War and Remembrance (1988) s01e10 Episode Script
Part X - 6.22.1944 - 10.28.1944
June 22, 1944, And the great day has finally arrived.
Tomorrow the Red Cross comes to view the beautification and to verify that Theresienstadt is indeed the paradise ghetto that the Germans claim it to be.
Clean-up and painting squads are still feverishly working.
The Germans have thought of everything from delivering Red Cross packages withheld for months, to bringing from the Prague storehouses of Jewish loot loads of elegant finery for those inmates who will be on show.
They've even gone so far as to distribute cosmetics and set up a beauty parlor for the women.
Natalie is there right now.
Tomorrow, our newly decorated posh flat will be one of the important stops on the tour, and the noted author, after showing the visitors through the rooms, will offer them cognac then take them to the synagogue and the Judaic library.
The mood in the ghetto's manic.
There are those who believe the Red Cross people won't be fooled by the farce.
Those same optimists believed only 2 short weeks ago that the Americans would soon come smashing through France all the way to Prague and liberate the ghetto, but in fact, Rommel has got the allied invasion bogged down in the Normandy marshes, and the Russians still haven't moved.
Aaron it's happened.
The Russians have attacked.
Another ghetto rumor? l heard it myself, BBC and the Czech language broadcast.
l went to the Dresden barracks where they have the secret radio.
Natalie, you've had serious warning from the SS.
l had to go.
it's true.
Radio Stockholm confirmed it.
A giant attack as big as the Allied invasion of France.
Well this calls for a celebration, don't you think so, Natalie? A few drops less for our Red Cross visitors.
The SS won't mind that, I'm sure.
L'chaim.
L'chaim.
Not bad.
lf the people dared, they'd be dancing in the streets.
They're saying the Germans will collapse in a week.
Perhaps.
Natalie, do you think we ought to still go ahead with Barrel's plans for trying to spirit Louis out of here? He goes.
Nothing will change that.
Well God speed the Russians.
And the Allies.
June 23, 1944.
The beautification tour begins at noon.
it is designed to impress 4 men Franz Hvaas the Danish diplomat who has been pressing Berlin for this visit, Dr.
Jeul Henningson of the Danish Red Cross, Dr.
Martin Rossel of the German office of the international Red Cross in Berlin, Eberhard von Thadden, a German career diplomat.
Thadden handles Jewish affairs in the foreign ministry.
Adolf Eichmann transports Jews to their deaths.
Thadden pries them out of the countries where they hold citizenship and delivers them to Eichmann.
lf you'll come into this other part of the apartment, you'll see that I've got a splendid bedroom with an excellent view of the square and that they're treating me with extreme kindness.
Gentlemen, Let's go.
Allies sardines.
Sardines again, Uncle Rahm.
Gentlemen, congratulations on your successful visit to Theresienstadt, and l wish you a very good journey home.
Prost.
Prost.
Prost.
The tour has taken 8 hours, and history will show that the 6 month effort was well worth it.
Some written reports of the visitors will survive, and on later reading, they will be seen to glow with approbation of the splendid conditions in Theresienstadt.
more like an ideal suburban community, one will sum up, than a concentration camp.
After the war, Franz Hvaas will be challenged in the Danish parliament to explain how he was duped by the Germans.
Hvass will reply that he was not fooled.
He'll say that he could see the visit was staged and that he turned in a favorable report to assure good treatment of the Danish Jews.
He'll maintain that, accusing the Germans of crimes that couldn't be proven in wartime would've only made matters worse for the Jews still alive in their hands.
And so, he kept silent Like many others who knew and kept silent.
The question remains, however, with knowledge of the great secret massacre becoming dally more widespread how could matters have been made worse? They knew it Aaron They knew it was all a fake, You could tell it in their faces and they won't do a thing.
Where have you been? l had to turn back every toy in the pavilion.
Yeah, they came to fetch the cognac, too.
They measured what was left.
They're coming tomorrow to fetch everything else.
People are lined up outside giving back the food and clothes.
The SS are threatening to send anyone keeping anything straight to the little fortress Natalie, your son has been taken to the hospital.
What? What is it? l don't know.
He had a very high fever.
Just come.
Go ahead.
I'll get dressed and follow you immediately.
The diagnoses is typhus.
He's been isolated.
You can't see him.
l will.
l must.
I'm his mother! All right, Mrs.
Henry.
Come with me.
Mrs.
Henry, it's not wise for you to be here.
Not wise? He's my child.
He's sick.
Mrs.
Henry, you know this was all arranged.
Oh, my god.
l didn't realize.
He's in here.
Oh, Louis.
The fever was brought on by an injection.
it will be gone shortly, that l promise you.
By then he'll be dead and gone.
l didn't know it would be Like this.
l may never see him again.
Please let me in to see him.
You must maintain the facade.
You could be risking everything your life and his, if you're seen.
Please just for a moment.
Only for a moment.
Mommy, mommy Mommy, mommy.
Darling.
Darling, l love you.
Mommy, l don't Like it here.
l know But you must be a big, brave boy.
l want you to stay.
l can't.
But it will only be for a Little while, and then mommy will come and find you, and then we won't ever, ever be away from each other again.
You must go to sleep now.
And mommy has to go to the apartment.
Will you sing to me? On the western front, the invasion of France is seriously bogged down.
52,000 Allied troops are dead or wounded.
But in the Pacific, the U.
S.
Naval superiority is assuming overwhelming proportions.
in mid-June, under the command of Admiral Raymond Spruance, the U.
S.
Mounts the biggest assault of the Pacific war in the Marianas to seize Saipan, nearby Tinlan, and recapture Guam, within bombing range of Tokyo.
The imperial Japanese fleet sails in full force to oppose this mortal threat to the homeland, and the resulting action turns into the battle of the Philippine sea.
The Japanese lose at least 400 aircraft and 3 carriers.
in fact, so many enemy planes are shot down that the battle will come to be known as "The great Marianas turkey shoot.
" The defeat will lead to the fall of the Tojo government, and the Japanese will never again be able to mount an effective offensive in the Pacific.
Meanwhile, on the eastern front, the Soviet Union, which launched its attack with 1,200,000 men, 5,000 tanks, and 5,000 airplanes, has, by mid-July, swept across white Russia and is marching deep into Poland, and the Poles rise up in arms to join the Red Army against their German oppressors.
July 1 7, 1944 Field Marshal Erwin Rommel returns to his headquarters from an inspection tour of his embattled Normandy front.
We waited and waited on the 1 5th for the signal from Wolfsschanze.
Everything was set for Valkyrie Paris, Vienna, Berlin everyone on full alert.
You were right there at the Fuhrer's elbow.
Why didn't you do it? Himmler never arrived, so l didn't fuse the bomb.
Next Fuhrer conference is day after tomorrow.
That's the 20th.
Yes, July 20th.
Now, What's this meeting with Beck about? l don't know, but he says it's very urgent.
You've lost your chance.
Why? I'm going there again.
Then you haven't heard.
Heard what? Rommel.
He has been badly wounded.
He may be dead now.
You should have done it when we still had Rommel.
Now what? Gisevius.
is Goerdeler here? Yes.
Good.
I'm glad you're here.
My informant in the Gestapo just told me that a warrant is being processed for your arrest.
it's no more than l expected for months.
Then that settles it.
The whole thing is unraveling.
2 days from now, we'll be living in a different society a free Germany.
How can you proceed without Rommel? Once you're hauled in, can you withstand a Gestapo interrogation? There's your answer.
Our whole enterprise hangs by a hair.
We've crossed the Rubicon.
it's our last chance.
Rommel or no Rommel On July 20th, I'll kill him, and Valkyrie goes.
Hell Hitler.
Your papers, please.
Thank you.
Hell Hitler.
General Fellgiebel.
Stauffenberg, good to see you.
Come into the office.
I'm due in the map room at 1 :00.
Are you ready to notify everyone in Berlin? Yes.
What about the others? All telephone, telegraph, and radio communications will be cut immediately after.
How much time will you have? 1 0 minutes.
Too short.
No.
The bomb mustn't be discovered.
When will you set it? Before l go in.
Himmler and Goring won't be there.
Damn.
No matter.
Roon has returned from Berlin.
He will be there.
l know, but it can't be helped.
Fellgiebel, this will be Germany's greatest day.
Now I'm to report to Keitel's' quarters.
Good thing you're early, Stauffenberg.
The Fuhrer's conference has been put forward to 12:30.
Yes.
Mussolini will arrive by train at 2:30, so military matters will have to be sped along.
You are requested to make your report brief.
l will notify you exactly when l want you to give it.
Are you ready? Come along, Stauffenberg! it's time! Certainly, Herr Field Marshal.
All right, von John.
Allow me, Colonel.
Uh, no, thank you.
Just a moment, Field Marshal.
I'm out of uniform.
l forgot my cap.
The Field Marshal is waiting.
The conference is beginning.
l have misplaced a report.
I'm an expecting an urgent call from my Berlin office important information for the Fuhrer.
Summon me when the call comes.
Ja, Herr von Stauffenberg.
[speaking German.]
Mein Fuhrer, Oberst Stauffenberg has a fine report to make on the home army divisions for east Prussia.
How long? A Little under 3 minutes.
Oberst Graf Stauffenberg, have you seen him? Yes, Herr Field Marshal.
He Left the building not a moment ago.
One minute.
The antichrist is dead.
Quickly.
Berlin, now.
Valkyrie is on! Tell them we're on our way! What's the meaning of this? Raise that barrier! Can't you see what's happened? This is urgent Fuhrer business! I'm sorry, sir.
No one passes without authorization.
Then you shall have it.
Yes.
Colonel Stauffenberg here, Captain.
They're trying to prevent me from passing the first checkpoint.
Yes.
Yes, l appreciate it.
Thank you, Captain.
Thank you.
Lieutenant, you heard.
I'm allowed to pass.
Raise the barrier.
Lieutenant, the barrier! Raise the barrier! Thank you Lieutenant.
Now you will notify the other checkpoints of our approach, Driver.
Who was that on the telephone? No one.
One more to go.
What was it? A plane? it was a bomb, Mein Fuhrer.
Someone planted a bomb.
A bomb? Seal off the compound! Let no one leave! You hear me? No one leaves! Oberst Stauffenberg.
I'm to be allowed through.
Urgent Fuhrer business in Berlin.
I'm sorry, Oberst.
l have orders that no one may Leave the compound.
Your telephone, Schaufuhrer.
Moellendorff? This is Oberst Stauffenberg.
General Fromm is waiting for me at the airfield.
Are we allowed to pass checkpoint 3? Yes.
Yes, thank you, Hauptmann.
You heard, Schaufuhrer.
We're allowed through.
Excuse me, please, Oberst.
l will have to call Hauptmann von Moellendorff myself.
Very well, Schaufuhrer.
By all means, call him.
What are we going to do? Quiet.
Hauptmann von Moellendorff.
This is Schaufuhrer Kolbe at checkpoint 3.
is Oberst Stauffenberg allowed to pass? Thank you.
Oberst, you are authorized to pass.
Thank you, Schaufuhrer.
Raise the barrier! But you weren't talking to anyone.
This time l was.
Where's the Fuhrer? Folgen mir.
Mein Fuhrer.
l came as soon as l could.
Well? Nothing serious, Herr Reichsmarschall, but you must speak up.
His ears are slightly injured.
What happened? A bomb.
A criminal conspiracy, Goring.
They'll all hang Like butchered cattle.
Who did it? That crippled Colonel! With a briefcase bomb! And escaped to the airfield! Stauffenberg? Can you believe it? The alarm is out for him.
We'll get him.
We'll get them all.
Now I've got them where l want them.
Now l can act.
But such a thing? At our own headquarters? it is a turn of fate.
After this miracle of my survival, it is inconceivable that our cause should meet with misfortune.
it will rally the people to me Like nothing else.
And it frees my hands.
Prepare a List, Goring, of those who will die.
With the news that Hitler escaped serious injury, and is still in command the Stauffenberg conspiracy quickly fizzles, and the Berlin uprising is crushed.
That same night, after a few hours of aborted activity, Stauffenberg and some of the others are apprehended.
Sentenced to death by an instant kangaroo court, they will be summarily executed.
Long live holy Germany! And so begins the bloodbath.
Adolf Hitler will slaughter all surviving opposition more than 5,000 Germans, most of them innocent including the last remnants of the old aristocracy, like Count Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg.
On this same night, Hitler's global opponent has a very different turn of destiny.
l present to this convention, for the office of President of these United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
And the banners are really moving now.
This is the wildest demonstration at the convention thus far.
Chicago stadium is on fire with enthusiasm for Roosevelt's fourth term.
Congratulations, Mr.
President.
it will be by acclamation.
Nominated for a fourth term.
Every fiber of my being cries out against doing this.
But, Hitler must be finished off.
July 23.
the war news is becoming glorious.
a group of German generals tried to kill Hitler.
German morale is clearly cracking.
the Anglo-Americans are breaking out of their Normandy bridgehead, and the Russians are driving deep into Poland.
still, all this does little to relieve the macabre gloom in our flats.
Alas, whose ashes are those on the shelf? Natalie has had no word for a month, just the grisly death notice and then the horrible delivery of the small container.
Meantime, there has been a miraculous break here in the ghetto.
the beautification fake was such a success that the SS higher-ups in Berlin decided to repeat it and make a film of it to counteract the mounting allied atrocity propaganda, as Gobbels calls it, about murder, camps, gas chambers.
the film is called the Fuhrer grants the Jews a town.
Combing the concentration camp rosters, Rahm found a Dutch Jew filmmaker who will direct this fraudulent nonsense.
l am writing the script.
in the film, the toddlers' home will be prominently featured.
Good afternoon, Herr Kommandant.
That brat of yours was good.
Very good, your Little brat.
l remember.
Go and get him, so the director can hear the song he sang.
Well? What are you waiting for? l told you to bring him out! I'm sorry, Herr Kommandant, but my son, My son has died.
Died? Yes.
He came down with the typhus.
Well, uhahem.
That's too bad.
Choose another one, but a lively one, one who can sing the Little French song as well as your kid.
l want it in the film.
Da da da dee da da dee da dee da-- remember! Yes Herr Kommandant.
As you wish.
Viens, Alisse.
Ne pas peur, ma cherie.
What a god-given reprieve the film is.
it will take a month to prepare and at least a month to shoot.
And lf somebody in the collapsing Berlin regime doesn't think of countermanding it, the cameras may be inanely grinding away when Russian or American tanks come crashing through the Bolseviche gate.
Thank god this once for the Nazi passion for crude fraud.
That must be Douglas McCarthur.
Reasonable guess, Mr.
President.
Shall we go to my cabin, Chester? President Roosevelt and Admiral Chester Nimitz await the arrival of General Douglas McCarthur.
To be discussed, the future strategy of the Pacific war.
Douglas, where do we go from here? The Philippines, Mr.
President.
Leyte first, then Luzon.
Well, Admiral? Japan has no oil and precious Little food.
She brings it all in from the south, from the Indies and into China.
Cork that bottle, and she can't go on fighting.
How cork that bottle? Bypass the Philippines.
Land on Formosa, or even, as Spruance has suggested, Okinawa.
interdict all jap shipping with sea and air power.
Collapse and surrender has to follow.
National honor demands we first Liberate the Philippines.
Allow me to quote Admiral King.
That would be slowing up the war for mere sentimental reasons.
National honor is a strong sentiment.
Can you take the Philippines with the forces you've got? l can't spare anything from Europe when at Last we've got Hitler on the run.
lf Nimitz will support me with his fast carriers, l will take the Philippines, Mr.
President.
Well, it will all be up to the joint chiefs, of course.
I'll have my rest now, and then, l shall return To this subject.
A sea voyage doesn't make me snap back the way it used to.
You are lucky to be alive.
And so are you.
At least you were wounded in battle.
Such an idiotic mistake, such bungling.
l was always against it.
He should have been arrested and brought to trial.
Now he's a wounded hero.
But now also.
The world knows there is opposition to him.
Possibilities may open up for ending the war.
On the contrary.
l know the man.
After he gets through killing off the opposition, he'll fight until not a house in Germany is Left standing.
This fiasco means the war will drag on at Least for another year.
Then god help Germany.
Amen.
Major General Helmut Stieff.
This fellow takes a good Long while to croak.
He's giving us quite a rope dance.
How many more did you say there were? 7, Mein Fuhrer.
l want this film shown in all army headquarters and every officers' school.
Gentlemen, this is what happens to traitors.
General Lieutenant von Hase.
Lu.
Lu.
in a quarter of an hour.
I'll be dead.
But, father Why did you never say anything? l never suspected.
l did not intend for you to suspect.
in view of my services in Africa, they say l have my choice a trial for high treason.
Or dying of poison.
They brought the stuff with them.
it's fatal in 3 seconds.
The story will be a brain seizure.
And l will get, get a state funeral.
No steps will be taken against my family or staff.
in the Life of a soldier, there's a very difficult line between military loyalty, carrying out orders no matter what.
And criminal stupidity.
Manfred.
Never be a soldier.
Ich muss ihm ihre waffe bitten, Herr Feldmarschall.
August 1 8, 1944.
Filming has begun.
Besides performing in my own library sequence, I've been rewriting the script night and day under the interminable meddling of Rahm.
Thank god for the film, because Eisenhower's armies are once again doing brilliantly.
They've broken out of their Normandy entrapment and are now racing across France.
This war could end any day now.
it was during one of the rehearsals that l received the news that made this the brightest day in all my years.
Oh, thank god.
He's alive.
He looks so well, so beautiful.
Thank god.
Yes.
Thank god, indeed.
And Berel Jastrow.
The Allied triumphant dash across France continues.
On August 25th, Paris is liberated.
At the same time, the Red Army, with the support of Titus' Yugoslav partisans, is driving deep into the Balkans.
By the end of the month, Romania and the Plolestl oil fields fall.
Bulgaria withdraws.
Elsewhere, Finland capitulates, and by September 1 st, the red army stands on the Bulgarian frontier, before the iron gate of the Danube.
Meanwhile, Field Marshal Montgomery's combined British and Canadian forces smash into Belgium and Holland.
September 3rd.
Brussels falls.
Antwerpthe following day.
And Patton's third army takes Verdun.
On the western front alone, German armies have lost over a million men in killed, wounded, and captured.
And almost all of their tanks, artillery, and trucks.
And as the month of September unfolds, American forces reach the German border, before Aachen, on the Moselle, but there they stop.
And in the east, the Russian sweep across Poland is finally halted at the Vistula, opposite Warsaw.
Overextended supply lines and stiffening German resistance finally brings the whole Allied offensive to a grinding halt.
The astounded German high command calls it the September miracle.
But elsewhere in Poland, the Red Army has overrun a vast extermination camp called Majdanek.
The Russians bring in 30 correspondents for the world's first glimpse of the final solution.
But the BBC refuses to run the story, dismissing it as a Soviet propaganda stunt, and the American press is just as skeptical.
inconceivable, says the New York Herald Tribune.
And Majdanek is burled on the back pages.
We'll lose this Line.
it doesn't mean anything anymore.
You have 5 days to finish the film, and not a day more.
But, Herr Kommandant, we will not be able to photograph your best scenes.
Photograph what you can.
5 days.
Finish.
The Majdanek exposures.
Moscow radio's been endlessly rebroadcasting the horrible details.
Our reprieve expires in Less than a week.
Then what? September 25, 1944.
5 a.
m.
The fourth transport since the end of filming 11 days ago leaves in a few hours, and that will be the end of my Theresienstadt Talmud class, for Yurl, Joshua, and Jan are going.
We stayed up all night studying because the boys wanted to learn until the last.
As dawn began to break, l closed the old volume, Joshua, the brightest of my 3 remaining lads, asked me a question that abruptly yanked me back to the present.
Rabbi, are we all going to be gassed? No.
No, Joshua.
You're going to be joining your father.
And you boys, Yuri and Jan, your eider brothers, at a building project near Dresden.
That is what we of the council have been informed, and l firmly believe it to be true.
The fifth transport? You said the Germans promised the fourth was the Last.
Ordered not 2 hours after the fourth one Left.
1 ,1 00 people.
We've been working on the lists for hours.
Whole families will be broken up.
Large numbers of the sick and women with small children will have to go.
lf Louis was here, I'd probably have to go, too.
Well, l will not yield to despair.
Hitler's Reich is falling.
The civilized world may yet smash into the lunatic enclave of Nazi Europe in time to save our realm.
No matter what happens, I'm going to survive.
And I'm going to find Louis.
Dearest Victor, I'm sorry, darling, but I'm going to write about nothing but death.
3 shocks have struck in just 2 weeks.
Duncan Berne-Wilke has died, swept away by pneumonia.
The other 2 Philip Rule and Leslie Slote.
Dear god, I'm tortured by guilt over Duncan.
lf I'd stayed on at Stoneford, cared for him, said nothing, maybe he wouldn't have sickened and died.
But I'll never know, will l? Oh, Victor, this fall has been altogether awful.
The buzz bombs were bad enough, but these new horrors huge rockets that fall without a sound have thrown us into a funk.
After all the wretched years of war, after the great Normandy landings and the sweep through France with Victory apparently days away, we're back in the blitz.
it's just too damned much, the sirens, the all night fires, the explosions, the rubble, the civilian death lists all over again ghastly.
it was a V-2 rocket that killed Phil Rule, poor thing.
it blew the newsmen's pub he haunted to smithereens, leaving nothing but a crater.
And Leslie Slote.
Another pointless death.
Perhaps a tragically predictable end to those sudden heroics of his.
Dying in a Brittany port that Eisenhower's had already bypassed, leaving the German garrison to wither.
A death of sheer waste.
Oh, Victor, I'm sorry.
l didn't mean to scribble such a depressing letter to you.
l might have good news later lf my resignation from the Waafs is accepted and l can join you.
it's in the works.
Horribly unpatriotic, but l may just pull it off.
l don't really expect to be knocked on head by a V-2.
lf l should be, it's a quick, painless exit from this crazed world.
l only want to live to love you.
Everything else is gone, but that's enough to build on for me.
All my love, Pamela.
Come in.
Admiral, Captain Oliver reports we'll moor at 0830 in Ulithi, north Anchorage.
Very well.
Op-order and filing briefs for Admiral Halsey's battle conference, sir.
Set for 1 030 aboard the New Jersey.
Order my barge at 0830.
Aye, aye, sir.
We have a harbor circuit dispatch from the Barracuda's commanding officer in the south Anchorage.
The Barracuda? He requests permission to see you.
isn't your son the X-EC of the Barracuda? He isor he was, the Last l heard.
Reply C.
O.
Barracuda.
My barge will fetch you 1 700.
Dinner my quarters.
aye-aye, sir.
Gentlemen, the japs are hardily likely to stand idly by while McCarthur recaptures the Philippines and cuts off all that oil, metal, food.
I'm betting they'll send every warship they've got to stop those Leyte landings.
And if they don't, l may just have to go out looking for them.
Now's the time to finish the japs now, when they're losing their grip, even with their tails.
Mick Carney will take questions on the op-order.
Marc Mitscher.
At the Marianas turkey shoot, we Let the jap fleet escape because our mission was to protect the Saipan Landings.
That was Admiral Spruance's decision.
Will it happen again? I'll answer that.
Let me read to you, gentlemen, verbatim from Admiral Nimitz' directive to me.
Your battle force will cover and support forces under General McCarthur in the seizure of objectives in the Philippines.
Howeverhowever, in case opportunity for destruction of major portions of the enemy fleet is offered or can be created, such destruction becomes the primary task.
l had one hell of a job getting that put into my orders for Leyte gulf.
But there it stands.
Therefore, we know why we're going to Leyte.
To annihilate the Japanese fleet if opportunity offers.
This time, they don't escape.
Pug Henry.
Well, I'm sort of junior here Fresh blood, gentlemen.
Go ahead.
Speak your piece.
Spruance stayed close to Saipan to prevent the japs making an end run and wiping out the landing.
That was his reasoning.
Well, don't we run such a risk here again? Pug, when we get through hitting them, there won't be any japs to make an end run.
Admiral, your barge is approaching.
Request permission to come aboard.
Permission granted.
Admiral.
Commander.
Log my visitor aboard.
Commanding officer of the Barracuda, SS 204, Lieutenant Commander Byron Henry, USNR.
Aye, aye, sir.
When did all this happen? As a matter of fact, only 3 days ago.
The size of the Iowa, dad, what a beauty.
Yeah, she's put together Like a Swiss watch.
Maybe we'll mosey around Later.
I'm pretty tight for time.
Come on over here.
You don't get a view Like that from a submarine.
Doesn't it beat anything in history? Eisenhower's fleet was bigger for crossing to Normandy, but for striking power you're right the earth has never seen its Like.
Think the japs will come? Halsey's tongue is hanging out, hoping they will.
Well, if they do, Halsey will cream them.
We outnumber them, but they're tricky.
lf they manage to crush McCarthur's Landing, it becomes a different war.
Come on, let's go have dinner.
Some setup.
it beats a desk in Washington.
Yeah.
Who is that? isn't that Pam Tudsbury? Byron, it's a Long story.
I'll explain over dinner.
it's your Life.
l don't think it needs much explanation.
l think l wrote you about this.
Oh, the Red Cross photo.
Yeah.
Well, they both certainly look very well.
How big that boy is.
it was taken in June.
God knows what's happened since.
Red Cross ignores my letters.
The State Department's a total blank.
Well, just seeing this does my heart good.
Sit down.
We'll have dinner.
No, thanks.
I'd better get back.
We sortie at 0500.
Byron, dinner takes 1 5 minutes.
Ok.
1 5 minutes.
I'll see to it.
Aren't you one of the first reserve skippers in the whole submarine fleet? Being your son didn't hurt my chances much.
You had to have the record.
How did it happen? The skipper took sick out on station off Sibutu.
l figured subpac would send out a C.
O.
, but they sent an EX.
O.
l got the orders.
I'm still not used to it.
You still have mom's picture that used to be in that frame? lf you do, I'll take it.
l have it, but not here.
What happened between you 2 anyway? Well, son, the war.
Did mom ask for the divorce to marry this Peters, or did you because of her? Briny, don't Look for someone to blame.
About Pamela.
She's young.
l know that.
it may not come off, but l l said it's your Life.
Ok? I'm sorry you're taking it l came for a shot in the arm.
instead, l get this.
Briny, what is it? l don't know if I'm fit for command.
Comsubpac thinks you are.
Comsubpac can't Look into my mind.
What's your problem? Possible instability under combat stress.
Briny, you're cool by nature, under severest stress.
l know that.
l Lost Aster.
You did what you could.
Briny This whole thing with Natalie and Louis is making me nuts.
And your divorce hasn't helped matters either.
l can take the Barracuda back to Saipan and ask for relief or go out on a Lifeguard station off Formosa for the air strikes.
What do l do? Only you can make that decision.
You were willing to decide my Life for me.
lf you hadn't pushed me into sub school, flown to Miami the day l proposed to Natalie and forced the issue, she and Louis wouldn't be in Europe now, if they're alive.
Briny, l regret what l did.
At the time, it seemed right.
Ok.
Ok.
I'm sorry.
l shouldn't have brought it up.
Briny, when l was in bad shape myself, l requested the Northhampton.
To me, a command at sea made Life more bearable, because it was so all-absorbing.
I'm not a professional Like you.
l better get back to my boat.
There's something else.
My EX.
O.
's an academy man.
Taking orders from me grates on him.
Judge him by his performance at sea, not what he feels.
Well, l guess this is it.
Briny, we may be headed to the greatest sea fight in history, both of us.
Good luck and good hunting.
Goodbye, dad.
Request permission to Leave the ship, sir.
Permission granted.
The U.
S.
Sixth army, with massive naval support, lands more than 100,000 troops inside Leyte gulf.
And so General Douglas McCarthur's 2 1/2 year-old promise "l shall return," is fulfilled.
in a desperate gamble to smash the invasion, Japan orders nearly its entire fleet to sea.
And on the morning of October 23rd, the curtain rises on the most massive fleet battle in the history of naval warfare.
in addition to her warships, Japan has dispatched a new weapon to Leyte The divine wind kamikaze plots, whose suicidal plunges into their targets will, before the war is over, sink 34 U.
S.
Ships and damage 290 others.
The battle will rage 4 days and 4 nights across 1,000 square miles of Philippine waters.
inexcusable blunders will be made on both sides.
But in the end, the Japanese are finally defeated and turned back, while the McCarthur landings go unscathed.
American Leyte losses amount to fewer than 10 vessels.
The Japanese lose 3 battleships, 4 aircraft carriers, 5 heavy cruisers, and more than 1 4 lesser warships.
For the imperial navy, it is the final disaster.
Beaten and broken, that fleet will never sail again.
This strange and tarnished victory only proves to me the subhuman stupidly of warfare in our age of science and industry.
The technology and means now dwarf the results.
Ether war is finished, or we are.
Theresienstadt is a desolate and terrible scene.
Perhaps 1 2,000 people are left, and any hope of rescue by the stalled allied armies has sadly faded.
in less than a month, since the filming ended, the trains have taken away almost 20,000.
I've lost track of how many I've condemned to the east by my own hand.
All those who have gone were under the age of 55.
Above that age, one is still safe.
There is no hot food, not even the wretched slops of yesterday.
Garbage piles up because there is no one left to remove lt.
The hospitals are empty for all the sick were transported.
The gimcrackery of the beautification is falling apart in the harsh weather.
The music that was once so much a part of dally life here is vanished.
Despite dire warnings by the SS, the old people pilfer the planks of what is left for firewood.
There have been other changes as well.
The new high elder who replaced the mysteriously vanished Epstein is his old deputy, Dr.
Murmelsteln of Vienna, the former rabbi and university lecturer.
I'm sure the SS put him up to designating me as his chief deputy.
He worked on me for hours with a wearisome flood of arguments.
only this office stands between our people and the cruel hand of the Germans.
As for myself, who has worked more unceasingly to reduce hardship and to save lives, often times at great personal risk.
Those efforts must continue, and l must have your help.
Whatever good this council of eiders has been able to do to help our people, it was never very much.
All we're doing now is trying to save our necks.
Selfishly trying to postpone our own fate.
By organizing and sending out the transports no! l simply will no longer be a party to it.
l refuse to be deputy to your dirty work.
I'm done with it for good.
You realize what you risk? I've lived my Life.
Whatever my frail old body must endure, I'm prepared to risk it.
Professor, l am utterly incapable of continuing on alone.
You don't know the burdens of this office.
They are overpowering.
l was counting on your help.
l respect you more than anyone else in the ghetto You, a scholar Like me.
lf the burdens of this office are too great for you, do the same thing as l do.
Lay them down.
And as for your flattering regard for me, well, perhaps the SS will arrange for us 2 fellow scholars to share the same train together on our journey to the east.
Good day to you.
My words to Murmelsteln were no false bravado.
l have not become any braver, but there really are things worse than pain, worse than dying.
Besides, a Jew in the grip of Germans probably has no way in the long run of escaping pain or death, unless the outside world rescues him.
He may as well do what is right.
We Leave on the 28th of October on the 11th transport.
I'm ready to go, but l had hoped that your job in the mica factory would continue to protect you.
Of course, l can go back to Murmelstein, say that l acted too hastily, I've thought it over.
No.
You must go on Living, for Louis' sake.
l don't want you to protect me by sending Jews off in trains.
We both know that the transports will go in any case.
Not by your hand.
[speaking Hebrew.]
from the Taimud, my dear.
''Let yourself be killed But do not kill.
'' Sounds Like common decency to me.
Yes.
it is.
l, Aaron Jastrow the Jew, in my 72nd year, am going to my death.
l have heard that strong young people are spared to work in Oswiecim, so my niece may survive.
l began this record of a journey aboard a vessel docked in Naples harbor in December, 1941.
Mischance and misjudgments brought myself and my niece to Theresienstadt.
Here l have seen German barbarism and duplicity with my own eyes, and have tried to record the truth the best l could.
millions of Jews, l now believe, have already perished at German hands.
A million or more of these must have been little children.
the world will be a long time fathoming this fact about human nature, this thing that the Germans have done.
l am terribly afraid of dying.
l am bowed to the ground by the tragedy of my people, but l have experienced a strange, bitter happiness in Theresienstadt that l missed as an American professor and a fashionable author living in a Tuscan villa.
Degraded, hungry, oppressed, beaten, frightened, l found my god and my self-respect.
l have taught bright-eyed, sharp-minded Jewish boys the Talmud.
l don't know whether one of them still lives, but the words of the Talmud lived on our lips and burned in our minds.
l was born to carry that flame.
Now l will return to Oswiecim, and there the Jew's journey will end.
l am ready.
These scattered notes, much more than anything else l have written, must serve as the mark over the emptiness that will be my grave.
Hopefully, someday they will be discovered, but probably not until long after the war, when wreckers or renovators may come and let sunlight into the walls and crevices of these mournful old buildings.
Earth, cover not their blood.
Aaron Jastrow, October the 28th, 1944, Theresienstadt.
The last transport to Auschwitz.
Knowing the war is lost, SS Chief Heinrich Himmler, in a desperate attempt to save his own neck, is about to order the gassings halted, but bureaucratic delay in reversing policy will allow this last train to roll.
Dr.
Jastrow! You will ride up ahead in the passenger coach.
I'd rather stay with my niece.
Don't argue.
Who are you? He's one of the eiders, Leon Carmel.
Head of the transport section.
Go where you are told.
Einsteigen.
Sei mutig.
Keep up your spirits.
Here.
The SS? Go.
Oh, Dr.
Jastrow.
May l take your bag for you? Thank you very much.
Please, sit down.
Why are we traveling with the SS? We are the prominents, aren't we? Well, it will be a Long journey.
3 days.
You're being transported ? You? l signed my own gray card.
What have you heard, Natalie? Where are we supposed to be going? l don't know.
Direction of Dresden, the Germans said.
To a work camp.
You believe the Germans? We will watch the stations we pass.
Dresden is north.
We will soon know.
So Long as it's not Auschwitz.
Tomorrow the Red Cross comes to view the beautification and to verify that Theresienstadt is indeed the paradise ghetto that the Germans claim it to be.
Clean-up and painting squads are still feverishly working.
The Germans have thought of everything from delivering Red Cross packages withheld for months, to bringing from the Prague storehouses of Jewish loot loads of elegant finery for those inmates who will be on show.
They've even gone so far as to distribute cosmetics and set up a beauty parlor for the women.
Natalie is there right now.
Tomorrow, our newly decorated posh flat will be one of the important stops on the tour, and the noted author, after showing the visitors through the rooms, will offer them cognac then take them to the synagogue and the Judaic library.
The mood in the ghetto's manic.
There are those who believe the Red Cross people won't be fooled by the farce.
Those same optimists believed only 2 short weeks ago that the Americans would soon come smashing through France all the way to Prague and liberate the ghetto, but in fact, Rommel has got the allied invasion bogged down in the Normandy marshes, and the Russians still haven't moved.
Aaron it's happened.
The Russians have attacked.
Another ghetto rumor? l heard it myself, BBC and the Czech language broadcast.
l went to the Dresden barracks where they have the secret radio.
Natalie, you've had serious warning from the SS.
l had to go.
it's true.
Radio Stockholm confirmed it.
A giant attack as big as the Allied invasion of France.
Well this calls for a celebration, don't you think so, Natalie? A few drops less for our Red Cross visitors.
The SS won't mind that, I'm sure.
L'chaim.
L'chaim.
Not bad.
lf the people dared, they'd be dancing in the streets.
They're saying the Germans will collapse in a week.
Perhaps.
Natalie, do you think we ought to still go ahead with Barrel's plans for trying to spirit Louis out of here? He goes.
Nothing will change that.
Well God speed the Russians.
And the Allies.
June 23, 1944.
The beautification tour begins at noon.
it is designed to impress 4 men Franz Hvaas the Danish diplomat who has been pressing Berlin for this visit, Dr.
Jeul Henningson of the Danish Red Cross, Dr.
Martin Rossel of the German office of the international Red Cross in Berlin, Eberhard von Thadden, a German career diplomat.
Thadden handles Jewish affairs in the foreign ministry.
Adolf Eichmann transports Jews to their deaths.
Thadden pries them out of the countries where they hold citizenship and delivers them to Eichmann.
lf you'll come into this other part of the apartment, you'll see that I've got a splendid bedroom with an excellent view of the square and that they're treating me with extreme kindness.
Gentlemen, Let's go.
Allies sardines.
Sardines again, Uncle Rahm.
Gentlemen, congratulations on your successful visit to Theresienstadt, and l wish you a very good journey home.
Prost.
Prost.
Prost.
The tour has taken 8 hours, and history will show that the 6 month effort was well worth it.
Some written reports of the visitors will survive, and on later reading, they will be seen to glow with approbation of the splendid conditions in Theresienstadt.
more like an ideal suburban community, one will sum up, than a concentration camp.
After the war, Franz Hvaas will be challenged in the Danish parliament to explain how he was duped by the Germans.
Hvass will reply that he was not fooled.
He'll say that he could see the visit was staged and that he turned in a favorable report to assure good treatment of the Danish Jews.
He'll maintain that, accusing the Germans of crimes that couldn't be proven in wartime would've only made matters worse for the Jews still alive in their hands.
And so, he kept silent Like many others who knew and kept silent.
The question remains, however, with knowledge of the great secret massacre becoming dally more widespread how could matters have been made worse? They knew it Aaron They knew it was all a fake, You could tell it in their faces and they won't do a thing.
Where have you been? l had to turn back every toy in the pavilion.
Yeah, they came to fetch the cognac, too.
They measured what was left.
They're coming tomorrow to fetch everything else.
People are lined up outside giving back the food and clothes.
The SS are threatening to send anyone keeping anything straight to the little fortress Natalie, your son has been taken to the hospital.
What? What is it? l don't know.
He had a very high fever.
Just come.
Go ahead.
I'll get dressed and follow you immediately.
The diagnoses is typhus.
He's been isolated.
You can't see him.
l will.
l must.
I'm his mother! All right, Mrs.
Henry.
Come with me.
Mrs.
Henry, it's not wise for you to be here.
Not wise? He's my child.
He's sick.
Mrs.
Henry, you know this was all arranged.
Oh, my god.
l didn't realize.
He's in here.
Oh, Louis.
The fever was brought on by an injection.
it will be gone shortly, that l promise you.
By then he'll be dead and gone.
l didn't know it would be Like this.
l may never see him again.
Please let me in to see him.
You must maintain the facade.
You could be risking everything your life and his, if you're seen.
Please just for a moment.
Only for a moment.
Mommy, mommy Mommy, mommy.
Darling.
Darling, l love you.
Mommy, l don't Like it here.
l know But you must be a big, brave boy.
l want you to stay.
l can't.
But it will only be for a Little while, and then mommy will come and find you, and then we won't ever, ever be away from each other again.
You must go to sleep now.
And mommy has to go to the apartment.
Will you sing to me? On the western front, the invasion of France is seriously bogged down.
52,000 Allied troops are dead or wounded.
But in the Pacific, the U.
S.
Naval superiority is assuming overwhelming proportions.
in mid-June, under the command of Admiral Raymond Spruance, the U.
S.
Mounts the biggest assault of the Pacific war in the Marianas to seize Saipan, nearby Tinlan, and recapture Guam, within bombing range of Tokyo.
The imperial Japanese fleet sails in full force to oppose this mortal threat to the homeland, and the resulting action turns into the battle of the Philippine sea.
The Japanese lose at least 400 aircraft and 3 carriers.
in fact, so many enemy planes are shot down that the battle will come to be known as "The great Marianas turkey shoot.
" The defeat will lead to the fall of the Tojo government, and the Japanese will never again be able to mount an effective offensive in the Pacific.
Meanwhile, on the eastern front, the Soviet Union, which launched its attack with 1,200,000 men, 5,000 tanks, and 5,000 airplanes, has, by mid-July, swept across white Russia and is marching deep into Poland, and the Poles rise up in arms to join the Red Army against their German oppressors.
July 1 7, 1944 Field Marshal Erwin Rommel returns to his headquarters from an inspection tour of his embattled Normandy front.
We waited and waited on the 1 5th for the signal from Wolfsschanze.
Everything was set for Valkyrie Paris, Vienna, Berlin everyone on full alert.
You were right there at the Fuhrer's elbow.
Why didn't you do it? Himmler never arrived, so l didn't fuse the bomb.
Next Fuhrer conference is day after tomorrow.
That's the 20th.
Yes, July 20th.
Now, What's this meeting with Beck about? l don't know, but he says it's very urgent.
You've lost your chance.
Why? I'm going there again.
Then you haven't heard.
Heard what? Rommel.
He has been badly wounded.
He may be dead now.
You should have done it when we still had Rommel.
Now what? Gisevius.
is Goerdeler here? Yes.
Good.
I'm glad you're here.
My informant in the Gestapo just told me that a warrant is being processed for your arrest.
it's no more than l expected for months.
Then that settles it.
The whole thing is unraveling.
2 days from now, we'll be living in a different society a free Germany.
How can you proceed without Rommel? Once you're hauled in, can you withstand a Gestapo interrogation? There's your answer.
Our whole enterprise hangs by a hair.
We've crossed the Rubicon.
it's our last chance.
Rommel or no Rommel On July 20th, I'll kill him, and Valkyrie goes.
Hell Hitler.
Your papers, please.
Thank you.
Hell Hitler.
General Fellgiebel.
Stauffenberg, good to see you.
Come into the office.
I'm due in the map room at 1 :00.
Are you ready to notify everyone in Berlin? Yes.
What about the others? All telephone, telegraph, and radio communications will be cut immediately after.
How much time will you have? 1 0 minutes.
Too short.
No.
The bomb mustn't be discovered.
When will you set it? Before l go in.
Himmler and Goring won't be there.
Damn.
No matter.
Roon has returned from Berlin.
He will be there.
l know, but it can't be helped.
Fellgiebel, this will be Germany's greatest day.
Now I'm to report to Keitel's' quarters.
Good thing you're early, Stauffenberg.
The Fuhrer's conference has been put forward to 12:30.
Yes.
Mussolini will arrive by train at 2:30, so military matters will have to be sped along.
You are requested to make your report brief.
l will notify you exactly when l want you to give it.
Are you ready? Come along, Stauffenberg! it's time! Certainly, Herr Field Marshal.
All right, von John.
Allow me, Colonel.
Uh, no, thank you.
Just a moment, Field Marshal.
I'm out of uniform.
l forgot my cap.
The Field Marshal is waiting.
The conference is beginning.
l have misplaced a report.
I'm an expecting an urgent call from my Berlin office important information for the Fuhrer.
Summon me when the call comes.
Ja, Herr von Stauffenberg.
[speaking German.]
Mein Fuhrer, Oberst Stauffenberg has a fine report to make on the home army divisions for east Prussia.
How long? A Little under 3 minutes.
Oberst Graf Stauffenberg, have you seen him? Yes, Herr Field Marshal.
He Left the building not a moment ago.
One minute.
The antichrist is dead.
Quickly.
Berlin, now.
Valkyrie is on! Tell them we're on our way! What's the meaning of this? Raise that barrier! Can't you see what's happened? This is urgent Fuhrer business! I'm sorry, sir.
No one passes without authorization.
Then you shall have it.
Yes.
Colonel Stauffenberg here, Captain.
They're trying to prevent me from passing the first checkpoint.
Yes.
Yes, l appreciate it.
Thank you, Captain.
Thank you.
Lieutenant, you heard.
I'm allowed to pass.
Raise the barrier.
Lieutenant, the barrier! Raise the barrier! Thank you Lieutenant.
Now you will notify the other checkpoints of our approach, Driver.
Who was that on the telephone? No one.
One more to go.
What was it? A plane? it was a bomb, Mein Fuhrer.
Someone planted a bomb.
A bomb? Seal off the compound! Let no one leave! You hear me? No one leaves! Oberst Stauffenberg.
I'm to be allowed through.
Urgent Fuhrer business in Berlin.
I'm sorry, Oberst.
l have orders that no one may Leave the compound.
Your telephone, Schaufuhrer.
Moellendorff? This is Oberst Stauffenberg.
General Fromm is waiting for me at the airfield.
Are we allowed to pass checkpoint 3? Yes.
Yes, thank you, Hauptmann.
You heard, Schaufuhrer.
We're allowed through.
Excuse me, please, Oberst.
l will have to call Hauptmann von Moellendorff myself.
Very well, Schaufuhrer.
By all means, call him.
What are we going to do? Quiet.
Hauptmann von Moellendorff.
This is Schaufuhrer Kolbe at checkpoint 3.
is Oberst Stauffenberg allowed to pass? Thank you.
Oberst, you are authorized to pass.
Thank you, Schaufuhrer.
Raise the barrier! But you weren't talking to anyone.
This time l was.
Where's the Fuhrer? Folgen mir.
Mein Fuhrer.
l came as soon as l could.
Well? Nothing serious, Herr Reichsmarschall, but you must speak up.
His ears are slightly injured.
What happened? A bomb.
A criminal conspiracy, Goring.
They'll all hang Like butchered cattle.
Who did it? That crippled Colonel! With a briefcase bomb! And escaped to the airfield! Stauffenberg? Can you believe it? The alarm is out for him.
We'll get him.
We'll get them all.
Now I've got them where l want them.
Now l can act.
But such a thing? At our own headquarters? it is a turn of fate.
After this miracle of my survival, it is inconceivable that our cause should meet with misfortune.
it will rally the people to me Like nothing else.
And it frees my hands.
Prepare a List, Goring, of those who will die.
With the news that Hitler escaped serious injury, and is still in command the Stauffenberg conspiracy quickly fizzles, and the Berlin uprising is crushed.
That same night, after a few hours of aborted activity, Stauffenberg and some of the others are apprehended.
Sentenced to death by an instant kangaroo court, they will be summarily executed.
Long live holy Germany! And so begins the bloodbath.
Adolf Hitler will slaughter all surviving opposition more than 5,000 Germans, most of them innocent including the last remnants of the old aristocracy, like Count Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg.
On this same night, Hitler's global opponent has a very different turn of destiny.
l present to this convention, for the office of President of these United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
And the banners are really moving now.
This is the wildest demonstration at the convention thus far.
Chicago stadium is on fire with enthusiasm for Roosevelt's fourth term.
Congratulations, Mr.
President.
it will be by acclamation.
Nominated for a fourth term.
Every fiber of my being cries out against doing this.
But, Hitler must be finished off.
July 23.
the war news is becoming glorious.
a group of German generals tried to kill Hitler.
German morale is clearly cracking.
the Anglo-Americans are breaking out of their Normandy bridgehead, and the Russians are driving deep into Poland.
still, all this does little to relieve the macabre gloom in our flats.
Alas, whose ashes are those on the shelf? Natalie has had no word for a month, just the grisly death notice and then the horrible delivery of the small container.
Meantime, there has been a miraculous break here in the ghetto.
the beautification fake was such a success that the SS higher-ups in Berlin decided to repeat it and make a film of it to counteract the mounting allied atrocity propaganda, as Gobbels calls it, about murder, camps, gas chambers.
the film is called the Fuhrer grants the Jews a town.
Combing the concentration camp rosters, Rahm found a Dutch Jew filmmaker who will direct this fraudulent nonsense.
l am writing the script.
in the film, the toddlers' home will be prominently featured.
Good afternoon, Herr Kommandant.
That brat of yours was good.
Very good, your Little brat.
l remember.
Go and get him, so the director can hear the song he sang.
Well? What are you waiting for? l told you to bring him out! I'm sorry, Herr Kommandant, but my son, My son has died.
Died? Yes.
He came down with the typhus.
Well, uhahem.
That's too bad.
Choose another one, but a lively one, one who can sing the Little French song as well as your kid.
l want it in the film.
Da da da dee da da dee da dee da-- remember! Yes Herr Kommandant.
As you wish.
Viens, Alisse.
Ne pas peur, ma cherie.
What a god-given reprieve the film is.
it will take a month to prepare and at least a month to shoot.
And lf somebody in the collapsing Berlin regime doesn't think of countermanding it, the cameras may be inanely grinding away when Russian or American tanks come crashing through the Bolseviche gate.
Thank god this once for the Nazi passion for crude fraud.
That must be Douglas McCarthur.
Reasonable guess, Mr.
President.
Shall we go to my cabin, Chester? President Roosevelt and Admiral Chester Nimitz await the arrival of General Douglas McCarthur.
To be discussed, the future strategy of the Pacific war.
Douglas, where do we go from here? The Philippines, Mr.
President.
Leyte first, then Luzon.
Well, Admiral? Japan has no oil and precious Little food.
She brings it all in from the south, from the Indies and into China.
Cork that bottle, and she can't go on fighting.
How cork that bottle? Bypass the Philippines.
Land on Formosa, or even, as Spruance has suggested, Okinawa.
interdict all jap shipping with sea and air power.
Collapse and surrender has to follow.
National honor demands we first Liberate the Philippines.
Allow me to quote Admiral King.
That would be slowing up the war for mere sentimental reasons.
National honor is a strong sentiment.
Can you take the Philippines with the forces you've got? l can't spare anything from Europe when at Last we've got Hitler on the run.
lf Nimitz will support me with his fast carriers, l will take the Philippines, Mr.
President.
Well, it will all be up to the joint chiefs, of course.
I'll have my rest now, and then, l shall return To this subject.
A sea voyage doesn't make me snap back the way it used to.
You are lucky to be alive.
And so are you.
At least you were wounded in battle.
Such an idiotic mistake, such bungling.
l was always against it.
He should have been arrested and brought to trial.
Now he's a wounded hero.
But now also.
The world knows there is opposition to him.
Possibilities may open up for ending the war.
On the contrary.
l know the man.
After he gets through killing off the opposition, he'll fight until not a house in Germany is Left standing.
This fiasco means the war will drag on at Least for another year.
Then god help Germany.
Amen.
Major General Helmut Stieff.
This fellow takes a good Long while to croak.
He's giving us quite a rope dance.
How many more did you say there were? 7, Mein Fuhrer.
l want this film shown in all army headquarters and every officers' school.
Gentlemen, this is what happens to traitors.
General Lieutenant von Hase.
Lu.
Lu.
in a quarter of an hour.
I'll be dead.
But, father Why did you never say anything? l never suspected.
l did not intend for you to suspect.
in view of my services in Africa, they say l have my choice a trial for high treason.
Or dying of poison.
They brought the stuff with them.
it's fatal in 3 seconds.
The story will be a brain seizure.
And l will get, get a state funeral.
No steps will be taken against my family or staff.
in the Life of a soldier, there's a very difficult line between military loyalty, carrying out orders no matter what.
And criminal stupidity.
Manfred.
Never be a soldier.
Ich muss ihm ihre waffe bitten, Herr Feldmarschall.
August 1 8, 1944.
Filming has begun.
Besides performing in my own library sequence, I've been rewriting the script night and day under the interminable meddling of Rahm.
Thank god for the film, because Eisenhower's armies are once again doing brilliantly.
They've broken out of their Normandy entrapment and are now racing across France.
This war could end any day now.
it was during one of the rehearsals that l received the news that made this the brightest day in all my years.
Oh, thank god.
He's alive.
He looks so well, so beautiful.
Thank god.
Yes.
Thank god, indeed.
And Berel Jastrow.
The Allied triumphant dash across France continues.
On August 25th, Paris is liberated.
At the same time, the Red Army, with the support of Titus' Yugoslav partisans, is driving deep into the Balkans.
By the end of the month, Romania and the Plolestl oil fields fall.
Bulgaria withdraws.
Elsewhere, Finland capitulates, and by September 1 st, the red army stands on the Bulgarian frontier, before the iron gate of the Danube.
Meanwhile, Field Marshal Montgomery's combined British and Canadian forces smash into Belgium and Holland.
September 3rd.
Brussels falls.
Antwerpthe following day.
And Patton's third army takes Verdun.
On the western front alone, German armies have lost over a million men in killed, wounded, and captured.
And almost all of their tanks, artillery, and trucks.
And as the month of September unfolds, American forces reach the German border, before Aachen, on the Moselle, but there they stop.
And in the east, the Russian sweep across Poland is finally halted at the Vistula, opposite Warsaw.
Overextended supply lines and stiffening German resistance finally brings the whole Allied offensive to a grinding halt.
The astounded German high command calls it the September miracle.
But elsewhere in Poland, the Red Army has overrun a vast extermination camp called Majdanek.
The Russians bring in 30 correspondents for the world's first glimpse of the final solution.
But the BBC refuses to run the story, dismissing it as a Soviet propaganda stunt, and the American press is just as skeptical.
inconceivable, says the New York Herald Tribune.
And Majdanek is burled on the back pages.
We'll lose this Line.
it doesn't mean anything anymore.
You have 5 days to finish the film, and not a day more.
But, Herr Kommandant, we will not be able to photograph your best scenes.
Photograph what you can.
5 days.
Finish.
The Majdanek exposures.
Moscow radio's been endlessly rebroadcasting the horrible details.
Our reprieve expires in Less than a week.
Then what? September 25, 1944.
5 a.
m.
The fourth transport since the end of filming 11 days ago leaves in a few hours, and that will be the end of my Theresienstadt Talmud class, for Yurl, Joshua, and Jan are going.
We stayed up all night studying because the boys wanted to learn until the last.
As dawn began to break, l closed the old volume, Joshua, the brightest of my 3 remaining lads, asked me a question that abruptly yanked me back to the present.
Rabbi, are we all going to be gassed? No.
No, Joshua.
You're going to be joining your father.
And you boys, Yuri and Jan, your eider brothers, at a building project near Dresden.
That is what we of the council have been informed, and l firmly believe it to be true.
The fifth transport? You said the Germans promised the fourth was the Last.
Ordered not 2 hours after the fourth one Left.
1 ,1 00 people.
We've been working on the lists for hours.
Whole families will be broken up.
Large numbers of the sick and women with small children will have to go.
lf Louis was here, I'd probably have to go, too.
Well, l will not yield to despair.
Hitler's Reich is falling.
The civilized world may yet smash into the lunatic enclave of Nazi Europe in time to save our realm.
No matter what happens, I'm going to survive.
And I'm going to find Louis.
Dearest Victor, I'm sorry, darling, but I'm going to write about nothing but death.
3 shocks have struck in just 2 weeks.
Duncan Berne-Wilke has died, swept away by pneumonia.
The other 2 Philip Rule and Leslie Slote.
Dear god, I'm tortured by guilt over Duncan.
lf I'd stayed on at Stoneford, cared for him, said nothing, maybe he wouldn't have sickened and died.
But I'll never know, will l? Oh, Victor, this fall has been altogether awful.
The buzz bombs were bad enough, but these new horrors huge rockets that fall without a sound have thrown us into a funk.
After all the wretched years of war, after the great Normandy landings and the sweep through France with Victory apparently days away, we're back in the blitz.
it's just too damned much, the sirens, the all night fires, the explosions, the rubble, the civilian death lists all over again ghastly.
it was a V-2 rocket that killed Phil Rule, poor thing.
it blew the newsmen's pub he haunted to smithereens, leaving nothing but a crater.
And Leslie Slote.
Another pointless death.
Perhaps a tragically predictable end to those sudden heroics of his.
Dying in a Brittany port that Eisenhower's had already bypassed, leaving the German garrison to wither.
A death of sheer waste.
Oh, Victor, I'm sorry.
l didn't mean to scribble such a depressing letter to you.
l might have good news later lf my resignation from the Waafs is accepted and l can join you.
it's in the works.
Horribly unpatriotic, but l may just pull it off.
l don't really expect to be knocked on head by a V-2.
lf l should be, it's a quick, painless exit from this crazed world.
l only want to live to love you.
Everything else is gone, but that's enough to build on for me.
All my love, Pamela.
Come in.
Admiral, Captain Oliver reports we'll moor at 0830 in Ulithi, north Anchorage.
Very well.
Op-order and filing briefs for Admiral Halsey's battle conference, sir.
Set for 1 030 aboard the New Jersey.
Order my barge at 0830.
Aye, aye, sir.
We have a harbor circuit dispatch from the Barracuda's commanding officer in the south Anchorage.
The Barracuda? He requests permission to see you.
isn't your son the X-EC of the Barracuda? He isor he was, the Last l heard.
Reply C.
O.
Barracuda.
My barge will fetch you 1 700.
Dinner my quarters.
aye-aye, sir.
Gentlemen, the japs are hardily likely to stand idly by while McCarthur recaptures the Philippines and cuts off all that oil, metal, food.
I'm betting they'll send every warship they've got to stop those Leyte landings.
And if they don't, l may just have to go out looking for them.
Now's the time to finish the japs now, when they're losing their grip, even with their tails.
Mick Carney will take questions on the op-order.
Marc Mitscher.
At the Marianas turkey shoot, we Let the jap fleet escape because our mission was to protect the Saipan Landings.
That was Admiral Spruance's decision.
Will it happen again? I'll answer that.
Let me read to you, gentlemen, verbatim from Admiral Nimitz' directive to me.
Your battle force will cover and support forces under General McCarthur in the seizure of objectives in the Philippines.
Howeverhowever, in case opportunity for destruction of major portions of the enemy fleet is offered or can be created, such destruction becomes the primary task.
l had one hell of a job getting that put into my orders for Leyte gulf.
But there it stands.
Therefore, we know why we're going to Leyte.
To annihilate the Japanese fleet if opportunity offers.
This time, they don't escape.
Pug Henry.
Well, I'm sort of junior here Fresh blood, gentlemen.
Go ahead.
Speak your piece.
Spruance stayed close to Saipan to prevent the japs making an end run and wiping out the landing.
That was his reasoning.
Well, don't we run such a risk here again? Pug, when we get through hitting them, there won't be any japs to make an end run.
Admiral, your barge is approaching.
Request permission to come aboard.
Permission granted.
Admiral.
Commander.
Log my visitor aboard.
Commanding officer of the Barracuda, SS 204, Lieutenant Commander Byron Henry, USNR.
Aye, aye, sir.
When did all this happen? As a matter of fact, only 3 days ago.
The size of the Iowa, dad, what a beauty.
Yeah, she's put together Like a Swiss watch.
Maybe we'll mosey around Later.
I'm pretty tight for time.
Come on over here.
You don't get a view Like that from a submarine.
Doesn't it beat anything in history? Eisenhower's fleet was bigger for crossing to Normandy, but for striking power you're right the earth has never seen its Like.
Think the japs will come? Halsey's tongue is hanging out, hoping they will.
Well, if they do, Halsey will cream them.
We outnumber them, but they're tricky.
lf they manage to crush McCarthur's Landing, it becomes a different war.
Come on, let's go have dinner.
Some setup.
it beats a desk in Washington.
Yeah.
Who is that? isn't that Pam Tudsbury? Byron, it's a Long story.
I'll explain over dinner.
it's your Life.
l don't think it needs much explanation.
l think l wrote you about this.
Oh, the Red Cross photo.
Yeah.
Well, they both certainly look very well.
How big that boy is.
it was taken in June.
God knows what's happened since.
Red Cross ignores my letters.
The State Department's a total blank.
Well, just seeing this does my heart good.
Sit down.
We'll have dinner.
No, thanks.
I'd better get back.
We sortie at 0500.
Byron, dinner takes 1 5 minutes.
Ok.
1 5 minutes.
I'll see to it.
Aren't you one of the first reserve skippers in the whole submarine fleet? Being your son didn't hurt my chances much.
You had to have the record.
How did it happen? The skipper took sick out on station off Sibutu.
l figured subpac would send out a C.
O.
, but they sent an EX.
O.
l got the orders.
I'm still not used to it.
You still have mom's picture that used to be in that frame? lf you do, I'll take it.
l have it, but not here.
What happened between you 2 anyway? Well, son, the war.
Did mom ask for the divorce to marry this Peters, or did you because of her? Briny, don't Look for someone to blame.
About Pamela.
She's young.
l know that.
it may not come off, but l l said it's your Life.
Ok? I'm sorry you're taking it l came for a shot in the arm.
instead, l get this.
Briny, what is it? l don't know if I'm fit for command.
Comsubpac thinks you are.
Comsubpac can't Look into my mind.
What's your problem? Possible instability under combat stress.
Briny, you're cool by nature, under severest stress.
l know that.
l Lost Aster.
You did what you could.
Briny This whole thing with Natalie and Louis is making me nuts.
And your divorce hasn't helped matters either.
l can take the Barracuda back to Saipan and ask for relief or go out on a Lifeguard station off Formosa for the air strikes.
What do l do? Only you can make that decision.
You were willing to decide my Life for me.
lf you hadn't pushed me into sub school, flown to Miami the day l proposed to Natalie and forced the issue, she and Louis wouldn't be in Europe now, if they're alive.
Briny, l regret what l did.
At the time, it seemed right.
Ok.
Ok.
I'm sorry.
l shouldn't have brought it up.
Briny, when l was in bad shape myself, l requested the Northhampton.
To me, a command at sea made Life more bearable, because it was so all-absorbing.
I'm not a professional Like you.
l better get back to my boat.
There's something else.
My EX.
O.
's an academy man.
Taking orders from me grates on him.
Judge him by his performance at sea, not what he feels.
Well, l guess this is it.
Briny, we may be headed to the greatest sea fight in history, both of us.
Good luck and good hunting.
Goodbye, dad.
Request permission to Leave the ship, sir.
Permission granted.
The U.
S.
Sixth army, with massive naval support, lands more than 100,000 troops inside Leyte gulf.
And so General Douglas McCarthur's 2 1/2 year-old promise "l shall return," is fulfilled.
in a desperate gamble to smash the invasion, Japan orders nearly its entire fleet to sea.
And on the morning of October 23rd, the curtain rises on the most massive fleet battle in the history of naval warfare.
in addition to her warships, Japan has dispatched a new weapon to Leyte The divine wind kamikaze plots, whose suicidal plunges into their targets will, before the war is over, sink 34 U.
S.
Ships and damage 290 others.
The battle will rage 4 days and 4 nights across 1,000 square miles of Philippine waters.
inexcusable blunders will be made on both sides.
But in the end, the Japanese are finally defeated and turned back, while the McCarthur landings go unscathed.
American Leyte losses amount to fewer than 10 vessels.
The Japanese lose 3 battleships, 4 aircraft carriers, 5 heavy cruisers, and more than 1 4 lesser warships.
For the imperial navy, it is the final disaster.
Beaten and broken, that fleet will never sail again.
This strange and tarnished victory only proves to me the subhuman stupidly of warfare in our age of science and industry.
The technology and means now dwarf the results.
Ether war is finished, or we are.
Theresienstadt is a desolate and terrible scene.
Perhaps 1 2,000 people are left, and any hope of rescue by the stalled allied armies has sadly faded.
in less than a month, since the filming ended, the trains have taken away almost 20,000.
I've lost track of how many I've condemned to the east by my own hand.
All those who have gone were under the age of 55.
Above that age, one is still safe.
There is no hot food, not even the wretched slops of yesterday.
Garbage piles up because there is no one left to remove lt.
The hospitals are empty for all the sick were transported.
The gimcrackery of the beautification is falling apart in the harsh weather.
The music that was once so much a part of dally life here is vanished.
Despite dire warnings by the SS, the old people pilfer the planks of what is left for firewood.
There have been other changes as well.
The new high elder who replaced the mysteriously vanished Epstein is his old deputy, Dr.
Murmelsteln of Vienna, the former rabbi and university lecturer.
I'm sure the SS put him up to designating me as his chief deputy.
He worked on me for hours with a wearisome flood of arguments.
only this office stands between our people and the cruel hand of the Germans.
As for myself, who has worked more unceasingly to reduce hardship and to save lives, often times at great personal risk.
Those efforts must continue, and l must have your help.
Whatever good this council of eiders has been able to do to help our people, it was never very much.
All we're doing now is trying to save our necks.
Selfishly trying to postpone our own fate.
By organizing and sending out the transports no! l simply will no longer be a party to it.
l refuse to be deputy to your dirty work.
I'm done with it for good.
You realize what you risk? I've lived my Life.
Whatever my frail old body must endure, I'm prepared to risk it.
Professor, l am utterly incapable of continuing on alone.
You don't know the burdens of this office.
They are overpowering.
l was counting on your help.
l respect you more than anyone else in the ghetto You, a scholar Like me.
lf the burdens of this office are too great for you, do the same thing as l do.
Lay them down.
And as for your flattering regard for me, well, perhaps the SS will arrange for us 2 fellow scholars to share the same train together on our journey to the east.
Good day to you.
My words to Murmelsteln were no false bravado.
l have not become any braver, but there really are things worse than pain, worse than dying.
Besides, a Jew in the grip of Germans probably has no way in the long run of escaping pain or death, unless the outside world rescues him.
He may as well do what is right.
We Leave on the 28th of October on the 11th transport.
I'm ready to go, but l had hoped that your job in the mica factory would continue to protect you.
Of course, l can go back to Murmelstein, say that l acted too hastily, I've thought it over.
No.
You must go on Living, for Louis' sake.
l don't want you to protect me by sending Jews off in trains.
We both know that the transports will go in any case.
Not by your hand.
[speaking Hebrew.]
from the Taimud, my dear.
''Let yourself be killed But do not kill.
'' Sounds Like common decency to me.
Yes.
it is.
l, Aaron Jastrow the Jew, in my 72nd year, am going to my death.
l have heard that strong young people are spared to work in Oswiecim, so my niece may survive.
l began this record of a journey aboard a vessel docked in Naples harbor in December, 1941.
Mischance and misjudgments brought myself and my niece to Theresienstadt.
Here l have seen German barbarism and duplicity with my own eyes, and have tried to record the truth the best l could.
millions of Jews, l now believe, have already perished at German hands.
A million or more of these must have been little children.
the world will be a long time fathoming this fact about human nature, this thing that the Germans have done.
l am terribly afraid of dying.
l am bowed to the ground by the tragedy of my people, but l have experienced a strange, bitter happiness in Theresienstadt that l missed as an American professor and a fashionable author living in a Tuscan villa.
Degraded, hungry, oppressed, beaten, frightened, l found my god and my self-respect.
l have taught bright-eyed, sharp-minded Jewish boys the Talmud.
l don't know whether one of them still lives, but the words of the Talmud lived on our lips and burned in our minds.
l was born to carry that flame.
Now l will return to Oswiecim, and there the Jew's journey will end.
l am ready.
These scattered notes, much more than anything else l have written, must serve as the mark over the emptiness that will be my grave.
Hopefully, someday they will be discovered, but probably not until long after the war, when wreckers or renovators may come and let sunlight into the walls and crevices of these mournful old buildings.
Earth, cover not their blood.
Aaron Jastrow, October the 28th, 1944, Theresienstadt.
The last transport to Auschwitz.
Knowing the war is lost, SS Chief Heinrich Himmler, in a desperate attempt to save his own neck, is about to order the gassings halted, but bureaucratic delay in reversing policy will allow this last train to roll.
Dr.
Jastrow! You will ride up ahead in the passenger coach.
I'd rather stay with my niece.
Don't argue.
Who are you? He's one of the eiders, Leon Carmel.
Head of the transport section.
Go where you are told.
Einsteigen.
Sei mutig.
Keep up your spirits.
Here.
The SS? Go.
Oh, Dr.
Jastrow.
May l take your bag for you? Thank you very much.
Please, sit down.
Why are we traveling with the SS? We are the prominents, aren't we? Well, it will be a Long journey.
3 days.
You're being transported ? You? l signed my own gray card.
What have you heard, Natalie? Where are we supposed to be going? l don't know.
Direction of Dresden, the Germans said.
To a work camp.
You believe the Germans? We will watch the stations we pass.
Dresden is north.
We will soon know.
So Long as it's not Auschwitz.