Plot to k*ll Hitler, The (2023)

[bunniefuu]

- [Narrator] The

20th of July, 1944.

The Wolfsschanze,

Germany's headquarters

on the eastern front.

Nestled away in the

deep forests of Poland,

Adolf Hitler is drawing up plans

that he believes could

secure his victory in Europe.

The fhrer strategies

are interrupted by

a knock at the door.

Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg,

Hitler's trusted chief

of staff walks in

holding a briefcase.

But Stauffenberg is not

here to talk battle plans,

he's here to k*ll Hitler.

(crowd cheering)

(speaking foreign language)

(crowd chanting)

- There were lots of

plots to k*ll Hitler,

and he survived so many

that it made Hitler feel

that he really did have

this kind of divine

providence behind him

that made him survive.

(speaking foreign language)

(crowd cheering)

The most celebrated

plot against him

was the July b*mb

plot of July, 1944,

in which you've got this kind

of cadre of senior officers

all over the Third Reich

who have been meeting in

secret for many years actually.

- On the 20th of July, 1944,

Claus von Stauffenberg

made a serious attempt

on the Fhrer's life

by bringing a b*mb into the

briefing room where Hitler was,

placing it under his desk

and hoping that it

would k*ll Hitler.

(expl*si*n booming)

- [Narrator] Adolf Hitler,

the most notorious dictator

of the 20th century.

Outraged by the

Treaty of Versailles

and Germany's humiliation

in the first World w*r,

Hitler fiercely campaigned

to rescue the

Fatherland from ruin.

- The mood in Germany at

the end of World w*r I

was that of a humiliated and

defeated people and nation.

This fight had been

going on for four years.

Millions of people had died

and no one had got anything,

or no one had got anywhere.

It was a mood of revolution,

a mood of deep dissatisfaction,

a mood of instability,

and it felt like the country

was on the brink of collapse.

- [Narrator] His

mesmerizing public speeches

called for a new

order in Germany,

one which would cast off the

weakened incompetent structure

of the Democratic regime,

and instead install a

supreme national leader.

Citizens from all

corners of the country

fell for the relentless

promotion of his ideology,

and Hitler successfully recast

himself as Germany's savior.

- What Hitler is absolutely

amazing at is speechmaking.

And to begin to

understand Hitler,

you've really gotta understand

that he was the most

amazing demagogue.

Hitler's speeches

are really vitriolic,

but they're very effective,

and they attract

regular audiences,

and he's really good at

using populist themes.

And labels scapegoats

for losing the w*r.

You name it, Jews, communists,

you know, whoever Hitler hates,

that given moment,

he'll lay into them.

Listeners are listening

and watching this,

and they're thinking, yes,

these are the reasons for

our economic hardships.

And Hitler's also got this

huge personal magnetism,

and he's got this

instinctive understanding

of the psychology of crowds.

And of course,

you know, like any really

brilliant public speaker,

he's going to use

that to his advantage.

It's like a conductor

with an orchestra.

(speaking foreign language)

- [Narrator] Like many

dictators before him,

he became insistent on

protecting his godlike image

and divine right to power.

The Fhrer kept himself away

from the more violent and

brutal aspects of the regime.

He promoted

anti-Jewish propaganda,

but refused to

bloody his own hands,

relying instead on

his loyal circle

to rid Germany of

its enemies me.

(crowd chanting)

- So the issue of

how Hitler managed

to keep his popular image clean

while the final

solution was underway

is obviously a very interesting

and a very difficult question.

But I suppose the essence

of it is two things.

First of all, that

those mass shootings

that were taking place in the

USSR were not on German soil.

And of course, the second part,

the most important part too,

that the death camps, all of

those were on Polish soil.

So they were out of the

immediate frame of sight

or reference of the Germans.

So again, in some way, they

were happening elsewhere

and not really in their

immediate field of vision.

- Hitler is always

mindful of public opinion.

I think that it's

always important to

remember that Hitler,

you know, does

always worry about

what the German people

think about him.

He doesn't just sort of seize

power in 33 and then not care.

You know, he wants to be

liked, he wants to be popular.

He's a political

leader after all.

And all political leaders,

democratic, or fascist or

otherwise, want to be liked.

- [Narrator] However,

Hitler and the Nazis

were not entirely immune

to the consequences

of their dark agenda.

Feelings of

disillusionment and disgust

built up amongst

certain individuals.

And by 1944,

Hitler faced the biggest

threat to his life yet.

Out of Hitler's n*zi regime,

spilled not only a

drive to preserve

the country's economy

and global status,

Nazism also meant

the annihilation of

Germany's enemies.

And in 1935, the creation

of the Nuremberg Laws

set its sites firmly on the

most hated group in Germany,

the Jews.

- So we know that

from as early as

Hitler's writings

in "Mein Kampf,"

that he was personally

antisemitic.

So we see his

personal antisemitism

translated into state policy.

There were many different

measures, legal measures

taken against the Jews, and

also ill*gal measures as well.

So very early on,

there was a boycott of

Jewish shops and businesses.

Very early on too, there

was a civil service law,

which essentially threw

out Jewish civil servants

from their positions.

The Nuremberg Laws

really put into place

some legal parameters

for how the situation would

be with Germany's Jews.

But what they did

really was to turn

Germany's Jews into

second class citizens,

really to take away their

equal citizenship rights.

And also to forbid marriage

or sexual relations

between Jews and Aryans.

- [Narrator] Many citizens

bought into the ideology

that the very presence of Jews

threatened the German people.

Ordinary people everywhere

began practicing

antisemitic views

and encouraging the idea that

Jews were an inferior race,

separate to the

superior Aryan Germans.

(speaking foreign language)

Before long, such

poisonous rhetoric

turned into violent action.

And on the 9th of

November, 1938,

the n*zi regime coordinated

a wave of attacks

across the country.

- You suddenly get this

thing called Kristallnacht,

the Night of Broken

Glass in 1938,

where the Nazis just

literally set fire

to synagogues everywhere.

The world really

noticed Kristallnacht,

you know, this

absolutely horrific

destruction, slaughter, violence

carried out by the state

against its own people.

It showed the world

what Hitler was.

He was effectively a

gangster and a m*rder*r.

- [Narrator] The violence

was supposed to look

like an unplanned outburst of

popular anger against Jews.

But in reality,

Kristallnacht state-sponsored

vandalism and arson.

n*zi leaders actively

coordinated it

with Adolf Hitler's support.

- There's no doubt

about the centrality

of antisemitism to

Hitler's worldview.

There's absolutely

no doubt about that.

But what he seemed

to be trying to do

was sort of stay in the shadow

so that when we get

a pogrom like this,

that the public, the German

public and the population

were quite affronted by it.

Maybe not because they

particularly supported the Jews,

but because it was a kind of

a sort of flagrant violation

of law and order and sort of

a kind of very violent,

violent affair across the land.

So, you know, it wasn't

popular in that respect.

So there's that idea then

that Hitler was sort of

staying in the shadows

and not being

associated with that.

I think he managed to

maintain his popularity

during this time,

first of all, because he

was staying in the shadows

of more unpopular policies.

And there was certainly

that sentiment

among the German population

because of this myth that

surrounded the fhrer,

that well, if there were

unpleasant things going on

or policies that

they didn't like,

then somehow that Hitler

couldn't know about it,

that he wasn't

associated with it,

that it had to be one

of the other leaders.

- [Narrator] Universal

approval of the violent pogroms

was not a reality for Hitler.

In fact, opposition lurked

in unexpected places

and arose from

unexpected individuals.

Major general

Henning von Tresckow

absolutely despised

the Nuremberg Laws

and the violent

Kristallnacht attacks.

From as early as the 1930s,

the n*zi officer had been

plotting Hitler's overthrow

and gathering a trusted

circle of people

to assassinate the Fhrer.

Tresckow's disgust towards

extreme antisemitism,

consequently spurred him on

to become a key architect

of Operation Valkyrie.

- Meanwhile, at the graveyard

attached to the institution,

bodies are exhumed for autopsy.

20,000 are buried here,

15,000 who died in

a lethal gas chamber

were cremated and

their ashes in turd.

Death books found hidden

in the wine cellar

of the Hadamar institution

revealed part of the story

of the mass killings.

The bulky volumes contained

thousands of death certificates.

Profession unknown,

nationality unknown

was written after each name.

- [Narrator] Feelings of

disenchantment, however,

did not halt with Hitler's

anti-Jewish policies.

In 1939, one of the darkest

programs of the n*zi regime

came into existence.

Aktion T4.

- Where Hitler's popularity

starts to take a real dent

is his association,

or the n*zi association with

what is called the T4 program.

Now, the T4 program

is named after the address in

which it was headquartered,

Tiergartenstrae 4 in Berlin.

And it really was the

most repellent form

of kind of n*zi quote

unquote "medicine"

that you could imagine.

Because it was this idea

that you have to treat

a people as a body.

But what if you've got part

of your body as a population

that is considered to be weak,

i.e. sort of

cancerous or deformed,

or has hereditary illnesses?

Well, why don't you just

chop them off as well?

Because if you can

get rid of them,

i.e. people with

congenital problems,

you are gonna stop those

bad genes being passed on.

And that's essentially

what the T4 program is.

It is basically chopping

people out of life.

You're k*lling them.

You're k*lling

children with epilepsy.

You're k*lling people who've

got mild spinal deformities.

You're k*lling people

who've even got stutters

because you are saying

they're genetically weak

and we don't want them,

if we're gonna make this

strong, blonde Aryan race

full of perfect super humans.

It's kind of pseudo

medicine, it's pseudoscience.

- [Narrator] The unlawful

system of mass m*rder,

outraged many German citizens,

particularly Protestants

and Catholics,

who led protests against

the exterminations.

Relatives of patients

everywhere frantically panicked

with many, withdrawing

their relatives

from asylums to care

for them at home.

In some places, doctors

and psychiatrists

also cooperated with families

to have patients

discharged or transferred

to private clinics

beyond the reach of T4

Fhrer Chancellery

Director Phillip Bouhler

and physician Karl Brandt

led the k*lling operation.

Under their leadership,

T4 operatives established

six gassing

installations for adults

as part of the

euthanasia action.

For every person k*lled, a

death certificate was prepared,

giving a false, but

plausible cause of death

to hide the evil reality.

Hitler publicly canceled

the program in 1941

after outcry from

the German people.

However, the killings

in fact, continued

until the end of the w*r.

By 1945, the Nazis

had callously m*rder*d

as many as 300,000

innocent people.

The T4 euthanasia program

represented in many

ways a rehearsal

for n*zi Germany's subsequent

genocidal policies.

Planners of the final solution

later borrowed the

gas chamber method

to eradicate the Jewish

and Roma populations

on a scale never

before seen in history.

(expl*si*n booming)

(g*ns firing)

(expl*si*n booming)

Two years into the largest

conflict in history,

Adolf Hitler devised

his riskiest move yet,

Operation Barbarossa

Hitler despised Bolshevism

and Stalin's regime.

Intent on wiping out

the Soviet Union,

he ordered n*zi troops to invade

Russian occupied territory

on the 22nd of June, 1941.

(speaking in foreign language)

(expl*si*n booming)

(speaking in foreign language)

Hitler had assured

the high command

that we have only to

kick in the front door,

and the whole rotten edifice

will come tumbling down.

But Russia was not France.

Despite the serious losses

inflicted on the Red Army

and extensive territorial gains,

the mission to completely

destroy Soviet fighting power

was not achieved.

The Soviets were not

going to go down easily.

- Had Hitler stopped

after he'd successfully

conquered France

and the low countries,

and not decided in June, 1941

that he was going to invade

this really quite big

country called Russia,

he may have stayed in power.

But of course, what Stalin's got

is a lot of room to fight him,

because he can retreat and

retreat and retreat and retreat,

and you've still got thousands

of miles of Russia behind you

that you can fall back on.

But also what Stalin does is

he's very good at regrouping

and getting his

forces back together.

Germans use a lot of

overdesigned tanks,

overdesigned uniforms,

overdesigned weapons.

What the Russians

are good at doing is

just getting things together

in a kind of makeshift way.

But that works.

You know, everything

Russians have,

uniforms, tanks, weaponry,

really simple,

really easy to use,

really easy to mass

produce very, very quickly.

German kit takes

ages to produce.

So this is another real problem

that's faced by the Germans.

- [Narrator] 1942 would

be an even worse year

for Hitler's fight in the East.

The Fhrer hoped to take

the strategic city

of Stalingrad easily,

but the well-armed Red Army

and the fierce Russian winter

made German soldiers'

lives absolute hell.

By mid-November,

the Germans found themselves

outnumbered, outgunned,

extremely low on food

and medical supplies,

and surrounded by Russians.

But Hitler refused

to withdraw troops.

He placed prestige over

lives and commanded

they hold their

positions to the last man

and the last round.

He also promised

additional provisions,

provisions that never arrived.

- So when the tide of

the w*r turned in 1943

with a battle of Stalingrad

and then the fortunes

went the other way,

then that sort of question

of the infallibility

of the Fhrer came to

be called into question.

So whilst by this

point after Stalingrad,

the cult of the leader

was diminished somewhat,

he'd created this myth

of the Soviet hordes

and this great Soviet

enemy to such an extent

that out of fear and

out of desperation,

both the army and the home front

really worked until the bitter

end before capitulation.

- [Narrator] Left

with little choice,

German general Friedrich Paulus

went against Hitler's orders

and surrendered his

weakened troops to Russia

on February the 2nd 1943,

an act which Hitler

later called "treason."

The heavy defeat, punctured

the Fhrer's power in Europe,

and a lurking feeling

of disenchantment

spread throughout

the German army.

Stalingrad soon became

a major catalyst

for conspirators

across the Third Reich

to join the plot to k*ll Hitler.

Claus von Stauffenberg

was no exception.

He had witnessed firsthand

the absolute catastrophe

on the eastern front

and became convinced that

Hitler had to be removed.

Stauffenberg was born into

an aristocratic family.

Despite joining the Wehrmacht,

he, like many elites,

tended to view the

Nazis with this taste.

However, it would not

just be a class issue

that persuaded Stauffenberg

to turn away from

his divine leader.

His time on the Eastern

front opened his eyes

to the mass m*rder

of Jews and Slavs.

Outraged, the young

officer openly stated,

"They are sh**ting

Jews in masses.

These crimes must not

be allowed to continue."

- [Guy] As well as

places like Auschwitz,

which were relatively

easy to keep quite secret,

what people also knew

about from troops

returning from the front,

and especially from

the Eastern front,

was the Einsatzgruppen,

the mobile k*lling squads

that went behind

the German lines,

k*lling anybody they regarded as

being an enemy of

the Third Reich,

such as Jews and

communists and so on.

And the Einsatzgruppen

k*lled millions of people,

and it was impossible

to keep that quiet.

- [Narrator] Stauffenberg became

so vocal in his criticism,

his officers decided that he

should be posted to Tunisia,

a move which would

end with Stauffenberg

losing his left eye, his

right hand, and two fingers

in a surprise attack by

American fighter aircraft.

Stauffenberg's

life-changing injuries

did not hinder his mission

to rid Germany of its

ruthless dictator.

Instead, his fate placed him

in an even better position

to implement the plot,

right at the heart of Berlin.

(dramatic music)

In September, 1943,

Stauffenberg was posted

to the headquarters

of the replacement army

on the Bendlerstrasse.

Here he would be introduced

to two key conspirators,

Major General

Henning von Tresckow,

and General Friedrich Olbricht.

The tide of the w*r was now

turning against Germany.

The trio had to move first

to implement the plot.

- [Churchill] We shall

defend our island,

whatever the cost may be.

We shall fight on

beaches, landing grounds,

in fields, in streets,

and on the hills.

We shall never surrender.

(expl*si*n booming)

(g*ns firing)

(expl*si*n booming)

- [Narrator] Olbricht put

forward a new strategy

for staging a coup

against Hitler.

The replacement Army had

an operational plan called

Operation Valkyrie

to be used in the event of a

breakdown of law and order.

Valkyrie was the perfect way

to mobilize the reserve army

during the takeover.

Tresckow and Stauffenberg

worked tirelessly

to modify Valkyrie

and at the same time

remain undiscovered.

The pair drafted plans

to occupy German cities,

take control of Heinrich

Himmler's SS and Gestapo,

and even arrest the

n*zi leadership.

The plotters finalized

every tiny detail,

even devising a whole

new government structure,

following takeover.

General Ludwig Beck would

be placed as head of state,

the long-term resistor Dr.

Carl Friedrich Goerdeler

would become Germany's

new chancellor.

Tresckow would take control of

all German security services,

and either Olbricht

or Stauffenberg

would serve as state secretary.

The only question that remained

was how to k*ll Hitler.

- There were lots of

plots to k*ll Hitler,

and he survived so many

that it made Hitler feel

that he really did have this

kind of divine

providence behind him

that made him survive.

But actually, the most

kind of celebrated plot

against him was the July

b*mb Plot of July, 1944,

in which you've got

this kind of cadre

of senior officers all

over the Third Reich

who've been meeting in secret

for many years actually,

what they wanna do is

to get rid of Hitler.

And they don't want to get rid

of Hitler because he's evil,

that may be part of it,

they want to get rid of Hitler

because they think he's

fighting the w*r badly,

and they just are

fed up with him.

And indeed Hitler is

fighting the w*r badly

'cause he's a terrible,

terrible strategist.

- [Narrator] The conspirators

considered poisoning his food

and even sh**ting the

Fhrer at a dinner party.

But by late 1943,

Hitler had become increasingly

paranoid and suspicious,

often abruptly changing

plans or tightening access.

In the end, a time b*mb

was the only option.

At the time of planning,

none of the conspirators had

direct access to Adolf Hitler.

However, in 1944, everything

changed for Stauffenberg.

General Friedrich Fromm,

the commander of the

replacement Army,

appointed Stauffenberg

as his chief of staff.

Fromm was the only

officer other than Hitler

who could initiate Operation

Valkyrie with his signature.

Aware of his subordinate's plan,

he made a deal to remain quiet

on the condition that

he became a top official

in the new government

after the mutiny.

The plan was coming into place,

and Stauffenberg was

now in a position

where he could see Hitler

on a regular basis.

Of all the conspirators,

he was the best placed

to become the assassin.

(clock ticking)

Time was ticking.

Certain defeat in

the w*r closed in,

and the coup needed

to take place soon

to save Germany from

total destruction.

The Army had posted Tresckow

to the eastern front

and the original assassin,

General Hellmuth Stieff

had backed down from the plan.

Stauffenberg took total

control of the resistance,

but in doing so,

he placed himself as both the

assassin and the commander

of the Valkyrie

Operation in Berlin.

Hidden away in the dark

shadows of the Masurian woods,

Hitler was gathering

his most trusted offices

for a military conference

at the Wolfsschanze.

It was the 20th of July, 1944,

and Stauffenberg found himself

in the Eastern

front headquarters,

alongside his aide,

Lieutenant Werner von Haeften.

Briefcase in hand,

the Colonel now had the perfect

opportunity to plant a b*mb

that could change the

course of history forever.

- So on 20th of July, 1944,

everything's in place.

You've got people in Berlin

ready to take over the SS.

You've got various army units

all over the Third Reich,

ready to go, the drop of

the code word "Valkyrie,"

which is gonna say that

Hitler's being k*lled.

- [Narrator] However,

the summer sun had

reared its brutal head.

The atmosphere was

intense and uncomfortable.

And irritated by the heat,

Hitler moved the meeting

from the Fhrerbunker

to a wooden hut.

At 12:30pm, Stauffenberg excused

himself to a nearby room,

claiming he needed

to change his shirt.

But in reality, the pair

began fussing the first b*mb.

A guard knocked at the door,

urging the colonel to hurry.

Haeften and

Stauffenberg panicked.

The Fhrer was waiting

and no time remained to

fuse the second b*mb,

one b*mb would have to do.

As the seconds slipped away,

Stauffenberg swiftly

excused himself

under the pretext of

making a phone call.

(b*mb ticking)

But unbeknownst to

the would-be assassin,

Colonel Heinz Brandt

positioned next to Hitler,

inadvertently collided

with the briefcase,

deftly nudging it

behind a table leg.

The fate of Europe now

hung in the balance.

At 12:42pm, the b*mb detonated.

(expl*si*n booming)

Shock waves reverberated

through the Wolfsschanze.

Stauffenberg and

Haeften quickly escaped

driving to a nearby airfield

to return to Berlin

and finish the job.

The hopes of resistance crumbled

as the aftermath unfolded.

Stauffenberg, Olbricht,

and Ludwig Beck

rushed to commandeer

various government buildings

and arrested general Fromm

for refusal to cooperate

until Hitler's death

had been confirmed.

But soon came the news

they had been fearing.

Hitler was, in fact,

very much alive.

- As it happened, the furniture

took most of the blast,

and Hitler got away with just

very superficial injuries.

And put into place

straight away,

the capture, the arrest,

and then the execution

of all of those who were

involved in that b*mb plot.

- [Narrator] Had the b*mb found

its place to Hitler's left,

had the meeting unfolded

in the Fhrerbunker,

and had Stauffenberg

triggered both devices,

the assassination success

would've seemed inevitable.

Yet fate intervened.

Hitler emerged with

only limited injuries,

sheltered by a table leg

that absorbed the

brunt of the blast.

The plan had faltered,

the tables had turned.

The dream of a

world without Hitler

slipped through the grasp

of those who dared to defy.

Furious and humiliated,

Hitler ordered commanding

officer Otto Ernst Remer

to arrest the conspirators

and bring them to him alive.

But a bitter general

Fromm had other ideas.

To hide his involvement

from ordered immediate

court martials,

the conspirators now faced

swift and brutal reprisals

for their bold attempt to

alter the course of history.

Ludwig Beck asked for a

p*stol and shot himself,

the first of many suicide

attempts in the coming days.

At 00:10 hours on the

21st of July, 1944,

Colonel von Stauffenberg,

General Friedrich Olbricht,

Lieutenant Werner von Haeften

and another officer,

Albrecht Mertz von Quirnheim

were k*lled by firing squad

in the Bendlerblock courtyard.

On the eastern front, Tresckow

learned of the plotters fate

and committed suicide.

Until the end, he remained

loyal to the cause.

The plot to k*ll Hitler

was well and truly over.

The 20th of July, plot

serves as a testament

to the bravery of those

who dared to stand

against a ruthless regime.

Even in the face of almost

insurmountable odds.

If the plan had succeeded,

it would've undoubtedly

shortened the w*r by many months

and saved countless lives.

However, Hitler's days

were still numbered,

and he would face the

looming shadow of death

sooner rather than later.

The Russians move

steadily from the East

whilst the western allies

crossed the Rhineland.

By April, 1945, 3

million Soviet troops

dealt brutal blows

to the last traces

of the German resistance.

With the Russians at

the gates to Berlin,

Adolf Hitler had nowhere to run.

- The first half

of 1945 is probably

the darkest six months

in Germany's history

because it being invaded by

the Russians, the Red

Army from the East,

and you've got the other allies

coming through from the west.

And it's the Russians

who reach Berlin first,

and when they reach Berlin,

it's a city in rubble,

it's a city in flames,

it's a city in chaos.

It's a city in which

squads of marauding loyal Nazis

are going around hanging people

who are not taking part in

the resistance to the city.

It's a city in which

you then got some Nazis

committing suicide.

It is the most benighted,

appalling place you can imagine.

And you've got the Soviet army

literally raping and

pillaging this city.

- [Dr. Lisa] Towards the

end of the w*r, of course,

Hitler was spending

more and more time

in his mountain

retreat, The Berghof.

And then people were

seeing less of him.

He was making less and

less public appearances.

And then eventually, in

the last months of the w*r,

into the Fhrerbunker.

And this is when public

opinion of the Fhrer

starts to crumble.

- [Guy] Hitler's last

days in the Fhrerbunker

under the Reich Chancellery

in center of Berlin,

are kind of terrible end

of a Shakespearean tragedy.

As the thunder Russian

a*tillery all around them

and they're deep,

deep inside this

sort of concrete

underground fortress.

Everybody's sort of kind of

going mad and especially Hitler.

- [Narrator] On April the 30th,

he committed suicide

in his bunker

as the city at the heart of

his thousandth year Reich

burned to the ground and

crumbled in ruins around him.

The w*r in Europe ended

forever on May the 7th, 1945,

and Hitler's rule

was finally over.

- [Dr. Lisa] The question

of how much the Germans knew

about what had happened

to the Jewish population

is very complex.

So certainly they knew

that their Jewish compatriots

were disappearing,

being taken away.

They were being taken

away they believed

as indeed some of the Jewish

people themselves believed,

they were taken away

to work in the East.

- [Guy] During the

w*r, word leaked out

from people who had

escaped some camps.

There were aerial pictures

taken of places like Auschwitz.

So, you know, by the

middle of the w*r,

the world at large

had a very good idea

that this slaughter

was being carried out

on an industrial scale.

- [Dr. Lisa] Yes, some

rumors did circulate back

from soldiers on leave,

and other information did

filter back to the Reich.

But the German population was

busy with facing its own w*r,

dealing on a day-to-day basis

with the course of the w*r,

allied bombings,

rationing, food shortages.

There was a deliberate policy

on the part of the Nazis

that this extermination

should take place,

not on German soil so these

death camps were all in Poland,

so they were outta the

direct line of vision

of the German population.

- [Guy] When the Germans

fully appreciated

what had been done in

their name by the Nazis,

it took a very long time

for that to sink in.

If you look at public

opinion polls carried out

in the 40s and the

50s in Germany,

there was still a lot of

residual affection for Nazism.

It was felt that

this was something

that had made

Germany great again.

It was something that had

got things moving and done.

Yes, there had been excesses,

the small matter of

the Holocaust clearly.

But people, some

people in Germany were

willing just to say,

if we can divorce the kind

of genocide bit from Nazism,

you know, is Nazism so bad?

Minority of Germans were still

affectionate towards

Nazism and towards Hitler.

- [Narrator] The tyrannical

force of n*zi Germany

sent the world into chaos.

An empire of hate,

violence, and discrimination

had spread across the

world like a virus.

- The atrocities

of the n*zi regime

came to popular attention.

Both the Western and

the Soviet forces

came to liberate the n*zi camps,

and they were absolutely

shocked and horrified

with what they found.

And once that became known

to the German people as well,

then they were again absolutely

horrified and appalled

about what had been

carried out in their name

by the Hitler dictatorship.

- [Narrator] Hitler's rule

left a mark on history,

a reminder that this behavior

should never be tolerated

and the world should not dismiss

such brutal atrocities again.

- Certainly there

are a lot of reasons

why you might have voted

for Hitler in the 30s,

not all of which

involved you being evil.

But certainly if you

are a fan of Hitler

after the w*r still,

and after all the revelations

that have come out,

then I would say you

definitely are evil.

(crowd cheering)

- [Narrator] Today the

Valkyrie conspirators

are memorialized as heroes,

even inscribed into the

very geography of Germany

through street names.

A reminder that in

times of darkness,

there will always be those

brave enough to fight evil

even from the inside.

- German g*ns.

German bombs.

(speaking foreign language)

(dramatic music)

(dramatic music continues)

(dramatic music continues)

(soft music)

(soft music continues)