WEBVTT 00:01.260 --> 00:04.660 The Berghof, mountain retreat of Adolf Hitler. 00:05.760 --> 00:09.960 Here, senior party members and their families relax, away from the frantic 00:09.960 --> 00:11.180 activity of the capital. 00:12.420 --> 00:17.680 Yet, even in the peaceful setting of the Bavarian Alps, amongst the tranquil scenes 00:17.680 --> 00:21.000 of domestic life, there is an unsettling presence. 00:21.540 --> 00:23.360 The racial elite of the new order. 00:24.500 --> 00:25.300 The SS. 00:45.880 --> 00:48.860 How can we arrest racial decay? 00:49.200 --> 00:50.340 Asks Adolf Hitler. 00:51.140 --> 00:54.460 Shall we form a select company of the truly initiated? 00:55.260 --> 01:00.040 An order, the brotherhood of Templars around the holy grail of pure blood. 01:02.160 --> 01:08.880 By 1934, almost ten years after its creation, the SS is in the process of 01:08.880 --> 01:10.980 becoming Hitler's brotherhood of Templars. 01:11.980 --> 01:17.280 The hand-picked, disciplined and fiercely loyal bodyguard of the Fuhrer is being 01:17.280 --> 01:19.940 transformed into an Aryan elite. 01:20.700 --> 01:24.280 A mystical order, dedicated to the creation of an empire. 01:28.470 --> 01:34.830 In the strange and terrifying doctrines of National Socialism, the Aryan is the race 01:34.830 --> 01:35.490 of the future. 01:36.630 --> 01:40.990 Providence has decreed that the Aryans will subjugate all other peoples. 01:49.250 --> 01:54.530 In the vanguard of the Nazi mission will be the black club ranks of the SS. 01:55.490 --> 02:00.650 This carefully selected elite is intended to be the stock from which will come a new 02:00.650 --> 02:02.410 and superior breed of human. 02:03.210 --> 02:03.810 The Superman. 02:04.650 --> 02:06.810 A cast of men born to rule. 02:09.070 --> 02:14.050 It is Heinrich Himmler who will forge Hitler's guard into a racial aristocracy. 02:14.050 --> 02:19.390 Under Himmler's leadership, the SS will become a state within a state. 02:20.790 --> 02:26.570 Obsessed with secrecy and bound by solemn ritual, the SS will become a force of 02:26.570 --> 02:28.890 unprecedented power and authority. 02:34.000 --> 02:39.460 The origins of this, the most sinister of all Nazi creations, do not lie in the 02:39.460 --> 02:42.280 personal visions of Heinrich Himmler or his Fuhrer. 02:43.100 --> 02:47.980 The roots of the SS go deeper even than National Socialism itself. 02:50.900 --> 02:57.500 By 1900, the cities of Germany and Austria have changed beyond all recognition. 02:58.900 --> 03:03.560 Millions have abandoned the poverty of peasant life, the slave in the mills and 03:03.560 --> 03:05.740 foundries of the Industrial Revolution. 03:06.980 --> 03:12.820 As their populations swell with the influx of labor, elegant centers of commercial 03:12.820 --> 03:17.240 and aristocratic life become teeming industrial slums. 03:18.100 --> 03:22.920 It is in the cities that the values of the old order are challenged. 03:23.900 --> 03:28.440 Calls for democracy and socialism threaten the traditional power of the ruling 03:28.440 --> 03:28.900 elites. 03:30.040 --> 03:35.120 Established religious beliefs are undermined by science and a rising tide of 03:35.120 --> 03:35.900 materialism. 03:36.540 --> 03:40.040 To many, the new world seems fractured and chaotic. 03:47.560 --> 03:52.660 Amongst the aristocratic and educated classes in the first decade of the 20th 03:52.660 --> 03:56.240 century, the overriding mood is one of nostalgia. 03:56.240 --> 04:02.000 There is a powerful yearning for a vanished past, a past believed to have 04:02.000 --> 04:04.780 been more harmonious, orderly and spiritual. 04:11.830 --> 04:17.210 All over industrialized Europe, new movements arise, devoted to the search 04:17.210 --> 04:18.070 for simplicity. 04:19.230 --> 04:24.170 In Germany, the movement calls itself Lebensreform, Life Reform. 04:25.370 --> 04:29.210 It is pledged to the restoration of a more natural way of living. 04:30.130 --> 04:35.690 Tens of thousands of German youth join the Wandervogel, the birds of passage. 04:36.610 --> 04:41.650 Its members share a mystical love of the German countryside and revere German 04:41.650 --> 04:42.850 folklore and ritual. 04:48.200 --> 04:52.840 While science and medicine are rejected as products of the industrial revolution, 04:53.720 --> 04:59.040 vegetarianism, herbal healing, nudism, communal living and meditation 04:59.040 --> 05:00.900 become fashionable pursuits. 05:02.200 --> 05:08.460 In every major city, cults devoted to spiritualism, astrology, magic and the 05:08.460 --> 05:11.900 occult flourish among the disciples of Life Reform. 05:13.440 --> 05:17.660 Of all the doctrines favored by the movement, none will be more influential 05:17.660 --> 05:22.640 than those preached by the Russian adventurist and telepath, Madame Helena 05:22.640 --> 05:23.340 Blavatsky. 05:29.100 --> 05:36.140 In 1888, Madame Blavatsky claimed to have traveled to Tibet and there to have been 05:36.140 --> 05:41.400 initiated into the secrets of spiritual masters she calls the Hidden Elect. 05:42.480 --> 05:47.620 In the doctrines of occultists, the Hidden Elect or the Great White 05:47.620 --> 05:53.300 Brotherhood are believed to be humans who by initiation and self-denial have risen 05:53.300 --> 05:54.820 to become adepts. 05:55.600 --> 06:00.340 They have gained powers and knowledge beyond those of ordinary mortals. 06:01.480 --> 06:06.840 In Britain, Alistair Crowley, a magician of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, 06:07.280 --> 06:12.600 claimed in 1909 to have crossed the abyss and to have returned as an adept. 06:14.320 --> 06:19.240 Madame Blavatsky did not claim to be an adept in her own right, but she did claim 06:19.240 --> 06:22.960 constant telepathic communication with her Hidden Masters. 06:25.240 --> 06:31.260 They had revealed to her, their chosen one, the occult history of the human race. 06:37.930 --> 06:42.590 According to Madame Blavatsky, each round of the cosmic cycle has 06:42.590 --> 06:45.550 associated with it seven root races. 06:46.510 --> 06:50.670 The first root race to evolve on Earth she calls the Astral Race. 06:51.470 --> 06:55.870 It was a race of pure spirit, the highest form of existence. 06:58.900 --> 07:02.700 The second race she calls the Hyperborean Race. 07:03.540 --> 07:07.160 Its home was a now vanished continent in the Northern Ocean. 07:09.060 --> 07:12.060 The third race was the Lemurians. 07:13.000 --> 07:17.260 Blavatsky is clear about the reason for the fall of the Lemurian race. 07:17.940 --> 07:19.720 It had interbred with animals. 07:21.140 --> 07:26.280 The fourth race in the history revealed to Madame Blavatsky is the race of Atlantis. 07:27.280 --> 07:32.560 The Atlanteans had possessed psychic powers and had constructed giant cities 07:32.560 --> 07:35.640 using an energy source of mysterious origins. 07:36.880 --> 07:39.720 The Atlanteans were destroyed in a great flood. 07:41.720 --> 07:46.320 The fifth root race Madame Blavatsky sees as the race of hope. 07:47.100 --> 07:52.620 The race that had once founded the culture of ancient Greece and soon would return 07:52.620 --> 07:54.740 man to the pinnacle of spirituality. 07:55.600 --> 07:58.840 That race she named the Aryan. 08:00.000 --> 08:06.780 By 1914 Blavatsky's mystical doctrine of the destiny of Aryan man has spread 08:06.780 --> 08:08.620 throughout Germany and Austria. 08:22.200 --> 08:24.980 The opening days of the Great War. 08:26.280 --> 08:28.840 There is little sense of impending cataclysm. 08:29.640 --> 08:33.800 All over Europe news of war is greeted with unqualified enthusiasm. 08:34.640 --> 08:40.620 In all the warring nations the emotions of militant nationalism are given free reign. 08:42.180 --> 08:46.880 In the ranks of the Austrian and German armies there is a widespread belief that 08:46.880 --> 08:50.840 the aspirations of a generation may be satisfied at last. 08:51.640 --> 08:56.700 The unification of German speaking peoples and the creation of a Germanic empire. 09:02.940 --> 09:08.320 To the frontline soldiers of the imperial armies the teachings of the Austrian 09:08.320 --> 09:11.760 clairvoyant Guido von List are an inspiration. 09:13.740 --> 09:19.260 List believes that in the Germans more than in any other people runs the blood of 09:19.260 --> 09:23.220 the mythical race called by Madame Blavatsky the Aryans. 09:24.260 --> 09:30.120 To List the Great War is proof that the modern world with its materialism and its 09:30.120 --> 09:32.420 democracy is destroying itself. 09:33.760 --> 09:39.060 But out of war and destruction will come the victory of the German cause and the 09:39.060 --> 09:41.000 beginning of an Aryan millennium. 09:42.620 --> 09:47.720 List revives the prayer of the 16th century philosopher and heretic Giordano 09:47.720 --> 09:48.180 Bruno. 09:49.000 --> 09:55.760 Oh Jove, let the Germans realize their own strength and they shall not be men but 09:55.760 --> 09:56.340 gods. 10:17.820 --> 10:23.540 Like Alistair Crowley and Madame Blavatsky, List's psychic researches have 10:23.540 --> 10:26.500 led him to believe in the existence of a hidden elect. 10:27.600 --> 10:32.380 His visions of the ancient German tribes have revealed to him an elite class of 10:32.380 --> 10:33.120 priest rulers. 10:33.830 --> 10:36.120 List calls it the Armannenschaft. 10:36.680 --> 10:41.660 The role of the Armannenschaft was to preserve the occult knowledge of the 10:41.660 --> 10:43.200 German's Aryan ancestors. 10:48.120 --> 10:53.440 List claims that the imposition of Christianity on the Teutonic tribes and 10:53.440 --> 10:58.180 the persecution of the followers of the old religion forced the Armannenschaft to 10:58.180 --> 11:00.040 continue its traditions in secret. 11:01.040 --> 11:07.120 Their lore had lived on in the rituals and symbols of a network of secret societies. 11:08.320 --> 11:12.600 The store of occult knowledge had been preserved down the centuries by 11:12.600 --> 11:18.260 Freemasons, Rosicrucians and chivalrous orders such as the Knights Templar. 11:19.340 --> 11:25.280 So great is List's influence among German and German-Austrian nationalists that many 11:25.280 --> 11:30.320 army officers have joined the secret occultist organization inspired by his 11:30.320 --> 11:30.740 teachings. 11:31.620 --> 11:37.900 The German Order, founded in May 1912, has lodges in ten German cities. 11:39.460 --> 11:44.060 The government of the Order is by a secret twelve-man council of initiates, 11:44.440 --> 11:46.860 calling itself the Armannest Assembly. 11:47.860 --> 11:53.520 The future Aryan Empire will, according to List, be governed by a similar council of 11:53.520 --> 11:56.100 initiates, a new Armannenschaft. 11:57.360 --> 12:03.240 In the design of the future SS, List's Armannest Assembly will not be 12:03.240 --> 12:03.660 forgotten. 12:09.740 --> 12:15.320 List's prediction that the Great War would see the victory of Imperial Germany over 12:15.320 --> 12:19.160 its democratic and degenerate enemies will not be fulfilled. 12:20.360 --> 12:25.500 By 1918, the German economy is in ruins and the Kaiser's armies are crumbling. 12:27.080 --> 12:32.640 To the men at the front, the failure of the Imperial war machine is inexplicable. 12:32.640 --> 12:37.160 In 1918, Germany had won several major battles. 12:37.900 --> 12:39.980 The Russian enemy had already collapsed. 12:41.340 --> 12:43.440 Theories of a conspiracy abound. 12:44.320 --> 12:47.220 Many believe that Germany has been betrayed from within. 12:48.640 --> 12:52.820 The blame is placed squarely on the shoulders of the traditional targets of 12:52.820 --> 12:57.980 the German nationalist movements, capitalists, democrats and Jews. 12:59.420 --> 13:05.400 To the followers of Guido von List, all that is valuable seems irretrievably 13:05.400 --> 13:05.900 lost. 13:06.960 --> 13:12.100 A government of unknown politicians has accepted the humiliating terms of the 13:12.100 --> 13:12.920 Versailles Treaty. 13:13.940 --> 13:17.760 Worst of all, the Kaiser and the German princes have abdicated. 13:18.560 --> 13:21.000 Germany has become a democratic republic. 13:22.740 --> 13:27.980 The abdication of the Kaiser is a stunning blow to the occultists of the German 13:27.980 --> 13:28.360 order. 13:29.540 --> 13:34.120 Guido von List had taught that the aristocracy of Germany had been founded in 13:34.120 --> 13:37.000 ancient times by the Armenianschaft itself. 13:38.080 --> 13:43.400 In the aristocracy was to be found the purest of Aryan blood, and with it the 13:43.400 --> 13:47.040 strongest remaining traces of the Aryan psychic powers. 13:48.920 --> 13:54.020 In the aftermath of the Great War, faced with the twin threat of democracy 13:54.020 --> 13:59.620 and socialism, traditionalists eagerly embrace List's mystical belief in the 13:59.620 --> 14:00.440 German nobility. 14:01.780 --> 14:06.680 But by now, a new concept of aristocracy is in the process of development. 14:08.120 --> 14:13.040 Side by side with the teachings of List, it will become the cornerstone of Nazi 14:13.040 --> 14:15.620 ideology and the future SS. 14:16.940 --> 14:22.240 Since the mid-19th century, the evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin 14:22.240 --> 14:25.980 had challenged religious beliefs held sacred for centuries. 14:27.760 --> 14:32.340 But by the end of the Great War, many physicians, scientists and 14:32.340 --> 14:37.800 politicians have come to see in Darwinism a formula for social and political action. 14:39.120 --> 14:43.080 Belief in the equality of man is seen as simply unscientific. 14:43.080 --> 14:47.080 The new slogan is, the survival of the fittest. 14:49.160 --> 14:55.000 In Darwin's The Descent of Man, published in 1871, he speculates on the 14:55.000 --> 14:58.820 effect of modern medicine on the future course of human evolution. 15:00.400 --> 15:05.080 With savages, the weak in body or mind are soon eliminated. 15:06.260 --> 15:10.900 We civilized men, on the other hand, do our best to check the process of 15:10.900 --> 15:11.360 elimination. 15:12.080 --> 15:16.840 Thus, the weak members of civilized society propagate their kind. 15:18.020 --> 15:22.580 This, argues Darwin, must be highly injurious to the race of man. 15:23.760 --> 15:29.460 Excepting in the case of man himself, hardly anyone is so ignorant as to allow 15:29.460 --> 15:31.340 his worst animals to breed. 15:36.710 --> 15:41.670 In Britain, the family planning movement, led by the scientist Marie Stopes, 15:41.990 --> 15:46.410 is preoccupied with the supposed threat to the health of the race posed by 15:46.410 --> 15:47.930 uncontrolled breeding. 15:49.090 --> 15:54.230 Marie Stopes' work on birth control, Wise Parenthood, first published in 1918, 15:55.010 --> 16:00.410 is dedicated to all those who wish to see our race grow in strength and beauty. 16:02.770 --> 16:06.930 Stopes is concerned with the tendency, revealed by the national census, 16:07.310 --> 16:10.930 for the lower classes to produce more children than the upper classes. 16:11.710 --> 16:16.350 The numbers of our population, she states, increasingly tend to be made 16:16.350 --> 16:19.470 up from the less thrifty and the less conscientious. 16:21.430 --> 16:26.750 In America, the compulsory sterilization of the mentally handicapped, of 16:26.750 --> 16:31.310 alcoholics, and of persistent criminals, has been legal in certain states since 16:31.310 --> 16:32.450 1907. 16:34.090 --> 16:38.950 Marie Stopes advocates similar policies for Britain, including the sterilization 16:38.950 --> 16:43.750 of male children with an epileptic or mentally handicapped parent, uncle or 16:43.750 --> 16:44.010 aunt. 16:44.830 --> 16:50.470 The family planning movement is part of a broader movement aimed at directing and 16:50.470 --> 16:54.590 accelerating the evolution of the human race by selective breeding. 16:58.970 --> 17:02.870 This new science calls itself eugenics. 17:04.770 --> 17:10.370 By 1918, eugenics has become so influential that the British Medical 17:10.370 --> 17:15.830 Journal publishes an article in which a noted physician can write, There is no 17:15.830 --> 17:20.090 equality in nature among children nor among adults. 17:21.170 --> 17:25.750 And if there is to be a much needed improvement in the race, we must breed 17:25.750 --> 17:29.350 from the physically, morally and intellectually fit. 17:33.620 --> 17:40.040 From Britain, eugenics spreads to Germany, acquiring the new name, racial hygiene. 17:41.560 --> 17:45.900 University departments and institutes are founded devoted to the new science. 17:46.760 --> 17:52.420 By the 1920s, eugenics has won widespread support amongst the German medical 17:52.420 --> 17:53.060 establishment. 17:54.040 --> 17:58.680 It has also had a profound effect on the doctrines of the German occultists. 18:11.130 --> 18:17.890 In 1919, Guido von List, a prophet of the Aryan millennium, dies in Berlin at the 18:17.890 --> 18:18.690 age of 70. 18:20.070 --> 18:25.510 His place as Germany's leading mystic and Aryan visionary has been taken by Jörg 18:25.510 --> 18:26.010 Luntz. 18:27.310 --> 18:32.490 Luntz, an ex-Cistercian monk and respected biblical scholar, will have a profound 18:32.490 --> 18:37.650 impact on the development of Nazi ideology and on the structure and ritual of the 18:37.650 --> 18:38.710 future SS. 18:40.430 --> 18:45.710 Luntz has blended the Aryan occultism of Guido von List and the principles of the 18:45.710 --> 18:46.910 science of eugenics. 18:47.730 --> 18:50.790 He calls his new doctrine, Theozoology. 18:52.310 --> 18:55.950 Theozoology is an occult religion of race. 19:01.080 --> 19:06.860 Inspired by Madame Blavatsky's mystical history of racial evolution, Luntz claims 19:06.860 --> 19:12.200 that the decline of the Aryans occurred because they had committed bestiality with 19:12.200 --> 19:13.500 a subhuman species. 19:14.420 --> 19:19.880 The result was the creation of many mixed races, races whose very existence 19:19.880 --> 19:22.820 threatens the rightful dominance of the Aryans. 19:28.360 --> 19:33.540 Like List, Luntz believed that the early Aryans possessed the power of telepathy. 19:34.880 --> 19:38.980 Interbreeding with racial inferiors had led to the loss of their paranormal 19:38.980 --> 19:39.640 abilities. 19:43.820 --> 19:46.200 Why do you seek a hell in the next world? 19:46.360 --> 19:47.120 Luntz asks. 19:47.740 --> 19:52.500 Is not the hell in which we live and which burns inside us sufficiently dreadful? 19:54.980 --> 20:01.600 To Luntz, the hell which burns inside is the impure blood in the veins of even the 20:01.600 --> 20:02.760 purest of Aryans. 20:08.900 --> 20:14.180 The teachings of Jörg Luntz are propagated throughout Germany and Austria by his own 20:14.180 --> 20:17.220 journal, Ostara, founded in 1905. 20:20.960 --> 20:25.780 Luntz claims that over 100,000 copies of Ostara a year are sold. 20:25.780 --> 20:30.400 He even claims that amongst his eminent subscribers is the British general 20:30.400 --> 20:31.220 Kitchener. 20:32.800 --> 20:38.840 In the pages of Ostara, and in a series of widely read essays, Luntz develops a 20:38.840 --> 20:41.960 terrifying prescription for the purification of the race. 20:43.060 --> 20:47.620 He proposes polygamy to increase the birth rate of the racially purest. 20:48.760 --> 20:54.140 Eugenic convents are to be established, in which chosen women, he calls brood 20:54.140 --> 20:58.040 mothers, will produce children for pure-blooded Aryan males. 20:59.640 --> 21:04.200 While the racially impure and the physically or mentally unfit are to be 21:04.200 --> 21:11.160 sterilized, other races, deemed inferior, are to be deported to Madagascar or used 21:11.160 --> 21:12.080 as slave labor. 21:16.070 --> 21:21.890 In the future Nazi state, all of Luntz's proposals will be given the most serious 21:21.890 --> 21:22.610 consideration. 21:23.570 --> 21:25.030 Some will be put into practice. 21:29.090 --> 21:34.090 A massive compulsory sterilization campaign will be directed at those judged 21:34.090 --> 21:36.790 physically, mentally or racially inferior. 21:38.470 --> 21:43.350 The deportation of German Jews to Madagascar will be discussed in the upper 21:43.350 --> 21:44.550 echelons of the party. 21:45.250 --> 21:50.310 The SS will plan for the official introduction of polygamy and will found 21:50.310 --> 21:52.450 its own SS breeding program. 22:00.440 --> 22:05.720 To Jörg Luntz, the legends of the Knights of the Holy Grail are more than the 22:05.720 --> 22:07.760 products of the medieval imagination. 22:08.660 --> 22:14.000 Luntz believed that they were the Knights Templar, founded in the 12th century and 22:14.000 --> 22:16.500 famed for their part in the Christian Crusades. 22:17.800 --> 22:23.340 Luntz believed that the Crusades were an attempt to hold back the inferior races of 22:23.340 --> 22:23.800 the East. 22:25.020 --> 22:30.180 The Holy Grail was an electrical force, representing the psychic powers of the 22:30.180 --> 22:31.460 pure-blooded Aryans. 22:32.440 --> 22:35.960 The search for the Grail was the search for racial purity. 22:38.100 --> 22:44.280 In 1907, Luntz formed an occult society dedicated to a new crusade. 22:45.100 --> 22:47.960 He called it the Order of the New Templars. 22:49.100 --> 22:55.500 In the castle of Burg Wurfenstein in Upper Austria, Luntz founded the Order's first 22:55.500 --> 22:56.080 headquarters. 22:56.960 --> 22:58.920 Other Order priories soon followed. 23:00.220 --> 23:05.420 The occult rituals of the New Templars are based on Luntz's monastic experience. 23:05.420 --> 23:09.500 And his own specially composed psalms, prayers and readings. 23:10.720 --> 23:16.380 A constant theme is an appeal to the Aryan Christ, Frey Uzzur, for salvation from 23:16.380 --> 23:20.340 racial impurity and for the extermination of inferior races. 23:27.700 --> 23:30.160 The aims of the Order are explicit. 23:30.980 --> 23:36.620 To harmonize science, art and ethics into an occult religion, devoted to the 23:36.620 --> 23:40.440 purification of the Aryan race in all countries of the world. 23:45.170 --> 23:50.290 In anticipation of the practices of the SS, prospective members and their 23:50.290 --> 23:52.170 marriages are racially vetted. 23:55.910 --> 23:59.830 For Luntz, the New Templars are the beginning of a new order. 24:01.130 --> 24:05.730 No longer will parliaments determine the fate of the people, Luntz proclaims. 24:06.190 --> 24:11.590 In their place will rule wise priest kings and leaders of chivalrous and spiritual 24:11.590 --> 24:12.490 secret orders. 24:14.230 --> 24:19.690 In reality, it will not be the occultists of the New Templars who will create the 24:19.690 --> 24:21.690 Aryan aristocracy of the future. 24:22.930 --> 24:26.950 The mystical doctrines preached by Luntz will be put into practice by others. 24:27.410 --> 24:33.490 Above all, by a man who since the age of 20 has been an avid collector of Astara. 24:37.660 --> 24:44.320 In the closing months of 1918, Corporal Adolf Hitler, holder of the Iron 24:44.320 --> 24:48.880 Cross First Class, will come to the attention of his superior officers. 24:50.160 --> 24:54.560 A near mutiny at the demobilization camp at which Hitler is stationed is brought 24:54.560 --> 24:56.800 under control by his powerful oratory. 25:00.320 --> 25:07.340 In September 1919, Hitler, now a civilian, is called upon once more by the army 25:07.340 --> 25:07.740 command. 25:07.760 --> 25:13.720 This time to spy on an insignificant nationalist group calling itself the 25:13.720 --> 25:14.860 German Workers' Party. 25:18.410 --> 25:23.230 Within months, Hitler has joined the party and has begun to speak at meetings. 25:24.210 --> 25:30.610 By January 1920, he has been elected head of propaganda and has drawn up a new party 25:30.610 --> 25:31.410 constitution. 25:34.210 --> 25:39.230 The army intelligence captain who had first recruited Hitler as a spy has been 25:39.230 --> 25:39.730 retired. 25:40.730 --> 25:46.630 His replacement as Hitler's army sponsor is the 32 year old Captain Ernst Röhm. 25:48.710 --> 25:53.010 Röhm is held in high regard as a courageous frontline officer and an 25:53.010 --> 25:54.270 outstanding organizer. 25:55.090 --> 26:00.170 The Bavarian army command has given Röhm the task of circumventing the arms 26:00.170 --> 26:01.390 restrictions imposed by Hitler. 26:03.550 --> 26:10.470 He is to establish secret arms dumps and organize the many nationalist paramilitary 26:10.470 --> 26:14.230 groups in Bavaria into an unofficial army reserve. 26:17.140 --> 26:22.800 One such group of irregulars is the powerful force commanded by ex-naval 26:22.800 --> 26:25.060 captain Hermann Erhardt. 26:25.920 --> 26:31.480 The Erhardt Brigade has played a major role in combating socialist revolution in 26:31.480 --> 26:31.940 Bavaria. 26:32.880 --> 26:36.980 It is Ernst Röhm who brings together Erhardt and Adolf Hitler. 26:38.700 --> 26:43.780 Public meetings of the early Nazi party are defended by stewards known as the 26:43.780 --> 26:45.600 Athletics and Sports Detachment. 26:46.940 --> 26:53.200 In the summer of 1921, Ernst Röhm arranges that officers of the Erhardt Brigade 26:53.200 --> 26:58.160 should become the commanders of a new party defense force, the SA Storm 26:58.160 --> 26:58.720 Detachment. 27:02.340 --> 27:08.420 To Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party, the function of the SA is to protect party 27:08.420 --> 27:12.300 speakers and make an impressive show of force when the occasion demands. 27:13.380 --> 27:15.240 But the SA has another role. 27:15.980 --> 27:18.440 It is an unofficial part of the German army. 27:19.020 --> 27:23.860 It is trained by army officers, numbered in army mobilization plans and 27:23.860 --> 27:25.660 controlled by Röhm and Erhardt. 27:30.740 --> 27:35.740 Hitler is well aware that the allegiance of the SA does not lie with him or with 27:35.740 --> 27:36.180 the party. 27:37.140 --> 27:41.960 He knows that as party leader he needs a force upon which he can rely utterly. 27:42.920 --> 27:46.500 The Shock Troop Hitler is the prototype for the SS. 27:56.210 --> 27:57.410 November 1923. 27:58.370 --> 28:03.130 Adolf Hitler is jailed for his part in an attempt to overthrow the government of 28:03.130 --> 28:03.550 Bavaria. 28:03.550 --> 28:06.610 The Nazi party and the SA are banned. 28:07.370 --> 28:09.530 Hitler's Shock Troop bodyguard is scattered. 28:11.410 --> 28:15.530 During his imprisonment, Hitler writes his political testament, Mein Kampf, 28:15.950 --> 28:19.050 and ponders the future of the party and of the SA. 28:19.910 --> 28:23.090 It is clear that eventually he must revive the SA. 28:23.850 --> 28:28.010 But he must also reform and strengthen his own personal guard. 28:29.890 --> 28:32.590 Hitler's requirements for his new force are clear. 28:33.590 --> 28:38.610 I told myself then that I needed a bodyguard, even a very restricted one, 28:38.910 --> 28:43.270 but made up of men ready to march against their own brothers. 28:46.820 --> 28:51.360 On December 20, 1924, Hitler is released from prison. 28:52.440 --> 28:56.720 He has served only nine months of a five-year sentence, but his trial and 28:56.720 --> 28:59.200 imprisonment have made him a national figure. 29:01.260 --> 29:07.280 Two months after his release, Hitler formally reconstitutes the Nazi party and 29:07.280 --> 29:09.800 reforms the SA under a new commander. 29:11.020 --> 29:13.380 Rome and Hitler have argued and parted company. 29:16.880 --> 29:23.700 In April 1925, Hitler orders his chauffeur and ex-bodyguard Julius Schreck to form a 29:23.700 --> 29:27.800 new force for the defense of the Führer and the protection of party headquarters. 29:28.660 --> 29:32.940 It is the Schutzstaffel Protection Squad, the SS. 29:33.860 --> 29:40.080 To set themselves apart from the SA, the SS wear black caps bearing a silver 29:40.080 --> 29:41.120 death's head insignia. 29:42.680 --> 29:48.440 To the intense irritation of the SA, the SS is soon behaving as an elite. 29:49.480 --> 29:52.860 SS entry requirements are far stricter than those of the SA. 29:53.620 --> 29:55.220 SS discipline is more severe. 29:55.220 --> 29:59.520 The SS attend all party meetings but never speak. 30:00.320 --> 30:05.420 Already, its unofficial motto is, the aristocracy keeps its mouth shut. 30:07.680 --> 30:14.720 On July 4, 1926, Hitler confirms the SS as his elite organization. 30:15.880 --> 30:20.540 At the second party rally at Weimar, he gives the SS guardianship of the 30:20.540 --> 30:21.960 party's most sacred relic. 30:21.960 --> 30:27.000 The flag drenched in the blood of party fighters killed in the coup of 1923. 30:28.720 --> 30:34.460 As custodians of the blood banner, the SS are entrusted with the Nazi symbol 30:34.460 --> 30:37.580 of martyrdom in the struggle for Aryan supremacy. 30:42.430 --> 30:47.170 The transformation of the SS from the elite guard of the Führer into the 30:47.170 --> 30:51.310 mystical order it will eventually become will be the work of one man. 30:53.590 --> 30:58.490 He is Heinrich Himmler, the most enigmatic of all Nazi leaders. 31:03.400 --> 31:09.240 Himmler is a devoted follower of the Aryan occultism of Guido von List and Hubert 31:09.240 --> 31:09.660 Lutz. 31:10.700 --> 31:16.140 He too dreams of a Germanic empire ruled by a mystical order of the Aryan elite. 31:17.060 --> 31:21.760 He is determined that this elite should be drawn from the ranks of the SS. 31:22.700 --> 31:28.180 The superman, the new breed of Germanic ruler is to be created from the stock 31:28.180 --> 31:29.360 which he will select. 31:37.040 --> 31:40.060 Himmler is appointed head of the SS in January 1929. 31:41.720 --> 31:45.880 For almost a year, he and his wife have been smallholders and poultry farmers. 31:47.540 --> 31:52.520 Since early youth, Himmler has been an eager convert to the teachings of the 31:52.520 --> 31:53.840 movement for life reform. 31:54.440 --> 31:58.460 The land, he believes, is the origin of all that is good. 31:59.160 --> 32:03.500 Cities are the source of all that is unhealthy, corrupt and immoral. 32:09.460 --> 32:13.960 The yeoman on his own acre, writes Himmler, is the background of the German 32:13.960 --> 32:15.600 people's strength and character. 32:17.520 --> 32:22.660 Himmler has long been associated with the Ottoman League, a nationalist and 32:22.660 --> 32:27.060 anti-Slavic movement of city youth committed to life on the land and the 32:27.060 --> 32:29.420 expansion of German farming to the east. 32:30.700 --> 32:35.120 The oath of the Ottoman League is sworn by blood and soil. 32:44.890 --> 32:50.450 In the Ottoman League, Himmler has met the man who will transform the oath by blood 32:50.450 --> 32:53.470 and soil into a central doctrine of the SS. 32:54.730 --> 32:59.690 To Wouter Darre, an ex-official in the Prussian Ministry of Agriculture, 33:00.150 --> 33:05.950 the relationship between German blood and German soil is a source of mystical power. 33:07.110 --> 33:12.250 Questions of agriculture are not questions of economics, but of race and destiny. 33:17.560 --> 33:24.120 In 1930, Himmler's fantasies of an Aryan future are the least of Hitler's concerns. 33:24.120 --> 33:29.820 The unity of the party and Hitler's own future as its leader are under threat. 33:33.900 --> 33:38.720 With the economic depression at its height, Germany's unemployed flood into 33:38.720 --> 33:39.780 the ranks of the SA. 33:40.860 --> 33:43.880 The stormtroopers now number 100,000 men. 33:45.040 --> 33:50.400 To the radicals of the SA, National Socialism promises the destruction of the 33:50.400 --> 33:52.320 traditional German ruling classes. 33:54.020 --> 33:58.820 In the eyes of the stormtroopers, the industrialists, army officers and 33:58.820 --> 34:04.300 aristocrats, who are the Nazi party's most influential supporters, are no more than 34:04.300 --> 34:05.760 contemptible parasites. 34:08.160 --> 34:13.080 In protest at the political alliances which Hitler has formed, many SA 34:13.080 --> 34:15.860 commanders withdraw their men from the party's service. 34:21.740 --> 34:26.680 Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda chief, warns Hitler that a split within the SA 34:26.680 --> 34:28.560 and within the party is imminent. 34:30.120 --> 34:35.060 Hitler's solution is to recall the only man he believes capable of reuniting the 34:35.060 --> 34:36.840 SA, Ernst Röhm. 34:37.900 --> 34:40.900 Röhm will succeed in the task Hitler has set for him. 34:41.540 --> 34:43.540 He will pay for success with his life. 34:48.220 --> 34:53.780 As Röhm sets about the unification and expansion of the SA, Himmler takes a 34:53.780 --> 34:54.460 different road. 34:55.280 --> 34:57.580 His strategy is not one of rapid expansion. 34:58.280 --> 35:02.220 Instead, he concentrates on careful and systematic selection. 35:05.940 --> 35:10.200 In 1930, Himmler had won a valuable concession from Hitler. 35:11.000 --> 35:14.180 The SS would be allowed to recruit from the ranks of the SA. 35:14.980 --> 35:18.640 Himmler proceeds to put into practice his theories of breeding. 35:19.880 --> 35:24.660 We went about it like a nursery gardener trying to reproduce a good old strain 35:24.660 --> 35:27.280 which has been adulterated and debased. 35:28.560 --> 35:30.840 I started with a minimum height requirement. 35:31.760 --> 35:36.880 I knew that men of a certain height must somewhere possess the blood I desired. 35:38.760 --> 35:46.560 On December 31, 1931, Himmler establishes the SS Race and Resettlement Bureau. 35:47.480 --> 35:50.620 It is to be headed by his old friend, Walter Dary. 35:51.520 --> 35:54.720 Dary is awarded the rank of Honorary SS General. 36:00.460 --> 36:05.020 The task of the Race and Resettlement Bureau is to prepare for the future 36:05.020 --> 36:08.200 colonization of the East by pure-blooded Germans. 36:09.240 --> 36:14.780 It is also instructed to conduct research into racial ancestry, biological 36:14.780 --> 36:17.320 selection, and the history of the areas. 36:18.500 --> 36:23.420 Its staff of leading academics and medical men are ordered by Himmler to develop 36:23.420 --> 36:25.660 stricter requirements for SS entry. 36:29.280 --> 36:34.400 Bureau physicians assess the degree of racial purity of each applicant by 36:34.400 --> 36:35.640 physical examination. 36:35.640 --> 36:40.500 Only those considered pure or predominantly Nordic are acceptable. 36:41.700 --> 36:44.920 The applicant's physique is also judged on a nine-point scale. 36:46.540 --> 36:51.440 The examiners are instructed to take into account the attitude and bearing of the 36:51.440 --> 36:51.820 candidate. 36:52.800 --> 36:57.820 Himmler has decreed, in his attitude to discipline, the man should not behave like 36:57.820 --> 36:58.480 an underling. 36:59.360 --> 37:04.800 His gait, his hands, everything should correspond to the ideal which we have set 37:04.800 --> 37:05.260 ourselves. 37:11.310 --> 37:17.050 To Himmler, selection is only the first step in his plan to reclaim the Aryan 37:17.050 --> 37:19.070 blood latent in the German people. 37:20.030 --> 37:23.290 The second stage is the control of SS breeding. 37:24.990 --> 37:29.610 The Race and Resettlement Bureau is charged with the task of racially vetting 37:29.610 --> 37:30.530 SS marriages. 37:33.310 --> 37:38.550 Prospective brides of SS men are required to prove the purity of their Aryan blood 37:38.550 --> 37:40.710 back to the year 1750. 37:41.810 --> 37:48.670 By 1933, the Bureau will be examining almost 2,000 SS marriage applications a 37:48.670 --> 37:48.930 month. 37:50.050 --> 37:55.010 It is the beginning of the largest and most terrifying eugenics experiment in 37:55.010 --> 37:55.710 human history. 37:56.630 --> 38:02.390 From 1935, the Race and Resettlement Bureau will be empowered to vet the 38:02.390 --> 38:05.870 marriages of the entire civilian population of Germany. 38:09.360 --> 38:14.640 Heinrich Himmler is so confident of success that he predicts that in 120 38:14.640 --> 38:20.240 years, the entire German people should once more be pure-blooded Aryans. 38:25.880 --> 38:31.840 Himmler knows that the realization of his Aryan vision depends above all on the SS 38:31.840 --> 38:36.780 becoming the most powerful organization in the Nazi party and in the German state. 38:37.780 --> 38:42.540 Already, Hitler has given the SS the role of carrying out police and intelligence 38:42.540 --> 38:43.880 duties within the party. 38:44.920 --> 38:48.380 Himmler is quick to seize the opportunity to expand his power. 38:52.750 --> 38:59.090 In 1931, Himmler recruits a 33-year-old ex-naval officer, Reinhard Heydrich, 38:59.670 --> 39:02.050 to found an SS security service. 39:03.190 --> 39:08.550 The establishment of the SD will be the first stage in Himmler's creation of an SS 39:08.550 --> 39:09.910 state within a state. 39:26.360 --> 39:32.880 In 1932, two elections for the presidency of Germany deliver to Hitler 30% of the 39:32.880 --> 39:33.620 national vote. 39:39.110 --> 39:44.490 In the July parliamentary elections, Hitler campaigns in 50 cities in the space 39:44.490 --> 39:45.210 of two weeks. 39:46.010 --> 39:47.690 His efforts are amply rewarding. 39:48.570 --> 39:53.590 The party wins over 13 million votes and 230 seats in the Reichstag. 39:54.590 --> 39:56.470 Hitler demands the post of Chancellor. 39:57.350 --> 39:58.210 Parliament refuses. 40:10.520 --> 40:16.200 Yet another election on November the 6th sees the Nazi vote fall by 2 million. 40:16.200 --> 40:22.140 The communists increase their vote by almost 1 million and win 100 seats. 40:22.780 --> 40:27.800 With no party having an overall majority, the conservatives in parliament choose an 40:27.800 --> 40:29.020 alliance with the Nazis. 40:30.060 --> 40:33.220 Hitler's price for cooperation is the chancellorship. 40:33.840 --> 40:35.530 This time, he is not refused. 40:39.090 --> 40:44.670 In spite of his growing power within the party, Heinrich Himmler is not awarded a 40:44.670 --> 40:46.410 ministerial post in the new government. 40:46.410 --> 40:52.570 But the man Hitler calls, my loyal Heinrich, does not complain to his Führer. 40:53.450 --> 40:58.170 Himmler's ambition extends far beyond the control of a mere government department. 41:03.710 --> 41:08.610 During his youth, Himmler had spent three years as a student of agriculture. 41:09.850 --> 41:15.230 In the college fencing fraternity to which Himmler belonged, Jörg Lanz's occultist 41:15.230 --> 41:18.010 periodical, Ostara, was widely read. 41:18.010 --> 41:23.190 Of all the prophecies made by Lanz, one would become Himmler's obsession. 41:27.060 --> 41:31.940 On astrological grounds, Lanz foretold the invasion of Europe from the east. 41:33.000 --> 41:37.920 Himmler comes to believe that it is the destiny of the SS to repel the coming 41:37.920 --> 41:38.300 assault. 41:39.220 --> 41:43.840 The great battles he foresees will be a prelude to the final victory of the 41:43.840 --> 41:44.400 Aryans. 41:48.280 --> 41:53.380 Already, Himmler has identified the figure of German history who will become his idol 41:53.380 --> 41:54.780 and his inspiration. 41:57.440 --> 42:03.500 King Heinrich I, German king of the Saxons, had in the 10th century fought and 42:03.500 --> 42:05.520 conquered the Slavic tribes of the east. 42:06.700 --> 42:11.360 So great will Himmler's devotion to the king become that he will make an annual 42:11.360 --> 42:13.000 pilgrimage to Heinrich's tomb. 42:13.000 --> 42:18.860 He will believe himself the reincarnation of the king and the recipient of psychic 42:18.860 --> 42:21.160 messages from the spirit of the dead ruler. 42:27.100 --> 42:31.460 Himmler believes that his divine mission is to complete the work of King Heinrich. 42:32.440 --> 42:37.420 He will create from the SS a knightly order which will rule the coming Aryan 42:37.420 --> 42:37.780 Empire. 42:38.960 --> 42:43.800 But, for a time at least, Himmler's visions of the future must take second 42:43.800 --> 42:45.620 place to practical politics. 42:52.210 --> 42:58.290 From 1933, Himmler's objective is to win control of Germany's many state police 42:58.290 --> 42:58.790 forces. 43:00.670 --> 43:04.130 A major obstacle to his ambition is Hermann Goering. 43:05.190 --> 43:09.470 Goering is now minister president of Prussia and chief of the Prussian secret 43:09.470 --> 43:11.010 police, the Gestapo. 43:12.330 --> 43:17.490 Goering sees himself as prime candidate for the job of chief of a new unified 43:17.490 --> 43:18.650 German police force. 43:28.480 --> 43:33.220 In Goering's campaign to eliminate Prussian communists and all other 43:33.220 --> 43:38.520 opponents of national socialism, he employs the SA as auxiliaries to the 43:38.520 --> 43:39.620 police and the Gestapo. 43:41.420 --> 43:46.400 The Berlin SA are the most brutal and the most feared stormtroop detachments in 43:46.400 --> 43:46.720 Germany. 43:49.320 --> 43:54.120 Their hatred of the middle classes almost equals their hatred of Jews and 43:54.120 --> 43:54.660 communists. 43:57.340 --> 43:59.920 But Goering is unconcerned. 44:00.620 --> 44:03.580 It is not my business to do justice, he proclaims. 44:03.920 --> 44:06.940 It is my business to annihilate and exterminate. 44:07.340 --> 44:08.020 That is all. 44:13.400 --> 44:18.860 In the capital and throughout Prussia, Goering unleashes a reign of terror in 44:18.860 --> 44:21.960 which thousands are interred in SA concentration camps. 44:23.660 --> 44:26.820 The situation is fast becoming a national scandal. 44:27.740 --> 44:31.760 The party's supporters amongst the middle and upper classes are outraged. 44:32.920 --> 44:37.580 Hitler is persuaded that command of a unified German police force cannot be 44:37.580 --> 44:38.760 entrusted to Goering. 44:41.300 --> 44:43.780 Himmler has won a major victory. 44:44.880 --> 44:48.740 One by one, the state police forces will fall under his control. 44:50.060 --> 44:55.020 In April 1934, Himmler wins the greatest prize of all. 44:55.980 --> 44:59.940 He succeeds in forcing Goering to hand over control of the Gestapo. 45:00.940 --> 45:05.460 Now, only one force stands between Himmler and the power he seeks. 45:26.510 --> 45:27.870 Spring 1934. 45:28.650 --> 45:33.990 Ernst Röhm, leader of the SA, conducts his own version of Hitler's flag consecration 45:33.990 --> 45:34.410 ritual. 45:37.110 --> 45:42.230 It is a sign to the 4 million strong SA of Röhm's power and independence. 45:45.800 --> 45:51.680 Röhm's intention is to create from the SA a new National Socialist German army with 45:51.680 --> 45:53.560 himself as its commander-in-chief. 45:54.560 --> 45:57.640 The regular army commanders become increasingly anxious. 46:04.100 --> 46:09.400 Under cover of inspecting a naval exercise, Hitler holds a secret meeting 46:09.400 --> 46:10.420 with the army generals. 46:11.400 --> 46:16.120 He gives them his assurance that in exchange for their support, the army will 46:16.120 --> 46:18.940 continue to be Germany's only military force. 46:20.120 --> 46:22.360 Hitler promises that Röhm will be dealt with. 46:23.320 --> 46:26.520 The agent of his destruction is to be Himmler's SS. 46:30.500 --> 46:36.420 Himmler and his deputy, Heydrich, contrive evidence that Röhm and the SA are 46:36.420 --> 46:38.120 planning a coup against Hitler. 46:39.100 --> 46:41.940 A list of the supposed conspirators is drawn up. 46:42.760 --> 46:47.400 It includes not only the leadership of the SA, but all those who have opposed the 46:47.400 --> 46:49.040 growing power of the SS. 46:52.040 --> 46:58.820 The bloodbath that Himmler unleashes on June 30, 1934, will become known as the 46:58.820 --> 47:00.360 Night of the Long Nights. 47:01.500 --> 47:04.800 Up to 500 will be murdered by SS executions. 47:11.610 --> 47:16.190 The murder of the SA leadership is greeted with relief by the German army. 47:20.080 --> 47:25.020 On the death of President Hindenburg on the 2nd of August, 1934, and the 47:25.020 --> 47:30.640 confirmation of Hitler as president of Germany, the army willingly changes its 47:30.640 --> 47:31.440 oath of allegiance. 47:33.460 --> 47:38.920 Loyalty is now sworn not to the German state or to the constitution, but to Adolf 47:38.920 --> 47:39.780 Hitler himself. 47:52.920 --> 47:57.280 The true victor of the Night of the Long Nights is not the German army, 47:57.860 --> 47:59.100 it is the SS. 47:59.880 --> 48:06.860 On July 20, 1934, a grateful Fuhrer decrees that the SS is to be an 48:06.860 --> 48:09.380 independent organization within the party. 48:10.360 --> 48:15.340 What is more, ignoring his pledge that the army is to be the Reich's only military 48:15.340 --> 48:20.360 force, he gives permission for the SS to form its own military units. 48:21.340 --> 48:26.680 In time, the Waffen, or armed SS, will number almost one million men. 48:31.160 --> 48:37.780 By the summer of 1934, Himmler has won total independence for his SS elite. 48:38.520 --> 48:40.500 His eugenics program is established. 48:41.560 --> 48:46.180 He has begun the process of winning control of all German police and security 48:46.180 --> 48:46.800 services. 48:47.760 --> 48:52.260 With Hitler's blessing, he has created the nucleus of an SS army. 48:53.240 --> 48:58.920 Heinrich Himmler is now free to put into effect the next phase of his plan for the 48:58.920 --> 48:59.360 SS. 49:00.220 --> 49:06.040 The creation of a mystical order of Teutonic Knights, an order which will 49:06.040 --> 49:08.460 dominate the coming Aryan millennium.