Of which light in the office never turns off. This is the exact opposite of reality. Hitler is a dilettante, it never really works. It’s someone who never worked. It’s someone who can’t stand long-term intellectual effort, And long-winded and unable to read a file of more than 20 pages. Hitler does not work.
In fact, Hitler likes retreat to his refuge, Like an artist who hovers above reality. A handful of employees work in his place. Their name is Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler. Or Albert Speer. Hitler took more than 15 years to recruit them. To say today that it is a good human resource manager,
He surrounds himself very well choosing as companions, People who brought him every time something extra. Who are these men in Hitler’s shadow? What is each person’s role? Around the Führer there is an extensive network of collaborators. First of all, there is close guard. The only ones who have direct access to it.
Among his faithful, was constituted an essential trio, Whose first character is Hermann Goring. He’s an ogre who doesn’t think only to get rich. Bulimic, opportunist, drug addict, He loves luxury and extravagance. The second, Joseph Goebbels, is a failed writer. His leg disability makes him complex. He avenges himself by a radical hatred.
He lives only through his idol, Hitler. The third, Heinrich Himmler, is a petty bourgeois, Cold, stubborn, meticulous. A smooth man who will become killer of the century, By organizing what the nazis are calling, The final solution. The second circle is composed younger and more ambitious men, Who join Hitler in the 30’s,
When he comes to power and distribute the ministries. Among them, Albert Speer will rise to the top. Under the features of a distinguished architect, He is actually a great manipulator, who shares the dreams Hitler’s megalomaniacs, Ready to do anything to become his favourite.
Finally, at the bottom of the scale, there are the performers on the ground, Third Reich officials, who commit the crimes and atrocities. Like Rudolf Hoess, the commander from the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, Totally cold and contemptuous. This father, installed with his wife and 5 children, In a house on the edge of the camp,
Organize the extermination of 1,100,000 people. At his side, Dr. Josef Mengele, He is in charge of medical experiences. He embodies the cruelty of the Nazis. Without pity for his victims, This SS doctor proceeds to the worst mutilations in the camps, Including on children. Without them, the worst crimes would not have been possible.
To please Hitler, they are in competition. around Hitler, they all hate each other. It’s even a mode of operation of this little community there, Encouraged moreover by Hitler, which stirs up rivalries, Competition and emulation. Hitler, still unknown, Will recruit his accomplices in the early 20’s, In a troubled Germany.
The vanquished of the First World War, Only have one army left reduced to 100,000 men. So everywhere, former soldiers constitute more groups of mercenaries. The country is afraid of rocking in the civil war. In this procession, a small group from the south of Germany has chosen as its symbol, The swastika.
It’s called the National Socialist Party of German workers, NSDAP. Born in Munich, this small party attracts workers and the unemployed. In the front row of the spectators, Hitler, 30 years old, little army employee, is not yet its leader. He is only its 55ᵉ member. This veteran of 14-18, Experienced battles on the front.
To the rank of simple Corporal. Since the defeat, he no longer thinks only to avenge Germany. Hitler wins quickly as the leader of the small party, By speaking in Munich breweries. He denounces the humiliations inflicted on his country. But his ways are still very limited. Arranged in this rear brewery room,
This is his first office. He writes his speeches on this modest corner of the table. To have more echo, Hitler misses him, More prestigious representatives. In the fall of 1922, when a personality comes to listen to him, He feels he has found an ideal candidate.
Hitler was really full of joy because he said: “You see, there we have someone wealthy, a war hero! That is propaganda that we need. He’s someone we absolutely must have as a member of our party.” The new recruit has a certain panache. Hermann Goering, 27, was a fighter pilot during the Great War.
In combat in the sky, It shot down 21 planes. Hermann Göring was even decorated for his bravery of the Cross for merit, The military’s highest honor. They were practically the only heroes that German propaganda put forward. We made postcards and everyone in Germany,
Was more or less aware exploits of this or that officer. And that’s why Göring was someone who was very famous, With decorations, it’s really a character at that time. After the war, like the aviation German military is disbanded, He is unemployed. But in Hitler’s eyes, Goering presents another interest.
He has connections in high places. Goering brought him his prestige and his considerable social network. The flying ace married a wealthy woman, Karine von Fock is from of the Swedish nobility. They met in the family castle near Stockholm. The couple frequent the aristocracy and justly, Hitler needs donors to finance his small movement.
Upon joining the party, Goering is immediately propelled at the head of the armed militia, Called SA. Less than a year later, in Munich, The Nazi Party wants to take power by a coup. During this November 1923 putsch, A gunfight breaks out between the Nazis and the police. There are 16 dead.
For the Nazis, it is a total failure. Hitler is locked up for 8 months in the fortress prison of Landsberg. His party is dissolved. In cell, he writes Mein Kampf, In French, Mon combat. Seriously shot, Goering is on the run. He is inadmissible on German soil.
He needs to be operated on and he is being treated. morphine to dull his pain. He becomes addicted to drugs. Goering, takes refuge in Stockholm, in his wife’s country. Without profession, without future, He has bouts of violence. It gives him a mental breakdown,
And from the moment it becomes also a bit difficult to manage, It was his wife who, at that time, Prefer to put him in an asylum to treat it. Goering, makes several stays in this psychiatric hospital, Around Stockholm. According to his confidential medical records, He was admitted for morphine poisoning.
Goering is portrayed as self-centered suicide. He explains his mental disorders, Because he sees himself as politically dead. But the following year, it is reborn from its ashes. Thanks to the election 1925 presidential An amnesty has just been proclaimed. He is allowed to return in Germany. Without his führer, Goering is nothing.
He hopes to regain his place leader in the party. But the current is no longer flowing with Hitler. Hitler at first was not so warm to see his ex-chief of the SA again, Because now he disposes from another SA leader. So Goering reminds Hitler, The services he rendered her.
He said to her: “I have lost everything, I have always been your most faithful collaborator, So now it’s up to you to tell me show your appreciation a little.” Hitler needs dedicated men, And he finds her a new place. Goering is no longer fight in the streets, But he must conquer worldly salons.
He will struggle to regain his rank. He did not succeed until 1928, when he entered the Reichstag, The German Parliament, elected from among the first 12 Nazi deputies. In 1932, he even became president of this meeting. The second accomplice Hitler recruits, Sees his career in Nazism fly away at the age of 29.
Hitler begins by entrusting to Joseph Goebbels, A very delicate mission. He sends her to Berlin, the capital of Germany. With its 4 million inhabitants, It was at the time the most great metropolis of Europe. It is made up of huge suburbs where the workers are crowded. It is nicknamed “Red Berlin”,
Because the communists have made it their stronghold. Hitler launches a huge challenge, To this lame little man. Making Nazis First political force in Berlin. And the Führer knows he can ask Goebbels everything. He is a man in search overwhelmed with gratitude, He is hungry for recognition. He finds it in Hitler,
That he considers to be a man charismatic, intelligent, superior, And towards which he develops an almost romantic relationship. It is in a real emotional dependence, With regard to Hitler whose he seeks recognition, friendly gestures, kind words. Goebbels owes everything to Hitler, Because until they meet, his life was just a series of failures.
Suffered an illness in early childhood, Goebbels is disabled in the leg. He is ashamed of it. During the World War One, he dreamed of becoming a soldier. To explain his infirmity, he prefers to lie. He hides his handicap by by masking the origin,
Saying “I was hurt during the Great War, I am a hero of the Great War.” But he didn’t fight during the Great War, Simply because he was not enrolled. Doctor of Literature from the University, Unsuccessful writer, He couldn’t find a job up to its ambitions. Goebbels worked 9 months as a bank clerk,
Before resigning. Only Hitler gives meaning to his life. So he is no more the little bank clerk, He is no longer the brave little writer rejected by the big publishers. It is now the leader of the nazi party, For an area that is still important,
Who is that of the capital of the Reich. Upon his arrival in Berlin, the new chef, find only a hundred active members and small offices. Everything is to be built. Goebbels begins by creating a journal, The Angriff, the attack in French. And to make the Nazis talk, He chooses a radical strategy,
Stir up hatred. Less than a week after his arrival, Goebbels sends his big arms to challenge Communists in their neighborhood. Violent fights break out. Mass arrests take place. Police Ban Nazi Party in the capital of the Reich. But no matter for Goebbels. The movement feeds on scandal.
In this violent climate, Nazi propaganda finds itself a martyr. In 1930, a young activist, Horst Wessel, Was stabbed to death by a communist. In the presence of Hitler and Goering, His funeral with great pomp, Provide an opportunity for a demonstration of impressive strength for the Nazis.
And Goebbels keeps throwing oil on the fire. Did he really deserve this death? That he had courage to walk in the storm, This young German worker, right, and proud… To reward him, Hitler offers Goebbels a promotion. He appoints him chief party propaganda. The third man Hitler’s close guard,
Does not have the usual profile workers and the unemployed, Who joined Nazism. Heinrich Himmler is a young bourgeois, Obsessed with superiority of the Germanic race. At the party headquarters in Munich, In this propaganda film dating from 1929, Himmler is this young man with glasses. It still appears as a little subordinate secretary,
At the orders of his boss. The others do not perceive not these ambitions. Himmler comes from a good family. Catholic, perfectly integrated into society. He is the son of a Greek Latin teacher, Became headmaster of a of the best high schools in the city. nothing is missing, but very young,
He joins the groups most radical racists. Catherine Himmler is Ernst’s granddaughter, The youngest brother by Heinrich Himmler. This political scientist studies the history from his family. The 3 Himmler brothers became virulent Nazis. Their ideology was close of a feeling of superiority, The feeling that the German people was above the others.
This racist discourse advocates also a return to the earth. Himmler becomes an agricultural engineer. With his wife Marga, they buy a small farm, Where they want to live in autarky, To protect yourself from the outside world which they consider rotten. Along with Hitler, Himmler is submissive.
But he also has a real influence on him. In fact, we have since known, that he defended his own beliefs. He often obtained Hitler’s agreement for ideas he had himself. Himmler, the young bourgeois, believes in Nazi ideas. But he doesn’t like to mingle grassroots activists, Who constitute the heart of the party.
In Himmler’s eyes, these people are, we could say, Debrained fools. This is the equivalent of a supporters club, Like Lazio or PSG, in those good times. In reaction, Himmler therefore created a classy club within the party. These disciplined men in black, Will form an elite under his authority.
The acronym of this unit in German, Consists of two letters, The SS. All must be absolutely of pure Germanic origins. They will be the most fanatical among the fanatics. When, that evening in 1933, Adolf Hitler is appointed Chancellor of Germany, A new time, he doesn’t want to work As his role would require.
He doesn’t like being forced to work daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For him, it is unthinkable. When he started his career as Chancellor, From a few days, He immediately insisted that this was not for him to work. Once in power, The sharing of roles between his accomplices,
Will have winners and losers. Goebbels does not become immediately minister. As for Goering, he triumphs. Hitler brings him into its first government in 1933. And no one’s gonna hoard as many titles as him. In 12 years of power, Just see the variety of its uniforms. President of Prussia, Grand Huntsman of the Reich,
Air Minister, Marshal of the Empire. A riot of decorations, Who triggers jealousy of his great rival, Joseph Goebbels. Goebbels at the start is enough skeptical of Goering’s role. He describes it very well as being, An unbearable balloon, puffy, Puffed up with fatuity, vanity. A vulgar pleasure-seeker, a beau in fact,
A nouveau riche who wants tinsel, who struts around ridiculous uniforms, Packed with medals and fodder. It’s a puppet in his eyes. Only, Goering is also a strong man. He installed the dictatorship in 1933. When the Reichstag catches fire under mysterious conditions, Goering, Speaker of the Assembly,
Attributes the fire to the communists and is threatening. I will sweep with an iron broom, Everyone who got positions and privileges, Exclusively thanks to their political affiliation, red or black, I will knock them down! A wave of repression falls on Germany. More than 3,000 opponents of Nazism are arrested without trial.
Goering creates a new political police, the Gestapo. As early as 1933, the first camp of concentration opens in Dachau. Opponents are subject to forced labor. Goering, earn points in Hitler’s esteem. Goering has, each time, front page when Hitler, looking for someone to give a job difficult for one of his collaborators.
But Joseph Goebbels ends he too by receiving, A tailor-made position. A great ministry for propaganda. The frustrated writer now has the power to choose the authorized books, And ban others. books by jewish writers or authors considered degenerate, Are burned in large public ceremonies.
Like that evening in May 1933, near the University of Berlin. You do well to entrust the demons of the past. To the flames. The German man of the future, will not only be book man, But also a man of character. And to that, we want to train you.
He is also a fanatical anti-Semite. When the Nazis came to power, Jews only represent in Germany than 0.8% of the population. But Goebbels imagines a way to persecute them. Trucks drive through the streets to spread a message. Let’s be German and let us no longer be Jews! My dear compatriots,
This morning at 10 a.m. We have started the boycott of Jewish traders. Stores run by Jews are pointed out. And the Nazis deter firmly customers to enter. Goebbels now wants to impose his messages on the airwaves. And so that the propaganda enters every home,
He even had it made on purpose a cheap radio. This climate he creates in Germany, Is particularly oppressive in the family of young Margit, 5 years old, who lives in Berlin. His father is a Jew, a bookseller and sells banned books. I did not understand everything, But I felt the atmosphere.
We had received from Goebbels, these people’s radio stations, And I always heard: “The Jews are our misfortune!” It was Hitler’s voice and that of Goebbels. And me, I didn’t know absolutely not what a Jew was. Joseph Goebbels monitors everything. theater, cinema, And he’s watching the news by an all-powerful censorship committee.
Goebbels also orchestrates a bet into a monumental scene of the regime. Behind the scenes, he takes care of the smallest details. Throughout the 1930s, In huge gatherings, filmed as a hollywood Blockbuster, Hitler is presented to the people like the Messiah. The career of Joseph Goebbels is at its peak.
But his tormented character will take over. Goebbels is completely at ease in crisis situations, In situations of distress, of disasters. There, he is not at ease. He needs sound and fury. The storm for Goebbels, will come from his private life. He married Magda in 1931, With as witness of marriage, Adolf Hitler.
Their children are used over time by propaganda. The Goebbels form the family scheme model. Dear daddy, do you see us walking towards you? You already guessed that we are here to congratulate you, Because you are celebrating your birthday. Helmut! The names of the 6 children,
All start with the letter H in honor of Hitler. Magda Goebbels, decorated by the regime, Embody the mother ideal Nazi family. And every year, A short sequence is staged to celebrate father’s birthday. Say, “Dear Daddy.” Quick, say, “Dear Daddy.” Stronger ! We congratulate you, Really… For your birthday…
Because you are at work and you don’t know what we’re doing here. Joseph Goebbels, cultivate this image of a good father. Like on Christmas Eve 1936, Where he gets filmed in the train to distribute gifts, To the little Germans the most modest. Thanks for the short note. You want that ? Only,
Reality has nothing to do with this picture perfect. Goebbels is known for multiply the adventures, He needs entertainment, he needs of action, it needs events. As he loves the cinema, as he knows very well, As he has a large artistic culture, he participates.
One of the ways to participate in the life of the cinema is to make castings, And say, “Miss come and have tea.” He is known to be, I quote, his nickname in the film world, The Babelsberg goat. Babelsberg is German Hollywood. It’s on the studios, near Potsdam, The Babelsberg goat. In 1936,
Goebbels strikes up a romantic idyll with a 22 year old starlet, Lida Barovaa. Hello… what? We’re going on a trip, right? Today ? It’s a faux pas, Who will have repercussions about Goebbels’ career. To put an end to this scandalous liaison, His desperate wife Magda threatens to divorce.
She confides in the friend closest to the couple, Adolf Hitler. Hitler has no family, the German family, it is that of Josef and Magda Goebbels. So when this family starts to fail, Hitler is not happy at all, Requires him to break this bond there, And stop humiliating Magda Goebbels whom Hitler loves,
Like being a German woman remarkable, a mother. Hitler is so furious for this image, But also for Magda Goebbels, for which he has lots of love, Let him turn away of Goebbels who suffers from it. In the network Hitler’s associates A newcomer will enjoy of this disgrace, And achieve a climb exceptional.
Albert Speer, however, starts from afar, Among the men who join later Nazism. In these images from 1935, we already perceive their complicity. Hitler draws, next to him, in his impeccable suit, Stands Albert Speer, 27, A young architect who hasn’t built anything yet. In his youth, Hitler himself drew his sketches of pharaonic buildings.
While dreaming of see them come out of the ground, The day he would come to power. Hitler and Speer, know each other only for a year, But they share a common passion for architecture. Hitler saw through Speer, practically the life he dreamed of. He always said he wanted become an architect himself.
And Speer adapted to Hitler’s demands. Their project was always gigantic, megalomaniacs. Hitler noticed Speer, this May 1, 1933, At Berlin airport, On Labor Day which brings together over a million people. A human tide. Hitler is fascinated by the festivities, which end with a spectacular fireworks display. where his face crackles above the assembly.
The organization is signed by Albert Speer. This great bourgeois who comes to join the Nazi Party, And to whom Goebbels passed his first orders. It was Goebbels who presented Speer to Hitler. But of course, over time, a rivalry was born. Goebbels always found very important to be part of Hitler’s entourage.
And of course, in this case, Speer was becoming a rival. Very quickly, Speer occupies a place favored by Hitler. Unlike Goebbels, He is the permanent guest from his lair in the mountains. Both appreciate the same pompous style, Which comes from antiquity.
First of all, Speer is the architect from the huge parade ground of Nuremberg, Copied from a temple dedicated to Zeus. For party congresses, This esplanade can accommodate more than 340,000 people. Speer then builds to the foot of the Eiffel Tower, the German pavilion, Installed for the exhibition from Paris in 1937.
That same year, Hitler will give him the order of the century. Germania, the future capital of his empire. This disproportionate building site should last until 1950. It’s about rebuilding Berlin. Along a 5km avenue, called Victory Avenue, Buildings in Germania will be the greatest ever made. At the very end,
This reserved cupola at the Great Hall of the People, Will be 16 times bigger than that of St. Peter’s in Rome. Which would still make it today, The largest building in the world. For the people of Berlin, It will be an earthquake. These are 50000 apartments which needed to be razed.
Nearly 200,000 Berliners, Would have needed to be relocated. While there was already a great lack of housing. And to test the speed of its architect, Hitler will challenge him. Speer, must build first germania building, In just one year. 8000 workers from all over Germany, Work at the same time, day and night.
They are building the future Reich Chancellery. To please Hitler, Albert Speer, Deliver the building 2 days before the set date. Hitler takes possession of his building, Supposed to dazzle the ambassadors of the whole world. Its chancellery is of a showy luxury. With a marble hall, A huge office for Hitler.
And galleries twice as big than those of the Palace of Versailles. Albert Speer has caught up with all his competitors in Hitler’s esteem. The proximity of power fascinated him. You have to imagine that Speer was not even 30 years old. And he had already become, One of the advisers Hitler’s most influential.
Meanwhile, in Munich, One of Hitler’s historical accomplices, Himmler, received no ministry. He is just named chief of the Bavarian police. Ready for anything, he will carry out a purge bloody within the party, Known as “Night of the Long Knives”. It is one of the many steps what he accomplished towards power.
Hitler then feared the power of another leader, Ernest Rohm. Very popular, he leads the SA, A powerful recognizable Nazi militia to his brown shirts. While under his command, Himmler supervises Rohm’s assassination and all his staff. Even at the cost of blood, If a comrade stands in his way,
He sees no inconvenience to be eliminated, Even if it represents a great danger. And Himmler emerges as the big winner of this bloodbath. His organization, the SS, The Black Order no longer has no more rivals. Himmler will be able to do much more than just a militia.
For him, the SS is a real political project, Of which he managed to convince Hitler. Himmler worships to the Germanic race. It refers to a dead king in the middle Ages. He is going to meditate on his grave, And he introduces Hitler, As his successor throughout history.
King Henry I transmitted 1000 years ago, to our Führer Adolf Hitler, human values and the role of guide for Germany. For Germany. Himmler wants to build a new society, Deeply racist, Where the Germans of pure race, Will be the only masters for centuries to come.
And so that the blood of the superior race reproduces on a large scale, Himmler founded special maternities, Where the SS can drop out newborns. Who will be brought up by the regime. It works a bit like controlled reproduction of horses. You bring your fillies in the stables, There are stallions who are there,
They impregnate your fillies and etc… To found the superior race, The Nazis also want to eliminate what they call, Worthless lives. From 1935, in all cinemas, Those terrible propaganda films are broadcast. They show the disabled in a frightening light. The film mainly emphasizes expenses for the company,
What would these patients represent? who spend their whole lives in hospital. This woman affected of a hereditary disease, Would cost 153000 mark per year to the community. His three siblings, 62300 mark. These epileptics, more than 20,000 marks. To manipulate public opinion, One more estimate 1.2 billion marks,
Would correspond to the financial cost of all hereditary diseases. The Nazis want to justify the crimes they are planning. But we must first separate and prevent these worthless lives of harming the people. Then, from 1939, began to take shape, Real killing programs, Especially the disabled physical and mental.
Himmler keeps to want to remodel everything. He also wants these SS have their own beliefs. I swear here, To Adolf Hitler, Loyalty and bravery. strange ceremonies, Take place in the chapels of Wolfsburg Castle, SS training center With this black sun as an occult symbol. Baptisms take place according to SS rites.
Himmler himself celebrates weddings. The Nazis want to sweep away all the existing religious beliefs. If the Nazis had won, there would have been a new calendar, There would have been new parties and new liturgies, A new baptism, a new party which would not have been that of Christmas,
This is also the Nazi utopia. It’s such a big revolution and so global, That she had to change everything, everything, including belief and including God. in secret, In the mid-1930s, Hitler will make a strategic decision, Let him share first with his right arm. Hitler himself fixed a program that basically
Said Germany must be ready to go to war in 4 years. And to carry out this program, he creates a new administration, With a 4-year plan leader, it’s Hermann Goring. Overnight, in 1936, Hermann Goering is propelled at the head of German industry. Its financial envelope is unlimited.
His commands mobilize more than 228 factories. Firepower unique in the world at the time. The Germans, deprived of an army since the defeat of the First World War, Prepare their revenge. My dear compatriots, my dear brothers in arms, What is the point of this 4-year plan?
I could sum it up in one essential sentence: The backup of German honor. And backup of German life. Its new functions allow also Goering to get rich. For these birthdays, for example, industrialists cover him with gifts. He receives collectibles, But he has a predilection for master paintings, And precious stones.
The corrupt system they put in place is well organized. His office sent small lists, Like wedding lists, To the various representatives companies, By telling them the Marshal would like to have this or that work of art, Or such and such an object as a gift. Hermann Goering plays the Roman emperors.
He likes eccentricities, Like posing with a lion cub. Yes, my Caesar. Are you visiting me? Come ! Are you satisfied Caesar? Come on pretty, jump! It’s good ! Hitler designates Goering as his successor, Since Karine’s death, His first wife died of cancer. The Germans miss him a first lady.
So his second marriage in Berlin, Is worthy of a crowned head. 30,000 soldiers line the route. Hitler, his witness, Favored his grandiose nuptials to hide his own private life. Emma and Hermann Goring now embody, The official couple of the regime. They increasingly represent Nazi power on special occasions.
Like here, at a reception in honor of Mussolini. To receive, Goering had fitted out his vast domain, At the gates of Berlin. Hundreds of works of art cover the walls of this palace. There were also many hunting trophies. Dieter Wellershoff, meets Goering several times.
At a very young age, he was enlisted in the Hitler Youth, And, at the age of 17, He has been for a few months soldier on Goering’s property. When they were reviewing us, Goering always said, Once I walked past you, you can relax.
Which meant we weren’t no longer have to stand up straight. We had to choose a path without puddles, And no mud for that fat man and heavy can walk. He was grotesque! If he occupies the first stage plan, Goering is having a hard time to contain Hitler.
The Führer is now ready to go to war. Hitler regularly attends at fight rehearsals. Despite his immense exercises in natural size, Goering has all the trouble to curb his impatience. ‘Cause he knows the plan to prepare Germany at war Got late. He explains at that moment, to Hitler,
You see, Germany is not ready yet. However, with a year in advance on the plan he himself has set, Hitler orders to go on the attack. He lives in a movie, He lives in a play. He himself is an actor and his own war, These are deployed cards on a gigantic table,
Flags moving forward and pawns it moves. For Hitler and his accomplices, Entering the war in 1939 is disconcertingly easy. The German army seems invincible. After a single year of struggle, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, The Netherlands, And France are invaded. Half of Europe is collapsing,
And the division of the empire between Hitler’s accomplices will be bloody. Goebbels depends on an administration, Goering on another and Himmler on another. And we realize that in the policy of conquest, colonization, predation, of plunder, There is an overlap of jurisdictions. And all this creates friction, tensions. The great plunder begins.
Goering makes Paris his hunting ground. He lands in a convertible limo, Roam the streets and go down to Place Vendôme, In a palace, the Ritz. Goering came to help himself in French museums, Matisse, Monet, Cezanne. He seizes hundreds of paintings to complete his gigantic collection. The same year, Hitler also arrives in Paris.
Albert Speer, its architect, is by his side. He promises to copy the most beautiful monuments of the French capital, For their future Germania. Hitler was very impressed by Paris, The Champs-Élysées, the Arc de Triomphe. He obviously wanted to reproduce all this in Berlin, But in dimensions much larger. Back in Berlin,
Marshal Goering triumphs front row seats. He directs military operations. And yet, he hides reality from Hitler. It is of course, from the point of view of the public, a dazzling success. From an economics point of view, it is a disaster. Because after the few weeks of fighting, Germany has no more bombs,
More ammunition and very few planes. For fear of displeasing Hitler, Goering won’t say anything. Boastful, he promises her on the contrary to crush England, In just 3 weeks. Himmler, he carved out an empire in eastern Europe, Where he oversees a policy vile of extermination, With total coldness.
When Hitler gives him back visit to Poland, His SS soldiers are already leading their great racist war. Himmler spends his time to motivate his troops, To justify systematic killings. What he always says to his SS men, It is what it is hard to support, Like a test.
A painful task that they have to do. But he says: “We are morally strong enough!” And he thinks that about sacrificial mode. He is saying: “I am sacrificing my psyche, So that my children may live, etc.” There is a whole discourse behind that. From 1939 in Poland, Then from 1941 in the USSR,
Nazis experiment with policies mass murders and deportations. Under Himmler’s orders, they build their living space, A colonial empire populated by slaves and rid of its Jews. This project involves the death of dozens millions of people from hunger. We are in an imaginary of “letting die”.
At the same time, in Ukraine, but also in the Baltic countries, Operate small groups SS killer mobiles, Called Einsatzgruppen. These atrocities follow one another at a frantic pace. More than a million people will be exterminated by shootings. In August 1941, Himmler goes to Minsk, Belarus, To assess in person this killing strategy.
He first inspects Soviet prisoners, And attend personally to these shooting executions. Himmler during a visit to Minsk, in the summer of 1941, Gonna be the witness of the execution of 100 Jews. 100 Jews are executed as an example, to show Himmler how it’s done. And Himmler will faint in front of the show.
Himmler is one of the worst anti-Semites of the Third Reich, A convinced, enraged anti-Semite. It’s not out of pity for the Jewish victims, It’s just the show for the killer, it causes trauma. As unbearable as it may seem, Himmler, as the great leader of the SS,
Worries only about trauma psychological for his men. You have men who are not born killers, And so there are disputes not to their get accepted before they start killing. Following the killings in Minsk, Himmler will ask his men, in Berlin, to find the method to spare the killers.
In 1941, different methods of mass murder coexist. But at the end of the year, an order from Hitler himself, Will unify the procedures. He demands the extermination of all the Jews of Europe. 3 years earlier, Hitler had warned. If the war became global, he would carry out his threat.
Still I will be a prophet. If international Jewish finance, In Europe and outside Europe, Had to succeed in rushing the peoples in a world war, Then the result would not be the bolshevization of the world, So the victory of Jewry. On the contrary it will be the annihilation of the Jewish race!
And it’s the start of the war of the United States in December 1941, Who finally motivates his decision. The final solution, it is decided by Hitler. At this moment, mass executions take place. In that year, there are practically 4 million Jews who were exterminated. For Himmler,
It will not be possible to murder millions of people, By mass shootings. And it is for this reason that the gassing is going to be seen, As an effective remedy to protect the killers. Gassing is not introduced to kill more people, On the other hand, the gas chambers have a major merit,
It’s to spare the killers. There is no more contact with the victims, You don’t even see people dying anymore. We pick up the bodies at the end. Himmler then decides to concentrate on a single place, All this news extermination policies. A gigantic place that will become largest of the concentration camps,
And killing centers. A place to which they will be deported, 1,300,000 people. One, it has to be a place which is central to the Nazi empire. Two, it must be well connected to all parts of Europe. And three, let him be endowed of a killing line, Which is extremely fast and efficient.
The real railway and central hub of the nazi empire which is going to be chosen, It’s Auschwitz. Himmler entrusts Auschwitz to a field official, One of the worst specialists in the camps. His name is Rudolf Hoess. He becomes, at the age of 40,
Director of one of the largest projects of the Third Reich. These pictures of Auschwitz that we know, Are those of the liberation of the camp in 1945 by Soviet soldiers. To direct this vast complex, the largest camp of the nazi empire, Heinrich Himmler, had a choice between multiple managers.
But he chose Rudolf Hoess, A man who has a murderous past. In 1923, Hoess assassinated a man, a communist, Who was detained in prison during 5 years. When he will be out of jail, Himmler took him under his wing and finished by finding him a new profession. In the early 1930s,
Himmler went to see my grandfather, And suggested he join the SS. Rainer Hoess, is the grandson of the commander of Auschwitz. His father, Hanns, is the most young son of Rudolf Hoess. He first got a job at the Dachau concentration camp. He stayed there for 4 years. Then he became head of detention,
Then Deputy Director from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. And in 1940, thanks to Himmler, He was named directly commander of Auschwitz. When he arrives in the locality of Auschwitz in 1940, To set up camp, Hoess only discovers a small town of 15,000 inhabitants. As well as an old barracks of the Polish army,
Where he establishes the first place of confinement, Auschwitz 1. And he also spots a villa which adjoins the camp. Hoess take over this house, Of which Polish owners are expropriated. On the second floor, from his office window, This bird’s eye view of the crematorium don’t bother him.
The commander settles in the villa with his wife Edwige and their 5 children. The family does not think than to his social ascent. These photos from the album family attest to this, Their new living environment provides unexpected comfort. 70m from the crematorium, The garden, surrounded by a large wall,
Becomes the favorite playground children. It was so big they could cycling indoors. Today, it seems that at that time, My grandparents passed from anonymous to VIP status. Thanks to the concentration camps, the Hoess lead a comfortable life, With a workforce reduced to slavery. There is an inmate who serves as a gardener,
Inmates who serve as servants inside the house, who possibly cared children as needed. There is everything to benefit in any case of gentrification at Auschwitz. My grandfather writes in his memoirs: “It was heaven.” Like all SS leaders, Hoess is constantly motivated by Himmler, whose arguments have not been registered only once
For internal use. Most of you know what is 100 corpses, 500 or 1000 corpses. Have stood in these circumstances, And remained worthy, Except for a few cases of human failure, It has toughened us up! It’s a page of glory in our history which was never written, And never will be again!
As early as 1941, Himmler ordered Hoess, Let Auschwitz pass on an industrial scale, To receive more and more convoys. red brick buildings of the old barracks are no longer sufficient. 3km from this first site, Then begins the construction from Birkenau, A gigantic concentration camp, But also a killing center, Where upon their arrival,
The deportees are sent directly into the gas chambers. Hoess also uses prisoners to supply manpower, A whole industrial complex. A large chemical plant is set up. At the cutting edge of technology of the time, In particular, it manufactures rubber for tires. The set at Auschwitz, that is, the camps, the city, the factories,
It’s a permanent construction site and incessant, From 40 to almost 1945, the end of the war. Auschwitz continues to diversify. After this huge factory, Hoess develops a big project agricultural with Himmler. He shares that with Heinrich Himmler, Who made, from 1918, agronomy studies. And so they have a common passion.
Hoess, supervise the implementation of these greenhouses, To do research on new plants. From 1943, the Birkenau camp becomes huge. The new agricultural center is established in a small hamlet, Rajsko. During the war, Auschwitz became a model city for the Nazis. The population is multiplied by 4. Within the camp, alongside Rudolf Hoess,
Another great Nazi criminal also benefits convoys arriving at Auschwitz. Sons of wealthy industrialists, Dr Josef Mengele, Conducts medical experiments. Mengele leads there official research, In an official setting, the concentration camp. He led it like at the butcher shop. In the medical services of the camps and medical academies,
Nazi doctors proceed to horrific mutilations. Especially on bodies Jewish and Gypsy deportees. Doctors who were given all power over individuals, Who are no longer relegated as human beings, But to the rank of human materials, On which we will proceed to all the research that is deemed necessary,
To advance medicine in such and such a radius. The experiments of Doctor Mengele, They require children. In this column of little survivors, filmed here in 1945, In the front row, 2 little sisters twins hold hands. Hungarian Jewry, their names are Miriam and Eva, 11 years old at the time. We were little children,
Old little girls 2 to 16 years old, hungry. We had no rights But the fierce determination to live another day. When she lands on the quay of Auschwitz-Birkenau, In 1944, with the 5 members from his family. Eva must, as soon as she gets off the train,
To undergo the selection operated by the SS, Who receive the convoys and work for Mengele. A Nazi was running and shouting in German: “Twins, twins!” He noticed that we were dressed alike, Miriam and I. He asked my mother if we were twins. And my mother replied: “Is it good for her?”
The Nazi says: “yes”. Immediately, another Nazi pushed my mother in one direction and us in the other. She was crying and we were crying. stripped of their belongings, 4 family members are sent to the gas chamber. If Eva and her sister survive, It is to be used by the experiments of Doctor Mengele.
Every day they are driven to the medical service of the camp he runs. It took me a little blood in the left arm, And it made me at least 5 injections per day in the right arm. What was in those injections, We didn’t know that at the time.
And unfortunately I don’t know still not today. These injections make Eva seriously ill. And causes a very high fever. The next day, Doctor Mengele came with 4 other doctors. He didn’t examine me, he just looked at my temperature chart, And he said with a laugh, sarcastically:
“Too bad she’s so young and she only has 2 weeks to live.” His experiences of Mengele on the twins, acts of torture, play a strategic role for the Nazis. At the very heart of Nazi ideology, There is this idea that Aryan blood is rare, And everything must be done to promote reproduction,
And allow growth of the Aryan population. And so we have to try to find a method, Who allows births twins, triplets,… They were trying to mate with each other twins of reproductive age. To see if the girl got pregnant. What if she was going to have twins in turn.
They wanted to increase the Aryan race. Eva and her sister survive. Forever serious attacks physical impairment. 1,100,000 people perish at Auschwitz. But from the end of 1941, Hitler and his accomplices experience their first setbacks. Goering, considers that waging the war in same time in western and eastern Europe,
Is madness. But again, he does not confront Hitler. Goering, at first, Was very skeptical about concerns an offensive towards the East. And there, he realizes very quickly that, apparently Hitler has made up his mind. And that is the rule for Goering.
If he made a decision, it is up to him to obey orders. But Goering was right. Against the U.S.S.R. The German army had not taken the extent of the freezing winter. The troops are running out. In front of Stalingrad, the losses are enormous. At that time, the young Dieter,
Gone from the Hitler Youth on the Russian front, Where he fights in the division Hermann Goring. The young soldier is only 17 years old. What I learned from adults who were there It was that Goering had a different opinion from Hitler. He didn’t want war. And in a conversation with Hitler, Goring said:
“We don’t want to play in a game of chance”. Hitler replied: “I haven’t always played only to games of chance!” Engaged in multiple battles, The Germans are missing of the necessary armament. But Hitler does not want to hear anything. He searches in his close guard, A capable accomplice to promise him a miracle.
Goering, who once led the industry of armaments, is a candidate. Hitler, he prefers a more motivated employee. He chooses his architect, Albert Speer. Hitler told him: “You must become Minister of Armaments”. Speer said he had no no training in this area. Hitler insisted, saying: “You will do it”. So he accepted this mission.
Without Speer, the war would not have not last that long. Reich Minister for Armaments and war production, Visiting a large arms company, He thanked the workers for investments, In the incredible increase from production. Hitler asked him to double production rates. But from the start, for Speer, the problem seems complicated.
The men are sent to the front, Women have replaced them in arms factories. Propaganda even encouraged them, To give up their previous jobs. This worker was until recently, seamstress in a fashion salon. This one, saleswoman in a jewelry store. This one, saleswoman in a perfumery. But it’s still not enough
To achieve the goals exorbitant amounts dictated by Hitler. In addition, Speer is responsible for supervising the development of secret weapons, Who must reverse the course of the war. In particular the V1 and V2 missiles, Which have been tested for more than 5 years. The first missiles ballistics of history,
Would be able to hit England. against all odds, Speer pulled off the miracle. While the country is under bombardment during the year 1943, Like here in Hamburg, He manages to double the production of armaments. Cannons and tanks are assembled on the chain, In huge factories,
Where the workers work more than 70 hours per week. But his miracle also has a hidden side. Due to Allied bombings, Town centers were destroyed. And some industrial sites as well. That’s when the idea came up, to set up production underground. In central Germany, In a region of forests 150 kilometers from Hanover,
A sprawling project will be buried under this hill. The Nazis imagine a network galleries of more than 12km, Which crosses from side to side the whole mountain of Mittelbau-Dora. You enter through this vast entrance, 7 meters high. The old mine looks like a endless succession of tunnels. This maze has 45 bays.
It’s the biggest world underground factory, where workers assemble the famous V2 missiles. But it is also the heart of the system organized by Albert Speer. Thousands of deportees came concentration camps, They are locked up there night and day, To work like slaves. Of the 60,000 prisoners in the tunnel, 20,000 will die there,
Including more than 2000 French. Albert Speer, will always say to know nothing of these barbaric living conditions, Who make his miracle possible. Hitler considers him like an organizational genius. He decorates it. Speer’s ambition, irritates his rivals. Speer succeeded in instrumentalizing the camp system, For the arms industry.
We know that apart from Hitler, Himmler particularly feared a rival. It was Speer. ‘Cause it always happened to win over Hitler. Speer’s miracle is not enough. The news coming from the Russian front, Are more and more catastrophic for the Germans. 200,000 soldiers are taken prisoner. Goering, wear now physically the weight of defeat.
His drug use skyrocketing. Puffy, glassy-eyed, it weighs more than 120 kg. He feels useless. It’s a personal crisis. And this crisis, he tries to calm down taking medication, Morphine or something. It is at this moment, That we make fun of him more and more. And it is also, not only the German public,
But it is also Hitler who becomes increasingly critical. Yet on the eastern front, When Marshal Goering inspects the Panzerdivision, named after him, All soldiers still have to pretend to believe in victory. Among the fighters of this unit, Lies young Dieter. We knew between us that the war was lost,
But we could just think it, we could not say it openly. If someone said: “The war is lost and all is over.” He would have been shot. To curb this demotivation, Hitler needs a capable collaborator to enlist the Germans behind him. It’s time for the most fanatical about his accomplices,
To come back into the light. Berlin Sports Palace, February 18, 1943, Goebbels orchestrates a communications operation. He gathered a crowd convinced Nazis. But also injured coming from the front. He carefully chose its 14,000 spectators. The English claim that the German people, Opposes total war measures of our government.
The people wouldn’t want total war according to the English, But surrender! I ask you : “Do you want total war?” It creates an atmosphere hysteria in Germany. Do you want this war so total and so radical, Than we can imagine? I ask you : “Are you determined.
To follow the führer to hell, in order to achieve victory, By accepting even the trials toughest personalities?” That evening, Goebbels, in a trance, Will accomplish what he deems like performance, The most successful of his career. Germany must sacrifice until the last one. Germany will never capitulate. Goebbels is smart enough,
To realize that the situation is difficult, Can be desperate. If victory is possible, It will be thanks to the energy, to the will and the sense of sacrifice. If defeat is inevitable, the Nazis will disappear, With such a racket, Such a crash, such an apocalypse,
That at least they will be immortalized by their sacrifice. His eternal rival, Goering is finally disgraced. He comes back to the fore. Goebbels then deploys extraordinary energy. He visits the victims bombed cities. Listen to complaints awards medals, And runs the soup kitchens. He will return fully to the fore,
Like some sort of vice Hitler, of second Hitler, For the benefit of disaster. Goebbels also expands the age of mobilization, For all Germans. The men are now enrolled up to age 60. And the age of the youngest is lowered to just 16. As the allies approach, I decided to get involved.
New recruits go to the front in their everyday clothes, With the weapons they have at hand. Goebbels named the operation, People’s storm. But in Berlin in ruins, where the locals are reduced to eat, Digging through the trash, One more news will shake the morale of the Nazis. In Normandy, the Allies just landed.
Day by day, the collapse of the Reich is looming. Little Margit, lives hidden in Berlin. To flee the Nazis, his father, a Jew, went into exile in China. And from his hiding place in July 1944, The little girl regains hope, hearing news on the radio. My God !
But on July 20, 1944, it was the attempt on Hitler. And you know what I have heard first on the radio? It was Hitler’s voice saying: “Providence saved me!” And she had saved him. In this room entirely devastated from her headquarters, Hitler miraculously survived to a bomb attack.
Around him, we counted 4 dead and 9 seriously injured, whom he visits in the hospital. The attack was organized by senior officers, Who wanted to negotiate with the Allies, Germany’s surrender. This plot against Hitler triggers thousands of arrests, Of torture and murder. Speer, Himmler, Goring, Goebbels,
Now know all that they risk if they betray him. But they will do very different choices. His accomplices are all supposed to follow their führer, Even in the sacrifice of their life. They are now trapped by Hitler, Who has lost his lucidity. In March 1945, he was walking in slow motion.
On these propaganda images, He sits in front of a map and faced with paralyzed generals, Who dare not talk about defeat. He dominates them. He shuts them down, he rebuffs them, he yells at them. But in the spring of 1945, He moves little flags and pawns that no longer exist.
This April 20, 1945, the day of Hitler’s 56th birthday, This is the last time that they are filmed together. Goering and Himmler parade, apparently all smiles. But that’s just an illusion. A few hours later, they hastily abandon Hitler. Goering learns that Hitler is taking the decision not to leave Berlin.
Goering leaves for southern Germany and fled. Because at that time, To stay in Berlin is to die. Soviet soldiers crush the city under the bombs. In a bunker under the monumental chancellery, Of the three main accomplices, Only Goebbels remains holed up with Hitler. If it leads to suicide, to death, to defeat,
It’s not serious. Because Doctor Goebbels, chief propagandist, Will have worked on setting in the scene of this death, In such a way that, for centuries and centuries, The myth of this death, of this sacrifice, Of its disappearance, will resound. As the empire crumbles, Joseph Goebbels, the fanatic,
Address to the Germans, April 21, a final radio message. The moment of truth is approaching I stay in Berlin accompanied by all my cabinet. My wife and my children too, are here and will stay in Berlin. While the city is in the hands of the Soviets,
On April 30, 1945 at 3 p.m., Hitler commits suicide. According to his last wishes, He designates Joseph Goebbels as his official successor. But Goebbels is not Chancellor only a few hours. When the Soviets arrive in the gardens of the Chancellery, They discover the charred bodies by Joseph and Magda Goebbels,
With the corpses of their 6 children, that they poisoned before committing suicide. With Magda Goebbels, his wife, They agree to say that there is no future, there is no world possible without Nazism, So they murder their children. They turn off the next generation, It’s finish !
All over Germany, the Allies discover the same scene. Thousands of Anonymous Nazis don’t want to surrender. And commit suicide as a family. Unlike Goebbels, Himmler and Goring, They are ready to negotiate. Himmler and Goering remain policies all the way, Moreover, these are people who leave all options open,
Who calculate and who want to survive. Hermann Goering took refuge in his residence. At the border of Germany and Austria. Before his death, Hitler sacked him. The Führer had appointed him as his successor, So on April 23, 1945, Goering told him sent this telegram classified confidential, Where he had offered to replace him.
If negotiations are necessary, I’ll be in a better place than you in Berlin. There he asks Hitler, If you are no longer able to make decisions, It’s now mine to take up your duties. Hitler considered this telegram as a serious betrayal. And that is why Goering is dismissed from all his functions.
Finally, in May 1945, Goering surrenders to the Americans. His wife and daughter are kept in safe custody. Goering is still convinced, That he will be able to negotiate surrender with honours. He is a marshal the highest military rank, But we tell him that he is going be treated like a criminal.
He understands from one minute to the next, That he has no chance to negotiate anything. Because it is an unconditional surrender, That the Allies asked For years. Hitler was also betrayed by his faithful, Heinrich Himmler. The leader of the SS is on the run. Since February 1945,
To save his head, Himmler entered secretly in contact with the Allies, To negotiate surrender. He even allowed its white Red Cross buses, Saved over 13,000 prisoners that he had the camps liberated. Himmler played a double game At the end of the war, When he conducted negotiations behind Hitler’s back with the Allies.
We notice his disconnection reality. He really believed that the Allies were willing to accept it from a position of strength. When he realizes that he is not credible, Himmler hides among simple captured German soldiers. He wants to drown in the mass, disguised under a false identity. He is finally recognized near Hamburg,
And the moment it is searched in this house by an English doctor. Himmler bites into a cyanide capsule, The poison he kept hidden in the mouth. He dies immediately. killer of the century will never be accountable. He wanted to escape to its responsibilities. Not just running away, But also by committing suicide,
To not appear before a judge. On the same day, in Flensburg, in northern Germany, The last responsible Nazis are arrested. Among them are Hitler’s protege, Albert Speer. The architect and Minister of Armaments. In the summer of 1945, Among the accomplices of the guard closer to Hitler, Only Goering and Speer are still alive.
On the bottom of the scale, Hoess also survived. They will answer for their crimes in front of the judges. They still think make it out alive. In Nuremberg, on November 20, 1945, The trial of the century begins. These American magistrates, English, Russian and French, Must judge the 24 greatest Nazi criminals still alive.
All risk the death penalty. And for the first time in history, They will have to answer of a new crime, The crime against humanity. Accused number one is Hermann Goering, Slimmed down, cured of his addiction to drugs, He feels particularly combative. He was really in great shape at this moment.
He really took this trial like a fight. Hermann, Wilhem, Goring. From the start of the trial, Goering wants to win. According to American procedure, The defendants just have to plead guilty or not guilty, But he has prepared a long tirade. Before responding to the court, That I be found guilty or not guilty…
The president calls him to order. I inform you that the defendants, Are not authorized to make a statement. You just have to plead guilty or not guilty. On these charges, I plead not guilty! After him, All defendants will plead not guilty in their turn. Not guilty !
During the trial, Goering takes center stage. He still thinks of escaping the pain of death by his strategy. He wants to defend the project of Hitler for Germany. His idea was practically at this moment, To justify his führer. But the judges planned an electric shock. Nazi criminals must to face in court,
To the unbearable images filmed to the liberation of the camps. Rotated images by the Americans and the Russians, To bear witness forever to the atrocities organized by the defendants. During the screening, Goering looks away. He understands that his defense is collapsing. Seen the images on the screen,
He had very little luck to succeed with his idea, To explain and justify what happened, For 12 years in Germany. The chilling testimony of Rudolf Hoess, The commandant of the Auschwitz camp, Will still overwhelm the accused. Of course, prisoners were treated harshly, But with a certain method.
Until the end, they defend the Nazi regime. But in Nuremberg, Only one will deny his convictions and pretend to know nothing about the Holocaust. It is however a closest to Hitler, Albert Speer, the architect. Hitler and the collapse of his regime, Preparing for a terrible time of suffering for the German people.
After this trial, I will condemn Hitler, As the manager of this misfortune. He claims he would have always taken his distance from Hitler. He even considered assassinating her. Of course, it was grotesque. On October 1, 1946, After 10 months of trial in Nuremberg, the verdict falls. Accused Hermann Wilhelm Goering,
The international court condemns you, To death by hanging. 12 defendants are convicted to death by hanging. Speer’s strategy paid off. He is not condemned than 20 years in prison. Goering doesn’t want to be hanged like a simple delinquent, But die like a soldier, Shot by firing squad. The court refuses him.
So, ultimate provocation, A few hours before execution of the sentence, With the complicity of a of his American guardians, Goering procures a poison capsule, And commits suicide in his cell, Still persuaded to leave his mark in history. He explained that now they will condemn me, But in fifty years, you’ll see,
We are going to have small statuettes by Hermann Goring, In all apartments Germans. Those in charge of Auschwitz, them, Are delivered to the Polish justice. Because the atrocities have produced on its soil. Among them, Rudolf Hoess, the camp director. He is on trial in Warsaw and condemned for example,
To be hanged in the camp, At the scene of his crimes. It’s scary to see the coldness of these feelings. It doesn’t really express regret over these killings. For him, he only did than obeying orders. The years go by, In Hitler’s close guard, Only one remained alive,
And will become master in the art of lying. When he comes out of Spandau prison, In the suburbs of Berlin, in 1966, Albert Speer is only 61 years old. Hitler’s architect and minister, Attracts media from around the world. After 20 years of detention,
He is the only one who can tell from the inside, the workings of power under Hitler. When Speer got out of prison, He had already signed a very lucrative contract, to write his memoirs. For 2 years, Albert Speer became a successful author. His memoirs, written in prison,
Are translated into 14 languages and sold over a million copies. It’s a star ! Speer is interviewed on all television sets around the world. Why did Hitler made you a friend of his? Hitler never had any friends. And I said at the Nuremberg trial, That if Hitler had had friends,
I was a friend of his. Maybe I realized the dream of his youth. He keeps showing up like an architect, who did not know of the regime’s worst crimes. According to his claims, He didn’t know anything of the extermination of the Jews. But in the 70s, Speer is gradually overtaken by revelations,
On his involvement in the Holocaust. In particular, we know thanks to this photo, Which he visited in 1943, the camp of Mauthausen, where more than 200,000 people died. And that he heard Himmler mention the extermination of the Jews. If we knew everything what we know today,
He would have been sentenced to death at Nuremberg. He was a personality very dangerous, Under a bourgeois mask, He hid his true nature cold politician. Albert Speer, will escape all the way to the truth. Hitler’s last relative, dies in his bed, From a heart attack in 1981. Josef Mengele, the Auschwitz doctor,
Nicknamed the Angel of Death, Died in 1979 in Brazil, without ever having been caught by justice. None of these great criminals who worked so hard in Hitler’s place, has no grave today. Their ashes were scattered, Or their remains buried anonymously, To avoid gathering nostalgic. Their traces are gradually disappearing.
At the end of this path lost in the forest, Without indication, These abandoned ruins, Are those of the house favorite of Adolf Hitler. Where all his accomplices were meeting.
