Nazi Germany - Part 2

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0:00:02 > 0:00:07*

0:00:13 > 0:00:21My father worked on the railways. My mother came from a poor farming family. I was their only child.

0:00:22 > 0:00:26We had a typical flat in working-class Hamburg.

0:00:26 > 0:00:30Factories were all around us - smoke and noise.

0:00:30 > 0:00:33The banging and grinding

0:00:33 > 0:00:36filled the air throughout the day.

0:00:37 > 0:00:43But it was music to our ears - the music of life itself.

0:00:47 > 0:00:50CHANTING: 'Sieg Heil!'

0:00:50 > 0:00:54This is the story of one man's childhood.

0:00:54 > 0:00:58Ten years old when the Nazis came to power,

0:00:58 > 0:01:01like so many children in Germany,

0:01:01 > 0:01:08Henry Metelmann learned to live, to fight - if necessary, to die - for Adolf Hitler.

0:01:09 > 0:01:15TRANSLATION: 'When my opponents say, "We won't join you,"

0:01:15 > 0:01:22'I just say, "Your children are mine already. What are you? In time, you will die.

0:01:22 > 0:01:28'"But your sons and daughters stand for ever in my new camp,

0:01:28 > 0:01:34'"and in a short time they'll know nothing else but this new community."'

0:01:38 > 0:01:41For Henry's parents, the Nazis spelt disaster.

0:01:41 > 0:01:47Henry remembers their hopelessness as the "brown pest" - as his father called them -

0:01:47 > 0:01:50marched in triumph outside.

0:01:50 > 0:01:53But, for Henry, the Nazis were new,

0:01:53 > 0:02:00- exciting.- When my father spoke so badly about them, I just didn't understand it.

0:02:00 > 0:02:05I thought, "What does he mean, that these Nazis are so dangerous?"

0:02:05 > 0:02:10I used to run alongside them as they marched, singing their songs.

0:02:10 > 0:02:16They were always so smart in their uniforms - the leather, the jackboots.

0:02:16 > 0:02:19- #- SA marschiert

0:02:19 > 0:02:22- #- Mit ruhig festem Schritt...- #

0:02:24 > 0:02:32To get the next generation on their side, the Nazis had put tremendous energy into winning them over.

0:02:32 > 0:02:36Theirs was the party of youth against age,

0:02:36 > 0:02:41offering young people not just a dream, but a role to play -

0:02:41 > 0:02:45standard-bearers in the march to a new dawn.

0:02:47 > 0:02:52It was a way of channelling the natural rebelliousness of youth

0:02:52 > 0:02:54on organised lines.

0:02:54 > 0:03:02The organisation responsible was the Hitlerjugend, the youth wing of the Nazi Party.

0:03:18 > 0:03:23In 1932, the Hitler Youth numbered just 100,000.

0:03:23 > 0:03:28Within two years, it numbered three and a half million.

0:03:28 > 0:03:34And by 1939, it was an army, compulsory for all boys,

0:03:34 > 0:03:40with girls joining its sister organisation, the League of German Maidens.

0:03:40 > 0:03:44The largest youth movement the world had ever seen.

0:03:59 > 0:04:05Henry's first contact with the Hitler Youth came in the summer of '33.

0:04:05 > 0:04:11Like many of his friends, he'd joined a youth club, the church scouts.

0:04:11 > 0:04:16 They met at the parish hall for songs and competitions.

0:04:16 > 0:04:21One day, they found Hitler Youth boys there to teach them drill.

0:04:21 > 0:04:23Henry was secretly delighted,

0:04:23 > 0:04:26but telling his father wasn't easy.

0:04:26 > 0:04:33'He hadn't wanted me in the scouts in the first place - a Christian youth organisation.'

0:04:33 > 0:04:39A down-to-earth man, he didn't want his son brainwashed by anyone.

0:04:39 > 0:04:44But to see me sucked up into the Hitler Youth really hurt him.

0:04:44 > 0:04:48'When I told him...' You must buy me a uniform.

0:04:48 > 0:04:55They told me to tell you. A brown shirt. Before the next meeting. 'He just laughed.'

0:04:55 > 0:05:03You know how a bull hates a red rag when it's waved in front of it? That's what a brown rag does to me.

0:05:03 > 0:05:06I will never waste money on a brown shirt.

0:05:06 > 0:05:10- So, what do I tell them? - Tell them...

0:05:11 > 0:05:14Tell them, on my pay,

0:05:14 > 0:05:18if I spend my money on a brown shirt,

0:05:18 > 0:05:20then we don't eat.

0:05:20 > 0:05:23They'll just have to accept that.

0:05:28 > 0:05:32'And they did accept it, grudgingly.'

0:05:32 > 0:05:38At the next Hitler Youth meeting they made me step forward and I was given a parcel

0:05:38 > 0:05:42'to take home and hand to my parents.'

0:05:42 > 0:05:49- Fritz, look. Two brown shirts for the boy, with the compliments of the party. Good.- What's good?

0:05:49 > 0:05:53A shirt is a shirt. So what if it's brown?

0:05:53 > 0:05:56It's material I won't have to buy.

0:05:56 > 0:06:01It's good quality. He can put his elbows on the table

0:06:01 > 0:06:04and it won't wear through.

0:06:05 > 0:06:10'I loved it in the Hitler Youth. The uniform was so smashing.'

0:06:10 > 0:06:18The dark brown, the black, the swastika. I loved marching, the flag before us, a drum beating.

0:06:18 > 0:06:22Most roads in Germany at that time had cobbles.

0:06:22 > 0:06:28It was painful on our feet. But it didn't matter. We felt important.

0:06:28 > 0:06:35The police had to stop traffic to give us right of way. Passers-by had to salute, to respect our flag.

0:06:35 > 0:06:40How funny it sometimes was! Old ladies with their shopping bags,

0:06:40 > 0:06:43shooting their arms into the air.

0:06:48 > 0:06:56As with many German children, the Hitler Youth became the single most important influence in Henry's life.

0:06:56 > 0:07:01His group met after school, and all day Saturday.

0:07:01 > 0:07:03Plenty of sport,

0:07:03 > 0:07:06with the emphasis on teamwork.

0:07:08 > 0:07:11And training in useful skills.

0:07:12 > 0:07:15Signalling, fixing bikes,

0:07:15 > 0:07:19collecting waste and scrap metal.

0:07:19 > 0:07:23But the most important lesson was in Nazi theory.

0:07:24 > 0:07:27Learning to love Hitler.

0:07:29 > 0:07:37'It was as if we had created our own atmosphere, the atmosphere of the coming German generation.

0:07:37 > 0:07:44'As the Fuhrer had written, Germany's future belonged to its youth. I told Father that.

0:07:44 > 0:07:47'He replied, somewhat crushingly...'

0:07:47 > 0:07:50That's like saying grass is green.

0:07:50 > 0:07:55As his father knew, Henry was being indoctrinated,

0:07:55 > 0:07:58his head filled with propaganda -

0:07:58 > 0:08:02Nazi lies or half-truths,

0:08:02 > 0:08:04endlessly repeated.

0:08:04 > 0:08:09For adults, spotting propaganda was hard enough.

0:08:09 > 0:08:13For the young, it was almost impossible.

0:08:13 > 0:08:16One day I came home from school

0:08:16 > 0:08:19'and said to my mother...' You know, Mama...

0:08:21 > 0:08:26I don't think it's right that Dr Bergman touches me any more.

0:08:26 > 0:08:34- 'Dr Bergman was our family doctor. My mother jumped to the wrong conclusion.'- What did he do?

0:08:34 > 0:08:37Oh, no, he treated me well.

0:08:37 > 0:08:39He's a very kind man.

0:08:39 > 0:08:42Well, what, then?

0:08:42 > 0:08:44It's just...

0:08:44 > 0:08:50I don't think it's right that a German boy should be touched by a Jew.

0:08:52 > 0:08:57'She was horrified that I should say such a stupid, wicked thing.'

0:08:57 > 0:09:02In my defence I explained how a man in a brown uniform

0:09:02 > 0:09:07had told our class in school how we should keep the race pure,

0:09:07 > 0:09:14and how he'd been proud of me because I had said, "Why don't we throw the Jews out of Germany?",

0:09:14 > 0:09:20like it was a solution to Germany's problems. Mother wasn't impressed.

0:09:20 > 0:09:26Dr Bergman. Did you mention Dr Bergman to this man, that he touched you?

0:09:26 > 0:09:28Yes, Mama.

0:09:28 > 0:09:32But I did say I didn't think Dr Bergman was a bad man.

0:09:35 > 0:09:37(Oh, my God.)

0:09:37 > 0:09:41'"Oh, my God." That's all she said.'

0:09:43 > 0:09:47This story, so typical in Nazi Germany,

0:09:47 > 0:09:51shows how easily young minds took on board dangerous ideas.

0:09:51 > 0:09:54Schools had been Nazified,

0:09:54 > 0:09:57anti-Nazi teachers sacked,

0:09:57 > 0:10:00textbooks rewritten.

0:10:00 > 0:10:03Nazi race science was taught in class.

0:10:03 > 0:10:09Jewish students had separate desks, then separate schools.

0:10:09 > 0:10:14By '42, they could get no formal education at all.

0:10:14 > 0:10:20Meanwhile, children like Henry were taught how to spot the "Jewish enemy".

0:10:20 > 0:10:26They told me that because of my German blood I was a superior human being.

0:10:26 > 0:10:31I never dreamt of asking what German blood really was.

0:10:31 > 0:10:35Old history textbooks were destroyed.

0:10:35 > 0:10:42Those that replaced them taught children the Nazi version of Germany's past, and future.

0:10:42 > 0:10:45RECITING IN GERMAN

0:10:45 > 0:10:50We learned about Lebensraum, living space, how glorious it would be

0:10:50 > 0:10:55to fight Poland and Russia, to conquer land for Germany.

0:10:55 > 0:11:00We learned about battles and wars and kings -

0:11:00 > 0:11:08how, if we stuck together and weren't stabbed in the back like last time, we could not lose.

0:11:08 > 0:11:12- #- Deutschland uber alles.- # - Germany above everything.

0:11:12 > 0:11:15And I lapped it all up.

0:11:15 > 0:11:19It just upset me that my father was so scornful.

0:11:19 > 0:11:23Balderdash.

0:11:23 > 0:11:29But what was I to do? Was I to say to my teachers, "It's all balderdash"?

0:11:29 > 0:11:33So I shouldn't believe what they teach me?

0:11:33 > 0:11:41- I'm not to believe my teachers? - Some of the things they teach you, believe. A pencil, when I drop it...

0:11:43 > 0:11:47The Nazis cannot change gravity. Use your head.

0:11:47 > 0:11:53If it sounds like opinion, say to yourself, "Whose opinion is it?"

0:11:53 > 0:11:58Two plus two equals four. That's fine. That's all right.

0:11:58 > 0:12:02But even two plus two could brainwash.

0:12:02 > 0:12:08Maths books taught angles by plotting the paths of falling bombs.

0:12:08 > 0:12:15Adding sums meant working out the money saved if Germany got rid of its invalids.

0:12:15 > 0:12:18For me, it was all very confusing.

0:12:18 > 0:12:26Everything I heard at home was the opposite of what they taught me at school, and it bothered me.

0:12:26 > 0:12:31I wanted my loved ones to be right, but I also loved Germany,

0:12:31 > 0:12:36and I believed that our Fuhrer was giving us back our dignity.

0:12:36 > 0:12:39I used to get so angry.

0:12:40 > 0:12:42All right.

0:12:42 > 0:12:47- I'll tell them tomorrow that they are teaching us lies.- No, Henry!

0:12:47 > 0:12:56Promise me, Junge, you will never repeat what we say to you outside these four walls. Do you promise?

0:12:58 > 0:13:01Of course, I kept my promise.

0:13:01 > 0:13:07But I'll never forget their terror, the power I had just as a child.

0:13:07 > 0:13:11If I had let slip all my father told me, who knows,

0:13:11 > 0:13:16late at night, the knock on the door, arrest by the Gestapo.

0:13:16 > 0:13:24We were encouraged to tell tales if we ever heard grown-ups talk against Hitler, against the regime.

0:13:24 > 0:13:32There were children so passionately Nazi, they turned in their own parents. How can you explain that?

0:13:32 > 0:13:37Only that Hitler grabbed us so young, and he never let go.

0:13:40 > 0:13:44How many children escaped indoctrination?

0:13:44 > 0:13:47It's impossible to know.

0:13:49 > 0:13:56As ten years of Nazi rule passed by, the Hitler Youth lost its appeal as something exciting.

0:13:58 > 0:14:01It was now compulsory,

0:14:01 > 0:14:06backed up by Gestapo laws and busybody Hitler Youth patrols.

0:14:06 > 0:14:08Ich liebe treu den Fuhrer!

0:14:08 > 0:14:11More and more, the rebellious thing

0:14:11 > 0:14:14was to refuse to join.

0:14:16 > 0:14:20JAZZ MUSIC

0:14:20 > 0:14:27These photographs are the only surviving pictures of German youth gangs in the early 1940s.

0:14:27 > 0:14:32The Edelweiss Pirates, the Texas Band, the Navajos.

0:14:32 > 0:14:35They beat up Nazi officials,

0:14:35 > 0:14:39wrote graffiti on walls, but mostly

0:14:39 > 0:14:43they hung out and listened to American jazz.

0:14:43 > 0:14:48Their casual, fun-loving attitude made a mockery of Nazi control.

0:14:50 > 0:14:54'They dance outrageously. They call it swing.

0:14:54 > 0:14:58'Sometimes two boys with one girl, sometimes all together.

0:14:58 > 0:15:02'Girls wear lipstick and paint their nails.

0:15:02 > 0:15:05'It's monstrous.'

0:15:05 > 0:15:13I remember when a group of jazzers had gathered on the pier to play Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington.

0:15:13 > 0:15:15Jazz was un-German.

0:15:15 > 0:15:23So the self-important Hitler Youth leader marches up and orders them to stop this Jewish nonsense.

0:15:23 > 0:15:29The jazzers stripped his clothes off, stuffed disgusting things into his mouth,

0:15:29 > 0:15:32and they chucked him in the river.

0:15:32 > 0:15:37The whole thing took no more than a few minutes.

0:15:37 > 0:15:44The government hit back. Curfews were ordered, to stop young people visiting bars

0:15:44 > 0:15:48after nine o'clock. Hanging around and smoking in public were banned.

0:15:48 > 0:15:53Forced labour for those that broke the rules, or death.

0:15:53 > 0:16:00This photo shows the fate of 12 young Edelweiss Pirates caught in Cologne in '44.

0:16:05 > 0:16:10The ideal child raised by proud Nazi parents was of quite another mould.

0:16:10 > 0:16:17For one thing, young men and young women had different parts to play.

0:16:17 > 0:16:21As a leader of the Girls League put it...

0:16:21 > 0:16:27Boys and girls must carry out their duty according to their station.

0:16:27 > 0:16:34Boys we raise as political soldiers, and girls as the comrades of these soldiers.

0:16:34 > 0:16:40We teach them to be wives and mothers and to breed the next generation. That's all.

0:16:42 > 0:16:45Kinder, Kirche, Kuche.

0:16:45 > 0:16:48Children, church and kitchen.

0:16:48 > 0:16:53Girls weren't encouraged to have ambitions beyond the home.

0:16:53 > 0:16:59In the Girls League they learned cooking, making beds, childcare.

0:16:59 > 0:17:03Their clothes and hair copied old peasant styles.

0:17:03 > 0:17:06No cigarettes, no make-up.

0:17:06 > 0:17:10A perm could be punished by shaving the head.

0:17:11 > 0:17:15Boys, meanwhile, were being bred for war.

0:17:15 > 0:17:21These scenes record life on a typical Hitler Youth summer camp.

0:17:21 > 0:17:26The camps were the high point of the Hitler Youth calendar.

0:17:26 > 0:17:31They were loved. They gave poor children the chance of a holiday.

0:17:31 > 0:17:38They mixed rich and poor together. They introduced city kids to the countryside.

0:17:38 > 0:17:43But their main function was military training.

0:17:44 > 0:17:48How to throw hand grenades and dig trenches.

0:17:48 > 0:17:52They took us on long, hard marches to toughen us up.

0:17:52 > 0:17:59If anyone fell, they'd shout till they wobbled onto their feet again.

0:18:00 > 0:18:04They'd divide us into the Blues and the Reds -

0:18:06 > 0:18:11one group to defend a position, the other to attack it.

0:18:16 > 0:18:20WHISTLE BLOWS

0:18:18 > 0:18:20A whistle, then contact.

0:18:23 > 0:18:27Noise, bloody noses, twisted arms,

0:18:27 > 0:18:29shrieks of pain.

0:18:37 > 0:18:41In the beginning, I hated it all, but I got used to it.

0:18:41 > 0:18:44I think what it did was,

0:18:44 > 0:18:50it developed the aggression we would all need to help Germany fight a war.

0:18:56 > 0:19:01Some historians argue Hitler wanted war from the start,

0:19:01 > 0:19:07the way he delighted Germans by snubbing the Treaty of Versailles, rearming,

0:19:07 > 0:19:12and reclaiming peacefully land lost to Germany in 1919 -

0:19:12 > 0:19:15the Saar, the Rhineland,

0:19:15 > 0:19:21Austria, in 1938, the Sudetenland and western Czechoslovakia.

0:19:22 > 0:19:24But then, in March 1939,

0:19:24 > 0:19:27the rest of Czechoslovakia fell.

0:19:28 > 0:19:36'Once again, the rattle of a German army on the march echoes in Europe. Where it may end, no man can tell,

0:19:36 > 0:19:39'not even the man who ordered it.'

0:19:39 > 0:19:42Czechoslovakia wasn't conquered

0:19:42 > 0:19:45to unify German-speaking people.

0:19:45 > 0:19:48This was invasion, pure and simple,

0:19:48 > 0:19:54the first of many invasions to create Lebensraum - living space -

0:19:54 > 0:19:57for Hitler's master race.

0:19:57 > 0:20:02Suddenly, the purpose of all that youth indoctrination was clear.

0:20:02 > 0:20:08In just six years, Hitler had turned boys like Henry into soldiers,

0:20:08 > 0:20:13strong enough and committed enough to wage a war of aggression.

0:20:17 > 0:20:22My father felt that the only cause worth fighting for was peace.

0:20:22 > 0:20:25He fought in the First World War.

0:20:25 > 0:20:30To him, it had been a senseless slaughter of millions of young men.

0:20:30 > 0:20:35He felt it almost a holy duty to save me from experiencing such horror.

0:20:35 > 0:20:39I didn't see it like that at all.

0:20:39 > 0:20:44If I was to die on a battlefield, that would be glorious,

0:20:44 > 0:20:47protecting my parents from our enemies.

0:20:47 > 0:20:51Such a death would be tremendous.

0:21:01 > 0:21:04September, 1939.

0:21:04 > 0:21:07Poland.

0:21:08 > 0:21:13German aggression kick-starts the Second World War.

0:21:21 > 0:21:25When it finally came, it was almost a relief -

0:21:25 > 0:21:28the air clearing after so much uncertainty.

0:21:28 > 0:21:33Our future was now in the open. Hitler himself said as much.

0:21:33 > 0:21:41We believed our Fuhrer with all our hearts and we were prepared to follow him to the end of the world.

0:21:44 > 0:21:49Henry Metelmann himself was drafted in 1941.

0:21:49 > 0:21:53Few in his company of 200 men were over 20 years old,

0:21:53 > 0:21:57and all were ex-Hitler Youth.

0:21:57 > 0:22:01They saw their journey east as a great adventure.

0:22:10 > 0:22:16But the reality of war on the Russian Front was somewhat different.

0:22:16 > 0:22:21This was perhaps the most brutal battle zone of the war.

0:22:31 > 0:22:34Nine out of every ten German casualties

0:22:34 > 0:22:37fell here.

0:22:46 > 0:22:49My father died just before we left.

0:22:50 > 0:22:53On his deathbed he told me,

0:22:53 > 0:22:59"The enemy soldiers you'll be fighting will be working men like you,

0:22:59 > 0:23:05"force-fed the same slogans, fooled into the same false dreams."

0:23:05 > 0:23:10I just humoured him. Later, I came to realise the truth of his words.

0:23:29 > 0:23:33CHANTING: Sieg Heil!

0:23:36 > 0:23:42For 11 years now, drunkenness on a scale beyond measuring,

0:23:42 > 0:23:49which will be followed by the most horrible hangover the world has ever known.

0:23:49 > 0:23:57This is the story of the German opposition to Hitler, as recorded in the diary of a writer and lawyer,

0:23:57 > 0:24:01 Fritz Reck-Malleczewen.

0:24:01 > 0:24:04They're drunk on propaganda.

0:24:04 > 0:24:07Even on the point of defeat,

0:24:07 > 0:24:13the German people are so drugged they heil this maniac, Hitler,

0:24:13 > 0:24:16like a herd of mooing cattle.

0:24:19 > 0:24:21The date, July 1944.

0:24:21 > 0:24:26The Second World War has a year to run,

0:24:26 > 0:24:30but already it's clear Germany is losing.

0:24:32 > 0:24:37Every day and every night, Allied bombs rain down on German cities.

0:24:39 > 0:24:43German armies are in retreat on every front.

0:24:43 > 0:24:48And yet, still Hitler clings to power.

0:24:48 > 0:24:52For those like Fritz Reck who loathed the Nazis,

0:24:52 > 0:24:55it was a time of shame.

0:24:57 > 0:24:59Even here, far from Munich,

0:24:59 > 0:25:04the pressure from the bombing shatters windows.

0:25:04 > 0:25:09On the roads - refugees, old women with bundles on their backs.

0:25:11 > 0:25:16In their eyes, you see the horror of the firestorms.

0:25:21 > 0:25:23But why should Herr Hitler worry?

0:25:23 > 0:25:28We hear he spends his time reading novels, watching movies,

0:25:28 > 0:25:31bullying his generals.

0:25:31 > 0:25:38And meanwhile, every day his shelter is dug deeper and deeper into the earth.

0:25:44 > 0:25:50Reck's dream was that one day the German people would see their mistake

0:25:50 > 0:25:52and defeat Nazism from within.

0:25:52 > 0:25:55But time was running out.

0:25:57 > 0:26:05For 11 long and lonely years he'd watched the opposition fail to make any impact on the German people.

0:26:05 > 0:26:07But why did they fail?

0:26:12 > 0:26:15'Terror is the best political weapon,

0:26:15 > 0:26:20'for nothing drives people harder than a fear of sudden death.'

0:26:26 > 0:26:311933. Hitler destroys all organised political opposition.

0:26:31 > 0:26:36The Communist and Social Democratic Parties - banned.

0:26:36 > 0:26:41The trade unions which spoke up for workers - banned.

0:26:41 > 0:26:43Their leaders -

0:26:43 > 0:26:46beaten up, arrested,

0:26:46 > 0:26:49imprisoned in concentration camps.

0:26:49 > 0:26:56At a stroke, Hitler had made powerless those men and women most likely to lead protest against him.

0:27:01 > 0:27:05Those that escaped arrest were now illegals,

0:27:05 > 0:27:07outlaws.

0:27:09 > 0:27:15WOMAN: We were in constant danger. We could not go to the law. There was no law.

0:27:15 > 0:27:21What could we do? Move to a part of the country where no-one knew us?

0:27:21 > 0:27:26Live under false names and false papers? Some did.

0:27:26 > 0:27:29Others just gave up.

0:27:30 > 0:27:37In the circumstances, it's amazing how much political resistance survived.

0:27:37 > 0:27:44In 1936, according to police statistics, over 1,000 anti-Nazi groups were still at work,

0:27:44 > 0:27:49writing reports on the public mood, printing anti-Nazi leaflets,

0:27:49 > 0:27:54all disguised with false covers to make them easier to hide -

0:27:54 > 0:27:59as cake recipes, seed packets, camera instruction manuals.

0:27:59 > 0:28:06The Gestapo counted one and a half million such anti-Nazi leaflets doing the rounds.

0:28:06 > 0:28:08But the resistance was divided.

0:28:08 > 0:28:13The Social Democrats didn't trust the Communists.

0:28:13 > 0:28:17As the secret police drew the net ever closer,

0:28:17 > 0:28:21the fight became more and more hopeless.

0:28:21 > 0:28:23Can we harm the Nazis fly-posting,

0:28:23 > 0:28:28or painting slogans on walls, or stealing and hiding a gun or two?

0:28:28 > 0:28:33Does it change enough to make the risk worthwhile?

0:28:33 > 0:28:38People think it's romantic to fight the Gestapo. It's not. It's suicidal.

0:28:41 > 0:28:44Fritz Reck never actively resisted.

0:28:44 > 0:28:48But writing a diary was treason enough,

0:28:48 > 0:28:53keeping an ear to the ground on his estate, recording the public mood.

0:28:53 > 0:28:59Again and again my friends warn me about my writings. I ignore them.

0:28:59 > 0:29:03I must record what's happening here in Germany.

0:29:03 > 0:29:10'And so night after night I hide this diary deep in the woods, always changing my hiding-place.

0:29:10 > 0:29:15'Do you have any idea what it's like to live like this?'

0:29:15 > 0:29:22No rights, always under threat that someone might turn you in, and this lack of opposition.

0:29:22 > 0:29:26'That makes our life here so unbearable.'

0:29:28 > 0:29:33At most, all those like Reck could do was lodge a quiet protest.

0:29:33 > 0:29:35There were ways.

0:29:35 > 0:29:38The Nazis wanted conformity -

0:29:38 > 0:29:41everyone the same, flying the flag,

0:29:41 > 0:29:45saluting, using the correct Nazi greeting.

0:29:45 > 0:29:48Heil Hitler.

0:29:48 > 0:29:51- Heil Hitler.- Heil Hitler. - Heil Hitler.

0:29:51 > 0:29:56- By breaking the rules... - Heil Hitler, Professor.- Gruss Gott.

0:29:56 > 0:30:00..you could quite spoil a Nazi's day.

0:30:00 > 0:30:04Equally dangerous, there were Nazi charities.

0:30:04 > 0:30:09Refusing to give could result in arrest, but people took the risk.

0:30:10 > 0:30:12- Heil Hitler!- Shoo!

0:30:12 > 0:30:15And there was humour.

0:30:15 > 0:30:20This innocent-looking brownshirt songbook disguised a gag-sheet.

0:30:22 > 0:30:25Joke after joke at the Nazis' expense.

0:30:27 > 0:30:35A man with an aching tooth went to a dentist. The dentist said, "Open your mouth." The man said...

0:30:35 > 0:30:40"Open my mouth in front of a stranger? You must be joking."

0:30:43 > 0:30:47But, as Fritz Reck noted in his diary,

0:30:47 > 0:30:52the government was hardly likely to be brought down by joke-books.

0:30:52 > 0:30:57I think we'd rather see resistance take the form of armed rebellion.

0:30:57 > 0:31:03But that's the problem. The Nazis have made us so sluggish, a nation of cowards.

0:31:05 > 0:31:07Reck was a Christian.

0:31:07 > 0:31:12His opposition to the Nazis was less political than religious.

0:31:12 > 0:31:17He feared the Nazis meant to destroy Christianity. He was right.

0:31:17 > 0:31:21They were busy inventing their own religion.

0:31:21 > 0:31:26Not one that protected the weak, but one that admired strength.

0:31:31 > 0:31:35I saw a Hitler Youth boy recently.

0:31:35 > 0:31:42He was in a classroom, and suddenly he noticed a crucifix hanging behind the teacher's desk.

0:31:42 > 0:31:45And his face twisted in fury,

0:31:45 > 0:31:48and he ripped down this symbol,

0:31:48 > 0:31:51which hangs in every church in Germany,

0:31:51 > 0:31:58and he threw it to the ground with the cry, "Lie there, you dirty Jew!"

0:32:01 > 0:32:08The Christian churches might have led ordinary Germans against the Nazis,

0:32:08 > 0:32:12but, like the outlawed political parties, they failed.

0:32:12 > 0:32:19Hitler had made idle promises that he'd protect the Church.

0:32:19 > 0:32:22The Pope, the Catholic bishops,

0:32:22 > 0:32:26and German Protestant leaders chose to believe him.

0:32:29 > 0:32:34'We Germans had been rooted in Christianity for centuries.'

0:32:34 > 0:32:40If the churches had pulled together, if the bishops hadn't compromised,

0:32:40 > 0:32:47many of us felt that there would have been a popular uprising, some sort of rebellion. I'm sure of it.

0:32:48 > 0:32:56Some did what they could. Martin Niemoller spent 8 years in prison for preaching anti-Nazi sermons.

0:32:56 > 0:32:59As he reflected in a poem in 1945,

0:32:59 > 0:33:03more common were Christians that just stood by.

0:33:03 > 0:33:09'When the Nazis came for the Communists, I was silent. I wasn't a Communist.

0:33:09 > 0:33:16'When the Nazis came for the Social Democrats, I was silent. I wasn't a Social Democrat.

0:33:16 > 0:33:23'When the Nazis came for the trade unionists, I was silent. I wasn't a trade unionist.

0:33:23 > 0:33:27'When the Nazis came for the Jews, I was silent.

0:33:27 > 0:33:29'I wasn't a Jew.

0:33:29 > 0:33:34'When the Nazis came for me, there was no-one left to protest.'

0:33:38 > 0:33:40September 1939.

0:33:40 > 0:33:42War.

0:33:42 > 0:33:45Fritz Reck receives a letter.

0:33:45 > 0:33:50'Reck, you won't believe it. We are the children of the gods.

0:33:50 > 0:33:55'I'm just back from the Battle of Poland. Eleven flying missions,

0:33:55 > 0:34:01'dive-bombing columns of troops. It's such a wonderful carnage.

0:34:01 > 0:34:05'I love this war. We're so utterly without pity.'

0:34:09 > 0:34:13A letter written by an escaped convict? No.

0:34:13 > 0:34:20This letter was written by a young man with bright, blue eyes and an irresistible, boyish laugh.

0:34:20 > 0:34:24In civilian life, he was entirely harmless.

0:34:24 > 0:34:28You see, we can't see the shame any more.

0:34:28 > 0:34:32Germany is so completely drugged on its own lies,

0:34:32 > 0:34:37The cure will be more terrible than anything seen before in history.

0:34:44 > 0:34:49The war changed everything. Now resistance was treason.

0:34:49 > 0:34:53But now there was more reason to resist.

0:34:55 > 0:35:02Germany was no longer just killing her own, but committing unspeakable atrocities abroad.

0:35:04 > 0:35:07I spoke with a man.

0:35:07 > 0:35:09I'll call him just "H".

0:35:11 > 0:35:14Back from the Eastern Front.

0:35:14 > 0:35:17And...he saw a massacre.

0:35:19 > 0:35:23Thirty thousand Jews slaughtered...

0:35:23 > 0:35:26in one hour.

0:35:26 > 0:35:33When they ran out of bullets they used flame-throwers. People came to watch from all over the city.

0:35:33 > 0:35:37Off-duty troops. Young, fresh-faced fellows.

0:35:40 > 0:35:43The degradation.

0:35:47 > 0:35:54Did people back home in Germany know what was being done in their name?

0:35:54 > 0:36:01After the war, ordinary Germans gave conflicting accounts of what was or was not known.

0:36:01 > 0:36:04We had problems of our own.

0:36:04 > 0:36:09The war. Day to day, it grabbed us like a prisoner.

0:36:10 > 0:36:15If we heard rumours, it was a very distant thing.

0:36:15 > 0:36:18They were called work camps.

0:36:18 > 0:36:21That's what we thought they were for.

0:36:23 > 0:36:30And I used to think, "Good. It'll be the first honest day's work they've done in their lives."

0:36:30 > 0:36:33They were secret.

0:36:33 > 0:36:40They kept the camps secret, otherwise there would have been a protest. We didn't know nothing.

0:36:42 > 0:36:44Everyone knew.

0:36:44 > 0:36:46The gassings, everything.

0:36:48 > 0:36:51They can't say otherwise.

0:36:53 > 0:36:55People made jokes about it.

0:36:55 > 0:36:59We had this cheap soap. It floated on water.

0:36:59 > 0:37:03People said it was made from the Jews.

0:37:05 > 0:37:07Why did no-one speak out?

0:37:07 > 0:37:12Because the horror stopped people's mouths.

0:37:12 > 0:37:16If you spoke out, you went to a camp yourself.

0:37:19 > 0:37:25Hans Scholl was one of those few exceptional Germans brave enough to take the risk.

0:37:27 > 0:37:32The only pictures that survive show him at Munich University.

0:37:32 > 0:37:37There, he'd learned to hate Nazism, how it crushed individual freedom.

0:37:38 > 0:37:41In 1942,

0:37:41 > 0:37:46with a group of student friends, he began to print secret leaflets.

0:37:46 > 0:37:50They called themselves The White Rose - white for purity.

0:37:50 > 0:37:53We will not be silenced.

0:37:53 > 0:38:00We are your bad conscience. The White Rose will not leave you in peace.

0:38:02 > 0:38:06At first, Hans' sister Sophie was angry,

0:38:06 > 0:38:10terrified that he should run such a risk.

0:38:10 > 0:38:13But she, too, loathed the Nazis -

0:38:13 > 0:38:20the way the local party boss, Paul Giesler, urged the girl students to bear a child for Hitler.

0:38:20 > 0:38:27'One a year, preferably a boy. It's pretty automatic once you're in the swing of it.

0:38:27 > 0:38:33'If you're too charmless to find a mate, I'll lend you one of my officers.'

0:38:33 > 0:38:38Giesler sparked off a near riot amongst the Munich students.

0:38:38 > 0:38:43For Hans and Sophie, it spurred them on to more opposition.

0:38:43 > 0:38:51Another five leaflets, printed in bulk and taken by train for posting in towns across Germany.

0:38:52 > 0:38:54The aim was to spread the word.

0:38:59 > 0:39:07"In the name of the German people, we demand of Hitler the return of our most valuable possession -

0:39:07 > 0:39:10- "freedom."- Where's it come from?

0:39:11 > 0:39:15"A leaflet of the Resistance Movement in Germany."

0:39:15 > 0:39:22- How did they get our address? - I don't know.- Burn it! It mustn't be found in the house!

0:39:22 > 0:39:27I will burn it, but first I'm going to read it.

0:39:29 > 0:39:32On February the 18th, 1943,

0:39:32 > 0:39:37Hans and Sophie were spotted in the empty university,

0:39:37 > 0:39:40showering leaflets down a stairwell.

0:39:40 > 0:39:45They'd known the risks. Sophie had said just days before...

0:39:45 > 0:39:52So many people have died for this regime. It's time someone died against it.

0:39:52 > 0:39:54They were arrested, tried,

0:39:54 > 0:39:57and beheaded for high treason.

0:39:59 > 0:40:02'I never saw these two young people.

0:40:02 > 0:40:07'I heard only bits and pieces of the story, broadcast from London.

0:40:07 > 0:40:12'But the importance of what I heard, I could hardly believe it.

0:40:12 > 0:40:19'The Scholls are the first in Germany with the courage to speak out for the truth.

0:40:19 > 0:40:26'One day, we must all make a pilgrimage to their graves and stand before them, ashamed.'

0:40:26 > 0:40:29RADIO: 'Aircraft of Bomber Command

0:40:29 > 0:40:35'have carried out attacks on the port of Brest and on enemy shipping there.'

0:40:35 > 0:40:381943 was the war's turning point.

0:40:38 > 0:40:46The German army was retreating in Russia and Africa, and the carpet bombing of German cities had begun.

0:40:46 > 0:40:54Propaganda Minister Goebbels talked of a war demanding total sacrifice. Would Germany fight total war?

0:40:54 > 0:40:59- Wollt ihr den totalen Krieg?- Ja!

0:40:59 > 0:41:04But in reality, the Nazis were slowly losing control.

0:41:04 > 0:41:07The atmosphere shifted accordingly.

0:41:07 > 0:41:11People walk straighter, their faces shine.

0:41:11 > 0:41:17A ghostly hand has nailed the Nazis' death warrant to the wall.

0:41:17 > 0:41:19And what do we find?

0:41:19 > 0:41:27Party officials sniffing which way the wind's blowing, saying "Gruss Gott" instead of "Heil Hitler",

0:41:27 > 0:41:30Nazi schoolteachers back in church,

0:41:30 > 0:41:36the swastika disappearing from coat lapels, the women's leader quietening down.

0:41:39 > 0:41:42The Nazis were running scared.

0:41:42 > 0:41:45Also, the harsh realities of war -

0:41:45 > 0:41:50rationing, bombing - were puncturing Nazi confidence.

0:41:50 > 0:41:55Grumbling became more common, black humour at Hitler's expense,

0:41:55 > 0:41:58and, at last, some active resistance.

0:42:00 > 0:42:06Reck's diary mentions army deserters sabotaging the war machine.

0:42:06 > 0:42:09But the government hadn't given up.

0:42:09 > 0:42:14 This was total war, and the Nazis were punch-drunk on terror.

0:42:16 > 0:42:19Five-minute trials are enough.

0:42:19 > 0:42:22They stamp on the verdict,

0:42:22 > 0:42:25liquidate and expropriate -

0:42:25 > 0:42:28kill - then seize all property.

0:42:31 > 0:42:34The victim's shoved out a back door

0:42:34 > 0:42:36where the guillotine waits.

0:42:36 > 0:42:41In medical schools the corpses are piling up so high,

0:42:41 > 0:42:44they've refused further shipments.

0:42:50 > 0:42:54And still the war dragged on, week after week.

0:42:54 > 0:42:59With every week, another 30,000 murders in the death camps.

0:42:59 > 0:43:03Only Hitler's death would stop the madness,

0:43:03 > 0:43:05but he was like a fox,

0:43:05 > 0:43:08gone to earth.

0:43:08 > 0:43:12As Reck had so despairingly put it...

0:43:12 > 0:43:14Why should Herr Hitler worry?

0:43:14 > 0:43:19Every day, his shelter is dug deeper and deeper into the earth.

0:43:21 > 0:43:25Reck wrote those words on July the 18th, 1944.

0:43:27 > 0:43:29Three days earlier,

0:43:29 > 0:43:32this photo had been taken.

0:43:32 > 0:43:35Hitler with one of his generals.

0:43:35 > 0:43:40And standing beside them, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg.

0:43:43 > 0:43:48On July 20th, Stauffenberg put a bomb in a briefcase under a table

0:43:48 > 0:43:51just a few feet from Hitler.

0:43:54 > 0:44:02With the fuse set at ten minutes, he left the room and flew to Berlin, where an army rebellion was waiting.

0:44:07 > 0:44:10But the bomb plot failed.

0:44:12 > 0:44:17Hitler, shielded by the wooden leg of the table,

0:44:17 > 0:44:20survived the blast.

0:44:20 > 0:44:23'God guarded

0:44:23 > 0:44:25'and protected the Fuhrer.

0:44:25 > 0:44:30'God did not desert Germany in its fateful hour.'

0:44:36 > 0:44:43In the wave of terror that followed the bomb plot, another 5,000 Germans lost their lives.

0:44:46 > 0:44:52Some were strung up on butcher's hooks to prolong their agony.

0:44:52 > 0:45:00And Hitler, it was said, liked to watch the execution footage over and over again.

0:45:02 > 0:45:06Fritz Reck was himself arrested in October '44.

0:45:06 > 0:45:09We don't know exactly what he did.

0:45:09 > 0:45:14The official charge said he "undermined army morale".

0:45:16 > 0:45:20He died in Dachau concentration camp.

0:45:22 > 0:45:26A Genickschuss - a shot in the neck.

0:45:32 > 0:45:34You, up there.

0:45:34 > 0:45:37I hate you, waking and sleeping.

0:45:37 > 0:45:40Sieben, sechs, funf...

0:45:42 > 0:45:47I don't know if I'll survive your downfall, but this I do know -

0:45:47 > 0:45:50that a man must hate this Germany

0:45:50 > 0:45:52with all his heart,

0:45:52 > 0:45:55if he really loves his country.

0:45:56 > 0:46:01I'd ten times rather die than see you triumph.

0:46:32 > 0:46:36'This is London calling. Here is a news flash.

0:46:36 > 0:46:41'The German radio has just announced that Hitler is dead.

0:46:41 > 0:46:43'I'll repeat that.

0:46:43 > 0:46:48'The German radio has just announced that Hitler is dead.'

0:46:54 > 0:46:59Subtitles by John Macdonald, Subtext, for BBC Subtitling, 1997