Warlords: Hitler vs Stalin (WW2 Leaders Documentary) | Timeline

Video Statistics and Information

Video
Captions Word Cloud
Captions
on July<font color="#CCCCCC"> the 6th 1940 in Berlin Adolf</font> Hitler celebrated his<font color="#CCCCCC"> victory in Europe</font> [Music] his army chief called him the<font color="#CCCCCC"> greatest</font> warlord in history from Moscow Hitler's collaborator<font color="#CCCCCC"> the</font> Russian leader Joseph Stalin<font color="#CCCCCC"> that</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> sends</font> his congratulations<font color="#CCCCCC"> in</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> London the</font> British<font color="#E5E5E5"> Prime Minister</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> Winston Churchill</font> was isolated<font color="#E5E5E5"> in</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> Washington</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> the American</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">President</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> Franklin Roosevelt stood aloof</font> in the coming five years<font color="#E5E5E5"> everything in</font> the relationship between these<font color="#E5E5E5"> four men</font> would change in ways that seemed unimaginable while<font color="#E5E5E5"> their nations fought</font> a war<font color="#CCCCCC"> of weapons these</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> four great</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">warlords of</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> the 20th century fought a</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">war of</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> the mind at the heart of this</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">private war was a series of</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">psychological duels in which they lied</font> schemed<font color="#E5E5E5"> charmed flattered and deceived</font> to win what was curious<font color="#E5E5E5"> was that these</font> duels took place not between enemies but between men who at the time were allies yet their behavior was egotistical tempestuous<font color="#E5E5E5"> monstrous and politically</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">despite the rosy glow in which summer</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">seemed today always selfish</font> the duals of<font color="#CCCCCC"> the warlords decided the</font> strategy for<font color="#CCCCCC"> the greatest</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> battles in</font> history they were also<font color="#E5E5E5"> the</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> epicenter of a</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">seismic shift</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> in world power from the</font> age of European empires<font color="#CCCCCC"> to the age of</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">two ideologically opposed superpowers</font> with devastating<font color="#E5E5E5"> consequences</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> for</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">hundreds of</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> millions of people</font> [Music] Obersalzberg<font color="#CCCCCC"> in southern</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> Germany one of</font> the world's loveliest places it was here in<font color="#E5E5E5"> August 1939 that Adolf Hitler</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> was</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">thinking the unthinkable</font> Hitler had set his<font color="#CCCCCC"> heart on</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> invading</font> Poland<font color="#CCCCCC"> and his generals had told him</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> he</font> must attack before the autumn<font color="#CCCCCC"> rains came</font> [Music] but Britain and France had said they would go to war<font color="#CCCCCC"> for Poland</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> one thing</font> stood in Hitler's way the fear that <font color="#E5E5E5">Russia would also turn against him and</font> propel him<font color="#CCCCCC"> into a war on two fronts</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> this</font> was the very<font color="#E5E5E5"> thing imprinted in Hitler's</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">mind</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> as having helped to lose Germany</font> the<font color="#CCCCCC"> first world war 20 years before</font> there was only<font color="#E5E5E5"> one way out</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> a pact</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> with</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">his greatest ideological enemy</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> Joseph</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">Stalin Hitler put out feelers to Moscow</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">though he little realized it he was</font> instigating a mental duel with Stalin <font color="#E5E5E5">which over</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> the next</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> two years would</font> decide the<font color="#E5E5E5"> destiny of the Second World</font> War [Applause] Stalin was<font color="#E5E5E5"> deeply suspicious of Hitler's</font> approach<font color="#E5E5E5"> he spent hours reading mine</font> camp<font color="#CCCCCC"> written 15 years</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> before underlining</font> key passages like Hitler's views of the Bolshevik leaders men such as Stalin <font color="#E5E5E5">himself never forget that</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> the rulers of</font> present-day Russia<font color="#E5E5E5"> are common</font> blood-stained criminals<font color="#E5E5E5"> that</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> they are</font> the scum of humanity<font color="#E5E5E5"> but</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> Stalin could</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">see that Hitler was now desperate for a</font> deal and offering<font color="#E5E5E5"> to send his foreign</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">minister Ribbentrop to Moscow Stalin</font> decided he would<font color="#E5E5E5"> go</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> with Hitler</font> Hitler's propaganda chief<font color="#E5E5E5"> Joseph</font> Goebbels<font color="#E5E5E5"> noted in his diary 22nd of</font> August 1939<font color="#E5E5E5"> non-aggression pact with</font> Moscow perfect<font color="#E5E5E5"> Ribbentrop in Moscow on</font> Wednesday<font color="#E5E5E5"> that is something</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> we're on top</font> again<font color="#CCCCCC"> now we can sleep</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> more</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> easily</font> on August the 23rd<font color="#CCCCCC"> Ribbentrop landed in</font> Moscow but<font color="#E5E5E5"> Hitler needed one piece of</font> reassurance he<font color="#E5E5E5"> sent his personal photographer</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">heinrich</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> hoffmann</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> to film Stalin's</font> earlobes<font color="#E5E5E5"> to see whether they were</font> ingrown and<font color="#E5E5E5"> Jewish or separate</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> and Arian</font> they were separate<font color="#E5E5E5"> Stalin passed</font> Hitler's<font color="#E5E5E5"> test</font> [Music] shortly<font color="#E5E5E5"> after midnight on August the</font> 24th 1939 the nazi-soviet pact was signed and with it a secret protocol on the which Germany and Russia would carve Poland into<font color="#E5E5E5"> two</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">Hitler phoned Ribbentrop this will hit</font> like a bombshell but as<font color="#E5E5E5"> gurbles noted it was not strength</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">but fear of</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> Stalin knifing him in the</font> back<font color="#E5E5E5"> that had forced Hitler into</font> history's biggest you turn the<font color="#CCCCCC"> Fira</font> believes he's in the position<font color="#CCCCCC"> of</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">scrounging for</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> favors and beggars can't</font> be choosers<font color="#CCCCCC"> in times of famine</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> the devil</font> feeds on flies [Music] in the<font color="#CCCCCC"> Kremlin Stalin proposed a toast I</font> know how much the German nation loves its Fuhrer<font color="#CCCCCC"> I should therefore like to</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">drink his</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> health</font> [Music] but like Hitler Stalin was also acting from fear<font color="#E5E5E5"> that Hitler would attack him</font> that evening he told his in a circle of course it's all<font color="#CCCCCC"> a game</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> to see</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> who can</font> fool whom he<font color="#E5E5E5"> thinks he's outsmarted</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> me</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">but actually it's I who's tricked him</font> [Music] Stalin<font color="#E5E5E5"> had found a</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> bed fellow for</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> who's</font> cunning he had held a long and<font color="#E5E5E5"> sneaking</font> admiration [Music] back in 1934<font color="#E5E5E5"> Stalin had observed Hitler</font> eliminated rivals<font color="#E5E5E5"> within the Nazi Party</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">in</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> the</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> so-called night of the Long</font> Knives<font color="#E5E5E5"> he remarked did you hear what</font> happened<font color="#E5E5E5"> in Germany</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> some fellow that</font> Hitler<font color="#E5E5E5"> splendid</font> that's a deed<font color="#CCCCCC"> of some skill Hitler had</font> felt no<font color="#E5E5E5"> such mutual admiration in his</font> early<font color="#CCCCCC"> years in power</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> he was set on the</font> dreams of mine<font color="#E5E5E5"> camp an alliance with</font> Britain<font color="#CCCCCC"> Sea Empire while he expanded to</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">the</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> east and built his German land</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">empire on</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> the continent only when that</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">plan had clearly failed</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> did</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> Hitler begin</font> to see<font color="#CCCCCC"> in</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> Stalin someone he might do</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">business with</font> Stalin<font color="#E5E5E5"> was the first of the two to be a</font> mass<font color="#E5E5E5"> murderer his terrors killed</font> millions he once compared his victims with the<font color="#E5E5E5"> boy our land owners massacred</font> by Ivan the Terrible<font color="#E5E5E5"> 400 years before</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">who's going</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> to remember all this</font> riffraff<font color="#E5E5E5"> in</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> 10 or 20 years time no one</font> who remembers the names now of the <font color="#E5E5E5">boyars Ivan the Terrible got rid of no</font> one a week before he invaded Poland <font color="#E5E5E5">Hitler made an eerily similar remark to</font> his generals jenga's<font color="#CCCCCC"> Khan had millions</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">of men and</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> women</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> killed by his own will</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">and with a gay heart history sees him</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">only as a great state builder</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> and who</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">after</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> all speaks today of the</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">annihilation of the emini ins for both</font> men mass murder was just another weapon <font color="#E5E5E5">in the ideological struggle the state</font> where the<font color="#CCCCCC"> communist or Nazi was supreme</font> individuals<font color="#CCCCCC"> were its</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> disposable tools</font> [Music] they even extended this idea to their domestic<font color="#E5E5E5"> lives</font> Hitler had secret mistresses most notably<font color="#E5E5E5"> Ava Braun but in public</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> no woman</font> could come between him<font color="#E5E5E5"> and his nation</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">what of his secretaries recalled that he</font> emphasized<font color="#E5E5E5"> again and again my lover is</font> Germany Stalin did marry twice<font color="#E5E5E5"> and had children</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">but the suicide of</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> his second wife</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> Nadia</font> in 1932<font color="#E5E5E5"> further brutalized him echoing</font> Hitler<font color="#E5E5E5"> he told an associate a true</font> Bolshevik shouldn't and couldn't<font color="#E5E5E5"> have a</font> family<font color="#E5E5E5"> because he should give himself</font> wholly to the party Stalin told his son<font color="#CCCCCC"> Vasily I'm not</font> Stalin Stalin his Soviet<font color="#E5E5E5"> power now in</font> August<font color="#E5E5E5"> 1939</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> these two great</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">ideologically opposed warlords were</font> inextricably linked eight<font color="#E5E5E5"> days after the</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">signing of the pact Hitler invaded</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">Poland</font> Britain declared war<font color="#E5E5E5"> Winston Churchill</font> rejoined the British Cabinet Stalin publicly supported his Nazi collaborator <font color="#E5E5E5">he told the world it is not Germany who</font> has attacked<font color="#E5E5E5"> England</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> and France</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> but</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">England in France</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> who have attacked</font> Germany the enslavement<font color="#E5E5E5"> of Poland further</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> United</font> the<font color="#E5E5E5"> two extreme proponents of</font> totalitarian violence SS units killed <font color="#E5E5E5">60,000 Jews and members</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> of the Polish</font> ruling class<font color="#E5E5E5"> it was Hitler's first</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">experience of mass murder and profoundly</font> influenced him<font color="#E5E5E5"> it showed him his</font> followers would actually do Stalin's<font color="#CCCCCC"> secret police</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> the NKVD long</font> versed in<font color="#E5E5E5"> mass killing will carry out</font> similar massacres<font color="#CCCCCC"> in the</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> east of Poland</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">among their victims were more than</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">20,000</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> Polish officers and political</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">prisoners whose bodies will be</font> discovered three years later as their<font color="#E5E5E5"> secret police mutilated Poland</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">the to dictators faced their destinies</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">hand-in-hand</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> over the next two years</font> in a<font color="#CCCCCC"> mind war</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> unparalleled in world</font> history<font color="#E5E5E5"> they would both become gripped</font> by a series of delusions<font color="#E5E5E5"> that</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> would lead</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">them into colossal error and the</font> bloodiest<font color="#E5E5E5"> conflict there has ever been</font> [Music] Stalin<font color="#E5E5E5"> had entered his pact with Hitler</font> with open eyes he never doubted<font color="#CCCCCC"> he was</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">suffering with the devil but</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> he believed</font> the pact would give the Soviet Union both protection<font color="#E5E5E5"> and opportunity just a</font> week<font color="#CCCCCC"> after</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> the Nazis invaded Poland he</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">told his inner circle</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> a war is on</font> between two groups of capitalist countries<font color="#E5E5E5"> Hitler without understanding</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">it or desiring it is shaking and</font> undermining the capitalist system<font color="#E5E5E5"> we can</font> maneuver<font color="#CCCCCC"> pit one side against the other</font> to set them fighting<font color="#E5E5E5"> with each other as</font> fiercely as possible Stalin<font color="#CCCCCC"> was also</font> eyeing<font color="#E5E5E5"> up a further desirable outcome</font> the chance to expand his communist <font color="#CCCCCC">Empire what would be the harm if as a</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">result of the rout of Poland we were to</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">extend the socialist system</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> onto new</font> territories and populations for<font color="#E5E5E5"> Hitler</font> the<font color="#E5E5E5"> pact also opened the door to</font> conquest<font color="#CCCCCC"> he could now turn</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> all his</font> energy and<font color="#CCCCCC"> attention</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> to planning the</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">invasion of France</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> Joseph Goebbels noted</font> Hitler's hopes for a long-term <font color="#E5E5E5">collaboration with Stalin</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> 1st of October</font> 1939 conference with the Fuhrer in private he is convinced of Russia's loyalty<font color="#CCCCCC"> after all</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> Stalin is set to</font> pocket a huge profit [Music] but Stalin saw no such loyalty<font color="#E5E5E5"> and</font> Hitler<font color="#CCCCCC"> Mayon</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> camp was etched in his mind</font> above all Hitler's youthful ambitions to conquer Russian territory<font color="#E5E5E5"> for the new</font> German Reich<font color="#E5E5E5"> if we speak of territory in</font> Europe<font color="#CCCCCC"> today</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> we can primarily have in</font> mind<font color="#E5E5E5"> only Russia and her vessel barter</font> States because<font color="#CCCCCC"> he calculated</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> that Hitler</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">might still one day turn on him</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> Stalin</font> set out to build<font color="#CCCCCC"> a line of buffer zones</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">to protect himself against possible Nazi</font> attack he forced the Baltic<font color="#CCCCCC"> states</font> Lithuania Estonia and Latvia<font color="#CCCCCC"> to accept</font> Russian Garrison's<font color="#E5E5E5"> he told a</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> Latvian</font> delegation there has been<font color="#E5E5E5"> an unexpected</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">turn but one cannot rely upon it we must</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">be prepared in time others who were</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> not</font> prepared<font color="#E5E5E5"> paid for it the Germans might</font> attack Stalin<font color="#CCCCCC"> also tried to</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> bully Finland into</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">giving him a swathe of territory as a</font> further buffer<font color="#E5E5E5"> the fenders refused</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">Stalin invaded their country it was a</font> disaster within days thousands<font color="#E5E5E5"> of frozen Russian</font> corpses littered the<font color="#E5E5E5"> snow finally</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> the</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">Finns were beaten but</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> not before</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> killing</font> a hundred and<font color="#E5E5E5"> twenty</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> five thousand</font> Russian soldiers Stalin sent<font color="#E5E5E5"> in his political commissar</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">to shoot the Soviet commanders but the</font> real fault<font color="#CCCCCC"> was his own</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> his terror had</font> got<font color="#CCCCCC"> rid of the Red Army's best officers</font> as Goebbels noted the Red Army's incompetence offered Hitler yet more comfort 15th of March 1940 the<font color="#E5E5E5"> Russians can never become</font> dangerous<font color="#CCCCCC"> for us</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> if Stalin shoots his</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">own generals we won't need to</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> do it so</font> far<font color="#CCCCCC"> we've had nothing but advantages</font> from<font color="#E5E5E5"> our alliance with Russia</font> [Music] <font color="#CCCCCC">a May the 10th 1940 Hitler with his</font> Eastern Front<font color="#E5E5E5"> secured by Stalin launched</font> his blitzkrieg to the<font color="#CCCCCC"> west</font> [Music] the German army<font color="#E5E5E5"> sliced through France</font> Belgium<font color="#E5E5E5"> and Holland</font> the British were driven<font color="#CCCCCC"> from the</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">continent</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">for</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> Hitler</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> it</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> was a triumph</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> a Stalin a</font> disaster<font color="#E5E5E5"> Nikita Khrushchev later</font> Russia's Prime Minister recalled Stalin's reaction to Hitler's<font color="#CCCCCC"> lightning</font> victories<font color="#CCCCCC"> I remember being</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> with Stalin</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">he was</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> extremely nervous he was racing</font> around<font color="#CCCCCC"> cursing like</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> a cab driver he</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> cost</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">the French because</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> the English how could</font> they allow Hitler<font color="#E5E5E5"> to defeat them to</font> crush them<font color="#CCCCCC"> stalin not only saw the</font> superiority of the<font color="#E5E5E5"> german army he knew</font> that the germans<font color="#E5E5E5"> sensed our weakness</font> because<font color="#E5E5E5"> of the war we</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> had fought with</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">finland</font> [Music] <font color="#CCCCCC">On June the 17th 1940</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> the French</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">government sued for peace the</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">long-lasting a mutually destructive war</font> of the<font color="#E5E5E5"> capitalist and fascist States</font> which Stalin had so gleefully anticipated<font color="#E5E5E5"> was over in a trice</font> the next day<font color="#CCCCCC"> is</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> Hitler celebrated in</font> Munich with the Italian dictator <font color="#E5E5E5">Mussolini Stalin with gritted teeth</font> sends his congratulations on the<font color="#E5E5E5"> beer</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">Marc's splendid success</font> [Applause] for Hitler<font color="#CCCCCC"> victory had Lance the boil</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">Germany's defeat</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> in the First World</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> War</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">had been avenged now for the first time</font> in his political life<font color="#E5E5E5"> he wanted a rest</font> from<font color="#E5E5E5"> conquest and reversing to his old</font> instincts<font color="#E5E5E5"> peace with Britain</font> [Music] the italian<font color="#E5E5E5"> Foreign Minister</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> Ken Kelly</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">Otsuchi Anna was also a Munich</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> an</font> observed<font color="#CCCCCC"> headless state of mind</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> it makes</font> many<font color="#CCCCCC"> reservations on the desirability of</font> dismantling the British Empire<font color="#E5E5E5"> which he</font> considers even today to be an important factor<font color="#CCCCCC"> in world equilibrium Italy is now</font> like<font color="#CCCCCC"> the gambler</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> abou having made a big</font> win would like to leave the table <font color="#CCCCCC">risking</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> nothing</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> more but Stalin</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> feared</font> that Hitler<font color="#E5E5E5"> having won his victory</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> in</font> the West might immediately be tempted by his long-held ambition<font color="#E5E5E5"> of expanding</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> to</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">the</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> east</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">Starlin now embarked on a hugely risky</font> double strategy going<font color="#CCCCCC"> on a tenday land</font> grab to expand and protect his empire while also<font color="#E5E5E5"> trying not to provoke Hitler</font> he occupied<font color="#CCCCCC"> the Baltic States and</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">Bessarabia the northern province of</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">Romania this was allowed under the</font> nazi-soviet pact<font color="#E5E5E5"> but he also decided</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> to</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">invade another Romanian province</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">Bukovina</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> it was not assigned to Stalin</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">under the pact</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> hitlist chief of staff</font> general<font color="#CCCCCC"> Franz Halder</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> noted Hitler's</font> alarm in his diary 25th of June 1940<font color="#E5E5E5"> the</font> issue of<font color="#CCCCCC"> Bukovina</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> raised by Russia is</font> new<font color="#E5E5E5"> and goes beyond our agreements with</font> the Russians<font color="#CCCCCC"> precisely this moment</font> Stalin's duel with Hitler took a second unexpected twist the Soviet leader received his first <font color="#E5E5E5">letter from Winston Churchill</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> who'd</font> become<font color="#E5E5E5"> British Prime Minister on the day</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">Hitler launched his blitzkrieg it was an</font> appeal to<font color="#E5E5E5"> Stalin to beware of</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> Hitler</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> and</font> come<font color="#CCCCCC"> over to Britain</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> signed Stalin did</font> not reply<font color="#E5E5E5"> instead to show Hitler his</font> loyalty<font color="#E5E5E5"> he reported Churchill's approach</font> to Berlin Hitler now began<font color="#E5E5E5"> to</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> make his own</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">interpretation of these two</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> pieces of</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">evidence</font> Stalin's opacity<font color="#E5E5E5"> and Romania and</font> Churchill's approach [Music] before the<font color="#E5E5E5"> wall Hitler had described to</font> his<font color="#E5E5E5"> adjutant his secrets of mental</font> processes<font color="#CCCCCC"> bear in mind that my brain</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">works</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> like a Cajun eating machine</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> each</font> person who makes<font color="#E5E5E5"> the presentation</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> to me</font> introduces into<font color="#E5E5E5"> this calculating</font> received<font color="#E5E5E5"> the small wheel of information</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">their forms a certain picture or a</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">number on each wheel</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> I press a button</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">and</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> there flashes into my mind</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> the sum</font> of<font color="#CCCCCC"> all this</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> information</font> now the Hitler calculating machine<font color="#CCCCCC"> began</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">to</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> build a conspiracy theory which would</font> have<font color="#CCCCCC"> devastating consequences</font> [Music] on July the 6th 1940 the victor in Europe<font color="#E5E5E5"> returned to Berlin</font> to a hero's<font color="#E5E5E5"> welcome our wonderful July</font> Sun shines<font color="#E5E5E5"> all over the place</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> an</font> unimaginable ecstasy fills the city the crowd roars the station looks like a great<font color="#E5E5E5"> banqueting-hall then the fear</font> arrives<font color="#CCCCCC"> a roar of joy fills the station</font> on this day<font color="#E5E5E5"> Hitler's army chief General</font> Keitel called him the greatest<font color="#E5E5E5"> warlord</font> in history but amid<font color="#E5E5E5"> his triumph</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> Hitler was</font> increasingly tormented by one<font color="#E5E5E5"> overriding</font> thought as far<font color="#E5E5E5"> as he was concerned</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> he</font> had won the<font color="#CCCCCC"> war so why did the British</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">not recognize</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> that fact</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> and make</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> peace</font> with him he began<font color="#E5E5E5"> to convince himself</font> that<font color="#E5E5E5"> there must be some external factor</font> that Britain and Churchill were relying on <font color="#E5E5E5">a week after</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> the day of</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> glory in Berlin</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">general</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> hauzer</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> recorded a momentous</font> developments in Hitler's reasoning 13th of July 1940 the<font color="#E5E5E5"> Fuhrer is greatly</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">puzzled by Britain's persistent and</font> willingness to<font color="#E5E5E5"> make peace he sees the</font> answer in Britain's hope in Russia [Music] [Applause] [Music] on July<font color="#CCCCCC"> the 19th 1940</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> in a speech</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> to the</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">rice day Hitler</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> made his final plea for</font> peace<font color="#E5E5E5"> to Britain Churchill</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> and the</font> British were<font color="#CCCCCC"> not interested later that</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">day</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> a further wheel of information from</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">the United</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> States</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> entered Hitler's mind</font> [Music] <font color="#E5E5E5">franklin roosevelt's was nominated</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> by</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">the democrat party to run for president</font> for<font color="#E5E5E5"> the third time</font> [Applause] his acceptance speech contained an attack<font color="#CCCCCC"> on Nazi aggression</font> [Applause] Hitler was now seeing<font color="#E5E5E5"> spectres across</font> the globe 22nd of July<font color="#E5E5E5"> in 1940 Firoz</font> view reasons for<font color="#CCCCCC"> continuation of war by</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">Britain</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> one it hopes for a change</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> in</font> America<font color="#CCCCCC"> -</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> it puts hope in Russia Stalin</font> is flirting with Britain<font color="#E5E5E5"> to keep her in</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">the war</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> and tie us down</font> Hitler retreated to the mountains of Obersalzberg the delusion<font color="#CCCCCC"> was building</font> [Music] here the<font color="#E5E5E5"> summer before he'd been</font> dreaming up his pact with Stalin<font color="#E5E5E5"> now he</font> suspected him [Music] at the end of<font color="#E5E5E5"> July he announced</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> to</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> his</font> generals the results of weeks of agonized reflection 31st of July<font color="#E5E5E5"> in 1940</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">11:30</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> dark wolf</font> Fuhrer concludes<font color="#E5E5E5"> Russia is the factor on</font> which Britain is relying the most <font color="#E5E5E5">something must have happened in London</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">the British were completely down</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> now</font> they have perked up again with Russia smashed<font color="#E5E5E5"> Britain's last hope would be</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">shattered the sooner</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> Russia has crushed</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">the</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> better</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> if we were to start in May</font> 1941<font color="#E5E5E5"> we would have five months to</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> finish</font> the job it<font color="#E5E5E5"> was as yet only</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> an idea</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> but</font> two enormous delusions<font color="#E5E5E5"> the</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> first that he</font> had already<font color="#E5E5E5"> won</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> the war and the second</font> that some secret deal<font color="#E5E5E5"> was brewing</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">between Britain and Russia</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> were leading</font> Hitler<font color="#E5E5E5"> down the road to catastrophe</font> [Music] for Hitler<font color="#CCCCCC"> the invasion of</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> Russia was</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">still</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> only a</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> contingency</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> plan</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> should</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> all</font> other<font color="#E5E5E5"> means of forcing</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> the British to</font> make peace fail the autumn of 1940 now brought<font color="#CCCCCC"> four long months of frustration</font> the<font color="#E5E5E5"> RAF defeated the Luftwaffe in the</font> Battle of Britain<font color="#E5E5E5"> plans for a</font> cross-channel invasion were quietly show yet despite<font color="#E5E5E5"> these setbacks Hitler</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> hidden</font> himself<font color="#CCCCCC"> that he'd done enough</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> 15</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> -</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">fucked Ober 1940 Fuhrer</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> on military</font> situation<font color="#E5E5E5"> war is</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> one</font> rest is<font color="#CCCCCC"> mere question</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> of time</font> but Hitler<font color="#E5E5E5"> could still not force the</font> British to<font color="#E5E5E5"> come to terms</font> and he had become<font color="#CCCCCC"> split minded</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> about</font> Russia<font color="#E5E5E5"> moving troops</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> nearer her borders</font> but also wanting<font color="#E5E5E5"> Stalin to join him in</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">the fight against Britain</font> [Music] Hitler's<font color="#CCCCCC"> adjutants magic Gerhart Engel</font> noted in his diary<font color="#CCCCCC"> fourth of November</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">1944</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> visibly depressed he conveys the</font> impression that at the moment<font color="#E5E5E5"> he does</font> not know how things should proceed then came the<font color="#E5E5E5"> defining moment</font> [Music] on November the<font color="#E5E5E5"> 12th 1940 the Russian</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">Foreign Minister</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> biatches left Molotov</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">arrived in Berlin</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> at Hitler's invitation</font> Molotov was given the full<font color="#CCCCCC"> Nazi fanfare</font> but the conversations<font color="#CCCCCC"> that followed were</font> tense <font color="#E5E5E5">Hitler's purpose in summoning Molotov</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">was to offer Russia</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> a share in the</font> spoils of victory<font color="#CCCCCC"> if it helped him</font> finish off the<font color="#E5E5E5"> British he told him</font> England's final capitulation is just a matter of time fragments<font color="#E5E5E5"> of its empire will</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> be left all</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">over the world</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> it's time to think about</font> division<font color="#E5E5E5"> of this property</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> without a</font> master after<font color="#CCCCCC"> our</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> victory but Stalin</font> wasn't interested in joining Hitler's war<font color="#E5E5E5"> or speculative carve ups of the</font> British Empire<font color="#E5E5E5"> his instructions to</font> Molotov were to find out what Hitler's troops were up to in Finland<font color="#E5E5E5"> and Romania</font> places right on his<font color="#E5E5E5"> doorstep</font> Molotov put the questions bluntly<font color="#E5E5E5"> Hitler</font> gave vague reassurances despite the superficial courtesies Molotov<font color="#E5E5E5"> scold</font> arrogance and<font color="#E5E5E5"> is needling on the</font> question of territory<font color="#E5E5E5"> in Eastern Europe</font> infuriated Hitler and it reinvigorated him 15th of<font color="#E5E5E5"> November 1940 the talks had</font> shown<font color="#E5E5E5"> where the Russian plans were</font> heading<font color="#E5E5E5"> Molotov had let the cat out of</font> the bag Hoover was<font color="#E5E5E5"> really relieved it would not</font> even remain a marriage of<font color="#E5E5E5"> convenience</font> when<font color="#E5E5E5"> Molotov reported back</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> to Moscow on</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">the talks in Berlin Stalin realized that</font> Hitler<font color="#E5E5E5"> was turning against him in early</font> December<font color="#E5E5E5"> he told his</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> generals we know</font> that Hitler<font color="#CCCCCC"> is intoxicated</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> by his</font> victories and believes that<font color="#E5E5E5"> the Red Army</font> will need at least four<font color="#CCCCCC"> years to prepare</font> for war obviously<font color="#CCCCCC"> four years would be</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">more than enough for us but we must be</font> ready much earlier<font color="#E5E5E5"> we will try to delay</font> the war for another two years but<font color="#CCCCCC"> Hitler was moving</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> at a pace Stalin</font> could not imagine on December the 18th 1940 he issued war directed<font color="#E5E5E5"> number 23</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">the German</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> via mock must be prepared</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">before the ending of the war against</font> England<font color="#E5E5E5"> to crush Soviet Russia</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> in a</font> rapid campaign the invasion date was set for<font color="#CCCCCC"> May 1941</font> but behind the order<font color="#E5E5E5"> lay uncertainty</font> 18th of December 1940<font color="#E5E5E5"> unconvinced that</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">the Fuhrer himself does not</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> know</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> how it</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">would</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> turn out he is very</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> concerned</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> at</font> the lack of<font color="#CCCCCC"> clarity as regards the</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">strength of the Russians hopes</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> for an</font> English surrender<font color="#E5E5E5"> does not think America</font> will enter the<font color="#CCCCCC"> wall</font> [Music] Hitler had finally made the momentous <font color="#E5E5E5">decision a war on two fronts the very</font> thing he'd sought to avoid<font color="#E5E5E5"> when he first</font> made his pact with Stalin but he<font color="#E5E5E5"> deluded</font> himself<font color="#E5E5E5"> the one front</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> Britain was</font> already<font color="#CCCCCC"> one it simply required a</font> knockout blow against Russia<font color="#CCCCCC"> for the</font> British to understand their defeat [Music] <font color="#E5E5E5">Hitler's line of reasoning never began</font> to occur<font color="#CCCCCC"> to Stalin</font> he believed<font color="#E5E5E5"> that Hitler</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> either had to</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">beat Churchill</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> or make a deal with him</font> before he<font color="#CCCCCC"> could think</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> of turning against</font> Russia<font color="#CCCCCC"> in early 1941</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> he told Politburo</font> members we must cherish no illusions fascist Germany is clearly preparing for an attack<font color="#CCCCCC"> on</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> the</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> Soviet Union</font> why does Hitler want to make an agreement with England<font color="#E5E5E5"> because he wants</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">to avoid war on two fronts Stalin was</font> trusting Hitler to act<font color="#E5E5E5"> rationally and to</font> fight Britain and Russia at the same time was clearly<font color="#CCCCCC"> irrational but Stalin</font> failed to realize that despite<font color="#CCCCCC"> their</font> similarities there was one profound difference between him and<font color="#E5E5E5"> Hitler which</font> made his perfect logic<font color="#E5E5E5"> irrelevant he</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">himself</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> was a methodical calculating</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">hardworking</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> man a master</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> of detail</font> personally signing death lists at one extreme and<font color="#E5E5E5"> at the other keeping the</font> tiniest details of gold production<font color="#E5E5E5"> in</font> his notebook Hitler by contrast was at heart an idle dreamer he once described why<font color="#CCCCCC"> he loved the</font> mountains<font color="#CCCCCC"> of Obersalzberg when I go to</font> Oh besides<font color="#E5E5E5"> back</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> I'm not drawn</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> there</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">merely by the beauty of the landscape</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> I</font> feel myself far from petty things<font color="#E5E5E5"> my</font> imagination is stimulated when I study a problem<font color="#CCCCCC"> elsewhere I see it less clearly</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">I'm submerged by the details by light at</font> the Berghof<font color="#CCCCCC"> I often remain for hours</font> with my eyes open contemplating from my bed<font color="#E5E5E5"> mountains lit</font> up by the moon it's at such moments<font color="#E5E5E5"> that</font> brightness enters my<font color="#CCCCCC"> mind</font> [Music] for Hitler<font color="#CCCCCC"> the big idea was</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> never to be</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">disrupted</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> by small facts and having made</font> up his<font color="#CCCCCC"> mind to</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> attack Russia for</font> tactical<font color="#E5E5E5"> reasons</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> the original and</font> biggest idea of all was reasserting itself<font color="#E5E5E5"> the ideological struggle against</font> Jews and Bolsheviks throughout 1940 Hitler had hardly mentioned the Jews but <font color="#E5E5E5">on January the 30th 1941 in his</font> traditional<font color="#CCCCCC"> speech</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> marking the</font> anniversary of<font color="#E5E5E5"> the Nazis rise to power</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">he repeated a chilling threat he'd first</font> made before war broke<font color="#CCCCCC"> out</font> as a series of conferences<font color="#CCCCCC"> with his</font> generals in the<font color="#E5E5E5"> spring of 1941 Hitler</font> made his<font color="#E5E5E5"> aims brutally clear</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> 3rd of</font> March 1941<font color="#E5E5E5"> the forthcoming campaign will</font> lead to a showdown<font color="#CCCCCC"> between two</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> different</font> ideologies the Jewish Bolshevik intelligentsia<font color="#CCCCCC"> must be eliminated</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> 30th</font> of March<font color="#E5E5E5"> we must forget the concept of</font> comradeship between<font color="#E5E5E5"> soldiers this is</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> a</font> war<font color="#CCCCCC"> of extermination while</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> Hitler</font> planned<font color="#E5E5E5"> his annihilation</font> Stalin still believed he<font color="#CCCCCC"> had at least a</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">year to prepare on April the 13th 1941</font> he moved to protect his back<font color="#E5E5E5"> signing a</font> pact with<font color="#E5E5E5"> Hitler's ally Japan Stalin was</font> thrilled with<font color="#E5E5E5"> his coup and got happily</font> tipsy<font color="#E5E5E5"> with the Japanese</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> foreign minister</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">Matsuoka but he was still following his</font> double strategy as he said goodbye to<font color="#CCCCCC"> Matsuoka the</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">German</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> military attache in Moscow was</font> present Stalin told him we must remain friends and you must now do<font color="#CCCCCC"> everything to that</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">end we will stay friends</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> with you</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">whatever happens</font> but Stalin<font color="#E5E5E5"> knew such</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> long-term</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">friendship was a fantasy soon after he</font> told<font color="#E5E5E5"> graduates of Moscow's military</font> academy there will be war and<font color="#E5E5E5"> the enemy</font> will<font color="#E5E5E5"> be Germany but that war would not</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">happen yet up until this point</font> Stalin's reasoning was<font color="#E5E5E5"> irreproachable</font> he'd foreseen the eventual conflict with Germany<font color="#CCCCCC"> and was steadily preparing for</font> it [Music] but a bizarre twist would now propel him <font color="#CCCCCC">into his own huge delusion in April 1941</font> Stalin received his second letter from Winston Churchill<font color="#E5E5E5"> like the first it</font> would have an electrifying<font color="#CCCCCC"> effect on his</font> duel with Hitler Churchill<font color="#E5E5E5"> told him the British had</font> received<font color="#CCCCCC"> intelligence reports of German</font> troop movements which could only be preparations for a Nazi attack on Russia <font color="#E5E5E5">Stalin was instantly suspicious not of</font> Hitler<font color="#E5E5E5"> but of Churchill he told his army</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">chiefs Britain is threatening us</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> with</font> the Germans and threatening<font color="#E5E5E5"> the Germans</font> with the Soviet Union<font color="#CCCCCC"> they're playing us</font> off against each other then<font color="#CCCCCC"> on May the</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">10th 1941 in one of the</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> Wars strangest</font> moments Hitler's deputy<font color="#E5E5E5"> Rudolf Hess took</font> off from Germany<font color="#E5E5E5"> and a Messerschmitt</font> fighter<font color="#E5E5E5"> flew across the North Sea</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> and</font> parachuted to the ground<font color="#E5E5E5"> in Scotland at</font> that time Stalin's assistant presence of his key meetings was<font color="#CCCCCC"> your ichigaya who noted</font> down and later typed up everything <font color="#CCCCCC">stalin said from gdf secret unpublished</font> record<font color="#E5E5E5"> it is possible to piece together</font> how Churchill's message and<font color="#CCCCCC"> Hess's</font> flight began to lead Stalin towards a conspiracy theory which would have immensely destructive<font color="#E5E5E5"> consequences for</font> his country three days after has landed<font color="#E5E5E5"> Jedi are</font> accorded the interpretation Stalin<font color="#E5E5E5"> gave</font> of these two<font color="#CCCCCC"> events</font> on the one<font color="#E5E5E5"> hand</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> churchill sends us a</font> personal message<font color="#E5E5E5"> in which he warns us</font> about<font color="#CCCCCC"> hitler's aggressive intentions</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> and</font> on the other<font color="#E5E5E5"> hand the british meet</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> hess</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">who is undoubtedly hitler's confidant</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">what is the conclusion</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> then apparently</font> when<font color="#E5E5E5"> churchill sent us his personal</font> warning<font color="#E5E5E5"> he believed that we would</font> activate<font color="#CCCCCC"> our military machine then</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">hitler would</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> have a direct</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> and</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> fair</font> reason to launch a preventive crusade against the<font color="#E5E5E5"> soviet union in Stalin's</font> eyes Churchill's warning was deliberately <font color="#E5E5E5">designed to provoke a</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> war between</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">Germany and Russia and Churchill was</font> meeting Hess<font color="#E5E5E5"> to tell Germany it should</font> strike first as he brooded<font color="#E5E5E5"> on this idea</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">Stalin concluded that Churchill</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> was not</font> the only provocateur On June<font color="#CCCCCC"> the</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> 5th he</font> told his military<font color="#E5E5E5"> chiefs England France</font> and<font color="#E5E5E5"> America</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> see in Germany the only hope</font> to<font color="#CCCCCC"> get rid of Bolshevism and therefore</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">helped the Nazis</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> in all possible</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> ways in</font> their<font color="#CCCCCC"> crusade to the east</font> [Music] this deduction<font color="#CCCCCC"> that the democratic</font> nations of your of an America were <font color="#E5E5E5">ganging up on him became a blinding</font> article of faith throughout May and June <font color="#E5E5E5">intelligence</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> reports gave warning</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> after</font> warning of imminent German attack<font color="#E5E5E5"> Stalin</font> dismissed every one of<font color="#E5E5E5"> them as part of</font> the great conspiracy<font color="#E5E5E5"> to provoke him</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> On</font> June<font color="#E5E5E5"> the 12th he told his generals</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> I am</font> certain<font color="#CCCCCC"> that Hitler will not risk</font> creating<font color="#E5E5E5"> a second front by attacking the</font> Soviet Union Hitler<font color="#CCCCCC"> is not</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> such an idiot</font> millions of German<font color="#E5E5E5"> troops gathered</font> within<font color="#E5E5E5"> striking distance of Russia's</font> borders Operation Barbarossa<font color="#CCCCCC"> as it was</font> now called<font color="#E5E5E5"> was scheduled for</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> ten days</font> time<font color="#E5E5E5"> June the 22nd the duel between</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">Hitler and Stalin was reaching</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> its end</font> as Operation Barbarossa drew near Hitler convinced himself<font color="#E5E5E5"> he was fulfilling</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> his</font> destiny <font color="#E5E5E5">On June the 16th 1941 with six days</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> to</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">go</font> he told<font color="#E5E5E5"> girls that which we have spent</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">our lives fighting</font> we will now<font color="#E5E5E5"> annihilate with</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> a</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> right or</font> wrong<font color="#E5E5E5"> we must win and when we have one</font> who will ask<font color="#E5E5E5"> about</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> the method</font> that day a<font color="#E5E5E5"> Soviet spy in the Luftwaffe</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">sent yet another warning of imminent</font> German attack<font color="#E5E5E5"> Stalin retorted tell the</font> source in the staff of the<font color="#E5E5E5"> German air</font> force<font color="#E5E5E5"> to his mother on</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> June the 18th</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">Stalin's two top generals Zhukov and</font> Timoshenko pleaded with him for a full <font color="#E5E5E5">alert Stalin reminded them that Hitler</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">could not attack</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> without first doing a</font> deal<font color="#CCCCCC"> with Britain</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> you have to realize</font> that Germany will never fight Russia<font color="#E5E5E5"> on</font> their own you must understand this<font color="#E5E5E5"> on</font> June 20th<font color="#CCCCCC"> two days to go Hitler chose</font> his fanfare for victory<font color="#CCCCCC"> a passage from</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">Liszt symphonic poem</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> they prelude</font> [Music] though Stalin still<font color="#CCCCCC"> refused</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> to see</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> it</font> coming it was now apparent<font color="#E5E5E5"> to his closest</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">associates that the Nazis were on their</font> way<font color="#CCCCCC"> on June the 21st</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> one of them Georgi</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">Dimitrov was in Moscow rumors of an</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">impending attack are multiplying on all</font> sides<font color="#E5E5E5"> have to be on</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> guard called Molotov</font> this morning Molotov says the situation is unclear<font color="#E5E5E5"> there is a major game</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">underway</font> [Music] <font color="#E5E5E5">On June the 22nd</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> the same day Napoleon</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">at once invaded</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> Russia Hitler followed</font> in his footsteps [Music] at 3:30<font color="#E5E5E5"> a.m. the attack begins that</font> greatest deployment in world history<font color="#CCCCCC"> the</font> Fuhrer is<font color="#E5E5E5"> as if released from a bad</font> dream the<font color="#E5E5E5"> nearer we get to the decisive moment</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">all his tiredness</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> seems to disappear</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> and</font> given a deep insight into<font color="#E5E5E5"> his thoughts</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">we have no option but</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> to</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> attack this</font> cancerous<font color="#CCCCCC"> abscess must be cauterized</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">Stalin will fall at 7:00 a.m. I was</font> urgently summoned to the Kremlin Germany has attacked the USSR<font color="#CCCCCC"> the war has begun</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">Stalin to me they attacked us without</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">declaring any grievances</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> without</font> demanding<font color="#E5E5E5"> any negotiations they attacked</font> us viciously<font color="#E5E5E5"> like gangsters Stalin's</font> great<font color="#CCCCCC"> conspiracy theory that the</font> democracies were plotting<font color="#CCCCCC"> to provoke him</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">was shattered his</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> miss</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> reading</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> of Hitler</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">the man he'd viewed as a rational</font> strategist<font color="#E5E5E5"> was total Hitler had</font> completed an extraordinary mental <font color="#E5E5E5">journey</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> a year before he had seen</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> the</font> invasion<font color="#E5E5E5"> as a tactic</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> to</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> make Britain</font> crumble now the ideology with which he had set out<font color="#E5E5E5"> 20 years</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> before</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> had once again</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> taken</font> pride of place he wrote to his<font color="#E5E5E5"> Italian</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">ally</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> Benito Mussolini let me say one</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">more thing duty since I struggled</font> through<font color="#E5E5E5"> to this decision</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> I again feel</font> spiritually free the partnership with the Soviet Union<font color="#CCCCCC"> was often very irksome</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">to</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> me for in some way or</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> other it seemed</font> to me to<font color="#E5E5E5"> be</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> a break with my whole origin</font> my concepts and my<font color="#E5E5E5"> former obligations</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> I</font> am happy now<font color="#CCCCCC"> to be relieved</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> of these</font> mental agony<font color="#E5E5E5"> 'he's</font> [Music] while<font color="#E5E5E5"> Operation Barbarossa cleansed</font> Hitler<font color="#E5E5E5"> it only shocked and</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> depress</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">Stalin his fury was directed equal</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> it</font> Hitler and that his own generals whose positioning of their forces<font color="#E5E5E5"> insisted</font> upon by Stalin himself<font color="#E5E5E5"> had allowed the</font> Germans to smash through<font color="#CCCCCC"> Russian</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">defenses this is a monstrous</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> crime those</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">responsible must lose their heads NKVD</font> units were sent<font color="#CCCCCC"> to the front</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> to arrest</font> the guilty man the commander<font color="#E5E5E5"> general</font> Pavlov<font color="#CCCCCC"> was shot five days later</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">Stalin remarked Lenin founded our state</font> and we've<font color="#CCCCCC"> stood up the Red</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> Army taken by</font> surprise<font color="#CCCCCC"> because Stalin</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> had refused to</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">allow it</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> to prepare</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> was in headlong</font> retreat<font color="#E5E5E5"> two weeks after the</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> invasion</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">general</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> holder noted in his diary</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> 3rd of</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">July 1941 it is probably no</font> overstatement to say that<font color="#CCCCCC"> the</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> Russian</font> campaign has been<font color="#E5E5E5"> won</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> in the space of</font> two weeks militarily<font color="#CCCCCC"> Barbarossa</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> turned the war on</font> its head<font color="#E5E5E5"> and</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> his experience</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> with Hitler</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">also</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> had a vital psychological effect on</font> <font color="#E5E5E5">Stalin he later remarked when you're</font> trying to<font color="#E5E5E5"> make a decision</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> never</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> put</font> yourself<font color="#CCCCCC"> into</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> the mind of the other</font> person<font color="#E5E5E5"> because if you do you can</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> make a</font> terrible mistake Stalin<font color="#E5E5E5"> had lost the</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> mine game Hitler had</font> outwitted<font color="#E5E5E5"> him but Hitler would be the</font> eventual loser<font color="#E5E5E5"> his decision to attack</font> Russia<font color="#E5E5E5"> signed the death warrants of his</font> own dreams of<font color="#CCCCCC"> empire and of European</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">imperialism in general</font> [Music] and it<font color="#CCCCCC"> would create</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> an unlikely</font> coalition of three ideologically opposed warlords<font color="#CCCCCC"> to fight him but</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> the</font> relationship<font color="#E5E5E5"> between the two great</font> Democrats in that<font color="#CCCCCC"> coalition began</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> with</font> another<font color="#E5E5E5"> mental duel which ran in</font> <font color="#CCCCCC">parallel</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> with the</font><font color="#CCCCCC"> duel of</font><font color="#E5E5E5"> the dictators</font> it too was riddled with mutual suspicions<font color="#E5E5E5"> false promises and evasion it</font> too<font color="#E5E5E5"> would shape the destiny of the world</font> you
Info
Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries
Views: 2,477,883
Rating: 4.6131687 out of 5
Keywords: winston churchill, david reynolds, british pathe, world war ii, battle of britain, russian history, nazi invasion, joseph stalin, war documentary, british empire, channel 4 documentary 2019, hitler documentary, ww2 documentary, hitler vs stalin, stalin documentary, stalin vs hitler, full length documentaries, tv shows - topic, documentary history, full documentary, channel 4 documentary, hitler stalin, bbc documentary, hitler and stalin, history documentary
Id: E2zrqzvtWio
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 48min 46sec (2926 seconds)
Published: Wed Oct 11 2017
Reddit Comments
Related Videos
Note
Please note that this website is currently a work in progress! Lots of interesting data and statistics to come.