ヒトラーとスターリン：恐怖の中で団結

ヒトラーとスターリン：恐怖の中で団結

Summer,
1945. During the Europe Day victory celebration, on Red Square in Moscow. In front of the Kremlin Palace and the Soviet leaders. The famous Russian army celebrated their victory over Nazi Germany. Just as it’s done in the Roman Empire, soldiers threw flags at the vanquished at the feet of the winner. The man who beat Adolf Hitler, Generalissimo Joseph Stalin. After 20 years of power, the master of the USSR is at the height of his glory. A poet wrote this. Stalin, you are higher than the high celestial spaces and only your thoughts are greater than you. Your spirit Stalin, is brighter than the sun. We call him the small father of the people. All over the world, he stands for hope of a fairer society. He is the idol of hundreds of millions of people. In France, we also sing his praises. With our whole hearts, we proclaim our ardent love for Stalin and we assure him of our unwavering confidence. Meanwhile, this man is one of the greatest criminals in history. He slaughtered his own people with unlimited brutality. We will annihilate without mercy anyone who threatens with facts or even through thought, the unity of the state. He put in place the Gulag and enslaved 18 million people. You have to cut off destructive party members to preserve it of disease and infection. He cynically caused famines which made 7 million deaths. Death solves all issues. No people, no problems. He sacrificed his family to his own power. A true Bolshevik shouldn’t have a family. We are going to tell you about the incredible story of this son of a small craftsman, who became one of the most powerful personalities on the planet. We are going to tell you how this man, who said he brings joy to his people became, by dint of megalomania and fanaticism, one of the most deadliest dictators that mankind has known. Die with a light heart, for I recognize the immensity of the work accomplished by our soldiers, our women, our workers, and our youth. This contribution is unique in history. Hello, I’m Contrary to what the Jews believe, this war will not end with the annihilation of the people. It will end with the extermination of the Jews. For me, war is not a game. I have no orders to take from my generals. It is with unwavering determination that I will decide the moment of attack. This is my mission. The year 1924 is when it all started. We are in the vicinity of Moscow, in the middle of the Russian winter. Lenin, the father of the Bolshevik revolution just died. It’s one of the first movies where Stalin has the starring role. He is carrying the chef’s coffin alongside Soviet officials. Stalin is 46 years old. He is secretary-general of the Communist Party, a relatively erased post. Among his comrades, nobody can imagine that he will be the one to succeed the great Lenin. They don’t know that 10 years from now. He will have almost all of them arrested and executed. Among them, nobody knows yet who really is Joseph Stalin. To his comrades, he is an insignificant character. One of them said. Stalin is the most outstanding mediocrity of our party. Another confirmed. We are not afraid of Stalin. As soon as he will want to get on his high horse, we will eliminate him. For long now, Stalin has been hiding his real intentions. His real name is Isif Jugashvili. He was born in 1878, in the time of the Tsars. A monarchical regime based on inequality and submission to the monarchs. With a childhood spent in poverty. An alcoholic and abusive father. He grew up with orthodox monks. Very early, he joined the fight against the Tsar, and took the name Stalin, the Man of Steel. In 1917, he participated in the Great Bolshevik Revolution with Lenin which overthrew the Tsar, abolished privileges, and gave power to the people. In the shadow of Lenin, he was just waiting for an opportunity to take power. The death of Lenin was that opportunity. In 1924, he succeeded, through maneuvers within the party, to rule out the greatest character of the moment, Trotsky, before exiling him to Kazakhstan. Nobody saw it coming. But just a few weeks later, Stalin took over power. He won’t leave it anymore. He chose to settle here, in the Kremlin Citadel, the former palace of the Tsars. It’s from there that he will lead the USSR, the Union of Republic Soviet Socialists. The largest country of the planet. With a few people who will follow him blindly for about 30 years. He wanted to go further, much further than Lenin. He wanted to rewrite history and his determination was absolute. We Bolsheviks, we are a special breed. The others have no value, they are not worth a dime. Do not doubt it. comrades. To the working class, I am ready to devote all my strength and every drop of my blood. Stalin wanted a clean slate of the past. He abruptly wiped out the traces of old Russia that the revolution had spared. He passed a decree saying religion is against the interests of the people. Across the country, he removed the old Orthodox icons, before destroying them. In place of the old order, he had a radical project which was to build communism. An ideal, a happy and healthy society without any rich nor poor. A world where everything is shared, where everyone has equal chances at birth, where health and education are accessible to all. For the Soviet Union, he has unlimited ambition. Old Russia has always been defeated because of its delay. Slowing down the pace means to lag behind. And the stragglers will be defeated. We, in the Soviet Union, we don’t want to be defeated anymore. He launched gigantic construction sites. Skyscrapers, subways, railways, dams. Power plants. He wanted to modernize Russia in full swing for her to become a paradise for workers. A world where unemployment does not exist. And where each worker can offer a decent life to his family. Since the end of World War I, the German people have been suffering the consequences of defeat. The economy is in ruins, with over a third of the working population unemployed. One of these unemployed workers remembers, Thousands of factories had closed. Many honest Germans were reduced to stealing just to feed themselves. We all dreamed of a better world. Like so many others, I had lost everything. That’s why I joined the National Socialist Party. September 1934. The National Socialist Party has been in power since its election victory 20 months ago. At the Nuremberg rally, tens of thousands of Germans come to cheer their new leaders, including Chancellor and Führer Adolf Hitler. The German people are living in terrible poverty. We must defeat unemployment. Give us four years before you judge us. and may almighty God bless our efforts. A school teacher, Louise Selmy, attends the gathering. A shiver runs through the ecstatic crowd. The Fuhrer arrives. Emotions are at their peak. It’s an endless ovation. Many of us see him as a savior, the one who will lift us out of our unbearable misery. Adolf Hitler, it is our duty to forever tear away the dark pages of our history. From misery, distress, and destitution, a new German Reich will be reborn. Hitler’s rise to power sparks a wave of optimism. Testimony from a female doctor, her tater. Hitler’s chancellor. It’s all anyone talks about. There’s a general sense of relief, though concern shows on some faces. But everyone agrees that things are going to change now. Gradually, living conditions for the German people improve. Unemployment is virtually eliminated. Workers can even go on vacation abroad thanks to subsidies from the German government. One of them, Hermann Schutz, leaves for Italy. Who would have thought that one day a German worker could afford a vacation on the Italian Riviera? When we return to Germany, we’ll show our gratitude to the Fuhrer by working twice as hard to help him achieve his goals. In Germany, the Nazis are crushing all political opposition. The police and courts are placed under the Fuhrer’s authority. Power is entirely in Hitler’s hands. You can’t all see me, and I can’t see all of you. But you feel me close to you, and I feel you close to me. We are together. and we form Germany. In September 1935, Hitler proclaims new decrees that make German Jews second-class citizens. Children are given racial education lessons. The Jew can be recognized especially by his nose. In profile, it looks like the number six. You can see from his eyes that he’s a deceitful being. Jews are often evil. If you have a keen sense of smell, you can smell the Jew. Freedom of speech is ruthlessly repressed. Tens of thousands of people are thrown in prison, like journalist Stefan Laurent, who dared to criticize the Fuhrer in his newspaper. I’m writing from cell number 24. Outside, a new Germany is being born. Millions are rejoicing. Hitler promises everyone exactly what they want. But when they come to their senses, they’ll realize they’ve been taken for a ride and fooled. A world where Stalin occupies the first position. We, the pioneers of the great country, party soldiers, always ready. We thank you Stalin for happiness that you are providing to our country. Stalin is the leader of the communists. His portrait is everywhere. In factories, on trains, in every classroom, and even in the dining rooms. He must be perfect because he reflects the success of communism. He personally corrected his official biography. with millions of copies sold. On the copies, he added a handwritten note. Add the sentence, Stalin is the greatest captain of all times and people. Actually, the real Stalin is more common. He is only 5 feet 3 inches feet. He is putting on his wedge heel shoes. He often stands on a small wooden plate that makes him look taller. Look at this exceptional image. It’s his real face. His skin is pocky because he had smallpox at the age of seven. But strange enough, in public, he had pristine skin. The new master of the Kremlin is a mystery to his people. He spends his time locked up in his office and he hides jealously his private life. Here are the only photos left of his wife, Nadezhda. She was a former wrestling comrade, 22 years his junior. He had two children with Nadezhda, Vasily and Svetlana. He devoted little time to them, but on his little girl, he demonstrated a real fascination. I miss you, Dad. I don’t care if the whole world hates me. If Dad asks me to go to the moon, I will. A few photos show us Stalin in his moments of relaxation. During summer vacation, when he takes his deputies on the Black Sea in party villas, Ekaterina Voroshilov, the wife of one of his lieutenants, remembers that Stalin loved nature expeditions. He would drive us there and we would sit next to a river. We would light a fire, grill meat while joking and singing. It really was the good times. The problem is, for Stalin, from the early years, the bad news are piling up. His politics were disappointing. By multiplying major industrial projects, Stalin sacrificed his daily life. The Russian population was growing. Yet no housing facilities were made available. Families had to move in together in requisitioned apartments and occupied all the small spaces. the standard of living was deteriorating. As proof, these clandestinely shot footage on the streets of Moscow are one of the rare proofs of poverty in the early 1930s. It’s this rich Englishwoman, Lady Mountbatten, who during a trip, recorded with her personal camera. Everywhere I see signs of malnutrition. I was told that this man, who rummags in the trash cans, was a former aristocrat. And that this one was a famous teacher, during the time of the Tsars. Here is a little boy who was all alone, and who asked me for help. Store windows are almost empty. Above all, the queues are endless. In the queue, some are left waiting all day, unable to buy anything. In the USSR, the communist dream is already falling down. August 1, 1936 Adolf Hitler arrives to open the 11th Olympic Games in Berlin. Hitler is determined these games will be a showpiece for his new Germany. Jewish professor, Viktor Klemperer. i find the olympics so odious the chanted slogans on the streets have been banned jew-baiting warlike sentiments everything offensive has disappeared from the papers the attention of our guests is repeatedly drawn to how peacefully and pleasantly things are proceeding by the end of the games the germans topped the medal table It is a personal triumph for Hitler. In 1940, the Olympic Games will take place in Tokyo, but thereafter, they will take place in Germany for all time to come. Three weeks after the Olympic Games, Hitler welcomes David Lloyd George, Britain’s former Prime Minister. to the Berghof, his mountain home in Berchtesgaden, Bavaria. At Hitler’s side is his interpreter, Paul Schmidt. Hitler was delighted with this visit from the world-famous statesman. We sat at a table near the window. He began to speak with excitement of his experiences as a humble soldier during the Great War. I often face the English, he said. Lloyd George is so impressed by Hitler, he publishes his thoughts in the Daily Express. The idea of a Germany intimidating Europe forms no part of Hitler’s new vision. The Germans have definitely made up their minds never to quarrel with us again. As Lloyd George leaves, Hitler presents a secret memo to his ministers. The world is moving towards a new conflict. Making the German army into the first in the world is vital. If this does not happen, then Germany will be lost. We must be ready for war in four years’ time. July the 18th, 1937. Adolf Hitler’s personal pilot, SS-Oberfuhrer Hans Bauer, accompanies him to a pageant to celebrate 2,000 years of German culture. Bauer is permitted to film his Fuhrer with his own camera. 14-year-old Ingeborg de Weber. The four years the Fuhrer asked for to fulfill his promises are up. What great things he has achieved. The communists have disappeared from Germany. There is no unemployment. The Fuhrer has given us back our self-respect. For the past six years, Adolf Hitler has kept a secret from the German people. Hidden away from all but his closest companions is his mistress, Eva Braun. The weather is so wonderful. And I, the mistress of the greatest man in the world, am sitting here and gazing at the sun. With a camera given to her by Hitler, Eva Braun films his private life. I’m so terribly happy that he loves me so much, and I pray that it will always be like this. He has had a head full of politics all this time. But surely it is time he relaxed a little. Only members of Hitler’s inner circle are allowed to meet Eva. One of them is Hitler’s close friend, architect Albert Speer. Never have I met a person who so seldom reveals his feelings. Even towards Eva he is never completely relaxed and human. Hitler and Eva avoid anything that might suggest an intimate relationship, only to go upstairs to the bedrooms together late at night. Out of sympathy, I began to feel a liking for this woman, who was so deeply attached to Hitler. 25-year-old Eva is from a traditional Catholic family. When Hitler provides Eva with a flat of her own, her father writes a letter. Your Excellency, I find myself in the extremely unpleasant position of having to express to you my distress. I believe the parent supervision of the children until they get married is a sacred principle. This is my code of honor. Please advise her to return to her family. Yours, very respectfully, Fritz Braun. Ava intercepts the letter. It will never reach the Fuhrer. Ava always appears happy, the center of attention. But the only surviving fragments of her diary reveal a different story. When he says he loves me, it only means he loves me at that particular moment. Like his promises which he never keeps, I am utterly miserable. I shall go out and buy some sleeping pills. Then I won’t think about you so much. Ava has already made two attempts at su- But Hitler still refuses to marry her. A highly intelligent man should take a primitive and stupid woman. Imagine if I had a woman who interfered with my work. In my leisure time, I want to have peace. I could never marry him. It’s the same with a movie actor. When he marries, he loses a certain something for the women who adore him. Then, he is no longer their idol. But in the Kremlin, Stalin doesn’t want to hear anything. For him, there is no such thing as failure. The system was faulty because their policy was being sabotaged. He was looking for culprits among economic officials. Just like the financial desk, Bryuchinov, that he considers incompetent, and who a collaborator drew in an awkward position. At the margin, Stalin wrote. For all his sins past and present, hang Brukhanov from the testicles. If they hold up, consider it acquitted by the court. If they give up, throw them in the river. Stalin was only half joking. In 1930, he invented a method to officially point out the culprits. The political trial. The defendants were scientists. Engineers, senior officials. They were all competent, but Stalin accused them of sabotaging the Soviet economy. Get up! Stalin himself is absent from the debates, but he appointed as judge one of his followers, Andrei Vyshinsky. He told him the sentences to be pronounced, death. I declare the session of the Special Court of the Government of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics open. For the trial to appear credible in the eyes of the public, it was necessary that the defendants admit their fault. They were tortured for weeks and didn’t really have a choice. How do I say this, I have already explained this in my last statement that my counter-revolutionary feelings with regard to Soviet power had never really left me. I completely acknowledge this. I acknowledge that. I deserve the worst punishment. For the prosecutor, it’s now a piece of cake. The government convicts you and requests that the defendants be shot. After several days of deliberations, the judge pronounced the verdict. He knew that Stalin was dutching his performance. Hence a certain feeling. Kalaninkov Ivan Andreyevich, according to articles 583, 584, 586 and 5811 of the USSR Code, the Soviet Union gives you the highest sentence, being shot with the confiscation of all your assets. Their sentence will be commuted to 10 years in prison. But the message is clear, those who oppose Stalin will be brutally crushed. As well as their loved ones too, Stalin is becoming brutal. His relationship with his eldest son Yekhov, born of a first union, turned cold. He recently attempted to commit suicide. His father showed no compassion. He couldn’t even shoot on target. I can’t have something in common with him. Stalin’s relationship too was not doing well. His wife, Nadezhda, is fragile, she was constantly rebuked by her husband. During a dispute where Stalin insulted her, she got carried away. You are an executioner. That’s what you are. You’re tormenting your own son, your wife, the Russian people. It’s impossible to live with you. After 14 years together, Nadezhda no longer has strength. One winter evening, after another quarrel during an official reception in the Kremlin, Nadezhda returned to her room. And committed, with a revolver bullet in the heart. The truth will remain hidden for 60 years. Russians were told that Nadezhda died from appendicitis. Because, according to communist leaders, Suu Kyi is considered as treason. Even her friend Paulina Molotov condemned it. Nadezhda was wrong. She left Stalin at such a difficult period. Stalin did not stay at the funeral, he was devastated. Oh Nadezhda. Nadezhda, when needed of you, your children and I. She abandoned me like an enemy. She made me a cripple. She ruined my life. September the 28th, 1937. The people of Berlin are preparing for a state visit from Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Hitler is building a new military alliance in Europe. We do not intend in rearming Germany to create an instrument of military aggression, but on the contrary, exclusively for defense and the maintenance of peace. Hitler parades his new army in front of Mussolini. Accompanying the two dictators is Hitler’s interpreter, Paul Schmidt. I had ample opportunity of observing the two of them. Hitler’s voice was rough and often hoarse. Sometimes his eyes blazed. His laugh always had a flavor of sarcasm. There was an interesting ceremony with Mussolini appointing Hitler an honorary corporal in the fascist militia. Hitler has also signed a pact with Japan. With his new axis of power in place, he is ready to make his next move. In the USSR, nothing will be the same again. Stalin was brutal. From now on he will be merciless. His first targets were peasants who refused to give their land to the state and join the kolkhozes. These huge cooperatives where everything is shared, under party control. To harm them, Stalin sent police officers to crisscross the countryside and requisition the crops. Their mission is to asphyxiate families who resist his policies. Tortures are asterisk asterisk asterisk assassinations. Nothing could stop them. One of these policemen is Lev Koplev. I took part in these expeditions, probing the ground to discover the hideouts. I emptied the pantries, while forcing myself not to hear, the children’s tears and the moans from women. Anything was allowed. Destruction. Lies. Death. The end justified the means. Our aim was the universal triumph of communism. 1933, the year of the result. Stalin’s requisitions caused a tragedy in Ukraine. One of the richest regions in Europe was already been ravaged by the famine in the 1920s, under Lenin. But this time, the slaughter took unimaginable heights. The peasants no longer had something to eat. A father wrote to his son in Moscow. My dear son, I am writing to you to tell you that your mother is dead. She died of starvation after months of suffering. I don’t have much time left myself. Some members of the party on site did not understand that this famine is known and even wanted by Stalin. They protested. Is Comrade Stalin a member of the Politburo? Is he aware of what’s going on in Ukraine? Otherwise, let me hint you. A train full of corpses just arrived in Kiev, after picking up bodies along the way. In Moscow, Stalin wanted to eliminate the Ukrainians who were still resisting his policies. He prohibited hungry peasants from leaving their villages to get to the big cities. In good conscience, he condemned to death 5 million people, half of whom were children. It’s one of the greatest massacres of the century. At the same time, the French deputy Eduardo Rio arrived in Ukraine invited by the Soviet government. I make ardent wishes for the prosperity of the Russian people. And I hope that my trip will be useful for their happiness and the people’s peace. The Frenchman and the delegation who accompanied him visited Ukraine by train. He is pleased with the trip. I trust Ukraine. I can assure you that I saw it like a garden in full yield. There are only coal horse gardens, irrigated and admirable crops. While it is said that Ukraine is being ravaged by famine, allow me to shrug my shoulders. How could the Frenchman miss out on millions of deaths? In fact, the streets were cleaned prior to his arrival. The workers that he met were extras. We brought in food. Eduardo Rio was fooled by propaganda. In Moscow, Stalin’s rule is full of lies. He gave a mission to journalists and filmmakers. They don’t have to describe the world as it is, but as it should be. The harvest is bad. We have radiant peasants filmed in magnificent fields. Industrial results are disappointing. We publish victorious press releases with fake numbers. We invent heroes like this famous miner, Alexei Stakhanov. During a competition, he broke down the productivity record by extracting 14 times more of coal than others. This story is completely false. It was made up by the party. But it helped abuse the Soviets. Truly, the USSR is no longer just a gigantic police state. Stalin’s agents are everywhere. They control the whole company. They received a terrifying order. They won’t just to arrest the suspects, but also deport them. Everywhere, thousands of men, women and children are grouped and taken to unknown destinations. A child remembers. How long did the trip last? I have no idea. In the wagon, seven people died of starvation. When we are arrived in Tomsk, they took us out and unloaded the corpses. Children, youths, and old people. They headed to the Gulag, Soviet labor camps. They were real concentration camps, set up by Stalin, long before their appearance in Germany. These were all enemies of the revolution, at least from an official point of view. Actually, ordinary citizens. notable people, religious people who have nothing to be blamed for but don’t fit with the functioning of the regime. They are mixed with common law prisoners. In the party, we caress that re-education through labor and we are proud of it. Here, the deviant spirits must be put back on track. In fact, these prisoners are turned into slaves. In the camps of the far north, the temperature sometimes falls down to minus 50 degrees. A prisoner wrote, It’s dangerous to stop moving. I can’t stop kneading my toes and clenching my fists. The act of touching a metal tool with bare hands may rip your skin off. Maria Iov can’t take it anymore. She’s a political prisoner. Our team is composed of intellectuals. But among these scarecrows, who will recognize violinists, harpists, scientists, we are in a constant state of daze and stupefaction. March the 12th,
1938. Hitler announces the Nazi takeover of Austria. Born in Austria, Hitler has always dreamt of merging his homeland into a greater German Reich. Karl Tizian is a soldier in the Austrian army. We’ve been told German troops should not be met. with any resistance. God save Austria. Everywhere there are people on the streets and swastika flags. Germany has apparently saved us from the communists. Now everyone is on the side of the winners. In the town of Dornbirn, 10,000 people celebrate in the renamed Adolf Hitler Square. I believe that it was God’s will to send the boy from here into Germany, to raise him to be leader. to return his homeland to the Reich. For me, this is the proudest hour of my life. Within weeks, the Jews of Vienna are feeling the real impact of Austria’s saving. 24 year old Jewish student, Edith Hahn. The Nazis are putting up signs on Jewish shops, warning people not to buy there. Anybody who resists is beaten up, killed or taken away to a concentration camp. Everyone around us has gone mad. They were born hating us, raised hating us, and now the veneer of civilization, which had protected us from their hatred, has been stripped away. High in the Bavarian Alps, at his mountain hideaway, Hitler is already planning his next conquest. The diary of Nazi propaganda chief Josef Goebbels. Now comes Czechoslovakia. The Fuhrer is wonderful. A true genius. He sits for hours over the map and broods. The Führer is pleased that Czechs are being so stubborn. All the more will they be torn to pieces one day. And they haven’t the slightest idea what’s going to happen. Poor fools. Hitler claims that ethnic Germans living in the Czechoslovak province of Sudetenland are being oppressed. German newspapers are full of fabricated stories of violence and… On August 2,
1933, an event showed the cruelty and absurdity of the system. On that day, the Stalin Canal was being inaugurated. 200 kilometers of waterways that connect from the White to the Baltic Sea. With just pickaxes, 300,000 prisoners dug this canal. Exceptionally, Stalin chose to move. He wanted to make the canal that would bear his name, the symbol of his success. Theoretically, it was a technical feat the construction deadline of the Panama Canal was shortened. Truly, it’s a new tragedy. 30,000 prisoners, or 1 out of 10, died during construction. They died in vain. It seems hard to believe, but to meet up with the time limits set by Stalin, the channel was not dug quite deep. Most boats will never be able to borrow it. Abroad, we are far from imagining the horror caused by the Stalinist system. Most Western media repeat the lies from propaganda to burlesque. Meanwhile the gulag is developing everywhere, here’s how the French news describe a former Tsar’s prison in Siberia. Once upon a time, the Tsar revolutionaries were locked up there. Today, the Soviet government decided to give another use to this location. Large rabbit boobies will now be done there under the watch of a special scientific institute. Intoxicated by propaganda, every year, communist delegations from all over the world and especially from France, came to Moscow to greet the little father of the peoples. Despite Stalin’s crimes, prestigious rallies were fast multiplying, like that of the French writer Louis Aragon, who not only approves the gulag, but publicly sings its praises. The proletariat will undertake this historic task, rehabilitation of man by man. We are at a moment in the history of mankind that looks like in the transition from ape to man. For the Bolshevik party and its leader Stalin. How do you explain such dazzlement? at the 1935 congress in Moscow. Maurice Therese’s speech, the leader of the French Communist Party, explained that Stalin gave back to the workers their pride. Listen comrades, for a moment, it happened that communist workers didn’t know how to respond in factories, didn’t know how to defend themselves against such blames or such accusations. There was a time when, because of drying sectarianism, they did not have the means to respond. There was no longer harmony between them and the great mass of workers. Now they’re proud, they’re talking, responding, giving their arguments. They are known in factories, they say they are the communists, those are the ones who organized the United Front and the Popular Front. We are sure of victory because the helm of our ship is in the firm hands of the greatest pilot, of our dear and great Stalin. Blinded by his communist ideal, the Frenchman did not see, or did not want to realize that Stalin had moved on a long time ago, and that his only purpose was now to consolidate his power. Stalin decided to kill the entire generation which was still shading him. Remember, Lenin’s funeral in 1924. Most of those who carried the coffin with Stalin would die. Kamenev and Zinoviev, executed. Tomsky, driven to suicide. Rykov, shot. Rudik, murdered. Stalin finds pleasure in matizing loved ones. Choose your victim, carefully prepare for the coup. Relentlessly carry out your revenge and then go to bed. There is nothing sweeter than this in the world. In 1938, he attacked his closest partner in the fight, his dear Bukharin. He’s been a friend for 15 years, but he dared contradict him several times. In his eyes, he became an enemy. To prepare for the fall of this great figure in the regime, it started the steamroller propaganda. Across the country, we are of the opinion that these conspiracies were fiercely committed by the agents of capitalism, dogs of fascism none other than Bukharin and his crew. Comrades, what I have to tell you was confirmed by Stalin. Our country is surrounded by enemies who want to destroy our country and our people. Death to these enemies, death to these parasites. During this time at Lubyanka, the headquarters of the secret police, Bukharin is being tortured. In a letter, he implores his old friend Stalin. I am writing you this letter, which is probably the last. My heart bleeds at the thought that you may think that I am guilty. I am ready to drag myself on my knees and implore you to drop this trial for me. If death awaits me, I beg you, in the name of everything you care about, not to allow me to get shot. I would like to take poison. I beg you. It is indeed death that awaits Bukharin. On March 2,
1938, in a room full of members of the political police, his trial begun. It’s mere formality. Our people want one thing. We need to crush these pests. Proklyat you got him. Bukharin is in the defendant’s box, but there is nothing left, no image of him. He was not considered docile enough to be used for propaganda. He will be shot and his family deported. The purges are now expanding to all families in the Soviet Union. Without distinction. Stalin saw enemies everywhere. He became totally paranoid. To those he suspects are threatening his power, he encouraged whistleblowing. In each village, you had to be ready to denounce your neighbor. And even your own parents. A young boy denounced, As a pioneer, I have to tell you that my father acted in a counter-revolutionary way, and I’m asking you not as a son, but as a pioneer, to be hard on my father’s responsibility. Stalin had a henchman, Nikolai Yuzhov, nicknamed Dwarf because he was only 5 feet 5 inches feet tall. He was the boss of the secret police. I might be short but my hands are strong. These are Stalin’s hands. We are launching an attack on a large scale against the enemy. There will be innocent victims. When you clear a forest, ships fly off. Stalin had set execution quotas. As proof, this terrible document. On the first line the name of the Republic of the USSR here is Azerbaijan. Followed by three columns of figures. One for executions. one for deportations and one last for the total. There are no names. It’s up to party officials to find the victims to fill up the quotas. A random file in the archives of the political police. Name, Silorov. Heritage, a wooden house 8 square meters, a cow, 4 sheep, 2 pigs. Indictment, Assylarov is malicious against Soviet power. He said Stalin killed a lot of people, but we can’t talk about it, otherwise you’ll be put in a camp for 25 years. Verdict, shoot Assylarov and confiscate all his property. It’s called the Great Terror. Since the year 1937, Yuzhov gets shot an average of 1,000 people per day. Strike, exterminate without sorting. It’s better to go too far than not far enough. In the midst of terror, yet. life continued as if nothing had happened. At the Bolshoi Theater, they’re playing Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky. It’s Stalin’s favorite ballet. He never missed a performance. Each evening after the concert, He returned to the Kremlin to sign the execution orders that were prepared for him. Sometimes he added feedback. Tighten the screw on this gentleman, beat him again and again. The more the teeth are tightened the better it is. The terror finally turned against the police chief himself. Yuzhov is accused of treason. he is tortured, executed and even erased from official photos. In 1938, Stalin had eliminated all his enemies, be it real or imaginary. He gradually replaced them with a new generation of activists who owe him everything. They are the nomenclatura. The new people, that which Stalin dreamed of and that whom he can count on. They split up the property of the terrorist victims. and they took advantage of apartments vacated. On 17 March 1938, four days after the end of the Bukharin trial, many families went to Moscow airfield. Be it activists, officials, they were all present to welcome a Russian plane which connected Russia to America passing through the North Pole. The welcome of the pilot Shkalov, here at the center, is an event. Stalin decided to make him a new Soviet hero. On that day, on the streets of Moscow, Chkalov proclaimed his love to the Supreme Leader. I am ready to die for Stalin. If we have to give him our lungs, we will give our lungs to Stalin, and if we have to give him our heart, we will give him our heart. Stalin is far from imagining that a threat from the West will soon threaten his regime. In Germany, the Nazi party has been in power for over five years now. He advocates superiority of the Germanic race. As leader, Chancellor Adolf Hitler just like Stalin, has established a dictatorial regime. He had already annexed Austria. He wanted to seize all of its neighboring countries, including France. But most of all he dreamt of attacking the Soviet Union and to annex its territory for the benefit of the German people. The mission of the Nazi movement is to destroy Judeo-Bolshevism. Destroying Russia will give the German people a vital space the masters need to eat. My ambition is to be the man who will break Marxism. Reports of German troop movements convince the Western allies. Britain and France that this distant border dispute could lead to war. During the annual Nazi Party rally the news is announced that negotiations with the Czech government have broken down. When Hitler begins his closing speech The whole world is listening. I
demand the right of self-determination for the three and a half million Sudeten Germans. They themselves have a right to decide to which country they belong. I demand that the oppression of these Germans in Czechoslovakia ceases. Two weeks later, Czechoslovakia’s fate is sealed when Hitler meets British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. The agreement signed last night is symbolic of the desire of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again. I believe it is peace for our time. Hitler’s troops are allowed to march into the Sudetenland without a shot being fired. I have made sacrifices, and I have shown great restraint. It is the last territorial demand I shall make. June the 12th, 1939. Adolf Hitler visits his childhood home, the small Austrian village of Fischlheim. Son of a local customs officer, Hitler lays flowers on his parents’ grave and then visits his old school. It was here that my first ideals took shape. My association with the rougher boys made me the very opposite of a stay-at-home. Even then, my speaking talents were being developed in violent arguments with my school friends. Woods and meadows were then my battlefields. Hitler is now fifty years old. On his birthday… A woman writes to her local newspaper. My children look upon the Fuhrer as he who gives the orders for everything. To them, the Fuhrer is the creator of the world. School children are even being taught a new song. Adolf Hitler is our savior, our hero. He is the noblest being in the whole wide world. For Hitler we live, for Hitler we die. Our Hitler rules a brave new world. All over Germany, thousands of new recruits swear allegiance to their Fuhrer. Hitler’s adjutant, Lieutenant Colonel Schmunt. The Fuhrer says that the solution to our problems demands courage. It is a question of expanding in the East. No other openings can be seen in Europe. We are left with no alternative but to attack Poland at the first opportunity. This time Britain and France warn Hitler if he attacks Poland they are prepared to go to war. Nazi propaganda chief Josef Goebbels. We now for sure that the British are too weak and too… cowardly to get in our way. The Fuhrer says that Britain now has the most rotten government imaginable. Believe me, we’re going to see things develop just like the last time. A war of nerves, but they’ll end up giving in. Hitler must remove one vital threat before he can launch his attack on Poland. He sends a secret telegram to the Soviet leader. Herr Stalin, the tension between Germany and Poland has become intolerable. A crisis may arise any day. It is desirable to enter into a new relationship with each other. I should be glad to receive your early answer. Adolf Hitler Stalin finally realized the threat, but too late. The USSR was not ready for a conflict. Its weapons were outdated. Its staff was decimated. During the terror, he had shots fired 20,000 Soviet officers. Members of the general staff who were around him during this 1934 movie, there are only a few outdated generals left who don’t understand anything about modern warfare. Just like the dashing Budyonny. You won’t change my mind. As soon as the war breaks out, everyone will shout, Chong get the cavalry. To make up for the delay, Stalin needs some time. In August 1939, he managed to get along at the last minute with Ribbentrop, Hitler’s ambassador to Moscow. The two giants sign a non-aggression agreement just a few days before triggering the world war. An unnatural agreement. Which has a lot of ulterior motives. But which gives Stalin a break. It’s all just a game about who gets the other one up their sleeve. You’ll see. Russia will succeed to avoid war with Germany for a while longer. 48 hours later, Stalin agrees not to interfere with Hitler’s plans. More than 2 million men await their Fuhrer’s orders. No one will ever again have the confidence of the whole German people. All depends on me. Our enemies have leaders who are second-rate. I saw them in Munich. They are little worms. Close your hearts to pity. Act brutally. When starting a war, it is not right that matters, but… victory early on the morning of September the 1st 1939 the German army invades Poland the news is broadcast throughout Germany by Adolf Hitler himself Werner Hartz is in Berlin. The streets are empty, and there are no troops to be seen. There are no cheering people, such as we had at the start of the Great War. War has broken out quietly, as if under a cloud. Two days later, Britain and France declare war on Germany. Adolf Hitler has started a second world war. A captured airfield on the outskirts of Warsaw. The Nazi invasion is only three weeks old, but already the Poles are facing defeat. But jubilant Hitler arrives to congratulate his troops. Endless columns of the Polish army have become prisoners of war. Whatever remains must surrender and lay down its arms, or it will be destroyed. As part of the secret pact with Stalin, the Red Army invades eastern Poland. When the Po still refuse to surrender, the city of Warsaw is devastated. Panzergrenadier Gerhard Meyer We encountered masses of refugees in Karts. People are leaving town. Our artillery has had a field day. Everything has collapsed. There are people standing at the side of the road. watching us with hatred. Hitler’s defeat of Poland leaves 70,000 dead. As a nation, Poland ceases to exist. Hitler hopes that his destruction of Poland will serve as a warning to Britain and France. He makes them an offer of peace. When it is dismissed, he is enraged. Joseph Goebbels The Fuhrer believes England has to get a knock-out blow. England’s power is now simply a myth, not a reality any longer. All the more reason why it must be smashed. Before then, there will be no peace in the world. May the 10th,
1940. Hitler launches blitzkrieg in the West. He catches the Allies by complete surprise. Private Hans Gotthard. My darling wife, how can I start to describe this experience? From all sides we can feel the march of thousands. The thunder of artillery never ceases, and we just follow its echo. In just two weeks, the German army has the Allies on the run. At Dunkirk, more than 340,000 men of the British and French armies are forced to abandon France. Peter Supf is one of the first German soldiers on the beach. It is hard to describe the panic of the English. Imagine a picture of absolute chaos on the beaches. Sonaway weapons and guns and lots of vehicles and tanks. Is it the fall of Dunkirk? The whole of the Belgian and French coast is in our hands. With the British army beaten, France is now alone. Hans Bauer, Hitler’s pilot, films the Fuhrer’s triumphal arrival in France. Soldiers of the Western Front, you have not disappointed me. The most daring plan in the history of war was realized thanks to your unequaled valor. Our victory shall teach our enemies an historic list. June the 22nd, 1940. The French formally surrender. Yet for some German soldiers, the price of victory is too high. Private Hans Gotthard. My darling wife, I am completely shaken inside. Our soldiers have become childlike and cruel. When we have won this war, I can imagine all the enthusiastic speeches at home about our leadership. And the spirit of the troops. I have to say it is untrue. We have only won, due to our wickedness. 6 a.m., June the 28th. Hitler enters the defeated French capital. Within barely six weeks of heroic struggle, our soldiers have ended the war in the West. Their deeds will enter into history as the most glorious victory of all time. I order flags to be flown throughout the Reich and bells to ring for seven days. Only Britain now stands in the way of Hitler’s total mastery of Europe. A week later he returns to Berlin. Hundreds of thousands of people line the streets to greet him. He makes yet another offer of peace to Britain. Mr. Churchill should place his trust in me. The continuation of this war will end in the complete destruction of one of our two nations. I know. It will be Britain. I direct yet another appeal to reason. Winston Churchill refuses the offer. The battle for Britain has begun. Hitler believes his pilots must eliminate the Royal Air Force before an invasion can take place. This time they encounter a more formidable enemy. Messerschmitt pilot Ulrich Steinhild. I can report I’ve now shot down my fourth Spitfire. But it cost me an excellent pilot. The day before we had three more losses. My wingman was also caught. There are only twelve left from the old crew. The British have a new engine in their Spitfires, and we can hardly keep up with it. A week later, Ulrich Steinhilfer is shot down over Britain. When Churchill orders the bombing of German cities, Hitler switches his attack from the RAF to the British people. If the Royal Air Force should drop 2,000 or 4,000 bombs, then we will drop 200 or 400,000, even 1 million bombs in a single night. If they then increase their attacks, we will obliterate their cities. Hitler’s pilots blitz Britain day and night. Over the next nine months, more than 40,000 people are killed, but the British still refuse to give in. The Luftwaffe is starting to suffer heavy losses. Bomber pilot Peter Stahl. 16th of October. Our losses amount to four bombers and their crews. This is a heavy blow. And tomorrow, the official communique will state that our brave air crews have inflicted devastating damage on vital targets. And our own losses were only minimum. Our crews are reaching the limits of their nerves. By May 1941, Hitler has lost the battle for Britain. For the first time, he has met his match. I am not a man to abandon a fight once begun. I’ve proved this in my life, and I will prove this to Churchill. In Hitler’s new eastern provinces, victory has brought a brutal new regime. The Poles have a thin Germanic layer. Below that is foul material. The Jews. The most disgusting thing imaginable. If Poland had lasted any longer, everything would be lyserine. A clear, masterful hand is now needed here. Hitler requires all Jews to be marked with a special armband. They’re rounded up and forced to live in ghettos. The largest ghetto is in Poland’s old capital, Warsaw. 400,000 Jews are confined within its walls. 17-year-old Mary Berg. The ghetto is becoming more and more crowded. There is a constant stream of new refugees. People are ragged and barefoot, with the tragic eyes of those who are starving. starvation alone is killing forty to fifty people each day i saw a little girl crying she looked at me with her blue eyes and said i’m hungry why does no one come to our aid how long are we going to be kept here Joseph Goebbels. The Fuhrer prophesied that if the Jews brought about another world war, they would experience annihilation. The world war is here. The extermination of the Jews is the necessary consequence. By the end of 1942, almost 300,000 men, women,
and children have been taken from the Warsaw ghetto to the death camp at Treblinka. Hitler’s final solution has begun. In the meantime, Stalin did not remain inactive. In favor of the pact signed with Hitler, he conquered new territories. In the winter of 1941, he still thinks he’s safe from a conflict with Germany. but this time he is wrong. After his defeat at the hands of the RAF, Hitler has abandoned his plans for an invasion of Britain. He prepares orders for a new war, this time against his ally the Soviet Union. Chief of Staff, General Halder. The Fuhrer says that if we can defeat Russia, Britain’s last hope will be gone. He believes a campaign against the Soviet Union will be child’s play. Some of Hitler’s generals are beginning to doubt his leadership. Deputy Chief of Operations, General Valamont. This means that we are bringing on ourselves a war on two fronts. that up to now we have been lucky to avoid. What we need is someone to oppose the Fuhrer. But there is no one. A war to destroy communism has been Hitler’s dream for the last twenty years. Communism is an enormous danger for our future. We must forget any idea of comradeship between soldiers. This… will be a war of annihilation. It’s the Barbarossa Plan. One of the biggest military operations in history. Hitler planned to overwhelm the Soviet army and to reach Moscow in just a few weeks. As early as spring, the German army sets ready for battle at the border. On site, Soviet generals observed troop movements. They sounded the alarm and asked for permissio to deploy soldiers. But in the Kremlin, Stalin, just as paranoid as ever, dreaded trap. He answers them. You have a big head, but a small brain. Germany will never stand alone in the war against Russia. June 16, 1941, a spy sent a message saying an attack was imminent, but Stalin persisted. He’s a disinformer, he should go to hell. June 21, the eve of the major Russian offensive, a German deserter passed the border and said that the attack would be launched at dawn. Stalin’s verdict was. Shoot him.
June 22, 1941. The invasion started. Three million German soldiers attacked the USSR. From the first hours, they destroyed a thousand planes on the ground. The steamroller German entered the battle. A woman was trapped in a village. Thousands of our soldiers are wandering aimlessly. All scattered around. Our leaders are leaving. They are leaving us to die. Symbol of defeat, Stalin’s eldest son, Yakov. was captured as a prisoner while on the run disguised as a peasant. Carl Fuchs is a gunner in the 7th Panzer Division. War isn’t half as bad as it sounds. The Russians are fleeing everywhere. Yesterday, I shot up a Russian tank. If I get another one, I’ll get my first battle stripes. We’re going to show those Bolshevik pigs who is who around here. I wish you could see me now, all tanned by the sun. We all believe in an early victory. An officer in the 105th Police Battalion writes home. Dear Hannah, the number of prisoners we take increases day by day our battalion has to take care of them we shoot them there and then when you know that these men have killed german soldiers it
is not such a difficult job to shoot them please don’t read this to our son By the war’s end, more than three million Soviet prisoners of war will have been killed. August 26, 1941. Hitler visits the Eastern Front. With the Red Army in full retreat, and large parts of the Soviet heartland in his grasp, his plans for an Eastern Empire… are beginning to take shape. What India is for Britain, Russia will be for us. If only I could make the German people understand what this space means for our future. Let’s learn from the British. It is just a matter of dividing up a giant cake, so that first we rule it, then administer it. and finally exploited. But Hitler and his generals failed to defeat the Red Army before the start of the severe Russian winter. At the back, Russia is in shock. In order to understand, the population is running to get the newspapers. Everyone is waiting for Stalin’s reaction. But it’s not coming. Muscovites, like young Gaynor, want to know more. We’re glued to the radio. We are waiting for Stalin’s speech. We need to hear his voice. But he is silent. It’s Molotov, his deputy, who is talking. Everyone is listening. We are told that we are in the middle of war. But where is Stalin? Stalin is entrenched behind the walls of the Kremlin. It is annihilated. All is lost. Lenin founded our state and we ruined everything. He left us a fantastic legacy. And we ruined it. Because of his repeated mistakes, Stalin is personally responsible for the disaster. But he doesn’t want to admit it. As usual, he is looking for culprits. These thousands of soldiers surrendering are considered traitors. Their families will be deported. As far as deserters are concerned. He’s sent to the front special units responsible for watching soldiers and he gave them explicit orders. In case of panic and retraction, have them shot on the spot including those who will panic and the cowards. In just a few weeks, Stalin jumped from one bad decision to the other. In Ukraine, he prohibited his generals from evacuating the city of Kiev. Five days later, Nazis captured 500,000 soldiers. It was the biggest catch ever done by an army. In October 1941, four months after the start of the Barbarossa offensive, Hitler almost won his bet. The German army was a few miles from Moscow. The capital is bombed every day. The population took refuge in the subway. Writer Viktor Kravchenko noted this in his journal. Moscow gives you the feeling that you’re dying. Panic reigns and it enables the most incredible sounds to circulate. Some said that a coup had occurred in the Kremlin and that Stalin was arrested. Actually, Stalin also took refuge in the subway. Here it is, while all his followers urged him to evacuate the capital and take a decision that would change everything. In spite of the danger, he decided to remain in Moscow. In a few hours, he will address his soldiers. November 7, 8 in the morning. Regiments joined the Red Square in the middle of a snowstorm. Following Stalin’s call, the tanks came directly from the front well-armed. The Germans could attack at any time. But Stalin’s speech galvanized the troops. Male and female supporters, the whole world is watching us and is waiting for us to crush down the hordes of looters and German invaders who died during the German invasions. To our country, to freedom, to independence. Onward to victory under Lenin’s flag. In a few days, the Soviet army managed to stabilize the war in front of Moscow. They are forced to call a halt to Operation Barbarossa. Then, on December 7, Hitler receives the news that his allies, the Japanese, have bombed Pearl Harbor. Adolf Hitler is faced by a new enemy, the United States. No power can shake us. I am Fuhrer of a Reich that will last for a thousand years. Churchill and Roosevelt are sitting over there in their plutocratic little world. Behind the scenes, the Jews run their show. I have my people behind me. With winter over, Hitler launches a new offensive. He is convinced that the Red Army is on the brink of destruction. Lieutenant Wilhelm Prüller. At last, we’re in our element again. It is we who are taking the initiative, Mr.
Stalin. And neither you nor your beasts can stop us. All about is an ear-splitting gigantic racket, shot after shot, a never-ending inferno. The land is bathed in a thick fog. We thank God that this war is not being fought on German soil. When the German army reaches the river Volga, Hitler orders the capture of Stalingrad. His soldiers are now over a thousand miles from home and dangerously exposed. When his generals suggest a retreat, Hitler confronts them. Do you think that you can teach me what the man at the front is thinking? Where were you in the First World War? I demand from you the same toughness as from the front-line soldiers. Hitler orders no retreat. Three months later, the Red Army surrounds and traps a quarter of a million German soldiers in Stalingrad. We are in Stalingrad. It was the turning point of the Second World War. The Germans, who did not succeed to bring down Moscow, wanted to conquer this crossing point towards the oil of the Caspian Sea. They occupied 90% of the city. But they still had a few hundred miles to win. In front, the Soviets put up a relentless resistance against them. The Russian gunner Andrey Kozyanov was one of them. We heard the footsteps and the breath of German soldiers. I can’t see them with the smoke. We shoot following our instinct. By ear. My head is buzzing. A total of 2 million people will die in Stalingrad. For the first time since the start of the war, Stalin, wisely, decided not to intervene himself and to let his chief of staff General Zhukov do the work. Zhukov had a battle plan. He wanted to trap the Germans they had just conquered in the city. On the home front, the people of Germany are preparing for Christmas. Some of the families of soldiers trapped in Stalingrad have letters brought out by air. Private Werner Bunnermann. My dear son. I hope that this is the last Christmas that you celebrate without me. The Russians have dealt us a nasty blow. It is now minus 30 degrees here. How nice it must be in warm rooms. November 19th, 1942. At 7 in the morning. 1,400 tanks. over 1,000 planes and a million Soviet soldiers were rushing on the flanks of the Nazi army. These images taken after the battle during a reenactment show two Russian armies come together. A few weeks later, 300,000 German soldiers surrounded, poorly equipped and hungry surrendered with their leader, Marshal von Paulus. It’s the first time that a Nazi marshal is captured alive. To Stalin, it is a miracle. In the eyes of the world, he is the first to defeat Adolf Hitler. And he will launch over the next two years the heroic counteroffensive Russian soldiers against Germany. Despite his crimes, despite his pact in 1939 with Hitler, Stalin became unavoidable. With Hitler’s war claiming more and more German lives, even old men and boys are now called up to fight for the Vaterland. The diary of 15-year-old Wolfgang Findysen. We have replaced the men so that they can go to the front. Soldiers had meant these guns until now. It’s very exciting. I like this much more than school. We are now on duty 24 hours a day. We are boys no longer. No, we are men. Hitler’s homeland is under attack from the air. The Allies have begun firebombing Germany’s cities. On July the 27th, 700 British bombers target Hamburg. The firestorm is filmed by Hamburg fireman Hans Rundsvig. The fire is like a thunderstorm without rain. The heat is unbearable. I see people lying in the street. I try to help them, but they’re already dead. Hamburg streets are littered with bodies. Some of them so burnt that they’re only skeletons. Some are reduced to small heaps of ash. In Hamburg alone, more than 40,000 people are killed. Hitler’s advisers want him to tour the ruins and raise the morale of his people. Minister of Supplies, Albert Speer. I tried a few times to persuade Hitler. Goebbels had tried to put over the same idea, but in vain, and referred enviously to the conduct of Churchill. When I think of the propaganda value I could make of such a visit, he’d say, Hitler remains hidden away in his command bunker on the Eastern Front. If the German people are no longer so strong and ready for sacrifice that they will not stake their own blood on their existence, they deserve to pass away and be annihilated by another stronger power. If that is the case, I would not shed a tear for them. Hidden in the forests of Eastern Germany is Hitler’s secret headquarters. The Wulst Leir is a huge complex of camouflaged buildings and underground bunkers. From here, Hitler directs his war. His health is now failing. He has a heart condition and the early signs of Parkinson’s disease. General Heinz Guderian. Since I last saw Hitler, he has aged greatly. His back was bent, his hand trembled. His eyes lacked their former luster. He easily lost his temper and was then unpredictable in said and did. Hitler’s ally, the fascist dictator of Romania, Marshal Antonescu, is here to discuss the worsening war situation. Hitler’s adjutant, Nikolaus von Bellu. I had the impression that Hitler now believed that a war against both the Russians and the Allies, on two fronts, could no longer be won. On June 6, 1944, the Allies begin an invasion of Nazi-controlled France, D-Day. When Hitler is informed, he is delighted. The news could not be any better. As long as they were in Britain, we could not get at them. Now we have them where we can destroy them. But by the end of the first day, the Allies have overwhelmed the German soldiers and fought their way inland. Private Robert Vogt. We only had infantry weapons. We didn’t even have a bazooka. And we were even short of ammunition. The Americans were right. They dropped leaflets in German, which read, Attacked from the front. Cut off from behind. Written off by Hitler. At the back road. In Germany the news is announced that a bomb has exploded in Hitler’s Wolf’s Lair headquarters. A group of army officers has been secretly plotting his downfall. Hitler has a lucky escape. Now I have proof. The entire general staff is contaminated. now i have the swine who have been sabotaging my work for years now i know why my great plan’s failed it was hitler orders the arrest of five thousand people two hundred are executed With his empire under attack from all sides, Hitler puts his faith in a new weapon. For more than 12 years at a secret location in northern Germany, a team of Nazi scientists have been testing a long-range ballistic missile. They make a special color film of their first successful launch. Head of the research team, Major General Walper Dornberger, shows it to Hitler. A strange fanatical light flared in Hitler’s eyes. What I want is annihilation, raged. I realized that he expected this new weapon to produce a turning point in the war. Our missile has been renamed the V2. Vengeance weapon number two. 1,300 V2 rockets are fired on London. killing almost 3,000 people. Not the annihilation Hitler has demanded. The Allies are closing in on the fatherland itself. Hitler is still telling his people that the war can be won. But in private, he is a changed man. I know the war is lost. The enemy’s superiority is too great. I have been betrayed. I ought to put a bullet in my head. But we will not capitulate. Ever. We may go down. But we will take the world with us. April 11, 1945. The Allies arrive at Buchenwald. It is one of over a thousand of Hitler’s concentration camps. Udo Dietmar is one of the few survivors. The conditions in Buchenwald had reached the height of horror. People were starving. A few of those who could still move. broke down and died. There were mountains of corpses. The crematorium and the courtyard were overcrowded with skeletons. I can still hear my dead friends. If you should survive, don’t forget to tell the world of our destiny. I will never forget. The Americans round up people from the nearby town and force them to witness the horrors that have been committed in their name. 18-year-old Renata Simon. I could hardly believe what I was seeing. They had piled up the corpses of… people who had died the smile was just too much I couldn’t take it anymore but the GI shouted at me you Hitler Freulein here look look The Nazis have murdered six million Jews. January 1945. The Red Army has reached the Oder River, just 50 miles from Berlin. From his bunker beneath the center of the city, Hitler orders every able-bodied male to defend Berlin. Every soldier must fulfill his duty. Whoever does not is a traitor. Anyone who gives you an order to retreat must be arrested and executed immediately. Outnumbered more than five to one, the German cause is hopeless. On April the 21st, the Russians enter Berlin. With more than 20 million Soviets already killed in the war, the Red Army allows its soldiers to celebrate. 24-year-old Hildegard Christoph. The Russians came. We weren’t allowed to lock our doors. Holding machine guns, they herded us into an empty house. Other young women had also been dragged in. The beasts pounced on us, again and again, the entire night, a whole mob of them. At dawn, they disappeared. We crept back to our family. Many committed suicide. As many as 2 million German women are in Moscow during the visit of General de Gaulle. Then a few months later at the Yalta conference, allies all came meet the great Stalin. The Britain Churchill took a toast. Is there anything more precious than the life of Stalin to each and every one of us? I sincerely hope the people of the Soviet Union would be able to preserve their martial for a long time. Churchill knew that since the victory in Stalingrad, the USSR was becoming a superpower. He knew that after months of a counter-offensive, the Red Army would soon enter Berlin. We are in the spring of 1945. These terrifying weapons, Stalin’s followers, were bombing the German capital. Stalin decided to avenge Stalingrad and destroy Berlin. In front of such firepower, Germany finished by capitulating on the 8th of May 1945. In the ruins of the Nazi Chancellery, Hitler’s underground bunker is discovered. It is deserted. After finally marrying his mistress, Eva Braun, Adolf Hitler has committed suicide. In order to escape the disgrace of surrender, my wife and I choose death. It is our wish to be burned immediately. All that is found are a few charred bones. Hitler’s war is finally over. 17-year-old schoolgirl, Edelgard Seidel. We believed in victory. and now this is the end hitler is responsible for destroying our nation we will always have to live under this shame across europe fifty million people are dead before killing themselves Hitler wrote this last testament. It is untrue that I or anyone else in Germany wanted war. It was provoked solely by the Jews. I die with a joyful heart in the knowledge of our infinite achievements and of a contribution unique in the history that bears my name. Two months later, Generalissimo Stalin arrived in the German capital to celebrate his victory. In this famous propaganda movie, we welcomed Hitler’s conqueror like a messiah. In fact, it’s fiction where the role of Stalin is played by a lookalike. This masterful arrival never happened. Stalin was scared of flying. And contrary to these images, he hated crowds. Comrades, today, we are celebrating the big victory on fascist Germany. The real Stalin took an armored train to Potsdam, in the suburbs of Berlin, where 5,000 police officers were mobilized for his arrival. He was obsessed with the attacks. If he agreed to leave his country for the first time in 30 years, it’s because the opportunity was worth it. He had appointments around the negotiation table with his American and British allies. Since the Yalta conference, he asked for half of the European territory. That is all the countries that his army had liberated during the war. Stalin’s demand was accepted by the Allies. Soviet rule from Eastern Europe was set to begin. It will last nearly half a century. For the Russian people, the price of victory is exorbitant. The conflict has annihilated 70,000 villages and killed 26 million people. In the summer of 1945, the soldiers were returning to their homes and getting ready to be reunited with their families. A soldier said, People are screaming, they are running. They are crying when the train arrives. The men kiss their wives. They hug the children they didn’t see grow up. They proudly show their decorations and their wounds. After so much suffering, they all want peace and quiet. For them, the crimes of Stalin are nothing but old memories. They are wrong. Stalin is at the peak of his power. It’s been over 20 years that he’s been leading the Soviet Union. For victory, we prepared a grandiose show for him with thousands of extras. Even the American General Eisenhower came along. However, Stalin seems to be absent. His health is fragile. He has memory lapses. He had several heart attacks. Above all, he is a single man. During the war, he lost his son Yakov, who was made prisoner of the Germans. It is said that Yakov sought to escape by crossing barbed wires. Stalin refused to exchange him against Marshal von Paulus, as Hitler proposed. If I had traded Yakov, what would have said the fathers of the party, whose children were made prisoners too? If I had done that, I wouldn’t have been called Stalin. His private life was a disaster. He no longer sees his second son, the aviator Vasily, who became an alcoholic and who keeps flying over Red Square on his plane. More paranoid than ever. Stalin even got mad at Svetlana, his darling daughter, who is now a young woman. He didn’t understand her need to have fun. He did not accept her romantic escapades, particularly the one with Jewish director Alexei Kapler, who he sent to the Gulag. He didn’t accept either her marriage to Grigory Morozov, a Jewish, too. Over the years, Hitler’s conqueror became anti-Semitic. All the previous generation was contaminated by Zionism, and now they want youse to join. As soon as the war was over, Stalin relaunched the purges depending on his mood and his craziness. With 2 million prisoners, including a large number of Jews, the Gulag had never been this full. In
France, communists who fought against the Nazis during the war still worship Stalin. In 1949, he celebrated his 70th birthday. Gifts were sent from everywhere to the Kremlin, so did Tremeloz, the man behind the voice, the poet Paul Eluard explained. In this small workshop from Belleville. The workers spent 300 hours manufacturing wood care, a gift for Stalin. Their gift was a minute tour. Despite the evidence, the horror of the Stalinist system was still silenced. We have not forgotten what we went through during the Nazi occupation. It is necessary to understand that one of our comrades was interned. Another man’s son fell into the clandestine struggle. The wife and the daughter of our director were deported. Without the victory of Stalingrad, our village Grigny would have still been occupied by the Nazis. Like all of France and Europe. Therefore, we all, peasants from Grigny, we wish a happy birthday and long life to Generalissimo Stalin who freed us with his victory. We wish long life to a clear-sighted guy to the working class, to Stalin. the man of peace. For his birthday, the man of peace convened in Moscow the international communist elite, especially the Chinese Mao Zedong. But a little 12-year-old girl was starring. Her name was Natalia. She was Postkribyshev’s daughter. Stalin’s secretary. She was immensely honored to read a poem to the supreme leader. Life close to us dear one, lead us through your lights, for the Soviet regime to flourish and get stronger every day. The room cheered this touching saying. But the little girl wasn’t aware of a cruel detail. A few years ago, Stalin had her mother shot. At 70, the little father of peoples felt more indispensable than ever. What would you do without me? You are blind. You are little cats. You don’t see the enemy. The country will fall because you can’t recognize the enemy. March 4, 1953. This time it is Stalin who just died. No details in the newspapers. We won’t know until later. Stalin agonized alone in his room for two days, without anyone to rescue him. Not even his doctors, who were terrified at the thought of taking a bad decision and as a result, getting shot. His body was displayed in the hall of columns. where he had convicted his friends during the Moscow trials. Among party members, the feelings are real. A teacher had a hard time imagining life without Stalin. What will happen now? How are we going to live? What will happen to the country? On the Red Square. Officials were reciting their speeches as usual. Our master and guide, the greatest genius of all mankind, has finished his glorious path. However, despite the morning instructions away from the cameras, thousands of Stalin’s victims had secretly started to cheering up. At the Vukuta camp, in the far north of Russia, the deportees got down on their knees upon hearing the news. May his soul go to hell. Thank God, today, the man with the mustache went to hell. During his reign, the man who promised heaven on earth had caused the death of 20 million people. Good morning, everyone. It’s night time. Thank you.

They ruled through fear, power, and absolute control. This documentary draws chilling parallels between Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin — two dictators divided by ideology but united in tyranny.

Hitler’s quest for domination plunged Europe into war and genocide. Stalin’s iron rule forged an empire through purges, famine, and forced labor.

Through rare footage, eyewitness accounts, and expert insight, the film reveals how propaganda, paranoia, and brutality shaped their regimes — and the catastrophic cost of absolute power.