1 00:00:13,304 --> 00:00:17,433 (narrator) The bombing has stopped. The fires are out. 2 00:00:17,517 --> 00:00:20,102 Europe lies in ruin. 3 00:00:20,186 --> 00:00:22,813 The dead are gone forever. 4 00:00:22,897 --> 00:00:24,982 The living carry on. 5 00:00:35,452 --> 00:00:37,202 Everywhere the same: 6 00:00:37,287 --> 00:00:41,540 no gas, no water, no telephones, no trams. 7 00:00:50,300 --> 00:00:52,885 Time to count the cost. 8 00:00:52,969 --> 00:00:55,554 Time to start again. 9 00:02:01,454 --> 00:02:04,039 Springtime 1945. 10 00:02:04,124 --> 00:02:07,042 The end of the war in Central Europe. 11 00:02:07,127 --> 00:02:10,254 The end of the thousand-year Reich. 12 00:02:25,061 --> 00:02:27,521 Untidy. Messy. 13 00:02:28,148 --> 00:02:30,232 A time without pity. 14 00:02:34,237 --> 00:02:36,822 A time of brutality, 15 00:02:36,906 --> 00:02:38,699 rape. 16 00:02:38,783 --> 00:02:40,492 revenge. 17 00:02:57,343 --> 00:03:01,138 The Germans come back from the eastern lands they'd tried to conquer, 18 00:03:01,222 --> 00:03:04,558 where some had lived for generations. 19 00:03:04,684 --> 00:03:07,144 They'd been bad masters. 20 00:03:07,228 --> 00:03:10,147 Now they pay the price. 21 00:03:10,231 --> 00:03:13,150 At least they are alive. 22 00:03:37,383 --> 00:03:41,762 The last hours of the Wehrmacht, an army in dissolution. 23 00:03:41,846 --> 00:03:44,056 lt has made war on the world. 24 00:03:44,140 --> 00:03:47,017 Now it saves what it can. 25 00:03:47,101 --> 00:03:51,396 (man #1) The mood of the German troops who were surrendering was one of relief. 26 00:03:51,481 --> 00:03:55,651 They were happy, for the most part, to surrender. 27 00:03:55,735 --> 00:03:58,946 They were interested in getting to the American lines, 28 00:03:59,030 --> 00:04:04,034 in preference to surrendering to the advancing Russian line. 29 00:04:28,309 --> 00:04:33,522 (narrator) A defeated army - but even at the end, not always a broken one. 30 00:04:39,153 --> 00:04:42,072 The habits of a lifetime die hard. 31 00:04:44,534 --> 00:04:48,036 But at last, the blood-letting is nearly over. 32 00:05:01,968 --> 00:05:05,220 (man #2) You had a European civil war that began in 1914. 33 00:05:05,305 --> 00:05:07,931 There was a long armistice in that war. 34 00:05:08,016 --> 00:05:12,185 lt finally comes to an end in 1945. ln the process of coming to the end, 35 00:05:12,270 --> 00:05:16,648 what happens is that sweeping into Europe from the outside 36 00:05:16,733 --> 00:05:18,817 are the Russians and the Americans. 37 00:05:18,901 --> 00:05:24,406 And they meet at Torgau on the Elbe River in May of 1945 - 38 00:05:25,867 --> 00:05:30,120 with the result that no European nation wins the European civil war. 39 00:05:30,204 --> 00:05:33,290 The winners in the European Civil War are outsiders: 40 00:05:33,374 --> 00:05:36,793 the Russians and the Americans - most of all the Americans. 41 00:05:36,878 --> 00:05:42,174 So that you have the physical control of the Continent 42 00:05:42,258 --> 00:05:46,887 in the hands of three outsiders - because the British were a part of it, 43 00:05:46,971 --> 00:05:48,805 although they only contributed 25% 44 00:05:48,890 --> 00:05:51,892 of the whole total to Eisenhower's Anglo-American force. 45 00:05:51,976 --> 00:05:55,395 Britain, the United States and Russia now control the Continent, 46 00:05:55,480 --> 00:05:57,522 and they will decide what happens to it. 47 00:06:00,610 --> 00:06:03,987 (narrator) Neither Russians nor Americans had wanted this war. 48 00:06:04,072 --> 00:06:09,076 Now comrades in arms, they have won a great victory. 49 00:06:09,160 --> 00:06:10,702 When their generals meet, 50 00:06:10,787 --> 00:06:14,581 they can speak the language of combat, of tanks and guns. 51 00:06:14,665 --> 00:06:18,335 But have they anything in common except soldiers' talk? 52 00:06:33,226 --> 00:06:36,311 (man #1) The Russians were overjoyed - but we also - 53 00:06:36,396 --> 00:06:40,148 and there was handshaking and back-slapping 54 00:06:40,233 --> 00:06:42,859 and the exchange of souvenirs. 55 00:06:42,944 --> 00:06:46,196 l have a Russian watch 56 00:06:46,280 --> 00:06:48,949 and somebody's gold wedding band. 57 00:06:49,033 --> 00:06:52,327 And l lost my watch. 58 00:06:52,412 --> 00:06:56,540 l lost all sorts of insignia from the uniform. 59 00:06:56,624 --> 00:07:00,335 All the Russians were very friendly. A lot of them didn't speak English. 60 00:07:00,420 --> 00:07:03,505 Yet there were a few that spoke beautiful English - 61 00:07:03,589 --> 00:07:05,674 educated at Oxford and Cambridge. 62 00:07:05,758 --> 00:07:07,300 l remember speaking to one, 63 00:07:07,385 --> 00:07:10,887 and l thought, "l'll never forget your face as long as l live." 64 00:07:10,972 --> 00:07:13,265 "l'll never forget you." 65 00:07:13,349 --> 00:07:18,061 He was rather young. He was quite young. And he was very pleasant. 66 00:07:18,146 --> 00:07:21,565 But you always kept feeling that they really hated us, 67 00:07:21,649 --> 00:07:23,024 which l'm sure they did. 68 00:07:37,623 --> 00:07:40,125 (Ambrose) The United States during the war 69 00:07:40,209 --> 00:07:43,962 had been propagandised into seeing Russia as a democracy, 70 00:07:44,046 --> 00:07:45,505 a land of freedom lovers, 71 00:07:45,590 --> 00:07:49,718 with essentially broad social aims about the same as those of the West - 72 00:07:49,802 --> 00:07:51,428 which seemed to make sense, 73 00:07:51,512 --> 00:07:54,764 since they were clearly an enemy of the Nazis, as we were. 74 00:07:54,849 --> 00:07:57,434 Thus, it appeared we had a great deal in common. 75 00:07:59,187 --> 00:08:04,900 Fellow delegates, the President of the United States of America. 76 00:08:06,068 --> 00:08:07,652 (applause) 77 00:08:09,864 --> 00:08:12,824 (narrator) San Francisco, April 1945, 78 00:08:12,909 --> 00:08:15,076 a month before V-E Day: 79 00:08:15,161 --> 00:08:18,121 the United Nations Organization is born. 80 00:08:18,206 --> 00:08:22,792 The Charter of the United Nations, which you are now signing, 81 00:08:22,877 --> 00:08:27,464 is a solid structure upon which we can build for a better world. 82 00:08:27,590 --> 00:08:31,092 There was great hope in the world that this would happen - 83 00:08:31,177 --> 00:08:33,136 that this was the last war. 84 00:08:33,221 --> 00:08:36,389 That the victors would now be able to cooperate in peace, 85 00:08:36,474 --> 00:08:40,310 as they had in war, to see to it that "the four policemen", 86 00:08:40,394 --> 00:08:43,146 Britain, France, the USSR and the United States, 87 00:08:43,231 --> 00:08:46,483 sometimes "the five policemen" with China thrown in, 88 00:08:46,567 --> 00:08:48,527 would be able to see to it 89 00:08:48,611 --> 00:08:53,114 that there would be no more aggression in the world. 90 00:08:54,408 --> 00:08:56,243 That the war had meant something, 91 00:08:56,327 --> 00:09:00,497 that it had been fought for something, rather than simply against Nazism. 92 00:09:01,290 --> 00:09:03,917 There is a time for making plans, 93 00:09:04,001 --> 00:09:06,378 and there is a time for action. 94 00:09:06,462 --> 00:09:09,839 The time for action is here, now! 95 00:09:12,969 --> 00:09:15,679 (newsreel) Nation by nation, the delegates stand up 96 00:09:15,763 --> 00:09:18,014 for the great new charter they hammered out. 97 00:09:18,099 --> 00:09:21,893 50 nations standing side by side, unanimous for peace. 98 00:09:22,478 --> 00:09:24,729 Now final signing of the charter. 99 00:09:24,814 --> 00:09:28,900 China signing first, as the first nation attacked in this war - 100 00:09:28,985 --> 00:09:33,113 Dr Wellington Koo's signature topping the long list to come. 101 00:09:35,825 --> 00:09:39,452 For Russia, Ambassador Gromyko commits his country also 102 00:09:39,537 --> 00:09:41,746 to the agreements and objectives decided 103 00:09:41,872 --> 00:09:45,375 after days and nights of compromise and cooperation - 104 00:09:45,459 --> 00:09:49,004 four main agencies upon which the world now puts its hope. 105 00:09:49,088 --> 00:09:52,841 (Ambrose) A better world was going to emerge - 106 00:09:52,925 --> 00:09:57,637 a non-colonial world, a world of self-determination. 107 00:09:57,722 --> 00:10:00,849 And this was felt very deeply in 1945, 108 00:10:00,933 --> 00:10:04,352 even by the most cynical of the world's leaders. 109 00:10:04,437 --> 00:10:06,479 l suspect even Stalin felt it. 110 00:10:06,564 --> 00:10:09,024 l'm sure that Harry Truman felt it. 111 00:10:09,108 --> 00:10:12,861 And Winston Churchill felt it. The common people everywhere felt it. 112 00:10:18,951 --> 00:10:21,453 (narrator) Germany remains, even in defeat, 113 00:10:21,579 --> 00:10:23,955 the key to the problems of Europe. 114 00:10:24,040 --> 00:10:27,917 She started the war, so her leaders have to be punished. 115 00:10:28,002 --> 00:10:30,545 The Germans themselves have to be made to pay 116 00:10:30,630 --> 00:10:32,797 for the suftering they have caused. 117 00:10:32,882 --> 00:10:36,384 But they cannot pay if Germany remains a heap of rubble, 118 00:10:36,469 --> 00:10:39,971 or if the country is dismembered, as some wish. 119 00:10:40,056 --> 00:10:42,891 No one wants Germany to be strong again, 120 00:10:43,017 --> 00:10:47,354 yet no one can face the consequences of keeping her a ruin forever. 121 00:10:49,940 --> 00:10:53,026 The answer: military control. 122 00:10:53,110 --> 00:10:57,280 Four armies of occupation will superVise Germany's recovery. 123 00:10:57,365 --> 00:11:00,325 The watchful Allied generals will build her up, 124 00:11:00,409 --> 00:11:04,454 but only in order to make good again what she has destroyed. 125 00:11:05,998 --> 00:11:08,917 Germany can remain whole, united, 126 00:11:09,001 --> 00:11:13,672 but must never be able to threaten the peace again. 127 00:11:18,427 --> 00:11:20,095 July 1945. 128 00:11:21,097 --> 00:11:24,683 The military administration gets under way. 129 00:11:24,809 --> 00:11:27,310 American troops have occupied Leipzig, 130 00:11:27,395 --> 00:11:30,313 a city well within the Russian zone of occupation. 131 00:11:30,398 --> 00:11:35,110 Now the Americans pull back - west, across the River Elbe. 132 00:11:52,586 --> 00:11:54,879 The Russians move in. 133 00:12:21,323 --> 00:12:25,452 The Germans - wary, watchful, nerVously smiling - 134 00:12:25,536 --> 00:12:28,913 see their Russian conquerors for the first time. 135 00:12:37,298 --> 00:12:40,633 When the fighting stopped, the armies ended up here. 136 00:12:40,718 --> 00:12:43,511 But the occupation zones had been decided earlier, 137 00:12:43,596 --> 00:12:45,930 at the Big Three conference at Yalta. 138 00:12:46,015 --> 00:12:47,974 There were to be four zones. 139 00:12:48,058 --> 00:12:50,894 The Russian zone had the food and raw materials. 140 00:12:50,978 --> 00:12:55,732 The Western zones - American, British, French - had the industry. 141 00:12:55,816 --> 00:12:58,193 For the occupation to work as intended, 142 00:12:58,277 --> 00:13:00,779 there would have to be trade between them. 143 00:13:00,863 --> 00:13:04,783 Berlin, the capital, became the home of the Allied Control Council - 144 00:13:04,867 --> 00:13:08,119 a testing ground for the plan to work together. 145 00:13:08,204 --> 00:13:13,208 There's been some question as to whether we weren't a little premature 146 00:13:13,292 --> 00:13:17,837 in fixing these zones until we saw how the armies were going to come out. 147 00:13:17,922 --> 00:13:22,675 And there's some evidence to indicate that our leaders underestimated 148 00:13:22,760 --> 00:13:26,721 the striking force of the Anglo-American armies that invaded Europe, 149 00:13:26,806 --> 00:13:31,100 because when we adopted the zonal positions 150 00:13:31,185 --> 00:13:34,562 we gave up Saxony and Thuringia. 151 00:13:34,647 --> 00:13:39,317 But on the other hand, we got back good pieces of Western Austria, 152 00:13:39,401 --> 00:13:41,861 which had been occupied by the Soviets. 153 00:13:41,946 --> 00:13:43,571 The thing that stands out here 154 00:13:43,656 --> 00:13:47,033 is that the Russians do let the West come into Berlin 155 00:13:47,117 --> 00:13:49,202 which is 80 miles within their zone. 156 00:13:49,286 --> 00:13:51,329 They didn't have to do it. 157 00:13:51,413 --> 00:13:54,541 They could have acted in Berlin as they acted in Poland. 158 00:13:54,625 --> 00:13:58,378 They could have just said, "To hell with you. We're not letting you in." 159 00:13:58,462 --> 00:14:01,923 "We're not going to live up to the agreements we signed at Yalta." 160 00:14:02,007 --> 00:14:03,842 "We're going to hold on to Berlin - 161 00:14:03,926 --> 00:14:07,762 after all, we captured it, we paid the cost. 100,000 Russians died." 162 00:14:08,597 --> 00:14:11,766 (narrator) Berlin, July 1945. 163 00:14:11,851 --> 00:14:14,644 The Big Three meet for the Potsdam Conference. 164 00:14:15,229 --> 00:14:18,857 A crowded agenda for this first meeting of victors. 165 00:14:23,237 --> 00:14:26,322 But for the West, one question dominates: 166 00:14:26,407 --> 00:14:29,033 what does Stalin want? 167 00:14:29,118 --> 00:14:33,288 (man) At our first meetings, Stalin put forward at once 168 00:14:33,372 --> 00:14:36,583 the demands which the Russians maintained 169 00:14:36,667 --> 00:14:39,961 right through until the meeting at Potsdam. 170 00:14:40,087 --> 00:14:47,594 What he wanted was basically to ensure the security of his own country, 171 00:14:47,678 --> 00:14:50,555 regardless of the interests of his neighbours. 172 00:14:50,639 --> 00:14:53,266 l'd seen a good deal of him during the war. 173 00:14:53,350 --> 00:14:57,437 l went up to him and said, "This must be a great satisfaction to you, 174 00:14:57,563 --> 00:15:01,566 after all the trials that you've been through 175 00:15:01,692 --> 00:15:05,153 and the tragedy that you've been through, to be here in Berlin." 176 00:15:05,237 --> 00:15:09,699 He looked at me and said, "Tsar Alexander got to Paris." 177 00:15:13,412 --> 00:15:16,289 (narrator) The conference takes no new decisions. 178 00:15:16,373 --> 00:15:19,876 lt simply confirms what was decided at Yalta six months before. 179 00:15:20,544 --> 00:15:23,296 What is new is the mood. 180 00:15:24,423 --> 00:15:26,883 Despite smiles for the newsreels, 181 00:15:26,967 --> 00:15:31,304 the Western leaders and Stalin do not get on. 182 00:15:31,388 --> 00:15:34,140 (Ambrose) The feeling - especially in the States, 183 00:15:34,266 --> 00:15:36,893 and most especially with President Truman - 184 00:15:36,977 --> 00:15:39,354 was that Stalin was another Hitler. 185 00:15:39,438 --> 00:15:43,024 They didn't think, "We made a great mistake in the war 186 00:15:43,108 --> 00:15:45,068 and backed the wrong side." 187 00:15:45,152 --> 00:15:48,780 They were perfectly clear that Hitler was much the greater menace. 188 00:15:48,864 --> 00:15:50,990 Hitler had to be crushed, 189 00:15:51,075 --> 00:15:54,827 and the crushing of Hitler absolutely depended upon the Red Army. 190 00:15:54,912 --> 00:15:58,289 (narrator) The Red Army has 300 divisions in Europe. 191 00:15:58,374 --> 00:16:00,625 They are Stalin's trump card, 192 00:16:00,751 --> 00:16:04,796 the source of his strength at the conference table. 193 00:16:10,219 --> 00:16:12,929 (Ambrose) Suddenly you were faced with the fact 194 00:16:13,013 --> 00:16:15,348 that the Americans were demobilising - 195 00:16:15,432 --> 00:16:18,643 or rather, at the time of Potsdam, they were redeploying, 196 00:16:18,727 --> 00:16:21,854 pulling the army out of Europe, taking it back to the States 197 00:16:21,939 --> 00:16:23,856 and getting it ready to send to Japan, 198 00:16:23,941 --> 00:16:26,609 as they expected to have to invade the home islands 199 00:16:26,694 --> 00:16:28,319 for the final defeat of Japan. 200 00:16:28,404 --> 00:16:31,364 l was invited to see President Truman. 201 00:16:31,448 --> 00:16:35,118 And he shut all the doors and told me in great secrecy 202 00:16:35,202 --> 00:16:37,495 the greatest secret of the war: 203 00:16:37,579 --> 00:16:40,248 the fact that the Americans had an atomic bomb, 204 00:16:40,332 --> 00:16:43,334 which they were going to drop very soon, 205 00:16:43,419 --> 00:16:46,212 and which he thought would bring the war to an end. 206 00:16:46,296 --> 00:16:48,673 The reason for his decision 207 00:16:48,757 --> 00:16:53,011 was this would save thousands upon thousands of Allied lives, 208 00:16:53,095 --> 00:16:55,430 which would otherwise be lost 209 00:16:55,514 --> 00:16:59,851 in a frightful massacre on the shores of Japan itself. 210 00:17:00,894 --> 00:17:03,896 He warned me l might find myself suddenly in the position 211 00:17:03,981 --> 00:17:07,400 with the Japanese having surrendered. 212 00:17:08,610 --> 00:17:13,823 Then l saw Churchill, and Churchill told me the same thing. 213 00:17:13,907 --> 00:17:18,619 He said, "They will surrender. What are you going to do about it?" 214 00:17:18,704 --> 00:17:21,873 l said, "You've only just told me. l haven't thought." 215 00:17:30,924 --> 00:17:35,720 (narrator) August 1945. The bomb is dropped. 216 00:17:35,804 --> 00:17:38,639 The Japanese do surrender. 217 00:17:38,724 --> 00:17:45,229 Their cities, too, have been laid waste, their dreams of conquest shattered. 218 00:17:45,314 --> 00:17:48,566 They, too, are at the mercy of their conqueror. 219 00:17:48,692 --> 00:17:51,903 They do not know what lies in store. 220 00:17:56,158 --> 00:18:00,203 (Ambrose) The Americans wanted Japan rebuilt as quickly as possible, 221 00:18:00,287 --> 00:18:03,706 and a highly industrialised Japan to emerge from the war - 222 00:18:03,791 --> 00:18:06,417 well within the American orbit. 223 00:18:06,502 --> 00:18:10,296 Truman decided at Potsdam that no one would be allowed into Japan 224 00:18:10,380 --> 00:18:12,465 except for American troops. 225 00:18:12,549 --> 00:18:16,010 The Aussies weren't let in, the British were not let in, 226 00:18:16,095 --> 00:18:20,932 and of course, most of all, the Russians were not let in. 227 00:18:22,643 --> 00:18:24,477 (narrator) The conqueror comes - 228 00:18:24,561 --> 00:18:27,188 General MacArthur with his American advisers, 229 00:18:27,314 --> 00:18:29,774 his American court. 230 00:18:31,276 --> 00:18:34,862 He will try and remake Japan in America's image. 231 00:18:37,741 --> 00:18:39,826 (cheering) 232 00:18:43,539 --> 00:18:45,456 The prisoners are freed - 233 00:18:45,541 --> 00:18:50,044 US airmen who burnt Japan's cities to the ground. 234 00:18:50,129 --> 00:18:52,296 They are the masters now. 235 00:19:06,145 --> 00:19:08,354 ln Europe it is still summer. 236 00:19:09,106 --> 00:19:13,818 There are 700,000 concentration camp surVivors. 237 00:19:13,902 --> 00:19:16,487 lt may be enough to be alive, 238 00:19:16,572 --> 00:19:18,531 to be reunited, 239 00:19:18,615 --> 00:19:20,616 to have surVived, 240 00:19:21,160 --> 00:19:23,452 to go home. 241 00:20:06,413 --> 00:20:08,789 Six million former slave labourers - 242 00:20:08,874 --> 00:20:14,879 Poles, Russians, Yugoslavs, Estonians, Czechs, French - 243 00:20:14,963 --> 00:20:17,423 free to pick up the threads of their lives, 244 00:20:17,507 --> 00:20:20,927 now that their German masters have gone. 245 00:20:36,735 --> 00:20:39,654 Prisoners of war with no country to go to - 246 00:20:39,738 --> 00:20:44,116 deportees, Germans, soldiers, deserters. 247 00:20:45,619 --> 00:20:48,329 (man) lt was very difticult to tell the difterence 248 00:20:48,413 --> 00:20:50,998 between a German refugee and a Polish refugee 249 00:20:51,083 --> 00:20:54,126 in the part of Germany that l was located in - 250 00:20:54,211 --> 00:20:56,254 l wouldn't know which were which. 251 00:20:56,338 --> 00:20:58,047 You could be pretty well sure, 252 00:20:58,173 --> 00:21:01,550 if they were humping things on their back and carrying bags 253 00:21:01,635 --> 00:21:05,554 but hadn't got a truck, they were almost certainly refugees. 254 00:21:07,432 --> 00:21:11,477 (narrator) Or perhaps SS guards in stolen prison clothes. 255 00:21:24,574 --> 00:21:26,409 Some choose death. 256 00:21:26,493 --> 00:21:29,912 Himmler, lord of the SS, takes poison. 257 00:21:29,997 --> 00:21:32,581 Some surrender or are caught. 258 00:21:32,666 --> 00:21:37,670 Von Rundstedt, Hitler's general, in full dress uniform. 259 00:21:39,631 --> 00:21:43,050 Admiral Dönitz, last leader of the Third Reich. 260 00:21:43,135 --> 00:21:44,802 Albert Speer. 261 00:21:44,886 --> 00:21:47,221 What to do with these broken monsters? 262 00:21:47,306 --> 00:21:50,391 Stalin, at the Yalta Conference 263 00:21:50,475 --> 00:21:53,853 that was attended by President Roosevelt and Mr Churchill, 264 00:21:53,937 --> 00:21:57,690 said that he thought 50,000 265 00:21:57,774 --> 00:22:01,485 of the German general staft and ofticers 266 00:22:01,570 --> 00:22:03,696 should be gathered together 267 00:22:03,780 --> 00:22:06,657 and summarily executed. 268 00:22:06,742 --> 00:22:08,951 He wasn't joking. 269 00:22:09,036 --> 00:22:15,624 President Roosevelt thought he was, and said, "Well, perhaps 49,000." 270 00:22:15,709 --> 00:22:19,754 But Churchill said that he'd rather be taken out into the garden 271 00:22:19,838 --> 00:22:24,842 and shot at once than be a party to such an iniquity. 272 00:22:24,926 --> 00:22:28,596 But the Russians persisted almost until the end 273 00:22:28,722 --> 00:22:31,640 in saying that there should be no trial - 274 00:22:31,725 --> 00:22:36,103 these men were criminals and should be immediately executed 275 00:22:36,188 --> 00:22:37,730 the moment they were caught. 276 00:22:40,025 --> 00:22:44,362 (narrator) There is a war crimes trial at Nuremberg, Hitler's city. 277 00:22:44,446 --> 00:22:49,742 The charges: crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, 278 00:22:49,826 --> 00:22:52,119 waging aggressive war. 279 00:22:52,245 --> 00:22:54,747 The defendants are all German. 280 00:22:55,791 --> 00:22:59,835 Göring is called to plead guilty or not guilty. 281 00:23:12,349 --> 00:23:13,933 (speaks German) 282 00:23:21,358 --> 00:23:23,567 (judge bangs gavel) 283 00:23:25,153 --> 00:23:28,197 (judge) l informed the court 284 00:23:28,281 --> 00:23:31,617 that defendants were not entitled 285 00:23:32,661 --> 00:23:34,703 to make a statement. 286 00:23:36,748 --> 00:23:39,834 You must plead guilty or not guilty. 287 00:23:42,504 --> 00:23:43,879 (speaks German) 288 00:23:54,558 --> 00:23:56,642 Rudolf Hess. 289 00:24:02,190 --> 00:24:03,190 Nein! 290 00:24:11,116 --> 00:24:14,785 (judge) That will be entered as a plea of not guilty. 291 00:24:14,870 --> 00:24:18,414 (Shawcross) l think you'd say the purpose was a twofold one. 292 00:24:18,498 --> 00:24:23,210 The first was retribution - the punishment of people 293 00:24:23,295 --> 00:24:26,547 who had launched this war against the world. 294 00:24:26,631 --> 00:24:30,050 And not only the war, but who, 295 00:24:30,135 --> 00:24:33,721 prior to the commencement of the war and during it, 296 00:24:33,805 --> 00:24:37,975 had committed the most terrible crimes against humanity - 297 00:24:38,101 --> 00:24:44,106 as, for instance, by exterminating certainly seven million Jews. 298 00:24:44,191 --> 00:24:46,984 The second purpose of the trial 299 00:24:48,028 --> 00:24:50,321 was, as we hoped, 300 00:24:50,405 --> 00:24:54,909 to lay down the rules of international law for the future - 301 00:24:54,993 --> 00:25:00,831 not only making the waging of aggressive war unlawful, 302 00:25:00,916 --> 00:25:05,211 but, for the first time, making the statesmen 303 00:25:05,295 --> 00:25:08,339 who led their countries into an aggressive war 304 00:25:08,423 --> 00:25:11,675 personally responsible for what they'd done. 305 00:25:12,219 --> 00:25:17,973 12 million men, women and children have died thus - 306 00:25:18,058 --> 00:25:20,434 murdered in cold blood. 307 00:25:21,478 --> 00:25:26,607 Millions upon millions more today mourn their fathers and their mothers, 308 00:25:26,691 --> 00:25:29,652 their husbands, their wives and their children. 309 00:25:29,736 --> 00:25:32,947 l was rather surprised at the appearance of the defendants. 310 00:25:33,031 --> 00:25:38,577 l thought, "Well, if l'd seen these people in the Clapham omnibus, 311 00:25:38,662 --> 00:25:40,871 l wouldn't have looked at them twice." 312 00:25:40,956 --> 00:25:43,916 l think that was true of all of them, 313 00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:48,295 except perhaps Hess and Ribbentrop, 314 00:25:48,421 --> 00:25:51,340 who both looked pretty miserable creatures, 315 00:25:51,424 --> 00:25:57,054 and Göring, who looked a very remarkable personality. 316 00:25:57,138 --> 00:25:59,223 He did dominate the court. 317 00:25:59,307 --> 00:26:02,893 He was the outstanding personality in the court. 318 00:26:02,978 --> 00:26:10,943 And sometimes, in the course of a long trial like that, lasting over 200 days, 319 00:26:11,027 --> 00:26:13,112 something would go wrong. 320 00:26:13,196 --> 00:26:15,281 You would ask a witness a question, 321 00:26:15,365 --> 00:26:18,617 and the answer you expected would be "yes", 322 00:26:18,702 --> 00:26:21,704 and the witness would answer "no". 323 00:26:21,788 --> 00:26:26,667 At that point you had to be very careful not to catch Göring's eye. 324 00:26:26,751 --> 00:26:30,671 He was sitting at the corner of the front row. 325 00:26:30,755 --> 00:26:33,591 lf you glanced across at him or caught his eye 326 00:26:33,675 --> 00:26:35,801 when there was an incident like that, 327 00:26:35,885 --> 00:26:40,931 he would raise his eyebrow and shake his head in a rather smiling way, 328 00:26:41,016 --> 00:26:43,767 and it would be very difticult not to smile back. 329 00:26:53,278 --> 00:26:57,406 (narrator) Göring cheats the gallows with a cyanide pill. 330 00:26:57,532 --> 00:27:02,328 The rest are hanged, or imprisoned, or set free. 331 00:27:02,871 --> 00:27:06,165 They have brought their revolution to Germany, 332 00:27:06,249 --> 00:27:08,917 and death to Europe. 333 00:27:09,002 --> 00:27:11,462 Their mad adventure over, 334 00:27:11,546 --> 00:27:15,758 now they pay their reckoning for Hitler's Reich. 335 00:27:25,268 --> 00:27:28,854 The British come back to Asia in triumph. 336 00:27:28,938 --> 00:27:30,648 An empty victory - 337 00:27:30,732 --> 00:27:33,484 lndia's no longer docile. 338 00:27:33,568 --> 00:27:37,363 Two million of her troops fought for Britain in Britain's war. 339 00:27:37,447 --> 00:27:40,824 Now they want their own country to be free. 340 00:27:40,909 --> 00:27:44,912 His Majesty's African troops, they want freedom, too. 341 00:27:44,996 --> 00:27:47,915 Malaya, Burma. 342 00:27:48,375 --> 00:27:53,003 Britain is too weak to hold them, even if she wants to. 343 00:27:56,091 --> 00:27:59,843 The main eftect of the war against Japan in the Far East 344 00:27:59,928 --> 00:28:05,391 was the nourishing of the spirit of nationalism in Asia. 345 00:28:05,475 --> 00:28:08,310 A large part of Asia had been under British rule, 346 00:28:08,395 --> 00:28:10,938 and most of that that was not under British rule 347 00:28:11,022 --> 00:28:13,732 was under Dutch rule or some European rule, 348 00:28:13,817 --> 00:28:16,443 and the people were beginning to aspire 349 00:28:16,528 --> 00:28:20,906 to the creation of their own political institutions. 350 00:28:20,990 --> 00:28:24,159 The demonstration by the Japanese 351 00:28:24,244 --> 00:28:28,122 that the British could be beaten, and beaten very severely, 352 00:28:28,206 --> 00:28:32,459 naturally encouraged in the eyes of the people of Southeast Asia 353 00:28:32,544 --> 00:28:35,546 the belief that they, too, might be able to secure 354 00:28:35,630 --> 00:28:38,048 a much stronger position against the British 355 00:28:38,133 --> 00:28:39,925 than they'd dreamt possible. 356 00:28:40,009 --> 00:28:44,346 This had a great eftect on opinion in lndia and all over Southeast Asia. 357 00:28:44,431 --> 00:28:49,393 Suddenly l found myself responsible, as the supreme commander, 358 00:28:50,228 --> 00:28:53,772 for an enormous area of the globe, 359 00:28:53,857 --> 00:28:55,441 with a distance 360 00:28:55,525 --> 00:28:57,317 of 6,000 miles across it - 361 00:28:57,402 --> 00:29:00,404 as far as from London to Bombay, 362 00:29:00,488 --> 00:29:05,868 with 128 million starVing and rather rebellious people 363 00:29:05,952 --> 00:29:07,745 who'd just been liberated, 364 00:29:09,247 --> 00:29:12,416 with 123,000 prisoners of war and internees, 365 00:29:12,500 --> 00:29:16,545 many of whom were dying and whom l had to try and recover quickly. 366 00:29:16,629 --> 00:29:18,422 And at the very beginning, 367 00:29:18,506 --> 00:29:23,385 l had some 700,000 Japanese soldiers, sailors and airmen 368 00:29:23,470 --> 00:29:27,389 to take the surrender, disarm, put into prison camps, 369 00:29:27,474 --> 00:29:30,768 awaiting transportation back. 370 00:29:30,852 --> 00:29:34,938 lt sounds a big problem, but l had no idea what l really was in for. 371 00:29:35,023 --> 00:29:39,818 What in really was in for was trying to re-establish civilisation 372 00:29:39,903 --> 00:29:42,070 and the rule of law and order 373 00:29:42,155 --> 00:29:45,616 through this vast part of the world. 374 00:29:45,742 --> 00:29:48,702 We didn't even know what the conditions were going to be. 375 00:29:48,787 --> 00:29:53,707 l had no staft really trained or qualified 376 00:29:53,833 --> 00:29:55,375 to help me in this task - 377 00:29:55,460 --> 00:29:58,253 except some professional civil aftairs ofticers 378 00:29:58,338 --> 00:30:02,090 from various countries concerned, whose one idea was to go back 379 00:30:02,175 --> 00:30:06,220 and carry on where they left oft three or four years before. 380 00:30:08,973 --> 00:30:11,725 (narrator) The police are not ideal either. 381 00:30:11,810 --> 00:30:15,229 lndonesians do not want the Dutch back. 382 00:30:15,313 --> 00:30:18,899 lf order must be maintained in the East lndies, 383 00:30:18,983 --> 00:30:22,361 there is only one force to do it: 384 00:30:22,445 --> 00:30:24,571 the Japanese army. 385 00:30:24,656 --> 00:30:29,409 Mountbatten uses them there, and in Singapore as well. 386 00:30:32,497 --> 00:30:35,415 (Mountbatten) lt may sound odd now, after the war, 387 00:30:35,500 --> 00:30:40,796 but at the time - and it still didn't make sense - what was l to do? 388 00:30:40,880 --> 00:30:43,966 lf l was to order them to lay down their arms 389 00:30:44,050 --> 00:30:46,426 and concentrate themselves in prison camps, 390 00:30:46,511 --> 00:30:50,931 and leave the outside world without policemen or anything at all, 391 00:30:51,015 --> 00:30:53,267 that would have been very odd. 392 00:30:53,351 --> 00:30:56,186 No, l think they had to carry on as they were 393 00:30:56,271 --> 00:31:00,107 until they were eftectively relieved - that's the only order l gave. 394 00:31:00,191 --> 00:31:02,234 l didn't consciously employ them. 395 00:31:02,318 --> 00:31:04,653 They carried on until l could relieve them 396 00:31:04,737 --> 00:31:08,574 with Allied soldiers as soon as possible. 397 00:31:12,245 --> 00:31:14,872 (narrator) Americans are in Japan to stay. 398 00:31:14,956 --> 00:31:19,042 Almost everywhere else in Asia, white men prepare to leave. 399 00:31:19,127 --> 00:31:23,672 Reluctantly, uncomprehendingly, the Dutch go. 400 00:31:23,756 --> 00:31:25,465 The French are difterent - 401 00:31:25,550 --> 00:31:27,759 they will not give up lndochina. 402 00:31:31,681 --> 00:31:35,267 They send troops to take it back, commanded by General Leclerc, 403 00:31:35,351 --> 00:31:37,185 a hero of the European war. 404 00:31:37,270 --> 00:31:40,898 (Mountbatten) When l spoke to Leclerc when l was about to turn over 405 00:31:40,982 --> 00:31:44,693 the military responsible for the south of French lndochina to him, 406 00:31:44,819 --> 00:31:51,074 l urged him to try and make friends with local inhabitants, local insurgents. 407 00:31:51,159 --> 00:31:53,827 l said, "That's the way for France to come back - 408 00:31:53,912 --> 00:31:55,704 with a friendly relationship." 409 00:31:55,788 --> 00:32:00,417 "l don't think you can impose by military means your old colonial rule." 410 00:32:00,501 --> 00:32:03,670 He said, "l see the point. l'm sorry, l'm a soldier." 411 00:32:03,755 --> 00:32:06,673 "My instructions are to take over the military way." 412 00:32:06,758 --> 00:32:09,760 And that, of course, is what he did. 413 00:32:16,684 --> 00:32:18,769 (machine-gun fire) 414 00:32:22,148 --> 00:32:25,150 (narrator) So the killing goes on. 415 00:32:26,277 --> 00:32:28,987 lt goes on there to this day. 416 00:32:37,330 --> 00:32:39,539 Berlin in the first months of occupation. 417 00:32:39,624 --> 00:32:44,503 Cheery Frauieins, once the handmaidens of Hitler's new order. 418 00:33:02,021 --> 00:33:05,816 Some of the victors have the time of their lives. 419 00:33:18,579 --> 00:33:21,957 (man #1) Germany was on a cigarette and chocolate-bar economy 420 00:33:22,041 --> 00:33:25,585 right after the war, right after combat. 421 00:33:25,712 --> 00:33:28,755 As a consequence, there was little an American soldier 422 00:33:28,840 --> 00:33:30,966 couldn't buy if he wanted to buy it - 423 00:33:31,050 --> 00:33:32,968 including serVices of all sorts. 424 00:33:39,225 --> 00:33:41,059 (man #2) lt's the same old story - 425 00:33:41,144 --> 00:33:43,395 if a boy and a girl want to get together, 426 00:33:43,479 --> 00:33:47,441 there isn't any law that says you can't or you're not going to do it. 427 00:33:49,485 --> 00:33:52,362 The black market was blooming. 428 00:33:52,447 --> 00:33:54,865 We had nothing. A piece of soap 429 00:33:54,949 --> 00:33:57,284 was a most valuable possession. 430 00:33:57,368 --> 00:33:59,703 So... 431 00:33:59,787 --> 00:34:02,289 you practically prostituted yourself, 432 00:34:02,373 --> 00:34:05,959 just to get a piece of soap, maybe a can of coftee, 433 00:34:06,044 --> 00:34:11,173 or maybe even some cigarettes - people who smoked. l didn't. 434 00:34:11,257 --> 00:34:13,800 But you just did everything. 435 00:34:15,261 --> 00:34:23,226 l know people - very, very fine people - who just would have done anything. 436 00:34:23,352 --> 00:34:27,647 And you lose some of your human dignity when you are so hungry, 437 00:34:27,774 --> 00:34:31,735 when you are so without food, 438 00:34:31,861 --> 00:34:34,321 without clothing, without everything. 439 00:34:35,531 --> 00:34:38,241 (man) How could you blame a starVing girl? 440 00:34:38,326 --> 00:34:41,703 She might not want stockings, she might not want cigarettes, 441 00:34:41,788 --> 00:34:43,205 or a bicycle, or butter, 442 00:34:43,289 --> 00:34:46,124 but she did want badly something, 443 00:34:46,209 --> 00:34:47,959 which could be provided 444 00:34:48,044 --> 00:34:53,131 by the appropriate, typically, British or American Gl. 445 00:34:56,844 --> 00:34:58,845 l had to give up smoking in the streets. 446 00:34:58,930 --> 00:35:01,223 ln those days l was a cigarette smoker. 447 00:35:01,307 --> 00:35:03,767 Carelessly, you'd throw your cigarette 448 00:35:03,851 --> 00:35:05,060 on the floor. 449 00:35:05,144 --> 00:35:06,269 Before you knew it, 450 00:35:06,395 --> 00:35:08,188 a fellow had almost caught it. 451 00:35:08,272 --> 00:35:12,150 He'd been trailing you because he saw you were smoking. 452 00:35:12,235 --> 00:35:18,698 l remember that in one of the cinemas in one of the big towns 453 00:35:18,783 --> 00:35:22,786 there was going to be a performance for the American Gls. 454 00:35:22,870 --> 00:35:25,705 They had queued up before it started. 455 00:35:25,832 --> 00:35:31,545 The Americans don't allow smoking, but they were all smoking in the queues. 456 00:35:31,629 --> 00:35:38,051 Practically opposite every smoker, there was a line of hungry-looking men - 457 00:35:38,136 --> 00:35:41,513 hungry for tobacco - waiting until the doors opened. 458 00:35:41,597 --> 00:35:45,642 And then as the cigarettes fell into the street, there was a rush. 459 00:35:45,726 --> 00:35:49,646 The key place in that queue was just at the entrance to the cinema, 460 00:35:49,730 --> 00:35:53,441 because that's where most of the cigarettes came down. 461 00:36:02,743 --> 00:36:07,455 (man) ln retrospect, being a conqueror seems very dubious to me, 462 00:36:07,582 --> 00:36:10,250 but at the time it seemed quite right. 463 00:36:10,334 --> 00:36:14,462 We were convinced of our virtue and the German vice, 464 00:36:14,547 --> 00:36:19,718 and it was very pleasing to be able to tell them what to do. 465 00:36:28,269 --> 00:36:30,103 (narrator) Time to rebuild. 466 00:36:30,188 --> 00:36:34,816 Time for Germany to recover, so it can start to pay. 467 00:36:38,654 --> 00:36:41,907 The Russians want 20 billion dollars in reparations. 468 00:36:41,991 --> 00:36:45,452 Americans think that's more than Germany itself is worth. 469 00:36:46,412 --> 00:36:49,956 The West won't help the Russians collect that much. 470 00:36:50,041 --> 00:36:54,502 They stop sending goods and hardware to the East. 471 00:36:54,587 --> 00:36:57,923 The Russians send little food and raw materials to the West. 472 00:37:00,009 --> 00:37:04,054 The Allies are starting to fall out with each other. 473 00:37:23,324 --> 00:37:27,744 The Germans, caught in the middle, get on with rebuilding themselves. 474 00:37:28,746 --> 00:37:31,706 There are no slave labourers now. 475 00:37:53,729 --> 00:37:56,815 (Spencer) They had cleared the street, and trams went by. 476 00:37:56,899 --> 00:37:58,775 l'd have hated to ride on one. 477 00:37:58,859 --> 00:38:00,819 They were packed to the roof - 478 00:38:00,903 --> 00:38:04,572 there were people hanging on the outside, though it was cold, 479 00:38:04,699 --> 00:38:07,158 there were people standing on the bufters. 480 00:38:07,243 --> 00:38:10,161 And there were patient queues to get on these trams, 481 00:38:10,246 --> 00:38:13,331 but nobody ever seemed to me to get oft. 482 00:38:24,969 --> 00:38:27,595 (translation) Horst Gerlach, born 4 May... 483 00:38:30,433 --> 00:38:35,395 (narrator) The Suchdienst - the missing persons register. 484 00:38:39,859 --> 00:38:42,861 12 million Germans, driven from the eastern lands, 485 00:38:42,945 --> 00:38:44,779 trying to find each other. 486 00:38:45,156 --> 00:38:47,657 They're not alone. 487 00:38:48,659 --> 00:38:52,203 60 million Europeans have been uprooted. 488 00:38:52,288 --> 00:38:54,956 Some never find their way home again. 489 00:39:08,262 --> 00:39:10,430 November 1945. 490 00:39:11,515 --> 00:39:14,642 The Germans live on 1500 calories a day - 491 00:39:14,727 --> 00:39:16,936 a third of what the American troops get. 492 00:39:17,063 --> 00:39:22,942 (woman) lt was a very hard time, because we suftered from hunger. 493 00:39:23,027 --> 00:39:26,780 The Americans had much food. 494 00:39:26,864 --> 00:39:31,076 My mother decided to work for them. 495 00:39:31,160 --> 00:39:37,415 And l decided to work for them, too. 496 00:39:37,500 --> 00:39:39,918 My mother was in the kitchen, 497 00:39:40,002 --> 00:39:42,420 and l was a waitress. 498 00:39:45,508 --> 00:39:49,094 Well, it was rather hard for me, 499 00:39:49,178 --> 00:39:56,851 because the Americans ordered that l had to smile always. 500 00:39:58,145 --> 00:40:02,190 And l couldn't smile, because l... 501 00:40:02,274 --> 00:40:10,240 The American ofticers were so proud, and they treated us as Nazis. 502 00:40:12,410 --> 00:40:15,286 (narrator) No peace conference ever takes place. 503 00:40:15,371 --> 00:40:18,123 There is no new Versailles. 504 00:40:18,249 --> 00:40:20,500 Germany is divided. 505 00:40:20,584 --> 00:40:23,628 The occupation zones become frontiers - 506 00:40:23,712 --> 00:40:28,007 unintended, unwelcome and permanent. 507 00:40:29,009 --> 00:40:33,012 (Ambrose) lf you have a unified Germany that belongs to the Russians, 508 00:40:33,097 --> 00:40:36,724 you have Russian domination of the whole of the Continent. 509 00:40:36,809 --> 00:40:42,147 lf you have a unified Germany that is in the hands of the Anglo-Americans, 510 00:40:42,231 --> 00:40:46,067 then you have a Western domination of the Continent 511 00:40:46,152 --> 00:40:48,069 that would cheat Russia 512 00:40:48,154 --> 00:40:51,489 out of her just claims to the security 513 00:40:51,574 --> 00:40:55,034 that was Stalin's number-one concern 514 00:40:55,119 --> 00:40:57,370 all through the war and afterwards. 515 00:40:57,455 --> 00:41:00,999 So dividing Germany along the Elbe 516 00:41:01,083 --> 00:41:04,127 was probably the best solution. 517 00:41:04,211 --> 00:41:06,880 One's tempted to use words like "fair" and "just", 518 00:41:06,964 --> 00:41:09,382 but l don't think they apply here - 519 00:41:09,467 --> 00:41:11,634 it's the workable solution. 520 00:41:11,760 --> 00:41:16,097 Wherever the Red Army was in a contiguous territory, 521 00:41:16,223 --> 00:41:18,725 they would install a Sovietised system - 522 00:41:18,809 --> 00:41:20,810 and there was no argument about it. 523 00:41:20,895 --> 00:41:23,521 We did the very best we could on Poland. 524 00:41:24,106 --> 00:41:27,817 The tragedy of Poland is that she's got Germany for a neighbour on one side 525 00:41:27,902 --> 00:41:31,821 and Russia for a neighbour on the other side. lt's a terrible position. 526 00:41:31,906 --> 00:41:35,116 lt's always been the Polish dilemma and the Polish tragedy - 527 00:41:35,201 --> 00:41:37,994 Poland has to fall into the orbit of one or the other. 528 00:41:38,078 --> 00:41:41,414 Given those choices, and given the natures of Hitler and Stalin, 529 00:41:41,499 --> 00:41:42,916 l suppose if l were a Pole, 530 00:41:43,000 --> 00:41:46,628 l'd say, "We're better oft under Stalin's heel than under Hitler's." 531 00:41:46,754 --> 00:41:48,630 Soldiers of Poland, 532 00:41:48,714 --> 00:41:55,970 l wish you all a speedy and safe return to your home country. 533 00:41:56,680 --> 00:41:58,765 (band plays) 534 00:42:11,654 --> 00:42:15,865 (narrator) Poland's tragedy. Russia's triumph. 535 00:42:15,950 --> 00:42:18,159 Victory Day in Moscow. 536 00:42:19,495 --> 00:42:22,622 (Ambrose) The Russians paid an enormous price for victory, 537 00:42:22,706 --> 00:42:24,499 but they did gain from the war - 538 00:42:24,583 --> 00:42:27,585 security for themselves, control of East Europe, 539 00:42:27,670 --> 00:42:30,630 and the opportunity, which they took advantage of, 540 00:42:30,714 --> 00:42:33,132 to exploit East Europe economically. 541 00:42:34,843 --> 00:42:38,429 (narrator) A nation bled white by war has somehow to rebuild. 542 00:42:38,514 --> 00:42:41,140 The Soviet Union has surVived. 543 00:42:41,225 --> 00:42:45,186 lt is one of the world's great powers, 544 00:42:45,271 --> 00:42:47,313 and now everyone knows it. 545 00:43:01,453 --> 00:43:04,247 London, 1945. 546 00:43:04,331 --> 00:43:06,666 Eros comes home. 547 00:43:15,092 --> 00:43:19,137 Britain has surVived, too. But a curious victory. 548 00:43:24,768 --> 00:43:26,853 You can picnic again, 549 00:43:26,937 --> 00:43:29,939 but look out for unexploded mines. 550 00:43:53,422 --> 00:43:55,798 No invasion, no occupation, 551 00:43:55,883 --> 00:43:58,676 yet the nation's treasure is exhausted. 552 00:43:58,761 --> 00:44:03,473 For six years it has fought and been a workshop for war. 553 00:44:04,642 --> 00:44:08,186 The bullets have been bought with Britain's wealth. 554 00:44:08,312 --> 00:44:09,812 They won't be needed now. 555 00:44:09,897 --> 00:44:12,106 Britain has won the war, 556 00:44:12,191 --> 00:44:15,109 and has nearly gone bankrupt doing it. 557 00:44:16,320 --> 00:44:20,573 The British had as many problems, if not more, in recovering from victory 558 00:44:20,658 --> 00:44:23,076 as the Germans did in recovering from defeat. 559 00:44:23,160 --> 00:44:27,246 The British... What did Britain get out of the war? 560 00:44:27,331 --> 00:44:32,418 Not very much. Not very much. She lost a very great deal. 561 00:44:32,503 --> 00:44:35,213 l suppose, if you want to look at it positively, 562 00:44:35,297 --> 00:44:38,716 she got a moral claim on the world 563 00:44:38,801 --> 00:44:42,595 as the nation that had stood against Hitler alone for a year, 564 00:44:42,680 --> 00:44:45,932 and had provided the moral leadership against the Nazis 565 00:44:46,016 --> 00:44:49,936 at a time when everyone else was willing to cave in to the Nazis. 566 00:44:51,647 --> 00:44:54,607 (narrator) America, 1945. 567 00:44:54,692 --> 00:44:57,443 The boys come home - again. 568 00:45:19,925 --> 00:45:22,218 (Ambrose) The big winner in World War ll 569 00:45:22,302 --> 00:45:24,887 is the United States of America - by far. 570 00:45:24,972 --> 00:45:28,391 We get much more out of the war than anyone else. 571 00:45:28,475 --> 00:45:32,645 There's a paradox here - very quickly after the war was over, 572 00:45:32,730 --> 00:45:37,108 Americans began to take the attitude: "Aha! Here it is again." 573 00:45:37,192 --> 00:45:40,445 "We got fooled once more, as we did in World War l." 574 00:45:40,529 --> 00:45:42,447 "We made this enormous eftort, 575 00:45:42,531 --> 00:45:44,907 we beat the Germans, we beat the Japanese." 576 00:45:44,992 --> 00:45:48,661 "And who wins? The Russians. The Russians get East Europe out of it." 577 00:45:48,746 --> 00:45:50,997 "We were suckers." 578 00:45:51,081 --> 00:45:53,916 This was very widely felt in the United States. 579 00:45:54,001 --> 00:45:57,545 lt was a strange attitude to hold when you look, 580 00:45:57,629 --> 00:46:00,465 with whatever objectivity that one can muster, 581 00:46:00,549 --> 00:46:02,842 at what the real results of the war were. 582 00:46:05,471 --> 00:46:09,348 (narrator) Americans come home to a country untouched by bombs, 583 00:46:09,475 --> 00:46:13,227 a country twice as rich as when the war began - 584 00:46:13,312 --> 00:46:15,396 more food than it can eat, 585 00:46:15,481 --> 00:46:17,523 more clothes than it can wear, 586 00:46:17,608 --> 00:46:20,818 more steel than it can use. 587 00:46:20,903 --> 00:46:24,739 The only country in the world with money to spare. 588 00:46:24,823 --> 00:46:27,533 The country with the atom bomb. 589 00:46:58,023 --> 00:47:02,193 The Germans, too, are victors - though they do not know it yet. 590 00:47:02,277 --> 00:47:04,779 The soldiers come home from internment camps, 591 00:47:04,863 --> 00:47:08,407 put on ordinary clothes, go back to work. 592 00:47:08,534 --> 00:47:13,120 Feudal, Prussian, peasant Germany is no more. 593 00:47:13,205 --> 00:47:16,374 ln its place, the structure of a modern state. 594 00:47:17,125 --> 00:47:21,212 lronically enough, that was Hitler's work. 595 00:47:21,296 --> 00:47:23,798 Now, in the West, a new Germany will emerge: 596 00:47:23,924 --> 00:47:28,052 rich and free and democratic - and strong. 597 00:47:29,513 --> 00:47:33,474 England, too, changes - though some voices stay the same. 598 00:47:33,600 --> 00:47:36,769 You will be taken to the civilian clothing depot 599 00:47:36,854 --> 00:47:38,729 to get your civilian suit. 600 00:47:38,814 --> 00:47:42,108 After that, a bus will take you down to the station. 601 00:47:42,234 --> 00:47:46,070 You're free then to push oft home as fast as you can. 602 00:47:46,530 --> 00:47:49,615 (newsreel) The procedure is comprehensive - 603 00:47:49,700 --> 00:47:51,909 there are a lot of things to be thought of 604 00:47:51,994 --> 00:47:54,078 when a man or a woman leaves the army. 605 00:47:54,162 --> 00:47:56,914 Civilian life nowadays is fairly full of snags, 606 00:47:56,999 --> 00:47:59,500 and the ex-soldier must be armed against them 607 00:47:59,585 --> 00:48:01,419 when he marches into civVy street. 608 00:48:01,545 --> 00:48:04,338 lnformation pamphlet. 14-day ration card. 609 00:48:04,423 --> 00:48:07,508 - Good luck. Thanks for all you've done. - Thank you, sir. 610 00:48:07,593 --> 00:48:11,345 - AC Clott? - Sir! 252. 611 00:48:14,057 --> 00:48:16,475 (narrator) Britain's soldiers come home, 612 00:48:16,560 --> 00:48:19,312 to a land without much cheer, 613 00:48:19,396 --> 00:48:24,734 to a land of ration cards, queues, black markets and austerity. 614 00:48:24,818 --> 00:48:28,362 But to a land of National Health 615 00:48:28,447 --> 00:48:30,740 and the welfare state. 616 00:48:30,824 --> 00:48:34,118 To a land of free men and women. 617 00:48:34,202 --> 00:48:37,622 To a world no longer at war. 618 00:49:05,776 --> 00:49:10,780 ln the first place, if we hadn't won the war, 619 00:49:10,864 --> 00:49:14,033 it would have meant that the Japanese and the Germans 620 00:49:14,117 --> 00:49:15,493 would have won it. 621 00:49:15,577 --> 00:49:20,247 l think you can imagine what kind of a world that would have been. 622 00:49:20,332 --> 00:49:27,254 lt's true that the problem of Russia - the Soviet Union, rather - 623 00:49:27,339 --> 00:49:30,549 emerged sharply after the war. 624 00:49:30,634 --> 00:49:32,385 But l would say on the whole 625 00:49:32,469 --> 00:49:37,264 that that was the lesser of the two evils that could have happened. 626 00:49:37,349 --> 00:49:44,855 And the more or less principles on which democracies operate, 627 00:49:44,940 --> 00:49:47,608 on which societies are based, 628 00:49:47,693 --> 00:49:52,571 certainly didn't get much satisfaction out of the results of the war - 629 00:49:52,656 --> 00:49:56,367 but l think this was inevitable, given the Soviet system. 630 00:49:56,451 --> 00:49:59,745 On the other hand, there's still a large portion of the world 631 00:49:59,830 --> 00:50:04,333 that still is able to exercise a certain degree of freedom, 632 00:50:04,418 --> 00:50:07,003 particularly in their internal aftairs. 633 00:50:07,087 --> 00:50:09,171 Not that by any means 634 00:50:09,256 --> 00:50:12,758 that everything that isn't communist is perfect - far from it. 635 00:50:12,843 --> 00:50:16,595 But l think the world would have been quite intolerable 636 00:50:16,680 --> 00:50:19,432 under Nazi and Japanese rule. 637 00:50:19,516 --> 00:50:23,769 The principal eftects of the war on people and political systems 638 00:50:23,854 --> 00:50:26,772 bore upon the countries in Eastern Europe - 639 00:50:26,857 --> 00:50:33,904 Poland most of all, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and those countries. 640 00:50:33,989 --> 00:50:37,491 These peoples were hoping, or some of them were hoping, 641 00:50:37,576 --> 00:50:41,704 that the war would liberate them from the threat of Nazi tyranny, 642 00:50:41,788 --> 00:50:47,001 and in fact at the end of it they found themselves in the communist bloc - 643 00:50:47,085 --> 00:50:50,796 which l must say was far less sinister than the Nazi bloc. 644 00:50:50,881 --> 00:50:54,383 This was a very solid achievement of the Second World War - 645 00:50:54,468 --> 00:50:57,803 a very much less sinister type of tyranny 646 00:50:57,888 --> 00:51:00,264 replaced a highly sinister tyranny. 647 00:51:00,348 --> 00:51:03,601 But this was not the freedom for which they had hoped, 648 00:51:03,685 --> 00:51:06,687 and for which, to a large extent, we had fought. 649 00:51:06,772 --> 00:51:09,565 The most important single result of World War ll 650 00:51:09,649 --> 00:51:12,234 is that the Nazis were crushed, 651 00:51:12,319 --> 00:51:16,739 the militarists in Japan were crushed, the Fascists in ltaly were crushed. 652 00:51:16,823 --> 00:51:19,533 Surely justice has never been better serVed. 653 00:52:17,217 --> 00:52:22,596 (narrator) For 30 years now, there has been peace in Europe.