Rise of the Nazis (2019) s02e03 Episode Script

1
Stalingrad is a really
major setback.
Really, I think,
it has an effect on him.
It makes him doubt,
I think, inwardly,
his ability to to lead Germany.
The physical and mental stress
on Hitler is absolutely immense.
He has insomnia,
he finds it difficult to sleep.
He doesn't quite know what to do.
For once, there is no masterplan.
Hitler leaves it to the men
around him
to pull Germany back from the abyss.
This is the story of the Eastern
Front of the Second World War,
which many see as its
defining conflict.
It was a campaign that saw some
of the most brutal and inhumane
warfare in all of history.
Our interest is the psychology
of that war.
What is the enemy up to?
Can you deceive him?
The minds of dictators and
the morality of those around them.
Hitler always needed people
around him saying,
"You are a genius. You are
our leader. You are the Fuhrer."
To tell this story,
we've asked some of the world's
most eminent historians and experts
with different kinds of insight
to each take us inside the mind
of one of the key protagonists.
He wanted to be the architect
of Germany's reality.
In some ways, the only truth-teller.
Nazi rule relies on
quiet complicity.
Ultimately, it's a study
of why dictatorships are flawed,
and how those who rule through fear
and terror
can never trust even the people
closest to them.
He'll then lose everything
and bring Germany down with him.
Requiem in D Minor
by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
In 1943, the war has been raging
for over three years.
On the surface, Germans remain
united behind the Nazi regime,
but war fatigue is setting in.
And the crucial pact between
the Nazis and the public
is starting to come under strain.
Their charismatic leader,
Adolf Hitler, is nowhere to be seen.
Hitler's absence
creates a power vacuum.
Senior Nazis go into competition
to prove themselves
as Hitler's most valuable deputy.
Each has a different strategy.
Hitler's principle of rule
was what's been called
"managerial Darwinism".
He would appoint different people
and different organisations
to do more or less the same thing,
let them fight it out
between themselves
and whoever came out on top, in his
view, would be the most effective.
Master of Nazi spin,
Joseph Goebbels,
believes he is the man to return
Hitler to his former strength.
Joseph Goebbels is the person
that has made the lies so palatable.
Goebbels is the author of
your reality in 1940s Germany.
He created the hero-worship cult
of Hitler,
the idea of
the Fuhrer's infallibility.
To Goebbels,
Hitler isn't just a hero,
he's the incarnation
of National Socialism.
But Stalingrad represents a total
disaster for the Nazi regime.
He's getting regular reports
from intelligence
about people's feelings.
It was Hitler's reputation,
and especially his infallibility,
that took a hit.
Because, you see,
the thing about infallibility
means that you never fail.
If you fail once, the whole myth
is liable to collapse.
Everything Goebbels had built
is at stake.
With Hitler in retreat, Goebbels
attempts to do damage control.
He unrolls a barefaced lie
spinning the defeat in Stalingrad
as a heroic sacrifice
on the part of
Paulus and the 6th Army
proclaiming generals, officers and
troops battled shoulder to shoulder
until the last bullet was fired.
"They died, so that Germany
could live."
Within the top echelons
of the Nazi Party,
Goebbels is not
the most powerful man.
And he's constantly thirsty
for more power.
Hitler's withdrawal provides
Goebbels with an opportunity
to prove his intellectual
superiority,
to inspire confidence.
Confidence that the war can be won.
Goebbels' radio broadcast
is heard across the country.
But there are some Germans who see
through the smoke and mirrors.
Nazi rule relies on
quiet complicity.
It relies on people
turning a blind eye.
But Sophie Scholl clearly cares
deeply about right and wrong,
and believes that this is
an active pursuit.
That there is an obligation
to take a stand.
For months, 21-year-old student
Sophie Scholl
has been questioning
the actions of the Nazi regime.
Her boyfriend, Fritz, has been
fighting on the Eastern Front,
and sends her regular updates
on the realities of the war
with the Soviets.
"For eight days,
we have been in constant retreat.
"The situation here
is pretty hopeless.
"It is frightening how heartlessly
my commander talks about
"the slaughter of all the Jews
in occupied Russia.
"He remains completely convinced
"of the justice of this action."
During the Nazi era,
and especially during the war,
it was difficult to get access
to information that was credible.
There was no freedom of press.
The country was saturated
with Nazi propaganda.
Sophie sees the personal suffering
of Germans
through this needless warfare,
and she also gets the sense of
the lies that the Nazi regime
is propagating.
At this point in her life,
she decides she's going to expose
the truth about the Nazi regime.
Sophie has joined an underground
resistance movement -
the White Rose.
Based in the Nazi heartlands
of Munich,
they have been producing
and distributing
anti-Nazi material
across the country.
Just walking down a street
in Nazi Germany
feels like a precarious thing to do.
There are so many reasons
for which you could be questioned,
interrogated, arrested.
People were spying,
they were informants everywhere.
So imagine in that context,
taking leaflets,
the discovery of which would
certainly lead to your death.
Carrying them on trains,
trains that are full of
Gestapo, guards.
It would really feel like
carrying a bomb.
Sophie realises the defeat
in Stalingrad
is the opportunity
she has been waiting for.
Many ordinary Germans
are starting to question
the regime's lies and propaganda.
People are finally ready to hear
the message of the White Rose.
They draft a damning leaflet,
calling on the youth of Germany
to rise up
and overthrow Hitler
and the Nazi Party.
They decide that to make
maximum impact,
hundreds of leaflets
will be distributed
at their university campus
during school hours.
Goebbels knows he must keep
close control of the public mood.
He believes Hitler needs the fervour
of the nation to propel him forward.
But Hitler has another deputy
who is working on his own strategy
to get the nation, and his Fuhrer,
back on track.
In many ways, Heinrich Himmler
is the quintessential Nazi.
Coldblooded and extremely brutal.
And everyone in Europe
is afraid of this man.
He is the mastermind of genocide,
he's the mastermind
of the racial war,
he's the architect of the Holocaust.
Here is someone who wants
to be the chief protagonist
of the racial re-engineering,
the racial reordering of Europe.
He knows how powerful he is,
and he knows that he's only
becoming more powerful.
At only 42-years-old,
Himmler has risen to become the main
architect of terror
in the Third Reich.
He is chief of all German police
units, and his vast SS network
penetrates nearly every corner
of German society.
Now, Himmler has a plan -
to turn the tide of the war
by extending his tentacles
to the one area of German life
currently out of his reach -
the military.
To the ire of the Army High Command,
Himmler has been building a special
military branch of his prized SS.
The Waffen-SS has become
famed for their brutality.
Himmler's main insecurity is
that in 1918, he's too young
to fight
on the front line
in the First World War.
And he really wants to prove himself
as a political soldier.
And he hopes to impress Hitler
with the performance
of the Waffen-SS.
Himmler viewed the Wehrmacht
with some suspicion.
He thought that their main loyalty
was not towards Hitler.
The whole history of Hitler's
relationship with the senior
generals and field marshals of the
army is a rather fraught one.
Senior generals,
with their long tradition
of Prussian military conduct,
were less susceptible
to Hitler's charm.
The German Army is in retreat,
facing relentless setbacks in
North Africa and the Soviet Union.
But the Waffen-SS are proving
their worth on the battlefield.
Himmler's troops score their own
independent victory
against Russian forces,
taking back the city of Kharkov
from the Soviets.
As the Waffen-SS began to score
some victories,
Hitler found this was
absolutely the right way to go.
These were noted
for their fanaticism,
their total devotion to Hitler.
And the army might be failing him,
but Himmler and the SS were not.
Hitler does not like listening
to many other people
but Himmler has Hitler's ear.
He knows that if he can produce
the desired lethal results
he can become the most powerful
man in Germany, just after Hitler.
Goebbels is watching
Himmler's rise with frustration.
He is still struggling to get Hitler
to buy into his efforts
to seize the nation's morale.
He plans a stunt, which he hopes
will sway the public mood
and galvanise the Fuhrer.
He gathers thousands
of top Nazi officials
at Berlin's Sportpalast Arena.
On the same day, Sophie Scholl
is making her way across Munich.
The White Rose have decided
that today is the day
to put their plans into action.
They have in their possession
a suitcase, no less,
packed with leaflets.
Putting these leaflets
in visible places.
In corridors, on notice boards,
on doors.
It's incredibly dangerous.
But she knew that what she was doing
was going to, in her words,
"make waves",
was going to be remembered as
something that stood out
in this sea of oppression
and complicity.
As the White Rose
spread their message,
Goebbels' speech
fills the Sportpalast.
He hopes to renew a sense
of German patriotism
by proclaiming a state of total war.
Total war involves
devoting all national resources
to the conflict.
Britain and the Soviet Union
were the first to do it.
The entire economy became
subservient to the war efforts.
If he can commit every last German
to devote all of their beings,
all of their economic lives,
victory is within grasp.
Are you willing to do
what it takes to survive?
She's just feeling this rush
of adrenaline.
And Sophie acts impulsively.
He truly believes that if you can
push a perception far enough,
it will become reality.
Requiem in D Minor by Mozart
At this critical moment,
Sophie's actions are spotted
by a caretaker.
He reads the leaflets
and informs the dean.
The local Gestapo are alerted
and officers rush to the university.
As Sophie is brought into custody,
Goebbels' Total War speech is being
broadcast around the building.
She's brought into Gestapo HQ,
she's fingerprinted,
then she has this mugshot taken.
You really get a glimpse of Sophie.
She looks trepidatious,
but at the same time,
she looks quite resilient.
Defiant, even.
Looking straight ahead,
giving very little away.
Goebbels' speech has failed
to convince the public.
He receives reports from
Security Service agents
who listen in on conversations
across Germany,
revealing that support
for the regime is crumbling.
Goebbels knows that these reports
will be deeply damaging
to his standing with Hitler.
There is only one man
who can help him.
As always, with leading Nazis,
there is quite a lot of jealousy
about who has more access
to Hitler,
who is more important
in Hitler's eyes.
Is it Himmler? Is it Goebbels?
But Goebbels does not want Himmler
to present
the SD reports on public morale
to Hitler
because Goebbels finds them
too defeatist.
Himmler firmly believes
that Hitler needs to know
about what the German people think.
He offers to his arch-rival,
Heinrich Himmler,
to doctor these SD reports together.
This is a fascinating moment
where the minister of propaganda
is actually trying to lie
to his own superiors.
He's trying to doctor reality
even as seen privately
by the regime itself.
How concerning must these reports
have been
for Goebbels to need to conceal them
and doctor them
for Hitler's benefit?
Himmler does not agree,
and Himmler refuses to doctor
the reports
that are going up to the higher-ups,
to Hitler,
about dissent in Germany.
Himmler has a close
working relationship with Hitler,
so in all likelihood,
Himmler still shows
these public-opinion reports
to Hitler.
Hitler steps further back
into the shadows.
Hitler identifies himself
with the German people,
so it obviously becomes
more difficult for him
if he has to admit that people
are beginning to criticise him.
Mingling with ordinary people,
as he'd done so often,
becomes rather less frequent.
And I think he begins to be
a little bit afraid
that he won't get rapturous crowds
giving the Nazi salute
and cheering their heads off.
Himmler is well aware of the need
to reassert authority.
When Sophie Scholl's case
reaches his desk,
he decides to make an example of her
and the White Rose movement.
Germany's most notorious judge
is to oversee a show trial.
The sentence is death by beheading.
She's allowed one last visit
with her parents.
For Sophie, at that age,
you still feel like you need
and rely on your parents.
And here they are,
having to let you go
to a regime
that's going to execute you.
But even in those circumstances,
Sophie had a serenity about her.
Her mother brought her sweets
and she said,
"Oh, thank goodness,
cos I haven't had lunch".
She projected confidence,
strength of character, integrity.
But on the inside,
she was terrified.
It's important to remember
that fear,
because we would all feel it
in those circumstances.
And I can only understand
her composure
by imagining that she had confidence
that it would mean something
long after she was gone.
Himmler may have eradicated
the White Rose,
but in the summer of 1943,
a new crisis is brewing.
The allies launch
merciless carpet-bombing raids
over major German cities.
Taking out factories, dams,
and the homes
of ordinary German people.
One RAF raid sets Hamburg on fire.
In the space of a week,
over 30,000 men, women and children
are killed in the inferno.
If Stalingrad woke Germans
to the possibility
that a German army
could be defeated,
the bombing of major German cities
showed them
that they were not invulnerable.
Quite the opposite.
They would be killed, their cities
destroyed by the Allies.
It became very obvious
that it was going to hurt,
and it was going to hurt at home.
It was going to invade their lives.
And there is nothing that German
propaganda could do
to soften the blow of the bombing.
In Hamburg, some survivors are moved
to show open dissent
against the Nazi regime.
Swastikas are ripped down
and people dare to refuse
the Hitler salute.
Goebbels' Total War propaganda
is losing its resonance.
Dissent is now coming out
into the open,
and directly linked to the failure
of the Nazi regime
to keep these Germans safe.
But the RAF don't just drop bombs,
they also drop leaflets.
Thousands of them.
Leaflets that have been smuggled out
by the German Resistance.
Leaflets written by the White Rose
and Sophie Scholl.
Interestingly, the White Rose
leaflet mentioned Goebbels by name,
and insulting him, essentially,
claiming that he is lying.
It proved that, unlike Goebbels'
claim in his many speeches,
Germany was not united
behind the Nazis,
and this was not the only
necessary future for Germany.
It shows the power of
these leaflets.
They had so much resonance,
the British saw them as a weapon
against the Nazis in the war.
And to think that a group of
students created that,
I think is just really remarkable.
By this circuitous route,
despite having executed Sophie,
these leaflets actually came back
to haunt the regime
just at the moment
it was most damaging.
And I think that also would have
given Sophie great satisfaction.
Goebbels repeatedly calls on Hitler
to come out
and face down these gestures
of resistance.
But he refuses.
Hitler's never comfortable
with defeat or with attacks.
For him,
war is all about the offensive.
And when Germany is on
the defensive,
he gets rather, I think, isolated.
Doesn't know quite what to do
and certainly doesn't want
to confront the population.
These expressions of dissent
actually scare him quite a lot.
They terrify his sensibilities.
He just keeps refusing to turn up
to events,
keeps refusing Goebbels'
very numerous requests
for Hitler to do it like Churchill
and other leaders,
and visit bombsites,
commiserate with Germans
and be there for his people.
This makes the Fuhrer more distant
from ordinary Germans.
Recognising his authority
now rests with police repression
rather than the adulation
of the masses,
Hitler appoints Himmler
as Reich Minister of the Interior.
Goebbels was disappointed.
I think he probably coveted
that position himself,
and more influence,
but crucially, he also thought
that Hitler was missing
a political opportunity.
This is a very clear signal
that Hitler believes
that this problem will be resolved
not through more propaganda,
not through more consent,
but rather, through more repression
of dissent.
Himmler's methods.
He knows that he's only becoming
more powerful in 1943
with this appointment
as Reich Minister of the Interior.
The party and the SS begin
to increase in power
and to put the screws on
the German people.
Himmler is a very chilling figure.
The cold bureaucrat.
And that does, with the Gestapo,
cast a kind of chill of fear
among the German population.
Himmler's new position of power
is a frightening move
for almost all of Germany.
But a new threat is brewing
in the one place
that still remains
out of his reach -
the German Army.
Everyone who was ever
in the presence of Stauffenberg
talks about how he's charismatic,
he has a real presence in the room.
He has a way with words.
He makes this impression
on everyone around him.
He's a man of action.
Claus von Stauffenberg appears
every inch the German war hero,
having been attacked by
Allied fighter planes in Tunisia.
He's lost an eye, a hand,
and two fingers.
Unable to return to the front
on account of his injuries,
he has been appointed Chief of Staff
of the General Army Office
in Berlin.
But Stauffenberg is harbouring
a dangerous secret.
He wants to kill Hitler.
Stauffenberg has witnessed
personally
the vast scale of slaughter that has
become central to the war.
The losses on the Eastern Front
are massive.
He sees this everywhere he turns,
and he sees German youth just being
laid to waste for nothing.
And his whole outlook on the world
has changed.
Stauffenberg is part of
an assassination plot
that spans the political
and military corridors of Germany.
Hitler's always had quite
an uncomfortable relationship
with the army.
A lot of them have never really got
beyond the idea
that he's this lowly corporal that
somehow become Commander-in-chief,
and that he's not really
one of them.
So there's this sort of separation
between the two.
Stauffenberg knows Hitler
is a danger to the nation.
He believes that it is his mission
to assassinate him.
Of course, it's a vast undertaking.
He knows that there's a good chance
that he won't survive
the attempted coup.
He'll also suffer the risk
of being criticised
for the rest of history as being a
traitor to his own country.
Despite the risks,
despite the scale,
it's something that he feels
is his duty.
Stauffenberg is in a valuable
position.
His new role puts him within
Hitler's orbit.
He could almost get close enough
to plant a bomb.
Meanwhile, the plotters
will take on strategic roles
within Reserve Army units
across Germany.
Once Stauffenberg succeeds
in killing Hitler,
he will initiate Operation Valkyrie.
Word will go out for
the Reserve Army to start the coup,
arrest all high-ranking Nazis,
and take over
the running of Germany.
Stauffenberg seems to be
the sort of person
who enjoys pressurised situations.
When he's in the military,
he enjoys being on the front.
He enjoys the sort of thrill
of having his life on the line.
This is something, again, where
he finds himself in a situation
where there are dangers
and there are risks,
but this is not a situation
in which he's uncomfortable.
This is the sort of place
he likes to be.
They discussed their plans,
as far as possible,
away from prying eyes
and prying ears.
He's really clear about
the fact that any documentation
should be destroyed.
He tells his secretary
to write in gloves
so there's no fingerprints on it.
He knows the Gestapo
have got their eyes open.
If anyone gets the merest idea that
they're doing what they're doing,
then the likelihood is they'd be
carted off to a concentration camp
and probably executed.
Stauffenberg and his conspirators
must outwardly support
the war effort,
without letting
the Nazi leadership know
that their biggest threat
comes from within.
Meanwhile, the news
on the battlefield
is going from bad to worse.
Sicily is lost,
mainland Italy has been invaded,
and the Allies now have a foothold
in Europe.
At this critical moment in the war,
Hitler refuses to return
to public life.
But Minister for Armaments,
Albert Speer,
has a plan to give Hitler
the psychological boost he needs
to stage a fightback
against the Allies.
The story of Speer
is about admiration
belief
love.
He owes everything he has to Hitler.
But the weaker Hitler gets,
the stronger is Speer.
Now, more and more,
he relies on this inner circle.
He relies on these
trustworthy companions.
Speer understands that Hitler
is a fantasist,
so he unveils a set of superweapons
that he claims will miraculously
defeat the Allies
and win Germany the war.
Hitler's always looking for a way
out,
and this is what seems to
offer him
the way of reversing the debacle
of Stalingrad
and the disasters of 1943.
With the weapons, it's the same
as with Speer's plaster models
of the Reich capital, Berlin.
It's a vision.
The idea of the Wunderwaffe
was, of course, very attractive
to propagandists,
and it's a kind of a slogan.
Hitler believes in Providence.
He believes that Providence and fate
are steering him towards victory
all the time.
And when things are going badly,
Providence will surely
come to the rescue.
So the wonder weapons,
the miracle weapons, for him,
are another intervention
of Providence.
Speer fuels Hitler's dreams
of a bright and victorious future.
Convinced by Speer's promise
of war-winning armaments,
Hitler finally agrees to do what
Goebbels has been asking for months.
He comes out of the shadows
and addresses the nation.
Goebbels is terrified that
most Germans are losing confidence
in the regime's capacity
and willingness to triumph.
Now, in this set-piece speech,
Goebbels and Hitler are trying
to set the clock back
to believing in the Fuhrer
and having faith in his plan.
He's back to something like
his form.
He gives all kinds of reassurances
to the German people
that it's worth
carrying on with the struggle.
Their sufferings in the bombing
of the cities will be avenged
by the wonder weapons,
and that victory is still there
if only they hold fast
to their beliefs
and their loyalty to Germany
and to him.
Now Speer has sold Hitler
and Germany his vision,
he needs help to make it a reality.
Himmler has a workforce
in his concentration camps.
Speer desperately needs
Himmler's workforce.
For Speer, it's very important
to collaborate with Himmler.
Himmler likes the idea of producing
these weapons
that will finally deliver
the final victory over the Allies.
The SS will make itself
indispensable
in ensuring that the miracle weapons
will actually be built
and that they will deliver
the desired results.
Himmler and the SS have been using
concentration camp inmates
to build an economic empire.
Now Himmler sees an opportunity
to exploit this resource
on a vast scale.
He persuades Hitler
that rocket productions
should come under his control.
The SS built an underground
factory complex
near the Harz Mountains
and put 60,000 prisoners to work.
The conditions were
indescribable.
It is hard to imagine
how ghastly and appalling
working conditions were.
It is unspeakable.
Speer works very closely
with Himmler.
For him, it's no problem at all
to work with concentration camp
prisoners.
He knows the conditions.
Himmler is not interested
in collaboration.
This has become another opportunity
to impress Hitler
and extend the reach of the SS.
Remember, without Himmler,
without the repressive apparatus
of the SS and the police,
without the essential contributions
of the SS
to the genocidal war in the east,
Hitler's rule wouldn't be as robust.
But Himmler without Hitler
is almost unimaginable.
Himmler is so powerful
because he enjoys Hitler's backing.
Especially at a time
when the fortunes of war
have turned against Nazi Germany.
The Allied bombing raids increase,
in volume and destruction.
And the German people continue
to question Hitler's leadership.
Hitler's inner circle can see
the writing on the wall.
But deep rifts emerge over
how to protect the nation
and the spirit of the Fuhrer.
By late 1943,
Goebbels no longer believes
that Germany can win this war
on two fronts.
Goebbels has an existential
nightmare in his hands
because his beloved,
worshipped Fuhrer
refuses to see the limitations
of the reality of the war
they're fighting.
At this point, Hitler is ever-less
amenable to having a conversation.
Hitler wasn't a good listener,
that's for sure.
And you took your life in your hands
if you started arguing against him
or opposing him, or suggesting
to him things he didn't want to do.
It speaks to Goebbels' closeness
and confidence with the Fuhrer
that he's able to tell him something
that he does not want to hear.
And that is, we must make peace
with one of the two sides.
Either the Soviets
or the Anglo-American Allies.
This is yet another suggestion
of retreat,
abandoning half the war.
Hitler is certainly not prepared
to countenance this at all.
In his diary, Goebbels writes
that several times,
he has lectured Hitler on the need
to make peace with one side.
A war with the Soviet Union
was fundamental
to Hitler's belief system.
But in any case, again,
Hitler thought he could win.
Something was going to happen
that would enable him
to defeat both sides.
Goebbels, here, is trying to face
the very real problem of
the war is being lost.
And he concludes this diary entry
by saying,
"I don't know what the Fuhrer
will do in the end".
Goebbels, the creator of
the Fuhrer myth
of the infallible leader of Germany,
does not know if Hitler
has a solution at all.
Hitler isn't the only one
who wants the war to continue.
Himmler acts quickly to ensure
that senior party members
cannot abandon the regime.
In October 1943,
Himmler gathers high-ranking Nazis
at Posen
for a series of speeches.
They are recorded,
and any absentees are noted.
On this rare occasion,
Himmler talks
openly about the Final Solution.
He coldly describes the mass murder
of Jewish men, women and children.
Himmler assures his audience
that these killings
are morally justified.
But there is another motive
behind these words.
By admitting this giant crime,
Himmler has turned all those present
into accomplices.
As Germany heads to
almost-inevitable defeat,
the Nazi leadership
are locked into their pact.
The war will continue
until the bitter end.
There's a very eerie movie
that Eva Braun took
where Hitler starts to flirt
with her in front of the camera
and pay her compliments.
And it gives one a very unsettling
feeling that he's flirting with you,
you know, when you look at it
from her eyes and her point of view.
As the final chapter
of the Holocaust is carried out
in his name
Hitler withdraws to his official
mountain retreat, the Berghof.
The atmosphere generally
was very relaxed.
People were laughing and joking.
They had conversations,
they looked at the scenery.
It was all very normal.
You weren't allowed to discuss
the extermination of the Jews,
anti-Semitism, the policies towards
the Jews or anything like that.
Particularly over dinner,
and then afterwards,
when they were watching old movies,
he's in his own private world.
He won't have discussions
of the military situation.
That's been dealt with
earlier in the day.
He just holds these monologues
about the old days
and tells stories.
Hitler is here on 6th June, 1944,
when the dramatic news comes in.
A giant armada of warships
has arrived at the Normandy coast,
carrying over 150,000 troops.
D-Day has begun.
It was very difficult
to dent Hitler's self-belief.
He slept late on 6th June
as the Allies were landing.
When he was told after he'd awoken,
his reaction was rather strange,
in a way,
but predictable in another way.
He took it very lightly.
He thought, "This is great.
They're going to be defeated
"and we can make political capital
out of this.
"The German people
will be very angry about this."
But D-Day tips the balance
of the war
irreversibly in favour
of the Allies.
Stauffenberg sees this.
He knows now that Germany is
starting to enter the endgame.
And he also knows that it creates
a time pressure.
If he's going to make this attempt
on Hitler's life,
he needs to do it now.
After months of meticulous planning,
Stauffenberg's chance arrives.
He's promoted into the Reserve Army
and called to the Wolf's Lair,
where he will be face-to-face
with Hitler in a reinforced bunker.
It's the perfect opportunity
to plant a bomb.
So this isn't a practical act
any more, as such,
this is a moral act.
It's an act of conscience.
It's a statement to say,
within this age of terror
and oppression and violence,
there were people who were prepared
to do something about it and to act.
Stauffenberg's briefcase
contains two bombs.
There was a 30-minute window
from priming to detonation,
but no-one knows how accurate
they are.
He will have to be fast and precise.
If anything happens that reveals
his true purpose at this stage,
he risks calamitous harm
to everybody around him.
He knows that he has the eyes
of history on him.
He knows that the events of this day
could become fundamental
to the rest of German history,
to the rest of European history.
When Stauffenberg arrives
at the Wolf's Lair,
he's told the plans have changed.
The briefing has been
brought forward,
giving him less time to prepare.
And the meeting has been moved
to a wooden conference hut.
This is not what they'd planned for.
When he enters the Wolf's Lair, he's
very much entering Hitler's space.
The people in this environment
are people who are passionately
determined to serve Hitler
with everything they have to give.
And so, whether or not
it's real or imagined,
von Stauffenberg feels these eyes
on him.
And so, the risks and the danger
to him and to the plan
just grow and grow the further into
this space that he moves.
As he's led to the briefing,
Stauffenberg asks for a private room
to change his shirt
before the meeting begins.
This is his window
to prime the bombs.
A staff aide knocks on the door
to hurry him to the briefing.
This rattles him.
And in his haste,
he only primes one explosive.
For Hitler, Stauffenberg was
a real war hero.
The kind of soldier
he always wanted.
Someone prepared to make any
sacrifice for him and for Germany.
And losing an eye and losing a hand
were obvious examples
of his extraordinary bravery.
So Hitler greeted him very warmly.
He has a briefcase with him.
Nobody thinks there's anything
unusual in this.
In this moment, Stauffenberg's
mind must have been racing.
He must have been charged
with a version of excitement.
After years of talking about it
and months of concentrated planning,
it's finally happening.
Next to Hitler is a bomb
with a fuse ticking
that's about to explode.
With limited time to leave the room
before the explosion,
Stauffenberg has a pre-planned
phone call,
ready to make an exit.
He makes his pardons and leaves.
This is the last time
he will ever see Hitler.
Von Stauffenberg knows
that the bomb's gone off.
The plot has happened,
it's been successful.
He's killed Hitler.
Stauffenberg hurries to
his waiting plane,
ready to carry out the next phase
of Operation Valkyrie.
But when he lands in Berlin
he learns the dreadful truth.
Hitler has survived the bomb.
At the Wolf's Lair, Hitler
is covered in cuts and bruises.
And his eardrums have burst.
Furious at the attempt on his life,
he looks for someone to blame,
and summons Heinrich Himmler.
Certainly, Himmler and the Gestapo
did not look very good
because they'd failed to intercept
Stauffenberg,
or to detect his involvement
in the plot.
Himmler gets his act together
very quickly,
and he talked to Hitler and says,
"We must crush this coup harshly
and swiftly".
This is really the final blow
to Hitler's relationship
with the army officers.
He thought they were incompetent,
cowardly.
Here, now, he discovers
they're trying to kill him.
And so, he gets much more
suspicious, much more paranoid.
From now on, Himmler and the SS
have his trust
to an even greater extent.
Rather than blaming him, Hitler
is persuaded to entrust Himmler
with even more power.
To eliminate further opposition
within the army
as ruthlessly as possible,
he appoints Himmler
as head of the Reserve Army.
Himmler heads straight to Berlin,
sending SS units ahead
to round up conspirators
in the army headquarters.
The SS and Himmler work
in a concerted manner
to crush the resistance attempt.
Extremely speedily
and extremely efficiently,
the suppressions and vengeance
meted out by the SS,
the police
and the German judiciary is brutal.
Himmler moves to destroy
the Resistance network.
Close to 5,000 people
are rounded up
and are swiftly put on trial.
The loyal Heinrich has proved
himself to be the man
who Hitler can count on to deliver
no matter what.
Himmler is now at the peak
of his power.
Second only to Hitler.
And the coup marks a moment
of resurrection for Hitler.
He is now more convinced than ever
of his own invincibility.
Providence has preserved him
yet again.
So his future is still to guide
Germany to victory.
He sees this as confirmation
of everything that he's done
up to that point.
Hitler will now never concede.
Rallied by the defiance and denial
of his closest aides
he pushes Germany on
towards untold destruction.
Hitler now had no boundaries.
Ultimately, Hitler's mission
really becomes
one, literally, of annihilation
or victory.
The result was total destruction.
Death on an almost unimaginable
scale.
This is a kind of absolute nightmare
which has very few parallels
in history.