Days That Shook the World (2003) s01e03 Episode Script

1
NARRATOR: The history
of the 20th century
was defined by two global conflicts.
The First World War
began with a single bullet
fired by a young Serb nationalist
World War II was only brought to a close
when Adolf Hitler finally shot himself.
Just two bullets,
less than 31 years apart,
gave birth to the modern world.
This is a dramatization of events
as they happened
on two days that shook the world.
It's the 28th of June, 1914.
In Germany, the Kaiser has launched
14 new battleships,
causing an arms race in Europe.
In Russia, the Tsar is pouring money
into the army.
Britain's King George V
has just been to Paris,
cementing the Anglo-French alliance.
Europe is a tinderbox
waiting to explode.
The flashpoint is Bosnia.
These seven men
are state-sponsored terrorists.
Today they will commit an act of murder
that will start a war.
This is the Black Hand gang.
Gavrilo Princip is their leader,
a trained assassin.
Nedjelko Cabrinovic is a suicide bomber.
Danilo Ilic is the fixer for the gang.
Trifko Grabez provides the muscle.
Muhamed Mehmedbasic is a veteran
of previous attacks.
Popovic and Cubrilovic are schoolboys
along for the ride.
This is their target,
Archduke Franz Ferdinand,
heir to the throne
of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Today he will be assassinated.
This is the spark which will ignite
the First World War.
Two hundred miles from Sarajevo,
in another country,
the mastermind behind the plot
is having breakfast
Fifty-six-year-old Dragutin Dimitrijevic
is officially the head
of Serbian military intelligence.
Unofficially, he is known as "Apis"
or "The Bee,”
and is the leader of the Black Hand.
His secret nationalist society
has 2,500 members with only one aim,
to recreate Greater Serbia once again.
Seven centuries ago,
Greater Serbia included Bosnia.
Now the Austro-Hungarian Empire
rules the province,
even though most of the population
still consider themselves Serbian.
Nationalistic feeling amongst Serbs
on both sides of the border
is running high.
Today is the 28th of June.
Galled Vidovdan, it is the holiest day
in the Serb Orthodox calendar.
In special church services,
the Serbs remember the golden age
when Bosnia was part
of medieval Greater Serbia.
They lament the fact that they are now
ruled by the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
They commemorate the martyrs,
who died when Greater Serbia
was crushed seven centuries ago.
Martyrdom is part of the Serbian psyche.
(CLOCK TICKING)
(CREAKING)
(COUGHING)
Nineteen year-old Gavrilo Princip
is dying of tuberculosis.
He is a man with nothing to lose.
A Bosnian Serb raised by peasants,
six of his nine siblings
died in infancy.
His parents were so poor that
they could not afford to feed Princip,
yet they still had to pay punitive taxes
imposed by the Austro-Hungarians.
Aged 13, a starving Gavrilo
was sent here to Sarajevo
to live with his brother.
While he was at school,
the Empire introduced martial law
to control the Bosnian Serbs.
Disgusted, Princip immersed himself
in the new political theories
emerging from Russia.
Now Princip's hatred
of the imperial oppressors
has become focused upon one man,
Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the
throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Today, Franz Ferdinand
is coming to Sarajevo.
"I am the son of peasants"
and I know what is happening
in the villages.
"That is why I wanted to take revenge."
NARRATOR: With the knowledge that
tuberculosis will kill him eventually,
and fired up on nationalist rhetoric
and Serbian folk legends,
Gavrilo Princip is determined
to become a martyr.
In fact, he will unleash
the First World War.
(CLOCK TICKING)
Sixty-one-year-old
Archduke Franz Ferdinand,
the heir to the throne
of the Austro-Hungarian Empire,
is preparing to tour Sarajevo.
Franz Ferdinand knows
that the local Serbs
resent being ruled
by his uncle, the Emperor.
His family have been the victims
of political assassination in the past,
so today Franz Ferdinand
is taking precautions.
Although a devout Catholic,
the superstitious Archduke
puts on seven lucky charms,
each of which are supposed to ward off
a different kind of evil
On top of these protective talismans,
the Archduke wears a unique jacket
made of a specially woven fibre.
It is reputed to be bullet-proof.
Convinced that
he will be safe from harm,
Franz Ferdinand is looking forward
to winning over the people of Sarajevo.
The Archduke hopes
that his public appearance today
will inspire loyalty
in his restless subjects
and dampen the nationalistic feelings
of Bosnia's Serbian population.
He also wants to publicise the fact
that he is a reformer.
When the Archduke inherits the throne
from his uncle,
he plans to stop the oppression
of the Bosnian Serbs
and give them a say
in how the Empire is run.
Although these planned reforms
are actually intended to benefit
the local population,
the Archduke has inadvertently
made himself a target for assassination.
(CLOCK TICKING)
For 10 years, Colonel Apis has been
agitating for the Bosnian Serbs
to revolt against
the Austro-Hungarian Empire,
so their province can be
incorporated into Serbia.
But Apis knows that if Franz Ferdinand
becomes Emperor,
the Archduke's planned reforms
will pacify the Bosnian Serbs.
If this happens, the armed revolution
that Apis craves will never be realised.
This is why The Bee has recruited
and armed a gang of young radicals
willing to die for the cause.
Two years ago, in 1912, Gavrilo Princip
was expelled from his school in Sarajevo
for joining a demonstration
against the Hapsburg authorities.
Appalled by his treatment, he decided
he would be better off across the border
in the kingdom of Serbia,
and so made his way
to its capital, Belgrade.
Here he met other disaffected
young Serbs from his homeland.
Together, they became members
of the Black Hand.
In April, 1914,
they received a newspaper clipping
from an anonymous source.
It declared that Archduke Ferdinand
would visit Sarajevo
on the 28th of June.
One of the conspirators
describes their reaction.
"How dared Franz Ferdinand,
the representative of the oppressor
"and an arrogant tyrant,
enter Sarajevo on that day.
"Such an entry was a studied insult
"The 28th of June is a date engraved
deeply in the heart of every Serb.
"It is called Vidovdan. That was no day
for Franz Ferdinand, the new oppressor,
"to venture through
the very doors of Serbia."
"Our decision was taken
almost immediately."
"Death to the tyrant."
NARRATOR: The conspirators
now swore a grave oath.
I do hereby swear by the sun
which shineth upon me,
by the earth which feedeth me, by God,
by my honour and by my life
"that I shall keep
all the secrets of the Black Hand"
"and carry them with me into my grave."
(POURING ALCOHOL)
Cheers!
NARRATOR: That was two months ago.
Since then, Colonel Apis
has done everything in his power
to assist the conspirators.
He has arranged for his young recruits
to be secretly equipped with weapons
from the Serbian Army's arsenal
His network of contacts
in the Black Hand
have smuggled the men and their arms
back across the border to Bosnia.
Apis knows that
in less than three hours' time,
Archduke Franz Ferdinand
will begin his four of Sarajevo.
This will be the chance
for his team of assassins to strike.
All The Bee must do now is wait.
(CLOCK CHIMING)
Archduke Franz Ferdinand has always
been disliked as a public figure.
Rude, uncultured and spoilt,
he is shunned by the snobbish elite
of Viennese society.
But in private, he is a different man,
completely devoted to his wife Sophie.
Theirs was a fairytale romance.
Unlike most aristocrats,
they did not get married for wealth
or power, but because they fell in love.
Today they are celebrating
their 14th wedding anniversary,
and this morning are having
a special mass in their hotel
to mark the occasion.
The couple fell in love
at a ball in 1888,
but Franz Ferdinand's family
did not approve.
Countess Sophie was not considered
sufficiently aristocratic
to wed the heir to the throne.
When Franz Ferdinand insisted,
the wedding went ahead.
The discrimination was formalised.
The couple were forced to declare
that their children
would have no right to the throne.
But the duke had no regrets.
"The most intelligent thing
1 have done in my life
"has been my marriage to Sophie.
"She's everything to me: my wife,
my advisor, my doctor."
"In a word, my entire happiness."
I feel like I have been born again.”
NARRATOR: The couple already have
three children.
Now Sophie reveals another
source of joy for the Archduke.
She is pregnant once again.
The Velja Patisserie is a safe house
for the Black Hand.
Two months since he received
the newspaper clipping in Belgrade,
Gavrilo Princip has returned to Sarajevo
and is awaiting an important rendezvous.
Via the Serb underground, the items in
this suitcase have travelled 200 miles
and crossed an international border.
They have been smuggled in a cart
and hidden in a cinema.
Without them, today's terrorist attack
could not take place.
Twenty-four-year-old Danilo Ilic
picked up this package yesterday,
the final link in an underground network
connecting Serbia with Bosnia.
(GREETING IN SERBIAN)
Ilic is a childhood friend of Princip
and a fellow member of the Black Hand.
Nineteen-year-old Nedjelko Cabrinovic
is the next to arrive.
Last year, he joined
an anarchist printing press
and began organising strikes, until the
authorities banished him from Sarajevo.
He then travelled to Belgrade where
he and Princip formed a special bond.
They joined the Black Hand
and were the most eager
to assassinate Franz Ferdinand when
they realised he was coming to Sarajevo.
Colonel Apis supplied them with weapons
and arranged for them to spend
two months' training
in Belgrade's Kosutnjak Park.
Here, Princip soon proved to be
the better marksman,
while Cabrinovic was more suited
to throwing grenades.
Now the men are joined by
22-year-old Trifko Grabez,
the only assassin with a police record.
(PRINCIP SPEAKING SERBIAN)
While at school with Princip,
he was sentenced to two weeks in prison
for attacking his teacher.
He too then travelled to Belgrade,
where he met up with the others
and joined the Black Hand.
The men returned from Belgrade
to Sarajevo via different routes.
Their smuggled weapons were deposited
in a village 40 miles away,
until yesterday
when Ilic picked them up.
Now the four assassins and their arms
are reunited in preparation
for today's attack.
Cabrinovic, never a very accurate shot,
takes one of the primitive bombs.
Gavrilo Princip takes a .22 calibre
Browning pistol,
the same weapon he trained with
while in Belgrade.
Trifko Grabez receives a similar gun,
but has never used one before.
Finally, Danilo llic distributes
bottles of cyanide to all of the men.
The plan is to kill the Archduke
before killing themselves.
(SPEAKING IN SERBIAN)
Now, the men leave the cafe to meet up
with the remaining members
of their gang.
Yesterday, Danilo Ilic also distributed
guns and bombs to three other men.
Two of them were
just 17-year-old schoolboys.
Popovic and Cubrilovic
heard about the plot from Danilo
and persuaded him to let them take part
The final member of the gang
is 28-year-old Muhamed Mehmedbasic.
A member of the Black Hand
for the last eight years,
he decided at the last moment
to join the assassination attempt.
These are the men it will take
to kill an archduke and start a war.
(CLOCK TICKING)
Mindful of the act
he is about to commit,
Nedjelko Cabrinovic now visits
a photographer's studio.
Wearing a new suit
bought for the occasion,
he asks for the prints to be sent
directly to his family.
Over the last month,
Cabrinovic has already sent
half a dozen postcards
to friends and relatives,
plastered with heroic lines
from Serbian folk poems.
This is a suicide bomber
who is determined to be remembered.
(CLOCK TICKING)
(TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWING)
Archduke Franz Ferdinand has
spent the morning inspecting troops
on manoeuvres outside the city,
and is now about to set off
on his tour of Sarajevo.
Although he has been advised
he could receive a hostile reception,
the Archduke is determined to project
a friendly image towards his subjects.
He insists on driving through the town
in an open-topped car.
In the same spirit, Franz Ferdinand
has decided against deploying the army
onto the streets.
Instead, just 120 policemen are on duty.
Yesterday, local newspapers
published the Archduke's route.
Now the assassins take up
their positions along the Appel Quay,
the main street which runs alongside
the River Miljacka.
First in line is Mehmedbasic.
Two years ago, he tried and failed
to assassinate the governor of Sarajevo.
Today, Governor Potiorek is travelling
in the same car as the Archduke.
Further up the street,
Nedjelko Cabrinovic
asks an unsuspecting local policeman
to point out the Archduke's car.
He learns it will be the third vehicle
in the six-car motorcade.
Next, the two schoolboys
move into position.
Popovic and Cubrilovic
stand opposite each other,
one on either side of the street.
They are both armed with a bomb.
Trifko Grabez, armed with a revolver,
takes a spot
a little further down the road.
In the centre is Gavrilo Princip.
Having proved himself a crack-shot
with his pistol,
he is here to ensure the job is finished
if one of the less-experienced members
of the gang should botch the attack.
Although he supplied the weapons,
Danilo Ilic is unwilling
to actually commit murder.
Unarmed, he prepares to watch
the action unfold.
As the car proceeds
along the Appel Quay,
the Archduke's wife, Sophie,
is particularly enjoying the procession.
Because of her low-birth status,
Sophie has never before been allowed
to accompany the Archduke
on an official tour.
Today, as a special
wedding anniversary gift,
the devoted husband has arranged for her
to accompany him for the first time.
As the car approaches, Mehmedbasic
has the first opportunity to attack.
The car passes directly in front of him,
but Mehmedbasic does not act
But there are still six assassins
waiting for their chance to strike.
Next on the route is Cabrinovic.
Like Princip,
he is dying of tuberculosis.
(COUGHING)
with the knowledge
he has a terminal illness,
Cabrinovic is desperate to go down
in history as a martyr for the cause.
With the car just 20 feet away,
Cabrinovic strikes the percussion cap of
his grenade and hurls it at his target.
At the last moment,
the Archduke sees the bomb coming
and raises his arm
to protect his beloved wife.
The driver accelerates and the grenade
bounces off the back of the car.
Cabrinovic had forgotten
the bomb had a 10-second delay.
Without waiting to see
if his attempt was successful,
Cabrinovic sticks to the plan.
After swallowing his cyanide,
he jumps into the River Miljacka
to ensure that he dies.
(BOMB EXPLODING)
When the bomb explodes,
the car is clear of the blast
and the Archduke escapes unharmed.
The remaining assassins
are too stunned to react
when the car drives straight past them.
Twelve bystanders are injured in the
explosion, including Erich von Merizzi,
part of the Archduke's retinue
travelling in the car behind.
Despite his suicide bid,
Cabrinovic was captured.
The cyanide he had taken was very old
and only made him vomit
Although he jumped into the river
to be sure that he died,
it was only four inches deep.
As he is taken away for interrogation,
he says,
"I am a Serb hero."
NARRATOR: But the plan had failed.
(CLOCK TICKING)
The Archduke now arrives at City Hall
where the reception party is waiting.
They have not yet heard about the bomb,
so the Archduke expresses his outrage
to the unsuspecting mayor.
(SPEAKING IN GERMAN)
The mayor is so nervous that
he replies with his pre-prepared speech,
which ironically insists
that every single citizen of Sarajevo
is delighted by the Archduke's visit
The absurdity of the situation
is made clear
when the Archduke Is handed his reply.
By now it is stained with the blood
of the injured Count Merizzi.
(SPEAKING IN SERBIAN)
Still, he sarcastically continues
with the formalities.
Having vented his anger,
Franz Ferdinand now insists
that the reception party
should continue inside the Town Hall
The news of the attempted assassination
has by now spread across Sarajevo.
But with the Archduke safe
and the bomber in custody,
it seems as if life
will quickly return to normal
But on the other side of town, the
conspirators have gathered in the park.
After the failure of the bombing
and Cabrinovic's arrest,
they are now in a state
of nervous confusion.
Of all of them, Gavrilo Princip
has the most to consider.
He is the driving force behind the gang
and his special bond with Cabrinovic
weighs upon his mind.
Although his friend did not succeed
in killing the Archduke,
at least he made the attempt,
while Princip simply stood by.
Pondering his fate and the failed plan,
Princip wanders off to buy a sandwich.
(CLOCK TICKING)
Two hundred miles away, Colonel Apis
is waiting for news from Sarajevo.
He is a veteran
of previous assassination attempts
and knows how easily they can go wrong.
Three years ago,
Apis sent a man to Vienna
to try to kill Emperor Franz Josef,
but the plot failed.
Last year, he tried to have
the governor of Sarajevo assassinated,
but once again his plan was thwarted.
Apis knows that this morning's attack
should have happened at around 10:30.
But so far, he has yet to hear anything.
For now, The Bee must continue to wait
After attending the official reception,
Franz Ferdinand now insists
on visiting the injured in hospital
As a precaution against further attack,
the loyal Count Harrach insists
on personally protecting the Archduke.
He now takes a position
on the running board of the car
in order to shield him with his body.
Across town in the park,
the gang are still nervous that,
with one of their number in custody,
their role in the plot
could be revealed at any moment.
At the police station,
Nedjelko Cabrinovic
is being brutally interrogated,
but he maintains the Black Hand's
vow of secrecy.
"No-one but me in Sarajevo
knew about this bomb."
NARRATOR: Gavrilo Princip has just
eaten a sandwich
and is now standing outside
Schiller's Delicatessen
on the corner of Franz Josef Street.
The imperial party now plan
to visit the hospital
This means driving back
along the main street, the Appel Quay.
But somehow
the chauffeur becomes confused,
and he now takes a wrong turn
which will change the course of history.
Gavrilo Princip just happens to be
standing outside Schiller's Delicatessen
when suddenly the Archduke's car
turns into Franz Josef Street
Completely by chance, fate has brought
the assassin and his target
within 10 feet of each other.
Potiorek notices
they are going the wrong way
and tells the driver to reverse.
(GEARS CREAKING)
But the gears become jammed.
(GUN FIRING)
Although two shots have been fired,
it seems as if no-one is hurt
until Count Harrach notices
the Archduke Is bleeding.
"As I pulled out my handkerchief
to wipe away the blood,
"Her Highness cried out,
'For God's sake! What happened to you?'"
"Then she sank down.
I had no idea that she had been hit"
(EXCLAIMING IN GERMAN)
"His Royal Highness said,
'Sophie, Sophie, don't die."
"Live for our children."
NARRATOR: Both of Princip's shots
had found their mark.
Despite Franz Ferdinand's bullet-proof
jacket and lucky charms,
he had been shot clean through the neck,
while his pregnant wife
had been hit in the stomach.
This photograph actually captured
the moment
when Gavrilo Princip was apprehended.
The cyanide was again ineffective,
and he was wrestled to the ground
before he could shoot himself.
(PHONE RINGING)
By 11:30, the Archduke and
his beloved wife Sophie were dead.
The world was shocked as the news spread
of the double murder.
The funeral was held in Vienna,
but even now, Sophie's low birth status
was not forgotten by the Royal Family.
Her coffin was deliberately placed
on a plinth,
18 inches lower than her husband's.
Now the Austro-Hungarian Empire
wanted revenge.
Princip was violently interrogated,
but maintained his vow of secrecy.
Although there was a suspicion
that Serbia was behind the attack,
Austria had no proof.
That is, until Danilo Ilic, the fixer,
was picked up by the police
on a tip-off that Princip had
stayed with him in Sarajevo.
While the investigators considered
his arrest to be routine,
Ilic lost his cool and
told the police everything,
including the fact that
the arms he had provided
had come from the Serbian government.
This was the smoking gun
the Austrians were looking for.
Exactly one month after the shooting,
the Austro-Hungarian Empire,
with the support of their ally, Germany,
declared war on Serbia.
The Serbs had a pact with Russia,
who in turn had an alliance
with France and Britain.
Just six weeks after a man was killed
by a single bullet,
the alliances were triggered.
Germany invaded France
and the First world War had begun.
Meanwhile the conspirators
were put on trial
Although Mehmedbasic managed to escape,
Grabez and the two schoolboys,
Cubrilovic and Popovic,
received sentences of
between 13 and 20 years.
The death penalty could only be applied
to those over 20,
so 23-year-old Danilo Ilic
was hanged for his part in the plot.
Colonel Apis was widely blamed
for the assassination,
but was safe in Serbia
from any reprisals.
He was eventually executed in 1917
for attempting to organise
yet another political murder.
Cabrinovic stated in court,
"We are not criminals,
we are honest people."
"We wanted to do good,
and we shall die for our ideals."
NARRATOR: He was sentenced to 20 years,
but died of tuberculosis
after just 18 months in prison.
Gavrilo Princip turned 20
just days after his crime,
and so narrowly escaped
the hangman's noose.
He was sentenced to life in prison,
but always maintained he was
a freedom fighter, not a criminal
"I suggest that you nail me to a cross
and burn me alive.
"My flaming body will be a torch"
"to light my people
on their path to freedom."
NARRATOR: In fact, his act had provided
the spark which ignited the Great War.
When he died of tuberculosis
In April of 191718,
the war was just months from ending.
Twenty million were dead
on the battlefield,
and the whole of Europe was left in
political, economic and social turmoil
Just a single bullet
on the 28th of June, 1914,
ushered in an age of conflict
on a scale unprecedented in history.
Never again would people celebrate
the declaration of war
as they had across Europe in 1914.
This footage, recorded in Munich,
captured the elation at the time.
But just four years later, Germany would
be so utterly devastated by the conflict
that the conditions were ripe
for Fascism to emerge.
Adolf Hitler, captured here aged 25,
would rise to power with the promise
that he would rectify
Germany's post-war problems.
It's the 30th of April, 1945.
American forces in Okinawa have
just sunk Japan's largest battleship.
In Germany, the concentration camp
Dachau is liberated.
Yesterday, the fascist troops in Italy
made an unconditional surrender.
Now, all eyes turn to Berlin.
The capital of Nazi Germany
is under siege.
Although completely surrounded
by Stalin's Red Army,
Adolf Hitler refuses to surrender.
It's the final, apocalyptic
confrontation between two dictators
with an equal disregard for human life.
Twenty miles behind the frontline,
Marshall Zukhov, Commander in Chief
of the Russian forces,
is preparing to launch the final push.
Zukhov has been given
an ultimatum by Stalin.
His troops must hang a red flag
from the old German parliament,
the Relchstag,
before tomorrow's May Day Parade.
What the Russians don't know
is that almost directly underneath
the Relchstag,
the dark heart
of the Nazi leadership is still beating.
In a purpose-built concrete shelter,
55 feet underground,
there are 30 bleak rooms linked
by a network of dank corridors.
Here, in the Führerbunker,
Adolf Hitler's inner circle is
disintegrating in betrayal and despair.
Five witnesses provide a record of
these final, extraordinary hours.
Thirty-two-year-old Otto Günsche,
Hitler's adjutant.
Twenty-seven-year-old Waldo Linge,
Hitler's personal valet.
Two army physicians, Dr Ernst-Günther
Schenck and Professor Werner Haase.
And twenty-four year-old Traudl Junge,
Hitler's secretary.
Today, they will watch
as the man responsible
for the bloodiest conflict in history
is finally toppled from power.
Although Adolf Hitler has sworn
never to surrender,
the Red Army noose is
closing around the Führerbunker.
It's the 30th of April, 1945.
(CLOCK TICKING)
There is no natural light
inside Hitler's bunker.
Less than 20 of his most loyal
supporters still live here,
and most of them can no longer tell
the difference between day and night
Traudl Junge accepted a job organising
Hitler's social diary two years ago.
At the time, she was delighted to have
a privileged position with few duties.
But for the last three months,
she has been forced to live underground
in the nightmarish world
of the Führerbunker.
"The sound of guns was coming
closer and closer,"
"but the atmosphere in the bunker
remained the same."
(BOMBS EXPLODING)
"We tried to get hold of some news
about the outcome of the battle"
"It should have been at its height Was
that the noise of our guns and tanks?"
(EXPLOSION)
"Nobody knew.
"There were no briefing sessions,
"no more fixed schedules,
no maps spread out on the table."
"Doors stood wide open."
(GERMAN MILITARY MUSIC ON RADIO)
"Nobody bothered with anything any more.
"Hitler was haggard and absent-minded,
hollow-eyed and paler than ever.
"He seemed completely to have given up
his role as leader.
"Our single obsession was that"
"the moment of Hitler's suicide
was approaching."
NARRATOR: Hitler announced his decision
to take his own life eight days ago
at a meeting with his generals.
Traudl Junge was there when it happened.
(SHOUTING IN GERMAN)
"The army has betrayed me.
My generals are useless.
"My orders are never carried out
It's all over.
"National Socialism ls dead
and can never be revived. Never/
"Gentlemen, the end is approaching.
I shall stay in Berlin and I shall
kill myself when the moment comes."
NARRATOR: But eight days later,
Hitler is still alive.
The battle for Berlin has been going on
for almost two weeks.
The Russians attacked
with a vastly superior force.
With over one million men,
they outnumber their opponents
more than 10 to 1.
Less than half of the 80,000
German troops are trained soldiers,
but the urban warfare favours
their desperate defence.
The Russians have to take areas
street by street, building by building,
and the casualties are horrendous
on both sides.
Hitler's refusal to allow his troops
to surrender
means that at least 20,000 people are
dying every day the fighting continues.
(CLOCK TICKING)
Only one radio now links the bunker
to the outside world.
(STATIC BUZZING)
For the last week, Hitler has been
sending ever more desperate requests
to the Ninth and Twelfth Armies.
Would they be able to link up
and liberate Berlin?
Now, the bunker
finally receives a reply.
MAN ON RADIO: Twelfth Army cannot
continue attack towards Berlin.
Mass of Ninth Army encircled.
Attacks towards Berlin
not advanced anywhere.
NARRATOR: Hitler now knew that the
armies he had ordered to relieve Berlin
would never arrive.
Despite the hopeless situation,
Hitler insists that his troops
in the city must fight on.
The city's doctors have to
deal with the carnage.
In the cellars underneath the Reich's
Chancellery, less than 100 metres
from the entrance to Hitler's bunker,
there is a makeshift field hospital
(SOLDIER GROANING)
Thirty-three-year-old Dr Walter Schenck
has been operating for 22 hours
without a break.
"Only madmen would have called this
a military situation."
"If there was still what could be
called a front in Berlin,"
“few combatants on either side
knew just where it was.
"From time to time, soldiers told me
of their hopeless battle."
"The younger ones, many under 16,
were terrified and bawling."
(GROANING)
NARRATOR: With the regular army
almost all dead or captured,
the defence of Berlin
was now being conducted
by old men and teenage boys.
The last time Hitler was seen
outside the bunker was 10 days ago,
when he celebrated his 56th birthday
by pinning medals
on members of the Hitler Youth.
Without any training, boys as young
as 14 were given rocket launchers
in order to take out Russian tanks.
At least 5,000 of these child soldiers
had been killed in the final days
in Berlin.
(SPEAKING IN GERMAN)
Now Dr Schenck and his colleague
Professor Werner Haase
receive a summons they cannot refuse.
Adolf Hitler demands their presence
in the bunker.
As the doctors descend underground,
they are completely unprepared
for the way Hitler has changed since
the last time he was seen in public.
This is how Dr Haase described Hitler
in his final hours.
"Hitler was shaking."
"His left arm trembled continually.
His skin was grey."
He looked more like 70 than 56.
"His blank stare and the tremors
left me certain
"that he had a degenerative disease,
most likely Parkinson's disease.
"It may have been accelerated
by the cocaine drops"
"he had been administering
to his eyes every morning."
Doctor Schenck made a similar diagnosis.
"Soup slop and mustard spots
"now stained his once natty
and spotless uniform jacket"
"He no longer stood erect
His walk was more of a shuffle."
The broken dictator now thanks
the shocked doctors for their work
and says goodbye for the final time.
As the doctors make their way out,
they pass the chambers of the most
peculiar bunker inhabitants of all,
the Goebbels family.
(GIRLS GIGGLING)
Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's oldest
and most loyal advisor,
insists on living in the bunker
with his wife and children.
Traudl Junge is
keeping them entertained.
"The Goebbels family
arrived on April 22nd.
"Each of the six children
"had a first name beginning with H
in honour of Hitler.
"Helga, Holde, Hilde, Heide,
Hedda and Helmut.
"in a very short time, the bunker was
filled with their shouts and laughter.
"They were adorable children. All
very well behaved and quite unspoilt
"We knew that their parents,
Magda and Joseph Goebbels,
"had decided to end the children's lives
along with their own.
"Obviously, they hadn't the least idea
of what was going to happen,
"and I did all I could not to show them
how unhappy I was.
"The children confided
to one of the orderlies"
"that they were all going to have
an injection so they didn't get sick."
The promised infection will,
in fact, be lethal,
the poison supplied by Hitler's doctor.
Tomorrow at 3:00 p.m.
Goebbels and his wife Magda
will murder their children one by one
before killing themselves,
all in honour of Hitler.
As the doctors head back upstairs
to their makeshift hospital,
they pass through the larger,
underground complex
above Hitler's private bunker.
(SOLDIERS LAUGHING)
"There was a kind of contagious
mass-hysteria seeking a group outlet
"There were many hours of angst,
waiting and brooding."
"So many took to drink."
(WOMAN MOANING)
"Drink, in turn, relaxed inhibitions,
releasing animal instincts."
"Many wild, red-eyed women had fled
their apartments in terror of rape,"
rand now threw themselves into the arms
"of the nearest German soldiers
they could find.
"And the soldiers were not unwilling.
"The more discreet retired
to Dr Kuntz's dentist's chair."
"That chair seemed to have had
a special erotic attraction."
"All of this was going on
in the Reich Chancellery.
"And don't forget, some of the bunker
people, Kempka, Burgdorf and Bormann,"
"would cruise out from time to time.
They were in on the binge."
(CLOCK TICKING)
NARRATOR: Martin Bormann, the Nazi party
secretary is, like his master,
still desperately clinging to power.
After conferring with Hitler,
he now sends a message
to one of Hitler's generals,
urging the troops to keep fighting.
It is becoming ever clearer to us
that the divisions
in the combat sector of Berlin
have been marking time for many days
instead of blasting the Führer free.
The Führer orders you to take measures
against all traitors
immediately and ruthlessly.
The Führer lives and leads
the defence of Berlin.
(EXPLOSIONS)
NARRATOR: This order, to deal with
traitors ruthlessly, has been constantly
reiterated by the Nazi leadership
over the last 10 days.
Since the siege of Berlin began,
fanatical SS units
have been daubing graffiti, urging the
German soldiers to fight to the death.
Those that refuse are hanged
for desertion.
By now, the streets are littered with
the corpses of thousands of Germans,
executed by their own side.
But even these extreme measures
cannot halt the Russian advance.
(EXPLOSIONS)
General Frederick Mohnke, the Commandant
of the area around the Relchstag,
now arrives for his regular
6:00 a.m. briefing.
I discovered Hitler sitting
on the edge of his bed,
"wearing a dressing gown
over his pyjamas.
"The bed had not been slept in.
"Hitler gazed blankly at the wall
as I gave my report.
"The Russians have reached the
Wilhelmstrasse about four blocks away."
"On Potsdamer Platz,
the communists are less than 500 metres"
“from the Reich Chancellery.
"He asked me how much longer
I could hold out."
I told Hitler the truth. 'My Führer,
soldier to soldier, I can no longer
"guarantee that my troops can hold
for more than one day."
"I expect a frontal, mass tank attack
tomorrow at dawn, May 1st"
"You know what May 1st means
to the Russians.'"
NARRATOR: Red Army commander Marshall
Zukhov knows he has less than 24 hours
to fulfill Stalin's ultimatum
to storm the Relchstag.
The frontline troops are just 300 metres
from the old German parliament,
but the no man's land that
separates them is heavily defended.
The Russians decide to soften up
the building
with an intense, short-range
artillery barrage.
And now, they open fire
with over 90 guns.
(CLOCK TICKING)
Nursing a hangover,
Martin Bormann has just woken up.
Since he became Hitler's
chief administrator two years ago,
Bormann has controlled all access
to the Führer.
The devious secretary has used his power
to isolate Hitler
from even his closest advisors.
But despite Bormann's machinations,
he has never been able to turn Hitler
against his greatest rival,
Hermann Himmler, the head of the SS.
But for the last two days,
Reuters has been broadcasting rumours
that Himmler has been negotiating
with the enemy.
Although the Reich is imploding,
Bormann sees this as an opportunity
to eliminate his rival
(MARCHING BAND PLAYING)
Hermann Himmler had been
at Hitler's side since the beginning,
and Hitler always considered him
his most trusted lieutenant
Hitler's faith in his loyalty
was so great
that he affectionately called him
"Der True Hermann."
Now Bormann convinces Hitler
that Himmler should be arrested.
The paranoid leader
authorises his request.
Martin Bormann now despatches the order
to have Reichsführer Himmler arrested.
A new treason afoot.
According to enemy radio,
Relchsführer has made
surrender proposal via Sweden.
Führer expects you to act against
all traitors with lightning speed
and as hard as steel
This is the last message
which will ever be sent from the bunker.
Until yesterday, Hitler was relying on
cyanide capsules supplied by Himmler
to commit suicide.
But the news of Himmler's betrayal
prompted Hitler to have the poison
tested on his favourite pet.
Major Otto Günsche,
a career SS officer, was there.
"Blondie, Hitler's dog,
was poisoned in the toilet."
I found the toilet occupied
by Professor Haase
"and Sergeant Tornow,
Hitler's dog trainer."
"Haase was holding in his hands
an ampoule and a pair of pliers."
"Tornow forced her mouth open
and Haase reached into it,"
"crushing the ampoule with his pliers."
(BLONDIE WHIMPERING)
"The cyanide poison
acted almost immediately.
"I'd heard Hitler say that
he wanted to test the poison
"because it had been
given to him by Himmler,"
"and one could no longer
be sure of Himmler."
"Soon after that, Hitler showed up
and went into the toilet
"to make sure Blondie was dead.
"He did not say a word
or betray any emotion."
"A moment later, he disappeared."
(CLOCK TICKING)
(EXPLOSIONS)
NARRATOR: Hitler's secretary is
a war widow at 24.
"The bunker shook with the thundering
of the Russian artillery bombardment."
"We knew that the enemy would
be at the door in a matter of hours."
NARRATOR: When Traudl Junge heard
the news of Himmler's betrayal,
she was with Eva Braun,
Hitler's mistress,
who is also living in the bunker.
This was the scene two days ago.
"Eva Braun was red-eyed with crying
because the wayward Hermann Fegeleln,
"her brother-in-law,
had been condemned to death."
"He was shot like a dog in the grounds
of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs."
NARRATOR: Hermann Fegeleln married
Eva Braun's sister Gretl in 1944,
His boss Himmler was the best man.
When the news of Himmler's betrayal
reached the bunker,
Fegelein tried to flee Berlin.
Hitler had him hunted down and shot.
(GUN FIRES)
Despite the fact that her brother-in-law
had just been executed an hour earlier,
at midnight on the 28th of April,
Eva Braun agreed to marry Adolf Hitler.
"When one speaks of the wedding
ceremony of Hitler and Eva Braun,"
"one tends to imagine
a relatively cheerful occasion."
"But the atmosphere in which it took
place should be taken into account
"Nothing was done to relieve
the sinister decor of the bunker
"beyond moving into a small map room
a table and a few seats.
"It was a union of two people
in extremis.
"Both of whom had already made"
"an irrevocable decision
to take their own lives."
NARRATOR: The service was performed
by Walter Wagner,
who had been brought across Berlin
under incessant fire.
The only other people present
were Goebbels and Bormann,
who acted as witnesses to the marriage.
"While she was signing her name, Eva
began to write the letter B for 'Braun".
"When she realised her mistake,"
"she crossed it out
and wrote 'Eva Hitler'."
NARRATOR: Afterwards there was
a muted party attended by Traudl Junge.
"The wedding feast consisted
of a few bottles of champagne"
and some sandwiches.
"We all stood around the table and
raised our glasses to Eva and Adolf."
"Not a word was spoken."
"How could we toast the future
of the bride and groom?"
(CLOCK TICKING)
(EXPLOSIONS)
NARRATOR: The overall military commander
of Berlin, General Weilding,
knows that with his troops surrounded,
their only hope of survival
is to abandon their positions
around the Relchstag
and attempt to break through
the Russian lines.
But only Hitler can authorise
this action.
I went to the briefing
with a heavy heart
"The struggle was devoid
of sense or purpose."
"The position of our troops
have been entered on the map
"on the basis of reports
by foreign radio stations
"because our own staffs
were no longer reporting them.
"Catastrophe was inevitable. If the
Führer did not reverse his decision
"to defend Berlin to the last man,"
"would he sacrifice all
who were still alive and fighting"
“for the sake of a crazy ideal?
"As before, he refused
to surrender Berlin."
(EXPLOSIONS)
(CLOCK TICKING)
NARRATOR: For two years, Otto Günsche
has been Hitler's adjutant
and trusted aid.
He now takes up the story
inside the bunker.
"Hitler summoned me to his chambers.
"He informed me that
his generals had failed him
"and the Russians were upon us.
"He said he did not want his body
to be displayed in a freak show.
"His use of this expression
was because of the shock"
"of what had happened to Mussolini."
NARRATOR: The Italian fascist had been
Hitler's inspiration
and the two dictators remained friends
throughout the war.
But the news reached the bunker
last night at 10:30 p.m.
Hitler's old friend had been shot by
partisans, and along with his mistress,
Clara Petacel, hung up by his feet
so the crowd could spit on him.
Hitler was determined the same thing
should not happen to him.
"He instructed me to find
as much gasoline as I could,"
"as I was to be personally responsible
for burning his corpse."
I agreed and set about
my macabre task.”
(EXPLOSIONS)
NARRATOR: Above ground,
the citizens of Berlin are starving.
There have been food shortages
for months,
but the siege of the last 10 days
has left them utterly desperate.
This rotten horse is a delicacy
in a city where the population
have been reduced to
making coffee from acorns
and attempting to eat the leather
from their shoes.
With the fighting front now concentrated
around just two square miles
at the centre of the city,
a lucky few in the suburbs
receive food from the Russians.
(CLOCK TICKING)
For the last six months in the bunker,
Hitler has eaten lunch
with his secretaries every day.
Frau Gerda Christian now attends
what will be Hitler's final meal
"It was around 12:30 when my relief,
Traudl Junge, arrived."
"Hitler, for old times' sake,
invited both of us secretaries"
"along with Fraulein Manziarly
to join him for lunch at 1:00."
"We ate at the small table in
Hitler's study, the so-called Map Room.
"It was a melancholy
and rather tasteless repast."
"Spaghetti and a tossed salad."
(EXPLOSIONS)
"Very little was said,
certainly nothing new."
"This was the very last lunch
and everybody knew it"
NARRATOR: Traudl Junge is also present
at the meal.
"The conversation at table
was the same as the day before
"and the day before that,
and for days past.
"Hitler's opinions on
the proper mating of dogs,
"his conviction that French lipstick was
made from grease gathered In the sewers.
"With Hitler soon to be gone,
the breakout would be our only hope.
"This was a harrowing thought
for all three of us women."
"The Berlin rape stories
had given us the shudders."
The second wave of Russian troops
bring perhaps the greatest horror of all
for the female population of Berlin.
Intent on revenge after four years
of war, Hi-disciplined Russian soldiers
have embarked on an orgy of rape.
From the youngest girls
to the eldest grandmothers,
at least 100,000 women were violated
in these final days in Berlin.
As many as 10,000 of them died
as a result, most of them suicides.
Back on the frontline,
the Russian artillery barrage now ends
and the first wave of infantry
begin their assault on the Reichstag,
just 250 metres from Hitler's bunker.
(EXPLOSIONS)
With the Red Army almost at the door,
Hitler summons
his last remaining followers.
All of them are now planning
how they might escape the bunker.
There are no great final words.
Just a muted thank you, a handshake
and a muttered goodbye.
Everyone present knows that
Hitler has in his room
two pistols and two cyanide capsules.
Just as they retire,
Magda Goebbels rushes up.
And now, she suddenly begs Hitler
once more to consider leaving Berlin.
But Hitler refuses.
(DOOR CLOSES)
Now Magda is committed to carry out
her husband's promise.
That if Hitler dies,
they will poison their children
before killing themselves.
Günsche now takes a position
outside Hitler's door to ensure
the double suicide they have been
waiting for is not interrupted.
(CLOCK TICKING)
As Zukhov's troops charge across
the no man's land
in front of the old German parliament,
they suffer heavy losses.
But by sheer weight of numbers,
the Red Army soldiers manage to
fight their way into the building.
The Russians succeed in capturing
a number of German troops
who have been holding out in the cellar.
But as the Red Army reach
the first floor, they are pinned down
by the fanatical SS garrison
who still hold the upper levels.
The Russians have less than seven hours
to complete their mission.
Otto Günsche has been waiting
for 15 minutes.
I did not hear a shot, but I saw Linge
open the door to Hitler's office,
"and Linge and Bormann go inside.
"Things had to happen quickly now
because the Russians were at the door.
"Eva Braun was lying on the sofa.
"The body was completely still,
the eyes were open. Eva Braun was dead.
"Hitler himself sat in an armchair."
"I saw blood and a dark discolouration.
The Führer was dead."
NARRATOR: With the Russians
less than 200 metres away,
Hitler's valet, Waldo Linge,
describes the disposal of the corpses.
"The petrol was immediately
poured over the bodies."
i twisted a piece of paper
which Bormann lit with a match.
"When the petrol caught fire,
a gigantic flame shot upwards."
"All of those present
gave Hitler a final salute."
This was how the 1,000-year Reich
came to an end,
with Hitler's body burning, unattended,
in a bombed-out wasteland.
Seven hours after Hitler's suicide,
men from the 150th Rifle Regiment
make a final attempt to reach the roof
of the old German parliament
After a day of brutal fighting
and enormous casualties,
the standard-bearers finally succeed
in reaching their goal
The Red Flag at last hung triumphantly
from the Relchstag.
Although these pictures were faked
by the Russians two days later,
this actually happened at 10:50 p.m.
on the 30th of April, 1945.
The same day that
Hitler committed suicide.
That bullet meant the German army
could at last surrender
and peace negotiations
began that same evening.
Zukhov had achieved his goal and Stalin
would get his triumphant May Day Parade.
On May 7th, 1945,
the war in Europe was officially over.
The witnesses to Hitler's last hours
were captured by the Allies
and eventually provided
detailed accounts of his death.
At least 40 million people had already
died during Hitler's awful reign,
and in the final apocalyptic days
in Berlin,
Hitler had thrown what was left of
the German people into the flames.
In 1914, a single bullet started
the First World War,
and it was just a single bullet,
less than 31 years later,
which finally brought the era
of global conflict to an end.