more than any other man or any combination of events adolf hitler was the cause of the second

world
war war for its own sake was his driving obsession prolonged peace he once said would make a nation
rot hitler never made a secret of his aims he committed them to print and repeated them in countless
speeches he triumphed because the world was blind to the signals he constantly raised time and again
hitler could have been stopped by his fellow germans at first by foreign leaders later not until 1939 did
the allied leaders move to check him and by then it was too late to block his road to war [Music] so the
first world war ended in 1918 with germany's surrender in response to an offer of an honorable peace
by the victors britain france and america early next year the victorious powers met at versailles to draw
up the terms of the treaties driven by public opinion in their own countries the allied leaders were in a
vindictive mood when they assembled in the hall of mirrors they held germany responsible for the war
they demanded safety and retribution they stripped germany of her colonial empire reduced her armed
forces to a mere 100 000 distributed pieces of her territory to her neighbors and ordered germany to
pay huge sums in reparations compensation for the damage done by german aggression [Music] the
german delegates had expected to be allowed to negotiate instead they were summoned and given a
week to accept or suffer invasion and occupation they signed but germans of every political persuasion
were bitter versailles created a resentment that was to shape german politics for 20 years we felt in the
german people that this treaty was dictated by hate on the other side by tremendous hate especially by
the french but parties i'm sure by british people too and by the american people too you feel so
headless when the victors trample on the loser who's already very wet on the ground to see and that
this feeling was one of the reasons that later on much later on the people looked at hitler because he
brought another possibility for the future in their mind ten years later in 1929 it was a campaign against
further payment of reparations that brought the ex-corporal adolf hitler from local obscurity to
nationwide prominence reparations was already a national obsession and hitler easily persuaded his
crowds that they were being ruined by the peace treaties as a whole it was fixed we should pay until
1983 1983 and this was incredible huh and so the first idea of course was that all these payments should
be stopped by germany definitely stopped not paying anymore [Music] the idea that allied injustice was
the principal cause of german misery was a myth but poverty was real enough and in 1923 hyper
inflation wiped out the savings of millions of middle-class germans six years later the great depression
struck germany and confidence in parliamentary democracy largely collapsed that was hitler's chance
[Music] i can't say germany was a very bad years till hitler came in 33. everybody was poor there were i
think about seven million unemployed people it was no hope and hitler i must say that he was the first
man who with his speeches and his ideas he gave hope to the people promised bread and jobs but what
captured his audiences was his aggressive self-confidence his conviction that he could bring about
national revival by overthrowing the existing order of things oh it was not only the nazis who promised
to overthrow parliamentary government the communist party had made big gains in the cities especially
in berlin and the bourgeoisie was terrified of revolution my feeling was we are just on our way to
become a communist state you see and that was in my opinion the reason to take again a gun in the
hand and to fight it because we had the feeling young as we were the elder ones have enough of the
war and they don't want to fight they take everything except they accepted everything and we youngers
we wanted to fight in germany in the early 1930s there was civil war on the streets nazis fought
communists in all the as the democratic parties lost ground
the future became a choice between extremes the far left and the far right it was a series of general
elections that brought the nazis within reach of government no more than a splinter group in the
reichstag in 1928 they became in 1932 the biggest single party with a third of the popular vote that was
their peak what they lacked was an overall majority and later that year they lost 2 million votes what
saved hitler from probable oblivion was a deal with the conservatives each side despised the other each
expected to come out on top the conservatives got nearly all the cabinet posts but hitler was chancellor
and he made sure that his right-hand man hermann goring was in charge of the police it soon became
clear that the conservatives had underestimated hitler someone set fire to the reichstag hitler
pronounced it a communist plot he suspended all constitutional rights arrested five thousand
communists and socialists and declared what became a permanent state of emergency the dictatorship
was in place what followed was summed up in the word glycial talk forcible coordination it required
systematic and public acts of brutality like the burning of books foreign nazi storm troopers now enjoyed
the protection of the state and one of their favorite excesses the persecution of jews was
institutionalized the jews were driven out of business and the professions and driven out of germany
those that stayed ended up in concentration camps the first camp opened in march nineteen thirty
three it was built at a place called labor liberates said the slogan on the gate joseph felder was a socialist
who voted against hitler in the last free vote in the reichstag he was one of thousands of men and
women whose names had been marked down during the nazi's struggle for power his fellow inmates
were writers mayors jews trade unionists social democrats and communists felder was kept in chains in
the punishment block he was fed every fourth day he remembers that one of those feeding days
happened to be christmas eve december on december the 24th on christmas eve the guards came to my
cell door which i could reach even though my legs weren't irons vice versa and they showed me a plate
of bavarian sausages with potato salad and said this would be a nice gallows meal for you but you don't
deserve it you traitor and then the chief guard came carrying a rope and showed me how i could hang
myself from the overhead pipes we'll give you an eye he said then we'll come and do it ourselves he
came back twice during the night it was psychological pressure to try and make me commit suicide
they'll meet some self-portrait as well hitler now put the country to work chiefly on public projects like
roads he formed a compulsory labor corps unemployment fell dramatically hitler soon energized a
nation that longed for decisive leadership he showed an uncanny understanding of the attraction to the
masses of a combination of force and success his personal appeal was greatest among women and boys
[Music] i was so moved i was speechless i couldn't shout out i just stood there and looked at it and then
the most incredible thing happened hitler's hitler looked deep into my eyes and these moments i
afterwards i stood there for half a minute or so hypnotized deep into my eyes the fascinating thing is
that they said no he looked into my eyes it was a mass hypnosis you know described his great day in his
diary and later that night the family spoke of their glimpse of the leader as a profound religious
experience energy it must have been like this 2000 years ago when jesus said to his disciples leave your
home and family and follow me this was precisely the feeling hitler now commander in chief demanded
an oath of loyalty sworn by every soldier in 1935 he revealed the existence of a german air force and
announced that conscription would bring the army to five times the limits permitted by versailles to
justify his actions
he argued that universal disarmament for seen by the peace treaty had never taken place it was said by
the allies the allies of the first world war i mean that germany must disarm first and then they would
follow with a disarmament this was said obviously and clearly by the allies but years and years passed
away and nothing happened concerning the disarmament of the allied side on the contrary the checks
the polls armed aided by the french and encircling germany and so what was left germany was in the
middle you see so because the others had broken the promise for disarmament obviously they have
broken this promise they hadn't disarmed you know so germany was forced to rear very simple britain
and france protested against germany's realm that was all they did a few weeks later britain without
consulting the french concluded a naval agreement with germany it recognized germany's right to build
a powerful modern navy from battleships to u-boats hitler hoped his agreement with the british would
prove to be a breakthrough he wanted a settlement with a passive britain that would allow him to
pursue his long-term plan of expansion to the east herbert friedrichs was now a member of the german
naval staff he left england that was a funny thing you see he uh he loved everything which was smite
and he loved england because it was for in his opinion the expression of the building an empire as hitler
perhaps wanted to he wanted to crush the russians he hoped the process would do nothing against it
and i think that during those years when hitler said i hate the russians and that's the greatest danger for
europe england must always be a friend of us or become in front of us that's what he meant the road to
war will continue to the road to war on a saturday morning in march 1936 a german battalion entered
cologne and occupied both banks of the rhine the whole zone had been out of bounds to german
soldiers since the war wilhelm mega then aged 18 was on his way to his sister's wedding when he
spotted german troops on the bridge at midday the battalion fell in and marched across the bridge onto
the left bank i was carried away by the miniature music full of enthusiasm i followed the battalion
pushing my bike unknown to anybody else the troops had orders to retreat if france's vastly greater
forces moved neither france nor britain interfered prompting hitler to remark the world belongs to the
man with guts especially from the younger people there owned us wrong we all drank an enthusiastic
toast in fact we drank several five months after the occupation of the rhineland germany staged the
olympic games in berlin hitler's successful defiance of britain and france had strengthened his prestige
at home and his own self-confidence must have been boosted when the athletes from france the
country he had just humiliated gave him the hitler salute hey the games were a public relations triumph
droves of white dubs projected an image of germany at peace with itself and at peace with the world in
1937 hitler explained to his generals the grand design he had outlined years before in his book mein
kampf he told them his defiance of the treaty of versailles was merely the overture his real objective
was the creation by conquest of an empire in the eastern part of europe in which the german master
race would subject the present inhabitants poles russians slavs and jews to slavery his vision is said to
have appalled some of his generals but no empire said hitler had ever been built without force hitler
followed a so-called plan in stages what he had in mind was to become the dominant power in central
europe then to get the hegemony over the european continent then in a next stage to conquer a living
space in the soviet union and in a fourth stage he had in mind too well to fight against the united states
and to conquer a maritime empire as well hitler's first chance to expand into central europe presented
itself in austria where fervent local nazis were exploiting ancient ties of language and culture and
agitating for answers or union with the fatherland this was expressly forbidden by the treaties lest
germany become too strong in an effort to hold back the tide austrian chancellor shushnik had asked
britain to guarantee his country's independence when britain declined he proposed a plebiscite or
referendum hitler ordered his generals to prepare to march on vienna
but he had one nagging doubt would britain intervene the german foreign minister joachim from
wooden trump was visiting london to him the fuhrer sent an emissary a young austrian nazi reinhard
schmitzy was summoned to the chancellery i stood alone in front of the big fuhrer and hitler
immediately said i need now a messenger uh for rim drop because i must know what the british would
do if i enter in austria what is necessary because there is already a certain disorder and shushnik and
then he got furious and said certainly tried to cheat me with a faked election and purpose it and i'm not
going to admit that i must know what the british would do schbetsy returned from london with ruben
drops assurance in writing that britain would not interfere he reported to the leader i entered in the
room and greeted him in the normal way then we said sit down i'm going to read that oh that's fine
good so we can trust the british will do nothing he said well the whole embassy has the same opinion
nothing will happen that's good and then he told me so tomorrow we are going to austria spitzy's
reward is a place in the motorcade as the fuhrer returned to the land of his birth hitler was full of
emotion and sometimes he merely had tears in his eyes it was without any duck the greatest moment in
his life the enormous crowds welcomed hitler to the hilton platz the main square in vienna the peace
treaties have reduced austria's importance in the world and most of its citizens longed to be part of
germany's national revival being aboard swinney then age 20 was one of thousands transfixed by the
fuel when he came in you could see people were in tears and some even fainted and i personally i think
all the others too so in hitler our savior almost like that because we in austria had such a bad life very
sad life it was high unemployment and people had many people had nothing to eat so it was really like
in the last minute that hitler came in bought the people food and were rice one of these reasons why we
supported hitler was all about the jews how they behaved how they lived amongst us and very very
many lived in vienna at this time first of all it was their behavior and their appearance they looked so
dirty and with their long hairs and then rather strange amongst us you know they didn't really be
belonged to vienna in a way but they had the power all the banks and all the shops everything was in
jewish hands the road to war will continue in a moment onto war as they had done in germany the nazis
were able to build on the ingrained anti-semitism of so many austrians the treatment of jews in vienna
was savage a day or two jews were rounded up in the streets elderly jews including my father we are
forced to scrubs the streets on their knees to wash off the slogans from the kushnik deficit when it
happened i happened to see it my father was there on his knees surrounded by a group of 30 or 40
people in brown shirts and also passes by who yelled and and you've shouted jewish pig and it went on
for about 25 20 to 25 minutes and he was pushed away and of course thousands more were doing the
same forced to do the same things in vienna over the next two or three days you see it went on and on
later edward ahri's father died of starvation in a concentration camp the annexation of austria opened
the door to the next objective czechoslovakia where the versailles treaty had left three and a half million
germans on the czech side of the border encouraged by the example of the austrians sudeten germans
as they were called agitated to join the reich and for hitler their grievances provided the pretext for a
short sharp war of conquest he ordered his generals to prepare a lightning strike nazi propagandists
busily soaked up the crisis german newsreels showed persecuted cigarette and germans fleeing to the
fatherland and what the world was to call the munich crisis brought europe to the brink of war and
britain's prime minister neville chamberlain to hitler's home at beshte's garden hitler wanted armed
conflict the czechs wanted to fight with british and french support chamberlain was determined to
arrange concessions and save the peace at the height of the negotiations hitler was struck by doubts
about the martial spirit of his people hitler had the glorious idea to let a brigade of tanks a whole
division of tanks pass through the center of berlin and he would have wished enthusiasm of the berenice
people and shouting and content but nobody was in the street everybody went home poor old women
looked a bit then they went away it was a complete disaster for hitler and hitler looked a bit and said
with this people i can't lead a war the fear of a general war was shared by sections of the aristocracy and
the upper classes notably by men in key positions in the army and the foreign service they believed that
hitler could be overthrown if his demands met with greater resistance in britain and france hans von
herbert then an attache in moscow was one of a group that planned to arrest the chancellor as soon as
he gave the final order to invade czech slovakia i consider this my duty as a good german to try
everything to prevent hitler to start a second world war the idea was to convince the british and the
french not to give into hitler but unfortunately all what we told the british in london and in moscow and
also what we told the french did not induce the french and the english to take affirms self finally in
munich they gave in the conspiracy collapsed when chamberlain of the french showed once again they
were not prepared to stand up to hitler instead they compelled czech slovakia to hand over sudeten
area without a fight hitler's gains included the elaborate checked frontier defenses large supplies of coal
and three and a half million new jobs but hitler was ungrateful as reinhard bitsy here revisiting the
building where the munich agreement was signed recalls hitler didn't like this munich conference
because he had the feeling that he was cheated of his little war smashing czechoslovakia and hitler was
very much annoyed by this sort of democratic conversation he wasn't impressed by chamberlain and he
had the feeling that britain has gone to the dogs that it's in the hands of capitalists jews democrats
liberals and so on and no more empire spirit and he thought that britain is not in the shape and has not
the will to defend the empire in an energetic decisive way what made headlines outside germany was a
piece of paper supposedly promising peace for our time both chamberlain and hitler had signed it but
according to spitzy only one of them took it seriously when hitler and rimtop stepped out from this
building i was following them and i listened to their conversation rimtop complained about the
ridiculous piece of paper that hitler had signed together with chamberlain hitler said don't bother this
piece of paper has no importance at all and then i heard and i was convinced that hitler did not intend to
keep the munich agreement in march 1939 hitler tore it up german troops occupied the rest of
czechoslovakia this time there was no welcome for the germans it was an act of pure unprovoked
aggression czech slovakia was an independent foreign country shown of its german-speaking districts
five months before when he entered prague he said within a few weeks nobody will talk about it well i
don't say that he meant this it was a way of talking but he thought that the british would forget he
forgot that that was the turning point this moment then he'd enslaved other nations and didn't unite
germans and from that very moment he became my imperialist [Music] hitler's unopposed conquest of
czechoslovakia altered the balance of power in europe the czech army of 30 divisions was disbanded its
aircraft tanks and weapons used to re-equip the units of the wehrmacht as was czech slovakia's
impressive armlets industry the road to war next target was poland again there was a really made
pretext hitler could use versailles had deployed germany of the city of density and the polish corridor
giving poland access to the sea had cut off east prussia from the right but those were secondary
considerations poland was to be a launching pad for hitler's historic confrontation with the soviet union
then when living space in the east hitler needed a common frontier with the soviet union he could get
this if the poles allowed the german army right of passage but he could also get this and this of course is
what happened if he conquered poland then he would not only have a common frontier with the soviet
union but a base from which to launch his attack sports in britain neville chamberlain had experienced
an abrupt awakening convinced that hitler must be stopped he offered a guarantee of polish
independence distance however made the guarantee worthless without a military alliance with the
soviet union so in august an anglo-french delegation set off by sea to negotiate with the russians on the
british side at least it was a half-hearted enterprise but it jolted hitler into action this came to a crisis
when hitler got the news that the french and the british were negotiating with the soviets about the
treaty and the german treaty then he got nervous he saw these three powers against me a little bit too
much and then he started to put pressure on on the embassy in moscow and also on the negotiations in
berlin that you must come to a positive end hitler now pulled off the greatest and most cynical
diplomatic coup of his career he sent his foreign minister to moscow to do a deal with stalin whose
country he planned later to destroy huntsville herbert was in the ribbon-trop team neither the british or
french could believe that hitler and stalin who were like fire and water would come together they didn't
realize how dangerous the offers of hitler were because hitler could offer to the soviet union all what
they wanted practically he offered to the stalin all what the soviet union had lost after the first world
war the baltic states and parts of poland and so it was a wonderful deal for stalin it was also a wonderful
deal for hitler with stalin and the nazi camp poland was isolated and effectively defenseless [Music] nazi
propaganda concocted the usual alibi newsreel pictures of german families driven from their homes in
poland provided the familiar pretext for a war of liberation in the house [Music] hitler spent most of the
summer at beshte's garden his country home his ambassador in london had warned him that britain
would fight over poland italy ignored him his course was set on war he told his generals that the
western leaders would back down i saw them at munich he said our opponents are little worms the
answer of hitler was always the same england will do everything bad against us what is possible break
diplomatic relations and so on but one thing england would not to enter a war and that he said despite
england had told the poland the government months ago is there at your side but if you will be attacked
as hitler told the story the second world war began at liberty a small town on the german polish border
to prove that poland fired first and started the war a unit of ss men mounted a sham attack on a german
radio station as evidence they left behind them corpses in polish uniforms actually the inmates of
concentration camps so hitler was able to claim the speech to the reichstag next day that polish
aggression had caused the war [Applause] [Applause] difficult at dawn on the 1st of september hitler
launched his blitzkrieg from prepared positions all along the border it was to be a quick easy local war
this was a local war to get back old german territories nobody thought england or france would get
involved because we completely trusted in the genius of the fiora who was always proclaiming his love
of peace you were also convinced that as a veteran of the first world war the fiora would never start a
war on two fronts could animate on september the 3rd at 9 00 am britain's ambassador in berlin senevil
henderson delivered his government's ultimatum to germany he was received by the chief interpreter
paul and he read the document to me it was an ultimatum with the sentence that said unless the
german government declares its readiness to withdraw their troops from the to the german polish
frontier and unless they announce that readiness in two hours there will be a state of war between his
majesty's government and the german government adolf hitler was in his study at the reich chancellery
schmidt hurried over to report i've walked straight into hitler's study where i found him with his foreign
minister hefner ribentop and i translated this ultimatum to him and when i came to the last sentence
there was a state of complete silence in that very important study of the most important study which
existed in germany at that time now it had happened and they were holding their breath because it was
somewhat unexpected it was hitler who broke the silence glaring at foreign trump he asked what now
ribbon trump's reply i assume that within the hour the french ultimatum will follow england imma be
the undead eyewitnesses have recorded that the german in the street was shocked at this extension of
the conflict he had become accustomed to hitler's bloodless victories and prepared at worst for brief
relatively painless wars but the independent of the young diaries was loyal to the last ones after england
presented us with an ultimatum england and france declared war on us at midday jesus you see there
are rage and bafflement that england and france should dare to interfere in purely german matters and
try and prevent us from recreating the old german rights is the defeat of poland gave hitler his common
frontier with russia he had made war but it was not the war he wanted his misjudgment of the temper
of britain and france had wrecked his plan before the great march of conquest in the east could begin he
must eliminate both france and britain either that or plunged germany into a prolonged two-front war
wednesday spend a night of remembrance with men who made history loretta swift hosts korean war
the untold story then get behind the wheel of a high-speed racer catch the thrills and spills of auto
racing on the power and the glory now stay tuned for the trap next on amd the fascinating thing is that
they said no he looked into my eyes and later that night the family spoke of their glimpse of the leader
as a profound religious experience one of us said it must have been like this 2000 years ago when jesus
said to his disciples leave your home and family and follow me this was precisely the feeling i had had
hitler now commander-in-chief demanded an oath of loyalty sworn by every soldier in 1935 he revealed
the existence of a german air force and announced that conscription would bring the army to five times
the limits permitted by their side to justify his actions he argued that universal disarmament the seen by
the peace treaty had never taken place it was said by the allies the others of the first world war i mean
that germany must disarm first and then they would follow with a disarmament this was said obviously
and clearly by the allies but years and years passed away and nothing happened concerning the
disarmament of the allied side on the contrary the checks the polls armed aided by the french and in
circling germany and so what was left germany was in the middle you see so because the others had
broken the promise for disarmament obviously they have broken this promise they hadn't disarmed you
know so germany was forced to real very simple britain and france protested against germany's realm
that was all they did a few weeks later britain without consulting the french concluded a naval
agreement with germany it recognized germany's right to build a powerful modern navy from
battleships to u-boats hitler hoped his agreement with the british would prove to be a breakthrough he
wanted a settlement with a beast herbert friedrichs was now a member of the german naval staff he left
england that was a funny thing you see he he loved everything which was might and he loved england
because it was for in his opinion the expression of the building an empire as hitler perhaps wanted to he
wanted to crush the russians he hoped the process would do nothing against it and i think that during
those years when hitler said i hate the russians and that's the greatest danger for europe england must
always be a friend of us or become in front of us that's what he meant the road to war will continue to
the road to war on a saturday morning in march 1936 a german battalion entered cologne and occupied
both banks of the rhine the whole zone had been out of bounds to german soldiers since the war
wilhelm mega then aged 18 was on his way to his sister's wedding when he spotted german troops on
the bridge in 12 patentees at midday the battalion fell in and marched across the bridge onto the left
bank i was carried away by the miniature music full of enthusiasm i followed the battalion pushing my
bike unknown to anybody else the troops had orders to retreat if france's vastly greater forces moved
neither france nor britain interfered prompting hitler to remark the world belongs to the man with guts
great excitement and pleasure in which the german master race would subject the present inhabitants
poles russians slavs and jews to slavery his vision is said to have appalled some of his generals but no
empire said hitler had ever been built without force hitler followed a so-called plan in stages what he
had in mind was to become the dominant power in central europe then to get the hegemony over the
european continent then in a next stage to conquer a living space in the soviet union and in a fourth
stage he had in mind to well to fight against the united states and to conquer a maritime empire as well
hitler's first chance to expand into central europe presented itself in austria where fervent local nazis
were exploiting ancient ties of language and culture and agitating for anxious or union with the
fatherland this was expressly forbidden by the treaties lest germany become too strong in an effort to
hold back the tide austrian chancellor shushnik had asked britain to guarantee his country's
independence when britain declined he proposed a plebiscite or referendum hitler ordered his generals
to prepare to march on vienna but he had one nagging doubt would britain intervene the german
foreign minister joachim from wooden chop was visiting london to him the fuhrer sent an emissary a
young austrian nazi reinhard schwitzi was summoned to the chancellery i stood alone in front of the big
fuhrer and hitler immediately said i need now a messenger for written trump because i must know what
the british would do if i enter in austria what is necessary because there is already a certain disorder and
uh snake and then he got furious and said certainly tried to cheat me with a faked election and purpose
it and i'm not going to admit that i must know what the british would do schbetsy returned from london
with ruben drops assurance in writing that britain will write but those were secondary considerations
poland was to be a launching pad for hitler's historic confrontation with the soviet union to win laban's
living space in the east hitler needed a common frontier with the soviet union he could get this if the
poles allowed the german army right of passage but he could also get this and this of course is what
happened if he conquered poland then he would not only have a common frontier with the soviet union
but a base from which to launch his attack support in britain neville chamberlain had experienced an
abrupt awakening convinced that hitler must be stopped he offered a guarantee of polish independence
distance however made the guarantee worthless without a military alliance with the soviet union so in
august an anglo-french delegation set off by sea to negotiate with the russians on the british side at least
it was a half-hearted enterprise but it jolted hitler into action to a crisis when hitler got the news that
the french and the british were negotiating with the soviets about a treaty anti-german treaty then he
got nervous he saw these three powers against me a little bit too much and then he started to put
pressure on on the embassy in moscow and also on the negotiations in berlin said you must come to a
positive end hitler now pulled off the greatest and most cynical diplomatic cool of his career he sent his
foreign minister to moscow to do a deal with stalin whose country he planned later to destroy huntsville
herbert was in the ribbon drop team neither the british or french could believe that hitler and sarin who
who were like fire and water would come together they didn't realize how dangerous the offers of hitler
were because hitler could offer to the soviet union all what they wanted practically he offered to stalin
all what the soviet union had lost after the first world war the baltic states and parts of poland and so it
was a wonderful deal for stalin it was also a wonderful deal for hitler with stalin and the nazi camp
poland was isolated [Music] terror and in such depression nazi propaganda concocted the youth in the
autumn hitler looked deep into my eyes these moments afterwards i stood there for half a minute or so
the fascinating thing is that they said no he looked into my eyes it was a massive noise described his
great day in his diary and later that night the family spoke of their glimpse of the leader as a profound
religious experience and it must have been like this 2000 years ago when jesus said to his disciples leave
your home and family and follow me this was precisely by every soldier in 1935 he revealed the
existence of a german air force and announced that conscription would bring the army to five times the
limits permitted by versailles to justify his actions he argued that universal disarmament the seen by the
peace treaty had never taken place it was said by the allies the allies of the first world war i mean that
germany must disarm first and then they would follow with the disarmament this was said obviously and
clearly by the allies but years and years passed away and nothing happened concerning the
disarmament of the allies side on the contrary the checks the polls armed aided by the french and
encircling germany and so what was left germany was in the middle you see so because the others have
broken the promise for disarmament obviously they have broken this promise they hadn't disarmed you
know so germany was forced to rio full of emotion and sometimes he merely had tears in his eyes it was
without any dark the greatest moment in his life the enormous crowds welcomed hitler to the helton
platz the main square in vienna the peace treaties have reduced austria's importance in the world and
most of its citizens longed to be part of germany's national revival being aboard swinney then age 20
was one of thousands transfixed by the fuel when he came in you could see people were in tears and
some even fainted and i personally i think all the others too uh so in hitler our savior almost like that
because we in austria had such a bad life very sad life it was high unemployment and people had many
people had nothing to eat so it was really like in the last minute that hitler came in bought the people
food and were right one of these reasons why we supported hitler was all about the jews how they
behaved how they lived amongst us and very very many lived in vienna at this time first of all it was their
behavior and their appearance they looked so dirty and with their long hairs and then rather strange
amongst us you know they didn't really belongs to vienna in a way but they had the power all the banks
and all the shops everything was in jewish hands the road to war will continue in a moment onto war as
they had done in germany the nazis were able to build on the ingrained anti-semitism of so many
austrians the treatment of jews in vienna was savage within a day or two jews were rounded up in the
streets elderly jews including my father we are forced to scrubs the streets on their knees very sad life it
was high unemployment and people had many people had nothing to eat so it was really like in the last
minute that hitler came in bought the people food and work unconscious race rice one of these reasons
why we supported hitler was all about the jews how they behaved how they lived amongst us and very
very many lived in vienna at this time first of all it was their behavior and their appearance they looked
so dirty and used their long hairs and then rather strange amongst us you know they didn't really belong
to vienna in a way but they had the power all the banks and all the shops everything was in jewish hands
the road to war will continue in a moment onto war as they had done in germany the nazis were able to
build on the ingrained anti-semitism of so many austrians the treatment of jews in vienna was savage
within a day or two jews were rounded up in the streets elderly jews including my father were forced to
scrubs the streets on their knees to wash off the slogans from the kushnik deficit when it happened i
happened to see it my father was there on his knees surrounded by a group of 30 or 40 people in brown
shirts and also passersby who yelled and clapped and you've shouted jewish pig and it went on for about
25 20 to 25 minutes and it was pushed away and of course thousands more were doing the same uh
forced to do the same things in vienna over the next two or three days you see it went on and on later
edward ahri's father died of the others had broken the promise for disarmament obviously they have
broken this promise they hadn't disarmed no so germany was forced to rear very simple britain and
france protested against germany's realm that was all they did a few weeks later britain without
consulting the french concluded a naval agreement with germany it recognized germany's right to build
a powerful modern navy from battleships to u-boats hitler hoped his agreement with the british would
prove to be a breakthrough he wanted a settlement with a passive britain that would allow him to
pursue his long-term plan of expansion to the east hebert friedrichs was now a member of the german
naval staff he left england that was a funny thing you see he he loved everything which was might and
he loved england because it was for in his opinion the expression of the building an empire as hitler
perhaps wanted to he wanted to crush the russians he hoped the process would do nothing against it
and i think that during those years when hitler said i hate the russians and that's the greatest danger for
europe england must always be a friend of us or become in front of us that's what he meant the road to
war will continue to the road to war on a saturday morning in march 1936 a german battalion entered
cologne and occupied both banks of the rhine the whole zone have been out of bounds to german
soldiers since the war wilhelm meaga then aged 18 was on his way to his sister's wedding when he
spotted german troops on the bridge the battalion fell in and marched across the bridge onto the left
bank i was carried away by the miniature music full of enthusiasm i followed the battalion pushing my
bike unknown to anybody else the troops had orders to retreat if france's vastly greater forces moved
neither france nor britain interfered farther to put pressure on on the embassy in moscow and also as a
negotiation in berlin said you must come to a positive end hitler now pulled off the greatest and most
cynical diplomatic coup of his career he sent his foreign minister to moscow to do a deal with stalin
whose country he planned later to destroy huntsville herbert was in the ribbon-trop team neither the
british or french could believe that hitler and sarin who who were like fire and water would come
together they didn't realize how dangerous the offers of hitler where because hitler could offer to the
soviet union all what they wanted practically he offered to the stalin all what the soviet union had lost
after the first world war the baltic states and parts of poland and so it was a wonderful deal for stalin it
was also a wonderful deal for hitler with stalin and the nazi camp poland was isolated and effectively
defenseless [Music] foreign nazi propaganda concocted the usual alibi newsreel pictures of german
families driven from their homes in poland provided the familiar pretext for a war of liberation foreign
hitler spent most of the summer bashed his garden his country home his ambassador in london had
warned him that britain would fight over poland hitler ignored him his course was set on war he told his
generals that the western leaders would back down i saw them at munich he said our opponents are
little worms the answer of hitler was always the same england will do everything bad against us what is
possible break diplomatic relations and so on but one thing england would not to enter a war and that
he said despite england had told the poland's government months ago you stay on at your side but if
you will be attacked as hitler told the story the second world war began at glebe says you feel so
headless when the victors trample on the loser who's already very wet on the ground to see and that
this feeling was one of the reasons that later on much later on the people looked at hitler because he
brought another possibility for the future in their mind ten years later in 1929 it was a campaign against
further payment of reparations that brought the ex-corporal adolf hitler from local obscurity to
nationwide prominence was already a national obsession and hitler easily persuaded his crowds that
they were being ruined by the peace treaties as a whole it was fixed we should pay until 1980 1983 and
this was uh incredible huh and so the first idea of course was that all these payments should be stopped
by germany definitely stopped not paying anymore the idea that allied injustice was the principal cause
of german misery was a myth but poverty was real enough and in 1923 hyper inflation wiped out the
savings of millions of middle-class germans six years later the great depression struck germany and
confidence in parliamentary democracy largely collapsed that was hitler's chance [Music] i can't say
germany was a very bad years until hitler came in 33 everybody was poor there were i think about seven
million unemployed people it was no hope and hitler i must say that he was the first man who with his
speeches and his ideas he gave hope to the people hitler promised bread and jobs but what captured his
audiences was his aggressive self-confidence his conviction that he could bring about national revival by
overthrowing the existing order of things i've broken the promise for disarmament obviously they have
broken this promise they hadn't disarmed you know so germany was forced to brian very simple britain
and france protested against germany's realm that was all they did a few weeks later britain without
consulting the french concluded a naval agreement with germany it recognized germany's right to build
a powerful modern navy from battleships to u-boats hitler hoped his agreement with the british would
prove to be a breakthrough he wanted a settlement with a passive britain that would allow him to
pursue his long-term plan of expansion to the east herbert friedrichs was now a member of the german
naval staff he left england that was a funny thing you see he uh he loved everything which was might
and he loved england because it was for in his opinion the expression of the building an empire as hitler
perhaps wanted to he wanted to crush the russians he hoped the process would do nothing against it
and i think that during those years when hitler said i hate the russians and that's the greatest danger for
europe england must always be a friend of us or become in front of us that's what he meant the road to
war will continue to the road to war on a saturday morning in march 1936 a german battalion entered
cologne and occupied both banks of the rhine the whole zone had been out of bounds to german
soldiers since the war wilhelm meiger then aged 18 was on his way to his sister's wedding when he
spotted german troops on the bridge in 12 yuan patently isolated into zaman at midday the battalion fell
in and marched across the bridge onto the left bank i was carried away by the miniature music full of
enthusiasm i followed the battalion pushing my bike unknown to anybody else the troops had orders to
retreat if france's vastly greater forces moved neither france nor britain interfered prompting hitler