The Real Adolf Hitler

   his intent was nothing less than world

domination a paranoid manic-depressive

man who explo

ited his friends his

political party and an entire nation in

his desire for conquest and destruction

Adolf Hitler saw himself is the divine

inspiration for the German people a myth

of a man who used his own powers of

manipulation and the spies in his

intelligence network to throw the entire

world into chaos losing was not an

option

and victory would come by any means

necessary

above all Hitler relied on lies and

deceit

to achieve his ultimate goals deception

was the greatest weapon in his arsenal

on Christmas Eve in December 1936 Adolf

Hitler approved a request from the chief

of his Nazi party's intelligence office

Reynard Heydrich to leak report that

Heydrich had supposedly intercepted two

Czechoslovakian president Edvard Bennis

in Prague

the report detailed conversations

between Marshall took HF ski Russian

first vice commissar for defense and

British military leaders toka jet ski

had met with the British while

representing the Soviet Union at the

state funeral of King George v there he

supposedly told them about a plan that

he and other Russian generals had

created to remove Joseph Stalin from

power

the report also described took a jet ski

as a seasoned German spy with close

access to Hitler his generals and German

military plans going back many years the

information about rocket jet ski was

very damning it was also totally false

Hitler knew that the Soviet military

leadership was weak getting Stalin to

believe his top officers were out to get

him would weaken it even more Hitler

knew the information would eventually

get back to Stalin the story of target

jet skis meeting with the British

actually came from a disgruntled general

inside the Soviet secret police general

Nicholas Koblin had hated the Red Army

for years ever since he'd supported a

rival faction during the Russian

Revolution at a clandestine meeting at

the Hotel Adlon in Berlin Scullin gave

his bogus report to his friend Reynard

Heydrich the Nazis used it to their

fullest advantage in fact the part about

took a chef's key being a German spy was

Heydrich sewn personal touch

[Music]

a vine has height Lee Reinhard Heydrich

was an evil figure he had developed a

plan to blackmail Tukhachevsky and other

officers using their old connections

with germans and accusing them of being

German spies who had infiltrated the

Soviet Army I stored schlund in the

1920s when Germany was allowed to have

just a little army with neither tanks

nor planes there was a close cooperation

almost friendship between the German

army and the Red Army

the file on taka jetski and other topped

Soviet generals eventually reached the

Kremlin Stalin took hydraulics bait the

embattled Russian leader was furious he

feared that his own generals were about

to remove Ian he removed them instead

there is a feeling in Stalin's circle

that the fascists may be inside the

circle itself that there should be

purges well Stalin has been used to

purchase he's been purging various

organs of the Soviet Union for 10 or 15

years at least by then On June 11th 1937

coca chef Sookie and seven other top

generals were executed without a trial

however the state-run Soviet newspaper

Pravda reported there was a legitimate

trial and proclaimed the convictions a

victory for the Communist Party but the

true victor was Hitler's intelligence

network the executions began a bloody

rampage by Stalin in one year Stalin's

secret police force executed 41 generals

93 corps commanders and all of the 293

division commanders of the Red Army the

slaughter sent the Kremlin into turmoil

and set the stage for one of Hitler's

greatest double-crosses in the years to

come in order to carry out his policies

without question Hitler knew we needed

to become a god in the eyes of the

German people he exerted complete

command over their perceptions of him

controlling what they heard what they

saw and what they knew then he released

this image to the international

community

Hitler used propaganda masterfully to

cover one of his greatest secrets on the

eve of World War two Hitler has an a

grasp of what propaganda is all about

today we look upon propaganda as an

aspect of intelligence

he knows that newsreels radio and

airplanes these three modern inventions

can be controlled by the state

so he's the state

from the time he was elected Chancellor

in 1933 Hitler seized every opportunity

to influence the masses inside Germany

movie theater newsreels were a popular

way to keep Germans informed of current

events filled with Nazi controlled

images of a reborn Germany newsreels

helped galvanize support for Hitler's

rearmament program in the 1930s newsreel

images were ideal for international

propaganda efforts instead of trying to

hide the fact that he was in violation

of the Treaty of Versailles by rearming

the Luftwaffe and army Hitler reveled in

it the cameras rolled and the world

looked on in amazement but the rebuilt

military shown on newsreels did not

represent the strength of the German

armed forces Hitler organized tours to

display Germany's military might for

foreign officials and press but often

the trips were a hoax as soon as the

reporters packed up and headed for

another base the planes at the base just

visited were flown ahead of them when

the journalists and dignitaries arrived

and they had no clue that the planes

were the same aircraft they had just

seen in 1936 Hitler took his biggest

gamble yet he ordered his army to

reposition itself west of the Rhine

River also in clear violation of the

Treaty of Versailles the German army was

no match for the French army and Hitler

himself had given the orders that should

the French show any signs of opposition

should they move then those few very

very few battalions that had gone into

the Rhineland at Cologne other places

but withdraw and Hitler you know the

rest the rest of his life kept on saying

that this was in fact the most sort of

dicey moment of his life and that you

know had the French made a move perhaps

he would have ended his life there and

then

in March 1938 German troops annexed

Austria their mob had secret orders to

retreat if France objected but there was

no formal protest from Paris in

September of the same year Hitler

demanded that the german-speaking

territory of Czechoslovakia the

Sudetenland be part of the Third Reich

the European powers including Britain

and France hoped to avoid war with

Germany they signed the Munich Agreement

effectively turning over 11,000 square

miles of Czech territory to Hitler then

on August 23rd 1939 Hitler shocked the

world by signing a non-aggression pact

with Stalin they secretly agreed to

invade Poland and divided between them

Hitler knew France and England had

treaties with Poland and would come to

her aid but he was willing to gamble

once again at the time France was the

only European nation capable of stopping

a German advance across the continent

France had roughly the same number of

troops and equipment as the Germans but

the French were leery they had lost more

than 1 million men during World War one

double the number lost by the British

one of the ironies of Hitler's

propaganda war is that French

intelligence operatives knew that

Germany wasn't as strong as it seemed

their warnings were ignored the French

intelligence has pretty well perceived

what is real but they're not getting

through to the political leadership it's

a classic story of intelligence I mean

it almost seems to be some kind of a

rule that says the better and more

timely the intelligence the less likely

any political leadership will make use

of it

Hitler also used a deceptive olive

branch by preaching pacifism he

purposefully played on fears still fresh

from the slaughter of World War one he

gave speeches which were reported by

newspapers in newsreels about the

useless sacrifices he had seen as a

soldier of men who died in efforts to

capture a few yards of land

Hitler would later say that he secretly

played on the world's sweet

reasonableness he said you don't think I

a soldier the great war that went

through four years of Madden blood and

slaughter would ever start another world

war do you and of course a lot of people

were fooled by this old story but of

course it was also accompanied by these

mass demonstrations of German military

might it was one of Hitler's greatest

secrets he wanted to take over Europe

but his forces were not ready even

Hitler's top generals knew at this stage

that there was no way they could win a

world war after all the French army was

many times larger than the German army

the French had more tanks than the

German the British had more planes than

the Germans and behind them all the time

was lurking the possibility of

assistance from the United States

still on September 1st 1939 Hitler went

ahead his blitzkrieg / ran Poland in a

month France could have attacked but

didn't nine months of political

maneuvering ensued which only allowed

the Germans to strengthen their forces

then in the spring of 1940 despite

repeated warnings from French

intelligence the Nazis over ran Belgium

Holland and France in just eight weeks

although Hitler's string of daring

victories in Western Europe stalled as

his air forces were repelled during the

Battle of Britain his eyes had already

turned to the east when he signed the

non-aggression pact with Stalin in

August of 1939 Hitler promised not to

attack Russia but the Fuehrer knew that

his earlier deception had led Stalin to

kill nearly one-third of his senior army

staff by 1940 younger less-experienced

communists officers now led the Soviet

army Hitler's most brazen double-cross

of the war the top-secret invasion of

Russia

known as Operation Barbarossa was about

to be put into action well this is a

result of all these purges Hitler clung

to this idea said that in December 1940

he says do you only have to kick the

door and the whole rotten structure will

fall in

in the fall of 1941 the fair mocked

invaded Russian territory wiping out the

defending forces at a clip surprised the

most battle-hardened German officers at

one point the German army was only

thirty miles from Moscow in the years to

come the Russians would regroup to fight

another day and repel the invaders but

at the time Hitler's grand deception had

paid off in droves for the time being

Europe was locked in stalemate but

Hitler and his secret operatives

continued to stretch their subversive

tentacles the Fuhrer was about to

entangle a sleeping giant on the other

side of the Atlantic as he brought his

covert war to the United States even

before the outbreak of World War two as

the United States was climbing out of

the Great Depression America's military

industry was quietly preparing for the

future

in Brooklyn New York engineers were

building the most accurate aerial bomb

sighting device ever made

US Air Corps officials boasted that the

device known as the Norden bombsight

could guide a bomb from several thousand

feet with such precision it could hit a

barrel of pickles among the engineers

who worked at the factory in 1937 was a

German American named Hermann Lange

unknown to his fellow workers Lange was

also an agent for German intelligence

the Nazis were determined to penetrate

the factory and obtain information on

the top-secret bomb site this thing was

guarded by all the security they could

dream up but what Lange did is he took a

plane home every night and copied it and

he smuggled out these plans

one at a time across to Germany German

engineers over there using his plans

made a working model of the Norden

bombsight

by 1937 the Luftwaffe not only had the

United States's top-secret Norden

bombsight they had improved it by 1942

Hitler's Air Force ruled the skies of

nearly all of Europe with a reign of

terror from precision bombing after this

great success Hermann Lange teamed up

with Colonel Fritz Duquesne who had been

spying for Germany for more than 20

years however a double agent named

William Sebold tipped off the FBI to

their activities Siebold followed his

German handlers instructions to meet

Duquesne in a series of meetings in May

1941 Sebold lured Duquesne and his

cohorts to a downtown New York office

building the FBI secretly recorded this

film of their meeting Duquesne had a

goldmine of secrets with his theft of

plans for PT boats in the m1 rifle his

spying operations called for the plans

to be given to Heinrich closing a cook

on the ocean liner Argentina with

Sybil's help

Duquesne set up a shortwave radio on

Long Island to send information back to

Germany Duquesne didn't know that the

radio operator also worked for the FBI

and all the reports radioed to Germany

were contrived in January 1942 Duquesne

was stopped before he could do any

damage

he and thirty-two other German agents

were arrested tried and convicted on

espionage charges

most of them served more than ten years

in prison

later that year Hitler would make his

boldest attempt yet to disrupt the

American war machine with a war well

underway Hitler's dream of bringing the

battle to the American homefront was

about to come true On June 13 1942 a

German u-boat captain switched off his

diesel engines and quietly drifted in

the waters just off the coast of

Amagansett Long Island onboard the

cramped submarine were four German

agents each had lived in the United

States for several years before the war

each had returned home to Nazi Germany

to be trained as saboteurs now they were

coming back as agents for the fatherland

on a covert assignment dubbed Operation

Pastorius under the cover of darkness

the four men rode their rubber raft

towards a deserted stretch of the Long

Island Shore their clothes and way of

speech were undeniably American in their

pockets for United States passports Maps

identification cards and cash the leader

George - was holding thirty thousand

dollars in small bills the agents were

also carrying three cases filled with

plastic explosives their mission was to

blow up three alcoa light metal

manufacturing plants one in Illinois and

other in Tennessee and a third in New

York German intelligence knew the

facilities were crucial to the

production of American military aircraft

if the saboteurs succeeded Hitler could

claim a major victory on US soil you

have to remember that in 1942 there were

no ballistic missiles and there were no

long-range bombers and so America was

out of Hitler's reach he couldn't drop a

bomb on a steel mill or a munitions

plant so this was his way of slowing

down American production

the group's leader George - had lived in

the United States for 19 years married

an American and even served two years in

the US Army after he was drafted into

German intelligence he began to distrust

the Nazis in their politics now is the

agents waded ashore George - was having

doubts about the mission on the beach

they buried their rubber raft and

Explosives just in time

Coast Guardsman John Cullen was

patrolling the shore nearby and

unknowingly stumbled upon the German

saboteurs - told Colin they were

fishermen and their boat had run aground

in the fog Colin accepted the

explanation and even offered them some

hot coffee back at the station they

declined but as the gathering broke up -

made his move

he pulled the Coast Guardsmen aside away

from the others - offered Cullen a bribe

of 260 dollars hoping to tip off the

operation but the crew left the beach

before the stunt Coast Guardsman reacted

he went back to the station and filed a

report but the time the police and

authorities showed up - and his Co

saboteurs had disappeared they boarded a

train headed for New York City

four days later on a beach near

Jacksonville Florida

four more German agents showed up from

there the agents were taken by Nazi

sympathizers to hotels near the

factories around the country they

planned to destroy

according to the plan bombs would be

placed on the towers feeding electricity

to the plants an agent would set a fuse

in the bomb light it and run meanwhile

without telling the group Jorge -

decided to reveal their covert operation

and placed calls to the FBI Jorge -

unfortunately had a tendency when it's

excited when rattled he would just

babble on sometimes incoherently and

that's what he did in this stage

apparently FBI I'm just wrote him off as

a crime because FBI used to crank calls

like this all the time but - didn't quit

determined to put an end to operation

Pastorius before any damage was done he

travelled by train to Washington DC and

went to the FBI headquarters

there were several agents in the room

and they listened to him and he got the

expression on their face and he wasn't

getting through to them at that stage he

took the suitcase full of money and said

this is my proof here and took the

entire suitcase dumped it on the table I

spilled all over the place at that stage

they started to believe his story -

talked for eight days he revealed the

details of the operation as well as the

whereabouts of his fellow agents and the

hidden explosive devices two weeks after

they first landed on Long Island and in

Florida all eight Nazi saboteurs were in

US custody Operation Pastorius was

exposed not by the FBI but by the

conscience of a German spy yet Bureau

director J Edgar Hoover covered up

Dash's confession and let the FBI take

full credit for the arrests Hoover

believed that a speedy trial and death

sentences for all the imprisoned German

agents would leave no one to contradict

his story

the recent landing of saboteurs from

Nazi submarines sounds a new alert for

all Americans

these saboteurs were apprehended before

they could carry out their plans of

destruction all those saboteurs may try

to come to our shores they must be

stopped

a military trial was held it lasted

three weeks all the saboteurs were found

guilty and sentenced to death although

President Roosevelt was in favor of

harsh sentences he learned the truth of

how the operation was stopped and at the

last moment stepped in and commuted the

sentences of George - and another

saboteur Ernest burger to life in prison

the remaining six prisoners died in the

electric chair within 63 minutes of each

other it was the fastest mass execution

in US history and had been successful

Operation Pastorius would have brought

the war home to America with a major

propaganda victory for Germany

but even as Hitler's plans of sabotage

in America were compromised German

intelligence officers began plotting

actions within Germany against the

Fuehrer Admiral Wilhelm Canaris was

Germany's top military spy master and

the man closest to Hitler and his secret

war the Fuehrer trusted him implicitly

canora's had graduated from the German

Naval Academy in 1908 he served on the

battleship Cruiser Dresden which was

blown out of the water off the coast of

Chile during World War one Canaris

survived and was decorated for

outstanding bravery by Kaiser Wilhelm

the war hero caught the attention of

Hitler in the early days of his

political career after the Nazi Party

leader became Germany's new chancellor

con-artists was appointed as head of

military intelligence an organization

known as the affair but whatever loyalty

he felt towards Hitler suddenly and

dramatically evaporated Hitler had

secretly ordered the elimination of his

political opposition on the evening of

June 30th 1934 hundreds of his political

rivals were executed it would be

remembered as the night of the Long

Knives

the brutality and cowardice of these

murders shocked Canaris from that night

on the Admiral vowed to undermine at of

Hitler and his Nazi Party Admiral

Canaris was sort of a rare bird he was a

military man but he had a conscience and

he did not like the Nazis he did not

like what they were doing he could see

with what was leading up

[Music]

Canaris bided his time seeming to serve

Hitler but waiting for opportune times

to subvert him the opportunity finally

arrived five years later with the

outbreak of World War two Qataris now

committed to Hitler's eventual demise

often made sure the Fuhrer had

incomplete or false information with

making strategic decisions as Germany

invaded Poland

Canaris informed Hitler that the French

were going to mount an attack in the Sur

region as a result Hitler kept numerous

divisions on the French border and out

of Poland but the attack never came by

the summer of 1940 Hitler's war machine

was in high gear the Nazis were sweeping

across Europe the curtain of fascism now

extended over Poland with Denmark and

Norway German troops were marching into

Paris and the Luftwaffe was battling for

Britain all that Hitler needed now was a

way to tighten the nose and choke Europe

into total submission

he set his sights on the Straits of

Gibraltar the Western access to the

Mediterranean Sea Hitler knew that

controlling this 8 mile wide channel

would wreak havoc on the enemy's war

effort

English supply ships would be prevented

from reaching the 8th army fighting

general Rommel in North Africa

if Hitler could occupy the Straits the

entire Mediterranean would be is a major

turning point in the war was just one

victory away to take Gibraltar would be

a body blow for the British

it would have been psychologically

damaging to the British and it would

have been terribly damaging in terms of

losing Mediterranean as a take-off point

for hitting the soft underbelly of

Europe but reaching the British

controlled tip of Spain would be

difficult sending troops by seam and

traveling hundreds of extra miles and

dangerous Allied occupied waters the

only feasible route was overland through

Spain a plan was devised codenamed

Operation Felix the scheme first called

for negotiations with Spanish dictator

Francisco Franco Hitler sent Canaries to

pave the way and open the door to

Gibraltar he had no idea that his chief

spy would do exactly the opposite

Canaris had known Franco from shortly

after World War one Canaris had been the

man who negotiated with Franco for all

the German assistance to Spain during

the revolution in which Franco came out

on top

Kenard said to Franco whatever you do

don't let the German troops come into

Spain why because Germany is not going

to win this war to further his deception

canora's embellished his report to

Hitler it gave a very bleak assessment

for operation feelings

Canaris stressed that railway lines

between France and Spain were

incompatible making troop transports

technically unfeasible many of the roads

were narrow and made of dirt making it

impossible for German armoured divisions

to get through

finally canaras concluded that the

British were well entrenched at

Gibraltar and getting them out would be

impossible in fact the situation was

just the opposite he could have said you

if you really want to do this just do it

if Franco gives you any problems just

push him out of the way

invade Spain push your way through to

Gibraltar and launch a major attack I'm

sure he could have done it and he would

have been successful despite the

pessimistic report by his chief spy

Hitler would not yield on Gibraltar on

September 23rd 1940 the Fuhrer himself

made a personal visit to Spain and met

with Franco to discuss Gibraltar Franco

was already prepared for the meeting

thanks to Canaris Hitler wanted to

invade Gibraltar through Spain

Franco agreed but there were a few

conditions he wanted more money more

grain he demanded heavy naval artillery

which he knew Hitler did not have

because canals had told him so he was

making impossible demands on Hitler to

dissuade him

Hitler was flabbergasted Franco was

making demands that he could never agree

to the final blow came over dinner

Franco told Hitler he had no intention

of becoming an ally of Germany and that

Spain would remain neutral in the war

at the end of the meeting Franco dropped

a bombshell and told his German guests

that he believed the Allies would win

the war Hitler left saying he would

rather have teeth pulled and meet with

Franco again he never suspected that his

top spy had anything to do with keeping

Spain out of the war and leaving the

strategic Straits of Gibraltar in

British hands no blame was ever placed

on canals at all he was very good at

that he just sidestepped it Hitler just

placed all the blame on Franco being

hard-headed

but Canaris --is misinformation campaign

did not end with Spain in 1942 the

Allies were preparing to launch

Operation Torch the invasion of French

North Africa a German agent working

undercover in London learned of the

secret plan and sent an urgent message

to Canaris and German intelligence

headquarters in Berlin the report

provided details of the exact time and

place when Allied troops would invade

but then the report mysteriously

disappeared

of course canals didn't know anything

about he never heard of any such report

what report is that never heard of it

sorry so in this case it wasn't a sin of

commission it was a sin of omission

he's just neglected to file the report

you know he conveniently lost it and

things like that were happening all the

time late in the war Italy was about to

make a dramatic switch to leave the Axis

powers and to join the Allies once again

Ken Aras fed Hitler false information

Hitler believed that the Italians would

soon side with the Allies but Canaris

reported that Italy would stay loyal to

Germany in reality Hitler's military

intelligence chief knew better

Italy switched sides robbing Hitler's

axis empire of badly needed men and

material but Canaris did not live to see

the end of the Nazi regime he was

arrested in July 1944 in connection with

the attempted bombers a summation of

Hitler

months later his private diary serviced

with evidence of treasonous activity

going back to 1934 in the closing days

of the war Canaris was hanged by SS men

slowly with piano wire the assassination

attempt gave rise to Hitler's belief

that he was the target of a massive

conspiracy even as the Allies were about

to land in Normandy the greatest fears

and deepest suspicions for the leader of

Nazi Germany centered on those closest

to him everyone was considered a suspect

alone and trusting almost no one

Hitler's paranoia would fuel his own

demise and the ruin of his country in

the following year despite the fact that

Germany's top spy master Admiral Wilhelm

Canaris and others were subverting

Hitler's goals German military

intelligence did still enjoy some

successes during World War two one

effective scheme occurred in Holland it

was called Operation North Pole

Britain's Special Operations Executive

the SOE continually landed secret agents

in Europe in the words of Winston

Churchill they were to give aid and

comfort and active support to the

European resistance movement in March

1941 the German all they are forced to

captured British radio operator to

transmit messages back to SOE

in Britain Joseph Ryder was one of the

chief operatives for the affair

throughout the war schreiter continued

to send messages to radio operators in

England reporting on bridges that were

destroyed and troops killed

to the British the operation seemed a

very successful the radio keeps sending

back false reports of sabotage that had

been committed by the agents so back in

England they believe they've got a

red-hot resistance unit working day and

night against the Germans in reality

nothing's happening except every agent

who is sent over its killed but many of

the British agents were often captured

and killed within days of landing in the

Netherlands those that were not executed

were forced to participate in the

deception the Germans were very good at

radio finding they could send cars

around in a neighborhood and find where

the secret transmission was being sent

so getting up getting the radio

operators was relatively easy

the Allies continued to send men and

munitions as the German operatives fed

them false radio information but soon

reports coming from other allied sources

conflicted with messages from Joseph

schreiter slowly intelligence operatives

in England began to grow suspicious the

thing about the North Pole is that there

some SOE personnel in London smelt a rat

did think in fact that this seemed to be

too good to be true but they're warning

seemingly weren't acted upon in May 1943

two of the captured British SOE agents

managed to escape and get word back to

England about the operation soon after

the replies to the false German messages

were halted Lee and operation North Pole

was over ironically the two British

agents were imprisoned for giving aid to

the Nazis it was not until the war's end

that the Allies discovered the extent of

the deception and devastation caused by

operation North Pole

in two and a half years of sending radio

broadcasts schreiter received parachute

drops of 35,000 pounds of explosives

3,500 guns and 2,000 hand grenades 47

british intelligence agents lost their

lives

the cunning with which operation North

Pole was conceived and executed was a

model of how Hitler wanted his covert

operations to run the SS the Nazi

party's police force carried out another

successful covert operation known for

their ruthlessness and terror through

assassination and intimidation the SS

moved throughout Europe confiscating

anything of value that could finance

their own operations gold jewelry

paintings and entire factories were

seized for the fatherland yet in one of

their most secret operations the SS made

their own money an SD agent alfred no

yox came up with a scheme to ruin the

British economy the plan called for

millions of forged pound notes to be

dropped on England and neutral countries

they hoped this would cause severe

inflation leading to the eventual

collapse of the country's economies when

Hitler approved the plan in 1942 Nioxin

his men began to seek out counterfeiters

it suddenly occurred to them that they

had as prisoners of the German

government master Jewish forgers so they

actively went through the backgrounds on

these individuals and came up with the

forgers the photography experts the

experts in numbering the experts in

logistics and they recruited from these

prisoners an entire team the lure was

simple the SD officers promised them

better living conditions better food and

more recreation time most importantly

they promised them their lives if they

created a flawless forgery

the prisoners were transferred to the

saxon housing concentration camp when

they produced their first forgeries SD

agent Vilhelm hortal was asked to vouch

for their authenticity on tommy's we'd

appear serenely that's when I personally

found out through one of my men who went

bold faced into a leading Swiss bank and

showed them the notes saying he had

heard that fake banknotes had been

circulating and he wanted to have them

examined and the clerk said I can only

congratulate you if you have many more

of these notes they are guaranteed to be

genuine you seen Cavendish

here was now a source of hard British

currency that they could use were their

agents they could use it for bribes they

bought weapons in Yugoslavia when they

rescued Mussolini from his captors the

operation was paid for using forged

British banknotes

more than a hundred million pound notes

were eventually printed but they were

never dropped on England when the Allies

closed in on Germany the forging

operation was rushed to Austria where

the counterfeiters were eventually freed

as the noose tightened around Hitler's

Reich the Germans had one more chance to

turn the tables of war by building an

atomic bomb it was to be Germany's

ultimate weapon that would have changed

the course of history but making a

German bomb would prove difficult mostly

due to the actions of Hitler himself in

1938 German scientists working at the

Berlin Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for

chemistry changed the world when they

found the key to atomic reaction the

nuclear age was under way but before the

shades of war fell over Europe

Hitler's racial policies against the

Jews had sent many of Germany's top

scientists fleeing including Albert

Einstein the people who discover this

primarily are people who leave Germany

Einstein being wonderful example they're

Jews several of them they are

intellectuals they're part of the

university system they're part of the

scientific community that has

connections with other scientists all

over the world everything about the

people who would be the real architects

of a bomb for Germany are the wrong

kinds of Germans for the German Nazis

those who remained began work on

Hitler's version of an atomic bomb

even as a theoretical possibility Hitler

described the atomic bomb as the

wunderwaffen a wonder weapon with his

patented hyperbole Hitler would describe

the bomb to his war weary generals

claiming it would be the ultimate

instrument of destruction but he was

weary of the bomb as well a scientist

once cautioned him that it was possible

that an atomic chain reaction could

continue without stopping obliterating

the world afraid to put too many secrets

in the hands of one group Hitler allowed

three separate groups to pursuit the

development of the atomic bomb believing

one would get it right with control of

Czechoslovakia the German scientists had

access to Europe's primary producer of

uranium all they needed now was an

element to stabilize a chain reaction

Verner Heisenberg was the lead physicist

of the group backed by the German army

Heisenberg recognized that heavy water

created by the separation of hydrogen

and oxygen in water would be the key to

building a nuclear reactor the principle

source for heavy water in Europe at the

time was the Norwegian hydroelectric

company in southern Norway in 1939 the

plant produced only 10 kilograms of

heavy water per month barely enough for

experimentation

when the Nazis invaded Norway in April

of 1940 Heisenberg had the access he

needed within months production of heavy

water increased to four kilograms per

day and security around the plant was

doubled in the summer of 1941 the

Norwegian underground brought word of

the plant's activities to the Allies

there was only one explanation for the

increased production of heavy water and

only one solution during 1942 in 1943

the Allies mounted three unsuccessful

attacks on the hydroelectric plant

although each attack slowed production

and the Germans quickly repaired

whatever damage was done to the facility

still the attacks were enough to

convince them that Norway was too close

to allied territory to continue the

project weary from having to protect

such an isolated production plant that

was crucial to making atomic weapons

they disassembled the heavy water

equipment and shipped it to Germany On

February 30th 1944 the Germans packed

600 kilograms of heavy water into 40

drums and placed the cargo on a

ferryboat within hours the vessel was at

the bottom of Lake Tinga courtesy of the

Norwegian underground but Allied

paranoia over an atomic Germany was not

confined in our way on March 1st

1943 Germany's top nuclear scientists

were called to a meeting in Berlin by

Hermann Goering head of the Luftwaffe

Goering wanted to discuss his concerns

about aerial bombing during the meeting

these scientists were subjected to just

that allied bombs showered central

Berlin

the scientists survived a direct hit

only by rushing into an underground

shelter but the Allies didn't stop there

they began devising a plan to either

kidnap or kill Verner Heisenberg the

plan was dropped after army officials

realized that the Manhattan Project the

secret u.s. program to build an atomic

bomb was advancing more quickly than the

German program ironically the primary

reason the American scientists were

moving ahead was due to Hitler himself

his interest in the project simply waned

Hitler's perception becomes the

important matter for everything

he doesn't like modern art well there's

no modern art he's not sure you could

put any was any of your resources into

jet plane

there's almost no jet plane so toward

the end of the war and they force it on

him he didn't have a feeling of need in

terms of the atomic bomb ultimately the

three research teams that attempted to

develop the bomb wound up working

against each other their secret

developments were often redundant and

they withheld advances from each other

how close was Germany to making an

atomic weapon following the surrender of

Germany the Allies gathered Verner

Heisenberg and the rest of Germany's

nuclear scientists in a country house

called hall farm near Cambridge England

they secretly placed recording devices

in the house and gave the scientists

newspapers after the bombing of

Hiroshima in August 1945 and they

listened to hear what the Germans were

saying and it was immediately clear from

what the German physicists were saying

that they weren't even close to making

it an atomic bomb so the British and the

Americans breathed an enormous sigh of

relief

Hitler did not live to see Germany's

surrender he committed suicide on April

30th 1945 as Berlin crumbled around him

but more than half a century after his

death some of his secrets are still

being revealed with his signature in

1935 Hitler signed into effect the

Nuremberg Laws he and his Nazi Party

crafted these laws to strip jews of

their rights in germany eventually

prohibiting them from interacting with

non-jews these were the only documents

that officially linked hitler to the

anti-semitism which subsequently led the

nazis to murder 6 million European Jews

a policy which the world has come to

know as the Holocaust although it has

always been known what the Nuremberg

Laws proclaimed the whereabouts of the

original documents was a mystery for

decades

the Allies first discovered them in

April of 1945 soldiers of the US Third

Army found the original Nuremberg Laws

in a bank vault as they moved through

the town of X taught in southern Germany

then they disappeared again

apparently General George S Patton

commander of the Third Army brought the

documents back home to Southern

California after the war the Nuremberg

Laws were among other papers that Patton

had donated to the Huntington Library in

Pasadena California shortly before he

died in a car accident it was not until

1999 that the library revealed the

existence of the documents I think we're

reminding people by displaying these

documents that these are documents which

lead to death and darkness

we're also reminding people that Hitler

did not have the last word which means

that the victor in all of this was

democracy that actually loosened this

genocidal grip that Hitler had on Europe

and was hoping to have underworld

an extraordinary signature on a

seemingly ordinary document these papers

are yet another tangible reminder of

Hitler and his dream of a German Reich

that would dominate the world through

deception and deceit and last a thousand

years

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