16:19No longer the shuffling figure of the early newsreels,
0:16:19 > 0:16:22now he was uniformed, impressive.
0:16:25 > 0:16:32Policy had changed too - no longer to seize power but to win votes legally.
0:16:32 > 0:16:37They'd play their part in the democratic process,
0:16:37 > 0:16:40then destroy it from the inside.
0:16:43 > 0:16:49By now Fritz Muehlebach was himself a Brown Shirt, like Werther.
0:16:49 > 0:16:53Their job was to hand out leaflets, spread the word,
0:16:53 > 0:16:57and, by whatever means available, fight the Communists.
0:16:57 > 0:17:00I remember one Communist rally.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04100 of us Brown Shirts got in, in ordinary clothes.
0:17:04 > 0:17:09For half an hour, we'd just sit there. Then someone slips a stick of cordite on the stove.
0:17:09 > 0:17:13BANG! Smoke everywhere. Windows shattered.
0:17:13 > 0:17:15So, we stand up,
0:17:15 > 0:17:19put on our caps, swastika armlets, and give the salute.
0:17:19 > 0:17:21The Reds starts shouting.
0:17:21 > 0:17:26Running about like a load of rats on heat, making for the door, so...
0:17:26 > 0:17:28we smash the chairs, like we've been told,
0:17:28 > 0:17:30and armed with the chair legs, we go for them.
0:17:30 > 0:17:34Do as much damage as you can before the police arrive.
0:17:34 > 0:17:36SHOUTING
0:17:36 > 0:17:42It was all quite deliberate. The Nazis wanted chaos in the streets.
0:17:42 > 0:17:46Chaos showed the failure of democracy.
0:17:49 > 0:17:53It made their solution more attractive.
0:17:54 > 0:17:56You wear it in public?
0:17:57 > 0:17:59I've got one for you too, if you want it.
0:17:59 > 0:18:06- They've no respect for the law, you know. They're just bullies.- Yes. At least they're not gutless.
0:18:06 > 0:18:12And if they're not afraid to take on the Communists, we shouldn't be ashamed to say thank you!
0:18:15 > 0:18:17In 1928,
0:18:17 > 0:18:20Hitler polled just 800,000 votes.
0:18:20 > 0:18:25In 1930, he polled six and a half million.
0:18:26 > 0:18:28The Nazis, from nowhere,
0:18:28 > 0:18:33were now the second largest party in the country.
0:18:34 > 0:18:38The grateful middle classes had much to do with it.
0:18:38 > 0:18:43But that doesn't explain Fritz Muehlebach, working class,
0:18:43 > 0:18:47unemployed - he had nothing to fear from the Communists.
0:18:47 > 0:18:49So, why?
0:18:49 > 0:18:53'These boys...'
0:18:53 > 0:18:58They left school. No factory, no workshop gave them a job.
0:18:58 > 0:19:02And now the Nazis promise work and bread.
0:19:02 > 0:19:06For this, they storm into working-class areas,
0:19:06 > 0:19:12because they are without work and without hope.
0:19:13 > 0:19:15SIZZLING
0:19:15 > 0:19:21Fritz lived on eight marks, 40 pfennigs a week unemployment benefit.
0:19:21 > 0:19:23Five marks on rent,
0:19:23 > 0:19:28one mark on sausages bought from a stall outside the labour exchange,
0:19:28 > 0:19:30two on bread and basics,
0:19:30 > 0:19:35ten pfennigs on insurance paid to the party in case he got injured fighting Communists,
0:19:35 > 0:19:37and 30 pfennigs on tobacco.
0:19:37 > 0:19:42And 90 per cent of his troop were unemployed, like him.
0:19:42 > 0:19:46But to say they joined the Nazis out of desperation -
0:19:46 > 0:19:50no work, no hope - that's only half the story.
0:19:50 > 0:19:56Straight up, I can't tell you how wonderful it feels,
0:19:56 > 0:20:00how wonderful it's always felt to wear this uniform,
0:20:00 > 0:20:03being like a soldier of the Nazi movement,
0:20:03 > 0:20:08with this vision, you know - a man, a leader, lifting us out of the gutter.
0:20:08 > 0:20:12And going to meetings - everyone's, like, together,
0:20:12 > 0:20:15all thinking the same.
0:20:16 > 0:20:20It was the most wonderful thing I'd ever experienced.
0:20:20 > 0:20:23All because of Adolf Hitler.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26All because of what he offered us.
0:20:26 > 0:20:29What he could do for us.
0:20:29 > 0:20:32I mean, we just listened, like...
0:20:34 > 0:20:37HITLER SPEAKS IN GERMAN
0:21:06 > 0:21:08I mean,
0:21:08 > 0:21:10that message,
0:21:10 > 0:21:15the German people finding their inner strength once more...
0:21:15 > 0:21:17After all these years,
0:21:17 > 0:21:21Germany spat on by the Allies,
0:21:21 > 0:21:24us feeling bad about the war, the shame of Versailles,
0:21:24 > 0:21:30and now this man says, "Come, Germans,
0:21:30 > 0:21:32"join together,
0:21:32 > 0:21:35"re-find your strength."
0:21:36 > 0:21:39I'd never heard anything so beautiful.
0:21:39 > 0:21:41HITLER SPEAKS
0:22:01 > 0:22:03LOUD CHEERING
0:22:03 > 0:22:06Without Hitler,
0:22:06 > 0:22:09the Nazis had nothing.
0:22:09 > 0:22:11Their vision was of national revival
0:22:11 > 0:22:14through obedience to a strong leader.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18But only Hitler had skill
0:22:18 > 0:22:23and charisma enough to play this role of saviour.
0:22:29 > 0:22:35In July '32, Hitler took thirteen and a half million votes,
0:22:35 > 0:22:37a third of the total.
0:22:37 > 0:22:42In January '33, as leader of the largest party in Germany,
0:22:42 > 0:22:45he was made Chancellor.
0:22:47 > 0:22:52Within a month, he'd had the Communist Party banned.
0:22:52 > 0:22:58Freedom of speech, freedom from arrest, he'd sweep away.
0:22:58 > 0:23:03The transformation of Germany into a Nazi one-party dictatorship
0:23:03 > 0:23:04would begin.
0:23:11 > 0:23:12SHOT
0:23:12 > 0:23:15SHOT ECHOES
0:23:15 > 0:23:19And if now we've got to do things that some people don't like,
0:23:19 > 0:23:23it seems to me you've got to take the rough with the smooth.
0:23:23 > 0:23:28Hitler was given us by God - that's what I think.
0:23:28 > 0:23:35Being part of him - following, no questions - that's the only way to get Germany out of the mess.
0:23:35 > 0:23:38No more nonsense. Really do something!
0:23:40 > 0:23:43And that's what we're going to do.
0:24:02 > 0:24:06I'll tell you what my first impressions were.
0:24:06 > 0:24:10Quite charming. Half-timbered houses.
0:24:10 > 0:24:15Window boxes with petunias and geraniums blooming on every sill.
0:24:15 > 0:24:18Little girls with ribbons in their hair.
0:24:18 > 0:24:22Little boys with aprons stitched in bright colours.
0:24:22 > 0:24:26If there was poverty, I confess I didn't see it.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29It was heaven.
0:24:29 > 0:24:33And everywhere... everywhere you went - music.
0:24:35 > 0:24:42Nora Waln, an American, lived in Hitler's Germany from 1934 to 1938.
0:24:46 > 0:24:50For most Germans, these were good years -
0:24:50 > 0:24:52a time of growing prosperity.
0:24:52 > 0:24:56Hitler's Nazis had promised national revival
0:24:56 > 0:25:01and they boasted enormous popular support.
0:25:02 > 0:25:06I was to stay in Bad Godesburg in western Germany.
0:25:06 > 0:25:10The day that I arrived, the Fuhrer himself was in town -
0:25:10 > 0:25:13Adolf Hitler.
0:25:13 > 0:25:16There were swastika flags hanging out of every window,
0:25:16 > 0:25:20crowds, three, four, five thick, lining the roads,
0:25:20 > 0:25:22and this bubbling enthusiasm.
0:25:22 > 0:25:25It was contagious.
0:25:25 > 0:25:29One woman turned to me, a perfect stranger, and said,
0:25:29 > 0:25:35"He is my mother and my father. He keeps me safe from all harm."
0:25:37 > 0:25:42Germany, in these years, was gripped in a cult of the Fuhrer -
0:25:42 > 0:25:44the leader.
0:25:44 > 0:25:49The Nazis urged Germans to put their differences aside, to rally behind Hitler,
0:25:49 > 0:25:56trusting in the glorious future of their country and the fact that Hitler could do no wrong.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01It was terribly exciting, like a festival.
0:26:01 > 0:26:05And the welcome that I got was warm, embracing.
0:26:05 > 0:26:11I don't know what I was expecting, quite, but certainly not such generosity.
0:26:11 > 0:26:17I was to stay in lodgings used by a professor I knew, a professor of music.
0:26:17 > 0:26:23The couple who owned the place were young and enthusiastic. Typical, it seemed to me, of this new Germany.
0:26:23 > 0:26:27- <- What a lovely house! - <- Thank you. Come through.
0:26:27 > 0:26:31The town's full. It's the best tourist season we've had in years.
0:26:31 > 0:26:35It's you foreigners. Curious to see if Germans are as bad as they say?
0:26:35 > 0:26:38- You have got a room for me? - Yes, we got your letter.
0:26:40 > 0:26:46Hello. I'm Frau Trutz. You must call me Ursula. And you've met my husband, Erich.
0:26:46 > 0:26:51- Professor! Frau Waln is here!- It's not a big room.- I don't need much.
0:26:51 > 0:26:55- You can see across the square. - Hello, Frau Waln!
0:26:55 > 0:27:03Tonight there is a festival for the Fuhrer. Singing and dancing... And you will have a splendid view.
0:27:03 > 0:27:08- You're too kind.- No, never too kind. We want you to enjoy your stay.
0:27:10 > 0:27:15Nora's description of life in Germany, published in 1939,
0:27:15 > 0:27:20is full of everyday accounts of love for the Fuhrer.
0:27:20 > 0:27:25She found people endlessly keen to explain how grateful they felt.
0:27:26 > 0:27:31It's like Germany is a ship that was broken on the rocks
0:27:31 > 0:27:39and, by gift of God, in Hitler we have a leader who can repair and steer that ship. Eh, Erich?
0:27:39 > 0:27:41Do you...worship him?
0:27:41 > 0:27:49- "Worship" is too much.- Some people do. I heard, the other day, at Berchtesgaden, near Hitler's house -
0:27:49 > 0:27:55- these old women actually ate the gravel where he'd stood!- It's like they're under a spell.- Yes.
0:27:55 > 0:27:59But you don't know what it was like before Hitler.
0:27:59 > 0:28:02We have every reason to be thankful.
0:28:02 > 0:28:05CROWD CHEERING
0:28:05 > 0:28:11Before Hitler, Germany had been deep in economic depression.
0:28:11 > 0:28:16Before Hitler, unemployment had stood at 7 million.
0:28:16 > 0:28:19Before Hitler, Germany was a democracy
0:28:19 > 0:28:26but too many parties had split the vote so governments were weak and unable to solve the crisis.
0:28:28 > 0:28:33Hitler offered dictatorship - all power in the hands of one man,
0:28:33 > 0:28:38and Germany was quick to accept Hitler's terms.
0:28:38 > 0:28:41Unemployment's absurd.
0:28:41 > 0:28:47The people say we are civilised and yet millions are out of work. What is that?
0:28:47 > 0:28:55It's sick. No-one should be denied a right to work. Nor should anyone who CAN work be allowed to be lazy.
0:28:55 > 0:28:59Work and bread. These are the Fuhrer's blessings.
0:29:05 > 0:29:08HITLER SHOUTS IN GERMAN
0:29:08 > 0:29:14Putting Germany back to work was Hitler's first and most pressing problem.
0:29:14 > 0:29:22But because he was all-powerful, he had the clout to carry out large-scale work programs
0:29:22 > 0:29:27like building Autobahns - motorways to link the nation together.
0:29:27 > 0:29:30By 1935, unemployment had fallen to just two million.
0:29:30 > 0:29:34By 1939, it was gone.
0:29:37 > 0:29:42My landlord, Erich, worked for the German Labour Front.
0:29:42 > 0:29:48He had business all round Germany and once I went with him to see what they had achieved.
0:29:48 > 0:29:50And it was remarkable.
0:29:50 > 0:29:57We saw labour camps - not for wage-earners, but for young people, 18-19 years old -
0:29:57 > 0:30:00to teach them the value of work,
0:30:00 > 0:30:02to get their hands hardened.
0:30:02 > 0:30:08You saw them marching with their spades like guns, or singing as they dug ditches, reclaimed land...
0:30:08 > 0:30:16If you spoke to them, sometimes you felt they resented being there. But not often.
0:30:16 > 0:30:19There was, I think, a pleasure involved.
0:30:19 > 0:30:26- 'Erich would say...'- You must understand. Work shouldn't just be earning a wage and going home.
0:30:26 > 0:30:33That's drudgery. We believe there's a beauty in labour. You do a job well and it gives you happiness.
0:30:33 > 0:30:39It was like the Nazis were shaking people into feeling good about what they did. You had to work.
0:30:39 > 0:30:45You had no choice. You were organised. You were there for the state to use.
0:30:45 > 0:30:52And they milked you for your labour, no question. But then, at the end of the day, they said...
0:30:52 > 0:30:57"See what we have achieved." And it WAS! It was pretty impressive.
0:31:02 > 0:31:06The work programme was vast and triumphal.
0:31:06 > 0:31:13Hitler had promised a Germany reborn. He said he was building for a state to last a thousand years.
0:31:13 > 0:31:17He'd rebuild Berlin on a magnificent scale.
0:31:17 > 0:31:23There'd be an assembly hall in every city, a swimming bath in every village,
0:31:23 > 0:31:28a house and garden and car for every worker.
0:31:28 > 0:31:30Much of this was pure fantasy.
0:31:30 > 0:31:35But enough was achieved to pump German pride.
0:31:46 > 0:31:48ROMANTIC MUSIC
0:32:00 > 0:32:03'Confidence. That's what it was.'
0:32:04 > 0:32:09Everywhere. And a great sense of German-ness.
0:32:09 > 0:32:17National costumes, parades, music... And even if you found it all a bit funny...there was so much GOOD.
0:32:17 > 0:32:22'You could leave your door unlocked, or your washing on the line.
0:32:22 > 0:32:27'No-one dropped litter. Young people offered you their tram seat.'
0:32:27 > 0:32:31- And yet... - FOREBODING MUSIC
0:32:31 > 0:32:37And yet...I didn't believe it. Not one hundred per cent.
0:32:37 > 0:32:39Or at least, I questioned it.
0:32:39 > 0:32:46In America, I had heard so much bad of Nazi Germany - violence, brutality...
0:32:46 > 0:32:52I wondered if I was seeing... if I was being ALLOWED to see... the whole picture.
0:32:52 > 0:33:00'Tens of thousands of books were cast into the flames while Hitler's Nazis stood by with fixed bayonets.'
0:33:00 > 0:33:06Newsreels like this fueled the image many foreigners held of the Nazis' rise to power.
0:33:06 > 0:33:11'No such act of barbaric vandalism has been recorded in modern history.
0:33:11 > 0:33:16'As the bonfires leapt, the crowd danced and hurrahed in an ecstasy of mad emotion,
0:33:16 > 0:33:23'as stories of wanton beatings and bullyings in the darkened streets added to the terror.'
0:33:23 > 0:33:26Such pictures were seen around the world.
0:33:26 > 0:33:30Hardly surprising Nora was suspicious.
0:33:30 > 0:33:36It's you foreigners. Curious to see if we Germans are as bad as they say, eh?
0:33:36 > 0:33:40The truth Nora had to find out for herself.
0:33:40 > 0:33:42Early in my stay,
0:33:42 > 0:33:45I was reading the German papers.
0:33:45 > 0:33:52Problems all over the world - unrest in France, misery in Russia, a shipping strike in California.
0:33:52 > 0:33:59In Germany, all is rosy. A Nazi Party squabble gets a paragraph. Then I picked up the British paper.
0:33:59 > 0:34:05'As an American, I was still allowed foreign news. And lo and behold - Germany is the headline.'
0:34:05 > 0:34:08"Hitler crushes Brown Shirt revolt.
0:34:08 > 0:34:13"No pity for Hitler's friends shot, he says, for treason.
0:34:15 > 0:34:17"Hitler's Chief of Staff executed."
0:34:17 > 0:34:24'It was the Night of the Long Knives. June 30th, 1934.'
0:34:24 > 0:34:31Hitler had butchered 400 top Brown Shirts, the very men who helped him grab power in the first place -
0:34:31 > 0:34:34just a mockery of lawful government.
0:34:34 > 0:34:38And the German papers so carefully censored.
0:34:38 > 0:34:40Feuer!
0:34:40 > 0:34:44I was so shocked. I wanted to speak to someone.
0:34:44 > 0:34:50So I launched into this spiel at Professor Moritz, the musician who kept the lodgings upstairs.
0:34:50 > 0:34:58His reaction I will never forget. This extraordinary phrase - "Still! Sprich durch die Blume!"
0:34:58 > 0:35:00Shh! Speak through a flower!
0:35:00 > 0:35:03'I didn't know what he meant.
0:35:03 > 0:35:06'And then it dawned on me.'
0:35:06 > 0:35:11Speak through a flower. Say only good things.
0:35:11 > 0:35:14'Don't criticise.'
0:35:14 > 0:35:19If you must talk of the Fuhrer, then it must be because you wish to praise him.
0:35:19 > 0:35:22Or else do not speak at all.
0:35:22 > 0:35:24'He blocked the keyhole with putty.'
0:35:24 > 0:35:29He stuffed a pillow round under the door and pulled out the telephone.
0:35:29 > 0:35:32You cannot be too careful.
0:35:32 > 0:35:38And I think it was only then that I realised how terrified some people were.
0:35:38 > 0:35:41Let me tell you a story.
0:35:43 > 0:35:48Maybe you'll learn more what it feels like to live in this Germany now.
0:35:48 > 0:35:54The other week, I go to a shop and say to the shopkeeper, "How's business?"
0:35:54 > 0:35:59Just small talk. Stupid thing to say. His wife goes, "Pah!
0:35:59 > 0:36:03"Business? It's bad! It's nonexistent!"
0:36:03 > 0:36:06We don't notice, but...
0:36:06 > 0:36:08another customer's come in.
0:36:08 > 0:36:11Yesterday, I go back to the shop.
0:36:11 > 0:36:18I say to the shopkeeper, "How's your wife?" He says, "They've taken her away for re-education.
0:36:18 > 0:36:24"Somebody heard her grumbling. She said business was bad, so they turned her in."
0:36:29 > 0:36:34Maybe he thought it was me. In Germany these days, you trust no-one.
0:36:34 > 0:36:40Those that didn't fit in in Hitler's Germany
0:36:40 > 0:36:42had reason to fear.
0:36:42 > 0:36:45The Nazis allowed no opposition.
0:36:48 > 0:36:53Political parties that once had stood against them were banned.
0:36:53 > 0:36:58Their leaders left the country or stayed to face harassment or arrest.
0:36:59 > 0:37:05It was all legal but only because Hitler now was the law.
0:37:05 > 0:37:10TRANSLATION: "We Nazis have conquered Germany.
0:37:10 > 0:37:17"But to restore this country completely we need discipline and we need order.
0:37:17 > 0:37:21"So I will deal ruthlessly with anyone who would stop me.
0:37:21 > 0:37:27"I won't have ignorant, mislead, insignificant people shot,
0:37:27 > 0:37:32"but those really responsible will, in all cases, be crushed to earth!"
0:37:34 > 0:37:39In March 1933, the first concentration camps appeared -
0:37:39 > 0:37:44brutal prisons run by Heinrich Himmler's black-shirted SS.
0:37:44 > 0:37:49Here German citizens were sent for any act of political opposition -
0:37:49 > 0:37:54maybe just writing an anti-Nazi slogan on a wall
0:37:54 > 0:37:56or keeping a banned book
0:37:56 > 0:38:00or telling a joke at the expense of some party official.
0:38:00 > 0:38:05The secret police, the notorious Gestapo, carried out the arrests.
0:38:07 > 0:38:10And working hand-in-hand with them,
0:38:10 > 0:38:17the tens of thousands of ordinary Germans committed or just spiteful enough to tell on their neighbours.
0:38:17 > 0:38:21You don't dare say anything out loud against the Nazis.
0:38:21 > 0:38:27Say, in a street car, you never give your opinion to anyone you don't know.
0:38:27 > 0:38:33You never do anything that's forbidden. If people say, "Heil Hitler", YOU say "Heil Hitler."
0:38:33 > 0:38:37I knew of people who turned in their neighbours.
0:38:37 > 0:38:45I knew of people who turned in their neighbours, convinced they were doing the right thing. It's a system.
0:38:45 > 0:38:52Everyone's stuck in the Nazi web. It's quite devilish because... no-one trusts one another.
0:38:52 > 0:38:56In 1941, in the war, I was in hospital.
0:38:56 > 0:39:01In the bed beside me, there was a mother with a newborn baby.
0:39:01 > 0:39:05And foolishly she said, "More cannon fodder."
0:39:05 > 0:39:08She never even made it home.
0:39:08 > 0:39:11They arrested her in the hospital.
0:39:11 > 0:39:18From Professor Moritz, Nora learned the darker side of recent German history...
0:39:21 > 0:39:27How German Jews were being victimised, how trade unions had been banned,
0:39:27 > 0:39:34how, despite the economic boom, with no-one to argue their case, workers' take-home pay had fallen.
0:39:34 > 0:39:39How the professions were being stripped of non-Nazis:
0:39:39 > 0:39:43civil servants, doctors, teachers, judges...
0:39:43 > 0:39:47losing their jobs unless they toed the Nazi line.
0:39:47 > 0:39:52Many refused. One such was Professor Moritz himself.
0:39:52 > 0:39:57Oh, I thought you knew! He's not allowed to give lectures any more.
0:39:57 > 0:40:03- He has a few private students, that's all.- He never told me. - Yes, well...
0:40:03 > 0:40:07And day by day, his private students desert him.
0:40:07 > 0:40:16- He should have retired long ago. He's got money. He can still pay the rent.- But he was one of the best!
0:40:16 > 0:40:22- Why would they sack him?- It isn't usual to question acts of government here. It's close to treason.
0:40:22 > 0:40:26But didn't ANYONE protest? His friends at the university?
0:40:26 > 0:40:33They took a petition to the Ministry, who told them that presenting a petition was a serious act.
0:40:33 > 0:40:37- All but two had the sense to leave. - And the two that stayed?
0:40:37 > 0:40:40They were beaten senseless.
0:40:40 > 0:40:47One was a fine organist at one of our biggest churches. I've heard that his hands are ruined.
0:40:49 > 0:40:53So much for my cheerful, festive Germany.
0:40:53 > 0:41:01It made me so angry. I remember standing there on the stairwell, my hand clutching the banister...
0:41:01 > 0:41:08And I just wanted to SCREAM at her! "Stop it! Stop it! Stop the broadcasts! Halt the parades!
0:41:08 > 0:41:13"Tear down the banners, all red like blood. Stop the chanting!
0:41:13 > 0:41:19"And please, please, treat this insane man who thinks he's Fuhrer in some asylum somewhere!"
0:41:19 > 0:41:24But she just fixed me with this infinitely reasonable smile.
0:41:24 > 0:41:26'And said...'
0:41:26 > 0:41:34You mustn't judge ours as a bad government. We need to be ruled hard until things are sorted out.
0:41:34 > 0:41:38We'd have gone Communist if the Nazis hadn't saved us.
0:41:38 > 0:41:43And the Fuhrer is good and fine to all who willingly obey.
0:41:44 > 0:41:47And he knows that we must be united
0:41:47 > 0:41:53in order to regain our place among the strong nations of the world.
0:41:58 > 0:42:05"To regain our place among the strong nations of the world." Hitler's seductive promise.
0:42:05 > 0:42:13The Versailles Treaty had left Germany weak. If Germany rearmed, the Allies could invade.
0:42:13 > 0:42:16Hitler had called their bluff.
0:42:16 > 0:42:24He pulled out of disarmament talks. He brought back army training for all German men.
0:42:25 > 0:42:29And in 1936, he marched into the Rhineland,
0:42:29 > 0:42:35a buffer with France where no German troops had been allowed since 1919.
0:42:35 > 0:42:41'The first actual pictures to reach this country of the German troop movement
0:42:41 > 0:42:48'which have caused the biggest political sensation of recent times. Where does it all lead?
0:42:48 > 0:42:51'To a new war? Or to a surer peace?'
0:42:54 > 0:42:58Hitler talked of peace often. It wasn't a contradiction.
0:42:58 > 0:43:04He said he was arming Germany not for war, but defence.
0:43:04 > 0:43:09Like the hedgehog, Germany would be secure but threaten no-one.
0:43:09 > 0:43:16Many European leaders found this reasonable. Ambassadors were sent to shake Hitler's hand.
0:43:16 > 0:43:24Meanwhile, Germany stockpiled arms, built submarine bases, and secretly trained bombers in Russia and Spain.
0:43:24 > 0:43:28He wants war. Why can't they see that?
0:43:28 > 0:43:32He thinks 1918 is unfinished business.
0:43:32 > 0:43:37So childish! It would be laughable if it weren't so tragic.
0:43:37 > 0:43:42- And are there many who think like you?- No.
0:43:42 > 0:43:46I think most would cheer him all the way.
0:43:46 > 0:43:49But I'll tell you something.
0:43:49 > 0:43:57Each time he takes a gamble - announcing National Service, marching into the Rhineland...
0:43:57 > 0:44:01Beforehand, each time, there were arrests.
0:44:01 > 0:44:05Pacifists and so on, taken to the camps.
0:44:05 > 0:44:12Everyone knows someone who knows someone who's disappeared. Just a little terror.
0:44:12 > 0:44:15But would they do this
0:44:15 > 0:44:19if they truly believed we all supported them?
0:44:19 > 0:44:22CHEERING
0:44:22 > 0:44:27But Hitler did have the support of the great majority.
0:44:27 > 0:44:30Maybe not for war, not at first.
0:44:30 > 0:44:36But Hitler convinced the German people war would make Germany strong.
0:44:36 > 0:44:41And after so many humiliations, he fed a deep desire for revenge.
0:44:43 > 0:44:48By 1938, the year Nora Waln left for England,
0:44:48 > 0:44:50Germany was on a war footing.
0:44:52 > 0:45:00They say that their army is the most powerful ever seen. I don't think they're bragging.
0:45:00 > 0:45:04When Germans do something, they do it well.
0:45:04 > 0:45:09They have a million men trained to fight, more in reserve,
0:45:09 > 0:45:15and every resource in Germany at their disposal: arms factories, shipyards working day and night...
0:45:15 > 0:45:18miners on 14-hour shifts.
0:45:18 > 0:45:25They're cutting down the park railings, rationing the butter... whipped cream...white bread...
0:45:25 > 0:45:28Personal freedom sacrificed.
0:45:28 > 0:45:32- Prosit! - GRAMOPHONE PLAYS JAUNTY TUNE
0:45:32 > 0:45:37- Oh, go on, then. One more. Why not? - You've learned how good Germany is!
0:45:37 > 0:45:45- I hope you have a good journey. It's been great having you here. - You've been really lovely!- Thank you.
0:45:45 > 0:45:48- To Nora!- Nora!- A wonderful guest!
0:45:50 > 0:45:53- To Hitler.- Heil Hitler!
0:45:53 > 0:45:57'The day I left was the Fuhrer's birthday.'
0:45:57 > 0:45:59April 20th, 1938.
0:45:59 > 0:46:05Parades in every town, just like the day I arrived. Flags, cheering crowds...
0:46:05 > 0:46:10But this time, too, tanks and armoured trucks.
0:46:10 > 0:46:17I was a bit the worse for wear. The night before, they had sent me off - Erich and Ursula -
0:46:17 > 0:46:21toasting me, toasting Germany... toasting Hitler.
0:46:21 > 0:46:25- CLOCK TICKING - I stayed very quiet.
0:46:25 > 0:46:28'I don't think they noticed.'
0:46:28 > 0:46:33It's as if the working strength of every man, woman and child
0:46:33 > 0:46:38is power concentrated in the Fuhrer's fist! And with that...
0:46:38 > 0:46:41he carves our future!
0:46:41 > 0:46:46HOW our people forces its way upwards is unimportant.
0:46:46 > 0:46:49But the goal...is magnificent!
0:46:53 > 0:47:01And you know...I don't think it was the drink that made their faces glow with such radiance.
0:47:16 > 0:47:22On the night of April 13th, 1944, I escaped from Germany.
0:47:22 > 0:47:28I had been hiding in Freiburg for nearly a year - forged papers, forged ration cards.
0:47:28 > 0:47:33Some people I knew put me in touch with a courier.
0:47:33 > 0:47:38For a fee he would help you to cross the border to Switzerland.
0:47:38 > 0:47:44He took my money, we walked, I don't know how long, I was close to collapse.
0:47:44 > 0:47:48And then he left me.
0:47:48 > 0:47:53He said, "Follow the stream. There's a customs house.
0:47:53 > 0:47:57"There'll be no light, but you'll find it."
0:47:59 > 0:48:03I felt...between two worlds.
0:48:03 > 0:48:07I'd lost all sense of time and place.
0:48:08 > 0:48:11I kept falling, but felt nothing.
0:48:13 > 0:48:16And then, at last, I stumbled
0:48:16 > 0:48:20and there was concrete, and such a pain in my leg.
0:48:21 > 0:48:27- 'I was aware of a man coming out of a doorway.'- Wer ist da?
0:48:27 > 0:48:30I asked him where I was.
0:48:30 > 0:48:33Sagen Sie mir gleich, wo ich bin.
0:48:33 > 0:48:38Seien Sie ruhig. Sie sind in der Schweiz. Warten Sie, ich komme.
0:48:38 > 0:48:45And he said, "You are in Switzerland. You are safe. It's all right, I'm coming."
0:48:46 > 0:48:49And Germany was behind me for ever.
0:48:55 > 0:48:59This is the story of the Nazi persecution of the Jews,
0:48:59 > 0:49:05as told through the autobiography of one woman, Elsbeth Rosenfeld.
0:49:07 > 0:49:12Elsbeth was Christian, but her father and her husband were Jewish.
0:49:12 > 0:49:21Had she been caught escaping, she would have faced arrest, imprisonment, almost certain death,
0:49:21 > 0:49:26a fate shared by the many million victims of Nazi racism.
0:49:29 > 0:49:32Yes, please, as soon as you can.
0:49:32 > 0:49:35She's from Germany, I think.
0:49:35 > 0:49:42'The customs man telephoned for a doctor and gave me some brandy, and then we waited.'
0:49:42 > 0:49:46He's very busy, but he'll be here as soon as he can.
0:49:46 > 0:49:52'I don't know why, he didn't seem to want me to fall asleep,
0:49:52 > 0:49:54'so he kept asking questions.
0:49:54 > 0:49:59'And I found myself telling him everything.'
0:49:59 > 0:50:01The whole story.
0:50:03 > 0:50:05Is it too painful to talk about?
0:50:07 > 0:50:11No, no. Strangely, quite the opposite.
0:50:13 > 0:50:16'Because, you see,
0:50:16 > 0:50:22'to tell my story meant I was alive. It meant I knew how the ending went.'
0:50:22 > 0:50:27And the ending was me, there, talking to this foreigner.
0:50:27 > 0:50:32For so many years I'd been terrified the ending might be...
0:50:32 > 0:50:35quite different.
0:50:37 > 0:50:41CHANTING NAZI SLOGANS
0:50:46 > 0:50:49Elsbeth's story begins in 1933.
0:50:52 > 0:50:57The Nazis had swept to power. Their stormtroopers
0:50:57 > 0:50:59were protected by the government.
0:50:59 > 0:51:07One of their favourite excesses, the persecution of Germany's Jews, was now government policy.
0:51:09 > 0:51:17There were arrests, beatings. Stormtroopers urged people not to shop in Jewish stores.
0:51:23 > 0:51:26It seems so long ago.
0:51:26 > 0:51:29I remember...the shock.
0:51:29 > 0:51:37Yes, but this explosion of hatred. It was so overdramatic. I couldn't take it seriously.
0:51:37 > 0:51:39I remember...
0:51:39 > 0:51:43I was a social worker in the prison services.
0:51:43 > 0:51:50I had my hat on, I was on my way out the door and the director phoned. He said,
0:51:50 > 0:51:54"You shouldn't come to work any more."
0:51:54 > 0:51:59I asked, "Why?" He said, "You wouldn't be safe here any more."
0:51:59 > 0:52:07And I remember thinking that was so funny. Of all places, how could I not be safe in a prison?
0:52:07 > 0:52:10Was he a Nazi?
0:52:11 > 0:52:14I suppose so.
0:52:14 > 0:52:21I think that deep down many Germans disliked the Jews, but they kept their hatred bottled up.
0:52:21 > 0:52:25And then in '33, pop, the lid came off.
0:52:26 > 0:52:33For years the Nazis spread the lie the Jews were to blame for Germany's decline.
0:52:35 > 0:52:41Now their policy was to stamp out that Jewish influence.
0:52:41 > 0:52:44Books by Jewish authors were burned.
0:52:44 > 0:52:51Jewish civil servants, lawyers, doctors lost their jobs and suffered public humiliation.
0:52:52 > 0:53:00For Germany's Jewish community, the basic right just to live and enjoy life was suddenly under threat.
0:53:00 > 0:53:04They were ordinary Germans through and through,
0:53:04 > 0:53:10but now they had been picked out, branded un-German, an enemy within.
0:53:14 > 0:53:16Why?
0:53:16 > 0:53:19Deep down it was jealousy.
0:53:19 > 0:53:26The Jewish community was successful. Many German doctors, lawyers, bankers were Jewish.
0:53:27 > 0:53:30The Nazis twisted this success.
0:53:32 > 0:53:35In their propaganda,
0:53:35 > 0:53:39they said it was based on selfishness,
0:53:39 > 0:53:43that the Jews had got rich at Germany's expense.
0:53:43 > 0:53:48It was all lies, but the propaganda was powerful.
0:53:48 > 0:53:53And it fed old hatreds, all long before the Nazis came to power.
0:53:59 > 0:54:05When my mother married a Jew, her family would have no more to do with her.
0:54:05 > 0:54:10They turned their own daughter away. What a Jew did to them,
0:54:10 > 0:54:14I don't know. They saw with blinkers.
0:54:14 > 0:54:21So they never got to know my father's family. They were wonderful people, so full of life.
0:54:21 > 0:54:27And then when my turn came, just like my mother, I married a Jew.
0:54:27 > 0:54:29They were my community.
0:54:31 > 0:54:35Siegfried. This is his photograph.
0:54:39 > 0:54:42Is he...?
0:54:45 > 0:54:48Dead? No, he is in England.
0:54:48 > 0:54:50I think.
0:54:52 > 0:54:54I have heard nothing for so long.
0:54:58 > 0:55:00Elsbeth married Siegfried in 1930.
0:55:00 > 0:55:05Five years later, such a union would have been impossible.
0:55:07 > 0:55:15TRANSLATION: "Marriages between Jews and German citizens, or those of similar blood, are forbidden."
0:55:18 > 0:55:23The Marriage Law, one of the Nuremberg Decrees of 1935,
0:55:23 > 0:55:29was aimed at protecting the purity of German blood.
0:55:29 > 0:55:33The Nazis divided people into racial types.
0:55:33 > 0:55:39They said Germans were descended from the Aryan race.
0:55:39 > 0:55:43This propaganda film shows Aryans of old -
0:55:43 > 0:55:50the Teutonic knights, supposedly the root of all German culture and nobility.
0:55:51 > 0:55:57Pure Aryan Germans could be recognised from their blond hair and blue eyes.
0:55:59 > 0:56:05It was all a fantasy, but the fantasy was dressed up as science.
0:56:05 > 0:56:11Germans were being taught to think of other races as less than perfect.
0:56:11 > 0:56:15And the German people bought the lie.
0:56:15 > 0:56:20Signs cropped up. "Jews not wanted here."
0:56:20 > 0:56:26With the Nuremberg Decrees, this discrimination was set down in stone.
0:56:28 > 0:56:31German Jews lost their citizenship.
0:56:31 > 0:56:35They lost the right even to call themselves German.
0:56:35 > 0:56:42And yet, you know, the funny thing, how losing your citizenship hurts less
0:56:42 > 0:56:45than those silly, petty details -
0:56:45 > 0:56:49not being able to sit down in a tram,
0:56:49 > 0:56:57public benches painted yellow, set aside for Jews only. I would not have sat there for my soul!
0:56:57 > 0:57:02- In any case, you're not Jewish. - But I'm not Aryan either.
0:57:02 > 0:57:06Half and half. It was so confusing.
0:57:06 > 0:57:11They call it a science. They like to think it's so clear-cut, but...
0:57:13 > 0:57:18I had a friend. He was Jewish, but tall and blond.
0:57:18 > 0:57:24I went with him past a restaurant. There was a big sign, "Jews keep out!"
0:57:24 > 0:57:27And he said, "Watch this."
0:57:27 > 0:57:31He strolled in, he flirted with a waitress.
0:57:31 > 0:57:38When she brought his food, he said, "Oh, sorry, I didn't see the sign." And he just left,
0:57:38 > 0:57:41leaving her shaking in anger.
0:57:42 > 0:57:46After Kristallnacht, they took him away.
0:57:47 > 0:57:50The Nazis never like to be mocked.
0:57:53 > 0:57:57Kristallnacht, the "night of broken glass",
0:57:57 > 0:57:59was on November 9th, 1938.
0:58:00 > 0:58:05It was a pogrom, an organised attack on German Jews.
0:58:08 > 0:58:16Across Germany, 100 synagogues were burned down, 300 Jews were killed.
0:58:18 > 0:58:2430,000 were rounded up, mostly men, to spend a week in holding camps.
0:58:27 > 0:58:30A taste of worse to come.
0:58:37 > 0:58:39Our house was burned down.
0:58:39 > 0:58:46I remember walking through the streets, glass under our feet, not knowing where we'd sleep.
0:58:46 > 0:58:51It was the morning after. They were still smashing windows.
0:58:51 > 0:58:54We had to dodge into the doorways.
0:58:56 > 0:58:58There were vans of stormtroopers.
0:58:58 > 0:59:03They'd draw up, arrest people and take them to the camp at Dachau.
0:59:03 > 0:59:07It was one of the most terrifying days ever.
0:59:12 > 0:59:15Where did you sleep?
0:59:19 > 0:59:21There was a grocer that we knew.
0:59:21 > 0:59:28At first she said, "There is no room, but come in. Wait for my husband."
0:59:28 > 0:59:31And then her husband didn't return.
0:59:31 > 0:59:35And neither did her son, so there WAS room.
0:59:37 > 0:59:44I think that one of the most terrifying things about Kristallnacht
0:59:44 > 0:59:48was knowing suddenly there was no more hope.
0:59:48 > 0:59:52For so long we said, "It'll be all right."
0:59:52 > 0:59:56But now it was like a war had been declared.
1:00:01 > 1:00:08In the year that followed, a third of the Jews still in Germany left the country
1:00:08 > 1:00:15for America, Palestine, the United Kingdom, anywhere that would take them.
1:00:19 > 1:00:23The Nazis made it as hard to leave as it was to stay.
1:00:23 > 1:00:31They could take nothing with them and what they left behind was taken by the government.
1:00:31 > 1:00:39Other countries put limits on refugees. Queues at foreign embassies stretched round the block.
1:00:39 > 1:00:46One of those lucky enough to get an exit visa was Elsbeth's husband, but Elsbeth's papers never arrived.
1:00:47 > 1:00:51We had promised that we would never be apart.
1:00:51 > 1:00:56We hadn't in all our marriage, not for more than two days.
1:00:56 > 1:01:00My husband said, "I won't go without you."
1:01:00 > 1:01:04Is that too tight?
1:01:04 > 1:01:07No... No.
1:01:11 > 1:01:16But he wasn't strong. He wasn't coping well with the humiliations.
1:01:16 > 1:01:19And so I begged.
1:01:20 > 1:01:22"Go!"
1:01:22 > 1:01:29If I'd known then how long we were to part, I'm not sure that I would have had the strength.
1:01:32 > 1:01:40In the two years that followed Siegfried's departure in 1939, Hitler took Germany to war -
1:01:40 > 1:01:44against the Allies in Europe and Russia in the east.
1:01:47 > 1:01:52For all Germans, the war meant tightening their belts,
1:01:52 > 1:01:57but for Germany's Jews, the suffering was the hardest.
1:02:07 > 1:02:14This footage is logged as Film Number 28 in the Stuttgart Archives. It was shot
1:02:14 > 1:02:17on October 30th, 1941,
1:02:17 > 1:02:21as part of a war diary the city had commissioned.
1:02:21 > 1:02:26And it shows "Delivery Day" at the Jew Shop.
1:02:27 > 1:02:29After the war,
1:02:29 > 1:02:35a Stuttgart Jew called Frederick Marks viewed this snatch of film.
1:02:35 > 1:02:40He pinpointed the secret policemen caught idling on camera.
1:02:40 > 1:02:45But more than that, he questioned their staging of events.
1:02:45 > 1:02:50"Any claim that Jews received the same rations
1:02:50 > 1:02:55"as the rest was propaganda. We had meat till '42, then that was stopped.
1:02:55 > 1:03:02"There were no eggs. If the film shows crates being unloaded, they must have been ordered
1:03:02 > 1:03:07"for the camera. And there wasn't any oil, but the film shows plenty.
1:03:10 > 1:03:13"Lying is such hard work."
1:03:16 > 1:03:21Since 1939, new laws had increasingly hemmed in the Jews.
1:03:21 > 1:03:27Shops like these were now the only places where the Jewish community could buy food.
1:03:27 > 1:03:32For some, it meant a six-mile walk every day from the outer suburbs.
1:03:33 > 1:03:40They weren't allowed on the trams. They weren't allowed radios, pets, typewriters...
1:03:40 > 1:03:45They had special identity cards stamped "J" for Jew.
1:03:47 > 1:03:54And most humiliating, a law decreed two months before this film was shot
1:03:54 > 1:03:59all Jews in public had to wear a yellow Star of David.
1:04:00 > 1:04:07I would walk through the streets of Munich with a star on my coat like a leper,
1:04:07 > 1:04:10ringing his bell,
1:04:10 > 1:04:13unclean.
1:04:13 > 1:04:15Once a woman spat in my face.
1:04:19 > 1:04:25You have to look straight through people like that without seeing them
1:04:25 > 1:04:28or how could you bear it?
1:04:30 > 1:04:36During these months, Elsbeth Rosenfeld was in a ghetto in Munich.
1:04:36 > 1:04:42Ghettos were special areas where Jews were kept apart from Aryan Germans.
1:04:42 > 1:04:49Elsbeth's was crowded, but comfortable enough - a converted convent, six women to a room.
1:04:50 > 1:04:55In the east, in the countries Germany had invaded,
1:04:55 > 1:04:59Jews had also been gathered in ghettos.
1:05:01 > 1:05:04Here the conditions were terrible.
1:05:08 > 1:05:11600,000 ghettoed Jews died
1:05:11 > 1:05:14of disease and starvation.
1:05:19 > 1:05:21By conquering the east,
1:05:21 > 1:05:27the Nazis increased the number of people from "inferior races"
1:05:27 > 1:05:32under their control, all to be made to suffer by the German master race.
1:05:32 > 1:05:35The gypsies of Hungary and Rumania,
1:05:35 > 1:05:37the Slavs...
1:05:41 > 1:05:44..and the Jews of eastern Europe.
1:05:44 > 1:05:47Three million in Poland,
1:05:47 > 1:05:49four and a half million in Russia.
1:05:50 > 1:05:53Ghettos were one solution,
1:05:53 > 1:05:59but by the end of 1941, another final solution had begun -
1:05:59 > 1:06:03the mass murder of the Jews of Europe.
1:06:07 > 1:06:13Thousands of German Jews from Stettin were taken to Lublin in Poland.
1:06:13 > 1:06:19We used to send food parcels and in return we got letters.
1:06:19 > 1:06:24And then the letters stopped and the rumours started.
1:06:24 > 1:06:28And then in the spring of '42 it was our turn.
1:06:29 > 1:06:33We were taken to a barrack at the railway...
1:06:34 > 1:06:37and then two nights waiting.
1:06:38 > 1:06:42And then from the barracks to a railway embankment.
1:06:42 > 1:06:49There were Nazis there. I think they had gathered to see some sort of show -
1:06:49 > 1:06:52Jews wailing and begging to stay,
1:06:52 > 1:06:57but we had a dignity which made my heart overflow with respect.
1:06:57 > 1:07:00And then a whistle.
1:07:00 > 1:07:02WHISTLE BLOWS
1:07:02 > 1:07:05And then a voice calling my name.
1:07:05 > 1:07:09'Rosenfeld! Rosenfeld!
1:07:09 > 1:07:11'Gestapoausweis!'
1:07:13 > 1:07:15And they told me,
1:07:15 > 1:07:17"You don't go.
1:07:17 > 1:07:19"You stay."
1:07:19 > 1:07:23And I didn't know what to say.
1:07:23 > 1:07:27I wanted to go with my friends, whatever they were to face.
1:07:27 > 1:07:32But the Nazis wanted me in a ghetto helping.
1:07:34 > 1:07:36It was unbearable.
1:07:38 > 1:07:43So I went back to my friends and they said, "What did they want?"
1:07:44 > 1:07:46And...
1:07:46 > 1:07:53I think when they saw the tears streaming down my face, something broke in them too.
1:07:54 > 1:07:57All the sorrow they'd held back
1:07:57 > 1:07:59and the anger.
1:08:03 > 1:08:05They hugged me.
1:08:05 > 1:08:08I murmured blessings.
1:08:09 > 1:08:11Some swore.
1:08:13 > 1:08:17But then again a whistle...
1:08:24 > 1:08:27Did you ever hear from them?
1:08:27 > 1:08:28A letter?
1:08:43 > 1:08:48None of the Jews taken from Munich in Easter 1942 survived.
1:08:48 > 1:08:52Some were shot, others were killed by poison gas.
1:08:57 > 1:08:59Elsbeth would have died too.
1:09:05 > 1:09:12Instead she went back to the ghetto, stuck it for two weeks and then escaped.
1:09:12 > 1:09:16She took off her star, burned her papers.
1:09:16 > 1:09:21For two years she stayed indoors hidden, hardly daring to exist.
1:09:21 > 1:09:27Then the Jewish Underground helped her to Freiburg and over the Swiss border.
1:09:27 > 1:09:35Another two years later, in the chaos of post-war Europe, she was at last reunited with her husband.
1:09:36 > 1:09:41In all, six million Jews were killed by the Nazis.
1:09:41 > 1:09:444,000 murders every day
1:09:44 > 1:09:46for four years.
1:09:52 > 1:09:55Fear is the worst thing we have
1:09:55 > 1:09:59and you fight fear, not with hate, but with love.
1:09:59 > 1:10:06Nothing good can come of hatred and bitterness, even hatred of the Nazis.
1:10:06 > 1:10:11But with so many people I could never make them see it like that.