0:00

It's April the 28th 1945,

0:04

just before midnight. We're

0:07

in Berlin at the Führerbunker. A

0:11

man called Walter Wagner sits before

0:13

a battered wooden table. These

0:16

days Wagner is a war-weary member

0:18

of the Home Guard, but in peacetime

0:21

he was a lawyer, a notary. On

0:25

that basis he's been summoned here

0:27

to officiate at an intimate private ceremony.

0:31

In the stale air and dim

0:33

lighting, Wagner quizzes the man

0:35

and woman sitting opposite. He

0:38

fills out the paperwork and checks credentials. Are

0:41

the couple who they say they are? Are

0:43

their dates of birth correct? And

0:46

of course, are they of Aryan

0:48

blood?

0:49

He's out.

0:51

With formalities over and rings exchanged,

0:54

he declares them husband and wife.

0:58

The bride looks splendid in her black silk

1:01

dress.

1:01

But there will be

1:03

no photographs, no confetti, nor

1:06

for that matter, any smiles.

1:11

When she signs the register, the enormity

1:13

of what has happened

1:14

hasn't quite sunk in.

1:18

She writes her name, Eva Braun,

1:20

crosses it out and corrects it. For

1:25

one night only, actually two,

1:28

she will be the First Lady and

1:30

the last of the Third Reich.

1:34

Mrs. Eva Hitler. From

1:37

Neuse, this is the final part of the Hitler story.

2:00

no hope for Nazi Germany.

2:02

In the east, the Red Army rampages

2:05

ever closer. In the west, the

2:07

Allies have slogged their way to the Rhine.

2:10

From the skies, the Anglo-American bombing

2:13

has swelled to such a crescendo that

2:15

it seems unlikely the fatherland can withstand

2:17

much more. Sixty cities

2:19

destroyed, at least three hundred thousand

2:22

dead. One by

2:24

one, Hitler's Axis associates

2:26

have thrown in the towel. The

2:28

dream of a Nazi empire

2:31

from the Pyrenees to the Urals has

2:34

gone up in smoke. Having

2:38

stormed through the Baltic states, the

2:40

Soviets train their sights on East Prussia.

2:44

At Tannenberg, at the Great Military

2:47

Memorial, Hitler orders the removal

2:49

of the coffin of President Hindenburg. In 1934,

2:53

at the old man's funeral, the Great Flaming

2:56

Towers have provided a dramatic backdrop

2:58

to Hitler's ascension to power. It

3:01

seems a long time ago. Hitler

3:05

is not the only one alarmed at the rate of the Soviet

3:07

advance. Stalin has gobbled

3:09

up Romania, Bulgaria, and

3:11

the chunk of Hungary. His Red

3:14

Army has moved into Yugoslavia. The

3:17

land grab is putting the wind up Roosevelt

3:19

in Churchill. Senior

3:22

Nazis pin their hopes on the Western Allies

3:24

ditching on Congeo, joining

3:26

forces with Germany to thwart the Bolshevik

3:29

hordes. Professor

3:32

Helen Rush.

3:33

I mean, anti-Bolshevik, anti-Russian

3:35

propaganda had always been quite

3:37

key to the Nazi platform right from the

3:39

beginning. But as you come into the final

3:42

days of the war, it just reaches

3:44

a kind of hysterical peak.

3:47

Goebbels is orchestrating these atrocity

3:50

stories, real horror movie

3:52

stuff, rape and mutilation and

3:55

all of this kind of rhetoric.

3:57

This is also, I think, why you get a space

3:59

of suicides towards the

4:02

end of the war. You get so

4:04

many Germans who, when the war seems to be coming

4:06

to an end, they just think the

4:08

retribution from the

4:10

enemy is going to be so terrible that it's

4:13

not worth living.

4:16

Professor Nicholas of Schonesty.

4:19

He actually played a German public

4:21

opinion like a stratovarius. We

4:24

see Goebbels and the propaganda

4:26

machine as hysterical, hyperbolic,

4:29

but actually they used a great

4:31

deal of reasonable seeming

4:34

argument. The clincher is right

4:36

until the end. They could always

4:39

point out the illogicality of

4:41

the Allies position that it's based

4:44

on a total ideological

4:46

contradiction between capitalism and

4:48

communism, between America and

4:50

Russia, and it's going to break up.

4:54

Sir Anthony Beaver.

4:56

The great joke in Berlin at the time,

4:58

if you can call it a joke, is Optimus de

5:00

Lernie English and Professor Mr. Lernie Russian,

5:02

and that was certainly true. And

5:05

even before Christmas, they were saying, be practical,

5:07

give a coffee. They realized

5:10

that there might well be all marched after Siberia

5:12

or a slave labor, but there was always

5:14

somehow the hope. And this is something

5:16

where, with certainly shameless

5:19

dishonesty, the Nazis tried to

5:21

pass around rumors that they were doing

5:23

a deal with the Western Allies when Hitler

5:25

had no intention of doing any deal with the

5:27

Western Allies at all.

5:31

In February 1945, the

5:33

big three Allied leaders will convene

5:35

again, this time at the Yalta Conference.

5:39

Here they will demarcate their European

5:41

spheres of influence.

5:43

Military, the defeat of Germany

5:46

is a done deal. The focus

5:48

now is on the far east

5:50

and finishing off Japan. The

5:54

Soviets have already begun their last big push,

5:57

the Vistula Oda offensive, clearing

5:59

the path to the war. to Berlin. As

6:03

in 1939, Poland is the crucible of

6:05

what used to be Poland. At

6:09

the outset of the war, Poland

6:11

had been carved up between Nazi Germany

6:14

and the USSR. In

6:16

the summer of 1941, Germany then swallowed

6:19

Poland whole. The

6:21

western part, ethnically cleansed,

6:25

was absorbed into the Reich. The

6:28

remainder has been run as a colony, the

6:30

general governor for the occupied Polish

6:32

region, or just general government.

6:36

Effectively, it's the personal fiefdom

6:39

of a man named Hans Frank. If

6:42

the name sounds familiar, it's

6:44

because Frank was, for many years, Hitler's

6:46

lawyer, going all the way back

6:48

to his trial after the Munich putsch

6:51

in 1923.

6:54

Dr. Chris Dillon. So

6:56

on Hans Frank's patch, the Polish inhabitants

6:58

are technically stateless, so they're like any kind

7:00

of rights. And this gives

7:03

Frank an almost limitless power, and

7:05

it certainly goes to Frank's head. So

7:08

Hans Frank, for example, confiscates a huge

7:10

country estate for his personal use. He

7:13

builds an imitation of Hitler's

7:15

bearcoth. Frank is driven around in

7:17

a luxurious limousine, he grows

7:20

so fat from lavish banquets that

7:22

new uniforms have to be designed for him.

7:25

Frank and his cronies plunder the general

7:27

government, and it's a place of just limitless

7:30

racial oppression. And the

7:33

net result of Frank's tenure

7:36

is that whereas 11 million

7:38

Poles have lived in this area in 1939, by the

7:41

time the Red Army arrived in 1944 to liberate it, there's

7:46

only seven million people there. It's

7:48

an extraordinary loss of life and of

7:50

expulsion that is overseen by Hans

7:52

Frank.

7:55

The new Poland was intended to be the stepping

7:57

stone to Hitler's racial utopia.

8:00

part of the relocation of twenty million

8:02

Germans to the East. Hitler

8:05

had declared it a new Garden of Eden.

8:08

In reality, on the soil of Poland,

8:11

the Nazis have built those camps whose

8:14

names live in infamy. Shelmo,

8:17

Cheblinka, Meidenik,

8:20

Sobibor, Belzec,

8:23

Auschwitz.

8:26

Despite the inevitability of defeat, these

8:29

camps have gone into a final orgy

8:31

of extermination. The

8:34

Hungarian government is now seeking peace with the

8:37

Soviet Union,

8:38

but Hitler marches into Budapest and

8:40

installs a bloodthirsty Nazi-style

8:43

regime,

8:44

one eager to please.

8:47

Auschwitz reaches its murderous peak

8:50

in the early summer of 1944 with the deportation of

8:55

Hungary's remaining Jewish population. Almost

8:57

half a million Jews arrive in Auschwitz

9:00

between May and July

9:03

alone, and the vast majority

9:05

are murdered in gas chambers on arrivals.

9:08

This is an extremely intense phase

9:10

of mass murder, which even though

9:12

it's later in the war is the highest

9:14

death count that the Nazis inflict on Europe's

9:17

Jews.

9:20

Still the authorities remain coy about

9:23

the industrialized nature of the killing. They

9:26

describe it in euphemisms,

9:28

evacuation,

9:30

deportation,

9:31

resettlement.

9:33

In the summer of 1943, a Nazi

9:36

judge named Konrad Morgan enters

9:39

the equation. He delivers

9:41

Himmler a report. Is

9:43

the dear Reichsführer aware that

9:45

in some of these concentration camps,

9:48

Jews are being systematically murdered? He

9:52

stumbled upon this information while investigating

9:54

the commandant of Meidenik, Karl

9:56

Otto Koch. Koch

9:59

has been caught with his

9:59

hand in the pill,

10:01

racketeering, hiring out his

10:03

inmates as local labour. A

10:06

bit of digging has revealed widespread embezzlement.

10:09

There's even an allegation that the

10:11

Commandant's wife has a lampshade

10:14

made of human skin. What's

10:17

more, Cox's personal enrichment, here

10:19

and previously, seems accompanied

10:21

by a slew of unsanctioned killings.

10:25

Morgan is more concerned with the legality of

10:27

these actions, rather than the morality. He

10:30

prepares some 800 cases of homicide

10:33

against Cox, his deputies

10:35

and others. But Hans

10:37

Frank steps in. He refuses

10:40

to acknowledge that such things could be happening

10:43

on his turf. Hitler

10:45

adds that any deaths must surely be due

10:47

to disease, though for

10:49

good measure, he will have Cox

10:52

shot. Morgan

10:54

is undaunted. He extends

10:56

his inquiries. With Auschwitz

10:59

next on the list, Himmler shuts

11:01

down the investigation. Hitler

11:04

decrees that they should cease all camp

11:06

operations outside the borders of Germany.

11:09

But with the Soviets liberating Cox camp

11:12

in July 1944, the

11:14

dirty secret

11:15

is out. There

11:20

is a contradiction at the heart of the Nazi

11:22

myth. The new Germany,

11:25

supposedly ethnically pure,

11:27

is now overrun with refugees and forced

11:30

labourers, 300,000 in Berlin alone.

11:34

There was a lot of anxiety about

11:37

what that meant in terms of things

11:39

like sexual relations as well,

11:41

because obviously, most German

11:44

men are off at the front and

11:46

you have this kind of moral

11:48

panic, in a sense, about what's happening

11:51

if you've got German men being replaced

11:53

by foreign men who may be making

11:56

moves and, you know, this was

11:59

something that did happen. you get relationships

12:01

happening.

12:02

There are other reasons for Germans

12:04

to be fearful. In 1943

12:07

the Jews of Warsaw walled

12:10

up in a ghetto had risen against

12:12

their Nazi overlords. Resisting

12:15

clearance for transportation, 1500 fighters

12:19

used a stash of smuggled weapons to

12:22

battle from the tunnels and cellars underneath

12:24

the city. They held

12:26

out for 33 days until

12:29

the SS moved in with flamethrowers.

12:33

The cruelty of this suppression was staggering.

12:37

But if the Poles believe the Soviets will be any

12:39

more merciful, they've got another

12:41

thing coming.

12:49

How does a single human being convince

12:51

thousands to kill for them and millions

12:53

to turn a blind eye? Real

12:55

Dictators is the new podcast

12:57

series presented by me, Paul McGann, that

13:00

explores the hidden lives of tyrants such

13:02

as Adolf Hitler, Chairman Mao, Kim

13:04

Jong-il. You'll be right there in their

13:07

meeting rooms and private quarters, watching

13:09

on as they make the decisions that shape the world

13:12

as we know it. You'll hear the voices

13:14

of regime insiders, escapees

13:16

and world-renowned experts. Check

13:18

out Real Dictators wherever you listen to your favorite

13:21

shows or at realdictators.com.

13:27

Hitler, despite all evidence to the country, still

13:29

thinks the war can be won. Desperate

13:32

for a breakthrough, he'd rushed into

13:34

service the V-1 flying bomb. It

13:37

was part of his much vaunted Miracle Weapons

13:40

program. The

13:42

V-1's successor, the V-2 rocket,

13:45

is a ballistic missile. Launched

13:47

from bases in Holland, the V-2

13:50

can strike London in minutes. There

13:52

is no defense against it. It's

13:55

the brainchild of a rocket scientist, of

13:58

Werner von Braun. He

14:00

will soon be spirited away to the United

14:02

States to work on its space

14:04

program. But

14:07

the V-2 is a vanity project, a

14:09

costly one, not least for the 12,000 workers

14:12

who die in its

14:14

construction.

14:16

Freeman Dyson was a scientist

14:18

during the war, calculated at the time

14:21

that for each V-2 rocket you

14:23

could have built 15 German fighter

14:26

aircraft to defend the Third Reich. Dyson

14:30

said it's an extraordinary thing to say

14:32

that every time he heard a V-2 explosion

14:35

his heart leapt with joy because

14:38

he realized, you know, this is 15 jets,

14:40

the Germans are not going to be able to build.

14:44

It's the power of the imagery which

14:46

is what always engages

14:49

Hitler. It's never clear that he's

14:51

anything more than an opera

14:53

set designer. And

14:55

this is the ultimate grand opera. We

14:58

will destroy your country with rockets.

15:01

As Tom Nera said in his famous song,

15:04

when the rockets go up, who

15:06

cares where they come down? It's not our

15:08

department says Wernher von Brann.

15:11

There is talk of an atomic bomb project

15:14

using heavy water from Norway, of

15:17

a mega gun that can destroy London, of

15:20

Japanese style kamikaze squadrons,

15:23

of mountain fortresses in the Alps from

15:25

where the Nazis can start Armageddon. And

15:29

for Hitler, one last cunning

15:31

plan. In

15:36

May 1940, Hitler had stunned the world

15:38

by rolling over France in just four weeks.

15:41

His panzers had burst

15:43

through the supposedly impenetrable Ardennes

15:45

Forest. His brain

15:47

wave this time, he's going

15:50

to stage a rerun. Ardennes

15:53

II, the sequel, will see

15:55

the Wehrmacht steamroller through Belgium

15:58

split the British and American armies. and

16:00

drive to the sea at Antwerp. The

16:04

Western Allies will then sue for peace, leaving

16:06

Hitler to go back to beating the Russians. And

16:10

he's going to fight dirty. He's

16:12

going to dress up English-speaking soldiers

16:14

in American uniforms and deposit

16:16

them behind US lines, sowing

16:19

confusion. Field

16:22

Marshal Model has a confession for his

16:24

Fuhrer. He thinks the plan

16:26

is bonkers. The

16:28

plan with his generals, says Hitler, is

16:31

they lack vision. He

16:33

should have done as Stalin did and had them

16:35

purged.

16:38

So his idea really was to

16:40

take the Allies by surprise. And

16:42

with any luck, this might lead to a second

16:45

Dunkirk. I mean, it was, again, fantasy.

16:48

All of his generals tried to warn him

16:50

that actually Manchur, you

16:52

know, I'm afraid this one is over-optimistic.

16:54

We haven't got the fuel. We

16:56

haven't actually got the troops and certainly

16:59

not the tanks. Even if we managed

17:01

to break through, we have not got

17:03

the troops to hold the corridor.

17:07

On December 11th, Hitler moved to

17:09

his Western bunker, the Eagles' Erie.

17:12

Everything is set.

17:14

A special detachment of troops is assembled

17:17

under the hero commander, Otto Scusini.

17:20

They've been schooled

17:22

in New York street talk and the latest

17:24

baseball scores, as well as

17:26

the art of misdirecting traffic. The

17:30

staff remark on Hitler's appalling physical

17:33

condition. His skin is gray,

17:35

he's hunched and trembling. He's dragging

17:37

a leg. But he has one

17:39

thing they don't.

17:41

The luck of the devil.

17:47

December the 16th, 5.30 a.m.

17:50

in the Ardennes Forest. Snow

17:53

has fallen thick. The winding

17:55

roads are covered with ice. The

17:57

Germans are in retreat. The

18:00

idea of a counter offensive seems

18:02

preposterous.

18:04

So relaxed are the Americans. The

18:06

line is manned by reserve. Troops,

18:08

cocks, truck drivers,

18:10

rookie recruits. What

18:14

they don't realize is the 250,000

18:17

men of the Wehrmacht in Arctic

18:20

fighting gear

18:21

are moving forward.

18:23

The main thrust focused on a seven mile

18:25

gap. This

18:27

time, it's the Allies who are caught

18:30

napping. Behind the

18:32

lines, Hitler's fake GIs

18:34

snap telephone wires and reroute

18:36

tank columns.

18:38

In the vanguard, SS Panzer units

18:40

smash through the Americans to the heights

18:43

above the stone.

18:46

At the Eagle's Eerie, Hitler is crowing.

18:49

He even okay's a plan to kidnap General

18:51

Eisenhower. But

18:54

behind the scenes, there was a heavy

18:56

case of the I told you so's. Hitler

18:59

has thrown everything into the opening assault.

19:02

There's nothing in reserve.

19:05

Within ten days, the attack has lost

19:07

momentum. And momentum

19:10

is the one thing that Blitzkrieg relies upon.

19:13

Professor Thomas Faber.

19:15

They know this cannot somehow be some kind

19:17

of slow battle. It needs to

19:19

happen with lightning speed. This cannot

19:22

possibly, as far as the Germans are concerned, be

19:24

a protracted battle or even

19:26

turn into battle of attrition.

19:30

The Americans will call this the Battle

19:32

of the Bulge, due to the

19:34

German salient protruding into their

19:36

lines. It's particularly

19:38

savage. One of the US

19:41

Army's bloodiest engagements.

19:43

But

19:44

within five weeks, the Germans

19:46

have retreated. The American

19:48

sector is back up to strength.

19:51

Hitler has staked his shirt and

19:53

lost it. But

20:01

one thing it does do, it does prove to

20:03

the Americans that the Germans are indeed still

20:05

very dangerous. And when you look

20:08

at the casualty rates of the Allies

20:10

and the Americans in late 1944 or 1945,

20:13

they go up significantly.

20:16

So this war is not over. I mean, we can

20:18

see the writing on the wall, but that doesn't translate

20:20

to the infantrymen who still has to clear out

20:23

these towns and move into Germany proper.

20:26

So where now for the Führer?

20:29

Literally.

20:30

The Russians are closing in on the Wolf's Lair at

20:33

Rastenberg. Hitler's

20:35

Alpine home, the Berghof, is equally

20:37

unsafe, far too identifiable

20:40

a target. So on January 16,

20:42

1945, the Führer moves

20:45

to Berlin, somewhere he rarely

20:48

visits. He expresses

20:50

a wish to make a heroic last stand

20:52

among his people. He

20:54

will do so from the chancellery itself, or

20:57

rather the Führerbunker, the

20:59

concrete complex of rooms beneath

21:02

its gardens.

21:03

The staff and secretaries return, too.

21:07

At 24 years old, Hitler's favorite,

21:10

Traude Ljunga, is already a widow.

21:14

She is back after a bleak Christmas in Munich. She

21:17

tells her boss about the bombing raids, about

21:20

the soldiers returning emaciated in the

21:22

Frostbichner, about the new civil

21:24

militia comprised of old men and children.

21:28

Don't worry, says Hitler, patting her

21:30

cheek. This will soon be over. On

21:37

January the 27th, Auschwitz

21:40

is liberated. That

21:42

same day, Hitler gives a military

21:44

conference in the chancellery. The

21:47

building is bomb-damaged, its windows

21:49

blown out. He spouts

21:51

all the usual nonsense about the glories

21:53

of the Great War, and how his comrades

21:56

dug in and never gave up.

21:59

Theo Morell, Hitler's personal physician,

22:02

was recently dismissed, by the way,

22:05

finally exposed as a quack. The

22:08

drugs he was pumping into the furor were inducing

22:11

psychosis. Morell

22:13

was dragged away, kicking and screaming.

22:17

But the madness doesn't let up. General

22:19

Guderian is especially frustrated. Heinrich

22:22

Himmler, a man with no military

22:25

experience whatsoever, but

22:27

who likes dressing up in uniforms, has

22:29

been put in charge of protecting Berlin

22:31

from the East. The

22:33

SS chief is now pitched against the mighty Soviet

22:36

General Zukov, and the one-time

22:38

chicken farmer is being well and truly

22:41

plucked. Add

22:43

to that an entire army

22:45

of 200,000 men is now

22:47

marooned in Latvia, the

22:49

coolant pocket.

22:52

Never forget that right at the end

22:55

of the war, as the Russian armies

22:57

are in the suburbs of Berlin, there are still

22:59

huge German armies intact elsewhere

23:02

in Europe to hold on territory. There

23:04

was the garrison in the Netherlands,

23:06

there was the garrison in Norway.

23:09

There was, of course, the army of

23:11

Italy under Kesselring. So

23:14

they didn't withdraw them. This

23:18

is something which comes

23:20

back to Hitler's mentality as a

23:22

First World War trench corporal. You

23:25

never give ground. And

23:27

so they could have defended the Reich.

23:30

Hitler embarks on a two-hour rant,

23:33

issuing the usual accusations of betrayal.

23:36

Guderian is told to take six weeks leave.

23:40

But Hitler's faith in Himmler, in his big

23:42

beasts, has been sorely misplaced.

23:45

What really happens now is that

23:47

people really divide into two groups. One

23:50

think that this is the end. They

23:53

think that they will die either in the

23:55

last stand or that they would commit suicide

23:58

once the war is over. But

24:01

then there are others, and a surprisingly large

24:04

number of Germans, who think that they can turn their back

24:06

on Hitler and that

24:08

they can do a deal with the British and Americans.

24:11

And these include people like Göring, people

24:13

like Himmler.

24:17

Through

24:17

Hermann Göring,

24:18

lines of communication have been kept open

24:21

to neutral Sweden.

24:23

When Hitler finds out about the back-channeling, he

24:25

flies into a classic rage. He

24:28

warns Göring he could have him shot. Himmler

24:32

meanwhile has launched a separate peace initiative.

24:36

In one of the most shame-faced moves of the war,

24:39

he has reached out to representatives of

24:41

the World Jewish Congress.

24:44

In a twisted logic,

24:46

Himmler paints this move as a humanitarian

24:48

act. He's doing it to save

24:51

Jews.

24:53

In fact, he's

24:54

using the remaining camp prisoners as

24:56

bargaining chips.

24:58

Bizarrely, even someone like Himmler

25:01

to state the obvious, who is responsible

25:04

more than anyone else other than Hitler for

25:06

the Holocaust. He is meeting a representative

25:09

of the World Jewish Congress in

25:12

the belief that somehow, even

25:14

after everything that has happened, even

25:17

after close than six million Jews

25:19

that he and other Germans have

25:22

killed, he still somehow thinks there can

25:24

be some kind of deal. It's, of course, delusional.

25:27

It's interesting that a lot

25:29

of the higher members

25:32

of the hierarchy, they

25:34

aren't so brought into Naziism that they

25:37

don't want to imagine a

25:39

life beyond Naziism and beyond

25:41

Hitler. In fact, they're just desperate

25:44

to break whatever deals they

25:46

think will save their skin. Himmler

25:49

is a really good example of that. Having

25:51

orchestrated the Holocaust in its entirety,

25:54

he then begins sort of keeping back

25:56

various pockets of Jewish

25:59

custody. If you like, he can

26:01

then use Tabata

26:04

with international organizations.

26:30

When Eva Braun returns to Berlin, she confirms

26:33

more rumors. That, as the

26:35

Western Allies approach, surrenders

26:37

are coming in thick and fast. When

26:40

the Bishop of Munster hands over his town,

26:42

Hitler

26:43

says he'll have him hanged.

26:52

The Führerbunker is a miserable grey shelter.

26:55

Its 12-foot thick reinforced roof is

26:57

encased beneath a further 30 feet of

27:00

concrete. Inside,

27:02

you cross dock boards over endless puddles.

27:06

It's been built below the water table, making

27:09

the quarters that are cramped, damp

27:11

and airless, so much

27:14

for living space. Pumped,

27:17

drawn round the clock, that

27:19

is the air conditioning, and

27:21

so does Hitler.

27:23

And there is no natural light. Clanging

27:28

down a metal stairway, you enter a low ceiling

27:30

warren of rooms, cubicles,

27:33

a kitchen and an officer's mess.

27:37

The switchboard and telex machines connect

27:40

the bunker to the outside world, though

27:42

the most reliable news now comes from the officially

27:45

forbidden

27:45

BBC. At

27:49

the far end is the six-room

27:51

suite occupied by Hitler and

27:53

Eva Braun.

27:55

The solar dormant is a portrait

27:58

of Frederick the Great,

27:59

which the

27:59

The Fuhrer gazes at for inspiration.

28:03

This is their life from now on, and

28:06

it's a paranoid existence. All

28:08

who enter the bunker must surrender their weapons.

28:15

Amid the doom and gloom there's a ray of sunshine.

28:17

On April the 12th, T-Total

28:20

Hitler decrees that champagne

28:22

must be opened. A stunning bulletin

28:24

has just come in. President

28:27

Franklin D. Roosevelt is dead. He'd

28:30

been at his retreat in Georgia and took to bed,

28:33

complaining of a headache. He

28:35

died soon after of a cerebral

28:37

hemorrhage. FDR's

28:41

death is certainly a blow to the Allies,

28:43

but Vice President Harry S. Truman is

28:46

promptly sworn in. The

28:48

show must go on. In

28:50

a representative democracy, not

28:53

everything revolves around a figurehead leader.

28:56

Victory is not, as Goebbels now claims,

28:58

written in the stars. Meanwhile,

29:04

Soviet troops begin to encircle Berlin.

29:08

Hitler pins his hope on an army led by

29:11

SS General Felix Steiner.

29:13

Just like in the cowboy stories Hitler loved

29:16

as a child, Steiner will ride

29:18

in and save the day. Steiner,

29:21

by the way, has been involved in yet another

29:23

plot to remove Hitler, this time

29:26

for reasons of insanity. April

29:31

the 20th, 1945.

29:35

Today is Adolf Hitler's 56th birthday.

29:39

He's kicked off festivities by deciding

29:41

to burn his personal papers. Though

29:44

given that he hardly wrote any of his orders down,

29:46

this

29:47

ship will be too taxing for his staff.

29:51

The Red Army is mere miles away.

29:54

In the bunker the shelling has become so

29:56

intense that the chance to escape

29:59

up to the surface

29:59

giving the all clear, to stroll

30:02

in the rubble of the Chancellery Garden is

30:04

increasingly rare. But

30:07

there is duty to be done. Hitler

30:10

must pin medals on the boy soldiers

30:12

of the Hitler Youth, defending the last

30:14

few city blocks of the Third Reich. Hitler,

30:19

the subterranean golem, blinks

30:21

into the sunlight. It's

30:23

the last time the Führer will ever appear in

30:25

public. That

30:30

night, the Allies mark the occasion

30:32

with a thousand bomber raid on the capital.

30:45

On April 22nd, Hitler

30:48

is gripped by violent mood swings,

30:51

veering between triumphalism and despair

30:54

as General Steiner's relief mission collapses,

30:57

exposed as fantasy.

31:00

He still seems to have believed,

31:02

or he hoped maybe until

31:05

very late, that somehow

31:07

there might be some kind of magic reversal

31:10

in the war effort. But once

31:13

he realizes that that's not going to happen,

31:15

he decides that he will just die

31:17

in the ruins of Berlin.

31:22

Before the ring around the Chancellery closes

31:24

completely,

31:25

Albert Speer makes the fleeting

31:28

visit.

31:29

Hitler has ordered his armaments ministered to pursue

31:32

a scorched earth policy, to

31:34

leave nothing for the enemy, to turn

31:36

Germany into a wasteland.

31:39

Speer confesses

31:40

that he hasn't followed through. The

31:43

people of the Reich need to be left with

31:45

something. But

31:47

it's the people who failed him, Frost

31:49

Hitler. The war is lost because

31:52

they let him down. They are

31:54

not worthy.

31:57

Why didn't Hitler kill Speer?

32:00

disloyalty. He killed everyone else with disloyalty.

32:03

Because in the end, the relationship

32:05

with Speer is very complex. It's

32:09

partly a father and son. Many

32:12

historians attribute a strong

32:14

homoerotic element to the older

32:17

man in love with the younger man.

32:19

Hitler was in love with

32:21

Speer. Whatever kind of

32:23

love you choose to characterize it,

32:26

it was powerful enough to stop Hitler

32:28

killing Speer.

32:32

Back outside, Speer explores the possibility

32:34

of pumping poison gas into an

32:36

air conditioning vent,

32:38

which would be poetic.

32:41

But the ducts are protected.

32:43

The Fuhrer has thought of everything. To

32:48

Hitler now, there is only one true loyalist,

32:51

Joseph Goebbels. The

32:54

minister of propaganda arrives at the bunker

32:56

with his wife, Magda, and their six

32:58

young children, five girls

33:00

and one boy. Their names

33:03

all begin with H in

33:05

honor of you-know-who.

33:07

The staff are appalled.

33:09

Why bring kids here?

33:11

But for Frau Goebbels, a life without

33:14

national socialism, for all of them,

33:16

is a life not worth living. With

33:20

them, too, is Hitler's trusty lackey,

33:23

Martin Borman, though

33:26

the slippery sidekick has been doing some scheming

33:28

of his own. Borman

33:31

gets a message to Berchtesgaden where gurring

33:33

is now holed up. Hitler

33:35

has had a nervous breakdown, he tells the Luftwaffe

33:38

chief. Cut off in his bunker,

33:40

he can no longer function as leader. On

33:44

April 23, Goebbels'

33:46

Hitler back. He understands

33:49

his Fuhrer's predicament, he says. As

33:52

Hitler's official number two, he requests

33:54

permission to act on the Reich's behalf

33:57

and negotiate immediately for a ceasefire.

34:01

If he hasn't heard back by 10pm, he

34:03

will assume that he is the new head

34:05

of state. Most

34:08

likely this is Boorman setting Gering

34:11

up. If so, it has

34:13

the desired result. Hitler

34:16

loses it. He demands that Gering

34:18

be executed for high treason. He

34:21

orders the SS to arrest Fat Herman

34:23

immediately. On

34:28

April 24, Goebbels makes one last broadcast

34:31

to the undeserving citizens of the Reich.

34:35

Our hearts must not waver and

34:37

not tremble. It must be our

34:39

pride and our ambition to break the

34:41

Bolshevik mass onslaught.

34:44

The German people have been listening to a lie since 1933.

34:48

The German people are constantly fed a diet

34:50

of this kind of propaganda. And of course,

34:52

if you hear it enough, it must be true. When

34:55

your city is rubble, it's kind of hard to cover that one up after

34:58

a while.

35:00

The next day, American and Soviet forces

35:02

are shaking hands on the river Elbe.

35:04

Germany has been cut in two.

35:09

By the 27th, Hitler is in a delirious,

35:12

I love you man state, hugging

35:14

his officers, pinning iron crosses

35:16

on anyone within reach. And

35:19

then for the last time, there is Benito

35:22

Mussolini. On

35:24

the 28th, dramatic news comes

35:26

in. The deposed Italian

35:28

dictator has been ambushed by partisans.

35:32

Il Duce and his mistress, Clara

35:34

Petacci,

35:35

have been gunned down,

35:36

somberly executed.

35:40

Their bodies are dragged back to Milan and

35:42

hung upside down outside a filling station.

35:46

The locals beat the corpses to a pulp.

35:49

So close to Hitler, including Eva

35:51

Braun, really urge Hitler to

35:53

leave Berlin. There are planes

35:56

that are ready to fly him to the south to fly

35:58

him to the Alps. Hitler

36:00

refuses to do so, he decides

36:03

to stay in Berlin. And

36:06

that really is born out of the realization that

36:08

the war is over. And this

36:10

is also really driven out of the fear

36:13

of what would happen to him. He

36:15

seems to have been worried that the

36:17

same fate would befall onto him what

36:19

happened to Mussolini. His

36:22

obsession was that he would be taken

36:25

back to Moscow in an iron cage

36:27

where he would be humiliated and

36:29

all the rest of it. And this is why he was determined

36:32

to face the end if necessary

36:34

with a personal thrust in his mouth.

36:42

That same day, the BBC

36:44

confirms that Himmler has also

36:46

taken it upon himself to act on behalf of

36:48

the Reich and surrender unconditionally.

36:53

There seems to be no end to the treachery. Himmler

36:57

has an SS liaison officer in the bunker,

37:00

a man called Herman Feiglein. But

37:02

he appears wisely to have done a runner.

37:06

Feiglein is caught by the Gestapo.

37:08

When they find him, he's staggeringly

37:11

drunk, dressed in civilian clothes,

37:13

pockets stuffed with jewelry and Swiss francs.

37:17

They drag him back to the bunker. Weber

37:20

Brown is upset, and

37:22

not just because some of the jewelry was hers.

37:25

Feiglein is married to her sister,

37:27

a pregnant sister.

37:29

She pleads with Hitler to spare the life

37:31

of her brother-in-law. Feiglein

37:34

is locked in a room. They

37:36

cannot be shoot him later, and

37:38

they do. The

37:43

news from the outside is grim. All

37:45

food and ammunition dumps are in enemy

37:47

hands. Within two days,

37:50

the troops will be out of bullets. The

37:52

battle for Berlin is in its

37:54

death throes. In

37:57

these surreal end times,

37:59

People are now openly drinking and smoking

38:02

around Hitler, something they would

38:04

never have done before.

38:06

This fevered discussion about preferred

38:08

methods of offing themselves. Cyanide

38:11

capsules are passed around like sweets.

38:15

Hitler has a last pair of visitors. They

38:17

are a female pilot, Hannah Reich,

38:20

and her passenger and lover, Field

38:23

Marshal Robert von Kreim. He

38:26

is Göring's replacement as head of the Luftwaffe.

38:29

Both are diehard Nazis.

38:32

Zilvo, on the furious fur,

38:34

Reich manages to land her plane right

38:37

by the Brandenburg Gate. Reich

38:40

flies out again bearing farewell letters for

38:42

loved ones, including a polite

38:44

note from Eva Braun to her sister, explaining

38:47

why they had to kill her husband. That

38:53

night, the dining room is decorated.

38:55

The best silver, the best crystal.

38:58

There's a linen tablecloth with the initial H

39:01

on it.

39:03

Hitler, meanwhile, dictates his last will and

39:05

testament to a tearful tribal

39:08

younger. He has no regrets,

39:10

he says. He will die with a

39:12

joyful heart. He

39:14

confirms the new line of succession. Goebbels

39:18

is to be chancellor. Borman will

39:20

be party minister. And

39:22

there's a wild card. Upon

39:24

Hitler's death, Admiral Karl Dönitz

39:27

will become president of the Reich and

39:30

supreme commander of the armed forces.

39:33

Dönitz, in charge of troops north of Berlin,

39:36

is just about the only commander in the field

39:38

still fighting.

39:41

Dönitz is furious about that, that

39:43

in Hitler's will he's made a Reich

39:45

Führer. Dönitz knows

39:47

that because of this he'll get a massive

39:50

prison sentence. He realizes

39:53

it's a job he has to do because someone has to

39:55

do it.

39:58

dead, in

40:01

the will there is also special mention for one

40:03

lucky lady. I have

40:05

decided now, before the end

40:07

of my earthly career, to take

40:09

as my wife the girl who, after

40:12

many years of loyal friendship, came

40:15

of her own free will in order to

40:17

share my fate.

40:23

I

40:27

just have to admit that once

40:29

Walter Wagner has conducted an upshot,

40:32

eight guests sit down for

40:34

the finial wedding feast of L'Enevers

40:37

sandwiches.

40:39

The Goebbels, Bormann,

40:41

a private secretary Guillermo Cristian, Generals

40:44

Hans Krebs and Wilhelm Bergdorf,

40:47

Archor Axman, head of the Hitler Youth

40:49

and the Führer's cook. Constance

40:51

him in theory.

40:58

Paul Wagner will be dispatched back up

41:00

top.

41:01

He'll be dead within hours, copying

41:03

a Russian bullet to the head. Hitler

41:07

briefly lets his hair down. He

41:10

even has a glass of sweet toke wine.

41:13

Goebbels, as impending chancellor,

41:16

will have duties to fulfill, reminds Hitler.

41:19

He orders him to leave the bunker. Though

41:22

little Joe will have none of it, Team

41:24

Goebbels is staying put. Not

41:28

to be outdone, Goebbels gets

41:30

traveled younger to type up his will too,

41:33

a tortured rant about the guilt

41:35

of the Jews and their deserved annihilation.

41:42

The next day the happy couples stay in bed till

41:44

noon. When they do get up,

41:47

Frau Hitler gives away her possessions,

41:50

including a prized fur coat.

41:53

But Hitler is troubled.

41:55

He has doubts as to the efficacy of

41:57

the cyanide pills.

41:59

Dr. Ludwig Stumpfeger, the bunker's

42:02

medic, proposes a demonstration.

42:05

Hitler's trusty Alsatian Blondie is

42:07

whistled up.

42:09

She will serve her master one last time.

42:12

The finite capsule is forced on her

42:14

throat.

42:15

It kills her, evidently painlessly,

42:18

within seconds.

42:20

She's just given birth to five puppies, by

42:22

the way. They'd been delighting

42:25

the Goebbels' kids. The

42:27

SS will round them up later and shoot them. A

42:31

line is formed of the bunker staff. Hitler

42:34

presses along it, shaking hands, and

42:37

then retires to his room. A

42:40

macabre spontaneous party breaks out

42:42

in his absence. A last

42:44

bacchanalian release. But

42:46

as it goes on into the early hours, poor

42:49

man tells them to keep the noise down. By

42:53

the morning of the 30th, the fighting

42:56

is in the Tiergarten, right next door. Hitler

42:59

re-emerges. He doesn't even seem

43:02

to recognize anyone anymore.

43:04

Ava indicates to the secretarial

43:06

staff

43:07

that they should all get the hell out of there. Hitler

43:12

has very specific instructions. He

43:14

orders that 200 liters of gasoline

43:17

be delivered to the bunker entrance.

43:19

When he dies, there must be no

43:22

trace left of his body.

43:25

In the heat of battle, this is a selfish

43:27

request. Soviet

43:29

troops are in the zoo gardens just a few hundred

43:31

yards away. Absurdly,

43:34

under heavy fire, the last defenders

43:36

of Berlin must abandon the barricades

43:39

and scrabble around siphoning fuel

43:41

from wrecked vehicles. At

43:47

around 3.30pm,

43:49

the Hitlers sit together on the sofa in

43:51

their suite,

43:52

door closed.

43:54

Mrs. Hitler is the first to die,

43:56

biting down on a cyanide capsule.

44:00

Mr. Hitler pulls out a picture

44:02

of his mother as a young woman, stares

44:04

at it, then does the same thing,

44:07

while simultaneously shooting

44:09

himself in the mouth with his trusty

44:11

mouth.

44:20

Troubled Younger is reading the Goebbels' kids a

44:22

story when they hear the shot.

44:24

Little Helmut yells out, Bull-Eye!

44:28

When others realize what's happened, there's

44:30

a rush to break down Hitler's door.

44:33

Inside, the Führer has slid

44:35

off the couch, sprawled face

44:37

down across the coffee table.

44:40

To his left

44:41

is Ava, slumped over the armrest,

44:44

lips tightly closed.

44:46

Her black dress is soaked from a jug of water

44:49

that's been knocked over.

44:51

Dr. Stumpfeger and Heinz Linger,

44:54

Hitler's valet, carry out the Führer's body

44:56

on a brown army blanket. Boorman

44:59

follows, bearing Ava Brown

45:01

in his arms. Hitler's

45:03

chauffeur, Erich Kemper, intervenes.

45:07

Ava always hated Boorman. Better

45:09

that he do it.

45:12

On the surface, Russian shells

45:14

rain down. They lay the

45:16

bodies in a shallow ditch, knocking back

45:19

in for cover.

45:20

They then pour the gasoline, as

45:23

Hitler had requested. Rainlights

45:25

are match, but it keeps blowing out. A

45:28

burning rag is tossed in instead. They

45:31

keep pouring fuel until

45:33

there's none left. It

45:37

takes four hours for the flames to go

45:39

out. The charred remnants

45:42

are scooped up

45:43

and shoved down a shell hole.

45:45

Earth is pounded hard on top.

45:51

When Frau Goebbels puts her children in their

45:53

bunk beds that evening, she insists

45:56

they drink from a flask of medicine. Actually

45:59

a heavy dose of water. of morphine. Later,

46:03

sure that they're unconscious, their

46:06

mother then crushes an ampule of cyanide

46:08

into each of their mouths. Having

46:12

murdered her own children, she

46:14

and her husband go outside. Joseph

46:17

Global shoots his wife

46:19

before turning the gun on himself.

46:27

Several of the bunker staff do the same, including

46:30

Generals Krebs and Bogdorf.

46:34

In the overcrowded Chancellry Field Hospital,

46:37

news of the Fuhrer's death is met with shock

46:40

and a further outbreak of suicides.

46:43

We get the end of times theme.

46:46

There are so many suicides, there are not

46:48

only the suicides in the bunker, but

46:51

there are masses of suicides all over

46:53

Germany. And it's pure

46:56

Jim Jones, the Kool-Aid, Genestan, Guyana.

46:59

And it is a reminder to all

47:01

of us that what we're dealing with is bigger

47:03

than a political party, bigger than a political

47:06

regime, bigger than an ideology.

47:09

It's a cult. This

47:16

is London calling. Here is

47:18

a news flash. The

47:21

German radio has just announced

47:23

that Hitler is dead.

47:29

In the chaos,

47:30

some of the staff, including Traval

47:43

is

47:47

dressed in a private uniform, complete

47:49

with comedy eye patch.

47:52

When his British captors figure out who he really

47:54

is and subject him to a medical

47:56

exam, he too bites

47:59

down on a silent.

47:59

that capsule he's hidden in a gum cavity.

48:03

Goring is captured alongside

48:06

the likes of Ribbentrop, Frank, Yodel

48:08

and Keitel. He will be put

48:10

on trial by the Allies at Nuremberg, though

48:14

Goring will cheat the gallows by taking his own

48:16

life. News

48:21

of Hitler's death spreads quickly. To

48:24

the citizens of the Reich, the end

48:26

of someone revered as superhuman is

48:28

almost impossible to comprehend, especially

48:32

when it's revealed that he didn't perish fighting

48:34

at the head of his army, as Admiral Dernitz

48:37

has led them to believe.

48:39

People who are in their

48:42

teens in 1945, they've been

48:45

born potentially in the late 20s, early

48:47

30s. They've never known anything

48:49

other than not them. All of their school

48:52

days, all of their Hitler Youth Service,

48:54

they've been subject to this constant indoctrination.

48:57

And you can understand why within that

48:59

framework, a world

49:01

without Nazism seems unthinkable,

49:04

a world without Hitler. There seems something

49:06

more.

49:10

Two days after Hitler's death, in

49:12

what would have been his ultimate nightmare, the

49:14

Soviet hammer and sickle flies over

49:16

the Reichstag. A

49:20

cessation of hostilities will be announced

49:22

on May 7th, with victory

49:24

in Europe, the Eday, declared

49:27

on May 8th. General

49:29

Yodel and Field Marshal Keitel signed

49:31

the instruments of surrender on Dernitz's behalf.

49:34

Yodel to the Western Allies, Keitel

49:37

in Berlin, Dernitz's tenure

49:39

as Reich's president

49:40

will last just 23 days.

49:47

There will be stories of Hitler's survival,

49:50

of his escape to Argentina,

49:52

alongside the likes of Adolf Eichmann, of

49:55

his capture and execution by the Red Army.

49:58

There is, however, little doubt as

50:01

to Hitler's fate. In

50:03

Berlin proof of his death is

50:05

demanded by soviet officers. The

50:08

remains are unearthed and

50:10

the fragment of jawbone removed. Hitler's

50:14

dental records are then used for confirmation.

50:17

The bone will later make its way to Moscow. Forensic

50:21

analysis has always confirmed it as

50:23

Hitler's. Thus, there

50:26

are enough eyewitnesses to independently corroborate

50:28

what happened.

50:30

Sir Stuart Menzies was head of MI6,

50:34

ordered one of his young operatives

50:37

an oxen don called Hugh Trevor Roper.

50:39

He'd run his own intelligence operation

50:42

in the first part of World War II. Menzies

50:45

gave him this task

50:47

of piecing together

50:49

the end of Hitler because he

50:51

foresaw that there are going to be all

50:54

kinds of fantasies and conspiracy

50:56

theorists and Nazis who are going to say the

50:58

fear is not dead. He's in Argentina.

51:01

And so Trevor Roper went

51:03

with forensic detail

51:06

and supreme powers in Germany

51:09

to do everything he wanted to do. And

51:11

his first thing was to go to the bunker itself.

51:13

He was the first of the Wesners to get there.

51:16

Bribe Russian sentries with cigarettes and

51:19

then proceeded to go run Germany arresting

51:22

everyone who's in the bunker, arrested the whole

51:24

damn lot of them. Hitler's butler

51:26

offered his own services to Hugh Trevor

51:28

Roper as butler. But

51:31

he eventually found Hitler's last

51:33

will and testimony buried in the garden

51:36

of one of these people. In other

51:38

words, he nabbed the lot, he interrogated

51:40

the lot and he wrote his detailed

51:43

report where he established

51:45

beyond reasonable doubt all

51:47

that had happened in the last days.

51:50

Of course he did die. And we know that for two

51:53

reasons. If we just look at the man

51:55

of how he had developed over the previous 20,

51:58

30, 40 years or so. There is no

52:00

way that Adolf Hitler would be the kind

52:03

of person who would think that after

52:05

having been the leader of Germany for such

52:08

a long time, that if that didn't work

52:10

out, he would somehow still want to

52:12

live and he would somehow want to move

52:15

to some place in Southern America

52:17

or wherever to live a quiet

52:19

life. It's absolutely inconceivable

52:22

that Hitler would have wanted

52:24

a life of this kind. But

52:27

irrespective of this kind of psychological

52:29

assessment of Hitler and his behavior,

52:32

this

52:32

eyewitness account,

52:35

his skull and his teeth were of course taken

52:37

to Moscow, which was assessed in

52:39

recent years and there's absolutely no

52:41

doubt that Hitler and Eva Braun did

52:44

die in the ruins of Berlin.

52:49

The bodies of the Goebbels are only partially

52:51

burned. There being no fuel

52:54

left. They are easily identifiable

52:57

and put on display.

53:05

Adolf Hitler

53:06

was 56 years old.

53:09

As the dictator of Nazi Germany, he

53:11

terrorized Europe, did

53:13

his best to wipe out an entire race and

53:16

sparked a world war which

53:18

cost the lives of 60 million people.

53:22

His barbarous regime inflicted such suffering

53:25

that the conflict he started still shaped

53:27

the world we live in.

53:31

That a man of that delusion

53:34

is able to cajole, manipulate,

53:36

arm twist himself into

53:39

power, I think it's a warning

53:42

to problems of human nature, how

53:44

humans can easily be manipulated

53:47

through information to thinking certain ways.

53:50

His legacy reminds

53:53

us of how our minds can

53:55

be manipulated down some very

53:57

dark holes.

53:59

One thing Hitler

54:01

did live on,

54:02

namely in his vision

54:05

what the deceit of Germany

54:08

would mean for the future

54:10

of the world and the future of conflict.

54:13

His expectation was that with

54:15

Germany gone there would be a new

54:18

global showdown. It would be a new global

54:20

showdown between America and

54:22

the Soviet Union. And of course

54:24

in that he was right. What followed

54:27

here was of course the beginnings

54:29

of the Cold War that continued at

54:31

least until 1990. The Cold

54:34

War happens immediately. World

54:36

War II ends. The two sides

54:39

get together, they they drink, but

54:42

then it all goes. You have

54:44

very soon after the Berlin blockade,

54:46

you have the Berlin airlift and

54:49

immediately Germans in the western

54:51

section cease to be the enemy.

54:54

They become friends.

54:56

Hitler's legacy is a Germany

54:59

divided, discredited, weaker,

55:01

morally tarnished, but

55:03

just lets far too many Germans off the hook

55:06

to focus purely on Hitler.

55:08

Hitler wouldn't have got anywhere if it hadn't been

55:10

for decision makers in the

55:12

biomarker public, the complicity of

55:15

the German army and increasingly

55:17

popular support

55:19

of

55:20

ordinary Germans. So the cautionary

55:22

tale here lies in the

55:24

appetite of those that loved

55:26

and discerned this charisma for

55:29

strong masculine leadership or reassertion

55:32

of German national greatness

55:35

and to some extent a popular belief

55:37

that there was some kind of Jewish question

55:39

to which Hitler and the Nazis were

55:42

the answer. So though dismally,

55:44

epically important

55:46

historical figure,

55:48

we shouldn't allow to become an alibi for the

55:50

much broader array of forces

55:53

and belief systems that that facilitated

55:55

it.

56:00

In many ways, the legacy for us should be, we

56:03

have always got dictators wrong. We

56:05

have never understood dictator syndrome.

56:08

In the 1930s, the British

56:10

and the French underestimated the threat from

56:12

Hitler simply because they thought that nobody

56:15

could be stupid enough to want to have another World War

56:17

after the horrors of the First World War. The

56:20

problem is we have not gone over this

56:22

idea of confirmation bias when

56:24

it comes to the mentality of dictators. They

56:27

do not think the same way as generals. And

56:29

we have made this mistake time and time again.

56:34

We had genocides before in the 20th

56:36

century. We had the genocide of the Armenians.

56:39

We had the genocide of the Herrero

56:42

in German Southwest Africa. But this

56:44

was totally new, actually

56:47

having a kind of production line of death.

56:49

And the sadism which went with it is

56:52

very difficult for us to actually understand

56:54

conceptually, morally and in any

56:57

other way. You cry

56:59

time and again to get

57:01

your head around it and choose

57:04

themselves to survive the Third Reich. Didn't

57:06

and still don't understand why.

57:09

The whole thing suddenly exploded

57:12

in their faces. They were left

57:14

as perplexed as we are. If

57:17

you look at other historical regimes,

57:19

yes, they are remembered in sculptor,

57:22

in paintings, in poetry, in epics

57:24

and so forth. But

57:26

they're not remembered like this because

57:29

we don't have a media to remember them.

57:31

You see, remember the point in which Hitler

57:34

struts onto the stage of history

57:37

is a point of confluence. We

57:39

suddenly have the maturity of all these

57:41

technologies, sound and film,

57:43

color film. We have the

57:45

technologies of amplification. We

57:48

have the technologies of air transport

57:50

which allows Hitler to visit

57:53

five different German cities in a single

57:55

day and so forth. And it's at this very

57:57

moment that Hitler is there. And

58:00

so it means that he's able to bequeath

58:03

his imagistic legacy to human

58:05

history. Hitler died, but Hitlerism

58:08

is very much with us.

58:11

It's very telling,

58:13

in my view, that you aren't allowed

58:16

in Germany to name a baby

58:18

Adolf. It's illegal. It's

58:20

against the law. And that

58:23

in itself perhaps goes some

58:25

way to show just how

58:28

terrible and, if you like,

58:31

evil Hitler's legacy has

58:32

been. We can't even

58:35

use the name that happened to be

58:37

his name. How many

58:39

million deaths, how much genocide

58:42

could have been spared if he'd never

58:44

been on the earth. It's crazy

58:47

to think the whole course of human history would

58:49

be different.

58:55

Many of the monuments to Nazism, including

58:58

the Reich Chancellery and the Führerbunker,

59:00

were swiftly blown up by the Soviets. Today,

59:06

there is only a small notice board to

59:08

indicate the location of Hitler's final

59:11

hideout.

59:13

It stands in the car park

59:15

of a housing estate.