(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)
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.