1 00:00:11,300 --> 00:00:16,740 In April 1944, with the outcome of World War II hanging in the balance, 2 00:00:16,740 --> 00:00:20,620 two Jewish prisoners lay hidden near the outer fence 3 00:00:20,620 --> 00:00:22,980 of Auschwitz concentration camp. 4 00:00:23,860 --> 00:00:27,940 It was almost impossible to escape from Auschwitz. 5 00:00:27,940 --> 00:00:30,340 DOG BARKS 6 00:00:32,100 --> 00:00:36,660 So many people were caught almost immediately, and tortured 7 00:00:36,660 --> 00:00:38,380 and killed. 8 00:00:39,700 --> 00:00:42,340 DOG BARKS AND GROWLS 9 00:00:45,740 --> 00:00:48,420 DOG BARKS 10 00:00:50,060 --> 00:00:54,540 The dogs didn't sniff them out, because they put tobacco soaked 11 00:00:54,540 --> 00:00:57,740 in petrol around the hiding place. 12 00:01:02,900 --> 00:01:06,940 They managed to stay there undetected for three days. 13 00:01:08,780 --> 00:01:12,820 On the 10th of April 1944, they abandoned their hiding place 14 00:01:12,820 --> 00:01:14,860 and cut through the fence. 15 00:01:16,940 --> 00:01:18,900 They had to be audacious. 16 00:01:18,900 --> 00:01:20,500 They had to be brave. 17 00:01:20,500 --> 00:01:23,460 They escaped in order to warn the world 18 00:01:23,460 --> 00:01:26,020 that Auschwitz was a killing mechanism. 19 00:01:28,300 --> 00:01:32,340 Their eyewitness account of the mass extermination of European Jews 20 00:01:32,340 --> 00:01:37,620 would lead to one of the greatest moral questions of the 20th century. 21 00:01:57,340 --> 00:02:01,980 This killing complex can turn several thousands of human beings 22 00:02:01,980 --> 00:02:04,620 into ash in just 24 hours. 23 00:02:10,540 --> 00:02:13,500 The failure to bomb Auschwitz... 24 00:02:13,500 --> 00:02:15,620 No-one gave a damn. 25 00:02:15,620 --> 00:02:18,100 They didn't care. They didn't want to do it. 26 00:02:22,140 --> 00:02:24,940 Auschwitz should have had the most outrageous response 27 00:02:24,940 --> 00:02:27,420 while it was happening. 28 00:02:27,420 --> 00:02:30,380 And that's a moral failure of the West. 29 00:02:32,540 --> 00:02:36,540 Why was the greatest crime of modern history allowed to proceed unimpeded 30 00:02:36,540 --> 00:02:37,980 for almost two years? 31 00:02:40,020 --> 00:02:42,620 A million Jews perished there by gas. 32 00:02:44,460 --> 00:02:46,700 It wasn't because of lack of evidence. 33 00:02:48,660 --> 00:02:50,940 MEN COUGH 34 00:02:50,940 --> 00:02:53,220 Keep going, keep going... 35 00:02:53,220 --> 00:02:58,460 Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler fled through Nazi-occupied Poland 36 00:02:58,460 --> 00:03:00,500 to the Slovakian town of Zilina, 37 00:03:00,500 --> 00:03:03,340 where they made contact with the Jewish Underground. 38 00:03:05,140 --> 00:03:07,620 Slovakia is aligned with Nazi Germany 39 00:03:07,620 --> 00:03:09,420 and it is the first country 40 00:03:09,420 --> 00:03:11,660 to voluntarily deport its Jews. 41 00:03:14,380 --> 00:03:17,500 Vrba and Wetzler made it to a safe house. 42 00:03:17,500 --> 00:03:21,220 They were desperate to complete their mission to let the world know 43 00:03:21,220 --> 00:03:23,260 what was happening to Jews in Poland. 44 00:03:25,500 --> 00:03:28,860 The extermination of the Jews was carried on in great secrecy. 45 00:03:28,860 --> 00:03:30,380 It wasn't advertised. 46 00:03:30,380 --> 00:03:32,740 Therefore, until then, we had no cogent 47 00:03:32,740 --> 00:03:35,420 or clear description of what went on at Auschwitz. 48 00:03:38,380 --> 00:03:41,900 Oskar Krasnansky of the Jewish Underground was sent to interview 49 00:03:41,900 --> 00:03:43,140 Vrba and Wetzler. 50 00:03:44,740 --> 00:03:47,820 My name is Krasnansky, from Bratislava. 51 00:03:49,660 --> 00:03:52,740 How do I know you're not fantasists wasting my time? 52 00:03:58,180 --> 00:04:01,460 Four, four, zero, seven, zero. 53 00:04:01,460 --> 00:04:04,740 I asked him, "Why have you put this tattoo on your arm?" 54 00:04:05,900 --> 00:04:07,700 And then he looked at me and he said, 55 00:04:07,700 --> 00:04:09,700 "Where did you think I have been? 56 00:04:09,700 --> 00:04:11,780 "In a sanatorium?" 57 00:04:11,780 --> 00:04:16,660 And that's when he told me that he has been to Auschwitz. 58 00:04:16,660 --> 00:04:19,340 Why are you tattooed on your arm and you on your chest? 59 00:04:19,340 --> 00:04:22,100 The chest tattoos are imprinted with huge brutality. 60 00:04:22,100 --> 00:04:23,980 Many people fainted. 61 00:04:23,980 --> 00:04:27,460 Is that why they started tattooing people on their arms? 62 00:04:27,460 --> 00:04:28,860 No. 63 00:04:28,860 --> 00:04:31,420 No, they did that because the chest tattoos faded too quickly. 64 00:04:31,420 --> 00:04:33,140 You must tell me everything. 65 00:04:33,140 --> 00:04:37,060 Every detail that you know about Auschwitz-Birkenau. 66 00:04:37,060 --> 00:04:38,540 Yes. 67 00:04:38,540 --> 00:04:40,460 Auschwitz is a killing centre. 68 00:04:40,460 --> 00:04:42,260 Not here, not now. 69 00:04:42,260 --> 00:04:43,620 Separately. 70 00:04:43,620 --> 00:04:45,500 If you don't know who these men are, 71 00:04:45,500 --> 00:04:47,260 you want to interrogate them 72 00:04:47,260 --> 00:04:50,620 to make sure that they're not telling you a bullshit story. 73 00:04:55,260 --> 00:04:58,860 Auschwitz is not a household name 74 00:04:58,860 --> 00:05:00,540 in early 1944. 75 00:05:03,020 --> 00:05:06,660 There's a lot of confusion over, "What is this place?" 76 00:05:06,660 --> 00:05:10,060 And so, at the beginning, people just knew that Jews were being taken 77 00:05:10,060 --> 00:05:11,780 to Nazi-occupied Poland. 78 00:05:14,540 --> 00:05:17,620 The Polish Underground had managed to smuggle some information 79 00:05:17,620 --> 00:05:20,460 about the camp outside, but, on the whole, 80 00:05:20,460 --> 00:05:24,700 this information is fragmentary and sometimes contradictory. 81 00:05:27,340 --> 00:05:29,860 FOOTSTEPS APPROACH 82 00:05:32,020 --> 00:05:35,900 Vrba and Wetzler's interrogation was meticulously recorded, 83 00:05:35,900 --> 00:05:37,900 as in a court of law. 84 00:05:43,580 --> 00:05:44,980 How did you escape? 85 00:05:46,860 --> 00:05:49,900 Well, we kept to the forest, travelling only by night. 86 00:05:49,900 --> 00:05:51,540 How long? 87 00:05:52,940 --> 00:05:54,780 It took us 11 days. No, no. 88 00:05:54,780 --> 00:05:57,420 How long were you in Auschwitz? 89 00:05:57,420 --> 00:06:00,220 I arrived there on the 30th of June 1942. 90 00:06:01,300 --> 00:06:05,140 We've heard rumours that there is gas. 91 00:06:06,380 --> 00:06:10,420 That Jews are killed there by gas machines, 92 00:06:10,420 --> 00:06:12,660 and by mass electrocution. 93 00:06:12,660 --> 00:06:14,940 When you look at the way he did it, 94 00:06:14,940 --> 00:06:16,700 the professionalism, 95 00:06:16,700 --> 00:06:19,820 it reflects that this was someone 96 00:06:19,820 --> 00:06:23,220 who knew the information he was getting 97 00:06:23,220 --> 00:06:26,260 was potentially a game-changer. 98 00:06:28,460 --> 00:06:33,740 The interview was done with the idea of, "We might bring legal charges, 99 00:06:33,740 --> 00:06:37,420 "and we are going to get nothing but the facts." 100 00:06:37,420 --> 00:06:39,300 The, er... 101 00:06:39,300 --> 00:06:42,540 ..the perimeter wire is electrified. 102 00:06:42,540 --> 00:06:44,500 There are gas installations. 103 00:06:44,500 --> 00:06:45,860 Gas chambers. 104 00:06:45,860 --> 00:06:47,340 Go on. 105 00:06:47,340 --> 00:06:50,020 Four gas chambers with crematoria for burning. 106 00:06:51,380 --> 00:06:55,660 The first crematorium opened in March 1943, when prominent guests 107 00:06:55,660 --> 00:06:57,740 from Berlin arrived to see the new installation. 108 00:06:58,940 --> 00:07:02,220 That day, they were able to witness 8,000 Jews from Krakow 109 00:07:02,220 --> 00:07:03,660 gassed and burned. 110 00:07:04,860 --> 00:07:06,700 They were very pleased with that result. 111 00:07:07,980 --> 00:07:09,460 How do you know all this? 112 00:07:09,460 --> 00:07:13,220 I worked as a registrar in the Birkenau section of the camp. 113 00:07:13,220 --> 00:07:16,300 My daily duties included registering the survivors 114 00:07:16,300 --> 00:07:17,860 of each transportation, 115 00:07:17,860 --> 00:07:21,140 meaning those who had survived the train journey and had not, 116 00:07:21,140 --> 00:07:24,780 on arrival at Auschwitz, been selected for the gas. 117 00:07:24,780 --> 00:07:28,180 Clerks can move around the different sectors of the camp a little bit 118 00:07:28,180 --> 00:07:31,580 more freely than most other prisoners. 119 00:07:31,580 --> 00:07:35,140 And, in this way, pick up even-more-detailed information 120 00:07:35,140 --> 00:07:38,380 about what exactly is happening there. 121 00:07:38,380 --> 00:07:40,620 I also got information about the precise operation 122 00:07:40,620 --> 00:07:43,460 of the gas chambers and crematoria, from one of the Sonderkommando. 123 00:07:44,740 --> 00:07:46,100 Sonderkommando? 124 00:07:49,620 --> 00:07:51,580 You really know nothing, do you? 125 00:08:05,740 --> 00:08:10,220 The prisoners in Auschwitz-Birkenau who knew best what happened 126 00:08:10,220 --> 00:08:12,620 at the gas chambers and the crematoria, were the members 127 00:08:12,620 --> 00:08:14,380 of the so-called Sonderkommando. 128 00:08:14,380 --> 00:08:18,780 These were prisoners who were forced by the SS to assist in the killing 129 00:08:18,780 --> 00:08:21,420 and cremation at the crematoria itself. 130 00:08:27,540 --> 00:08:32,660 Rudy and Freddy felt that they needed to have facts 131 00:08:32,660 --> 00:08:36,060 that would convince people that this really is happening. 132 00:08:37,820 --> 00:08:39,460 And it was their idea 133 00:08:39,460 --> 00:08:41,140 to write a report 134 00:08:41,140 --> 00:08:42,820 that could be distributed 135 00:08:42,820 --> 00:08:44,380 and shown as evidence. 136 00:08:46,820 --> 00:08:50,980 Vrba and Wetzler wanted to include as much granular evidence 137 00:08:50,980 --> 00:08:52,700 as they could in that report, 138 00:08:52,700 --> 00:08:54,740 and that included some drawings. 139 00:09:01,260 --> 00:09:04,100 Auschwitz is a massive place and it builds up over time 140 00:09:04,100 --> 00:09:05,420 and in different ways. 141 00:09:05,420 --> 00:09:09,380 So, the first camp is Auschwitz I, which opens in 1940. 142 00:09:11,020 --> 00:09:13,460 Later, they add Birkenau, a few miles away, 143 00:09:13,460 --> 00:09:16,260 which is where the gas chambers and the crematorium are located. 144 00:09:19,540 --> 00:09:23,820 This is an approximate sketch of the dark heart 145 00:09:23,820 --> 00:09:27,420 of Auschwitz's main camp and Birkenau. 146 00:09:27,420 --> 00:09:29,900 This is one of the gas chambers and crematoria that the SS 147 00:09:29,900 --> 00:09:32,940 constructed in Birkenau. 148 00:09:34,580 --> 00:09:40,020 It's striking how much Vrba and Wetzler got right 149 00:09:40,020 --> 00:09:42,180 about the layout of the camp, 150 00:09:42,180 --> 00:09:44,740 the mechanics of mass extermination 151 00:09:44,740 --> 00:09:47,740 and even down to the names of individual prisoners. 152 00:09:54,500 --> 00:09:59,340 At the end of January, a large convoy of French and Dutch Jews 153 00:09:59,340 --> 00:10:02,020 arrived at Auschwitz. 154 00:10:02,020 --> 00:10:05,420 But only a small proportion of those reached the camp. 155 00:10:05,420 --> 00:10:06,900 What happened to the rest of them? 156 00:10:06,900 --> 00:10:09,620 They went straight from the trains to the gas chambers. 157 00:10:09,620 --> 00:10:12,540 Did you see these the selections yourself? 158 00:10:12,540 --> 00:10:13,780 Yes. 159 00:10:13,780 --> 00:10:16,380 I belonged to a work command that took me to a place called 160 00:10:16,380 --> 00:10:20,260 "the ramp" which is where the trains came in, sometimes one a day, 161 00:10:20,260 --> 00:10:23,180 sometimes five, sometimes through the night. 162 00:10:23,180 --> 00:10:25,660 My job was to deal with the personal property of those Jews 163 00:10:25,660 --> 00:10:29,220 who'd been selected for the gas, and to collect any dead bodies 164 00:10:29,220 --> 00:10:31,100 from the cattle carts. 165 00:10:36,820 --> 00:10:40,180 He sees how Jews are forced off the trains. 166 00:10:40,180 --> 00:10:41,980 He sees how they have to line up. 167 00:10:43,620 --> 00:10:47,460 He sees how the SS selects them and sends those 168 00:10:47,460 --> 00:10:50,780 deemed to be weak and ill and not fit for work 169 00:10:50,780 --> 00:10:52,340 towards the gas chambers. 170 00:10:54,780 --> 00:10:57,460 And this really gives Vrba a direct insight, 171 00:10:57,460 --> 00:11:01,100 he becomes an eyewitness of the Holocaust. 172 00:11:01,100 --> 00:11:04,220 Women, children, old people, people they considered unfit, 173 00:11:04,220 --> 00:11:06,020 sent straight to the gas chambers. 174 00:11:06,020 --> 00:11:09,180 The fittest were separated out and kept for labour. 175 00:11:09,180 --> 00:11:11,140 How many? It varied. 176 00:11:11,140 --> 00:11:14,180 A small percentage, 5 or 10%. 177 00:11:15,900 --> 00:11:17,940 All this was done with force? 178 00:11:17,940 --> 00:11:20,420 Sometimes, but usually without. 179 00:11:20,420 --> 00:11:23,820 These people had no idea where they were going. 180 00:11:23,820 --> 00:11:25,860 I want to emphasise this. 181 00:11:25,860 --> 00:11:27,740 A train would pull in, 182 00:11:27,740 --> 00:11:30,660 and those getting off would have no conception of what had just happened 183 00:11:30,660 --> 00:11:32,820 to those who'd arrived a few hours before. 184 00:11:36,460 --> 00:11:39,700 They were describing the details of genocide. 185 00:11:41,580 --> 00:11:43,740 How was it done? 186 00:11:45,420 --> 00:11:48,820 You are asking people to believe something that was literally 187 00:11:48,820 --> 00:11:50,260 beyond belief. 188 00:11:53,700 --> 00:11:56,220 You can't put it into words. 189 00:11:56,220 --> 00:11:58,140 Numbness. 190 00:11:58,140 --> 00:12:01,980 Fright, anger, fury. 191 00:12:01,980 --> 00:12:03,580 Rage! 192 00:12:05,460 --> 00:12:08,340 And then a feeling of... 193 00:12:09,740 --> 00:12:11,620 .."Oh, my God." 194 00:12:11,620 --> 00:12:14,820 And probably a sense of incredulity, "Are these guys out of their mind?" 195 00:12:16,660 --> 00:12:20,340 How did the SS deal with these arrivals? 196 00:12:20,340 --> 00:12:22,140 I told you already. 197 00:12:22,140 --> 00:12:23,980 They were sent to the gas. 198 00:12:23,980 --> 00:12:25,820 To the gas at Birkenau. 199 00:12:27,420 --> 00:12:32,100 Some of the groups would be frightened and disorientated. 200 00:12:34,060 --> 00:12:36,380 Others would be almost relieved, 201 00:12:36,380 --> 00:12:40,020 depending on how they'd been greeted by the SS. 202 00:12:40,020 --> 00:12:42,300 Sometimes they could be harsh, 203 00:12:42,300 --> 00:12:44,700 using the sticks, dogs, lots of shouting. 204 00:12:44,700 --> 00:12:47,540 Other times it would be, "How nice that you have arrived. 205 00:12:47,540 --> 00:12:49,620 "We are sorry it was not too comfortable. 206 00:12:49,620 --> 00:12:52,220 "Things will change now." 207 00:12:52,220 --> 00:12:55,620 Vrba's testimony had a horrifying climax. 208 00:12:55,620 --> 00:12:58,740 The Nazis new plan for Auschwitz-Birkenau. 209 00:12:58,740 --> 00:13:00,900 They are preparing for the extermination 210 00:13:00,900 --> 00:13:02,540 of the Hungarian Jews. 211 00:13:05,100 --> 00:13:06,660 How do you know that? 212 00:13:06,660 --> 00:13:08,540 That is why they have built the new crematoria 213 00:13:08,540 --> 00:13:10,100 and extended the ramp. 214 00:13:10,100 --> 00:13:15,460 I said, how do you know the intent to kill the Hungarian Jews? 215 00:13:15,460 --> 00:13:18,300 The SS. They talk. To you? 216 00:13:18,300 --> 00:13:20,220 I am dirt. 217 00:13:20,220 --> 00:13:21,820 To each other. 218 00:13:21,820 --> 00:13:23,700 I heard it more than once. 219 00:13:25,940 --> 00:13:29,180 They would always take the best food from the trains for themselves. 220 00:13:30,540 --> 00:13:32,820 They had a cosmopolitan diet. 221 00:13:34,500 --> 00:13:38,340 I overheard one officer saying that he was tired of Dutch cheese, 222 00:13:38,340 --> 00:13:41,180 and looked forward to the arrival of Hungarian salami. 223 00:13:47,460 --> 00:13:48,980 Are you certain you heard this? 224 00:13:50,700 --> 00:13:52,060 I have to ask. 225 00:13:53,260 --> 00:13:54,580 Are you certain? 226 00:13:54,580 --> 00:13:56,300 I heard it more than once. 227 00:13:57,580 --> 00:13:59,660 It is why I knew I had to escape. 228 00:14:00,820 --> 00:14:03,300 To warn people of what is to come. 229 00:14:06,940 --> 00:14:12,260 Auschwitz becomes the centre of the Holocaust and the catalyst for that 230 00:14:12,260 --> 00:14:18,740 is the German invasion of Hungary in March 1944. 231 00:14:23,620 --> 00:14:28,700 Hungary had the largest mostly intact Jewish community in Europe, 232 00:14:28,700 --> 00:14:31,940 and the persecution starts almost immediately. 233 00:14:33,100 --> 00:14:37,020 On April 27th 1944, Vrba's warning comes true. 234 00:14:38,220 --> 00:14:42,100 The first 4,000 Jews were sent by train from Hungary to Auschwitz. 235 00:14:44,060 --> 00:14:46,500 It was a dress rehearsal for the planned annihilation 236 00:14:46,500 --> 00:14:48,780 of all 800,000. 237 00:14:50,780 --> 00:14:55,100 I would argue that the Nazis are losing the war and therefore 238 00:14:55,100 --> 00:14:56,620 they're trying to win the genocide. 239 00:14:58,380 --> 00:15:02,180 The crime that was being committed was so horrific, so unique, 240 00:15:02,180 --> 00:15:04,780 so outrageous, so evil, so awful. 241 00:15:07,340 --> 00:15:11,460 The Nazis kept their extermination programme a closely guarded secret, 242 00:15:11,460 --> 00:15:13,980 to avoid resistance and disruption on the trains. 243 00:15:15,820 --> 00:15:17,860 But it was no longer secret. 244 00:15:17,860 --> 00:15:20,900 Vrba and Wetzler's harrowing testimony 245 00:15:20,900 --> 00:15:23,260 was turned into a detailed report. 246 00:15:24,460 --> 00:15:26,180 The Auschwitz Protocol. 247 00:15:29,220 --> 00:15:32,060 The Auschwitz Protocol is very scientific. 248 00:15:32,060 --> 00:15:34,500 There isn't a lot of emotion and I think that was a deliberate 249 00:15:34,500 --> 00:15:37,140 choice on the part of the escapees. 250 00:15:37,140 --> 00:15:40,100 They weren't going to express their horror. 251 00:15:40,100 --> 00:15:41,780 The horror is there. 252 00:15:47,860 --> 00:15:50,940 Thanks to the Protocol, Jewish activists in Slovakia 253 00:15:50,940 --> 00:15:53,580 learnt of the Nazis' plans for the Hungarian Jews. 254 00:15:54,820 --> 00:15:57,260 So the duty to act was theirs. 255 00:16:00,740 --> 00:16:04,580 Everybody who worked as a courier had to be prepared to lose 256 00:16:04,580 --> 00:16:06,580 their own life. 257 00:16:06,580 --> 00:16:10,460 They would have been tortured to reveal where they'd gotten it. 258 00:16:10,460 --> 00:16:13,300 The last thing in the world Germany wanted to happen 259 00:16:13,300 --> 00:16:15,540 was that this information got out. 260 00:16:34,220 --> 00:16:36,700 In the first week of May 1944, 261 00:16:36,700 --> 00:16:39,100 the Protocol reached Michael Weissmandl, 262 00:16:39,100 --> 00:16:41,940 who worked secretly for the Jewish Underground 263 00:16:41,940 --> 00:16:43,580 in the Slovakian capital. 264 00:16:45,020 --> 00:16:48,180 Rabbi Weissmandl was a very passionate man. 265 00:16:48,180 --> 00:16:51,100 He's in Slovakia to rescue people. 266 00:16:57,140 --> 00:17:00,020 His sole goal is to take care of his community... 267 00:17:02,260 --> 00:17:05,940 ..and he does it with whatever means he possibly can. 268 00:17:26,620 --> 00:17:30,460 Weissmandl was not only among the first to read these documents, 269 00:17:30,460 --> 00:17:34,140 but he was the first to fully believe these documents. 270 00:17:39,060 --> 00:17:42,540 The Protocol had a devastating effect on Weissmandl. 271 00:17:42,540 --> 00:17:44,300 He had witnessed deportations. 272 00:17:46,100 --> 00:17:49,780 He now realised the full horror that awaited those who had gone. 273 00:17:52,900 --> 00:17:56,420 Getting the information was one part of the task. 274 00:17:56,420 --> 00:17:59,060 Disseminating the information was the other. 275 00:18:00,980 --> 00:18:03,180 It had to be done with great secrecy. 276 00:18:05,580 --> 00:18:08,980 Weissmandl is sending this report everywhere he can think of. 277 00:18:08,980 --> 00:18:11,580 He's trying to get it to the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem. 278 00:18:11,580 --> 00:18:15,180 He's trying to get it to London, hopefully to the United States. 279 00:18:16,780 --> 00:18:19,300 He's sending them all in the hopes that one cry in the darkness 280 00:18:19,300 --> 00:18:20,860 will be heard. 281 00:18:32,220 --> 00:18:34,860 Our bedroom door is knocked down 282 00:18:34,860 --> 00:18:37,260 and two gendarmes are in our bedroom... 283 00:18:38,540 --> 00:18:40,580 ..yelling and screaming, 284 00:18:40,580 --> 00:18:42,500 "You have two minutes to pack a bundle. 285 00:18:42,500 --> 00:18:44,380 "We are taking you away." 286 00:18:44,380 --> 00:18:45,820 "Give up your jewellery. 287 00:18:45,820 --> 00:18:48,860 "Give up anything you have in possession." 288 00:18:48,860 --> 00:18:53,580 My father looked at us as though he wanted to save this picture 289 00:18:53,580 --> 00:18:55,620 in his memory, of the family. 290 00:18:55,620 --> 00:18:59,060 They said, "Get out of the house." 291 00:18:59,060 --> 00:19:01,100 And certainly this sentence... 292 00:19:02,940 --> 00:19:04,940 .."Just stay calm. 293 00:19:04,940 --> 00:19:08,140 "Remember, calmness is strength." 294 00:19:09,540 --> 00:19:12,380 And they hit him, pushed him through the door and he was out. 295 00:19:14,100 --> 00:19:17,740 The rabbi was an elderly gentleman with a white beard. 296 00:19:17,740 --> 00:19:20,300 He was made to walk in the front of the columns. 297 00:19:20,300 --> 00:19:22,700 He was symbolic. "The Jews are leaving town." 298 00:19:25,180 --> 00:19:27,100 In spring 1944, 299 00:19:27,100 --> 00:19:29,300 the world had little knowledge of what was happening 300 00:19:29,300 --> 00:19:31,580 to the Jews of Hungary. 301 00:19:31,580 --> 00:19:34,420 Most were looking elsewhere, because the war had reached 302 00:19:34,420 --> 00:19:35,820 a critical juncture. 303 00:19:37,700 --> 00:19:41,900 What was going on at that very time in the United States and Britain 304 00:19:41,900 --> 00:19:44,780 was the preparations for D-Day, 305 00:19:44,780 --> 00:19:48,220 which the total outcome of the war depended on. 306 00:19:48,220 --> 00:19:51,140 Now, this took precedence over everything. 307 00:19:52,580 --> 00:19:55,340 The Pacific War was going on for the Americans, 308 00:19:55,340 --> 00:19:57,380 and that was an immense Herculean effort. 309 00:19:59,180 --> 00:20:02,660 They knew that as they moved closer to Japan, the fight was going to get 310 00:20:02,660 --> 00:20:04,940 harder and harder, because the Japanese 311 00:20:04,940 --> 00:20:07,020 were terrifically fierce fighters. 312 00:20:08,820 --> 00:20:10,980 On the other side of Europe, 313 00:20:10,980 --> 00:20:13,500 the Soviet Army at the time was working full steam. 314 00:20:17,900 --> 00:20:21,340 Stalin basically destroyed the entire German Army 315 00:20:21,340 --> 00:20:24,980 in some of the greatest battles of modern history. 316 00:20:24,980 --> 00:20:27,420 While the Allies were focused on the battlefront, 317 00:20:27,420 --> 00:20:29,220 the Protocol gained momentum. 318 00:20:31,460 --> 00:20:35,020 Weissmandl's transmission reached Roswell McClelland 319 00:20:35,020 --> 00:20:37,900 at the War Refugee Board in neutral Switzerland. 320 00:20:47,740 --> 00:20:49,420 Is this it? 321 00:20:49,420 --> 00:20:52,620 The War Refugee Board was established by Roosevelt in early 1944, 322 00:20:52,620 --> 00:20:56,060 and it was the only body anywhere in the world which specifically 323 00:20:56,060 --> 00:20:58,180 had the task of rescuing Jews. 324 00:21:04,380 --> 00:21:06,420 They were selected... 325 00:21:06,420 --> 00:21:08,260 ..for gassing. 326 00:21:08,260 --> 00:21:10,500 It gives the impression of the antechamber 327 00:21:10,500 --> 00:21:12,100 of a bathing establishment. 328 00:21:12,100 --> 00:21:13,940 It holds 2,000 people. 329 00:21:13,940 --> 00:21:16,140 From there, a door and a few steps 330 00:21:16,140 --> 00:21:19,020 lead down into the very long and narrow gas chamber. 331 00:21:22,060 --> 00:21:24,940 Roswell McClelland had a very personal reaction 332 00:21:24,940 --> 00:21:29,580 because he had gone to southern France working with Jews 333 00:21:29,580 --> 00:21:32,020 in internment camps in 1942, 334 00:21:32,020 --> 00:21:34,660 and he knows intimately who these people are. 335 00:21:34,660 --> 00:21:37,700 He had watched them go to Auschwitz, 336 00:21:37,700 --> 00:21:40,940 and now he's reading about what happened to them. 337 00:21:43,860 --> 00:21:47,460 When Rabbi Weissmandl sent the Protocol, 338 00:21:47,460 --> 00:21:50,100 he added a dramatic postscript. 339 00:21:50,100 --> 00:21:55,300 It was an appeal for help but also a rebuke for those who might refuse. 340 00:21:56,580 --> 00:22:00,060 WEISSMANDL: And you, our brothers in all the free lands, 341 00:22:00,060 --> 00:22:02,460 what are you doing about the extermination 342 00:22:02,460 --> 00:22:04,780 which swallows 10,000 every day? 343 00:22:05,980 --> 00:22:09,580 For God's sake, do something now and quickly. 344 00:22:10,660 --> 00:22:13,860 He turned the question of what to do about the death camp 345 00:22:13,860 --> 00:22:16,900 into one of the great moral issues of the 20th century. 346 00:22:18,260 --> 00:22:22,620 He demanded that the Allied air forces bomb Auschwitz. 347 00:22:22,620 --> 00:22:24,980 He was the first to do so. 348 00:22:24,980 --> 00:22:30,580 His call to bomb Auschwitz was essentially a call of desperation 349 00:22:30,580 --> 00:22:32,180 and a call of despair. 350 00:22:34,860 --> 00:22:38,660 When people first hear about the request of bombing of Auschwitz, 351 00:22:38,660 --> 00:22:42,060 it's quite remarkable because they are demanding 352 00:22:42,060 --> 00:22:44,340 that they bomb a camp where their own people 353 00:22:44,340 --> 00:22:46,660 are being held prisoner? 354 00:22:46,660 --> 00:22:48,380 It seemed very strange. 355 00:22:49,660 --> 00:22:52,340 Let's set the whole goddamn thing aflame, 356 00:22:52,340 --> 00:22:54,500 let's destroy the entire thing. 357 00:22:54,500 --> 00:22:56,740 Then we have accomplished something and we've done 358 00:22:56,740 --> 00:22:58,900 something enormously significant. 359 00:23:02,380 --> 00:23:04,220 The clock was ticking. 360 00:23:04,220 --> 00:23:07,220 McClelland sent a summary of the Protocol to Washington. 361 00:23:09,500 --> 00:23:13,180 Switzerland is completely surrounded by Nazi territory. 362 00:23:13,180 --> 00:23:16,620 You can't have a courier go in and out. 363 00:23:16,620 --> 00:23:20,260 So Roswell McClelland sends a cable and said, "As soon as I can, 364 00:23:20,260 --> 00:23:22,100 "you'll get the whole thing." 365 00:23:23,860 --> 00:23:26,180 MCCLELLAND: Since early summer 1942, 366 00:23:26,180 --> 00:23:30,260 at least one and a half million Jews have been killed. 367 00:23:30,260 --> 00:23:34,300 There is evidence that from January 1944, preparations were being made 368 00:23:34,300 --> 00:23:38,340 to receive and exterminate Hungarian Jews in these camps. 369 00:23:59,020 --> 00:24:01,580 For three days and three nights, 370 00:24:01,580 --> 00:24:04,300 we were locked into that box. 371 00:24:06,180 --> 00:24:09,460 Every morning we were travelling, 372 00:24:09,460 --> 00:24:11,620 they opened those shutters 373 00:24:11,620 --> 00:24:13,900 and they said, "Throw out dead bodies." 374 00:24:13,900 --> 00:24:16,740 With a tiny window for air 375 00:24:16,740 --> 00:24:21,220 and one pail for bodily needs, which... 376 00:24:22,740 --> 00:24:24,260 ..turned out to be... 377 00:24:25,940 --> 00:24:27,340 ..very, very... 378 00:24:28,540 --> 00:24:31,460 ..embarrassing and unpleasant. 379 00:24:31,460 --> 00:24:34,460 Something has always been going around in my mind, 380 00:24:34,460 --> 00:24:39,100 and I can't get rid of it and I feel so ashamed. 381 00:24:46,420 --> 00:24:49,060 Tell me, how can a 14-year-old child... 382 00:24:51,700 --> 00:24:53,300 ..hope people should die... 383 00:24:55,260 --> 00:24:58,060 ..so he'll have room where to sit down? 384 00:25:06,140 --> 00:25:09,140 It was early in the morning that we arrived. 385 00:25:09,140 --> 00:25:12,500 The door opened and screams. 386 00:25:12,500 --> 00:25:16,460 "Rasch! Rasch! Schnell! Schnell..." 387 00:25:16,460 --> 00:25:20,740 And through the slits of the cart that we were in, 388 00:25:20,740 --> 00:25:24,740 I saw we were at Auschwitz. I didn't have a clue what it was. 389 00:25:28,060 --> 00:25:32,660 Nazi soldiers standing there with rifles pointing at us, 390 00:25:32,660 --> 00:25:39,220 others holding back snarling, big dogs that were barking at us. 391 00:25:39,220 --> 00:25:44,500 The first thing was - you breathe in and there's a very strange smell. 392 00:25:44,500 --> 00:25:47,020 It was, sort of, sweetish and burning. 393 00:25:49,340 --> 00:25:50,780 I thought, "It's a bakery, 394 00:25:50,780 --> 00:25:52,420 "and they're baking bread." 395 00:26:03,780 --> 00:26:08,500 And then I noticed that, to the left, were people... 396 00:26:08,500 --> 00:26:14,300 ..older and with glasses, and children and women. 397 00:26:14,300 --> 00:26:16,140 My mother... 398 00:26:16,140 --> 00:26:18,780 ..my two little brothers... 399 00:26:19,980 --> 00:26:21,900 ..and my baby in my mother's arm, 400 00:26:21,900 --> 00:26:24,300 my grandfather, grandmother and my aunt. 401 00:26:24,300 --> 00:26:26,340 My mother went to the left. 402 00:26:27,780 --> 00:26:29,580 With a flick of his hand to the left, 403 00:26:29,580 --> 00:26:31,620 they were walked off. 404 00:26:31,620 --> 00:26:34,700 We didn't even have time to say goodbye. 405 00:26:34,700 --> 00:26:37,940 And that's when I saw my father the last time. 406 00:26:37,940 --> 00:26:39,420 He was 60 years old. 407 00:26:42,340 --> 00:26:44,340 NARRATOR: Roswell McClelland's cable 408 00:26:44,340 --> 00:26:46,660 containing the summary of the Auschwitz Protocol 409 00:26:46,660 --> 00:26:50,900 and the plea to bomb the camp, travelled from Switzerland 410 00:26:50,900 --> 00:26:54,580 to the headquarters of the War Refugee Board in Washington. 411 00:26:59,260 --> 00:27:02,580 "It is urged by all sources of this information in Slovakia 412 00:27:02,580 --> 00:27:06,140 "and Hungary, that vital sections of the rail lines be bombed. 413 00:27:08,740 --> 00:27:12,540 "They also urge that the camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau, 414 00:27:12,540 --> 00:27:15,740 "especially the gas chambers and crematoriums, 415 00:27:15,740 --> 00:27:18,140 "recognisable by their high chimneys, 416 00:27:18,140 --> 00:27:19,900 "be bombed from the air." 417 00:27:21,820 --> 00:27:24,860 The director of the War Refugee Board was a lawyer 418 00:27:24,860 --> 00:27:26,060 called John Pehle. 419 00:27:27,220 --> 00:27:30,420 The decision about what to do with this startling information 420 00:27:30,420 --> 00:27:32,380 fell on his shoulders. 421 00:27:34,180 --> 00:27:38,500 John Pehle was very measured, and he was very diligent and dogged. 422 00:27:38,500 --> 00:27:40,300 He is not cynical. 423 00:27:40,300 --> 00:27:42,740 He really does believe that the United States 424 00:27:42,740 --> 00:27:44,980 can try to save people. 425 00:27:44,980 --> 00:27:48,420 Would you please ask Dr Akzin to step through to my office? 426 00:27:48,420 --> 00:27:51,700 Oh, and hold all incoming calls until he leaves. 427 00:27:51,700 --> 00:27:55,900 When people saw the level of detail of this atrocity, 428 00:27:55,900 --> 00:28:00,380 they recognised that this was something different. 429 00:28:00,380 --> 00:28:02,500 This was something horrifying. 430 00:28:02,500 --> 00:28:04,060 KNOCKS 431 00:28:04,060 --> 00:28:05,500 Ben. 432 00:28:07,660 --> 00:28:09,620 I want you to take a look at this. 433 00:28:12,900 --> 00:28:14,620 It's from Roswell McClelland. 434 00:28:14,620 --> 00:28:16,260 Owsahitz? 435 00:28:16,260 --> 00:28:18,780 I think he means Auschwitz. 436 00:28:18,780 --> 00:28:20,740 Benjamin Akzin is a lawyer. 437 00:28:20,740 --> 00:28:24,780 He grew up in Latvia and was an incredibly intelligent man. 438 00:28:24,780 --> 00:28:26,260 He's Jewish. 439 00:28:26,260 --> 00:28:28,900 He certainly still had family and friends back in Europe. 440 00:28:28,900 --> 00:28:32,500 He sees the War Refugee Board as a place where he can do some good. 441 00:28:42,020 --> 00:28:43,380 This is... 442 00:28:44,740 --> 00:28:46,220 It's inconceivable? 443 00:28:47,940 --> 00:28:49,940 Incredible? 444 00:28:49,940 --> 00:28:51,380 Unbelievable? 445 00:28:52,740 --> 00:28:56,260 125,000 a month? 446 00:28:58,220 --> 00:29:00,700 You can go straight to the President with this. 447 00:29:00,700 --> 00:29:01,860 HE SCOFFS 448 00:29:01,860 --> 00:29:03,180 What's so funny? 449 00:29:03,180 --> 00:29:04,900 It doesn't work that way, Ben. 450 00:29:04,900 --> 00:29:06,780 There are procedures. 451 00:29:06,780 --> 00:29:08,220 There are rules. 452 00:29:08,220 --> 00:29:10,660 There are no rules for this, surely? 453 00:29:10,660 --> 00:29:11,900 If it's true. 454 00:29:13,460 --> 00:29:15,780 We have to be sure, that's all. 455 00:29:15,780 --> 00:29:19,020 It's very easy for us these days to close our eyes 456 00:29:19,020 --> 00:29:20,700 and imagine Auschwitz. 457 00:29:20,700 --> 00:29:24,100 We've seen photos, many of us may have even visited Auschwitz. 458 00:29:24,100 --> 00:29:26,420 And so it's really hard to reconstruct how chaotic 459 00:29:26,420 --> 00:29:28,660 information about Auschwitz was. 460 00:29:28,660 --> 00:29:30,540 There are eyewitnesses, two of them. 461 00:29:31,820 --> 00:29:33,220 It is unusual, I grant. 462 00:29:33,220 --> 00:29:35,300 It's unprecedented, John. 463 00:29:35,300 --> 00:29:38,020 And Roswell McClelland seems to think it's true. 464 00:29:39,540 --> 00:29:41,980 That's quite something, isn't it? 465 00:29:41,980 --> 00:29:43,620 It is. 466 00:29:45,220 --> 00:29:47,420 Take a look at this. 467 00:29:47,420 --> 00:29:49,300 It came in with the cable. 468 00:29:51,180 --> 00:29:53,460 It's a list of suggestions made by Jewish groups 469 00:29:53,460 --> 00:29:55,380 from Slovakia and Switzerland. 470 00:29:55,380 --> 00:29:57,180 Fielded by Roswell. 471 00:30:03,700 --> 00:30:05,140 There is a logic to it, isn't there? 472 00:30:05,140 --> 00:30:06,540 I mean... 473 00:30:08,780 --> 00:30:10,500 If you accept this, then... 474 00:30:12,060 --> 00:30:14,460 ..it kind of follows that you must do this. 475 00:30:19,180 --> 00:30:21,580 You know, my first thought is they're right. 476 00:30:22,820 --> 00:30:25,820 We should bomb, send them some airmail. 477 00:30:25,820 --> 00:30:27,500 I don't think the response... 478 00:30:27,500 --> 00:30:32,340 "Let's bomb this place, can we react to this atrocity?" 479 00:30:32,340 --> 00:30:34,660 ..was at all unusual. 480 00:30:34,660 --> 00:30:39,660 I think all of us would have liked to have thought 481 00:30:39,660 --> 00:30:41,900 that's exactly the response we would have. 482 00:30:41,900 --> 00:30:45,940 This thing, John, it speaks of industrial slaughter. 483 00:30:48,020 --> 00:30:52,460 For a lot of people, it was the Protocol that changed their mind. 484 00:30:52,460 --> 00:30:55,780 That, in order to stop this mass killing, you had to take out 485 00:30:55,780 --> 00:30:57,860 the instrument of killing. 486 00:30:57,860 --> 00:30:59,980 And the only way to take out the instrument of killing 487 00:30:59,980 --> 00:31:01,980 was to bomb the camp. 488 00:31:01,980 --> 00:31:05,220 You see, I don't recall ever reading about... 489 00:31:07,100 --> 00:31:10,540 ..or hearing about a proposal like this one. 490 00:31:10,540 --> 00:31:12,980 And I'm talking about in any war. 491 00:31:14,180 --> 00:31:16,500 To bomb friendly civilians? 492 00:31:16,500 --> 00:31:18,620 Civilians we're committed to rescuing? 493 00:31:20,860 --> 00:31:22,900 That's a moral leap into... 494 00:31:25,660 --> 00:31:27,820 I don't know what it is. 495 00:31:27,820 --> 00:31:31,820 Pehle perceives that there's not much that we can do. 496 00:31:31,820 --> 00:31:34,420 The War Refugee Board is constantly trying to get information 497 00:31:34,420 --> 00:31:37,140 about what's going on in Europe, and I think he sees this 498 00:31:37,140 --> 00:31:40,380 as, as information but not actionable intelligence. 499 00:31:44,420 --> 00:31:46,700 I'll make the suggestions to the War Department 500 00:31:46,700 --> 00:31:49,100 but I know what they'll say. 501 00:31:49,100 --> 00:31:50,740 It's a diversion. 502 00:31:54,460 --> 00:31:59,700 On June 24th 1944, Pehle passed the recommendations to bomb 503 00:31:59,700 --> 00:32:02,260 up the chain of command to John McCloy, 504 00:32:02,260 --> 00:32:04,540 the Assistant Secretary of War. 505 00:32:06,380 --> 00:32:10,220 But McCloy is not inclined to divert resources from the war, 506 00:32:10,220 --> 00:32:12,780 because the war was at such a critical moment 507 00:32:12,780 --> 00:32:14,380 at that point in time. 508 00:32:16,580 --> 00:32:19,780 Allied forces had landed successfully in France on D-Day. 509 00:32:21,420 --> 00:32:24,740 The supreme effort now was to drive towards Germany, 510 00:32:24,740 --> 00:32:27,500 reach Berlin, and force the unconditional surrender 511 00:32:27,500 --> 00:32:28,740 of the Nazis. 512 00:32:30,380 --> 00:32:33,260 Round-the-clock bombing missions against German cities, 513 00:32:33,260 --> 00:32:37,060 military and industrial targets, were intensifying. 514 00:32:39,820 --> 00:32:42,940 On the Eastern Front, the Soviet Army was advancing 515 00:32:42,940 --> 00:32:44,740 westwards towards Poland. 516 00:32:46,700 --> 00:32:48,860 The focus is on winning the war. 517 00:32:48,860 --> 00:32:51,460 We can't be diverted by Auschwitz. 518 00:32:51,460 --> 00:32:57,580 No-one really grasps that this was part of an effort to wipe out 519 00:32:57,580 --> 00:33:02,460 an entire people from one end of Europe to the other, and beyond. 520 00:33:08,860 --> 00:33:12,140 Once you understand that Jews are being killed every day, 521 00:33:12,140 --> 00:33:14,860 you can't go on with business as usual, 522 00:33:14,860 --> 00:33:18,740 you can't imagine not doing something about it. 523 00:33:18,740 --> 00:33:21,980 You can't say, "We shall win the war and then we'll worry 524 00:33:21,980 --> 00:33:23,500 "about the refugees." 525 00:33:28,220 --> 00:33:31,100 This is the period in the whole history of Auschwitz 526 00:33:31,100 --> 00:33:35,140 where the killing reaches its frenzied climax. 527 00:33:35,140 --> 00:33:38,580 Never before have so many Jews been killed so quickly 528 00:33:38,580 --> 00:33:43,860 in Auschwitz-Birkenau as in the period between May and July 1944. 529 00:33:47,100 --> 00:33:50,340 437,402 Jews were shipped 530 00:33:50,340 --> 00:33:54,860 primarily to Birkenau on 147 trains. 531 00:33:54,860 --> 00:33:58,740 147 trains during 54 days meant 532 00:33:58,740 --> 00:34:02,580 an average of 2.7 trains a day, 533 00:34:02,580 --> 00:34:07,060 an average of 2,975 Jews per train. 534 00:34:31,340 --> 00:34:33,460 I didn't know what a crematorium was. 535 00:34:33,460 --> 00:34:35,900 I didn't know what a gas chamber was. 536 00:34:35,900 --> 00:34:37,780 I didn't have a clue. 537 00:34:39,140 --> 00:34:41,580 But we soon found out. 538 00:34:41,580 --> 00:34:43,700 It didn't take us long to find out. 539 00:34:45,220 --> 00:34:48,820 Somebody asked me, "Is your mother with you?" 540 00:34:48,820 --> 00:34:53,220 I said, "No, she, she went left. 541 00:34:53,220 --> 00:34:57,020 "Probably with the older women now, in another block." 542 00:34:57,020 --> 00:34:59,580 And we learned finally what happened. 543 00:34:59,580 --> 00:35:01,900 All those who went to the left... 544 00:35:02,900 --> 00:35:05,620 We didn't want to believe it. 545 00:35:05,620 --> 00:35:08,980 And he said only this sentence, 546 00:35:08,980 --> 00:35:11,380 "This way, she burned. 547 00:35:11,380 --> 00:35:13,580 "She went through the chimney." 548 00:35:13,580 --> 00:35:15,780 So we all look back at these chimneys. 549 00:35:17,140 --> 00:35:20,900 And I keep thinking, "How does a person go through a chimney?" 550 00:35:20,900 --> 00:35:24,220 What, they're going to burn my mother? My brother? 551 00:35:25,420 --> 00:35:26,820 I didn't believe it. 552 00:35:26,820 --> 00:35:29,100 We were absolutely incredulous. 553 00:35:29,100 --> 00:35:30,740 "It's not true, it's not true. 554 00:35:30,740 --> 00:35:32,380 "It can't be." 555 00:35:32,380 --> 00:35:35,620 We got to know next day that it is true. 556 00:35:36,660 --> 00:35:39,540 They were burning the families. 557 00:35:43,740 --> 00:35:46,020 The Protocol may have stalled in America, 558 00:35:46,020 --> 00:35:50,140 but it reached the desk of Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden in London. 559 00:35:54,100 --> 00:35:56,380 The Jewish Agency representatives in London, 560 00:35:56,380 --> 00:35:59,180 Chaim Weizmann and Moshe Shertok, 561 00:35:59,180 --> 00:36:02,420 fixed an urgent meeting to make their plea directly. 562 00:36:06,380 --> 00:36:10,340 Chaim Weizmann was the president of the World Zionist Organisation, 563 00:36:10,340 --> 00:36:15,580 and Weizmann understood very well the situation of the Jews. 564 00:36:15,580 --> 00:36:19,740 Moshe Shertok was later the second Prime Minister of Israel. 565 00:36:19,740 --> 00:36:23,140 And we think some kind of reprisal needs to be considered, 566 00:36:23,140 --> 00:36:27,060 something that will act as a deterrence to Germany. 567 00:36:27,060 --> 00:36:30,460 If the Auschwitz camp continues to function as a killing centre, 568 00:36:30,460 --> 00:36:31,860 then... You bomb. 569 00:36:35,020 --> 00:36:38,580 The aim being to dislocate the machinery of annihilation 570 00:36:38,580 --> 00:36:42,620 and hope to save the remaining 300,000 Hungarian Jews 571 00:36:42,620 --> 00:36:44,060 from extermination. 572 00:36:45,500 --> 00:36:47,500 It's bold, it has imagination. 573 00:36:47,500 --> 00:36:49,340 It may even work. 574 00:36:51,620 --> 00:36:55,540 And Mr Churchill? Also in favour, in principle. 575 00:36:57,500 --> 00:37:00,300 What we should need to do now is examine its feasibility 576 00:37:00,300 --> 00:37:02,140 with the Air Ministry. 577 00:37:02,140 --> 00:37:04,780 Yes. Yes, of course. 578 00:37:09,580 --> 00:37:13,500 In a memo to Eden, Winston Churchill wrote about Auschwitz, 579 00:37:13,500 --> 00:37:17,460 "There is no doubt that this is probably the greatest and most 580 00:37:17,460 --> 00:37:21,620 "horrible crime ever committed in the whole history of the world." 581 00:37:23,260 --> 00:37:26,940 Churchill's instincts are genuine. 582 00:37:26,940 --> 00:37:30,980 He was one of the first to recognise the full gravity 583 00:37:30,980 --> 00:37:32,820 of what had been going on. 584 00:37:36,300 --> 00:37:38,780 He said to Eden, "We should do something." 585 00:37:38,780 --> 00:37:42,140 Then he said, "Get anything out of the Air Force you can 586 00:37:42,140 --> 00:37:43,980 "and invoke me if necessary." 587 00:37:47,700 --> 00:37:51,300 Eden would have interpreted it as, "Act quickly, act decisively, 588 00:37:51,300 --> 00:37:53,540 "and you have my blessing." 589 00:37:53,540 --> 00:37:56,780 Two of the most powerful men in Britain now supported 590 00:37:56,780 --> 00:37:59,460 the bombing of Auschwitz. 591 00:37:59,460 --> 00:38:03,020 Eden summoned the head of the Air Ministry, Sir Archibald Sinclair, 592 00:38:03,020 --> 00:38:05,740 to discuss the feasibility of the raid. 593 00:38:05,740 --> 00:38:08,620 Well, it was quite a surprise receiving this. 594 00:38:08,620 --> 00:38:11,420 I mean, it hasn't been raised at Cabinet, so far as I know. 595 00:38:11,420 --> 00:38:13,300 Unnecessary, according to Winston. 596 00:38:14,380 --> 00:38:16,420 Well, there's a feeling in the Ministry 597 00:38:16,420 --> 00:38:19,220 that we shouldn't be disrupting the Normandy campaign right now 598 00:38:19,220 --> 00:38:21,180 with an operation of this nature. There is? 599 00:38:21,180 --> 00:38:23,220 Yes, yes, there's quite a strong feeling. 600 00:38:23,220 --> 00:38:26,060 Also, isn't this a thing for our Soviet allies, anyway? 601 00:38:26,060 --> 00:38:29,220 Being much closer to the intended target than us, I mean. 602 00:38:29,220 --> 00:38:31,500 Stalin was as likely to bomb Auschwitz 603 00:38:31,500 --> 00:38:33,220 as he was to stand on his head 604 00:38:33,220 --> 00:38:36,100 in Red Square in the middle of winter for a week. 605 00:38:36,100 --> 00:38:37,620 He wouldn't have done it. 606 00:38:37,620 --> 00:38:40,300 This is all very interesting, Archie, but I asked you to examine 607 00:38:40,300 --> 00:38:42,700 the feasibility of a bombing raid on Auschwitz-Birkenau. 608 00:38:42,700 --> 00:38:44,380 That's what I've done, Anthony. 609 00:38:44,380 --> 00:38:46,980 Well, no, you haven't done that, you see. 610 00:38:46,980 --> 00:38:49,780 You've merely listed the objections the Air Force might have 611 00:38:49,780 --> 00:38:52,020 to such a mission and come up with a couple of fanciful 612 00:38:52,020 --> 00:38:53,860 suggestions of your own. 613 00:38:53,860 --> 00:38:56,300 What we need to discover, you and I, 614 00:38:56,300 --> 00:39:00,380 is whether the bombing raid on Auschwitz is actually feasible. 615 00:39:00,380 --> 00:39:03,020 I think you should co-ordinate your thinking with the Americans. 616 00:39:05,460 --> 00:39:09,100 Sinclair was very much playing the role that he was in 617 00:39:09,100 --> 00:39:12,980 as secretary of state for air, which was to protect the resources 618 00:39:12,980 --> 00:39:16,940 of the Air Force, focus them on the war itself. 619 00:39:16,940 --> 00:39:19,620 I think he did look at it and said, 620 00:39:19,620 --> 00:39:21,700 "Better hand it off to the Americans. 621 00:39:21,700 --> 00:39:23,860 "They're in a better position to do it than we are." 622 00:39:25,780 --> 00:39:29,620 Eden's request for a feasibility study into bombing Auschwitz 623 00:39:29,620 --> 00:39:31,860 reached General Carl Spaatz, 624 00:39:31,860 --> 00:39:35,100 one of the most powerful men in the allied Air Force. 625 00:39:36,700 --> 00:39:38,380 Spaatz says, "Yes. 626 00:39:38,380 --> 00:39:40,940 "It sounds like something I would be willing to do." 627 00:39:40,940 --> 00:39:45,900 I can't imagine that anyone like Carl Spaatz would not have 628 00:39:45,900 --> 00:39:50,540 been outraged and would not have wanted some kind of retribution 629 00:39:50,540 --> 00:39:55,420 or attempt to get at this with the instrument that was available 630 00:39:55,420 --> 00:39:58,140 to him, which was the long-range bomber. 631 00:39:59,660 --> 00:40:02,140 The moral question of "Should we bomb Auschwitz?" 632 00:40:02,140 --> 00:40:04,340 became a technical one. 633 00:40:05,980 --> 00:40:07,540 "COULD we bomb Auschwitz?" 634 00:40:10,260 --> 00:40:13,260 Every target that was attacked, was attacked 635 00:40:13,260 --> 00:40:16,340 after specialised intelligence was applied to it. 636 00:40:16,340 --> 00:40:17,740 Where is it located? 637 00:40:17,740 --> 00:40:18,980 What does it look like? 638 00:40:18,980 --> 00:40:20,460 What would be the best routes? 639 00:40:22,780 --> 00:40:25,380 The Allies had been gathering intelligence about the area 640 00:40:25,380 --> 00:40:27,020 since spring 1944. 641 00:40:29,220 --> 00:40:31,420 Spy planes flew over Auschwitz-Birkenau, 642 00:40:31,420 --> 00:40:35,060 but they were looking for factories, not a death camp. 643 00:40:37,460 --> 00:40:40,980 They had been photographing all around IG Farben, 644 00:40:40,980 --> 00:40:44,380 in order to support hitting the industrial areas 645 00:40:44,380 --> 00:40:47,420 that were producing synthetic fuel for the Germans, 646 00:40:47,420 --> 00:40:49,500 which was a critically important target. 647 00:40:51,900 --> 00:40:54,500 The photos were taken to RAF Medmenham, 648 00:40:54,500 --> 00:40:57,140 where they were analysed in 3D. 649 00:40:58,620 --> 00:41:02,060 By chance, three of them showed Auschwitz-Birkenau. 650 00:41:02,060 --> 00:41:05,100 These were the images General Spaatz desperately needed. 651 00:41:06,500 --> 00:41:08,420 The photographs covered a wide area. 652 00:41:08,420 --> 00:41:11,380 More than just the IG Farben site itself. 653 00:41:11,380 --> 00:41:13,220 They were picking up Birkenau. 654 00:41:13,220 --> 00:41:16,260 They had the crematoria in photographs. 655 00:41:16,260 --> 00:41:18,060 They just didn't know they had them. 656 00:41:26,820 --> 00:41:31,220 By August 1944, the tide of war was turning. 657 00:41:31,220 --> 00:41:34,460 The Allies finally had supremacy in the air. 658 00:41:34,460 --> 00:41:36,540 American bombers were attacking targets 659 00:41:36,540 --> 00:41:39,020 deep in Eastern Europe, including Poland. 660 00:41:41,460 --> 00:41:45,460 They were flying to many targets right in the vicinity of Auschwitz. 661 00:41:47,060 --> 00:41:52,020 So, these airplanes were in fact within range of attacking 662 00:41:52,020 --> 00:41:54,140 the crematoria at Birkenau. 663 00:41:58,540 --> 00:42:00,340 One must remember that the idea 664 00:42:00,340 --> 00:42:02,540 of bombing Auschwitz is to destroy 665 00:42:02,540 --> 00:42:05,300 the gas chambers without killing the people. 666 00:42:05,300 --> 00:42:07,700 Now, this is extremely difficult. 667 00:42:07,700 --> 00:42:10,540 The gas chambers at Auschwitz were the size of a tennis court. 668 00:42:12,300 --> 00:42:15,340 There was nothing even remotely like precision bombing 669 00:42:15,340 --> 00:42:17,900 in the Second World War. 670 00:42:17,900 --> 00:42:22,340 The American B-17s flew over 30,000 feet at 300mph. 671 00:42:23,900 --> 00:42:26,940 And the bombs they had then were extraordinarily primitive. 672 00:42:28,180 --> 00:42:32,020 If one bomb was going to hit each of the crematoria, 673 00:42:32,020 --> 00:42:35,900 you would need to send roughly 220 bombers, 674 00:42:35,900 --> 00:42:39,060 each of them dropping ten bombs each, 675 00:42:39,060 --> 00:42:43,500 to have a high chance of one bomb landing on that building. 676 00:42:47,220 --> 00:42:48,780 It's very hard. 677 00:42:48,780 --> 00:42:50,220 It's very hard to do this. 678 00:42:54,820 --> 00:42:57,220 The words they used were, "Bombs away." 679 00:43:02,180 --> 00:43:04,660 And where they land, nobody knows. 680 00:43:05,740 --> 00:43:07,980 And, consequently, there were mistakes. 681 00:43:14,180 --> 00:43:16,940 All the options were bad options, in a way, 682 00:43:16,940 --> 00:43:20,980 because even a small miss could have killed a lot of people. 683 00:43:22,500 --> 00:43:24,060 Despite the risks, 684 00:43:24,060 --> 00:43:27,300 General Spaatz was ready to carry out the raid. 685 00:43:27,300 --> 00:43:29,500 He needed the aerial photographs 686 00:43:29,500 --> 00:43:31,500 but they'd been overlooked. 687 00:43:31,500 --> 00:43:33,980 No-one realised they showed the death camp. 688 00:43:37,500 --> 00:43:40,460 Meanwhile, pressure to act came from a new source. 689 00:43:42,020 --> 00:43:44,740 Rumours about Auschwitz was stoking public outrage. 690 00:43:46,580 --> 00:43:49,340 Rabbi Stephen Wise, the head of the World Jewish Congress, 691 00:43:49,340 --> 00:43:52,740 organises a rally in Madison Square Park in New York City, 692 00:43:52,740 --> 00:43:54,900 on July 31st 1944, 693 00:43:54,900 --> 00:43:58,740 and about 40,000 Americans attend this rally. 694 00:44:00,020 --> 00:44:02,220 It's a call for the bombing of Auschwitz, 695 00:44:02,220 --> 00:44:05,460 and I think it's a striking commentary on the level of public 696 00:44:05,460 --> 00:44:08,140 knowledge and the level of public concern. 697 00:44:10,340 --> 00:44:13,180 Trains to Auschwitz continued relentlessly. 698 00:44:13,180 --> 00:44:14,700 Thanks to the Protocol, 699 00:44:14,700 --> 00:44:17,420 Jewish leaders now knew the fate of the deportees. 700 00:44:19,300 --> 00:44:22,700 They demanded a meeting with John Pehle at the War Refugee Board. 701 00:44:24,220 --> 00:44:25,780 Mr Kubowitzki. 702 00:44:25,780 --> 00:44:29,220 Leon Kubowitzki of the World Jewish Congress 703 00:44:29,220 --> 00:44:31,940 and Bezalel Sherman of the Jewish Labour Committee 704 00:44:31,940 --> 00:44:34,900 had very different views on the bombing of Auschwitz. 705 00:44:36,980 --> 00:44:40,180 They were divided and they were fearful. 706 00:44:40,180 --> 00:44:43,260 One fear that they had was they didn't want to turn the war 707 00:44:43,260 --> 00:44:46,900 into a Jewish war because the future of the world was at stake. 708 00:44:46,900 --> 00:44:50,020 We are faced, it seems, with a monstrous determination 709 00:44:50,020 --> 00:44:54,060 from Nazi Germany to pursue this criminal murder of the Jews 710 00:44:54,060 --> 00:44:55,740 of Europe to its bitter end. 711 00:44:55,740 --> 00:44:59,220 Hence the call to bomb these installations ourselves. 712 00:44:59,220 --> 00:45:01,980 The War Refugee Board fully appreciates the motives 713 00:45:01,980 --> 00:45:03,540 behind the idea. 714 00:45:04,780 --> 00:45:07,020 We know it wasn't suggested lightly. 715 00:45:07,020 --> 00:45:11,500 But the fact is that the War Department still believes that such 716 00:45:11,500 --> 00:45:14,540 a bombing mission can be achieved only with considerable diversion 717 00:45:14,540 --> 00:45:16,300 of resources... Then, divert. 718 00:45:20,220 --> 00:45:22,580 I'm sorry, Mr Sherman? Divert. 719 00:45:22,580 --> 00:45:24,700 We've read the testimony of these two men who escaped 720 00:45:24,700 --> 00:45:26,100 from the Auschwitz camp. 721 00:45:26,100 --> 00:45:27,900 The things they saw. 722 00:45:27,900 --> 00:45:29,980 We've been given corroborative evidence, too. 723 00:45:29,980 --> 00:45:32,020 As have we. So, we all know! 724 00:45:32,020 --> 00:45:34,900 A picture is forming of something off the human scale! 725 00:45:34,900 --> 00:45:36,900 Isn't that so? 726 00:45:36,900 --> 00:45:39,740 The Germans have created a factory in Poland whose sole purpose 727 00:45:39,740 --> 00:45:42,740 is the eradication by gas of an entire race of people. 728 00:45:44,100 --> 00:45:45,980 I say, divert. 729 00:45:47,820 --> 00:45:49,260 All right. 730 00:45:51,020 --> 00:45:53,940 Let's just say for a minute that the United States 731 00:45:53,940 --> 00:45:56,940 or Great Britain bombs this place. 732 00:45:57,940 --> 00:46:01,460 Can we know how many... How many Jews will be killed by our bombs? 733 00:46:01,460 --> 00:46:03,700 That's right, Mr Sherman. 734 00:46:03,700 --> 00:46:05,900 Hell, if we miss the gas chambers, 735 00:46:05,900 --> 00:46:08,060 we destroy 30,000 prisoners instead. 736 00:46:09,900 --> 00:46:12,020 Wouldn't that give the Nazis a great alibi? 737 00:46:13,420 --> 00:46:15,460 I can hear it now. 738 00:46:15,460 --> 00:46:18,060 "The Western Allies hate the Jews more than we do." 739 00:46:18,060 --> 00:46:20,780 The Germans took anything they could grasp for propaganda 740 00:46:20,780 --> 00:46:22,820 purposes, so there would have been a struggle 741 00:46:22,820 --> 00:46:27,660 over the narrative of who was being more brutal. 742 00:46:27,660 --> 00:46:29,260 I believe in... 743 00:46:29,260 --> 00:46:30,860 HE USES A JEWISH TERM 744 00:46:30,860 --> 00:46:33,860 I believe in saving those actually living. 745 00:46:33,860 --> 00:46:36,380 I don't understand what follows from that. 746 00:46:36,380 --> 00:46:39,020 You cannot kill the innocent in order to prevent a catastrophe. 747 00:46:40,580 --> 00:46:44,220 There was a genuine debate that went on. 748 00:46:44,220 --> 00:46:46,660 There were very good people who were directly affected 749 00:46:46,660 --> 00:46:49,980 by the Holocaust, who had lost members of their family, 750 00:46:49,980 --> 00:46:52,260 who weren't sure that the bombing was a good thing. 751 00:46:52,260 --> 00:46:54,020 Thank you. 752 00:46:54,020 --> 00:46:55,700 Mr Sherman. 753 00:46:55,700 --> 00:46:59,340 All the excuses for not bombing Auschwitz omit the most compelling 754 00:46:59,340 --> 00:47:01,380 reason for bombing Auschwitz. 755 00:47:01,380 --> 00:47:04,860 It would have been recognition that what was happening 756 00:47:04,860 --> 00:47:08,220 there was totally evil and unacceptable to the world itself. 757 00:47:08,220 --> 00:47:10,620 We keep repeating the line that bombing Auschwitz 758 00:47:10,620 --> 00:47:12,340 would constitute a diversion. 759 00:47:12,340 --> 00:47:15,020 But how do we know that? 760 00:47:15,020 --> 00:47:18,420 Pehle might have said to himself, "He may be right. 761 00:47:18,420 --> 00:47:20,740 "And now the ball's in my court." 762 00:47:20,740 --> 00:47:23,540 And that's an awesome responsibility. 763 00:47:23,540 --> 00:47:26,500 I would bomb this infernal place, you know I would! 764 00:47:26,500 --> 00:47:28,580 And the railroads, too. 765 00:47:29,820 --> 00:47:32,580 That's what my gut is telling me also. 766 00:47:32,580 --> 00:47:35,300 But we know it's not about the gut, is it? 767 00:47:35,300 --> 00:47:37,940 It's about what the War Department wants. 768 00:47:37,940 --> 00:47:39,780 Then bypass them! 769 00:47:39,780 --> 00:47:43,580 Go tell the President, acquaint Roosevelt with the facts, 770 00:47:43,580 --> 00:47:45,020 and he'll act. 771 00:47:49,300 --> 00:47:51,620 There is no evidence that Roosevelt was ever approached 772 00:47:51,620 --> 00:47:54,220 about the question of whether the United States 773 00:47:54,220 --> 00:47:56,060 should bomb Auschwitz. 774 00:47:58,260 --> 00:48:00,900 FDR was not well, to begin with. 775 00:48:00,900 --> 00:48:03,100 He was fighting polio. 776 00:48:03,100 --> 00:48:05,860 He was very subject to the flu. 777 00:48:05,860 --> 00:48:08,420 He had congestive heart failure. 778 00:48:08,420 --> 00:48:10,860 He didn't stop working but he had to, kind of, 779 00:48:10,860 --> 00:48:13,100 come out of the public eye for periods. 780 00:48:14,540 --> 00:48:17,980 At the same time, Churchill's support for the plan was going cold. 781 00:48:19,380 --> 00:48:22,220 Chaim Weizmann, of the Jewish Agency, was informed 782 00:48:22,220 --> 00:48:24,380 by the British Foreign Office 783 00:48:24,380 --> 00:48:26,940 that technical difficulties prevented the bombing. 784 00:48:28,420 --> 00:48:31,140 One official dismissed the idea as "fantastic" 785 00:48:31,140 --> 00:48:33,460 and concluded it should be dropped. 786 00:48:33,460 --> 00:48:37,420 Another complained that, "a disproportionate amount of time 787 00:48:37,420 --> 00:48:39,860 "is wasted dealing with these wailing Jews." 788 00:48:50,460 --> 00:48:52,740 "We're not going to believe atrocity stories. 789 00:48:52,740 --> 00:48:55,900 "These stories are just being told to get us to let refugees in, 790 00:48:55,900 --> 00:48:58,100 "to get us to let children in." 791 00:48:58,100 --> 00:49:02,620 And that level of anti-Semitism that creeps into so many decisions. 792 00:49:02,620 --> 00:49:04,540 "Oh, those Jews are carping again." 793 00:49:06,900 --> 00:49:10,500 Despite being written off as a diversion from the war effort, 794 00:49:10,500 --> 00:49:15,380 on the 13th of September 1944, the Allies did bomb Auschwitz-Birkenau. 795 00:49:17,260 --> 00:49:21,140 Some 2,000 or so bombs rained down. 796 00:49:21,140 --> 00:49:24,580 The bombs don't distinguish between prisoners and SS. 797 00:49:24,580 --> 00:49:26,820 Dozens of prisoners are killed, 798 00:49:26,820 --> 00:49:29,180 hundreds more are injured. 799 00:49:29,180 --> 00:49:32,500 However, it wasn't intentional. 800 00:49:32,500 --> 00:49:35,740 The target was the nearby IG Farben factory. 801 00:49:37,380 --> 00:49:40,420 Auschwitz was never a priority. 802 00:49:40,420 --> 00:49:43,460 Synthetic rubber was a priority. 803 00:49:43,460 --> 00:49:46,580 Synthetic gas and oil was a priority. 804 00:49:46,580 --> 00:49:49,180 IG Farben was a priority. 805 00:49:52,020 --> 00:49:54,860 If the target that they intended to bomb 806 00:49:54,860 --> 00:49:59,420 was four miles away, and they inadvertently bombed Auschwitz, 807 00:49:59,420 --> 00:50:02,540 it shows how, you know, how amateurish the bombing was. 808 00:50:18,020 --> 00:50:21,340 All of a sudden, the air is full of noise. 809 00:50:21,340 --> 00:50:24,620 I'm sure that some people were hoping they're going to bomb us 810 00:50:24,620 --> 00:50:26,260 or at least the gas chambers. 811 00:50:26,260 --> 00:50:28,820 But I...I can't say I did. 812 00:50:28,820 --> 00:50:30,380 We didn't care. 813 00:50:30,380 --> 00:50:34,660 We were hoping that they should bomb that place. 814 00:50:34,660 --> 00:50:36,260 And I said, "My God." 815 00:50:36,260 --> 00:50:38,740 You know, "Finally, they've arrived." 816 00:50:38,740 --> 00:50:41,780 And I said, "Keep bombing the hell out of this place, 817 00:50:41,780 --> 00:50:43,700 "no matter what happens." 818 00:50:47,940 --> 00:50:50,100 In April 1944, 819 00:50:50,100 --> 00:50:53,780 Vrba and Wetzler had escaped from Auschwitz to warn the world 820 00:50:53,780 --> 00:50:56,980 about the extermination of the European Jews. 821 00:50:58,020 --> 00:51:01,060 By September, still nothing had been done. 822 00:51:04,140 --> 00:51:07,660 The American Army reaches the border of Switzerland at the end 823 00:51:07,660 --> 00:51:11,420 of September, freeing, for the first time, all of the people 824 00:51:11,420 --> 00:51:15,700 inside Switzerland who can now send messages to the wider world. 825 00:51:15,700 --> 00:51:20,740 John Pehle at the War Refugee Board finally received the full Protocol 826 00:51:20,740 --> 00:51:23,220 in early November. 827 00:51:23,220 --> 00:51:25,660 What he read shocked him to the core. 828 00:51:27,260 --> 00:51:29,700 This version of the Protocol is much longer. 829 00:51:29,700 --> 00:51:32,100 It reads more like a testimony. 830 00:51:32,100 --> 00:51:33,820 This is what Auschwitz is. 831 00:51:33,820 --> 00:51:36,860 It is a place where horrific things are happening. 832 00:51:36,860 --> 00:51:41,220 The difference, when the full report is released, is stunning. 833 00:51:41,220 --> 00:51:43,060 It's undeniable. 834 00:51:43,060 --> 00:51:46,380 You can put them side by side and you see a striking difference. 835 00:51:49,900 --> 00:51:52,100 Gassing took place as follows... 836 00:51:54,660 --> 00:51:58,340 The unfortunate victims were brought into the hall, 837 00:51:58,340 --> 00:52:00,580 where they were asked to undress. 838 00:52:01,940 --> 00:52:05,260 Each person receives a towel and a small piece of soap, 839 00:52:05,260 --> 00:52:07,740 issued to them by two men clad in white coats. 840 00:52:09,060 --> 00:52:11,580 They are then crowded into the gas chambers in such numbers 841 00:52:11,580 --> 00:52:13,780 that there is only standing room. 842 00:52:13,780 --> 00:52:15,380 When they were all inside, 843 00:52:15,380 --> 00:52:17,860 they closed this heavy door. 844 00:52:21,100 --> 00:52:22,940 And there was a short pause. 845 00:52:27,700 --> 00:52:32,180 After which, SS men in gas masks climb the roof, 846 00:52:32,180 --> 00:52:34,300 open the traps, 847 00:52:34,300 --> 00:52:37,780 and shake down a preparation in powder form 848 00:52:37,780 --> 00:52:41,220 from tin cans labelled, "Zyklon. For use against vermin", 849 00:52:41,220 --> 00:52:43,300 manufactured by a Hamburg concern. 850 00:52:46,020 --> 00:52:49,740 It's this cyanide mixture that turns to gas at certain temperatures. 851 00:52:52,380 --> 00:52:54,220 And after three minutes... 852 00:52:56,260 --> 00:52:59,260 ..everyone in the chamber was dead. 853 00:53:08,420 --> 00:53:11,460 When Pehle saw the entire report, 854 00:53:11,460 --> 00:53:13,940 his conscience could no longer allow him 855 00:53:13,940 --> 00:53:16,660 to be tentative or to sit quietly. 856 00:53:26,700 --> 00:53:28,540 Mr McCloy. 857 00:53:28,540 --> 00:53:30,860 Good morning, sir. John Pehle here. 858 00:53:33,340 --> 00:53:35,420 I have something I think you must see. 859 00:53:36,780 --> 00:53:39,100 It's a report from Auschwitz. 860 00:53:39,100 --> 00:53:43,620 His reaction was, "It's worse than I thought. 861 00:53:43,620 --> 00:53:46,340 "I thought it was extraordinarily evil. 862 00:53:47,860 --> 00:53:51,060 "This is, by a magnitude, 863 00:53:51,060 --> 00:53:52,300 "even more than that." 864 00:53:53,700 --> 00:53:55,980 He goes back to John McCloy. 865 00:53:55,980 --> 00:53:59,420 He sends him a copy of the Protocols with a cover note that says, 866 00:53:59,420 --> 00:54:04,300 "I am now convinced that we need to use direct bombing action 867 00:54:04,300 --> 00:54:07,940 "to destroy the gas chambers and crematorium in Auschwitz-Birkenau." 868 00:54:10,340 --> 00:54:14,260 Pehle was told conclusively by Assistant Secretary of War 869 00:54:14,260 --> 00:54:17,700 John McCloy that bombing Auschwitz was not feasible 870 00:54:17,700 --> 00:54:19,300 from a military standpoint. 871 00:54:21,180 --> 00:54:24,900 He says there is considerable opinion to the effect that such 872 00:54:24,900 --> 00:54:29,500 an action, even if practicable, might provoke a more vindictive 873 00:54:29,500 --> 00:54:31,540 response on the part of the Germans. 874 00:54:33,700 --> 00:54:36,380 What's more vindictive than Auschwitz? 875 00:54:40,780 --> 00:54:44,340 The officials who made the decision that this shouldn't be done, 876 00:54:44,340 --> 00:54:47,660 they weren't concerned about the people in the camp. 877 00:54:47,660 --> 00:54:51,220 From everything we know, the vast majority of them 878 00:54:51,220 --> 00:54:53,660 just sloughed it off. 879 00:54:56,660 --> 00:54:59,580 Pehle couldn't force the War Department to act. 880 00:54:59,580 --> 00:55:03,020 So instead, he leaked the full version of the Protocol 881 00:55:03,020 --> 00:55:05,620 to newspapers, with a covering letter. 882 00:55:07,180 --> 00:55:09,580 "So revolting and diabolical 883 00:55:09,580 --> 00:55:13,180 "are the German atrocities that the minds of civilised people 884 00:55:13,180 --> 00:55:16,980 "find it difficult to believe they've actually taken place." 885 00:55:19,260 --> 00:55:21,580 Pehle understood his responsibilities 886 00:55:21,580 --> 00:55:23,260 and that was his greatness. 887 00:55:25,140 --> 00:55:28,620 I regard John Pehle as one of the great American heroes. 888 00:55:30,940 --> 00:55:33,660 And he said, "We did too little and we did it too late." 889 00:55:37,100 --> 00:55:39,380 Pehle knew what he was doing, 890 00:55:39,380 --> 00:55:42,980 and he played the media card very, very well. 891 00:55:42,980 --> 00:55:45,660 It got a great deal of attention. 892 00:55:45,660 --> 00:55:47,260 It was all over the newspapers. 893 00:55:48,700 --> 00:55:51,380 This is front page news nationwide. 894 00:55:51,380 --> 00:55:54,780 The Washington Post publishes an editorial entitled "Genocide". 895 00:55:54,780 --> 00:55:58,420 It's the first time that word appears in a national newspaper. 896 00:56:02,940 --> 00:56:06,620 The day that this information is released to the American people, 897 00:56:06,620 --> 00:56:08,820 the Nazis destroy the gas chambers. 898 00:56:10,220 --> 00:56:13,220 It was an attempt to destroy the evidence, 899 00:56:13,220 --> 00:56:14,700 but it didn't work. 900 00:56:16,940 --> 00:56:21,300 Two months later, on the 27th of January 1945, 901 00:56:21,300 --> 00:56:23,820 Auschwitz was liberated by the Red Army. 902 00:56:27,100 --> 00:56:30,540 The Soviet soldiers who entered Auschwitz were moved and shaken 903 00:56:30,540 --> 00:56:32,420 by what they saw. 904 00:56:32,420 --> 00:56:36,060 They understood that they had come across something unique, 905 00:56:36,060 --> 00:56:40,300 that they had seen something horrific beyond the imagination. 906 00:56:43,620 --> 00:56:48,500 I wish the British or the Americans had pushed for this target 907 00:56:48,500 --> 00:56:52,900 to have been bombed - as a statement of principle, as a statement 908 00:56:52,900 --> 00:56:57,460 to the Nazis that this is atrocious and we, as the human species, 909 00:56:57,460 --> 00:56:59,020 will not stand for it. 910 00:57:01,260 --> 00:57:03,620 It's one of the most emotive things that's ever happened 911 00:57:03,620 --> 00:57:04,900 in modern history. 912 00:57:04,900 --> 00:57:08,100 You could say this is a great failure, but one has to understand 913 00:57:08,100 --> 00:57:09,860 that we were fighting a world war, 914 00:57:09,860 --> 00:57:12,780 and the fate of the surviving Jews of Europe largely depended 915 00:57:12,780 --> 00:57:16,700 on liberating Nazi-occupied Europe and destroying the Nazi regime. 916 00:57:20,500 --> 00:57:23,620 I would advocate bombing as a statement 917 00:57:23,620 --> 00:57:25,740 of profound moral outrage. 918 00:57:27,380 --> 00:57:29,380 But do I think it would have solved the problem? 919 00:57:29,380 --> 00:57:31,100 No. 920 00:57:31,100 --> 00:57:34,300 And I think the critics who say that it would have, 921 00:57:34,300 --> 00:57:36,540 haven't read the history well. 922 00:57:36,540 --> 00:57:39,540 But moral protest in the wake of genocide... 923 00:57:41,180 --> 00:57:42,940 ..is much better than nothing. 924 00:57:44,300 --> 00:57:46,500 Much, much better than nothing. 925 00:57:53,220 --> 00:57:56,060 I think it's important when people have been subjected to genocide, 926 00:57:56,060 --> 00:57:58,340 for the world to say, "We do give a damn." 927 00:57:58,340 --> 00:58:00,860 Because you don't know where it's going to happen next. 928 00:58:03,820 --> 00:58:07,100 We came to the position that we had to recommend this, 929 00:58:07,100 --> 00:58:08,780 and that it should be done, 930 00:58:08,780 --> 00:58:11,700 and not only should the rail lines be bombed 931 00:58:11,700 --> 00:58:14,660 but the crematoria should be bombed, too. 932 00:58:14,660 --> 00:58:18,420 It's tragic that we didn't take this position in the first place, 933 00:58:18,420 --> 00:58:19,820 but that is the fact.