What Was Hitler Like Behind Closed Doors? | Secrets of War | Timeline

[Music] his intent was nothing less than world domination a paranoid manic-depressive man who exploited his friends his political party and an entire nation in his desire for conquest and destruction Adolf Hitler saw himself is the divine inspiration for the German people a myth of a man who used his own powers of manipulation and the spies in his intelligence network to throw the entire world into chaos losing was not an option and victory would come by any means necessary above all Hitler relied on lies and deceit to achieve his ultimate goals deception was the greatest weapon in his arsenal on Christmas Eve in December 1936 Adolf Hitler approved a request from the chief of his Nazi party's intelligence office Reynard Heydrich to leak report that Heydrich had supposedly intercepted two Czechoslovakian president Edvard Bennis in Prague the report detailed conversations between Marshall took HF ski Russian first vice commissar for defense and British military leaders toka jet ski had met with the British while representing the Soviet Union at the state funeral of King George v there he supposedly told them about a plan that he and other Russian generals had created to remove Joseph Stalin from power the report also described took a jet ski as a seasoned German spy with close access to Hitler his generals and German military plans going back many years the information about rocket jet ski was very damning it was also totally false Hitler knew that the Soviet military leadership was weak getting Stalin to believe his top officers were out to get him would weaken it even more Hitler knew the information would eventually get back to Stalin the story of target jet skis meeting with the British actually came from a disgruntled general inside the Soviet secret police general Nicholas Koblin had hated the Red Army for years ever since he'd supported a rival faction during the Russian Revolution at a clandestine meeting at the Hotel Adlon in Berlin Scullin gave his bogus report to his friend Reynard Heydrich the Nazis used it to their fullest advantage in fact the part about took a chef's key being a German spy was Heydrich sewn personal touch [Music] a vine has height Lee Reinhard Heydrich was an evil figure he had developed a plan to blackmail Tukhachevsky and other officers using their old connections with germans and accusing them of being German spies who had infiltrated the Soviet Army I stored schlund in the 1920s when Germany was allowed to have just a little army with neither tanks nor planes there was a close cooperation almost friendship between the German army and the Red Army the file on taka jetski and other topped Soviet generals eventually reached the Kremlin Stalin took hydraulics bait the embattled Russian leader was furious he feared that his own generals were about to remove Ian he removed them instead there is a feeling in Stalin's circle that the fascists may be inside the circle itself that there should be purges well Stalin has been used to purchase he's been purging various organs of the Soviet Union for 10 or 15 years at least by then On June 11th 1937 coca chef Sookie and seven other top generals were executed without a trial however the state-run Soviet newspaper Pravda reported there was a legitimate trial and proclaimed the convictions a victory for the Communist Party but the true victor was Hitler's intelligence network the executions began a bloody rampage by Stalin in one year Stalin's secret police force executed 41 generals 93 corps commanders and all of the 293 division commanders of the Red Army the slaughter sent the Kremlin into turmoil and set the stage for one of Hitler's greatest double-crosses in the years to come in order to carry out his policies without question Hitler knew we needed to become a god in the eyes of the German people he exerted complete command over their perceptions of him controlling what they heard what they saw and what they knew then he released this image to the international community Hitler used propaganda masterfully to cover one of his greatest secrets on the eve of World War two Hitler has an a grasp of what propaganda is all about today we look upon propaganda as an aspect of intelligence he knows that newsreels radio and airplanes these three modern inventions can be controlled by the state so he's the state from the time he was elected Chancellor in 1933 Hitler seized every opportunity to influence the masses inside Germany movie theater newsreels were a popular way to keep Germans informed of current events filled with Nazi controlled images of a reborn Germany newsreels helped galvanize support for Hitler's rearmament program in the 1930s newsreel images were ideal for international propaganda efforts instead of trying to hide the fact that he was in violation of the Treaty of Versailles by rearming the Luftwaffe and army Hitler reveled in it the cameras rolled and the world looked on in amazement but the rebuilt military shown on newsreels did not represent the strength of the German armed forces Hitler organized tours to display Germany's military might for foreign officials and press but often the trips were a hoax as soon as the reporters packed up and headed for another base the planes at the base just visited were flown ahead of them when the journalists and dignitaries arrived and they had no clue that the planes were the same aircraft they had just seen in 1936 Hitler took his biggest gamble yet he ordered his army to reposition itself west of the Rhine River also in clear violation of the Treaty of Versailles the German army was no match for the French army and Hitler himself had given the orders that should the French show any signs of opposition should they move then those few very very few battalions that had gone into the Rhineland at Cologne other places but withdraw and Hitler you know the rest the rest of his life kept on saying that this was in fact the most sort of dicey moment of his life and that you know had the French made a move perhaps he would have ended his life there and then in March 1938 German troops annexed Austria their mob had secret orders to retreat if France objected but there was no formal protest from Paris in September of the same year Hitler demanded that the german-speaking territory of Czechoslovakia the Sudetenland be part of the Third Reich the European powers including Britain and France hoped to avoid war with Germany they signed the Munich Agreement effectively turning over 11,000 square miles of Czech territory to Hitler then on August 23rd 1939 Hitler shocked the world by signing a non-aggression pact with Stalin they secretly agreed to invade Poland and divided between them Hitler knew France and England had treaties with Poland and would come to her aid but he was willing to gamble once again at the time France was the only European nation capable of stopping a German advance across the continent France had roughly the same number of troops and equipment as the Germans but the French were leery they had lost more than 1 million men during World War one double the number lost by the British one of the ironies of Hitler's propaganda war is that French intelligence operatives knew that Germany wasn't as strong as it seemed their warnings were ignored the French intelligence has pretty well perceived what is real but they're not getting through to the political leadership it's a classic story of intelligence I mean it almost seems to be some kind of a rule that says the better and more timely the intelligence the less likely any political leadership will make use of it Hitler also used a deceptive olive branch by preaching pacifism he purposefully played on fears still fresh from the slaughter of World War one he gave speeches which were reported by newspapers in newsreels about the useless sacrifices he had seen as a soldier of men who died in efforts to capture a few yards of land Hitler would later say that he secretly played on the world's sweet reasonableness he said you don't think I a soldier the great war that went through four years of Madden blood and slaughter would ever start another world war do you and of course a lot of people were fooled by this old story but of course it was also accompanied by these mass demonstrations of German military might it was one of Hitler's greatest secrets he wanted to take over Europe but his forces were not ready even Hitler's top generals knew at this stage that there was no way they could win a world war after all the French army was many times larger than the German army the French had more tanks than the German the British had more planes than the Germans and behind them all the time was lurking the possibility of assistance from the United States still on September 1st 1939 Hitler went ahead his blitzkrieg / ran Poland in a month France could have attacked but didn't nine months of political maneuvering ensued which only allowed the Germans to strengthen their forces then in the spring of 1940 despite repeated warnings from French intelligence the Nazis over ran Belgium Holland and France in just eight weeks although Hitler's string of daring victories in Western Europe stalled as his air forces were repelled during the Battle of Britain his eyes had already turned to the east when he signed the non-aggression pact with Stalin in August of 1939 Hitler promised not to attack Russia but the Fuehrer knew that his earlier deception had led Stalin to kill nearly one-third of his senior army staff by 1940 younger less-experienced communists officers now led the Soviet army Hitler's most brazen double-cross of the war the top-secret invasion of Russia known as Operation Barbarossa was about to be put into action well this is a result of all these purges Hitler clung to this idea said that in December 1940 he says do you only have to kick the door and the whole rotten structure will fall in in the fall of 1941 the fair mocked invaded Russian territory wiping out the defending forces at a clip surprised the most battle-hardened German officers at one point the German army was only thirty miles from Moscow in the years to come the Russians would regroup to fight another day and repel the invaders but at the time Hitler's grand deception had paid off in droves for the time being Europe was locked in stalemate but Hitler and his secret operatives continued to stretch their subversive tentacles the Fuhrer was about to entangle a sleeping giant on the other side of the Atlantic as he brought his covert war to the United States even before the outbreak of World War two as the United States was climbing out of the Great Depression America's military industry was quietly preparing for the future in Brooklyn New York engineers were building the most accurate aerial bomb sighting device ever made US Air Corps officials boasted that the device known as the Norden bombsight could guide a bomb from several thousand feet with such precision it could hit a barrel of pickles among the engineers who worked at the factory in 1937 was a German American named Hermann Lange unknown to his fellow workers Lange was also an agent for German intelligence the Nazis were determined to penetrate the factory and obtain information on the top-secret bomb site this thing was guarded by all the security they could dream up but what Lange did is he took a plane home every night and copied it and he smuggled out these plans one at a time across to Germany German engineers over there using his plans made a working model of the Norden bombsight by 1937 the Luftwaffe not only had the United States's top-secret Norden bombsight they had improved it by 1942 Hitler's Air Force ruled the skies of nearly all of Europe with a reign of terror from precision bombing after this great success Hermann Lange teamed up with Colonel Fritz Duquesne who had been spying for Germany for more than 20 years however a double agent named William Sebold tipped off the FBI to their activities Siebold followed his German handlers instructions to meet Duquesne in a series of meetings in May 1941 Sebold lured Duquesne and his cohorts to a downtown New York office building the FBI secretly recorded this film of their meeting Duquesne had a goldmine of secrets with his theft of plans for PT boats in the m1 rifle his spying operations called for the plans to be given to Heinrich closing a cook on the ocean liner Argentina with Sybil's help Duquesne set up a shortwave radio on Long Island to send information back to Germany Duquesne didn't know that the radio operator also worked for the FBI and all the reports radioed to Germany were contrived in January 1942 Duquesne was stopped before he could do any damage he and thirty-two other German agents were arrested tried and convicted on espionage charges most of them served more than ten years in prison later that year Hitler would make his boldest attempt yet to disrupt the American war machine with a war well underway Hitler's dream of bringing the battle to the American homefront was about to come true On June 13 1942 a German u-boat captain switched off his diesel engines and quietly drifted in the waters just off the coast of Amagansett Long Island onboard the cramped submarine were four German agents each had lived in the United States for several years before the war each had returned home to Nazi Germany to be trained as saboteurs now they were coming back as agents for the fatherland on a covert assignment dubbed Operation Pastorius under the cover of darkness the four men rode their rubber raft towards a deserted stretch of the Long Island Shore their clothes and way of speech were undeniably American in their pockets for United States passports Maps identification cards and cash the leader George - was holding thirty thousand dollars in small bills the agents were also carrying three cases filled with plastic explosives their mission was to blow up three alcoa light metal manufacturing plants one in Illinois and other in Tennessee and a third in New York German intelligence knew the facilities were crucial to the production of American military aircraft if the saboteurs succeeded Hitler could claim a major victory on US soil you have to remember that in 1942 there were no ballistic missiles and there were no long-range bombers and so America was out of Hitler's reach he couldn't drop a bomb on a steel mill or a munitions plant so this was his way of slowing down American production the group's leader George - had lived in the United States for 19 years married an American and even served two years in the US Army after he was drafted into German intelligence he began to distrust the Nazis in their politics now is the agents waded ashore George - was having doubts about the mission on the beach they buried their rubber raft and Explosives just in time Coast Guardsman John Cullen was patrolling the shore nearby and unknowingly stumbled upon the German saboteurs - told Colin they were fishermen and their boat had run aground in the fog Colin accepted the explanation and even offered them some hot coffee back at the station they declined but as the gathering broke up - made his move he pulled the Coast Guardsmen aside away from the others - offered Cullen a bribe of 260 dollars hoping to tip off the operation but the crew left the beach before the stunt Coast Guardsman reacted he went back to the station and filed a report but the time the police and authorities showed up - and his Co saboteurs had disappeared they boarded a train headed for New York City four days later on a beach near Jacksonville Florida four more German agents showed up from there the agents were taken by Nazi sympathizers to hotels near the factories around the country they planned to destroy according to the plan bombs would be placed on the towers feeding electricity to the plants an agent would set a fuse in the bomb light it and run meanwhile without telling the group Jorge - decided to reveal their covert operation and placed calls to the FBI Jorge - unfortunately had a tendency when it's excited when rattled he would just babble on sometimes incoherently and that's what he did in this stage apparently FBI I'm just wrote him off as a crime because FBI used to crank calls like this all the time but - didn't quit determined to put an end to operation Pastorius before any damage was done he travelled by train to Washington DC and went to the FBI headquarters there were several agents in the room and they listened to him and he got the expression on their face and he wasn't getting through to them at that stage he took the suitcase full of money and said this is my proof here and took the entire suitcase dumped it on the table I spilled all over the place at that stage they started to believe his story - talked for eight days he revealed the details of the operation as well as the whereabouts of his fellow agents and the hidden explosive devices two weeks after they first landed on Long Island and in Florida all eight Nazi saboteurs were in US custody Operation Pastorius was exposed not by the FBI but by the conscience of a German spy yet Bureau director J Edgar Hoover covered up Dash's confession and let the FBI take full credit for the arrests Hoover believed that a speedy trial and death sentences for all the imprisoned German agents would leave no one to contradict his story the recent landing of saboteurs from Nazi submarines sounds a new alert for all Americans these saboteurs were apprehended before they could carry out their plans of destruction all those saboteurs may try to come to our shores they must be stopped a military trial was held it lasted three weeks all the saboteurs were found guilty and sentenced to death although President Roosevelt was in favor of harsh sentences he learned the truth of how the operation was stopped and at the last moment stepped in and commuted the sentences of George - and another saboteur Ernest burger to life in prison the remaining six prisoners died in the electric chair within 63 minutes of each other it was the fastest mass execution in US history and had been successful Operation Pastorius would have brought the war home to America with a major propaganda victory for Germany but even as Hitler's plans of sabotage in America were compromised German intelligence officers began plotting actions within Germany against the Fuehrer Admiral Wilhelm Canaris was Germany's top military spy master and the man closest to Hitler and his secret war the Fuehrer trusted him implicitly canora's had graduated from the German Naval Academy in 1908 he served on the battleship Cruiser Dresden which was blown out of the water off the coast of Chile during World War one Canaris survived and was decorated for outstanding bravery by Kaiser Wilhelm the war hero caught the attention of Hitler in the early days of his political career after the Nazi Party leader became Germany's new chancellor con-artists was appointed as head of military intelligence an organization known as the affair but whatever loyalty he felt towards Hitler suddenly and dramatically evaporated Hitler had secretly ordered the elimination of his political opposition on the evening of June 30th 1934 hundreds of his political rivals were executed it would be remembered as the night of the Long Knives the brutality and cowardice of these murders shocked Canaris from that night on the Admiral vowed to undermine at of Hitler and his Nazi Party Admiral Canaris was sort of a rare bird he was a military man but he had a conscience and he did not like the Nazis he did not like what they were doing he could see with what was leading up [Music] Canaris bided his time seeming to serve Hitler but waiting for opportune times to subvert him the opportunity finally arrived five years later with the outbreak of World War two Qataris now committed to Hitler's eventual demise often made sure the Fuhrer had incomplete or false information with making strategic decisions as Germany invaded Poland Canaris informed Hitler that the French were going to mount an attack in the Sur region as a result Hitler kept numerous divisions on the French border and out of Poland but the attack never came by the summer of 1940 Hitler's war machine was in high gear the Nazis were sweeping across Europe the curtain of fascism now extended over Poland with Denmark and Norway German troops were marching into Paris and the Luftwaffe was battling for Britain all that Hitler needed now was a way to tighten the nose and choke Europe into total submission he set his sights on the Straits of Gibraltar the Western access to the Mediterranean Sea Hitler knew that controlling this 8 mile wide channel would wreak havoc on the enemy's war effort English supply ships would be prevented from reaching the 8th army fighting general Rommel in North Africa if Hitler could occupy the Straits the entire Mediterranean would be is a major turning point in the war was just one victory away to take Gibraltar would be a body blow for the British it would have been psychologically damaging to the British and it would have been terribly damaging in terms of losing Mediterranean as a take-off point for hitting the soft underbelly of Europe but reaching the British controlled tip of Spain would be difficult sending troops by seam and traveling hundreds of extra miles and dangerous Allied occupied waters the only feasible route was overland through Spain a plan was devised codenamed Operation Felix the scheme first called for negotiations with Spanish dictator Francisco Franco Hitler sent Canaries to pave the way and open the door to Gibraltar he had no idea that his chief spy would do exactly the opposite Canaris had known Franco from shortly after World War one Canaris had been the man who negotiated with Franco for all the German assistance to Spain during the revolution in which Franco came out on top Kenard said to Franco whatever you do don't let the German troops come into Spain why because Germany is not going to win this war to further his deception canora's embellished his report to Hitler it gave a very bleak assessment for operation feelings Canaris stressed that railway lines between France and Spain were incompatible making troop transports technically unfeasible many of the roads were narrow and made of dirt making it impossible for German armoured divisions to get through finally canaras concluded that the British were well entrenched at Gibraltar and getting them out would be impossible in fact the situation was just the opposite he could have said you if you really want to do this just do it if Franco gives you any problems just push him out of the way invade Spain push your way through to Gibraltar and launch a major attack I'm sure he could have done it and he would have been successful despite the pessimistic report by his chief spy Hitler would not yield on Gibraltar on September 23rd 1940 the Fuhrer himself made a personal visit to Spain and met with Franco to discuss Gibraltar Franco was already prepared for the meeting thanks to Canaris Hitler wanted to invade Gibraltar through Spain Franco agreed but there were a few conditions he wanted more money more grain he demanded heavy naval artillery which he knew Hitler did not have because canals had told him so he was making impossible demands on Hitler to dissuade him Hitler was flabbergasted Franco was making demands that he could never agree to the final blow came over dinner Franco told Hitler he had no intention of becoming an ally of Germany and that Spain would remain neutral in the war at the end of the meeting Franco dropped a bombshell and told his German guests that he believed the Allies would win the war Hitler left saying he would rather have teeth pulled and meet with Franco again he never suspected that his top spy had anything to do with keeping Spain out of the war and leaving the strategic Straits of Gibraltar in British hands no blame was ever placed on canals at all he was very good at that he just sidestepped it Hitler just placed all the blame on Franco being hard-headed but Canaris --is misinformation campaign did not end with Spain in 1942 the Allies were preparing to launch Operation Torch the invasion of French North Africa a German agent working undercover in London learned of the secret plan and sent an urgent message to Canaris and German intelligence headquarters in Berlin the report provided details of the exact time and place when Allied troops would invade but then the report mysteriously disappeared of course canals didn't know anything about he never heard of any such report what report is that never heard of it sorry so in this case it wasn't a sin of commission it was a sin of omission he's just neglected to file the report you know he conveniently lost it and things like that were happening all the time late in the war Italy was about to make a dramatic switch to leave the Axis powers and to join the Allies once again Ken Aras fed Hitler false information Hitler believed that the Italians would soon side with the Allies but Canaris reported that Italy would stay loyal to Germany in reality Hitler's military intelligence chief knew better Italy switched sides robbing Hitler's axis empire of badly needed men and material but Canaris did not live to see the end of the Nazi regime he was arrested in July 1944 in connection with the attempted bombers a summation of Hitler months later his private diary serviced with evidence of treasonous activity going back to 1934 in the closing days of the war Canaris was hanged by SS men slowly with piano wire the assassination attempt gave rise to Hitler's belief that he was the target of a massive conspiracy even as the Allies were about to land in Normandy the greatest fears and deepest suspicions for the leader of Nazi Germany centered on those closest to him everyone was considered a suspect alone and trusting almost no one Hitler's paranoia would fuel his own demise and the ruin of his country in the following year despite the fact that Germany's top spy master Admiral Wilhelm Canaris and others were subverting Hitler's goals German military intelligence did still enjoy some successes during World War two one effective scheme occurred in Holland it was called Operation North Pole Britain's Special Operations Executive the SOE continually landed secret agents in Europe in the words of Winston Churchill they were to give aid and comfort and active support to the European resistance movement in March 1941 the German all they are forced to captured British radio operator to transmit messages back to SOE in Britain Joseph Ryder was one of the chief operatives for the affair throughout the war schreiter continued to send messages to radio operators in England reporting on bridges that were destroyed and troops killed to the British the operation seemed a very successful the radio keeps sending back false reports of sabotage that had been committed by the agents so back in England they believe they've got a red-hot resistance unit working day and night against the Germans in reality nothing's happening except every agent who is sent over its killed but many of the British agents were often captured and killed within days of landing in the Netherlands those that were not executed were forced to participate in the deception the Germans were very good at radio finding they could send cars around in a neighborhood and find where the secret transmission was being sent so getting up getting the radio operators was relatively easy the Allies continued to send men and munitions as the German operatives fed them false radio information but soon reports coming from other allied sources conflicted with messages from Joseph schreiter slowly intelligence operatives in England began to grow suspicious the thing about the North Pole is that there some SOE personnel in London smelt a rat did think in fact that this seemed to be too good to be true but they're warning seemingly weren't acted upon in May 1943 two of the captured British SOE agents managed to escape and get word back to England about the operation soon after the replies to the false German messages were halted Lee and operation North Pole was over ironically the two British agents were imprisoned for giving aid to the Nazis it was not until the war's end that the Allies discovered the extent of the deception and devastation caused by operation North Pole in two and a half years of sending radio broadcasts schreiter received parachute drops of 35,000 pounds of explosives 3,500 guns and 2,000 hand grenades 47 british intelligence agents lost their lives the cunning with which operation North Pole was conceived and executed was a model of how Hitler wanted his covert operations to run the SS the Nazi party's police force carried out another successful covert operation known for their ruthlessness and terror through assassination and intimidation the SS moved throughout Europe confiscating anything of value that could finance their own operations gold jewelry paintings and entire factories were seized for the fatherland yet in one of their most secret operations the SS made their own money an SD agent alfred no yox came up with a scheme to ruin the British economy the plan called for millions of forged pound notes to be dropped on England and neutral countries they hoped this would cause severe inflation leading to the eventual collapse of the country's economies when Hitler approved the plan in 1942 Nioxin his men began to seek out counterfeiters it suddenly occurred to them that they had as prisoners of the German government master Jewish forgers so they actively went through the backgrounds on these individuals and came up with the forgers the photography experts the experts in numbering the experts in logistics and they recruited from these prisoners an entire team the lure was simple the SD officers promised them better living conditions better food and more recreation time most importantly they promised them their lives if they created a flawless forgery the prisoners were transferred to the saxon housing concentration camp when they produced their first forgeries SD agent Vilhelm hortal was asked to vouch for their authenticity on tommy's we'd appear serenely that's when I personally found out through one of my men who went bold faced into a leading Swiss bank and showed them the notes saying he had heard that fake banknotes had been circulating and he wanted to have them examined and the clerk said I can only congratulate you if you have many more of these notes they are guaranteed to be genuine you seen Cavendish here was now a source of hard British currency that they could use were their agents they could use it for bribes they bought weapons in Yugoslavia when they rescued Mussolini from his captors the operation was paid for using forged British banknotes more than a hundred million pound notes were eventually printed but they were never dropped on England when the Allies closed in on Germany the forging operation was rushed to Austria where the counterfeiters were eventually freed as the noose tightened around Hitler's Reich the Germans had one more chance to turn the tables of war by building an atomic bomb it was to be Germany's ultimate weapon that would have changed the course of history but making a German bomb would prove difficult mostly due to the actions of Hitler himself in 1938 German scientists working at the Berlin Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for chemistry changed the world when they found the key to atomic reaction the nuclear age was under way but before the shades of war fell over Europe Hitler's racial policies against the Jews had sent many of Germany's top scientists fleeing including Albert Einstein the people who discover this primarily are people who leave Germany Einstein being wonderful example they're Jews several of them they are intellectuals they're part of the university system they're part of the scientific community that has connections with other scientists all over the world everything about the people who would be the real architects of a bomb for Germany are the wrong kinds of Germans for the German Nazis those who remained began work on Hitler's version of an atomic bomb even as a theoretical possibility Hitler described the atomic bomb as the wunderwaffen a wonder weapon with his patented hyperbole Hitler would describe the bomb to his war weary generals claiming it would be the ultimate instrument of destruction but he was weary of the bomb as well a scientist once cautioned him that it was possible that an atomic chain reaction could continue without stopping obliterating the world afraid to put too many secrets in the hands of one group Hitler allowed three separate groups to pursuit the development of the atomic bomb believing one would get it right with control of Czechoslovakia the German scientists had access to Europe's primary producer of uranium all they needed now was an element to stabilize a chain reaction Verner Heisenberg was the lead physicist of the group backed by the German army Heisenberg recognized that heavy water created by the separation of hydrogen and oxygen in water would be the key to building a nuclear reactor the principle source for heavy water in Europe at the time was the Norwegian hydroelectric company in southern Norway in 1939 the plant produced only 10 kilograms of heavy water per month barely enough for experimentation when the Nazis invaded Norway in April of 1940 Heisenberg had the access he needed within months production of heavy water increased to four kilograms per day and security around the plant was doubled in the summer of 1941 the Norwegian underground brought word of the plant's activities to the Allies there was only one explanation for the increased production of heavy water and only one solution during 1942 in 1943 the Allies mounted three unsuccessful attacks on the hydroelectric plant although each attack slowed production and the Germans quickly repaired whatever damage was done to the facility still the attacks were enough to convince them that Norway was too close to allied territory to continue the project weary from having to protect such an isolated production plant that was crucial to making atomic weapons they disassembled the heavy water equipment and shipped it to Germany On February 30th 1944 the Germans packed 600 kilograms of heavy water into 40 drums and placed the cargo on a ferryboat within hours the vessel was at the bottom of Lake Tinga courtesy of the Norwegian underground but Allied paranoia over an atomic Germany was not confined in our way on March 1st 1943 Germany's top nuclear scientists were called to a meeting in Berlin by Hermann Goering head of the Luftwaffe Goering wanted to discuss his concerns about aerial bombing during the meeting these scientists were subjected to just that allied bombs showered central Berlin the scientists survived a direct hit only by rushing into an underground shelter but the Allies didn't stop there they began devising a plan to either kidnap or kill Verner Heisenberg the plan was dropped after army officials realized that the Manhattan Project the secret u.s. program to build an atomic bomb was advancing more quickly than the German program ironically the primary reason the American scientists were moving ahead was due to Hitler himself his interest in the project simply waned Hitler's perception becomes the important matter for everything he doesn't like modern art well there's no modern art he's not sure you could put any was any of your resources into jet plane there's almost no jet plane so toward the end of the war and they force it on him he didn't have a feeling of need in terms of the atomic bomb ultimately the three research teams that attempted to develop the bomb wound up working against each other their secret developments were often redundant and they withheld advances from each other how close was Germany to making an atomic weapon following the surrender of Germany the Allies gathered Verner Heisenberg and the rest of Germany's nuclear scientists in a country house called hall farm near Cambridge England they secretly placed recording devices in the house and gave the scientists newspapers after the bombing of Hiroshima in August 1945 and they listened to hear what the Germans were saying and it was immediately clear from what the German physicists were saying that they weren't even close to making it an atomic bomb so the British and the Americans breathed an enormous sigh of relief Hitler did not live to see Germany's surrender he committed suicide on April 30th 1945 as Berlin crumbled around him but more than half a century after his death some of his secrets are still being revealed with his signature in 1935 Hitler signed into effect the Nuremberg Laws he and his Nazi Party crafted these laws to strip jews of their rights in germany eventually prohibiting them from interacting with non-jews these were the only documents that officially linked hitler to the anti-semitism which subsequently led the nazis to murder 6 million European Jews a policy which the world has come to know as the Holocaust although it has always been known what the Nuremberg Laws proclaimed the whereabouts of the original documents was a mystery for decades the Allies first discovered them in April of 1945 soldiers of the US Third Army found the original Nuremberg Laws in a bank vault as they moved through the town of X taught in southern Germany then they disappeared again apparently General George S Patton commander of the Third Army brought the documents back home to Southern California after the war the Nuremberg Laws were among other papers that Patton had donated to the Huntington Library in Pasadena California shortly before he died in a car accident it was not until 1999 that the library revealed the existence of the documents I think we're reminding people by displaying these documents that these are documents which lead to death and darkness we're also reminding people that Hitler did not have the last word which means that the victor in all of this was democracy that actually loosened this genocidal grip that Hitler had on Europe and was hoping to have underworld an extraordinary signature on a seemingly ordinary document these papers are yet another tangible reminder of Hitler and his dream of a German Reich that would dominate the world through deception and deceit and last a thousand years

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

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Keywords: History, Full Documentary, Full length Documentaries, Documentary Movies - Topic, 2017 documentary, BBC documentary, Channel 4 documentary, history documentary, documentary history, secrets of war full epsiode, secrets of war documentary, Adolf hitler documentary, adolf hıtler documentary 2018, adolf hıtler documentary history channel, the real hitler, what was hitler like, hitler's family, hitler's secrets, world war 2 documentary, world war 2 secrets, nazi secrets

Id: Zkuie9RDSLo

Length: 50min 55sec (3055 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 12 2020