"CAMERA:" "Garms 1." "Marine division, private, East Front." "In April of 1945 somewhere nearly Oder river these German troops will soon be facing the final annihilating advance of the red army." "In the last attack on Berlin, masterminded by Marshall Zhukov, hundred thousand Germans would be overwhelmed by 250,000 Soviet troops and an unprecedented concentration of artillery." "In this time of propaganda and official self-censorship, colour film was just beginning to be more widely available." "Gerhard Garms, probably working for one of Goebbels propaganda units, filmed these images from the front." "His brief was to capture heroic poses for the cinemas of the Fatherland with this kind of footage was intended to inspire German civilians to hold onto Nazi dreams of supremacy had long been in ruins." "The Third Reich was on the verge of collapse." "THIRD REICH IN COLOUR" "Well staged images of Hitler and his powerful dictatorship are all-too-familiar in black and white." "But hidden in film archives and private collections, more intimate colour film, some shoot by amateur enthusiasts, are also survived." "Filmed on Normandy beaches and at country festivals, some of this footage documents ordinary life in the Third Reich, some of it the horrific reality of Hitler's extraordinary worldview." "Access to these Nazi home movies and a wealth of history they contain is relatively recent and like British and American footage of the time, much of its content is controlled by the nature of its source." "But the colour of these images somehow brings us closer to the evil intent of Nazi ideology and the changes it brought up in the world." "In the autumn of 1937 Hitler is intensifying his campaign of intimidation against the Austrian Chancellor." "His goal was Anschluss, a vital step on the path towards the establishment of the gross Deutsche Reich, the greater German Empire." "In Bückeburg, in Lower Saxony, Nazi Germany was celebrating harvest festival." "This event was documented and made into the first major propaganda film of the Third Reich in colour." "It would have been shown in cinemas across Germany." "Paul Joseph Goebbels considered propaganda and art for his talents played a central role in the rise of the Nazi party." "In Bückeburg, hundreds of thousands of German peasants gathered to hail their führer, their leader ever since he become Chancellor in 1933 and proclaimed the Third Reich." "In his speech that day, Hitler declared that:" ""as long as the German nation yields to one individual will, all problems will be solved."" "His followers cheered their charismatic Führer, who had created jobs, re-established national pride and was steering Germany to a proud and prosperous future." "These inhabitants of Edderitz celebrated harvest festival on the same day and dressed up in national costume for the occasion." "An official Nazi camera team from the local administrative division probably working on Rassen Forschung, for race research, which is being carried out with the sole purpose of seeking scientific validation for Hitler's secret area myth, came to document this parade for their folklore archive." "It was this essence of the German nation that Nazi ethnologists wanted to capture and to this end they use the new 16 mm colour film to record images of national festivals." "Harvest festival is to be the expression of our gratitude for God's rich blessings, wrote a little German girl in that day." "Yet it is also an expression of our gratitude for the Reich's leadership, which helped to bring new prosperity to our business." "Hitler's mistress, Eva Braun, was also an enthusiastic amateur filmmaker." "She too had discovered a passion for colour film." "Through her films we sure her bourgeois lifestyle and can observe probably the only uncensored scenes from Hitler's private life." "This footage was supposed to have been destroyed at the end of the war, but in October 1945 it fell into the hands of the American Secret Service, who preserved it in Washington's National Archive." "1937." "Marlene Dietrich spends her holidays in Austria, not far from Obersalzberg." "She is accompanied by her Hollywood colleague Douglas Fairbanks Jr., as well as with small camera with colour film." "Daughter Maria and Rudolf Sieber, the husband to be, are also present." "In Venice Marlene meets her original benefactor Josef von Sternberg." "She is happy, even though not a big financial success in Hollywood." ""Venice should only be seen at dusk", she writes to her daughter." "We drink Dom Perignon, walkover small arched bridges, listen to the songs of the gondolier's." "Berlin, the capital of the Third Reich." "A year after the signing of the Rome-Berlin anti-Communist axis in November 1936." "Benito Mussolini, the fascist leader of Italy, visited the Führer city." "On 27th September 1937." "Hitler demonstrated to Il Duce the scale of German rearmament." "At this time, both dictators professed a desire for peace." "From the platform of honour, the Fuhrer's trusted chief pilot Hans Baur, also an amateur film enthusiast, captured with intimacy the fascist dictators, as they enjoyed the military parade." "After the fall of the Third Reich, Baur's unique record of Hitler's world was thought to be destroyed or lost, but it was recently discovered in the position of the former American soldier from Tennessee." "The parade of the individual units lasted three hours." "Such German military might was explicitly forbidden by the Versailles Treaty, but no one was prepared to fight another war to enforce its terms at this stage." "The Third Reich now began to show off its growing strength not only in Germany but also beyond its borders." "During the 1937 world exhibition in Paris the Germans occupied a site adjacent to the Eiffel Tower," "directly opposite was the Soviet Union's exhibition hall." "Hitler gave his new favourite, Albert Speer, recently appointed general architectural inspector of the Reich, the task of building the German pavilion." "In Berlin and Obersalzberg they deliberated over drawings and drafts through the night." "The Fuhrer, who would have liked to have been an architect, saw in Albert Speer the perfect designer of his grand plans." "Speer, already a member of the close circle around the dictator, was on friendly terms with Eva Braun, who film them together in early 1938." "By this time the use of colour film was becoming widespread amongst the wealthier amateur filmmakers in Germany." "In Quedlinburg, a SS officer filmed Heinrich Himmler, on a visit to the city." "Each year Himmler paid tribute to his idol King Heinrich, the first who was buried in Quedlinburg Cathedral." "The SS leader was obsessed with the Arial myth of superiority, symbolised by the swastika." "Intended to replace Christian faith with Germanic cults under the Third Reich's and his training of the SS was steeped in secret ritual." "By this time the Goebbels Nazi propaganda machine, which had complete control of all forms of media, had been manipulating history for the years." "Here, at the 700th anniversary of the founding of Iserlohn, the parade of # scenes from its earliest history, march through the city." "This proud contingent of the Hitler youth shows the Fuhrer's clever and manipulative grip on young people's believes." "By age of 10, all children have to join his youth leagues, dedicated to Nazi principles." "The later floats described how the scandalous Treaty of Versailles, the turmoil of the Weimar Republic, has been overcome once and for all thanks to National Socialism." "By February 1938, frustrated by what he saw in tidiness of his own generals," "Hitler effectively remove all top level military opposition to his aggressive expansionist plans and assumed full control of the Armed Forces." "By this time, Nazi delegations were naturally part of any parade." "The Nazis were genuinely popular government at this stage." "Given the nature of the Nazi regime it's carefully choreographed outdoor events and the dangers inherent in public opposition to the regime, its real following is difficult to assess." "There was certainly vocal and widespread support, but many still found anti-Semitism and theories of racial supremacy distasteful or absurd." "Nonetheless unwanted elements, ethnic-, social-, or political continue to be systematically eliminated from the Third Reich by being imprisoned or forced into manual labour in concentration camps." "With the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria, gained the great spring cleansing." "On 18 March 1938 anti-Jewish pogroms in the enforcement of German anti-Semitic laws unmask the racial frenzy in Vienna." "The SS assumed control of all Jewish affairs in Austria." "An American touring Europe documented these disturbing scenes." "TO BE JEWISH IS TO BE CRIMINAL." "READ THE SPECIAL EDITION OF "DER STUERMER"" "In May 1938th, Hans Baur, the Fuhrer's chief pilot, flew Hitler and his entourage to Italy on a state visit." "He documented his impressions in a small film; he called "Beautiful Italy"." "Six months later the film was shown to the German public." "The host, King Victor Emmanuel III, was an expert in demonstrating his superiority over Benito Mussolini, who after all held the power." "Hitler detested cocky ceremonials and let the King know it." "On 8th of May the Italians organised an air force show for the German guests in Furbara near Rome." "But the Italians recently returned from their embarrassing, but eventually triumphant foray to Abyssinia, were slowly becoming the junior partners in the Rome-Berlin axis." "Hitler and his escorts were little impressed by the Italian show of force." "The demonstrations by the Italian fleet however as Hans Baur later recalled did gain the respect of the German allies." "Although a lot of this amateur footage does not document the decisive stages of the Third Reich, it sadly reveals the extent of the grip Nazi ideology had over the German people." "Goebbels had learnt much of his craft through a careful study of American advertising methods." "He was a master of slogans." ""The Jews are our misfortune" being one of his most famous." "Bright colour footage of children carrying swastikas made of flowers at the festival in Thüringen, Badra is quite chilling in the light of this propaganda." "Once a symbol of peace the swastika now stood for one of the most invidious racial supremacist regimes of the 20th century." "In the summer of 1938 Munich city councillor Christian Weber arranged for a particularly unusual event to be staged." "During the horseracing week in Vienna, "the Night of Amazons"" "was held in the park of Nymphenburg castle." "Since visiting the world exhibition in Paris Weber, a fervent Nazi, wanted to prove that German girls were much prettier than French girls." "So the German Diana, goddess of the hunt, and her servants was shown off in an unusually liberal manner by an artisans." "The role of women in Germany at the time of course focused on the home and bearing children." "Women could earn a special medal–" ""the honour cross of the German mother" for having children." "The bronze one having more than four the silver for more than 6 and gold one for more than eight." "That same summer the annual Gypsy Festival took place in the small town Wieskau in the Saxony-Anhalt." "The Nazi ethnologists game with their cameras to shoot colour film of these activities." "The entire village was present, most dressed up as thieves or gypsies." "Gypsies did not fit into Hitler's masterplan however." "They had been declared inveterate criminals." "Forced labour and mass sterilisation of gypsies because they are endangering the blood purityof the German peasantry was widely recommended." "A special section had been created for them in the Buchenwald concentration camp." "Approximately 250,000 but maybe as many as 500,000 gypsies ultimately died in the holocaust." "This festival included an odd custom hanging an effigy of thief at its close." "This footage was found in the federal film archive of the Berlin, commissioned by the National Socialist party." "The cameraman Erik #Wisleder and Paul # Weitz visited the Nazi congress in Nuremberg in September 1938 document life in the delegate's camp." "For this special occasion they were allowed to shoot in the 16mm colour film." "This parade, in front of SS Gruppenführer Joachim Eggeling, was to convince him that his platoon of Stormtroopers was ready to appear in front of the Führer." "Back at Obersalzberg, Eva Braun continued to film her lover." "This time, in the pose of the determined and powerful politician." "That same month Hitler intended to bring the Sudetenland whole into the Reich, with the military operation against Czechoslovakia, in line with his plans to overturn the Treaty of Versailles." "But the operation codenamed "Green" was cancelled, as Western powers urged him to come to a diplomatic agreement." "The agreement, that which the Czechs were not present, gave into nearly all of Hitler's demands and ceded Sudetenland to Germany." "German forces crossed the border unopposed, on the 1th October 1938." "Harald von Vietinghoff-Riesch, an officer of the Third Reich, was present with this film camera when German forces performed a victory parade in the marketplace of the Kratzau." "The generals, Walther von Reichenau, Fedor von Bock and Günther von Kluge, here accepted the salute of local dignitaries and then signed the Golden Book of the City." "This is home movie of Hitler's architect Albert Speer on a skiing and mountain climbing holiday in the Alps." "As he posed for the camera, entire district of Berlin were cleared of Jews on his orders, as a Nazis work towards Germanic, Hitler's dream metropolis for his master race." "This idyllic scene, documented on 16mm colour film, shows Albert Speer's children Hilda and Albert Jr., looking for Easter eggs, the numerous offspring of the Bormann's family and Eva Braun." "Back on the terrace Hitler posed for Eva again, surrounded by old comrades." "His secretary Martin Bormann however, did not like to be filmed." "The expensive colour film was also used to document official festive parades." "This one records in 1939, annual rifle meeting in Bielefeld." "The marksman marched under the banner of the Nazi Reich's league for physical exercises and local SA or the brownshirts provided the military band." "Later the Rifle King presented himself with his Queen and escorts." "Since 1933 the club had steadily enriched its traditional events, with the symbols of the new era, entirely in line with National Socialism along with the Hitler salute." "The German army delegation even marched at the parade." "At a fair in Eisleben, these Germans enjoyed peace in the spring of 1939." "These were some of the last peaceful times, before German enforced war upon Europe later that year." "On the 12th of March 1939, the cavalry school in Hanover, the officers had been invited to display their skills on horseback." "Just three days later, Hitler's troops occupied the so-called remnant Czechoslovakia." "This was the first German annexation of territory not dominated by German population." "It prompted Britain and France to guarantee Poland's borders that same month." "The Nazi regime stood firm." "But there is rising discontent among the German population, since the invasion of the Prague." "The future was insecure and people feared war." "In Berlin, the colour bearers of the German Labour Front, celebrated the first of the May." ""We are bonded for the better and the worse", as part of Hitler's speech to the nation on the occasion of Labour Day, to which received frenetic applause." "As war loomed, Eva Braun travelled through Hamburg harbour, as she headed north with the small group." "She filmed the big cruises of the Reich, like "Strength through joy", which were anchored at the landing bridges." "A small group from the Berghoff, travelled on the Milwaukee to Norway." "Only Hitler's inner circle knew about Eva's existence." "She was kept out of the limelight and could only travel with her sister and mother." "Only on these excursions could you change the plane dirndl for a more modern wardrobe, quite out of step with the proper role of girls and women in the Third Reich." "By 1936, 2 million girls, aged 15 to 21, were dedicated themselves to comradeship, service and physical fitness for motherhood, by joining the Bund Deutscher Mädel, the league of German girls." "Hotel du Cap at almost the same time." "Marlene Dietrich spends the summer with her escorts in southern France." "The present man in her life is the author, Erich Maria Remarque." "The 22-year-old John F. Kennedy obviously attracts the diva's attention." "Marlene has been a US citizen for several weeks now." "All attempts by the Nazi leadership to get him to return to Berlin within vain." "From now on, she is considered a traitor." "In Munich, on 16th July 1939." "Hitler wanted to observe the Day of German Art as a true festival of peace, celebrating National Socialism's cultural achievements." "Members of the local amateur filmclub occupied strategic points to film the activities." "The first event on the agenda was a wreath laying ceremony at the grave of Prof Ludwig Troost." "The professor, commissioned by the Fuhrer, had finished designing the house of arts only shortly before his death." "The inauguration ceremony took place at 11 o'clock." "For the amateur filmmakers the arrival of the Nazi leaders was the highlight of the day." "As a result three cameras recorded the event." "The architect's widow showed Hitler and his guests the latest masterpieces by German artists." "In the afternoon, everybody who was anybody in the Third Reich, took a seat on the platform of honour, to admire the three-act parade with scenes depicting 2000 years of German history." "The Nazi procession, wrote an American spectator, is the admission of the Fuhrer's ruthless conquering plans." "Indeed the next victim of his megalomania had already been decided, Poland." "This film was shot by a British vet Reginald Meacham as he travelled to Danzig." "Since 1919 the city had been under the supervision of the League of Nations, but the predominantly German population now unmistakably demonstrated to Meacham camera that the city wanted to be part of the Third Reich." "On 12th August 1939, Eva Braun filmed once again on the terrace of the Berghoff, as Hitler waited for the Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano to arrive." "For official functions the Fuhrer's mistress had to withdraw to her rooms." "This time she secretly shot a few scenes of the state visitor's arrival, through a window." "Ciano wanted to win over an ally, for the summoning of an international conference, but the Fuhrer was determined to beat Poland by military means." "Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, police and the Gestapo, here arrives at Obersalzberg with his henchmen Reinhard Heydrich and Karl Wolff." "Fighter squadron 54 of the German air force was prepared for the imminent "Case White", the invasion of Poland." "Time and again, the pilots of the Messerschmitt 109, were put to the test." "Pilot Werner Piquen-Galau headed the last test flight of his squadron." "On the ground the machines were lovingly maintained in preparation for war." "On the 1th of September, 1939 more than 1000 German aeroplanes entered Polish airspace, to support the advancing Army group "North"" "and Army group "South" with aerial bombardments." "Two weeks later, the Red Army advanced from the east." "On the 6th October the last remnants of the Polish army surrendered, as the Germans and Soviets shared the spoils." "Lt. Edgar Forsberg, from the 257th infantry division, was sent with his division in the southern Poland." "For many years, the book printer from Berlin, had been an enthusiastic amateur filmmaker." "He recorded these scenes from Krakow, probably unofficially." "The so-called "Bernolák division" took up a position at the border with Slovakia which is where Forsberg filmed local women in national costume." "For centuries Galicia had been a centre of Jewish culture." "Some 800,000 Jews lived, more or less peacefully, side-by-side with Ukrainians and Polish people." "But to the Nazis they were subhuman." "The terrorism of the German occupiers, for their official doctrine of racial superiority, started immediately after the invasion." "Everywhere Jews were conscripted for forced labour." "Edgar Forsberg filmed the Jewish population as if he were aiming at them with a gun." "Indeed, these people stigmatised by the Nazis, had been condemned." "Around this time, "Aktion T4", codename for a euthanasia programme, initially targeting infants with mental- and physical disabilities, also began in Germany." "The 257th infantry division was transferred from Polish territory to Saarland, a train ride through the valley of the Nahe River." "France has launched an abortive offensive into the Saarland in September 1939, before retreating to the security of the Maginot line." "All road- and rail connections were cut off and bridges destroyed." "For months all had been quiet on the Western front, with only occasional small skirmishes." "Villages along the frontier district had been evacuated." "These are scenes, recorded in Niedergailbach in Saarland." "Filmed again by Lt. Forsberg, this strange episode, called "the phoney war", lasted more than eight months." "In Saint-Albain, French grenade set fire to empty houses, images that would become common in the coming war." "Here are some French soldiers, captured by the Germans." "The prisoners were fed, and then herded together." "During this time the "Bernolák division", in combat readiness, exercised in small manoeuvres with gas masks and smoke shells." "At the Berghoff, Hitler again entertained his entourage." "Since the invasion of Poland the Fuhrer now only wore solider's grey coat." "He had little time for Eva and her girlfriends, since October he had wanted to attack France." "Time and again his generals had voiced objections, but now nobody could stop it." "The Blitzkrieg started on 10th May 1940, codename "Case Yellow"." "The main thrust against France came through the wooded Ardennes region, wrongly thought, by the allies, to be impossible for tanks." "These images, filmed by Harald Vietinghoff-Riesch show the aftermath of the offensive." "Defeated French armies became prisoners of war." "Many French civilians became refugees." "At the front was an officer of the Abwehr, German military intelligence," "Captain Hermann Meier-Riggs, carried in his back an 8mm camera and some colour film." "His scouts have been collecting information on the operational and tactical plans of the French." "The French have little with which to stop the advance of the Germans." "Since German tank divisions have broken through the French frontline near Sedan, on the 14th of May, leading panzy units advanced quickly, reaching the Channel coast Noyelles-sur-Mer on the 20th of May, cutting off the British expeditionary Force and the best units of the French army." "German intelligence meticulously documented the damages of war and the casualties on both sides." "And Hitler's chief pilot, Hans Baur, filmed what was left of Allied aeroplanes." "The air force generals rejoiced in their victory, particularly Hermann Göring's deputy Erhard Milch." "French and British resistance had completely broken down after only a few weeks." "Since his start of the Western campaign," "Hitler had withdrawn to his headquarters in the Eifel Mountains," "Hans Baur flew in from his headquarters to the front less and less, as the war progressed." "But here at Odendorf airfield, near Euskirchen, Hermann Göring and the German Armed Forces supreme command are being briefed by their leader." "On the 2th of June 1940, at # airfield in northern France badly wounded German soldiers were flown in." "Soon after Adolf Hitler arrived in his Mercedes limousine, to congratulate the wounded on their victory." "Triumphant leaders of the German military forces were recorded here at lunch, by Baur." "For the supreme commander, of course, there was a special vegetarian menu." "Even newsreel cameramen seldom have the opportunity to film Hitler like this." "With the exception of Eva Braun's private films, these scenes, filmed by Hans Baur, are the only informal colour shots of the dictator, neither cut nor censored." "Two days later, as German troops occupied the small town of Dunkirk." "They faced a scene of terrible destruction." "400,000 British and French soldiers had been trapped here." "When the Germans finally arrived at the beach, they became aware, that they had not succeeded in dealing a decisive blow." "At the last moment, the Allies had managed to evacuate 338,000 men, despite the heavy bombardment, but they have been forced to leave behind the larger part of their equipment." "Not until 1944 they returned to France, to avenge their comrades, killed in action." "German tank and mechanised units advanced further into France, where they met little resistance." "By now Germany has reached the Weygand Line, the defensive line along the river Somme." "And on 10th of June German forces had across the Seine, that same day Italy declared war on France and Britain." "By the 13th of June, the French government declared Paris an open city." "The next day German forces marched into the capital." "The intelligence officer Hermann Meier-Riggs films the scenes in the first hours of the occupation." "He captures the pride of the conquerors and the humiliation of the defeated." "By the first light of dawn on June 23th of 1940, Hitler visited occupied Paris." "The day before France had surrendered." "Chief pilot Hans Baur filmed the Fuhrer and his entourage as they walked to the viewing platform on the Trocadero." "Albert Speer later reported that it was only at this moment that the Fuhrer abandoned his plan to destroy Paris." "When we shall have completed Berlin, he said had told to his architect," "Paris will only be a shadow." "At Saint-Louis des Invalides Hitler lingered at Napoleon's Sacre coffins, perhaps recalling past and present dreams of supremacy." "The Panthéon was his next stop to visit the French Hall of Fame." "The German dictator's expansionist dreams had come to trueish at least for the time be." "Five years later, however, the French would be dancing in the streets of Paris, celebrating victory as Berlin and the Third Reich lay in ruins." "In the summer of 1940, after the successful Blitzkriegs against Poland," "Norway, and France, always calm in Berlin." "For the British, the Battle of Britain was about to begin." "The Luftwaffe launched their attacks on merchant shipping in the Channel on the 10th of July." "The war must seemed far away, to the Berliners seen here, enjoying the summer sun at the onset here." "Hitler had promised his people that the Third Reich would last 1000 years." "In these weeks, it seemed as the leader might be right." "Early in July 1940, the entire city rejoiced as Hitler returned victorious." "France had accepted terms, and Britain was expected to ask for the peace imminently." "In Freiburg, a battalion of the Reich's Arbeitsdienst, the compulsory labour service for all able-bodied citizens of the Third Reich, prepare for departure." "Their destination was occupied Poland." "Götz Hirt-Reger unofficially filmed this material." "He was then just 20 years old." "In Kazimierz he documented the Jewish ghetto soon to be wiped out as part of the Nazis overall beautification program." "He was billeted with the other men of his battalion in the school not far from the city." "Reger unique colour films survive the duration of the war, by being buried in the forest, near Leipzig." "The RAD battalion's first construction project was an expansion of the camp." "Jewish gangs did the worst of the work." "Since October 1939 Polish Jews have been commandeered as slave labor." "By November 1940, the Krakow ghetto had been sealed off, imprisoning some 70,000 Jews, and within a few days the Warsaw ghetto, holding over 400,000 Jews, was also sealed off." "In the capital of the defeated Poland," "Reger also managed to document the devastation of war." "In just three weeks, between the first and 27th of September 1939, the Luftwaffe had reduced Warsaw to rubble." "These pictures were taken of the summer camp of the Leipzig Hitler Youth, in the Austrian #." "As tough as leather, as swift as a greyhound, and as hard as steel, is their motto, as they exercised ultimately in preparation for the front." "The Nazis very effectively targeted children with their propaganda." "At 10 boys joined to Jungvolk, girls join to Jungmädel, boys then joined to the Hitler youth and girls The League of German Maidens," "Bund Deutscher Mädel or BDM." "The children of propaganda minister Goebbels were no exception." "Here they pose properly dressed in German national costume for the camera." "Each year Helga, Hilda, Helmut, Holde, Hedwig, and Heidrun gave the busy daddy of film for his birthday." "This time it was in color." "With her six children, Magda Goebbels likes to present herself and her children as a model national socialist family." "Productive Goebbels was seldom at home, and is said to have had so many affairs, that people called him the "Goat of Babelsberg"." "My daddy is the best comrade, sang the Goebbels children for his birthday film." "Without hesitating, their parents would have all six children given lethal injections on May 1, 1945, after the suicide of the Fuhrer, brought an end to the Third Reich." "Magda Goebbels justified the murder of her children, saying the world which will follow in the wake of the Fuhrer and National Socialism will no longer to be worth living in." "But in the summer of 1940 Hitler was at the height of his power and with almost all of Europe surrendered to the Nazis." "His next target was Great Britain." "In Britain Winston Churchill had become Prime Minister on 10th of May 1940, that very same day, the Germans unleashed their Blitzkrieg offenses in France and the Low countries." "Churchill had warned the British public that he had nothing to offer, but blood, misery, tears, and sweat." "It was not long before this became a reality, as the Luftwaffe's bombardment of British cities began." "Rosie Newman, well-connected British amateur filmmaker, who applied for permits to film the aftermath of the blitz, to be shown to an invited audience, to raise money for wartime charities, recorded these scenes." "For months, London was the main target of German raids." "The Fuhrer wanted the capital of the Empire, wiped from the face of the Earth." "The Luftwaffe did its best." "So many piles of broken window panes littered the streets that London has coined a new phrase "Blitz Windows"." "Despite a German invasion of Great Britain being against all expectations, the home guard in England still took up arms." "Should the Germans have succeeded in invading and somehow advancing inland, they would have been welcomed by some clever camouflage manoeuvres." "National coastal defenses to inhibit Nazi landing boats, even reaching the beaches, had also been installed." "For months, the British had been experimenting with flamethrower systems, in search of the perfect mixture of petrol and oil." "Back in Germany, in the winter of 1940," "Götz Hirt-Reger attended at course in schliefen barracks to train as a radio operator." "Whenever he had the opportunity, probably unofficially, he shot scenes of soldiers engaged in the basic training." "For months all they did was train, as Hitler postponed the invasion of England, called operation Sea Lion, time and again." "In the end, Hitler had to accept that the invasion of Britain was not possible." "He turned his attention instead to the Soviet Union." "In America, Franklin D. Roosevelt was sworn in, on 20th of January 1941, in Washington." "The first US president who took office for a full third term." "During the election campaign, Roosevelt promised the Americans that their sons need not go to war, but he would do all he could for the British war effort." "In his inaugural speech, he said that some men believe that for some unexplained reason, tyranny and slavery have become the surging wave of the future, and that freedom is an ebbing tide." "But we Americans know that this is not true." "America would not be able to stand by, and watch for law." "Not all Americans, however, share this view." "Some believe they too found their idol in Adolf Hitler." "These members of the German-American League met in the forests of New Jersey each year." "American Nazis had built a community centre at camp Bergwald, where they sought to emulate their German role model." "At Santa Monica beach, the composer Friedrich Holländer films enjoyable scenes together, with director Ernst Lubitz." "The two men from Berlin are among those, who have made it in Hollywood." "Star director Lubitz always uses his good connections to find jobs for emigrants from Nazi Germany." "Friedrich Holländer, who gained world fame as the composer of Marlene Dietrich's songs, can afford a villa at Woodrow Wilson Drive in Hollywood Hills." "Daughter Philine managed to leave Europe on one of the last passenger lines." "They all are in a happy mood." "In his memoirs Friedrich Holländer would comment in these days," ""Strange, such a war from far, the seismograph shows a clear deflection that mankind starts to live with these deflections"." "By March, President Roosevelt still bought at war." "But he had secured the Lend Lease Act, which provided vital material assistance to Britain, and the Soviet Union." "Here in Halifax Harbour in Nova Scotia, cargo ships were loaded with weapons and supplies to cross the Atlantic." "America also lend 50 old destroyers to help combat the U-boat menace, attacking these supply convoys." "And by late summer 1941, America was engaged in an undeclared war, as Roosevelt ordered US warships to attack U-boats on site." "German submarines did however manage to successfully torpedo supply boats, but the Royal Navy fought back." "These are survivors of the sunken warship Bismarck, arriving in Halifax as prisoners of war." "Meanwhile in Europe Hitler had opened the new Theatral Hall." "In April 1941 the German army had invaded the Yugoslavia;" "conquering the country within 11 days." "Gottfried Kessel, an officer with the infantry Regiment "Grossdeutschland", was an enthusiastic film amateur." "His company had selected him to film their war diary." "On the 22th of April 1941, Gottfried Kessel filmed this funeral." "Serbian partisans had killed two SS men in the small town of Pančevo, not far from Belgrade." "They murdered nine, so-called ethnic Germans, Danube Swabians." "The German army's revenge was ferocious." "At first six Serb civilians were arrested and sentenced to death on charges of partisan activity." "They were publicly executed by an ethnic German hang." "Afterwards 12 former Serb soldiers were shot against the cemetery wall of Pančevo." "Gottfried Kessel filmed both these horrific retaliation for his war diary." "Two months later the German army invaded to the Soviet Union." "Friedrich Gehrke took part in operation Barbarossa as a supply commander of the 23rd infantry division." "He had brought a camera and colour film with him from occupied Paris." "By the evening of the first day his unit had reached the burning village of Andreevo." "In under a week German troops had swept through the part of Poland annexed by the Soviets." "The red Army was not prepared for the attack." "Until the last moment Joseph Stalin had repeatedly dismissed all the warning signs of a German advance." "By the 29th of June 1941, after fierce battles, units of Army group "Centre" conquered the Ukrainian town of Chechenov." "Harald von Vietinghoff-Riesch documented here their victory." "Here Ukrainian women wait at the entrance to the temporary prison camp, hoping their men will soon be released." "1200 Soviet soldiers were detained here." "In March 1941 Hitler declared that the forthcoming war with Russia was a new kind of war." "The war between races and between ideologies, it would have to be waged with unprecedented, unmerciful and unrelenting heartness." "As ideological enemies of Nazi Germany, all Soviet commissars would have to be eliminated." "The generals of the Third Reich were empowered by Hitler, to pardon any German soldier who broke international law." "By the end of the war approximately 7 million Ukrainians had died." "General field marshal Günther von Kluge now focused on planning his campaign against Moscow." "That summer Adolf Hitler met the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in Gorsk." "Il Duce had com expressly to convince himself of the successful progress of the campaign, in which his soldiers participated." "Here the generals are seen having lunch." "Again air force captain Hans Baur took these shots." "Despite the extraordinary censorship of the period, Baur continue to be free to pursue his hobby in the immediate vicinity of the Fuhrer." "For their flight to the Ukraine Mussolini asked to sit in the cockpit." "Baur use this opportunity to get a close-up shot of Mussolini." "Il Duce was sitting there, stiff like a stuffed dummy, he later recalled." "Arriving in Uman, Hitler and Mussolini visited the troops, escorted by Foreign Minister Joaquim von Ribbentrop, the Fuhrer secretary Martin Bormann, and generals von Runstedt and Jodl." "The soldiers welcomed their supreme commander with enthusiasm." "German forces had advanced more than 400 miles on a front that stretched from the Crimea in the south to Leningrad in the North and inflicted devastating losses on Soviet forces." "These scenes from a burning village near Smolensk filmed by Friedrich Gehrke show the extent of the destruction." "In 1941, 3,5 million red Army soldiers were taken prisoner." "In the first 10 weeks nearly half of them died of hunger and disease" "The ones who survived were transported to Germany as forced labour." "But by the beginning of the winter, the Germans first got stuck in the mud then later in the snow." "On the outskirts of Moscow Hitler and his generals were brought to a standstill." "Equipment failed in the sub-zero temperatures and inadequately clothed German soldiers literally froze to death." "Back in the Fatherland a sports group of the German Labour Front from Breslau set out on a run in May of 1942." "It was the duty of comrades on the home front to stay fit for their final victory, as the master race." "But for those persecuted by Nazi ideology, there were no options." "Here in catholic # near Kniebau, 40 gypsy children, whose parents were in concentration camps lived." "Gypsies were the only other racial group apart from Jews to be explicitly targeted for extermination." "Race researcher Eva Justin filmed them for her thesis on the fate of gypsy children not brought up according to Germanic standards." "She recommended having them sterilised." "In spring 1944 these children were deported to Auschwitz." "In 1942 Nazi camera team travelled to Warsaw to make a film about the ghetto." "Goebbels propaganda ministry probably sent the reporters, but their precise task remains unclear." "After the war, black-and-white fragments of film shot in the ghetto were discovered." "But in 1996, in a private collection in Moscow, this colour material was found." "Only in cemetery will remain of the Jewish question predicting the German governor of Warsaw when he declared an area of the city the Jewish quarter." "The sectioned off area contained 400,000 people who were forced to live pack together in the ghetto." "Death by starvation or by typhus was commonplace." "Nazi ethnologists took a special research interest in the neglected and starving children of the ghetto." "Goebbels all too successful slogans "the Jews are a misfortune"" "and "a people without a space" take on an even more sinister reality in the face of this appalling human tragedy." "Children sang "good people have mercy on us and throw us a piece of bread"." "By now the order to clear the Warsaw ghetto had already been given and would start soon." "The final solution to the Jewish problem had been found." "On the Eastern front, in the summer of 1942, one of Goebbels's hand-picked war reporters Hans Pasternak filmed in Russia." "From inside the tank he got unusual shots." "The propaganda ministry wanted only scenes of storming troops and defeated red Army soldiers, but time and again" "Hans Pasternak took more realistic pictures of the horror of war." "On the 10th January 1943 Hitler met the Romanian dictator Antonescu at his Wolf's lair, heavily defended bunker complex in East Prussia." "Hitler held the Romanians responsible for the critical situation of the six Army at Stalingrad." "At this stage Hitler insisted on concealing from the German people the fact that the 200,000 men of 6th Army and 4th Panzer Army had been encircled and trapped near Stalingrad for weeks." "On 14th of January 1943 Winston Churchill arrived in Casablanca for a secret conference with the American president." "Stalin was also invited to Morocco but declain to a #, as a meeting coincided with the closing stages of the battle of Stalingrad." "The Allies negotiated for ten days." "When Roosevelt and Churchill emerged they made public their resolve with only unconditional surrender from Nazi Germany and Japan would be accepted." "Two months earlier more than 100,000 Allied soldiers have landed in northern Africa and occupied Morocco and Algeria." "Roosevelt visited the American forces there and was filmed by U.S. Army cameraman." "After their bitter defeat the remainder of Rommel's Africa Corps withdrawn to their bases in Tunisia where a final surrender of Axis forces in North Africa took place in early May 1943." "The field marshal had already been ordered to return to Germany." "In the wake of defeat Arab volunteers were recruited by the Germans for sabotage operations." "Colonel Meier-Riggs, part of Abwehr, filmed with this small 8mm camera as the auxiliary troops were sworn in." "They were code-named "Feel me"." "The fate of this Arab sabotage unit is not clear." "Most probably never became operational." "All resistance seized on the 11th of May, only occasional skirmishes and their raids continued." "Allied forces took 130,000 German and 120,000 Italian soldiers prisoner in Tunisia." "In the port of Tunis, German soldiers boarded the "Thomas Stone"." "This American transport ship had participated in the Allied landing in North Africa." "It now transports the defeated German soldiers to the US to stay in POW camps until the end of the war according to the Geneva Convention." "On 8th June 1943 American cameraman filmed what was left of German aircraft on the military airfield of El Aouina, near Tunis." "Adjacent to the airstrip was a cemetery for German soldiers." "The Nazi dream of conquering the world was crumbling." "At the Casablanca conference the British and Americans had agreed to postpone landing on the French coast." "First Sicily had to be conquered, the secure supply routes through the Mediterranean." "10th July was set for the landings." "The US 1th infantry division had been allocated the landings zone on the gulf of Gela." "The Italians would long since tired of the war, wanted to resign from their coalition with Hitler." "Two weeks after the start of the Allied offensive, Mussolini was dismissed by King Victor Emmanuel III;" "this marked the end of fascist Italy." "For 38 days the Germans resisted fiercely, but on 17th August 1943 Messina, the most northerly point on Sicily was liberated and came under Allied control." "Meanwhile the Nazi leaders invested their final hopes for victory in miracle weapons, secretly at the Peenemunde test plant, a new prototype rocket the V2 was being tested." "The Germans wanted to use them for revenge raids against British cities." "But the tests were not going well." "On the 29th June Heinrich Himmler visited the Peenemunde." "The head of the SS had shown an interest in the V2 for some time and wanted to see them with his own eyes." "The test rocket took off according to plan but after a few seconds it went into a spin and crashed out of the control." "Wernher von Braun, imagining the whole V2 project endangered by this failure, requested a second try immediately." "This time all went well." "But the miracle weapons could not stop British and American bombers raiding German cities night and day." "The route over the Alps or the North Sea was a long flight fraught with danger." "German anti-aircraft artillery positions were by and large intact." "24% of the RAF's bomber command aircrews could expect to survive the war unharmed, 51% would be killed on operations." "Many flying fortresses however managed to unload their lethal cargo successfully as demonstrated in these scenes of a raid on Wilhelmshof." "On the night of 27th to 28th July 1943 bombers of the Royal Air Force attacked Hamburg." "The next day, firefighter Hans Brunswick filmed the aftermath." "The bombs had started a horrific firestorm, entire districts were completely destroyed." "It's thought that 40,000 German civilians were killed in the so-called Gomorrah raids on Hamburg." "In Haswell, Lincolnshire, bombs were filmed, being loaded." "Each of the Lancaster bombers were transported dozen of the 500 pound bombs and in addition a 4000 pound heavy explosive bomb which the pilots lovingly called "Cookie"." "This time the target was Berlin, the 550th Squadron of the 1st bomber command were given final instructions on the flight route and drop off points." "German cities were being bombarded around the clock." "The Americans fly through their raids during the day the British had not." "The bombers took off at 5 o'clock in the afternoon and after some four hours reached the capital of the Third Reich." "In one of these devastating air raids the premises of universal film AG in Berlin Tempelhof was heavily damaged in February 1944." "But the continued production of propaganda newsreels from Goebbels film Empire had hardly been touched." "The film producers were now working on another newsreel series called Panorama which was filmed in colour." "These scenes are typical of most of the programs, fairy-tale National Socialist world in AGFA colour with no mention of the war on the home front." "During filming in Berlin however war reporter Jarovski cannot entirely keep the impact of war out of his shots, so cheerful soldiers and happy Berliners were placed firmly on the picture." "The fact that Berlin in the fifth year of war was being raided without interruption by the Allies, that the Russian front had long since broken down and that hundreds of thousands of German soldiers were dead or imprisoned," "still have no place in the propaganda of the Third Reich." "The self-centred footage makes it look as if the German nation is readily putting up minor bothers of war and sacrifice for the final victory." "These pictures of successful dive bomber raids somewhere in the Soviet Union also suggest an unbroken faith in victory, and decline of the Third Reich is by now reversal." "As Allied air raids threaten to paralyse the German armament industry, strategic production plants were moved underground or bunkered in." "Here a huge steel and concrete bunker for constructing submarines was being built near Bremen." "Navy construction official Steige recorded the work." "Almost incidentally he filmed the systematic brutalisation of concentration camp prisoners." "Despite the work of the 10,000 slave workers, the bunker remained unfinished and submarines were never constructed here." "On the 6th June 1944, in the first light of dawn," "Allied landing forces stormed the Normandy beaches." "Despite heavy casualties they succeeded in creating a bridgehead during the first day of the invasion." "One of the American camera teams, working for the American Secret Service, OSS, on duty during the D-Day, was led by Hollywood director John Ford." "Ford's Hollywood colleagues William Weiler and John Sturgess with their own camera teams were also on duty for a special film project in the south of France." "Since the US 7th Army had landed near Toulon in mid-August, they recorded their advance in north." "The liberators were welcomed by the French rural population with bread and wine." "Here the German soldiers surrendered to the GI's for him the war was over, he'd survived." "The defence of France cost the Germans a total of 700,000 casualties." "Approximately 50 million people died in the Second World War, an estimated 6 million of them in the Nazi Holocaust." "An American cameraman labelled this footage "French victims of German atrocities"" "are excavated by members of the Red Cross." "48,000 men of Hitler's once so glorious German army were taken prisoner at Toulon and Marseille." "Meanwhile 50,000 prisoners were taken at the Calais pocket in Normandy." "They were at first held in temporary camps and later, like the comrades of the Africa Corps, later shipped to POW camps." "Since Italy had concluded a special armistice with the Allies early in September 1943," "Rome had been occupied by the Germans." "The eternal city was liberated on 4th June; rival of this news in Britain was overshadowed by the D-Day landings of 6th June." "The Italians wanted Mussolini, who still headed a puppet government in northern Italy, deposed." "He was caught and executed by Italian partisans in April 1945." "Back in Britain the possibility of victory and peace became more and more of a reality." "People managed to relax at this outdoor dancing #." "In October 1944, the Allied troops finally reached the western frontier of the Third Reich the so-called Siegfried line." "The GI records his first impressions of the enemy's country and its people." "These pictures are from Aachen, the first German city liberated from National Socialism by the Allies." "The Mayor of Aachen, Franz Oppenhoff, installed here by the Americans, was assassinated days later by the Werewolves, fanatical diehard Nazi partisan group." "Six months of war still lay ahead of Allied soldiers, fierce battles and many dead's, as a fanatical minority of Nazis followed the Fuhrer to the bitter end." "Shoot in autumn in 1944, this Nazi propaganda film shows, how the Hitler Youth provided young blood for the Kriegsmarine, the German Navy." "Shortly before the end of the war, this 16-year-old was drafted for military service as cannon fodder." "For the producers of the propaganda newsreels panorama holding out was all." "The circus program is all that the newsreel, officials can come up with in face of the menacing fall of Nazi Germany." "Back in the reality of war early in April 1945 units of the 3rd U.S. Army freed Ohrdruf concentration camp in Thuringia." "Some 10,000 workers have been detained in the camp S3." "Only a few would survive the barbaric Nazi regime." "Americans was stunned by the indescribable conditions of the camp." "That was the first concentration camp they had liberated." "Reluctantly the inhabitants of the surrounding villages were forced to face the terrible truth." "Almost at the same time the German army's last contingent took up position along the Oder River with its camera team for the propaganda machine of the crumbling Third Reich." "Near the cellulose factory of Niederwutzen troops of the 9th armies skirmished with Soviet reconnaissance troops." "Berlin was only 39 miles away." "The propaganda machine of the Third Reich held out to the very end up to the last few feet of the last roll of colour film."