WEBVTT 00:00:00.423 --> 00:00:04.885 [MUSIC] 00:00:06.951 --> 00:00:09.458 >> The Japanese have attacked Pearl Harbor by air. 00:00:11.244 --> 00:00:14.552 >> Ask not what your country can do for you. 00:00:14.552 --> 00:00:15.969 >> President Kennedy has been shot. 00:00:15.969 --> 00:00:17.928 >> One small step for man. 00:00:17.928 --> 00:00:22.970 >> Hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. 00:00:22.970 --> 00:00:29.735 >> [APPLAUSE] >> Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall. 00:00:29.735 --> 00:00:39.735 [MUSIC] 00:00:42.346 --> 00:00:44.966 [SOUND] 00:00:44.966 --> 00:00:49.144 [MUSIC] 00:00:49.144 --> 00:00:51.169 >> In the summer of 1936, 00:00:51.169 --> 00:00:56.372 the city of Berlin had put on its best face as host of the Olympic Games. 00:00:56.372 --> 00:00:59.858 [MUSIC] 00:00:59.858 --> 00:01:01.600 >> Berlin was a lovely city. 00:01:01.600 --> 00:01:05.590 It was a joyous, it was a happy city at that time. 00:01:05.590 --> 00:01:12.413 It was more attractive as a city, for me, than were London or Paris. 00:01:12.413 --> 00:01:15.933 >> In a world still plagued by the Depression, 00:01:15.933 --> 00:01:19.365 the capital of Nazi Germany was thriving. 00:01:19.365 --> 00:01:23.213 >> The Nazis used the Olympic Games of 1936 00:01:23.213 --> 00:01:27.893 to try to project a positive image of the new Germany, 00:01:27.893 --> 00:01:34.760 to translate the athletes' success into the success of National Socialism. 00:01:36.980 --> 00:01:38.604 >> During the Olympics, 00:01:38.604 --> 00:01:43.742 the uglier side of Hitler's National Socialism was kept under wraps. 00:01:43.742 --> 00:01:46.570 >> There was no outward sign of anti-semitism. 00:01:46.570 --> 00:01:51.210 There were no signs that were reported later on, 00:01:51.210 --> 00:01:54.070 of course, Jews and dogs forbidden. 00:01:56.180 --> 00:01:58.469 I never saw that sign during the games. 00:01:58.469 --> 00:02:01.467 [MUSIC] 00:02:01.467 --> 00:02:05.257 >> But the glittering surface of the international Olympic spirit could not 00:02:05.257 --> 00:02:07.404 completely obscure the darker reality. 00:02:07.404 --> 00:02:09.868 [MUSIC] 00:02:09.868 --> 00:02:12.281 >> [INAUDIBLE] >> Marty Glickman and 00:02:12.281 --> 00:02:15.298 Sam Stoller were members of the American relay team. 00:02:15.298 --> 00:02:20.190 >> [APPLAUSE] >> The morning of the day we were supposed 00:02:20.190 --> 00:02:23.350 to run, we were told, Sam and I, that we were not going to run. 00:02:24.540 --> 00:02:29.560 No fit American track and field athlete has ever not competed in 00:02:29.560 --> 00:02:36.280 the Olympic Games, except Sam Stoller and me, the only two Jews on the track team. 00:02:36.280 --> 00:02:40.450 >> Marty Glickman is convinced it was politics that kept him out of competition. 00:02:40.450 --> 00:02:45.404 He believes the American Olympic committee did not want to embarrass Hitler by having 00:02:45.404 --> 00:02:47.548 Jews stand on the winner's podium. 00:02:47.548 --> 00:02:51.286 [MUSIC] 00:02:51.286 --> 00:02:55.230 Almost everything at the Olympics seemed to be going Hitler's way. 00:02:55.230 --> 00:02:56.910 In event after event, 00:02:56.910 --> 00:03:01.554 German victories appear to support his notion of Aryan racial superiority. 00:03:01.554 --> 00:03:06.430 >> [APPLAUSE] >> But then came the 100 meters. 00:03:08.490 --> 00:03:11.511 The hopes of the American team rested 00:03:11.511 --> 00:03:15.901 on the son of an Alabama sharecropper, Jesse Owens. 00:03:15.901 --> 00:03:25.901 [MUSIC] 00:03:28.268 --> 00:03:32.510 [SOUND] >> [APPLAUSE] 00:03:32.510 --> 00:03:34.599 >> [FOREIGN] 00:03:34.599 --> 00:03:42.409 [MUSIC] 00:03:42.409 --> 00:03:48.854 >> I was standing ten yards behind Hitler. 00:03:48.854 --> 00:03:54.000 Hiter, hearing the name Jesse Owens, angrily pushed back his chair, 00:03:54.000 --> 00:03:59.084 and with a deep growl on his face, walked right past me and walked out. 00:03:59.084 --> 00:04:04.466 [MUSIC] 00:04:04.466 --> 00:04:10.890 >> In that tense summer of 1936, Owens went on to win four gold medals. 00:04:10.890 --> 00:04:12.705 >> The competition was grand. 00:04:12.705 --> 00:04:15.040 We're very glad to come out on top. 00:04:15.040 --> 00:04:16.267 Thank you very kindly. 00:04:16.267 --> 00:04:21.912 [MUSIC] 00:04:21.912 --> 00:04:24.065 >> There were other American victories, but 00:04:24.065 --> 00:04:26.650 Germany won far more medals than any other nation. 00:04:26.650 --> 00:04:31.640 And with the 11th Olympiad, Hitler had pulled off an international success. 00:04:31.640 --> 00:04:33.390 For the rest of the decade, 00:04:33.390 --> 00:04:37.960 it was not his athletes but his soldiers who challenged the world. 00:04:37.960 --> 00:04:42.280 As Hitler, with ever greater boldness, threatened his neighbors, 00:04:42.280 --> 00:04:47.400 the rest of Europe and Britain stood by, incredulous. 00:04:47.400 --> 00:04:50.559 America, safe on the other side of the ocean, 00:04:50.559 --> 00:04:53.398 was still worried about the Depression. 00:04:58.569 --> 00:05:03.070 >> I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, 00:05:03.070 --> 00:05:06.630 ill-clad, ill-nourished. 00:05:06.630 --> 00:05:11.352 >> January 1937, the clouds of the Great Depression still hovered over 00:05:11.352 --> 00:05:15.260 Franklin Roosevelt at his second inauguration. 00:05:15.260 --> 00:05:20.156 >> I see millions whose daily lives, in city and on farm, 00:05:20.156 --> 00:05:26.020 continue under conditions labeled indecent half a century ago. 00:05:27.560 --> 00:05:30.580 >> The president thought that, in order to lift the nation's spirits, 00:05:30.580 --> 00:05:35.250 he had to make the country face the economic crisis head on, together. 00:05:36.360 --> 00:05:41.340 And he used the battery of newly available mass media to do that. 00:05:41.340 --> 00:05:46.018 The government hired photographers to capture the faces of the Great Depression. 00:05:46.018 --> 00:05:53.065 [MUSIC] 00:05:53.065 --> 00:05:57.256 >> No other government has ever done this. 00:05:57.256 --> 00:05:59.954 >> Carl Mydans, just 28 at the time, 00:05:59.954 --> 00:06:03.445 was among those who set out with their cameras. 00:06:03.445 --> 00:06:11.963 >> The 35-millimeter camera became the heart of the new age of photography. 00:06:11.963 --> 00:06:17.340 That is, the new age of photojournalism. 00:06:17.340 --> 00:06:20.570 What moved me greatly was their spirit. 00:06:22.040 --> 00:06:27.680 They simply were proud of the fact that they could live in the circumstances and 00:06:27.680 --> 00:06:30.660 still be solid citizens. 00:06:32.170 --> 00:06:37.331 We photographers were pretty skillful. 00:06:37.331 --> 00:06:42.496 One could not look at those pictures about what 00:06:42.496 --> 00:06:49.580 was happening in the country and not be affected by them. 00:06:49.580 --> 00:06:54.780 >> These photographs were all over the new magazines, Life chief among them. 00:06:54.780 --> 00:06:59.593 >> I can remember, as a kid, running home from school on the day that Life came, 00:06:59.593 --> 00:07:02.481 to get that copy before my brothers got home and 00:07:02.481 --> 00:07:05.245 take it to my room so I could look at it first. 00:07:05.245 --> 00:07:07.561 [MUSIC] 00:07:07.561 --> 00:07:13.075 It was as if the whole world was opening up in those pictures. 00:07:13.075 --> 00:07:16.135 And that magazine changed the way we saw the world. 00:07:16.135 --> 00:07:22.407 [MUSIC] 00:07:22.407 --> 00:07:25.360 >> The United States Supreme Court today handed down its long-awaited- 00:07:25.360 --> 00:07:26.990 >> At a time when people were desperate 00:07:26.990 --> 00:07:30.700 for news, radio, more immediate and more trusted than newspapers, 00:07:30.700 --> 00:07:33.820 became America's favorite way to keep up with events. 00:07:33.820 --> 00:07:35.640 >> Maritime labor leaders declared today that- 00:07:35.640 --> 00:07:36.660 >> The man who really 00:07:36.660 --> 00:07:40.808 discovered radio to use it on a massive scale which made history was FDR. 00:07:40.808 --> 00:07:42.192 >> The money- >> He found, 00:07:42.192 --> 00:07:46.210 in order to be able to reach the citizenry, he could use radio. 00:07:46.210 --> 00:07:49.270 And that was the beginning of the Fireside Chats. 00:07:49.270 --> 00:07:54.540 >> Our capacity is limited only by our ability to work together. 00:07:54.540 --> 00:07:56.100 >> He made the difference. 00:07:56.100 --> 00:07:58.880 People would be glued to their radios, all over the country, 00:07:58.880 --> 00:08:01.730 to find out from this man What's happening? 00:08:01.730 --> 00:08:03.170 What's going on? 00:08:03.170 --> 00:08:04.580 When can we get word? 00:08:04.580 --> 00:08:07.160 When will things change? 00:08:07.160 --> 00:08:10.360 >> And just as he understood the power of the still photograph and 00:08:10.360 --> 00:08:15.040 radio, Roosevelt also saw the newsreel as a way to pull the nation together. 00:08:15.040 --> 00:08:19.263 Boulder Dam put into operation, giant spurts of water runways. 00:08:19.263 --> 00:08:23.391 >> There was something in there a dam was being built or 00:08:23.391 --> 00:08:25.700 the a river was being built. 00:08:25.700 --> 00:08:28.384 >> The Colossal Triborough bridge has is formally opened by president Roosevelt. 00:08:28.384 --> 00:08:31.420 >> Where a was being real- >> More than $50 million. 00:08:31.420 --> 00:08:35.820 >> Or some invention was being announced, there was something good going on. 00:08:38.425 --> 00:08:42.770 Roosevelt made the White House an amplifier 00:08:42.770 --> 00:08:46.510 of all that the government was trying to do. 00:08:46.510 --> 00:08:50.030 >> And gentlemen, the President of the United States. 00:08:51.555 --> 00:08:56.500 >> Five years of information through the radio and the moving picture, 00:08:56.500 --> 00:09:01.100 have taken the whole nation to school in the nation's business. 00:09:01.100 --> 00:09:06.882 We have learned to think as a nation, we have learned to feel ourselves, a nation. 00:09:06.882 --> 00:09:10.785 >> [APPLAUSE] 00:09:10.785 --> 00:09:17.411 >> [FOREIGN] 00:09:17.411 --> 00:09:18.399 >> In Germany too, 00:09:18.399 --> 00:09:22.290 the new mass media were part of the national myth making machine. 00:09:23.748 --> 00:09:28.060 Joseph Goebbels as Hitler's Minister of Enlightenment and Propaganda, 00:09:28.060 --> 00:09:32.453 control the printed press and exploited the power of pictures and sound. 00:09:32.453 --> 00:09:36.431 [MUSIC] 00:09:36.431 --> 00:09:41.689 >> [FOREIGN] >> At Goebles' direction, 00:09:41.689 --> 00:09:44.596 the government put loud speakers in the streets and 00:09:44.596 --> 00:09:48.120 made cheap radios available to every shop, school and home. 00:09:48.120 --> 00:09:51.311 Every German was now within the sound of Hitler's voice. 00:09:51.311 --> 00:09:56.835 >> [FOREIGN] >> To 00:09:56.835 --> 00:10:01.464 have a real radio now that was fantastic. 00:10:01.464 --> 00:10:08.467 Every day there were political programs or sound, I learned lot from the radio. 00:10:08.467 --> 00:10:12.931 I thought it was great but father, father thought it was one of the main 00:10:12.931 --> 00:10:14.588 weapons now to brainwash. 00:10:14.588 --> 00:10:18.510 [MUSIC] 00:10:18.510 --> 00:10:23.440 >> Propaganda films promoted a glorious Germanic world of tomorrow. 00:10:23.440 --> 00:10:29.412 [MUSIC] 00:10:29.412 --> 00:10:34.000 We were told that we were the top nation on Earth. 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:41.027 We were the chosen the people, he was the head and we called it, the Master Race and 00:10:41.027 --> 00:10:46.037 that we will more intelligent and better looking and stronger. 00:10:46.037 --> 00:10:51.085 Than all the others and that it was our God given 00:10:51.085 --> 00:10:55.760 duty to force our life onto all the others. 00:10:58.420 --> 00:11:00.380 >> To glorify the Master Race on film, 00:11:00.380 --> 00:11:04.390 Hitler's choice was Germany's preeminent filmmaker Fritz Lang. 00:11:04.390 --> 00:11:11.677 Lang sensing the time, when one could say no to the Fuhrer had passed left for Paris. 00:11:11.677 --> 00:11:14.721 The powerful film propaganda post would go to Hitler's 00:11:14.721 --> 00:11:17.290 second choice, director Leni Riefenstahl. 00:11:20.290 --> 00:11:25.240 Her film Triumph of the Will used the 1934 Nazi Party Congress 00:11:25.240 --> 00:11:29.653 as a vast backdrop designed to make Hitler look like a god. 00:11:29.653 --> 00:11:34.225 [MUSIC] 00:11:34.225 --> 00:11:39.355 >> Military music was played and he marched down the center aisle, 00:11:39.355 --> 00:11:44.592 flanked by heaven knows how many gorgeously uniformed creatures. 00:11:44.592 --> 00:11:54.592 >> [APPLAUSE] 00:11:55.678 --> 00:12:00.435 >> And he would be behind the lectern 00:12:00.435 --> 00:12:03.965 standing there, silent, 00:12:03.965 --> 00:12:08.580 waiting, until the tension rose. 00:12:08.580 --> 00:12:11.700 >> [APPLAUSE] 00:12:16.402 --> 00:12:18.873 And then he would start. 00:12:18.873 --> 00:12:28.873 >> [FOREIGN]. 00:12:30.843 --> 00:12:33.261 >> Slowly revving up. 00:12:33.261 --> 00:12:38.581 >> [FOREIGN] >> Until 00:12:38.581 --> 00:12:42.576 he finally reached a tremendous pitch. 00:12:42.576 --> 00:12:48.733 >> [FOREIGN] 00:12:48.733 --> 00:12:52.356 >> [APPLAUSE] 00:12:52.356 --> 00:12:53.839 >> [FOREIGN] 00:12:53.839 --> 00:12:56.472 >> If you sat in an audience like that 00:12:56.472 --> 00:12:58.359 you'd be swept along. 00:12:58.359 --> 00:13:04.387 >> [FOREIGN] 00:13:04.387 --> 00:13:14.387 >> [APPLAUSE] 00:13:20.437 --> 00:13:26.258 [MUSIC] 00:13:26.258 --> 00:13:32.184 >> Never before had mass communication been more effective. 00:13:32.184 --> 00:13:36.868 >> Never before had it been used with more sinister intentions. 00:13:36.868 --> 00:13:46.241 >> [FOREIGN] 00:13:46.241 --> 00:13:54.304 [MUSIC] 00:13:54.304 --> 00:14:04.304 >> [FOREIGN] 00:14:09.842 --> 00:14:11.850 >> Only four months after Hitler came to 00:14:11.850 --> 00:14:15.030 power, bonfires burned in the streets of German cities. 00:14:15.030 --> 00:14:18.505 >> [FOREIGN] >> The flames were fed with books by 00:14:18.505 --> 00:14:24.329 Thomas Mann, Albert Einstein, Hellen Keller, Sigmund Freud and 00:14:24.329 --> 00:14:29.864 other authors who were deemed subversive to the German people. 00:14:29.864 --> 00:14:33.905 [MUSIC] 00:14:33.905 --> 00:14:41.390 >> [FOREIGN] >> Democracy in Germany was dead. 00:14:41.390 --> 00:14:45.289 >> [FOREIGN] >> Hitlers own book"Mein Kampf", 00:14:45.289 --> 00:14:49.137 "My Struggle" was now the blue print for Germany's future. 00:14:49.137 --> 00:14:53.226 [MUSIC] 00:14:53.226 --> 00:14:58.002 In the new Germany, Nazi Party thugs, the paramilitary Brown Shirts would 00:14:58.002 --> 00:15:02.790 patrol the streets to root out and arrest anyone who stood in Hitler's way. 00:15:04.970 --> 00:15:09.409 Thousands of political opponents were sent to hundreds of concentration camps. 00:15:10.450 --> 00:15:13.650 The first was near the German village of Dachau. 00:15:16.260 --> 00:15:24.380 >> Everyone knew that you could be sent to such a camp without due process of law. 00:15:26.620 --> 00:15:32.056 We had a verse that was 00:15:32.056 --> 00:15:39.057 widely recited [FOREIGN] >> Dear God, 00:15:39.057 --> 00:15:43.641 strike me dumb, so that I won't be sent to Dachau. 00:15:43.641 --> 00:15:48.353 >> In the new Germany everyone was classified by race, 00:15:48.353 --> 00:15:54.730 in the new Germany, only those who Hitler considered perfect. 00:15:54.730 --> 00:15:58.164 The purest members of the Aryan race were welcomed. 00:15:58.164 --> 00:16:04.196 >> [FOREIGN] [SOUND] The name undesirable 00:16:04.196 --> 00:16:09.119 was the Jewish people, the Jews. 00:16:09.119 --> 00:16:14.417 We were being told that the Jews, they are behind everything which is bad in Germany. 00:16:14.417 --> 00:16:16.269 [MUSIC] 00:16:16.269 --> 00:16:18.910 >> There was a lot of propaganda against the Jews. 00:16:18.910 --> 00:16:21.810 There were no longer any normal newspapers. 00:16:21.810 --> 00:16:23.960 Most of them were Nazi. 00:16:23.960 --> 00:16:27.920 You saw headlines, the Jews are criminals, the Jews are vermin. 00:16:27.920 --> 00:16:29.370 They must be killed. 00:16:29.370 --> 00:16:30.400 There must be arrested. 00:16:32.420 --> 00:16:36.454 >> Hitler had declared in "Mein Kampf" that Jews weaken the German Master Race. 00:16:36.454 --> 00:16:41.304 >> Well of course we talked about race in school, and 00:16:41.304 --> 00:16:47.776 the superior races, the non-superior, the degenerate races. 00:16:47.776 --> 00:16:53.301 And the teacher had some calipers to measure the width of your eyes and 00:16:53.301 --> 00:16:55.784 your nose and so on, the head. 00:16:55.784 --> 00:16:58.827 [MUSIC] 00:16:58.827 --> 00:17:02.945 >> In our classroom, we had a poster, the head shapes from the sides, 00:17:02.945 --> 00:17:06.341 the Aryans of course, they looked good from the sides, 00:17:06.341 --> 00:17:11.010 they looked good from the front, they were blond and they were blue-eyed. 00:17:11.010 --> 00:17:17.120 And when I was about 14 years old, my hair began to darken and 00:17:17.120 --> 00:17:22.200 I sometimes was worried that I didn't look like a proper Aryan anymore 00:17:22.200 --> 00:17:27.370 because my hair was not really blonde anymore. 00:17:27.370 --> 00:17:31.299 And also my nose is a little bit hooked as you might probably see and 00:17:31.299 --> 00:17:35.086 sometimes I looked in the mirror, held another mirror here and 00:17:35.086 --> 00:17:39.963 I was frightened that somebody should think that I had some Jewish connections. 00:17:43.288 --> 00:17:47.557 >> Two years after they came to power, they came out with the Nuremberg racial 00:17:47.557 --> 00:17:51.290 laws, which separated the Jews from the German people. 00:17:51.290 --> 00:17:54.250 We were not allowed to go swimming with the other children. 00:17:54.250 --> 00:17:56.040 We are not allowed to play with the other children. 00:17:56.040 --> 00:18:04.072 We were not allowed to go excursions with the other children, and so on. 00:18:04.072 --> 00:18:05.643 [MUSIC] >> Jews were stripped of their 00:18:05.643 --> 00:18:08.690 citizenship, their businesses boycotted. 00:18:08.690 --> 00:18:13.533 They were forbidden to marry or have sexual relations with Aryans. 00:18:13.533 --> 00:18:16.165 [MUSIC] Any trace of Jewish ancestry meant 00:18:16.165 --> 00:18:19.573 immediate banishment from all civil service jobs. 00:18:19.573 --> 00:18:21.341 [MUSIC] 00:18:21.341 --> 00:18:28.230 >> I was classified as a quarter Jew, a mongrel of the second degree. 00:18:29.690 --> 00:18:34.272 I was dismissed from the public service. 00:18:34.272 --> 00:18:41.346 All I had achieved through examinations, through study and 00:18:41.346 --> 00:18:46.478 other efforts to establish myself in life, 00:18:46.478 --> 00:18:51.903 all that was, by a stroke of the pen, cut off. 00:18:51.903 --> 00:18:59.180 >> Hitler had made his vision for his people a reality. 00:18:59.180 --> 00:19:02.559 And he planned to force that vision far beyond Germany's borders. 00:19:02.559 --> 00:19:07.183 [MUSIC] 00:19:07.183 --> 00:19:12.048 >> And I remember when I was a guest with my mother in Berchtesgaden, 00:19:12.048 --> 00:19:16.037 you could see on a clear day, you could see Salzburg. 00:19:16.037 --> 00:19:22.871 And he pointed out to me, he said, you see that there, boy, that's Salzburg. 00:19:22.871 --> 00:19:26.692 That is in my homeland of Austria. 00:19:26.692 --> 00:19:33.546 And one of these days I'm going to see to it that that will join with Germany. 00:19:33.546 --> 00:19:36.183 THE ANSCHLUSS 00:19:36.183 --> 00:19:40.433 >> On March the 12th, 1938, Hitler made good on his plan. 00:19:40.433 --> 00:19:43.102 Americans heard it first from NBC's Max Jordan. 00:19:43.102 --> 00:19:47.980 >> Ladies and gentlemen, at the Austrian frontier town 00:19:47.980 --> 00:19:51.970 an endless stream of German soldiers is pouring into Austria. 00:19:51.970 --> 00:19:53.370 >> It was astonishing. 00:19:53.370 --> 00:19:56.470 The takeover of a country broadcast live on radio. 00:19:57.526 --> 00:20:01.640 >> The cheers are for Chancellor Adolf Hitler, returning to his homeland for 00:20:01.640 --> 00:20:05.720 the first time in almost 25 years. 00:20:05.720 --> 00:20:08.780 >> Karla Stept lived in the Austrian capital, Vienna. 00:20:08.780 --> 00:20:11.100 She was 20 years old, and a Jew. 00:20:12.580 --> 00:20:18.411 >> It was my home, so when suddenly the Germans marched Into Austria, 00:20:18.411 --> 00:20:22.008 where they were welcomed with open arms. 00:20:22.008 --> 00:20:24.410 [MUSIC] 00:20:24.410 --> 00:20:26.066 The world ended for me. 00:20:26.066 --> 00:20:30.683 [MUSIC] 00:20:30.683 --> 00:20:36.329 >> It was a Friday evening, crowds began to march down, shouting slogans. 00:20:36.329 --> 00:20:40.109 I remember one specifically which was [FOREIGN], 00:20:40.109 --> 00:20:44.360 which translated means Jews perish in your own filth. 00:20:45.360 --> 00:20:50.287 And it was clear that something was imminent, something was happening. 00:20:50.287 --> 00:20:52.001 [MUSIC] 00:20:52.001 --> 00:20:56.513 >> Saturday morning, the Brown Shirts, and 00:20:56.513 --> 00:21:03.670 Blackshirts already started to go against the Jewish population. 00:21:05.410 --> 00:21:13.110 They got Jewish men and women out to scrub the sidewalks on their knees, 00:21:13.110 --> 00:21:17.209 being kicked by the population standing around them. 00:21:19.340 --> 00:21:21.680 Hitler wasn't even in Vienna yet. 00:21:21.680 --> 00:21:27.261 But what took Germany five years took Austria 24 hours. 00:21:27.261 --> 00:21:36.893 [MUSIC] 00:21:36.893 --> 00:21:42.720 >> In the spring of 1938, few Americans could avoid the news of Hitler in Germany. 00:21:42.720 --> 00:21:47.627 >> Parade in Berlin's Tiergarten shows that once again, Germany has a real army. 00:21:47.627 --> 00:21:50.513 >> That would mean war, when will Nazi aggression end? 00:21:50.513 --> 00:21:53.089 The democratic nations draw together against-. 00:21:53.089 --> 00:21:55.773 >> The rest of Europe Hitler orders all Germany to mobilize at it's full 00:21:55.773 --> 00:21:56.382 war strength. 00:21:56.382 --> 00:21:57.900 A million and a half-. 00:21:57.900 --> 00:22:01.700 >> Growing anxieties over the increasing power of the Third Reich, 00:22:01.700 --> 00:22:08.080 turned a heavyweight boxing match in June 1938 into an international showdown. 00:22:08.080 --> 00:22:12.350 In one corner of the ring would be Hitler's pride and joy, Max Schmeling. 00:22:12.350 --> 00:22:15.409 In the other, the American champion, Joe Louis. 00:22:16.560 --> 00:22:21.475 >> Joe symbolized not only the fight against discrimination but 00:22:21.475 --> 00:22:23.530 the struggle against fascism. 00:22:23.530 --> 00:22:30.664 At a time when the entire world was talking about Hitler and 00:22:30.664 --> 00:22:34.602 Mussolini, anti-Semitism. 00:22:34.602 --> 00:22:39.465 >> Under the wing Max swings around Joe Lewis with two swift lefts to the chin. 00:22:39.465 --> 00:22:41.240 >> There was tremendous tension. 00:22:41.240 --> 00:22:45.398 >> A left to the jaw, a right to the head, and Donovan is watching carefully. 00:22:45.398 --> 00:22:47.020 >> I was glued to the radio. 00:22:48.070 --> 00:22:51.646 >> Lewis measures him, a right to the body, a left up to the jaw, and 00:22:51.646 --> 00:22:52.764 Schmeling is down. 00:22:52.764 --> 00:22:56.350 >> We just shouted exploded, shouting, wow. 00:22:56.350 --> 00:22:59.910 >> The count is five, six, the men are in the ring. 00:22:59.910 --> 00:23:03.950 The fight is over, Max Schmeling is beaten in one round. 00:23:03.950 --> 00:23:07.650 >> People shouted out of their windows, Joe won, Joe won. 00:23:07.650 --> 00:23:09.006 All up and down. 00:23:09.006 --> 00:23:12.230 >> [INAUDIBLE] and still champion Joe Louis.. 00:23:14.380 --> 00:23:16.570 >> We won, it was a victory. 00:23:17.610 --> 00:23:22.340 And we needed victories very badly at the time. 00:23:22.340 --> 00:23:25.170 >> When 21 year old Milt Wolff heard the news about Joe Louis, 00:23:25.170 --> 00:23:28.780 Wolf was already fighting against Hitler in the Spanish Civil War. 00:23:29.990 --> 00:23:34.939 In that war, Nazi Germany was supporting Francisco Franco's fascist rebels who 00:23:34.939 --> 00:23:38.920 were about to overthrow Spain's freely elected government. 00:23:38.920 --> 00:23:42.300 >> I was a kid in Brooklyn, okay, 00:23:42.300 --> 00:23:47.320 and I was caught up in this whole bit of the war in Spain. 00:23:49.290 --> 00:23:53.209 For myself, it was a commitment to a struggle against fascism. 00:23:55.050 --> 00:23:59.600 >> Milt Wolff joined 2800 American volunteers in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade 00:23:59.600 --> 00:24:01.950 in defiance of American neutrality. 00:24:01.950 --> 00:24:07.087 They went to defend democracy in what was widely seen as a dress rehearsal for 00:24:07.087 --> 00:24:09.345 the greater battle with Hitler. 00:24:09.345 --> 00:24:12.900 >> So these were guys who were essentially coming off the street. 00:24:14.470 --> 00:24:20.939 Most of them had no military training at all, and up to the front they went. 00:24:20.939 --> 00:24:27.044 [MUSIC] 00:24:27.044 --> 00:24:29.486 They were hitting us with artillery, and 00:24:29.486 --> 00:24:32.900 they were strafing us with the German planes. 00:24:32.900 --> 00:24:35.840 And guys were getting killed and wounded. 00:24:35.840 --> 00:24:42.275 For myself, the war in Spain gave meaning to the word anti-fascism. 00:24:42.275 --> 00:24:45.773 >> By 1938, democracy was doomed in Spain, 00:24:45.773 --> 00:24:49.729 as it had been in Italy, and Austria, and Germany. 00:24:52.022 --> 00:24:56.820 Hitler's ideology and Hitler's armies were a danger to freedom everywhere. 00:24:57.870 --> 00:25:00.440 >> It has now reached the stage 00:25:00.440 --> 00:25:06.020 where the very foundations of civilization are seriously threatened. 00:25:06.020 --> 00:25:10.811 Let no one imagine that America will escape, 00:25:10.811 --> 00:25:14.216 that America may expect mercy, 00:25:14.216 --> 00:25:19.780 that this Western hemisphere will not be attacked. 00:25:19.780 --> 00:25:22.568 >> September the 12th, 1938. 00:25:22.568 --> 00:25:26.240 The entire civilized world, as a CBS broadcast put it, 00:25:26.240 --> 00:25:29.850 was anxiously waiting to hear Hitler's next threat. 00:25:30.970 --> 00:25:36.224 It came in an unprecedented live broadcast from the Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg. 00:25:36.224 --> 00:25:42.725 >> [FOREIGN] >> Hitler demanded that the Sudetenland, 00:25:42.725 --> 00:25:47.454 a region of Czechoslovakia inhabited mostly by German speaking people, 00:25:47.454 --> 00:25:49.140 become a part of Germany. 00:25:49.140 --> 00:25:53.573 >> [FOREIGN] 00:25:53.573 --> 00:25:57.127 [MUSIC] 00:25:57.127 --> 00:26:01.203 >> The Columbia Broadcasting System has brought its listeners to be addressed by 00:26:01.203 --> 00:26:02.905 Adolf Hitler. 00:26:02.905 --> 00:26:05.825 At this time, we present HV Kaltenborn. 00:26:05.825 --> 00:26:08.011 >> Good afternoon, everybody. 00:26:08.011 --> 00:26:13.315 Adolf Hitler has spoken, and the world has listened. 00:26:13.315 --> 00:26:20.100 The world has listened, because it fears that this speech might mean war. 00:26:23.570 --> 00:26:26.820 >> The British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, 00:26:26.820 --> 00:26:29.346 who'd never been on an airplane before, 00:26:29.346 --> 00:26:33.549 flew to Germany twice within ten days to seek a peaceful settlement. 00:26:33.549 --> 00:26:36.181 [MUSIC] 00:26:36.181 --> 00:26:40.924 >> Just to see on the newsreels screen Chamberlain coming there 00:26:40.924 --> 00:26:44.930 with his umbrella is unthinkable to a German mind. 00:26:44.930 --> 00:26:50.960 Hitler with an umbrella, you laugh when you think about that about. 00:26:50.960 --> 00:26:53.549 We thought they were weak. 00:26:53.549 --> 00:26:55.689 [MUSIC] 00:26:55.689 --> 00:26:57.589 >> Chamberlain failed. 00:26:57.589 --> 00:27:00.469 Hitler refused to withdraw his demands. 00:27:00.469 --> 00:27:04.910 The Sudetenland would be his, one way or the other. 00:27:04.910 --> 00:27:06.750 War now seemed inevitable. 00:27:08.490 --> 00:27:12.170 In Britain, nervous citizens began to build bomb shelters. 00:27:12.170 --> 00:27:16.550 [MUSIC] 00:27:16.550 --> 00:27:19.310 In France, army reserves were called up. 00:27:19.310 --> 00:27:21.649 [MUSIC] 00:27:21.649 --> 00:27:26.122 And then only 24 hours before Hitler's promised invasion of Czechoslovakia, 00:27:26.122 --> 00:27:29.249 Prime Minister Chamberlain once again flew to Germany. 00:27:31.440 --> 00:27:35.610 At a meeting in Munich with Hitler and Italy's Benito Mussolini, 00:27:35.610 --> 00:27:40.150 Chamberlain abandoned the Sudetenland to Germany, in return for 00:27:40.150 --> 00:27:42.510 what he called "Peace In Our Time." 00:27:43.750 --> 00:27:48.040 Hitler gave his word that there would be no more territorial claims. 00:27:48.040 --> 00:27:50.199 THE MUNICH PACT 00:27:50.199 --> 00:27:55.076 Chamberlain flew home to a hero's welcome from a Britain anxious to avoid another 00:27:55.076 --> 00:28:00.110 conflict, after the devistating slaughter of World War I, only 20 years earlier. 00:28:00.110 --> 00:28:08.220 >> And here is the paper which bears his name upon it, as well as mine. 00:28:08.220 --> 00:28:13.088 >> [NOISE] >> As symbolic of the desire 00:28:13.088 --> 00:28:17.387 of our two peoples never to go to war with one another again. 00:28:23.739 --> 00:28:27.006 >> Chamberlain got what he thought was peace. 00:28:27.006 --> 00:28:30.980 Hitler got the Sudetenland. 00:28:30.980 --> 00:28:34.820 >> To us Germans, it was a great thing. 00:28:34.820 --> 00:28:37.508 Their land is bordering on Germany. 00:28:37.508 --> 00:28:42.013 And as a Sudeten, people were Germans, so we thought, yeah, 00:28:42.013 --> 00:28:45.419 sure, why should say live in Czechoslovakia? 00:28:45.419 --> 00:28:50.020 >> On October the 1st, 1938 Hitler welcomed 3.5 million 00:28:50.020 --> 00:28:53.761 Czechoslovakians of German blood into the Reich. 00:28:53.761 --> 00:28:57.647 >> [NOISE] >> Hitler's reception was a replay of 00:28:57.647 --> 00:28:58.515 Austria. 00:28:58.515 --> 00:29:08.515 [MUSIC] 00:29:10.345 --> 00:29:16.040 >> [NOISE] >> As Hitler was being cheered 00:29:16.040 --> 00:29:21.357 in the Sudetenland, the Nazis campaign against German Jews was intensified, 00:29:21.357 --> 00:29:24.070 very much aided by an incident in Paris. 00:29:25.750 --> 00:29:29.067 On November the 7th, a young Jew, Herschel Grynszpan, 00:29:29.067 --> 00:29:31.913 distraught over the deportation of his parents, 00:29:31.913 --> 00:29:36.675 walked into the German Embassy in Paris and shot a minor official, Ernst vom Rath. 00:29:36.675 --> 00:29:38.975 [MUSIC] 00:29:38.975 --> 00:29:40.619 >> While he was fighting death, 00:29:40.619 --> 00:29:45.630 the newspapers carried headlines, headlines against the Jewish people. 00:29:45.630 --> 00:29:48.070 "The Jews have taken off their mask from their face. 00:29:48.070 --> 00:29:50.489 They have shown now what they want to do to us." 00:29:50.489 --> 00:29:52.510 It was dreadful. 00:29:52.510 --> 00:29:56.450 We said if only this man does not die. 00:29:56.450 --> 00:29:57.830 But of course, he died. 00:29:57.830 --> 00:30:03.032 [MUSIC] 00:30:03.032 --> 00:30:06.149 >> Vom Rath's death became Hitler's opportunity. 00:30:06.149 --> 00:30:07.835 Only a junior diplomat, 00:30:07.835 --> 00:30:12.097 Vom Rath was nonetheless accorded the honors of a fallen hero. 00:30:12.097 --> 00:30:15.350 [MUSIC] 00:30:15.350 --> 00:30:18.570 The ceremony was intended to inspire revenge. 00:30:18.570 --> 00:30:23.750 For once, said Joseph Goebbels, the Jews should get the feel of popular anger. 00:30:23.750 --> 00:30:26.169 [MUSIC] 00:30:26.169 --> 00:30:33.390 That anger exploded on the night of November the 10th, 1938, Kristallnacht. 00:30:33.390 --> 00:30:36.050 >> I saw the synagogue in flames. 00:30:37.070 --> 00:30:41.040 People came from all over, the fire department. 00:30:41.040 --> 00:30:46.110 They did not make one effort to put out a flames. 00:30:46.110 --> 00:30:47.660 Kids were laughing. 00:30:47.660 --> 00:30:49.330 Kids were having fun. 00:30:49.330 --> 00:30:52.740 I heard "kill the Jews, kill the Jews". 00:30:52.740 --> 00:30:56.900 >> For 24 hours, Nazi stormtroopers rampaged through Germany and 00:30:56.900 --> 00:31:00.880 Austria, destroying synagogues and shops. 00:31:00.880 --> 00:31:05.532 The Night of Broken Glass in German, Kristallnacht. 00:31:05.532 --> 00:31:08.532 [MUSIC] 00:31:08.532 --> 00:31:13.486 Scores of people were killed, more than 20,000 arrested. 00:31:13.486 --> 00:31:18.630 It was now clear there was no future for Jews in Germany. 00:31:18.630 --> 00:31:22.690 >> For the first time in America, it broke through a certain part of the awareness 00:31:22.690 --> 00:31:25.535 that something horrible was happening in Hitler's Germany. 00:31:25.535 --> 00:31:30.710 >> [FOREIGN] >> [FOREIGN] 00:31:30.710 --> 00:31:32.730 >> Roosevelt himself said it just was 00:31:32.730 --> 00:31:36.600 incomprehensible to imagine that such a thing could happen in the 20th century. 00:31:38.520 --> 00:31:39.150 And still, 00:31:39.150 --> 00:31:42.750 people felt we've seen what happened when we get involved in Europe's wars. 00:31:44.030 --> 00:31:45.330 This is Europe's problem. 00:31:45.330 --> 00:31:49.121 >> [FOREIGN] 00:31:49.121 --> 00:31:53.893 >> [FOREIGN] 00:31:53.893 --> 00:31:58.500 [MUSIC] 00:31:58.500 --> 00:32:03.375 >> On Easter Sunday, 1939, an enormous crowd came together around the reflecting 00:32:03.375 --> 00:32:07.620 pool in the nation's capital to hear one of the great voices of modern time. 00:32:07.620 --> 00:32:09.631 Marian Anderson 00:32:09.631 --> 00:32:19.631 [MUSIC] 00:32:22.240 --> 00:32:26.049 >> Because she was a Negro, Anderson had been barred from performing at 00:32:26.049 --> 00:32:29.673 Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution. 00:32:29.673 --> 00:32:31.876 When president Roosevelt heard this, 00:32:31.876 --> 00:32:34.551 he enabled her to sing at the Lincoln Memorial. 00:32:34.551 --> 00:32:38.845 [MUSIC] 00:32:38.845 --> 00:32:43.578 >> And I was among the 75,000 people 00:32:43.578 --> 00:32:47.887 gathered to hear her sing that day. 00:32:47.887 --> 00:32:52.790 This was a moment maybe even more important to us than what Joe Lewis 00:32:52.790 --> 00:32:56.047 had done when he demolished Max Schmeling. 00:32:56.047 --> 00:33:01.205 [MUSIC] 00:33:01.205 --> 00:33:08.438 And we stood there and we listened, and tears ran down our faces. 00:33:08.438 --> 00:33:12.500 [MUSIC] 00:33:12.500 --> 00:33:17.067 It was a part of America's statement in Hitler's face, 00:33:17.067 --> 00:33:20.712 about what we truly thought about Black people. 00:33:20.712 --> 00:33:25.679 [MUSIC] 00:33:25.679 --> 00:33:31.311 >> Marian affirmed for all of us, what the true meaning of America was. 00:33:31.311 --> 00:33:37.220 [MUSIC] 00:33:37.220 --> 00:33:41.654 >> That powerful symbol of racial justice gave hope to European Jews. 00:33:41.654 --> 00:33:45.679 Hope that despite strict quotas, limiting immigration, 00:33:45.679 --> 00:33:50.470 America would provide a haven from the terror of Adolf Hitler. 00:33:50.470 --> 00:33:54.840 >> My mother desperately tried to get out of Austria. 00:33:56.350 --> 00:34:00.740 And because of the quota system, there were obvious difficulties, and 00:34:00.740 --> 00:34:02.480 could not gain entrance to United States. 00:34:03.840 --> 00:34:05.989 And one possibility was to get entrance to Cuba. 00:34:08.890 --> 00:34:13.354 >> Fred Reif's family joined more than 900 Jewish refugees 00:34:13.354 --> 00:34:17.391 on board the steam ship, St. Louis, bound for Cuba. 00:34:17.391 --> 00:34:20.746 But at Havana, Cuban officials refused to let them land. 00:34:20.746 --> 00:34:26.546 [MUSIC] 00:34:26.546 --> 00:34:28.219 >> Some suicide start to happen. 00:34:28.219 --> 00:34:32.663 I remember one person slit his wrists and jumped overboard in harbour. 00:34:32.663 --> 00:34:34.867 [MUSIC] 00:34:34.867 --> 00:34:39.380 >> The fear is, of course, if you can't land in Cuba, 00:34:39.380 --> 00:34:44.521 then you have to go back to Germany to a concentration camp. 00:34:44.521 --> 00:34:45.564 We all lived there. 00:34:45.564 --> 00:34:49.073 [MUSIC] 00:34:49.073 --> 00:34:52.680 >> And so, the St. Louis turn north towards the United States. 00:34:54.210 --> 00:34:55.146 For five days, 00:34:55.146 --> 00:34:59.624 the ship sat off the Florida coast while the captain appealed for refuge. 00:34:59.624 --> 00:35:01.889 [MUSIC] 00:35:01.889 --> 00:35:04.016 >> Everybody's hopes were up. 00:35:04.016 --> 00:35:08.424 Franklin Roosevelt was everybody's idol. 00:35:08.424 --> 00:35:11.674 And nothing will happen to us. 00:35:11.674 --> 00:35:14.008 America wouldn't let us down. 00:35:14.008 --> 00:35:17.889 [MUSIC] 00:35:17.889 --> 00:35:20.924 >> But the United States government did not permit them to land. 00:35:20.924 --> 00:35:23.084 [MUSIC] 00:35:23.084 --> 00:35:28.605 The passenger sent one last urgent plea directly to President Roosevelt. 00:35:28.605 --> 00:35:29.736 There was no reply. 00:35:29.736 --> 00:35:31.985 [MUSIC] 00:35:31.985 --> 00:35:35.560 The St. Louis had no choice but to sail back across the Atlantic. 00:35:38.450 --> 00:35:41.010 At the last minute, England, France, Holland, and 00:35:41.010 --> 00:35:43.730 Belgium agreed to take the stranded refugees. 00:35:45.370 --> 00:35:49.059 But because the war was spreading over the next six years, 00:35:49.059 --> 00:35:54.115 660 of the more than 900 passengers would perish at the hand of the Nazis. 00:35:54.115 --> 00:35:59.946 [MUSIC] 00:35:59.946 --> 00:36:03.096 >> President Roosevelt was sympathetic to the plight of the refugees. 00:36:03.096 --> 00:36:06.949 But with the United States Congress in an isolationist frame of mind, 00:36:06.949 --> 00:36:11.062 he felt he could not spend "political capital" saving a small number of Jews, 00:36:11.062 --> 00:36:13.695 when all of Europe needed help against Hitler. 00:36:13.695 --> 00:36:17.356 Roosevelt believed that the only way to stop Nazi aggression and 00:36:17.356 --> 00:36:22.055 keep America insulated from Europe's troubles, was to arm Britain and France. 00:36:22.055 --> 00:36:26.015 It was not a popular idea in a country that was officially neutral. 00:36:26.015 --> 00:36:30.060 In March 1939, six months after the Munich Agreement, 00:36:30.060 --> 00:36:34.979 which Neville Chamberlain thought Hitler would honor, Hitler broke his 00:36:34.979 --> 00:36:40.230 promise not to make any territorial claims, and took all of Czechoslovakia. 00:36:41.460 --> 00:36:42.280 And still, 00:36:42.280 --> 00:36:47.480 most Americans wanted to leave the Europeans to deal with their own crisis. 00:36:47.480 --> 00:36:51.031 America was interested in a very different future. 00:36:51.031 --> 00:37:01.441 [MUSIC] 00:37:01.441 --> 00:37:04.727 >> In the summer of 1939, New York was home to the world's fair, 00:37:04.727 --> 00:37:06.788 that it was called the World of Tomorrow. 00:37:06.788 --> 00:37:09.458 [MUSIC] 00:37:09.458 --> 00:37:12.464 Visitors got their first look at television. 00:37:12.464 --> 00:37:14.490 >> How it worked, we did not know. 00:37:15.510 --> 00:37:18.910 I didn't ask [LAUGH] I was just in awe of the whole thing. 00:37:19.990 --> 00:37:24.030 >> General Motors confidently offered visitors a future without traffic jams. 00:37:25.440 --> 00:37:31.277 General Electric dreams of easy living with a dishwasher. 00:37:31.277 --> 00:37:36.159 >> It was as if all of the dreams of the future was suddenly going 00:37:36.159 --> 00:37:37.927 to be materialized. 00:37:37.927 --> 00:37:40.220 Machines were going to make us better people. 00:37:40.220 --> 00:37:42.150 >> And here he comes, ladies and gentlemen. 00:37:42.150 --> 00:37:45.758 Walking up to greet you, under his own power. 00:37:45.758 --> 00:37:50.539 >> It was like science fiction for me, 12 years old, 00:37:50.539 --> 00:37:54.023 waiting to see the World of Tomorrow. 00:37:54.023 --> 00:37:56.958 [MUSIC] 00:37:56.958 --> 00:38:00.658 >> The flags of 60 nations flew over the fair. 00:38:00.658 --> 00:38:03.462 Only one major power was absent. 00:38:03.462 --> 00:38:06.646 [MUSIC] 00:38:06.646 --> 00:38:09.373 Germany had been invited, but Hitler had declined. 00:38:09.373 --> 00:38:11.416 [MUSIC] 00:38:11.416 --> 00:38:14.116 He had his own plan for the World of Tomorrow. 00:38:14.116 --> 00:38:18.172 [MUSIC] 00:38:18.172 --> 00:38:19.986 On the last day of August, 00:38:19.986 --> 00:38:24.305 visitors were enjoying another festive evening at the fair. 00:38:24.305 --> 00:38:28.739 [NOISE] >> As we were approaching 00:38:28.739 --> 00:38:33.259 the Polish pavilion, the lights went out. 00:38:33.259 --> 00:38:38.816 And we didn't know whether it was an electrical problem. 00:38:38.816 --> 00:38:39.970 or what? 00:38:39.970 --> 00:38:43.255 Because the rest of the fair was still lit. 00:38:43.255 --> 00:38:45.837 All of a sudden a loudspeaker went on. 00:38:45.837 --> 00:38:50.469 And they had announced that Germany had just marched into Poland. 00:38:50.469 --> 00:38:53.917 [MUSIC] 00:38:53.917 --> 00:38:58.101 >> Suddenly, the World of Tomorrow had lost its bright promise. 00:38:58.101 --> 00:39:02.744 >> And here is the United first flash from Warsaw which says officially that 00:39:02.744 --> 00:39:06.563 German planes have bombed railway station in 3 Polish towns. 00:39:06.563 --> 00:39:15.599 10 Downing Street =Prime Minister of UK 00:39:15.599 --> 00:39:22.796 I am speaking to you in the Cabinet Room at 10 Downing Street. 00:39:22.796 --> 00:39:26.580 This country is at war with Germany. 00:39:26.580 --> 00:39:33.047 [SOUND] >> I remember 00:39:33.047 --> 00:39:37.559 the broadcaster in London saying, and I'll never forget that sentence he used. 00:39:37.559 --> 00:39:40.588 Tonight, the lights are going out all over Europe, and 00:39:40.588 --> 00:39:43.049 no one knows when they'll ever come back on. 00:39:43.049 --> 00:39:53.049 [MUSIC] 00:40:04.840 --> 00:40:14.840 [MUSIC] 00:40:16.670 --> 00:40:20.811 The war in Europe made Americans realize just how blessed they were. 00:40:20.811 --> 00:40:25.240 In a display of patriotism, flag sales soared. 00:40:25.240 --> 00:40:29.072 And the song by famous Jewish immigrant 00:40:29.072 --> 00:40:33.731 Irving Berlin went to the top of the hit parade. 00:40:33.731 --> 00:40:38.961 [MUSIC] 00:40:38.961 --> 00:40:41.876 Most Americans still wanted Europe to fight its own battle, 00:40:41.876 --> 00:40:45.473 but President Roosevelt and a growing number of people knew that they had to 00:40:45.473 --> 00:40:48.636 prepare for the worst, as events in Europe raged out of control. 00:40:48.636 --> 00:40:57.653 [SOUND] 00:40:57.653 --> 00:40:59.287 >> In the spring of 1940, 00:40:59.287 --> 00:41:01.204 Hitler turned his Blitzkrieg, 00:41:01.204 --> 00:41:04.972 his lightning war, against the countries of western Europe. 00:41:04.972 --> 00:41:10.241 [SOUND] 00:41:10.241 --> 00:41:14.113 >> I think at that time, probably, 00:41:14.113 --> 00:41:18.280 he was at the top point of his power. 00:41:18.280 --> 00:41:23.694 Six weeks to beat Poland and 18 days to occupy Norway and Denmark. 00:41:23.694 --> 00:41:27.886 To beat Holland in five days and Belgium in 17 days. 00:41:27.886 --> 00:41:30.752 I think those who doubted him, 00:41:30.752 --> 00:41:36.716 they then thought that man is just superb, he wins everything. 00:41:36.716 --> 00:41:39.612 [MUSIC] 00:41:39.612 --> 00:41:42.890 >> And then France fell in just six weeks. 00:41:42.890 --> 00:41:45.672 On June the 14th, German troops entered Paris. 00:41:45.672 --> 00:41:53.733 [MUSIC] 00:41:53.733 --> 00:41:58.694 Even as France collapsed, the German planes started to attack Britain, 00:41:58.694 --> 00:42:01.680 the last democratic stronghold in Europe. 00:42:01.680 --> 00:42:03.789 Still, the United States held back. 00:42:06.610 --> 00:42:10.740 President Roosevelt was able to help America's battered English ally with 00:42:10.740 --> 00:42:14.190 a program to "Lend and Lease" them arms. 00:42:14.190 --> 00:42:19.238 >> We shall send you in ever-increasing numbers, 00:42:19.238 --> 00:42:22.700 ships, planes, tanks, guns. 00:42:22.700 --> 00:42:25.492 That is our purpose and our pledge. 00:42:25.492 --> 00:42:30.042 [SOUND] >> But 00:42:30.042 --> 00:42:33.948 as a beleaguered Britain became freedom's last holdout in Europe, 00:42:33.948 --> 00:42:37.530 full American involvement became increasingly inevitable. 00:42:41.980 --> 00:42:46.379 In December of 1940, the first peacetime draft in American history began. 00:42:48.530 --> 00:42:50.730 America's armed forces were in woeful shape. 00:42:51.900 --> 00:42:56.874 The US Army had under 200,000 men, fewer than Holland or Portugal. 00:42:56.874 --> 00:42:59.951 [MUSIC] 00:42:59.951 --> 00:43:03.683 I remember even running around with sticks for rifles and 00:43:03.683 --> 00:43:06.490 we used old tomato cans from the mess hall. 00:43:06.490 --> 00:43:10.560 They got Campbell's soup cans and they'd put gravel in them, and they'd rattle. 00:43:10.560 --> 00:43:13.590 And then we'd throw them as far as we could throw them, and 00:43:13.590 --> 00:43:15.500 that's learning how to throw a grenade. 00:43:15.500 --> 00:43:19.546 [SOUND] >> I was in ROTC, 00:43:19.546 --> 00:43:22.279 I was studying to be an officer in the American Army. 00:43:24.240 --> 00:43:28.827 And I would look at that German war machine, and it put cold chills up and 00:43:28.827 --> 00:43:29.754 down my back. 00:43:29.754 --> 00:43:33.901 [MUSIC] 00:43:33.901 --> 00:43:38.583 And I used to say to myself, you mean to tell me we gotta go up against those guys? 00:43:38.583 --> 00:43:40.358 [MUSIC] 00:43:40.358 --> 00:43:41.706 It wasn't a very pretty picture. 00:43:41.706 --> 00:43:48.821 [MUSIC] 00:43:48.821 --> 00:43:53.240 >> By 1941, history's deadliest conflict was underway. 00:43:53.240 --> 00:43:57.830 And the very survival of freedom in the world depended on the outcome. 00:43:57.830 --> 00:44:02.130 That's on the next episode of The Century: America's Time. 00:44:02.130 --> 00:44:11.933 I'm Peter 00:44:11.933 --> 00:44:22.825 Jennings, 00:44:22.825 --> 00:44:28.271 thank 00:44:28.271 --> 00:44:34.805 you for 00:44:34.805 --> 00:44:42.430 joining 00:44:42.430 --> 00:44:46.791 us. 00:44:46.791 --> 00:44:56.791 [MUSIC]