• 2 months ago
Transcript
00:00Since its existence, the train has been an ideal propaganda tool.
00:16On all continents, monarchs, presidents, and dictators have all wanted their own train
00:21to criss-cross countries, promote their policies, and meet the people.
00:25In the 1930s, in Germany, as chancellor, Hitler decided that he, too, needed an exceptional
00:31train to match his power.
00:37It would be a Titan pulled by two locomotives, protected by anti-aircraft batteries.
00:42On board, men mobilized for war, private bodyguards, railway police, and officers of the German
00:48army.
00:49Its name, somewhat ironically, FĂŒhrer-Sonderzug Amerika, the FĂŒhrer's special train, America.
00:55A steel beast of 1,200 tons, 430 meters long, with state-of-the-art cars equipped with
01:00the highest technology of the day, it was an Air Force One before its time, a veritable
01:05Nazi fortress on rail.
01:08The 20 millimeter guns had an upwards ground range of up to 4.7 kilometers.
01:13The FĂŒhrer-Sonderzug is the best equipped mobile headquarters in the world at that time,
01:20the very best.
01:22For each of its journeys, hundreds of men were called into action, manning tracks, bridges,
01:26tunnels, and stations.
01:28Their mission?
01:29To protect America from Hitler's enemies.
01:35Hitler's private train was more than a means of transport.
01:37It was a genuine bunker, a headquarters, and a refuge.
01:41Whole pages of the history of World War II were written on board, tragic decisions taken,
01:46decisive meetings held.
01:49PĂ©tain, Mussolini, and Franco all climbed aboard to visit the Nazi dictator.
01:55The strategic train was even the target of plots against the FĂŒhrer.
01:59But America was an impregnable beast of steel.
02:04Seventy years on, and little is really known about Hitler's train.
02:08Very few people have studied it.
02:09And yet it shows us another side to the German dictator, that of a paranoid man with a severe
02:14case of megalomania.
02:16We went back in time to learn more.
02:18How was this steel beast designed?
02:20What railway megastructures were built to ensure its security?
02:24So these are absolutely enormous, 480 meter long tunnels, 20 meters high.
02:31How was life organized on board?
02:34Why was nothing or nobody able to attack America?
02:37And what does the train teach us about Hitler?
02:40We went to Germany to film what remains of other Nazi special trains with their luxury
02:44cars.
02:45We found the last surviving archives.
02:48We retraced the routes the FĂŒhrer traveled as we tried to uncover the secrets of the
02:51steel beast.
02:54Now join us on board America, Hitler's private train.
03:13Back to the early 1930s.
03:16Hitler was head of a political party, the NSDAP, the Nazi party, which was on the rise.
03:21On January 30th, 1933, Hitler was elected Chancellor of Germany and he took the reins
03:26of power.
03:28He was a modern politician who won over large crowds.
03:31He knew how to reach out to people, with his appearance and his speeches, which he belted
03:35out with fury, possessed with his own ideas.
03:41But he had another asset.
03:43He understood that to reach the people, he had to go out to meet them.
03:47So in the early 1930s, before any other politicians of the day, Hitler became aware of the importance
03:52of travel and he crisscrossed all Germany during his political campaigns.
03:58Hitler likes to be seen at this time.
04:00He feels history is behind him.
04:03The German people are largely behind him.
04:05So he's happy to show himself quite often.
04:09As a fan of modernity, technology and power, Hitler wanted to be able to move fast all
04:13the time.
04:14At the time, another European dictator had his own private train, Benito Mussolini.
04:20In 1937, Hitler commissioned the Deutsche Reichsbahn, the German railroad company, to
04:25conduct a special train for him.
04:27After two years of design and manufacture, it left the factory in August 1939.
04:32It was named America.
04:35To Hitler, America represented the annihilation of the Indians.
04:39He was fascinated by this land of conquest.
04:42Hitler planned to conquer all Europe and annihilate all those who weren't Aryans.
04:47And his train matched his ambitions, almighty.
04:50It traveled at speeds up to 120 kilometers per hour.
04:54Each car weighed at least 60 tons.
04:57This steel beast was a very high-performance tool.
04:59Like an affixed headquarters, a bunker, America ensured Hitler's security, allowed him to
05:04be surrounded by his teams on journeys, to be mobile on all fronts, and to remain reachable
05:09at all times, something which cars and planes were unable to provide.
05:13It was a kind of Air Force One before its time, crammed with high technology.
05:19A very impressive train to look at.
05:21I wouldn't call it scary, I would call it impressive, with its austerity and its total
05:26lack of fancy trimmings.
05:30Hitler used his train to show he was close to the people.
05:33He was greeted by crowds, but each outing was strictly organized and highly securitized.
05:41One of the things the bodyguards become very concerned about, particularly with the train,
05:46is when the train pulls in at stations, often mobs of people will stampede to the train,
05:52like as a rock star arriving, trying to touch Hitler, to shake his hand, and somebody could
05:58have thrown a hand grenade into the train, or even pulled him physically out of a window,
06:03anything could have happened.
06:04So it becomes increasingly obvious that Hitler does require some kind of special train, which
06:11will be cut off from the public, and indeed from the military as well.
06:24Very soon, all Nazi dignitaries were having their own private trains built.
06:28Hitler had launched in out-and-out fashion.
06:34Hitler's train made all the other bigwigs of the Third Reich, men like Göring, the
06:39head of the Luftwaffe, Himmler, the head of the SS, want their own private train to take
06:46them all over the country.
06:51At the outbreak of war, there were 25 special trains.
06:58Three hundred cars for the 25 trains with poignant names inspired by America, ASEAN,
07:04Africa, Atlas, Atlantic, Prussia, as if the Third Reich had already conquered the entire
07:10world.
07:12They were all based on the model, with cars built by German manufacturers, and all looked
07:17alike both inside and out.
07:21To such an extent that they were often confused, especially the trains of Hitler and Göring.
07:27America would cover thousands and thousands of kilometers of rail track during the war
07:31years, a steel beast which shunted everything out of its way, similar to Hitler's conquests.
07:37Depending on war requirements and the number of people on board, the makeup of the train
07:41varied between 10 to 16 cars, a length of 300 to 430 meters, the equivalent of two French
07:47high-speed TGV trains.
07:50America was a convoy of 1,200 tons, a town on the tracks, with sometimes over 200 people
07:55on board.
07:57The cars in the middle of the train were always placed in the same way, to keep circulation
08:01between the communication cars and the HQ cars consistent.
08:06These were regular steel Deutsch-Rechtsbahn passenger cars, the height of modernity, adapted
08:11for the Fuhrer's needs.
08:15The cars themselves weren't armored.
08:19They were built in the 1930s in three renowned German factories, Henschel, Wegmann, and Credet.
08:29The inside was furbished by a well-known interior design company, Associated Workshops, which
08:35was based in Munich.
08:38These workshops were well-known because they introduced Art Nouveau into Germany in the
08:44early 20th century.
08:49And here's Hitler's private car, weighing in at a colossal 63 tons, something that gave
08:54rise to the rumor that it was heavily armored.
09:02But the truth is even more surprising.
09:04Hitler had a 100% marble bathroom installed, with a reinforced concrete subfloor to support
09:10the considerable extra weight.
09:16What's more, like in all the cars, there was a heating and air conditioning system, very
09:20rare for the time, which allowed the Fuhrer to regulate the ambient temperature.
09:25The highest technology even for daily life.
09:28This car was the third from the front, just after the first baggage car.
09:34You entered via an antechamber, permanently guarded by two soldiers.
09:38The fairly simple living area, with its large table and comfortable armchairs in the middle,
09:42had vain mahogany walls.
09:47Hitler's apartment consisted of a bedroom with a single bed.
09:51His famous bathroom had a bathtub and gold-plated faucets.
09:59Next came three guest rooms and a washroom.
10:05Two soldiers also kept permanent guard at the rear end of the car.
10:11Basically, the style we see here in the lounge car was fairly middle-class.
10:19Old-fashioned middle-class.
10:21Most of the features have a relatively functional design.
10:25There's very little decoration or ornamentation.
10:32He believed luxury belonged to the state.
10:35As a man, he liked sobriety, a degree of austerity even.
10:46September 3rd, 1939.
10:49A big day for America.
10:52The train would make its first military journey from Berlin to Bad Posen, a small town in
10:58northwest Poland.
11:06Hitler had just started World War II by invading Poland.
11:11The world entered into armed conflict the biggest mankind had ever known, one of the
11:15darkest pages in our history.
11:18Sixty-two million men, women and children would lose their lives.
11:22And it was on board this train that the fate of Poland and the rest of the world would
11:26be decided.
11:27Hitler had made it his new military headquarters.
11:30Mobile and impressive, it would now escort the Fuhrer to all fronts.
11:38As war raged in Poland for several long days, America, like its owner, gave off an air of
11:43invincibility.
11:48From the train, Hitler dictated his military strategy.
11:52Over the coming days, it would become a kind of second home, shared by high-ranking Nazi
11:56dignitaries but also by secretaries, cooks, Hitler's private bodyguards, his doctor, train
12:03drivers and engineers, and of course, the soldiers who manned the anti-aircraft batteries.
12:08A whole Nazi ant nest came to life.
12:12So Hitler has a very large staff of adjutants.
12:15He has valets looking after his every need, dressing him, providing clean clothes.
12:21There are chambermaids on board to make the beds.
12:24He has very carefully vetted staff who act as waiters and maitre ds and all of this in
12:29the dining carriages.
12:30So these are some of the best waiters they can find in Germany to do this.
12:36The train offered unexpected commodities, a touch of luxury at the height of war, like
12:41the car entirely dedicated to bathing with its hairdresser, a refined area enjoyed by
12:46Hitler and his prestigious guests.
12:48It was presented to the Fuhrer by the Reichspahn for his 50th birthday on April 20th, 1939.
12:54The marble and the 11,200-liter water tank made the car extremely heavy at 78 tons.
13:03It was the ninth car from the front, just after the guest sleeper car.
13:09The first room, isolated from the asbestos, was fitted with two 2,000-liter water tanks.
13:16Then a small dressing room, followed by five bathrooms, two of which had bathtubs in marble
13:23and enameled steel.
13:27Hitler shaved himself, but his private barber cut his hair every two weeks in the hairdressing
13:32suite.
13:33Finally, three shower cabins in marble and a washroom.
13:39The bathroom facilities were, of course, state-of-the-art, the very best shower baths.
13:45Hitler was somebody who enjoyed those aspects of his life, very much so.
13:53Hitler's days started fairly late, around 10 o'clock, when he would go to the command
13:57post for discussions with the head of strategic operations.
14:01He would be updated on the morning's progress.
14:04He gave few orders, he mostly observed, and let the teams get on with their work.
14:08The only demand he made was no smoking.
14:11You have to imagine life on board as something that reflected the train's master, extremely
14:16austere and essentially dedicated to work.
14:18He was a man who was always in his dynamic of power.
14:23America was a genuine haven of peace as it weaved its way across northern Poland in September
14:281939, taking Hitler to support his army as it advanced in the noise and fury of the Blitzkrieg,
14:34the lightning war.
14:40Poland was attacked from every possible side, and it shared many of its borders with Germany.
14:48The German army managed to cross all of these borders.
14:52Hitler would immediately organize the occupation of Poland in an extremely cruel way for the
14:57Polish people.
14:59He wanted to show them that their homeland would be Germanized and become part of the
15:04Reich.
15:07The Soviet Union, with which the Germans had signed a non-aggression pact in August 1939,
15:12invaded the western part of Poland on September 17th.
15:16The country was on its knees and surrendered on October 6th, five weeks after the outbreak
15:21of war.
15:22Hitler's dream was coming true before his very eyes, the creation of a great German
15:26empire.
15:30With the conquest of Poland achieved, Hitler returned to the Chancellery in Berlin, while
15:34America, as always, was parked up in a highly guarded zone at Tempelhof Airport, just outside
15:39the capital.
15:41The Nazis were obsessive about security.
15:44To ensure it, a meticulous system of logistics was put in place.
15:48There are entire regiments of SS and Wehrmacht troops whose only job is to protect Hitler,
15:53to protect the train, to protect his cars, his planes, and to protect the transport routes
15:58to and from his military headquarters.
16:02The train itself has to undergo a very thorough security check, including with sniffer dogs
16:07for explosives.
16:09Everything has to be very, very carefully checked, food brought on board, everything
16:14prepared, the staff gathered, etc.
16:17Every person employed on the train underwent very strict controls.
16:21Aryans only, very much like the SS, trace your lineage back to 1750, no Jews in the
16:27blood, anything like this.
16:30Most reliable party people, vetting, very, very careful vetting.
16:36Then there was Hitler's bodyguard, a special unit dedicated entirely to him.
16:40On board America, they had a car just for them.
16:44This would be the RSD, the Reichssicherheitsdienst.
16:47These are the closest bodyguards, and Hitler would carry anywhere from about 22 to 26 SS
16:54bodyguards on the train.
16:56These are the only men allowed anywhere near Hitler who are armed.
17:01Everybody else is unarmed, of course, for obvious reasons.
17:04During America's journeys, there was always the same obsession with security, with an
17:08absolute control of everywhere the train would pass.
17:12Along the tracks, one soldier was posted on every hundred meters at vulnerable points,
17:17such as stations, bridges, and tunnels.
17:19The train itself was protected by heavy weaponry contained in the highly effective anti-aircraft
17:24cars, or flak wagons.
17:26Positioned at the front and back of the train, and totally autonomous, they provided protection
17:30from attacks by both air and land.
17:36Four anti-aircraft guns on a tour to the front of the car.
17:39In the middle, the soldiers' living space, with beds, a kitchen, a toilet and washroom,
17:44and a magazine for arms and munitions.
17:47At the rear, four more guns identical to the first set.
17:51The 20mm guns were very effective because they could be used as anti-aircraft, being
17:57able to fire upwards to an altitude of about 2.5 kilometers.
18:02But they could also fire to the side at objects on the ground, at enemy troops or light vehicles
18:08that got too close to the train.
18:12Here their range was much greater because they could fire up to about 4.7 kilometers
18:16at ground targets, and they are thought to have had a rate of fire of about 800 rounds
18:22a minute.
18:24The full crew of the flak wagon was between 25 and 30 men.
18:29The advantage of the special train was that it gave Hitler the possibility of taking his
18:32entire war staff with him.
18:34But the FĂŒhrer also needed to be able to travel anywhere and extremely quickly if need
18:38be.
18:39For this, his armored Mercedes followed the train, and an airplane was also permanently
18:43available along the route.
18:46He also had his Focke-Wulf 200 Condor, his private four-engine airliner.
18:51So as the train went from one stop to another, the plane preceded it and waited at an airfield
18:56that had been chosen in advance, ready to take Hitler and his staff wherever they needed
19:01to go, depending on the situation and the urgency.
19:07In early 1940, with Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland now part of the new German Empire,
19:13the FĂŒhrer began preparing his next offensives.
19:18Hitler worked very hard on a well-designed attack against France, well-designed because
19:23it was, what they didn't say back then, surgical.
19:29It was to nullify the French army and its weapons, then offer generous peace terms
19:35which France would not be able to refuse because it had been disarmed in the early encounters
19:44which had been well calculated by Hitler.
19:48When France was attacked in the middle of May 1940, it didn't resist the speed and
19:52power of the German army for long.
19:55It laid down its arms four weeks later.
19:57All of Western Europe was now under the yoke of Nazism and Fascism.
20:01Only Britain stood firm.
20:03On June 22, 1940, it was in a train that Hitler accepted the surrender of France.
20:08In a spirit of pure vengeance, the FĂŒhrer demanded it be signed in the rotund clearing
20:12in CompiĂšgne, in the same car the armistice of 1918 had been signed.
20:19Hitler's choice of place was far from neutral and far from innocent.
20:25It was a way of telling France that the chapter in which the Second Reich had capitulated
20:29lamentably in 1918 was now closed, and that the Third Reich had now made up for this insult.
20:41Hitler returned victoriously to Berlin on July 6, 1940, on board America, the symbol
20:46of his might.
20:53A gigantic crowd gave him a hero's welcome.
20:56It would be the last time he mingled with the public.
21:03He had enormous fears about his own security, and he may have had fears that public fervor
21:08was waning, and he needed this public fervor.
21:14It had given him a backbone of steel and immense confidence in the 1930s.
21:21So he decided not to take any risks with crowds that might not be as accommodating to him.
21:29The general public slowly are pushed further and further away from the physical being of
21:35Hitler.
21:36Of course, this is good in many ways, because it channels into the whole idea of Hitler
21:42being this kind of godlike figure, that he is not down amongst his people, he is a cult
21:48of personality figure removed from the ordinary German citizens.
21:55America, like the other special trains, was pulled by two locomotives.
22:06It wasn't because of the weight of the train.
22:08It was more of a guarantee that if one of the locomotives were to break down, the other
22:12one could continue the journey.
22:15But a steam locomotive needed about eight hours of preparation before it was ready to
22:19roll.
22:20Coal had to be fed into the hearth and fired to heat the 27,000 liters of water in the
22:25boiler and bring it up to pressure.
22:28The autonomy of a steam locomotive was 250, 300 kilometers at the most.
22:33You couldn't get from Paris to Marseille with just one locomotive.
22:36After 150 kilometers, you had to start planning to stop and change, because the tender was
22:41empty.
22:42The locomotive would have consumed its seven tons of coal and 30 tons of water in the first
22:46150 to 200 kilometers.
22:49After that, you had to stop.
22:51They could hook up a new locomotive in about two minutes.
22:54It was very fast.
22:55They simply unhooked the empty one and gave you a full one.
22:58So for Paris to Marseille, you needed 10 to 15 locomotives.
23:01When the Orient Express went from Paris to Istanbul, it needed 30 or so locomotives.
23:06So the steam locomotive was a kind of traction relay, a bit like the old-fashioned postal
23:10service where you changed your team of forces every 30 kilometers or so.
23:15America was no exception to this rule.
23:17On a 1,000 kilometer journey, like Berlin to Paris, for example, the two locomotives
23:21had to be changed at least four times.
23:23For the French track gauge, they were supplied by the SNCF, the French National Railway.
23:28All through the existence of Hitler's train, all types of electric and steam locomotives
23:32were used.
23:33The most notable was the famous BR-52, the war locomotive, which appeared in 1942.
23:39The BR-52, nicknamed the Kriegslaug, war loco, reinvented manufacturing methods because it
23:45was extremely simple.
23:46It was soldered together.
23:47There was no riveting, which is a very costly process.
23:51So there were no more rivets studding the boiler.
23:53It was a completely smooth cylinder.
23:55It was much lighter, as everything not considered totally useful was stripped away.
23:59So it was very light, but very muscular.
24:04The BR-52 was the perfect wartime locomotive.
24:07It was assembled quickly, required few expensive raw materials, and little manual labor.
24:12In all, it made savings of 26 tons of materials and 6,000 man-hours of work.
24:18It wasn't only built in Germany, but in all occupied countries.
24:22There are models made at Coquerille in Belgium, at Batignolles-ChĂątillon in Nantes, and at
24:26Schneider in Le Creusot in Paris.
24:32For example, Ć koda in Czechoslovakia.
24:35And companies in Alsace also built these war locomotives.
24:44They were built in 17 different countries, in occupied countries or in those which used
24:48them after the war.
24:50In the end, 6,285 war locomotives were built, which is a huge number.
24:56It was most probably the largest series of steam locomotives ever built.
25:05In 1940, Hitler began planning a journey on America which would take him across France
25:09to a meeting with the Spanish dictator General Franco, whose country had officially ended
25:13its civil war, and Marshal PĂ©tain, the leader of Vichy France.
25:18He was hoping to unite their forces against Great Britain, the only country as yet unconquered
25:22by fascism in Western Europe.
25:24It was a dangerous, top-secret route.
25:26Meticulous preparation was launched.
25:28Hitler left his residence, the Burghoff, on October 20th, to begin a three-leg voyage
25:32across France.
25:35As America gobbled up the kilometers, the Nazi security services traveled ahead of the
25:39train throughout the entire journey.
25:42Stations were informed only at the last minute, and the heads of the rail network only a few
25:46hours beforehand.
25:48Traffic was totally disrupted.
25:51When Hitler's train was rolling on the network, all other trains ahead were parked on sidetracks.
25:57No other trains were allowed to run.
26:04French railroad workers were even consigned to their work buildings, so they wouldn't
26:08be on the platform when the train passed.
26:13And all the tracks and bridges were checked to make sure there weren't any explosive devices
26:18that could derail the train.
26:23In the stations, all documentation produced and used during the journey, even the most
26:27banal service notes, were destroyed at the end of each day.
26:31Nobody was allowed to know where America had been or where it was going.
26:34Plus, the security services had also put in place an extremely effective idea.
26:40And so what they would do, some officials would run a train that looks quite similar
26:44to Hitler's train, large express train with Pullman carriages.
26:49This would be run ahead of Hitler's train along the route that Hitler's train was going
26:53to take.
26:54So it would run about 20 or 30 minutes ahead.
26:57The idea being to trip any attack that was likely to happen.
27:01The people would attack that train rather than Hitler's train coming behind.
27:05And also sometimes there was another ghost train following behind Hitler's train.
27:10So you could be pretty confused which one to attack.
27:14Hitler, en route for Andai and the border with Spain, made a first stop to meet with
27:17Pierre Laval, the then Vice President of the Vichy Council, to prepare for the future meeting
27:22with PĂ©tain.
27:24The meeting had to remain top secret and highly securitized.
27:27The ideal place had to be found between Paris and Andai, a place where nobody was expecting
27:32Hitler to turn up.
27:33It was to be the small town of Montreux-sur-la-Loire, where Hitler would arrive on October 22nd
27:38on board America.
27:39He was preceded by the special train to Von Rippentrop, the German Minister of Foreign Affairs.
27:46The town of 4,000 inhabitants had been carefully chosen by the FĂŒhrer's staff.
27:51The station was on a line some way off the main Paris-Andai line.
27:56And it was also close to a tunnel.
27:58The train would only have three kilometers to go to reach the safety of the tunnel.
28:01When you were on a passenger train during the war, even Hitler, it was like being on
28:05the open road and exposed to all kinds of danger.
28:10The locomotives were kept at pressure so that the train could immediately depart for the
28:16tunnel, which shows how distrustful Hitler was and how concerned he was about his own
28:22security.
28:25He was convinced that the British, and later the Americans and Soviets, only dreamed of
28:30one thing, to kill him in order to end the war.
28:37At the beginning of the month, the small town had been under pressure.
28:40There were rumors, then more rumors, as 500 German soldiers began arriving in town.
28:45And silence gradually fell on that October 22nd of 1940.
28:51The town was under very high security, with lines of sentries posted all around the station
28:57and German planes standing by for air surveillance.
29:02There were also soldiers placed at regular intervals between the station and the tunnel.
29:07One soldier every 20 meters, for a three-kilometer section of track, equals 150 men, which is
29:13a huge number.
29:16All the access roads in and out of the town were blocked off.
29:20And there was a team constantly monitoring the post office's lines of communication,
29:25ready to cut them off if need be.
29:29The town was literally under siege.
29:31People living close to the station were consigned to their homes, with shutters closed and the
29:35electricity cut off.
29:37Nobody could witness or know about Hitler's imminent arrival on America, which would stop
29:41at Platform 3 at 6.34 p.m.
29:44Pierre Laval arrived around 7 p.m.
29:47Hitler received him, accompanied by Van Rippentrop and the interpreter Paul Schmidt.
29:52The discussion was brief, about 45 minutes, just a few diplomatic preparations to ensure
29:57that PĂ©tain agreed to meet with the FĂŒhrer in two days' time.
30:04Hitler's special train, preceded by Van Rippentrop's, left Montroir during the night and reached
30:09Andai early in the afternoon of October 23 for the meeting with the Spanish dictator.
30:15The Secret Service were experts at creating red herrings.
30:18They'd report a train arriving one day, oh no, it's two trains, actually, it's not that
30:23day.
30:24They'd assimilate it as much as possible so that people knew as little as possible.
30:27There were also guards in all the stations, and possibly all along the forests of Leylande.
30:35And then there was the problem of the track gauge.
30:37The Spanish gauge was 1.76 meters, as opposed to the French 1.44 meters, and so the two
30:43trains were blocked in Andai station.
30:46It was impossible to go any further.
30:51Franco arrived slightly late.
30:53He boarded America and headed straight to Hitler's living room car for a meeting that
30:57would last nine hours.
31:00But the meeting came to nothing.
31:03Franco had no intention of lining up Spain alongside Germany's forces, and Hitler did
31:07not insist, either clearly or firmly.
31:13The train set off from Montroir during the night of October 24 for the long-awaited meeting
31:17with Marshal PĂ©tain.
31:20While the town centre had regained a semblance of calm, the Germans made themselves busy.
31:26The station, a little away from the town centre, was once again sealed off.
31:31The soldiers were on alert, air defences at the ready.
31:36Once again, the world seemed to stop in this heavy atmosphere.
31:39Nothing filtered out about what was about to happen.
31:42Montroir had no idea that its future would be forever marked by the next few hours.
31:48Hitler's train arrived at 3.29 p.m. and stopped at Platform 3.
31:52Hitler came in, and at 6 p.m. the French head of state, Marshal PĂ©tain, arrived in
31:57his car with Pierre Laval.
32:01Hitler waited patiently at the foot of his train, under the shelter between Platforms
32:052 and 3.
32:08The meeting between Hitler and PĂ©tain was sealed with the famous, all too famous, handshake.
32:15Accompanied by von Rippentrop, Paul Schmidt and Pierre Laval, the FĂŒhrer and PĂ©tain
32:20settled down in the living room car.
32:24A two-hour meeting laid the foundations for a French-German collaboration, validated a
32:28few days later by PĂ©tain during his fateful speech of October 30, 1940.
32:51America left Montroir that same evening, heading back to Munich.
32:55Hitler learned that Mussolini was planning to invade Greece.
32:59He hurried to Florence to dissuade him, but arrived too late.
33:02Since 8 o'clock in the morning, Italian troops had landed on the Greek peninsula.
33:15Six months later, April 12, 1941, Munich-Kirchen, a small town in the Austrian Alps near Vienna,
33:22welcomed for two weeks America and its Nazi ant nest.
33:26The train parked up at the entrance to a long tunnel of 2,700 meters in a valley just outside
33:31town next to a small hotel.
33:34The locomotives were kept under pressure, ready to get America to shelter in case of
33:38an attack.
33:39From there, Hitler directed the attack against Yugoslavia, which would give him access to
33:42Greece, where he could bring reinforcements to Mussolini, who had been unable to quash
33:46Greek resistance.
33:48Hitler spent the majority of his time shut away in his HQ on rails, directing operations.
33:55His link with the outside world was his communications car, with its state-of-the-art equipment which
33:59enabled him to stay in contact in real time with his forces on all fronts.
34:05This car was the 13th from the front, just after the one which housed Hitler's private
34:09bodyguard.
34:11You entered via the war room, the strategic car with hundreds of maps which could be put
34:15up on the wall or consulted around a table.
34:18Next the communication rooms, with all the high tech of the 1940s.
34:22The first equipped with teleprinters and coding machines to cipher and decipher teletexts.
34:30Then the switchboards for calls coming in or going out and internal calls.
34:35And finally, the radio compartment with its Enigma machines for sending out coded messages
34:40and deciphering incoming ones.
34:45Different parts of the armed forces are using different Enigma and deciphering machines.
34:51So to use these machines, they have to plug the Fuhrer's personal carriage and the two
34:57or three communication carriages and the bodyguards' carriages into the postal telephone exchange.
35:03So fortunately every station has all these plugs ready, they just take the leads and
35:08plug it all in.
35:09And within 20 to 30 minutes everything is up and running, so he can start using telephones
35:14and talking to Russia or wherever.
35:17When he's on the move, he can't use the telephone, can't use the machines.
35:21They have to use instead a great big 700 watt shortwave radio.
35:27And this is also state of the art stuff.
35:29And this stuff is being beamed out all over the place.
35:33Hitler broke with the monotony of the campaign on April 20th, 1941, by celebrating his 52nd
35:38birthday in this bucolic countryside.
35:41During the two weeks spent at Monach-Kirchen, he held numerous conferences and diplomatic
35:45meetings, with the King of Bulgaria, the Regent of Hungary, the Italian Minister of Foreign
35:49Affairs and the German Ambassador to Hungary, some of whom also arrived by train.
35:55While Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria were already subjugated, the Third Reich put a stranglehold
35:59on Yugoslavia as it was the gateway to Greece.
36:04On April 36th, 1941, America left Monach-Kirchen, and the Fuhrer reached the Chancellery in
36:09Berlin the following day, the day that Athens capitulated.
36:14From May 9th, 1941, Hitler relaxed in the fresh air at the Burghof, his private residence
36:19in Bavaria, just before sending his country into a battle which would ultimately lead
36:23to its defeat, the invasion of Russia.
36:29He's very, very proud of this house, which he paid for, the royalties of Mein Kampf,
36:34this book, and that is where he spends his time with Eva Braun, playing happy families,
36:40playing husband and wife, lots of children around, not his own children, the children
36:44of the leaders, Bormann and other people.
36:52On June 22nd, 1941, Operation Barbarossa was launched, and Germany invaded Russia.
36:58The Eastern Front would become the main theatre of the German Army's operations.
37:02From that moment on, change would set in.
37:04Hitler became more and more paranoid.
37:08He gradually cut himself off from the world, as his hopes for a conquest of all Russia
37:12were thwarted.
37:13He only felt safe in bunkers.
37:15America would become merely a train to get in from A to B, but never again a mobile headquarters.
37:20The Fuhrer felt it was too risky, despite its massive protection.
37:26Two days after the invasion began, America arrived in Rostenburg, in Poland.
37:30Hitler immediately ordered the construction of a six-square-kilometre HQ, surrounded by
37:34mined land.
37:36A collection of blockhouses, camouflaged bunkers protected by two-metre-deep barbed wire, barracks
37:41for his soldiers, and log cabins, dissimulated under layers of moss.
37:45Two thousand people lived in the so-called Wulffschanze, the Wolf's Lair.
37:50The Fuhrer spent just over two years in this dark forest, infested with mosquitoes, enduring
37:54stifling heat and humidity in summer, and deep snow and freezing temperatures in winter.
38:01He names it the Wolf's Lair, the Wulffschanze, using a name he's used many times.
38:06He was known as Mr. Wolf earlier on in his life.
38:09And of course the wolf is a symbol of strength and cunning, and of course Adolf, his own
38:16name, is an old German name for wolf as well.
38:18So it's all of this kind of Germanic myth and everything else.
38:22But yeah, the Wolf's Lair is so, so, so important.
38:25It becomes his kind of sealed home, away from the reality of Berlin, away from the reality
38:31of much of what is happening in the rest of Europe.
38:35Until the very end, he only leaves when the Russians are almost at the gates.
38:39Only then is it evacuated and destroyed.
38:46Throughout the war and his advances on various fronts, he would have constructed no fewer
38:49than 20 different HQs built around high-security bunkers.
38:57Excess and gigantism were also present 600 kilometers south of the Wolf's Lair, at
39:01Anlagesud, installation south.
39:05Two monumental bunkers some 30 kilometers away, for the purpose of housing special trains,
39:10became operational in the summer of 1941.
39:12They were massive reinforced tunnels, built in just 10 months by hundreds of prisoners
39:16from concentration camps in Poland.
39:19Hitler and Mussolini met there for talks lasting several hours, on the way to conduct
39:22war against the Soviet Union.
39:26Hitler's train was parked in the Strzok Tunnel, and Mussolini's in the Stepina Tunnel.
39:32They were 480 meters long by 8.3 meters wide and 12 meters high.
39:43The walls, over 2 meters thick of solid concrete, designed to do one thing, to shunt Hitler's
39:50train into a very, very secure location.
39:53The idea being that any attack was made on the train, they could seal both ends of the
39:58tunnels and literally fight it out until other German forces could arrive and rescue them.
40:05Now, the crazy thing is, all this time, effort and money for two meetings only, these tunnels
40:10are only used twice in World War II, for meetings with Mussolini.
40:15It is an absolute joke, but it shows again the paranoia, the level of paranoia surrounding
40:20Hitler.
40:25Back at the Wolf's Lair, Hitler busily directed operations on the Eastern Front, where blood
40:29was being spilled battle after battle.
40:33This time, Blitzkrieg tactics weren't working.
40:35The four-month invasion plan turned into all-out war until defeat in May 1945.
40:43The Red Army began to advance.
40:45The German army had reached its limits in terms of men and material.
40:50It was finding it harder and harder to reinforce its troops.
40:54That's why they brought in laborers from France and other occupied countries, to replace as
41:00many German factory workers as possible and to replenish the ranks of the army in Russia,
41:08which had suffered terrible losses at the hands of the Soviets.
41:16As defeat followed defeat, Hitler became more and more authoritarian and shell-shocked.
41:20He was wracked with doubts.
41:22From the summer of 1941 on, 80% of lives lost by the German army were in the Soviet Union.
41:31As the military situation starts to turn against Germany, particularly by early 1942, the failure
41:38to take Moscow, and then of course the great disaster later of Stalingrad, Hitler becomes
41:43more and more isolated.
41:45He makes less public appearances and less speeches.
41:52On December 7, 1941, the American naval base in Hawaii, Pearl Harbor, was hit by a surprise
41:57attack launched by the Japanese Imperial Fleet.
42:01The next day, America declared war on Japan.
42:05Germany and Italy, which formed the Axis with Japan, were reposted with the signing of the
42:08Tripartite Pact and declared war on the United States on December 12.
42:13The conflict had become truly global.
42:18I think Hitler declaring war on the United States after the Japanese attack on Pearl
42:23Harbor comes as a great surprise to many Germans that he would voluntarily declare war on America
42:30in the midst of all of this trouble with the Soviet Union.
42:33It seems to me the megalomania is out of control by this stage, insanity.
42:43There was no way the special train could keep the name America.
42:47So it was renamed Brandenburg in a return to German roots.
42:51Brandenburg, like the heart of Prussia, like the region around Berlin, there had been also
43:00an SS division Brandenburg, which was renowned for being particularly loyal to the FĂŒhrer.
43:07I think that's probably where the name came from, because Brandenburg expressed a particular
43:12relationship to Hitler.
43:16But as history is filled with twists and turns, it's the generic name FĂŒhrer-Sonderzug,
43:21FĂŒhrer's special train, which has become most commonly used and fixed in the collective
43:25memory.
43:38Across the Channel, Britain was desperate to find a way to halt the Nazi machine, and
43:43the best way was by killing Hitler.
43:45In all, there were 30, some have suggested 40, failed assassination attempts against
43:49the FĂŒhrer since he'd been in power.
43:53He said he was protected by something that was beyond human control.
43:56He said the same thing after the failed attempt of July 20th, 1944.
44:01Once again, I have been protected by Providence.
44:04So he could never imagine his orders not being followed.
44:07He always believed there was something somewhere which would obey him.
44:19In June 1944, the British Special Operations Executive, SOE, launched Operation Foxley,
44:25a top secret plan which wasn't made public until 1998.
44:29The outline was simple, find a way to kill Hitler.
44:35Two main ideas were retained by the British agents.
44:37The first, to kill Hitler at the Burghof by parachuting in two elite snipers.
44:45The second, to blow up his train.
44:49But how would they get round the surveillance of this impregnable fortress?
44:53Several options were studied.
44:55Firstly to derail the train.
44:57But this would require precise information regarding where the train was and when.
45:03This was seemingly impossible to obtain.
45:07Systematic searches of the rail infrastructure and the high-level security gave no chance
45:10of planting a bomb on the train.
45:13So a second possibility was looked into.
45:17They studied the train's water supply very closely.
45:22And they realized that while food and bottle drinks were treated with maximum security,
45:31on-board drinking water was a weak link.
45:38One German prisoner of war who had been a steward on the train revealed to the SOE that
45:41the tank with Hitler's drinking water was in his private dining car just under the kitchen.
45:48They studied ways of introducing poison into the water tank and whether it would be undetectable.
45:59They thought that with the movement of the train, poison would mix with the water.
46:04They knew that Hitler drank lots of tea and he took it with a drop of milk.
46:10So they were hoping that the milk would be poured first and no one would notice that
46:14the color was a bit odd.
46:21Hitler had a food taster.
46:23So anything that was given to him to eat or drink was tested first by somebody else.
46:28So that person would have dropped dead and it would have been quite obvious that there
46:30was something wrong with the water.
46:35The poison was codenamed I.
46:37It was a slow-working poison.
46:41Slow-working indeed because the famous I poison would kill six or seven days after ingestion.
46:49So even if Dr. Morel, who often tasted Hitler's food, were to taste his cup of tea, he wouldn't
46:57die immediately, neither would Hitler.
47:01And nobody would go running around madly looking for an antidote.
47:07So there was a good chance it just might work.
47:11But in 1944, with Nazi Germany on the back foot, there was a fierce debate within SOE
47:15ranks.
47:16Should we kill Hitler?
47:18While everyone wanted him dead, many feared that his assassination by the enemy would
47:22turn him into an idolized martyr.
47:26I think the decision was taken not to kill him because Hitler, by late 1944, had become
47:32our greatest asset in the West.
47:36He was mismanaging the war to such a degree, making so many stupid decisions, he was shortening
47:42the war effectively.
47:43So keeping Hitler alive was actually the best thing to do, shockingly.
47:51From December 11th until January 15th, 1945, Hitler directed the Battle of the Ardennes
47:56from his headquarters at Adelhorst, north of Frankfurt.
48:01His objectives were grandiose, but as if to give reason to the British SOE, Hitler confirmed
48:06his strategic weaknesses, seemed to cut himself off from the world, and moreover, lacked the
48:10means to see his ambitions through.
48:12The defeat of Germany would be all the more a better failure.
48:16News arrives midway through the Battle of the Bulge that the Soviets have launched this
48:21enormous offensive, a gigantic offensive, which has destroyed the German army largely
48:27in the east, and they are pouring through Poland into East Prussia.
48:34Hitler was forced to withdraw to Berlin.
48:37He didn't know it yet, but it was to be his last ever journey on board the SchĂŒrr-Sonderzug,
48:42his train which had never been attacked, his train which had taken him rapidly towards
48:46a new European order in the early days of war.
48:50From the window of his train car, Hitler became aware of the extent of the devastation.
48:55Berlin had been bombed to smithereens.
48:57It was then that he realized the great new German empire would never be, that the war
49:01was over, that he had lost.
49:03It was January 16th, 1945.
49:09But despite his capital lying in ruins, he still had a small belief that he should set
49:13out to attack.
49:16He left the SchĂŒrr-Sonderzug at the small station of Grunewald to the west of Berlin,
49:21which had already seen the special train pass on numerous occasions, but other special trains
49:26too, those taking millions, most of them Jews, to the hell of the concentration and extermination
49:32camps.
49:36He set up office in the Chancellery, not right away in his bunker, but the Chancellery in
49:42Berlin had been bombed so much it was pretty much unusable.
49:46All the windows had been blown out, and this was at the height of winter.
49:54Mid-April 1945, Hitler locked himself away definitively in his bunker beneath the Chancellery.
50:00He watched on powerless as the Soviet army took Berlin.
50:04On April 20th, he celebrated his last birthday.
50:08On the 29th, he married his companion Eva Braun.
50:12During the night, he dictated his political testament.
50:16And the next day, at 3.15pm, he and his new bride committed suicide in their bedroom.
50:22Their bodies would be doused with gasoline and burned.
50:26The following week, on the edge of a ravine in Malnitz, the fate of the FĂŒhrer's private
50:30saloon car lay in the hands of the SS.
50:32It was May 7th, 1945, the time, 3pm.
50:38The SS decided to blow up Hitler's private car, so they filled the inside with gasoline,
50:44planted dynamite and grenades, set it alight, and the whole thing blew up.
50:51The Nazis didn't want this highly symbolic car to fall into the hands of Allies to be
50:55displayed as a trophy of war in Paris, London, New York, or Moscow.
51:01Not a single piece of Hitler's private car should survive.
51:03It all had to burn into thin air.
51:12World War II ended on September 2nd, 1945.
51:16In defeat, Germany was divided amongst the Allies.
51:20But it still wasn't the end for the FĂŒhrer Sonderzug.
51:23So the Americans get wind of it, they come and take over, thank you very much, that's
51:28now US Army property, Hitler's train.
51:31And the British say, well, we quite fancy some of that as well.
51:35So it's divided up, so some carriages go to the British, some carriages go to the Americans,
51:40and they use it, various generals who are in charge in the Allied occupation zones use
51:46it as their private train, which spoils a war, of course.
51:51In the early 1950s, the various cars from Nazi special trains were returned to the West
51:55German state.
51:57Hitler's director, Konrad Adenauer, composed his official train with some of the remaining
52:01FĂŒhrer Sonderzug cars.
52:03And it was on board this train that he made his official trip to Moscow in 1955, a kind
52:08of thumbing his nose at history ten years after the fall of Berlin.
52:13Then the special train cars were updated, refurbished, modernized, and dispersed.
52:17In the 1960s, Queen Elizabeth II and the Beatles couldn't have imagined that when traveling
52:24in Germany, they were in the private car of Hitler's Minister of Transport, who had
52:28organized all special train journeys during the war years.
52:35In the 1970s, it was Chancellor Willy Brandt who made use of the remaining car from Hitler's
52:40train.
52:42After 1980, none of the special train cars were ever used again.
52:48The steel beast was made in the image of its master.
52:50He personified one of the worst murderers in modern history, accompanied him on all
52:54fronts and in all his crazy decisions, and it provided a haven for him when the world
52:59was slipping out of his grasp forever.
53:02Of the FĂŒhrer Sonderzug, despite the weight of its history, barely anything remains, just
53:06a few rail cars sitting at the back of a museum.

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