1 00:00:33,867 --> 00:00:37,286 (translator) What we went through will be difticult to understand 2 00:00:37,370 --> 00:00:39,413 even for our contemporaries, 3 00:00:39,497 --> 00:00:41,665 and much more difticult for generations 4 00:00:41,750 --> 00:00:45,044 that have no personal experience from those days. 5 00:01:44,312 --> 00:01:48,732 (narrator) The oftice of the National Socialist Party in Munich in 1929. 6 00:01:48,858 --> 00:01:53,529 The keen young clerk who now comes forward has already been noticed. 7 00:01:53,613 --> 00:01:57,366 He's marked for promotion, for high responsibility. 8 00:01:57,450 --> 00:02:00,035 He is Heinrich Himmler. 9 00:02:03,206 --> 00:02:05,999 Himmler it is who refines the philosophy of Nazism, 10 00:02:06,126 --> 00:02:09,837 its ideas on politics and on race. 11 00:02:09,921 --> 00:02:14,383 Hitler has appointed him Reichsführer of the SS. 12 00:02:14,467 --> 00:02:17,136 (translator) When l wanted to sign up, 13 00:02:17,220 --> 00:02:21,515 the man in charge asked me, "Were you a soldier?" l said, "Yes, indeed." 14 00:02:21,599 --> 00:02:24,810 "ln the First World War?" "Yes, indeed." 15 00:02:24,894 --> 00:02:27,312 "Do you have awards for bravery?" 16 00:02:27,397 --> 00:02:30,732 "Yes, indeed." "What do you have?" 17 00:02:30,817 --> 00:02:33,443 Then l said, "lron Cross, First and Second Class, 18 00:02:33,528 --> 00:02:36,280 and l serVed in the Hessian Lifeguard Regiment." 19 00:02:36,364 --> 00:02:41,869 Then he said, "Well, just as there was an elite guard in the Kaiser's time, 20 00:02:41,953 --> 00:02:47,666 there is an elite guard now in the new movement, and that is the SS." 21 00:02:48,585 --> 00:02:51,670 "You should join the SS." 22 00:02:53,464 --> 00:02:55,799 So l allowed myself to be persuaded 23 00:02:55,884 --> 00:03:00,304 and thereby, if you like, l came by fate to the SS 24 00:03:00,388 --> 00:03:03,015 to be Himmler's adjutant. 25 00:03:10,690 --> 00:03:13,192 (narrator) Himmler's dream for his elite guard 26 00:03:13,276 --> 00:03:15,027 had roots in the fabled past, 27 00:03:15,111 --> 00:03:19,072 in the culture of an older, Aryan Germany. 28 00:03:25,496 --> 00:03:28,582 When the Nazis came to power in 1933, 29 00:03:28,708 --> 00:03:31,418 he could put his ideas into practice. 30 00:03:31,502 --> 00:03:35,172 (translator) Himmler had set out to achieve a dream. 31 00:03:37,050 --> 00:03:43,722 He would inspire a new awakening of the Germanic race within the German people. 32 00:03:47,810 --> 00:03:50,896 (narrator) Youth would achieve the dream. 33 00:03:53,900 --> 00:03:58,946 Youth had the nerVe and the strength that would be needed. 34 00:04:09,249 --> 00:04:12,501 Fresh air, exercise, good food, 35 00:04:12,585 --> 00:04:15,712 to build blood and bone and marrow. 36 00:04:19,717 --> 00:04:23,679 There were no limits to what healthy youth could do. 37 00:04:27,058 --> 00:04:29,559 And the dream had a pseudoscientific base - 38 00:04:29,644 --> 00:04:33,480 Neo-Darwinism, propagated in films like this. 39 00:04:33,982 --> 00:04:36,108 "Only the fittest surVive." 40 00:04:38,611 --> 00:04:40,988 "The weak go under." 41 00:04:44,325 --> 00:04:47,452 That, after all, was the law of nature. 42 00:04:49,914 --> 00:04:52,916 Farmers knew it perfectly well. 43 00:04:53,459 --> 00:04:56,628 Horses were bred for pace or for the plough. 44 00:04:57,755 --> 00:05:01,091 Why not pedigree humans, too? 45 00:05:08,516 --> 00:05:13,353 lt was time to develop a new race, a better one - a race of supermen. 46 00:05:13,438 --> 00:05:15,522 There was no harm in that. 47 00:05:15,606 --> 00:05:19,067 (translator) We must see how we could return to a more natural law, 48 00:05:19,152 --> 00:05:22,195 but only ever through positive racial thought - 49 00:05:22,280 --> 00:05:25,782 how one can improve something and breed it. 50 00:05:29,412 --> 00:05:32,080 Never with the thought - it never occurred to us - 51 00:05:32,165 --> 00:05:35,500 that we might arrogantly talk about exterminating anybody 52 00:05:35,585 --> 00:05:38,754 who didn't happen to have been born with a white skin, 53 00:05:38,838 --> 00:05:44,134 or who was culturally inferior to us or was undesirable. 54 00:05:47,847 --> 00:05:52,184 (narrator) The SS - the strongest, the purest, the fiercest. 55 00:05:52,310 --> 00:05:54,978 They would do more than surVive. 56 00:05:55,063 --> 00:06:01,318 With Himmler at their head, they would create a racially superior Europe. 57 00:06:05,156 --> 00:06:08,200 (translator) The SS was based on the Jesuit order, 58 00:06:08,284 --> 00:06:12,621 which had been founded as the elite guard of the Catholic Church. 59 00:06:12,705 --> 00:06:14,831 And Himmler had taken much from this - 60 00:06:14,916 --> 00:06:18,168 the hierarchy, the strict selection and leadership, 61 00:06:18,252 --> 00:06:20,545 and the punishments. 62 00:06:24,592 --> 00:06:30,055 (narrator) Himmler himself exacts the oath of obedience unto death. 63 00:06:34,018 --> 00:06:38,355 (translator) They were conditioned to see themselves as the sons of light, 64 00:06:38,439 --> 00:06:41,942 that they were engaged in a struggle against powers of darkness, 65 00:06:42,026 --> 00:06:46,530 and that it was their duty to feel they were at all times on duty for the nation 66 00:06:46,614 --> 00:06:50,867 and, in a wider sense, for the new order in Europe. 67 00:06:55,164 --> 00:06:57,666 (narrator) "Arbeit Macht Frei." 68 00:06:57,750 --> 00:07:03,964 "Work sets you free" on the gates of Dachau, a model concentration camp. 69 00:07:04,048 --> 00:07:08,385 The SS were Hitler's instrument of terror in the creation of the new order. 70 00:07:08,469 --> 00:07:11,596 lt was only logical that they should run the camps. 71 00:07:16,519 --> 00:07:19,604 Their first prisoners were dissidents of the Nazi state - 72 00:07:19,689 --> 00:07:22,816 political and religious, as well as racial. 73 00:07:23,734 --> 00:07:26,736 The SS schooled themselves in brutality, 74 00:07:26,821 --> 00:07:30,449 systematically reducing their victims to total subserVience, 75 00:07:30,533 --> 00:07:33,326 depriving them of individuality. 76 00:07:33,411 --> 00:07:35,745 No names. 77 00:07:35,830 --> 00:07:38,373 Numbers. 78 00:07:41,419 --> 00:07:47,257 September 1935. The Nuremberg Laws. 79 00:07:47,383 --> 00:07:53,263 ln the Reichstag, Göring spelled out the purpose of the Reich Citizenship Act, 80 00:07:53,347 --> 00:07:57,601 and the Act for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour. 81 00:07:57,685 --> 00:08:00,979 Pure must not mix with impure. 82 00:08:02,023 --> 00:08:06,318 From now on, intermarriage was forbidden and sex declared illegal 83 00:08:06,402 --> 00:08:10,363 between pure Aryan and impure Jew. 84 00:08:11,407 --> 00:08:15,785 Appealing to feelings and beliefs deep- rooted in European Christian culture, 85 00:08:15,912 --> 00:08:19,539 Nazi propaganda pilloried the dirty Jew. 86 00:08:19,624 --> 00:08:24,753 Dishonest, scheming, money-lending capitalist and subversive communist, 87 00:08:24,837 --> 00:08:28,632 verminous, unclean, racially inferior: 88 00:08:28,716 --> 00:08:31,593 "Jews are not wanted here". 89 00:08:31,677 --> 00:08:33,845 But for leaders seeking to unite a people, 90 00:08:33,930 --> 00:08:37,432 they were mighty useful scapegoats to unite against. 91 00:08:37,517 --> 00:08:40,852 ln schools, the Jew-boys stood by the blackboard 92 00:08:40,937 --> 00:08:44,314 as their classmates pointed out the difterence. 93 00:08:45,858 --> 00:08:50,153 German schoolchildren were taught to despise Jewish culture as soft and evil, 94 00:08:50,238 --> 00:08:54,032 to be proud of their own strength, their own purity. 95 00:08:57,787 --> 00:09:01,248 From all over Germany, the young converge on Landsberg, 96 00:09:01,332 --> 00:09:03,208 the castle where, as a prisoner, 97 00:09:03,292 --> 00:09:07,337 Hitler had first set out his theory of a dominant Aryan race. 98 00:09:07,421 --> 00:09:10,090 (men sing Nazi hymn) 99 00:09:21,602 --> 00:09:24,813 Hitler had dreamed of a youth as fierce as animals, 100 00:09:24,897 --> 00:09:29,276 with Christian tenderness and other degenerate soft mutations cleansed, 101 00:09:29,360 --> 00:09:30,819 burned out of them. 102 00:09:30,903 --> 00:09:35,073 Now that youth was growing up to manhood. 103 00:09:37,159 --> 00:09:39,244 November 1938. 104 00:09:39,328 --> 00:09:43,790 The synagogues burned on Crystal Night. 105 00:09:49,797 --> 00:09:55,844 The morning after, Jewish males were marched oft to concentration camps. 106 00:09:55,928 --> 00:09:59,472 The Jews were isolated, friendless. 107 00:09:59,557 --> 00:10:02,142 lt was time to get out, if they could. 108 00:10:06,772 --> 00:10:10,567 Not many countries opened their doors to the Jews. 109 00:10:11,569 --> 00:10:14,487 ln Germany, too, bureaucratic obstacles. 110 00:10:14,572 --> 00:10:18,491 Emigrants paid stift charges when they obtained permissions to leave 111 00:10:18,576 --> 00:10:21,953 from state ofticials such as Adolf Eichmann. 112 00:10:22,997 --> 00:10:24,748 (translator) l asked Eichmann, 113 00:10:24,832 --> 00:10:28,293 "Why don't you make it easier for people who want to get out?" 114 00:10:28,377 --> 00:10:32,380 "You want to get the Jews out, they want to leave of their own accord." 115 00:10:32,465 --> 00:10:34,758 Eichmann organised it. 116 00:10:36,052 --> 00:10:38,720 And they actually did it as l had envisaged it. 117 00:10:43,142 --> 00:10:46,019 There was a representative from the passport oftice, 118 00:10:46,103 --> 00:10:48,521 one from the finance authorities, 119 00:10:48,606 --> 00:10:52,192 one from the shipping oftices, and transport representatives. 120 00:10:52,276 --> 00:10:56,237 And this man, this poor Jewish man who now wanted to emigrate, 121 00:10:56,322 --> 00:10:58,365 could make the rounds in two hours 122 00:10:58,449 --> 00:11:02,577 and could get all his confirmations and could get out. 123 00:11:05,790 --> 00:11:10,293 And, as l said - l really must say it - Eichmann said to me once: 124 00:11:10,378 --> 00:11:15,340 "You were actually the inventor of the Central Oftice for Jewish Emigration." 125 00:11:18,386 --> 00:11:20,804 (narrator) January 1939. 126 00:11:20,888 --> 00:11:25,225 Hitler threatens a new solution to the Jewish problem. 127 00:11:25,309 --> 00:11:28,436 lf world Jewry drags Germany into another war, 128 00:11:28,521 --> 00:11:31,773 that will be the end of the Jews in Europe. 129 00:11:41,033 --> 00:11:43,660 September 1939. 130 00:11:43,786 --> 00:11:46,538 Germany attacks Poland. 131 00:11:54,046 --> 00:11:57,716 The victorious armies parade through Warsaw. 132 00:11:57,800 --> 00:12:04,305 Poland will be colonised. The population are not Aryans, they're Slavs and Jews. 133 00:12:08,477 --> 00:12:10,311 (translator) l remember in front, 134 00:12:10,396 --> 00:12:13,982 there was a German band with musical instruments. 135 00:12:14,066 --> 00:12:16,484 For me, it was very nice. 136 00:12:16,569 --> 00:12:18,570 l was happy. 137 00:12:18,654 --> 00:12:21,281 l even remember that l clapped. 138 00:12:22,575 --> 00:12:28,538 (narrator) German soldiers, aided by some Poles, beat up Jews in the streets. 139 00:12:39,759 --> 00:12:43,595 Nazi rule in Poland is based at once on ruthless terror. 140 00:12:43,721 --> 00:12:49,976 Any who resist, object, answer back, risk instant execution. 141 00:12:52,396 --> 00:12:56,399 There are public hangings by the thousand. 142 00:13:05,951 --> 00:13:10,455 The whole of Poland is on the move to be resettled on a racial basis - 143 00:13:10,539 --> 00:13:12,957 those of German origin to Germany, 144 00:13:13,042 --> 00:13:15,877 the Poles themselves to designated areas, 145 00:13:15,961 --> 00:13:19,714 a workforce without rights in their own country. 146 00:13:19,799 --> 00:13:23,510 At the bottom of the heap, the Jews. 147 00:13:23,594 --> 00:13:27,722 By order, they will wear the Star of David at all times. 148 00:13:27,807 --> 00:13:30,934 There are heavy penalties for not doing so. 149 00:13:36,315 --> 00:13:39,567 Wearing it, they're easily identified. 150 00:13:42,363 --> 00:13:45,114 "The Jews started the war." 151 00:13:45,199 --> 00:13:47,826 "Now let them clear up the mess." 152 00:13:53,874 --> 00:13:56,793 German newsreel cameras could show people back home 153 00:13:56,877 --> 00:14:01,381 that Jews at last were being made to do an honest day's work 154 00:14:01,465 --> 00:14:04,342 to earn their daily bread. 155 00:14:07,930 --> 00:14:10,807 (translator) My mother, may her soul rest in peace, 156 00:14:10,891 --> 00:14:13,977 asked me to go to the bakery and stand there the whole night 157 00:14:14,061 --> 00:14:15,645 to get a loaf of bread 158 00:14:15,729 --> 00:14:19,816 so that there would be something to eat at home the next day. 159 00:14:21,193 --> 00:14:26,406 When l arrived, there were already masses of people standing in line. 160 00:14:26,490 --> 00:14:31,995 Among us, there were little children - non-Jews, Poles - running around. 161 00:14:32,079 --> 00:14:34,330 They pointed at each and every person, 162 00:14:34,415 --> 00:14:39,836 "That's a Jew. That's a Jew. Das Jude. Das Jude. Das Jude." 163 00:14:39,920 --> 00:14:44,591 So that these people would be taken out of line and not get bread. 164 00:14:46,302 --> 00:14:47,719 My turn came. 165 00:14:47,803 --> 00:14:51,389 l turned around and saw that the boy was a friend with whom l played. 166 00:14:51,473 --> 00:14:54,183 l said to him in Polish, "What are you doing?" 167 00:14:54,268 --> 00:14:56,561 His answer was, "l'm not your friend. 168 00:14:56,645 --> 00:14:59,981 You're a Jew. l don't know you." 169 00:15:01,150 --> 00:15:04,527 (narrator) ln 1940, Germany struck west. 170 00:15:04,612 --> 00:15:07,280 The SS went too. 171 00:15:14,872 --> 00:15:17,165 Here again, a brutal terror. 172 00:15:19,960 --> 00:15:22,879 Less so, however, than in eastern Europe. 173 00:15:22,963 --> 00:15:25,882 Many in the west were Aryans too. 174 00:15:27,676 --> 00:15:30,595 ln Poland, in 1940 and '41 , 175 00:15:30,679 --> 00:15:34,933 Jews were ordered into recreated medieval ghettos. 176 00:15:35,976 --> 00:15:38,561 (translator) We took a small cart. l, with my father, 177 00:15:38,646 --> 00:15:41,439 built a small cart and we began to move. 178 00:15:41,523 --> 00:15:45,360 Thousands and thousands, tens of thousands of people, were walking, 179 00:15:45,444 --> 00:15:50,615 taking their belongings with them, some on their heads, their backs, shoulders. 180 00:15:50,699 --> 00:15:54,202 There were children, old people, babies, all of them, 181 00:15:54,286 --> 00:15:56,537 like the exile of the peoples, 182 00:15:56,622 --> 00:15:59,540 the exile from Egypt. 183 00:16:08,384 --> 00:16:14,681 (narrator) The ghettos were closed oft behind wire and long, high walls. 184 00:16:15,849 --> 00:16:19,143 ln Warsaw, a road divided the ghetto in two 185 00:16:19,228 --> 00:16:22,939 with a bridge over it for the Jews to cross by. 186 00:16:26,944 --> 00:16:30,405 (female translator) There were only two water pits in the ghetto. 187 00:16:30,489 --> 00:16:31,614 The ghetto was small. 188 00:16:31,699 --> 00:16:38,079 When they brought us into the ghetto, they put three families into one room. 189 00:16:40,624 --> 00:16:45,378 ln one room, three families with children. We never slept. 190 00:16:58,600 --> 00:17:01,394 (narrator) StarVation rations. 191 00:17:05,315 --> 00:17:07,817 Harsh punishments for smuggling food. 192 00:17:20,372 --> 00:17:23,499 For resistance or attempts to escape, 193 00:17:23,584 --> 00:17:25,877 public execution. 194 00:17:44,813 --> 00:17:46,898 June 1941 . 195 00:17:47,399 --> 00:17:49,484 Germany attacks Russia. 196 00:17:49,568 --> 00:17:52,945 SS shock troops in the first wave. 197 00:17:55,449 --> 00:17:58,826 Another racial war, more resettlement, 198 00:17:58,911 --> 00:18:02,330 mass deportations, forced emigrations. 199 00:18:02,414 --> 00:18:06,834 War against subhumans, against Slavs and against Jews. 200 00:18:06,919 --> 00:18:09,587 Millions of Jews. 201 00:18:10,756 --> 00:18:14,550 (translator) We found a round figure of three million Jews in Poland, 202 00:18:14,635 --> 00:18:17,762 then immediately after that came the Russian campaign 203 00:18:17,888 --> 00:18:21,182 and we found another five million Jews in Russia. 204 00:18:21,266 --> 00:18:24,852 How on earth should we manage to emigrate this eight million 205 00:18:24,978 --> 00:18:28,272 by using these long and tiresome ofticial methods? 206 00:18:29,525 --> 00:18:33,069 Now, with the war, we were cut oft. We had no way out. 207 00:18:34,404 --> 00:18:36,656 (narrator) To be rid of so many Jews... 208 00:18:38,659 --> 00:18:42,411 only one alternative left: kill them all. 209 00:18:42,496 --> 00:18:45,623 The job was begun by SS execution squads, 210 00:18:45,707 --> 00:18:47,792 Einsatzgruppen. 211 00:18:47,876 --> 00:18:49,418 (gunshot) 212 00:18:51,672 --> 00:18:54,590 (translator) They're shooting. 213 00:18:58,929 --> 00:19:01,139 People are already lying dead. 214 00:19:01,223 --> 00:19:03,474 My daughter was in my arms the whole time. 215 00:19:03,559 --> 00:19:06,185 Somehow, l found the strength to carry her. 216 00:19:06,270 --> 00:19:10,439 She was so close to me that l couldn't undress. She wouldn't let me. 217 00:19:10,524 --> 00:19:17,029 She said, "Let's run away. They're killing us. Why do we just stand here?" 218 00:19:17,114 --> 00:19:20,449 "Why do people stand and not run away? Why are they standing?" 219 00:19:20,534 --> 00:19:22,702 l said to her... l could not really speak. 220 00:19:22,786 --> 00:19:26,414 l think l said, "Where are we going to run to?" 221 00:19:26,498 --> 00:19:31,002 Some people did start to escape, but they didn't let them. 222 00:19:33,922 --> 00:19:37,925 There were many Germans guarding us. There were many Germans. 223 00:19:38,010 --> 00:19:42,138 Not only Germans, they even got non-Jews from the towns together 224 00:19:42,222 --> 00:19:44,640 to guard that we shouldn't escape. 225 00:19:44,725 --> 00:19:47,101 There were some sort of policemen there. 226 00:19:48,061 --> 00:19:51,397 So we undressed. There was no alternative. 227 00:20:01,325 --> 00:20:04,493 There were about 500 people altogether. 228 00:20:04,578 --> 00:20:06,746 Our turn came. 229 00:20:06,872 --> 00:20:10,583 l came up and saw how my father went, 230 00:20:11,627 --> 00:20:14,003 how my mother is shot, 231 00:20:15,047 --> 00:20:18,174 how my sisters are shot. 232 00:20:18,759 --> 00:20:22,553 My sister was very pretty - absolutely beautiful. 233 00:20:22,638 --> 00:20:27,475 The German looked into her eyes and she pleaded with him to let her go: 234 00:20:27,559 --> 00:20:31,312 "Don't kill me. Just let me live." 235 00:20:31,396 --> 00:20:35,233 Nothing helped. She was shot. 236 00:20:39,696 --> 00:20:43,324 Then l, with my daughter in my arms, came up. 237 00:20:43,450 --> 00:20:47,828 He told me to put her down. l wanted to, but she wouldn't let me. 238 00:20:47,913 --> 00:20:53,167 She hid her head so as not to see what was being done with her. 239 00:20:53,252 --> 00:20:58,089 He forcibly, as far as l can remember, took her, stood her up. 240 00:20:59,132 --> 00:21:02,635 He shot, or didn't shoot. 241 00:21:02,719 --> 00:21:05,554 l neither saw nor heard. 242 00:21:05,639 --> 00:21:07,848 Then he shot me. 243 00:21:07,975 --> 00:21:11,560 l stood there and heard a shot. 244 00:21:11,645 --> 00:21:14,355 lt didn't touch me. 245 00:21:14,439 --> 00:21:16,649 Then again, a shot. 246 00:21:16,733 --> 00:21:18,818 l fell. 247 00:21:20,279 --> 00:21:22,697 l am lying in the pit 248 00:21:22,781 --> 00:21:26,492 and l feel that l do feel something. 249 00:21:26,576 --> 00:21:31,664 l didn't believe - l couldn't believe - that l'm alive. 250 00:21:34,042 --> 00:21:36,836 l was lying in a pit of blood, 251 00:21:36,920 --> 00:21:40,006 a pit full of blood. 252 00:21:43,010 --> 00:21:46,178 This is how l lay the whole night, under corpses. 253 00:21:46,430 --> 00:21:48,389 (narrator) ln August 1941 , 254 00:21:48,473 --> 00:21:53,602 Himmler visited a concentration centre near Minsk. 255 00:22:05,532 --> 00:22:08,326 lt was crowded with Jews, Russian prisoners of war 256 00:22:08,410 --> 00:22:10,911 and others who were to die. 257 00:22:10,996 --> 00:22:15,791 The SS Reichsführer asked to see for himself how the killing was done. 258 00:22:15,876 --> 00:22:19,628 (translator) And there, an open grave had been dug. 259 00:22:22,841 --> 00:22:25,801 They had to jump into this and lie face downwards. 260 00:22:25,886 --> 00:22:29,180 And sometimes, when one or two rows had already been shot, 261 00:22:29,264 --> 00:22:32,933 they had to lie on the people who'd been shot 262 00:22:33,018 --> 00:22:37,063 and then they were shot from the edge of the grave. 263 00:22:41,818 --> 00:22:44,445 And Himmler had never seen dead people before, 264 00:22:44,529 --> 00:22:48,532 and, in his curiosity, he stood right up at the edge of this open grave - 265 00:22:48,617 --> 00:22:52,370 a sort of triangular hole - and was looking in. 266 00:22:53,372 --> 00:22:57,708 While he was looking in, Himmler had the deserVed bad luck 267 00:22:57,793 --> 00:23:00,878 that from one or other of those who'd been shot in the head, 268 00:23:01,004 --> 00:23:03,422 he got a splash of brains on his coat, 269 00:23:03,507 --> 00:23:06,592 and l think it also splashed onto his face. 270 00:23:09,221 --> 00:23:11,347 And he went very green and pale. 271 00:23:11,431 --> 00:23:13,933 He wasn't actually sick, 272 00:23:14,976 --> 00:23:19,146 but he was heaving and turned around and swayed. 273 00:23:21,483 --> 00:23:24,527 And then l had to jump forward and hold him steady, 274 00:23:24,611 --> 00:23:28,072 and then l led him away from the grave. 275 00:23:43,004 --> 00:24:03,732 (gunshot) 276 00:24:11,783 --> 00:24:13,451 (translator) After the shooting, 277 00:24:13,535 --> 00:24:17,997 Himmler gathered the shooting commanders. 278 00:24:19,624 --> 00:24:24,086 Standing up in his car so he'd be higher and be able to see the whole unit, 279 00:24:24,171 --> 00:24:26,172 he made a speech. 280 00:24:26,256 --> 00:24:30,801 He could not relieve them of this duty. He could not spare them. 281 00:24:30,886 --> 00:24:35,514 ln the interests of the Reich - in this planned thousand-year Reich - 282 00:24:35,599 --> 00:24:39,310 in its first decisive great war after the takeover of power, 283 00:24:39,394 --> 00:24:41,228 they must do their duty. 284 00:24:52,574 --> 00:24:58,204 (narrator) But shooting was messy, distressing, inefticient. 285 00:24:58,288 --> 00:25:02,124 So vast an undertaking required careful planning. 286 00:25:02,250 --> 00:25:04,877 At Wannsee in January 1942, 287 00:25:04,961 --> 00:25:08,797 Himmler's deputy, Heydrich, convened a conference. 288 00:25:08,882 --> 00:25:12,718 Senior civil serVants attended from various departments of state. 289 00:25:12,802 --> 00:25:16,889 There were representatives of the ministries of justice and of transport. 290 00:25:16,973 --> 00:25:21,143 Formal minutes were kept, and lists of Jews, country by country - 291 00:25:21,228 --> 00:25:25,439 in Poland, over two million, in Norway, 1300, 292 00:25:25,524 --> 00:25:28,150 England, 330,000, 293 00:25:28,235 --> 00:25:30,486 Russia, five million. 294 00:25:30,570 --> 00:25:33,781 Grand total: over 1 1 million. 295 00:25:35,492 --> 00:25:38,911 Eichmann, with his experience in transportation, 296 00:25:38,995 --> 00:25:41,163 was appointed permanent administrator 297 00:25:41,248 --> 00:25:44,959 for this final solution of the Jewish problem. 298 00:25:45,043 --> 00:25:51,090 lt had been decided that all the Jews in Europe were to be gassed. 299 00:25:53,969 --> 00:25:56,845 All Occupied Europe had a concentration-camp system 300 00:25:56,930 --> 00:26:01,058 based on the model camp, Dachau. 301 00:26:01,184 --> 00:26:03,894 The camps were not only an instrument of terror, 302 00:26:03,979 --> 00:26:07,064 they were an important factor in war production, 303 00:26:07,148 --> 00:26:10,484 each with its cluster of labour camps attached. 304 00:26:10,569 --> 00:26:15,239 Now, they were also to be the means of the Final Solution. 305 00:26:15,323 --> 00:26:19,159 ln the occupied east, new camps were specially built 306 00:26:19,244 --> 00:26:22,538 and old ones equipped with new industrial capacity. 307 00:26:22,664 --> 00:26:26,375 They were to be machines to kill human beings by the million, 308 00:26:26,459 --> 00:26:30,754 utilise the by-products, dispose of the waste. 309 00:26:30,839 --> 00:26:34,842 The camps were sited on railway routes to facilitate transportation. 310 00:26:34,968 --> 00:26:39,680 Eichmann chartered rolling stock from the state railways. 311 00:26:39,764 --> 00:26:44,435 The biggest camp was built astride the main railway line from Cracow to Vienna, 312 00:26:44,519 --> 00:26:48,147 in the outskirts of the Polish town of Oświęcim - 313 00:26:48,231 --> 00:26:49,982 Auschwitz. 314 00:26:51,693 --> 00:26:56,488 ln summer 1942, Himmler visited Auschwitz to inspect progress, 315 00:26:56,573 --> 00:27:00,367 to see for himself how things were getting on. 316 00:27:01,453 --> 00:27:03,579 Work was under way. 317 00:27:03,663 --> 00:27:06,540 Manufacturers' tenders had been called for, choices made. 318 00:27:06,625 --> 00:27:08,417 Plans and architects' drawings 319 00:27:08,543 --> 00:27:12,796 for the new combined gas chambers and crematoriums were ready, 320 00:27:12,881 --> 00:27:19,136 with their carefully designed chimneys and specially patented furnaces. 321 00:27:33,193 --> 00:27:36,278 Outside, construction workers - slave labourers - 322 00:27:36,363 --> 00:27:38,656 were striving to keep to their schedules 323 00:27:38,740 --> 00:27:41,533 in the warm summer weather. 324 00:27:45,997 --> 00:27:48,582 The gassing would be done with poisoned pellets 325 00:27:48,667 --> 00:27:51,377 developed from a commercial pesticide, Zyklon B. 326 00:27:51,461 --> 00:27:54,463 The pellets were shaken through a roof grille. 327 00:27:54,547 --> 00:27:57,841 Exposed to the air, they gave oft cyanide gas. 328 00:28:00,178 --> 00:28:03,972 ln the occupied territories, the roundups began. 329 00:28:21,533 --> 00:28:25,327 ln some countries - this is Holland - no stampede. 330 00:28:25,412 --> 00:28:29,498 The Jews gathered for resettlement in orderly fashion, 331 00:28:29,582 --> 00:28:33,127 the order of their going worked out by their community leaders. 332 00:28:33,211 --> 00:28:37,256 Behind it all, the SS and the Gestapo. 333 00:28:38,299 --> 00:28:42,094 Jews everywhere were told - and they were ready to believe - 334 00:28:42,220 --> 00:28:46,140 they were being transported for resettlement. 335 00:28:46,641 --> 00:28:51,270 ln the starVing ghettos of the east, those who volunteered to go got bread. 336 00:28:51,354 --> 00:28:56,900 To escape starVation, they willingly paid railway fares for the journey. 337 00:29:05,243 --> 00:29:10,205 Bewildered, under armed guard, they walked to the station. 338 00:29:11,166 --> 00:29:14,251 The cattle trucks were waiting. 339 00:29:14,794 --> 00:29:18,088 There were soldiers on the platform. 340 00:29:18,173 --> 00:29:21,216 They climbed aboard. 341 00:29:21,301 --> 00:29:25,596 (translator) The minute we got in, the minute they closed it on us with a bolt, 342 00:29:25,680 --> 00:29:28,140 terrible cries began inside 343 00:29:28,224 --> 00:29:31,685 in Polish, Yiddish, German - 344 00:29:31,770 --> 00:29:33,854 pleading, requests: 345 00:29:33,938 --> 00:29:36,982 "There's no air. We're suftocating." 346 00:29:37,066 --> 00:29:40,277 "Suftocating. Suftocating." 347 00:29:40,779 --> 00:29:45,616 Here suddenly you had a hell on wheels, 348 00:29:45,700 --> 00:29:48,660 and people suddenly stopped to be preoccupied 349 00:29:48,745 --> 00:29:51,079 either with the past or with the future, 350 00:29:51,164 --> 00:29:53,999 but with surViving the journey. 351 00:29:57,587 --> 00:30:01,924 (translator) The first to faint were children, women, old men and women. 352 00:30:02,008 --> 00:30:05,969 They all fell down like flies, exactly like flies. 353 00:30:08,598 --> 00:30:10,682 Father was standing next to me. 354 00:30:10,809 --> 00:30:14,978 All of a sudden, l see that he is falling. He has collapsed. 355 00:30:15,063 --> 00:30:17,356 l cried, "Father, Father!" 356 00:30:25,448 --> 00:30:29,868 Then l found a piece of wood on the floor of the wagon. 357 00:30:30,995 --> 00:30:33,664 l got up and began to beat with the piece of wood. 358 00:30:33,748 --> 00:30:37,292 lt was a club or something. 359 00:30:39,379 --> 00:30:42,881 l began to beat the people who were standing around me in the wagon 360 00:30:42,966 --> 00:30:48,178 so that they would make room for Father, so that Father could get up. 361 00:30:48,263 --> 00:30:51,765 l remember that l didn't care about the suftering of others, 362 00:30:51,850 --> 00:30:53,559 their cries, their threats, 363 00:30:53,643 --> 00:30:56,103 only that Father should get up. 364 00:31:05,572 --> 00:31:10,742 We had read the name of Auschwitz on the label on the trucks - 365 00:31:10,827 --> 00:31:14,246 in the trucks or the wagons. Trucks. 366 00:31:16,416 --> 00:31:21,378 But nobody of us knew what Auschwitz meant. 367 00:31:27,468 --> 00:31:31,889 (man) l could see two rows of barbed wire 368 00:31:31,973 --> 00:31:34,224 which were obviously electrical. 369 00:31:35,935 --> 00:31:41,273 And then l saw a row of people with carbines 370 00:31:41,357 --> 00:31:44,776 and a row of dogs - very disciplined dogs. 371 00:31:44,861 --> 00:31:48,488 And l was more amused than uneasy. 372 00:31:48,615 --> 00:31:52,868 l didn't think they would shoot me because l couldn't see a reason. 373 00:31:56,539 --> 00:31:59,833 (translator) The car was opened. They undid the bolt. 374 00:31:59,918 --> 00:32:05,213 The first moment it was opened, there was a sudden gust of air. 375 00:32:06,257 --> 00:32:10,052 lt was good. We began to throw out the dead bodies. 376 00:32:11,095 --> 00:32:14,765 But all of a sudden, there were voices: 377 00:32:14,849 --> 00:32:17,517 "Raus, raus. Schnell, schnell, schnell." 378 00:32:17,602 --> 00:32:20,103 "Quick, quick. Out, out, out." 379 00:32:20,855 --> 00:32:24,900 l was afraid then for the first time, and you know why? 380 00:32:24,984 --> 00:32:28,695 There were flames until the sky 381 00:32:28,780 --> 00:32:32,866 and a strange smell. 382 00:32:32,951 --> 00:32:38,246 The smell l remember from home when my mother burns on Friday a chicken. 383 00:32:40,541 --> 00:32:46,213 (narrator) On the platform to greet them, an SS reception committee. 384 00:32:46,297 --> 00:32:49,508 New arrivals were divided into two columns. 385 00:32:49,634 --> 00:32:53,136 A quick medical inspection by the camp doctors. 386 00:32:53,221 --> 00:32:55,764 Those fit to work were put to one side. 387 00:33:05,775 --> 00:33:08,360 ln the other column, all the rest - 388 00:33:08,444 --> 00:33:10,529 the old, 389 00:33:10,613 --> 00:33:12,406 the sick, 390 00:33:13,491 --> 00:33:14,658 the lame, 391 00:33:14,742 --> 00:33:17,244 pregnant mothers, 392 00:33:17,328 --> 00:33:19,329 women with children. 393 00:33:22,375 --> 00:33:26,920 Some suspect the worst. Most have no idea. 394 00:33:27,005 --> 00:33:31,299 (Rudolf Vrba) The idea of a mother being told, 395 00:33:31,426 --> 00:33:35,804 after this terrible journey, that her children are going to be gassed 396 00:33:35,888 --> 00:33:38,890 was an utter outrageous idea in her mind, 397 00:33:38,975 --> 00:33:41,685 because after all that she'd suftered, 398 00:33:41,769 --> 00:33:45,439 here comes a gangster who wants to increase her suftering. 399 00:33:45,523 --> 00:33:50,527 So she was tempted to go immediately to the next neat ofticer 400 00:33:50,611 --> 00:33:56,992 and say, "This man says, sir, that my children are going to be gassed." 401 00:33:57,076 --> 00:34:00,704 And he says, "Madam, do you think we are barbarians?" 402 00:34:05,418 --> 00:34:08,754 (narrator) Those to be gassed were told they would be deloused 403 00:34:08,838 --> 00:34:11,631 in the showers before starting work, 404 00:34:11,716 --> 00:34:14,718 then they would rejoin their families. 405 00:34:17,055 --> 00:34:20,474 They waited their turn, sometimes for hours. 406 00:34:21,768 --> 00:34:25,812 (translator) Höblinger said to me, "You are interested in the actions?" 407 00:34:25,897 --> 00:34:29,149 l said, "Yes, very interested indeed." 408 00:34:29,233 --> 00:34:32,319 He said, "l'll take you with me this evening." 409 00:34:35,740 --> 00:34:38,116 The new arrivals had to get undressed. 410 00:34:38,201 --> 00:34:41,328 When a certain number had gone inside, they shut the doors. 411 00:34:41,412 --> 00:34:44,456 And that happened three times. 412 00:34:46,334 --> 00:34:50,462 Every time, Höblinger had to go out to his ambulance and they took out a tin. 413 00:34:50,546 --> 00:34:53,632 One of the SS Biockführers did that. 414 00:34:55,593 --> 00:34:59,137 Then he climbed up the ladder and at the top there was a round hole, 415 00:34:59,222 --> 00:35:04,601 and he opened a little iron door and held the tin there and shook it. 416 00:35:04,685 --> 00:35:06,978 And then he shut the little door again. 417 00:35:07,063 --> 00:35:09,523 Then a fearful screaming started up. 418 00:35:09,607 --> 00:35:15,403 Approximately, l would reckon, after about ten minutes, it slowly went quiet. 419 00:35:16,447 --> 00:35:21,034 l said to Höblinger, "Can we get nearer when they're taken out?" We went closer. 420 00:35:21,119 --> 00:35:24,621 They opened the door - that was the prisoners' squad who did that - 421 00:35:24,705 --> 00:35:26,665 then a blue haze came out. 422 00:35:26,749 --> 00:35:29,334 And l looked in and l saw a pyramid. 423 00:35:29,418 --> 00:35:33,964 They'd all climbed on top of each other until the last one stood on the top. 424 00:35:34,048 --> 00:35:40,262 All one on top of the other. lt was a pointed heap. lt all came up to a point. 425 00:35:41,347 --> 00:35:45,851 And then the prisoners had to go in and tear it apart. 426 00:35:51,482 --> 00:35:57,195 They had to tug and pull very hard to disentangle all these people. 427 00:35:58,239 --> 00:36:02,492 Then we went back to the hall and it was the turn of the last lot to undress - 428 00:36:02,577 --> 00:36:05,996 the ones who'd managed to hang back a bit all the time. 429 00:36:06,080 --> 00:36:10,458 The prisoners had to check where small children had been hidden and covered up. 430 00:36:10,543 --> 00:36:15,922 They pulled them out and opened the doors quickly again and whoosh, 431 00:36:16,007 --> 00:36:19,509 they threw all the children in and slammed the doors. 432 00:36:19,594 --> 00:36:22,179 "Oh, ugh! l'm going to be sick," l said. 433 00:36:22,263 --> 00:36:27,392 "l've never seen anything like it in my life. lt's absolutely terrible." 434 00:36:27,476 --> 00:36:31,605 lmagine, when they threw the children in, how the people inside screamed 435 00:36:31,731 --> 00:36:34,900 because then they suddenly realised what was happening. 436 00:36:34,984 --> 00:36:39,779 And l said, "Karl, can we leave soon? l can't stand it any more." 437 00:36:39,906 --> 00:36:44,284 And he said, "You do get used to anything in time." 438 00:36:49,999 --> 00:36:52,876 (narrator) A few - the strong, the young - 439 00:36:52,960 --> 00:36:55,879 would work till they died. 440 00:36:56,923 --> 00:37:00,926 Some would die of exhaustion, some were beaten to death, 441 00:37:01,010 --> 00:37:06,431 some, too weak to work another day, were gassed in their turn. 442 00:37:07,099 --> 00:37:09,684 And prisoners had other uses - 443 00:37:10,102 --> 00:37:13,146 medical experiments. 444 00:37:23,157 --> 00:37:27,953 Some, their hearts broken, chose to die on the electrified wire. 445 00:37:28,871 --> 00:37:33,833 Outside that wire, SS men, free to go home to their families 446 00:37:33,960 --> 00:37:36,628 at the end of the day's work. 447 00:37:38,798 --> 00:37:44,135 And l remember when we passed 10,000 naked women on a frosty morning, 448 00:37:44,220 --> 00:37:47,305 already sorted out, you see, and put on the lorries. 449 00:37:47,390 --> 00:37:50,016 And they knew - they were all prisoners already - 450 00:37:50,142 --> 00:37:54,271 and they knew that they are now going to the gas chamber, and they were quiet. 451 00:37:54,355 --> 00:37:58,900 Somehow, people were accustomed to live with the moment, 452 00:37:58,985 --> 00:38:01,236 with the knowledge that death will come. 453 00:38:01,362 --> 00:38:05,115 But when the motors started - you know, this noise - 454 00:38:05,199 --> 00:38:07,367 this created a panic between the women, 455 00:38:07,493 --> 00:38:12,038 and a terrible noise went up from those lorries, you see. 456 00:38:12,123 --> 00:38:14,791 The death cry of thousands of young women 457 00:38:14,875 --> 00:38:18,795 who were already reduced to skeletons, and their... 458 00:38:18,879 --> 00:38:24,301 their futile attempts, which they knew by any logic that they can't succeed, 459 00:38:24,385 --> 00:38:28,138 to jump out from the lorries which take them to the gas chambers 460 00:38:28,222 --> 00:38:31,224 which are only, perhaps, less than a mile away, 461 00:38:31,309 --> 00:38:36,229 and which were already stoked and the fire was coming out from the chimneys. 462 00:38:36,314 --> 00:38:38,648 This means everything was prepared. 463 00:38:38,733 --> 00:38:43,278 This was the moment when the rabbi's son spoke to his God: 464 00:38:43,362 --> 00:38:47,032 "God, show them your power." 465 00:38:47,158 --> 00:38:49,242 "This is against you." 466 00:38:49,327 --> 00:38:51,411 And nothing happened. 467 00:38:51,495 --> 00:38:53,872 And then he said, "There is no God." 468 00:38:57,460 --> 00:39:01,796 (translator) We used to say, "Where is the world? Where is the United States?" 469 00:39:01,881 --> 00:39:04,716 "Where is Russia?" 470 00:39:04,800 --> 00:39:09,220 "Do they know what is happening here in the extermination camps at all?" 471 00:39:10,848 --> 00:39:15,352 There had, of course, been only too much evidence 472 00:39:15,436 --> 00:39:21,858 of the persecution of the Jews, before the war began, in Hitlerite Germany. 473 00:39:21,942 --> 00:39:24,861 And then, as the war progressed, 474 00:39:24,987 --> 00:39:29,199 some horrifying reports began to come out. 475 00:39:30,242 --> 00:39:36,748 At first it was very difticult, naturally, to assess their accuracy. 476 00:39:36,832 --> 00:39:41,044 They were, indeed, so horrible that it was hard to believe they could be true. 477 00:39:44,340 --> 00:39:48,468 (narrator) Among the working prisoners, a resistance movement. 478 00:39:48,552 --> 00:39:53,264 They smuggled out photographs with a plea to the great powers for help. 479 00:39:53,391 --> 00:39:59,813 The evidence was so extensive, one could hardly fail to give it credit, 480 00:39:59,897 --> 00:40:03,024 and we decided that one of the things we must do 481 00:40:03,109 --> 00:40:06,611 was to make a joint statement 482 00:40:06,695 --> 00:40:10,782 in each of our capitals at the same time, 483 00:40:10,866 --> 00:40:13,201 declaring what our information was 484 00:40:13,285 --> 00:40:16,621 and what this horror was that was being perpetrated, 485 00:40:16,705 --> 00:40:21,042 and also making plain our detestation of it 486 00:40:21,127 --> 00:40:24,045 and our determination that those responsible for it 487 00:40:24,130 --> 00:40:28,091 should be punished when the war was over. 488 00:40:28,175 --> 00:40:31,970 And that we got agreement upon after some negotiation, 489 00:40:32,096 --> 00:40:35,849 and it was near the end of 1942 490 00:40:35,933 --> 00:40:39,561 when l made the statement in the House of Commons 491 00:40:39,645 --> 00:40:46,317 with, l must say, a dramatic eftect far exceeding anything that l'd expected. 492 00:40:46,861 --> 00:40:49,904 And the Speaker - a very fine speaker, Algy FitzRoy - 493 00:40:49,989 --> 00:40:51,990 he got up and he said, 494 00:40:52,074 --> 00:40:56,161 "lt is for the House to rise if it so wishes to express its feelings." 495 00:40:56,245 --> 00:41:01,332 And the whole House got up. Lloyd George came to me afterwards and said: 496 00:41:01,417 --> 00:41:05,503 "ln all my years in parliament, l have never seen anything like this." 497 00:41:05,588 --> 00:41:07,964 He was deeply impressed, and so was l. 498 00:41:08,048 --> 00:41:11,050 Well, that was something that we could do. 499 00:41:11,927 --> 00:41:14,512 (narrator) ln April 1943, 500 00:41:14,597 --> 00:41:17,056 the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto rose, 501 00:41:17,141 --> 00:41:21,478 led by young men and women who knew the truth about resettlement, 502 00:41:21,562 --> 00:41:24,189 and determined to fight. 503 00:41:25,274 --> 00:41:27,692 They had pitifully few arms. 504 00:41:27,776 --> 00:41:30,111 They fought bravely. 505 00:41:32,656 --> 00:41:37,952 lt took the Germans 33 days to crush the ghetto. 506 00:41:39,830 --> 00:41:43,750 The surVivors were marched oft to share the fate of those who had gone, 507 00:41:43,834 --> 00:41:46,753 unresisting, before them. 508 00:41:48,214 --> 00:41:50,298 Theresienstadt. 509 00:41:50,841 --> 00:41:56,971 The Nazi cover story - resettlement in the east - was elaborately documented. 510 00:41:57,056 --> 00:41:59,307 This propaganda film made in 1943 511 00:41:59,391 --> 00:42:03,436 was designed to show the German public and the lnternational Red Cross 512 00:42:03,521 --> 00:42:08,066 what conditions in the resettlement camps were really like. 513 00:42:09,109 --> 00:42:11,486 By the time this film was released, 514 00:42:11,570 --> 00:42:14,697 most of the people seen here were already dead 515 00:42:14,782 --> 00:42:17,617 in the gas chambers at Auschwitz. 516 00:42:19,870 --> 00:42:22,705 By 1944, the Germans were losing the war. 517 00:42:22,790 --> 00:42:25,291 The SS speeded up the rate of killing. 518 00:42:27,753 --> 00:42:31,923 The railway tracks now led straight to the gas chambers. 519 00:42:32,424 --> 00:42:37,971 And still the trains rolled in from ltaly, from Greece, from Hungary. 520 00:42:38,055 --> 00:42:42,767 (translator) They took us to Crematoria lll and lV. 521 00:42:43,811 --> 00:42:46,396 There we saw hell on this earth - 522 00:42:47,439 --> 00:42:49,941 large piles of dead people, 523 00:42:52,194 --> 00:42:55,530 and people dragging these bodies to a long pit, 524 00:42:57,074 --> 00:43:00,410 about 30 metres in length and 10 metres in width. 525 00:43:01,328 --> 00:43:05,081 There was a huge fire there made of trees. 526 00:43:06,542 --> 00:43:11,421 On the other side, fat was being taken out of this pit with a bucket. 527 00:43:13,215 --> 00:43:15,383 We immediately had to begin working. 528 00:43:15,467 --> 00:43:18,928 Four people would take hold of one dead person. 529 00:43:20,014 --> 00:43:25,101 But the SS came and said, "No. Each one of you will take one." 530 00:43:28,397 --> 00:43:31,399 He showed us how with a simple walking stick. 531 00:43:31,483 --> 00:43:33,484 One was to take the body under the chin, 532 00:43:33,569 --> 00:43:36,904 put the stick on the neck and drag the body to the pit, 533 00:43:36,989 --> 00:43:40,491 like you would drag a rag or a piece of wood. 534 00:43:40,576 --> 00:43:46,873 At the edge of the pit, were still more people who pushed the dead into the pit. 535 00:43:46,957 --> 00:43:53,046 Some of our group threw themselves and jumped into the pit alive. 536 00:43:53,130 --> 00:43:59,385 They apparently thought it better to be burned alive rather than do such a job. 537 00:44:01,555 --> 00:44:05,141 There were only four or five SS men altogether. 538 00:44:06,352 --> 00:44:12,231 They were so well-organised that there were just four or five of them with us. 539 00:44:13,275 --> 00:44:19,280 But there were electric fences, and beyond this fence there were SS guards. 540 00:44:19,365 --> 00:44:21,449 Escape was impossible. 541 00:44:25,788 --> 00:44:31,084 After a week, they suddenly took me one night to Crematorium l. 542 00:44:32,044 --> 00:44:34,712 There, the whole job was more mechanical. 543 00:44:34,797 --> 00:44:40,176 All around, there were water installations as if for showers. 544 00:44:42,763 --> 00:44:47,558 Everyone crowded around these showers. They still didn't know. 545 00:44:47,643 --> 00:44:54,023 Some who did not dare to believe that they were going to be poisoned. 546 00:44:54,108 --> 00:44:59,696 They would put about two thousand, two and a half thousand people in there. 547 00:44:59,780 --> 00:45:02,699 lf there wasn't room, the small children would be thrown 548 00:45:02,783 --> 00:45:05,827 on top of the people's heads. 549 00:45:06,870 --> 00:45:08,955 There were invalids. 550 00:45:09,039 --> 00:45:13,209 They would take out their serVice cards showing that they had fought in WWl 551 00:45:13,293 --> 00:45:17,547 with all kinds of distinctions and medals which they had from that time. 552 00:45:17,631 --> 00:45:21,968 They shouted, "We fought for Germany, now they're going to burn us, kill us." 553 00:45:22,052 --> 00:45:26,556 "This is impossible. We protest against such a thing." 554 00:45:26,640 --> 00:45:29,517 But everyone just laughed at them. 555 00:45:29,601 --> 00:45:32,603 They didn't take it seriously, these SS men. 556 00:45:32,688 --> 00:45:35,398 They laughed at the whole thing. 557 00:45:36,483 --> 00:45:41,070 There were invalids l helped to undress as they couldn't do it by themselves. 558 00:45:41,155 --> 00:45:45,408 There were many of us who helped. l would talk to these people. 559 00:45:45,492 --> 00:45:48,661 There were cases where l saw acquaintances. 560 00:45:48,746 --> 00:45:53,332 My heart wouldn't let me walk over to them to let them recognise me. 561 00:45:53,417 --> 00:45:59,005 No one who hasn't gone through such a thing can imagine the will to live, 562 00:45:59,089 --> 00:46:01,549 what a moment of life is. 563 00:46:02,760 --> 00:46:05,011 Every person, without exception, 564 00:46:05,137 --> 00:46:09,766 is capable of doing the worst things just to live another minute. 565 00:46:21,862 --> 00:46:25,364 Many women miscarried during the poisoning. 566 00:46:25,449 --> 00:46:29,577 People hit each other. People scratched with their nails. 567 00:46:29,661 --> 00:46:32,163 There were fingernail marks on people. 568 00:46:33,207 --> 00:46:37,418 Everyone wanted to surVive, but it was impossible there. 569 00:46:44,134 --> 00:46:46,594 We went in to take out all the corpses. 570 00:46:46,678 --> 00:46:50,223 We took them up by lifts to the ovens. 571 00:46:53,435 --> 00:46:59,690 Near the ovens upstairs, there was a man who removed gold teeth and false teeth. 572 00:47:00,818 --> 00:47:02,693 They would shave the women's hair 573 00:47:02,778 --> 00:47:07,490 and look for valuables in the most intimate of places, 574 00:47:07,574 --> 00:47:10,284 especially on the women. 575 00:47:10,369 --> 00:47:14,580 ln the oven, it took 15 minutes to burn them. 576 00:47:14,665 --> 00:47:19,502 Only a few ashes were left from all those corpses. 577 00:47:20,337 --> 00:47:23,589 (narrator) The industry of death had useful by-products. 578 00:47:23,674 --> 00:47:27,343 Women's hair was packed in bales, gold teeth melted down, 579 00:47:27,427 --> 00:47:33,307 artificial limbs and spectacle lenses recycled for the German war machine. 580 00:47:33,392 --> 00:47:35,476 lt all helped. 581 00:47:44,069 --> 00:47:46,404 ln July 1944, 582 00:47:46,488 --> 00:47:50,867 the Russians liberated Lublin in eastern Poland. 583 00:47:51,326 --> 00:47:55,079 Close by, they found the extermination camp at Majdanek, 584 00:47:55,205 --> 00:47:57,957 where tens of thousands had died. 585 00:48:05,090 --> 00:48:08,509 The proofs of horror were all too clear. 586 00:48:09,678 --> 00:48:12,430 Only 170 miles away, 587 00:48:12,514 --> 00:48:16,058 the ovens of Auschwitz were busier than ever. 588 00:48:18,770 --> 00:48:21,230 (translator) There were two shifts at work, 589 00:48:21,315 --> 00:48:25,026 from six in the morning to six at night. 590 00:48:29,114 --> 00:48:32,867 l was present when they brought the Gypsies one night for burning, 591 00:48:32,951 --> 00:48:35,202 for poisoning. 592 00:48:35,287 --> 00:48:37,788 lt was a terrible sight. 593 00:48:41,585 --> 00:48:44,253 There were cries to the sky. 594 00:48:50,302 --> 00:48:53,054 The cries in the bunker, in the crematorium, 595 00:48:53,180 --> 00:48:56,223 in the gas chamber, were horrible. 596 00:48:57,309 --> 00:48:59,393 Horrible. 597 00:49:00,604 --> 00:49:04,231 l still wonder today how God didn't hear these cries. 598 00:49:07,653 --> 00:49:10,738 (narrator) The German army was now retreating on all fronts, 599 00:49:10,822 --> 00:49:13,783 leaving fire and destruction behind. 600 00:49:13,867 --> 00:49:16,702 lt tried to destroy evidence of the camps, 601 00:49:16,787 --> 00:49:20,790 pulling up railway lines, dismantling equipment. 602 00:49:31,426 --> 00:49:35,388 Yet even now, Himmler urged the master race to fight on. 603 00:49:35,472 --> 00:49:39,517 Defeat was unthinkable, their task unfinished. 604 00:49:41,728 --> 00:49:47,358 (translator) Eichmann said at that time six million people had been killed, 605 00:49:48,402 --> 00:49:52,530 four million in concentration camps and similar setups, 606 00:49:53,573 --> 00:49:58,411 and two million by shooting - Einsatzkommandos. 607 00:49:58,495 --> 00:50:01,539 And he told me at that time... lt was fantastic, really. 608 00:50:01,623 --> 00:50:06,460 l had thought a lot of people had been killed, but six million? 609 00:50:06,586 --> 00:50:11,716 Well, he said - and just imagine, that was still too few for Himmler. 610 00:50:11,800 --> 00:50:14,719 Himmler said to me, "'There must be more than that."' 611 00:50:14,803 --> 00:50:17,054 And he set up his own statistics unit - 612 00:50:17,139 --> 00:50:21,225 today, one would say computer people - who were to check up on this. 613 00:50:23,103 --> 00:50:27,606 (narrator) The Russians reached Auschwitz in January 1945. 614 00:50:28,650 --> 00:50:32,570 The Germans had moved most of the surViving prisoners back west, 615 00:50:32,654 --> 00:50:34,196 into Germany. 616 00:50:34,281 --> 00:50:38,409 Some, too old or too sick to be moved, remained. 617 00:50:56,720 --> 00:51:02,975 And there were the relics and belongings of those who had been brought here. 618 00:51:12,778 --> 00:51:15,946 Then rescuers reached the camps in Germany itself, 619 00:51:16,031 --> 00:51:17,656 where, by now, 620 00:51:17,741 --> 00:51:22,286 the surVivors of the extermination camps had been abandoned. 621 00:51:35,675 --> 00:51:40,679 They found the stench of rotting corpses, cholera, typhus. 622 00:51:41,598 --> 00:51:45,643 Many who were rescued were too weak to surVive. 623 00:51:56,571 --> 00:52:00,991 Some lived to bear witness. 624 00:52:02,202 --> 00:52:06,622 (translator) When the Americans entered, l weighed 42 kilos. 625 00:52:06,748 --> 00:52:09,125 l was skin and bones. 626 00:52:12,963 --> 00:52:15,506 l walked around the camp naked. 627 00:52:15,590 --> 00:52:18,425 l had a belt with a plate, 628 00:52:19,469 --> 00:52:22,138 spoon and revolver. 629 00:52:23,265 --> 00:52:26,475 This was all my property after the liberation. 630 00:52:52,586 --> 00:52:55,796 l bless every day that l continue to live, 631 00:52:55,881 --> 00:52:58,966 because every day that l live is pure profit. 632 00:53:00,010 --> 00:53:03,304 l could say that today l'm 27 years old. 633 00:53:03,388 --> 00:53:05,598 The years before the camp don't count, 634 00:53:05,682 --> 00:53:11,228 as l was dead in the camp and reborn after the liberation.