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(tense, sombre music)

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Downloaded from
YTS.MX

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NARRATOR: Auschwitz. A place where
humanity was extinguished,

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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

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and the unimaginable became reality.

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A symbol of suffering, cruelty,
and loss.

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In the shadow of Auschwitz,
the echoes of anguish still persist.

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- Sorry to tell you,

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but your parents and your sister
are burning right now.

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- (via translator)
I don't remember smelling anything,

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because I was already
living in that smoke.

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(gunshot)

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- (via translator) You start asking
yourself, why, why, why?

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NARRATOR: This place witnessed
the unthinkable,

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absorbing the pain of millions.

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- (via translator) Many people
did not live to see the liberation.

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They died of hunger,
of exhaustion, from the cold.

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- (via translator) They had
no strength to laugh

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or to enjoy the fact
that some other army had come in.

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These were people in apathy.

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NARRATOR: 80 years ago,
the gates of Auschwitz opened,

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revealing the darkest depths
of human cruelty.

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But what really happened in those
final months before liberation?

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Did the prisoners,
already trapped in a nightmare,

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sense a shift in the air,
a glimmer of distant freedom?

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What did they feel when the gates
of Auschwitz opened to freedom?

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And what about the people
living nearby?

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What did the liberators witness?

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We will hear the testimonies
of those who were present on the day

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of the Liberation of Auschwitz.

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- They were after the Germans.
They couldn't care less about us.

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- (via translator) I only remember
how those corpses were laying there.

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NARRATOR:
Where were the perpetrators?

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- (via translator) My hatred towards
the Jews is too great.

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- (via translator)
I still suffer from it today.

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I can't forget it.
I think about it every day.

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NARRATOR: We will uncover
what happened in the months

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leading up to January 27th, 1945.

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The day of
the Liberation of Auschwitz.

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With the help of witness testimonies
and unique archives,

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we will shed new light on the story
of how Auschwitz was liberated.

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Counting down
to that moment of freedom.

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Step by step,

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we will uncover the final moments
of the darkest chapter in history.

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- When the Soviets arrive
at Birkenau,

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they get there almost by chance.

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- (via translator) We had no idea at
that time what it was really like,

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what kind of camp it was.

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NARRATOR:
Among the many survivor testimonies,

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we will also hear from those
still with us today.

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Through their living voices,

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we will learn about the days
before the camp's liberation.

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This is not just a story
of suffering.

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It is a story of strength.

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A story of those
who fought to survive

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and those who fought
to end the terror.

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This is a story of liberation.

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(low, sombre music)

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NARRATOR: May 15th, 1944.

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257 days until the Liberation.

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This date marks the beginning
of one of the most dramatic

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and swift extermination campaigns
carried out by the Nazis,

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with Auschwitz at its heart.

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In 1944,
over 700,000 Jews lived in Hungary.

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Fearing a possible surrender
to the Allies,

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Hitler ordered the occupation
of the country on March 19th.

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Adolf Eichmann, a key architect
of the "Final Solution"

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initiated in 1942,

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was sent to oversee
the deportations.

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(tense, sombre music)

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From May to July, around 440,000
Jews were sent to Auschwitz,

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where most were murdered
in gas chambers.

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Auschwitz's capacity
was pushed to its limit.

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Every day,
trains arrived from Hungary,

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filled with women,
men, children, and the elderly.

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The SS worked tirelessly
to process the new prisoners.

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(speaking in German)

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(low, tense music)

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- "We executed about 400,000
Hungarian Jews alone

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at Auschwitz in the summer of 1944."

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That is all true, witness?

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- (via translator) What was horrible
was precisely the fact

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that they took all these
achievements of human culture...

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..to produce death.

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(whistle hoots)

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- (via translator) They told us
they were resettling us.

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Our turn came and they piled us
into the railroad cars.

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The train was packed.

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80 or 90 people
in a single railroad car.

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NARRATOR: This process of death
had been going on continuously

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for years.

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(low, tense music)

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- (via translator) I don't know
if you know the ramp at Birkenau,

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but there is a gate there,
through which the train enters.

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- (via translator) This is
the topographical plan of Birkenau.

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I made it 80 years ago.

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This is the ramp.

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This is 900 metres
and here are the crematoria.

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NARRATOR: 226 days
until the Liberation of the camp.

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The Nazis continued
their vile work of death...

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..while for the prisoners, only
faint hopes of survival remained.

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- (via translator) We looked out
from these four little windows,

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we had to see outside.

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We saw barbed wire and barracks,

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then we heard about
a hundred Germans arriving,

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accompanied by these shepherd dogs,

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barking precise, barbaric orders
in German.

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- When we got to Auschwitz
and the train doors opened.

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The German soldiers, shouting,
Raus, Raus, and schnell, schnell.

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- Schnell.

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- (via translator)
Raus, Schnelle, Verfluchte.

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They flung open the sealed doors
of the boxcars.

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They threw us down
like sacks of potatoes.

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- Thousands of people were standing
there, pushing, shoving, crying.

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It was the most confusing place
that I can remember.

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- There were dogs barking, and
it was a sea of humanity, really.

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- (via translator) It was Hell.

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NARRATOR: This is
the infamous selection process.

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With a simple movement of the hand,

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SS officers decided
the life and death of the deportees.

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- Everybody's in total shock.

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We absolutely no idea
what's going to happen to us,

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hardly have time to say goodbye
to my mother and two sisters

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because they are separating
the women from the men.

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- (via translator)
That's where our selection was.

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Some sort of officer who was showing
here, here, here.

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- (via translator)
Then came the order:

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"Women on one side,
and men on the other side."

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My father,
who raised this beautiful girl,

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but what will they do
to this daughter of mine,

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whom I raised,
who is like a flower.

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He keeps her.

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Three of them, three Germans came
to tear her from his hands;

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they beat him mercilessly.

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This man. How can I forget this?

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- They had no idea that most of
the people are going to be ending up

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in a gas chamber the same day.

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(low, tense music)

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- (via translator) Those who were
fit for work, went to work,

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while those who were not fit,
were immediately sent to the gas.

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(tense, dramatic music)

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NARRATOR: On one side,
an atrocious temporary survival;

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on the other side, immediate death.

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For the weakest: children,
the elderly, pregnant women,

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there was no hope.

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- And we are lined up five in a row
and start marching toward this line

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of SS officers,
who are basically playing God.

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And my question was: how come
that my father went to one side.

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- I realised that my father and my
two older sisters were not with us.

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They disappeared in the crowd.

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Never ever did I see them again.

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(low, tense music)

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- (via translator)
And at one point, I saw a signpost.

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"zur Sauna"

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meaning to bathe, to sauna.

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- I remember myself...

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..going to the showers
and having to...

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..to stand outside naked
in the cold.

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So it was always a question of,
would I be coming back?

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NARRATOR: The deportees were led
into the gas chambers

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in groups of up to 2,000 people
at a time.

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The doors of the gas chambers
were sealed,

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while Zyklon B
was dropped from above.

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On contact with the air,
the chemicals evaporated,

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turning into a deadly poisonous gas.

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NARRATOR: Occasionally someone would
still be breathing,

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but the SS would finish off
these innocents with a gunshot.

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(gunshot)

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(low, sombre music)

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(low, sombre music)

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NARRATOR: There are still 202 days
until the Liberation of the camp.

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Far too distant to ignite
any hope among the prisoners.

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In Auschwitz, the atmosphere
of terror and madness,

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perpetuated by the Nazis,
still reigned.

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- We arrived at Auschwitz and
we were taken to one of the barracks

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and tattooed, got numbers.

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NARRATOR:
Those who survived the selection

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were taken to overcrowded barracks
and forced to live

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in inhuman conditions,

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with the constant fear of death
looming over them.

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- (via translator)
These little diagrams,

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each one is a barrack.

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There are 19 in a row.

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In each barrack were
a minimum of 350 prisoners,

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up to a maximum of 700.

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NARRATOR:
We should not think of Auschwitz

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as a single concentration camp,

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but rather as a vast complex
of about 50 camps

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spread over a large area.

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The three main camps were
Auschwitz I,

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Auschwitz II (Birkenau)

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and Auschwitz III (Monowitz).

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Established by the Germans
in spring 1940,

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the camp initially targeted
Polish political prisoners

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and intellectuals.

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By 1942,

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it became also a central site for
the extermination of European Jews.

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Other groups from many nations,
including Romani communities,

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and Soviet prisoners of war,
were also held there.

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Many prisoners arrived at the camp
without adequate clothing

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and were often forced to wear
the infamous striped uniforms

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after being stripped
of their personal belongings.

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The conditions of these garments
further contributed

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to their dehumanisation

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and the harsh living conditions
they had to endure.

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- There was a pile of jackets,
blue and white striped jackets,

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then pile of pants,

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there was some rope and wire
to hold up your pants,

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a pair of wooden shoes,
a little blue and white cap,

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one dish, one cup and a spoon

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and this was
your worldly belongings now.

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- These two girls,
they tried to tell us

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what on earth this place was.

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And I said, well, what are
they burning so late at night?

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They said, well I told you,
they are burning Jews.

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Sorry to tell you,

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but your parents and your sisters
are burning right now.

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(low, sombre music)

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NARRATOR: At Auschwitz,
prisoners had their heads shaved.

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An act of dehumanisation...

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..disguised as hygiene.

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This process erased their
identity...

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..and even their hair was exploited
by the Germans

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for industrial purposes.

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- (via translator) My mother came
back from somewhere,

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where they had herded them.

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She was naked
and had no hair on her head.

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I asked her:
And where are your scythes?

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That means braids,
that's what they were called.

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But mom didn't answer anything,
she just cried.

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NARRATOR: Many of the prisoners
would die from exhaustion,

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starvation, or disease.

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To the Nazis, they were nothing more
than a mass of slaves

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to be exploited until the last drop
of life was drained from them.

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- (via translator) The deaths of
prisoners are not only condoned,

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but it is actually part
of the system...

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..be it through malnutrition,

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be it through the exposure to wind
and weather

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with inadequate clothing...

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..or inhuman labour,

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which also leads
to complete exhaustion.

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NARRATOR: The SS at Auschwitz
held absolute power

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over the lives of prisoners,

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deciding who would live or die.

245
00:17:48,640 --> 00:17:51,360
They conducted selections
for the gas chambers,

246
00:17:51,520 --> 00:17:54,200
carried out summary executions,

247
00:17:54,360 --> 00:17:57,680
subjected prisoners
to brutal medical experiments,

248
00:17:57,840 --> 00:18:01,200
and used psychological terror
to maintain control.

249
00:18:02,520 --> 00:18:07,400
This authority enforced a constant
and dehumanising regime of fear.

250
00:18:07,560 --> 00:18:10,760
- (via translator)
It was an entire process

251
00:18:10,920 --> 00:18:14,040
which led one to regard the other
not as a person,

252
00:18:14,200 --> 00:18:15,600
but as a number.

253
00:18:16,880 --> 00:18:19,560
(low, tense music)

254
00:18:25,600 --> 00:18:29,280
- (via translator) An SS man could
basically do whatever he wanted.

255
00:18:30,720 --> 00:18:34,400
He could take a prisoner's cap,
throw it further away,

256
00:18:34,560 --> 00:18:35,920
tell him to go for it,

257
00:18:36,080 --> 00:18:38,520
and when the prisoner moved away
to take that cap,

258
00:18:38,680 --> 00:18:41,560
shoot him under the pretext
that he was trying to escape.

259
00:18:43,160 --> 00:18:47,480
- I remember
the guards hitting people.

260
00:18:50,400 --> 00:18:53,520
- Some prisoners were taken out
of the group...

261
00:18:54,600 --> 00:18:57,440
..and lined up against a ditch...

262
00:18:58,720 --> 00:18:59,840
..and shot.

263
00:19:01,440 --> 00:19:04,480
- (via translator) The main camp
of Auschwitz was like a small town

264
00:19:04,640 --> 00:19:06,400
with its gossiping and chatting.

265
00:19:07,480 --> 00:19:09,720
There was a canteen,
there was a cinema,

266
00:19:09,880 --> 00:19:12,640
there was a theatre
with regular performances.

267
00:19:16,400 --> 00:19:19,080
There was a sports club
of which I was a member.

268
00:19:20,800 --> 00:19:24,000
It was all fun and entertainment,
just like a small town.

269
00:19:25,480 --> 00:19:27,840
Alcohol played a big role at meals.

270
00:19:31,360 --> 00:19:33,760
Throughout Auschwitz,
there was no discipline.

271
00:19:35,720 --> 00:19:37,920
We went to bed completely wasted.

272
00:19:38,760 --> 00:19:43,080
It was like a partisan camp, there
were no guards posted in Birkenau.

273
00:19:47,240 --> 00:19:48,680
Going to bed with a pistol,

274
00:19:48,840 --> 00:19:51,120
if someone was too lazy
to turn off the light...

275
00:19:52,880 --> 00:19:54,160
..we just shot it out.

276
00:19:56,640 --> 00:19:59,600
Nobody said anything
about the bullet holes in the walls.

277
00:20:00,400 --> 00:20:01,520
(glass shatters)

278
00:20:02,480 --> 00:20:03,680
- When you look at Auschwitz,

279
00:20:03,840 --> 00:20:06,360
when you look all
those concentration camps,

280
00:20:06,520 --> 00:20:10,760
it's no exaggeration to say
they were real hells on Earth.

281
00:20:10,920 --> 00:20:13,760
- (via translator)
You are left with anxiety and fear.

282
00:20:13,920 --> 00:20:15,800
And from then on,
it just stays with you,

283
00:20:15,960 --> 00:20:19,200
but it is necessary to experience it
yourself to believe it.

284
00:20:21,600 --> 00:20:23,360
(low, sombre music)

285
00:20:24,600 --> 00:20:25,960
NARRATOR: There is one word

286
00:20:26,120 --> 00:20:29,080
that appears
in numerous survivors' testimonies.

287
00:20:29,240 --> 00:20:30,440
Apathy.

288
00:20:33,160 --> 00:20:36,680
- (via translator) On the second day
when you enter Auschwitz,

289
00:20:36,840 --> 00:20:38,960
you begin to suffer from apathy.

290
00:20:42,440 --> 00:20:46,360
And you don't give a damn about
everything that happens around you.

291
00:20:50,720 --> 00:20:53,160
Especially what happens
to those close to you.

292
00:20:59,920 --> 00:21:02,840
- (via translator) That hope was
seen as something necessary

293
00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:05,400
to still have the will
to fight death at all.

294
00:21:09,360 --> 00:21:11,440
So as not to fall completely
into apathy.

295
00:21:12,240 --> 00:21:15,240
NARRATOR: One of the most haunting
images we have of the prisoners

296
00:21:15,400 --> 00:21:19,600
in all Nazi concentration camps is
that of the so-called 'Muselmanner.'

297
00:21:19,760 --> 00:21:22,960
These are men,
reduced to living shells,

298
00:21:23,120 --> 00:21:26,440
completely apathetic
and unresponsive to the world

299
00:21:26,600 --> 00:21:27,640
around them.

300
00:21:27,800 --> 00:21:30,960
Many of them no longer
even remember their own names.

301
00:21:32,280 --> 00:21:35,440
But it was hunger that represented
the most horrific condition

302
00:21:35,600 --> 00:21:36,720
at Auschwitz.

303
00:21:40,960 --> 00:21:44,560
Italian survivor Primo Levi
described it with these words:

304
00:21:45,640 --> 00:21:49,960
"The Lager is hunger;
we ourselves are hunger,

305
00:21:50,120 --> 00:21:51,600
living hunger."

306
00:21:53,640 --> 00:21:55,680
- (via translator) She was so weak,
so sick.

307
00:21:55,840 --> 00:21:58,800
Mom weighed 28 kilos in all,
when she came out of the camp,

308
00:21:58,960 --> 00:22:00,240
it was inhumane.

309
00:22:01,640 --> 00:22:04,040
NARRATOR: August 1st, 1944.

310
00:22:07,040 --> 00:22:10,080
180 days remain
until the Liberation.

311
00:22:11,520 --> 00:22:14,360
Warsaw rose up against
the German occupation,

312
00:22:14,520 --> 00:22:18,520
while the vanguard of the Soviet
army stopped just a few kilometres

313
00:22:18,680 --> 00:22:19,800
from the city.

314
00:22:19,960 --> 00:22:22,280
- I was walking in a Warsaw street.

315
00:22:22,440 --> 00:22:25,160
I can see a friend of mine.

316
00:22:25,320 --> 00:22:28,920
He says: "Bolek, would you
join the underground army?

317
00:22:29,080 --> 00:22:31,120
(tense, dramatic music)

318
00:22:32,720 --> 00:22:35,720
63 days we were fighting.

319
00:22:35,880 --> 00:22:39,320
NARRATOR: The uprising is
a cornerstone of Polish history,

320
00:22:39,480 --> 00:22:43,560
symbolising the fight for freedom
as insurgents bravely resisted

321
00:22:43,720 --> 00:22:46,680
Nazi oppression for 63 days.

322
00:22:46,840 --> 00:22:51,360
Ultimately, German forces prevailed,
reducing Warsaw to rubble.

323
00:22:52,600 --> 00:22:57,840
15,000 insurgents
and 200,000 civilians perished,

324
00:22:58,000 --> 00:23:03,200
while 13,000 inhabitants of the city
were deported to Auschwitz.

325
00:23:03,360 --> 00:23:06,280
The Polish population never
surrendered to the Germans;

326
00:23:06,440 --> 00:23:10,800
even in Auschwitz, an underground
resistance network remained active.

327
00:23:12,960 --> 00:23:14,600
- (via translator) In the beginning,

328
00:23:14,760 --> 00:23:17,080
it was obviously
a Polish resistance movement.

329
00:23:18,080 --> 00:23:20,320
Because the majority were
Polish prisoners, often,

330
00:23:20,480 --> 00:23:22,600
moreover,
with some military experience.

331
00:23:22,760 --> 00:23:25,400
- When you look at the last period
of the camp's existence,

332
00:23:25,560 --> 00:23:27,960
there's this far greater cooperation

333
00:23:28,120 --> 00:23:30,440
between the different
resistance cells.

334
00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:36,280
NARRATOR: Their task was mainly
to provide medicine and food

335
00:23:36,440 --> 00:23:39,920
and to exchange information
with the outside word.

336
00:23:41,800 --> 00:23:44,480
- (via translator) My brother,
who was an electrician...

337
00:23:45,840 --> 00:23:47,840
..worked in a company to Germans

338
00:23:48,000 --> 00:23:51,000
and it was they who took
the medicine for these prisoners.

339
00:23:52,960 --> 00:23:56,600
And this medicine was again smuggled
in by the Silesian priests.

340
00:24:01,000 --> 00:24:05,160
- (via translator) And there it was
just passed around amidst food.

341
00:24:07,720 --> 00:24:10,680
My mother, mom's sister,
my grandmother,

342
00:24:10,840 --> 00:24:13,600
everyone took part in helping
the prisoners of the camp.

343
00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:22,240
There were SS guards who turned
a blind eye,

344
00:24:22,400 --> 00:24:25,120
when there was someone who
delivered something under the fence,

345
00:24:25,280 --> 00:24:26,880
food in particular.

346
00:24:29,680 --> 00:24:32,200
NARRATOR: There was only so much
the Polish resistance

347
00:24:32,360 --> 00:24:36,000
and the population of Oswiecim
could do to help,

348
00:24:36,160 --> 00:24:39,680
but it was certainly instrumental
in saving thousands of lives.

349
00:24:41,520 --> 00:24:43,000
But above all,

350
00:24:43,160 --> 00:24:46,600
the prisoners knew they were not
alone in facing this hell.

351
00:24:52,160 --> 00:24:56,960
NARRATOR:
On the evening of August 2nd 1944,

352
00:24:57,120 --> 00:25:01,680
179 days still separated
the prisoners from liberation.

353
00:25:01,840 --> 00:25:05,240
That night, the Nazis moved
to liquidate the Roma camp.

354
00:25:05,400 --> 00:25:07,000
(tense sombre music)

355
00:25:13,000 --> 00:25:16,640
NARRATOR: The Romani people,
also known as Roma or Sinti,

356
00:25:16,800 --> 00:25:21,240
are a historically nomadic group
who arrived in Europe centuries ago.

357
00:25:22,160 --> 00:25:24,840
Long marginalised and misunderstood,

358
00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:28,280
they endured generations
of prejudice and persecution.

359
00:25:28,440 --> 00:25:31,840
Under Nazi rule,
this hatred turned deadly,

360
00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:34,680
as the Roma were marked
for extermination

361
00:25:34,840 --> 00:25:37,280
alongside other targeted groups.

362
00:25:38,400 --> 00:25:40,520
This night is tragically remembered

363
00:25:40,680 --> 00:25:43,120
as the "Night of the Extermination
of the Roma."

364
00:25:46,040 --> 00:25:48,760
Almost all prisoners
in the "Zigeunerlager,"

365
00:25:48,920 --> 00:25:53,400
the section designated for the Roma,
were taken to the gas chambers.

366
00:25:56,920 --> 00:26:01,000
- The Gipsy camp was very close
to our barrack,

367
00:26:01,160 --> 00:26:05,480
and we could hear it.
And the night was unbelievable.

368
00:26:06,680 --> 00:26:08,960
(low, tense music)

369
00:26:13,880 --> 00:26:16,600
- (via translator) The Germans had
driven in with trucks.

370
00:26:16,760 --> 00:26:18,520
They threw the children in them.

371
00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:20,400
And if one of them jumped out,

372
00:26:20,560 --> 00:26:23,160
they would hit him on the leg
or the arm with a wooden club,

373
00:26:23,320 --> 00:26:27,360
break it and throw him back in
so that he couldn't jump out again.

374
00:26:27,520 --> 00:26:30,640
he couldn't get out because
his limb was just hanging there.

375
00:26:32,160 --> 00:26:35,240
- They took the Gypsies.

376
00:26:35,400 --> 00:26:39,320
And the gypsies were crying. They
knew where they are taking them.

377
00:26:42,200 --> 00:26:45,600
Full of screaming and crying.

378
00:26:45,760 --> 00:26:47,640
- (via translator)
Everybody defended themselves.

379
00:26:47,800 --> 00:26:49,520
They bit, they scratched...

380
00:26:49,680 --> 00:26:51,480
Defended themselves to the last.

381
00:26:52,880 --> 00:26:55,000
NARRATOR:
On that fateful night alone...

382
00:26:58,520 --> 00:27:02,080
..approximately 4,200
lost their lives.

383
00:27:02,880 --> 00:27:07,400
In total, around 23,000 Romani
prisoners were held at Auschwitz,

384
00:27:07,560 --> 00:27:11,480
with 21,000 perishing
as a result of Nazi madness.

385
00:27:12,760 --> 00:27:15,840
On August 19th, 1944...

386
00:27:19,880 --> 00:27:23,360
..162 days still separated
the prisoners

387
00:27:23,520 --> 00:27:25,320
from the day of Liberation.

388
00:27:27,280 --> 00:27:31,080
An Allied reconnaissance mission
flew over occupied southern Poland.

389
00:27:31,240 --> 00:27:34,800
The targets were the huge
German industrial complexes

390
00:27:34,960 --> 00:27:37,560
in the vicinity of Oswiecim,

391
00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:41,280
the town which the Germans
had renamed Auschwitz.

392
00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:45,640
- The whole region,
the whole complex of Auschwitz,

393
00:27:45,800 --> 00:27:49,000
attracts many factories
and many industries

394
00:27:49,160 --> 00:27:51,320
and the bosses there thought
these places were great

395
00:27:51,480 --> 00:27:55,040
because they've got
these railway lines leading to them.

396
00:27:55,200 --> 00:27:59,120
NARRATOR: IG Farben,
a large factory complex at Monowitz,

397
00:27:59,280 --> 00:28:02,440
where forced labour from Auschwitz
prisoners was exploited

398
00:28:02,600 --> 00:28:04,560
under brutal conditions.

399
00:28:04,720 --> 00:28:07,320
Krupp Steel Company
used forced labour.

400
00:28:08,440 --> 00:28:12,120
Siemens utilised concentration camp
prisoners for the production

401
00:28:12,280 --> 00:28:14,160
of electrical equipment.

402
00:28:14,320 --> 00:28:16,880
Deutsche Ausrustungswerke.

403
00:28:17,040 --> 00:28:20,880
This SS-run company produced
furniture and other goods.

404
00:28:21,040 --> 00:28:22,400
Topf & Sohne.

405
00:28:22,560 --> 00:28:26,080
Responsible for supplying
the crematoria and gas chamber

406
00:28:26,240 --> 00:28:27,720
ventilation systems.

407
00:28:29,880 --> 00:28:33,320
- There's lots of coal and other
important raw materials around.

408
00:28:33,480 --> 00:28:38,760
And better still, you've got
this big supply of labour.

409
00:28:38,920 --> 00:28:42,560
And that labour, of course,
comes in the form of prisoners.

410
00:28:42,720 --> 00:28:44,760
(low, tense music)

411
00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:49,920
These people, make no mistake,
are slaves,

412
00:28:50,080 --> 00:28:53,280
and they're slaves being
worked to death.

413
00:28:53,440 --> 00:28:55,120
NARRATOR:
For just a few marks a day,

414
00:28:55,280 --> 00:28:58,040
these factories could exploit
Auschwitz prisoners,

415
00:28:58,200 --> 00:29:00,400
forcing them to work
in their facilities.

416
00:29:00,560 --> 00:29:03,880
The Nazi mindset was brutal
and without conscience.

417
00:29:04,040 --> 00:29:06,680
Prisoners were not seen
as human beings.

418
00:29:08,520 --> 00:29:11,440
- (via translator) Why should we use
horses to pull ploughs

419
00:29:11,600 --> 00:29:13,640
when we have enough women
in the camp

420
00:29:13,800 --> 00:29:15,360
who can pull the ploughs instead.

421
00:29:15,520 --> 00:29:17,840
Besides,
we have children in the camp.

422
00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:20,960
We will use these children
and we will use their strength.

423
00:29:22,480 --> 00:29:24,760
- (via translator)
So it's like a slave market.

424
00:29:25,800 --> 00:29:28,720
As a consequence, we went to work
and ended up for some time

425
00:29:28,880 --> 00:29:34,200
at the carriage factory
in Czechowice-Dziedzice,

426
00:29:34,360 --> 00:29:35,920
to sort out the oil refinery.

427
00:29:37,120 --> 00:29:40,320
It was owned by
the Vacuum Oil Company,

428
00:29:40,480 --> 00:29:43,720
but the workers were
in the records of Auschwitz.

429
00:29:43,880 --> 00:29:48,840
And so it is with the name,
enrolment and registration.

430
00:29:55,880 --> 00:29:58,280
- (via translator) They were
building the factory

431
00:29:58,440 --> 00:29:59,520
of IG Farben Industry.

432
00:29:59,680 --> 00:30:02,360
And they were coming back carrying
the corpses of their colleagues

433
00:30:02,520 --> 00:30:04,800
who didn't survive it
on their backs.

434
00:30:07,480 --> 00:30:10,160
- There's this huge pile
of steel rails.

435
00:30:10,320 --> 00:30:13,040
Your shoulders are just totally,
totally painful,

436
00:30:13,200 --> 00:30:14,400
they start bleeding,

437
00:30:14,560 --> 00:30:17,160
people are falling under
the weight of the steel rails.

438
00:30:17,320 --> 00:30:18,320
(low, sombre music)

439
00:30:21,240 --> 00:30:23,720
You start seeing prisoners die

440
00:30:23,880 --> 00:30:26,480
and this is terrible because
I'm looking at the dead body

441
00:30:26,640 --> 00:30:29,320
and I'm thinking
this is somebody's father,

442
00:30:29,480 --> 00:30:31,360
somebody's son,
somebody's husband.

443
00:30:32,520 --> 00:30:34,480
NARRATOR: On that clear August day,

444
00:30:34,640 --> 00:30:38,720
the reconnaissance plane flew
over the area around Oswiecim,

445
00:30:38,880 --> 00:30:41,120
intent on carrying out its mission:

446
00:30:41,280 --> 00:30:44,520
capturing sharp images
of the industrial zone below.

447
00:30:47,880 --> 00:30:50,520
(low, sombre music)

448
00:30:52,640 --> 00:30:55,680
- But when that plane gets back,
what's revealed is something

449
00:30:55,840 --> 00:30:57,600
very new and very different...

450
00:30:59,560 --> 00:31:01,320
..because there's
this other complex,

451
00:31:01,480 --> 00:31:03,400
and it's about
seven kilometres away.

452
00:31:03,560 --> 00:31:05,360
And what those photos reveal

453
00:31:05,520 --> 00:31:10,440
is the presence of the most sinister
Nazi death camp of them all.

454
00:31:12,840 --> 00:31:16,160
NARRATOR: Barracks,
barbed wire fences,

455
00:31:16,320 --> 00:31:18,200
buildings with huge chimneys.

456
00:31:27,160 --> 00:31:30,200
- (via translator) Then there was
the bombing of those chemical plants

457
00:31:30,360 --> 00:31:32,840
in Blachownia, in Oswiecim.

458
00:31:34,080 --> 00:31:36,680
(tense, dramatic music)

459
00:31:48,240 --> 00:31:54,160
The planes that flew were preceded
by reconnaissance planes,

460
00:31:54,320 --> 00:31:58,160
which were throwing
these so-called "zlotkys".

461
00:32:01,200 --> 00:32:06,120
This was aluminium which simply
interfered with radar pulses.

462
00:32:06,280 --> 00:32:11,520
There were a lot of these zlotkys,
these were the only toys we had.

463
00:32:19,960 --> 00:32:22,520
- There are many people today
who are wondering

464
00:32:22,680 --> 00:32:24,400
why was Auschwitz never bombed?

465
00:32:24,560 --> 00:32:26,520
Why couldn't you bomb
the railway line?

466
00:32:26,680 --> 00:32:29,800
NARRATOR: These questions echo
in the history of Auschwitz.

467
00:32:29,960 --> 00:32:31,480
For already at that time,

468
00:32:31,640 --> 00:32:34,560
there were reports on the crimes
being committed at Auschwitz;

469
00:32:34,720 --> 00:32:38,320
written and published by prisoners
who had escaped from Auschwitz.

470
00:32:39,480 --> 00:32:41,800
- (via translator)
How effective would that have been?

471
00:32:43,960 --> 00:32:48,600
We know that the war industry,
the service-related industry

472
00:32:48,760 --> 00:32:52,520
and the entire industrial
or logistical front line

473
00:32:52,680 --> 00:32:55,600
was a pretty well-functioning
German machine.

474
00:33:01,920 --> 00:33:03,720
So here I have some doubts

475
00:33:03,880 --> 00:33:06,440
as to how effective
these raids would have been.

476
00:33:07,280 --> 00:33:10,000
NARRATOR: There may have been
other strategic priorities,

477
00:33:10,160 --> 00:33:11,480
political pressures,

478
00:33:11,640 --> 00:33:14,520
or even a lack of coordination
with the Soviets.

479
00:33:15,440 --> 00:33:17,600
Perhaps the intelligence
was incomplete.

480
00:33:18,600 --> 00:33:21,400
But one thing remains undeniable,

481
00:33:21,560 --> 00:33:25,000
no one at the time could have
fully grasped the scale

482
00:33:25,160 --> 00:33:28,680
of the unimaginable tragedy
unfolding at Auschwitz.

483
00:33:32,400 --> 00:33:36,840
- Nothing in Auschwitz ever
reminded me

484
00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:38,680
of human existence...

485
00:33:40,440 --> 00:33:45,200
..but that pilot flying over there,

486
00:33:45,360 --> 00:33:47,760
was the one hope I had to hang onto.

487
00:33:48,840 --> 00:33:51,600
NARRATOR: These photos,
archived and forgotten,

488
00:33:51,760 --> 00:33:54,800
would later resurface as evidence
of what the world failed

489
00:33:54,960 --> 00:33:56,560
to recognise at the time.

490
00:33:56,720 --> 00:34:00,440
They captured Auschwitz at
the height of its deadly efficiency:

491
00:34:00,600 --> 00:34:04,200
visible from the air,
but tragically misunderstood.

492
00:34:19,800 --> 00:34:23,080
NARRATOR: On October 7th, 1944.

493
00:34:24,080 --> 00:34:28,120
113 days remained
until the camp's liberation.

494
00:34:29,520 --> 00:34:32,640
At Auschwitz, the Sonderkommando
prisoners rose up

495
00:34:32,800 --> 00:34:36,360
in a desperate act of rebellion
against SS men.

496
00:34:36,520 --> 00:34:39,160
(tense, dramatic music)

497
00:34:43,640 --> 00:34:46,320
They were the prisoners forced
to work in the gas chambers

498
00:34:46,480 --> 00:34:50,480
and crematoria, eyewitnesses
to the Nazi extermination,

499
00:34:50,640 --> 00:34:55,560
who feared they would be murdered to
hide the evidence of the atrocities.

500
00:35:02,040 --> 00:35:04,320
(low, sombre music)

501
00:35:07,960 --> 00:35:12,640
- (via translator) One girl came,
I don't know where from,

502
00:35:12,800 --> 00:35:15,360
and she started talking German
to me:

503
00:35:16,920 --> 00:35:20,880
"I know I'm being taken,
here is the end of my life".

504
00:35:23,480 --> 00:35:28,000
I said : "That's not true, you take
a shower and get out to work.

505
00:35:28,160 --> 00:35:32,000
I didn't tell her the truth.
What could I say?

506
00:35:32,160 --> 00:35:33,840
You are going to die?

507
00:35:38,800 --> 00:35:43,840
- The Nazis think is that they've
just completely subjugated

508
00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:45,280
the prisoner's will

509
00:35:45,440 --> 00:35:49,200
and they really don't think
that all these deportees,

510
00:35:49,360 --> 00:35:51,960
all these prisoners,
have the strength,

511
00:35:52,120 --> 00:35:55,760
both physically and morally,
to organise a revolt.

512
00:35:56,560 --> 00:35:58,800
NARRATOR: But the Sonderkommandos
still have the strength

513
00:35:58,960 --> 00:36:00,440
to rebel against their fate.

514
00:36:01,480 --> 00:36:03,520
- (via translator) There was already
some discussion

515
00:36:03,680 --> 00:36:05,040
within the Sonderkommando.

516
00:36:05,200 --> 00:36:06,840
How to carry out such an action?

517
00:36:12,240 --> 00:36:14,440
- (via translator)
They were mainly young men,

518
00:36:14,600 --> 00:36:17,600
almost all Jews
from different transports,

519
00:36:17,760 --> 00:36:20,960
primarily strong, young men.

520
00:36:22,040 --> 00:36:24,760
- (via translator) And those members
who came from Poland

521
00:36:24,920 --> 00:36:26,440
made it a goal to escape.

522
00:36:27,480 --> 00:36:31,360
Whereas those who came from Hungary
or Yugoslavia, for example,

523
00:36:31,520 --> 00:36:33,480
for them,
the purpose of the uprising

524
00:36:33,640 --> 00:36:35,800
was to destroy
the extermination machine.

525
00:36:37,440 --> 00:36:39,320
NARRATOR:
Four women were fundamental

526
00:36:39,480 --> 00:36:41,360
in the Sonderkommando uprising,

527
00:36:41,520 --> 00:36:44,840
their names are:
Roza Robota, Ala Gertner,

528
00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:48,600
Estera Wajcblum
and Regina Safirsztajn.

529
00:36:55,080 --> 00:36:57,320
- It took them maybe 12 months.

530
00:36:57,480 --> 00:37:00,480
Little by little,
they smuggled the dynamite powder,

531
00:37:00,640 --> 00:37:01,720
to the men.

532
00:37:01,880 --> 00:37:04,720
Powder by powder.
It took them a long time.

533
00:37:06,080 --> 00:37:08,720
NARRATOR: On 7th of October,
the uprising began.

534
00:37:09,480 --> 00:37:12,360
The Sonderkommandos,
armed only with poor tools,

535
00:37:12,520 --> 00:37:13,880
attacked the guards.

536
00:37:18,600 --> 00:37:20,760
- (via translator) One called Isack,

537
00:37:20,920 --> 00:37:23,560
he was hitting the German with
the hammer on the back of his head

538
00:37:23,720 --> 00:37:25,600
and the Germans started shooting.

539
00:37:28,360 --> 00:37:31,400
NARRATOR: Using stolen gunpowder,

540
00:37:31,560 --> 00:37:35,520
the Sonderkommandos set fire
to Crematorium 4,

541
00:37:35,680 --> 00:37:38,800
destroying one of
the death machines forever.

542
00:37:57,400 --> 00:37:59,760
- At 3 in the morning one day,

543
00:37:59,920 --> 00:38:02,640
we see flames coming from
the Crematorium...

544
00:38:04,280 --> 00:38:07,200
..and we didn't know what it was.

545
00:38:07,360 --> 00:38:10,800
The only thing we knew is,
in that morning, you know,

546
00:38:10,960 --> 00:38:14,040
you try to get out

547
00:38:15,280 --> 00:38:19,040
and maybe get rid of the camp
and go.

548
00:38:20,360 --> 00:38:23,640
And they couldn't do it,
because the SS were there.

549
00:38:29,480 --> 00:38:31,840
- (via translator) The Germans came,

550
00:38:32,000 --> 00:38:33,920
and they caught us immediately.

551
00:38:37,120 --> 00:38:39,640
We didn't manage to do anything.

552
00:38:43,720 --> 00:38:46,760
- (via translator)
It could not have been otherwise,

553
00:38:46,920 --> 00:38:49,120
after all
the Sonderkommando prisoners

554
00:38:49,280 --> 00:38:52,280
had practically no weapons
except for their work tools.

555
00:38:53,280 --> 00:38:55,920
Several hundred Sonderkommando
prisoners were shot

556
00:38:56,080 --> 00:38:57,320
after the uprising.

557
00:38:59,880 --> 00:39:02,760
- (via translator) I saw the SS men
with my own eyes,

558
00:39:02,920 --> 00:39:05,120
they put a bullet in their heads.

559
00:39:09,880 --> 00:39:11,760
- And they killed 600 of them...

560
00:39:12,680 --> 00:39:16,640
..and the morning we had to put them
in the oven ourselves.

561
00:39:19,280 --> 00:39:22,920
- (via translator) Well, at least we
had a feeling that we did something,

562
00:39:23,080 --> 00:39:24,840
anyway we had nothing to lose.

563
00:39:26,560 --> 00:39:29,560
NARRATOR: The Sonderkommando
uprising ended in bloodshed,

564
00:39:29,720 --> 00:39:32,800
but hope still lingered
in the hearts of the prisoners,

565
00:39:32,960 --> 00:39:37,400
fuelled by the Red Army cannons
that were unleashing the offensive.

566
00:39:37,560 --> 00:39:40,880
(German broadcast)

567
00:39:41,040 --> 00:39:42,520
(tense, dramatic sting)

568
00:39:44,960 --> 00:39:48,200
On November 25th, 1944,

569
00:39:48,360 --> 00:39:51,480
63 days remained until liberation.

570
00:39:51,640 --> 00:39:54,600
The SS, under the direct orders
from Himmler,

571
00:39:54,760 --> 00:39:57,520
began the dismantling
of the gas chambers.

572
00:39:57,680 --> 00:40:00,160
In Poland, the Soviets had stalled,

573
00:40:00,320 --> 00:40:02,880
but were advancing on other parts
of the Eastern Front.

574
00:40:03,040 --> 00:40:05,680
The Nazis knew that time was
running out

575
00:40:05,840 --> 00:40:08,240
and they had to eliminate
the evidence of their crimes

576
00:40:08,400 --> 00:40:09,640
at Auschwitz.

577
00:40:10,240 --> 00:40:12,320
At the height of the deportations,

578
00:40:12,480 --> 00:40:16,280
around 10,000 Jews a day were
murdered in Auschwitz.

579
00:40:18,280 --> 00:40:20,520
Where did all this madness
originate?

580
00:40:21,360 --> 00:40:25,160
How did the Nazi extermination
methods evolve?

581
00:40:25,320 --> 00:40:27,000
To understand this,

582
00:40:27,160 --> 00:40:31,120
we must go back in time,
to the origin of evil.

583
00:40:31,280 --> 00:40:32,560
(dark music)

584
00:40:33,840 --> 00:40:36,280
- (via translator) The persecution
and murder of the Jews

585
00:40:36,440 --> 00:40:40,240
by National Socialist Germany
took place in several stages.

586
00:40:41,280 --> 00:40:46,240
A basic prerequisite was of course
rampant and radical anti-Semitism,

587
00:40:46,400 --> 00:40:49,800
whose roots go back at least
to the 19th century

588
00:40:49,960 --> 00:40:53,600
and which, of course, can be
found in Hitler's book Mein Kampf.

589
00:41:06,080 --> 00:41:08,400
- (via translator) We were convinced
by our worldview

590
00:41:08,560 --> 00:41:11,280
that we had been betrayed
by the entire world

591
00:41:11,440 --> 00:41:14,680
and that there was a great
conspiracy of the Jews against us.

592
00:41:17,880 --> 00:41:21,520
NARRATOR: A few years after
the publication of Mein Kampf...

593
00:41:22,800 --> 00:41:26,160
..Hitler was able to put
his murderous follies into practice.

594
00:41:27,080 --> 00:41:29,320
The climax of this hatred
occurred...

595
00:41:31,000 --> 00:41:34,720
..on the 30th of January 1939,

596
00:41:34,880 --> 00:41:37,880
when Hitler delivered a solemn
speech in front of the Reichstag,

597
00:41:38,040 --> 00:41:40,920
announcing the destruction
of the Jewish race.

598
00:42:07,480 --> 00:42:09,520
NARRATOR:
During the course of the war,

599
00:42:09,680 --> 00:42:13,720
the Nazis began to realise
the murderous plans of their Fuhrer.

600
00:42:27,440 --> 00:42:31,520
- (via translator) The first means
were the police task forces

601
00:42:31,680 --> 00:42:35,680
that carried the mass shootings
of the Polish and Jewish population.

602
00:42:42,080 --> 00:42:44,600
- (via translator) Try to imagine
there is a ditch

603
00:42:44,760 --> 00:42:49,160
with people on one side
and behind them, soldiers.

604
00:42:52,160 --> 00:42:55,880
I only thought, aim carefully
so that you hit properly.

605
00:43:04,560 --> 00:43:05,760
That was my thought.

606
00:43:06,880 --> 00:43:12,040
That was us, standing behind, the
soldiers, and we were shooting.

607
00:43:13,040 --> 00:43:15,480
And those who were hit
fell down into the ditch.

608
00:43:20,120 --> 00:43:23,560
My hatred towards
the Jews was too great.

609
00:43:26,200 --> 00:43:29,960
My thinking on this point is unjust.
I admit this.

610
00:43:34,280 --> 00:43:35,920
NARRATOR: For many SS troops,

611
00:43:36,080 --> 00:43:40,480
the psychological burden of
shooting hundreds, thousands of men,

612
00:43:40,640 --> 00:43:42,760
women and children was too great.

613
00:43:44,720 --> 00:43:47,720
- (via translator) I will not forget
it for the rest of my life.

614
00:43:47,880 --> 00:43:49,680
The faces are still in front of me.

615
00:43:54,560 --> 00:43:56,200
This is the big crime.

616
00:43:56,360 --> 00:44:00,400
And from then on, the SS was
no longer an elite unit for me.

617
00:44:02,120 --> 00:44:07,680
The next day I had to go
to the SS commissioner and I said:

618
00:44:07,840 --> 00:44:12,880
'Be careful, I joined the Waffen SS
because it was an elite force.

619
00:44:15,800 --> 00:44:18,760
I'm not a murderer
who kills women and children'.

620
00:44:22,040 --> 00:44:24,240
And he says: 'Take it easy.

621
00:44:24,400 --> 00:44:27,760
We know it too,
it is an unpleasant task,

622
00:44:27,920 --> 00:44:30,960
but it must be done.
The world has to be rid of the Jews.

623
00:44:32,000 --> 00:44:36,360
NARRATOR: During Barbarossa, 1941,
the Germans started to murder

624
00:44:36,520 --> 00:44:39,000
thousands of Jews in executions.

625
00:44:39,160 --> 00:44:43,160
So they wanted to find a more
effective, cheaper alternative.

626
00:44:43,320 --> 00:44:45,400
This is why they thought
of using gas.

627
00:44:51,800 --> 00:44:56,320
- It's much easier, psychologically,
to gas them.

628
00:44:56,480 --> 00:44:59,080
And one of the ways in which
that done initially

629
00:44:59,240 --> 00:45:04,120
was actually to make big vans
or small lorries

630
00:45:04,280 --> 00:45:08,040
into these very basic, rudimentary
gas chambers.

631
00:45:08,200 --> 00:45:11,000
NARRATOR: These were vehicles
equipped with a hermetically sealed

632
00:45:11,160 --> 00:45:14,760
compartment, where exhaust gases
were channelled inside

633
00:45:14,920 --> 00:45:16,680
when the vehicle was in motion.

634
00:45:18,400 --> 00:45:21,760
But where to throw
the innocent bodies of the executed?

635
00:45:34,720 --> 00:45:38,640
NARRATOR: The next step in German
engineering was the gas chambers.

636
00:45:38,800 --> 00:45:42,040
Topf & Sohne was one of
the main companies involved

637
00:45:42,200 --> 00:45:45,000
in the construction of crematoria
throughout the Reich.

638
00:45:45,560 --> 00:45:47,440
To optimise efficiency,

639
00:45:47,600 --> 00:45:50,920
gas chambers and crematoria
were often interconnected.

640
00:45:55,000 --> 00:45:57,240
- (via translator)
I don't remember smelling anything,

641
00:45:57,400 --> 00:45:59,720
because I was already
living in that smoke.

642
00:46:13,880 --> 00:46:17,280
- (via translator) So many people
died in the war, not only Jews.

643
00:46:17,440 --> 00:46:20,800
So many things happened.
So many were shot. So many burned.

644
00:46:20,960 --> 00:46:24,400
If I thought about that, I wouldn't
have wanted to live a minute longer.

645
00:46:26,200 --> 00:46:29,280
- (via translator) I still have
nightmares about it to this day.

646
00:46:29,440 --> 00:46:32,360
I see those women, the men
and everything,

647
00:46:32,520 --> 00:46:35,160
and how they ran around there
until they died.

648
00:46:35,320 --> 00:46:36,320
(low, sombre music)

649
00:46:37,400 --> 00:46:41,480
- (via translator) So contradictory
that the ideals that people had...

650
00:46:43,800 --> 00:46:47,360
..that they imagined for Germany,
for its future...

651
00:46:50,600 --> 00:46:52,800
..were completely turned
into the opposite.

652
00:46:56,600 --> 00:46:59,360
Unfortunately,
I still suffer from it today.

653
00:46:59,520 --> 00:47:00,720
I can't forget it.

654
00:47:01,600 --> 00:47:04,280
I think about it every day.
Every day.

655
00:47:09,600 --> 00:47:11,880
NARRATOR: In December, 1944...

656
00:47:14,240 --> 00:47:17,240
..56 days remain until liberation,

657
00:47:17,400 --> 00:47:20,520
the tide had turned against
Nazi Germany.

658
00:47:20,680 --> 00:47:23,800
Facing an Allied victory
and the Soviet advance,

659
00:47:23,960 --> 00:47:27,880
the regime took desperate measures
to cover up Holocaust atrocities,

660
00:47:28,040 --> 00:47:29,560
especially in the camps.

661
00:47:32,000 --> 00:47:34,040
- (via translator)
They were perhaps aware

662
00:47:34,200 --> 00:47:36,000
that this would be used
against them.

663
00:47:39,080 --> 00:47:42,080
As very specific individuals
who were steeped

664
00:47:42,240 --> 00:47:44,040
in this greatest murder in history.

665
00:47:45,000 --> 00:47:48,240
- (via translator) They knew
that what they did in Auschwitz

666
00:47:48,400 --> 00:47:52,080
was wrong,
that they had to hide this crime.

667
00:47:54,480 --> 00:47:55,720
NARRATOR: Despite their efforts,

668
00:47:55,880 --> 00:47:58,480
the Nazis could not fully erase
the evidence.

669
00:47:58,640 --> 00:48:02,640
Soviet forces found overwhelming
proof of genocide in the camps,

670
00:48:02,800 --> 00:48:05,920
including remains,
personal belongings,

671
00:48:06,080 --> 00:48:07,920
and survivor testimonies.

672
00:48:10,080 --> 00:48:11,680
- (via translator)
That's what mom said,

673
00:48:11,840 --> 00:48:14,520
the Germans burned the barracks
and all the documents.

674
00:48:17,800 --> 00:48:20,640
- (via translator) Perhaps only
5, 7, 8%

675
00:48:20,800 --> 00:48:23,240
of what the camp chancellery
had created remained.

676
00:48:28,200 --> 00:48:30,200
- (via translator)
Only one page was found.

677
00:48:30,360 --> 00:48:33,440
Historians handed me
just a sheet of paper

678
00:48:33,600 --> 00:48:35,280
and there is a list of children.

679
00:48:35,960 --> 00:48:41,160
And there just before the last name,
is my camp number and my surname.

680
00:48:42,960 --> 00:48:45,200
(soft sombre music)

681
00:48:53,960 --> 00:48:56,600
NARRATOR: January 12th, 1945...

682
00:48:59,040 --> 00:49:01,320
..just 15 days until liberation.

683
00:49:02,280 --> 00:49:04,720
The Red Army launched its
unstoppable offensive

684
00:49:04,880 --> 00:49:06,400
on the Vistula River,

685
00:49:06,560 --> 00:49:09,920
a crucial strategic manoeuvre
designed to drive the Nazis

686
00:49:10,080 --> 00:49:13,360
out of Western Poland
and advance into Germany.

687
00:49:15,200 --> 00:49:19,960
The Soviets had an overwhelming
force, three times that of Germany.

688
00:49:22,720 --> 00:49:26,200
- You have the Soviets carrying out
this major offensive

689
00:49:26,360 --> 00:49:29,360
and that's gonna take them
as far as the river Vistula.

690
00:49:30,880 --> 00:49:33,440
(distant explosion)
(low, tense music)

691
00:49:33,600 --> 00:49:36,640
Actually right into the heart
of the whole area,

692
00:49:36,800 --> 00:49:38,320
the whole region of Auschwitz.

693
00:49:39,800 --> 00:49:41,640
- (via translator)
The Vistula-Oder Offensive

694
00:49:41,800 --> 00:49:43,680
was supposed to take place there.

695
00:49:46,280 --> 00:49:49,840
We found out that on the way there
were concentration camps.

696
00:49:54,880 --> 00:49:57,920
- (via translator) They were firing
cannons across the sky at Auschwitz.

697
00:49:58,960 --> 00:50:02,120
Through the upper windows you could
always see the stretch

698
00:50:02,280 --> 00:50:03,920
of the Katyusha at night.

699
00:50:06,440 --> 00:50:09,520
NARRATOR: Thousands of Soviet tanks
pierced the German defences,

700
00:50:09,680 --> 00:50:12,120
advancing tens of kilometres a day.

701
00:50:13,960 --> 00:50:16,800
All that remained for the Nazis
was to escape.

702
00:50:19,600 --> 00:50:22,360
January 17th, 1945.

703
00:50:25,200 --> 00:50:27,840
Only 10 days before the liberation.

704
00:50:30,040 --> 00:50:33,040
Auschwitz entered one of
its most harrowing chapters:

705
00:50:34,640 --> 00:50:36,360
the camp's evacuation.

706
00:50:37,760 --> 00:50:39,960
With Soviet forces advancing,

707
00:50:40,120 --> 00:50:44,200
the Nazis sought to erase
evidence of their genocide,

708
00:50:44,360 --> 00:50:48,360
but tens of thousands of prisoners
remained,

709
00:50:48,520 --> 00:50:50,960
the most damning proof
of these crimes.

710
00:50:54,520 --> 00:50:56,680
- (via translator)
The Liberation is now approaching,

711
00:50:56,840 --> 00:50:58,160
but we don't hope for it.

712
00:50:58,320 --> 00:51:00,400
I didn't expect to see
this liberation.

713
00:51:21,200 --> 00:51:23,800
- (via translator) Firstly, they did
not want to leave

714
00:51:23,960 --> 00:51:26,320
the approaching Soviets
with witnesses

715
00:51:26,480 --> 00:51:28,880
who could testify
against the camp personnel.

716
00:51:32,760 --> 00:51:37,480
There was also the calculation
of using the prisoners as hostages

717
00:51:37,640 --> 00:51:40,240
if the Americans
or Soviets were confronted.

718
00:51:42,720 --> 00:51:46,960
NARRATOR: At that time, over 55,000
prisoners remained in Auschwitz.

719
00:51:47,760 --> 00:51:51,360
The Nazis conducted one final,
brutal selection.

720
00:51:52,360 --> 00:51:55,480
On one side,
those too weak to walk

721
00:51:55,640 --> 00:51:59,080
marked for death,
to eliminate any witnesses.

722
00:51:59,240 --> 00:52:00,440
On the other,

723
00:52:00,600 --> 00:52:03,800
prisoners still able to walk
who were forced to take part in

724
00:52:03,960 --> 00:52:06,560
what became known as
the Death Marches.

725
00:52:09,040 --> 00:52:11,760
(tense, dramatic music)

726
00:52:18,440 --> 00:52:20,600
- (via translator)
Then, all of a sudden,

727
00:52:20,760 --> 00:52:22,720
one day there was an assembly.

728
00:52:22,880 --> 00:52:24,520
A sudden roll call.

729
00:52:24,680 --> 00:52:28,040
- And then all of a sudden,
at one point,

730
00:52:28,200 --> 00:52:30,320
we were asked to...

731
00:52:32,480 --> 00:52:33,760
..to line up.

732
00:52:33,920 --> 00:52:37,160
- We didn't know
what's going to happen?

733
00:52:37,320 --> 00:52:42,120
Are we going to be freed?
Are we going to be shot?

734
00:52:42,800 --> 00:52:46,120
- I remember the feeling
because it was probably

735
00:52:46,280 --> 00:52:49,560
the first time I really felt fear,

736
00:52:49,720 --> 00:52:51,200
an instinct to fear,

737
00:52:51,360 --> 00:52:54,640
like an animal knows
when it's going to die.

738
00:52:54,800 --> 00:52:59,040
There's something about
this action that terrified me.

739
00:52:59,920 --> 00:53:02,120
(low, sombre music)

740
00:53:06,840 --> 00:53:10,840
- (via translator) Then they decide
to put me on the death march.

741
00:53:11,640 --> 00:53:17,320
They line us up in rows of five
and make us move forward.

742
00:53:18,520 --> 00:53:20,280
I'm staggering now,

743
00:53:20,440 --> 00:53:22,680
barely able to keep myself upright.

744
00:53:23,720 --> 00:53:27,560
My mind isn't working,
and if it does,

745
00:53:27,720 --> 00:53:30,000
I go on only for a few metres,

746
00:53:30,160 --> 00:53:36,120
a few kilometres, freezing to death,
frigid, 25 below zero.

747
00:53:37,240 --> 00:53:39,880
How can you go on at only 23 kilos?

748
00:53:43,840 --> 00:53:46,200
I manage two and a half kilometres.

749
00:53:47,520 --> 00:53:50,680
I fall to the ground
and wait for the final blow.

750
00:53:52,520 --> 00:53:56,720
Yes, because at the back there are
these killers with precise orders

751
00:53:56,880 --> 00:53:59,000
to deliver the last shot,

752
00:53:59,160 --> 00:54:02,120
so you don't survive to testify
to the Russians about everything

753
00:54:02,280 --> 00:54:05,600
they had created
at the death factory in Birkenau.

754
00:54:09,440 --> 00:54:13,840
I had fallen.
I was waiting for my final blow.

755
00:54:16,120 --> 00:54:19,520
- Every time somebody fell down,
another one was shot.

756
00:54:22,040 --> 00:54:25,360
- (via translator)
Anyone who stopped for a moment,

757
00:54:25,520 --> 00:54:26,920
they shot him in the head.

758
00:54:29,720 --> 00:54:31,920
(low, sombre music)

759
00:54:37,160 --> 00:54:40,200
- It was a very cold night,
and we had to keep marching.

760
00:54:40,360 --> 00:54:44,160
Anybody that stopped or fell out
of line was shot, and that was it.

761
00:54:44,960 --> 00:54:46,400
We just kept going.

762
00:54:46,560 --> 00:54:49,000
- And then there were motorcycles
came around

763
00:54:49,160 --> 00:54:51,520
who picked up the dead ones.

764
00:54:51,680 --> 00:54:53,120
NARRATOR: Death Marches,

765
00:54:53,280 --> 00:54:56,040
there is no other term
to describe this atrocity.

766
00:54:57,000 --> 00:55:00,720
The prisoners were forced to march
to Gliwice and Wodzislaw

767
00:55:00,880 --> 00:55:03,800
from where trains departed and some
of the prisoners were taken

768
00:55:03,960 --> 00:55:07,080
to concentration camps such as
Gross-Rosen,

769
00:55:07,240 --> 00:55:11,280
Buchenwald, Theresienstadt,
Sachsenhausen.

770
00:55:14,520 --> 00:55:19,560
Packed into overcrowded wagons
with no food, water or sanitation,

771
00:55:19,720 --> 00:55:22,440
many died from starvation
or suffocation.

772
00:55:23,680 --> 00:55:26,680
Damage to rail lines often forced
prisoners off trains

773
00:55:26,840 --> 00:55:28,560
to continue on foot,

774
00:55:28,720 --> 00:55:30,960
with those who died
left along the way.

775
00:55:34,440 --> 00:55:37,360
The Nazis were brutal and merciless.

776
00:55:37,520 --> 00:55:40,320
Any trace of humanity
had long vanished,

777
00:55:40,480 --> 00:55:43,480
and during the march,
there was no pity for the prisoners.

778
00:55:47,400 --> 00:55:51,400
- (via translator) I just remember
how those corpses were laying there.

779
00:55:51,560 --> 00:55:53,400
They did not have the strength
to go further,

780
00:55:53,560 --> 00:55:55,120
so they started falling over.

781
00:55:55,280 --> 00:56:00,720
So here, these areas are soaked
in the blood of these martyrs.

782
00:56:04,200 --> 00:56:06,520
- (via translator) Two prisoners...

783
00:56:09,840 --> 00:56:11,760
..did something unimaginable.

784
00:56:13,520 --> 00:56:15,160
I didn't expect any help.

785
00:56:16,480 --> 00:56:18,600
In those conditions,

786
00:56:18,760 --> 00:56:21,640
they barely have the strength
to help themselves.

787
00:56:23,640 --> 00:56:26,040
They spotted a corner with
a pile of bodies,

788
00:56:26,200 --> 00:56:28,560
left me there and moved on.

789
00:56:31,440 --> 00:56:33,080
Then I dragged myself along.

790
00:56:34,600 --> 00:56:38,240
There were steps leading into one of
those brick buildings at Auschwitz.

791
00:56:38,400 --> 00:56:40,840
I went inside that brick building
to find some shelter.

792
00:56:41,000 --> 00:56:43,120
Then, there, I lost consciousness.

793
00:56:45,760 --> 00:56:48,040
NARRATOR:
Such cruelty is unimaginable.

794
00:56:48,200 --> 00:56:52,000
Thousands upon thousands
of exhausted human beings

795
00:56:52,160 --> 00:56:55,680
dragged themselves
through the snow like automatons.

796
00:56:55,840 --> 00:57:00,160
The roads were littered with
the bodies of women, men,

797
00:57:00,320 --> 00:57:03,240
and children,
victims of Nazi brutality.

798
00:57:05,800 --> 00:57:08,240
- (via translator) But the prisoners
were so bowed down,

799
00:57:08,400 --> 00:57:11,440
they were bowing forward
with the remnants of their strength.

800
00:57:13,400 --> 00:57:16,760
- (via translator) My mother also
left then with that Death March.

801
00:57:16,920 --> 00:57:22,320
For 60 kilometres, they walked
in very difficult winter conditions.

802
00:57:23,600 --> 00:57:27,560
And things, such as cannibalism,
were happening there.

803
00:57:30,560 --> 00:57:32,640
And I ask her: "And you?"

804
00:57:34,120 --> 00:57:38,880
And she replied: "You see I'm alive.
Don't ask me about it".

805
00:57:39,760 --> 00:57:41,520
NARRATOR: We have no firm estimates,

806
00:57:41,680 --> 00:57:46,480
but for scholars,
between 9,000 and 15,000 people died

807
00:57:46,640 --> 00:57:48,120
during the Death Marches.

808
00:57:48,280 --> 00:57:52,400
A humanity lost because of a hatred
that cannot be understood.

809
00:57:56,640 --> 00:57:58,640
At the same time as the prisoners,

810
00:57:58,800 --> 00:58:01,400
many Nazis also began
evacuating Auschwitz

811
00:58:01,560 --> 00:58:03,720
to avoid capture by the Soviets.

812
00:58:03,880 --> 00:58:07,520
Richard Baer,
the last commandant of Auschwitz,

813
00:58:07,680 --> 00:58:09,640
along with numerous SS officers,

814
00:58:09,800 --> 00:58:12,760
fled the camp comfortably seated
in their cars.

815
00:58:13,720 --> 00:58:15,880
Among them was Josef Mengele,

816
00:58:16,040 --> 00:58:19,480
the man responsible for
horrific experiments on prisoners.

817
00:58:22,800 --> 00:58:25,680
Especially children and twins.

818
00:58:28,440 --> 00:58:32,040
Mengele today is the symbol
of how medical science can be used

819
00:58:32,200 --> 00:58:33,920
as a method of horror.

820
00:58:35,440 --> 00:58:40,400
But Mengele was only one of many,
many criminal doctors at Auschwitz.

821
00:59:04,360 --> 00:59:09,480
- You've got other names,
you've got Kramer, you've got Hirt,

822
00:59:09,640 --> 00:59:12,720
you've got Kaschub,
you've got Entress,

823
00:59:12,880 --> 00:59:15,240
you've got Vetter,
you've got Wirths,

824
00:59:15,400 --> 00:59:20,400
you've got Klein, Rode, Konig,
Capesius, Weber, Fischer, Thilo.

825
00:59:20,560 --> 00:59:23,000
NARRATOR: Not only were the officers
fleeing Auschwitz...

826
00:59:26,440 --> 00:59:29,000
..but the entire Nazi network
was in retreat.

827
00:59:29,960 --> 00:59:32,800
Non-commissioned officers,
soldiers, guards,

828
00:59:32,960 --> 00:59:35,000
and civilian personnel were
dispersing.

829
00:59:36,000 --> 00:59:39,720
Among them were the young
supervisors of the women's barracks,

830
00:59:39,880 --> 00:59:43,000
Irma Grese and Elisabeth Volkenrath,

831
00:59:43,160 --> 00:59:46,000
responsible for
unspeakable atrocities.

832
00:59:51,680 --> 00:59:53,880
January 20th, 1945...

833
00:59:56,360 --> 00:59:58,680
..just one week before liberation.

834
01:00:00,280 --> 01:00:03,800
The skies above Auschwitz
were shattered by the deafening

835
01:00:03,960 --> 01:00:05,680
roar of explosions.

836
01:00:07,280 --> 01:00:10,840
The Nazis blew up
crematoria II and III.

837
01:00:11,000 --> 01:00:14,080
After which they continued to try
and erase the evidence

838
01:00:14,240 --> 01:00:15,400
of their crimes.

839
01:00:18,760 --> 01:00:21,960
It was a fight against time,
because the Soviets were coming.

840
01:00:27,680 --> 01:00:30,880
- (via translator) And we hear
the rumble of the crematoria

841
01:00:31,040 --> 01:00:33,200
and gas chambers being blown up,

842
01:00:33,360 --> 01:00:36,000
the remnants of which
are there today.

843
01:00:40,280 --> 01:00:42,400
(sinister music)

844
01:00:50,240 --> 01:00:51,960
- (via translator) First of all,

845
01:00:52,120 --> 01:00:54,880
it is a very moving object
that shows everything

846
01:00:55,040 --> 01:00:57,520
that went on in the gas chambers.

847
01:01:06,720 --> 01:01:09,960
We see the peephole that the guards
used to look through

848
01:01:10,120 --> 01:01:12,480
to see whether everyone was
already dead.

849
01:01:18,040 --> 01:01:21,840
It is the hard evidence
that there were gas chambers.

850
01:01:26,880 --> 01:01:30,280
- (via translator) They blew up
the biggest extermination machines.

851
01:01:30,440 --> 01:01:32,000
They burned the camp archives.

852
01:01:33,880 --> 01:01:37,000
- (via translator) They blew up
those crematoria and gas chambers.

853
01:01:37,160 --> 01:01:41,240
They tried to obliterate the traces
of their criminal activities...

854
01:01:42,880 --> 01:01:45,360
..but they didn't manage
to destroy everything,

855
01:01:45,520 --> 01:01:47,920
there were corpses
next to each barrack.

856
01:01:49,040 --> 01:01:52,120
There was a mass grave,
but they didn't even have time

857
01:01:52,280 --> 01:01:53,440
to throw them in.

858
01:01:57,280 --> 01:02:01,440
NARRATOR: 21st January,
just six days before liberation.

859
01:02:01,600 --> 01:02:04,720
(tense, dramatic music)

860
01:02:08,000 --> 01:02:11,000
Prisoners observed a change
that increases their hope.

861
01:02:13,400 --> 01:02:15,480
The guard posts were abandoned.

862
01:02:15,640 --> 01:02:18,160
Only a few SS patrols remained.

863
01:02:18,320 --> 01:02:20,720
Most of the Auschwitz personnel
had fled,

864
01:02:20,880 --> 01:02:22,640
along with the Death March convoys.

865
01:02:22,800 --> 01:02:25,960
The remaining prisoners were
utterly devoid of energy.

866
01:02:26,120 --> 01:02:29,840
Left with no other option than
to wait for the Soviets to arrive.

867
01:02:34,720 --> 01:02:37,800
About 40 kilometres separate
the Soviets from Auschwitz,

868
01:02:37,960 --> 01:02:40,360
with their advance almost unimpeded.

869
01:02:45,000 --> 01:02:47,400
- (via translator) The Germans,
afraid of being encircled,

870
01:02:47,560 --> 01:02:50,360
began their retreat southeast,
towards Silesia.

871
01:02:51,920 --> 01:02:54,680
After that we were ordered
to continue moving forward.

872
01:02:57,160 --> 01:03:00,000
NARRATOR: 23rd January 1945.

873
01:03:01,880 --> 01:03:03,960
Four days before the Liberation.

874
01:03:06,080 --> 01:03:09,600
The Soviet troops were advancing
westward toward Oswiecim.

875
01:03:13,920 --> 01:03:17,400
At the same time,
flames engulfed Auschwitz,

876
01:03:17,560 --> 01:03:19,640
as the Nazis burnt "Kanada",

877
01:03:19,800 --> 01:03:23,600
the warehouse complex for
items confiscated from prisoners,

878
01:03:23,760 --> 01:03:28,680
clothes, shoes, valuables,
and other personal belongings.

879
01:03:36,560 --> 01:03:40,280
Hundreds of thousands of these
items have came into our possession,

880
01:03:40,440 --> 01:03:43,880
and bear witness to the murderous
madness of Nazism.

881
01:03:46,240 --> 01:03:47,320
On that same day,

882
01:03:47,480 --> 01:03:51,080
the Red Army finally reached
the outskirts of Oswiecim.

883
01:03:51,240 --> 01:03:55,320
Now, only a few kilometres separated
the Soviets from the town

884
01:03:55,480 --> 01:03:57,520
and the Auschwitz camps.

885
01:03:59,160 --> 01:04:01,760
- (via translator) I come to my
house and on the threshold

886
01:04:01,920 --> 01:04:04,280
sits a soldier, who has a rifle.

887
01:04:05,200 --> 01:04:07,080
He shows me a seat next to him.

888
01:04:08,040 --> 01:04:14,000
So I sit down, but you know,
he pulls out a bayonet, a knife...

889
01:04:15,600 --> 01:04:20,440
..pulls out some bread and pulls out
some piece of pork fat.

890
01:04:30,320 --> 01:04:32,240
- (via translator)
There were these white figures

891
01:04:32,400 --> 01:04:33,840
walking around in hoods.

892
01:04:37,160 --> 01:04:39,760
And the fact that they were white
made me curious

893
01:04:39,920 --> 01:04:43,240
and their weapons were pointed
either downwards or forwards,

894
01:04:43,400 --> 01:04:46,240
they weren't pointing upwards
as with the Germans.

895
01:04:48,360 --> 01:04:50,280
- (via translator) We don't know
the full composition

896
01:04:50,440 --> 01:04:54,760
of those brigades which passed
through Oswiecim, Auschwitz,

897
01:04:54,920 --> 01:04:56,160
through Birkenau...

898
01:04:57,360 --> 01:05:00,000
..but we do know the composition of
that army which marched

899
01:05:00,160 --> 01:05:03,160
more or less from Krakow
towards Wroclaw.

900
01:05:04,640 --> 01:05:07,760
(dramatic music)

901
01:05:11,080 --> 01:05:14,040
And there just over 40%,

902
01:05:14,200 --> 01:05:19,840
something like 41% were Russians,
and about 39% were Ukrainians.

903
01:05:26,040 --> 01:05:30,120
And that gives this dramatic context
to what we are seeing today.

904
01:05:35,080 --> 01:05:37,160
(low, tense music)

905
01:05:38,600 --> 01:05:41,160
NARRATOR: 26th January, 1945.

906
01:05:44,520 --> 01:05:47,360
One day to go
until the liberation of Auschwitz.

907
01:05:49,920 --> 01:05:52,120
The SS blew up crematorium V.

908
01:05:55,840 --> 01:05:59,520
It was the Nazis' last desperate
attempt to erase the evidence

909
01:05:59,680 --> 01:06:01,880
of the extermination perpetrated.

910
01:06:02,720 --> 01:06:04,640
But they were running out of time.

911
01:06:04,800 --> 01:06:07,800
We are now on the eve
of the camp's Liberation

912
01:06:07,960 --> 01:06:11,240
and thousands of prisoners
are desperately waiting.

913
01:06:12,080 --> 01:06:16,600
- You have around 7,000 prisoners
waiting to be released

914
01:06:16,760 --> 01:06:20,440
and the conditions they're in
are absolutely terrible.

915
01:06:21,480 --> 01:06:23,560
- I was really in bad shape.

916
01:06:26,080 --> 01:06:30,520
I had all sort of scabs
and boils on my body.

917
01:06:31,800 --> 01:06:34,200
- (via translator) And us,
the children in that barracks,

918
01:06:34,360 --> 01:06:35,600
were left alone.

919
01:06:38,080 --> 01:06:41,600
NARRATOR: Only the weakest
and sickest were left in Auschwitz.

920
01:06:41,760 --> 01:06:44,520
And their condition worsened
day by day.

921
01:06:46,200 --> 01:06:48,120
- (via translator)
For the last ten days or so,

922
01:06:48,280 --> 01:06:50,240
they basically had no food left.

923
01:06:51,240 --> 01:06:53,640
Many people did not live
to see the Liberation.

924
01:06:54,400 --> 01:06:58,000
They died of hunger and exhaustion,
and from the cold too.

925
01:07:01,280 --> 01:07:05,640
- (via translator)
I had reached January 1945,

926
01:07:05,800 --> 01:07:08,520
practically giving up my soul.

927
01:07:10,800 --> 01:07:14,600
I weighed 23 kilos;
I was a skeleton.

928
01:07:15,480 --> 01:07:17,800
Striped pyjamas, a striped hat,

929
01:07:17,960 --> 01:07:21,400
a pair of wooden clogs is all
that's covering your body,

930
01:07:21,560 --> 01:07:24,120
just a skeleton, skin and bones.

931
01:07:25,360 --> 01:07:29,080
You stand up, you hold on, and say,

932
01:07:29,240 --> 01:07:31,680
"Samy, you have to make it."

933
01:07:32,600 --> 01:07:34,960
But how? How can you?

934
01:07:36,920 --> 01:07:39,560
NARRATOR: Whole parts of Auschwitz
were left unguarded

935
01:07:39,720 --> 01:07:42,440
and the prisoners who still had
the strength to move,

936
01:07:42,600 --> 01:07:44,960
began to desperately search
for food.

937
01:07:46,240 --> 01:07:51,320
- There were storage facilities
in Auschwitz that were robbed

938
01:07:51,480 --> 01:07:54,200
or basically opened up
by the prisoners.

939
01:07:55,480 --> 01:07:58,440
- I think a lot of people
got themselves very ill and died

940
01:07:58,600 --> 01:08:04,160
as a result of over eating,
eating on such empty stomachs.

941
01:08:05,600 --> 01:08:08,120
NARRATOR: Hunger had haunted
the prisoners from their first day

942
01:08:08,280 --> 01:08:09,800
in Auschwitz,

943
01:08:09,960 --> 01:08:12,800
and now,
by an atrocious twist of fate,

944
01:08:12,960 --> 01:08:16,560
food was finally proving to be
a fatal poison

945
01:08:16,720 --> 01:08:18,760
in the hands of the prisoners.

946
01:08:22,520 --> 01:08:25,040
- (via translator)
We raided the warehouses etc.,

947
01:08:26,760 --> 01:08:29,960
I found a notebook
and titled it diary.

948
01:08:31,160 --> 01:08:33,160
Oleg Mandic's diary.

949
01:08:34,880 --> 01:08:38,200
And that's it. The writing.

950
01:08:42,520 --> 01:08:43,800
The notebook.

951
01:08:45,400 --> 01:08:49,400
The value of this diary is
that it comes from Auschwitz.

952
01:08:52,880 --> 01:08:56,760
NARRATOR: Saturday 27th of January,
1945.

953
01:08:58,440 --> 01:09:03,120
It is a cold day and
snow covers the Auschwitz camps.

954
01:09:05,080 --> 01:09:08,640
Some prisoners trudge between
the barracks in search of food,

955
01:09:08,800 --> 01:09:10,720
blankets and medicine.

956
01:09:11,320 --> 01:09:15,040
Many others lie helpless
in their straw beds and await death

957
01:09:15,200 --> 01:09:17,480
because they are too weak and sick.

958
01:09:20,160 --> 01:09:23,600
The few remaining Germans no longer
care about the prisoners.

959
01:09:25,560 --> 01:09:28,240
Some leave the camp
with the very last convoys...

960
01:09:31,080 --> 01:09:33,400
..and others are forced to stay
and fight.

961
01:09:35,560 --> 01:09:38,520
The Soviets advance cautiously
through the snow...

962
01:09:40,480 --> 01:09:42,200
..following the railway line.

963
01:09:45,440 --> 01:09:49,880
- What the soviets do next is
to send scouts to examine the camp.

964
01:09:50,680 --> 01:09:52,080
And once they've done that,

965
01:09:52,240 --> 01:09:55,880
you then have all these troops
from the 100th Infantry Division

966
01:09:56,040 --> 01:09:59,520
liberating Auschwitz 3.
Just before noon.

967
01:10:03,120 --> 01:10:08,320
And after they liberated the town
and then make a way to the outskirt

968
01:10:08,480 --> 01:10:10,720
of Auschwitz II, Birkenau.

969
01:10:17,600 --> 01:10:19,920
(low, sombre music)

970
01:10:22,960 --> 01:10:26,360
NARRATOR: The Soviets do not know
what they are about to discover.

971
01:10:28,560 --> 01:10:31,520
For the soldiers, who quickly
advance through the snow,

972
01:10:31,680 --> 01:10:35,280
that endless expanse of barracks,
fences and watchtowers...

973
01:10:40,720 --> 01:10:43,800
..it is nothing more than another
Nazi prison camp.

974
01:10:49,240 --> 01:10:51,960
- (via translator) We received
an order to be careful,

975
01:10:52,120 --> 01:10:54,680
not to shoot, not to open fire

976
01:10:54,840 --> 01:10:57,480
because there were people imprisoned
in those camps.

977
01:10:58,600 --> 01:11:00,640
But we were still ready for combat.

978
01:11:03,200 --> 01:11:05,840
So we took Auschwitz
almost without fighting.

979
01:11:07,880 --> 01:11:10,880
We saw that barbed wire
that the Germans made electric.

980
01:11:15,120 --> 01:11:19,080
- (via translator) We had no idea at
that time what it was really like.

981
01:11:19,240 --> 01:11:21,160
What kind of camp it was?

982
01:11:23,240 --> 01:11:25,040
- (via translator) We saw barracks

983
01:11:25,200 --> 01:11:27,880
and the smell of the dead
still lingered in the air.

984
01:11:30,200 --> 01:11:31,520
NARRATOR: At Birkenau,

985
01:11:31,680 --> 01:11:35,520
the Soviet forces met minimal
resistance from the Germans..

986
01:11:35,680 --> 01:11:39,600
Following brief exchanges of gunfire
between 3 and 5 PM

987
01:11:39,760 --> 01:11:44,040
on the afternoon
of January 27th, 1945,

988
01:11:44,200 --> 01:11:47,280
Red Army soldiers reached the
entrance of Auschwitz I,

989
01:11:47,440 --> 01:11:50,280
now recognised as the iconic gate.

990
01:11:58,080 --> 01:12:00,920
- (via translator)
Until the end of the war,

991
01:12:01,080 --> 01:12:02,600
I worked as a film cameraman.

992
01:12:03,760 --> 01:12:06,160
We were given the task of filming
the camp

993
01:12:06,320 --> 01:12:07,720
by the head of our film crew.

994
01:12:15,000 --> 01:12:18,800
What I saw and filmed
there was the most horrible thing

995
01:12:18,960 --> 01:12:20,400
I ever saw.

996
01:12:23,240 --> 01:12:26,280
NARRATOR: In front of them stand
'living ghosts':

997
01:12:26,440 --> 01:12:29,000
individuals devoid of strength...

998
01:12:30,920 --> 01:12:32,400
..devoid of a smile...

999
01:12:33,880 --> 01:12:37,440
..their dull eyes staring
into emptiness...

1000
01:12:38,880 --> 01:12:43,160
..and their protruding bones
barely covered by fragile skin.

1001
01:12:47,560 --> 01:12:50,640
- I remember standing at the wires

1002
01:12:50,800 --> 01:12:53,240
and watching the Russian army
coming in.

1003
01:12:54,200 --> 01:12:57,880
And we couldn't believe it.
No more Nazis over us.

1004
01:12:58,040 --> 01:13:01,000
And my feelings were, now what?

1005
01:13:02,280 --> 01:13:03,560
What's going to be now?

1006
01:13:04,680 --> 01:13:07,960
- (via translator) It's clear
that someone wanted someone else

1007
01:13:08,120 --> 01:13:09,240
to stay alive.

1008
01:13:10,080 --> 01:13:12,400
I have always wondered, why me?

1009
01:13:14,560 --> 01:13:18,720
It's a question you ask yourself,
but never find an answer to.

1010
01:13:23,240 --> 01:13:24,680
- Was I there? Was it truth?

1011
01:13:24,840 --> 01:13:28,480
Was I really there in that time,
in such places

1012
01:13:28,640 --> 01:13:30,880
and lived through all these things.

1013
01:13:31,760 --> 01:13:35,120
It can't be. It can't be, but it is.

1014
01:13:35,920 --> 01:13:38,520
(sombre dramatic music)

1015
01:13:58,480 --> 01:14:01,120
- When I was liberated,
I didn't have a stone,

1016
01:14:01,280 --> 01:14:04,400
a grave to go to talk to my mother,

1017
01:14:04,560 --> 01:14:07,680
to cry, to tell her what happened.

1018
01:14:10,560 --> 01:14:15,840
- And although the Germans were able
to take away all my physical,

1019
01:14:16,000 --> 01:14:18,920
almost everything, except my life.

1020
01:14:19,080 --> 01:14:21,160
They left me alive.

1021
01:14:21,320 --> 01:14:24,240
You know, but whatever could be
removed from my body,

1022
01:14:24,400 --> 01:14:26,240
they removed from my body.

1023
01:14:26,400 --> 01:14:29,248
They couldn't remove my soul.

1024
01:14:35,880 --> 01:14:39,320
NARRATOR: These historic images were
filmed several days after

1025
01:14:39,480 --> 01:14:41,960
January 27th, 1945,

1026
01:14:42,120 --> 01:14:46,360
by cameraman and Red Army officer
Alexander Vorontsov.

1027
01:14:47,520 --> 01:14:50,240
The footage captures a moment
of liberation,

1028
01:14:50,400 --> 01:14:55,320
but does not fully represent
the deep and complex emotions felt

1029
01:14:55,480 --> 01:14:57,120
by the prisoners.

1030
01:15:00,080 --> 01:15:03,920
While Vorontsov's film evokes
an image of unbridled joy,

1031
01:15:04,080 --> 01:15:07,880
survivors' testimonies reveal
a far more nuanced reality.

1032
01:15:09,440 --> 01:15:13,320
A mosaic of fear, numbness...

1033
01:15:15,800 --> 01:15:19,320
..hope, and, finally, joy.

1034
01:15:32,280 --> 01:15:33,280
Over time,

1035
01:15:33,440 --> 01:15:36,920
Vorontsov's footage would be widely
used as Red Army propaganda,

1036
01:15:37,080 --> 01:15:39,120
shaping the narrative of liberation.

1037
01:15:46,200 --> 01:15:49,600
- (via translator)
They were all standing there.

1038
01:15:51,320 --> 01:15:52,880
All in uniforms.

1039
01:15:53,040 --> 01:15:56,680
Just eyes, just eyes.

1040
01:16:02,640 --> 01:16:04,880
It was very, very terrible.

1041
01:16:07,320 --> 01:16:11,080
- (via translator) I don't think
even our army command

1042
01:16:11,240 --> 01:16:14,800
had an idea of the scale of
the crimes committed

1043
01:16:14,960 --> 01:16:17,360
in this largest
of concentration camps.

1044
01:16:23,840 --> 01:16:27,200
These memories will be with me
for the rest of my life.

1045
01:16:30,200 --> 01:16:33,400
- (via translator) We saw a huge
pile of human waste,

1046
01:16:33,560 --> 01:16:38,320
clothes, shoes, braids, hair,

1047
01:16:38,480 --> 01:16:40,720
remains of human bones.

1048
01:16:42,560 --> 01:16:46,440
I have a feeling of hatred
when I think about Auschwitz.

1049
01:16:50,520 --> 01:16:52,600
- (via translator)
They were practically skeletons,

1050
01:16:52,760 --> 01:16:55,920
covered with skin,
their eyes staring blankly.

1051
01:16:59,200 --> 01:17:02,320
- (via translator) I realised they
were prisoners and not workers.

1052
01:17:02,480 --> 01:17:04,880
So I called out:
You are free, come out!

1053
01:17:08,200 --> 01:17:11,080
- (via translator) I only remember
that they had a star on the cap.

1054
01:17:12,360 --> 01:17:14,760
- (via translator) There was joy,
such joy, seemingly simple,

1055
01:17:14,920 --> 01:17:16,480
as if they didn't believe it yet.

1056
01:17:16,640 --> 01:17:19,920
There was freedom outside the gate,
and they didn't believe it yet.

1057
01:17:20,560 --> 01:17:23,760
- These people had lacked
any emotion, at that point.

1058
01:17:29,320 --> 01:17:34,800
- I did understand the joy
that something good had happened.

1059
01:17:34,960 --> 01:17:39,200
However, by that time,
I myself was quite ill,

1060
01:17:39,360 --> 01:17:41,800
and I had been
just lying on the floor.

1061
01:17:41,960 --> 01:17:44,480
I could not even get up,
at that point.

1062
01:17:47,200 --> 01:17:49,600
NARRATOR: When we listen to
all these testimonies,

1063
01:17:49,760 --> 01:17:53,320
we can truly grasp the wide range
of experiences

1064
01:17:53,480 --> 01:17:55,040
the prisoners went through.

1065
01:17:55,200 --> 01:17:59,560
Some were able to celebrate,
while others had no strength left,

1066
01:17:59,720 --> 01:18:03,560
and still others were consumed
by complete apathy.

1067
01:18:04,440 --> 01:18:06,240
- (via translator) And these were
people who were

1068
01:18:06,400 --> 01:18:08,720
very, very emaciated.

1069
01:18:08,880 --> 01:18:10,720
And some of these people couldn't-

1070
01:18:10,880 --> 01:18:14,360
they didn't have the strength
to laugh or to enjoy the fact

1071
01:18:14,520 --> 01:18:16,160
that some other army had come in.

1072
01:18:16,960 --> 01:18:18,720
They were people in apathy.

1073
01:18:18,880 --> 01:18:21,200
- They've been totally dehumanised.

1074
01:18:22,320 --> 01:18:24,640
- (via translator)
When I opened my eyes,

1075
01:18:24,800 --> 01:18:28,400
I saw a Russian woman soldier
massaging me,

1076
01:18:28,560 --> 01:18:30,080
covering me with a blanket.

1077
01:18:31,120 --> 01:18:34,800
And then I would drift back
into my journey toward death.

1078
01:18:40,640 --> 01:18:43,920
- (via translator) They looked at
our soldiers with fear in their eyes

1079
01:18:44,080 --> 01:18:47,440
because they didn't know that these
were Soviet soldiers...

1080
01:18:49,120 --> 01:18:50,560
..liberators,

1081
01:18:50,720 --> 01:18:54,000
and so they were expecting
the worst, death.

1082
01:18:55,000 --> 01:18:58,640
We explained to them who we were
and why we came here

1083
01:18:58,800 --> 01:19:03,400
because they did not understand
who we were and why we came.

1084
01:19:04,720 --> 01:19:06,720
- (via translator)
Two women came up to me,

1085
01:19:06,880 --> 01:19:10,520
one of them started clapping her
hands and the other was just happy.

1086
01:19:10,680 --> 01:19:12,320
One of them gave me a kiss.

1087
01:19:15,240 --> 01:19:18,160
- (via translator) A person
who lived many months,

1088
01:19:18,320 --> 01:19:21,280
sometimes more than a year,
in constant anxiety...

1089
01:19:22,640 --> 01:19:24,760
..these were dramatic moments
for these survivors.

1090
01:19:24,920 --> 01:19:28,000
It was only slowly coming to them
that they were really free.

1091
01:19:32,160 --> 01:19:34,680
- (via translator) Both women and
men would cry.

1092
01:19:35,760 --> 01:19:40,000
Some began to smile, a little,
through the tears.

1093
01:19:42,360 --> 01:19:46,560
- (via translator) We entered one of
the barracks, it was for women.

1094
01:19:48,040 --> 01:19:51,120
We saw excrement and blood
on the floor,

1095
01:19:51,280 --> 01:19:53,160
and there was
a terrible fetid smell.

1096
01:19:54,440 --> 01:19:57,360
It turned out there were
decomposing corpses in the corner.

1097
01:20:03,560 --> 01:20:06,640
NARRATOR: The Red Army soldiers
were not prepared for this hell.

1098
01:20:06,800 --> 01:20:09,880
With the limited means they had,
they tried to help the prisoners,

1099
01:20:10,040 --> 01:20:12,520
but how do you help
those returning from hell?

1100
01:20:12,680 --> 01:20:17,320
- The tragedy of it was that even
when we were liberated,

1101
01:20:17,480 --> 01:20:22,600
we were not suddenly
fed of the food we needed.

1102
01:20:23,800 --> 01:20:25,480
- (via translator)
There was total atrophy,

1103
01:20:25,640 --> 01:20:28,040
just bone and skin
from all the hunger.

1104
01:20:29,720 --> 01:20:34,400
Many had tuberculosis, many were
starved beyond recognition.

1105
01:20:35,800 --> 01:20:40,520
Every other one had a stomach ulcer,
rather multiple ulcers.

1106
01:20:41,520 --> 01:20:45,360
It's because they hadn't eaten
anything. Total avitaminosis.

1107
01:20:48,400 --> 01:20:52,120
NARRATOR: The local population
of Oswiecim had also rushed to help

1108
01:20:52,280 --> 01:20:55,000
the prisoners and this contribution
would be essential

1109
01:20:55,160 --> 01:20:57,400
for the survival of many.

1110
01:20:57,560 --> 01:21:00,840
- (via translator) Later on,
hospitals were established for sick.

1111
01:21:01,680 --> 01:21:05,200
A lot of people took children
from Auschwitz into their homes.

1112
01:21:07,040 --> 01:21:11,400
- A Polish lady who actually came
into the camp, picked me up,

1113
01:21:11,560 --> 01:21:14,280
put me on her shoulders,
and took me to her home.

1114
01:21:15,560 --> 01:21:17,720
- (via translator)
A woman came up to me.

1115
01:21:17,880 --> 01:21:21,120
I hugged her and felt such warmth.

1116
01:21:22,040 --> 01:21:24,880
And she asked me:
"Will you come with me?"

1117
01:21:25,040 --> 01:21:26,120
I will.

1118
01:21:27,000 --> 01:21:30,160
And I would go with anyone
who reached out to me.

1119
01:21:35,440 --> 01:21:40,760
NARRATOR: 27th January, 1945
was Liberation Day at Auschwitz,

1120
01:21:40,920 --> 01:21:44,880
but unfortunately this date did not
end the suffering of the prisoners.

1121
01:21:45,040 --> 01:21:47,760
About 20 percent of them
did not survive.

1122
01:21:48,520 --> 01:21:51,840
This is Auschwitz's
final atrocious blow.

1123
01:21:54,400 --> 01:21:56,680
- (via translator) They were
so exhausted that many of them

1124
01:21:56,840 --> 01:22:00,360
were dying within a few months or
a short period after the liberation.

1125
01:22:02,960 --> 01:22:05,280
(soft music)

1126
01:22:09,880 --> 01:22:13,680
NARRATOR: Over the following months,
those prisoners left Auschwitz,

1127
01:22:13,840 --> 01:22:18,120
and the last child to leave
the camp was Oleg Mandic.

1128
01:22:21,360 --> 01:22:24,240
- (via translator) For so long,
for so many years,

1129
01:22:24,400 --> 01:22:26,920
I have accumulated 91 of them.

1130
01:22:29,640 --> 01:22:34,240
I introduce myself as Oleg Mandic,

1131
01:22:34,400 --> 01:22:37,200
the last child of Auschwitz.

1132
01:22:39,800 --> 01:22:44,040
NARRATOR: After Oleg's departure,
no prisoners remained at Auschwitz.

1133
01:22:45,000 --> 01:22:49,080
Over time, Auschwitz transformed
into a site of remembrance,

1134
01:22:49,240 --> 01:22:52,800
where the emblematic gates of
the camp remain open to knowledge

1135
01:22:52,960 --> 01:22:54,960
and the preservation of memory.

1136
01:23:02,480 --> 01:23:06,120
Remembrance and awareness are duties
we have,

1137
01:23:06,280 --> 01:23:09,680
so that the terrible tragedy
of Auschwitz is never repeated.

1138
01:23:10,880 --> 01:23:13,960
We and future generations ought
to preserve this memory

1139
01:23:14,120 --> 01:23:17,440
that we did not experience,
but which we cannot forget.

1140
01:23:17,600 --> 01:23:20,640
(tense, dramatic music)

1141
01:23:28,080 --> 01:23:30,680
- (via translator) This number,
when I hold it tight,

1142
01:23:30,840 --> 01:23:32,360
I feel: hang on, Sami.

1143
01:23:34,840 --> 01:23:36,800
- (via translator)
I would rather talk about

1144
01:23:36,960 --> 01:23:39,480
how to help memory develop
in the new generation.

1145
01:23:41,200 --> 01:23:42,920
How to help these new people,

1146
01:23:43,080 --> 01:23:46,680
who have their new means
of communication...

1147
01:23:49,680 --> 01:23:52,720
their new problems,

1148
01:23:52,880 --> 01:23:55,480
just to transform this knowledge
from the past

1149
01:23:55,640 --> 01:23:57,200
into such living memory.

1150
01:23:59,720 --> 01:24:02,320
- (via translator)
The young people need me.

1151
01:24:02,480 --> 01:24:03,840
They need me.

1152
01:24:06,440 --> 01:24:07,760
They must know.

1153
01:24:10,320 --> 01:24:14,120
When I am no longer here,
they will be,

1154
01:24:14,280 --> 01:24:17,640
and they will make sure
this never happens again.

1155
01:24:21,720 --> 01:24:25,320
NARRATOR: What became of the Nazis
who perpetrated these atrocities?

1156
01:24:26,200 --> 01:24:28,240
Did they pay the price
they deserved?

1157
01:24:29,360 --> 01:24:31,800
Did they ever comprehend that
they had committed

1158
01:24:31,960 --> 01:24:33,920
the greatest crime against humanity?

1159
01:24:35,000 --> 01:24:38,080
There is another word forever
linked to Auschwitz:

1160
01:24:38,240 --> 01:24:39,520
Justice.

1161
01:24:40,200 --> 01:24:42,520
But has justice truly been served?

1162
01:24:43,760 --> 01:24:49,000
LAWYER: "I received all orders for
carrying out these mass executions

1163
01:24:49,160 --> 01:24:52,240
directly from RSHA."

1164
01:24:53,520 --> 01:24:55,920
Are those statements true and
correct, witness?

1165
01:24:59,880 --> 01:25:02,640
NARRATOR: Commandant Hoss was
executed in Poland

1166
01:25:02,800 --> 01:25:04,880
shortly after the liberation.

1167
01:25:07,920 --> 01:25:11,880
The first group of Auschwitz
perpetrators was tried in Poland

1168
01:25:12,040 --> 01:25:14,120
in the 1940s.

1169
01:25:14,280 --> 01:25:18,120
But in Germany,
only on December 20th, 1963,

1170
01:25:18,280 --> 01:25:21,800
the Frankfurt trial against
Auschwitz criminals began,

1171
01:25:21,960 --> 01:25:24,320
bringing the Western public
face-to-face

1172
01:25:24,480 --> 01:25:27,520
with the horrors of the Holocaust
at Auschwitz.

1173
01:25:27,680 --> 01:25:30,560
Until today,
many perpetrators went unpunished

1174
01:25:30,720 --> 01:25:33,000
or received very light sentences.

1175
01:25:42,000 --> 01:25:44,720
- The defendants stand accused
of having implemented

1176
01:25:44,880 --> 01:25:47,200
the Nazi mass extermination
programme

1177
01:25:47,360 --> 01:25:50,000
at Auschwitz concentration camp

1178
01:25:50,160 --> 01:25:54,880
in Poland, between 1940 and 1945.

1179
01:25:56,160 --> 01:25:59,480
They are charged with having
participated in countless selections

1180
01:25:59,640 --> 01:26:01,400
on the Birkenau ramp,

1181
01:26:01,560 --> 01:26:05,640
having sent prisoners deemed sick
or unfit for work

1182
01:26:05,800 --> 01:26:07,440
to the gas chambers...

1183
01:26:09,000 --> 01:26:12,120
..and having killed them with
the deadly Zyklon B gas,

1184
01:26:12,280 --> 01:26:13,880
then burning their bodies.

1185
01:26:15,800 --> 01:26:18,400
Having killed an untold number
of prisoners,

1186
01:26:18,560 --> 01:26:21,400
including many elderly people
and children,

1187
01:26:21,560 --> 01:26:24,760
in the most horrific
and unspeakable ways.

1188
01:26:26,600 --> 01:26:31,280
Having murdered newborns,
killed children, and raped women.

1189
01:26:31,440 --> 01:26:33,680
Having shot prisoners of war,

1190
01:26:33,840 --> 01:26:38,040
94 men and 8 women were executed
at the Black Wall

1191
01:26:38,200 --> 01:26:40,560
between Blocks 10 and 11.

1192
01:26:40,720 --> 01:26:46,080
Around 4,000 people were transported
and killed in the gas chambers.

1193
01:26:46,240 --> 01:26:49,160
Having tortured some prisoners'
genitals until death,

1194
01:26:49,320 --> 01:26:51,640
and having forced prisoners
to engage in

1195
01:26:51,800 --> 01:26:55,560
relentless physical exercises
until they died of heart failure.

1196
01:26:55,720 --> 01:26:59,040
Having hanged children and
forced other prisoners to watch,

1197
01:26:59,200 --> 01:27:02,680
administered corporal punishments,
whipped prisoners to death,

1198
01:27:02,840 --> 01:27:07,080
and compelled some prisoners
to torture others.

1199
01:27:21,400 --> 01:27:23,680
The defendants are charged
with having conducted

1200
01:27:23,840 --> 01:27:26,880
pseudo-scientific experiments
on countless prisoners;

1201
01:27:27,040 --> 01:27:30,760
having drained prisoners' blood,
forced them to test new drugs,

1202
01:27:30,920 --> 01:27:33,440
sterilised women through sadistic
procedures,

1203
01:27:33,600 --> 01:27:37,120
and forced prisoners to drink poison
just to observe how long it took

1204
01:27:37,280 --> 01:27:38,720
for them to die.

1205
01:27:38,880 --> 01:27:41,840
(testimony fades)
(low, sombre music)

1206
01:27:51,920 --> 01:27:53,600
(music fades, ends)

1207
01:27:55,160 --> 01:27:57,520
- (via translator)
My name is Stefania Wernik.

1208
01:27:57,680 --> 01:27:59,640
I was born in Auschwitz-Birkenau.

1209
01:28:01,280 --> 01:28:05,000
My mother told me that she was less
than two months pregnant at the time

1210
01:28:05,160 --> 01:28:09,320
and she hid the pregnancy because if
she had admitted to being pregnant,

1211
01:28:09,480 --> 01:28:12,680
the Germans would have simply sent
her to the gas chambers immediately.

1212
01:28:13,920 --> 01:28:16,720
I am a child born
in the very heart of hell,

1213
01:28:16,880 --> 01:28:21,080
but even from the darkness of hell,
life and hope can emerge.

1214
01:28:22,920 --> 01:28:27,160
Today, I am a great-grandmother
to 14 great-grandchildren.

1215
01:28:27,320 --> 01:28:28,920
Love always wins.

1216
01:30:33,200 --> 01:30:36,200
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