The Third Reich In Colour | Part 2: War Against Hitler | Free Documentary History

foreign July the 6th 1940 Ava Brown took these pictures from a window in the rice chancellery as always on official occasions Hitler's mistress had to remain in the background Adolf Hitler was returning to the chancellery from France as a glorious Commander people had been waiting for the dictator for six hours in his diary Joseph Goebbels wrote the cheering from the jubilant masses is Indescribable the fuver is being welcomed with a carpet of flowers our people our wonderful people the New York Times reported the streets were full of thousands of cheering people shouting and weeping they worked themselves up into a truly hysterical Frenzy [Applause] [Music] [Music] in the summer of 1940 following the successful Blitzkrieg campaigns in Poland France and Norway for a while peace and calm returned to the capital of the German rice on July the 16th propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels noted in his diary in politics and in the conduct of the war there is an absolute lull the war seemed far off and people went swimming just like every year berliners headed for the van Ze Lake Hitler had promised his people that the Nazi would last a thousand years and in the summer of 1940 it looked as if the dictator might be right [Music] in April 1941 Hitler opened up a new theater of war the military intervention in Greece by his Italian allies threatened to end in disaster consequently the Vermont marched first of all into Yugoslavia and then into Greece Gottfried kesser an officer with the gross Deutschland Infantry Regiment was a keen cine photographer so his company had chosen him to keep a firm Diary of its operations thank you after 11 days the Yugoslav Army surrendered unconditionally Germany took some 350 000 prisoners these pictures show Serb soldiers being held in Belgrade Fortress those taken prisoner also included Serb civilians who were suspected of being partisans partisan raids took place time and again in the night of April the 21st near the cemetery in the village of panchevo one ss Soldier was shot dead and another seriously wounded as a result their marked troops and members of the ssreich division carried out arbitrary house searches civilians of military age were arrested at random the occupying forces took terrible revenge for the attack the next day Gottfried Castle filmed the execution of alleged partisans in pancheval in a stage trial those accused of Guerrilla activity had no chance to defend themselves as a deterrent 17 men and one woman were hanged in public the gruesome task was performed by a ethnic German executioner then 12 former Serbian soldiers were lined up on the cemetery wall in panchevo and executed by firing squad godfreet Kessel also filmed this brutal act for his War diary this scene where a German soldier gives the coup de grass to one of the men became one of the most abhorrent symbols of German crimes committed during the second World War on August 28 1941 Adolf Hitler met with Italian dictator Benito Mussolini the duche had come especially to witness the successful progress of the campaign against the Soviet Union One in which Italian troops were also involved two months previously despite the existence of a non-aggression pact Nazi Germany had attacked Russia the Red Army it seems was ill-prepared for The Invasion because Joseph Stalin had ignored all warnings right to the very end in less than a week German troops had swept through that part of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union and advanced into the Ukraine [Music] lunchtime for high-ranking officers and their adjutants this color footage was taken by Hans Bower a keen amateur photographer who had been Hitler's Chief pilot ever since 1933. his position enabled him to take pictures even in the immediate vicinity of the dictator without any restrictions on a flight to the front Bauer took the opportunity to film Mussolini from close up because the ducho liked to sit in the cockpit later Bauer remembered I took six meters of film but Mussolini sat there like a stuffed dummy stiff as a board with this had held high he didn't move a muscle all I got were pictures with no life to them with this chin jutting out Mussolini had this wild look in his eyes but he never moved Hitler and Mussolini had flown to uman on a troop visit the men gave the fura an overwhelming reception during their Advance many of them had been involved in crimes against the civilian population yeah [Applause] also present in uman was Hitler's personal cameraman while her friends was filming the staged scene officially for the vagenshaw weekly newsreel but in black and white in a battle of encirclement which had lasted from July the 15th to August the 8th the dictator's troops had defeated 20 divisions of the Red Army and paved the way for an advance into the donbass region and the hinterland of the Ukraine one hundred thousand Soviet soldiers were taken prisoner as Hitler and his Entourage were returning to their aircraft the injured troops who had been brought in as a backdrop were driven back to their field hospitals some of the men had had terrible experiences in a state of despair Corporal Alloys shoya wrote we now know the full tragedy of War it's the greatest disaster to be full mankind it brutalizes people only my faith stops me from becoming almost apathetic mentally and spiritually thank you that was of no interest to either the high-ranking officers or the Nazi bigwigs accompanying the two dictators foreign minister Joachim Von riventrop and Hitler's private secretary Martin Borman were particularly compliant aids to the fura who is said to have told a small circle of Associates that basically the war in the East has already been won Moscow will be raised to the ground become a nightmare for his troops yet it wasn't Stalin's armies that had brought the German advance to a halt but rain and cold the obazarsberg early June 1942 Hitler was relaxing in the mountains for a few days the campaign against the Red Army had become bogged down outside Moscow and Leningrad in the mud and snow of winter now a major offensive was to give fresh momentum to the Furious faltering blitzkrieg Hitler's guest at the backhof on this occasion was Zeb Dietrich the head of the SS leibstundant Adolf Hitler was one of the fullest old comrades from the early days of the Nazi movement after Hitler ceased power this unquestioningly loyal War Horse had had murders carried out time and again on behalf of his master to Mark dietrich's birthday the fura made him a personal gift of 100 000 rice marks and appointed him Colonel general of the vaffinuses this footage stems from Ava Brown's estate Zepp Dietrich is joking around with Ava's sister cradle who was part of Hitler's Court Dietrich with the children of Hitler's favorite architect Albert bear Dietrich was allowed to accompany the furra on his daily walk up to a peak called the moorslana cop deitrus troops had already burned villages on the campaigns in Poland and France and committed numerous crimes against the civilian population on Hitler's orders they had also been involved in the systematic murder of Polish Jews the vaffanishes had carried out further massacres in the Ukraine and in Russia before the war against the Soviet Union the commander-in-chief had told his generals of his true intentions it will be a war of annihilation our military leaders must make the personal sacrifice of overcoming their misgivings cameraman with the Army's propaganda unit was filming the Vermont's advance in the Soviet Union Hans bastanier and his team had 35 millimeter color film at their disposal the 31 year old convinced Nancy had been chosen to produce a spectacular film using the newly developed material the propaganda Ministry wanted to see Heroes and bastanya provided the requisite pictures in discussions with his associates in 1941 Hitler had already talked through plans for the future face of Eastern Europe the goal he said was to conquer vast areas to ensure the racial survival of the Germans the law of natural selection justifies this eternal battle because it makes the survival of the fittest possible it's absurd that a higher ranking people should struggle to exist on land that is too restricted while amorphous masses who contribute nothing to civilization occupy endless areas of terrain which is among the richest in the world the Crimea and the Ukraine will become a totally German Colony and the previous inhabitants will be displaced 30 Milling to Hitler's monstrous plans as Nazi ideologists saw it Communists Jews and members of a wide range of Slavic tribes would have to make way for the master race within a few months SS Special task forces operating behind the front had murdered hundreds of thousands of Jews Linz in Upper Austria on April the 20th 1942 the whole town was dressed up and taking part in processions to celebrate the furas birthday the formations included the Hitler Youth and the Federation of German girls proudly carried the title of the furas adoptive City because this is where Hitler spent most of his youth after final Victory had been achieved he planned to spend his Twilight years in linse colossaled buildings had long since been planned for construction point in time would Andreas Friedrich a journalist who was critical of the regime was hoping that more and more Germans would turn their back on the regime in summer 1942 she wrote in her diary the age of the individual is over the strong are no longer at their most powerful when they are on their own we must form a shock troop right across Berlin our people must be in position in every District sworn Confederates who can be trusted implicitly old Circles of friends are no longer adequate and not all of them are suitable new people need to be found from every Camp each individual must bring his or her Clique into play with all their connections and possibilities what one person lacks the other will provide it's now about Distributing roles yet without getting caught by the Gestapo party bigwigs paid homage to the dictator the dignitaries of the naziraj were still fully behind their fura and most of them would give him fanatical support right to the end on May 12 1942 the Red Army launched a major offensive on a broad front the aim was to retake Kharkov Hans bastanye was sitting with his camera in a German tank filming the battle to the northeast of the city of air Marsh tank unit had been given the task of repulsing units of the Soviet 28th Army the propaganda Ministry planned to use the footage in the front in color a monthly newsreel which would only be shown in cinemas in neutral foreign countries Stalin's forces sustained heavy losses and failed to achieve their goal of breaking through the defensive ring in front of karkov but the Vermont's counter-offensive was successful on May the 22nd 1942 the Soviet armies were encircled and the Germans took around 240 000 prisoners pictures from the center of Kharkov Hans bastenier was a specialist in color photography and he succeeded in attaining the required quality standards but the planned monthly newsreel never materialized only a few scenes on his film were used in German weekly newsreels in black and white the German troops stationed in Kharkov were to lack nothing entertainment films were provided to make them forget the horrors of War for a few hours in the soldiers hostels the troop's needs were seen to it wasn't until August 1943 that the Red Army was finally able to liberate karkov cameraman also filmed these motorcycle Riflemen with the third armored reconnaissance unit at the time would Andreas Friedrich noted the Germans are still Victor ious in Russia people still talk of Stalin now throwing his final reserves into battle against us but Moscow today lies many kilometers behind the Russian front and even though every week sees a few dozen readers letters arriving at the Publishing House sent by enthusiastic final Victory Apostles wanting information on settlement opportunities in the Crimea and the Caucasus the last word still hasn't been spoken about the Caucasus either the war can still be lost even beyond the Elbrus on August the 21st 1942 Mountain troops from Bavaria had indeed scaled the highest peak in the Caucasus and planted the Imperial War flag on Mount Elbrus but the poor weather ruled out any photographs or film footage of the event so in early September the Armed Forces high command sent experienced climber and cameraman Hunt's Apple into the mountain range to restage the heroic deed and bright sunshine Airtel took the opportunity to film German Mountain troops driving out red army forces who had occupied an important pass as a former cameraman with Laney Riefenstahl he was an Adept filmmaker foreign completed in June 1943 was entitled alarm on the pass for many years it was thought to have been lost it was only in the late 90s that a copy turned up in Russia [Music] on March the 18th 1943 a documentary appeared in cinemas in America which showed the advance of Allied troops in North Africa the director was none other than Hollywood Supremo John Ford after his award-winning films on the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the battle for Midway island in the Pacific the oscar-winning director also wanted to present the war against the Nazis in color on November the 8 1942 British and American troops landed in Morocco and Algeria a short time later 40 camera teams unloaded their equipment the expedition was headed by Hollywood Mogul Daryl f zanuk one of the founders of 20th Century Fox the film contained expressive footage but one U.S critic later complained that at the front in North Africa clearly Bears xanuk's signature artistic shots of tank trucks sunrise and sunsets and no end of Superfluous frills [Music] behind the front are camera team witnessed an attack by German aircraft and took dramatic pictures director John Ford was in his element He had already recorded similarly spectacular footage in his film The Battle of Midway but for his employers at the war department this wasn't enough the problem was that the scenes were totally authentic and thus inadequate for the military authorities the British enjoyed great success with their desert Victory production but many of the dramatic scenes in it had been quickly re-staged thank you when Secretary of War Henry Stinson saw at the front in North Africa he found the film feeble and not very inspiring in his diary he wrote we have only just realized the importance of such effort our cameraman obviously have no desire to get killed the British have lost four cameramen and many more have been wounded we must be willing to take a more energetic approach and thus do a better job [Music] scenes which the team filmed in their spare time far from the front came in for particular criticism here the soldiers have got hold of a turkey because in America on November the 26 1942 people were celebrating Thanksgiving [Music] then the director himself appears in the picture John Ford sitting astrider donkey in early December when German and Allied armored units clashed not far from Kunis Ford's camera teams were present Hitler had ordered the new tiger tanks to be sent not to the Eastern front but to North Africa where they inflicted a bitter defeat on the advancing British and Americans a cameraman had entrenched himself on a nearby Hill and took authentic pictures but they also met with disappointment back in the United States shortly before the premiere Daryl zanuk admitted I'm afraid that our war scenes don't look as dangerous and realistic as the battle scenes we film at our Studios you simply can't have everything for these captured German and Italian troops the war is over but not for their comrades they're not so lucky [Music] in the end even the tiger tanks could not prevent an Allied victory in the desert Hitler refused to allow his remaining troops in North Africa to withdraw but in May 1943 they finally surrendered Casablanca mid-January 1943 in the elegant suburb of unfa a hotel and several comfortably appointed Villas have been cleared to accommodate delegations from Washington and London on January 14th British prime minister Winston Churchill traveled to Morocco with his top bras to attend a secret conference with the president of the United States the British wanted to land on Sardinia or Sicily as soon as possible in order to attack the third Ranch from the south U.S President Franklin D Roosevelt arrived in Casablanca exhausted from the five-day Atlantic Crossing since the age of 39 when he contracted poliomyelitis the 60 year old had been confined to a wheelchair since he avoided any pictures that showed his handicap the president sat in a Jeep as the American Guard of Honor marched past a cameraman with the signal core took these pictures of Roosevelt's trip to the Casablanca conference with 35 millimeter color film for the president's own personal archive they were not published until many years later German propaganda had got wind of the meeting between the two Statesmen but Joseph Goebbels assumed that Churchill had traveled to Washington in his diary he wrote in our currently difficult situation Churchill and Roosevelt will of course try to step forward with a demonstrative political statement designed to undermine our nation's morale but I will do everything in my power to Shield our people from such machinations naturally the U.S president and his generals knew that the wehrmacht was facing a devastating defeat on the Eastern Front because at Stalingrad the sixth Army had been encircled the Americans were still clinging to the hope that an invasion could be launched across the English Channel in 1943 but they didn't have the requisite truth strengths or the necessary equipment for days the Nazi leadership remained in the dark Joseph Goebbels wrote in his diary the meeting between Churchill and Roosevelt which is now indisputable is creating a stir at the moment we don't know where the two super gangsters met but the press in both Britain and America has announced that Sensational news of far-reaching importance will be forthcoming the Allies negotiated for 10 days Roosevelt and Churchill then astonished the world public by stating that Nazi Germany and Japan had to surrender unconditionally Italy was not mentioned in the Press statement so as not to undermine the possibility of a coup against Mussolini the Casablanca conference marked the Zenith of Britain's influence on Allied strategy from now on the Americans would push their plan through more and more in close alliance with Moscow Joseph Stalin was not particularly impressed by the news from anfa the Soviet leader had been invited but with reference to the battle for Stalingrad he had decided not to attend the conference in January 1943 cameraman Walter France filmed a meeting of two of the Axis powers the fura had received Romanian dictator John antonesku at the wolf's Lair his headquarters in East Prussia Hitler was making the Romanians responsible for the precarious situation of the sixth Army in Stalingrad antonescu countered by criticizing the Vermont and its commanders on Hitler's orders the German people had not been told that the sixth Army had been encircled for several weeks and stood no chance of receiving help from outside categorically rejected any idea of capitulation nevertheless on January 31st Field Marshal Friedrich paulos surrendered to the Red Army the end of Nazi domination of virtually the whole of Europe was now only a question of time in the Balkans partisan units in particular were making life difficult for the Germans in August 1943 the Yugoslav resistance leader Joseph broads who was known as Tito received an anglo-american military delegation at his Mountain hideout the scene was documented by a cameraman with the U.S Secret Service OSS [Music] Tito was a veteran of the Spanish Civil War in which he had proved his qualities as an organizer of the Communist International he firmly believed that Communists worldwide had to help their comrades in the Soviet Union Tito's partisans accepted defeats and Brutal reprisals by the Germans and were also fighting against Croatian pro-nazi collaborators the British and the Americans had learned from decoded German radio messages that Tito's partisans would Mount attacks no matter what the risk so from then on the Allies supported them with food and arms and in doing so turned a Motley group of Fighters into a powerful Army many Americans in particular helped the naive view that communist resistance Fighters just had to love freedom press reports time and again spoke of self-determination the right of all Nations to choose their own government which Roosevelt and Churchill had guaranteed in the Atlantic Charter they proclaimed in 1941. the British prime minister was called an imperialist because he warned that after the Nazis had been defeated communist parties would brutally crush or democratically minded forces in Stalin's name and that's precisely what also happened in Yugoslavia under Tito's rule right through to 1980. at the conference in Casablanca Churchill and Roosevelt also agreed to step up their air rates on German cities henceforth the British flew at night and the Americans by day under the command of air marshal Arthur Harris even residential areas were exposed to morale bombing as the British called it but the U.S Air Force restricted its attacks to targets of military importance such as submarine pens Armament factories and German infrastructure Hollywood director William Wyler was commissioned to document these dangerous operations he was determined to fly on some of the missions himself and take pictures [Music] on February the 26 1943 Wyler and his team filmed the crows of the 91st Bomb Group being informed at Daybreak that their next Target would be the Naval Base at Willems hafen the Americans were stationed at bassing-borne Airfield near Cambridge they had to cross the channel 25 times before they were allowed to go back home accordingly Wireless film was to be entitled 25 missions [Music] girlfriend of U.S pilot Robert Morgan had christened his bomber the Memphis Belle later the B-17 Flying Fortress lent its name to one of the most successful films on the Second World War in a radio interview William Wyler was asked how he had experienced the operations over France and Germany fear simple honest fear you're afraid of being killed it's a feeling you've never had until you've been shot at but there's an even more powerful feeling that really helps when you look around and see the sky full of flying fortresses and then look down at the enemy Coastline you'd rather be where you are than down below [Music] and the cameramen on board other aircraft had to work under the most difficult conditions above all they had a real problem with the bitter cold at an altitude of more than 10 000 meters if you wanted to change the film you had to take off your glove but if you took it off for more than one or two minutes you would lose some fingers from frostbite being on oxygen your efficiency was at a minimum taking three steps was like walking a mile so far there was no sign of enemy Fighters but then came the Flack William Weiler the Flack was terrific we'd fly through entire belts of it the Blue Sky looked like a punctured sieve one of the cameramen was killed when his plane was brought down in a letter Wyler wrote I saw so many who never came back but it makes a difference when it's one of my own people someone I recruited myself and sent off on a mission William Wyler filmed spectacular scenes of German Fighters attacking the bombers finally the big moment the bomb aimer focuses on his Target wilhelm's hoffen is now defenseless later Wyler constructed his picture as if these scenes had been filmed from the Memphis Belle but on this particular day in fact the B-17 wasn't even in the air in the night of the 27th and 28th of July 1943 the British royal Air Force attacked Hamburg the bombs created a horrific Firestorm which raged for five hours in the workers suburbs in the east of the city [Music] the next day fireman Hans Brunswick took these pictures of the firefighting operations 24 hours after the raid some of the fires were still burning around 150 000 people were left homeless [Music] Hamburg author Hans erish nozac wrote nothing around us bore any resemblance to what we had lost it was something totally different something alien something that could not actually be possible but why document all this would it not be better for it to be forgotten for all time in all operation Gomora the military name for the bombing raids on Hamburg claimed around 34 000 lives barely half the victims could be identified people now fled from the devastated City in droves homeless desperate and terrified an assembly Center was set up in hamburg's more wider Park the actual aim of the bombing campaign was to break German morale but that was something the Allies never achieved [Music] fireman Hans Brunswick documented The Exodus of the survivors in the days after the first massive air raid around 900 000 people left Hamburg they were evacuated into the hinterland on trucks some tried to make their way to Southern Germany where they felt they would be safer in May 1943 work began in Hamburg and in a film studio in Berlin on the production of one of the third rice last color films but because of the increasing number of Air Raids the shooting was moved to Prague the aim of the entertainment film Grand Freedom number seven was to take people's minds off the ever-present war German film star Hans Albus played the main role in a love drama which took place on the rapaban in Hamburg but the sensor refused to allow the film to be shown in Germany it was thought that there were ulterior motifs behind the title what's more the characters did not correspond to the Nazi ideal consequently it was only after the war that the film became a classic [Music] foreign [Music] later [Music] the Nazi leadership was now placing its remaining hopes of final victory in what it called its Wonder Weapons in late June 1943 the first V2 Rockets were tested in absolute secrecy at the experimental Center in penamunda on the Baltic Coast the plan was to use the new type of missile to attack Allied cities in retaliation for the Allied bombing of German cities for documentary purposes all the tests were filmed sometimes in color at the end of the war the material was seized by the American Secret Service and taken back to the United States in the early days the test results were inconsistent time and again things went wrong foreign ER Von Braun had developed the new rockets and brought them up to production level although he was a member of the SS and used slave laborers from concentration camps in the construction of his Rockets Von Braun was not put on trial by the Allies later he was even allowed to hit NASA's Luna program the head of the SS Heinrich Himmler traveled to pinamunda to form his own impression of the V2 because of Allied bombing raids production was moved to a mine in the hearts mountains on September the 7th 1944 the first V2 hit London with Allied bombing raids now threatening to paralyze Germany's entire armaments industry more and more facilities vital to the war effort were being moved underground or given special protection in 1944 for example a huge reinforced concrete Colossus was built in the Bremen suburb of Fargo for the construction of submarines a naval architect filmed the work with his camera he was one of the few cine enthusiasts who still had 16 millimeter color material unintentionally he also recorded the brutality of the Nazi dictatorship the project was built with slave labor from concentration camps despite the efforts of tens of thousands of workers from concentration camps the Valentin bunker was never finished and not a single submarine was ever built in it will had some 35 millimeter film at its disposal and its camera teams were instructed to produce footage at the front and at home these pictures show German dive bombers in action somewhere in Russia in January 1944 Joseph gobbels had at last given his approval to the old plan of producing a monthly color newsreel for showing in neutral countries the first of three editions of Panorama were screened that same year scenes like these from ground attack aircraft in the East were probably filmed much earlier in the summer of 1944 cameraman Heinz Von yavosky filmed on a Sunday in Berlin in the fifth year of the war by now Berlin journalist root Andreas Friedrich was hoping to see the end of Nazi rule yet she had her doubts if we talk plan or recruit followers we will hang because at least one person in 10 is treacherous or talked too much yet if we remain silent and are only up in arms in the Silence of our own four walls we keep the Nazis in power that is the tragedy of our situation can a small group of 10 or 20 Resolute Souls topple the Third Reich and we are only a small group small groups in Berlin small groups in Dresden in bresler or in Hamburg a handful here a handful there who liked the King's children in the fairy tale never come together foreign

Channel: Free Documentary - History

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Keywords: Free Documentary, Documentaries, Full Documentary, documentary - topic, documentary (tv genre), History, History Documentaries, Free Documentary History, History Documentary, The Third Reich in Colour, Third Reich Documentary, Adolf Hitler Documentary, Nazi Germany Documentary, German History, German History Documentary, World War 2, WWII, WWII Documentary, Second World War, World War 2 Documentary, 20th Century

Id: p5oRdGK-QLA

Length: 44min 39sec (2679 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 18 2023