Children Who Met Hitler Speak Out - Hitler And The Children Of Obersalzberg - History Documentary

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The phenomenon of my generation asking my mom's generation what they remember is complex. I get little bits, and a lot of defensiveness and contextualized anxiety.

👍︎︎ 2 👤︎︎ u/iambluest 📅︎︎ May 16 2021 🗫︎ replies
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(gentle music) - [Translator] I don't understand why people glorify that time today. It was no glorious time. For us children, it was an adventure. Once, I really wanted this from my parents. It would be so good if I were allowed to go with them to Hitler one time. He was a person with charisma. He was a demon who understood how to fascinate people and win them over. - [Translator] Only much later did I realize what a status we had. We lacked for nothing. (children chattering) Earlier, you had just one point of view. You simply knew this one world, and it was somehow safe. (gentle music) - [Narrator] The end of the safe world. On the 25th of April, 1945, the British Air Force, the RAF, bombed Obersalzberg and Hitler's Berghof. After Berlin, the second seat of power near Berchtesgaden in Bavaria. The British bombed it, the Americans captured it. (tense music) They discovered an elaborate bunker system with air raid cellars and rooms to work and live in. Hitler's subterranean kingdom covered 22,000 square meters. It was built by up to 6,000 slave laborers. Marga Benkert grew up in Oberau, really close to Hitler's Berghof. She's the daughter of Kristiane Benkert from Munich, who was the head master builder in Obersalzberg. (Marga speaking in foreign language) - [Translator] We weren't that badly off due to my father's status, but one had the impression that what he perhaps knew, he didn't agree with. - [Narrator] What perhaps he knew, he kept quiet about. Slides as heirlooms, as documents of a safe family life. However, in the Hitler state, private life came quickly to an end when the boss came to Obersalzberg. (gentle classical music) (Marga speaking in foreign language) - [Translator] We, the children from Oberau, had to line the street when they said Hitler's coming. And there came Adolf in his open car. Then he was standing there and said, "You beautiful Aryan German child." I didn't know what a beautiful Aryan German child was, but I won't ever forget this. (birds chirping) - [Narrator] Moss on the ruins of the former showy, commanding architecture, the present of the past. It reminds one of one side of the truth. The other remains in the shadows. (Sonja speaking in foreign language) - [Translator] As a child, as a young person, you felt good, strong, and healthy. That's very different to the contemporary witnesses nowadays who are now very old and, on the other hand, never again experienced so much in such a short time. Therefore, it's natural that they experienced these years as especially exciting and stimulating. (gentle music) - [Narrator] The safe world of the mountains. Nazism saw the mountains also as an ideological symbol of power. In this way, delusion is connected with megalomania, biology with racism. The German forest is a power source for the so-called super race. Nazism divided the naturally grown from the artificiality of the cities, the Aryans from the Jews, nature as an ideological battleground. In 1923, the future leader of the German People's Movement came for the first time to Obersalzberg. - [Translator] Why Obersalzberg? Because Dietrich Eckart, who was then a famous, today we would say infamous racist, antisemitic writer, was in hiding here, and Hitler met him here and saw the beauty of the landscape, and that definitely also played a role. (birds chirping) Posing in lederhosen. In the following years, Hitler came to Obersalzberg more and more often. The so-called (speaking in foreign language) is situated here in this isolated idyll. In 1925, this is where the second half of "Mein Kampf" was written. He explained what was coming, the annexation of Austria, race war instead of class war, the elimination of Bolshevism, forced sterilization, the murder of the disabled and the persecution of the Jews. In between writing, the former First World War Lance Corporal enjoyed walking to the Hintersee. There, he visited Gerhard Bartels' family. He is still living there today by the Hintersee. - [Translator] Hitler was my uncle's Lance Corporal. My uncle was a sergeant in the First World War, and through him, he visited his sergeant already before 1933. (Gerhard speaking in foreign language) First, for a cup of coffee in the big hotel there, then later, he came with a retinue, Goring, Dr. Todt. Fritz Todt was, among other things, responsible for building the motorways and the construction of the Siegfried Line. Next to Hitler sits Heinrich Hoffmann, his private photographer. Shortly, he will direct and photograph Hitler in all situations, as a child-loving and popular chancellor. - [Translator] Our nurse was quite a fan of the party, and when she said, "The Fuhrer's coming," we had to stop playing. Then we had to change and wash, and we didn't like that. Then she said that when I went down, I should say, "Heil, mein Fuhrer." Then I said (speaking foreign language) and then afterwards she scolded us. She only told us that afterwards. I was on a rock and jumped down, then a woman said to me, "What did the Fuhrer say to you?" "Nothing clever," I said. How politically farsighted I was then. - [Narrator] In 1928, Hitler decided to have a second house built on the Obersalzberg. For the time being, he rented the Wachenfeld house year round. In 1933, after he had been named chancellor, he bought the house and named it Berghof, and with that, the tranquility of life on the Obersalzberg came to an end. - [Translator] Six months after he seized power, Hitler bought the Haus Wachenfeld privately. He could afford it because the royalties from "Mein Kampf" had made him rich. Then Hitler decided to rebuild his house fittingly to accommodate all of his staff and infrastructure. - [Narrator] He had his manor house situated at a height of 1000 meters, expensively rebuilt. 30 rooms spread over two stories. The best is only just good enough. The decorations, showy, but respectable. Here's the big entrance hall, and the 32 square meters sunken panorama window with a view of Untersberg. (people chatting) (tense atmospheric music) The Nazi elite also moved to where Hitler was staying. The second residence, that of Hitler's secretary Martin Bormann, should of course be near to the Berghof. To make space for his entourage, the would-be chancellor had the long-established family evicted. (melancholy piano music) The Stangassingers as well. Martin Bormann was the tough guy. (Franz speaking foreign language) - [Translator] Bormann came to my grandparents and said that if they didn't move out willingly, they'd be sent to a concentration camp. So then my grandfather went with Bormann to a notary and signed voluntarily. - [Narrator] While some inhabitants sold their houses very quickly, out of fear, the pressure increased on those that resisted. The village of Obersalzberg was extinguished. - [Translator] Hitler decided Berlin was probably a bit too loud for him. We're going to the mountains, and everyone else had to go too. Then the infrastructure around the Fuhrer had to be rebuilt with the appropriate arrangements. A barracks for the SS, an estate, also a farm for provisions, its own post office, a kindergarten. Several thousand people were employed as laborers. Its own train station, its own airport, which was built in Ainring, its own hospital. It became clear how complicated it is to move a seat of government into mountains at the edge of the country, and how much work was needed on the infrastructure. - [Narrator] More large buildings arose around the Berghof. A barracks for the SS,. A luxury hotel. Houses for Martin Bormann, air force chief, Hermann Goring, and Albert Speer, the architect and later, minister for armaments. Even an estate was built to safeguard the provisions on the Obersalzberg. And then there was a theater, a hotel for party members, the Hoher Goll, a post office, a hanger for staff cars, a kindergarten, a greenhouse, a teahouse, and at 1834 meters, the Kehlsteinhaus. The Kehlstein Strasse was built between 1938 and 1939. Kristiane Benkert, who was well-liked by his workers, was involved in the expansion projects. (speaking foreign language) - [Translator] They liked my father. They wouldn't have liked him if they'd had the feeling that he was a Nazi, or that he was one of them. I don't believe he was. I've learned that for him, all people were the same. I think he was good at keeping his head down. (laughing) - [Narrator] The Obersalzberg was declared a Fuhrer exclusion zone that could only be entered with a special permit. Also there, the swastika, stood for inhumanity. From then on, political guests were not only received in Berlin, but also against a background of imposing mountains. (triumphant regal music) (announcer speaking foreign language) On the 12th of February, 1938, in a threatening atmosphere, Austrian chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg trembled at the Berghof. Hitler demanded, among other things, a Nazi as Austrian home secretary. The referendum about Austria's independence which took place after the visit, led to Berlin forcing him to resign on the 11th of March. On the 12th of March, German troops marched into Austria. (speaking foreign language) (somber atmospheric music) (crowd roaring) - [Translator] I think the slogan back home to the Reich was very famous. Little Austria was happy to be taken into big Germany. - [Narrator] Rupert Zuckert grew up in the Salzburg countryside on the border. As a child, he experienced elation and rejoicing, like when Hitler visited the town of Salzburg, and in the best place, from the Sacher Hotel balcony. - [Translator] Neighbors' children dressed in black trousers and white shirts stood by me. I remember it so exactly because my swastika flag fell down, and then I asked the girl "Hey Francie, can you pass "the flag up to me again?" - [Narrator] While some were rejoicing in marching, others were being hunted and arrested. (crowd shouting excitedly) - [Translator] Mostly Hitler traveled in an open car with his right hand held in a Heil Hitler greeting. Probably he got tired, because then he had his hand stretched vertically. But there was an unbelievable amount of people who had assembled there, clamoring and bellowing, a welcome that would be politically unimaginable today. - [Narrator] An ecstasy, part real, and part staged. Mass euphoria for the self-proclaimed liberator. He's the goal of the pilgrim mass, a marching pilgrimage. Also up onto the Obersalzberg. (gentle uplifting music) There, the Fuhrer cult can be privatized, as it were. - [Translator] There we know from the images that hundreds to thousands of Hitler fans went there and screamed, "We want to see the Fuhrer," and then some of them took the street cobbles with them. Some wouldn't wash their hands because Hitler had shaken them by the hand. Some of them were directed, because the Berghof was also blocked off for security reasons, as it says, the Fuhrer's exclusion zone. However, the people were there, whether they were children who had been brought to the Berghof in groups, or young people, or young farmers. - [Narrator] Also, lots of Austrians went up the Obersalzberg to look at Hitler. Rupert Zuckert was there as well as a child. - [Translator] And then we traveled to the Berghof. A fence beyond was the Berghof, a path went down to it. Soldiers were stationed everywhere. Now I know that they were the SS. And then it happened that he came down. He selected two children, shook the hands of some others, and then the children went back up with him. By chance, he took me and also a girl, and we went up with him, chaperoned by Hitler. We disappeared up there, and then said goodbye to Hitler, and we were passed on to a woman in a white little bonnet, and she gave us a plate of wild strawberries and cream. I was also asked, "Hey Ruppy, so what did Hitler "say to you?" And I said, "He didn't say anything at all to us." - [Translator] The photos that we know today of Hitler with children were for some reason the product of this time. It wasn't a part of history, how friendly Hitler was with children, and how they were simply part of his everyday life. It shows us simply the propaganda machine of that period, and that children were a part of that propaganda, and how Nazism came in part to use them. - [Narrator] To the right of Hitler, his photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann, a master of manipulated truth, a director of the pose in the cult of the Fuhrer. He stage managed both the private Hitler, as well as the political dictator. One people, one Reich, one Fuhrer. Photos and newsreels would cement these propaganda images. Hitch and business go hand in hand. Both Hitler and Hoffman earned millions through their royalties. More than 4.3 billion photos were in circulation via collector's albums. - [Translator] It worked just the same as today with football cards. During the school breaks you can imagine some boy says "Hey, I've got Hitler on the terrace if you've got "one of him at the party rally ground. "We can do a swap." And what was really clever was that to know which photo fitted you, you had to read the text. - [Narrator] Here is my grandchild, my Fuhrer. He belongs to you and to Nazism. When things further, a kind of sacrifice from a child to an old man. Herbert Holzer from Salzburg also remembers the monopolization. In April 1941 when he was 10, he was inducted into the Hitler Youth. - To be honest, I was quite proud about it at the time. I'm just telling you how it was back then. I would be stupid if I pretended I wasn't. When you're a young boy, it's much easier to get excited about some idea. (lively singing) - [Narrator] Nazism allowed no ideological freedom, and it was the same in the Hitler Youth, marching in step, thinking in step. Regular military training pulled the young boys very early away from their families. The fighting spirit for the front line was taught like a game. - [Translator] When you're 10, you don't understand what is really happening in the background. You just go along with it. - [Narrator] Go along with it. Be subordinate. Obey orders. Group mentality, not individuality. Camaraderie, not egotism. - [Translator] There was a great camaraderie. We had to go to training camps. It was all part of it. They wanted to prepare us for the military. - [Translator] The Nazis worked with a vast propaganda machine, and wanted to win over the children already in the nursery. They started there, and then it went right through schooling up until National Service. And Hitler also said that often quite openly. There's a speech, the Reichenberg Speech, where he says they will never, ever be free for their entire lives, and they will be happy like this. So it wasn't at all clandestine that they wanted to win over children and young people for the regime, and that they also wanted to use them. - [Translator] Of course, you greatly valued the physical training, but you also got a cosh and this cosh was wooden, and it was painted like the handle of a hand grenade, and the top was painted green and blue, also like a hand grenade. - [Narrator] Cheering followed the surrender, then again marching, terror, and the Second World War. Supposed play became reality. Many now displayed the result of long-lasting indoctrination, unquestioning fighting spirit. - [Translator] I must say, I understood that my brother wanted to and would fight for the Fatherland. (dark foreboding music) My brother was killed on the Russian Baltic sea front. He's buried in a huge military cemetery on the Rybachy Peninsula. They sent us a beautiful photo of his grave, but my parents mournfulness really affected us children. (somber piano music) (crowd roaring) - [Narrator] On the 1st of September, 1939, the German army marched into Poland. World War II begins. Just two days later, the United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany. Nothing changes for the time being on the Obersalzberg. (gentle calming music) - [Translator] My parents and thus we children too belonged to the privileged elite. Because it was a Sunday, the people in power met. Today you'd say held a meeting, or discussion. And children went to the cinema then. The women sat in the teashop, the fathers probably sat at a round table, or a rectangular one. I don't know. And we children went to the children's cinema. Luxury. Cushions, big chairs, no, leather chairs. I'm still surprised even today that everything was a bit old-fashioned. - [Narrator] Martin Bormann's children sat in Hitler's greenhouse. They grew salad there. In contrast to his sheepdog, Hitler was a vegetarian. One of Bormann's sons went to school with Ludwig Schroer. - [Translator] Bormann and Goring went to our primary school. Martin Bormann took me to school. He sometimes took me up with him, and we were then picked up from there. He took me up there so that we could play with them. I wasn't the only one, there were several of us that played games together and romped around together. Totally of our own free will, without worrying about the background. (melancholy music) - [Narrator] The films made of Hitler's lover, Eva Braun, document how easygoing life was for both young and old on the Obersalzberg. - [Translator] So for the children on the Obersalzberg, it was a safe world, as is reflected here, and for these children, it was difficult to imagine that at the same time, here on the Obersalzberg, it was decided to murder children of the same age under the so-called Child Euthanasia Policy. This meant that children and young people, who in the eyes of the Nazis were judged to be either physically or mentally impaired, were murdered. - [Narrator] Head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, on the Obersalzberg. The area epitomizes the contemporariness of idyll and terror. While some could enjoy the panorama or mountain air, others were hunted, arrested, deported, and gassed. Or millions were dying on the war front. From here, troops were moved around, and lives extinguished. (tense music) - [Translator] Just imagine in this beautiful landscape in this mountain idyll, Hitler and his trusted colleagues went for walks, drank tea and coffee, and ate well, whilst deciding about the lives and deaths of millions of people. - [Narrator] It wasn't only the decision to murder physically and mentally impaired people that took place here on the Obersalzberg. It was also decided here to engage in a war of extermination against the Soviet Union and communism. On the 19th of June, 1943, Hitler and Himmler planned to wipe out all the Jewish ghettos in the east. The order to slaughter the Hungarian Jews was also issued from Obersalzberg. In April 1944, the first Hungarian deportation train reached the extermination camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau. Emma Ponn lived on a small farm near the Obersalzberg. She'd worked as a farmer since she was a child. During the war years, the safe world of the region gradually began to crumble. - [Translator] Then it began that this one, or that one were killed, and that you were not allowed to break the law, because then you'd be sent to Dachau. Whenever we slaughtered a pig or a calf, then it was always said, don't say anything. We were always sworn to secrecy. - [Narrator] You knew, but kept silent. The Dachau concentration camp was only 180 kilometers away from Berchtesgaden, the first Nazi concentration camp already built in 1933. Some 41,500 prisoners died there. Dachau made you afraid. - [Translator] This is what you learned. Then you see the safe world. You were always afraid that maybe Papa would also go away, that you would then have no one. - [Narrator] Also in the Berghof, the safe world is gradually coming to an end. Matthias Eder spent a lot of time up there because his aunt Emma worked there as a cook. He noticed that Hitler had changed. - [Translator] I saw him last in 1943, and I just knew that he was somehow different now from how he was when I saw him then. And he was wearing a coat, a leather coat. A really rough old thing. And he looked deadly serious. - [Narrator] They pressed on with the development of the second seat of government on the Obersalzberg during the war years. Before the beginning of the war, thousands of workers were employed on a voluntary basis. - [Translator] After the war began, the workers who came voluntarily to Berchtesgaden couldn't go home voluntarily. They were forced to stay and workers were also being forcefully recruited from all over occupied Europe. The bunker complex, which was first begun in 1943, needed an incredibly large work force, and there were probably up to 6000 foreign workers installed there on the Obersalzberg. - [Narrator] In September 1942, Zdenek Hulka is forced by the employment office of the Czech town of Sec to go to Berchtesgaden. In the stone quarry at Sil near the Obersalzberg, the then 22-year-old who trained as a cobbler had to break up bricks of marble with a hammer and take them up to the Berghof estate. At the beginning of 1943, he is deployed on the building of the bunker. - [Translator] The work in the bunker at the Obersalzberg was unbearably hard. Water covered the ground, rocks kept falling from the ceiling, and many workers were badly hurt. We had to get the stones out and get rid of them. Our job was to enlarge the bunker. - [Translator] My father always said that he didn't like the fact that people had to live and work in such tough conditions. They worked hard and well, he said, but he never talked about exact details. - [Narrator] Zdenek Hulka lived in a camp for about 200 forced laborers near the Obersalzberg. Among the mainly Italian and Czech slave laborers, the fear of being deported to a concentration camp was constant. They knew about the systematic murders. - [Translator] Yes, we knew about the concentration camps and about the murders. One of my neighbors, who was a communist, and in the resistance, was executed in the concentration camp. Also my uncle was sent to a concentration camp. - [Narrator] At least 15 of the Czech slave laborers died. However, there were slave laborers who had to work in even harder more terrible conditions. - [Translator] There was no deliberate elimination of the slave laborers through hard work at the Obersalzberg. The conditions were tough, they were not there on a voluntary basis, but compared to other forms of exploitation, it was a mild form of slave labor. (somber piano music) - [Narrator] The underground administrative center is, from a military point of view, more some kind of a mousetrap than a defensive position. The bunker could never be completed, but the propaganda talked up that area and the Alpine regions in Austria as the Alp Fortress. - [Translator] If you look at the construction plans for this bunker complex on the Obersalzberg it was intended to become some kind of governmental city underneath the rocks, which would have been safe even in a nuclear war, with lifts that were able to transport cars. Well, then you see in the plans it wasn't very far from an Alp fortress. - [Narrator] The first bombing of Salzburg was carried out by the Americans on the 16th of October, 1944. Until then, this region had been largely spared from the war. - [Translator] Then you saw how bombs were falling from the planes. You could see it with your naked eye. We were in a roadside ditch. How the bombs turned, and then loud crashes. Then we saw for the first time how timber and rubble swirled into the air. - [Narrator] A central target was the Salzburg main station, supposedly to destroy support and supply channels. - The part of the city called Itzling was mainly hit by the bombs, and further raids got the Kaifeltel. And at the same time, the Salzburg cathedral was hit. The dome was hit and caved in. - [Narrator] In the first of the 15 raids, 245 people died, in total, almost 550. - [Translator] Then I talked with my mother. She said, "Look, your dad is in the war, "and experiences this everyday. "You've just got to cope with it now." - [Narrator] In the morning of 25th of April, 1945, 359 RAF bombers headed towards the Obersalzberg. It should have been the first and only air raid. 20 people died in it. (unsettling music) (air raid sirens blaring) (speaking foreign language) - [Translator] And suddenly, it began to hum. Now it's starting. Where's my sister? She was in the Salzburg factory to pick up the salt. For god's sake, where is she? - [Translator] Suddenly it began to rattle. The aircraft flew in quite low and in squadron formation. And then, over on Rossfeld, they began to shoot the anti-aircraft guns. - [Narrator] As this happened, Marga Benkert was fleeing from the bombs on foot, her target a nearby tunnel. - [Translator] I always had my brother by the hand. My mother was carrying my other brother. He was still a baby. Then behind us it thundered frightfully. I didn't even turn around anymore because we were running just to get to the tunnel. An SS woman had been shot and just lay there. At that moment, I don't think I knew she'd been hit, she'd just fallen over. (speaking foreign language) All the people who ran behind shouted, "Run, she's dead! "They shot her from over there!" - [Narrator] Due to the failure of the southern German air defenses, the first British bombing raid could fly in, encountering little resistance. Inside of just 20 minutes, the Fuhrer's exclusion zone was raised to the ground. - [Translator] So at that time we thought that if we left the bunker, Berchtesgaden would be raised to the ground, although not a single bomb fell on Berchtesgaden. The Obersalzberg is four kilometers away, as the crow flies. (dark unsettling music) - [Narrator] The SS and members of the Berghof entourage fled to the mountains. An SS squad turned up at Gerhard Bartels' home. - [Translator] And seized our house. We had to get out and go over to another house, and they moved in here. With 800 weight of coffee beans, and booze, and food in the cellar. We were also allowed down there. Otherwise, loads of guards were there. The SS were everywhere, otherwise no one was allowed in the house. Hitler's gardener was also there, and his son was my age, and so we always went down into the cellar together and gorged on nougat. They were there from the 26th of April until about the 5th of May, and then the Americans were already coming down from Munich, or over from Salzburg. - [Narrator] On the 4th of May, 1945, Salzburg surrendered without a fight to the American troops. (somber music) In 1938, Hitler had been cheered there. Now it was the turn of the American liberators. Likewise, on the 4th of May, Berchtesgaden was liberated by US troops. Obersalzberg and the Berghof are the central targets. There was no resistance. The bunker complex was empty. The GIs were amazed at its size. The things that were left behind were not only photo albums and gramophone records, they were also records documenting the crimes of the Nazis, an apocalyptic downfall. The Nazi regime ended in destruction, war crimes, and the deaths of millions. Hitler and the others eluded responsibility by committing suicide. - [Translator] You knew that there were concentration camps, but you didn't know that there were extermination plants inside the concentration camps. You only learned about that from newspapers after the war, the photos of the starving people, those mountains of corpses. It's simply terrible, it's unbelievable. But then, you just didn't know about it. I think that if you'd have lived near Mauthausen, you'd certainly have known something, but if you had known something it would have been best to have kept your mouth shut. (speaking foreign language) - [Translator] I think one shouldn't underestimate that there must have been unconscious lies after the war. I think the repression mechanism works quite well. Your subconscious can sweep away a lot, and then you can say you really didn't know anything. Auschwitz, how terrible, and if we'd have known all that. I think a lot of people didn't want to know and had their problems, that they lost all their possessions through air raids, that mothers didn't know what had happened to their sons at the front, and those totally unpleasant facts, like the deportation of the Jews, people just didn't want to know. - [Narrator] The Americans didn't exactly cope with the past. In each part of the seat of government that wasn't destroyed, they built a holiday home for the occupying soldiers. Quite soon after the war, Hitler tourism began. (speaking foreign language) - [Translator] People made pilgrimages to where it happened, where the man, whose fault it all was, lived. - [Narrator] Just like in the 1930s, after the war crowds of people made pilgrimages up to Obersalzberg to visit the Berghof ruins and the houses of Martin Bormann and Hermann Goring. The Americans and the Bavarian state government feared the new burgeoning Hitler nostalgia, and the advancement of right-wing extremism. For this reason, all of the building remains were blown up in 1952. (crashing) (rumbling) (somber atmospheric music) The traces could be eliminated, but not the ideology. Nowadays, there are only a few stony vestiges to be found in the landscape. The area, however, hasn't lost its attraction. As one of the most important destinations in the Berchtesgaden country, the Obersalzberg is more popular than ever, both as a memorial to Nazi crimes, and as a mecca for Hitler's admirers and right-wing extremists from all over Europe. Business is booming, especially around the Kehlsteinhaus. Also because of its exceptional position as a sightseeing point. The neighboring building of the former Berghof with its bunker, is in private hands and open to tourists. This poses a difficult question for the Bavarian government. - [Translator] How you deal with these buildings? To make further use of them is one way of dealing with it, because you could say that private use in any form is a trivialization of a former Nazi domain, and that it's legitimate to do so. It can always be discussed. Shouldn't there be a reference for certain buildings as to in what context they came into being that can be thought about? We are discussing this also, because as you've brought up the station, the huge Berchtesgaden train station, which is in private hands. We have a very good relationship with the owner. He seems to be very open to discussion. - [Narrator] Also in the immediate surroundings, you can still see traces, which give the impression that time has stood still. This is the former small chancellery of Adolf Hitler, nowadays in private hands. (somber piano music) Damages were awarded to slave laborers in Germany and Austria for the first time after the beginning of the 21st century, a late attempt at compensation that many didn't live to see. - [Translator] I hadn't considered damages. I really didn't expect them. It was a great surprise. - [Narrator] In 1995, the Americans left Obersalzberg. Afterwards the Bavarian government developed the two pillars concept, the one being for tourism through the building of a luxury hotel, and the other, the academic processing, the documentation of Obersalzberg, academically led by the Institute of Contemporary History in Munich, has been trying since 1999 to fulfill the demands of a modern way of teaching history and cultivating historic memory. - [Translator] Dates, facts on the exhibition panels, or in schoolbooks, are of course important, but always belong together with biographical components, and that means stories from real life that enable us to empathize, and also should try and answer one of the most important questions, namely, how could totally normal people do things, commit crimes, that we just can't imagine today? (melancholy music) - [Translator] I decided for myself to go to Mauthausen to see it. When you see it for yourself, and take in everything, afterwards, all you can say is it was a terrible time. Really, really awful. - [Translator] I can't feel guilty, but as an adult woman who has grandchildren, I think I have to tell them about it. I have to tell them how bad it was, that when they at some point noticed that something is changing, maybe they will remember what I told them, and that they then say this really can't be good. Contemporary witnesses who were children and young people then, in my opinion, don't have to feel guilty, in the same way that I shouldn't feel guilty for what my grandparents' generation did, but I think that we all, along with the contemporary witnesses who were all very young then, as well as me personally, and all the following generations around the world, carry responsibility, the responsibility to recognize the mechanism that leads to a dictatorship, that leads to discrimination and ultimately to the murder of certain sections of the population. - [Translator] I am afraid of people who, via politics, try to install a dictator, or a powerful influence. It is dangerous because you can see how a few people can have a huge charisma. - [Translator] If a pied piper comes again, then they'll run after him again, just like today with ISIS. There's enough Germans who've joined ISIS. There's enough of those madmen. They're prepared to blow themselves up for nothing, because of maybe 72 virgins in paradise. It was similar to that back then. The people also believed it. The SS members who were there believed that they could still win the war. (somber music)
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Keywords: I love docs, i love documentaries, documentary film, free documentaries, documentaries on youtube, syndicado, documentaries online, full documentary, award winning documentary, watch documentaries, best documentary, Hitler And The Children Of Obersalzberg, obersalzberg documentary, obersalzberg doku, obersalzberg, hitler documentary, history documentary, full length documentaries
Id: 9hCMOYu4w-Y
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Length: 52min 17sec (3137 seconds)
Published: Sat Oct 24 2020
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