1933. The Nazis are in power.
Now they want to turn their twisted ideologies into reality.
And spin master Joseph Goebbels turns on the Jews.
Goebbels's developed a pathological, deeply felt hatred of the Jews.
But his most dangerous enemies...
THE TUNNEL TRAGEDY OF MÖGELDORF
...are within the inner circle.
Among them is Hermann Göring.
Göring had the ability to bug telephone calls,
and he used his powers to devious effect.
And Heinrich Himmler, who wants antisemitism by stealth.
If things were done, it's much better if they were done away from public view.
As they jostle for power,
these three men will push Germany towards its darkest hour.
This is the inside story of Hitler's henchmen,
the jealousy, power struggles and fawning sycophants
that would create a monster and fuel the most brutal horrors of the Third Reich.
[cheering]
[archive] Heil! Heil!
By 1933, the Nazi Party has risen from obscurity...
...to become the most popular political party in Germany
and its leader, Hitler, is now Chancellor.
Finally, he is able to drive forward his ambitions for Nazi Germany.
But behind the façade of a united party leadership,
Hitler's inner circle of closest advisors will soon begin to fracture.
Hitler's loyal aide Hess is made deputy Führer.
But his influence will be quickly outstripped by the others.
The bureaucrat, Heinrich Himmler, has already risen to head of the SS.
He now begins his takeover of the German police.
And war hero Hermann Göring gains charge of the largest state in Germany.
This will put him in direct conflict...
...with the Nazis' ruthless spin master, Joseph Goebbels.
And it is Goebbels who will take the initiative first.
Goebbels has been instrumental in getting the Nazis to power.
His propaganda machine has legitimised the party
and won over the German public by promising peace an end to poverty.
Germany is in the depths of the Great Depression,
and fixing the economy, he said, would be their number one priority.
The Nazi slogan was Brot und Arbeit, bread and work.
Basic things that the Germans had grown accustomed not to having,
they promised to restore.
But the economy may just be a smokescreen.
Once in power, they focus on a long-standing obsession.
Goebbels is invited by Hitler to discuss the item top of their agenda.
The Jews.
He had built the party on rabid antisemitism.
"Our problems, they're always Jewish in origin.
This is a great plot to take over the world,
and we Germans are suffering from that.
It's an international movement but we in Germany,
because of our grim conditions post-war, we are the victims.
So our way forward is to get rid of the Jew."
Goebbels has come to detest the Jews possibly even more than Hitler does.
Goebbels developed a virulent, pathological, deeply felt hatred
of the Jews and came to identify the Jews
as the source of all of Germany's problems.
They both want to send a clear message that the Jews are the enemy of Germany.
The plan, to stage a nationwide boycott of Jewish businesses.
A grand gesture.
Goebbels is tasked with uniting the public behind the campaign.
While Goebbels throws himself into the task, not everybody is on board.
Hermann Göring is keeping a conspicuous distance.
Unlike most of the inner circle, he isn't passionate about antisemitism.
Göring had grown up with a Jewish godfather, Hermann Epenstein.
He was a rich aristocrat who owned a castle in Salzburg, Austria.
Göring very much enjoyed growing up
with this luxurious lifestyle of aristocracy
and was very fond of Epenstein.
Göring was more this kind of old conservative elite,
and not this new believer that the Jews as such is a danger for the German people.
I wouldn't say that Göring was not antisemitic, he was definitely,
but his interpretation of that was more pragmatic.
While Göring keeps his distance,
this gives his rival the perfect opportunity to grow closer to the Führer.
He aims to get the German public
behind their planned boycott of Jewish businesses.
Goebbels has complete control of the propaganda against the Jews.
It's Goebbels who writes all these incredibly vitriolic antisemitic articles
in the press that will further propagate the idea that Jews are in Nazi eyes, evil.
His preparations for the Jewish boycott are now complete.
As the day arrives, the SA stormtroopers...
ONLY BUY FROM GERMANS!
...take menacing positions outside Jewish shops.
DON'T BUY FROM JEWS!
Placards are erected while others scrawl...
GERMANS! DEFEND YOURSELVES!
...antisemitic graffiti on the walls and windows.
JEW
Their job: to make it clear Germans should obey the boycott.
GERMANS! DEFEND YOURSELVES!
Signs were appearing all over Jewish businesses saying,
"Don't buy from the Jews, the Jews are our misfortune, go back to Palestine."
This was absolutely virulent state-sponsored antisemitism
in the absolute raw.
But for Goebbels, it's not the success he hoped.
Göring isn't the only person ambivalent towards the boycott.
JEW
Many Germans don't support it.
DON'T BUY FROM JEWS! BUY IN GERMAN SHOPS! DEFEND YOURSELVES!
When the SA stood outside the shops, some were deterred physically,
others went through and said no, I have an order I've come to pick up.
GERMANS! DEFEND YOURSELVES!
And the SA weren't entirely clear
as to whether they could physically block people.
So if you had enough nerve and you were unhappy anyway
with the idea of the SA doing this, you would go through.
DRESSES COATS
[Richard] There were many Germans who carried on
in defiance of the SA men standing on the door.
This was a moment when Germany had not yet moved
to becoming a full terror state and people could get away with this, just about.
[Michael] What they wanted to prove was a massive support for the boycott
and they didn't get it. I mean, I would call it a flop.
[Toby] This was a great disappointment to Goebbels,
so he had to swallow his outrage, in a way,
and accept that they were thwarted on that front for the time being.
Nonetheless, as propaganda minister,
Goebbels can spin the failure as a success.
He issues public statements celebrating the boycott
FACTORY CELL TELEFUNKEN
and he threatens that others could happen at any time.
But it's a bluff.
While the party faithful are in full support of his antisemitism,
he realises he needs to convince all of the German people.
To do that, he must first gain their confidence.
Open antisemitism is, for now, pulled back.
He'll need to play the long game.
Goebbels and other antisemites in the Party had to really start thinking again
about how did you get the German people on board.
It had to be done drip by drip.
[cheering]
To change the will of the people,
Goebbels needs more powerful tools of propaganda.
He sets his sights on nationalising all of German media under his control.
Newspapers, the newly evolving movie business, and radio.
It will not only help him brainwash the German population,
he will also create his own personal media kingdom.
[archive, ranted German speech]
He wants his propaganda inside every living room in Germany
and broadcast in the streets.
His first step is to seize control of all the stations nationwide.
But there's a problem.
Hermann Göring.
In 1933, we see two members of the inner circle
start getting into a bit of internecine warfare.
GERMANY IS FREE!
These two are Goebbels and Göring.
GERMANY IS FREE!
Each state in Germany controlled their own radio stations,
but now Goebbels takes charge of all of them.
Except for one.
The state of Prussia.
By far the largest, this is the state
that Göring has direct control of as Prussian Interior Minister.
Göring wants to have his own empire.
And his empire, of course... the centre of his empire is Prussia.
Goebbels passionately argues his case to have control over Prussian media.
Goebbels is really keen to de-federalise all these little German states
and bring them all together into one unified German reich.
But Göring confidently stands his ground.
Göring sees this as a land grab by Goebbels
and he tries to counter it,
and Goebbels writes in his diary that he's absolutely livid with Göring,
and this is just another example of these two men fighting each other all the time.
Goebbels considers taking the matter straight to Hitler,
but realises that with Göring, it's wise to bide his time.
For now, Göring gets his way.
Unlike Goebbels, who wants Jewish policy at the forefront of public consciousness,
others, like Heinrich Himmler, are keen to do the opposite.
He favours discretion and deceit.
Following street brawls in Munich,
hundreds of Communists and Jews have been arrested as agitators.
But Himmler calls a press conference to defend these actions.
He claims that they are being kept in prison for their own protection.
He stresses that the Jews in his custody are suffering no prejudice.
Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS, says the Jews are citizens,
German citizens like any other German citizen.
This is a strange thing for Himmler to say,
given he's been antisemitic since the 1920s.
I think he's really at this point anxious to make sure
that, you know, antisemitic policy is not highlighted too much,
not publicised too widely because they're not quite sure yet
what the German public is going to think about this.
While Himmler presents a public appearance of law and order,
behind the scenes, the reality is far different.
A concentration camp is established
specifically to detain enemies of the Nazi state, near Munich, in Dachau.
The majority are left-wing political opponents,
along with some Jewish activists.
Within days, the Nazis indulge in an orgy of violence against the prisoners,
resulting in four Jewish deaths.
Many more will follow.
When the Dachau concentration camp first opens,
conditions really are not good.
Here are people who are regarded as enemies of Germany,
people who have undermined Germany for 15 years
prisoners are abused, they're strung up with their hands behind their back,
they're whipped, and some people die in the camp.
Himmler knows many of the German public may disapprove of this brutality,
so issues orders to cover up the scale of the violence.
[Thomas] The violence that happened, the torture that happened,
the executions that happened in these camps were totally edited out.
He recognises the importance of keeping his actions under the radar,
hiding the true horrors.
Something he will do with increasing success.
In the face of his two rivals, Goebbels wants to take his campaign
against the Jews to a wider audience.
He steps up efforts to persuade Hitler
that he needs control of the entire radio network.
And he starts a sustained attack on the one man who stands in his way, Göring.
Goebbels dislikes Göring's lifestyle.
He dislikes the flamboyance, he dislikes the opulence and so on.
[Guy] He becomes this somewhat ridiculous, comic and flamboyant figure
with his ever-enlarging chest filling up with ever-more medals
on ever-more opulent and ridiculous uniforms.
This lavish lifestyle of Göring made him an easy target for Goebbels to attack.
Goebbels steadily poisons Hitler against the Reichsmarschall.
Goebbels tried to find ways of persuading Hitler
that the flamboyance, the lifestyle and so on was not properly National Socialist,
certainly not socialist.
But Goebbels has to be careful to not be too obvious.
[Michael] Because of the nature of Hitler's style of government,
any attack upon a colleague
or an opponent within the party or government had to be oblique.
The technique of relevant omission is key.
You won't mention a person by name but you'll say,
"Many in the party, mein Führer, and in the government are unhappy
with the ostentation that's developing.
We're losing sight of the true purposes and principles."
And Goebbels plays Hitler perfectly.
When Hitler makes a speech to the Party attacking grandiosity...
...there seems little doubt that this is a thinly veiled attack
on his Reichsmarschall.
Goebbels is absolutely delighted
that Hitler attacks ostentation because he sees this as against Göring.
And so, in his diary that night, Goebbels gleefully writes
that Hitler has mentally given up already on Göring,
that he's now a nobody and, you know, he's just a standing joke.
You know, Goebbels is absolutely thrilled.
And Goebbels scores two victories,
as Hitler also commands Göring to hand over his Prussian radio.
Goebbels has outmanoeuvred an important rival,
and now has full control of the German airwaves.
But Göring is a very dangerous man to cross.
[Guy] As Commander-in-Chief of the Prussian Police,
Göring is able to kind of change this organisation
into something called the Secret State Police, the Gestapo.
And this, of course, becomes this very powerful intelligence-gathering network
which tries to gather information on anybody and everybody,
even including members of Hitler's inner circle.
The Gestapo turn on Goebbels,
watching his every move, waiting for him to slip up.
Blissfully unaware he's being spied upon,
Goebbels presses forward with his propaganda ambitions.
With radio now under his total control,
he wants to ensure that everyone will tune in.
Goebbels wanted everybody to have a radio set, every family,
every tenement at least, to have a radio set which they could tune into.
One of the ways that Goebbels hopes to unite Germans together
is that they will all share a set of programmes each day,
and in between there'll be drip, drip, drip of those little bits of propaganda.
[Guy] So, what does Goebbels do?
First, he updates all the transmission hardware
so he can now transmit to the maximum number of households.
Second, he starts ordering radios to be mass-produced
and in the first year of this alone, a million new sets are being produced.
Of course, the German consumer is delighted
because he or she thinks this is an example of a booming economy.
We've got this, you know, this new consumer good.
But that's actually Goebbels putting himself into people's homes.
And just to make sure that people are tuning in,
he also puts radio wardens in most neighbourhoods
who can go around to make sure
that you are dutifully listening to the party broadcasts.
DAILY EVENING PAPER
Next, Goebbels' targets the printed press.
SILVER MIRROR
He passes the so-called Editors' Law.
This officially shifts editorial powers away from the owners of newspapers
and hands it to the state.
THE TUNNEL TRAGEDY OF MÖGELDORF
[Toby] He would gather together editors and correspondents
of all the leading newspapers,
and he would give them effectively
a summary of the line they were expected to take on all major issues.
Goebbels now has all the propaganda tools in place to spin
the Nazis' achievements and ideology to all of Germany.
The Nazis have risen to power, promising a strong, successful Germany.
So Goebbels tells the nation what they want to hear.
ATTENTION, A STRIKE IS TAKING PLACE LOCKOUT
Goebbels showcases Nazi job-creation schemes,
including a huge construction programme, building new motorways.
And he ensures the cameras capture the Führer leading from the front.
The message is loud and clear:
together the people and the Nazis are building a new and better Germany.
The young men who were unemployed and listless and rootless,
let them be the pioneers who build the motorways,
build the autobahn, so they will be contributing
something very positive and valuable to the growth of Germany
as well as earning good money for themselves.
[Thomas] Where they really succeeded
was in creating the promise of better times in the future.
They managed to create the promise that people who have been full of gloom
would get a job, that they will be able to go on holidays.
They will lead a life better than anyone ever has in their lives.
The Nazis cement the spirit of unity by launching the Volksgemeinschaft,
the People's Community, a social- engineering project of epic proportions.
It's a utopian kind of vision.
It's a vision that we'll put aside class differences and we'll join together
in this wonderful classless society called the Volkgemeinschaft,
or the national community.
For Goebbels, this ideal of a united, harmonious community,
where individuals served a greater good, this became a kind of guiding star.
They are building an image of a united community,
enjoying rising employment with a strong, proud notion of Germanhood.
Bit by bit, they are laying the foundations
for their vision of a Germanic master race.
The first time, I think, in history,
there had been such an attempt to create a racial state
and the Volk is a central concept in that.
But Goebbels' carefully crafted image of a Germanic utopia
is built on shaky ground,
because despite the propaganda,
everyone knows that the economy is not going well.
The Nazis' economic miracle isn't working.
Although unemployment is down, wages are low.
Spies are sent out into the community to report back on public opinion
and the mood is worrying.
The euphoric support is beginning to subside.
It is time for Goebbels to reintroduce his go-to scapegoats.
The failing economy isn't the fault of the Volksgemeinschaft,
it's the fault of outsiders.
The idea of the Volk means a sense of identity, a sense of community.
Now, if you're not part of that community, you must be opposed to it,
you can't be half and half,
and your racial ethnic background marks you as one or the other.
Now Goebbels can drive a wedge between the hard-working German Volk
and the poisonous outsiders, in other words, the Jews.
It's a masterstroke of mass psychology.
The attack upon the Jews, the scapegoat notion, the identifiable enemy within,
does distract from the internal economic problems.
They are to blame for the crisis in the first place.
Goebbels' propaganda stokes a wave of street violence against the Jews.
But behind the scenes, it's met with surprising opposition.
Including Adolf Hitler himself.
The mob attacks are causing public unease and damaging the economy.
Support for the Party is at risk.
So reluctantly, Hitler orders a clampdown on the violence.
But Goebbels is determined to keep pushing his agenda.
And he soon sees the prime opportunity.
The annual Nuremberg Rally, the biggest feature of the Nazi calendar.
A huge propaganda event
and a chance to set out the Nazis' latest policies.
Hitler has declared that the rally must focus on the battle against Communism.
But Goebbels thinks now is the time for a seismic move against the Jewish race.
He pushes the issue,
in what could be a dangerous play against the Führer's wishes.
And he delivers a blistering attack on the Jews.
It's at the 1935 Nuremberg Rally where we're reminded
what a powerful and vile orator that Goebbels was
because it's there that he starts really railing against the Jews,
and he declares them enemies of the state.
Goebbels wanted the Jews out of German society.
He wanted them out of German cultural life.
He wanted them out of German economic life.
He wanted Jewish children out of German schools.
He wanted them all physically out of Germany.
If he's trying to force the Führer's hand, it could be political suicide.
But it soon becomes apparent that the rally is firmly behind him.
[Guy] Largely thanks to Goebbels,
the Nazi crowd is now baying for action against the Jews,
and they want action immediately and they want it now.
Goebbels' gamble pays off.
Hitler concedes and appeases the crowds
by bringing antisemitism to the top of the agenda.
Behind the scenes, the Nazis hurriedly draft antisemitic legislation
they call the Nuremberg Race Laws.
The laws strip Jews of their citizenship
and outlaw marriage between them and other Germans.
The Jews will now be legally classed as outsiders.
But when it comes to the definition of a Jew,
the legislation opens up a can of worms.
[Richard] With the Nuremburg laws, there was a great deal of confusion really
about who actually qualified as a Jew.
Of course, there were many people who were half-Jewish or quarter-Jewish,
and how did you deal with these people?
[Michael] Even the Jews themselves could not and cannot give an exact definition
of what a Jew is, at what point does somebody become a Jew,
is it grandparental, is it parental, is it by choice, in religious terms,
is it through marriage?
There are obvious cases but there are less obvious cases.
So they started a debate.
Who is a Jew and where do we have to draw the line?
There is much disagreement,
with Goebbels pushing for the most extreme option.
Goebbels was very frustrated with all this because from his point of view,
you know, Jewish blood was Jewish blood.
German blood was German blood.
If you had Jewish blood, you were a Jew,
you were Jewish even if you had a small amount of Jewish blood.
But it's feared that actually the German people aren't gonna go along
with persecuting people who are, like, 1/16th Jew, that's not gonna work.
Finally, a compromise is reached.
It laid down that anybody with three grandparents
who were Jewish was by definition a Jew,
and therefore not entitled to full citizenship,
not entitled to employment rights,
not entitled to legal rights, not entitled to education.
It is a major victory for Goebbels
and a terrible milestone for the Nazis on the path to the horrors to come.
But in amongst the drama, there's a noticeable absentee.
Göring isn't even invited.
He is preoccupied with the build-up of his air force
and Goebbels has taken care to keep his rival on the sidelines.
Göring wasn't involved in drafting the laws
and wasn't really consulted about this.
Göring felt a little bit put out.
He ought to be consulted on all big questions.
It's another dent in Göring's pride
and further spice to the simmering animosity
between the two Nazi heavyweights.
Goebbels had secretly lobbied against Göring's preening flamboyance
and he had seized control of his radio network in Prussia.
But Goebbels also has an Achilles heel
and Göring decides that now is the time to put Goebbels in his place...
...by exposing his private life.
Goebbels' media empire has now branched into the film business
and as well as promoting his propaganda,
it's also allowing him to indulge in some personal perks.
Even though he was married, Goebbels was not a faithful husband.
He was very intelligent, he was a good conversationalist,
and he was, you know, very attractive to a lot of women.
Also, he had a lot of power which, of course, is a famous aphrodisiac
and in control of the media, he's also in control of the movie business.
What do the movie businesses typically have?
A lot of attractive women, so where does Goebbels find himself quite often?
Down in a movie studio.
[Frank] He had numerous affairs with leading actresses
and he propositioned many leading actresses all the way through.
And he was very successful in this.
It's not long before Göring's spies find out about these affairs.
And Göring has exclusive access
to one of the most powerful surveillance technologies of the time, the wire-tap.
[Guy] Göring had the ability to bug telephone calls,
and he did this to his fellow members of the inner circle.
Of course, the one man he particularly delighted in doing it to
was his old enemy Goebbels,
and he would cackle with glee when he read the transcripts of these phone calls
between Goebbels and his latest conquest.
Goebbels' closest attachment is with a beautiful Czech actress, Lida Baarová.
He has been besotted with her since they met in 1936.
The glamorous Baarová plays the roles of sexy temptresses.
The irony, of course, is that German women weren't allowed to play
the role of sexy seductress because it was seen as demeaning German women.
So, they just had to get, you know, lesser people like Czechs to play these roles.
Now, that's not gonna stop Goebbels
from enjoying the attentions and the affections of Baarová.
Goebbels develops quite an intense affair with the beautiful Lida Baarová,
and photographs show she was very attractive.
One could see why he was drawn to her.
Goebbels' torrid affair gives Göring all the ammunition he needs.
He passes his dossier to the Führer.
Göring is fundamentally a swine
because he passes on these transcripts to Hitler
because he knows that Hitler has no time for marital infidelity.
And Göring knows what these reports will mean for Goebbels.
Hitler was the best man at Goebbels' wedding
and is especially fond of his wife, Magda.
The knowledge of the affair puts Hitler in a compromising position.
But while Magda doesn't know, Hitler holds his counsel.
But it isn't long before Magda hears
that her husband has fallen in love with another woman.
The two become distant and increasingly bitter.
[soundtrack only]
Their marriage is on the rocks.
And when Goebbels' boss is as morally fastidious as Hitler, that is bad news.
Göring has Goebbels exactly where he wants him, as events come to a head.
Magda seeks the advice of a surprising confidant...
...the last person Goebbels wants her to talk to.
This is Goebbels' umpteenth affair,
but Magda now is just absolutely fed up with it.
So, she goes to tell a close friend.
And that's Hitler. She goes to Hitler for marriage-guidance counselling.
The news is music to Göring's ears.
Magda travels to the southernmost part of Germany,
to Obersalzberg, Hitler's mountain retreat.
Her husband's career now hangs in the balance.
[Guy] Magda and Hitler, they were incredibly close.
Hitler would often go around to the Goebbels' household
and he would spend most of his time talking to Magda.
[Toby] When it came to Hitler's attention
that Goebbels was bringing shame and embarrassment and humiliation to Magda,
I think this is what he found quite intolerable.
Hitler summons Goebbels.
He gives Goebbels a stark ultimatum, to sort his marriage out or resign.
Goebbels found himself confronted with a very painful choice:
his loyalty to Hitler, his commitment to his role as Propaganda Minister,
to his public role in the Nazi Party was still very strong.
[Guy] Where did Goebbels' loyalties therefore lie?
Do they lie to Lida Baarová, a beautiful Czech actress,
or do they lie to Hitler and the future of the Nazi vision?
He feels he has little choice but to end his affair with Lida Baarová.
And he has even starker news for her.
Because she's also tainted in the ideas of Hitler,
there's no way Baarová should be allowed
on the screens of the Third Reich-controlled cinema.
Goebbels has no option but to also end her career.
For Baarová, it really is a double whammy,
she's lost her boyfriend and her lover and she's also lost her acting career.
Göring has dealt his rival a devastating blow.
From that point on, I think we can say
Goebbels is never quite the same in the Führer's estimation.
I mean, he maintains his position but he's been damaged by the divorce proceedings.
Goebbels has gone from hero to outcast in the blink of an eye.
The whole affair left Goebbels feeling wretchedly cast down.
Göring has muted a major rival in the Party.
But nothing stays still for long in the inner circle.
Goebbels' fall is Himmler's opportunity.
And although Himmler is more discreet in his plans,
he grabs his chance to carry the Nazi torch against the Jews.
AUSTRIANS
Since the 1920s, Hitler has dreamed
of reuniting Germany with his motherland of Austria.
And since coming to power, the Nazis have applied increasing pressure
on the Austrian government not to stand in his way.
Finally, in March 1938, German troops advance into Austria.
The country is effortlessly absorbed into the German Reich.
Many Austrians welcome the union
but those who oppose it are swiftly dealt with.
Himmler and his SS forces quickly establish control over the region
and he makes his move on the Jews.
There are nearly 200,000 of them here.
Himmler intends to turn Austria
into a testing ground for antisemitic policies.
The Anschluss of Austria gave Himmler
a real opportunity to experiment a bit with Jewish policy.
And in the early months of the occupation,
the Jews were subjected to a whole range of unpleasant things.
Their properties were taken. Their businesses were bought out
at knocked-down prices and so on.
Jews were humiliated. Many Jews were taken off, seized and taken off to camps.
And for Himmler and his henchman, Reinhard Heydrich,
their own brand of fiercely efficient antisemitism is paying dividends.
The centrepiece of Jewish policy in Austria
was really to get rid of the Jews.
It wasn't yet to exterminate them, but to get rid of them.
Find ways of getting them to leave the country,
with their wealth, of course, behind them.
And this was very successful.
TOBACCO SHOP
Within weeks, they drive vast swathes of Austrian Jews
out of the newly expanded German empire.
That success cements Himmler and Heydrich's reputations,
while Goebbels, still in disgrace from the Baarová affair,
must stand by and watch them take the glory.
But then, a dramatic incident hands Goebbels an opportunity
to make his mark on the war against the Jews.
A Nazi diplomat called Ernst vom Rath
is shot and critically wounded, the attempted assassin was Jewish.
First to react is Himmler.
He sees the aggression as the beginning of an all-out assault by the Jews.
He secretly briefs his SS troops to prepare for a fight.
Himmler delivers this really powerful and violent speech in response to the attack,
and he claims it's not just, you know, diplomats who are under threat by Jews,
but the Jews wanna kill all Germans and not one German is safe at all.
Behind closed doors, Himmler's rousing speech
pushes the Nazis' antisemitic agenda into even more radical territory.
And what does he suggest should happen?
Himmler's solution is very simple and it's very violent, and he says,
we're gonna drive out the Jews with increasing ruthlessness,
soon there'll be no place left in the world for Jews.
It seems that Himmler will be the man to lead a discreet war against the Jews.
But Goebbels will soon seize back the initiative.
On November 9th, senior Nazis are gathered for an anniversary dinner,
when Hitler receives dramatic news: vom Rath has died.
[Guy] Hitler addresses the crowd and he's absolutely furious
and he's reported to have said,
"Hold back the police. The Jews should feel the anger of the German people."
Now, what does this mean? To some, it means actually what he is saying is
this is an authorisation for an attack.
It is clearly a green light for something to happen.
It is all the encouragement Goebbels needs.
He saw this as an opportunity for him
to not only push forward the antisemitic agenda
but also to raise his own profile within his rivals.
Goebbels declares war on the Jews.
But his war won't be waged in private, by Himmler's SS,
but out on the streets, the German people must engage.
He's got a chance to redeem himself in the eyes of his beloved Hitler,
and so he addresses the crowd and whips them up into a real frenzy,
declaring that it's all world Jewry that's to blame,
the Germans must defend themselves.
And so therefore he's really trying to get a bloodlust going.
[Toby] Goebbels had been like a dog straining at the leash.
He'd been itching for years and for months for this opportunity.
He wanted a nationwide, very public manifestation
of hostility towards the Jews.
Goebbels' call-to-arms gets a passionate reception.
But this unleashing of open street violence
goes against everything Himmler has been arguing for.
Himmler had spent quite a long time constructing a terror apparatus
which was actually a quiet terror apparatus,
operated very ruthlessly and very efficiently
but it wasn't in people's faces all the time.
[Thomas] Himmler really believed that anti-Jewish policies
needed to be done in a systematic, dispassionate fashion
and that street violence really should not play a major role in it.
[Richard] Goebbels didn't believe that. Goebbels really did want a gesture.
He wanted somehow or other for the German people
to demonstrate that they shared that National Socialist conviction
that the Jews were the enemy.
Over the next few hours,
a flurry of telegrams fly back and forth between Nazi departments.
The momentum is such that Himmler knows he is powerless to oppose it.
Himmler has to play a role because he's the chief of German police.
And the police have to know what they're supposed to do
and they're, of course, encouraged not to interfere,
you know, let the SA and the Hitler Youth and so on have their way.
Nevertheless, Himmler and his deputy, Reinhard Heydrich,
do what they can to limit the potential damage.
Heydrich issues strict instructions
both to the Security Police and the SA stormtroopers.
The supposed rules of engagement are very swiftly drawn up
and the idea is that no German property must be looted or destroyed in any way,
and in fact, that, you know, anything of value seized from the Jews
can't just be stolen and looted, it must be handed into the proper authorities.
Any Jewish property shouldn't be just set alight or burnt or destroyed,
it actually should be preserved.
Mindful of the potential for a political disaster,
Himmler tries to distance his SS from the imminent riots.
He instructs the SS not to wear their black uniforms.
They should dress as ordinary civilians.
Göring is out of town while this unfolds,
and with Himmler outmanoeuvred, Goebbels can unleash hell.
The violence he orchestrates will go down
as one of the most shocking and savage in modern history: Kristallnacht.
Less than two hours after news of vom Rath's death, the riots begin.
Somehow the stormtroopers didn't get these supposed rules of engagement,
which was there supposedly to preserve anything of value,
and instead there was absolute carnage.
Houses, property, possessions were burnt, destroyed in every way possible.
[Roger] Synagogues are burnt to the ground.
Jewish properties and shops are looted and destroyed.
[Guy] But it wasn't just property that was being destroyed,
it was people who were being destroyed.
People were being beaten to death with clubs, with axes.
It was a real pogrom and it was sanctioned by the state,
there is no doubt about that.
Hundreds of synagogues are burnt to the ground.
Houses and businesses are ransacked.
Nearly a hundred Jews are murdered.
Over 30,000 are dragged off to concentration camps.
For them, the horrors have only just begun.
If Goebbels wanted a public demonstration of support
for the war on the Jews, then Kristallnacht gave him just that.
But it is at a heavy price. The level of damage is shocking.
Göring is livid.
Not only was he kept out of the loop,
but he is horrified by the looting and mass destruction of valuable property.
Göring was obsessed with material possessions
and so the idea that all these nice things were being smashed up
was complete anathema to him.
7,500 Jewish businesses had been destroyed.
And an enormous amount of valuable property has been looted.
This could be hugely damaging for the economy.
Himmler is also furious that things got so out of hand.
To him, the idea of kind of thuggery on the streets
belonged to the old days of the Nazi movement
and was certainly not something the Nazis should be doing now they were in power.
And he lobbied very hard to sack Goebbels.
[Richard] This was a critical moment for Goebbels.
Himmler hoped he could put enough influence on Hitler to, you know,
really say finally enough is enough, you've gone too far.
[Guy] For Goebbels, Kristallnacht could blow back against him.
It's just provided an enormous opportunity
for all his rivals to circle around him like vultures.
[soundtrack only]
Hitler steps into the furore and makes his feelings explicitly clear.
Ultimately, Hitler takes the side of Goebbels,
and in a very public display of support for his Propaganda Minister...
It seems Goebbels is off the hook.
But despite Hitler's support,
it is clear that Goebbels' rivals are going to make him pay.
Göring complains that all this damage needs to be paid for
and it'll come somewhere from Goebbels.
Göring wanted Goebbels to come up with a solution.
How are we going to find the money to repair all the damage and so on?
Where's this money going to come from?
But backed into a corner, Goebbels is at his most brilliant.
He offers a simple and powerful resolution.
Goebbels then presents the most fiendish and unpleasant solution possible.
He says, I'll tell you what, the Jews can pay for it
because, ultimately, they're the ones responsible.
In a moment of wicked inspiration, Goebbels saves his political career.
The group agree to levy a one billion Reichsmark fine on the Jews
in order to cover the costs of the destruction.
So they have to pay for the damage that's inflicted on them by the state,
which, of course, is horrendous for the Jewish people.
It's sort of piling agony upon agony for them.
Goebbels has now twice survived what could have been the end of his career,
despite the efforts of his bitter rivals inside the inner circle.
But more important than his survival, his actions have set a precedent.
The public horrors of Kristallnacht
have set the tone for ever-increasing brutality against the Jews.
As a Nazi, it is now not enough just to hate them, you have to destroy them.
But they learn to do so more discreetly.
They wanted to accelerate the elimination of the Jews,
drag them out of Germany and so on, taking away their property and so on.
But it was all going to be done at one removed.
People were not going to be easily able to see what was going on.
From now on, Himmler will take charge of the Jewish question.
His assault on the Jews will be more discreet.
But his brutalities will be far more shocking,
as his launches his party into unprecedented acts of horror.