How The Nazis Brainwashed The German People To Support The Final Solution

of all their evil actions nothing defines the Nazis like the final solution the murder of some 6 million Jews but how did they get an entire nation to buy into the wholesale Slaughter of an innocent race they're performing murder and terrible crimes but at the same time trying to make it look as though it's correct this is the story of how Hitler and the Nazis groomed the German people he likened the Jews to a virus or a wound that that won't heal using all their darkest Arts to make them complicit we do have partners in crime here in the worst genocide in human history [Music] [Music] of one thing Hitler never makes any secret he hates the Jews recovering from his wounds at the end of the first world war he blames left-wing Jewish politicians for surrendering stabbing Germany in the back in the 1920s depression he rails against a Jewish conspiracy the root of all evil from communism to corrupt financiers this poisoning of the nation the German Jew is the Enemy Within he an enemy in in racial terms in cultural terms in National terms the Jews greatest crime is that they pollute the pure genes of the Aryan m race they must be eliminated the nation is no longer willing to be sucked dry by these parasites everything he'd said since 1922 pointed towards the ultimate idea that you rid yourself of the Jews physically by 1941 he is master of everything he has defeated France captured Poland and his army is advancing deep into the Soviet Union now he can begin on a lifetime's ambition to create a pure German Nation free of Jews but how can he carry the German people with [Music] him he has always been aware his anti-jewish policy is an acutely sensitive issue for ordinary citizens in fact during his first four years in power Hitler barely mentions the Jews in public and when he does move against them it is slowly step by step they're banned from certain professions then they lose their rights as Citizens and their livelihoods thousands are driven to flee abroad during all of this there are some objections however most Germans just stand and watch but the actual killing the elimination of all those who remain their own neighbors is still a step too far he recognized in the German people there was this residual sense of decency which could be offended by horrific policies but killing Jews is indecent it will take all the Nazis skill to sell this to the German people it's a task for Joseph Gobles the Nazis master of persuasion Geral shares the fur's loathing of the Jews and is determined to convince his fellow Germans it was Gobles who was responsible for selling the idea that the Jews were this kind of cancer or this plague at theit part of German Society he realized that if you could control what people consumed then you could control them and he was one of the first people to realize that Cinema is one of his favorite tools for manipulating public opinion the film The Eternal Jew produced by gal's propaganda unit has a stark message wherever Jews settle they behave like rats and parasites the film portrays the Jew as the Eternal corruptor specifically of course in the sense of of the German people to buy into this evil agenda is going to be a complex process the danger lies in inflaming public opinion and the risk of getting things wrong is already brutally clear since 1939 the Nazis have been carrying out a secret euthanasia campaign it will become their dry run for how to commit mass murder without upsetting the German public first they need willing accomplishes pliable nurses and doctors are instructed to single out terminally ill and disabled children the next step is to deceive the people who might object parents are told their loved ones are to be sent to care centers for special treatment and finally they need a method of killing quiet and discreet they choose Murder By lethal injection some 5,000 innocent children are killed their only crime to be sick or disabled the truth is hidden by false death certificates blaming measles or pneumonia it's Hitler sort of kind of dipping his toe in the water with the German public to see what he can get away with then the regime escalates the program targeting tens of thousands of disabled adults in institutions across Germany ramping up the numbers involves more doctors and some voice doubts about the legality of the policy it's a problem that goes to the furer himself himself and so Hitler wrote a note which he rarely did and signed saying to the people the chancel you concerned with the medical profession that this was now a policy that could be followed [Music] legitimately for the German doctors it's Now official they are obeying the fur's orders that's what the new culture is they say to themselves that's the environment uh that's the classic Road to Hell a secret Department known as T4 is set up to Mastermind the process to kill so many quickly and quietly they need new techniques what the man at T4 come up with is a shower room except these pipes and shower heads don't carry water they deliver poisonous carbon monoxide gas in many ways the euthanasia program uh represents the absolute bestiality of the Nazi regime tens of thousands of Germany's sick and disabled are murdered in this way and it's an extraordinary program because all those involved knew what was going on it's not as if they were blinded they accept that you euthanasia is a legitimate policy the killing of Germans by Germans is legitimate but then the truth about the killing starts to leak out gradually of course the public living close to those institutions began to get an awareness that something unusual was going on people start to worry other sick relatives might be the next victims the discussion starts here and there about will this be applied to our wounded soldiers the Catholic Church picks up on the public fears and stands up to the regime famously Bishop V galin gave a sermon in which he denounced his program um not on the grounds that it is necessarily unethical to kill people but on the grounds that these were Germans that were being killed he emphasized that these were our Brethren members of our families the outcry becomes so strong Hitler is forced to make a rare public climb down officially halting his euthanasia campaign within Germany discover the past with exclusive military history documentaries and adree podcasts presented by world-renowned historians all on history hit watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device download the app now to watch everything from the gripping story of the Band of Brothers to operation Barbarosa and D-Day immerse yourself in the dramatic stories of this remarkable era by signing up via the link in the description the protest against euthanasia has taught the Nazis several lessons first if their racial policies threaten German families public opinion won't wear it second any further killing will have to be well hidden far from Germany itself and third the fura must not be associated with anything disreputable these lessons will Define how the Nazis deal with the Jews in particular Hitler will never personally sign a compromising document he didn't want his own name associated with the worst extremities of the anti-jewish program 2 years into the war Hitler is Riding High on the success of his campaign against the Soviet Union he is content to leave the handling of the Jewish question to his loyal henchmen officially re Marshall Herman guring Hitler's number two is in charge of Jewish Affairs but in fact it will be Hitler's fanatical SS selected for their Devotion to the Nazi cause who will deliver the final solution [Music] their leader is Heinrich himler a Nazi party member since the 1920s he shares Hitler's resolve to rid Germany of the Jews and his right-hand man SS General Reinhardt hyri is even more terrifying he found in his subordinate rhynard hyri absolutely the perfect man to carry out the destruction of a people as head of the Nazi Security Forces Reinhardt hydrick is one of the most feared men in Germany if you gave Hitler a piece of paper and asked them to sketch out the perfect Nazi I think he probably would have sketched out rard hydri he was tall he was blonde he was athletic he is a man of many talents a champion fencer a fighter pilot a skilled violinist but above all he is a fanatical Nazi he had all the characteristics that made him the Aryan Superman hyri really is the rising man of the Nazi racial killing machine since 1939 hydri has been wreaking havoc in the conquered territories in the East his secret death squads the einat grouin slaughter thousands of of Polish Jews those who survive are rounded up into ghettos nearly 3 million await their fate in appalling conditions then hydri SS thugs follow Germany's armies into the Soviet Union continuing their murderous campaign against the Jews news of hydri massacres in the East begins to trickle back home to Germany dear Hana last night 150 Jews were shot in this town men women and children all bumped off don't worry about it it has to be done but don't tell anyone else many thousands of Germans now know what is happening out east but they do nothing it confirms what the Nazis Leed from the euthanasia program they can get away with killing Jews out of sight far from home so this was something that was percolating outwards inside Nazi Germany it was sort of um you know the secret that would never dare to speak its name as hydri plots a far bigger attack on the Jews he needs Authority from above he can't get it from Hitler who wants to keep his involvement secret so hydri turns to someone else and prepares one of the most important documents in the story of the final solution he takes his secret letter to the home of right Marshall heron guring the man Hitler has officially put in charge of Nazi Jewish policy what hydri wants is ging's signature authorizing him to produce a plan for the Naz intended final solution to the Jewish question this is the stamp of approval he needs but it will be another 5 months before hydri has his plan in [Music] place meanwhile Hitler's armies are pushing deeper and deeper into the Soviet Union far from the eyes of the German people hydrix killer squads are ramping up their Slaughter of the Jews they're looking for the most efficient method for mass murder still just using [Applause] bullets soon hydrix SS develop a Sinister routine the Jews are rounded up and taken to a remote execution site the first arrivals are forced to dig a pit what happens next is revealed in this amateur film shot in ltia by German Soldier a group of Jews is lined up in front of the mass grave and shot then another group is brought in layer upon layer the Nazis call it sardine packing here we see a massive escalation of the policy of extermination of the Jews going on in effect we have now a holocaust of Soviet Jews already taking place the worst Slaughter takes place in the Ukraine at the Ravine known as babiar 33,000 are killed in Just 2 [Music] days as hydri ramps up the slaughter he finds he doesn't have enough of his racist SS thugs he needs new recruits there is some evidence that there was a bit more resistance to to taking part in the killings than than perhaps there would have been in the IR at grion but this was by and large overcome and it was done by by the use of for example alcohol uh given out freely uh to these people that would anesthetize them against the against the effects if you like of seeing large numbers of people killed in front of them but hyri knows this Mass killing is still taking its toll on his men most of these men rapidly became horribly troubled and Disturbed and it's very largely this experience which pushes himla and hyrich to look for other ways of killing huge numbers of people back home Hitler is still looking for a way to deal with the 200,000 Jews living in Germany everybody knew Jews they were part of German Society they were Germans they had fought in the first world war they had won iron crosses so gal's propaganda machine has to be mobilized to create a sense of difference to set them apart from their pureblood German Neighbors stage one give them a star a Jewish German and a non-jewish German may not look that different but what you can do is label them with a star and it's the yellow star is absolutely key to differentiating them and it starts kind of staining them anyone above the age of six is obliged to wear the yellow star of David this is the real moment at which they really say to the people on the streets these people are different from everybody else they're not German they are Jewish and the Jews are an unwanted race in our third right stage two is to make sure Germans do not socialize with Jews to keep them physically apart don't be foed into thinking ah he's nice because I know him he's a Jew they're Jews and therefore they're a threat Geral keeps up a stream of propaganda carrying the Insidious message that it's not the Nazis who are turning on the Jews the Jews have brought this misery on themselves for one of his slogans of the weak he uses a quote from Hitler if the international Jewish finers should succeed in plunging the Nations once more into a World War then the result will not be the victory of jury but the annihilation of the Jewish race in [Applause] Europe it is a masterful piece of propaganda it absolves the German people of any guilt the Jews will be responsible for their own destruction the single most disturbing thing that Geral achieved that was scapegoating he was polluting the mind of a Nation slowly but surely the Nazis are grooming German citizens to accept the removal of the 200,000 Jews still living as their neighbors however even now they are wary of inflaming domestic public opinion the Hardline is softened for public consumption so that people who are already been trained to be anti-jewish are not pushed too far the Man In Charge SS General Reinhardt hydri begins a campaign of deception the official line is that the Jews are to be resettled in the East HRI of course realizes what you can't just say uh publicly it's right we're going to kill 6 million people tomorrow morning um you know you you got to do a bit more subtly than that um and you know when you're talking about evacuating people to the east um you've got to make it look as though they really are just being evacuated to the [Music] east so hydri sets up a model camp at teresian stat in the occupied Czech Territory news reels are released showing it as a safe place where German Jews can resettle and it was for provided with facilities that many ordinary Germans didn't have um swimming pools complex of Cinemas massage areas the idea being that although we've removed the Jew from our midst we're not making him suffer because we're giving him a way of life which is perfectly consistent with civilized [Music] standards It's a cruel deceit for most Jews teresian stat is really just a stop before they are sent on their way to the horrific ghettos in occupied Poland and around the [Music] Baltic and that's one of the kind of terrifying elements of the Nazi regime is they're doing performing murder and terrible crimes but at the same time trying to make it look as though it's [Music] correct but hyrri's deportation of the German Jews creates a new problem out in the East the ghettos are already crammed full because of the overcrowding local Nazi leaders in the occupied territories start to kill Jews to make space for the newcomers this almost leads to a public relations disaster in late 1941 a thousand German Jews are dispatched East to the model camp at teresian stat and these aren't just any Jews many of them are elderly war heroes holders of the Iron Cross then there's an error they're sent to a ghetto in lvia where Jews are being massacred but because of mix up in the administration of it they end up in R and most of them are shocked it's a catastrophic error if the news leaks out the German people would be appalled it's a warning to hydri and SS Chief Hinrich himler killing German Jews needs their close control by now their plans for the SS to deliver the final solution are ready An Elegant Lakeside Villa in the Berlin suburb of van is the venue for a top secret meeting high ranking civil servants The Men Who Run the German State Nazi party officials and members of the Reich Security Forces assemble for one of the most notorious gatherings in history in this quiet palatial atmosphere all of the stakeholders who will decide the fate of European Jews are assembled awaiting them will be Adolf ikan Chief organizer of Jewish deportation he is to become a key player in the Nazis Final Solution Ian was a virent anti-site he was a uh very uh passionate man man in many ways he was a drunkard he had affairs he was a very committed Nazi and he really felt that what he was doing was absolutely right and he wasn't just doing it because he was a a boring civil servant he was doing it because he wanted to kill Jews his role today is to keep the minutes of the meeting the mood is relaxed despite the Sinister agenda Ian's Superior hydri is in the chair first hydri makes it clear his authority comes from the very top via guring Hitler's number two and what he is putting forward is an SS run operation what hydri had to do was to establish that what he was doing or proposing at van was in fact the fur's policy the meeting is so sensitive the only reference to the Nazis real plan is in the careful language of Ian's minutes the Jews already under German control will be put to work in the East the majority will die those that survive will have to be dealt with appropriately dealt with appropriately is code for what we know as the final solution the plan is to kill all of the 11 million Jew Jews in Europe it is genocide this is a task too big for hydrix death squads it will require murder on an industrial scale what Hydra brought to the table was an incredibly analytical mind a very very cold evil way of thinking that could just regard genocide as a kind of uh challenge for a civil servant hydri needs the men around him to mobilize Germany's resources and infrastructure they will have to be involved in this crime van is the coming together in administration terms of all the leading authorities concerned with transport with um Gathering of the Jews with treatment of them when they the Food Supplies Etc that's got that's a logistical problem that's got to be resolved by logistical [Music] means to hydri relief there is no dissent in just over an hour hydri has the agreement he wants the German state will be mobilized and the SS are in charge of the final solution now it's just a question of practicalities in the remote area of Eastern Poland there are huge SES of Deep Dark Forest if you want to get rid of a people that's the place to do it this is a place where people can just [Music] disappear the SS already has a base here in the city of Lublin they have rounded up thousands of Jew into labor camps and ghettos they must now be discreetly killed hydri has already been experimenting on the best way to do it he's brought in his top expert in mass murder one of the most unpleasant of a very unpleasant Bunch called Nazis was fellow called Christian vert uh he's involved in the euthanasia program he designs the death rooms uh and he uses his knowledge and experience to apply it to extermination of Jews and he was the one that said you can't destroy Jews at peace meal as we did in the euthanasia program we need thousand a day 2,000 a day see this as a major logistical problem on his way to Lublin vert does some research at the town of Helo they are already experimenting on how to kill polish Jews first they are LED into a sealed chamber unaware they are entering the back of a large truck exhaust fumes are pumped in and the victims soon die of carbon monoxide poisoning but killing one truckload of 50 Jews at a time is not going to deliver the final solution vert's orders offer mass murder hidden away in Poland's dense forests he needs a more efficient continuous process to kill the numbers required so at his first location near the remote Village of belet vert installs a static combustion engine to pump exhaust fumes into large sealed gas Chambers belet becomes a blueprint for other secret death camps so and trinka with Helo they form a lethal network of extermination all carefully chosen because they are close to the railway lines the Nazis now carry out the first stage of their plan they liquidate the ghettos some 1 and a half million Jews are shipped to these camps crammed into C met trucks and goods wagons brought in like cargo to be eliminated swiftly and out of [Music] sight unlike the vast concentration camps in Germany which were prisons these death factories take up just a small clearing these Forest are places where evil happens and the Nazis chose a spot that almost feels evil for what they did there took place it is quite the most terrifying spot and it's not just terrifying because what we now know that happened there it's terrifying because it's remote it's dark it's lonely and it's sort of a place that just gives you a sense of absolute [Music] hopelessness hidden from German eyes the rounding up of Polish Jews is a brutal affair [Music] a very different challenge is how to round up German Jews and send them to the death camps the man in charge of this problem is hydrick killer bureaucrat Adolf ikan he is The Mastermind of the deportation program the Holocaust the destruction of the Jews was a bureaucratic process and to run a bureaucratic process you need bureaucrats Adolf akman is the archetypal bureaucrat functioning in administrative sense is the key to success of any policy it's got to be programmed the issue facing ikan is how to get rid of these Jews without upsetting their neighbors without ordinary Germans finding out what is really going on the answer is the familiar Nazi tactic deception people are told that the Jews are being resettled sent to a safe destination at the railway stations they won't see any Sinister cattle trucks the Jews leave on comfortable passenger trains with tickets food and money for the journey and this deception seems to work on Germans and Jews this is probably the most amazing part of the process that it seems to all go on in a kind of matter of fact way we don't see any massive riots at the uh German collecting points they do assemble thinking that you know resettlement in the East might actually be better than walking around a German Street by now and being abused their civil rights have been taken away their dignity have been taken away their property had been taken away many of them thought things might actually get better they'd accepted they had no place in Germany and maybe hey things in Poland could be no worse than what they are the Jews will not discover the truth about their final destination until they are far from German soil the Nazis continue their deception to The Bitter [Music] End the commandant of trinka death camp orders the construction of a fake railway station complete with painted wooden clock its hands always fixed at 6:00 [Music] just enough to reassure the new arrivals but this stop will be their last convinced they are to have a shower for health reasons men and women are separated and remove their clothes their hair and beards are Shor off then suddenly they are rushed into the tube a narrow Corridor lined with barbed wire a dark chamber looms but it is it's too late the journey from train to death takes just 90 minutes the Nazis are now operating such an efficient system nothing can stop [Music] it not even when Reinhardt hydri the Chief Architect of the final solution Falls victim to an assassination attempt at his funeral the biggest sort of Nazi uh showpiece funeral of the entire period all the Nazis are there and Hitler seems to even be shedding a few tears at losing this sort of rightand Arian Superman in Hy's honor his boss SS Chief Hinrich himler names the death camp project action Reinhardt and vows to step up the slaughter in [Music] Poland in the forests of Eastern Poland the Nazis are carrying out their final solution to the Jewish question it is genocide at the end of 1942 Adolf ikan the Nazis killer bureaucrat receives detailed reports from the secret polish death camps over a million Jews have already been killed Hitler's vision is being fulfilled there was a time when the Jews in Germany laughed at my prophecies but take my word for it they will stop laughing everywhere follow following the Nazis master plan the Jews are being worked to death or murdered outright out in Poland the Nazis are less discreet in their killing the midanik Concentration Camp built on a hill in full view of the city of Lublin was originally intended to house Soviet prisoners of War under SS control it becomes another Grim destination for tens of thousands of Polish Jews shipped in as forced laborers living in the most brutal conditions many of them will die from sickness and exhaustion as a key part of the Nazis Final Solution the camp is equipped with facilities for extermination po ous carbon monoxide is used in the gas Chambers and a crematorium is installed with ovens to burn thousands of bodies death camps slave labor camps extermination camps it's hard to Define which is Wich at some points all we know is people are dying they're dying through a number of ways starvation some are being gassed some are being systematically killed some are being beaten to death 200 miles to the West one of the largest polish work camps is transformed into the Nazis most notorious killing machine and it is here at alitz burkau that the mass murder of the final solution will reach a truly barbaric level alongside a vast industrial complex himler orders the construction of gas Chambers and crematoria capable of slaughtering up to 6,000 people every day and the Nazis now have a new technique for murder a chemical designed to kill pests zyclone B is a cyanide based substance in a warm moist atmosphere it turns from pellets into a highly toxic gas the death cells were constructed with with either pipes into them at high level or holes in the roof through which the pellets could be dropped the killer pesticide is soon being used by the Nazis on a massive scale they are moving here into absolutely new territory nobody in history has attempted to do something like this before so they they they they are literally finding ing their way manufacturing zeyon B boosts the profits of Germany's chemical industry the complicity of the great manufacturing chemical companies is obvious they later at nurenberg and afterward said we didn't know it it's being useful why would you need zeyon be on that scale of production if it wasn't against people by this stage many more Germans are becoming aware of what is happening to the Jews there's one amazing incident where a a freight train was going towards aitz and one of the survivors said that he was in this freight train and he said that at one of the train stations at a German station somebody shouted we know where you're going to the gas Chambers so you can see that in these little towns even people knew what was happening so I imagine in that particular freight train then there was a certain amount of trepid to help Finance his evil plans himler turns the final solution into a commercial partnership between the SS and Germany's corporate Giants the SS make a fortune leasing out their Jewish prisoners men women and children to work in IG faron's factories we can actually see that in The Killing process we do have partners in crime here not just the Nazis but also here a massive capitalist Enterprise that enters into this project with the Nazis and actually finances it and it's not just big business that's implicated in genocide thousands of ordinary Germans are making their own contribution so you've got the train driver driving a trainload of Jews across Europe he knows what's going on but he's not asking any questions you've got the civil servant working in some small Department in Berlin who's probably responsible for supplying the cattle trucks for a certain shipment of Jews he's just following orders but what you've got are a lot of very small cogs each of whom think well I'm not really taking part in this I'm just doing a small thing but when you put all those cogs together then you've got a murder machine but when you take it apart each of those cogs can say it wasn't me with this complicity of Silence no German needs to speak openly about the final solution no one needs to take responsibility and all of this seems to happen with barely a flicker of protest back home by 1943 himler is able to declare that Germany itself is almost uden rine Jew free the only resistance comes in one celebrated event when the Nazis tried to deport a group of Jews married to German women famous occasion known as the Rosen straser Affair where a number of Jewish men who had been rounded up their non-jewish wives came together and protested on mass outside Nazi officials houses and buildings such was their determination that threats to them to disperse went unheeded when the protests become public it causes real consternation at the highest levels even now the Nazis are scared of admitting what is really going on and the Nazi officials eventually came to the conclusion far better to give way than to try and face them down and the husbands were allowed to go back to the wives they even reprieve 35 Jews who had already been sent to aitz but the Rosen stasa protest is an isolated occasion by now the vast majority of Germans have other things to worry about they are starting to lose the war and their first concern is their own families they were being you know bombed Around the Clock by the British and the Americans they had huge food shortages um their own children were dying in droves on the Eastern Front um so you know I think there was very little capacity within many people's minds to actually really care about what was happening to some Jews for Hinrich himler the final solution represents a hideous Triumph a recording exists of his speech to a secret meeting of ss leaders he is openly proud this is a page of Glory never mentioned and never to be mentioned this admission that we can't can't be acknowledged as heroes in the public eye is a sure sign that what they've done would be unacceptable by now they have killed some 4 million Jews since the start of the war another 2 million will be murdered before it is [Music] over but the Germans must feel no guilt himler shifts the blame onto the Jews they are respons responsible for their Annihilation we have the moral right we had the duty to our people to do it to kill this people who wanted to kill [Applause] [Music] us and so the German people become complicit in one of the worst crimes in history [Music]

Channel: War Stories

Views: 62,344

Keywords: military history, war, war documentary, military tactics, war stories, history of war, battles, Full Documentary, Rise Of The Nazi Party, ww2, nazi germany, hitler, adolf hitler, holocaust, final solution

Id: tA_uJOnAnoQ

Length: 49min 0sec (2940 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 08 2024