The SS : Hitler’s Fanatical Killing Machine (Part 1) | FULL DOCUMENTARY

[Music] Central Germany 1933 Hitler's been in power for several [Music] months here is one of the first movies shot by the SS the sh stafin or protection squadrons recognizable by the skulls on their cap and the lightning flash initials on their Flags they were not afraid of death they said neither inflicting it nor suffering it all volunteers to join what according to their criteria was a grouping of superior [Music] Nazis verer fuler is a for former member of the SS death's head division he was nine when Hitler came to [Music] power he still Knows by heart the Nazi party's official song The Host vessel [Music] lead yes born in Berlin in 1924 this German lives in the south of England where he married and made a new life for himself at the end of World War 2 he spent several years an Allied prisoner of war camps because he had been in the SS the we Mo went like this no this and the assess went like this what fascinated me was the milit aspect sharp standing to attention when I said good morning I clicked my heels I nodded and said H Hitler it was really great the outlook on life was well get the job done and finish with this documentary takes us to find SS members who are still alive to try to understand the [Music] incomprehensible after several months of research we discovered over 20 SS veterans living in different countries across Europe words that often shock some have broken with Nazism others not this man is one of them Kurt bazen age 92 he lives in central Germany he too was in the death's head division whose members often worked in concentration camps what counted for us first of all the purity of the person who are you what do you want from Life secondly you have a healthy family you are married having children is a gift of God a guarantee of Happiness after that there is the people how did our ancestors live what did they believe in what has made real Germans of us the these were our fundamental [Music] values a vanished world so little like our own but at the same time so near only 80 years separate us from these young men who embraced fanaticism to justify themselves all point to 198 when Germany lost the first world war the versailes peace treaty took several border regions away from Germany the Versa treaty was a humiliation for Germany a supreme humiliation we the Germans had lost were designated as the only ones responsible just like in World War III on top of the perceived humiliation came the nightmare of 1920s Germany the unemployment the poverty and the shame when in 1923 the French and Belgian governments decided to cross the border and occupy the rure to claim their War reparations directly in the factories when they look to justify their crimes the SS would often point to the tribulations of the 1920s humiliation yeah now if you're in your own country and somebody comes and does bad things to you you are humiliated aren't you Nazism they said gave them back their dignity they began to form ranks behind an Austrian World War I Corporal Adolf Hitler a radical nationalist who promised them he would wipe out the shame we were on our knees we had been poor and miserable and then suddenly we were somebody again where this commitment would lead them the SS didn't know we were delighted with this change what they did know was that their first targets would be the Communists those anti- Germans as they called them they've been fighting them in the streets since the end of the war they accused them of betraying the nation and overthrowing the emperor with their 1918 Revolution while the German Army carried on the fight against the Allies why did we have to fight them because they wanted to build a worker state with workers from every country including [Music] America I remember in Hamburg when I was a child seeing big demonstrations in the street my father said if they get into Power with screw he was talking about the Communist [Music] Party national socialism was more social than communism and in political terms was devot Ed purely to Germany whereas communism was aimed at the world and was largely run by Jews The abor View that the Jews were the Real Enemy worse than the Communists they said was taking hold for Hitler the Jews had profited from the German people's misery they hiding everywhere said his Manifesto behind the Communists who sees power in Russia in 1917 behind the capitalists in New York who pull the strings of the world economy for propaganda Minister Joseph geros the hour of the great confrontation was [Music] near [Music] [Applause] it was a visceral revengeful hatred bottled up for too long born out of 19th century racist theories a Sinister indication of what was to come look at the SS men here in the hall it was they who within less than 10 years would take the leading role in assassinating Jews in their [Music] Millions since their creation in 1925 the SS had been Hitler's bodyguards they stood out in their dashing black uniforms and could be seen everywhere alongside the party leaders they wanted to be noticed to distinguish themselves I knew it was an elite formation in in other words they wouldn't take any Tom Dick and Harry I wanted to be part of an elite [Music] division they were the new regime's shop window new recruits had to be tall at least 5' 6 and young under [Music] 23 no Jewish ancestry they had to provide genealogical details dating back to the 18th century strength Prestige virility in the Third Reich if you want a successful career if you want a successful life you join the SS women were very interested by the idea of getting to know SS men and making friends with them they were obviously ideal fellows the SS were very much in [Music] demand marrying a member of the SS was an honor of [Music] [Applause] course they were also known as the black order a name that linked them to the Knights of the Middle Ages when Germanic Soldier monks colonized Eastern [Music] Europe they were filled with grandiose ideas that they were the new Lords of Germany entrusted with replacing the old aristocratic Elite that had always run the [Applause] [Music] [Applause] country eaart G is a Protestant Minister his SS unit the Das division committed numerous atrocities during the war at the age of 17 he says he joined the SS to defy his parents who refused to allow a relationship with a young Catholic girl this got there were images in Germany where you would see a young man hand sign up for the war for freedom and he would kneel before his beloved who would bless him all of those emotions that I don't think we can understand or Express today they existed back then our motto written on our Bel buckles was my honor is my loyalty it meant no CIS when facing the enemy the ideology that himler had drilled into US was you are nothing your people is [Music] everything you belong to the nation the nation is is is you you are you are part of the nation I wanted to prove that I was ready to risk my life for that ideology to [Music] rescue a clan the Intrepid new man able to remove pity from their hearts the racial spearhead of the German people as they saw [Music] themselves this is Heinrich himler their Chief one of the greatest criminals of all time he was from Munich's cultivated middle classes anti-semitic anti-communist anti-christian one of the first Nazis and one of the most ambitious at the age of 23 he took part in the beer hall P when Hitler sought to overthrow the German Republic and set up a fascist regime as musolini had done in Rome the previous year the coup failed after clashes with police in feren Hara Square but himler had got himself noticed and from that point on his rise step bystep was irresistible 10 years later he was in charge of 50,000 SS he was still subordinate to room here with his arm raised the head of the party militia the sa it was an unbearable position for himler for months with the aid of several Nazi dignitaries he tried to persuade the furer that Rome was plotting against the government on June 30th 1934 he succeeded it would be called The Night of the Long Knives the Men in Black would Massacre their own sa comrades Hitler himself triggered events by having a room arrested in a Bavarian hotel where he was staying he was transferred to a Munich prison by the SS and liquidated along with members of his staff with this fratricidal Mass M himler now under direct orders from Hitler obtained autonomy for the SS in 1936 this uncharismatic man was appointed chief of police for the whole of Germany in addition to the SS and their intelligence service the SD he now controlled every uniform policeman as well as the Criminal Division and the secret police the gash with faithful Hinrich as Hitler called him Germany became a state under police control and its young SS as obedient as machines when you are a soldier you have to carry out orders you're not there to think that's how it was today it's different build on the at the time we said leave the thinking to the horses they have bigger heads we weren't telling jokes and having a laugh attention quick March Left Right an order was an order if somebody gave me an order to do then I do it blood and soil himmler's new Creed in exchange for their obedience the SS R fur offered his men a new imaginary world of German mythology and racial superiority pursuing the slightest trace of exploitable German history he created a religion that could replace Christianity a religion based on race with its particular beliefs and rituals here a child's baptism with no priest the minister is an SS officer and the crucifix has been replaced by a portrait of Hitler this m the atmosphere and the ceremonial mythology I found fascinating I've never forgot [Music] forget the SS were promised healthy smiling wives before their weddings the women were sent on courses to Nazi party [Music] schools not purely scientif the wedding plans had to be approved by the SS racial service in devoting themselves to their husbands and to the procreation of future SS members these women would be joining an order of knights and becoming Nazi combatants themselves to rise in the ranks of the SS a member had to be married by the age of 26 have his first child by 28 then another every 2 years with at least four in [Music] all unprecedented in any previous political organization himler controlled the private lives of its members do not be afraid of death he told them the the individual dies but through his children as people will grow Beyond life most of the SS we've met were still children in the mid-30s raised in a totalitarian state they were subjected to Hitler's propaganda some of the most extensive brainwashing of the 20th century this man igon a left-wing activist and trade unionist in Hanover is a former SS man from The Viking division his radicalization now totally repudiated began at Infant School the na the Nazis made sweets for children with swas stickers on them I was proud to eat those sweets but I was even prouder when I was 5 years old in school and we'd go on walks or on visits and I could wear my swastic of armband this was all drilled into US quite deliberately to the point that in 1934 when I was 10 that state of mind with the uniforms and the Hitler salute was quite natural in fact I didn't know anyone who was opposed to it children were being conditioned with Insidious fascist ideology and hideously anti-Semitic racism on a daily basis for Hitler they were to be regarded as future soldiers of the Reich with the best of them destined to join the SS my parents were devastated I deeply hated Jews I would never have sat next to a Jew at school never they were quite simply not of our race Jews were an [Music] Abomination Crooks traitors lazy obsessed with money cut [Music] throats in the youth organizations budding SS members were given military training from an early age like in Sparta and ancient Greece the state educated the children we used to like singing songs The Waves will close in on them the world is at peace it means the extermination of the Jews they would be drowned wiped out at the time the extermination of Jews was not on the agenda but the barriers were falling like here at a carnival in nurenberg where an effigy of a Jew was hanged from a [Music] float or in this vile racist propaganda film this Twisted view of Germany is a victim of its Jewish communities ran so deep that it continues to warp the minds of some former SS men I don't know if you would like it when you have a very precise type of blood to accept a race that is fundamentally different in its way of being it's religion and its very conception of life [Music] and that they would be as prevalent in society as True Blood Germans who were born here here get born this Austrian SS member never committed any crimes himself he says but on his shelves like a shrine to Nazi bloodlust are his old dagger and a cruel caricature of an East European Jew there's still our enemies he says off camera to avoid being sued he uses a metaphor when you have good apples and you mix them with pears then you end up with neither apples nor pears that's all it was at the age of 14 that Herbert von milenberg saw Hitler for the first time there was something in his eyes when he looked at us something fascinating we sang we're not going home we're not going home before the fur speaks we were in heaven like idiot football fans in the stadium [Applause] today Hitler The Man Who Would resurrect [Applause] Germany it was intoxicating [Applause] fact the fact was that 6 million unemployed found work within the space of 5 years by increasing aid for workers providing leisure activities previously reserved for the elite and by funding massive rearmament and major building projects through the conf confiscation of Jewish assets and massive debt Hitler bought the approval of the German [Music] people for the SS we met it was a miracle it was proof that Hitler had accomplished what he had promised the man had guts he wasn't a coward would you say that Hitler was the man of your life yes 100% [Applause] [Music] 100% SS fanaticism born out of humiliation fasination with a savior and an unshakable feeling of superiority in just a few years this infernal spiral LED Germany the land of Gerta K and Beethoven over the brink an entire people faced [Music] Oblivion there was a form of ideological blindness I think the deeply destructive nature of national socialism was masked at the time by the success it had repression began in 1933 political opponents were isolated from the rest of society as a preventative measure without trial the task was entrusted to the sa then the s the pretext was the burning of the rich dog the German Parliament Hitler presented it as the beginning of a new Communist Revolution the Communists want to bring down the state they were told they were considered a danger to the community where they were taken out out of the community and the community could get on with their lives I myself noticed that the people who had previously expressed opposition at party meetings had now disappeared either the Communists joined our movement or they continued to oppose us and were sent to special camps which were later called concentration camps better so to the extent that there was almost no opposition in Germany it just wasn't possible anymore Hera from a modest family in Northern Germany is a former member of the SS at the age of 21 she interrupted her nursing training to look for work she was offered a job as a woman's prison guard he must I had an appointment at the employment agency with a Mr brfa he said m b you're going to be a guard at a concentration camp I said what's a concentration camp it's a camp and you'll be guarding women oh I can't do that if you refuse you'll be sent to the camp yourself my God what could I do so I went they were not yet death camps only internment camps but the SS inflicted on the prisoners a regime of Terror they had to stay outdoors in both summer and winter among the ones standing in the cold did some fall down yes some fell down from blows or had to stay on their knees I don't know so what did you do when you saw such brutality I turned away I didn't look I couldn't watch that herot who would be sentenced to 10 years in prison after the war has little to say about the brutality this photo reconstruction made by prisoners after The Liberation shows one of the most common forms of torture at the time with his hands tied behind his back attached to a rope a prisoner has to stand on a stool when he falls from exhaustion he's suspended by his arms and his shoulders are dislocated but who cared about torture public opinion saw the SS as bringing deviant back to the straight and narrow these prisoners in striped uniforms were filmed close to the duhal camp the filmmaker a baker who supplied the Camp staff own various objects made by the prisoners such as these candlesticks this rocking horse and these beds he filmed his friends including SS Camp officers this is the swimming pool where guards could relax after work who could imagine that the prisoners behind the Watchtower you see in the distance were going through hell on the eve of World War II the SS camps had silenced all opposition it seemed the camps were opposed by no one if I'm told to God pris and I'm told to go up on the tower there is a machine gun and somebody tries to escape you shoot them of course I [Music] would November 9th 1938 the Feld Halla in Munich less than a year before the start of World War II and the beginning of the Carnage these thousands of SS men are about to live one of the most important events of their [Music] [Applause] lives among them Ard header a future captain in the Viking division that's the square was packed stands were filled with Spectators on the right and left the oath ceremony began at midnight I saw Hitler arrive very solemn and then men of the SS recite your [Music] oath [Applause] [Music] we pronounce the words with our [Music] hearts Jesus the phrase to the death was a shock of course loyalty to that degree is too that's going too [Music] [Applause] far but it was too late the first large-scale massacre of Jews took place that very night it would be known as Crystal KN throughout the country Nazi activists murdered almost a hundred Jews smash shop windows and set synagogues on [Applause] fire these home movies show Firemen arriving at a fire and ss-men at the bottom of the frame smiling and preventing them from putting it out himler had given the order to let the synagogues burn without setting fire to the German buildings as he called them I saw how the windows had been smashed the shop windows I saw Jews being taken away and I saw Jews badly treated at that time I didn't understand why I felt anti-semitic yes but not in the sense that people give the word today which implies the extermination of the [Music] Jews by joining the SS they said they wanted to raise Germany up again and at the same time help themselves to rise above other [Music] people with the outbreak of World War II they would soon move from Collective intoxication to mass murder [Music] [Music] in September 1939 Hitler attacked Poland starting the second world [Music] war on the of the offensive the SS played a crucial role to justify The Invasion the furer ordered them to fake a Polish provocation the SS simulated a Polish attack a bloody one on the German border Dirty Work the SS had done since the start and would do to the end the SS also took part in the fighting alongside the regular army the Vermont if the SS sacrificed itself on the front line paying with its blood explained their leaders it would have the moral right to lead the repression in Germany to these men destined to fight on the front line himler gave a name the vafan SS the armed SS 800,000 men joined the vafan SS during the war they saw themselves as political soldiers and in the eyes of the regime they were Dependable Hitler could count on them in the event of trouble at home or abroad at the time there was a recruitment advert for armored divisions the vafin SS were armored troops and for me the term armed troops was fascinating here is one of those vafan SS M FR Dina age 16 for this Baker's son from thuringia it was an opportunity for social advancement with us there was no sir leftenant sir yes Captain sir the relations between soldiers and officers were completely different ass's officer couldn't order a soldier to dig a hole he had to do it himself and there was also the fact that at school the ones who volunteered during their an ultimate school year graduated without having to sit their exams in other themar units you needed your exams to be an officer the VA SS made an exception even if like me you only had a basic School certificate you could become an officer it was an Ideal World a model for the German people to follow in reality these men were no longer their own masters with a tattoo of their blood group indelibly marked under their left arm they had become someone else once inside the black order there was no way back [Music] here they are again the young vafan SS men we saw on a drill at their Barracks are now at the Vanguard of the invasion of France as in Poland SS soldiers committed war [Music] crimes [Music] a murderous rage to which their leaders would turn a blind eye notably this one ss Chief zap Dietrich one of the killers of the night of the Long Knives they knew that for their leaders only Victory mattered [Music] the Germans crushed France in 6 weeks succeeding in doing what the previous generation 25 years earlier had failed to do in four years I thought to myself the French have realized that the Germans despite the humiliation and despite the Treaty of versa taking the upper hand again and I thought that must have hurt the French it was just one step in June 1941 one year after the victory against France and after having conquered Yugoslavia and Greece Hitler Unleashed his troops on Stalin's us SSR the objective the destruction of Communism and the conquest of a living space for the Aryan [Music] race the Nazis waged a war of a different type against the USSR colored by the indoctrination of the 193s a war of extermination against the Jews Communists and any individual suspected of opposing the Reich this horrific scene was filmed behind the lines by a German with his own camera men of Jewish origin executed and buried in a ditch Hans fedish was in the first SS infantry Brigade a few months before his death in 2005 he confessed on film to his part in the murder of several thousand Jews they were in such a state shock so scared that we could do what we wanted with them try to imagine there's a ditch on one side there were people and opposite There Were Soldiers and that was us and we shot the ones who were hit fell in the ditch what were you thinking and feeling while you were firing can you tell us was nothing I just thought aim well so they'd be killed with a single shot that's my man that was my only thought that was your only thought you didn't have any feelings for the Jewish civilians you were executing no no and why not that's because my hatred for the Jews was so strong and I admitted I was wrong to think that I admit that but what I went through as a young kid on the farm what the Jews did to us that hatred I will always feel it I know it [Music] s what did the Jews do to him in his childhood no one knows it's likely that he himself is not sure who took part so enthusiastically were mad they wanted to be super nais and this meant Exterminating nonstop in terms of public opinion when you talk to people about the Jews many would say the only thing we can do is exterminate

Channel: SLICE Full Doc

Views: 3,161,612

Keywords: documentary, free documentary, raw, history, WW2, war, Germany, SS, Third Reich, hitler

Id: G6lN_VVaqdA

Length: 50min 3sec (3003 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 07 2024