The Invasion The Outbreak of World War II_2of2
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00:00There was barbed wire around the ghetto of Krakow, and through this barbed wire, strangely
00:07enough, I could see they put a screen on one of the buildings, and they were screening
00:15the newsreels, you see, Wochenschau, and we, the kids, watched this screening through this
00:24barbed wire.
00:25The flag of the German Reich is waving from the castle, the starting point of the new
00:30German mission in the East.
00:33A look back to a world of extremes, in German-occupied Poland.
00:39In 1939, in the fall, my father became General-Governor, and then we were in Poland for months, in the
00:49castle, in Marble, in Krakow.
00:52There is the official Nazi perspective, which says that this is a colony, which is to be
01:00exploited.
01:01I think that all adults knew exactly, we haven't lost anything here, this is an overbearing
01:08country, and they knew that what they were doing had nothing to do with the law at all.
01:22This American soldier, Mike, 45, I can still see him in front of me, was a young man, and
01:48he was riding us up, my mother, my siblings, and me.
01:54My mother screamed in anger, not out of fear, my siblings were crying, and then he put the
02:05rifle on us.
02:06And then I somehow thought that this man over there was right.
02:16That's how I would say it today, it just came to my mind at the time, and that I was a member
02:23of a family that probably didn't always live on the side of the law.
02:30Hans Frank had to answer at Nuremberg for what he had done as the ruler of occupied
02:34Poland.
02:36Reichsminister ohne Geschäftsbereich, ich wurde 1939 Generalgouverneur des Generalgouvernements
02:48in Krakau.
02:51Hans Frank was a man of power, with the office of the Generalgouverneur, an unlimited power
03:01that was given to him by Hitler.
03:03It was clear from Hitler that the Generalgouvernement would be a kind of free-to-the-right space
03:12in which Hans Frank could actually do what he wanted.
03:17We are now in this country, and as Germans we will never leave this country again.
03:24During the war, Hans Frank had the power of life and death over 12 million Poles.
03:29He was given it by Hitler himself.
03:59It all went back to the city of Gdansk.
04:04Between the wars, it was a free city under the protection of the League of Nations, but
04:09it was coveted both by Hitler's Reich and by Poland, especially by the 10% of its population
04:15who were Poles.
04:29Budzimira Wotylewicz, née Muzik, was 15 in 1939.
04:35She came from a middle-class Polish family.
04:40My father was a representative of the British and Polish Trade Bank in Gdansk.
04:46He was also offered, shortly before the war, that he would go to London as a director,
04:53but he did not want to leave the family.
04:58What my father always said, the family is the most important thing.
05:03His name is Tadeusz and he is a good boy.
05:08At least he is not German.
05:14He was really a wonderful, wonderful father.
05:17I was raised very, very patriotic.
05:21We had to learn.
05:23Always in Polish.
05:27The Poles were the minority in Gdansk.
05:31The German majority in this port city clamoured for Gdansk to join Hitler's Reich.
05:37Conversely, there were German minorities in parts of Poland
05:41who now felt under increasing pressure.
06:07Gustaw Hintz grew up on a farm in Zadolisz, 90 kilometres northeast of Warsaw.
06:37Name?
06:38You are a sergeant, I am a lieutenant.
06:41At your service, Lieutenant.
06:43We all understood each other well.
06:47In Poland, in the interwar period, in the Second Polish Republic,
06:50the German minority was quite strong.
06:52It is estimated that it was about 2.5 to 3 percent.
06:56About 800,000, it varies.
06:58From the beginning of 1939, the German side and the Polish side started a conflict.
07:04The reality was that the German minority was being persecuted in parts.
07:08There were anti-German sentiments towards the Germans.
07:11On the other hand, the German side consciously instrumented these sentiments
07:15and recruited future saboteurs.
07:18Germans also lived in the Polish town of Gostynia,
07:22north of Breslau and not far from the German border.
07:40As a 15-year-old schoolboy, Marian ZÅ‚obkowiak could feel
07:45the international crisis impinging on his world.
08:15Okay.
08:16Thank you.
08:27There is war.
08:28Shouldn't we better see that we get out of here?
08:31No.
08:32It's best if everyone stays in their post.
08:34My father said, I'm not running away.
08:37The Germans are people like us.
08:40I'm not afraid of anything.
08:45Roman Polanski, born Raymond Liebling in Paris,
08:48had been living in Krakow with his parents and half-sister since 1937.
08:53Krakow was his father's hometown.
08:59I was three years old when we got back to Krakow.
09:02And for a child, the reality is as it is.
09:06So a child accepts it much easier than an adult.
09:09A novel.
09:39These were very happy days and a very happy childhood
09:43until the war started.
09:47On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland.
09:54Danzig was a key German objective.
10:09When he said goodbye to us,
10:11he was very, very fond of us children.
10:14And my mother, of course.
10:16They hugged each other for so long.
10:19I can still remember
10:21how often I laid my head on his shoulder.
10:28That was the last time my father was at home.
10:33The first German troops enter the liberated Danzig.
10:37The soldiers were followed by police units and a reign of terror.
10:41That very day, the Germans began to arrest Polish nationalists,
10:45among them, Bujimira's father.
10:48HE SPEAKS GERMAN
11:03Heavy bombing, especially in Warsaw, wreaked havoc.
11:10Physically and emotionally.
11:12The German campaign was over within three weeks.
11:16But for the Poles, the war was only beginning.
11:23Krakow was the new capital,
11:25with Hans Frank as Hitler's viceroy.
11:28HE SPEAKS GERMAN
11:42HE SPEAKS GERMAN
11:49HE SPEAKS GERMAN
12:05HE SPEAKS GERMAN
12:12HE SPEAKS GERMAN
12:16Suddenly, the order for the Jews to wear the armbands came.
12:24The white band with the blue Star of David on it,
12:29and that meant that we were Jews.
12:31I didn't know we were Jews.
12:33I didn't know who was a Jew.
12:36HE SPEAKS GERMAN
12:41My mother was forced to work in the royal castle of Wawel
12:46with other women as a cleaning woman
12:51of the quarters of Frank,
12:54the governor of Generalgouvernement.
12:58HE SPEAKS GERMAN
13:03HE SPEAKS GERMAN
13:05HE SPEAKS GERMAN
13:25To implement this scheme, Poland was carved up.
13:29Large parts of the western north,
13:31about a quarter of the country, were annexed to Germany.
13:35The eastern half went to the Soviet Union
13:38and what remained in the centre, known as the Generalgouvernement,
13:42was treated as a labour pool for Germany.
13:45The effects of this national dismemberment
13:48reached far into the countryside,
13:51including the town of Gostynia.
13:56HE SPEAKS GERMAN
14:01HE SPEAKS GERMAN
14:26HE SPEAKS GERMAN
14:31HE SPEAKS GERMAN
14:42HE SPEAKS GERMAN
14:44HE SPEAKS GERMAN
15:00HE SPEAKS GERMAN
15:10HE SPEAKS GERMAN
15:14HE SPEAKS GERMAN
15:38HE SPEAKS GERMAN
15:44HE SPEAKS GERMAN
16:00Executions such as this aimed to destroy Poland's heart and soul.
16:0560,000 Poles from the country's elite
16:08were killed in this way in 1939 alone.
16:14HE SPEAKS GERMAN
16:38HE SPEAKS GERMAN
16:40HE SPEAKS GERMAN
16:51HE SPEAKS GERMAN
17:10HE SPEAKS GERMAN
17:12HE SPEAKS GERMAN
17:37HE SPEAKS GERMAN
17:42HE SPEAKS GERMAN
17:55HE SPEAKS POLISH
18:12HE SPEAKS POLISH
18:35My father once came with blood trickling from his ear,
18:40holding his head,
18:42and he told us that he was walking
18:50on the sidewalk and there was a young German officer
18:55coming in the opposite direction
18:57and he didn't greet him
19:00and the German officer hit him on the ear
19:04and broke his eardrum.
19:07It was a moment of great humiliation
19:10of his and mine as well.
19:21HE SPEAKS GERMAN
19:37HE SPEAKS GERMAN
19:47HE SPEAKS GERMAN
19:53HE SPEAKS GERMAN
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20:19HE SPEAKS GERMAN
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20:31HE SPEAKS GERMAN
20:36In a gigantic exodus,
20:381.5 million Poles were forced to leave their homes.
20:44HE SPEAKS GERMAN
20:49HE SPEAKS GERMAN
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21:19HE SPEAKS GERMAN
21:23HE SPEAKS GERMAN
21:30HE SPEAKS GERMAN
21:45HE SPEAKS GERMAN
21:49HE SPEAKS GERMAN
22:07From the start, the German newcomers called the shots,
22:11even the children.
22:14HE SPEAKS GERMAN
22:19HE SPEAKS GERMAN
22:21HE SPEAKS GERMAN
22:23HE SPEAKS GERMAN
22:25HE SPEAKS GERMAN
22:50HE SPEAKS GERMAN
22:55HE SPEAKS GERMAN
23:25HE SPEAKS GERMAN
23:32The Germans considered everything a spoils of war.
23:35Labour, property, land, housing.
23:44HE SPEAKS GERMAN
23:49We had to move to the place
23:52which was designed by the Germans
23:55and they emptied that area from the previous people.
23:59So they moved us to the other side of the river
24:02in a place called Podgórze.
24:05In Kraków, 15,000 Jews were crammed into an area
24:09that had previously housed 3,000 people.
24:14In one apartment there were about, I don't know,
24:17probably five families living.
24:20At a meeting in Wawel Castle, Hans Frank said...
24:44HE SPEAKS GERMAN
24:50HE SPEAKS GERMAN
25:09At the lowest level of the hierarchy of exploitation
25:12were the Jews, who were segregated on Kraków trams
25:15and everywhere else.
25:20HE SPEAKS GERMAN
25:24Soon after moving in,
25:26my sister called me to the window
25:29and said, look.
25:31And what I saw, there were guys,
25:34you know,
25:36doing some wall across the street
25:39and I said, what are they doing?
25:42And she said, they were walling us up.
25:46They're building a wall around our area
25:49and that really shocked me, I remember.
25:57The newly created ghetto was another target for looting.
26:02HE SPEAKS GERMAN
26:19HE SPEAKS GERMAN
26:25HE SPEAKS GERMAN
26:31HE SPEAKS GERMAN
26:44HE SPEAKS GERMAN
26:49HE SPEAKS GERMAN
27:11Human life was also cheap in the ghetto.
27:14HE SPEAKS GERMAN
27:18I suddenly saw the street was emptying
27:21and that I saw there was a column of women
27:24being marched by some...
27:29..few German officers,
27:32one particularly young and handsome,
27:36was shouting at one who was crying in Yiddish
27:40and walking on her force
27:42and just as they were passing by me,
27:45that German suddenly had a gun in his hand
27:49and shot her in the back
27:51and I saw the blood coming up like this, you know,
27:55and I was paralysed for the moment
27:58and then just ran to the building behind me.
28:03There were horrors everywhere.
28:07HE SPEAKS GERMAN
28:12HE SPEAKS GERMAN
28:33Marian Zobkowiak and others joined the Black Legion,
28:37a local resistance group.
28:42HE SPEAKS GERMAN
29:02Marian distributed patriotic leaflets in his hometown,
29:06which had been Germanised with the name of Gostingen.
29:09Soon he had the Gestapo on his trail.
29:21HE SPEAKS GERMAN
29:33HE SPEAKS GERMAN
29:39Marian and others of his group
29:41were taken to the nearest prison in Rawicz for interrogation.
29:48HE SPEAKS GERMAN
30:09HE SPEAKS GERMAN
30:31Marian was sentenced to two years in a concentration camp.
30:3512 of his comrades were executed.
30:39HE SPEAKS GERMAN
30:42Jews in the ghetto might face death at any time.
30:47Men...
30:49women...
30:51children.
30:54There was a raid on our building
30:57and we heard screamings and shouting.
31:02In that time, I got a friend who was living next door.
31:07He was a bright child, extremely.
31:10It was my, you know, my first love, that friend.
31:15Unfortunately, that raid, they took him away.
31:21That broke my heart, of course.
31:24It was the first time that I suffered this type of deception,
31:31this type of feeling.
31:33By 1942, as this secretly filmed footage shows,
31:37Jews were seized in the ghetto streets in broad daylight.
31:45Meanwhile, Roman was taken in by family friends
31:48who lived across the river, outside the ghetto.
31:54After that raid, my father came to fetch me.
31:58We were walking towards the ghetto
32:00across the bridge over Vistula.
32:03He was somehow...
32:07over...
32:09warm.
32:13Took me in his arm.
32:16Suddenly, he broke in tears
32:20and said,
32:22they took Mama.
32:24HE SPEAKS GERMAN
32:26HE SPEAKS GERMAN
32:36I was begging him to stop crying because...
32:40HE SPEAKS GERMAN
32:42..someone will notice us and they'll pick us up
32:45as he was not wearing his bandarm.
32:51I remember missing my mother.
32:54That was predominant feeling during all those times.
33:01All over Poland, the ghettos were being emptied.
33:05HE SPEAKS GERMAN
33:24HE SPEAKS GERMAN
33:42Near the exit of the ghetto,
33:46at the Umschlagplatz,
33:48there were thousands of people,
33:50some of them must have been there for 24 hours,
33:53kept by the Jewish Ordnungdings.
33:58There was a boy walking back and forth,
34:01he must have been, I don't know, 18, maybe 20.
34:06And I came to this boy
34:10on the edge of that crowd
34:13and I said, look, we are starving.
34:16Let us go to...
34:18to fetch some bread from our apartment.
34:23HE SPEAKS GERMAN
34:28And...
34:31..he looked at us like that a long time and said...
34:37..go.
34:42You know, if I really, if I think,
34:45sometimes what, who, when, ever saved my life,
34:50I always go to this Ordnungdings boy.
34:56When every member of his family had been deported,
34:59Roman was hidden on a farm south-west of Krakow.
35:03It was only 40km from the Auschwitz death camp.
35:11HE SPEAKS GERMAN
35:20HE SPEAKS GERMAN
35:35Budzimira Wotalewicz's family and her fiancé
35:38fled Danzig for Warsaw.
35:42HE SPEAKS GERMAN
35:50HE SPEAKS GERMAN
35:52HE SPEAKS GERMAN
36:16Poland had been carved up
36:18and the Polish state had been smashed,
36:21and it still existed underground.
36:31HE SPEAKS GERMAN
36:51HE SPEAKS GERMAN
37:11And in the summer of 1944,
37:13with the Eastern Front drawing ever nearer,
37:16the Polish Home Army risked an uprising in Warsaw.
37:21EXPLOSION
37:23Among the insurgents was Budzimira's fiancé, Tadeusz.
37:29HE SPEAKS GERMAN
37:51HE SPEAKS GERMAN
37:55As in 1939, the Poles received little direct assistance.
37:59The Warsaw uprising was crushed.
38:02In reprisal, half a million Poles were expelled from Warsaw.
38:07Hitler ordered a further reprisal.
38:09The city centre was razed to the ground.
38:12HE SPEAKS GERMAN
38:16I was in the forest picking blueberries.
38:21Suddenly, I heard this noise.
38:25I looked up and there were planes,
38:29just American planes, going...
38:34It was a fabulous moment.
38:36I laid on the grass
38:38and my heart was just exploding with joy.
38:43The end of the war was close.
38:51Budzimira and her sister
38:53were among the half million expelled from Warsaw.
38:56They secretly returned to Danzig.
38:58HE SPEAKS GERMAN
39:08HE SPEAKS GERMAN
39:16HE SPEAKS GERMAN
39:28HE SHOUTS
39:35PHONE RINGS
39:38HE SPEAKS GERMAN
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41:06HE SPEAKS GERMAN
41:11HE SPEAKS GERMAN
41:20Early in 1945, with Soviet troops closing in,
41:24Germans in the Eastern Territories prepared to make their escape.
41:28HE SPEAKS GERMAN
41:35HE SPEAKS GERMAN
41:54HE SPEAKS GERMAN
42:04There was now no escape.
42:11HE SPEAKS GERMAN
42:24HE SPEAKS GERMAN
42:45The Frank family, having fled to Bavaria, escaped retribution.
42:50HE SPEAKS GERMAN
43:15Hans Frank was sentenced to death in the Nuremberg trials.
43:19His remorse came too late.
43:22HE SPEAKS GERMAN
43:39It was only after the liberation of the Stutthof concentration camp near Danzig
43:44that Budimira learnt what had happened to her father.
43:47He was shot there as early as 1940.
43:53HE SPEAKS GERMAN
44:08At the end of the war, I went back to Krakow.
44:17About three months after that, I came home.
44:23Then I realised the guy was my father.
44:27My father took me on his knees.
44:30I was 12 years old, you know, so it felt strange,
44:34but it was one of the happiest days of my young life,
44:38maybe probably the happiest at that time.
44:41HE SOBS
44:45There was always the hope, you know, hope of seeing my mother again.
44:52But one time we learned the mother won't come back.
44:56She was on one of those trains that were directly to the gas chamber.
45:02She was pregnant.
45:04The longing for my mother, it simply dissolved into a feeling
45:10of sadness.
45:16It's very, very, very, very painful.
45:30HE SPEAKS GERMAN
45:40In his camp, Marian Zobkowiak met members of the German underground.
45:46HE SPEAKS GERMAN
46:10HE SPEAKS GERMAN
46:19Much of Poland lay in ruins.
46:22Now it was Gustav Hintze's turn to do forced labour.
46:31HE SPEAKS GERMAN
46:40HE SPEAKS GERMAN
46:52In 1957, Gustav Hintze was allowed to emigrate to West Germany.
46:57He was received in a camp in Friedland.
47:00HE SPEAKS GERMAN
47:10HE SPEAKS GERMAN
47:12HE SPEAKS GERMAN
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