1 00:00:03,600 --> 00:00:05,509 {\an1}Announcer: Funding for "The U.S. And the Holocaust" 2 00:00:05,533 --> 00:00:06,709 was provided by David M. Rubenstein, 3 00:00:06,733 --> 00:00:08,776 investing in people and institutions 4 00:00:08,800 --> 00:00:10,409 {\an1}that help us understand the past 5 00:00:10,433 --> 00:00:11,976 {\an1}and look to the future; 6 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:13,542 {\an1}by the Park Foundation; 7 00:00:13,566 --> 00:00:16,309 the Judy and Peter Blum Kovler Foundation, 8 00:00:16,333 --> 00:00:17,742 {\an1}supporting those who remind us 9 00:00:17,766 --> 00:00:20,309 {\an1}about American history and the Holocaust; 10 00:00:20,333 --> 00:00:23,409 {\an1}by Gilbert S. Omenn and Martha A. Darling; 11 00:00:23,433 --> 00:00:26,042 {\an1}by the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, 12 00:00:26,066 --> 00:00:28,276 {\an1}investing in our common future; 13 00:00:28,300 --> 00:00:31,209 {\an1}and by these members of the Better Angels Society: 14 00:00:31,233 --> 00:00:33,376 {\an1}Jeannie and Jonathan Lavine; 15 00:00:33,400 --> 00:00:34,976 Jan and Rick Cohen; 16 00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:36,809 {\an1}Allan and Shelley Holt; 17 00:00:36,833 --> 00:00:38,676 the Koret Foundation; 18 00:00:38,700 --> 00:00:40,842 {\an1}David and Susan Kreisman; 19 00:00:40,866 --> 00:00:43,442 {\an1}Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder; 20 00:00:43,466 --> 00:00:45,709 the Fullerton Family Charitable Fund; 21 00:00:45,733 --> 00:00:47,876 {\an1}the Blavatnik Family Foundation; 22 00:00:47,900 --> 00:00:49,842 {\an1}the Crown Family Philanthropies, 23 00:00:49,866 --> 00:00:52,509 {\an8}honoring members of the Crown and Goodman families; 24 00:00:52,533 --> 00:00:54,633 {\an7}and by these additional members. 25 00:00:56,966 --> 00:00:59,109 {\an8}By the Corporation for Public Broadcasting 26 00:00:59,133 --> 00:01:00,576 {\an7}and by viewers like you. 27 00:01:00,600 --> 00:01:02,733 {\an8}Thank you. 28 00:01:11,200 --> 00:01:13,133 [Birds calling] 29 00:01:27,300 --> 00:01:29,842 [Horn honks] 30 00:01:29,866 --> 00:01:31,976 [Laughing] 31 00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:35,242 {\an1}Daniel Mendelsohn: When I was a small child, 32 00:01:35,266 --> 00:01:37,776 5, 6, 7, 8, 33 00:01:37,800 --> 00:01:42,042 we would visit my grandpa and his wife 34 00:01:42,066 --> 00:01:43,833 down in Miami Beach. 35 00:01:45,800 --> 00:01:48,333 {\an1}My grandfather was one of 7 siblings. 36 00:01:49,666 --> 00:01:54,276 {\an7}5 immigrated to the States in the early twenties. 37 00:01:54,300 --> 00:01:58,609 They would gather together their old pals, 38 00:01:58,633 --> 00:02:02,109 {\an1}and some of them would get very emotional 39 00:02:02,133 --> 00:02:05,309 when they saw me because they said I bore 40 00:02:05,333 --> 00:02:10,000 {\an1}an uncanny resemblance to my great uncle Shmiel Jaeger. 41 00:02:13,833 --> 00:02:18,176 {\an1}I felt haunted by this guy because people looked at me 42 00:02:18,200 --> 00:02:20,333 {\an1}and they thought of him. 43 00:02:22,766 --> 00:02:26,509 {\an1}We had pictures of Shmiel and Ester, his wife, 44 00:02:26,533 --> 00:02:30,242 {\an1}and these girls as they grew up in a provincial town 45 00:02:30,266 --> 00:02:33,876 in Eastern Poland 46 00:02:33,900 --> 00:02:36,842 {\an1}because all through the 1920s they were sending pictures 47 00:02:36,866 --> 00:02:40,042 {\an1}as the girls were growing up. 48 00:02:40,066 --> 00:02:42,442 {\an1}So we had pictures of them, 49 00:02:42,466 --> 00:02:44,676 and on the back of every picture, 50 00:02:44,700 --> 00:02:46,876 {\an1}my grandfather always wrote, 51 00:02:46,900 --> 00:02:49,876 "Uncle Shmiel killed by the Nazis," 52 00:02:49,900 --> 00:02:52,833 {\an1}or, "Aunt Ester killed by the Nazis." 53 00:02:54,833 --> 00:02:56,509 So I always wondered, "Why are there no stories 54 00:02:56,533 --> 00:02:58,409 about these people?" 55 00:02:58,433 --> 00:03:06,433 {\an8}♪ 56 00:03:11,100 --> 00:03:12,500 {\an7}[Adolf Hitler speaking German] 57 00:03:42,766 --> 00:03:44,266 {\an8}[Cheering] 58 00:03:49,133 --> 00:03:52,076 {\an1}Narrator: In open defiance of the Versailles Treaty, 59 00:03:52,100 --> 00:03:55,642 Hitler had built a mighty military machine, 60 00:03:55,666 --> 00:03:59,809 {\an1}then sent his forces to seize the Rhineland, Austria, 61 00:03:59,833 --> 00:04:02,800 and the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. 62 00:04:05,133 --> 00:04:07,409 {\an1}The Nazis had relentlessly persecuted 63 00:04:07,433 --> 00:04:09,842 {\an1}German and Austrian Jews, 64 00:04:09,866 --> 00:04:13,809 {\an1}reducing their rights, expropriating their property, 65 00:04:13,833 --> 00:04:16,276 {\an1}choking off their livelihoods, 66 00:04:16,300 --> 00:04:19,966 {\an1}declaring them parasites, not citizens... 67 00:04:21,633 --> 00:04:25,142 and on the evening of November 9, 1938... 68 00:04:25,166 --> 00:04:28,676 Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass... 69 00:04:28,700 --> 00:04:33,309 {\an1}Hitler unleashed Nazi mobs on Jews in cities and towns 70 00:04:33,333 --> 00:04:36,109 all over the newly expanded Germany, 71 00:04:36,133 --> 00:04:40,242 beating, burning, raping, killing, 72 00:04:40,266 --> 00:04:43,966 {\an1}hoping to drive them all out of their country. 73 00:04:45,800 --> 00:04:48,776 Hundreds of thousands of German and Austrian Jews 74 00:04:48,800 --> 00:04:52,242 were now desperate to escape the Nazis. 75 00:04:52,266 --> 00:04:55,876 They knew their only hope lay in flight 76 00:04:55,900 --> 00:05:00,542 {\an1}into friendly European countries or across the ocean 77 00:05:00,566 --> 00:05:02,776 to the United States. 78 00:05:02,800 --> 00:05:10,800 ♪ 79 00:05:15,566 --> 00:05:18,600 [Ship horn blows] 80 00:05:23,433 --> 00:05:26,876 {\an1}Günther Stern: I was getting ready, coming down the stairs, 81 00:05:26,900 --> 00:05:31,909 and the newspaper boy of the "St. Louis Star-Times" 82 00:05:31,933 --> 00:05:34,542 came along, and he was shouting, 83 00:05:34,566 --> 00:05:36,842 {\an1}"Synagogues burning in Germany. 84 00:05:36,866 --> 00:05:39,176 {\an8}Read all about it," 85 00:05:39,200 --> 00:05:42,842 {\an8}and, I... I... I... I... I didn't get it at first, 86 00:05:42,866 --> 00:05:46,976 {\an8}and then I... I knew what it meant, 87 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:52,342 {\an1}and, I... it... it shattered another past... 88 00:05:52,366 --> 00:05:55,142 {\an1}another part of my past, 89 00:05:55,166 --> 00:05:59,409 and that was the first inkling I got 90 00:05:59,433 --> 00:06:04,576 of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass. 91 00:06:04,600 --> 00:06:07,109 {\an1}Peter Hayes: At every American consulate in Germany, 92 00:06:07,133 --> 00:06:10,109 {\an7}there were Jews seeking refuge because their houses 93 00:06:10,133 --> 00:06:12,609 {\an7}had been pillaged overnight and so forth, 94 00:06:12,633 --> 00:06:15,576 {\an8}and this was reported in American newspapers. 95 00:06:15,600 --> 00:06:18,942 {\an1}The "Chicago Tribune," which was an isolationist newspaper 96 00:06:18,966 --> 00:06:20,442 {\an1}in the middle of North America, 97 00:06:20,466 --> 00:06:22,309 had pictures of burning synagogues 98 00:06:22,333 --> 00:06:26,076 {\an1}in early November 1938. 99 00:06:26,100 --> 00:06:27,476 Deborah Lipstadt: It's on the front pages 100 00:06:27,500 --> 00:06:29,342 {\an1}of American newspapers. 101 00:06:29,366 --> 00:06:31,809 {\an1}Some major newspapers have it 102 00:06:31,833 --> 00:06:37,509 on the front page day after day after day. 103 00:06:37,533 --> 00:06:39,400 People are shocked. 104 00:06:41,966 --> 00:06:46,876 {\an8}In America, there is a tremendous response, 105 00:06:46,900 --> 00:06:48,976 {\an7}even from those who don't want Jews coming 106 00:06:49,000 --> 00:06:51,142 and even from antisemitic sources 107 00:06:51,166 --> 00:06:54,276 because while being an antisemite is one thing, 108 00:06:54,300 --> 00:06:56,109 {\an1}but this is a civilized country 109 00:06:56,133 --> 00:06:57,909 {\an1}seemingly going crazy, 110 00:06:57,933 --> 00:07:00,809 seemingly completely out of control, 111 00:07:00,833 --> 00:07:03,833 and there is tremendous criticism. 112 00:07:05,366 --> 00:07:07,742 {\an8}This is not merely a Jewish question, 113 00:07:07,766 --> 00:07:11,076 {\an8}a Catholic question, a Protestant question, 114 00:07:11,100 --> 00:07:14,376 {\an8}a political question or a labor question. 115 00:07:14,400 --> 00:07:17,376 {\an8}It is one, however, that goes to the foundation 116 00:07:17,400 --> 00:07:21,509 {\an1}upon which we have erected the America that has stood 117 00:07:21,533 --> 00:07:24,842 {\an1}all during our political life for the preservation 118 00:07:24,866 --> 00:07:26,709 {\an7}of worldwide civilization. 119 00:07:26,733 --> 00:07:28,676 {\an7}Any attack on a minority group 120 00:07:28,700 --> 00:07:32,376 {\an7}in any country is an attack on democracy itself. 121 00:07:32,400 --> 00:07:35,176 {\an7}Sheen: We might almost say that Nazi savagery 122 00:07:35,200 --> 00:07:37,209 {\an8}against the Jew is the straw that broke 123 00:07:37,233 --> 00:07:38,709 {\an8}the camel's back. 124 00:07:38,733 --> 00:07:40,833 {\an8}[Applause] 125 00:07:42,766 --> 00:07:44,376 Narrator: At President Roosevelt's 126 00:07:44,400 --> 00:07:47,109 {\an1}weekly press conference, he said he could 127 00:07:47,133 --> 00:07:50,009 {\an1}"scarcely believe that such a thing could occur 128 00:07:50,033 --> 00:07:52,342 {\an1}in a 20th century civilization" 129 00:07:52,366 --> 00:07:55,276 {\an1}and withdrew his ambassador from Berlin, 130 00:07:55,300 --> 00:07:58,642 {\an1}the only world leader to do so. 131 00:07:58,666 --> 00:08:01,142 Lipstadt: Because of this public response, 132 00:08:01,166 --> 00:08:04,309 the Germans make a strategic decision. 133 00:08:04,333 --> 00:08:06,942 {\an1}There will be... things will only get worse from here, 134 00:08:06,966 --> 00:08:08,609 {\an1}but it's not going to be on the front pages 135 00:08:08,633 --> 00:08:10,642 of the newspaper. 136 00:08:10,666 --> 00:08:12,942 {\an1}Hayes: FDR, who was normally very cautious 137 00:08:12,966 --> 00:08:15,709 about his policy, did the one thing in that interval 138 00:08:15,733 --> 00:08:18,076 that he could do by executive action. 139 00:08:18,100 --> 00:08:21,242 {\an8}He said every Jew in America from Germany 140 00:08:21,266 --> 00:08:25,109 {\an7}who was here on a tourist visa could now stay. 141 00:08:25,133 --> 00:08:27,576 {\an1}Narrator: "It would be a cruel and inhumane thing 142 00:08:27,600 --> 00:08:30,842 {\an1}to compel them to leave," Roosevelt told the press. 143 00:08:30,866 --> 00:08:35,042 {\an1}"I cannot in any decent humanity throw them out." 144 00:08:35,066 --> 00:08:37,809 But when a reporter asked if there were plans 145 00:08:37,833 --> 00:08:41,209 for a "relaxation of our immigration restriction," 146 00:08:41,233 --> 00:08:45,142 {\an1}the president answered only, "That is not in contemplation. 147 00:08:45,166 --> 00:08:47,766 {\an1}We have the quota system." 148 00:08:49,433 --> 00:08:52,009 Roosevelt had no executive power to change 149 00:08:52,033 --> 00:08:53,442 that system. 150 00:08:53,466 --> 00:08:56,676 {\an1}Only Congress could alter it. 151 00:08:56,700 --> 00:08:59,242 {\an1}Mae Ngai: The people who thought that immigrants 152 00:08:59,266 --> 00:09:03,309 {\an1}from Eastern and Southern Europe should be highly restricted, 153 00:09:03,333 --> 00:09:06,009 {\an1}they were some of the worst white supremacists 154 00:09:06,033 --> 00:09:07,676 in the Congress, 155 00:09:07,700 --> 00:09:11,009 and they had deep-seated antisemitism, 156 00:09:11,033 --> 00:09:13,776 {\an8}so they were at the forefront of making sure 157 00:09:13,800 --> 00:09:18,276 {\an8}that as little would be done as possible 158 00:09:18,300 --> 00:09:21,109 {\an8}for Jewish refugees. 159 00:09:21,133 --> 00:09:25,442 {\an1}Man: This country belongs to the people of this country. 160 00:09:25,466 --> 00:09:29,242 {\an1}I am not willing myself, while hundreds of thousands 161 00:09:29,266 --> 00:09:32,342 {\an1}in this country are hungry, perhaps millions 162 00:09:32,366 --> 00:09:35,109 of children underfed, 163 00:09:35,133 --> 00:09:37,642 {\an1}and hordes of young boys and girls 164 00:09:37,666 --> 00:09:40,309 coming into active life seeking jobs 165 00:09:40,333 --> 00:09:46,176 {\an1}without ability to get them, to let down the bars. 166 00:09:46,200 --> 00:09:48,433 {\an1}Senator William Borah. 167 00:09:49,966 --> 00:09:51,642 {\an1}Narrator: In the midterm elections, 168 00:09:51,666 --> 00:09:53,776 Republicans had increased their numbers 169 00:09:53,800 --> 00:09:55,976 {\an1}in both the House and Senate. 170 00:09:56,000 --> 00:09:59,176 {\an1}The president found himself more dependent than ever 171 00:09:59,200 --> 00:10:02,776 {\an1}on conservative Southern Democratic committee chairmen, 172 00:10:02,800 --> 00:10:07,276 all opposed to allowing more refugees. 173 00:10:07,300 --> 00:10:09,309 The public remained overwhelmingly 174 00:10:09,333 --> 00:10:11,776 against any change. 175 00:10:11,800 --> 00:10:14,442 {\an1}The "Christian Century" editorialized that 176 00:10:14,466 --> 00:10:17,576 admitting more Jews would just exacerbate 177 00:10:17,600 --> 00:10:22,242 what it called, "America's Jewish problem." 178 00:10:22,266 --> 00:10:23,676 {\an1}Daniel Greene: Two weeks after Kristallnacht, 179 00:10:23,700 --> 00:10:25,909 Americans are asked two questions. 180 00:10:25,933 --> 00:10:27,442 {\an1}"Do you disapprove of this?" 181 00:10:27,466 --> 00:10:29,009 {\an7}And 94% of Americans say, 182 00:10:29,033 --> 00:10:30,809 {\an7}"Yes, we disapprove of this." 183 00:10:30,833 --> 00:10:32,842 {\an1}And then they're asked, "So should we let in 184 00:10:32,866 --> 00:10:35,642 {\an1}Jewish exiles from Germany?" 185 00:10:35,666 --> 00:10:38,266 And more than 7 out of 10 say no. 186 00:10:41,800 --> 00:10:44,176 Narrator: In Germany, even some rank-and-file 187 00:10:44,200 --> 00:10:46,809 Nazi party members thought the brutality 188 00:10:46,833 --> 00:10:49,709 of Kristallnacht had been excessive, 189 00:10:49,733 --> 00:10:52,976 {\an1}but Nazi leaders were more impressed by the fact 190 00:10:53,000 --> 00:10:56,709 {\an1}that no one had lifted a hand in Germany to stop it, 191 00:10:56,733 --> 00:11:00,333 and they were unmoved by the outcry overseas. 192 00:11:02,033 --> 00:11:05,076 {\an1}They decided to make life still more impossible 193 00:11:05,100 --> 00:11:07,376 for the hundreds of thousands of Jews 194 00:11:07,400 --> 00:11:10,376 still in harm's way. 195 00:11:10,400 --> 00:11:13,309 {\an1}As what the Nazis called "atonement" for the murder 196 00:11:13,333 --> 00:11:15,909 {\an1}of the German diplomat in Paris that had been 197 00:11:15,933 --> 00:11:19,376 {\an1}the pretext for Kristallnacht, the Jewish community was 198 00:11:19,400 --> 00:11:23,142 {\an1}fined one billion Reichsmarks. 199 00:11:23,166 --> 00:11:25,709 {\an1}They were made to clean up the rubble of their own houses 200 00:11:25,733 --> 00:11:28,476 and businesses and places of worship 201 00:11:28,500 --> 00:11:31,642 {\an1}and pay for it all themselves. 202 00:11:31,666 --> 00:11:34,342 {\an1}The regime confiscated their radios, 203 00:11:34,366 --> 00:11:37,509 canceled their newspaper subscriptions. 204 00:11:37,533 --> 00:11:41,009 {\an1}It expelled Jewish children from state schools, 205 00:11:41,033 --> 00:11:45,376 barred their parents from driving or owning a car, 206 00:11:45,400 --> 00:11:50,709 {\an1}banned Jews from parks, cinemas, theaters, concert halls, 207 00:11:50,733 --> 00:11:53,209 and from those few professions that still 208 00:11:53,233 --> 00:11:55,742 {\an1}had been open to them. 209 00:11:55,766 --> 00:11:59,876 {\an1}Finally, Jewish Germans were banned from running businesses 210 00:11:59,900 --> 00:12:03,566 or buying or selling goods of any kind. 211 00:12:05,866 --> 00:12:08,676 Even getting out of the Reich now meant dropping 212 00:12:08,700 --> 00:12:10,642 into destitution. 213 00:12:10,666 --> 00:12:13,142 {\an1}Emigrants were permitted to take with them 214 00:12:13,166 --> 00:12:15,433 just 10 Reichsmarks. 215 00:12:16,900 --> 00:12:20,209 Fully 5% of the fast-growing Reich budget 216 00:12:20,233 --> 00:12:23,933 would be funded by property looted from Jews. 217 00:12:26,933 --> 00:12:30,476 By the end of 1938, half of all the Jews remaining 218 00:12:30,500 --> 00:12:35,776 {\an1}in Germany had applied for visas to the United States. 219 00:12:35,800 --> 00:12:38,776 {\an1}Raymond Geist, the senior American diplomat 220 00:12:38,800 --> 00:12:43,242 {\an1}still left at Berlin, feared he knew what was coming next. 221 00:12:43,266 --> 00:12:46,276 {\an1}"The Germans have embarked on a program of annihilation 222 00:12:46,300 --> 00:12:49,942 of the Jews," he wrote to a colleague. 223 00:12:49,966 --> 00:12:54,333 {\an1}"We shall be allowed to save the remnants if we choose." 224 00:12:56,133 --> 00:13:00,642 On January 30, 1939, the sixth anniversary 225 00:13:00,666 --> 00:13:03,309 of his taking power, the Fuhrer stood 226 00:13:03,333 --> 00:13:06,342 before the Reichstag and seemed to confirm 227 00:13:06,366 --> 00:13:08,600 {\an1}Raymond Geist's prediction. 228 00:13:28,800 --> 00:13:31,066 {\an8}[Cheering] 229 00:13:33,133 --> 00:13:36,376 Lipstadt: The time to stop a genocide is 230 00:13:36,400 --> 00:13:38,609 before it happens, 231 00:13:38,633 --> 00:13:40,842 {\an1}and whether you're talking about World War II 232 00:13:40,866 --> 00:13:43,209 {\an1}or you're talking about Turkey and the Armenians, 233 00:13:43,233 --> 00:13:46,342 {\an1}the time to stop it is before it happens. 234 00:13:46,366 --> 00:13:49,576 {\an1}So that when Hitler is speaking out and saying 235 00:13:49,600 --> 00:13:51,976 {\an1}these horrendous things and Germany is 236 00:13:52,000 --> 00:13:55,009 disenfranchising Jews and conducting things 237 00:13:55,033 --> 00:13:58,976 like Kristallnacht, that's the time to take action. 238 00:13:59,000 --> 00:14:01,066 [Horns honking] 239 00:14:03,266 --> 00:14:07,309 {\an1}Susan Hilsenrath: My father had a cousin who lived 240 00:14:07,333 --> 00:14:11,709 in the Bronx, and they had a pickle factory, 241 00:14:11,733 --> 00:14:15,576 {\an1}and they figured that maybe they would help them come 242 00:14:15,600 --> 00:14:18,009 to the United States, 243 00:14:18,033 --> 00:14:20,242 {\an1}but it was almost impossible 244 00:14:20,266 --> 00:14:22,942 {\an7}because the United States had a quota, 245 00:14:22,966 --> 00:14:28,242 {\an7}and I guess our family didn't fit into this quota. 246 00:14:28,266 --> 00:14:32,876 {\an1}So my father had to think of some kind of way 247 00:14:32,900 --> 00:14:37,242 to get his children into a safe place. 248 00:14:37,266 --> 00:14:39,242 Joseph Hilsenrath: Our parents told us 249 00:14:39,266 --> 00:14:41,076 {\an1}that we had to get out, 250 00:14:41,100 --> 00:14:45,576 {\an8}leave, and that they would follow us 251 00:14:45,600 --> 00:14:49,542 {\an7}and that we would go to, to France, 252 00:14:49,566 --> 00:14:56,076 {\an1}where people would take children out of the country for money. 253 00:14:56,100 --> 00:14:58,709 {\an1}Susan: My father had heard of this lady, 254 00:14:58,733 --> 00:15:02,942 a French lady, who smuggled children 255 00:15:02,966 --> 00:15:06,042 {\an1}across the border into France, 256 00:15:06,066 --> 00:15:08,276 {\an7}and I understand that he 257 00:15:08,300 --> 00:15:10,342 {\an7}gave her all of the money 258 00:15:10,366 --> 00:15:12,209 {\an7}to take my brother and me 259 00:15:12,233 --> 00:15:15,142 {\an8}across the border. 260 00:15:15,166 --> 00:15:17,509 {\an1}I was almost 10 years old by then, 261 00:15:17,533 --> 00:15:20,476 and my brother was 8, 262 00:15:20,500 --> 00:15:22,466 and... 263 00:15:25,500 --> 00:15:30,676 I remember it vaguely because the horror of being 264 00:15:30,700 --> 00:15:34,976 {\an1}separated from my parents, I have pushed it 265 00:15:35,000 --> 00:15:38,242 {\an1}way in the back of my mind. 266 00:15:38,266 --> 00:15:42,309 {\an1}I can't remember how we got to the train station 267 00:15:42,333 --> 00:15:45,309 and how we said good-bye to them, 268 00:15:45,333 --> 00:15:47,976 {\an1}but all I know now is, I mean, I'm a mother 269 00:15:48,000 --> 00:15:51,342 {\an1}and I'm a grandmother, and the idea 270 00:15:51,366 --> 00:15:53,976 {\an1}of... of sending my children away 271 00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:59,809 is... is... is... is un... Is unbelievably horrible. 272 00:15:59,833 --> 00:16:03,042 I can't even imagine doing that. 273 00:16:03,066 --> 00:16:09,766 ♪ 274 00:16:11,200 --> 00:16:15,042 {\an1}[Artie Shaw and Billie Holiday's "Any Old Time" playing] 275 00:16:15,066 --> 00:16:17,342 {\an1}[Cheering and applause] 276 00:16:17,366 --> 00:16:25,366 {\an8}♪ 277 00:16:25,733 --> 00:16:30,242 {\an1}Stern: There were, I guess, 3 elements that were 278 00:16:30,266 --> 00:16:34,009 {\an1}my pathway to America. 279 00:16:34,033 --> 00:16:36,242 One was baseball, 280 00:16:36,266 --> 00:16:42,376 {\an7}and secondly, it was music. 281 00:16:42,400 --> 00:16:45,309 {\an7}I'd never heard jazz before... 282 00:16:45,333 --> 00:16:46,976 {\an8}♪ 283 00:16:47,000 --> 00:16:51,700 {\an1}and the third entrance was through a girlfriend. 284 00:16:53,400 --> 00:16:56,909 We walked arm in arm, and those 285 00:16:56,933 --> 00:16:59,709 {\an1}beautiful American songs, 286 00:16:59,733 --> 00:17:01,842 {\an1}they were washing over us, 287 00:17:01,866 --> 00:17:05,642 and we were singing and feeling good 288 00:17:05,666 --> 00:17:09,609 {\an1}at the few moments I had of that relaxing moment 289 00:17:09,633 --> 00:17:13,066 when I became somewhat more American. 290 00:17:14,766 --> 00:17:17,942 {\an1}Holiday: ♪ Any old time you want me ♪ 291 00:17:17,966 --> 00:17:19,942 ♪ I am yours ♪ 292 00:17:19,966 --> 00:17:23,076 {\an1}♪ For just the asking, darling ♪ 293 00:17:23,100 --> 00:17:25,042 ♪ Any old time... ♪ 294 00:17:25,066 --> 00:17:28,442 {\an1}Narrator: Günther Stern's girlfriend Ida Mae Schwartzberg 295 00:17:28,466 --> 00:17:31,609 had trouble pronouncing his name. 296 00:17:31,633 --> 00:17:35,609 {\an1}Stern: My name, at school, was still Günther. 297 00:17:35,633 --> 00:17:39,776 My girlfriend said, "I can't pronounce it. 298 00:17:39,800 --> 00:17:41,742 {\an1}"That's a tongue twister. 299 00:17:41,766 --> 00:17:44,442 {\an1}"I'll leave you the first two letters of your name 300 00:17:44,466 --> 00:17:46,242 "and add a 'y', and that's what 301 00:17:46,266 --> 00:17:47,976 {\an1}I will call you... Guy." 302 00:17:48,000 --> 00:17:49,133 Heh! 303 00:17:51,433 --> 00:17:53,976 {\an1}Man: Dear Günther, We have been waiting for a letter 304 00:17:54,000 --> 00:17:56,442 from you for so long. 305 00:17:56,466 --> 00:17:58,576 It is comforting to hear from you, 306 00:17:58,600 --> 00:18:02,009 {\an1}even if you have yet to accomplish anything for us. 307 00:18:02,033 --> 00:18:04,309 {\an1}Please pull out all the stops, dear Günther, 308 00:18:04,333 --> 00:18:07,476 {\an1}so we can all be reunited. 309 00:18:07,500 --> 00:18:10,042 {\an1}Narrator: Every few months, Guy received a letter 310 00:18:10,066 --> 00:18:13,509 {\an1}from his parents back in Hildesheim, Germany, 311 00:18:13,533 --> 00:18:18,176 sometimes including photographs of his family. 312 00:18:18,200 --> 00:18:20,842 {\an1}Stern: It really shows that one person 313 00:18:20,866 --> 00:18:23,009 is missing in there. 314 00:18:23,033 --> 00:18:25,842 Where the hell am I? 315 00:18:25,866 --> 00:18:27,600 I belong there. 316 00:18:28,800 --> 00:18:31,509 {\an1}Narrator: Guy tried again and again to find someone 317 00:18:31,533 --> 00:18:34,109 willing to put up a guarantee of as much 318 00:18:34,133 --> 00:18:37,509 as $5,000 to sponsor his family's coming 319 00:18:37,533 --> 00:18:40,176 {\an1}to the United States... More than 3 times 320 00:18:40,200 --> 00:18:44,642 {\an1}the average annual income of an American worker. 321 00:18:44,666 --> 00:18:46,333 He had no luck. 322 00:18:47,533 --> 00:18:51,609 Stern: And then, a miracle happened. 323 00:18:51,633 --> 00:18:53,976 Narrator: One Friday, hitchhiking to work, 324 00:18:54,000 --> 00:18:57,209 {\an1}he was picked up by a man in a fancy car, 325 00:18:57,233 --> 00:19:00,542 {\an1}who after hearing his story offered to help. 326 00:19:00,566 --> 00:19:03,209 {\an1}Guy immediately set up an appointment for them 327 00:19:03,233 --> 00:19:06,242 to meet with a lawyer who had helped other families 328 00:19:06,266 --> 00:19:09,733 {\an1}obtain affidavits of support. 329 00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:13,942 Stern: We went there on a Saturday morning, 330 00:19:13,966 --> 00:19:20,142 {\an1}and the lawyer, a pompous, supercilious man, said, 331 00:19:20,166 --> 00:19:22,542 {\an1}"And what's your occupation?" 332 00:19:22,566 --> 00:19:25,376 {\an1}And he said, "I'm a gambler." 333 00:19:25,400 --> 00:19:27,876 And the lawyer said, 334 00:19:27,900 --> 00:19:29,876 {\an1}"We can stop right here. 335 00:19:29,900 --> 00:19:32,942 "It says in the law, the person furnishing 336 00:19:32,966 --> 00:19:38,909 {\an1}"the affidavit has to be a well-established, 337 00:19:38,933 --> 00:19:43,709 highly reputed person of the community." 338 00:19:43,733 --> 00:19:47,076 And I said, "Well, couldn't we say something 339 00:19:47,100 --> 00:19:49,242 like, 'businessman'?" 340 00:19:49,266 --> 00:19:51,742 This lawyer rose to his full height. 341 00:19:51,766 --> 00:19:55,709 "And deceive the U.S. Government?" 342 00:19:55,733 --> 00:20:00,576 {\an1}And he added something else that was insulting. 343 00:20:00,600 --> 00:20:04,476 The man took his hat and walked out. 344 00:20:04,500 --> 00:20:08,376 My great chance... 345 00:20:08,400 --> 00:20:13,800 {\an1}rested on one damned lawyer. 346 00:20:16,233 --> 00:20:21,442 Here, a Jewish lawyer who saw all the niceties 347 00:20:21,466 --> 00:20:26,242 of the law and not the dilemma of life and death, 348 00:20:26,266 --> 00:20:28,466 {\an1}which I had spread out. 349 00:20:30,133 --> 00:20:31,909 [Laughter] 350 00:20:31,933 --> 00:20:33,209 {\an1}Newsreel announcer: 200 boys and girls wave a greeting 351 00:20:33,233 --> 00:20:35,709 {\an1}to England, land of the free. 352 00:20:35,733 --> 00:20:38,176 They are between the ages 5 and 17. 353 00:20:38,200 --> 00:20:40,376 The advance guard of the first 5,000 Jewish 354 00:20:40,400 --> 00:20:43,242 {\an1}and non-Aryan child refugees from Germany have been provided 355 00:20:43,266 --> 00:20:45,409 with a temporary home here while arrangements 356 00:20:45,433 --> 00:20:47,009 {\an1}are made for them to emigrate. 357 00:20:47,033 --> 00:20:49,042 Narrator: After Kristallnacht, Britain 358 00:20:49,066 --> 00:20:53,276 {\an1}had allowed 10,000 children... But not their parents... 359 00:20:53,300 --> 00:20:57,542 {\an1}to escape Nazism in what was called the Kindertransport. 360 00:20:57,566 --> 00:20:59,009 Newsreel announcer: And the youngsters tuck in 361 00:20:59,033 --> 00:21:00,242 {\an1}as if they hadn't a care in the world. 362 00:21:00,266 --> 00:21:02,976 {\an1}Narrator: In February 1939, 363 00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:06,309 Democratic Senator Robert Wagner of New York 364 00:21:06,333 --> 00:21:09,709 {\an1}and Republican Congresswoman Edith Nourse Rogers 365 00:21:09,733 --> 00:21:13,709 {\an1}of Massachusetts introduced a new bill. 366 00:21:13,733 --> 00:21:16,476 {\an1}Greene: The bill says, "Let's let in 10,0000 kids 367 00:21:16,500 --> 00:21:19,376 {\an8}between the age of 5 and 14 per year," 368 00:21:19,400 --> 00:21:22,376 {\an8}1939 and 1940, and, "Let's not count them 369 00:21:22,400 --> 00:21:25,309 {\an7}against the immigration quota system." 370 00:21:25,333 --> 00:21:27,876 {\an1}Narrator: The First Lady backed the bill. 371 00:21:27,900 --> 00:21:30,476 Her husband privately offered advice 372 00:21:30,500 --> 00:21:36,076 {\an1}on how it might be passed but said nothing in public, 373 00:21:36,100 --> 00:21:37,809 {\an1}but the American Legion, 374 00:21:37,833 --> 00:21:40,576 the Daughters of the American Revolution, 375 00:21:40,600 --> 00:21:44,142 {\an1}and the American Coalition of Patriotic Societies 376 00:21:44,166 --> 00:21:46,509 were all opposed. 377 00:21:46,533 --> 00:21:49,576 They had favored some of the 60 bills that had 378 00:21:49,600 --> 00:21:54,809 {\an1}recently been introduced to reduce immigration quotas. 379 00:21:54,833 --> 00:21:57,242 Nell Irvin Painter: It's a xenophobic refusal. 380 00:21:57,266 --> 00:22:01,942 I can't explain it because it seems so cruel to me, 381 00:22:01,966 --> 00:22:05,842 {\an7}especially given a country as big as the United States 382 00:22:05,866 --> 00:22:08,276 {\an8}with plenty of space. 383 00:22:08,300 --> 00:22:11,376 I do understand it in terms of antisemitism. 384 00:22:11,400 --> 00:22:14,442 {\an1}I don't want to understand that antisemitism 385 00:22:14,466 --> 00:22:17,909 {\an1}could be so deep and so cruel. 386 00:22:17,933 --> 00:22:20,109 {\an1}Father Coughlin: If I know the American public 387 00:22:20,133 --> 00:22:23,276 who fought the League of Nations propagandists... 388 00:22:23,300 --> 00:22:25,676 {\an1}Narrator: Father Coughlin called for the creation 389 00:22:25,700 --> 00:22:28,709 {\an1}of a national "Christian Front" to combat 390 00:22:28,733 --> 00:22:32,542 {\an1}the influence of what he called "Communistic Jews" 391 00:22:32,566 --> 00:22:35,376 {\an1}and claimed to his vast radio audience 392 00:22:35,400 --> 00:22:39,542 {\an1}that Jewish businessmen were firing their Christian employees 393 00:22:39,566 --> 00:22:43,042 to make room for Jewish refugees. 394 00:22:43,066 --> 00:22:45,542 {\an1}Coughlin: There is still the United States Senate 395 00:22:45,566 --> 00:22:49,742 {\an1}with whom these forces must contend... 396 00:22:49,766 --> 00:22:51,576 {\an1}Lipstadt: The restrictionists... The people 397 00:22:51,600 --> 00:22:53,709 {\an8}who want to restrict immigration... 398 00:22:53,733 --> 00:22:57,376 {\an8}the isolationists, the antisemites 399 00:22:57,400 --> 00:22:59,176 {\an7}come out of the woodwork. 400 00:22:59,200 --> 00:23:02,209 {\an1}Democrats, Republicans, people say things like, 401 00:23:02,233 --> 00:23:08,333 {\an1}"Well, 10,000 ugly children will grow into 10,000 ugly adults." 402 00:23:10,266 --> 00:23:12,142 {\an1}Woman as Eleanor Roosevelt: What has happened to us 403 00:23:12,166 --> 00:23:14,609 in this country? 404 00:23:14,633 --> 00:23:18,309 {\an1}We have always been ready to receive the unfortunates 405 00:23:18,333 --> 00:23:21,109 from other countries, and though this may seem 406 00:23:21,133 --> 00:23:25,609 a generous gesture on our part, we have profited 407 00:23:25,633 --> 00:23:29,909 a thousand-fold by what they have brought us. 408 00:23:29,933 --> 00:23:31,933 Eleanor Roosevelt. 409 00:23:34,533 --> 00:23:37,109 {\an1}Narrator: No group was more adamantly opposed 410 00:23:37,133 --> 00:23:41,542 {\an1}to admitting Jewish refugees than the German American Bund. 411 00:23:41,566 --> 00:23:43,609 [Drums tapping] 412 00:23:43,633 --> 00:23:47,209 {\an1}20,000 members would fill Madison Square Garden 413 00:23:47,233 --> 00:23:50,442 {\an1}on Washington's Birthday. 414 00:23:50,466 --> 00:23:54,109 {\an1}They were led by Fritz Kuhn, a German immigrant 415 00:23:54,133 --> 00:23:57,276 who fancied himself the "American Fuhrer." 416 00:23:57,300 --> 00:23:58,600 [Applause] 417 00:24:11,600 --> 00:24:13,200 {\an8}[Applause] 418 00:24:19,033 --> 00:24:21,642 {\an8}[Louder applause] 419 00:24:21,666 --> 00:24:23,242 {\an1}Narrator: Other speakers railed 420 00:24:23,266 --> 00:24:26,342 against the president "Frank D. Rosenfeld" 421 00:24:26,366 --> 00:24:28,409 and his "Jew Deal." 422 00:24:28,433 --> 00:24:31,742 {\an7}Kunze: We only call upon our leaders to awake 423 00:24:31,766 --> 00:24:36,309 {\an7}to the fact that the Jew is as alien in body, mind, 424 00:24:36,333 --> 00:24:40,009 {\an1}and soul as any other non-Aryan 425 00:24:40,033 --> 00:24:43,009 {\an1}and that he is a thousand times more dangerous to us 426 00:24:43,033 --> 00:24:47,176 {\an1}than all the others by reason of his parasitic nature. 427 00:24:47,200 --> 00:24:49,766 {\an1}[Cheering and applause] 428 00:24:53,733 --> 00:24:57,166 {\an1}[Audience members chanting, "Heil Hitler!"] 429 00:25:00,200 --> 00:25:02,942 Great floods of tears for a few hundred thousand 430 00:25:02,966 --> 00:25:06,742 job-taking so-called poor Jewish refugees, 431 00:25:06,766 --> 00:25:08,676 {\an1}who incidentally in general... 432 00:25:08,700 --> 00:25:11,576 [Booing] 433 00:25:11,600 --> 00:25:15,742 {\an1}have more of this world's goods than you or I will ever possess. 434 00:25:15,766 --> 00:25:19,233 [Applause] 435 00:25:21,666 --> 00:25:23,909 {\an8}Narrator: A "Fortune" magazine poll found 436 00:25:23,933 --> 00:25:26,576 {\an7}that only 1 in 10 respondents 437 00:25:26,600 --> 00:25:28,609 {\an7}favored increasing quotas 438 00:25:28,633 --> 00:25:31,742 {\an8}or making exemptions for refugees, 439 00:25:31,766 --> 00:25:34,576 {\an7}and 4 out of 10 believed Jews had 440 00:25:34,600 --> 00:25:37,733 {\an8}"too much power in the United States." 441 00:25:45,133 --> 00:25:49,542 {\an7}It further found that 85% of American Protestants 442 00:25:49,566 --> 00:25:53,042 {\an1}and 84% of Catholics opposed 443 00:25:53,066 --> 00:25:57,209 offering sanctuary to European refugees. 444 00:25:57,233 --> 00:26:00,933 {\an1}So did more than a quarter of Jewish Americans. 445 00:26:02,800 --> 00:26:06,742 {\an1}During hearings on the bill to admit some refugee children, 446 00:26:06,766 --> 00:26:09,509 a witness said that it should be passed 447 00:26:09,533 --> 00:26:12,542 because it was true to the American tradition 448 00:26:12,566 --> 00:26:15,309 {\an1}of providing sanctuary for religious 449 00:26:15,333 --> 00:26:18,009 {\an1}and political refugees. 450 00:26:18,033 --> 00:26:21,276 New York Congressman Samuel Dickstein 451 00:26:21,300 --> 00:26:23,476 gently corrected him. 452 00:26:23,500 --> 00:26:25,942 "This is the form of our government, 453 00:26:25,966 --> 00:26:30,776 {\an1}"but as a matter of fact we have never done the things we preach. 454 00:26:30,800 --> 00:26:34,109 We talked about it." 455 00:26:34,133 --> 00:26:35,976 Hayes: The advocates of that bill, the people 456 00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:39,709 {\an1}who submitted it, withdrew it, and they withdrew it 457 00:26:39,733 --> 00:26:42,309 because they thought if it comes to the floor 458 00:26:42,333 --> 00:26:45,342 it will open the way to other proposals 459 00:26:45,366 --> 00:26:49,909 {\an1}to utterly stop all immigration into the United States. 460 00:26:49,933 --> 00:26:54,176 {\an7}In 1939 for FDR, the most important political challenge 461 00:26:54,200 --> 00:26:56,576 {\an8}he faced was getting the Congress 462 00:26:56,600 --> 00:26:58,976 {\an7}to revoke the neutrality acts, 463 00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:01,476 {\an1}the acts that restricted our ability to supply 464 00:27:01,500 --> 00:27:04,242 {\an1}other countries if they became involved in a war 465 00:27:04,266 --> 00:27:06,309 with Nazi Germany. 466 00:27:06,333 --> 00:27:08,876 The relaxing of the immigration quotas 467 00:27:08,900 --> 00:27:12,876 {\an1}was less important to him than that. 468 00:27:12,900 --> 00:27:14,742 {\an1}To us looking back, we tend to think that 469 00:27:14,766 --> 00:27:17,176 {\an1}the most important thing was the humanitarian crisis 470 00:27:17,200 --> 00:27:19,709 of the time, but of course if FDR 471 00:27:19,733 --> 00:27:22,942 {\an1}had not succeeded in repealing the neutrality acts 472 00:27:22,966 --> 00:27:27,233 in 1939 and 1940, we might think otherwise. 473 00:27:33,233 --> 00:27:35,376 {\an1}Mendelsohn: My grandfather, Abraham Jaeger, 474 00:27:35,400 --> 00:27:37,842 he emigrated with his older sister 475 00:27:37,866 --> 00:27:40,376 {\an1}from this small town in Poland. 476 00:27:40,400 --> 00:27:44,909 {\an7}My grandfather always, you know, prided himself 477 00:27:44,933 --> 00:27:47,709 {\an7}once he got his citizenship on being an American. 478 00:27:47,733 --> 00:27:49,176 {\an1}He celebrated everything, 479 00:27:49,200 --> 00:27:50,709 the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving. 480 00:27:50,733 --> 00:27:52,300 He loved it. 481 00:28:01,333 --> 00:28:04,242 {\an1}Narrator: Abraham Jaeger's older brother Shmiel 482 00:28:04,266 --> 00:28:06,276 {\an1}had not loved America. 483 00:28:06,300 --> 00:28:10,276 {\an1}He had arrived in New York back in 1912, 484 00:28:10,300 --> 00:28:12,542 quickly saw that the teeming streets 485 00:28:12,566 --> 00:28:17,109 {\an1}of the Lower East Side were not paved with gold. 486 00:28:17,133 --> 00:28:21,809 {\an1}Woman: Shmiel saw the pushcarts on Delancey Street. 487 00:28:21,833 --> 00:28:25,742 {\an7}The Jews who lived down in those Jewish areas 488 00:28:25,766 --> 00:28:27,442 {\an8}was not his style. 489 00:28:27,466 --> 00:28:29,276 {\an8}He was a gentleman, 490 00:28:29,300 --> 00:28:32,242 {\an7}and he says, "At home, I have vineyards 491 00:28:32,266 --> 00:28:35,909 "and orchards and a beautiful house. 492 00:28:35,933 --> 00:28:37,509 {\an1}What do I need America?" 493 00:28:37,533 --> 00:28:39,342 [Dog barking] 494 00:28:39,366 --> 00:28:42,276 {\an1}Narrator: After less than a year, Shmiel Jaeger decided 495 00:28:42,300 --> 00:28:48,542 {\an1}to return to his hometown Bolechow in eastern Poland. 496 00:28:48,566 --> 00:28:51,776 Eventually he married his sweetheart Ester, 497 00:28:51,800 --> 00:28:55,776 {\an1}became a successful butcher, and had 4 daughters... 498 00:28:55,800 --> 00:28:59,900 {\an1}Lorka, Frydka, Ruchele, and Bronia. 499 00:29:02,466 --> 00:29:05,842 Marlene: Shmiel was the oldest brother, 500 00:29:05,866 --> 00:29:09,976 and there was respect and reverence. 501 00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:12,609 They called him the mayor of the town. 502 00:29:12,633 --> 00:29:15,442 {\an1}He was exceedingly handsome, 503 00:29:15,466 --> 00:29:18,333 and then they had all those darling children. 504 00:29:20,166 --> 00:29:22,742 {\an1}Mendelsohn: My grandfather used to say with a sigh, 505 00:29:22,766 --> 00:29:25,342 {\an1}you know, "My older brother wanted to be a big fish 506 00:29:25,366 --> 00:29:29,342 "in a small pond, so he went back to Bolechow, 507 00:29:29,366 --> 00:29:32,709 and he was a big fish in a small pond." 508 00:29:32,733 --> 00:29:35,242 And that was the right decision for him, 509 00:29:35,266 --> 00:29:41,509 {\an1}as strange as that sounds, knowing what later happened. 510 00:29:41,533 --> 00:29:43,209 {\an1}Narrator: In the late 1930s, 511 00:29:43,233 --> 00:29:46,476 {\an1}antisemitism intensified in Poland. 512 00:29:46,500 --> 00:29:49,042 The Catholic Church and the right-wing government 513 00:29:49,066 --> 00:29:52,476 promoted boycotts of Jewish businesses. 514 00:29:52,500 --> 00:29:55,009 Politicians pressured Poland's Jews 515 00:29:55,033 --> 00:29:57,676 to leave the country. 516 00:29:57,700 --> 00:30:00,609 Gangs attacked their Jewish neighbors. 517 00:30:00,633 --> 00:30:04,009 {\an1}Thugs threatened Shmiel on the street. 518 00:30:04,033 --> 00:30:07,176 {\an1}Hanging over everything was the growing possibility 519 00:30:07,200 --> 00:30:11,042 of a German invasion, which would surely make life 520 00:30:11,066 --> 00:30:14,176 far more harsh. 521 00:30:14,200 --> 00:30:16,876 {\an1}Man: From reading the papers, you know a little about what 522 00:30:16,900 --> 00:30:19,842 {\an1}the Jews are going through here, but what you know 523 00:30:19,866 --> 00:30:22,676 {\an1}is just one one-hundredth of it. 524 00:30:22,700 --> 00:30:25,809 {\an1}When you go out into the street or drive on the road, 525 00:30:25,833 --> 00:30:28,309 {\an1}you're barely 10% sure that you'll come back 526 00:30:28,333 --> 00:30:32,642 {\an1}with a whole head or your legs in one piece. 527 00:30:32,666 --> 00:30:34,176 Shmiel. 528 00:30:34,200 --> 00:30:36,842 {\an1}Narrator: "I know that in America life 529 00:30:36,866 --> 00:30:40,309 {\an1}doesn't shine on everyone," he wrote to his relatives 530 00:30:40,333 --> 00:30:42,542 {\an1}back in the United States. 531 00:30:42,566 --> 00:30:45,176 "Still, at least they aren't gripped 532 00:30:45,200 --> 00:30:47,876 by constant terror." 533 00:30:47,900 --> 00:30:50,476 [Crowd cheering] 534 00:30:50,500 --> 00:30:56,009 {\an1}On March 15, 1939, German troops marched into Prague, 535 00:30:56,033 --> 00:31:00,142 the capital of what remained of Czechoslovakia. 536 00:31:00,166 --> 00:31:05,609 {\an1}100,000 more Jews now fell into Hitler's hands. 537 00:31:05,633 --> 00:31:08,609 {\an1}Hitler's promise of peace to Britain and France 538 00:31:08,633 --> 00:31:12,842 at Munich had lasted less than 6 months. 539 00:31:12,866 --> 00:31:15,442 {\an1}"In a fortnight," he said, "no one will give it 540 00:31:15,466 --> 00:31:17,709 any thought." 541 00:31:17,733 --> 00:31:21,542 {\an1}It was clear that Poland would be his next target. 542 00:31:21,566 --> 00:31:24,309 {\an1}Hitler was sure that France and Britain would not dare 543 00:31:24,333 --> 00:31:26,409 {\an1}intervene there either. 544 00:31:26,433 --> 00:31:29,576 {\an1}"Our enemies are little worms," Hitler said. 545 00:31:29,600 --> 00:31:32,576 {\an1}"I saw them at Munich." 546 00:31:32,600 --> 00:31:35,209 {\an1}This time, Hitler was wrong. 547 00:31:35,233 --> 00:31:37,209 {\an1}Britain and France finally saw 548 00:31:37,233 --> 00:31:38,476 {\an1}the folly of trying to 549 00:31:38,500 --> 00:31:41,276 appease him further. 550 00:31:41,300 --> 00:31:43,609 {\an1}If he attacked Poland, 551 00:31:43,633 --> 00:31:46,109 {\an1}this time they would fight back. 552 00:31:46,133 --> 00:31:48,376 {\an1}[Train whistle blowing] 553 00:31:48,400 --> 00:31:52,476 {\an1}With war more likely than ever, more and more Jews 554 00:31:52,500 --> 00:31:55,842 were desperate to get off the continent. 555 00:31:55,866 --> 00:31:57,742 {\an1}Sol Messinger: It was very difficult to get a visa 556 00:31:57,766 --> 00:31:59,676 to the United States, 557 00:31:59,700 --> 00:32:05,742 {\an1}so our family decided that we would try to go to Cuba, 558 00:32:05,766 --> 00:32:08,076 {\an7}mainly, I guess, because it was close 559 00:32:08,100 --> 00:32:10,442 {\an8}to the United States. 560 00:32:10,466 --> 00:32:12,442 Narrator: The Cuban government was now selling 561 00:32:12,466 --> 00:32:16,009 {\an1}refugees tourist visas that allowed them to land 562 00:32:16,033 --> 00:32:19,309 {\an1}on the island and stay until their turn came 563 00:32:19,333 --> 00:32:22,509 to emigrate to the United States. 564 00:32:22,533 --> 00:32:26,642 {\an1}Messinger: My mother finally managed to get a Cuban visa 565 00:32:26,666 --> 00:32:29,809 and tickets to go on the St. Louis, 566 00:32:29,833 --> 00:32:33,476 {\an1}but then the problem was my father was still in Poland. 567 00:32:33,500 --> 00:32:36,309 {\an1}He had been deported back. 568 00:32:36,333 --> 00:32:38,776 My mother wrote him. She said she had the visas, 569 00:32:38,800 --> 00:32:44,709 {\an1}but she wasn't going to leave unless he could join us, 570 00:32:44,733 --> 00:32:48,342 {\an1}and he wrote back, "Leave unless you want 571 00:32:48,366 --> 00:32:52,309 {\an1}your son's blood on your hands." 572 00:32:52,333 --> 00:32:55,776 {\an1}The day before we were supposed to leave for Hamburg, 573 00:32:55,800 --> 00:32:58,009 {\an1}there was a knock on the door, and my mother screamed 574 00:32:58,033 --> 00:33:01,642 {\an1}because she recognized my father's knock. 575 00:33:01,666 --> 00:33:03,676 Ran to the door, opened the door, 576 00:33:03,700 --> 00:33:05,809 {\an1}and my father was there. 577 00:33:05,833 --> 00:33:08,209 {\an1}He had gotten permission from the German government 578 00:33:08,233 --> 00:33:10,976 {\an1}to come back to Germany for two days 579 00:33:11,000 --> 00:33:13,533 {\an1}so we could leave together. 580 00:33:15,400 --> 00:33:18,242 So the next day, we went to Hamburg, 581 00:33:18,266 --> 00:33:22,142 {\an1}and we got on the ship, the St. Louis. 582 00:33:22,166 --> 00:33:26,909 {\an1}Narrator: The St. Louis left Hamburg on May 13, 1939, 583 00:33:26,933 --> 00:33:30,176 {\an1}one of many ships carrying passengers anxious 584 00:33:30,200 --> 00:33:32,566 {\an1}to escape the coming storm. 585 00:33:36,566 --> 00:33:40,409 More refugees got on at Cherbourg. 586 00:33:40,433 --> 00:33:45,042 Almost all of the 937 passengers were Jewish, 587 00:33:45,066 --> 00:33:48,676 most from Germany, some from Eastern Europe, 588 00:33:48,700 --> 00:33:51,342 and still others, like the Messingers, 589 00:33:51,366 --> 00:33:54,042 {\an1}now officially "stateless." 590 00:33:54,066 --> 00:33:56,876 {\an1}Messinger: We all were standing at the railing, 591 00:33:56,900 --> 00:34:00,242 {\an1}looking at Germany getting a little and farther 592 00:34:00,266 --> 00:34:04,442 and farther away, and my father started crying, 593 00:34:04,466 --> 00:34:06,042 {\an1}and my mother looked at him, and she says, 594 00:34:06,066 --> 00:34:07,942 {\an1}"What are you crying about? 595 00:34:07,966 --> 00:34:11,276 {\an1}We're finally together, you're... we're leaving Germany," 596 00:34:11,300 --> 00:34:14,242 {\an1}and he said, "Well, of course, you're right, 597 00:34:14,266 --> 00:34:16,409 {\an1}"but I'm crying because we're leaving 598 00:34:16,433 --> 00:34:19,909 {\an1}"so many of our relatives here, and God only knows 599 00:34:19,933 --> 00:34:21,633 {\an1}when we'll see them again." 600 00:34:23,966 --> 00:34:27,942 {\an1}Narrator: They traveled in comfort, dining, dancing, 601 00:34:27,966 --> 00:34:32,242 sunbathing, swimming in the ship's pool. 602 00:34:32,266 --> 00:34:35,076 The liner's captain Gustave Schröder 603 00:34:35,100 --> 00:34:37,109 was an anti-Nazi. 604 00:34:37,133 --> 00:34:39,276 He saw to it that a portrait of Hitler 605 00:34:39,300 --> 00:34:42,909 was taken down during Friday night prayers 606 00:34:42,933 --> 00:34:45,976 {\an1}and insisted that his crew treat his passengers 607 00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:49,742 {\an1}with a kind of courtesy no Jewish person was afforded 608 00:34:49,766 --> 00:34:52,933 then anywhere under Hitler's control... 609 00:34:55,133 --> 00:34:56,476 [Ship horn blowing] 610 00:34:56,500 --> 00:34:58,342 but when the ship reached Havana, 611 00:34:58,366 --> 00:35:00,933 it was clear that something was wrong. 612 00:35:02,800 --> 00:35:07,509 Only 28 passengers were allowed to come ashore. 613 00:35:07,533 --> 00:35:11,442 {\an1}All the rest, over 900 people who had paid 614 00:35:11,466 --> 00:35:14,376 {\an1}a corrupt Cuban official back in Germany 615 00:35:14,400 --> 00:35:17,542 thousands of dollars for their tourist visas, 616 00:35:17,566 --> 00:35:20,876 {\an1}were ordered to stay on board. 617 00:35:20,900 --> 00:35:24,509 {\an1}Messinger: The next day, it turned out that we were told 618 00:35:24,533 --> 00:35:28,542 that Cuba had invalidated our visas. 619 00:35:28,566 --> 00:35:31,876 We had paid for them, we had gotten them, 620 00:35:31,900 --> 00:35:34,842 we had gotten to Cuba only to find out that 621 00:35:34,866 --> 00:35:38,709 {\an1}they had invalidated our visas. 622 00:35:38,733 --> 00:35:40,909 Narrator: Things had changed in Cuba 623 00:35:40,933 --> 00:35:43,176 {\an1}since the St. Louis set sail. 624 00:35:43,200 --> 00:35:47,242 {\an1}Antisemitism had always been strong on the island, 625 00:35:47,266 --> 00:35:50,842 and some 4,000 mostly Jewish refugees 626 00:35:50,866 --> 00:35:53,676 had settled there in recent months. 627 00:35:53,700 --> 00:35:58,209 {\an1}5 days before the St. Louis sailed, 40,000 Cubans 628 00:35:58,233 --> 00:36:02,609 {\an1}had gathered in Havana to protest their presence. 629 00:36:02,633 --> 00:36:06,242 {\an1}Nazi agents encouraged rumors that the refugees 630 00:36:06,266 --> 00:36:08,842 {\an1}would take Cuban jobs. 631 00:36:08,866 --> 00:36:11,209 The largest Cuban newspaper's headline 632 00:36:11,233 --> 00:36:14,742 {\an1}demanded "Out with the Jews!" 633 00:36:14,766 --> 00:36:18,533 Under the pressure, the Cuban government reneged. 634 00:36:20,800 --> 00:36:24,176 For 6 days, friends and relatives who had come 635 00:36:24,200 --> 00:36:28,376 {\an1}to Cuba earlier circled the ship in small boats, 636 00:36:28,400 --> 00:36:31,042 passing up fresh food and shouting 637 00:36:31,066 --> 00:36:33,233 {\an1}what encouragement they could. 638 00:36:36,266 --> 00:36:39,642 {\an1}Finally, the Cuban government ordered the St. Louis 639 00:36:39,666 --> 00:36:41,800 out of Havana Harbor. 640 00:36:43,600 --> 00:36:46,242 For 4 days, the ship steamed aimlessly 641 00:36:46,266 --> 00:36:49,976 {\an1}along the Florida coast, her stunned passengers 642 00:36:50,000 --> 00:36:53,642 {\an1}unsure where they were now to go. 643 00:36:53,666 --> 00:36:55,642 Messinger: I remember it was dusk, 644 00:36:55,666 --> 00:36:59,042 {\an1}and my father and I were standing at the railing, 645 00:36:59,066 --> 00:37:01,209 and I saw some lights in the distance, 646 00:37:01,233 --> 00:37:05,009 {\an1}and I said to my father, "What are those lights?" 647 00:37:05,033 --> 00:37:08,276 {\an1}And he said, "Oh, that's a city in the United States 648 00:37:08,300 --> 00:37:10,809 called Miami." 649 00:37:10,833 --> 00:37:14,009 {\an1}So I've... I've been in Miami since then, 650 00:37:14,033 --> 00:37:16,976 and whenever I walk along the beach 651 00:37:17,000 --> 00:37:19,442 {\an1}and look out at the water, 652 00:37:19,466 --> 00:37:23,809 {\an1}I get this very strange feeling because now 653 00:37:23,833 --> 00:37:30,142 {\an7}I'm where I was dying to be in the... in 1939. 654 00:37:30,166 --> 00:37:32,942 {\an7}Narrator: Some on board the ship wired an appeal 655 00:37:32,966 --> 00:37:37,142 {\an7}to President Roosevelt, begging him to intervene. 656 00:37:37,166 --> 00:37:40,042 {\an7}They did not receive a reply. 657 00:37:40,066 --> 00:37:43,309 Instead, the State Department insisted 658 00:37:43,333 --> 00:37:45,709 {\an1}that the passengers would have to "Wait their turns 659 00:37:45,733 --> 00:37:49,542 "on the waiting list and qualify for and obtain 660 00:37:49,566 --> 00:37:52,442 "immigration visas before they may be admissible 661 00:37:52,466 --> 00:37:56,142 {\an1}into the United States." 662 00:37:56,166 --> 00:37:59,476 {\an1}That could take years. 663 00:37:59,500 --> 00:38:03,242 Canada wouldn't take them either. 664 00:38:03,266 --> 00:38:06,766 The St. Louis turned back toward Europe. 665 00:38:09,166 --> 00:38:11,042 {\an1}Man: The "New York Times." 666 00:38:11,066 --> 00:38:13,042 {\an1}The saddest ship afloat today, 667 00:38:13,066 --> 00:38:15,342 {\an1}the Hamburg-American liner St. Louis, 668 00:38:15,366 --> 00:38:18,009 {\an1}with 900 Jewish refugees aboard, 669 00:38:18,033 --> 00:38:20,709 {\an1}steaming back toward Germany after a tragic week 670 00:38:20,733 --> 00:38:22,742 of frustration. 671 00:38:22,766 --> 00:38:26,576 {\an1}No plague ship ever received a sorrier welcome. 672 00:38:26,600 --> 00:38:31,542 {\an1}At Havana, the St. Louis' decks became a stage for human misery. 673 00:38:31,566 --> 00:38:34,209 There seems to be no help for them now. 674 00:38:34,233 --> 00:38:39,576 {\an1}The St. Louis will soon be home with her cargo of despair. 675 00:38:39,600 --> 00:38:41,876 Narrator: A Nazi journal gloated. 676 00:38:41,900 --> 00:38:45,276 {\an1}"We say openly that we do not want the Jews 677 00:38:45,300 --> 00:38:48,042 {\an1}"while the democracies keep on claiming that they are 678 00:38:48,066 --> 00:38:51,842 {\an1}"willing to receive them and then leave the guests 679 00:38:51,866 --> 00:38:54,276 out in the cold!" 680 00:38:54,300 --> 00:38:56,542 "The resolve of most of the people aboard," 681 00:38:56,566 --> 00:38:59,442 one passenger wrote, "is to die rather 682 00:38:59,466 --> 00:39:02,576 {\an1}than to see Hamburg again." 683 00:39:02,600 --> 00:39:05,842 {\an1}Captain Schröder considered running his ship aground 684 00:39:05,866 --> 00:39:08,642 {\an1}somewhere off England or France, 685 00:39:08,666 --> 00:39:10,742 {\an1}anything to keep the passengers 686 00:39:10,766 --> 00:39:13,266 from having to return to Germany. 687 00:39:16,133 --> 00:39:18,942 {\an8}A private relief organization called 688 00:39:18,966 --> 00:39:22,376 {\an7}The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, 689 00:39:22,400 --> 00:39:26,109 {\an1}along with The Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees, 690 00:39:26,133 --> 00:39:29,642 negotiated furiously with European governments, 691 00:39:29,666 --> 00:39:32,733 {\an1}trying to get them to accept the passengers. 692 00:39:34,900 --> 00:39:37,742 {\an1}They managed to scrape together the enormous sum 693 00:39:37,766 --> 00:39:42,942 {\an1}of $500,000 and finally convinced England, France, 694 00:39:42,966 --> 00:39:47,642 {\an1}Belgium, and the Netherlands to take them all in. 695 00:39:47,666 --> 00:39:50,409 "Our gratitude is as immense as the ocean 696 00:39:50,433 --> 00:39:53,242 {\an1}on which we are now floating," the passengers 697 00:39:53,266 --> 00:39:56,633 {\an1}cabled to those who had arranged their rescue. 698 00:39:59,833 --> 00:40:04,266 {\an1}The St. Louis would dock in Belgium, not Germany. 699 00:40:06,100 --> 00:40:08,276 {\an1}Messinger: We got word that 4 countries in Europe 700 00:40:08,300 --> 00:40:12,276 had agreed to split the passengers up among them, 701 00:40:12,300 --> 00:40:15,476 {\an1}and we ended up in Belgium. 702 00:40:15,500 --> 00:40:18,542 {\an1}Narrator: No one aboard the St. Louis was returned 703 00:40:18,566 --> 00:40:23,576 to Germany, but 254 of the passengers 704 00:40:23,600 --> 00:40:26,542 would be murdered after the Nazis overran 705 00:40:26,566 --> 00:40:30,709 {\an1}the countries that had given them sanctuary. 706 00:40:30,733 --> 00:40:35,833 {\an1}Nearly 3/4 of the passengers would survive. 707 00:40:43,300 --> 00:40:45,166 {\an8}[Newsreel announcer speaking Russian] 708 00:41:00,633 --> 00:41:04,342 {\an1}Narrator: On August 23, 9 weeks after the St. Louis 709 00:41:04,366 --> 00:41:07,376 returned to Europe, the world was stunned 710 00:41:07,400 --> 00:41:10,542 {\an1}by an announcement from Moscow... 711 00:41:10,566 --> 00:41:13,076 The Nazi and Soviet governments... 712 00:41:13,100 --> 00:41:15,609 {\an1}sworn enemies for years... 713 00:41:15,633 --> 00:41:18,676 Had signed a 10-year non-aggression pact 714 00:41:18,700 --> 00:41:22,509 {\an1}that would let Hitler and Stalin destroy Poland 715 00:41:22,533 --> 00:41:26,976 {\an1}and divide its territory between them. 716 00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:32,676 Poland was home to 3,300,000 Jews. 717 00:41:32,700 --> 00:41:35,642 [Air raid siren] 718 00:41:35,666 --> 00:41:37,700 [People shouting] 719 00:41:40,066 --> 00:41:43,642 On September 1, 1939, Hitler launched 720 00:41:43,666 --> 00:41:48,842 his "Blitzkrieg," his "lightning war," on Poland. 721 00:41:48,866 --> 00:41:50,076 [Explosion] 722 00:41:50,100 --> 00:41:52,633 {\an1}The Second World War had begun. 723 00:41:56,666 --> 00:41:59,409 "It's come at last," President Roosevelt said 724 00:41:59,433 --> 00:42:02,809 when he was awakened with the news. 725 00:42:02,833 --> 00:42:04,966 "God help us all." 726 00:42:10,000 --> 00:42:13,376 {\an1}As German warplanes attacked Warsaw that evening, 727 00:42:13,400 --> 00:42:15,942 Chaim Kaplan, the director of a Jewish school 728 00:42:15,966 --> 00:42:20,342 in that city, made a note in his diary. 729 00:42:20,366 --> 00:42:23,242 {\an1}"We are witnessing the dawn of a new era in the history 730 00:42:23,266 --> 00:42:25,242 {\an1}of the world," he wrote. 731 00:42:25,266 --> 00:42:27,742 "This war will indeed bring destruction 732 00:42:27,766 --> 00:42:30,609 {\an1}"upon human civilization. 733 00:42:30,633 --> 00:42:36,342 {\an1}"As for the Jews, their danger is 7 times greater. 734 00:42:36,366 --> 00:42:39,576 {\an1}"Wherever Hitler treads, there is no hope 735 00:42:39,600 --> 00:42:41,266 {\an1}for the Jewish people." 736 00:42:42,866 --> 00:42:46,909 {\an1}Roosevelt: This nation will remain a neutral nation, 737 00:42:46,933 --> 00:42:51,576 {\an1}but I cannot ask that every American remain neutral 738 00:42:51,600 --> 00:42:54,576 in thought, as well. 739 00:42:54,600 --> 00:43:00,076 {\an1}Even a neutral has a right to take account of facts. 740 00:43:00,100 --> 00:43:05,676 {\an1}Even a neutral cannot be asked to close his mind 741 00:43:05,700 --> 00:43:08,200 {\an1}or to close his conscience. 742 00:43:10,633 --> 00:43:13,476 {\an1}Narrator: The president and most of his fellow citizens 743 00:43:13,500 --> 00:43:16,009 sympathized with the Nazis' victims, 744 00:43:16,033 --> 00:43:19,276 {\an1}and some wanted to help France and England as they went 745 00:43:19,300 --> 00:43:22,176 {\an1}to war against Germany, 746 00:43:22,200 --> 00:43:24,909 {\an1}but a far larger number was still opposed 747 00:43:24,933 --> 00:43:28,309 {\an1}to any American involvement overseas for fear 748 00:43:28,333 --> 00:43:31,342 the Allies would pull the United States 749 00:43:31,366 --> 00:43:33,476 into another war. 750 00:43:33,500 --> 00:43:35,509 Roosevelt: And that I hate war... 751 00:43:35,533 --> 00:43:38,476 {\an1}Narrator: Roosevelt was careful not to get too far 752 00:43:38,500 --> 00:43:41,242 {\an1}ahead of public opinion. 753 00:43:41,266 --> 00:43:42,909 Roosevelt: I hope the United States 754 00:43:42,933 --> 00:43:45,776 {\an1}will keep out of this war. 755 00:43:45,800 --> 00:43:48,642 {\an1}I believe that it will, 756 00:43:48,666 --> 00:43:52,042 {\an1}and I give you assurance and reassurance 757 00:43:52,066 --> 00:43:54,376 that every effort of your government 758 00:43:54,400 --> 00:43:57,800 will be directed toward that end. 759 00:43:59,833 --> 00:44:02,109 {\an1}Narrator: The United States was poorly prepared 760 00:44:02,133 --> 00:44:04,709 {\an1}for conflict in any case. 761 00:44:04,733 --> 00:44:08,842 {\an1}The segregated army was smaller than that of Bulgaria, 762 00:44:08,866 --> 00:44:12,542 {\an1}fewer than 190,000 men in uniform, 763 00:44:12,566 --> 00:44:15,609 {\an1}fitted out with tin hats and leggings issued 764 00:44:15,633 --> 00:44:18,909 during the Great War and carrying rifles 765 00:44:18,933 --> 00:44:22,209 designed in 1903. 766 00:44:22,233 --> 00:44:24,709 {\an1}Meanwhile, the president believed the best way 767 00:44:24,733 --> 00:44:28,542 {\an1}to avoid having to enter the war was to do all he could 768 00:44:28,566 --> 00:44:30,976 {\an1}to aid France and England. 769 00:44:31,000 --> 00:44:34,042 He called Congress into special session and asked 770 00:44:34,066 --> 00:44:36,742 it to end the embargo on the sale of arms 771 00:44:36,766 --> 00:44:39,242 {\an1}to belligerents so that the Allies would be 772 00:44:39,266 --> 00:44:43,409 {\an1}better prepared for whatever Hitler did next. 773 00:44:43,433 --> 00:44:47,466 {\an1}Isolationists flooded Washington with antiwar messages. 774 00:44:50,233 --> 00:44:53,709 After 6 weeks of sometimes bitter debate, 775 00:44:53,733 --> 00:44:56,409 {\an1}Congress did lift the embargo 776 00:44:56,433 --> 00:45:00,542 {\an1}but only if buyers paid cash. 777 00:45:00,566 --> 00:45:03,742 That same month, a "Fortune" magazine poll 778 00:45:03,766 --> 00:45:07,342 found that only 20% of Americans favored aiding 779 00:45:07,366 --> 00:45:10,076 {\an1}the European democracies 780 00:45:10,100 --> 00:45:13,009 {\an1}while 54% of the country were happy 781 00:45:13,033 --> 00:45:16,276 {\an1}for the United States to trade with Nazis 782 00:45:16,300 --> 00:45:20,442 and democratic governments alike. 783 00:45:20,466 --> 00:45:23,109 "What worries me," FDR wrote to a friend, 784 00:45:23,133 --> 00:45:26,542 {\an1}"is that public opinion over here is patting itself 785 00:45:26,566 --> 00:45:29,576 {\an1}"on the back every morning thanking God 786 00:45:29,600 --> 00:45:32,433 for the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans." 787 00:45:34,300 --> 00:45:36,076 {\an1}[Radio stations changing] 788 00:45:36,100 --> 00:45:38,242 {\an1}Charles Lindbergh: I speak tonight to those people 789 00:45:38,266 --> 00:45:41,376 in the United States of America who feel that 790 00:45:41,400 --> 00:45:44,276 {\an1}the destiny of this country does not call 791 00:45:44,300 --> 00:45:48,109 for our involvement in European wars. 792 00:45:48,133 --> 00:45:51,476 {\an1}Narrator: There was another voice on the radio now, too, 793 00:45:51,500 --> 00:45:54,276 the voice of the only American whose fame 794 00:45:54,300 --> 00:45:56,476 {\an1}approached Roosevelt's, 795 00:45:56,500 --> 00:46:00,442 {\an1}the celebrated aviator Charles A. Lindbergh. 796 00:46:00,466 --> 00:46:04,076 {\an1}His message was very different. 797 00:46:04,100 --> 00:46:06,642 Lindbergh: These wars in Europe are not wars 798 00:46:06,666 --> 00:46:09,342 {\an1}in which our civilization is defending itself 799 00:46:09,366 --> 00:46:12,509 {\an1}against some Asiatic intruder. 800 00:46:12,533 --> 00:46:15,342 {\an1}This is not a question of banding together to defend 801 00:46:15,366 --> 00:46:18,166 the white race against foreign invasion. 802 00:46:19,866 --> 00:46:22,642 We must not permit our sentiment, our pity, 803 00:46:22,666 --> 00:46:24,742 {\an1}or our personal feelings of sympathy 804 00:46:24,766 --> 00:46:26,309 to obscure the issue, 805 00:46:26,333 --> 00:46:29,376 {\an1}to affect our children's lives. 806 00:46:29,400 --> 00:46:32,666 {\an1}We must be as impersonal as a surgeon with his knife. 807 00:46:34,333 --> 00:46:36,509 Narrator: Lindbergh had first visited Germany 808 00:46:36,533 --> 00:46:41,476 {\an1}in 1936 at the invitation of the American military attaché 809 00:46:41,500 --> 00:46:44,342 in Berlin, who was eager to glean 810 00:46:44,366 --> 00:46:48,709 information about the fast-growing Luftwaffe. 811 00:46:48,733 --> 00:46:52,709 {\an1}He returned two more times. 812 00:46:52,733 --> 00:46:56,342 {\an1}The Nazis did everything they could to impress him, 813 00:46:56,366 --> 00:47:01,676 {\an1}awarding him the Service Cross of the German Eagle... 814 00:47:01,700 --> 00:47:04,476 {\an1}and Lindbergh was impressed. 815 00:47:04,500 --> 00:47:09,309 {\an1}He admired the regime's virility and emphasis on order. 816 00:47:09,333 --> 00:47:13,409 His wife Anne thought Hitler "a very great man" 817 00:47:13,433 --> 00:47:18,376 {\an1}maligned by what she called "Jewish propaganda." 818 00:47:18,400 --> 00:47:20,409 The couple had even considered moving 819 00:47:20,433 --> 00:47:23,709 {\an1}to the leafy Berlin suburb of Wannsee 820 00:47:23,733 --> 00:47:27,742 until Kristallnacht made them rethink. 821 00:47:27,766 --> 00:47:31,076 "My admiration for the Germans is constantly being 822 00:47:31,100 --> 00:47:34,276 {\an1}dashed against some such rock as this," 823 00:47:34,300 --> 00:47:36,242 {\an1}Lindbergh wrote privately. 824 00:47:36,266 --> 00:47:38,776 "I do not understand these riots. 825 00:47:38,800 --> 00:47:43,342 {\an1}"It seems contrary to their sense of order and intelligence. 826 00:47:43,366 --> 00:47:46,909 {\an1}"They have undoubtedly had a difficult Jewish problem, 827 00:47:46,933 --> 00:47:52,509 {\an1}but why is it necessary to handle it so unreasonably?" 828 00:47:52,533 --> 00:47:56,042 On his voyage home from Europe in 1938, 829 00:47:56,066 --> 00:48:00,042 {\an1}Lindbergh had been irritated by the number of Jewish refugees 830 00:48:00,066 --> 00:48:02,609 {\an1}among his fellow passengers. 831 00:48:02,633 --> 00:48:06,142 {\an1}"Imagine the United States taking these Jews 832 00:48:06,166 --> 00:48:08,776 in addition to those we already have," 833 00:48:08,800 --> 00:48:10,809 {\an1}he'd written in his diary. 834 00:48:10,833 --> 00:48:14,676 {\an1}"There are too many places like New York already. 835 00:48:14,700 --> 00:48:18,809 {\an1}"A few Jews add strength and character to a country, 836 00:48:18,833 --> 00:48:21,709 {\an1}"but too many create chaos, 837 00:48:21,733 --> 00:48:25,142 {\an1}"and we are getting too many. 838 00:48:25,166 --> 00:48:30,509 {\an1}This present immigration will have its reaction." 839 00:48:30,533 --> 00:48:33,409 {\an1}Lindbergh: Our bond with Europe is a bond of race 840 00:48:33,433 --> 00:48:36,842 {\an1}and not of political ideology. 841 00:48:36,866 --> 00:48:39,609 {\an1}It is the European race we must preserve. 842 00:48:39,633 --> 00:48:42,109 {\an1}Political progress will follow. 843 00:48:42,133 --> 00:48:46,309 {\an1}Racial strength is vital, politics, a luxury. 844 00:48:46,333 --> 00:48:49,776 {\an1}If the white race is ever seriously threatened, 845 00:48:49,800 --> 00:48:52,609 {\an1}it may then be time for us to take our part 846 00:48:52,633 --> 00:48:57,142 {\an1}in its protection, to fight side by side with English, 847 00:48:57,166 --> 00:49:00,442 French, and Germans, but not with one 848 00:49:00,466 --> 00:49:03,533 against the other for our mutual destruction. 849 00:49:05,566 --> 00:49:07,509 Narrator: "If I should die tomorrow, 850 00:49:07,533 --> 00:49:11,042 {\an1}I want you to know this," the president told a friend. 851 00:49:11,066 --> 00:49:15,233 {\an1}"I am absolutely convinced that Lindbergh is a Nazi." 852 00:49:17,033 --> 00:49:20,209 {\an1}For the next 27 months, Franklin Roosevelt 853 00:49:20,233 --> 00:49:23,876 {\an1}and Charles Lindbergh would engage in a bitter struggle 854 00:49:23,900 --> 00:49:28,276 over whose vision of the country would prevail 855 00:49:28,300 --> 00:49:32,342 and about the future of Western civilization itself. 856 00:49:32,366 --> 00:49:33,900 {\an8}[Bombs whistling] 857 00:49:37,200 --> 00:49:39,333 [Explosion] 858 00:49:42,700 --> 00:49:45,576 {\an1}"Every war costs blood," Hitler had told 859 00:49:45,600 --> 00:49:48,176 {\an1}his commanders just before sending them 860 00:49:48,200 --> 00:49:52,542 into western Poland, "and the smell of blood arouses 861 00:49:52,566 --> 00:49:56,042 {\an1}"in man all the instincts which have lain within us 862 00:49:56,066 --> 00:49:58,533 "since the beginning of the world. 863 00:50:01,733 --> 00:50:07,709 {\an1}A humane war exists only in bloodless brains." 864 00:50:07,733 --> 00:50:10,509 There was nothing bloodless, nothing humane, 865 00:50:10,533 --> 00:50:13,509 {\an1}about the German assault. 866 00:50:13,533 --> 00:50:16,009 {\an1}In the wake of the Panzer divisions that pierced 867 00:50:16,033 --> 00:50:19,709 Poland's defenses, thousands of SS troops 868 00:50:19,733 --> 00:50:21,909 {\an1}and German infantrymen fanned out 869 00:50:21,933 --> 00:50:24,609 {\an1}across the countryside. 870 00:50:24,633 --> 00:50:28,076 {\an1}Their goal was to destroy the Polish state and reduce 871 00:50:28,100 --> 00:50:31,609 the Polish people to a leaderless population 872 00:50:31,633 --> 00:50:33,833 {\an1}of peasants and workers. 873 00:50:35,700 --> 00:50:38,742 {\an1}Told that anyone who dared resist the advancing 874 00:50:38,766 --> 00:50:41,876 {\an1}master race was guilty of "insolence," 875 00:50:41,900 --> 00:50:43,876 {\an1}within 5 weeks they had killed 876 00:50:43,900 --> 00:50:47,842 some 3,000 Polish prisoners of war, 877 00:50:47,866 --> 00:50:51,009 destroyed more than 530 villages, 878 00:50:51,033 --> 00:50:53,376 {\an1}burned or blown up synagogues, 879 00:50:53,400 --> 00:50:57,976 and murdered at least 45,000 unarmed Poles... 880 00:50:58,000 --> 00:51:01,342 Priests, professors, political leaders, 881 00:51:01,366 --> 00:51:04,776 {\an1}anyone thought capable of mounting resistance, 882 00:51:04,800 --> 00:51:08,409 as well as Jews, 883 00:51:08,433 --> 00:51:10,442 and while the Germans imposed their rule 884 00:51:10,466 --> 00:51:13,242 on western Poland, the Soviet Union 885 00:51:13,266 --> 00:51:16,309 {\an1}swallowed up its eastern half. 886 00:51:16,333 --> 00:51:21,976 {\an1}150,000 Poles were drafted into the Red Army. 887 00:51:22,000 --> 00:51:25,509 The Soviets shipped 200,000 civilians deemed 888 00:51:25,533 --> 00:51:29,242 {\an1}dangerous to Kazakhstan and Siberia, 889 00:51:29,266 --> 00:51:34,609 {\an1}where tens of thousands froze or starved to death. 890 00:51:34,633 --> 00:51:39,442 {\an1}They also secretly shot 22,000 Polish officers 891 00:51:39,466 --> 00:51:42,309 and intellectuals and buried their corpses 892 00:51:42,333 --> 00:51:46,900 in mass graves in and around the Katyn Forest. 893 00:51:49,600 --> 00:51:52,942 {\an1}Hitler's goal was always a racially "pure," 894 00:51:52,966 --> 00:51:55,909 steadily expanding Greater Germany, 895 00:51:55,933 --> 00:51:58,976 but as it expanded, it inevitably encompassed 896 00:51:59,000 --> 00:52:01,542 more and more Jews. 897 00:52:01,566 --> 00:52:04,842 {\an1}Before the invasion, Poland had the highest proportion 898 00:52:04,866 --> 00:52:07,176 of Jews in Europe. 899 00:52:07,200 --> 00:52:10,042 {\an1}Nearly two million of them lived in the region 900 00:52:10,066 --> 00:52:12,676 Germany had seized. 901 00:52:12,700 --> 00:52:15,842 Most were people without means and access 902 00:52:15,866 --> 00:52:18,742 {\an1}to diplomats or consulates or well-connected 903 00:52:18,766 --> 00:52:22,076 family members abroad or anyone else 904 00:52:22,100 --> 00:52:24,742 {\an1}who could help them escape. 905 00:52:24,766 --> 00:52:29,476 {\an1}More Jews lived in Warsaw than remained in Germany. 906 00:52:29,500 --> 00:52:33,009 {\an1}More lived in the city of Lodz than in Berlin 907 00:52:33,033 --> 00:52:35,909 and Vienna combined. 908 00:52:35,933 --> 00:52:39,642 {\an1}Nazi officials hatched several schemes to rid 909 00:52:39,666 --> 00:52:43,276 {\an1}the region of its Jews. 910 00:52:43,300 --> 00:52:45,342 The first would have confined them 911 00:52:45,366 --> 00:52:50,176 {\an1}to a "reservation" located in a remote underpopulated area 912 00:52:50,200 --> 00:52:51,809 near Lublin, 913 00:52:51,833 --> 00:52:54,942 but that quickly proved impractical. 914 00:52:54,966 --> 00:52:58,476 The Nazis offered two million of them to Stalin, 915 00:52:58,500 --> 00:53:00,333 {\an1}who did not want them. 916 00:53:05,433 --> 00:53:07,776 In the meantime, the Germans were driving 917 00:53:07,800 --> 00:53:11,742 {\an1}Polish Jews into scores of squalid, congested, 918 00:53:11,766 --> 00:53:16,109 {\an1}fenced-off neighborhoods... Ghettos... whose residents, 919 00:53:16,133 --> 00:53:19,209 {\an1}robbed of their possessions and forced to wear 920 00:53:19,233 --> 00:53:23,776 {\an1}a yellow star or a white armband with the Star of David, 921 00:53:23,800 --> 00:53:26,600 were shot if they strayed outside. 922 00:53:29,233 --> 00:53:31,609 {\an1}The largest ghetto was in Warsaw, 923 00:53:31,633 --> 00:53:35,976 {\an1}where more than 400,000 men, women, and children struggled 924 00:53:36,000 --> 00:53:39,409 to survive in an area initially measuring 925 00:53:39,433 --> 00:53:42,776 {\an1}less than two square miles. 926 00:53:42,800 --> 00:53:46,076 The ghettos served two purposes for the Nazis. 927 00:53:46,100 --> 00:53:49,109 They provided reliable pools of slave labor 928 00:53:49,133 --> 00:53:51,742 {\an1}for the German war machine, and they acted 929 00:53:51,766 --> 00:53:56,509 {\an1}as holding pens for Jews, now including many deported 930 00:53:56,533 --> 00:53:59,709 {\an1}from what had been Austria and Czechoslovakia, 931 00:53:59,733 --> 00:54:02,309 {\an1}until the Nazi regime decided where they were 932 00:54:02,333 --> 00:54:04,842 finally to be sent. 933 00:54:04,866 --> 00:54:09,642 {\an1}More than 80,000 people would die in the Warsaw ghetto alone 934 00:54:09,666 --> 00:54:12,776 of random shootings by their German guards, 935 00:54:12,800 --> 00:54:17,266 typhoid, deliberate starvation, and despair. 936 00:54:22,300 --> 00:54:26,142 {\an7}In Bolechow, in eastern Poland, Shmiel Jaeger heard 937 00:54:26,166 --> 00:54:31,476 {\an1}about the German obliteration of western Poland. 938 00:54:31,500 --> 00:54:33,976 {\an1}Terrified of what might happen next, 939 00:54:34,000 --> 00:54:38,509 {\an1}he wrote again to his relatives in America. 940 00:54:38,533 --> 00:54:41,442 {\an1}Man as Shmiel: My darling sister and brother-in-law, 941 00:54:41,466 --> 00:54:43,809 This is my mission: 942 00:54:43,833 --> 00:54:46,809 {\an1}it's now the case that many families can go 943 00:54:46,833 --> 00:54:51,642 {\an1}and have already emigrated to America provided that 944 00:54:51,666 --> 00:54:56,642 {\an1}their families there put down a $5,000 deposit, 945 00:54:56,666 --> 00:54:59,509 {\an1}after which they can get their brother and his wife 946 00:54:59,533 --> 00:55:01,976 and children out, 947 00:55:02,000 --> 00:55:04,809 and then they can get the deposit back. 948 00:55:04,833 --> 00:55:07,909 {\an1}Perhaps you could manage to advance me the deposit. 949 00:55:07,933 --> 00:55:11,709 {\an1}The idea is that with the money in custody I won't, 950 00:55:11,733 --> 00:55:15,876 once I'm in America, be a burden to anyone. 951 00:55:15,900 --> 00:55:18,042 {\an1}You should make inquiries, you should write 952 00:55:18,066 --> 00:55:22,576 that I'm the only one in your family still in Europe 953 00:55:22,600 --> 00:55:25,776 {\an1}and that I have training as an auto mechanic 954 00:55:25,800 --> 00:55:32,542 {\an1}and that I've already been in America from 1912 to 1913. 955 00:55:32,566 --> 00:55:36,376 {\an1}For my part, I am going to post a letter, 956 00:55:36,400 --> 00:55:38,576 written in English, to Washington, 957 00:55:38,600 --> 00:55:41,209 {\an1}addressed to President Roosevelt 958 00:55:41,233 --> 00:55:43,209 and will write that all my siblings 959 00:55:43,233 --> 00:55:45,676 {\an1}and my entire family are in America 960 00:55:45,700 --> 00:55:48,842 and that my parents are even buried there. 961 00:55:48,866 --> 00:55:51,142 {\an1}Perhaps that will work, 962 00:55:51,166 --> 00:55:54,809 {\an1}as I really want to get away from this Gehenim 963 00:55:54,833 --> 00:55:59,809 {\an1}with my dear wife and such darling 4 children. 964 00:55:59,833 --> 00:56:02,209 Shmiel. 965 00:56:02,233 --> 00:56:04,042 Narrator: Shmiel had no way of knowing 966 00:56:04,066 --> 00:56:07,276 {\an1}that there were more than 100,000 other Poles ahead 967 00:56:07,300 --> 00:56:09,409 {\an1}of him on the waiting list. 968 00:56:09,433 --> 00:56:11,109 {\an1}With the current quota system, 969 00:56:11,133 --> 00:56:14,109 it would be more than 12 years before his family 970 00:56:14,133 --> 00:56:17,609 {\an1}would be eligible for a visa. 971 00:56:17,633 --> 00:56:20,176 Marlene: We knew, we... we all understood 972 00:56:20,200 --> 00:56:22,242 {\an1}that there was big trouble. 973 00:56:22,266 --> 00:56:25,609 It was very sad. 974 00:56:25,633 --> 00:56:28,276 My mother would send clothing or whatever 975 00:56:28,300 --> 00:56:30,142 {\an1}they would need for the winter, 976 00:56:30,166 --> 00:56:33,276 {\an7}and all of the family was involved because they were 977 00:56:33,300 --> 00:56:38,242 {\an7}all here and all feeling guilty that Shmiel 978 00:56:38,266 --> 00:56:40,942 had not come. 979 00:56:40,966 --> 00:56:45,009 They were all trying to get money together to send. 980 00:56:45,033 --> 00:56:48,109 They met, they talked to the richer members 981 00:56:48,133 --> 00:56:50,909 of the family, 982 00:56:50,933 --> 00:56:54,276 {\an1}and everyone was concerned, 983 00:56:54,300 --> 00:56:56,966 {\an1}but no one could do anything. 984 00:56:58,966 --> 00:57:00,642 {\an1}Mendelsohn: My grandfather was a foreman 985 00:57:00,666 --> 00:57:03,209 in a braids and trimmings factory. 986 00:57:03,233 --> 00:57:06,809 {\an1}I'm sure if he had $5,000 he would have done anything, 987 00:57:06,833 --> 00:57:08,476 but I think it's also an important part 988 00:57:08,500 --> 00:57:10,876 of this story, this sort of guilt, 989 00:57:10,900 --> 00:57:14,642 {\an7}the huge amount of guilt in the American Jewish community 990 00:57:14,666 --> 00:57:16,376 {\an8}after because then, of course, you say, 991 00:57:16,400 --> 00:57:17,776 {\an7}"Oh, I should have done more," 992 00:57:17,800 --> 00:57:21,476 {\an1}but, again, that's not fair. 993 00:57:21,500 --> 00:57:25,009 People really had a hard time imagining 994 00:57:25,033 --> 00:57:29,366 what was actually going to unfold. 995 00:57:32,200 --> 00:57:35,009 {\an1}Narrator: As soon as German troops had occupied Vienna 996 00:57:35,033 --> 00:57:38,976 {\an1}in 1938, Eva Geiringer's father Erich had resolved 997 00:57:39,000 --> 00:57:41,876 {\an1}to find his wife Fritzi, his son Heinz, 998 00:57:41,900 --> 00:57:47,209 {\an1}and daughter Eva a new home out from under the Nazi threat. 999 00:57:47,233 --> 00:57:50,009 By early 1940, he had managed to get them 1000 00:57:50,033 --> 00:57:52,509 to Amsterdam. 1001 00:57:52,533 --> 00:57:54,109 {\an1}Eva Geiringer: The Dutch were quite different 1002 00:57:54,133 --> 00:57:57,609 from the Austrians... Very welcoming. 1003 00:57:57,633 --> 00:58:00,842 Everybody wanted to be my best friend. 1004 00:58:00,866 --> 00:58:04,376 {\an1}I was blonde and blue-eyed, and so everybody said, 1005 00:58:04,400 --> 00:58:07,576 "You look like a Dutch little girl." 1006 00:58:07,600 --> 00:58:10,409 {\an7}So we settled in, and we thought, "Well, that is it. 1007 00:58:10,433 --> 00:58:12,376 {\an7}We'll be here together as a family," 1008 00:58:12,400 --> 00:58:14,909 {\an8}and we were actually quite happy. 1009 00:58:14,933 --> 00:58:17,076 {\an1}Narrator: The Geiringers found themselves living 1010 00:58:17,100 --> 00:58:20,076 {\an1}in the same apartment block as Otto Frank, 1011 00:58:20,100 --> 00:58:22,442 his wife Edith, and their two daughters 1012 00:58:22,466 --> 00:58:24,709 Margot and Annelies. 1013 00:58:24,733 --> 00:58:28,809 The Franks had fled Germany 6 years earlier. 1014 00:58:28,833 --> 00:58:31,976 {\an1}Geiringer: All the children came to play after school 1015 00:58:32,000 --> 00:58:34,942 {\an1}on this big open area, 1016 00:58:34,966 --> 00:58:37,476 and then, one day, a little girl came to me, 1017 00:58:37,500 --> 00:58:39,476 {\an1}realized I was new there, 1018 00:58:39,500 --> 00:58:42,076 {\an1}and she introduced herself and said her name 1019 00:58:42,100 --> 00:58:44,576 is "Anna Frank." 1020 00:58:44,600 --> 00:58:47,376 {\an1}Narrator: Both Eva Geiringer and Anne Frank 1021 00:58:47,400 --> 00:58:48,976 {\an1}were 10 years old that winter 1022 00:58:49,000 --> 00:58:53,642 and both attended the same Montessori School. 1023 00:58:53,666 --> 00:58:56,709 {\an1}Geiringer: She was very, very much outspoken, 1024 00:58:56,733 --> 00:58:59,176 very sure of herself. 1025 00:58:59,200 --> 00:59:04,109 {\an1}She was definitely already more intellectual than I was. 1026 00:59:04,133 --> 00:59:06,276 {\an1}She was a big chatterbox. 1027 00:59:06,300 --> 00:59:08,776 {\an1}In school, she was called "Mrs. Quack-Quack." 1028 00:59:08,800 --> 00:59:10,942 {\an1}She had to stay behind very often to write 1029 00:59:10,966 --> 00:59:13,676 hundreds of lines that she's not going to talk 1030 00:59:13,700 --> 00:59:16,276 so much in class. 1031 00:59:16,300 --> 00:59:19,676 {\an1}She was already interested in boys. 1032 00:59:19,700 --> 00:59:22,242 When I told her I had an older brother, 1033 00:59:22,266 --> 00:59:23,976 {\an1}her eyes grew very big, and she said, 1034 00:59:24,000 --> 00:59:27,542 {\an1}"When can I come and meet him?" 1035 00:59:27,566 --> 00:59:29,542 {\an1}Narrator: Anne Frank's father tried to stay 1036 00:59:29,566 --> 00:59:32,876 {\an1}optimistic about the future, reminding everyone 1037 00:59:32,900 --> 00:59:35,476 {\an1}that the Netherlands had been able to remain neutral 1038 00:59:35,500 --> 00:59:37,176 during World War I 1039 00:59:37,200 --> 00:59:40,542 and should be able to do so again, 1040 00:59:40,566 --> 00:59:43,142 {\an1}but he could not hide his underlying anxiety 1041 00:59:43,166 --> 00:59:47,276 {\an1}from a cousin, who was now living safely in London, 1042 00:59:47,300 --> 00:59:50,376 {\an1}writing her that he worried most about his daughters 1043 00:59:50,400 --> 00:59:55,276 {\an1}but didn't dare confide his concern to their mother. 1044 00:59:55,300 --> 00:59:58,409 {\an1}His cousin offered to care for them in England. 1045 00:59:58,433 --> 01:00:01,309 {\an1}He thanked her for her kindness but was sure 1046 01:00:01,333 --> 01:00:03,976 {\an1}neither he nor his wife could bear to part 1047 01:00:04,000 --> 01:00:06,809 with their girls. 1048 01:00:06,833 --> 01:00:10,442 {\an1}Otto Frank was still waiting for his family's visa application 1049 01:00:10,466 --> 01:00:14,309 to the United States to come up for review. 1050 01:00:14,333 --> 01:00:18,600 {\an1}More than 300,000 other people were waiting, too. 1051 01:00:21,166 --> 01:00:25,409 {\an1}A 7-month lull followed the invasion of Poland. 1052 01:00:25,433 --> 01:00:28,476 {\an1}To American isolationists, it seemed to be proof 1053 01:00:28,500 --> 01:00:32,609 {\an1}that events in Europe were nothing to worry about. 1054 01:00:32,633 --> 01:00:35,676 Republican Senator William Borah of Idaho 1055 01:00:35,700 --> 01:00:38,042 {\an1}called it the "Phony War"... 1056 01:00:38,066 --> 01:00:40,476 [Bicycle bell rings] 1057 01:00:40,500 --> 01:00:42,566 [Airplanes flying] 1058 01:00:45,466 --> 01:00:48,109 but on April 9, 1940, 1059 01:00:48,133 --> 01:00:51,476 {\an1}the Phony War became real again. 1060 01:00:51,500 --> 01:00:56,776 {\an1}40,000 German troops surged across the Danish border. 1061 01:00:56,800 --> 01:01:00,642 Denmark surrendered by nightfall. 1062 01:01:00,666 --> 01:01:04,209 {\an1}German paratroopers filled the skies over Norway, 1063 01:01:04,233 --> 01:01:08,009 {\an1}driving its government into exile. 1064 01:01:08,033 --> 01:01:11,809 Then, on May 10, 10 Panzer divisions, 1065 01:01:11,833 --> 01:01:14,376 2,500 aircraft, 1066 01:01:14,400 --> 01:01:17,809 and 3 1/3 million German ground troops 1067 01:01:17,833 --> 01:01:21,142 stormed into France and the Low Countries... 1068 01:01:21,166 --> 01:01:25,542 Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. 1069 01:01:25,566 --> 01:01:30,976 {\an1}We heard guns shooting and the drones of airplane, 1070 01:01:31,000 --> 01:01:32,709 and we all got up, 1071 01:01:32,733 --> 01:01:35,542 and we had a little Bakelite radio. 1072 01:01:35,566 --> 01:01:38,209 {\an1}Newscaster: The German army invaded Holland and Belgium... 1073 01:01:38,233 --> 01:01:41,042 {\an1}Geiringer: Listened to that, and the newscaster said, 1074 01:01:41,066 --> 01:01:43,009 "Very bad news. 1075 01:01:43,033 --> 01:01:45,942 {\an1}"The Germans are trying to invade our country, 1076 01:01:45,966 --> 01:01:49,509 but we are going to defend ourselves." 1077 01:01:49,533 --> 01:01:51,376 Narrator: At Otto Frank's office, 1078 01:01:51,400 --> 01:01:55,342 {\an1}his employees remembered, his face turned white as reports 1079 01:01:55,366 --> 01:01:59,776 {\an1}of the attack continued to come in over the radio. 1080 01:01:59,800 --> 01:02:02,709 {\an1}The Germans threatened to bomb the port of Rotterdam 1081 01:02:02,733 --> 01:02:05,476 {\an1}unless the Dutch surrendered. 1082 01:02:05,500 --> 01:02:07,300 {\an1}They tried to surrender... 1083 01:02:09,133 --> 01:02:12,833 {\an1}and the Luftwaffe bombed the city anyway. 1084 01:02:17,766 --> 01:02:20,276 {\an1}Over 900 people were killed 1085 01:02:20,300 --> 01:02:24,276 and more than 85,000 left homeless. 1086 01:02:24,300 --> 01:02:27,476 {\an1}The United States consulate was burned, too, 1087 01:02:27,500 --> 01:02:31,476 {\an1}and with it, Otto Frank's application for visas 1088 01:02:31,500 --> 01:02:35,642 {\an1}to bring his family to America. 1089 01:02:35,666 --> 01:02:38,976 {\an1}Every port the Germans overran closed off 1090 01:02:39,000 --> 01:02:43,842 yet another avenue of escape for refugees. 1091 01:02:43,866 --> 01:02:46,409 France was next. 1092 01:02:46,433 --> 01:02:49,909 {\an1}Its supposedly invincible 5-million-man army 1093 01:02:49,933 --> 01:02:52,942 would collapse in just a few weeks. 1094 01:02:52,966 --> 01:02:54,776 [Gunfire] 1095 01:02:54,800 --> 01:02:58,409 {\an1}[Man shouting in German] 1096 01:02:58,433 --> 01:03:00,809 {\an1}Roosevelt: Tonight over the once peaceful roads 1097 01:03:00,833 --> 01:03:05,609 {\an1}of Belgium and France, millions are now moving, 1098 01:03:05,633 --> 01:03:10,142 {\an1}running from their homes to escape bombs and shells 1099 01:03:10,166 --> 01:03:13,976 {\an1}and fire and machine-gunning, without shelter, 1100 01:03:14,000 --> 01:03:16,209 {\an1}and almost wholly without food. 1101 01:03:16,233 --> 01:03:19,442 They stumble on, knowing not where the end 1102 01:03:19,466 --> 01:03:21,166 of the road will be. 1103 01:03:23,000 --> 01:03:24,509 Narrator: "These are ominous days," 1104 01:03:24,533 --> 01:03:28,176 {\an1}Roosevelt told Congress on May 16, 1105 01:03:28,200 --> 01:03:31,342 "days whose swift and shocking developments force 1106 01:03:31,366 --> 01:03:35,876 every neutral nation to look to its defenses." 1107 01:03:35,900 --> 01:03:39,009 {\an1}He called for an increase in aircraft production 1108 01:03:39,033 --> 01:03:44,742 from 2,100 planes a year to 50,000. 1109 01:03:44,766 --> 01:03:47,676 To isolationists like Charles Lindbergh, 1110 01:03:47,700 --> 01:03:51,342 {\an1}the president and other unseen forces were taking 1111 01:03:51,366 --> 01:03:56,676 {\an1}another step toward U.S. involvement in the war. 1112 01:03:56,700 --> 01:03:58,676 {\an1}Lindbergh: The only reason that we are in danger 1113 01:03:58,700 --> 01:04:01,342 of becoming involved in this war is because 1114 01:04:01,366 --> 01:04:04,609 {\an1}there are powerful elements in America who desire 1115 01:04:04,633 --> 01:04:07,242 us to take part. 1116 01:04:07,266 --> 01:04:10,542 {\an1}They represent a small minority of the American people, 1117 01:04:10,566 --> 01:04:12,709 but they control much of the machinery 1118 01:04:12,733 --> 01:04:15,276 {\an1}of influence and propaganda. 1119 01:04:15,300 --> 01:04:18,242 They seize every opportunity to push us 1120 01:04:18,266 --> 01:04:20,709 closer to the edge. 1121 01:04:20,733 --> 01:04:23,276 It is time for the underlying character 1122 01:04:23,300 --> 01:04:26,242 {\an1}of this country to rise and assert itself, 1123 01:04:26,266 --> 01:04:29,342 {\an1}to strike down these elements of personal profit 1124 01:04:29,366 --> 01:04:30,900 and foreign interest. 1125 01:04:33,200 --> 01:04:35,876 {\an1}Narrator: A week later, battered British 1126 01:04:35,900 --> 01:04:38,909 and Belgian troops, along with what little was left 1127 01:04:38,933 --> 01:04:41,609 {\an1}of French forces, began fleeing 1128 01:04:41,633 --> 01:04:44,609 {\an1}across the English Channel from Dunkirk, 1129 01:04:44,633 --> 01:04:48,400 leaving behind tons of arms and materiel. 1130 01:04:51,600 --> 01:04:54,942 The United Kingdom now stood alone. 1131 01:04:54,966 --> 01:04:58,076 Many on both sides of the Atlantic agreed 1132 01:04:58,100 --> 01:04:59,942 with the assessment of Roosevelt's 1133 01:04:59,966 --> 01:05:04,676 ambassador in London Joseph P. Kennedy. 1134 01:05:04,700 --> 01:05:07,966 "Britain," he said, "is doomed." 1135 01:05:20,333 --> 01:05:22,642 {\an7}Susan: My brother and I, we were in one of the crowds 1136 01:05:22,666 --> 01:05:26,809 when the Germans came marching in, 1137 01:05:26,833 --> 01:05:31,976 {\an7}and all I knew is we had to hurry up and get away. 1138 01:05:32,000 --> 01:05:34,842 Narrator: Susan and Joseph Hilsenrath's parents 1139 01:05:34,866 --> 01:05:37,609 had arranged for them to be smuggled out of Germany 1140 01:05:37,633 --> 01:05:40,442 into France, where the children had endured 1141 01:05:40,466 --> 01:05:44,342 {\an1}a precarious sanctuary for 8 months. 1142 01:05:44,366 --> 01:05:48,809 {\an1}They hoped their parents had also gotten out of Germany. 1143 01:05:48,833 --> 01:05:51,509 {\an1}In fact, they had managed to get visas 1144 01:05:51,533 --> 01:05:53,509 {\an1}and make it to America, 1145 01:05:53,533 --> 01:05:55,842 first the father and then their mother 1146 01:05:55,866 --> 01:05:59,142 and baby brother several months later, 1147 01:05:59,166 --> 01:06:02,709 but Susan and Joseph weren't sure where they were 1148 01:06:02,733 --> 01:06:05,133 {\an1}or how they would be reunited. 1149 01:06:06,800 --> 01:06:09,576 They had lived with a young cousin in Paris, 1150 01:06:09,600 --> 01:06:12,242 then with a series of foster families 1151 01:06:12,266 --> 01:06:16,809 {\an1}until June 14 when the Germans had entered the city. 1152 01:06:16,833 --> 01:06:19,009 [Marching footsteps] 1153 01:06:19,033 --> 01:06:22,209 {\an1}Susan: Everybody was going on the bus, on bicycles 1154 01:06:22,233 --> 01:06:25,542 and cars and walking, trying to get out, 1155 01:06:25,566 --> 01:06:27,533 to get to Versailles. 1156 01:06:31,366 --> 01:06:34,042 All of these people marched to the... 1157 01:06:34,066 --> 01:06:36,509 To the palace, and the mayor of the town, 1158 01:06:36,533 --> 01:06:42,309 {\an1}he got the idea of giving everybody a burlap sack. 1159 01:06:42,333 --> 01:06:44,542 {\an1}They have these beautiful gardens in the back 1160 01:06:44,566 --> 01:06:46,742 of the palace, and way in the corner, 1161 01:06:46,766 --> 01:06:48,609 {\an1}they had a big haystack, 1162 01:06:48,633 --> 01:06:52,076 {\an1}and so all of the people took their burlap sack 1163 01:06:52,100 --> 01:06:54,909 {\an1}and filled it up with hay. 1164 01:06:54,933 --> 01:06:57,042 {\an1}Then we had a mattress. 1165 01:06:57,066 --> 01:07:00,176 We took our mattress, and we all walked 1166 01:07:00,200 --> 01:07:03,309 into the palace, and there's this beautiful room 1167 01:07:03,333 --> 01:07:05,909 {\an1}called the Hall of Mirrors, 1168 01:07:05,933 --> 01:07:08,366 {\an1}and we slept in the palace. 1169 01:07:10,133 --> 01:07:12,509 {\an1}For a few days, we were there, and everything 1170 01:07:12,533 --> 01:07:14,309 seemed to be fine, 1171 01:07:14,333 --> 01:07:17,876 {\an1}but then we heard that same sound of the marching. 1172 01:07:17,900 --> 01:07:20,442 We heard tanks, and we saw people going 1173 01:07:20,466 --> 01:07:22,942 on motorcycles, 1174 01:07:22,966 --> 01:07:26,609 {\an1}and there was a one car at the head of this caravan, 1175 01:07:26,633 --> 01:07:29,309 {\an1}and out came a German officer, 1176 01:07:29,333 --> 01:07:33,109 and he wanted to talk to the mayor of the town, 1177 01:07:33,133 --> 01:07:36,409 and he did not know how to speak any French, 1178 01:07:36,433 --> 01:07:39,576 {\an1}and the mayor of the town did not know how 1179 01:07:39,600 --> 01:07:41,909 to speak any German. 1180 01:07:41,933 --> 01:07:43,976 {\an1}So somebody in the crowd says, "Oh, there's 1181 01:07:44,000 --> 01:07:46,276 {\an1}"this girl who's in the palace, and she knows 1182 01:07:46,300 --> 01:07:48,442 how to speak German." 1183 01:07:48,466 --> 01:07:50,942 I was standing there, and I looked at this... 1184 01:07:50,966 --> 01:07:52,809 {\an1}at this German officer. 1185 01:07:52,833 --> 01:07:55,609 He was as tall as the ceiling, 1186 01:07:55,633 --> 01:07:59,276 and... and... and... And I was so afraid, 1187 01:07:59,300 --> 01:08:01,409 but at the end of the conversation, 1188 01:08:01,433 --> 01:08:04,009 the Nazi officer bent down to me, 1189 01:08:04,033 --> 01:08:05,909 {\an1}and he said, "Little girl, 1190 01:08:05,933 --> 01:08:09,842 {\an1}how come you know how to speak German so well?" 1191 01:08:09,866 --> 01:08:13,876 And I said to him, "The French schools 1192 01:08:13,900 --> 01:08:15,676 {\an1}"are really very good, and I learned 1193 01:08:15,700 --> 01:08:18,709 how to speak German in the French schools." 1194 01:08:18,733 --> 01:08:23,009 {\an1}And so he clicked his heels, and he shook my hand, 1195 01:08:23,033 --> 01:08:25,166 and he walked away. 1196 01:08:31,866 --> 01:08:33,976 {\an1}Narrator: With Hitler's conquest of Poland 1197 01:08:34,000 --> 01:08:36,342 and western Europe, President Roosevelt 1198 01:08:36,366 --> 01:08:39,876 {\an1}had understood that the ongoing refugee crisis 1199 01:08:39,900 --> 01:08:43,542 was sure to turn into a catastrophe. 1200 01:08:43,566 --> 01:08:47,509 {\an1}"It is not enough to indulge in horrified humanitarianism, 1201 01:08:47,533 --> 01:08:51,576 empty resolutions, and pious words," he said. 1202 01:08:51,600 --> 01:08:54,342 Safe havens had to be found quickly 1203 01:08:54,366 --> 01:08:57,142 {\an1}for these "desperate people." 1204 01:08:57,166 --> 01:08:59,842 Before war broke out, he had been unwilling 1205 01:08:59,866 --> 01:09:02,709 {\an1}to go against public opinion and call 1206 01:09:02,733 --> 01:09:06,409 {\an1}for American immigration quotas to be expanded, 1207 01:09:06,433 --> 01:09:09,409 {\an1}in part because he knew if he did so Congress 1208 01:09:09,433 --> 01:09:12,233 might well close them off altogether. 1209 01:09:13,733 --> 01:09:15,976 Behind the scenes, he had pressured 1210 01:09:16,000 --> 01:09:19,009 {\an1}Latin American countries into accepting 1211 01:09:19,033 --> 01:09:23,209 {\an1}some 40,000 Jews in flight from Hitler, 1212 01:09:23,233 --> 01:09:26,276 {\an1}but no other nations had proved any more welcoming 1213 01:09:26,300 --> 01:09:28,709 {\an1}to refugees than they had been 1214 01:09:28,733 --> 01:09:32,109 before the Second World War began, 1215 01:09:32,133 --> 01:09:35,576 {\an1}and now, Roosevelt and much of the American public 1216 01:09:35,600 --> 01:09:39,509 {\an1}had begun to view would-be immigrants differently, 1217 01:09:39,533 --> 01:09:42,776 not as victims but as potential threats 1218 01:09:42,800 --> 01:09:46,542 to the security of the United States. 1219 01:09:46,566 --> 01:09:47,842 {\an1}Man: You'd think from the number of spies 1220 01:09:47,866 --> 01:09:48,942 {\an1}they've been sending over here that 1221 01:09:48,966 --> 01:09:50,376 {\an1}we're at war with Germany. 1222 01:09:50,400 --> 01:09:51,377 It looks more as if Germany were 1223 01:09:51,401 --> 01:09:53,909 at war with us. 1224 01:09:53,933 --> 01:09:56,076 {\an1}Narrator: "Confessions of a Nazi Spy," 1225 01:09:56,100 --> 01:09:59,242 made by Warner Bros., the only movie company 1226 01:09:59,266 --> 01:10:01,076 {\an1}to have pulled out of Germany 1227 01:10:01,100 --> 01:10:03,942 {\an7}rather than do business with Hitler's regime, 1228 01:10:03,966 --> 01:10:07,576 {\an8}was the first overtly anti-Nazi film made 1229 01:10:07,600 --> 01:10:10,742 {\an7}by a major Hollywood studio. 1230 01:10:10,766 --> 01:10:13,209 {\an1}The movie was based loosely on the story 1231 01:10:13,233 --> 01:10:17,276 {\an1}of a real German spy ring broken up by the FBI, 1232 01:10:17,300 --> 01:10:21,409 {\an1}and it captured a growing sense of public panic. 1233 01:10:21,433 --> 01:10:24,042 The sudden terrifying swiftness 1234 01:10:24,066 --> 01:10:27,509 {\an1}with which the Western European democracies collapsed 1235 01:10:27,533 --> 01:10:30,842 {\an1}under Hitler's assault led many to assume 1236 01:10:30,866 --> 01:10:32,966 he must have had help from within. 1237 01:10:34,433 --> 01:10:37,442 {\an1}The American ambassador to France claimed the collapse 1238 01:10:37,466 --> 01:10:40,042 {\an1}of that country had been in part the work 1239 01:10:40,066 --> 01:10:43,542 of native Communists and Nazi agents, 1240 01:10:43,566 --> 01:10:45,209 {\an1}some of whom, he alleged, 1241 01:10:45,233 --> 01:10:49,409 {\an1}had entered the country as Jewish refugees. 1242 01:10:49,433 --> 01:10:52,909 {\an1}FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover said the bureau 1243 01:10:52,933 --> 01:10:55,609 {\an1}was now receiving 3,000 tips 1244 01:10:55,633 --> 01:10:58,409 {\an1}about possible espionage every day, 1245 01:10:58,433 --> 01:11:03,942 {\an1}and hired 150 more agents to seek out Nazi spies, 1246 01:11:03,966 --> 01:11:07,333 who were called Fifth Columnists. 1247 01:11:09,133 --> 01:11:11,042 {\an1}Martyn: And the government alleged just conspired 1248 01:11:11,066 --> 01:11:14,942 {\an1}to provide secret information to an unnamed foreign government. 1249 01:11:14,966 --> 01:11:17,709 {\an1}Lipstadt: A country can be attacked from 4 sides, 1250 01:11:17,733 --> 01:11:19,642 but there's actually a fifth side 1251 01:11:19,666 --> 01:11:21,676 {\an1}from which it can be attacked, and that's from within, 1252 01:11:21,700 --> 01:11:24,176 {\an1}if you have spies in your midst. 1253 01:11:24,200 --> 01:11:27,576 {\an1}There's a great fear that the Germans are sending over spies, 1254 01:11:27,600 --> 01:11:29,142 {\an8}and they were. 1255 01:11:29,166 --> 01:11:31,776 {\an7}There were spies for Germany. 1256 01:11:31,800 --> 01:11:37,942 {\an7}But the fear of spies intersects with the antisemitism. 1257 01:11:37,966 --> 01:11:41,009 {\an1}The fear of spies intersects with the anti-immigration, 1258 01:11:41,033 --> 01:11:43,676 {\an1}anti-refugee sentiment. 1259 01:11:43,700 --> 01:11:45,909 {\an1}Narrator: The "New York Herald Tribune," 1260 01:11:45,933 --> 01:11:49,009 {\an1}one of the most respected newspapers in America, 1261 01:11:49,033 --> 01:11:52,676 {\an1}claimed that 42 Nazi agents had supposedly 1262 01:11:52,700 --> 01:11:56,176 {\an1}been recruited from among German "half" Jews 1263 01:11:56,200 --> 01:11:59,109 and "quarter" Jews. 1264 01:11:59,133 --> 01:12:02,776 {\an1}The "Saturday Evening Post" charged that Nazi spies 1265 01:12:02,800 --> 01:12:08,209 {\an1}passing as refugees had infiltrated Europe and America. 1266 01:12:08,233 --> 01:12:11,342 {\an1}Less than 3% of Americans believed 1267 01:12:11,366 --> 01:12:14,966 {\an1}Washington was doing enough to combat subversion. 1268 01:12:16,633 --> 01:12:18,609 {\an1}In the summer of 1940, 1269 01:12:18,633 --> 01:12:22,576 {\an1}an Alien Registration Act sailed through Congress, 1270 01:12:22,600 --> 01:12:26,409 {\an1}requiring non-citizens over the age of 14 1271 01:12:26,433 --> 01:12:29,142 to be registered and fingerprinted 1272 01:12:29,166 --> 01:12:32,709 {\an1}and sharply curtailing their rights to free speech 1273 01:12:32,733 --> 01:12:35,742 {\an1}and political participation. 1274 01:12:35,766 --> 01:12:38,842 {\an1}"Something curious is happening to us in this country," 1275 01:12:38,866 --> 01:12:41,909 Eleanor Roosevelt wrote in her column, 1276 01:12:41,933 --> 01:12:44,042 {\an1}"and I think it is time we stopped 1277 01:12:44,066 --> 01:12:46,709 {\an1}"and took stock of ourselves. 1278 01:12:46,733 --> 01:12:50,542 {\an1}"Are we going to be swept away from our traditional attitude 1279 01:12:50,566 --> 01:12:54,866 {\an1}toward civil liberty by hysteria about 'Fifth Columnists'?" 1280 01:12:56,733 --> 01:12:58,542 {\an1}But the president told the press 1281 01:12:58,566 --> 01:13:01,742 that he had been told that in several countries 1282 01:13:01,766 --> 01:13:05,676 {\an1}Jewish refugees had become spies for the Germans, 1283 01:13:05,700 --> 01:13:08,276 {\an1}involuntary spies, he explained, 1284 01:13:08,300 --> 01:13:10,676 because if they didn't agree to spy, 1285 01:13:10,700 --> 01:13:13,342 the Nazi government back home had told them, 1286 01:13:13,366 --> 01:13:15,109 {\an1}"We are frightfully sorry, 1287 01:13:15,133 --> 01:13:17,342 "but your old father and old mother 1288 01:13:17,366 --> 01:13:20,076 {\an1}"will be taken out and shot. 1289 01:13:20,100 --> 01:13:22,809 {\an1}Of course," the President continued, 1290 01:13:22,833 --> 01:13:26,009 {\an1}"it applies to a very, very small percentage 1291 01:13:26,033 --> 01:13:29,309 of refugees coming out of Germany." 1292 01:13:29,333 --> 01:13:31,042 {\an1}Lipstadt: Of course, a refugee would be 1293 01:13:31,066 --> 01:13:32,942 {\an1}the worst person to be a spy. 1294 01:13:32,966 --> 01:13:35,709 {\an1}A refugee doesn't speak the language, 1295 01:13:35,733 --> 01:13:37,476 speaks the language with an accent. 1296 01:13:37,500 --> 01:13:40,609 {\an1}A refugee doesn't know the ways to work their self 1297 01:13:40,633 --> 01:13:42,709 {\an1}into the woodwork and not be noticeable. 1298 01:13:42,733 --> 01:13:46,442 {\an1}But nonetheless, there is this irrational fear. 1299 01:13:46,466 --> 01:13:48,776 {\an1}No one says a nation should let people in 1300 01:13:48,800 --> 01:13:52,276 that is going to harm it or weaken it, 1301 01:13:52,300 --> 01:13:55,242 but the evidence was nonexistent. 1302 01:13:55,266 --> 01:13:58,476 {\an1}Narrator: Assistant Secretary of State Breckinridge Long 1303 01:13:58,500 --> 01:14:01,742 {\an1}and many of his colleagues thought, without evidence, 1304 01:14:01,766 --> 01:14:05,809 {\an1}that Jewish refugees were especially dangerous. 1305 01:14:05,833 --> 01:14:10,542 A wealthy contributor to Roosevelt's first presidential campaign, 1306 01:14:10,566 --> 01:14:15,342 {\an1}Long had served for 3 years as FDR's ambassador to Italy 1307 01:14:15,366 --> 01:14:18,842 {\an1}and was semi-retired when Roosevelt called him back 1308 01:14:18,866 --> 01:14:23,076 {\an1}to government service to run the Visa Division. 1309 01:14:23,100 --> 01:14:25,809 {\an1}Hundreds of thousands of desperate people, 1310 01:14:25,833 --> 01:14:29,142 {\an1}most of them Jews, were already on the waiting list 1311 01:14:29,166 --> 01:14:31,209 for American visas, 1312 01:14:31,233 --> 01:14:34,176 {\an1}and more were lining up every day. 1313 01:14:34,200 --> 01:14:37,042 Long was unmoved. 1314 01:14:37,066 --> 01:14:40,709 {\an1}To him, every train or ship carrying Jews 1315 01:14:40,733 --> 01:14:44,176 {\an1}out of Nazi Europe represented what he called, 1316 01:14:44,200 --> 01:14:48,142 {\an1}"a perfect opening for Germany to load the United States 1317 01:14:48,166 --> 01:14:50,309 with Nazi agents." 1318 01:14:50,333 --> 01:14:53,609 {\an1}Long's goal, he confided to his diary, 1319 01:14:53,633 --> 01:14:57,509 was "practically stopping immigration." 1320 01:14:57,533 --> 01:15:01,742 {\an1}Lipstadt: Breckinridge Long is working every which way 1321 01:15:01,766 --> 01:15:05,876 {\an1}to prevent Jews from coming into this country. 1322 01:15:05,900 --> 01:15:08,709 When people are desperate to get out, 1323 01:15:08,733 --> 01:15:12,742 {\an1}he is amongst those helping to create the barriers. 1324 01:15:12,766 --> 01:15:16,376 {\an1}Narrator: Long especially loathed Rabbi Stephen Wise, 1325 01:15:16,400 --> 01:15:18,809 {\an1}whom he found sanctimonious, 1326 01:15:18,833 --> 01:15:22,909 {\an1}because he spoke so often of the courage of men and women 1327 01:15:22,933 --> 01:15:25,809 fleeing from torture by dictators. 1328 01:15:25,833 --> 01:15:30,409 {\an1}"Only an infinitesimal fraction are of that category," 1329 01:15:30,433 --> 01:15:32,966 {\an1}Long noted in his diary. 1330 01:15:34,366 --> 01:15:36,376 Greene: One of the lessons of this history 1331 01:15:36,400 --> 01:15:38,842 is something else was always more important 1332 01:15:38,866 --> 01:15:42,576 for the Americans than aiding Jews. 1333 01:15:42,600 --> 01:15:48,209 {\an7}But we see some Americans who don't respond that way. 1334 01:15:48,233 --> 01:15:51,576 {\an1}Woman: If I'd been a man, I would have joined the Navy 1335 01:15:51,600 --> 01:15:55,409 and seen the world, but since I was a woman, 1336 01:15:55,433 --> 01:15:59,042 {\an1}I joined the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. 1337 01:15:59,066 --> 01:16:01,576 Laura Margolis. 1338 01:16:01,600 --> 01:16:03,809 {\an1}Narrator: While official American policy 1339 01:16:03,833 --> 01:16:06,376 remained rigid and restricted, 1340 01:16:06,400 --> 01:16:08,876 individual women and men working 1341 01:16:08,900 --> 01:16:11,609 for dozens of Jewish organizations, 1342 01:16:11,633 --> 01:16:14,442 {\an1}including the National Refugee Service 1343 01:16:14,466 --> 01:16:16,876 and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, 1344 01:16:16,900 --> 01:16:18,509 did all they could, 1345 01:16:18,533 --> 01:16:22,142 {\an1}wherever in the world they could, to help. 1346 01:16:22,166 --> 01:16:25,476 They would coordinate loans, legal counsel, 1347 01:16:25,500 --> 01:16:29,309 {\an1}ocean liner tickets, and jobs for newcomers. 1348 01:16:29,333 --> 01:16:34,342 {\an1}Without their help, tens of thousands of Jewish refugees 1349 01:16:34,366 --> 01:16:37,809 {\an1}would never have made it to America. 1350 01:16:37,833 --> 01:16:40,742 {\an1}They worked alongside other committed Americans 1351 01:16:40,766 --> 01:16:44,509 {\an1}from the YMCA, the Unitarian Service Committee, 1352 01:16:44,533 --> 01:16:48,476 and the American Friends Service Committee. 1353 01:16:48,500 --> 01:16:50,842 {\an1}By the summer of 1940, 1354 01:16:50,866 --> 01:16:53,976 {\an1}the focus of their relief and rescue operations 1355 01:16:54,000 --> 01:16:55,833 {\an1}was in southern France. 1356 01:16:58,000 --> 01:17:00,276 Germany occupied only the western 1357 01:17:00,300 --> 01:17:02,709 {\an1}and northern regions of France. 1358 01:17:02,733 --> 01:17:05,876 The south was left in the hands of a collaborationist 1359 01:17:05,900 --> 01:17:10,276 French government with headquarters at Vichy. 1360 01:17:10,300 --> 01:17:15,209 Some 50,000 refugees from 42 countries were interned 1361 01:17:15,233 --> 01:17:20,076 in 93 squalid, overcrowded camps. 1362 01:17:20,100 --> 01:17:23,209 {\an1}Tens of thousands more remained free, 1363 01:17:23,233 --> 01:17:26,442 {\an1}trying to keep one step ahead of the French police, 1364 01:17:26,466 --> 01:17:28,376 {\an1}who were required to hand over 1365 01:17:28,400 --> 01:17:32,376 any refugees the Germans demanded. 1366 01:17:32,400 --> 01:17:35,742 {\an1}Scores of eminent artists and intellectuals 1367 01:17:35,766 --> 01:17:38,533 were thought to be in immediate danger. 1368 01:17:40,366 --> 01:17:43,509 {\an1}To help, a group of prominent writers in New York 1369 01:17:43,533 --> 01:17:46,576 {\an1}formed the Emergency Rescue Committee. 1370 01:17:46,600 --> 01:17:50,209 {\an1}Eleanor Roosevelt talked her husband into asking 1371 01:17:50,233 --> 01:17:53,909 {\an1}the reluctant State Department to issue a limited number 1372 01:17:53,933 --> 01:17:57,709 {\an1}of emergency visitor's visas. 1373 01:17:57,733 --> 01:18:00,242 {\an1}Man: I remembered what I had seen in Germany. 1374 01:18:00,266 --> 01:18:02,742 {\an1}I knew what would happen to the refugees 1375 01:18:02,766 --> 01:18:05,276 {\an1}if the Gestapo got hold of them. 1376 01:18:05,300 --> 01:18:08,276 {\an1}I could not remain idle as long as I had any chance at all 1377 01:18:08,300 --> 01:18:11,676 of saving even a few of its intended victims. 1378 01:18:11,700 --> 01:18:14,409 {\an1}It was my duty to help them. 1379 01:18:14,433 --> 01:18:16,276 Varian Fry. 1380 01:18:16,300 --> 01:18:18,842 ♪ 1381 01:18:18,866 --> 01:18:21,809 Narrator: Varian Fry, a 32-year-old writer 1382 01:18:21,833 --> 01:18:24,509 and member of the Emergency Rescue Committee, 1383 01:18:24,533 --> 01:18:29,176 {\an1}volunteered to go to France and try to get the refugees out. 1384 01:18:29,200 --> 01:18:32,009 He was every inch the Harvard-educated 1385 01:18:32,033 --> 01:18:34,576 {\an1}intellectual he appeared to be, 1386 01:18:34,600 --> 01:18:38,942 {\an1}but as a foreign correspondent visiting Germany 5 years earlier, 1387 01:18:38,966 --> 01:18:42,142 {\an1}he'd witnessed attacks on Jews that left him 1388 01:18:42,166 --> 01:18:46,009 {\an1}with a visceral loathing for the Nazis. 1389 01:18:46,033 --> 01:18:49,842 {\an1}He arrived in Marseille on August 15, 1940, 1390 01:18:49,866 --> 01:18:53,609 with $3,000 in cash strapped to his leg 1391 01:18:53,633 --> 01:18:57,409 and a list of 200 distinguished women and men 1392 01:18:57,433 --> 01:19:00,800 {\an1}thought to be somewhere in Vichy, France. 1393 01:19:02,400 --> 01:19:05,376 {\an1}Man as Fry: It is the non-French refugees among whom 1394 01:19:05,400 --> 01:19:07,709 {\an1}one finds the greatest misery. 1395 01:19:07,733 --> 01:19:12,442 {\an1}They are being crushed in one of the most gigantic vises in history. 1396 01:19:12,466 --> 01:19:15,476 {\an1}They have literally been condemned to death here, 1397 01:19:15,500 --> 01:19:19,342 {\an1}or at best to confinement in detention camps, 1398 01:19:19,366 --> 01:19:21,566 a fate little better than death. 1399 01:19:23,700 --> 01:19:27,042 {\an1}Narrator: He took room 307 at the Hotel Splendide 1400 01:19:27,066 --> 01:19:28,809 and went to work. 1401 01:19:28,833 --> 01:19:31,376 {\an1}News quickly spread that an American 1402 01:19:31,400 --> 01:19:33,276 {\an1}with visas had arrived. 1403 01:19:33,300 --> 01:19:36,309 Refugees knocked at his door at all hours, 1404 01:19:36,333 --> 01:19:39,309 filled the hallways, and lined the stairs. 1405 01:19:39,333 --> 01:19:44,209 {\an1}25 letters a day turned up for him at the reception desk. 1406 01:19:44,233 --> 01:19:47,142 The telephone rarely stopped ringing. 1407 01:19:47,166 --> 01:19:50,209 [Telephone ringing] 1408 01:19:50,233 --> 01:19:54,176 {\an1}The American Vice Consul in Marseilles Hiram Bingham Jr. 1409 01:19:54,200 --> 01:19:55,942 {\an1}and some of his colleagues 1410 01:19:55,966 --> 01:19:58,676 {\an1}were happy to help whenever they could. 1411 01:19:58,700 --> 01:20:02,009 Bingham was the son of a senator from Connecticut. 1412 01:20:02,033 --> 01:20:05,642 {\an1}His Groton classmates had called him "Righteous Bingham" 1413 01:20:05,666 --> 01:20:08,042 for his earnestness. 1414 01:20:08,066 --> 01:20:11,842 {\an1}He, too, had seen Nazi brutality first-hand, 1415 01:20:11,866 --> 01:20:14,509 {\an1}and he believed it his duty to obtain 1416 01:20:14,533 --> 01:20:18,676 {\an1}"as many visas as I could for as many people," 1417 01:20:18,700 --> 01:20:21,742 {\an1}and was sometimes willing to break the rules. 1418 01:20:21,766 --> 01:20:24,976 {\an1}He allowed the fugitive German Jewish novelist 1419 01:20:25,000 --> 01:20:28,142 {\an1}Lion Feuchtwanger to hide in his villa 1420 01:20:28,166 --> 01:20:31,676 {\an1}and then cooperated in smuggling him out of the country 1421 01:20:31,700 --> 01:20:33,676 {\an1}with Reverend Waitstill Sharp, 1422 01:20:33,700 --> 01:20:39,376 {\an1}a veteran rescue worker for the Unitarian Service Committee. 1423 01:20:39,400 --> 01:20:43,009 {\an1}In order to emigrate to the United States from Vichy, 1424 01:20:43,033 --> 01:20:47,242 each refugee required an American immigration visa, 1425 01:20:47,266 --> 01:20:50,476 {\an1}visas for neutral Portugal and Spain, 1426 01:20:50,500 --> 01:20:52,909 {\an1}a steamship ticket from Lisbon, 1427 01:20:52,933 --> 01:20:55,533 {\an1}and an exit visa from France. 1428 01:20:56,866 --> 01:20:59,009 {\an1}Each took time to obtain 1429 01:20:59,033 --> 01:21:01,676 and each had an expiration date. 1430 01:21:01,700 --> 01:21:04,776 {\an1}By the time the last document was procured, 1431 01:21:04,800 --> 01:21:07,042 {\an1}another had often expired, 1432 01:21:07,066 --> 01:21:11,866 requiring the whole laborious process to begin all over again. 1433 01:21:13,800 --> 01:21:15,576 {\an1}To get around this system, 1434 01:21:15,600 --> 01:21:18,442 Varian Fry helped to smuggle refugees 1435 01:21:18,466 --> 01:21:22,042 across the Pyrenees into Spain. 1436 01:21:22,066 --> 01:21:25,709 He assembled a staff of 46 volunteers 1437 01:21:25,733 --> 01:21:29,742 {\an1}that included refugees, young American men and women, 1438 01:21:29,766 --> 01:21:33,509 a French gendarme, and a Viennese cartoonist 1439 01:21:33,533 --> 01:21:35,542 {\an1}who proved an adept forger 1440 01:21:35,566 --> 01:21:38,776 of documents and official stamps. 1441 01:21:38,800 --> 01:21:42,909 {\an1}Fry worked closely with American Jewish organizations 1442 01:21:42,933 --> 01:21:47,242 {\an1}that provided crucial financial support from Portugal 1443 01:21:47,266 --> 01:21:50,542 {\an1}and with sympathetic diplomats from other countries... 1444 01:21:50,566 --> 01:21:53,776 {\an1}Mexican, Brazilian, Siamese, 1445 01:21:53,800 --> 01:21:57,242 {\an1}and an especially empathetic Chinese consul, 1446 01:21:57,266 --> 01:22:00,242 {\an1}whose formal-looking documents in Mandarin 1447 01:22:00,266 --> 01:22:02,509 were rarely challenged at the border 1448 01:22:02,533 --> 01:22:05,409 {\an1}because neither French nor German officials 1449 01:22:05,433 --> 01:22:07,842 could read them. 1450 01:22:07,866 --> 01:22:11,409 {\an1}Man as Fry: It's stimulating to be outside the law. 1451 01:22:11,433 --> 01:22:15,476 {\an1}The experiences of 10, 15, and even 20 years 1452 01:22:15,500 --> 01:22:17,876 {\an1}have been pressed into one. 1453 01:22:17,900 --> 01:22:22,466 {\an1}Sometimes I feel as if I had lived my whole life. 1454 01:22:25,000 --> 01:22:27,276 {\an1}Narrator: Reports of what Fry was up to 1455 01:22:27,300 --> 01:22:29,609 {\an1}eventually reached Washington. 1456 01:22:29,633 --> 01:22:33,176 {\an1}Secretary of State Cordell Hull himself cabled 1457 01:22:33,200 --> 01:22:35,309 {\an1}the Marseille consulate that 1458 01:22:35,333 --> 01:22:38,876 {\an1}"This Government cannot... Repeat cannot... 1459 01:22:38,900 --> 01:22:43,309 {\an1}"countenance the activities of Mr. Fry and other persons, 1460 01:22:43,333 --> 01:22:47,209 however well-meaning their motives may be." 1461 01:22:47,233 --> 01:22:50,976 {\an1}The State Department tried to force Fry out of France, 1462 01:22:51,000 --> 01:22:53,776 {\an1}but he somehow managed to remain in Marseille 1463 01:22:53,800 --> 01:22:55,709 for another 7 months 1464 01:22:55,733 --> 01:23:00,000 {\an1}until Vichy police escorted him out of the country. 1465 01:23:03,700 --> 01:23:07,509 {\an1}Together, Fry and Bingham, whom Fry remembered 1466 01:23:07,533 --> 01:23:11,142 {\an1}as his "partner in the crime of saving lives," 1467 01:23:11,166 --> 01:23:12,709 {\an1}are thought to have rescued 1468 01:23:12,733 --> 01:23:15,966 at least 2,000 people from the Nazis. 1469 01:23:18,166 --> 01:23:20,309 {\an1}Some were the celebrated people Fry 1470 01:23:20,333 --> 01:23:22,776 {\an1}had been sent to save, 1471 01:23:22,800 --> 01:23:26,642 {\an1}including the harpsichordist Wanda Landowska, 1472 01:23:26,666 --> 01:23:29,309 {\an1}the film director Max Ophuls, 1473 01:23:29,333 --> 01:23:31,776 {\an1}the sculptor Jacques Lipschitz, 1474 01:23:31,800 --> 01:23:34,042 {\an1}the philosopher Hannah Arendt, 1475 01:23:34,066 --> 01:23:38,976 {\an1}and the artists Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, 1476 01:23:39,000 --> 01:23:41,000 and Marc Chagall. 1477 01:23:42,333 --> 01:23:45,642 {\an1}But also among them were hundreds of men, 1478 01:23:45,666 --> 01:23:49,442 women, and children who were not well-known, 1479 01:23:49,466 --> 01:23:52,933 just human beings in need of help. 1480 01:23:56,866 --> 01:23:59,033 [Air raid siren] 1481 01:24:01,800 --> 01:24:04,442 {\an1}Murrow: Hello, America, this is Edward Murrow 1482 01:24:04,466 --> 01:24:06,509 speaking from London. 1483 01:24:06,533 --> 01:24:08,709 {\an1}There were more German planes over the coast of Britain today 1484 01:24:08,733 --> 01:24:10,900 {\an1}than at any time since the war began. 1485 01:24:13,900 --> 01:24:15,409 {\an1}Anti-aircraft guns were... 1486 01:24:15,433 --> 01:24:17,576 {\an1}Narrator: In the summer and fall of 1940, 1487 01:24:17,600 --> 01:24:22,609 {\an1}as Britain was under relentless attack from German bombs, 1488 01:24:22,633 --> 01:24:27,742 {\an1}President Roosevelt ran for an unprecedented third term. 1489 01:24:27,766 --> 01:24:30,376 {\an1}He would have to persuade voters that, 1490 01:24:30,400 --> 01:24:33,409 {\an1}while he opposed American entry into the war, 1491 01:24:33,433 --> 01:24:36,409 he also needed to provide aid to Britain, 1492 01:24:36,433 --> 01:24:39,776 {\an1}as the last, best hope of defeating Hitler, 1493 01:24:39,800 --> 01:24:41,809 and to ready the United States 1494 01:24:41,833 --> 01:24:44,500 {\an1}for conflict if it came, as well. 1495 01:24:45,666 --> 01:24:48,209 {\an1}On September 16, 1940, 1496 01:24:48,233 --> 01:24:51,876 he signed into law the first peacetime draft 1497 01:24:51,900 --> 01:24:54,242 {\an1}in the history of the country. 1498 01:24:54,266 --> 01:24:56,942 {\an1}Roosevelt: To the 16 million young men 1499 01:24:56,966 --> 01:24:58,576 {\an1}who will register today, 1500 01:24:58,600 --> 01:25:03,209 I say that democracy is your cause, 1501 01:25:03,233 --> 01:25:05,400 the cause of youth. 1502 01:25:07,000 --> 01:25:08,676 Narrator: The odds against the democracies 1503 01:25:08,700 --> 01:25:10,676 {\an1}had lengthened further. 1504 01:25:10,700 --> 01:25:14,809 {\an1}Germany was now allied with fascist Italy in Europe 1505 01:25:14,833 --> 01:25:21,076 and Imperial Japan in Asia... the Axis. 1506 01:25:21,100 --> 01:25:24,309 {\an1}Roosevelt's Republican opponent Wendell Willkie, 1507 01:25:24,333 --> 01:25:27,709 {\an1}nominated just a few days after France fell, 1508 01:25:27,733 --> 01:25:31,842 {\an1}shared Roosevelt's belief that Britain had to be helped. 1509 01:25:31,866 --> 01:25:36,309 {\an1}Now, so did nearly 3/4 of the American people. 1510 01:25:36,333 --> 01:25:40,033 {\an1}Public opinion was slowly beginning to change. 1511 01:25:41,666 --> 01:25:44,809 {\an1}But soon after Roosevelt agreed to provide Britain 1512 01:25:44,833 --> 01:25:47,309 {\an1}with 50 old destroyers, 1513 01:25:47,333 --> 01:25:50,376 {\an1}Charles Lindbergh became the chief spokesman 1514 01:25:50,400 --> 01:25:53,509 {\an1}for a new isolationist organization 1515 01:25:53,533 --> 01:25:57,142 {\an1}dedicated to keeping America out of the war... 1516 01:25:57,166 --> 01:25:59,842 {\an1}the America First Committee. 1517 01:25:59,866 --> 01:26:02,442 {\an1}Lindbergh: France has now been defeated, 1518 01:26:02,466 --> 01:26:07,042 {\an1}and despite the propaganda and confusion of recent months, 1519 01:26:07,066 --> 01:26:11,176 {\an1}it is now obvious that England is losing the war. 1520 01:26:11,200 --> 01:26:12,876 I believe... 1521 01:26:12,900 --> 01:26:15,466 {\an1}[Cheering and applause] 1522 01:26:17,700 --> 01:26:20,576 And I have been forced to the conclusion 1523 01:26:20,600 --> 01:26:23,409 that we cannot win this war for England 1524 01:26:23,433 --> 01:26:26,742 {\an1}regardless of how much assistance we send. 1525 01:26:26,766 --> 01:26:31,476 {\an1}That is why the America First Committee has been formed. 1526 01:26:31,500 --> 01:26:34,109 {\an1}Narrator: It was founded by a handful of students 1527 01:26:34,133 --> 01:26:36,242 {\an1}at the Yale Law School 1528 01:26:36,266 --> 01:26:38,276 {\an1}and run by a National Committee 1529 01:26:38,300 --> 01:26:42,576 {\an1}that at various times included General Robert E. Wood, 1530 01:26:42,600 --> 01:26:45,109 chairman of the board of Sears Roebuck, 1531 01:26:45,133 --> 01:26:47,709 {\an1}the head of the United States Olympic Committee 1532 01:26:47,733 --> 01:26:49,576 Avery Brundage, 1533 01:26:49,600 --> 01:26:52,309 the automobile magnate Henry Ford, 1534 01:26:52,333 --> 01:26:55,409 World War I ace Eddie Rickenbacker, 1535 01:26:55,433 --> 01:26:59,042 {\an1}Lillian Gish, the star of "Birth of a Nation," 1536 01:26:59,066 --> 01:27:01,109 {\an1}and Theodore Roosevelt's daughter 1537 01:27:01,133 --> 01:27:04,709 {\an1}Alice Roosevelt Longworth. 1538 01:27:04,733 --> 01:27:08,176 {\an1}The Committee soon had some 800,000 members 1539 01:27:08,200 --> 01:27:12,109 {\an1}in 450 chapters all across the country, 1540 01:27:12,133 --> 01:27:14,809 the largest anti-war organization 1541 01:27:14,833 --> 01:27:17,300 in the history of the United States. 1542 01:27:19,066 --> 01:27:20,976 {\an1}Despite the opposition, 1543 01:27:21,000 --> 01:27:24,142 FDR was reelected to a third term 1544 01:27:24,166 --> 01:27:27,809 and soon proposed a Lend-Lease bill, 1545 01:27:27,833 --> 01:27:30,842 {\an1}allowing him to supply Britain with more 1546 01:27:30,866 --> 01:27:35,509 {\an1}desperately-needed military and naval supplies. 1547 01:27:35,533 --> 01:27:40,742 {\an1}Roosevelt: I ask this Congress for authority and for funds 1548 01:27:40,766 --> 01:27:44,442 {\an1}sufficient to manufacture additional munitions 1549 01:27:44,466 --> 01:27:47,142 {\an1}and war supplies of many kinds 1550 01:27:47,166 --> 01:27:49,776 to be turned over to those nations 1551 01:27:49,800 --> 01:27:53,142 {\an1}which are now in actual war 1552 01:27:53,166 --> 01:27:56,176 {\an1}with aggressor nations. 1553 01:27:56,200 --> 01:28:01,009 {\an1}Narrator: The bill was designated HR 1776 1554 01:28:01,033 --> 01:28:05,509 {\an1}in hope that voters would see its passage as patriotic. 1555 01:28:05,533 --> 01:28:09,066 Isolationists called it the dictator bill. 1556 01:28:10,433 --> 01:28:13,309 Charles Lindbergh testified against it. 1557 01:28:13,333 --> 01:28:16,709 {\an1}He favored neither a British nor a German victory, 1558 01:28:16,733 --> 01:28:20,342 {\an1}he said, and warned that U.S. entry into the war 1559 01:28:20,366 --> 01:28:22,709 {\an1}would be "the greatest disaster this country 1560 01:28:22,733 --> 01:28:24,709 {\an1}has ever gone through." 1561 01:28:24,733 --> 01:28:28,409 FDR denounced him as an appeaser. 1562 01:28:28,433 --> 01:28:31,776 {\an1}Isolationist and antisemitic groups now flooded 1563 01:28:31,800 --> 01:28:35,409 {\an1}the halls of the Capitol to oppose the new bill, 1564 01:28:35,433 --> 01:28:39,209 {\an1}including black-clad members of a self-proclaimed 1565 01:28:39,233 --> 01:28:42,376 {\an1}"Mothers' Movement" who cursed legislators 1566 01:28:42,400 --> 01:28:45,376 and insisted that Jews were behind 1567 01:28:45,400 --> 01:28:49,333 {\an1}what they believed to be Roosevelt's rush toward war. 1568 01:28:51,400 --> 01:28:54,709 Lipstadt: It's not just something that is hypothetical. 1569 01:28:54,733 --> 01:28:56,676 England can fall. 1570 01:28:56,700 --> 01:28:59,876 {\an7}Hitler will take over all of the European continent. 1571 01:28:59,900 --> 01:29:03,942 {\an7}And America First fails to see the danger 1572 01:29:03,966 --> 01:29:06,142 {\an7}to the world at large. 1573 01:29:06,166 --> 01:29:09,176 {\an1}Tyrants will go as far as you allow them to go. 1574 01:29:09,200 --> 01:29:11,142 They're always testing the waters. 1575 01:29:11,166 --> 01:29:14,309 {\an8}Can I go further? Can I push stronger? 1576 01:29:14,333 --> 01:29:17,009 {\an8}And the America First and the isolationists 1577 01:29:17,033 --> 01:29:19,033 {\an1}refuse to acknowledge that. 1578 01:29:20,833 --> 01:29:25,442 Narrator: In the end, the Lend-Lease bill passed. 1579 01:29:25,466 --> 01:29:27,342 Newsreel announcer: Guns and munitions of all sorts 1580 01:29:27,366 --> 01:29:30,342 pour into Britain as almost hourly convoys 1581 01:29:30,366 --> 01:29:32,976 from the States bring their precious cargos. 1582 01:29:33,000 --> 01:29:35,776 {\an1}The original $7 billion of lend-lease aid 1583 01:29:35,800 --> 01:29:37,709 {\an1}has already been allocated. 1584 01:29:37,733 --> 01:29:40,709 {\an1}Now Congress studies final passage of another 6 billion, 1585 01:29:40,733 --> 01:29:43,209 and Britain studies invading the continent 1586 01:29:43,233 --> 01:29:46,966 {\an1}with arms made in the U.S.A. 1587 01:29:50,600 --> 01:29:53,942 {\an1}Messinger: When the German invasion was over, 1588 01:29:53,966 --> 01:29:56,576 {\an1}we were glad we were in Vichy, France, 1589 01:29:56,600 --> 01:29:59,166 not under the control of the Germans. 1590 01:30:00,800 --> 01:30:02,909 {\an8}There was still an American embassy there. 1591 01:30:02,933 --> 01:30:04,476 {\an7}My father could go there 1592 01:30:04,500 --> 01:30:07,000 {\an7}and pursue our visa to the United States. 1593 01:30:08,166 --> 01:30:10,609 {\an1}Narrator: Sol Messinger and his parents, 1594 01:30:10,633 --> 01:30:14,742 {\an1}having been turned away from Cuba on the St. Louis, 1595 01:30:14,766 --> 01:30:17,442 {\an1}had now managed to escape from Belgium 1596 01:30:17,466 --> 01:30:20,576 {\an1}after the Germans invaded. 1597 01:30:20,600 --> 01:30:25,809 {\an1}They made it to a small village in Vichy, France... Savignac. 1598 01:30:25,833 --> 01:30:29,109 {\an1}But after a few months, they were arrested 1599 01:30:29,133 --> 01:30:32,442 and put in a French internment camp. 1600 01:30:32,466 --> 01:30:35,742 Messinger: My father found out that there was an underground, 1601 01:30:35,766 --> 01:30:38,109 {\an1}which helped people to escape, 1602 01:30:38,133 --> 01:30:41,576 {\an1}so we planned to escape. 1603 01:30:41,600 --> 01:30:46,309 My mother and I, it was Christmas Eve, 1604 01:30:46,333 --> 01:30:48,909 {\an1}and the French soldiers were drunk, 1605 01:30:48,933 --> 01:30:52,576 {\an1}and we simply walked past the French soldiers. 1606 01:30:52,600 --> 01:30:54,100 [Train whistle blows] 1607 01:30:57,966 --> 01:31:01,442 {\an1}We had decided we would go back to Savignac. 1608 01:31:01,466 --> 01:31:05,209 {\an1}It's the only place that we knew in France. 1609 01:31:05,233 --> 01:31:08,909 So we got on a train. 1610 01:31:08,933 --> 01:31:10,842 Of course, you were not allowed 1611 01:31:10,866 --> 01:31:14,542 to be on a train without papers. 1612 01:31:14,566 --> 01:31:17,666 {\an1}Fortunately, nobody asked us for our papers. 1613 01:31:19,866 --> 01:31:23,342 But my father was still in the camp. 1614 01:31:23,366 --> 01:31:26,742 On New Year's Day, we were standing outside, 1615 01:31:26,766 --> 01:31:30,509 {\an1}and in the distance we saw 4 men walking towards us, 1616 01:31:30,533 --> 01:31:33,009 {\an1}one of whom was my father. 1617 01:31:33,033 --> 01:31:35,309 He had escaped, 1618 01:31:35,333 --> 01:31:37,566 {\an1}so we were reunited again. 1619 01:31:39,800 --> 01:31:43,266 {\an1}It was just incredibly lucky. 1620 01:31:45,533 --> 01:31:47,500 {\an8}[Trolley clangs] 1621 01:31:50,500 --> 01:31:54,509 {\an1}Narrator: Otto Frank was ordinarily a cautious man, 1622 01:31:54,533 --> 01:31:58,342 {\an1}content to keep a low profile and go about his business 1623 01:31:58,366 --> 01:32:00,933 {\an1}in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. 1624 01:32:02,866 --> 01:32:06,742 {\an1}But one day, he made an uncharacteristically incautious remark 1625 01:32:06,766 --> 01:32:11,209 {\an1}to a Gentile employee's husband whom he didn't know well. 1626 01:32:11,233 --> 01:32:13,242 {\an1}When the man expressed confidence 1627 01:32:13,266 --> 01:32:15,576 that Germany would win the war soon, 1628 01:32:15,600 --> 01:32:18,576 Frank had disagreed. 1629 01:32:18,600 --> 01:32:21,276 {\an1}The man turned out to be a Nazi sympathizer 1630 01:32:21,300 --> 01:32:25,609 who wrote a letter to the Gestapo denouncing Frank. 1631 01:32:25,633 --> 01:32:29,276 {\an1}A member of the Dutch fascist party intercepted the letter 1632 01:32:29,300 --> 01:32:32,509 {\an1}and demanded money to keep quiet about it. 1633 01:32:32,533 --> 01:32:35,609 {\an1}Now, subject to blackmail and fearful 1634 01:32:35,633 --> 01:32:37,276 {\an1}that the Germans would come for him 1635 01:32:37,300 --> 01:32:39,742 {\an1}and his family at any time, 1636 01:32:39,766 --> 01:32:44,076 {\an1}Otto Frank stepped up his efforts to try to get to the United States, 1637 01:32:44,100 --> 01:32:46,942 despite the fact that his visa application 1638 01:32:46,966 --> 01:32:50,709 had been destroyed in the bombing of Rotterdam. 1639 01:32:50,733 --> 01:32:55,776 {\an1}In desperation, Frank turned to an old friend... Charley Straus. 1640 01:32:55,800 --> 01:32:58,142 {\an1}Straus knew the Roosevelts, 1641 01:32:58,166 --> 01:33:01,576 {\an1}was the administrator of the Federal Housing Authority, 1642 01:33:01,600 --> 01:33:04,209 {\an1}and his father had been a co-owner 1643 01:33:04,233 --> 01:33:06,366 {\an1}of Macy's department store. 1644 01:33:08,166 --> 01:33:11,509 Man: April 30, 1941. 1645 01:33:11,533 --> 01:33:14,476 {\an1}Perhaps you remember that we have two girls. 1646 01:33:14,500 --> 01:33:16,676 It is for the sake of the children mainly 1647 01:33:16,700 --> 01:33:18,276 {\an1}that we have to care for. 1648 01:33:18,300 --> 01:33:21,976 {\an1}Our own fate is of less importance. 1649 01:33:22,000 --> 01:33:27,809 {\an1}The consul asks a bank deposit of about $5,000 for us 4. 1650 01:33:27,833 --> 01:33:31,842 {\an1}You are the only person I know that I can ask. 1651 01:33:31,866 --> 01:33:35,876 {\an1}Would it be possible for you to give a deposit in my favor? 1652 01:33:35,900 --> 01:33:38,442 {\an1}Who can tell if there is still a chance to leave Europe 1653 01:33:38,466 --> 01:33:41,042 by the time this letter is going to arrive? 1654 01:33:41,066 --> 01:33:44,576 {\an1}I am still indebted to you, and I shall always be. 1655 01:33:44,600 --> 01:33:46,833 As ever, Yours, Otto. 1656 01:33:49,533 --> 01:33:53,609 {\an1}Narrator: Straus and his wife agreed to put up the money, 1657 01:33:53,633 --> 01:33:58,642 {\an1}but by that time the State Department had changed its rules. 1658 01:33:58,666 --> 01:34:01,642 Consulates had been ordered to deny a visa 1659 01:34:01,666 --> 01:34:04,709 {\an1}to anyone with close relatives in Germany 1660 01:34:04,733 --> 01:34:08,642 {\an1}or any of the countries it had annexed or occupied 1661 01:34:08,666 --> 01:34:11,676 {\an1}out of fear of foreign agents. 1662 01:34:11,700 --> 01:34:15,642 {\an7}Greene: In 1941, you see a series of rule changes 1663 01:34:15,666 --> 01:34:19,209 {\an7}that are designed to make it even harder 1664 01:34:19,233 --> 01:34:21,409 {\an1}for refugees to get in. 1665 01:34:21,433 --> 01:34:22,976 It's not only that it's complicated 1666 01:34:23,000 --> 01:34:24,576 {\an1}to line up the paperwork, 1667 01:34:24,600 --> 01:34:27,466 {\an1}the State Department is moving the bar on them. 1668 01:34:29,100 --> 01:34:32,642 {\an1}Man: If I had my way, I would today build a wall 1669 01:34:32,666 --> 01:34:36,876 {\an1}about the United States so high and so secure 1670 01:34:36,900 --> 01:34:40,142 {\an1}that not a single alien or foreign refugee 1671 01:34:40,166 --> 01:34:42,642 from any country upon the face of this earth 1672 01:34:42,666 --> 01:34:45,233 could possibly scale or ascend it. 1673 01:34:46,600 --> 01:34:49,876 {\an1}Senator Robert Reynolds. 1674 01:34:49,900 --> 01:34:51,576 Narrator: Senator Robert Reynolds 1675 01:34:51,600 --> 01:34:53,376 of North Carolina, 1676 01:34:53,400 --> 01:34:56,209 {\an1}chairman of the powerful Military Affairs Committee 1677 01:34:56,233 --> 01:34:59,376 {\an1}charged that Jews were "systematically building 1678 01:34:59,400 --> 01:35:02,076 a Jewish empire in this country" 1679 01:35:02,100 --> 01:35:06,976 {\an1}and called for still more obstacles to immigration. 1680 01:35:07,000 --> 01:35:10,776 {\an1}He also organized a group called the Vindicators 1681 01:35:10,800 --> 01:35:13,266 to hunt down illegal immigrants. 1682 01:35:15,766 --> 01:35:19,276 {\an1}Meanwhile, in response to President Roosevelt's decision 1683 01:35:19,300 --> 01:35:23,442 {\an1}to freeze German and Italian assets in the United States, 1684 01:35:23,466 --> 01:35:26,909 {\an1}Germany and Italy ordered American consulates 1685 01:35:26,933 --> 01:35:29,076 {\an1}to close in their countries 1686 01:35:29,100 --> 01:35:33,076 {\an1}and all the countries they occupied, as well. 1687 01:35:33,100 --> 01:35:36,609 {\an1}Now, for anyone waiting in those countries, 1688 01:35:36,633 --> 01:35:39,466 there would be no American visas. 1689 01:35:41,166 --> 01:35:44,442 {\an1}Woman: American Friends Service Committee, Rome. 1690 01:35:44,466 --> 01:35:46,742 {\an1}All immigration to the U.S. stopped, 1691 01:35:46,766 --> 01:35:50,042 thereby robbing many people of their hopes. 1692 01:35:50,066 --> 01:35:53,609 {\an1}They could not understand what difference one day should make 1693 01:35:53,633 --> 01:35:56,576 {\an1}and are naturally unable to reconcile themselves 1694 01:35:56,600 --> 01:35:58,442 {\an1}to the arbitrariness of laws 1695 01:35:58,466 --> 01:36:02,509 {\an1}that affect their whole futures so disastrously. 1696 01:36:02,533 --> 01:36:04,842 Another thing that discourages us somewhat 1697 01:36:04,866 --> 01:36:06,842 {\an1}is the general attitude of Americans 1698 01:36:06,866 --> 01:36:10,142 {\an1}toward the problems with which we have been working. 1699 01:36:10,166 --> 01:36:13,442 {\an1}Really I am so tired of having well-meaning 1700 01:36:13,466 --> 01:36:17,142 {\an1}and opinionated people tell me about the Jews 1701 01:36:17,166 --> 01:36:19,376 and sounding off to the effect of, 1702 01:36:19,400 --> 01:36:21,842 "Why don't we use all this splendid zeal 1703 01:36:21,866 --> 01:36:26,176 {\an1}and energy for some really American activity?" 1704 01:36:26,200 --> 01:36:28,400 Marjorie McClelland. 1705 01:36:34,533 --> 01:36:37,542 Man: This is not the Second World War. 1706 01:36:37,566 --> 01:36:41,342 {\an1}This is the Great Racial War. 1707 01:36:41,366 --> 01:36:43,209 {\an1}The meaning of this war, 1708 01:36:43,233 --> 01:36:45,776 and the reason we are fighting out there, 1709 01:36:45,800 --> 01:36:51,309 {\an1}is to decide whether the German and Aryan will prevail 1710 01:36:51,333 --> 01:36:55,409 {\an1}or if the Jew will rule the world. 1711 01:36:55,433 --> 01:36:57,433 Hermann Goering. 1712 01:36:59,100 --> 01:37:00,566 [Explosion] 1713 01:37:06,966 --> 01:37:11,142 {\an1}Narrator: On June 22, 1941, without any warning 1714 01:37:11,166 --> 01:37:15,276 to his supposed ally Josef Stalin, 1715 01:37:15,300 --> 01:37:19,542 {\an1}Hitler sent 3 vast army groups into the Soviet Union 1716 01:37:19,566 --> 01:37:21,976 {\an1}along a thousand-mile front 1717 01:37:22,000 --> 01:37:25,476 with 3,550 tanks, 1718 01:37:25,500 --> 01:37:28,876 2,770 aircraft, 1719 01:37:28,900 --> 01:37:31,376 and 600,000 horses 1720 01:37:31,400 --> 01:37:37,100 {\an1}to haul weapons and supplies across Russia's vast distances. 1721 01:37:46,266 --> 01:37:49,242 {\an1}Hitler's goal was what it had always been, 1722 01:37:49,266 --> 01:37:53,609 {\an1}to enslave or eliminate the peoples of Eastern Europe 1723 01:37:53,633 --> 01:37:56,242 and establish a continental Reich 1724 01:37:56,266 --> 01:37:59,742 {\an1}meant to last a thousand years. 1725 01:37:59,766 --> 01:38:02,366 {\an1}The Red Army fell back. 1726 01:38:06,700 --> 01:38:09,942 Nearly 6 million Soviet soldiers would fall 1727 01:38:09,966 --> 01:38:13,976 into German hands during the coming months. 1728 01:38:14,000 --> 01:38:16,676 {\an1}Well over half of them died, 1729 01:38:16,700 --> 01:38:21,800 {\an1}most of them worked to death or deliberately starved. 1730 01:38:24,333 --> 01:38:26,676 Snyder: Once Germany invades the Soviet Union 1731 01:38:26,700 --> 01:38:29,109 {\an1}with the idea of destroying the Soviet Union, 1732 01:38:29,133 --> 01:38:32,842 {\an1}mass murder can take place. 1733 01:38:32,866 --> 01:38:36,076 {\an1}To Hitler, the Soviet Union is not a state. 1734 01:38:36,100 --> 01:38:38,309 {\an1}The rule of law does not apply. 1735 01:38:38,333 --> 01:38:41,609 {\an1}This is not even an occupation. 1736 01:38:41,633 --> 01:38:46,966 These are just wild territories inhabited by undefined peoples. 1737 01:38:48,666 --> 01:38:51,142 {\an7}When the Germans arrived, the Germans could say, 1738 01:38:51,166 --> 01:38:53,842 {\an7}"You've had this terrible period of Soviet oppression. 1739 01:38:53,866 --> 01:38:56,676 {\an7}"And you know who was at fault? You know who ran it? 1740 01:38:56,700 --> 01:38:59,009 It was the Jews." 1741 01:38:59,033 --> 01:39:03,176 {\an1}Narrator: Everywhere, Jews were special targets. 1742 01:39:03,200 --> 01:39:05,776 {\an1}Hayes: They're killing Jews in two ways. 1743 01:39:05,800 --> 01:39:07,842 {\an8}First, they are starving Jews to death 1744 01:39:07,866 --> 01:39:11,376 {\an7}in the ghettos that they have established in occupied Poland. 1745 01:39:11,400 --> 01:39:13,776 {\an1}Then they also decide that when they invade the Soviet Union, 1746 01:39:13,800 --> 01:39:15,300 they're going to shoot people. 1747 01:39:16,933 --> 01:39:19,209 {\an1}Narrator: Specialists were enlisted to follow 1748 01:39:19,233 --> 01:39:23,742 {\an1}the advancing army and hunt down and kill Jewish men 1749 01:39:23,766 --> 01:39:26,442 {\an1}and partisans who dared wage guerilla war 1750 01:39:26,466 --> 01:39:28,109 against the invaders, 1751 01:39:28,133 --> 01:39:30,842 {\an1}along with other groups deemed to be hostile, 1752 01:39:30,866 --> 01:39:35,876 inferior, or loyal to the Soviet regime. 1753 01:39:35,900 --> 01:39:40,509 {\an1}3,000 men of the Einsatzgruppen, Operations Groups, 1754 01:39:40,533 --> 01:39:42,842 {\an1}were in overall charge, 1755 01:39:42,866 --> 01:39:46,442 {\an1}but they were soon reinforced by other killing units... 1756 01:39:46,466 --> 01:39:51,442 20,000 SS men, 30,000 German Order Police, 1757 01:39:51,466 --> 01:39:55,376 and ordinary soldiers from the German Army. 1758 01:39:55,400 --> 01:39:59,542 {\an1}At first, the Einsatzgruppen encouraged pogroms, 1759 01:39:59,566 --> 01:40:03,576 {\an1}sometimes standing by while Latvians, Lithuanians, 1760 01:40:03,600 --> 01:40:05,476 Poles, and Ukrainians 1761 01:40:05,500 --> 01:40:08,633 {\an1}rounded up and murdered their Jewish neighbors. 1762 01:40:10,733 --> 01:40:13,342 {\an1}In scores of cities and towns, 1763 01:40:13,366 --> 01:40:16,176 {\an1}Gentiles acting independently 1764 01:40:16,200 --> 01:40:19,342 also slaughtered thousands of Jews. 1765 01:40:19,366 --> 01:40:27,366 ♪ 1766 01:40:31,600 --> 01:40:33,876 But the Germans soon took over most 1767 01:40:33,900 --> 01:40:36,476 {\an1}of the killing themselves. 1768 01:40:36,500 --> 01:40:40,976 {\an1}They shot only Jewish men in the beginning, 1769 01:40:41,000 --> 01:40:44,042 {\an1}then started killing women and children 1770 01:40:44,066 --> 01:40:46,142 {\an1}who, their officers told them, 1771 01:40:46,166 --> 01:40:49,600 {\an1}acted as the partisans' eyes and ears. 1772 01:40:51,166 --> 01:40:53,709 {\an1}Hayes: And they're basically going to round them up 1773 01:40:53,733 --> 01:40:55,709 {\an1}as the German armies advance, 1774 01:40:55,733 --> 01:40:58,142 {\an1}and they're going to shoot them into ditches, 1775 01:40:58,166 --> 01:41:02,833 {\an1}liquidate them in forests, wipe them out. 1776 01:41:06,533 --> 01:41:11,609 {\an1}Narrator: They shot 24,000 Jews at Kamenets-Podolski, 1777 01:41:11,633 --> 01:41:15,176 28,000 at Vinnytsia, 1778 01:41:15,200 --> 01:41:20,733 {\an1}nearly 34,000 at Babi Yar outside Kiev. 1779 01:41:24,933 --> 01:41:27,609 It was all meant to be secret, 1780 01:41:27,633 --> 01:41:30,809 {\an1}but many German soldiers carried cameras 1781 01:41:30,833 --> 01:41:34,276 {\an1}so that they could send snapshots and home movies 1782 01:41:34,300 --> 01:41:38,109 {\an1}to show their families what their husbands and sons 1783 01:41:38,133 --> 01:41:41,300 {\an1}and fathers were doing as they moved east. 1784 01:41:43,533 --> 01:41:47,576 {\an1}"Up here in what was Latvia things are pretty Jewified," 1785 01:41:47,600 --> 01:41:49,842 {\an1}one soldier told his family, 1786 01:41:49,866 --> 01:41:53,400 {\an1}"and in this case no quarter is given." 1787 01:41:55,200 --> 01:41:57,909 {\an1}Snyder: Every photograph we have has to stand in 1788 01:41:57,933 --> 01:42:00,476 for many, many, many, many other, 1789 01:42:00,500 --> 01:42:02,009 hundreds of other shooting pits, 1790 01:42:02,033 --> 01:42:04,400 which are not actually recorded. 1791 01:42:06,666 --> 01:42:09,276 {\an1}These images are taken for purposes, 1792 01:42:09,300 --> 01:42:12,166 which broaden our sense of horror. 1793 01:42:14,366 --> 01:42:16,142 Because it's not just that the event took place 1794 01:42:16,166 --> 01:42:17,609 {\an1}and has been recorded. 1795 01:42:17,633 --> 01:42:22,766 It's that this is a trophy photo. 1796 01:42:24,533 --> 01:42:26,709 And they're horrible in yet another way. 1797 01:42:26,733 --> 01:42:30,866 This is typical and not exceptional. 1798 01:42:57,366 --> 01:42:59,642 Narrator: One Einsatzgruppen commander 1799 01:42:59,666 --> 01:43:01,766 {\an1}remembered the routine. 1800 01:43:04,233 --> 01:43:06,876 There were 15-man firing squads. 1801 01:43:06,900 --> 01:43:08,833 One bullet per Jew. 1802 01:43:15,133 --> 01:43:20,909 {\an1}One firing squad of 15 executed 15 Jews at a time. 1803 01:43:20,933 --> 01:43:23,709 He thought he and his men had killed 1804 01:43:23,733 --> 01:43:28,242 {\an1}somewhere between 60,000 and 70,000. 1805 01:43:28,266 --> 01:43:30,433 They'd lost count. 1806 01:43:34,400 --> 01:43:37,976 {\an1}Mendelsohn: Two million Eastern European Jews were killed 1807 01:43:38,000 --> 01:43:41,066 {\an1}just in what they now call the Shoah by bullets. 1808 01:43:43,433 --> 01:43:48,476 {\an1}I'll never forget a survivor that I interviewed. 1809 01:43:48,500 --> 01:43:53,876 {\an1}He said, "You know, as it was happening to us, 1810 01:43:53,900 --> 01:43:55,909 {\an1}"we couldn't believe it, 1811 01:43:55,933 --> 01:43:59,076 so how was anybody else gonna believe it?" 1812 01:43:59,100 --> 01:44:03,976 {\an1}If they to whom it was happening could scarcely believe 1813 01:44:04,000 --> 01:44:07,909 {\an7}the savagery and the sadism and the depravity 1814 01:44:07,933 --> 01:44:10,842 {\an7}of what was happening, how are the relatives in America 1815 01:44:10,866 --> 01:44:13,333 {\an1}even possibly going to imagine? 1816 01:44:15,433 --> 01:44:17,476 {\an1}Narrator: The Einsatzgruppen eventually 1817 01:44:17,500 --> 01:44:20,576 reached Bolechow in eastern Poland. 1818 01:44:20,600 --> 01:44:23,676 It was home to some 3,000 Jews, 1819 01:44:23,700 --> 01:44:29,609 {\an1}including Shmiel Jaeger, his wife, and 4 daughters. 1820 01:44:29,633 --> 01:44:32,909 {\an1}Mendelsohn: These people are now statistics, 1821 01:44:32,933 --> 01:44:37,742 {\an1}particularly now, as their individual stories recede, 1822 01:44:37,766 --> 01:44:40,642 but they were not statistics to themselves. 1823 01:44:40,666 --> 01:44:44,476 {\an1}Every one of them died in a different way. 1824 01:44:44,500 --> 01:44:49,409 {\an1}The third daughter, Ruchele, was taken by herself. 1825 01:44:49,433 --> 01:44:54,309 {\an1}The first roundup in the town happened in the autumn of 1941. 1826 01:44:54,333 --> 01:44:56,809 {\an1}There was a roundup of about 1,000 people. 1827 01:44:56,833 --> 01:44:58,809 {\an1}That was the first action. 1828 01:44:58,833 --> 01:45:00,576 {\an1}And she just happened to be 1829 01:45:00,600 --> 01:45:02,009 in the wrong place at the wrong time. 1830 01:45:02,033 --> 01:45:03,376 {\an1}She was out of the house. 1831 01:45:03,400 --> 01:45:04,676 She was walking through the town. 1832 01:45:04,700 --> 01:45:06,509 {\an1}She got caught in this roundup. 1833 01:45:06,533 --> 01:45:09,209 {\an1}These people were held in a local 1834 01:45:09,233 --> 01:45:11,176 {\an1}Catholic community center, 1835 01:45:11,200 --> 01:45:13,609 and people were raped and tortured 1836 01:45:13,633 --> 01:45:15,700 over about 24 hours. 1837 01:45:17,866 --> 01:45:22,376 And then they were taken to a site just outside of the town 1838 01:45:22,400 --> 01:45:26,042 where there was an old salt mine, 1839 01:45:26,066 --> 01:45:28,009 {\an1}and they were all shot. 1840 01:45:28,033 --> 01:45:34,709 ♪ 1841 01:45:34,733 --> 01:45:39,876 {\an1}Man: Vilna, Lithuania. March 2, 1941. 1842 01:45:39,900 --> 01:45:44,409 Elsa, today I'm sending you a postcard. 1843 01:45:44,433 --> 01:45:47,176 {\an1}I want to make sure that maybe you will receive 1844 01:45:47,200 --> 01:45:50,709 {\an1}a last postal item from me. 1845 01:45:50,733 --> 01:45:52,742 If something happens, 1846 01:45:52,766 --> 01:45:55,776 {\an1}I would want there to be somebody who would remember 1847 01:45:55,800 --> 01:45:59,466 {\an1}that someone named David Berger had once lived. 1848 01:46:00,866 --> 01:46:02,942 This will make things easier for me 1849 01:46:02,966 --> 01:46:04,800 {\an1}in the difficult moments. 1850 01:46:08,266 --> 01:46:10,166 Farewell. 1851 01:46:18,966 --> 01:46:21,576 {\an1}Narrator: For many months, British intelligence 1852 01:46:21,600 --> 01:46:23,409 {\an1}had been decoding top-secret 1853 01:46:23,433 --> 01:46:26,000 German communications from the front. 1854 01:46:27,166 --> 01:46:31,309 {\an1}In August, the messages were filled with mysterious numbers, 1855 01:46:31,333 --> 01:46:34,042 which they only gradually realized 1856 01:46:34,066 --> 01:46:36,442 were evidence of the systematic murder 1857 01:46:36,466 --> 01:46:40,376 {\an1}of all the Jews living in every town and village 1858 01:46:40,400 --> 01:46:44,276 the Nazis overran on the Eastern Front. 1859 01:46:44,300 --> 01:46:46,876 {\an7}Hayes: During the summer of 1941 when the Germans 1860 01:46:46,900 --> 01:46:48,309 {\an7}were invading the Soviet Union 1861 01:46:48,333 --> 01:46:51,276 {\an8}and liquidating Jews in their path, 1862 01:46:51,300 --> 01:46:55,276 Winston Churchill got an intercept of the reports 1863 01:46:55,300 --> 01:46:58,209 {\an1}that the shooting units were sending back to Berlin. 1864 01:46:58,233 --> 01:47:01,742 "Yesterday we shot X number of people." 1865 01:47:01,766 --> 01:47:04,309 Then the reports were broken down as time passed 1866 01:47:04,333 --> 01:47:06,809 {\an1}to men, women, children, 1867 01:47:06,833 --> 01:47:10,542 {\an1}Jews, Communists, so forth. 1868 01:47:10,566 --> 01:47:13,476 {\an1}Narrator: The intelligence continued to come in. 1869 01:47:13,500 --> 01:47:17,409 367 shot on one day. 1870 01:47:17,433 --> 01:47:20,842 468 two days later. 1871 01:47:20,866 --> 01:47:24,876 1,625 the next day. 1872 01:47:24,900 --> 01:47:28,142 {\an1}3,000 5 days after that. 1873 01:47:28,166 --> 01:47:32,409 {\an1}6 days later more than 5,000. 1874 01:47:32,433 --> 01:47:35,642 So many dead so regularly recorded 1875 01:47:35,666 --> 01:47:38,342 {\an1}that the intelligence service concluded that, 1876 01:47:38,366 --> 01:47:41,909 {\an1}"The fact that the German police are killing all Jews 1877 01:47:41,933 --> 01:47:44,542 "that fall into their hands should by now 1878 01:47:44,566 --> 01:47:47,076 "be sufficiently well appreciated. 1879 01:47:47,100 --> 01:47:50,376 {\an1}"It is not therefore proposed to continue reporting 1880 01:47:50,400 --> 01:47:54,676 {\an1}these butcheries specially, unless so requested." 1881 01:47:54,700 --> 01:47:57,176 {\an1}The numbers would no longer be included 1882 01:47:57,200 --> 01:48:01,042 {\an1}in the Prime Minister's intelligence briefings. 1883 01:48:01,066 --> 01:48:03,576 {\an1}His problem was that if he announced to the world 1884 01:48:03,600 --> 01:48:05,376 {\an1}that he had these reports, 1885 01:48:05,400 --> 01:48:07,476 {\an1}the Germans would know they were being intercepted. 1886 01:48:07,500 --> 01:48:09,742 {\an1}He couldn't do anything about the shooting, 1887 01:48:09,766 --> 01:48:12,142 {\an1}and he couldn't do anything to alert the wider world 1888 01:48:12,166 --> 01:48:15,976 to how extensive the shooting was. 1889 01:48:16,000 --> 01:48:18,242 ♪ 1890 01:48:18,266 --> 01:48:19,909 Erbelding: I would argue that Nazi Germany 1891 01:48:19,933 --> 01:48:23,176 believes that it's fighting two wars. 1892 01:48:23,200 --> 01:48:24,742 {\an7}It's fighting a military war, 1893 01:48:24,766 --> 01:48:26,542 {\an8}and it's fighting a genocidal war. 1894 01:48:26,566 --> 01:48:28,209 {\an7}The military war, obviously, 1895 01:48:28,233 --> 01:48:31,042 {\an7}begins when Nazi Germany invades Poland. 1896 01:48:31,066 --> 01:48:33,742 {\an1}The genocidal war begins two years later 1897 01:48:33,766 --> 01:48:36,609 {\an1}when the Nazis abandon any idea 1898 01:48:36,633 --> 01:48:38,876 {\an1}that the Jews are going to emigrate and decide, 1899 01:48:38,900 --> 01:48:43,600 {\an1}instead, to round them up and to murder them en masse. 1900 01:48:44,800 --> 01:48:46,242 {\an1}Narrator: The Nazis had assumed 1901 01:48:46,266 --> 01:48:49,942 Britain could not hold out for long, 1902 01:48:49,966 --> 01:48:53,909 {\an1}and back in the summer of 1940, Adolf Eichmann, 1903 01:48:53,933 --> 01:48:58,509 {\an1}the SS officer in charge of forced Jewish emigration, 1904 01:48:58,533 --> 01:49:02,942 {\an1}was ordered to draw up plans to use captured British ships 1905 01:49:02,966 --> 01:49:07,476 {\an1}to transport all the Jews of Europe to Madagascar, 1906 01:49:07,500 --> 01:49:10,242 a French island in the Indian Ocean, 1907 01:49:10,266 --> 01:49:13,466 where they would die of exposure and starvation. 1908 01:49:15,166 --> 01:49:18,009 But Britain had not surrendered. 1909 01:49:18,033 --> 01:49:21,476 {\an1}And so, if the Jews of Europe were to be eliminated, 1910 01:49:21,500 --> 01:49:24,442 SS commander Heinrich Himmler concluded 1911 01:49:24,466 --> 01:49:28,300 {\an1}they would have to be eliminated on the European continent. 1912 01:49:30,333 --> 01:49:35,142 On July 31, 1941, Hermann Goering would ask 1913 01:49:35,166 --> 01:49:38,976 {\an1}the SS second-in-command Reinhard Heydrich 1914 01:49:39,000 --> 01:49:42,609 {\an1}to come up with what he called "an overall solution 1915 01:49:42,633 --> 01:49:47,142 {\an1}to the Jewish question in the German sphere." 1916 01:49:47,166 --> 01:49:49,476 {\an1}Heydrich's plan had to be "noiseless," 1917 01:49:49,500 --> 01:49:51,376 SS planners said, 1918 01:49:51,400 --> 01:49:53,942 and therefore easily kept secret, 1919 01:49:53,966 --> 01:49:56,709 {\an1}and it had to be "humane," they insisted, 1920 01:49:56,733 --> 01:50:00,142 {\an1}not in order to ease the deaths of victims, 1921 01:50:00,166 --> 01:50:03,733 {\an1}but to spare the feelings of those murdering them. 1922 01:50:05,900 --> 01:50:09,309 [Bells clanging] 1923 01:50:09,333 --> 01:50:11,266 {\an7}[Susan speaking German] 1924 01:50:50,333 --> 01:50:53,476 {\an1}Narrator: After the Germans occupied northern France, 1925 01:50:53,500 --> 01:50:56,109 {\an1}Susan Hilsenrath and her brother Joseph 1926 01:50:56,133 --> 01:50:59,942 {\an1}had managed to make their way from Versailles to Vichy 1927 01:50:59,966 --> 01:51:01,942 {\an1}and the Chateau des Morelles, 1928 01:51:01,966 --> 01:51:04,376 a group home for Jewish children 1929 01:51:04,400 --> 01:51:07,042 {\an1}who had been separated from their parents, 1930 01:51:07,066 --> 01:51:12,476 {\an1}financed by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. 1931 01:51:12,500 --> 01:51:14,542 {\an1}Susan: They wanted to send us to school, 1932 01:51:14,566 --> 01:51:17,042 {\an1}to the public school in France. 1933 01:51:17,066 --> 01:51:21,009 But the people in the village wouldn't let 1934 01:51:21,033 --> 01:51:23,242 those children from the Chateau Morelles 1935 01:51:23,266 --> 01:51:25,576 {\an1}mix with their children. 1936 01:51:25,600 --> 01:51:30,109 {\an1}We kept writing to our parents all the time. 1937 01:51:30,133 --> 01:51:32,542 {\an1}Narrator: Their father had managed to get himself, 1938 01:51:32,566 --> 01:51:36,776 {\an1}his wife, and youngest boy to the United States, 1939 01:51:36,800 --> 01:51:40,009 {\an1}and was now feverishly trying to gather Susan 1940 01:51:40,033 --> 01:51:43,109 {\an1}and Joseph to them as well. 1941 01:51:43,133 --> 01:51:46,242 {\an1}Joseph: He made a pest of himself 1942 01:51:46,266 --> 01:51:47,609 {\an1}at the State Department. 1943 01:51:47,633 --> 01:51:49,766 {\an1}He wrote them letters, begged. 1944 01:51:51,633 --> 01:51:54,600 {\an7}I have to be so thankful. 1945 01:51:57,033 --> 01:51:59,300 {\an8}Without him, we would never have made it. 1946 01:52:01,100 --> 01:52:04,776 {\an1}Susan: One day the director of the children's home, 1947 01:52:04,800 --> 01:52:08,609 {\an1}she called me to her office, and I was really scared 1948 01:52:08,633 --> 01:52:11,142 because only when you had problems 1949 01:52:11,166 --> 01:52:14,276 did you go to that director's office. 1950 01:52:14,300 --> 01:52:16,309 {\an1}And she was sitting behind her desk, 1951 01:52:16,333 --> 01:52:19,276 {\an1}and she said to me, "Suzie! 1952 01:52:19,300 --> 01:52:23,842 {\an1}You are going to go to the United States." 1953 01:52:23,866 --> 01:52:27,442 {\an1}Our parents had found us. 1954 01:52:27,466 --> 01:52:30,609 {\an1}Narrator: Susan and Joseph's passage had been arranged 1955 01:52:30,633 --> 01:52:33,109 and paid for by the New York-based 1956 01:52:33,133 --> 01:52:37,109 {\an1}Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. 1957 01:52:37,133 --> 01:52:41,409 {\an1}Susan: My brother and I went to Marseilles on the train, 1958 01:52:41,433 --> 01:52:44,142 and there we met, like, 50 children 1959 01:52:44,166 --> 01:52:48,809 {\an1}that were all going to go on the Serpa Pinto from Lisbon 1960 01:52:48,833 --> 01:52:51,476 {\an1}to come to the United States. 1961 01:52:51,500 --> 01:52:57,609 ♪ 1962 01:52:57,633 --> 01:53:01,609 {\an1}They put all of the 50 children in the bottom 1963 01:53:01,633 --> 01:53:03,642 on the lowest deck of the ship 1964 01:53:03,666 --> 01:53:05,442 {\an1}and in the front of the ship, 1965 01:53:05,466 --> 01:53:07,509 {\an1}and we were all in one room. 1966 01:53:07,533 --> 01:53:09,309 {\an1}And we had these double-decker 1967 01:53:09,333 --> 01:53:12,776 {\an1}and triple-decker beds. 1968 01:53:12,800 --> 01:53:15,142 {\an1}And they told us we weren't allowed to mingle 1969 01:53:15,166 --> 01:53:16,842 with the crowd. 1970 01:53:16,866 --> 01:53:24,866 ♪ 1971 01:53:26,700 --> 01:53:31,176 {\an1}Finally, it was time to get to the United States, 1972 01:53:31,200 --> 01:53:35,676 {\an1}and they told all the children that the next morning at 6:00 1973 01:53:35,700 --> 01:53:38,676 we were going to pass the Statue of Liberty. 1974 01:53:38,700 --> 01:53:40,309 {\an1}Of course we had learned 1975 01:53:40,333 --> 01:53:43,309 {\an1}what the Statue of Liberty was all about. 1976 01:53:43,333 --> 01:53:46,500 So they told us to be on deck to see it. 1977 01:53:48,533 --> 01:53:53,076 At exactly 6:00, that fog went up like this, 1978 01:53:53,100 --> 01:53:56,342 like the curtain at an opera or at a concert 1979 01:53:56,366 --> 01:53:58,342 {\an1}or at a play went up like that, 1980 01:53:58,366 --> 01:54:01,009 {\an1}and right there just as it was going up 1981 01:54:01,033 --> 01:54:04,409 {\an1}was the Statue of Liberty. 1982 01:54:04,433 --> 01:54:06,409 {\an1}Joseph: The fog lifted. 1983 01:54:06,433 --> 01:54:13,642 ♪ 1984 01:54:13,666 --> 01:54:15,600 And there it was. 1985 01:54:19,600 --> 01:54:21,466 After all this... 1986 01:54:24,266 --> 01:54:26,042 It's even worse now. 1987 01:54:26,066 --> 01:54:29,476 {\an1}After all these years, 1988 01:54:29,500 --> 01:54:32,233 {\an1}to taste freedom, do you... 1989 01:54:37,933 --> 01:54:41,276 {\an1}It was just remarkable. 1990 01:54:41,300 --> 01:54:43,842 And, and the effects, apparently, 1991 01:54:43,866 --> 01:54:46,542 has never left me. 1992 01:54:46,566 --> 01:54:50,942 {\an1}I realized that I didn't have to worry about getting killed, 1993 01:54:50,966 --> 01:54:54,576 which is... was part of your being, 1994 01:54:54,600 --> 01:55:00,400 {\an1}and that you're going to be able to live and grow old... 1995 01:55:01,600 --> 01:55:03,833 and have a life. 1996 01:55:09,166 --> 01:55:11,809 {\an1}Newsreel announcer: A cargo of innocents from embattled Europe. 1997 01:55:11,833 --> 01:55:15,409 {\an1}Arriving in New York aboard the Portuguese liner Serpa Pinto, 1998 01:55:15,433 --> 01:55:18,809 {\an1}these youngest refugees are originally from Germany, Poland, 1999 01:55:18,833 --> 01:55:20,642 {\an1}Czechoslovakia, and Spain, 2000 01:55:20,666 --> 01:55:23,166 but the war has made them wanderers. 2001 01:55:26,333 --> 01:55:29,142 {\an1}Susan: So we had to go to Ellis Island, 2002 01:55:29,166 --> 01:55:31,309 and there we found out everything 2003 01:55:31,333 --> 01:55:34,176 {\an1}that we needed to know about the United States. 2004 01:55:34,200 --> 01:55:36,276 {\an1}We learned about food, 2005 01:55:36,300 --> 01:55:39,009 {\an1}and we learned that they had this white bread. 2006 01:55:39,033 --> 01:55:41,142 We could squash it up and push it 2007 01:55:41,166 --> 01:55:42,876 and make a little ball out of it. 2008 01:55:42,900 --> 01:55:45,642 {\an1}You could bite into it, and it was so good. 2009 01:55:45,666 --> 01:55:49,109 {\an1}And then they told us it was called Wonder Bread, 2010 01:55:49,133 --> 01:55:52,333 and we were so happy to be eating it. 2011 01:55:55,133 --> 01:55:58,476 {\an1}The next thing we learned is that the children in the United States 2012 01:55:58,500 --> 01:56:02,842 {\an1}had candy that you could eat all day long. 2013 01:56:02,866 --> 01:56:06,909 {\an1}And you... it was just stayed in your mouth all day long. 2014 01:56:06,933 --> 01:56:10,942 {\an1}And then we, of course, learned that it was chewing gum. 2015 01:56:10,966 --> 01:56:12,709 It's just so exciting 2016 01:56:12,733 --> 01:56:15,609 {\an1}because we knew we had come to the place 2017 01:56:15,633 --> 01:56:19,766 {\an1}where we were going to be reunited with our parents. 2018 01:56:22,066 --> 01:56:24,342 Narrator: Susan and Joseph's father had been 2019 01:56:24,366 --> 01:56:28,009 {\an1}at the pier in lower Manhattan to welcome them to America. 2020 01:56:28,033 --> 01:56:30,342 But their mother was not with him. 2021 01:56:30,366 --> 01:56:32,409 {\an8}They did not see her until they arrived 2022 01:56:32,433 --> 01:56:35,733 {\an8}at the family's new home in Washington, D.C. 2023 01:56:37,033 --> 01:56:38,509 {\an7}Joseph: When we arrived, 2024 01:56:38,533 --> 01:56:43,809 {\an8}I expected some emotional response. 2025 01:56:43,833 --> 01:56:45,642 {\an1}But she just lay there 2026 01:56:45,666 --> 01:56:47,709 {\an1}and barely even smiled. 2027 01:56:47,733 --> 01:56:52,876 {\an1}My father explained to me that she was mentally ill. 2028 01:56:52,900 --> 01:56:55,576 {\an1}Susan: I don't talk about it. 2029 01:56:55,600 --> 01:56:57,542 I couldn't understand 2030 01:56:57,566 --> 01:57:00,642 that there was nothing between us. 2031 01:57:00,666 --> 01:57:03,609 {\an1}I just couldn't, "Hey, I'm your child, and I'm back," 2032 01:57:03,633 --> 01:57:07,109 and she just didn't understand. 2033 01:57:07,133 --> 01:57:12,242 {\an1}Eventually, she ended up in the hospital. 2034 01:57:12,266 --> 01:57:14,542 {\an1}Joseph: We don't know what happened to her. 2035 01:57:14,566 --> 01:57:17,242 {\an1}While my father was here in the United States, 2036 01:57:17,266 --> 01:57:20,809 she was in Germany with my younger brother. 2037 01:57:20,833 --> 01:57:25,266 They were alone for about 4 to 6 months. 2038 01:57:28,633 --> 01:57:31,766 When I left her, she was perfectly normal. 2039 01:57:33,733 --> 01:57:35,642 And I really don't know what happened. 2040 01:57:35,666 --> 01:57:39,176 I asked frequently if she was beaten 2041 01:57:39,200 --> 01:57:43,176 or traumatized, but I never got an answer. 2042 01:57:43,200 --> 01:57:44,942 {\an1}Not from her, certainly, 2043 01:57:44,966 --> 01:57:47,600 {\an1}and my father just didn't want to talk about it. 2044 01:57:49,766 --> 01:57:51,933 {\an1}And she never recovered. 2045 01:57:58,366 --> 01:58:00,742 {\an8}Roosevelt: America has been attacked. 2046 01:58:00,766 --> 01:58:06,509 {\an7}The United States Ship Kearny is not just a Navy ship. 2047 01:58:06,533 --> 01:58:08,976 {\an8}She belongs to every man, woman, 2048 01:58:09,000 --> 01:58:12,676 {\an1}and child in this nation. 2049 01:58:12,700 --> 01:58:17,909 {\an1}Narrator: On September 11, 1941, after a German submarine 2050 01:58:17,933 --> 01:58:20,842 {\an1}engaged with the U.S. destroyer Kearny, 2051 01:58:20,866 --> 01:58:24,909 {\an1}President Roosevelt ordered the Navy to attack on sight 2052 01:58:24,933 --> 01:58:28,342 any German or Italian vessels operating 2053 01:58:28,366 --> 01:58:30,809 {\an1}in American defensive waters, 2054 01:58:30,833 --> 01:58:35,542 {\an1}which he had expanded halfway across the Atlantic. 2055 01:58:35,566 --> 01:58:41,276 {\an1}U.S. entry into the war now seemed very close. 2056 01:58:41,300 --> 01:58:46,476 {\an1}Roosevelt: When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, 2057 01:58:46,500 --> 01:58:50,176 you do not wait until he has struck 2058 01:58:50,200 --> 01:58:52,876 before you crush him. 2059 01:58:52,900 --> 01:58:55,776 These Nazi submarines and raiders 2060 01:58:55,800 --> 01:59:00,042 are the rattlesnakes of the Atlantic... 2061 01:59:00,066 --> 01:59:02,576 {\an1}Narrator: That same evening, Charles Lindbergh 2062 01:59:02,600 --> 01:59:06,576 {\an1}spoke at an America First rally in Des Moines, Iowa. 2063 01:59:06,600 --> 01:59:09,542 In the strongest language he had ever used, 2064 01:59:09,566 --> 01:59:11,776 {\an1}he charged that there were 3 groups 2065 01:59:11,800 --> 01:59:14,076 pressing the country toward war... 2066 01:59:14,100 --> 01:59:17,409 {\an1}the British, the Roosevelt administration, 2067 01:59:17,433 --> 01:59:19,742 {\an8}and the Jews. 2068 01:59:19,766 --> 01:59:22,042 "Instead of agitating for war, 2069 01:59:22,066 --> 01:59:23,942 "the Jewish groups in this country 2070 01:59:23,966 --> 01:59:27,042 {\an1}should be opposing it in every way," he warned, 2071 01:59:27,066 --> 01:59:28,742 "for they will be among the first 2072 01:59:28,766 --> 01:59:30,676 {\an1}"to feel its consequences. 2073 01:59:30,700 --> 01:59:33,076 {\an1}"Tolerance is a virtue that depends 2074 01:59:33,100 --> 01:59:35,209 {\an1}"upon peace and strength. 2075 01:59:35,233 --> 01:59:40,209 {\an1}History shows that it cannot survive war and devastation." 2076 01:59:40,233 --> 01:59:42,709 {\an1}And he went still further. 2077 01:59:42,733 --> 01:59:45,276 {\an1}"Large Jewish ownership and influence 2078 01:59:45,300 --> 01:59:48,776 {\an1}"in our motion pictures, our press, our radio, 2079 01:59:48,800 --> 01:59:50,609 and our government," he charged, 2080 01:59:50,633 --> 01:59:55,442 "constituted a great danger to our country." 2081 01:59:55,466 --> 01:59:58,309 {\an1}This time, the press exploded. 2082 01:59:58,333 --> 02:00:02,542 ♪ 2083 02:00:02,566 --> 02:00:04,809 "Liberty" magazine called Lindbergh 2084 02:00:04,833 --> 02:00:08,242 {\an1}"The most dangerous man in America." 2085 02:00:08,266 --> 02:00:12,276 {\an1}The "New York Herald Tribune" accused him of antisemitism 2086 02:00:12,300 --> 02:00:15,476 and appealing to the "dark forces of prejudice 2087 02:00:15,500 --> 02:00:17,742 and intolerance." 2088 02:00:17,766 --> 02:00:20,542 {\an1}Republican Wendell Willkie called his speech 2089 02:00:20,566 --> 02:00:23,642 {\an1}"The most un-American talk made in my time 2090 02:00:23,666 --> 02:00:27,776 by any person of national reputation." 2091 02:00:27,800 --> 02:00:32,076 {\an1}"The voice is Lindbergh's," said the "San Francisco Chronicle." 2092 02:00:32,100 --> 02:00:36,409 {\an1}"The words were the words of Hitler and Goebbels." 2093 02:00:36,433 --> 02:00:38,542 Greene: The reaction in the press 2094 02:00:38,566 --> 02:00:41,909 {\an1}to Lindbergh's speech is resoundingly negative. 2095 02:00:41,933 --> 02:00:44,742 People start to ask, "Is Lindbergh a Nazi?" 2096 02:00:44,766 --> 02:00:48,542 {\an7}The "Des Moines Register" runs a front-page editorial cartoon 2097 02:00:48,566 --> 02:00:51,109 {\an8}with Lindbergh up on the podium 2098 02:00:51,133 --> 02:00:54,042 and Hitler down below applauding him. 2099 02:00:54,066 --> 02:00:57,109 But I also wonder, is it fair to say 2100 02:00:57,133 --> 02:00:59,042 that Lindbergh is saying out loud 2101 02:00:59,066 --> 02:01:02,776 {\an1}what a lot of Americans think privately? 2102 02:01:02,800 --> 02:01:04,300 And I think he is. 2103 02:01:06,500 --> 02:01:09,009 {\an1}Narrator: Lindbergh was unrepentant, 2104 02:01:09,033 --> 02:01:11,342 but America First never recovered 2105 02:01:11,366 --> 02:01:14,076 from the damage his speech had done. 2106 02:01:14,100 --> 02:01:17,109 Fritz Kuhn, the self-styled Fuhrer 2107 02:01:17,133 --> 02:01:19,076 {\an1}of the German American Bund, 2108 02:01:19,100 --> 02:01:23,142 {\an1}was already in Sing Sing for tax fraud and embezzlement 2109 02:01:23,166 --> 02:01:24,976 and would eventually be deported 2110 02:01:25,000 --> 02:01:27,776 as the agent of a foreign power. 2111 02:01:27,800 --> 02:01:30,842 And the National Association of Broadcasters 2112 02:01:30,866 --> 02:01:33,409 had already banned Father Coughlin, 2113 02:01:33,433 --> 02:01:37,942 {\an1}the antisemitic radio priest, from the airwaves. 2114 02:01:37,966 --> 02:01:41,142 But mostly Catholic anti-Jewish gangs 2115 02:01:41,166 --> 02:01:44,309 affiliated with his Christian Front continued 2116 02:01:44,333 --> 02:01:48,176 to terrorize Jewish neighborhoods in New York and Boston, 2117 02:01:48,200 --> 02:01:52,009 {\an1}desecrating synagogues, smashing Jewish storefronts, 2118 02:01:52,033 --> 02:01:54,142 {\an1}and beating Jewish children 2119 02:01:54,166 --> 02:01:56,809 while Irish-American police officers 2120 02:01:56,833 --> 02:01:59,033 {\an1}often looked the other way. 2121 02:02:01,700 --> 02:02:04,742 {\an1}Meanwhile, American newspapers had reported 2122 02:02:04,766 --> 02:02:08,376 {\an8}that Jews were being deported to ghettos in Poland 2123 02:02:08,400 --> 02:02:13,209 {\an1}and labor camps in the German-occupied Soviet Union. 2124 02:02:13,233 --> 02:02:15,909 But their readers had no way of knowing 2125 02:02:15,933 --> 02:02:20,842 {\an1}that the Nazis had already begun the mass-murder of Jews, 2126 02:02:20,866 --> 02:02:23,542 {\an1}that they were actually determined to eliminate 2127 02:02:23,566 --> 02:02:25,442 {\an1}all the Jews of Europe, 2128 02:02:25,466 --> 02:02:27,542 {\an1}and that they had found a new, 2129 02:02:27,566 --> 02:02:31,009 more efficient method of doing it... 2130 02:02:31,033 --> 02:02:33,376 Gas. 2131 02:02:33,400 --> 02:02:37,876 {\an1}At Hitler's direct order, Nazi doctors in 6 locations 2132 02:02:37,900 --> 02:02:41,376 had been using commercially-produced carbon monoxide 2133 02:02:41,400 --> 02:02:45,042 {\an1}as one of the methods by which to kill tens of thousands 2134 02:02:45,066 --> 02:02:47,609 {\an1}of men, women, and children, 2135 02:02:47,633 --> 02:02:50,242 mental patients, disabled people, 2136 02:02:50,266 --> 02:02:53,042 {\an1}infants with birth defects. 2137 02:02:53,066 --> 02:02:57,076 The Nazis called them all "useless eaters." 2138 02:02:57,100 --> 02:03:03,109 {\an1}It was eugenics carried to its most grotesque extreme. 2139 02:03:03,133 --> 02:03:07,076 {\an1}The demand for commercial carbon monoxide grew so large 2140 02:03:07,100 --> 02:03:10,242 it threatened to outstrip production. 2141 02:03:10,266 --> 02:03:12,142 {\an1}Then, the Germans realized 2142 02:03:12,166 --> 02:03:15,976 {\an1}that the exhaust produced by a motorized van, 2143 02:03:16,000 --> 02:03:19,242 {\an1}piped into an airtight compartment at the back, 2144 02:03:19,266 --> 02:03:22,609 {\an1}could kill groups of people at a time. 2145 02:03:22,633 --> 02:03:26,276 {\an1}The Einsatzgruppen ordered up some 30 of them for use 2146 02:03:26,300 --> 02:03:29,442 {\an1}in the occupied Soviet Union. 2147 02:03:29,466 --> 02:03:32,609 In October, SS chief Heinrich Himmler 2148 02:03:32,633 --> 02:03:34,876 {\an1}ordered his men and the Gestapo 2149 02:03:34,900 --> 02:03:39,109 {\an1}to officially end all emigration of Jews from Germany 2150 02:03:39,133 --> 02:03:42,376 or any of the lands it had conquered. 2151 02:03:42,400 --> 02:03:44,942 {\an1}From then on, occupied Europe 2152 02:03:44,966 --> 02:03:47,942 {\an1}was to be a vast prison for Jews 2153 02:03:47,966 --> 02:03:52,442 {\an1}from which there was to be no escape but death. 2154 02:03:52,466 --> 02:03:55,809 All that remained was to set up a coordinated, 2155 02:03:55,833 --> 02:03:59,009 continent-wide system to feed Jews 2156 02:03:59,033 --> 02:04:02,176 {\an1}into the Nazi killing machine. 2157 02:04:02,200 --> 02:04:06,476 In late November, the high-ranking SS officer 2158 02:04:06,500 --> 02:04:09,676 {\an1}Reinhard Heydrich invited representatives 2159 02:04:09,700 --> 02:04:13,542 {\an1}of all the Nazi ministries that would have to be involved 2160 02:04:13,566 --> 02:04:17,333 {\an1}to a secret meeting to be held on December 9. 2161 02:04:21,200 --> 02:04:24,266 That meeting would have to be postponed. 2162 02:04:31,666 --> 02:04:33,409 {\an1}Hitler was in his headquarters 2163 02:04:33,433 --> 02:04:36,076 {\an1}on Sunday evening, December 7, 2164 02:04:36,100 --> 02:04:38,142 {\an1}when an aide brought him the news 2165 02:04:38,166 --> 02:04:41,309 that Japan had attacked Pearl Harbor. 2166 02:04:41,333 --> 02:04:45,509 {\an1}The Fuhrer claimed to be surprised but delighted. 2167 02:04:45,533 --> 02:04:48,409 Now he couldn't lose the war, he said, 2168 02:04:48,433 --> 02:04:51,342 {\an1}because in Japan, "We have an ally which has never 2169 02:04:51,366 --> 02:04:54,542 {\an1}been conquered in 3,000 years." 2170 02:04:54,566 --> 02:04:57,509 {\an1}And with the United States now presumably forced 2171 02:04:57,533 --> 02:05:00,476 {\an1}to focus its attention on the Pacific, 2172 02:05:00,500 --> 02:05:03,076 it would no longer be able to aid Britain 2173 02:05:03,100 --> 02:05:05,609 or the Soviet Union. 2174 02:05:05,633 --> 02:05:08,442 {\an1}In any case, he believed America had become 2175 02:05:08,466 --> 02:05:09,909 "a decayed country. 2176 02:05:09,933 --> 02:05:11,942 {\an1}Half-Judaized," he said, 2177 02:05:11,966 --> 02:05:14,209 {\an1}"and the other half Negrified, 2178 02:05:14,233 --> 02:05:18,176 where everything is built on the dollar." 2179 02:05:18,200 --> 02:05:22,909 {\an1}On December 11, Germany and Italy, Japan's allies, 2180 02:05:22,933 --> 02:05:26,909 declared war on the United States. 2181 02:05:26,933 --> 02:05:31,909 {\an1}Congressional opposition to fighting fascism vanished overnight. 2182 02:05:31,933 --> 02:05:36,300 {\an1}The United States was now at war around the world. 2183 02:05:38,600 --> 02:05:40,076 {\an1}The following evening, 2184 02:05:40,100 --> 02:05:42,042 Hitler gathered the administrators 2185 02:05:42,066 --> 02:05:46,276 of all the districts in his expanding Reich. 2186 02:05:46,300 --> 02:05:48,742 The killing of Jews, he informed them, 2187 02:05:48,766 --> 02:05:50,842 was already underway 2188 02:05:50,866 --> 02:05:53,742 and now was to be undertaken everywhere 2189 02:05:53,766 --> 02:05:56,076 {\an1}"without sentimentality." 2190 02:05:56,100 --> 02:06:00,209 All of them were expected to participate. 2191 02:06:00,233 --> 02:06:05,809 On January 20, 1942, in a lakeside villa in Wannsee, 2192 02:06:05,833 --> 02:06:08,109 the German suburb where the Lindberghs 2193 02:06:08,133 --> 02:06:10,209 {\an1}had once hoped to live, 2194 02:06:10,233 --> 02:06:13,842 Reinhard Heydrich's delayed meeting of the Nazi bureaucrats 2195 02:06:13,866 --> 02:06:17,942 {\an1}who would be responsible for the extermination of the Jews 2196 02:06:17,966 --> 02:06:22,376 {\an1}finally convened in secret. 2197 02:06:22,400 --> 02:06:25,509 {\an1}Heydrich began by revealing the sheer scale 2198 02:06:25,533 --> 02:06:27,476 of the job at hand. 2199 02:06:27,500 --> 02:06:31,009 {\an1}There were 11 million Jews living in Europe, he claimed, 2200 02:06:31,033 --> 02:06:34,842 {\an1}a total he had reached in part by including those currently 2201 02:06:34,866 --> 02:06:39,042 {\an1}out of German reach in Spain, England and Ireland, 2202 02:06:39,066 --> 02:06:42,342 Switzerland, Portugal, and Sweden. 2203 02:06:42,366 --> 02:06:45,342 {\an1}For the time being, the Germans would accelerate 2204 02:06:45,366 --> 02:06:49,676 {\an1}the deportation of Jews to ghettos and concentration camps 2205 02:06:49,700 --> 02:06:52,176 {\an1}in Nazi-occupied Poland, 2206 02:06:52,200 --> 02:06:56,942 {\an1}then put them to work at hard labor wherever they were needed. 2207 02:06:56,966 --> 02:06:59,476 {\an1}He was confident that most would die 2208 02:06:59,500 --> 02:07:02,342 of what he called "natural causes"... 2209 02:07:02,366 --> 02:07:07,576 Starvation, exposure, exhaustion. 2210 02:07:07,600 --> 02:07:09,709 {\an1}But those who did survive, 2211 02:07:09,733 --> 02:07:13,909 {\an1}as well as those declared unfit for labor in the first place, 2212 02:07:13,933 --> 02:07:15,809 were to be killed, 2213 02:07:15,833 --> 02:07:20,876 {\an1}a fate Heydrich referred to as "special treatment." 2214 02:07:20,900 --> 02:07:24,033 {\an1}Jews were to die because of who they were. 2215 02:07:26,366 --> 02:07:30,209 {\an1}The Nazis would also kill millions of non-Jews... 2216 02:07:30,233 --> 02:07:36,042 {\an1}Soviet POWs, Belarussians, Ukrainians, Poles, 2217 02:07:36,066 --> 02:07:39,309 Russians, and Roma and Sinti peoples. 2218 02:07:39,333 --> 02:07:43,409 {\an1}They also locked away gay men and Jehovah's Witnesses 2219 02:07:43,433 --> 02:07:47,542 {\an1}because their faith forbade them from serving in any army 2220 02:07:47,566 --> 02:07:51,376 or saluting any flag, including Hitler's. 2221 02:07:51,400 --> 02:07:54,009 ♪ 2222 02:07:54,033 --> 02:07:58,042 {\an1}Hayes: One of the things people can easily forget about the Holocaust 2223 02:07:58,066 --> 02:07:59,909 is that the core of it occurred 2224 02:07:59,933 --> 02:08:03,476 in a fierce and short period of time. 2225 02:08:03,500 --> 02:08:05,909 3/4 of the victims of the Holocaust 2226 02:08:05,933 --> 02:08:07,942 {\an1}died in only 20 months. 2227 02:08:07,966 --> 02:08:09,776 ♪ 2228 02:08:09,800 --> 02:08:13,076 {\an1}Narrator: The Nazis created 4 killing centers, 2229 02:08:13,100 --> 02:08:16,276 {\an1}dedicated solely to murder, 2230 02:08:16,300 --> 02:08:20,600 {\an1}all hidden away in the heart of what had once been Poland... 2231 02:08:22,600 --> 02:08:25,942 {\an1}Chelmno, where Nazi records list the murders 2232 02:08:25,966 --> 02:08:29,409 {\an1}of at least 145,000 people 2233 02:08:29,433 --> 02:08:32,342 {\an1}during its first 12 months alone. 2234 02:08:32,366 --> 02:08:35,409 {\an1}Belzec, where an average of 2,000 Jews 2235 02:08:35,433 --> 02:08:38,642 would die every day for 10 months... 2236 02:08:38,666 --> 02:08:41,776 600,000 human beings. 2237 02:08:41,800 --> 02:08:43,176 Sobibor, 2238 02:08:43,200 --> 02:08:46,442 {\an1}where somewhere between 167,000 2239 02:08:46,466 --> 02:08:49,776 and 200,000 would be murdered. 2240 02:08:49,800 --> 02:08:54,442 And Treblinka, where 925,000 would die, 2241 02:08:54,466 --> 02:09:00,933 {\an1}280,000 of them in a single month in the summer of 1942. 2242 02:09:02,600 --> 02:09:05,842 Chelmno did all its killing in gas vans. 2243 02:09:05,866 --> 02:09:09,209 The other 3 relied on permanent gas chambers 2244 02:09:09,233 --> 02:09:13,042 {\an1}for which carbon monoxide was provided by the engines 2245 02:09:13,066 --> 02:09:15,200 {\an1}of captured Soviet tanks. 2246 02:09:17,733 --> 02:09:20,609 The Jewish victims of these killing centers 2247 02:09:20,633 --> 02:09:22,976 {\an1}were overwhelmingly Polish, 2248 02:09:23,000 --> 02:09:25,509 but they came from everywhere the Nazis 2249 02:09:25,533 --> 02:09:28,176 {\an1}could lay their hands on them. 2250 02:09:28,200 --> 02:09:31,842 {\an1}The killing centers were supervised by the SS, 2251 02:09:31,866 --> 02:09:35,842 but guarded mostly by Eastern European support troops, 2252 02:09:35,866 --> 02:09:38,309 {\an1}usually Soviet prisoners of war 2253 02:09:38,333 --> 02:09:41,209 {\an1}who were recruited to serve the Reich. 2254 02:09:41,233 --> 02:09:45,709 {\an1}Some Jews were forced into guiding victims to their deaths 2255 02:09:45,733 --> 02:09:47,809 {\an1}and disposing of their bodies 2256 02:09:47,833 --> 02:09:53,442 {\an1}in return for being allowed to live at least a little longer. 2257 02:09:53,466 --> 02:09:57,809 {\an1}These 4 centers alone would be responsible for the death 2258 02:09:57,833 --> 02:10:01,533 {\an1}of more than 1.5 million human beings. 2259 02:10:04,566 --> 02:10:07,076 6 days after the Wannsee meeting, 2260 02:10:07,100 --> 02:10:10,042 Himmler ordered that two prisoner of war camps 2261 02:10:10,066 --> 02:10:14,009 in occupied Poland, Majdanek and Auschwitz, 2262 02:10:14,033 --> 02:10:18,576 {\an1}be transformed into additional killing centers, 2263 02:10:18,600 --> 02:10:21,676 where 1,400,000 more 2264 02:10:21,700 --> 02:10:26,300 innocent men, women, and children would be murdered. 2265 02:10:35,266 --> 02:10:37,509 {\an1}Stern: The Navy had a placard, 2266 02:10:37,533 --> 02:10:39,709 {\an1}"If you have language skills, 2267 02:10:39,733 --> 02:10:44,342 {\an7}"understanding of the 3 enemies, their psychology, 2268 02:10:44,366 --> 02:10:47,476 {\an8}come to our recruiting quarters." 2269 02:10:47,500 --> 02:10:49,576 Narrator: Soon after Pearl Harbor, 2270 02:10:49,600 --> 02:10:52,909 {\an1}along with tens of thousands of other young men, 2271 02:10:52,933 --> 02:10:57,476 Guy Stern volunteered to join the armed forces. 2272 02:10:57,500 --> 02:11:01,542 Stern: I was received by a Navy ensign. 2273 02:11:01,566 --> 02:11:04,409 And he asked me about my skills. 2274 02:11:04,433 --> 02:11:09,909 {\an1}I told him I was very good in German writing 2275 02:11:09,933 --> 02:11:12,109 and that in talking and so forth 2276 02:11:12,133 --> 02:11:14,609 {\an1}and understood Germany. 2277 02:11:14,633 --> 02:11:17,076 And he said, "Yeah, that's good. 2278 02:11:17,100 --> 02:11:19,242 {\an1}But I hear an accent." 2279 02:11:19,266 --> 02:11:22,609 Well, so, I said, "Well, yes." 2280 02:11:22,633 --> 02:11:26,276 {\an1}And he said, "Were you born here in the U.S.?" 2281 02:11:26,300 --> 02:11:27,676 I said, "No." 2282 02:11:27,700 --> 02:11:30,076 {\an1}He said, "Well, can't use you." 2283 02:11:30,100 --> 02:11:31,509 {\an1}Narrator: A few months later, 2284 02:11:31,533 --> 02:11:34,342 {\an1}Stern was drafted into the Army 2285 02:11:34,366 --> 02:11:37,000 and assigned to the intelligence branch. 2286 02:11:38,700 --> 02:11:41,576 His parents, younger brother, and sister 2287 02:11:41,600 --> 02:11:44,676 remained trapped in Hildesheim, Germany, 2288 02:11:44,700 --> 02:11:47,276 {\an1}and occasionally managed to get a letter out 2289 02:11:47,300 --> 02:11:50,676 {\an1}to Guy's uncle and aunt. 2290 02:11:50,700 --> 02:11:53,342 {\an1}Man: My dearest, Benno and Ethel, 2291 02:11:53,366 --> 02:11:55,576 {\an1}We have grown quite despondent, 2292 02:11:55,600 --> 02:12:00,442 {\an1}for if you cannot help us, nothing can be done. 2293 02:12:00,466 --> 02:12:03,809 {\an1}No doubt Günther is going to great trouble to help us. 2294 02:12:03,833 --> 02:12:06,809 Please support him by word and deed. 2295 02:12:06,833 --> 02:12:08,809 Help him cope with disappointments 2296 02:12:08,833 --> 02:12:12,276 {\an1}and lighten his burdens. 2297 02:12:12,300 --> 02:12:14,842 {\an1}You write that Günther has grown strong. 2298 02:12:14,866 --> 02:12:17,442 {\an1}If only I could see him again. 2299 02:12:17,466 --> 02:12:19,642 Write us often. 2300 02:12:19,666 --> 02:12:22,709 For now, I send my heartfelt greetings. 2301 02:12:22,733 --> 02:12:25,433 Yours, Julius. 2302 02:12:27,666 --> 02:12:31,376 {\an1}Stern: I studied these letters for the high sign. 2303 02:12:31,400 --> 02:12:34,342 {\an1}There was one substitution. 2304 02:12:34,366 --> 02:12:39,442 {\an1}There's a Hebrew-Yiddish word, "enmishova," 2305 02:12:39,466 --> 02:12:43,342 {\an1}it means I'm lying, or I am saying the contrary. 2306 02:12:43,366 --> 02:12:47,309 So I knew when they substituted that, 2307 02:12:47,333 --> 02:12:50,642 {\an1}that was bad news, indeed, 2308 02:12:50,666 --> 02:12:53,176 {\an1}because everything they said now, 2309 02:12:53,200 --> 02:12:57,966 {\an1}"We are comfortable," means they had horrible circumstances. 2310 02:12:59,833 --> 02:13:05,876 {\an1}Until I got one letter that spoke of deportation, 2311 02:13:05,900 --> 02:13:11,576 and my anxieties were overriding. 2312 02:13:11,600 --> 02:13:16,142 {\an1}Narrator: In March 1942, all the Jews in Hildesheim 2313 02:13:16,166 --> 02:13:19,809 {\an1}were ordered to assemble in the town square. 2314 02:13:19,833 --> 02:13:23,209 {\an1}Government cameramen were on hand to record 2315 02:13:23,233 --> 02:13:26,242 {\an1}the supposedly humane way in which they, 2316 02:13:26,266 --> 02:13:29,009 {\an1}including Guy Stern's family, 2317 02:13:29,033 --> 02:13:31,700 {\an1}were being deported to "the East." 2318 02:13:35,566 --> 02:13:40,476 {\an1}Later, Stern's parents managed to smuggle a letter to him 2319 02:13:40,500 --> 02:13:42,866 {\an1}from inside the Warsaw Ghetto. 2320 02:13:46,733 --> 02:13:50,742 {\an1}Stern: It had a sense of finality about it 2321 02:13:50,766 --> 02:13:52,742 and was crushing. 2322 02:13:52,766 --> 02:13:59,476 ♪ 2323 02:13:59,500 --> 02:14:05,142 {\an1}The despair was in every word. 2324 02:14:05,166 --> 02:14:08,709 {\an1}I don't think you could be in the Warsaw Ghetto, 2325 02:14:08,733 --> 02:14:14,442 and even my father's unsuppressable optimism, 2326 02:14:14,466 --> 02:14:17,433 there was even a straw of a hope. 2327 02:14:21,833 --> 02:14:26,276 {\an1}So I was fighting my war, 2328 02:14:26,300 --> 02:14:30,009 {\an1}as well as the American War. 2329 02:14:30,033 --> 02:14:33,176 {\an1}If there was a glimmer of a hope, 2330 02:14:33,200 --> 02:14:38,276 {\an1}I was trying to keep it alive to shorten this outrage, 2331 02:14:38,300 --> 02:14:42,809 this horror as best I personally could. 2332 02:14:42,833 --> 02:14:45,600 ♪ 2333 02:14:50,866 --> 02:14:58,866 ♪ 2334 02:15:47,100 --> 02:15:50,000 {\an1}Announcer: Next time, on "The U.S. and the Holocaust"... 2335 02:15:51,366 --> 02:15:53,642 the shocking truth is revealed... 2336 02:15:53,666 --> 02:15:56,542 {\an1}Lipstadt: Americans are beginning to get the picture. 2337 02:15:56,566 --> 02:15:58,276 {\an1}Announcer: a hope of rescue... 2338 02:15:58,300 --> 02:16:01,076 Erbelding: These were Americans who were really 2339 02:16:01,100 --> 02:16:03,076 trying to do good. 2340 02:16:03,100 --> 02:16:05,642 {\an1}Announcer: and the aftermath of genocide. 2341 02:16:05,666 --> 02:16:08,276 Man: This is not a war between nations 2342 02:16:08,300 --> 02:16:12,376 {\an1}but humanity's struggle for the right to exist. 2343 02:16:12,400 --> 02:16:14,009 Announcer: Don't miss the conclusion 2344 02:16:14,033 --> 02:16:17,609 {\an1}of "The U.S. and the Holocaust" next time. 2345 02:16:17,633 --> 02:16:19,042 Announcer: Stream the full series, 2346 02:16:19,066 --> 02:16:20,576 go behind the scenes, 2347 02:16:20,600 --> 02:16:23,076 {\an1}and learn how to bring "The U.S. and the Holocaust" 2348 02:16:23,100 --> 02:16:25,342 {\an1}into the classroom by visiting 2349 02:16:25,366 --> 02:16:28,309 pbs.org/holocaust 2350 02:16:28,333 --> 02:16:31,476 or the PBS video app. 2351 02:16:31,500 --> 02:16:33,442 To order "The U.S. and the Holocaust" 2352 02:16:33,466 --> 02:16:35,242 on DVD or Blu-ray, 2353 02:16:35,266 --> 02:16:37,309 visit shopPBS or call 2354 02:16:37,333 --> 02:16:39,509 1-800-PLAY-PBS. 2355 02:16:39,533 --> 02:16:41,976 {\an1}A CD of original music from the series 2356 02:16:42,000 --> 02:16:43,776 is also available. 2357 02:16:43,800 --> 02:16:45,442 {\an1}"The U.S. and the Holocaust" 2358 02:16:45,466 --> 02:16:48,476 is also available with PBS Passport 2359 02:16:48,500 --> 02:16:50,776 {\an1}and on Amazon Prime Video. 2360 02:16:50,800 --> 02:16:58,800 ♪ 2361 02:17:34,600 --> 02:17:36,600 ♪